Antanas stepped forward slowly toward Sinora, who sat in the depths of the cell, keeping the Poet of Great Love behind her the entire time.
Multiple defensive barriers enveloped her; even against a surprise attack from Sinora, they would be enough to hold out.
Sinora and that antique chair looked like the very heart of this enclosed world of a cell.
Most striking were her eyes. Though closed, one could still feel a soul-piercing power emanating from them.
"Sinora."
Antanas's voice echoed in the dim space. Though kept calm, a subtle note of caution bled through.
[Polymorph: Human] had a twenty-four-hour cooldown. If she wanted to leave the prison as quickly as possible, she could not casually dispel it, or else they would have to wait until tomorrow to leave.
And yet.
Sinora the Spellbreaker's movements were astonishingly swift and fierce.
The instant her name was called, her figure blurred and reappeared directly before the two trainee guards.
Without anyone noticing when, an oddly shaped staff had appeared in Sinora's hands—long-hafted and bladed, resembling both a halberd and a great battleaxe.
Her movements were agile and practiced as the halberd swept horizontally toward Antanas and the Poet of Great Love.
The blade sheared through the air with a shrill whistling screech.
Deep gashes appeared across the metal walls of the cell dozens of meters away.
Sinora's strike showed not a shred of mercy; this single cleave was clearly meant to cut both of them in two at the waist.
Yet Antanas's defense was just as flawless. Multiple protective barriers flared around her, blazing with dazzling brilliance before Sinora's fatal cleave could touch her.
Sinora's blade collided with Antanas's mana shields, producing a sudden, deafening detonation!
Light and energy erupted inside the cell, casting crisscrossing shadows.
Antanas raised her hand to feed mana into the barrier. Only the outermost layers were shattered, halting Sinora's assault and keeping the Poet of Great Love behind her completely unharmed.
"Sinora, wait!"
Just as Antanas spoke again, Sinora cut her off, raising her staff once more to unleash a close-combat combo far more devastating than her initial strike.
Sinora the Spellbreaker's weapon was a staff that doubled as a melee weapon. For an anti-mage like her, when facing spellcasters, seizing an opening to close in and hack a squishy target to pieces was often more direct and effective than trading spells. Furthermore, her own specialty in offensive magic lay in slashing-type damage spells.
Enhancing her melee capabilities was also her way of compensating for her shortcomings against physical combat classes.
"You're quite strong."
Sensing that her opponents were two females, Sinora finally opened her deep-crimson eyes. At that moment, Antanas felt a murderous aura that pierced deep into her soul. The presence radiating from Sinora was terrifying beyond measure, making the very air around her seem to tremble at her existence.
To Sinora, killing was no different from eating or drinking—a mundane daily routine requiring no emotional consideration.
The mere fact that they were two people from the Protos Empire was reason enough to slaughter them.
Sinora paid no heed to the other's words. In a flash, her halberd-staff carved dozens of arcs of light, unleashing a tempest of slashes at the woman before her.
Fierce as Sinora's onslaught was, Antanas's pre-cast defenses were equally impregnable.
In an instant, the cell erupted into a Tier 8 clash; flashes of radiance and jarring impacts echoed endlessly through the dark, sealed world, kicking up ferocious gales.
"I'm Antanas!"
Antanas shouted at Sinora. Sinora's abrupt attack had sparked Antanas's temper as well; if not for the need to protect the Princess, she would have been tempted to go all out and fight Sinora right then and there.
Even if she couldn't win in a direct confrontation, she could trick Sinora out of the cell, bar it with all her might, and let Sinora's phantom kill Sinora!
Sinora had no way of knowing whether the other party was lying. Her opponent was formidable, and she had never seen a trainee guard of such caliber. A momentary lapse in her offensive could put her at a disadvantage.
That was until Antanas deployed a barrier to restrict Sinora's movements—a six-sided, pale-blue light screen resembling an elongated coffin enveloped Sinora's figure. As Sinora instinctively counter-calculated it, the screen shattered and dissipated like glass.
"...?"
Sinora froze in place and lowered her halberd, staring in bewilderment at the two figures before her.
No matter how she looked at them, she sensed two humans, yet the barrier spell used just now was unmistakably Antanas's magic, which she had unraveled in the past.
Ordinary guards shouldn't possess Tier 7 or Tier 8 strength capable of blocking her direct attacks. Only that warden named Melissa was troublesome—impossible to kill no matter how hard she hit, utterly sickening.
Sinora didn't know what method Antanas had used to disguise herself as a human—not only completely undetectable to her, but also able to deceive the Protos Empire and Herrom Prison, infiltrating all the way to her cell disguised as a guard.
As for the black-haired, green-eyed woman standing behind her, no matter how abruptly the clash between the two great demons had erupted, she hadn't flinched in the slightest, merely watching them with calm composure.
Judging by mana perception alone, she should have been a Tier 0 or Tier 1 prison clerical worker, yet her composure was absurdly unnatural.
"Antanas? Did you defect to the enemy?"
Sinora's brows knit slightly. After pondering for a moment, this was practically the only logical explanation she could find.
"I haven't betrayed the demon race. We're here to rescue you. Look who that is."
Antanas denied it at once, pointing behind her toward the Poet of Great Love. She had no desire to keep fighting Sinora; otherwise, if her own bloodlust surged, she might truly seize the chance to kill Sinora.
Standing farther back, the Poet of Great Love had already removed her face covering and took several steps toward Sinora.
In the dim cell, Sinora shifted her gaze from Antanas's unfamiliar face to the black-haired, green-eyed figure.
Shadows clung to her cheeks, leaving only those emerald eyes exceptionally clear until she drew near and stepped beneath a beam of light, finally revealing her features.
"...?!"
Sinora tightened her grip on the halberd in astonishment.
"Talia...?"
Immediately, Sinora shook her head. She was certain this wasn't Talia. Their temperaments were far too different; only their looks were alike.
At the very least, Talia could never give such a warm, gentle look.
If Talia had ever been this gentle, she would have married off long ago.
Yet that raised another question: if this black-haired, green-eyed girl before her was Talia's descendant, didn't that mean Talia had successfully married?
At the thought that Talia might have married some handsome man, Sinora felt like grinding her teeth to dust!
Chapter 429