The water-soaked leather whip struck down. After a muffled thud, the flesh split open to reveal a white mark, which was immediately filled by welling blood.
Miserable screams echoed through the magnificent hall.
The grand slave owner of Silver Sand Bay, Glosa, panted heavily, his hand supporting his waist. Blood was still dripping from the tip of his whip. In front of him were over a dozen suspended islanders.
"Escape? Escape! I give you food, give you a place to live, let you live to this day, and you want to run?" He fiercely lashed the whip out again, eliciting another miserable scream. "Silver Sand Bay is only so big! Where can you escape to? Damn slaves, you should all be slaughtered to feed the dogs!"
Beside him were the elite guards he supported with heavy sums of money. Their strength was on a completely different level from the security patrol maintaining order on the island outside the manor.
Boom—!
The main doors were kicked open, the door panels crashing onto the floor. A magic arrow shot in from outside, heading straight for Glosa's face.
The guards' reaction was not slow. One fiercely lunged over, grabbing Glosa's collar to pull him down. The arrow grazed the slave owner's scalp and nailed into the breastplate of the guard behind him.
The plate armor forged from fine steel was pierced through as if made of paper. Fresh blood spread from the arrow shaft. That man let out a muffled grunt and fell backward.
"Assassins, assassins! Kill them! Kill them all!" Glosa climbed up from the ground, screaming as he issued the command.
All the guards in the hall charged at the assassins outside the door, while Glosa himself drew the dead guard's sword and rushed toward those suspended slaves.
Outside the door, Sophia stood on the steps. Looking at the group of guards charging over, she sighed: "As expected, it can't be resolved in one strike."
Sophia fired another arrow. After leaving the bowstring, the arrow split into six, shooting down the guards who had already rushed close.
"Bella, save the people."
Bella flashed out from behind Sophia. Stepping on a guard's head, she vaulted into the air and leaped onto the crossbeam. A sprinting skill stretched her figure into a blurry afterimage as she swept rapidly toward Glosa at the deepest part of the hall.
Among the guards, there were archers and mages who wanted to attack Bella, but before they could even take aim, Sophia's arrows had already nailed into their throats.
Glosa stopped in front of a suspended slave, raising his longsword high. The blade reflected his twisted face under the candlelight.
"Die! Slave!!!"
Before his words even fell, his hands flew up into the air along with that longsword.
"Eh?"
Bella landed in front of him. Before her figure had even stabilized, her sword had already spun out—smooth and flowing, completed in one breath.
The next moment, Glosa's well-maintained head, still bearing a stunned expression, slid off his neck. It smashed onto the ground, bounced twice, and rolled into a spreading pool of blood.
As if she had sliced through something dirty, Bella flicked the bloodstains off her sword in disgust: "I didn't expect to have to kill this disgusting fat pig a second time."
Following Glosa's death, everything around them began to dissipate.
The magnificent hall, Glosa's corpse, the dead and still-living guards—everything dissipated into a dense white mist and faded away at an extremely fast speed.
Only those islanders who were previously suspended fell to the ground.
A short while later, the mist dispersed. The place where Bella and Sophia stood was not Silver Sand Bay, but a small island not far north of Silver Sand Bay.
Although everything was fake, the whip marks on the islanders' bodies were real.
Several subordinates hurried over and began treating these wounded people.
One wounded person cried exceptionally hard, muttering incoherently: "This is my memory, it's all—it's all my fault—"
Sophia stepped forward and patted his shoulder: "This is the characteristic of the Mist. It is not your fault."
Saying this, Sophia's palm lit up with radiance. The wounded man's emotions quickly stabilized, his state of mind relaxed, and he finally fell into a deep sleep.
Bella, standing to the side, looked toward another small island not far away. The mist over there was also gradually retreating; clearly, Samuel's side had also successfully repelled the Mist.
"We arrived in time, and the casualties aren't high, but these two islands will have to be abandoned too." Bella sighed helplessly.
They had already been fighting back and forth against the Mist at high intensity for a year, and had gained some understanding of its characteristics.
The continuously spreading Mist could indeed be repelled, but this was only temporary.
The repelled Mist was like a heavily compressed spring; the more it was suppressed, the more dangerous it would be when it made a comeback next time.
The initial realistic illusions, like this illusion of the slave owner Glosa, weren't considered too lethal. Although getting lost in it for too long would still eventually lead to death, it at least provided enough time to break the situation.
But after being repelled a few more times, the illusions would begin to feature various dangerous scenarios, and the mortality rate would rise significantly.
Therefore, generally after repelling the Mist once or twice, they would have to retreat to the rear.
However, right now, these two islands were considered right next to Silver Sand Bay.
And Silver Sand Bay, as the largest island under Sophia's protection, once lost, the people wouldn't even have a place to stand.
The few islands further south couldn't accommodate that many people.
In order to bring the people on the island back to Silver Sand Bay, over thirty large and small ships capable of ocean voyages were docked at the port.
Warren, who had once served as Inanna's adjutant, walked over to meet them: "Lord Hero, the repair work on the two ships in the shipyard is nearing completion. We can set sail tomorrow."
"Sir Warren, just calling me Sophia is fine." Hearing this good news, Sophia finally revealed a slight smile.
Among these ships in Silver Sand Bay, some were built by Silver Sand Bay themselves over the past year, while the other part was support requested by Sophia after Bella obtained a new communication method from the United Kingdom. The purpose was to bring everyone on the island back to the mainland.
In order to bring the Hero back, the United Kingdom had also done its best.
During the Human-Demon War, the western coast of the United Kingdom had entirely fallen, and their ships had naturally suffered heavy losses as well.
The twenty ocean-going ships scraped together this time were already the limit. They even encountered attacks from bugs on their way here, sinking two ships, and the other ships were all damaged to varying degrees.
Fortunately, although it was unknown why the spreading speed of the Mist had accelerated recently and showed a trend of getting faster and faster, they had finally completed preparations to set sail before the Mist swallowed Silver Sand Bay.
Right at this moment, a soldier trotted over: "Lady Sophia, those two mermaids wish to see you."
The smile that had just appeared on Sophia's face quickly turned into helplessness. She knew what those two mermaids wanted to say.
Those two mermaids were encountered during their voyage before arriving at Silver Sand Bay. Although mermaids had a habit of luring and capturing humans, under the threat of the bugs and the Mist, both sides naturally chose to cooperate.
As an aquatic race, they indeed provided the team with no shortage of unexpected help. Naturally, Sophia didn't plan to burn bridges and abandon them after crossing the river.
It was just that they kept thinking about the other mermaids and some Mermaid Queen back in their underwater home, wanting to beg Sophia to help their kin on her way back.
However, the location they spoke of was already Keith's territory by now.
It was impossible for Sophia to put everyone in danger for some mermaids who were highly likely already dead.
In the end, she could only have the soldier help her refuse the mermaids' request once again.
In fact, let alone saving others, just to protect this fleet, Sophia had already prepared to risk her life.
The bugs' probing and surveillance of the islands had never ceased. Sophia didn't believe these intelligent bugs would so easily let them return to the mainland.
The greatest test had only just begun.
Somewhere in the deep trench of the ocean, the massive Heart of Keith hissed in agony. The sound was compressed by the seawater into muffled drumming.
Keith was continuously making itself stronger, and this process was always accompanied by pain.
But for survival, for revenge, all of this was necessary!
Through a certain eye-bug that had just been killed, Keith had already noticed that those mushrooms were making a move.
It knew, the greatest test had begun!
(End of Chapter)
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