Chapter 271

271 A split-second decision

Vincent grit his teeth. He felt angry for being useless to protect others. All the new power at the tip of his fingers wasn’t enough to at least block the arrow.

Deep anger welled within Vincent. He turned his gaze on the three soldiers running at him with swords swinging at him. He summoned a couple of rags and cloths in the air.

The soldier’s attention was captured after a lot of bright green fabrics materialized in the air. That was the moment when Vincent disappeared from their sight. A second later, the three soldiers heard a loud warning, “Move! The monster is behind you!”

However, the three soldiers were too late. Vincent stopped behind them and grabbed the farthest left and right soldiers’ heads. Then he viciously slammed their heads with the one in the middle.

As the three soldiers fell on the ground, Vincent turned around from Kazumi’s warning and caught a fireball with his gauntlet-protected hands.

Vincent closed his hands and grunted, “Weak bastards. It wasn’t powerful enough to give me mana.”

The soldiers became frightened, but not enough to deter them from attacking. Regrettably, Vincent couldn’t use his murderous intent because of those behind him. His control over murderous intent wasn’t proficient enough to choose where it should go.

Three mages started casting a fireball this time, each with a prolonged chant from not being proficient enough in spell casting.

The other soldiers raised their shields and held their swords and with a firm grip.

.....

[Are they trying to burn this mansion?]

“Why are you people here? The Viscount you serve is dead. This mansion is now the property of the Lionhearts. You are trespassing in a noble’s property without their permission. You even tried to kill the noble who just became the new owner of this property.” Vincent hoped they would at least consider the consequences of their actions.

Vincent took down four soldiers, but he had to take sixteen more soldiers down. Regardless of the arduous task ahead, he didn’t want to let anyone else get hurt. ‘I hope the demon girl is still alive.’ He thought.

“The elf slave told us the Viscount died, but she stopped us from investigating further.” A soldier replied.

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Sofy became mad and shouted, “I remember your face. I remember how much you begged me to...”

“Shut up owenerless salve! You are coming with me!” The soldier shouted back at her to save face.

Another soldier didn’t know what the two were talking about. Still, he interrupted with, “Either way, we will have to interrogate you all for the death of a noble and then arrest you for assaulting this kingdom’s officials and murdering them after resisting arrest.”

“We need to look for any evidence regarding this case. Everyone is under arrest until we say so. Come with us quietly, or don’t blame our blades.”

They weren’t intent of running away nor stopping after the situation progressed this far. Furthermore, the three spellcasters hidden behind a wall of soldiers were about cast their spell.

[These people want us dead with their pre-planned reasons. The million-dollar question is why did they all show up together...]

[Wait! A soldier is missing! I think he went for the office!]

“You dirty soldiers sponsored by the corrupt Viscount think I will treat you like real soldiers? Do you think I will let you people destroy the evidence of corruption in his office with your names probably on them?” Vincent announced before he rushed for all the soldiers at once after he could not reason with them.

Vincent couldn’t run away from this fight. He could only move forward and stop them from casting the spell.

The soldiers frowned, revealing he hit the nail on the head with his questions. However, their frown didn’t last for long. Instead of preparing for Vincent’s charge, they stepped aside with a smirk on their faces.

Immediately, three fireballs shot towards Vincent.

Kazumi used Soul Invite again. Vincent had a few seconds of perception acceleration from the time slowing transition between the living and soul-conscious swap.

Vincent opened his hands and grabbed two fireballs like catching a simple ball toss. The two fireballs Vincent caught moved fast and straight like an arrow, but his perception acceleration became victorious in the end. However, the third fireball was different, and it didn’t arrive in front of Vincent.

The third fireball elevated up, almost hitting the ceiling, and passed by Vincent slower than the other two. It swayed and hovered in mid-air after being controlled by the Fire Manipulation skill.

Vincent couldn’t jump at the moment as he had to keep his body balanced and not get knocked back from moving too quickly. He couldn’t let the fireballs in his hands fall and start a fire. He used all the water in his Soul Dimensional Storage.

Vincent turned his head and looked behind him. Lilith and Sofy courageously stood in front of the three little girls and the critically injured demon woman.

Lilith was shivering and sweating bullets. She looked only at Vincent to keep her panic attack at bay while Sofy was with her whip raised, ready to do something with an ordinary whip.

It was at that moment Vincent heard the demon woman shout with all she had while also coughing mouthfuls of blood, “VINCENT!” *COUGH!*

The demon surrounded by the three little girls hugging her from terror glared at the incoming fireball approaching them. ‘You corrupt monstrous humans won’t hurt these innocent children.’ She constantly repeated in her mind.

Vincent didn’t spend a second to think it through. He chose to trust the demon woman to protect those behind him because a beginner mage was controlling the slow fireball.

‘She might be able to make it in time.’ He positively believed.

The Retainer Bond empowered Ester, Lupa, and Iris with an energy boost after the light of rebirth faded. Vincent hoped the demon woman could use the new burst of energy to push everyone out of harm’s way from the slow-controlled fireball.

Vincent mumbled, “Retainer Bond Start.” and the world came to a stop much faster than Kazumi’s Soul Visit or Invite. The darkness engulfed the light, and a message appeared in front of Vincent.

.

[Soul Retainer Bond (Blessed) is starting.]

[-20sp used. 40sp Remaining.]

.

The demon woman opened her eyes and saw darkness all around her except in front of her.

In front of her stood Vincent, a green floating ball with a pair of white eyes, a small living wolf sculpture, and sixteen living butterfly sculptures fluttering happily around Vincent.

Vincent looked like a man in a fairytale.

The demon then noticed a patch of thin green spikes that slightly moved as if there was a breeze. But she couldn’t feel the wind that was moving the emerald spikes.

“So that’s how you look like when standing on your two feet. You look attractive.” Vincent smiled at the demon in front of him.

The demon was six foot five tall. She had a toned and slightly muscular body with strong arms, back, and legs. Her lean ABS could also be seen with the current tattered clothes she was wearing.

The demon had a body of a fit-toned, strong woman, not too buffed and not too ripped, giving her an alluring look athletic look.

She had long black curly hair and black eyes. The color of her skin was light lavender. Additionally, her chest is almost on par with Tula’s large chest because of her height.

Lastly, the horns on her forehead appeared regrown in the Soul Domain Bridge. Both were a few inches long and were colored dark purple.

“I thought you were tall when I carried you, but wow, are all Onis this tall?” Vincent approached the demon woman and walked around her.

He wasn’t necessarily inspecting her body per se. He just wanted to do something to make his mind rest for a moment.

Vincent stopped and angrily frowned. “You also have a tail! I didn’t see that before.” He realized that like her horns, her tail was also missing.

[She had a tail?]

Kazumi curiously went behind the demon and saw a one-meter-long tail with an arrow-like shape at the end.

The demon took a few steps away from them. She shyly placed her hands on her tail and said, “I don’t look attractive. You, humans, did so many disgusting things that... ”

“These muscles are ugly. I was always treated like a man for wanting to learn my father’s craft.” She continued while lowering her shoulders.

The demon looked sad because it seemed she didn’t like her muscular body.

Vincent walked beside the demon and suddenly slapped her bottom. The demon let out a short, surprised yelped. She sounded like a cute kitten.

“You heard that sound? And look.” Vincent raised his hand and showed a smile while adding, “My hands aren’t even red from hitting your firm soft bottom, hehe.”

[Nice one. You cop a feel while showing her...]

“Please stop and don’t touch me.” The demon woman made some distance again. Then she looked at Kazumi and asked, “Who are you?”

[I am the soul of Kazumi Chiba. The soul of the fifth otherworldly hero and Vincent’s third woman. So, how about you become Vincent’s, the sixth woman?]

“Ahem, don’t mind her.”

“I don’t hate your nice slightly muscular athletic body. People break their asses off to train in order to achieve have that kind of body in my world.”

“Hehe, it’s like I told Ester, you should be proud of the body you have. Many people would be jealous of what you have.”

Vincent tried to make the demon feel confident with her body. Like how Ester hates her body for having a small chest or Lilith for being overweight, the demon hates her slightly muscular body.