Published: February 11, 2025
These branches were moving too quickly and silently, to the point that even those watching from below only realized what was happening at this moment. When they gasped in surprise, the branches had already reached the Holy Father from their perspective.
But in reality, they had missed by just a fraction.
At the last moment, the Holy Father felt something unusual beneath his feet and shifted his body to the side slightly, causing all the branches to strike empty air.
However, Dr. He was descending from above; the Holy Father could no longer evade. Although his downward slash with both hands had been partially distorted by his earlier maneuver, it still landed on Dr. He.
He couldn't let that lizardman collide with him.
The two sides met and then separated abruptly.
Dr. He lost control again, his body flying far away. He landed not on the city wall but on the ground, and even upon hitting the ground, he did not stop; instead, he splashed a large amount of dirt, creating a deep pit.
In the air, those branches that had missed once again elongated, swaying to the side and transforming from a thrust into a whip, striking towards the Holy Father who had just rebounded from Dr. He.
The Holy Father frowned, retreating in mid-air while simultaneously swinging his hands to strike those branches. With a loud slap, the branches were knocked away to the other side.
But before he could react, a bright light suddenly shot out from within the Royal City, crashing into him.
The entire battlefield became incredibly eerie amidst these rapid changes.
Up to this point, everyone knew this was a ‘trap’ that Cloud Summit Villa and the posthumous children had designed long ago.
Of course, if something had happened to the Holy Father, that would indeed be called a trap. If they couldn’t deal with this ninth-level expert, it would be laughable.
However, there was no denying that from Dr. He’s appearance and attack, to the ambush by those branches, and finally this precise long-range attack, the sequence of methods was flawlessly connected.
Many posthumous children awakened from the despair they felt when the Holy Father appeared, sensing a glimmer of hope.
Once the battle began, there was no chance of stopping.
With the Temple of Dawn launching another assault, and the Holy Father appearing on the city wall to slaughter, the battlefield that had been quiet for just a few days was buzzing again, albeit this buzz was thick with the scent of blood.
Everyone was stimulated by the hormones of war, yet when that excitement and passion passed, what remained was merely a reason to fight for their race.
The battle remained fierce, but it also carried a hint of sorrow.
Everyone was desperately fighting, yet deep down, they felt numb and... weary.
They didn’t know what the mental state of warriors in historical life-and-death battles was like, nor if it was similar to theirs. But if given a choice, they would not want to fight at this moment.
As members of a well-cultured and developed society, the evolvers from Earth understood very well that in war, if a team’s casualties exceeded thirty percent, they would basically lose their combat effectiveness, and if it exceeded forty percent, most would collapse.
Currently, both sides in battle, whether the Temple of Dawn or the posthumous children, had casualties exceeding that ratio. The only reason they hadn’t collapsed was due to the nature of the fight.
But this did not mean they would fight forever; both sides sensed their mutual reluctance towards the battle.
Everyone understood that they had no authority to end this war, and the person capable of doing so was currently in the sky.
At that moment, the ordinary soldiers on both sides hoped that the battle in the sky would quickly conclude, regardless of whether in defeat or victory.
The Holy Father was somewhat disheveled; several parts of his body, including his hands, were injured.
He was astonished by the hardness and sharpness of that lizardman's scales, surprised by the speed and power of those unknown branches, and shocked by the terrifying energy contained within that bright light.