Romane groaned in pain as the kick hurt her back so much. She was face-planted to the ground, crashing down from the impact. She tried to get back on her feet immediately as she realized that she might be fighting two God Ranks.

To her terror, she felt something tied to her ankle. Not just her ankles, she also could not move her hands as something tied her wrist to the ground. She was about to look up, but she realized something heavy on the back of her head. No matter how much she tried, how much strength she put on, she could not budge the force behind her leg, her ankles, and her wrists. Her whole body was tied to the ground.

It was then she felt the cold sensation, seeping through her skin, her flesh, and to the bone. She grunted in pain as the cold sensation hurt her. She tried to use her skill, but she realized there was something that messed up with her energy inside. She could not use a single skill because of the disturbance inside her body.

It took a while for her to realize what happened. Her body was freezing, someone tried to freeze an active Fire Elemental Body. To her horror, whoever did this, it worked. Someone was freezing her fire, and the unbelievable thing was that her flame was still blazing.

Whoever did this, this person was stronger than her despite being of the same rank. The gap between them was no different than a Demi-God Rank to a God Rank. She never felt this helpless in a fight against a God Rank.

This was not her first experience getting overwhelmed by a God Rank. This was the third time, but she at least put up some fight before getting subdued. But this time, she could not even see who did this to her.

“Who are you!? We are from the Zullaris Saga Alliance!” In her desperate moment, she mentioned the alliance that The Valuer Empire was part of.

The Gondar Alliance and the Etherna Alliance respected them because Zullaris Saga was a stronger alliance and quite renowned in the God Realm compared to the alliance that Gondar and Etherna were part of. She hoped that would be enough to make this person to spare her life.

What she got from her pathetic attempt was a melodious chuckle before her whole body froze. To her horror, she maintained her consciousness even though she was frozen. She could not move her body, she felt the bone-chilling pain all over her body, and she could see fine.

*** ***

Zhang Mengyao stood frozen on the spot and did not know what happened. In one moment, the woman in the fire disappeared, and in the next moment, someone crashed down from the top. Even when she activated her bloodline transformation, revealing her vampire form.

Her white turned white, and her eyes turned blood-red, revealing a pair of the tip of her canine through her lip, and a pair of blood-red wings with a black frame. Even in her transformation, she could not see what happened. What she saw next was that Zara disappeared, and the woman in the fire crashed down, falling right in front of Avyn.

She expected the woman in the fire to fight back until she sensed a temperature drop. A drastic drop that affected her even though she was in her transformation. That was a weird sensation because she did not feel cold during the winter, and she was cold at the moment. Not just her, but the others were affected by the cold as well.

The dust settled down and revealed what happened. Avyn had a right leg on the woman in flames, letting out a hissing noise. The raging flame tried to hurt Avyn, but the latter tamed the flame. In a matter of seconds, the flame was freezing under the ice. That was a bizarre phenomenon where a blazing fire was freezing.

Zhang Mengyao could see the flame was still blazing, flickering underneath the ice. Then she saw Zara coming out from a portal next to Avyn. She was in disbelief at how easily a God Rank was defeated. The scenario played in her mind was a fierce fight between God Ranks, not a one-sided beating like this. This was a fight with one rank or even two rank differences.

She then looked at Tang Shaoyang, and her husband was looking at her too, not just her, but everyone behind her. He had this kind of “See how strong I am” expression on his face. He was not even getting involved in the fight.

With a flick of his finger, her husband summoned two more spirits. One was a demon spirit and the second one was the dragon-person spirit, similar to her husband in his transformation.

“Leave a hundred Demi-God Ranks for them to fight, and just subdue them if possible. There’s no need to kill them.”

*** ***

The Valuer Empire’s Main Base

Matheo, Hubert, Franck, and Garnet were waiting for Romane to return and give them a full report. Two hours passed, but they received nothing from Romane, not even a message or an update from her. Two hours were too long for checking, and Matheo was quite concerned that The Tang Empire caught or even killed Romane.

He would be in trouble if he requested a God Rank replacement for Romane two months into the tower. Especially when it was just an Ancient Dimensional Tower.

The longer Romane did not return or even send them a message, his bad premonition got worse. It convinced him that something happened to Romane. He tried to check the faction members, and he could see Romane’s name was still on the list. It was a good thing which meant she was still alive.

Franck and Garnet started to feel uneasy as well. The only one that stayed calm in the room was Hubert. The old man had an unperturbed expression even though this might be bad for them. Not they fear the Gondar Alliance or the Etherna Alliance, but they feared the people above them.

“What about our inquiry about this Tang Shaoyang person? Has the alliance responded to our inquiry?” Matheo tried to break the silence and get rid of the uneasy feeling.

Hubert went on beyond to send a formal inquiry to the Zullaris Saga’s intelligence hub where all factions could ask a formal inquiry if they wanted to know about something, event, or even an individual. That was right, Hubert wanted to play it safe instead of relying on the Valeur Empire’s intelligence team.

“They asked me the details, the affiliation, world, and his bloodline more in detail one and half an hour ago. They asked me for more details about his bloodline, but we don’t have more detailed information about Tang Shaoyang except what Igmar told us.”

“They asked me why we want to know about Tang Shaoyang. I told them in detail that we might be in conflict with Tang Shaoyang and the Tang Empire. I haven’t received their reply since then. I don’t feel good about this, Young Master Matheo.”

Hubert did not feel good about this. It meant the Zullaris Saga had information about Tang Shaoyang, and they were currently confirming whether the Tang Shaoyang they faced right now was the same Tang Shaoyang they knew. In his mind, Tang Shaoyang’s name was quite unique, and he believed Tang Shaoyang in Zullaris Saga’s list was the same as the one they faced. Unless Tang Shaoyang was the most common name on Earth.

Matheo tried to ease up his anxiousness by changing the topic, but he felt worse instead. It was not supposed to take two hours just to confirm someone’s identity. Either they knew about Tang Shaoyang and told them not to make peace or something, or they did not know, and they could do whatever they fit in their circumstances.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Matheo almost jumped from his seat when he heard the knock. It was loud, but not loud enough to be considered banging the door. Since someone knocked on the door, it was his subordinate, not Romane.

“Come in!” Hubert raised his voice.

Sure enough, one of his subordinates entered the room with a panicked expression.

“Madame Romane along with 4999 Demi-God Ranks are captured by The Emperor in the ice crystal mine—”

“What!?” Matheo cut off the man before finishing the report. He stood from the chair and looked straight toward his subordinate.

“Let him finish the report, Young Master Matheo. What’s the problem, General? Tell us what happens in detail,” Hubert maintained his composure because he knew Romane did not die.

The man calmed down and continued, “Madame Romane scouted ahead of us and found out that the Tang Empire attacked us with just one God Rank and a hundred Demi-God Ranks. The God Rank was the Emperor of the Tang Empire. We thought we could overwhelm them with our numbers and kill or capture The Emperor if possible. She called the soldiers under her command, five thousand Demi-God Ranks, and attacked The Tang Empire. However, did the Emperor have the skill to summon people? I am not sure because two more God Ranks appeared out of nowhere and ganged up on Madame Romane…” His voice trailed, his body shuddered, recalling the one-sided fight in his mind.

“Why are you stopping? What happened to Madame Romane!?” Matheo raised his voice, and the General snapped out, looking toward Matheo.

“They defeated Madame Romane in a second, and another second to capture her. It happened so fast that I couldn’t follow what happened. In a few seconds, one of the God Ranks from the Tang Empire froze Madame Romane,” The General replied absentmindedly.