Book 5 Chapter 3.4 - Protection
Persephone was never fond of Mortimus, nor did she care about his fate. In her eyes, if it wasn't for him relying on the terrifying power of the Spider Empress, Mortimus would have already offended who knew how many powerful individuals and be killed many times over. Even on the battlefield, commanders would give face to the Spider Empress, doing everything they could to give Mortimus missions that were most suitable for him. For example, even though Lieutenant Colonel Julio's abilities weren't all that powerful, he really was a rarely seen genius in allocating missions and pre-war command, and even more so one of the few dragonriders with tactical foresight. It could be said that each time the Black Dragonriders issued a mission for someone like Mortimus, it would always be carefully planned and prepared by him, the amount of time and energy several times, or even ten times that of an ordinary mission.
If not for this being the case, it was quite likely that Mortimus wouldn't have been able to live for this long.
On a truly dangerous battlefield, someone like him who produced a sky reaching blood-colored pillar of flame for no reason, making him a beacon in the dark night, a crow in a snowy field, was a target that couldn't be any clearer. Persephone had more than enough ways to easily eliminate him, for example, bombarding him with heavy artillery or utilizing many snipers to take him down.
"If it was Su, he would blast you apart with one shot!" She thought complacently.
However, regardless, her intuition still told her that this time, Mortimus' conclusion might be quite terrible.
The battle ended after a few minutes. Apart from Pari who successfully escape after having half her body burnt, the remaining ability users were all engulfed under Mortimus' flame.
As he stared at these scorched black corpses, Mortimus' sneer turned into loud laughter. Flames rose once again, immediately rushing more than ten meters into the air, as if it was a demonstration for all of his enemies whether close or far.
This demonstration was extremely effective.
A bloody hole suddenly appeared between Mortimus' brows, a large blast of bloody mist shooting out from the back of his head! His expression froze, his body becoming rigid before slowly falling. His expression of disbelief remained unchanged as he fell backwards onto the ground.
"Idiot!" Two silent voices sounded simultaneously.
The first came from the depths of Persephone's heart, while the other was the sniper who had just loosened his finger from the trigger.
Even though she was inwardly ridiculing Mortimus' idiotic actions, Persephone didn't display any other activity, only secretly withdrawing, leaving this battlefield.
In the end, Mortimus was still a seventh level Magic Domain expert, so within the entire scope of the Blood Parliament, those who could blast his head open from more than a thousand meters away could be counted on one's fingers. Persephone was almost sure she knew who this was, and she definitely didn't want to get on this fella's bad side. If they started fighting, it would definitely be a bitter battle.
As one's abilities became greater and greater, the ones who were still willing to use firearms became fewer and fewer in number. Even in the Black Dragonriders where new era firearms were being researched and developed, these weapons still couldn't pose enough of a threat towards high level ability users, to the extent where they weren't very effective even against sixth level ability users who already made preparations. As such, pretty much no ability users with powerful abilities in the Mental Domain evolved weapon proficiency abilities, and instead strengthened various area control type abilities. In the era of turmoil following the war, the mutation and evolution of creatures advanced by leaps and bounds, and a new generation would be produced nearly every decade. Meanwhile, the development of science and technology required time to slowly accumulate, so a few decades of time was still too short. In addition, after experiencing the destruction of war, the basic foundations of large scale scientific and technological development no longer existed.
The rifle in the sniper's hands was likely an electromagnetic powered heavy rifle, the quality of technology even exceeding the one in Su's hands. With Persephone's current level of ability, she definitely didn't want to become the prey in his front sight.
Several minutes later, a pair of solid and sturdy boots appeared next to Mortimus' body. This was an extremely pretty young man, his shining silver long hair that was tied behind his head with a white ribbon quite striking. On his back was a heavy sniper rifle that was almost the same height as himself, this glowing alloy gun body that flickered with blue radiance definitely at least a hundred kilograms in weight. However, the youth that looked like he was on the skinnier side didn't seem to feel this weight at all.
Only, the diagonal scar that covered a large half of his face completely ruined his handsome appearance.
He reached out his hand to move Mortimus' face, and after giving it a careful look, a smile that carried a trace of ridicule appeared on the corners of his lips. He gave Mortimus' flushed red face a pat and then stood up. He walked around the battlefield's surroundings, and when he arrived where Persephone was hiding, he suddenly stopped. A layer of silver radiance appeared in his eyes as he stared at the place where Persephone was hiding. A minute later, a beautiful figure that was crouching in the grass unexpectedly appeared in his pupils. Even though it was extremely blurry, he could still see that it was precisely Persephone.
"Phoney? It's actually you! You also returned? This is a bit interesting." The silver color in his eyes subsided, now instead releasing a burning radiance.