From hope to despair, such a blow is difficult for even adults to accept.

Even though Ronald tried hard to help little Phil adjust his emotions, when the child saw his father's breathless body, Phil inevitably fell into grief and eventually even fainted.

"..."

"Mr. Ronald, I am very sorry."

Seeing little Phil lose consciousness, Flegger stepped forward to apologize.

"If I had tried harder, maybe things wouldn't have turned out like this."

Upon hearing Flegger's apology, Ronald looked at the people in the ice sculpture exhibition warehouse.

Almost everyone here was injured, and some wounds in unfortunate spots could be fatal. The adventurers here clearly all experienced life-and-death battles; Flegger before him was no exception.

"After all, Waterfall City has become a battlefield."

Faced with this scene, Ronald really couldn't bring himself to blame anyone.

"Little Phil... I will do my best to protect her safety. What's already happened can't be changed; from now on, we must focus on living well..."

Ronald paused midway, suddenly remembering something.

According to Audrey from the church, Phil's father, Wartburn, was supposedly tasked with investigating the summoned creatures. Tonight was just one such operation.

Looking back at the injuries of these individuals.

Gunshots, spells, blade wounds...

Various injuries could be seen, and the battles they went through must have been quite complex.

"By the way, Mr. Flegger. Did you encounter summoned creatures before?"

"Yes, we indeed ran into summoned creatures," the caster calmly nodded in acknowledgment.

"I got news of summoned creatures from Professor Dawn, and just as I thought of lending a hand, these events unfolded." Hearing their conversation, Giovanni also approached from the side.

This adventurer introduced their situation.

As fellow travelers, Giovanni visited Professor Dawn's group upon returning to Waterfall City after their expedition to the Twin Streams ruins. The two collectively shared news of the summoned creatures.

Then, by coincidence, something happened.

As adventurers, they are far more vigilant than ordinary people and happened to encounter a summoned creature slipping up.

News was reported, and the city's mysterious side organization began handling the matter.

Returning to Waterfall City, Flegger heard a fellow adventurer had discovered something significant and decided to work with Detective Wartburn to investigate the incident.

Thus, tonight's operation began.

But just right on time, they crossed paths with the rebels' assault plan on the city.

Mentioning this, Flegger's expression was inevitably filled with indignation:

"My and Wartburn's preparation was absolutely sufficient to deal with the summoned creatures. Besides, with preemptive contingency space, even sudden warfare doesn't hinder dealing with those creatures."

Ronald caught the unwillingness in Flegger's tone:

"So besides summoned creatures and war, someone else meddled halfway through..."

At this point, Ronald had a sudden flash of insight:

"Wait a minute, did you encounter cultist magicians causing trouble?"

"How did you know?" The two conversing with Ronald immediately expressed their surprise.

"..."

The atmosphere in the warehouse felt a bit peculiar, yet it was the bold Seryel who reacted first. This explorer had already witnessed Ronald's battle prowess firsthand, decisively stepped forward, and continued:

"At the Antler Tavern, we dealt with the summoned creatures as planned. But there happened to be cultist magicians in the tavern. Those lunatics were babbling things like 'You'll never prevent His arrival,' and promptly attacked us."

Seems these troublemakers can't be avoided anywhere!

Once Seryel explained, looking at the unconscious Phil beside him, Ronald couldn't help but clench his fists:

"So the cultist magicians are pursuing you now?"

"And the culprits responsible for Mr. Wartburn's death are these people?"

"Indeed," seeing Seryel clarify the situation, Flegger added from the perspective of a mysterious side caster, "We dealt with the initial cultist magicians. But these guys have highly efficient information transmission, so there are subsequent endless pursuers..."

"Cute little ones, are you hiding inside, right?"

Almost the moment Flegger's words fell, a voice with erratic pitch came from outside the ice sculpture exhibition, mixed with highly unstable magic fluctuations.

Just upon hearing the voice, everyone in the warehouse understood the cultist magicians had caught up.

Ronald's grasp of the situation was particularly clear.

He divided the emotional state of the humans around, instantly confirming that there are five cultist magicians outside, practically blocking any escape routes from the exhibition.

"Let me handle it." Ronald's eyes chilled, and he turned to walk outside.

"Mr. Ronald, please wait!" Giovanni suddenly intervened to stop Ronald.

"Is there a problem?" Ronald cast a puzzled glance back.

"You know, they have very powerful message transmission capabilities." At this time, Giovanni immediately showed his leadership awareness, "If you go out now and help us deal with these guys, your involvement will also be exposed to the cultist magicians."

"..."

Such cautious consideration.

Giovanni's remarks moved Ronald.

Upon calm reflection, although cultist magicians act senselessly and each one potentially has mental illness, from a fundamental perspective, they still have their core objectives, unlikely to pursue an expedition team so relentlessly.

Yet tonight, these cultist magicians attacked the adventurers...

Seryel had just stated – 'You'll never prevent His arrival.'

Judging by Ronald's experience, two possibilities occurred. First, these lunatics struck a deal with summoned creatures, intending to help those invaders summon something in Waterfall City; second, it's the cultist magicians' own beliefs, utilizing Waterfall City's rare conflict and its weak defenses, trying to pull off some hardcore acts!

Both possibilities were scenarios Ronald absolutely could not allow to develop smoothly, which made taking action against the cultist magicians inevitable tonight.

In conclusion.

Until finding the cultist magicians' core operation point, hiding oneself became necessary.

"There are five cultist magicians outside."

Understanding the evening plan, Ronald quickly informed the explorers of the cultist magicians' positions, adding a reminder at the end:

"If you encounter danger, you can seek my assistance at any time."

"Have no hesitation!"

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