Gregory finally understood who he had encountered, and the Holy Sanctuary Mage couldn’t help but laugh: "I thought you were brave and bold, but it turns out you’re just a fool."

"A year ago, there wouldn’t be a Holy Sanctuary Mage robbing people in the street in Gospel." The young man said softly.

"But the world is no longer the world of a year ago! Now is a time of chaos, a time of opportunity! Even if you are just an ordinary person, you must have read the Ghost Manual and know what a true mage is!"

The young man felt as if he had swallowed a fly: "I think not all mages are willing to be represented by the Ghost Prophet..."

"But that’s the reality; only mages who stop at nothing can rise in this era!" Gregory waved his hand: "Forget it, what am I saying to a fool like you..."

Bang!

The round table was instantly crushed into pieces by a colossal gravity, as was the plate of noodles, scattering noodles and chunks of meat covered in sauce onto the ground with a splat. The young man held his chopsticks and looked down at his unfinished late-night snack.

"If you don’t want to end up like that bowl of noodles, you’d better leave quickly. Don’t assume I wouldn’t dare to kill ordinary people." Gregory said coldly.

"...I’ll overlook your waste of my food, but if you keep bullying that young girl, I’ll report you to the Red Hat."

"Can you just hurry up and leave."

The young man paused and looked at the trembling metal doll, Sesilia, on the ground.

"Your self-important ramblings aren’t helping at all..." Sesilia gritted her teeth, trembling as she spoke: "If I could move, I’d want to beat you up."

"I love Gospel, so I hope it can be a beautiful country, where the weak have someone to stand up for them, and the strong do not plunder their possessions." The young man sighed: "Not everyone has to follow the Ghost Prophet, trampling on others to survive, right?"

"What a joke; I came here to make a deal with the Devil and trample everyone underfoot!"

Sesilia suddenly leaped up, her metal limbs releasing hot steam, and delivered a spinning kick at the back of Gregory’s neck! Relying on the built-in drive of her metal body, she forcefully broke through the gravitational field’s suppression, like a ferocious yet elegant metal doll!

She was in Gregory’s Holy Domain now, and this kick couldn’t be stopped by Gregory’s Holy Domain — 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Bang! The mantis blade extending from her steel leg struck the transparent barrier, rain pattering on Sesilia’s face — Gregory managed to retract his Holy Domain to his own body instantly!

"Two fools." Gregory’s eyes glimmered with ferocity, and he pressed down hard with his fingers: "Die!"

The monstrous gravity pressed down like a hammer, pinning Sesilia to the ground. She grunted, the pain all over her body feeling like she was about to be crushed into pulp. At the brink of death, surprisingly, she felt little despair; rather, she thought of that rambling fool, and found some unexplainable comfort in the darkest corner of her heart at having such a fool with excess righteousness die with her.

However, the anticipated tons of gravity did not descend. Sesilia’s ears twitched, discovering that the surroundings had suddenly become very quiet, even the sound of dripping rain disappeared, and she no longer felt pressed down. She could even prop herself up.

The world stopped, raindrops froze mid-air like countless transparent crystals. The proud and cold Gregory, the sneering little leader, the row of Voodoo members... everyone froze in time, like a painting.

No, not everyone was frozen.

The young man picked up a pair of chopsticks and stepped out from the shop, passing through the rain curtain as if breaking through each crystal, water blooms bursting mid-air. He approached the nearest Voodoo member and inserted a chopstick into his eye socket.

Sesilia couldn’t help but close her eyes, as if hearing the sound of a crystalline lens shattering.

"I don’t want to see the strong trampling the weak, nor do I wish to resolve problems with violence," he explained as if clarifying: "Because bullying and violence are addictive; I certainly don’t want to become the Ghost Prophet."

Before long, he had pierced the right eye of over a dozen Voodoo members with chopsticks, leaving only their left eyes. When he reached Gregory, just two chopsticks were left.

"No one is eternally strong; everyone has moments of being weak." He inserted the two chopsticks into the Holy Sanctuary Mage’s eye sockets until they protruded from the back of his head, musing: "Is it really that hard not to trample others?"

He stood dumbfounded in front of Gregory for a while, seeming to admire his work. Sesilia sat on the ground, not daring to breathe; her mind was in chaos, unable to think. She had thought Gregory was the scariest presence tonight, only to realize there was a being able to crush him — could he be the fabled... Legendary Mage!?

"That may very well be... perhaps that’s the truth."

Sesilia heard the young man muttering to himself, and she got goosebumps all over, wrapping her arms around herself, praying the monster wouldn’t notice her.

"Ah, my apologies. I just suddenly figured something out," he turned and smiled at Sesilia: "I used to think the six Divine Lords shaped different societal systems to pursue different interests, but now it seems their actions aren’t necessarily so self-serving."

"Despising some actions, liking certain deeds, not wanting to see certain people, wanting to see certain people... They must have formed different worldviews during their growth. When they weren’t powerful enough, they had to endure societal phenomena they couldn’t accept; but once they became Divine Lords, they no longer needed to endure or compromise. Even without any benefit, they would certainly act that way — who would want to live under the same sky as something they detest?"

"Alright," he said, smiling: "It’s time to talk about your matters."

Sesilia swallowed a gulp of saliva, unable to resist asking a completely irrelevant question: "Did you stop the world?"

"How could that be? If the world truly stopped, you wouldn’t be able to see anything now, as even light would halt... I’ve only stopped the tangible things in this area; real time in reality is still flowing." The young man shook his head: "Genuinely stopping the world is an unimaginable wonder; I’m just bullying ordinary people."

Even a Holy Sanctuary Mage is just an ordinary person!?

Sesilia curled into a ball, if earlier her trembling voice was due to pain, now it was due to fear: "Wh-what do you want with me?"

"Wrong, it’s you who’s looking for me."

Ash squatted down, tilting his head as he said: "If I’m not mistaken, I should be the Devil you want to make a deal with."

(My routine’s completely messed up... Last day of the month, please vote for me)