“Holy crap, why is he coming at me?”

Surprised, Wayne didn’t realize that Darienne had let go of White Night Creed, allowing him to transform into the Moonlight Knight at any moment. Facing the menacing demon, he suddenly shot out fire elements from his now fiery-red eyes in the form of heat vision.

Two beams of red light blazed, hitting the Oath Sword. After a brief standoff, Archibald deflected the light beams with a twist of his blade. Wayne didn’t dodge. He faced the incoming blade with a gleam in his eyes.

Move it, Book of Greed!

Yum!

Under Archibald’s astonished gaze, Wayne made no attempt to defend himself, allowing the Oath Sword to pierce through his chest.

What is he doing? x2

Idiot, why aren’t you using White Night Creed? Darienne raged.

I get it. He’s figured out who I am! On the other hand, Archibald felt his colleague’s care. Pressing his hand downward, he pushed the Oath Sword forward until the hilt hit Wayne’s chest, piercing Wayne completely.

Now, the sword’s yours!

Although it had been part of his plan from the beginning, Archibald still couldn’t help but be moved by his colleague’s willingness to help when the time came. He gave Wayne a pointed look, not exposing his plan to infiltrate the Life Alliance. The moment the Oath Sword left Archibald’s hands, his pure white wings turned pitch black once more.

Wings folded, Archibald clasped his hands before his chest. A black orb of light expanded in his palms, growing into a large black sphere three meters in diameter to envelope him in the blink of an eye. Under its gravitational pull, the air grew heavy, and as the sphere contracted, everything in the area was drawn to it uncontrollably.

Wayne saw a flash as Darienne whisked him away. When they looked back, the black orb had contracted to the size of a fingertip, collapsing space. Then suddenly, it expanded in silence.

A black sphere a hundred meters in diameter hovered in the air. The ground it had been in contact with had been erased. Black currents crackled, and then the black sphere contracted again until vanishing completely.

What just happened? Were you trying to take someone with you before dying?

Did you really just do that?

With a greatsword stuck in his chest, Wayne stared at where the demon had perished, figurative question marks popping from his head. He had encountered his fair share of demons, but it was the first time he’d encountered one who committed suicide so decisively. The way the demon had given away his equipment before death was especially baffling. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he and the demon were on the same side.

“Bastard, why didn’t you dodge?” Darienne glared at her successor furiously. “Why didn’t you use White Night Creed? Did the demon scare you witless?”

“I didn’t have to dodge. At worst, I’d suffer a serious injury. I wouldn’t die so easily...” Wayne couldn’t figure out the demon’s angle. He extracted the greatsword from his chest to examine it.

There was no good demon, and every demon was a schemer. There had to be a demon’s soul in the sword, which would appear as a weapon spirit to trick him.

Darienne looked at Wayne’s chest in surprise and touched it curiously. The wound instantly healed without a single drop of blood.

Strange. Let me try again.

Bro, you smell good!

Wayne took two steps back. He had finished off quickly before coming to the church and was still unsatisfied. He refused to get too close to this face right now. “There’s something strange about the demon’s death. What do you think, Darienne?”

Darienne was still staring at his chest. She nodded and said, “Pretty good. You have a nice body.”

Wayne rolled his eyes and walked around her to where the demon had fallen. To be safe, he examined the place again.

Darienne followed him, praising his caution before changing the subject. “Wayne, did you just cheer for the demon?”

“Why would I? You must have misheard. I said, ‘Come on, Sister Knight with a longbow.’”

He deflected carelessly, soon spotting the demon’s corpse—or more precisely, his inheritance. It was a grey crystal.

He weighed it in his hand with a frown. “A half-finished Philosopher’s Stone, forged from the body and thoughts of a legendary mage—and one who practiced the faith of Hell, no less. This isn’t easy to come by.”

In the Chosen Land, legendary mages weren’t particularly rare. Setting aside the churches, any powerful nation could cultivate a few. Windsor Ministry of Magic, for example, could call on ten.

Legendary mages practicing the faiths of Hell, however, were another story. He wasn’t talking about someone like Planck, a legendary mage who would worship anything, but those with a singular faith in Hell.

The half-finished Philosopher’s Stone in Wayne’s hand held incredible value and was more precious than the one he had obtained from the Church of Nature’s headquarters. He didn’t immediately let the Book of Greed have a taste, but instead tossed it into his pocket dimension along with the Oath Sword.

It wouldn’t be too late to eat it once Darienne was away.

The two swept the battlefield. Wayne’s loot was: Incomplete Philosopher’s Stone x1, Parchment Sacred Tome x1, Oath Sword x1.

The more he thought about it, the stranger this seemed. Why would a demon come to his doorstep just to give him loot?

“I don’t get it. Something isn’t adding up,” he muttered. Then he noticed Darienne drawing a magic circle on the ground—an alchemy circle, judging by its design. Curious, he leaned in for a closer look. “What are you doing, Darienne?”

“Refining dragon blood!” Darienne pointed at the mountain of great dragon’s bones, indicating the entire space with a wave. “This space was forged with the great dragon’s vitality and is perfectly preserved. It’s no exaggeration to call the dragon’s remains fresh. This is an adult dragon with power rivaling the gods.”

“So?” Wayne raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing to my family’s warehouse?”

“I have a wyvern mount. Perhaps the dragon blood can help it evolve.”

“So why are you using my family’s dragon blood to evolve your mount?” Wayne enunciated the words clearly for emphasis.

“I killed the demon!”

“No, he killed himself.”

“I drove him to kill himself!” Darienne raised a hand to cut off his argument. “You’re my successor. You’ll inherit not only the Moonlight Knight’s mantle, but also White Night Creed. By that logic, my things are yours, and your things are mine.”

She had no shame. Without giving Wayne the time to retort, she waved her hand to open up space, and a white creature gradually solidified. It was a five-meter-long wyvern with a slender form, covered entirely in fine white scales; white was Darienne’s favorite color.

Senna and Megan’s great dragon form wasn’t practical with a dragonrider, while White Shadow, the wyvern, was just right. With its agility and mobility, it allowed Darienne to freely attack from different angles on the battlefield.

Of course, it was more of a pet than a mount. Though White Shadow made an excellent mount, it was far slower than Darienne on foot. She didn’t lack a mount, but a vehicle that signified her status.

I’m a chosen knight. Of course I should have a flashy mount.

Moula and Leo thought differently. They had stuck to using their own two feet for years, never getting themselves mounts.

Moula had told Wayne to find a mount only because he was worried that Wayne, freshly appointed the Nature Knight, wouldn’t be powerful enough to handle dangers on his own. A qualified mount and the enhancement of Elemental Mantra would compensate for a lack of strength.

“Darienne, the Lando family is Windsor’s rightful owner and has inherited everything from the Windsor family. This is my family’s warehouse. You’re committing robbery!” Wayne accused indignantly.

Darienne shrugged. No matter what Wayne said, she was taking the dragon blood one way or another. If he had any complaints, they could sit down and play cards. Whoever won...

Never mind. Card games destroyed friendships. No cards today.

Darienne whistled as she watched over the alchemy circle. Wayne continued to voice his dissatisfaction. He wasn’t that hung up over the dragon blood. After all, a wyvern wouldn’t be able to absorb that much. However, he had to state his stance clearly and make Darienne realize how despicable and shameless she was being. With that established, it would be easier for him to ask her for favors in the future.

Chosen knights were walking encyclopedias. The alchemy circle that Darienne was monitoring was tremendously powerful. In five minutes, she had refined the first batch of dragon blood.

Above the mountain of dragon bones, gloomy dark clouds gathered. Faint dragon roars resounded amid surging draconic aura, as if warning the thieves that they were courting death.

Any other legendary mage would have backed off by now, worried that the great dragon would come back to life, but not Darienne. The great dragon was dead. What remained active was its vitality, with nowhere to go.

She was kind enough to take the vitality so that the great dragon couldn’t rest in peace—bah, so that it could rest in peace.

She tossed the first batch of dragon blood to her mount, White Shadow. The subsequent output ended up collected in glass bottles that Wayne had created with his thoughts. This was enough for Veronica to bathe in.

“Oh, right. The dragon bones can be reforged with thoughts, too. I’ll charge you a small fee for a few dragon fang swords. It’s a reasonable deal, isn’t it?”

“Fine. We’ll go thirty and seventy,” Wayne suggested.

Darienne countered, “Only seventy percent?”

“The seventy is for Wa—for me. You’ll have thirty percent.”

“...”

Darienne huffed but didn’t say anything else. She would have to pass everything on to her successor one day, so she might as well give it to him now.

The alchemy circle at her feet glowed with moonlight. The radiance gradually enveloped the entire space, gathering the mountains and mist that stemmed from the dragon’s vitality to accelerate the refinement of dragon blood.

Wayne frantically bottled the blood, grinning from ear to ear. He gave the demon a silent thumbs-up. When it came to generosity, no one beat the demons. They never pulled back when handing out gifts!

Besides the great dragon’s vitality, the space also contained the Laws of fire and death. Wayne didn’t taste them immediately, planning to savor them once Darienne left.

The Book of Greed was growing impatient.

Half an hour later, Darienne extended her hands toward the sky, planning to refine the surging fire elements as well. The flames had a complex composition. Part of them originated from the dragon’s vitality, and part of them came from the dragon’s knowledge. The former was matter, while the latter was information. Both existed in this space in energy form.

This refinement was a complicated ordeal. Darienne could only do it because she was powerful. Anyone else—say, the legendary mages of the Ministry of Magic—would fail to solve the problem even by putting their heads together.

As the refinement progressed, Darienne frowned. “Wait, the fire... There’s something else here.”

She made a few tapping motions in the air. Every time her fingertip tapped on air, moonlight rippled out. Her surging energy collided with the canopy of fire, separating the foreign matter that had nothing to do with the great dragon.

The alchemy circle blazed with light as wisps of red blood gathered and took form. The crimson was pure and flawless, emitting Heaven’s sacred energy.

“Blood of Heaven...”

After a ponderous moment, she murmured, “It’s Saint George’s divine blood. As the legend goes, he is a high-ranking angel.”