After clearing out the Vampires within the Tallas region, Cynthia, Olivia, and Helen led their people to another temple location Avira had pointed out. The Lasombra clan had attacked three temples simultaneously this time. Cynthia and her group had arrived in time to successfully defend two of them. However, they were too late for the last temple and found it empty; the dark magic array inside had already been activated, and the Vampires and Sethite wizards had long since retreated.

Although they had successfully protected two temples, neither Cynthia nor Avira was satisfied. The latter was worried that with the temple’s collapse, the seal within would become unstable. The former, on the other hand, was concerned that the destruction of the temple would bring disaster to the region, and that the darkness breeding on the Sitatul Continent would grow stronger with the temple’s fall.

The more the darkness grew, the less suitable the continent would be for human survival, and improving the situation would be no easy task.

Avira was still investigating the Lasombra clan’s next target. For now, Cynthia and Olivia led their people back to the Slade Sea Region, while Helen returned to the Wolf Race with the captured Edeli. Before parting ways, however, she assigned a squad of Wolf Race warriors to Hanni, telling her to stay by Cynthia’s side and help.

Since deciding to give the Slade Sea Region and Ochester to Susan for her to establish a nation, the God Race had gathered all their people and influence into a single city. The remaining territories were all handed over to Susan to settle the humans who came seeking refuge.

With a stable territory and formidable strength, the population of the God Race was steadily increasing. Crowding everyone into Manden City was already becoming a tight squeeze, making it very difficult to free up several castles to accommodate the Wolf Race and Elves.

Fortunately, neither the Wolf Race nor the Elves were particularly demanding about their living quarters. Olivia had Polly lead a portion of their people back to their territory, leaving only a squad of Elf warriors to live with her in the forest.

Compared to the small and densely populated city, the Wolf Race preferred open environments. Hanni politely declined the castle the God Race had cleared for them and secretly moved her people into the Elves’ forest. Fearing Olivia would drive them out, Hanni and her warriors stayed on the outer edge of the forest, basking in the sun during the day and the moonlight at night, living a rather leisurely and carefree life.

As night deepened, the bright moonlight filtered through the gaps in the canopy, scattering specks of light on the ground. Cynthia, having just finished discussions with Darcy, Susan, and the others, navigated the woods with practiced ease, soon arriving below Olivia’s treetop bridge.

Cynthia tilted her head up and waited for a moment, but no vines descended, nor did a gust of wind lift her up. Before her was only a steep, high staircase that seemed to have no end.

Back when she and Olivia had first met, Olivia’s face rarely showed any emotion, which always made Cynthia want to tease her. This had resulted in her climbing these stairs many times. She never expected that even now, when her relationship with Olivia was so intimate, she would have the chance to climb this staircase again.

Cynthia shook her head slightly, a faint smile still on her lips. Her brow was completely relaxed, showing no sign of impatience. She rolled up her sleeves a little and stepped onto the staircase.

The Elf warriors standing guard in the trees, protecting Olivia, were already used to the sight of Cynthia arduously climbing the stairs. After all, ever since returning from the Tallas Mountains, this was how Cynthia had been ascending to the bridge.

The end of the staircase was out of sight, and no matter how long one climbed, the top was always shrouded in a white mist. The experienced Cynthia simply admired the scenery on either side as she climbed, rarely looking up to see how much further she had to go. After all… the length of this staircase was entirely dependent on Olivia’s mood.

Today, the climb was nearly half as long as the previous two days. By the time Cynthia stepped onto the bridge, she hadn’t even had her fill of the scenery.

On the bridge, Olivia sat alone at a table, sipping nectar. When Cynthia arrived, she merely glanced at her casually before looking away.

“Thank you, Your Majesty the Queen, for the training opportunity you arrange for me every day,” Cynthia said as she sat down opposite Olivia. She reached out, took the cup from in front of Olivia, filled it with nectar for herself, and drank it all in one gulp.

Olivia frowned as her cup was snatched away. She pushed an empty cup on the table toward Cynthia’s hand and said coolly, “This one is yours.”

Though the nectar in the cup was gone, Cynthia had no intention of returning it. She toyed with the cup, her eyes meeting Olivia’s. Her red lips curved slightly, but her tone was one of feigned grievance. “It’s bad enough that Your Majesty the Queen won’t let me kiss you, but now you won’t even let me use your cup?”

Completely caught off guard by her words, Olivia was momentarily speechless. The hand she had been about to extend to retrieve the cup was withdrawn.

If it were just a simple kiss, as long as no one else was around, anywhere would be fine. But Cynthia… surely didn’t want just a simple kiss. Although there was no one on the bridge, there were many Elf warriors guarding below. Setting up a sound-proofing barrier or any other kind of barrier would seem very conspicuous.

“…We’re outside,” Olivia said, averting her gaze and emphasizing in a low voice. The fair skin of her collarbone and neck glowed under the bright moonlight.

Cynthia’s gaze shifted down, glancing at the side of Olivia’s neck. The playful look in her eyes slowly faded, replaced by a deeper, more profound expression. She rested her chin on her hand, her thoughts seemingly elsewhere, looking a bit distracted. “We could go to my bedroom, but you won’t.”

Cynthia’s eyes lingered on Olivia’s forehead, her eyes, and her lips, before she said abruptly, “It was wrong of me to use the Sacrifice directly.”

Olivia looked up and met her gaze, saying nothing.

“And I shouldn’t have gone to find that Second Generation Vampire alone.”

The cold expression on Olivia’s face, which had been smileless all this time, softened slightly. Just as she was about to speak, she heard Cynthia add, “And I shouldn’t have let that Second Generation Vampire get so close to me. She even touched my shoulder. I made Your Majesty the Queen jealous.”

Olivia’s expression turned serious as she retorted, “That’s not it.”

She was only angry about the first two points. As for Kate’s flirtations with Cynthia… all Vampires were equally annoying anyway.

“Is that so?” Cynthia chuckled softly. “I was rather hoping it was.” As she spoke, she reached out and captured Olivia’s hand, raising it to her lips for a series of delicate kisses.

The soft touch of lips brushing against her fingers made Olivia feel a little ticklish. Her fingers curled slightly, but she didn’t pull her hand away. Olivia met Cynthia’s gaze for a moment before speaking softly, “You don’t have to climb the stairs next time.”

Cynthia’s eyes curved into crescents, a smile flashing across her face, but she still teased deliberately, “I thought Your Majesty the Queen felt my stamina was lacking and wanted me to train more.”

As she spoke, she stood up and leaned over. Her free hand cupped Olivia’s chin, tilting it up slightly as she gently kissed her lips.

The kiss went from light and gentle to passionate and intense. The table between them was getting in the way, so Cynthia casually pushed it aside. She wrapped an arm around Olivia’s waist, pressing her down onto the table, her fingers having already hooked her belt at some point.

“Is it okay here?” Cynthia’s lips traveled down from the corner of Olivia’s mouth, “politely” inquiring as she kissed her.

Lost in the kiss, Olivia came to her senses slightly. She was about to raise a hand to stop her, but her waist suddenly loosened, and her collar opened with it.

Cynthia glanced at the scenery within the collar, her red lips curving into a beautiful arc. She offered an insincere apology, “Sorry, my hand was a little too fast.”

Olivia instinctively raised a hand to cover her chest, a faint blush creeping onto her face. Annoyed and embarrassed, her eyes were exceptionally bright and moist as she gritted her teeth and cried out, “Cynthia!”

Cynthia leaned in to kiss her lips, whispering between kisses, “I’ll put up a sound-proofing barrier. No one will find out.” The hand resting on Olivia’s waist slowly moved lower.

Putting up a barrier on the bridge was strange in itself, but changing locations at a time like this would be just as strange. Olivia sighed inwardly, but she tilted her head back slightly to accommodate Cynthia’s kiss, tacitly accepting her actions.

A golden barrier descended from above, enveloping the entire bridge. Below, the Elf warriors all poked their heads out from the trees, their faces filled with confusion.

Were Her Majesty the Queen and Excellency Cynthia discussing something important?

They exchanged glances and waited a while longer, but the barrier didn’t disappear. Puzzled, they could only return to their posts and continue their watch.

The battle that took place in Tallas was neither large nor small. It didn’t take long for the Lasombra clan and the Sethite clan to learn that the Vampires had been wiped out and the Sethite wizards slaughtered.

A dozen or so wizards in black robes arrived in the valley, which was littered with corpses and stained almost entirely red with blood. Their faces were grim, and a few were even trembling with rage.

“Who did this?” one wizard asked, bending down to turn over a corpse on the ground. Seeing the familiar face, his cold tone was laced with thick killing intent. “Was it the God Race? I’ll slaughter the God Race to avenge them.”

The Grand Elder’s expression was also extremely grim. He walked over to a body, bent down, and turned it over. Because some time had passed since the death, the body was already in a state of partial decay, but from the facial features, it was still recognizable as Maia.

Maia had always worked under him; she was, in a sense, his right-hand woman. The Grand Elder stared at Maia’s ashen face without a word.

“Their bodies are covered in knife wounds. Do the God Race use knives?” another wizard asked doubtfully after examining several corpses and noticing something was amiss.

On the Sitatul Continent, very few races favored using weapons like knives to kill. The only ones who came to mind were human knights and those knights who could wield the Power of Light.

But the former couldn’t possibly kill an elder of their clan, and while the latter might have a chance with the help of the God Race, there was no residual Power of Light on the wounds of these corpses.

“It wasn’t the God Race,” the Grand Elder said, directly refuting their speculation. He then cut a lock of Maia’s hair and began to chant a spell in a low voice. Black flames appeared at his fingertips, igniting the hair and releasing wisps of black smoke. The smoke floated in the air, and images flashed within it, but they were blurry and indistinct. The only things that could be seen clearly were the blood-red robes and a dagger stained red with blood.

“…Witches.” The Grand Elder waved his hand to disperse the black smoke, his wrinkled face completely grim. He slowly repeated, “Witches.”

It was actually the Witches… But the Witches didn’t have the strength to kill so many of their people. So who was helping them?