Humans have never been the strongest race across the many planes.

They’re no match for orcs and giants in strength, or gnomes and wingfolk in intelligence. And when it comes to controlling wandering Soul Spirits, they can’t compare to elves at all.

The armored knight guarding the carriage was an elf—and a high elf at that. Young as he was, he was already powerful, even stronger than Instructor Kama.

The mysterious Mystic’s rain of fire lit up the plain. The elf knight’s helmet had fallen off while he fought the assassin, revealing long golden hair and golden eyes.

That meant the person he was guarding inside the carriage was a Sun Elf, too.

Elves are a race favored by the Goddess of the Seven Luminaries, and they’re born with an extraordinary affinity for the elements. As a guardian knight, he’d trained in both light-element Mysticism and martial arts, making him far stronger than an ordinary ninth-rank fighter.

The elf knight swung his greatsword with all his might, protecting the burning carriage. Steel rang against steel across the plain, while multicolored waves of Soul Spirit energy intertwined without pause.

A ninth-rank Guardian Knight was among the strongest in Iseran. There were fewer than ten in the entire Broomflower Kingdom.

But in the Federation’s Free Territory, where they were headed, a ninth-rank Soul Warrior was nothing special. Strictly speaking, the Free City on the highlands was the Federation’s consulate in the Holy Alliance—a completely safe, neutral zone.

But their opponents had come prepared, and they were just as formidable: seven ninth-rank Soul Warriors, plus a high-ranking fire Mystic lurking in the shadows. They were after these two elves. They had no intention of letting them reach the Federation’s protection safely.

A band of visitors from other planes, roaming the River Valley, would have no trouble wiping out a small country. Iseran’s native powers couldn’t possibly muster this kind of force. “Damn it! We’ve been keeping such a low profile!”

The Grand Knight-Captain was frantic, but powerless. He was the only one still standing.

A unique elven art coated the knight’s greatsword in golden flame, as if it had been forged from light. Even against seven or eight assassins of the same rank, he held out for a long time.

But as time went on, more and more wounds appeared on the elf knight’s body.

Elves belonged to the forces of Light and Order, too. Given Nolan’s position, she should have stepped in to help.

Unfortunately, they were Astetaya’s most loyal followers...

Suddenly, a huge, blazing fireball came whistling toward the carriage.

The elf knight gritted his teeth. With no other choice, he willingly stepped into the trap and put his body between the fireball and the carriage.

Boom!

The fireball smashed his greatsword in half. Blood sprayed from the knight’s mouth as he was sent tumbling far away. Most of his hair was scorched, and his breastplate had caved deeply inward.

A slender figure wrapped in a blanket fell from the carriage and threw herself onto the elf knight, sobbing. It was a girl.

“Barry, are you okay?!”

Barry shook his head. He knew he wasn’t going to survive. Gripping his broken sword, he struggled to his feet, hoping to serve his mistress one last time.

“Do you... know who she is?”

“Obviously. Why else would we have waited until you left the Prime Plane before coming here?”

A tall, thin man emerged slowly from the darkness. He was the cunning Mystic who’d attacked from the shadows.

The trembling girl shuddered, regret flooding her.

It was her fault. She’d ignored her mother’s objections and begged Barry to secretly take her to enroll at Saint Lensa. She’d shaken off the other guards—and now she’d brought this disaster down on them both.

The gray-robed Mystic snapped his fingers. “Now it’s my turn to ask you, young Grand Knight-Captain. Do you know how much Princess Zinora would fetch alive?”

The others all broke into leering grins.

“Boss, she just has to be alive, right? Then let’s have our fun first. High elves are hard to come by.”

“No rush. We’ll take turns. There’s enough for everyone.”

“Hahahaha...”

“Scum!”

The elf knight roared, but before he could raise his broken sword, a massive shadow fell over him.

A hulking, bare-chested man dropped from the sky. His tremendous blow smashed a crater into Barry’s back. Then he pinned Barry’s head down and roared—and the elf knight’s head burst like a watermelon.

The elf girl screamed in terror, tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t accept the cruel sight before her.

The guardian knight who’d been by her side since childhood, that strong and dependable man, had just been brutally murdered before her eyes by this pack of butchers!

“Lady Astetaya, your loyal servant and eternal believer, Zinora, begs you to send down divine punishment on these villains!”

The girl clasped her hands and prayed helplessly to the sky, her golden eyes lost and bewildered.

That only made the assassins laugh even more wildly.

“Astetaya of the Seven Luminaries, Peiluntitan the Eternal Time Dragon, Anuba the God of War, Baylasimir the Night Mother... Come on, little princess. Recite every divine name you know. Go ahead and pray to them!”

The gray-robed man tore away the blanket covering the girl, exposing a flawless face to their scorching gazes.

Her delicate features, long pointed ears, and frail, tempting body made everyone’s breath catch for a moment.

The gray-robed man gripped Zinora’s chin and sneered. “Go on, then. Why’d you stop calling out? Even if the legendary Destroyer of Worlds showed up today, no one could save you!”

The killers’ laughter was so piercing that Zinora could barely breathe. Tears rolled down her cheeks like pearls slipping off a broken string.

Why had this happened to her?

Why had the gods allowed such evil to happen?

Was her faith not pure enough?

If it was, then where was her god when her people needed protection?

Despair stretched without end, engulfing Zinora and dragging her into the Bottomless Abyss. Her faith was utterly lost.

Just then, a sweet female voice drifted over.

“Do you want to live?”

Following the voice, the tear-streaked elf girl turned her head and saw another onlooker sitting on a tree stump beside the campfire.

Nolan hadn’t moved once. She’d simply ignored the carnage around her.

The grass nearby had all been scorched by the flames. Only the half-meter of ground around her remained untouched.

The gray-robed man was surprised, too. Someone had made it through the rain of fire without a scratch? What a lucky native.

The blast’s shock wave blew back her hood, revealing the dazzling silver hair and slender figure Nolan had hidden beneath her cloak.

The hulking man, his hands covered in blood, rubbed the back of his head in surprise. “Huh, she’s a woman. Not bad, not bad. I was worried Princess Zinora might die before I’d had my fun with her. This one’s mine. Don’t any of you dare try to take her!”

He reached out to grab the girl by the collar. The instant his fingers touched her cloak, a clump of black fire quietly crawled over them.

“Wha... Aahhhhh!”

The hulking man collapsed to the ground, screaming as if he were in unbearable pain.

In the blink of an eye, the black fire spread over his entire hand. He tried to slap it out, but only spread it everywhere. Before long, the flames had swallowed him whole, and he was rolling across the ground.

In a matter of moments, his screams grew fainter and fainter, until he silently melted away in the black fire.

A ninth-rank Earth Soul Warrior had just been vaporized, without leaving behind so much as a speck of ash...

The others stared in stunned silence. They’d watched it happen right before their eyes, yet couldn’t explain it with any power they knew.

Before they knew it, cold sweat was streaming down their bodies.

The girl hadn’t even moved. There’d been no Soul Spirit energy at all. They’d never seen anything so bizarre.

“Ah, sorry. I hit a little too hard. My bad, my bad.”

The silver-haired girl gave them a devilish, uncanny smile as she spoke.