Free Web NovelMara wanted to do something else, but she could no longer move.
“Why! Why, no matter how hard I try... in the end, I still can't pose even the slightest threat to you!
“Why do you have everything—wealth, status... and people who love you! While I lost everything the moment I was born!”
Knowing her death was imminent, Mara gave up resisting and began to interrogate Loren.
“You ask why?”
Loren stepped forward, impaled Mara with Requiem, hoisted her up, and threw her onto the altar, beginning the sacrificial ritual.
To prevent any accidents, Loren used Requiem to chop her into pieces bit by bit before the sacrifice, each cut stripping away Mara's hope.
If she completely fell into despair, even the Outer Gods wouldn't be able to save her.
“Because I'm kind, that's why everyone likes me. You couldn't choose who gave birth to you, but you can choose your other family.
“If you had stayed kind and met me one day, after learning about your plight, I would have been sorrowful, helped heal you, and helped you live a normal life.
“But you chose to harm others. Your miserable life isn't other people's fault. Those merfolk you killed might have once cried over your story, but now they all died by your hand.”
By the time he finished saying this, half of Mara's body had been minced into ground meat by Loren. She remained silent, no rebuttal, no struggle.
Perhaps she truly regretted it now, but that had nothing to do with Loren.
Loren never believed in that "drop the cleaver and become a Buddha on the spot" nonsense. Evil people should repay their sins with their lives.
You may regret it, but those who died by your hand never even got the chance to forgive you. All Loren could do was send you to meet them.
“After killing so many merfolk, you must have heard what your real parents were like more than once, right?”
This wasn't Loren's idle chatter. Loren wanted to completely eliminate the Goddess of Love's blessing. As long as she lost this love she imagined for herself, the Goddess of Love would abandon her too, and only then could he truly kill her.
Whether Mara had finally come to her senses or Requiem had plunged her into utter despair, Mara's life force gradually faded away. Loren also gained experience. Combined with the experience from killing the merfolk earlier, Loren reached level 51.
Name: Loren
Level: 51 (20%)
Strength: 10
Stamina: 46
Agility: 28
Intelligence: 55
Mana: 5430/5550
Remaining Attribute Points: 0
Accessories: [Weeping Blood Wedding Ring] [Lurking Fangs] [Virtue Rings]*7 [Emblem of Bounty] [Crimson Elegy] [Synchronized Heartbeats]
Blessings: [Truth Discernment] [Pluto's Mouth] [True Sight Eye] [Clear Conscience]
Curses: [Shattered Love] [Scorn of All Beings]
Talents: [Sensitive Heart] [Necromancy Affinity] [Everything Has a Spirit] [Dreamwalker] [Pending Selection...]
Loren opened the Panel and took a look. Another pending talent had appeared. Loren still chose to save it for a critical moment before selecting a magic.
At the same time, his accessory slots were full. If he obtained other rings, Loren would have to choose to remove one of the Virtue Rings.
After all, this stuff was just a little gift left for them by the Dawn Princess. Even though its strength was enough to last until graduation, it wasn't the strongest endgame set.
After Mara died, the fishing lines connected to her snapped and retracted, pulling back toward the east.
From this, Loren could roughly determine the Angler's location—it was in the ocean between the two continents.
Loren thought about finding an opportunity to deal with the Angler. Perhaps the Angler itself only wanted to eat some plankton and small fish, but it had genuinely caused a lot of trouble for people.
Whether it was the necromancer who attacked Anselm before or Mara this time, both were troubles caused by the Angler.
The Angler and the Murmuring Dragon were both endangered species, but before protecting animals came protecting humans. Since they caused trouble for humans, Loren couldn't let them live.
Extinct is extinct. Now that Loren had the World Card, at least he could record the Angler's existence.
While lost in thought, Loren casually sacrificed Mara's corpse and soul to the God of Bountiful Harvest, once again destroying the evidence.
“Master Mentor... is the crisis resolved?”
A long time passed. Only when Loren was about to take Laila back did the Bishop snap out of it, gasping for breath. He still hadn't recovered from the oppressive pressure of the Super-tier Magic.
“It's fine now. The merfolk have all become nutrients, and the necromancer has been killed. I stopped the spell, so the Eternal Flower Sea won't continue spreading. This place can still be used as a scenic spot afterward.
“First, let me apologize to everyone. To buy me time to unleash a ninth-tier spell, I used your lifespans to summon the Child of Bountifulness.”
Actually, Loren wasn't included. His selected range was the Bountiful followers. He and Laila weren't Bountiful followers.
Loren bowed to the crowd, startling them back to their senses, and they quickly returned the gesture:
“It's nothing. Compared to our lives, a mere year of lifespan means nothing. Rather, we should thank you for your trouble. We were supposed to protect you...”
They had witnessed the pressure of the Super-tier Magic and personally seen Loren interrupt it with a ninth-tier spell. At this moment, all dissatisfaction toward Loren vanished like smoke.
They had been a bit unhappy when Loren used them as mana batteries before, but now, forget being batteries—even if Loren sacrificed another fifty years of their lifespan, they would accept it.
Even if they didn't survive, as long as they could protect their families, that was enough.
They also noticed that Loren and Mara knew each other, but they didn't overthink it. They assumed Loren had been silently playing the hero somewhere they couldn't see, quietly eliminating an enemy threatening the Bountiful Church while keeping his deeds hidden.
Loren's indifference to fame and profit earned him their deep admiration.
“These are healing potions. Do your best to help the wounded. I'm tired, I'm going back to rest first.”
Loren pulled a few bottles of potion from his black robe and pretended to stumble, almost falling. Fortunately, Laila caught him in time.
The Bishop took the potions, but healing was useless now. The merfolk hadn't actually caused many casualties. Most of the deaths and injuries came from Mara's ninth-tier magic, Abyssal Thrust.
Anyone hit by that move was beyond saving. The least injured was that scarecrow who got grazed—he lost half his body and had now died from blood loss.
“We're going back to rest...”
Loren wanted Laila to help him walk, but instead, Laila directly scooped him up. She lowered her head, looking at Loren's weakened state, and her little face immediately flushed red.
Countless things flashed through her mind. Now, Laila only wanted to rush back and throw Loren onto the bed...
