Saskia’s pupils contracted violently, and a guttural gasp escaped her throat.

She stumbled back two steps, seemingly using the last of her strength to glance down at her chest. Not a single drop of blood seeped from the gaping hole. Instead, a ring of ice crystals spread out from the wound, refracting the morning light into a rainbow of colors.

"..." Saskia’s mouth opened as if to speak, but she no longer had the strength. The ice crystals rapidly encased her entire body. Then, before everyone’s horrified eyes, her form... shattered.

CRASH—

Saskia’s body crumbled into pieces. Silk threads, clothing, prey, and Beast Cores tumbled out after it, all spilling from her Illusion Realm.

Evangeline nonchalantly twirled a lock of purple hair on Nix’s chest, then turned her gaze to Penna.

Penna’s pupils shrank, and he drew in a sharp, cold breath.

’In a situation like this, how can that female be so calm? To just turn around and kill Saskia like that?’

Julian’s gaze, like a cold blade tinged with hatred, swept icily over Evangeline.

Without a word, he strode across the ruined altar, the rubble under his feet cracking into dust. It was clear he intended to use the chaos to take Drake and leave.

Evangeline lifted a finger, and another arrow shot through the air, aimed straight for Penna’s throat!

Penna’s brownish-yellow pupils contracted violently. He let out a terrified shriek and transformed into his Iridian Beast form, soaring high into the sky. But in the next moment, the arrow struck like lightning, followed by a piercing scream.

Feathers, mixed with warm blood, rained down from the sky.

Evangeline didn’t spare Penna’s falling corpse a single glance. She was about to follow Julian when the sharp snap of breaking vines sounded from all around. Beastly figures had broken through Nix’s tendrils and were lunging toward them.

With a flick of her wrist, the Cold Frost Whip shot out, carving a piercing arc through the air!

The tip of the whip swept past, splattering frost that spread across the ground. The Beastman at the very front couldn’t dodge in time. The moment his claws met the whip’s freezing aura, frost rapidly crept up his limbs.

In an instant, the ground was coated in a thin layer of ice, shimmering with a cold light in the morning sun.

The biting cold forced the pack of Beastmen to roar and retreat.

Evangeline’s narrow eyes swept coldly over the crowd, her red lips curving into a bewitching smile.

Her enchanting voice was bone-chilling. "I have no intention of killing you. If you know what’s good for you, leave now."

"As for the Fallen Beastman you want to hunt down, he is my beloved Beast Husband, the father of my child. He has never harmed any of you, yet out of fear, you seek to exterminate him. How ironic is that?"

"Today, I will make every tribe of the Beast Race in Norfell remember—"

"Even if it means making an enemy of the entire Beastman Continent, I will stand before him and protect him to the very end!"

Evangeline’s fingers toyed with her long whip as her gaze cut across the crowd.

"If you continue to pester us, then don’t blame me... for making an example of someone."

The moment she finished speaking, the long whip lashed out. With a BOOM, it tore a vicious gash in the ground. Shattered ice flew from the frozen surface, a deep fissure carved by the raw, cold power of the blow.

The power Evangeline displayed was no less than that of a peak Nine-Marked Beastman—perhaps even greater. Fear showed on the faces of the Beastman Warriors, and they involuntarily took several steps back.

They hadn’t forgotten that behind this terrifying female stood a Nine-star Extreme Realm Beastman and a Seven-star Patterned Beastman! Both possessed formidable power.

Even if their combined tribes managed to take down these three, they would undoubtedly suffer devastating casualties.

’Was it really worth sacrificing so many elite warriors to hunt down a Fallen Beastman they hadn’t even seen? It was a bad trade. And just as the female said, the Fallen Beastman had never harmed them, had he?’

Seeing that the Beastmen were beginning to retreat, Evangeline’s red lips parted, ready to add more fuel to the fire.

’Though I’m not afraid of these Beastmen,’ she thought, ’this is the Beast World Continent. It’s governed by the Beast God Law. If I kill too many, my foreign soul will surely suffer a backlash.’

The thought had barely formed when a sudden, tearing pain erupted in her chest.

Warm blood gushed from her body, hitting the frozen ground. Each drop sizzled, SSSSSS, as if its heat would melt straight through the ice.

Evangeline’s brow furrowed in pain. She lowered her gaze to the bone knife that had all but pierced her heart.

The familiar patterns, the cold touch.

She whipped her head around, the color draining from her bewitching face, her pale lips pressed into a thin line.

Her gaze traveled up the blood-stained hilt to a pair of slender, violently trembling hands. Farther up was a devastatingly beautiful face—purple hair, purple eyes, and a faint, dark fragrance.

But this familiar face, one she had been so intimate with, whispering and embracing, was now stripped of its usual cold stillness. The timid arch of his brows was twisted into an unfamiliar frenzy.

A heart-stopping madness and killing intent churned in his purple eyes.

Loras.

"Eva—"

Lachlan’s face was a mask of horror, a storm raging in his grayish-brown eyes.

He had never imagined Nix would betray them like this!

Lachlan stumbled forward, reaching out to embrace Evangeline, but his hands froze. Seeing the blood spreading across her clothes, he trembled violently, his fingers spasming, clenching and unclenching, too afraid to touch her.

The sight of her blood stung his eyes. He felt as if the slightest touch might make her disappear forever.

A trickle of crimson spilled from Evangeline’s lips. She stared at Loras, then suddenly grabbed his hand on the hilt and wrenched the bone knife from her chest. Blood sprayed out, spattering Loras’s face and eyes.

He began to convulse violently, like a puppet possessed, his strings pulled by an unseen hand.

The madness in his purple eyes began to crack, replaced by a surge of anguish and a deeper obsession. The two expressions fought for dominance, like tangled reeds swaying wildly in a torrent.

Evangeline gave a soft laugh. With every rise and fall of her chest, more crimson soaked her clothes. She seemed to feel no pain as she turned to look at Loras, her blood-stained lips parting to speak, every word thick with the scent of blood.

"You want me dead... this badly?"

"Well, this is a good opportunity."

Her voice trailed off, drowned in a mouthful of blood, but the corners of her narrow eyes curved into an even deeper smile.

"Eva... don’t scare me, please don’t scare me..."

Lachlan finally gathered her into his arms. The veins on his usually steady hands bulged, yet he only dared to clutch the hem of her blood-soaked clothes, like a drowning man clinging to his last hope.

"Eva... I—I’ll find a Witch. I’ll find the most powerful Witch to save you..."

Lachlan’s pale, thin lips trembled, his ethereal voice catching in his throat, broken.

He suddenly began to tremble violently, as if struck by a blade, his body convulsing in agony. He had realized with utter despair that the person in his arms *was* the most powerful Witch on the Beastman Continent.

The Jade Pearl in Lachlan’s hair rattled madly as he trembled, the crisp sound like a mournful wail.

Evangeline’s blood-stained fingertips gently brushed Lachlan’s face, wiping the moisture from the corner of his eye. "Don’t cry."

Her gaze left Loras and shifted to Drake, who stood not far away.

Julian had already freed him, but he stood rooted to the spot, frozen. His golden-red eyes were locked on them, churning with a terrifying dark tide, his sharp aura so intense it could almost cut the air.

A derisive smile touched Evangeline’s lips. ’One after another, they all want me dead.’

A sharp, dazzling cold light suddenly flared from her fingertips. With a single sweep, she severed the vines binding the vagrant beastmen beneath the ruined altar. The searing pain in her chest made her shudder, and she coughed up another mouthful of blood.

Watching the beastmen scatter and flee, her smile grew even more enchanting.

"I promised I’d get revenge for you..." Evangeline whispered in Lachlan’s ear, suddenly gripping his wrist tightly.

The brilliant golden scroll tore with a sharp sound, shattering into a sky of golden motes. In the blinding halo of light, all Lachlan could see were her unfocused eyes, a sight that wrung his heart with agony.