Sigrid's instincts remained sharp. Sensing the anomaly rippling through the air, she grabbed Lanqi's arm instantly and leaped aside with him, barely dodging the slicing arc of a ferocious sealing spell.
Like a wall of deep gray, the magic shot up from the earth, carving the ground wide open to expose the deep soil buried beneath the ice and snow.
The instant the two were about to land, time seemed to stretch once more, and a succession of violet halos flickered along the boundaries of the space around them.
Unlike before, the caster had anticipated their movements well in advance.
The barricaded area formed a massive, transparent cage. Invisible magical force trapped Lanqi and Sigrid, turning into heavy chains that bound their legs and made it impossible to take another step.
In the distance across the snow, a deep gray silhouette stood silently, having appeared without a sound. He held one hand raised, fingers curled slightly inward, poised to seize control of the entire snowy domain at any moment.
Looking at the sealed pair, a hint of benevolent mockery played at the corners of his mouth, as if he were admiring two mice caught in his trap.
Side stared coldly in that direction, treating this sudden ambush with grim vigilance.
"It is an honor to cross swords with the Bishop of Domination."
The man's voice echoed across the snowfield, tolling like a funeral bell.
"Yet I never imagined you would fall so low today as to rely on such a pathetic Holy Son of Domination."
"Anello..."
Side's voice carried a long-suppressed fury.
The Holy Son of Extinction had located them long ago.
Yet he had held back, repeatedly sending Great Prelates to wear them down and probe Lanqi and Side's hidden trump cards.
He had no wish for the other Great Prelates of Extinction following him to realize that he would be the one killing the Bishop of Domination today, nor did he want anyone knowing that the [Original Slate - Basic] would fall into his hands.
Now, with dawn breaking and the Bishop of Domination's strength waning, he had finally stepped forward.
The impending dawn over the snowfields was harshly frozen in place, and a clash was poised to erupt at any second beneath the dim curtain of snow.
Though Sigrid immediately used Purification Magic to break free of her bonds and seized Lanqi to flee once more, Anello slowly raised his hand behind them. Every knuckle seemed imbued with tremendous magical power, and the bleak gray mana in the air grew denser by the second.
The snowfield around them fractured, each fissure splitting open as though carved by an invisible blade, turning the edge of the snowfield into an enormous magic circle.
Moments later, the cracks began to glow. A dark gray haze rose toward the sky, blanketing and sealing off the entire snowy expanse stretching before Sigrid and Lanqi.
When Sigrid flickered and reappeared on the other side, another magical barrier—along with an overwhelming spiritual pressure—locked them down once more.
By now, even Sigrid understood that in her current state, she and Lanqi were simply no match for Anello. To say nothing of fighting him, escaping from the composed Holy Son of Extinction was virtually impossible.
Anello walked forward at a leisurely pace, his footsteps utterly silent on the snow.
Keeping his distance, he looked toward Sigrid, who was still desperately resisting. A look of detached indifference lingered in his eyes as he gathered magic at his fingertips. The air where he pointed gradually warped into deep gray rifts, threatening to instantly pulverize anything they swallowed.
One gray line after another wove through space, hemming in Sigrid and Lanqi's range of motion even further.
Sigrid knew this spell all too well.
It was identical to the magic Askesan had used against her during the battle at Bandera City on the northern border.
If one carelessly grazed those crack-like gray lines in the air, they would rapidly expand and detonate in a chaotic chain reaction.
Given her and Lanqi's present condition, they couldn't withstand a massive triggered damage spell from Anello at the peak of the sixth tier.
The moment it was set off, it would mean certain death for them both.
*Sigh.*
Sigrid felt fatigue and powerlessness creeping through her limbs. She could only turn her gaze toward Lanqi.
Hounded across the wilderness, she had already expended every ounce of her strength. Now that the moon had waned, even a Great Prelate would be difficult for her to handle.
If her Holy Son couldn't defeat the Holy Son of Extinction either, their journey would end right here.
"Is he the Holy Son of Extinction, Anello?" Lanqi asked Side, confirming his identity.
"It's him."
Side was certain this was the Holy Son of Extinction who had murdered her Saintess.
Only her status as an eighth-tier Cardinal had kept her from flipping the table and hunting down a mere Holy Son in violation of the agreement between the Cardinals.
"Are you two so certain I won't kill you?"
Seeing the Holy Son of Domination casually chatting with the Bishop of Domination, a rare smirk curved Anello's lips.
Never before had he seen such a destitute Cardinal, nor such a puny Holy Son.
He had certainly witnessed the Holy Son of Domination's so-called sealing art. The fellow was indeed peculiar, but that came with enormous limitations. After running for their lives all this way, his mana had to be practically exhausted.
That said, he truly didn't intend to kill the two of them here. He planned to capture them first and lock them away in a place no one would ever discover.
The Holy Son of Domination could be sliced to pieces and put on public display once every bit of value was squeezed from him. As for the Bishop of Domination...
Just thinking about it made Anello unable to suppress a sickly sense of satisfaction.
"Bishop of Domination, did you know? Your Saintess was quite delightful."
Anello lightly propped his chin with his hand and looked at Sigrid in the distance, speaking in a playful drawl.
"A pity you never saw how she struggled desperately yet couldn't even take her own life... Soon after, she was utterly broken, unable to even bring the child in her belly into the world. At the time, I didn't dare let you find out, terrified that you would hunt me down like a madwoman...
"Yet who could have thought that beyond the Saintess of Domination, I would one day get to savor the Bishop of Domination herself."
His eyes were drunk with infatuation, making no attempt to conceal his greed for the Cardinal's treasures or his desire to defile and humiliate her.
From here on, he would never have to fear the Bishop of Domination's vengeance again. In fact, he could seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture her right here!
Once he killed the Bishop of Domination with his own hands, he would become the new Cardinal. The unique, bespoke, and indestructible Proof of Bishop alone would serve as his stepping stone to break through to the seventh tier.
Everything was utterly perfect!
Anello couldn't help but savor this rare taste of bliss in his life.
In the distance...
"..."
Sigrid hadn't uttered a single word. Shadows crept across her face, strands of hair obscuring her eyes. She hadn't been visibly shaken or lost her composure from Anello's words, yet her fingers trembled faintly, and veins pulsed along the back of her hands.
Anello merely watched the powerless Bishop of Domination with immense satisfaction, waiting for her helpless rage to boil over.
After a brief silence, she spoke.
"Holy Son..." she murmured to Lanqi beside her.
"Hm?"
Lanqi leaned his ear a fraction closer.
"Do you have a way to subject him to the most agonizing execution?"
Her faint voice carried a horrifying chill, like the utmost fury born of helplessness.
"...No. I will reform him with my love," Lanqi demurred.
"..."
Hearing those words, Side should have been thoroughly disappointed.
Yet coming from her Holy Son's mouth, this absurdly saintly declaration took on a completely different flavor.
Based on what she knew of her Holy Son, the moment this living King of Hell seized the moral high ground, he was guaranteed to do things infinitely worse than any agonizing execution!
As expected, her Holy Son was truly the greatest at all times.
Chapter 344