The shuttle in the second dimension

　"Why do I look more like a cult member than them?"

　In fact, Rem and the others didn't need to leave first. With just this move, Lin Xuan could easily deal with those Witch Cult members. It's just that the scene around him was like purgatory, and Lin Xuan didn't want them to see it, or rather, he didn't want them to see that it was he who created this purgatory scene.

　He pulled Zhanmie out of the ground, and at the same time, those dark thorns began to dissipate as if they had lost the source of power.

　With a light wave of his sword, he destroyed all the corpses on the ground, and then Lin Xuan chased in the direction where Rem and the others left.

　Shortly after Lin Xuan left, a thin, green-haired man emerged from the forest. He gazed with his 460 pairs of frantic eyes at the land ravaged by the force of destruction. Just then, a Witch Cult member wearing a strange cloak rose from the ground and approached the green-haired man, reporting information on Emilia and the others.

　When the green-haired man heard that Emilia had escaped on a dragon carriage, he stared at the witch cult follower with wide eyes.

　"The target... escaped."

　Looking at the Witch Cultist, the green-haired man moved closer.

　"You... are so lazy." After saying that, the green-haired man grabbed the witch's cultist's head and slammed it to the ground.

　"You actually let the target of the trial escape? Is this your sincere repayment for the gospel?!" While roaring angrily, the green-haired man beat the witch cult member madly until he killed her.

　"Laziness, laziness, laziness..." Raising his hands high, the green-haired man knelt down as if praying, like a madman.

　"Please forgive us for being lazy and letting down your love. Love! We must repay love!" As soon as the words fell, dozens of witch cult members in cloaks appeared behind the green-haired man.

　"Find the trial target! Let's continue the trial!" screamed the green-haired man and ordered the dozens of witch cult members behind him.

Chapter 51

　It's almost the end of the semester, and a lot of reports, papers, and midterm projects have popped up. I've been busy with those things these days, so I'm sorry for the delay in updating.

　-

　"I see~~~ It seems that the [Alliance] is serious this time. It seems that the war here will become more intense~~~~ I just don't know to what extent the two sides will fight, and whether they will continue to increase their troops." Sitting on a wooden chair in the open space, Lin Xuan muttered thoughtfully.

　"It's not impossible to send more troops, but we won't send too many people. After all, this is just a confrontation, not a decisive battle between us [Liberation Corps] and the [Alliance]. Moreover, with the [Alliance] watching from the side, it's impossible for us and the [Alliance] to really fight to the death. Otherwise, in the end, we will fight half to the death, and it would be bad if the [Alliance] took advantage of us in the end." Looking at Lin Xuan who was sitting next to her, Chixue Asada analyzed for him.

　"I didn't expect the Alliance to send many people over. Although this country is quite powerful and has some strong swordsmen, it is not a strong country after all. The Alliance won't spend too much on this." As he spoke, Lin Xuan stood up, looked into the distance, grinned slightly, and chuckled, "600! I just hope that the people sent by the Alliance are not useless trash. If the Alliance can also participate, it would be even better~~~~"

　Looking at Lin Xuan's somewhat crazy look, Chiyuki Asada sighed helplessly. Four years had made the relationship between Chiyuki Asada and Lin Xuan like that of brother and sister, and it also made Chiyuki Asada understand what kind of person Lin Xuan was.

　Back then, at the age of ten, he had entered this war in order to become stronger. When this war no longer satisfied him, the emergence of the Alliance undoubtedly rekindled his interest. Asada Chiyuki could imagine that in the near future, Lin Xuan would definitely clash violently with the magic knights sent by the Alliance to intervene in this war.

　"Although you are very powerful now, far surpassing your peers and even those who are a generation older than you, the battlefield is ever-changing and anything can happen. Moreover, the magic knights sent by the Alliance this time are all very powerful. You'd better be careful on your own."

　Over the past four years, Chiyuki Asada had witnessed Lin Xuan's explosive growth in strength, and so she remained confident in his abilities. However, the battlefield wasn't a one-on-one duel; even a powerful swordsman could fall in a moment of carelessness. Therefore, Chiyuki Asada remained somewhat concerned about Lin Xuan.

　Lin Xuan certainly heard the worry in Chiyuki Asada's words, and he knew exactly what she was worried about. "Don't worry, Sister Chiyuki. After all, I've been on the battlefield for four years. I'll be more cautious. After all, I went to the battlefield to become stronger, not to die."

　q

　"I'm afraid that when you get excited about fighting, you will throw all the cautions to the back of your mind~" He rolled his eyes at Lin Xuan and said unhappily to Tian Qianxue.

　"Well... I won't do that anymore~~ Sister Qianxue~~" Hearing Qianxue Asada say this, Lin Xuan scratched his head in frustration. Qianxue Asada was telling the truth; he had indeed done the same thing before. In the heat of battle, he'd thrown aside all caution on the battlefield and fought his opponent all the way into their camp, where he was surrounded. If he hadn't been strong enough to fight his way out, Lin Xuan would have died there.

　"It's best if it doesn't happen again~~~" Looking at Lin Xuan scratching his head, Chaotian Qianxue shook her head helplessly and sighed.

　"Um--"

　-

　The next day

　While still having breakfast, Lin Xuan received a task notification.

　Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow as he looked at the mission information displayed on his mobile device. This mission wasn't a difficult one; it simply required him to assist in destroying a stronghold. Furthermore, Alice would be joining him on this mission.

　"It's been four years since we met, but this is the first time we've carried out a mission together, Alice." Putting down the mobile terminal in his hand, Lin Xuan glanced behind him and said with a hint of amusement.

　“——!!!” Looking at Lin Xuan, Alice was a little shocked. She approached him without any malicious intention, but she was discovered by him all of a sudden. This perception made him, as a killer, feel deeply shocked.

　"Fortunately, you are not his enemy, otherwise, as a killer, I would have been discovered by you as soon as I approached you and had not yet started the assassination~~~~~" Shaking her head, Alice sat next to Lin Xuan with a helpless look on her face. In his hand, he was holding a mobile terminal exactly the same as the one in Lin Xuan's hand.

　"You're still not good enough at concealing your breath. If you could conceal your breath to a sufficient degree, I wouldn't be able to detect you."

　"Lin Xuan, it's easy for you to say that. It's not easy to conceal your breath to the level you mentioned. At least it's not something that people can do now." Looking at Lin Xuan with a wry smile, Alice felt that it was easy for Lin Xuan to talk without any worries. It was not that easy to reach the level he mentioned.

　"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this for now. Let's talk about this mission first." Lin Xuan said, waving his hand.

　"Yeah." Alice responded and her face began to become serious. After all, this was the first mission he had carried out since arriving at this station.

　"You've just arrived at this battlefield, so you might not be familiar with some things. I'll just give you a brief introduction. Here..."

　-

　呲——

　With a series of brake squeaks, more than a dozen jeeps and six or seven military trucks stopped, and then a large group of people got out of the vehicles.

　This group of people were none other than the People's Liberation Army, and Lin Xuan and Alice were among the crowd.

　At this time, Lin Xuan and Alice were discussing with a middle-aged man in camouflage uniform how to annihilate this stronghold. The middle-aged man was the person in charge of this mission - Scar.

　"Skar, then let's do as we discussed before. Alice will sneak in and assassinate the commander of this stronghold first. I will be the vanguard and tear a big hole in the stronghold's defense line. Then I will let your people attack from the hole I tore and directly destroy this stronghold." Lin Xuan said after glancing at the stronghold two kilometers away.

　"Yes, that's right." The middle-aged man, Scar, nodded in response after hearing Lin Xuan's words.

　"Well, that's no problem, I--" When he said this, Lin Xuan casually glanced into the distance, but with just this glance, he was stunned, and the words in his mouth stopped at the same time.

　After more than ten seconds, Lin Xuan suddenly grinned and laughed excitedly.

　"No - Scar, the plan has changed. You just need to be responsible for cleaning up the battlefield -" Looking in a certain direction, Lin Xuan said excitedly.

Chapter 52: First Meeting with the Archbishop of Sin

　"So many hands!" Subaru was shocked at the terrifying scene behind him. In his eyes, dozens of dark arms stretched out from the grove not far from them and grabbed them.

　Because the noise made by the running dragon car was so loud, it drowned out Subaru's exclamation, so Lin Xuan did not hear Subaru's exclamation. However, even if he did not hear Subaru's exclamation, Lin Xuan probably knew who the person was.

　"Just now, as the blade energy sliced ​​through the air somewhere, it paused, and the destructive force within it dissipated somewhat. It was obvious that it had struck something as it passed through that space. The only person who could have caused this was the Archbishop of Sloth, who possessed the power of the Invisible Hand." Thinking this, Lin Xuan stared directly at the grove before him.

　Although he couldn't see it, Lin Xuan understood from the strange feeling in his heart that the Archbishop of the Sin of Sloth had attacked again.

　"I really can't see it." Muttering to himself, Lin Xuan began to swing the black blade in his hand. In a moment, dozens of pitch-black sword auras were released by Lin Xuan. The dozens of intersecting black sword auras seemed to form a sword net that swept through the empty air. Just like before, the sword net suddenly paused in the middle of the air.

　"In the grove?" Lin Xuan narrowed his eyes as he looked at the grove not far away. "Aren't you coming out?"

　Lin Xuan sheathed his [Slash 357], gripping the scabbard with his left hand. He half-crouched, imposing a sword-drawing gesture. Immediately thereafter, he poured the mana flowing from the [Gate] into [Slash]. Apparently, the sheath of the mana Lin Xuan poured into the blade was too vast, causing a continuous flow of dark destructive power from the gap between the scabbard and the hilt. Even Eru, standing behind Lin Xuan, seemed to sense the immense power contained within the sheath and grew restless.

　"In this case, I have no choice but to force you out." After the words fell, Lin Xuan finally pulled out the [Destroy] from the sheath.

　The next moment, as [Cut Off] was unsheathed, a dark light burst out from the blade exposed by [Cut Off]. Then, a dark sword energy that was completely different from the previous two times fell on the grove at a speed that was difficult for the naked eye to follow.

　——! !

　Without any sound, the small woods in front of Lin Xuan was completely swallowed up by the dark sword energy, leaving only a deep pit with nothing on the ground.

　"Is it solved?" whispering, Lin Xuan walked towards the deep pit.

　Looking at his 'masterpiece', Lin Xuan raised his eyebrows slightly, but he did not waste time on sighing. He started observing his surroundings. He felt that the Archbishop of Sin [Sloth] should not be eliminated so easily by him.

　"Hmm?" As Lin Xuan stared at the deep pit, that strange feeling resurfaced within him. Following his instinct, he raised his head and saw a green-haired man sitting in mid-air, hugging his knees. The man was biting his fingers while staring at him with eyes wide and filled with madness.

　"He actually flew into the sky." When he saw the green-haired man, Lin Xuan subconsciously jumped back a distance. Since he couldn't see the other party attacking, he didn't move forward, especially since the other party was still flying in the sky.

　"It's so despicable that you actually stopped me from completing the trial and repaying the witch. Ahhhhh... I, I, I, I am so lazy being blocked here—" Without paying any attention to his fingers, the green-haired man bit them like crazy, not even caring about the blood splattering on his face.

　"Are you crazy?" Lin Xuan frowned at the green-haired man's crazy look. To be honest, Lin Xuan really didn't want to be an enemy of such a madman, but now he had to go up against him no matter how reluctant he was.

　"If I'm not mistaken, you should be one of the Archbishops of Sin of the Witch Cult." Since the current goal is to help Emilia and the others get rid of the person in front of them, and without the guarantee that he can really eliminate the other party, Lin Xuan feels that he should delay as much time as possible.

　"That's right, I'm the Archbishop of the Witch Cult, in charge of [Sloth], Petelgeuse Romanee-Conti." For some reason, the green-haired man Petelgeuse, who had originally looked extremely crazy, suddenly calmed down. His strange behavior made Lin Xuan raise his eyebrows.

　'How did this guy calm down?' Lin Xuan wondered, his grip on the hilt tightening. He didn't know what Petelgeuse was up to, but he knew it wasn't a good thing for a crazy person like him to suddenly calm down.

　Just when Lin Xuan was wondering what Petelgeuse wanted to do, he saw Petelgeuse move. He ignored Lin Xuan and flew in the direction where Emilia and the others left.

　'This guy actually ignored me!' Cursing inwardly, Lin Xuan swung the Slash in his hand and slashed towards Petelgeuse in mid-air.

　On the other side, after feeling Lin Xuan's attack on him, Petelgeuse, who knew that Lin Xuan's sword energy was powerful, did not choose to meet it head-on, but chose to dodge. However, because his movement speed was not fast, he narrowly avoided the sword energy.

　"Tsk, I underestimated that guy's movement speed, but this." Lin Xuan curled his lips and cursed inwardly, then swung out more than a dozen sword auras again, forming a sword net to attack Petelgeuse in mid-air.

　The attack range of the sword net composed of more than a dozen sword auras is obviously not comparable to that of a single sword aura. Unless Petelgeuse took the initiative to disperse the invisible hand that supported him to fly, otherwise, he would definitely not have time to dodge before the sword net came.

　As Lin Xuan expected, in order to avoid the sword net he had slashed out, Petelgeuse dispersed the invisible hand that was supporting him.

　As Petelgeuse began to fall, Lin Xuan immediately took action.

　I saw dark blades flying towards Petelgeuse, as if they were going to cut him into pieces.

　But it seemed that he had already expected Lin Xuan to do this. Dozens of invisible hands stretched out from behind Petelgeuse. Some of them were used to move himself, while the other part was used to grab Lin Xuan.

　Because he couldn't see those invisible hands, Lin Xuan was indifferent to the invisible hands that were grabbing towards him. It was not until those invisible hands were about to touch him that Lin Xuan, feeling the danger, reacted. But even so, because he was close and couldn't see them, Lin Xuan couldn't dodge them all. The upper half of his left arm was still hit by the invisible hands, which directly dyed his left sleeve red.

　"Tsk." Lin Xuan smacked his lips and quickly retreated while slashing a blade of energy towards Petelgeuse. But unfortunately, the blade of energy was completely depleted as it continued to slice through Nashi's invisible hand, and in the end, it failed to cause any damage to Petelgeuse.

Chapter 53: Summary

　Glancing at his left arm,

　"Although its movement speed isn't particularly fast, it's still difficult to dodge without being able to see its trajectory. Furthermore, the power of the invisible hand is considerable. With my current physical strength, just being hit by it would cause me considerable injuries." Lin Xuan thought as he retreated.

　"If I could see those invisible hands like Subaru, I wouldn't be so passive." Lin Xuan complained as he stopped retreating.

　"Ahhhhh~ Why, why did you sense my power again!!" When Lin Xuan dodged those invisible hands again, Petelgeuse seemed to have suffered a huge blow. He held his head with both hands, leaned back and wailed.

　"Who knows, maybe you are not suitable for the power given to you by the witch." Lin Xuan would not miss such a good opportunity. While provoking Petelgeuse, he stabbed the Slasher in his hand into the ground, and then began to madly pour the power of destruction into the ground.

　"Ahhh, I let people realize the power given to me by the witch. I, I am so lazy~~~" Lin Xuan's words seemed to have dealt a greater blow to Petelgeuse, causing him to tear his hair frantically, not caring at all whether he would feel pain or not.

　"Then please be more lazy and just die." After making preparations, Lin Xuan directly launched the destructive power that he had poured into the ground.

　In an instant, countless black thorns burst out from the soles of Petelgeuse's feet, instantly submerging his figure.

　Looking at Petelgeuse submerged in the dark thorns, Lin Xuan breathed a sigh of relief.

　"Fortunately, this madman couldn't stand the stimulation and went crazy over there, giving me time to prepare. Otherwise, it wouldn't be so easy to destroy him." As he said that, Lin Xuan pulled out the Zhanmie that was inserted into the ground, turned around and was about to leave. He didn't think that Petelgeuse could survive such an attack.

　"This guy definitely has a lot of fangs left. I'll probably run into him again. I'll have to figure out how to deal with him when I get back." Lin Xuan muttered as he sheathed his Slash. But just as it was halfway in, he felt a piercing chill from behind him. Instantly, his hair stood on end. He realized he'd been careless, not even checking to see if Petelgeuse was alive or dead.