Yes, Madam Prime Minister

On the other side, Ronan and Astrid returned to a one-on-one situation.

Ronan tightened the "Sword of Sincerity," transforming it back into a sturdy longsword. At the same time, he activated his bracelet, switching to armor mode. Meanwhile, as the quicksand on the ground thinned, he once again picked up his shield.

Ronan at his peak has arrived.

Chapter 80: A Powerful Curse? A Severed Hand? Am I a Mushroom Man Too?

Poke, block, roll – Ronan's signature whittling-down combat style has arrived. Dodge if you can, and if you can't dodge, raise your shield to block. Only when there's a perfect opportunity will you poke with your sword. Never aim for a deep stab; just glancing at it and dealing piercing damage is enough.

As a mercenary, Astrid wouldn't call Ronan despicable, because mercenaries would use any means necessary to succeed in a mission. But as a human being, and as a master swordsman, she had to say that Ronan was utterly despicable.

At this point, the injured Astrid no longer had an advantage in strength and speed when facing Ronan in his armored form. Although she was still more skilled than Ronan, Ronan did not confront her directly, but instead kept looking for opportunities to stab her with his sword.

Unfortunately, she was completely helpless against Ronan and could only watch as new blood spots kept appearing on her body, while her physical condition continued to decline with each accumulated injury.

Ronan was like a monster, switching between buzzing mosquitoes, damned beetles, and maddening fleas, biting every now and then and immediately turning into a beetle, and dodging away like a flea when attacked.

Astrid would rather Ronan bravely cleave her body with his sword, creating a bloody hole so she could retaliate and plunge her own sword into him, engaging in a fierce battle, than be worn down by someone who seemed to switch between mosquitoes, beetles, and fleas.

"Haha, you're getting impatient."

While tapping away, Ronan managed to utter a few words.

“No, I’m furious. This is bad news for you, you damned bug,” Astrid said, her breath coming out in white vapor like steam from a steam engine.

"Young master, be careful, the powerful curse is about to be activated."

Elena offered a suggestion from the side.

Taking advantage of Elena's distraction, Nadi manipulated the sand to sneak into the gap between her pants and pantyhose. Unfortunately, this armor was not a simple physical and magical defense armor, but a combination of enchanted fabric and nano-clusters. It was alive and instantly expelled the sand that tried to invade.

"A powerful curse? This is troublesome."

Ronan frowned; he certainly knew what a powerful curse was.

The powerful spell is a state that can be entered by those who use the Heavenly Oath magic. However, most people who use the Heavenly Oath cannot achieve this state because most people will try to circumvent the oath after accepting it, whether it is through self-hypnosis, misinterpretation, or deliberate planning. It's just like Ronan's "Loyal City" and the "for your own good" of the artificial intelligence Gardener Tyrell.

If it weren't for this, how could the church have indirectly controlled the mainland for nearly a thousand years? They would have been wiped out by the backlash long ago. After all, finding a believer in the church is about as difficult as finding someone who doesn't love money in a bank.

Those who can truly enter a state of powerful incantation are people who genuinely believe in God.

To be precise, he's a madman.

The prerequisite for entering the state of powerful incantation is encountering a strong obstacle that prevents one from fulfilling their vow.

"This is probably an honor," Ronan said with a self-deprecating laugh. Being judged as a strong obstacle by the other party's heart and vows at least showed that he was very strong.

Cherish the last moments when you can laugh.

Astrid released her control over Ambrina, and all her power returned to herself. The will to fulfill her vow and the powerlessness to encounter strong resistance collided and twisted, and the powerful curse manifested, unleashing her full potential.

After a powerful magical shockwave radiated outwards, Astrid's golden hair, which had been flying high, fell back down. Her pupils had now turned completely golden, and her skin began to glow with a rose-gold luster, with white steam rising from it like vapor.

In the next instant, Astrid had disappeared from Ronan's sight. Although Ronan had already distanced himself and his senses had detected her movements, he was still struck in the arm by her sword.

Fast, too fast.

This sword strike was even more ferocious, piercing through the armor, slicing through Ronan's flesh, and even cutting a clean gash into the bone, almost severing Ronan's left hand at the root.

Ronan's face contorted in pain, and his shield clattered to the ground.

“Elena, calm down, John, hold back the sand, Ambrina, give Elena that clear tube,” Ronan shouted.

The opponent's power was too great; he instantly lost an arm and could only hope that Elena, who was also a descendant of the Moon Goddess, would drink the unknown potion to turn the tide.

Upon hearing the sound, Elena rushed towards Ambrina at top speed. Astrid bypassed Ronan's sword encirclement, knocked away the shield that Ronan was controlling, and immediately charged towards Ambrina.

According to Ronan's instructions, Elena should have arrived first. However, John hesitated for a moment because he did not want anyone to drink the potion. When he finished weighing the two evils and chose the lesser one, and stopped the sand, Elena's actions had already been delayed by the sand.

Astrid arrived late but arrived first. Ambrina, who had just taken out the transparent test tube containing the medicine, was completely confused and, in her haste, threw the medicine forcefully towards Ronan on the other side. Seeing this, Astrid smiled, then suddenly stopped and turned to pounce on Ronan.

With one hand already useless, Ronan posed no obstacle at this point.

The miraculous medicine, once in his hands, only delayed her access to it by half a second.

Astrid moved so fast it was as if time had been cut off, as if frames had been ripped out; one frame showed her turning around, and the next she was standing in front of Ronan.

However, in the next scene, Astrid remains motionless, her face filled with astonishment. Looking down, a longsword is deeply embedded in her heart, and blood continues to gush out.

Looking ahead, Ronan gripped the sword hilt with both hands. His left hand was completely intact, and even the black armor was fully repaired, as if Astrid had never struck his left hand.

In fact, Ronan himself didn't understand what was going on, because everything happened too fast. He only saw blood-red, mycelium-like threads growing between his severed flesh and bones. In the blink of an eye, his hand was healed, and then the armor automatically repaired itself and covered his skin again.

The next instant, he saw Astrid rush over. Without thinking, he instinctively grabbed his sword with both hands to meet the thrust, and then plunged the sword into her heart.

At this moment, Ronan looked at Astrid and found that she was no longer in a state of strong curse, and the gold in her pupils was constantly struggling and pulsating.

"die!"

Astrid raised her twin swords; this time, she was going to cut off Ronan's head.

At that moment, Elena deactivated her armor and activated her Oath of Heaven magic, a spell that could only enhance Ronan.

Ronan kicked Astrid hard, instantly drawing his longsword. Astrid's slash struck Ronan's leg.

This time, everyone saw it clearly: the red mycelium quickly connected and repaired Ronan's flesh and bones.

John was even more shocked. He had never seen it, but he had heard of it, because the reincarnation of the saint, Dinia, had demonstrated this ability in that great battle. Everyone else thought it was her mushroom magic, but they didn't think so.

This is the power of the saintess herself.

Chapter 81 Sudden Change, Thrilling Moment, Unexpected Ending

As soon as his legs touched the ground, Ronan twisted his waist like a winch, channeling all his strength into a sword strike aimed at his opponent's neck. Unfortunately, Astrid dodged to the side, and the sword only sliced ​​off a piece of flesh from her shoulder.

Astrid showed no intention of retreating, and with a thrust and a slash, she attacked Ronan with her twin swords.

As the powerful curse faded, Astrid, who was still losing blood, seemed to have turned into a mad beast. She had abandoned martial arts and ignored her injuries, focusing only on relentless attacks. In fact, she was still incredibly rational because Ronan had not taken the vial of the divine medicine, so the medicine was now lying on the ground.

What she had to do was use this madness to force Ronan to retreat, then pick up the vial of the divine medicine, retreat to a safe distance to drink it, activate her bloodline to become the new Moon Goddess, and then come back to completely annihilate Ronan.

Unfortunately, while she remained calm, Ronan was even calmer and refused to back down an inch.

"I refuse to believe that you can reattach your limbs even if I completely cut them off." Astrid's attacks became increasingly ferocious.

"Do you still have the ability? The wounds you can inflict on me are getting shallower and shallower," Ronan mocked, while his offensive became even more ferocious, giving his opponent no chance to pick up the vial of medicine.

As for getting slashed if he acts recklessly, Ronan is a mushroom man now, why would he be afraid of getting slashed twice?

Astrid and Ronan clashed violently, and in the blink of an eye, both of them were covered in blood. However, Ronan only had blood on his body and no visible wounds, while Astrid's wounds were deepening with her vigorous movements.

On the other side, Nadi wanted to use the sand to retrieve the divine medicine, but unfortunately, as a first-tier mage, she couldn't do it. Her summoned creatures, the sand, were not powerful enough, and her control over them was far from sufficient. If she tried to control the sand with all her might to retrieve the divine medicine, the sand protecting her would be insufficient, and Elena would directly kill her with two sword strikes at close range.

All she could do was use the sand to barely suppress Elena, who could only fight with melee weapons, and John, who had just exhausted a lot of magic power.

Elena continued her attacks, while John merely went through the motions, trying to recover his magic as much as possible in order to find the right opportunity to destroy the potion on the ground.

"Old woman, how much longer can you hold out?" Ronan mocked Astrid, who was locked in a fierce battle with him.

“Little monster, your regenerative ability will consume a lot of mana. How long can you maintain it? Without mana, this sword in your hand will cease to exist.” Astrid showed no weakness.

Both of them were very calm and saw each other clearly.

Ronan is now frantically depleting his mana. He already has very little mana, and each self-repair consumes a lot of mana. He can't keep this up for much longer.

Astrid wouldn't last much longer either. She was covered in bloody wounds, a chunk of flesh had been ripped from her shoulder, and she had been stabbed in the heart. Every second, her life force was draining away, and she was getting closer to death.

“Your best option now is to surrender. As long as you honestly confess everything, you will have a chance to live,” Ronan said. He always treated people with sincerity and would give them a chance if he said he would, but if the other party did not survive, then it was not his problem.

"Your best option now is to kneel down and lick my shoes. For Elena's sake, I might spare your life." Astrid remained sharp-tongued, gambling that Ronan's magic would burn out before her own life.

Bang! Just then, a gunshot rang out.

The one who fired the shot was Alice, while the one who was shot was Nadi, who controlled the sand. As a proper mage, the power of the pistol was not enough to penetrate the body covered by the magic shield, but it was enough to cause a huge shock, and Nadi's internal organs churned.

Elena seized the opportunity to get close, and Nadi couldn't react in time. She waved her hand to control the sand to block, but unfortunately Elena had two swords. One sword was blocked by the sand barrier, and the other sword swept low, severing Nadi's toes and half of her foot.

With a scream, Nadi collapsed to the ground. The extreme pain prevented her from focusing her mind on casting spells. The sand barrier couldn't protect her in time, and Elena struck again with her sword, piercing her heart directly. With a twist of her wrist, Nadi fell completely, blood gushing from her mouth, her eyes wide open, no longer moving.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief. She had known from the beginning that Ambrina had a gun in her body. She had been preparing for this attack ever since Ambrina recovered, and finally she had the chance when no one was paying attention to her anymore.

“Beautiful, Alice,” Elena exclaimed, then plunged her sword into Nadi’s neck, intending to kill her completely.

"It was just a small assist." Alice turned her head away, reluctantly accepting the praise.

Seeing her only teammate Nadi die, Astrid knew she was about to be caught in a pincer attack and had no chance of turning the tide.

"Aunt, stop now, or I'll have no choice but to take your head myself," Elena pleaded, already prepared to act. If her aunt didn't surrender, she would have to personally behead her, because she didn't want Ronan to feel guilty for killing her family.

Astrid spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm and let out a long breath. "Oath one, to cherish my family and friends; oath two, to restore my family; oath three, to recreate miracles. In the end, I failed to do any of them. Surrender is impossible, but I cannot die like this, much less die at your hands."

As soon as the words were spoken, an astonishing magical power exploded.

Thinking his opponent was about to deliver a fatal blow, Ronan raised his shield to block.

The priest John, who was standing nearby, thought so too. He immediately cast a protective shield, preparing to take this opportunity to use the shield to crush the vial of the divine medicine.

However, the next moment, John felt like he was flying. In fact, it wasn't him flying, but his head.

Astrid beheaded John in an instant.

Immediately afterward, Astrid raised her hand and controlled Ambrina. After completing the control, she glanced at Elena, then turned to Ronan, "After I die, this state will continue for another five minutes. Just like before, she won't have any memories of the time. I know Elena will listen to you."

After saying that, Astrid gripped her twin swords in her hands, the blades sinking deep into her body. She lost her balance and fell forward, her vision blurring and turning black as memories began to flash back.

She seemed to have family, lovers, and friends, yet she had none of them; the only thing she possessed was an ideal that was as elusive as quicksand.

"This life is so incredibly boring."

These last words fell to the ground along with her body.

Astrid, dead.

Ronan put away his sword and shield, stood there stunned for several seconds, then walked to the side, bent down and picked up the divine medicine from the ground. "Elena, this is yours."

Elena stood silently, staring at Astrid's corpse on the ground, as if she hadn't heard Ronan's words at all.

After many years apart, the already weak family ties had long since faded, but when someone dies, it's hard to let go of the grief even for a short time.

“She killed John to prevent him from destroying the medicine, and controlled Ambrina so that we could find a reason to say that you had no choice but to drink the medicine because of the emergency. Everything is to make you drink it. Whether you drink it or not is not my decision. It is your choice.”

Ronan said.

Chapter 82 Miracle Drug, Deception, Uncontrollable

Elena rubbed her eyes, bit her lip, and remained silent for a long time before speaking weakly, "She has accomplices, this priest has someone behind him, and that guy who disappeared inexplicably also has a force behind him. If I drink it, young master, you will be involved in endless trouble because of me."

"You're saying we won't have any trouble if you don't drink it?" Ronan laughed. "In that case, we might as well just drink it. If anyone causes trouble, we'll just kill them all."

“But, young master, you still have to hold a public office, and…” Elena said worriedly.

"It is precisely because I hold a public office that I do not care if people come looking for trouble. After all, once someone is killed, there are plenty of charges to pin on the other party. If I were a civilian who killed someone, especially a magician, it would be extremely difficult to deal with."

Ronan said he genuinely didn't care if people caused him trouble because of the miracle drug.

Elena took a long, deep breath. "Actually, I could go far away."

"No!" Ronan said sternly. "Absolutely not."

At that moment, Elena's tears, which had been lingering in her eyes for so long, finally couldn't be held back and fell.

"Cry, cry, all you do is cry. You're such a grown man, don't you feel ashamed?" Ronan said with feigned disdain. "Here you go." With that, Ronan tossed the divine medicine over.

"I'm a girl too, why can't I cry?" Elena pouted and retorted, taking the clear test tube, breaking off the cap, with tears in one eye and a sweet smile on her lips, as she drank the liquid inside in one gulp.

Alice turned her face away completely, not wanting to look at the two of them.

“Look, even Alice thinks you’re embarrassing,” Ronan joked.

Elena immediately stopped crying and forced a bright smile. "She's just jealous." The next second, Elena's face suddenly contorted, her fingers gripping her chest tightly. She collapsed to the ground, curled up in a ball, and gritted her teeth to endure the pain.

Alice quickly knelt down to check on her, anxiously asking, "Elena, are you alright?"

“She’s fine,” Ronan said.

Elena hadn't suffered any external injuries from before until now, and she didn't seem to have any internal injuries either. Judging from the aura she was emitting, although her magical fluctuations were extremely strong, the frequency was very stable and not chaotic at all.

Whether it's the part that belongs to the human body or the part that is made of magic, she still maintains a balance.

Balance means nothing's wrong.

Moreover, Astrid had been wanting to drink it, and even made Elena drink it at the last minute, so she must have been certain that drinking it wouldn't cause any problems, at least that the so-called descendant of the moon goddess would be perfectly fine.

Elena huddled on the ground, her voice strained, "I'm alright, but it feels like my bones are being pulled out one by one, then scalded with boiling water, and then put back in."

"You call this okay?" Alice was speechless for a moment. Just hearing it made her feel pain. She looked up and complained to Ronan with a dissatisfied expression, "Ronan, can't you say a few words of concern?"

“If concern were useful, I could talk all day,” Ronan replied.