Can’t believe it... We actually made it back...
Following Leon who was covered in blood through the mist and returning to the living world, the three Cleaners looked at the familiar sights of the world of the living, and couldn’t help but tear up, overcome with emotion.
But before they could thank Leon, the blazing sunlight of the living world shone on their souls, suddenly igniting large patches of invisible white smoke, and they screamed in agony.
Prepared for this scenario, Leon grabbed the souls of the three Cleaners and pried open the mouth of the black goat, stuffing them inside in one go.
"Hold it! But absolutely do not eat!"
After admonishing the black goat, Leon was still uneasy, worried that the black goat couldn’t resist the temptation of the high-quality souls and secretly taste them, so he straightforwardly threatened:
"Remember this! For every little bit missing from their souls, I’ll send you to the Kingdom of Orleson to be purified along with your whip!"
Hmph, won’t eat then! As if I care!
Facing the threat of purification, the black goat, which was just a bit tempted, immediately quieted down, flipped a white eye at Leon, and held the souls of the three Cleaners without moving.
As for the three souls inside the goat’s mouth, they relied on the "soul protection" provided by the great Demon to successfully avoid the harm from the sun and temporarily remain safely in the living world. After Leon’s maneuver ended, Alger, who vaguely understood, couldn’t help but ask excitedly:
"What... what about them?"
"It’s a bit complicated to explain..."
After peeking at the movement of the Gate of the Deceased and noticing no one was following, Leon breathed a sigh of relief and concisely explained:
"After I ate the Death Watchdog, I inherited part of its powers which allow me to prevent souls from entering the Realm of the Dead. However, this power has limitations; it must be near the Gate of the Deceased to be effective.
So, I just went to the Realm of the Dead to stop the seniors from entering the gate before they did, effectively dragging them back temporarily."
"Temporary meaning what?"
"Meaning they can’t stay here forever."
Leon said with some helplessness:
"According to the rules of the living world, the body and soul must coexist to exist. Even descending holy spirits and True Gods need to create bodies for themselves first.
But the seniors’ bodies are already destroyed. Although I can prevent them from going to the Realm of the Dead, I can’t keep their souls forever; issues will arise over time.
So we must find a way to leave the Crolock Kingdom or use something to contact the headquarters; otherwise, the seniors’ souls will ultimately be expelled from this world."
The problem is, we can’t get out now...
After listening to Leon’s explanation, the excited expression on Alger’s face slightly faded, and he gritted his teeth:
"How about this, you stay in the Crolock Kingdom, hide with their souls and Princess Feiliya, and I’ll try to see if I can break through and get out!"
"Senior Alger, you’d better not entertain this notion."
Upon hearing this, Leon shook his head:
"I don’t know if your presence has been exposed, but since I led the kidnapping of Princess Feiliya, they surely know of my presence. Since I haven’t appeared at the Gemini branch, I’m certainly still in the Crolock Kingdom.
And normally, we should be trying to escape, so their defenses will certainly be extremely tight. The probability of you safely breaking through is almost zero."
"Then what? Just wait around here?"
"Not exactly wait around; we can still do something."
After considering the current situation, Leon contemplated and said:
"Speaking purely about hard strength, Director Edward over there with a Yellow Road, an elite Level 1, and three senior Level 2, can’t be said to be weak. According to Nicole’s description, they fell into an ambush, losing due to enemy stealth and lack of information, not overwhelming enemy strength.
And now as long as we hide well, the tables are turned; the enemy is in the open and we’re in the dark. We can use this opportunity to gather information on the enemy. If their strength isn’t that strong, we might just be able to confront them... Seniors."
Here, Leon turned his head towards the black goat, asking the three Cleaners inside its mouth:
"What exactly happened at the Gemini branch? Can you explain it in detail?"
"To be honest, we’re not very sure..."
Upon hearing Leon’s words, Ruben, who had shrunk to doll size, hesitantly replied:
"Actually, there’s not much to explain, just a round of powerful artillery fire. Although under ambush it was a bit sudden, it was mostly just making us scramble for a while, we could still handle it.
But for some reason, the opponent’s artillery seemed particularly fast, we couldn’t react at all, couldn’t even activate the abnormal object, only had time to see the walls explode, and were directly blown to pieces."
Upon hearing this, Leon raised his brow, recalling the words of the female reporter conveyed by the Secret Tail.
The female reporter didn’t seem to mention that the artillery was unusually fast. In her account, it was just that, somehow, aside from her, no one reacted and was directly hit by heavy fire.
So... was it the artillery being fast, or people slowing down? Which was it?
After pondering slightly, Leon turned his head to Alger beside him, implicitly asking:
"Senior Alger, if prompted by close-range thermal weapons, can you react in time?"
Alger thought for a moment and replied:
"With my reaction speed, if the trigger is pulled right in front of me, I just need to dodge the muzzle’s direction. As long as I can see it, I can evade it, even if it’s close to the face.
If it’s a surprise attack, it might be difficult within two or three meters, but further away, I’d certainly dodge it, even though artillery and ammunition are much faster than small-caliber firearms, just a thought away, activating abnormal objects for survival is still feasible."
As Leon spoke, he took out a small-caliber nail gun, flipped the safety with his thumb, aimed at the ground in front of Alger’s feet.
"I might suddenly fire at the ground at any time, and then you activate the abnormal object to block the nail..."
Before finishing the sentence, Leon abruptly pulled the trigger, quickly firing the nail, while Alger’s eyes sharpened, the right foot wearing black leather shoes suddenly dispersed into a bunch of pitch-black threads, then...
Perfectly let the nail pass.
Seeing the Skin Thread merely pounced after the nail embedded into the ground, Alger couldn’t help but stare blankly, while Leon sighed and gave his judgment.
"Seniors, it seems it’s not the Crolock Kingdom’s artillery being too fast, but your reaction has slowed."