Chapter 160: The Unforeseen Encounter

Laika’s team sped through the forest. The dense undergrowth and uneven terrain did little to impede their progress.

“We’ll be there soon,” Laika announced to her companions. “Everyone, pick up the pace.”

As they drew nearer to Kari City, Laika knew they could not afford to let their guard down.

Such a mistake would prove fatal.

“Yes!”

The team members replied with solemn determination, their voices echoing through the forest. As elite operatives of God’s Great Enemy, their obedience to Laika, their captain, was absolute.

Laika’s gaze was sharp and vigilant, constantly scanning their surroundings. This mission carried immense weight, directly determining the fate of every member of God’s Great Enemy.

It even held the destiny of all ordinary people back home.

Whether they could break free from the tyrannical rule of the nobles and the Church, ushering in the dawn of a new world, hinged entirely on this single endeavor.

Laika’s nerves were taut, her senses acutely aware of every rustle and shadow.

Yet, in her subconscious, she harbored little belief that an ambush awaited them.

After all, their sortie had been utterly devoid of any prior signs, and the personnel dispatched were all seasoned elites.

There was simply no way any unforeseen incident could occur.

So Laika thought to herself.

However, at that very moment, an anomaly suddenly arose!

Two black figures flashed across Laika’s vision. They moved with such incredible speed that they vanished in an instant.

“What happened?!”

Laika’s heart pounded with terror; she even wondered if she had merely imagined it.

Could she be too tense? How could any creature possess such high mobility? Not even her own arrows could fly that swiftly.

‘Was it a hallucination…’

Cold sweat streamed down Laika’s face as she touched her forehead. It was slick with perspiration; the momentary phenomenon had genuinely startled her.

‘It seems my mental fortitude still needs improvement.’

Laika chuckled self-deprecatingly, about to continue forward.

Just as she was about to take another step, she suddenly realized how terrifyingly quiet their surroundings had become.

Laika instantly felt a deep unease and quickly glanced behind her.

What she discovered was a scene she could not believe.

Her companions, the elites of God’s Great Enemy, lay scattered on the ground, their fates unknown. Only she remained standing.

Enemy attack!

Laika immediately became alert, facing an imminent and grave threat.

The situation before her was unequivocally the most terrifying she had ever encountered in her life.

The enemy’s power was beyond imagination, capable of neutralizing all members of God’s Great Enemy without her even noticing.

Who could it be?

Laika’s heart pounded furiously, and the hairs on her body stood on end.

Such terrifying combat prowess was far beyond even the Church’s Holy Knights.

It was not impossible that it was even the Pope himself.

But how could those individuals possibly appear here? What was truly happening?

Laika’s legs trembled, and she nearly collapsed onto the ground.

However, her unwavering conviction forbade her from giving up now.

She still had a mission to complete, a matter of paramount importance concerning everyone in their homeland. Failure was simply not an option in her hands.

Laika felt tears welling in her eyes. She gripped her bow tightly, continuously scanning her surroundings, yet she could discern nothing.

It was as if nothing had happened at all.

****

Deep within the forest, Bai Yu and Ellie Roth, cloaked in black, silently observed the scene.

The elites, who had just been subdued by their tranquilizing agent and then controlled by Ellie Roth’s illusion magic, were indeed Bai Yu’s doing.

They had swiftly incapacitated those members with lightning speed. However, for some reason, Bai Yu had spared the young maiden, much to Ellie Roth’s bewilderment.

“I say, did we perhaps target the wrong people? These individuals don’t seem like they were pursuing us.”

Bai Yu grimaced, speaking with a hint of awkwardness.

She looked at the clothing of the fallen individuals in the forest, which was distinctly different from what the people they had killed and the guards had worn.

They looked more like members of some other organization.

This was also why Bai Yu had not directly knocked out the leader, who happened to be a beautiful young maiden.

“Uh, I’m not sure. But that’s probably not why you didn’t attack that girl, is it?”

Ellie Roth said to Bai Yu, a hint of exasperation in her voice. She suspected Bai Yu had refrained from acting simply because the girl was cute.

However, she had no concrete evidence, so she couldn’t say much.

“How could that be? Don’t talk nonsense.”

Bai Yu’s face flushed crimson, feeling as though her lie had been exposed.

She had indeed seen Laika’s appearance, which was why she hadn’t immediately knocked her out.

Perhaps it was something in Laika’s eyes that felt familiar to Bai Yu, or an inexplicable aura about her.

In any case, Bai Yu was certain it wasn’t because the girl was cute that she hadn’t knocked her out.

Though Bai Yu herself wasn’t entirely convinced by her own reasoning.

However, at this moment, in stark contrast to Bai Yu and Ellie Roth’s composure, Laika’s psyche was on the verge of collapse.

Especially the oppressive silence, which threatened to shatter her psychological defenses.

Only now did she truly understand that she was not merely a squad leader for God’s Great Enemy, nor was she some extraordinary genius.

She was simply an ordinary maiden who had just come of age, and when confronted with such a helpless situation, she too would despair, and she too would weep.

At this moment, Laika finally broke down, sinking to the ground and letting tears stream down her face.

‘Waaah, Mother, save me.’

She thought of her deceased Mother.

Deep in the forest, Bai Yu and Ellie Roth watched the scene, a little speechless.

“Look, you’ve made her cry for her mother,” Ellie Roth said to Bai Yu, a helpless tone in her voice. “You might as well have just knocked her out.”

Though the scene before them was somewhat amusing, Ellie Roth knew she couldn’t laugh. It would be too cruel to the girl.

“Uh, I guess you’re right.”

Bai Yu scratched her head, her cowlick swaying.

“Wait, what???”

Bai Yu immediately dropped her hand, her cowlick instantly standing straight up, becoming rigid.

“What’s wrong?”

Ellie Roth was startled, unsure why Bai Yu was reacting so strongly.

“What she just said, it was the same language as us, wasn’t it?”

Bai Yu’s eyes widened as she spoke to Ellie Roth, utterly shocked.

It was so ordinary that she hadn’t even registered it at first.

The girl before them was speaking exactly the same language as they were.

“You’re right, it really is!”

Ellie Roth also realized it then. In this place where communication was supposed to be impossible, someone was speaking the same language as them.

What a truly astonishing and delightful discovery.

Ellie Roth and Bai Yu exchanged a glance, then, without a word, they both rushed towards the young maiden.

This might be the only way for them to understand this place since they had arrived.

They absolutely could not let this chance slip away. They had to ask for clarification.

At that moment, Ellie Roth was truly grateful that Bai Yu hadn’t knocked out the girl. Otherwise, they would have missed far, far too much.

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