“Ugh…”

Aniello opened his mouth in disbelief, saliva and tears streaming down his cheeks, only able to utter a hoarse, painful sound.

The elites didn't pause their assault for a moment. Taking advantage of Aniello's inability to dodge due to being surrounded, they accurately thrust ice spikes into his lower calves. The chilling, bone-piercing magic made Aniello feel as if his calves had been cut off, leaving him numb.

His head was forced to the ground by a pair of large hands. The others began to plunge ice spikes into his hands and feet like ravenous tigers, piercing his collar and trousers. Blood immediately soaked his dark grey coat, freezing into ice in an instant.

He could barely feel the fleeting pain before losing consciousness. The icy, terrifying sensation almost triggered an instinctive scream from Aniello.

Finally, his body gradually lost sensation, and the color drained from his face, turning as pale as paper. He could only stiffly watch everything unfold, unable to resist in any way.

Even if his limbs were severed at this moment, he probably wouldn't feel any pain.

The magic army's elite guards of the province calmly restrained Aniello, completing their mission.

Even if it were the Sons or Daughters of other bishops who dared to cause trouble in the city-state and willingly entered a room filled with barrier enchantments designed to suppress mages, being surrounded and hunted by a group of well-coordinated warriors would leave them no room for maneuver, even at the peak of the sixth rank.

"You… you…"

Aniello lay on the ground, looking ahead with difficulty.

Viscount Kingston's expression seemed to have changed. He stood there, coldly watching Aniello as if he were a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

Numb and cold, Aniello remained defiant amidst shock and anger.

His voice hoarsened, but he still shouted angrily, "I am Aniello! The Nihilistic Son of the Rebirth Church! Viscount Kingston, do you know what you're doing?!"

He vowed that, no matter what, he would sentence this border noble's entire family to death!

"Nihilistic Son, huh? That's really something. Keep talking, I'm listening."

Kingston seemed not to care at all about Aniello's threat, nodding as if humoring a frustrated child.

"Viscount Kingston! You've made a terrible mistake! You're committing a crime!! You'll be judged by the Imperial Military Tribunal!!"

Although Aniello's body was severely wounded, his spirit had not collapsed.

He continued to try to threaten Viscount Kingston in various ways, but Viscount Kingston only sneered, not taking him seriously at all.

"The Military Tribunal, is it? You even know about that."

Viscount Kingston laughed, and even the provincial elites holding Aniello down revealed mocking smiles.

A member of the Ghost Party dared to be stubborn and scare them here.

"Are you crazy? Loren is here, Loren is in the Northern Continent!! I must contact the Imperial Capital Helrom!!"

Aniello's words began to choke with his coughs, each shout consuming his life force.

Gradually, Aniello, feeling his mentality collapsing, finally understood the stupidity and absurdity of this group of Snowfield nobles.

Having come here, they might even dare to kill the Emperor.

But Viscount Kingston's gaze remained unwavering, his eyes flashing with pity. Even the other elites had similar expressions.

Viscount Kingston did not change his attitude as Aniello had hoped. He looked at Aniello, who had already surrendered, shook his head, and laughed, "It's truly laughable that a 'Nihilistic Son' is actually crying and begging here. You really have gone mad."

The atmosphere in the entire office became even more strange and heavy because of Viscount Kingston's words. It was no longer a governor's office, but a isolation room in a mental hospital.

Aniello wanted to calm his almost shattered emotions, but he could barely do it.

Aniello's shouts and struggles became the only sounds in the room, starkly contrasting with Viscount Kingston's sneer. The scene was like a vicious cycle: the more Aniello tried to prove himself, the more Viscount Kingston regarded him as a mental patient.

It also made Aniello feel unprecedented despair.

He could not escape this fate of being misunderstood and ridiculed. The truth he knew, which was enough to alarm the empire, became meaningless in the face of these Snowfield people.

He suddenly realized.

Viscount Kingston's eyes, movements, and smile all revealed an unusual look that he had never seen before.

This province—or, more precisely, this governor's mansion—was completely different from the outside world. Every detail, every word, every interaction gave him a sense of otherness, as if he had crossed into a parallel space and found himself in a completely different nightmare.

Hanging by the desk, the microphone in mid-air, that eerie communication that chilled Aniello to the bone, continued, emitting a faint crackling sound, becoming a distant echo.

"Viscount, it seems everything is going smoothly."

The voice from the microphone spoke again.

"Reporting to the Governor, a set of sixth-rank anti-magic nails has been driven into the criminal's body according to specifications."

Kingston looked towards the desk and said.

Even though there was no one behind the desk, he seemed to be devoutly reporting the progress of the mission to a transparent person sitting behind it.

At this moment, Aniello was finally certain that, from the moment he entered the governor's mansion, the people of this Snowfield province were being controlled by the person on the other side of the microphone.

He just couldn't understand what evil mental control spell the Great Priest Loren had used to make the people of the Protoss Empire serve him so crazily and lose themselves!

"Move him five meters to the left and make him face the sofa in the office."

From the microphone, the crackling sound and the man's gentle voice intertwined.

Like a blunt knife, slowly cutting at Aniello's heart and dignity.

"Yes."

Viscount Kingston responded.

Several elites immediately moved Aniello, who was on the ground, to directly in front of the sofa in the governor's office.

"Aniello, I didn't expect you to arrive at my governor's mansion so quickly. I didn't even have time to greet you immediately."

The clear voice from the microphone echoed in the office, every word seeming so calm, amiable, and unhurried.

Aniello found it even more unbearable.

"But it doesn't matter."

Until the voice from the microphone became more and more three-dimensional and hallucinatory, identical voices gradually began to overlap from the outside of the room.

Finally, two figures walked into the door of the governor's office.

The lights shone on the two, like a brilliant streamer.

Lanchi's suit and coat fluttered slightly in the wind. His deep eyes seemed to be smiling and thinking. He held a communication magic device in his left hand, and a black kitten in his other hand. Its long black tail was cleverly wrapped around his wrist.

After he and Xi De walked into the office, they sat on their sofa like masters returning to their mansion, looking at Aniello lying on the ground.

"Student Aniello, I believe all encounters are reunions after a long separation."

Aniello heard Lanchi's calm voice, his heart pounding like falling into an ice cave.

He trembled and raised his head, meeting those still graceful eyes, as green as the clearest lake in spring.

Even though this man had changed his appearance, turning his hair brown, his eyes and voice had never changed from beginning to end.

It was this man who had given him a brief redemption earlier, and had now become the nightmare he could not escape again.

There is one more chapter

(End of this chapter)