Chapter 216 - Meanwhile

After Aurora's body fell flat to the ground, she was pulled into the white space by Lyda to save her life.

Meanwhile, the three archdemons— Dominic, Aureon, and Nargeon were spreading havoc around the capital.

Nargeon was grabbing and flipping the NPCs in the air as though they were dolls. Aureon was playing with the players and the guild members. While Dominic was on his way to the gazebo so he could fight Aurora.

However, Kayden and Misha dashed at him from behind and tried to stop him.

Of course, they failed to do that.

Dominic grabbed Misha by her neck with one hand and Kayden by his neck with his other hand.

He frowned his face with a glare in his eyes and uttered, "I would have loved to crush your necks, but fortunately, you are not my prey. So get out of my way!"

Dominic threw Misha and Kayden at Aureon and yelled, "Take care of your prey, or I will have to take care of you!"

Dominic reached the gazebo and stood in front of unconscious Aurora. He moved his hand to grab her, but suddenly, he was sent flying a few meters away by something.

He landed on his feet but stumbled a couple of times before crashing into one of the buildings.

When he looked in the direction, he was attacked, but he saw nothing. It was as though he was attacked by no one.

Confused, Dominic jumped into the air to see if someone was hiding nearby, but he couldn't find anyone.

He could only see hundreds of thousands of monsters, a few thousand players, and a few hundred NPCs. 

He looked up at the sky to check whether someone attacked him from the air, but he could only see the flying monsters and demons and the gate of hell, from where thousands of demons were jumping out.

"What was it?" he muttered in annoyance. "No being can push me away like that. Yet… something …"

After glancing around, Dominic landed on the ground and slowly walked back to the garden. But this time, he was cautious.

"Whatever it was, may attack me again. So I just have to catch that mongrel at that time," he murmured with a furious look on his face.

It didn't take time for Dominic to get to the garden, and as he had expected, he was attacked again, but this time, he caught the culprit.

"Found you!"

Dominic jumped in the air and landed on the other side of the garden. He swung everyone on his way and walked to the damaged carrier.

"You can't hide anymore!"

Dominic penetrated his hand into the carrier and pulled out the attack from inside it.

It was Shay. He had used the carrier's attack mechanism and amplified the wind attack to aim it on the Dominic.

The first attack sent Dominic flying because he had been charging it for a few minutes, while the second attack did nothing because it was fired soon after.

Dominic grabbed Shay by his face and yelled, "Did you seriously think you could get away with this?"

Shay struggled to break free, but then, he suddenly scoffed and said, "Who said I was trying to get away?"

"Hah?!"

Dominic's eyes widened in realization. He quickly looked back and gazed at the gazebo, only to see Aurora wasn't there.

"...!"

"Hey…" Shay looked into Dominic's eyes and said, "Guess what?"

"..." Dominic raised his brows with an amused look on his face and said, "I can crush your head any time I want, yet you dare to speak with me?"

"Jokes on you, I can say the same to you."

"Hah? What can a puny human like you can do—"

Shay pressed his feet on Domini's chest and pushed him away, causing Dominic to let go of him because of yet another wind attack.

Before Dominic pulled out Shay from the carrier, Shay had charged the attack. He was simply wasting Dominic's time while the wind attack got amplified stronger, and when the time was right, Shay broke free from Dominic's clutch.

He also did that to distract Dominic from Aurora while the help arrived.

After Shay was flung away by Aureon at the start, Shay thought of every possibility to save him and his friends. And the best solution he could find was to inform a certain someone about that attack.

Dominic glared at Shay and uttered, "You seem to have a death wish! I will rip your body apart and wear your organs on my body! I will bath in your blood and—"

"Eww. So cringe. Is everyone in the hell so edgy?" Shay scoffed out loud.

Shay was simply buying time to delay everything. However, Dominic realized that when Shay kept glancing at the gazebo again and again.

The NPC nun, who had been hiding from plain sight, dragged Aurora with her and healed her.

Misha saw it, and she thought the nun was trying to harm Aurora. So she got up and dashed at the nun. 

When she saw the nun touching Aurora, she placed her sword on the nun's neck and asked, "What are you trying to do?"

"I am healing her," the nun replied without looking back at Misha or stopping the healing process.

"Why would you want to heal her?" Misha asked. "You are an NPC. While you may be real, you charge coins to heal people. So I find it hard to believe you are healing Aurora without asking anything in return."

The nun healed Aurora's HP to the max and then turned to Misha. She smiled at her and said, "I exist for my lord. I have devoted my soul and body to him, and I would do anything to him. But he hasn't acknowledged me as his follower yet."

Then, the nun looked at Aurora and spoke, "This girl is important to my lord. And if I can't help my lord, then I have failed. My faith in him is unyielding, and that's why, I—"

QUAKE!

"...!"

RUMBLE!

The entire first realm, and the realm above; the hell, and the heavens— everything in between, as well as the white space dimension, rumbled as the clouds covered the sun, and the thunder followed.

***

Total players in the game- 1,485,269

0 new players logged in.

141 players died.

===

Author's Note -When Aurora entered the white space for the first time, it was 'her' who went there, so the flow of time had stopped. But for the second time, it was Lyda who pulled her there, so the flow of time had continued. Lyda did that to prevent Aurora from using the blessings.

I hinted that when the mirror shattered in the last chapter but forgot to add this note in the last chapter. 

Thanks, @2lazy2care, for the gift!