The barrier of Hortus was ridiculously resilient and possessed the ability to reflect any non-divine attacks.
Now, forget the reflection capability, it's just a thin shell that would break under a few hundred attacks of rank 9s.
One could even see the twinkling stars, swirling space dust and the distant light from the celestial bodies through the fluctuating barrier.
Today, the two strongest warriors of Hortus gathered their army to gain their long desired freedom.
"Give me freedom or give me death!"
"We are the free spirits! We shall not be confined by these bloody demons!"
"The universe is ours!"
The glorious chants of a movement which began thousands of years ago and passed through various generations filled the space.
"My sweet liberty!"
Men and women who grew up listening to stories of oppression and confinement cried out with burning passion.
The movement started silently long, long ago. But it grew into an uncontrollable wave that swept the entirety of Hortus, overthrew the tyrranical government run by the proxy of the three demonesses.
Even then, it took them thousands of years to finally get to this point.
Thinking of the sacrifices made by their ancestors for this movement, tears filled the eyes of the fighters who decided to sacrifice their everything at this moment for this movement.
The leaders of the two empires, a middle-aged man with a red scar on his chin and a pretty half-elf woman.
Thomas and Eveline.
The adverseries who fought all their lives cast aside their differences for this moment.
The 100 rank 9s who followed them each looked at their leaders with undying loyalty and eagerness.
Thomas didn't delay them any longer. In truth, he himself couldn't wait.
"All of us together will strike this devil barrier with our full strength. It'll shatter!"
Eveline joined. "Shed the shackles of slavery. My brothers and sisters, to Freedom!"
Boom!
A beam of light fell from nowhere.
The blinding light caused everyone to turn their gaze away for a moment and out of the flames of aura walked out a young girl.
Primula Konstant.
Her red ponytail swayed as she took a few steps in the dark space, rings of pure aura forming at her feet and vanishing as she moved.
The expressions of everyone in the group, from Thomas and Eveline to the weakest of rank 9s, the high rank 9s looked at her with burning hatred.
Primula Konstant.
The woman who made with the devil.
The snatcher of their freedoms and the oppressor who kept them all locked up.
"I have come to tell you the truth and only the truth." The girl, dressed in a black and white dress with the symbol of black and white fishes, looked at her opponents with a calm gaze.
"Beyond that wall lies a dangerous world, where beings beyond your imagination are searching for the man you deem a lie.
If you step out of this place, you'll be found and hunted down by divine rankers you can never resist.
Hortus is not created to be a prison. It's the safe haven from the dangers outside. It's how it's always been.
I can prove it to you. So can the historians who studied the records of our civilization."
Only a chuckle answered her. And then, a burst of laughter. Followed by a collective roars of laughter.
Wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes, Eveline gritted her teeth with an angry smile as she glared at Primula. "Is this the last resort of evil when it's cornered? If parents lie to their children about the ghost to keep them disciplined, it's adorable.
But you, a Hortian who grew up on this soil and breathed this air, lying to us for what?
Because the devil told you so?"
"Devil? How dare you…?!" Primula shook with anger, her aura soaring out of control.
"The devil you sold your soul to!" Eveline chuckled with a mocking expression and glanced at the body of the teenager. "Oh, maybe your body too. A traitor like you wouldn't mind it, would you? What's mere body after you sold your soul?"
"Enough!"
The roar of Primula shook Hortus and the phantom of a hourglass emerged in the space.
"How dare you…insult my brother?!"
A red spear fell from heaven and spun in front of Primula.
Other than Eveline and Thomas, most of the rank 9 warriors found it incredibly difficult to respond, as if everything turned slow, which it did.
"You think you're leading a great movement, pursuing a great cause, carrying forward your ancestors' sacrifice and upholding their will."
Primula swung her arm in an arc and spears rained from the sky.
""Stop!""
Thomas and Eveline unleashed their powers, the former rushing to Primula to crush her to paste while the latter unleashed a dome of fire to block off the spears.
It could've worked if Primula held back, which she always did in fear of the backlash that followed excessive power consumption.
But today, she did not hold back.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The spears broke through the dome and drilled into the heads of the passionate warriors.
Instead of killing them by accelerating the flow of their time, the spears attacked their souls and accelerated the timeflow.
The incompatibility between the souls and bodies soared in a breath and the connection began to violently break.
Blood spilled from the ears, nose and mouth of the warriors before their eyes exploded and they collapsed lifelessly.
"You! You!" Eveline's eyes turned bloodshot and she looked at Primula with endless hatred.
"Die, devil's pawn!" Thomas raised his fist and threw out a punch that could shatter entire duchies.
"Tsk."
The hourglass phantom flipped and Thomas' timeflow slowed down to a dangerous level.
Primula walked next to the man who struggled violently to get out of the timebind and her smiling expresion turned incomparably cold.
A dagger in her hand pierced Thomas' heart and she twisted it in meticulous, patterns.
Primula didn't know where she got these abilities, but she had excellent skills for assassination and torture.
So, she took her time, breaking the heart, pouring aura into the places where it would hurt the most until Thomas fainted.
She threw a blast of aura into his body and he died, just like that.
When Primula turned around, Eveline, who conjured an enormous amount of aura into a gigantic fire ball, looked at her with determined eyes.
Instead of saving Thomas, she was pouring everything she had into the attack.
"Evil might be stronger, but justice will finally prev—"
"Shhh." Primula appeared behind Eveline before the latter could realize and grabbed her neck. There was a pair of thin gloves on her hands at some point.
"Evil, justice, cut me all that bullshit. And you're not even on the side of justice. If you were, you wouldn't discriminate against the blood race and drive them to near extinction even though they were only taking blood from the blood banks and paying for everything.
I mean, what harm did they do to you that you treated them so badly?
Hm? Why?
Let me answer.
Just because you can and just because the elf blood in you disliked the blood race.
I am evil and you are justice? Ridiclous!"
Her grip tightened and burst of time power poured into Eveilne, rendering him unable to move below her neck.
Turning her head to the side with great difficulty and glancing behind, she asked with gritted teeth. "F-Fine! I'm evil as you say! But d-does your conscience not hurt…when you trap everyone here, treating them like animals in farm, denying them their natural rights of freedom?"