Asher turned and beheld a beautiful woman who looked like a goddess as she floated midair.
Her transparent dragonfly wings fluttered gently, causing an array of multiple colors when the sunlight shone on them.
Her silky black hair fell like a black stream down to her waist. It was as black as night and seemed to absorb the sunlight, contradicting her resplendent wings.
Her porcelain pale skin was so enticing that it took willpower to reject the urge to reverence such a flawless creature.
Breathtaking!
This was the word Asher would use to describe this epitome of beauty. Floating there, it seemed as if she was naturally part of the forest. Her pure white gown flowed down to her ankles, exposing her bare feet.
Worn over her white gown was a steel breastplate, and vambraces adorned her forearms.
A drawn longsword reflecting the sunlight was aimed toward Asher.
Almost instinctively, Asher and his BloodBlades reached out for their weapons, but the sound of the temple knights aiming their crossbows half the length of an adult human leg toward them fell into their ears.
From the corner of his eyes, Asher looked at the 10 temple crossbow-wielding knights whose crossbows had bolts that twinkled softly and ground his teeth.
“Priestess, they must be spies from the Abyss worshippers. Give the order.” The captain of the squadron said, but Sapphira remained silent.
The dreadful-looking armor the BloodBlades had on made her knights assume they were servants of an abyss mage.
“What is your name?”
She noticed that Asher tightened his grip around his sword’s hilt instead of responding.
This was odd since her talent made it impossible for men to outright ignore her orders.
They must have powerful wills to repel the effects of her talent, but Asher wasn’t even putting in an effort.
While his men were somewhat lax, his vigilance was at its peak.
“Surrender.”
Sapphira said softly.
The tension heightened to its peak, and when the temple knights expected an attack, Asher let go of his hilt, but a knight shot an arrow out of tension, but Nero caught the arrow even though his eyes were still on Sapphira.
The young boy couldn’t comprehend such beauty. He had no idea that it was an effect of her talent, the same way he was color blind.
Talents could make people grow to become giants; some would grow to have beast-like minds, and some would grow to be either hideous or extremely beautiful.
Sapphira’s unbelievably beautiful looks were an effect of her talent, meaning even amongst beautiful races, she stood at the apex of beauty!
Seeing that Nero caught the bolt, Sapphira squinted. Peering right into Nero’s eyes, she began to speak.
“Drop your weapons and put your hands behind you.”
Thud! Thud!
Nero went a step further to kneel and drop his weapons, causing Asher to sigh.
Alex, however, remained standing, as his will was much stronger. It wasn’t because Nero wasn’t educated by the system; it was latent willpower.
This wasn’t something that could be forged wantonly.
As they were led toward the town, Alex whispered.
“My Lord, why didn’t we fight?”
Asher exhaled. “Because the priestess is a saint-ranked knight.”
Alex frowned. “We should have brought Sirius along.”
“No. It’s better this way. We can get a good view of the town without much effort. After all, no matter what they do, the others will come in search of us.”
“How do we tell…”
Alex paused as his eyes widened when he saw Asher’s relaxed expression.
His lord could communicate with his pet beast!
The moment he thought of that, Alex instinctively looked back and caught a white blur at the horizon.
It vanished almost instinctively.
Sapphira couldn’t sense it because Sirius was also a saint-ranked creature. It was fast enough to evade her perception.
Alex relaxed.
Asher looked at him and laughed. As he turned, he saw Sapphira, who flew above them, looking right at him.
The beauty was intrigued by this human that wasn’t affected by her talent.
Asher knew what was on her mind because Katarina had informed him beforehand. The advantages of a soothsayer were incredible!
She blinked, veering her violet-colored eyes, which Asher found appealing to gaze at away.
‘What a strange man.’
Sapphira said inwardly.
She and her knights were out on patrol. As the priestess, she almost never left the temple but with the encroaching outlanders, which were the orcs, she had to go along with her men to protect them from an orc attack.
“Do all priests and priestesses wield weapons?”
Asher, looking at the woman in the air, began a conversation.
Sapphira looked at him for a brief moment and turned away.
“You’re our prisoner. You have no right to speak!” The captain of the squadron bellowed aggressively.
Asher raised an eyebrow. His thoughts led him to the conclusion that this captain must have a liking for his priestess, causing him to be this protective even when it wasn’t needed.
Well, Asher wasn’t going to blame him. The effects talents were to be respected.
‘She definitely awakened a supreme-grade talent related to charm. Nero couldn’t even stand a chance and Alex would fall if she were to try her best. My only advantage is that my soul isn’t originally from Boundless, so I am a bane to her. How ironic.’
…….
Sometime later, when it was past noon, a double door was opened by two Nimrim Guards, and a gray-haired man was led into a round hall.
Two temple knights with their long, exquisite-looking gold-ranked crossbows were behind him. The knights also had longswords sheathed to their scabbards, which were strapped to their waist belts.
Their armor made clanking sounds as they walked on the stone floor.
Tobiah, the town head, and the elders all raised an eyebrow when they saw Asher’s clothing. It wasn’t one that befitted a commoner or a warrior.
His white coat was indeed eye-catching.
Asher looked at the five elders of 50 years and above in the council while Tobiah sat on the head seat with Sapphira sitting by his side.
Tobiah looked quite young. By looks, he was a man in his early forties.
“Our priestess caught you around our town. Tell us your name and where you hail from.”
“There are more important things than my name.”
Asher began causing some of them to tilt their heads since it wasn’t what they were expecting.
“And what can that be?”
Tobiah raised an eyebrow.
“The abyss creatures.”
Sapphira’s nonchalant expression became solemn.
