Louis had a dream.

In the dream, he was again dragged onto the guillotine.

This time, he, with immense power, easily broke free from the guards' restraints.

Just as he planned to make a direct escape, the bustle and laughter below the guillotine vanished instantly.

When he raised his eyes to the below, what he saw were the citizens of Tino City standing there.

On the ground.

On the rooftops.

Beside the shops.

By the passing carriage windows.

...

Everyone suddenly turned their heads simultaneously, gazing meaningfully at him, with the corners of their mouths eerily raised beneath hollow eyes, and... identical.

A chilling sensation engulfed his entire body.

Then, he only felt his body temperature slowly diminishing, consciousness gradually drifting into an abyss.

As if being drawn into deep water, with the suffering of drowning taking away everything.

That feeling was just like...

Ah...

Just like losing his head on the guillotine.

Just as he was engulfed by unspeakable torment, he seemed to hear a voice coming from afar.

"Stop!"

"Louis, don't sleep!"

"It's coming!"

An immense chill caused his body to tremble, and he suddenly shot up from the bed, only then realizing he was drenched in cold sweat.

Outside the window, suddenly the sky exploded with thunder, and then in this deep winter, cold rain began to fall.

"Was I... having a nightmare?"

He shifted his gaze away from himself, then without hesitation, called out:

"William."

Suddenly, a ghostly blue lightning streaked across the dark sky above the city.

The next second, amidst a slight vibration, Louis heard William's bewildered voice:

"Your Highness?"

Louis pushed open the window and saw in the snow below, William dressed in light pink pajamas, hugging a pillow shaped like a shield, standing downstairs.

The initial panic in his heart had unknowingly dissipated.

After pondering for a moment, he went downstairs to bring William inside.

"Your Highness, did you sense anything peculiar? I was just about to use [Transposition] right away."

[Transposition], Iron Guard's exclusive skill.

The effect is to forcibly swap positions with the target they need to protect, using the Ether plane as a transference platform.

At that moment, William grasped the shield pillow with his left hand, while his right hand held a massive iron shield, steadily scanning the surroundings.

If one overlooked his macho pink pajamas, the stance of unwavering loyalty indeed seemed rather reliable.

However...

"Pfft..."

William's mouth stiffened a bit, not daring to turn around to see his liege's current expression.

The Iron Guard's core skills are somewhat domineering.

[Transposition] can be used twice daily, swapping positions between the Iron Guard, teammates, and enemies.

The distance Louis didn't know, but it's certain William could use this skill from any corner of Tino City.

[Iron Guard Here] can directly teleport the Iron Guard to marked teammates, requiring 3-4 seconds.

That's the skill William used to teleport directly next to Louis.

If not during transmission, he checked himself to ensure the [Immunity to All Damage] on Louis hadn't been activated, he would've used [Transposition] right away.

Louis said with some embarrassment:

"I suddenly felt a strong sense of insecurity just now, so I called you directly."

Yet evidently, this caused some inconvenience for William.

Looking at his bare feet, dressed in macho pink pajamas, probably he only had time to grab a shield during the teleport.

"No, your action was correct. There's a lingering scent of some curse on you, resembling a mental attack."

"But it's strange that the magic of [Immunity to All Damage] cast on you wasn't activated."

"I checked just now; the Dark Crow Guard protecting you didn't detect anything unusual."

"I've requested someone to go home to fetch the armor, Your Highness. Please allow me to guard outside tonight."

Louis nodded, feeling still a bit uneasy.

Better to be safe; safety comes first.

...

[Location: Outer City · Civilian Area]

A black-robed figure looked bewilderedly at the broken creature on the altar, and spat out a mouthful of blood with a cry.

"Ah! Aaahhhh~"

"Why is this happening? This is the abyssal pus bestowed by the Four Gods, the highest-grade spell material!"

"Why would using advanced abyssal magic to curse a level five hero result in spell failure?"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"I can't stay here any longer."

"There's only one chance to cast the spell, if I don't leave now..."

"If I don't leave now, it'll be too late, brother." A mocking, aged voice echoed, "Brother, your skin is even thicker than the devil I stabbed recently."

The black-robed figure glanced down at the blue lightning blade piercing through his chest from the back, despair flashing in his eyes.

Yet, he couldn't spit out even a drop of blood, only managed to let out a strange cry "Ugh ugh ah..."

The lightning blade not only paralyzed his entire body but also charred his insides.

An unprecedented terror made him tremble.

"Wh-why did the Iron Guard arrive so quickly?"

"Brother, you talk too much."

The blue lightning blade rotated 45 degrees inside him, slicing horizontally, directly splitting the black-robed figure in half.

"Go to Hell to meet your master, dog of the Abyss."

The dim room had fallen completely silent.

Suddenly, a series of heavy footsteps sounded, followed by a cold female voice:

"Lord Rudolph, isn't this the last one?"

In the flickering shadows, the black-robed figure used the last of his strength to raise his head and saw reflective glasses in the shadows.

"Hahahaha, Miss Qian, if there's anything overlooked, it definitely won't be in the area I'm responsible for."

"You know that, for the Emperor above!"

If Louis were present at the scene, he'd be astounded by the two people there.

One of them is the maid, Miss Qian, who gives off a transparent feeling most of the time while following Beatrice.

The other was the Legendary Iron Guard who guarded him during the negotiation with the Sapphire Dragon couple in the Burning Smoke Mountain Range, William's grandfather.

The two didn't linger.

Qian said, "Let's go, the spies have been mostly cleaned up, leave the rest to the Dark Crow Guard."

And so, the two left the room.

Everything returned to silence again.

For a long while.

Qian's figure appeared in the room again, muttering:

"Really dead, huh, I thought a level eight paradigm might have some trick up their sleeve."

Then, blue flames erupted from her body, instantly engulfing the corpse, leaving only a piece of charcoal on the ground.

After finishing, she left satisfied.

After a good long time, the silence in the room was broken by sounds of muscle twisting.

Accompanied by the crackling sound of tentacles, a twisted figure on the floor struggled frantically.

He vomited a roll of black parchment from his mouth.

The black-robed figure struggled to use his tongue as a pen to write line after line of blood-red text on the paper.

[The Emperor's Iron Guard has acted, it's the Wall of the Empire, Rudolph]

[Ense here is a big trap, the Emperor is not asleep at all, he's waiting for fish to take the bait]

[It's confirmed, Rudelson is being hunted by the Setting Sun Knight; it's the work of the Fox of the Empire, Beatrice]

[Abandon support for Rudelson immediately to avoid getting burned]

[Shift all blame for the underground ruins problem onto Jianqi's followers and let Ense fight them like dogs]

[Don't look back! Don't look back! Tino City is still a forbidden zone!]

After finishing the writing, he vomited blood profusely.

Yet his face couldn't help but show a smile:

"To hell with the Wall of the Empire, even with your legendary power, you still have to eat my dust."

"Trying to hide this so we walk into a trap? Haha, as long as we stay in our lair, no matter how strong the Emperor is, he can't hit our lair, right?"

"What a pity, the body is too damaged, can't go back, ah, I want to smell the fragrance of the Supreme Forest again."

Just as he was pleased with completing his task and lamenting his imminent death, a delightful voice suddenly sounded in the empty room.

"Finished writing? Once it's done, you can go on your way!"

A flash of blue fire consumed his stunned expression, and the pain of death couldn't stop his curses:

"Human, you tricked me!"

From the shadows, Qian stepped out in iron armor, and crushed his neck with her foot:

"How can you say it's a trick? You Supreme Forest people want a piece of every damn thing, stirring up trouble?"

"Secret Guard, read the information left in his mind."

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