CHAPTER 438: CHAPTER 53: THE FALL AND DEATH

Tsk.

Aske couldn’t help but admit that he had been too lenient in the past.

People like Peggy who blatantly disobeyed orders after being seriously told not to, should have been severely punished from the start.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t understand what "iron discipline is inviolable" meant.

The sudden sneak attack from the crazed Demigod of the Pure Blood Monastery saw Gaius’s arm forcefully piercing through Aske’s back, blocked by his Dragon Bone Longsword, preventing any harm to Peggy in his arms.

And Peggy had become completely rigid.

"Hahaha!" Basking in the success of his revenge, Gaius laughed maniacally while he unleashed the Devouring Law Ability, intending to completely digest and dissolve the young man’s body.

However, he immediately realized that something had been poured onto him...

"Agrippina’s toxin!" Gaius promptly withdrew his arm and quickly mobilized his toxin ability to suppress the special poison that was depleting his spirituality.

Now Gaius fully understood why the Demigod elder had been captured before.

However, this was not an area covered by the Anti-Demon Magnetic Field; even a Demigod-level toxin could only serve to delay him for a brief time.

Aske, carrying Peggy, used Instant Step to dash out, quickly heading toward the trench. Peggy, numbly held by him, placed her trembling hands on his severely injured chest, feeling warmth where she touched.

So much blood.

She had never seen the Squad Leader receive such terrible injuries. Before this, she hadn’t even considered that the Squad Leader could be hurt.

The Squad Leader was the strongest, able to support everyone if the sky fell down, capable of protecting everyone even if a Demigod came, so even her own little mischief and rebellion wouldn’t affect him...

Her naïve thoughts from the past completely collapsed in Peggy’s heart now.

Another series of gunshots followed; Purgatory’s Jailer behind Gaius had reacted and hastily raised their handguns to shoot in pursuit.

The moment Aske entered the trench, his back was hit by a volley of bullets, and as he hit the ground, he almost couldn’t stay upright, but he quickly ignored the blood pouring from his back and again rushed forward with Peggy in his arms.

Good shooting! Aske grunted in pain, thinking silently that his manner of death would certainly be miserable.

But after he died, he could be resurrected, whereas Peggy could not, so he had to hurry and get this disobedient young lady to safety.

He used up all the energy he had left, carrying Peggy in a life-consuming manner, disappearing deep into the trench in an instant.

Purgatory’s Jailer Knight immediately chased after them, while Mark Priest stayed back to ask Gaius, "Your Excellency?"

"A little problem, I’ll be over in a moment," Gaius said with a cold expression, fully suppressing the toxin in his body, his tone turning dangerous, "Unless you think, with such a serious injury, he could still successfully escape from us?"

"Just as a precaution, Your Excellency," Mark Priest bowed slightly.

After rushing several hundred meters in the trench, Aske’s body finally gave out, and he collapsed to the ground, skidding forward in a sorry state, blood-soaked from head to toe.

Pulmonary lobe perforation wound, excessive blood loss, suffocation, and the toxin from Agrippina led to his body nearly complete exhaustion and collapse.

Peggy scrambled up from the ground, shaking as she held him.

Run! Don’t worry about me! Aske’s mouth opened slightly, but he couldn’t make any sound—the puncture from Gaius had completely penetrated his lungs, and he couldn’t even maintain normal breathing anymore.

"Don’t you die..." Peggy cried out, her voice tinged with tears that she couldn’t suppress.

Ah, I can’t speak anymore. Aske felt utterly helpless, managing to squeeze her hand weakly and mouth the words:

Run, survive.

...

If you still won’t listen, then I can’t save you.

This thought flashed through his mind, and then his consciousness slipped into darkness.

...

Peggy held him, trembling, until his body in her arms slowly stopped breathing.

How is this possible.

Her mind was in chaos.

The Squad Leader had died?

The incredible, invincible leader who always protected everyone...

"Peggy sat dazed in the dark trenches, cradling Aske’s icy corpse in her arms.

The Squad Leader’s head rested in the crook of her arm, his expression so peaceful that he seemed to be merely asleep.

Blood gradually pooled beneath them, forming tiny, crimson ponds. Peggy’s pupils lost focus as her gaze drifted towards the infinite, her breathing and heartbeat almost seemed to cease.

Purgatory’s Jailer Knights burst from the passageway, the beam of their flashlights illuminating her soulless, exquisite profile, and the corpse in her embrace.

Priest Mark and Demigod Gaius stepped out steadily from behind, looking at the nearly motionless pair ahead.

"This little girl is Agrippina’s disciple," said Gaius leisurely, gazing at Peggy, who seemed to have lost the will to resist. "I’m taking her back to the Pure Blood Monastery to be judged, to force out the specifics of her master’s whereabouts."

"Of course," replied Priest Mark reverently. "Then, as agreed upon beforehand, we will take the man’s body."

Priest Mark still vividly recalled the swordsmanship exhibited by this man during their first clash, which could strip away the will to fight.

He wasn’t sure if it was related to the Devil, so it needed to be taken back to headquarters for identification.

"Mhm," grunted Gaius arrogantly. He had no interest in a man who was already dead.

Two of Purgatory’s Jailer Knights stepped forward, trying to take Aske’s body from Peggy’s arms.

There was no dragging.

Peggy clung tightly to Aske’s body, her expression completely vacant, but her hands held his frame with no sign of letting go.

"Let go!" one of the Jailer Knights raised his handgun and slammed the barrel hard against her skull. The other knight continued to pull at the corpse she cradled.

...

An almost inaudible sound came from Peggy’s mouth.

The knight ignored it, continuing to pull brutally and forcefully at the corpse.

However, the voice came again, louder this time, enough for him to finally make it out:

The words uttered softly by the young girl were clearly...

"Die," Peggy said again.

In that instant, the bodies of the two knights trembled.

Their heartbeats stopped at once, their pupils dilated, and the blood in their bodies flowed out of inertia for a while, then came to a standstill.

They dropped dead on the spot.

"What’s going on!" exclaimed Priest Mark, alarmed as he saw the two knights collapse, fumbling for his handgun.

But Gaius was faster. In the blink of an eye, the Demigod rushed to Peggy, his body’s anemone-like tendrils protruding and plunging viciously towards the two.

Peggy lifted her head, eyes and irises turned pitch black, reminiscent of an unfathomably deep void.

As she fixed her gaze on him, the demigod’s tendrils turned swiftly from bright red to ashen gray.

What’s happening! A tight squeeze gripped Gaius’s heart as he felt the cells in the tendrils protruding from his body suddenly wither and die.

And not just that, the withering was spreading swiftly along the tendrils, targeting his main body!

A vivid red world suddenly unfolded, and Gaius opened his Devouring Domain in an instant.

Within the Domain woven by the Devouring Law, everything was meant to be thoroughly devoured, whether tangible entities, intangible abilities, or concepts!

However, in his crimson vision, he saw a hole appearing in his world.

Peggy still sat, limp on the ground, hugging Aske’s form. Around her swarmed innumerable ink-colored creatures, round-headed with elongated tails resembling oversized tadpoles, swimming happily in the sea of blood, forming a protective circle around them.

This was... Law manifesting as physical entities? Impossible... This little girl, she, she...

The group of ink-colored tadpoles swam rapidly and cheerfully through the blood, with some being devoured by the surrounding blood, but the encroaching blood dispersed instantaneously upon contact.

Dissolved.

What kind of terrible law was this! Withering? Destruction? Termination?

Capable of contending against Demigod-level Domain with a Low-Rank Law?

Disbelief flashed through Gaius’s mind again, yet his spirituality soon began to tremble violently.

Having maintained the Domain too long, and under the current constraints of the Magic Tide, his spirituality couldn’t hold out much longer!"