Hearing Paluriel's voice and seeing that familiar face, Anbaixiu felt none of the nostalgia he had experienced upon seeing Salvador. Instead, his scalp simply went numb.
His expression darkened even further when he saw the soul coin she was rolling in her fingers.
Paluriel kicked aside the lemure, who was already paralyzed with fear, and strolled toward the massive magic mirror, reaching out a hand to touch it.
Having heard numerous warnings, Melina knew this erinyes was extraordinarily dangerous. Instinctively, she drew the longsword at her waist to keep the devil from getting any closer to her father.
A flash of blade-light cut through the air as the flaming longsword slashed toward Paluriel. Yet Melina's strike halted right above the erinyes's head, halted because Paluriel's tail had firmly wrapped around her wrist.
Paluriel glanced at Melina and said in surprise, "There's Zariel's power on this sword. So you aren't just some minor pawn he tricked into being cannon fodder?"
Melina kept her mouth shut. Branches of the sussur tree sprouted from beneath her feet, rapidly coiling toward Paluriel's body.
This time, Paluriel was genuinely shocked. The sussur tree's special properties could actually affect her.
Even so, Paluriel was no longer mortal.
A scimitar materialized in her grip. Its blade flashed like snow, severing the sussur branches into several pieces. Melina cried out in pain; the strike felt as though it had cut into her own flesh.
A faint, hazy light clung to the severed edges, preventing the sussur tree from regenerating.
Though wounded and seeing that the sussur tree's antimagic effect had failed, Melina showed no sign of retreating. If anything, it ignited her thirst for battle.
Withdrawing the power of the sussur tree, Melina threw herself into combat against the erinyes with all her might.
Scimitar and longsword clashed in a dazzling flurry.
Anbaixiu had originally wanted to call a halt. He had already deduced that Paluriel, like Salvador, was no longer mortal; she possessed quasi-deity power reinforced by the planar laws of Hell. The sussur tree was useless against her, and the power of a deity was virtually insurmountable for any mortal.
Looking closer, however, Paluriel seemed to be purely matching combat techniques with Melina.
Recalling this woman's habits, Anbaixiu held his tongue and decided to let Melina have a good fight.
Ever since she was born, Melina's opponents had fallen into only two categories: worthless trash she crushed with ease, or mighty powerhouses who effortlessly crushed her.
Fights between equals almost never happened, leaving this battle-born Death Knight perpetually unsatisfied.
This time, Melina had finally encountered an "evenly matched" opponent.
The two fought fiercely right before Anbaixiu's eyes. Melina unleashed every technique Gareth had taught her. Her body seemed entirely boneless, every joint disconnecting and pivoting at will, launching strikes from impossible angles. Paluriel refrained from using any magic, relying solely on nimble footwork that drifted like falling leaves to spar with her.
For three solid minutes, blades rang against each other countless times, the din making Anbaixiu's head thrum.
After one final, crisp impact, the scimitar in Paluriel's hand finally snapped in two, and Melina's flaming longsword sliced toward her neck.
This time, however, the edge was caught between two of Paluriel's fingers. With a snap of her other hand, a beam of magical radiance enveloped Melina.
Hold Undead—a very common spell, and one that rarely had a high success rate under normal circumstances. Geared entirely in magical equipment, Melina should have had no trouble resisting it. But cast by a deity, mortal resistance might as well not exist.
Frozen within the pillar of magic light, Melina could not budge. Paluriel circled her with curiosity, then remarked to Anbaixiu, "What an interesting little friend. How about giving her to me?"
Anbaixiu flatly refused. "Don't even think about it. Melina is my daughter."
Paluriel's jaw dropped in disbelief. She wasn't surprised that an artifact spirit in a mirror could have a child; she was astonished by something else entirely. "A man like you found a woman willing to bear your children? A man like you would actually raise a child? Even if you did..."
Paluriel glanced at Melina, then back at Anbaixiu, and asked, "She isn't biological, is she? She looks nothing like you."
Anbaixiu was left speechless.
Seeing his awkward expression, Paluriel burst out laughing. "All right, jokes aside. I came because you invited me. Now let's see—should I destroy this place first, or should I kill you first?"
Another soul coin appeared in Paluriel's hand, rolling continuously across her knuckles.
Staring at the coin, Anbaixiu could not help saying, "Even now, you're still lying to yourself? You never mastered the power of fate at all. Tossing a coin is just an excuse."
With a sharp crack, Paluriel crushed the soul coin to dust.
Seeing that reaction, Anbaixiu knew she had never moved on from the past.
He recalled their very first meeting.
It had been in a tavern in the Kingdom of the Unholy Hymn. Neither of them were tieflings, and amidst a sea of horned patrons, they had shared a sort of mutual sympathy.
Anbaixiu was young back then, with a weakness for gorgeous, well-endowed older women. He had proactively struck up a conversation, dropping unsubtle hints to boast about having just become a divination wizard.
That was where his tragedy had begun.
He never should have let Paluriel know about divination wizards.
To show off his skills, Anbaixiu had performed a coin toss that was guaranteed to win every single time, successfully eliciting gasps of amazement from the exotic beauty.
Yet her amazement did not translate into romantic interest, nor did she invite him back to her room for deeper discussions. Instead, she had become utterly obsessed with the profession of divination wizard.
The two talked the entire night. Even though Anbaixiu gained no physical intimacy, chatting with a beauty was pleasant enough.
As the conversation progressed, however, Anbaixiu noticed that Paluriel's attention was wholly captivated by the power of fate, relentlessly probing him about everything related to divination wizards. In the end, Anbaixiu had no choice but to show her the half-finished manuscript of his Introduction to Divination Wizards.
Paluriel read it with rapt concentration all night long, but by closing time, she still barely understood half of it.
Anbaixiu offered a few comforting words, explaining that grasping the power of fate depended heavily on talent and affinity; no matter how clever someone was, sometimes an inability to comprehend it simply could not be helped.
Yet Paluriel declared resolutely, "I don't believe there is anything in this world I cannot master."
Anbaixiu hadn't understood the true weight of those words at the time. It wasn't until she kidnapped him that he realized he had crossed paths with a genuine lunatic.
To master divination, Paluriel kept Anbaixiu chained to her side, and he found himself completely powerless to resist.
True to her boast, she excelled at everything else. Her magical mastery surpassed his, her martial skills could easily crush a band of elven rangers, and her alchemy far exceeded his own.
What frustrated Anbaixiu even more was that she was no human. She possessed an extraordinary sensitivity to the emotions of all living beings, meaning he couldn't lie to her at all. Any hidden hostility or malice was instantly detected; no verbal trap could escape her notice.
He remained captive for three months. Paluriel never tortured him, only demanding over and over that he instruct her so she could become a divination wizard.
"Heads, this one dies. Tails, the one beside him dies... Is that how it works?"
Pointing at a band of reckless bandits, Paluriel tossed a coin, casually dictating life and death without a shred of care. Anbaixiu explained time and again that this wasn't divination; that was merely painting a bullseye around where you decided to shoot. True divination was foreseeing which target the future would strike.
Paluriel understood the literal meaning, but she could not see the future.
In her fury, she slaughtered everyone on the scene—including the merchants who had been robbed and were previously overflowing with gratitude toward her.
Anbaixiu knew then that this woman was an unhinged lunatic from top to bottom.
His memory came to an abrupt halt as Paluriel produced yet another coin and flipped it into the air.
She said slowly, "Heads, I kill your daughter first. Tails, I kill everyone here. I know you can control how the coin lands, so choose."
Anbaixiu let out a sigh. Before the coin came down, he told her, "I no longer use the power of fate."
The falling soul coin slipped past Paluriel's fingers, hit the stone with a clear chime, bounced, and began to spin across the floor.
Paluriel stared in astonishment. "You truly aren't lying. You gave up that power?"
Anbaixiu nodded. "That is precisely why I invited you here. Paluriel, back then you kidnapped and tormented me, and in the end, I used the power of fate to kill you. The debt between us is settled. Now, I want to shatter the shackles fate placed upon me, and I need your help.
"Don't you claim you can do anything? I intend to end the Blood War. Can you do it? When I break free from the shackles of destiny, that may very well be the moment the Goddess of Fate smiles upon you."
Chapter 563