Liam's act was picture-perfect. This time as well, his words sounded extremely just and convincing that the golden knight once again nodded in approval. Giving a position of power to someone else in order to fight on the front lines? That was something that he could respect.
But when Liam looked at the high priestess, he knew that he had failed.
How could it be so easy? How could someone like the person in front of him be fooled by someone like him?
All of Liam's efforts were in vain. The person's eyes gleamed mysteriously as if she had already figured him out from the inside out.
To make his fears worse, the high priestess suddenly said something completely unexpected, something completely out of the blue, something that stopped his heart in its track.
"You seem to know more than I think you know. Just how far have you come?" Liam's face paled. Before he could say anything to salvage this situation… the woman's eerily beautiful eyes and the golden orbs within them started flickering.
And just like that… everything that Liam had done and experienced flashed in front of her like a movie, right from the beginning to the end. Every single thing that has happened since he entered this tutorial, played out in front of her.
She could see each and every detail, the moment he had met with the raven, how he had entered the nether realm, how he had obtained Luna, how he had obtained the stone tablet, when he went to the milky way galaxy with the white token, the naga pearl that he had, everything was laid out bare in front of her.
Liam's heart further dropped. It was literally pounding out of his chest as all of his secrets came out right in front of him, one after the other and were shown to her in vivid detail.
She was watching everything in fast-forward mode, pausing every now and then and looking at him with a loaded glance that contained unfathomable meaning.
And more importantly, from these smaller details, she figured out something else. Liam's deepest, innermost secret, something that he hadn't shared with anyone before.
"Interesting. Very interesting." The high priestess muttered to herself as her smile widened. "You move as if you already know. How? How is something like this possible? How can you know the future?"
He remained silent. Or rather, he was frozen. What was he supposed to do now? What was supposed to do against a person who might as well be the god of this world?
How could she control everything if she was just another high priestess of the divine temple? This woman was definitely hiding her true identity. She was someone else. Someone else far more powerful and beyond his comprehension.
He didn't answer her or say anything else. He sensed a dangerous feeling coming from her. However, that didn't help. She looked at him and smirked with an all-knowing nod. "Perhaps you figured out everything."
He couldn't hide anything from her. She knew everything. Every single damn thing. This was beyond him and what he was capable of.
Liam clenched his fists. It was clearly game over for him.
The next second, he felt his body float up as the angel came closer to him, revealing a gentle, magnanimous smile that only looked ugly at the moment.
"Do you agree to become my emperor, or do you want to perish?" She was a tad more direct this time, no longer hiding anything.
Her true intentions were out in the open for him to see, and he was correct. He didn't really have a choice here. If he accepts either, he was going to perish.
He flew too close to the sun, and now the sun had arrived at his doorstep to make a personal visit to him.
Liam felt an inhuman pressure assault him from all directions. He gritted his teeth, but he did not yield. "I refuse." He gave the same response again.
Another wave of pressure assaulted him. It made him twitch with pain, and it was torturous. "I refuse. I refuse. I refuse." He shouted.
"Hmph." The woman then tossed his body again. "Are you not afraid of death?"
He weakly coughed and sat up. He did not say anything.
"Or is it because you know that I cannot kill you?" She sneered. Her peerlessly beautiful face twisted and contorted in the most horrendous way possible.
Liam felt his body solidly frozen. A chill that threatened to freeze his very soul clung to his body. This person, this being, could take his life in an instant. He just knew it. If she put just a little more pressure on him right now, he would break apart.
He wanted to shout and yell in pain. He wanted to shout out all of his grievances and his miseries, but even at this moment, he controlled himself.
Even though he could feel the finality of things, he still tried his best not to expose just how much he was aware of.
"I… I… I am confused." He squeezed the words out of his mouth.
However, it didn't amount to anything. His playing dumb was simply useless. The person's face contorted further as her cruel smile widened some more. She acted as if she did not hear Liam at all and continued.
"Heh. You are correct. I indeed cannot kill you, but I can do something else." She paused, and laughed, her once-melodic laugh now echoed like the cackling of a witch.
Nothing was hidden any longer. Everything was out in the open for everyone to see.
"An ant like you wants to go up against me? You think you can improve your strength step by step and stand up against someone like me?" She sneered.
"Too naive! Ha Ha Ha Ha!"
"Do you think that I will be sleeping while you are powering up? Ha Ha Ha Ha!"
"I will show you true power and real hell. You will regret not accepting my offer when you had the chance. Now watch all the time you had disappear!"
She then snapped her finger as another wave of intense divine energy assaulted everything in sight. A wave of energy swept past everyone. Not just Liam, but every single player inside the game.
***
Bonus chapter 3~
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