Chapter 205: I’ll come to you

Peerless Supreme Elder walked through the dusty thoroughfares of Jayrel City, completely unbothered by the common folk shuffling past him.

Adjusting the heavy hood of his dark coat to conceal his face, he moved with the steady, detached grace of a Middle-enlightened stage Martial General.

Unknown to him, however, dozens of pairs of glassy, vacant eyes were tracking his every footstep from the shadows of shopfronts, balconies, and alleyways.

Every movement he made was being observed, calculated, and fed back to a singular, hidden mind.

Eventually, the Elder arrived at the heart of Jayrel City’s central marketplace.

The vast square was a chaotic sea of sound and color, packed with hundreds of shouting merchants, haggling peasants, and clattering supply wagons.

Peerless Supreme Elder had chosen this bustling hub specifically to glean unvarnished regional rumors and whispers regarding the sudden, total erasure of Kaelos City.

Yet, despite his immense martial prowess, the Elder was still a mortal human driven by physical needs; he had been traveling non-stop for days.

Stopping by a fruit merchant’s wooden stall, he tossed a small copper coin onto the counter, picked up a crisp red apple, and took a quiet bite.

He turned to leave when a hushed, urgent conversation from three market women standing nearby caught his sharp ears.

The women were huddled together over a basket of grain, exchanging frantic whispers about the terrifying "Kaelos Incident" that had been sweeping like wildfire across the neighboring territories over the past three days.

"I tell you, it was a divine purge!" one of the women whispered, her eyes wide with superstitious dread.

"The people of Kaelos must have committed an unspeakable sin and angered a high deity from the upper realms!"

"Hmph! If you ask me, it serves those border fools right," the second woman scoffed softly, looking around nervously before leaning in closer.

"Everyone knows Kaelos was built on the blood of the subterranean beastmen trade. They captured, bound, and tortured innocent beastmen for decades! Perhaps a ancient god who favors the beastmen race finally descended to avenge them."

The third woman shook her head, dismissing the wild divine theories with a wave of her hand. "Nonsense. Gods? Religion? You’ve been listening to too many bard tales. It’s far more likely they angered the Glorious Mythical Sect."

The other two women stiffened slightly at the name of the regional titan.

"Think about it," the third woman argued reasonably. "The Sect Leader of the Glorious Mythical Sect is a supreme Martial Lord! To a cultivator of that terrifying realm, annihilating a border city full of lesser martial artists means nothing. They probably leveled the city over a contract dispute or a failed tribute!"

The first two women paused, exchanging slow nods of agreement.

To the common folk of the Northern Hashian Mountains—a region that had remained strictly secular and free of religious rule for over a century—the concept of gods and divine judgment was an abstract fable.

A high-enlightenment Martial Lord throwing a world-ending tantrum was the only logical, grounded explanation their minds could comprehend.

Listening from beneath his dark hood, Peerless Supreme Elder felt no anger toward the gossipers.

In truth, he understood their line of thinking.

After all, his own council had already resolved to level Kaelos City to dust to erase all evidence of their internal failures.

What truly set his blood boiling was not the city’s fate, but the cold, brutal murder of the Silver Lotus Elder.

The sect’s prestige had been dragged through the mud, and he needed to uncover the identity of the true assassin before Priest Arnold’s patience wore thin.

Shaking his head softly, Peerless Supreme Elder turned his back on the fruit stall, intending to slip out of the marketplace toward the administrative district.

GRAB.

A sudden, firm hand clamped onto his left forearm.

Peerless Supreme Elder froze.

His eyes narrowed into lethal slits beneath his hood.

For a commoner to bypass his passive mana barrier and touch his sleeve without his consent was an absolute insult.

He spun around with a fierce, dangerous frown, his voice dropping into an icy register.

"Remove your hand, fool, unless you wish to lose your arm—"

The man standing before him was an unremarkable, scrawny grain porter wearing a dirt-stained tunic.

However, instead of trembling in fear before the Elder’s suppressed aura, the porter’s lips curved into a wide, unnatural, and deeply unsettling smirk.

The porter leaned forward, his glassy eyes staring directly into the darkness of the Elder’s hood as he whispered, "Aren’t you looking for me, Elder?"

Peerless Supreme Elder’s breath caught in his throat. His frown deepened as a wave of intense suspicion crashed over him.

"What?" the Elder demanded in a harsh whisper, his hand gripping the hilt of his hidden blade. "Are you implying that a pathetic worm like you is responsible for slaying an Elder of the Glorious Mythical Sect?!"

"Sure," the porter shrugged casually, his voice echoing with an eerie, dual-layered resonance that seemed to vibrate directly inside the Elder’s mind.

"Though, to be precise, not this body. This fragile skin belongs to a mere mortal pawn."

The porter’s smirk widened, revealing a row of stained teeth as his eyes flashed with a faint, fleeting glimpse of crimson light.

"You don’t need to waste your precious time hunting for me through these streets, old man," the puppet murmured softly.

"Wait for me at midnight... and I shall come find you."

Before Peerless Supreme Elder could process the impossible threat, the porter reached into his belt with blinding speed, whipped out a rusted iron butcher’s knife, and casually dragged the blade straight across his own throat.

SLASH!

Blood spattered across the wooden market stall.

The porter’s body collapsed limply onto the cobblestones, his eyes rolling back as his life force instantly vanished.

Peerless Supreme Elder’s eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock.

Before the surrounding crowd could notice the sudden suicide or scream in panic, the Elder’s frame blurred into a gust of wind.

WHOOSH.

In a fraction of a second, he vanished from the marketplace entirely, leaving only the dying puppet bleeding onto the dirt.

A few hundred meters away from the quiet market square, perched high atop the vaulted slate roof of Jayrel City’s grand cathedral tower, a small figure sat casually against the stone ledge.

It was a young, red-haired child dressed in simple silk robes, his small legs dangling over the massive drop below.

This was the youthful mortal form Roy had assumed when he slipped past the city gates unnoticed earlier that morning.

His golden-crimson eyes sparkled with lighthearted amusement as he looked out over his domain.

SWOOSH.

Behind him, an elderly, distinguished figure in rich velvet robes landed silently on the roof tiles.

The old man dropped to one knee, bowing his head in absolute, complete submission.

"My Lord," the elderly figure reported smoothly, his voice devoid of any personal will or emotion.

"The guard captains have received their commands. Jayrel City will be placed under absolute, total lockdown before the sun touches the horizon. The gates will be sealed, and the streets cleared. You are free to act entirely as you wish."

Roy let out a soft, melodic laugh, his small shoulders shaking as he slowly rose to his feet on the narrow stone ledge.

"Magnificent," Roy murmured, turning his head to look down at the old man.

The figure bowing so humbly before a red-haired child was none other than the supreme ruler of the territory—the Mayor of Jayrel City himself.

In truth, every merchant shouting in the market, every soldier guarding the high walls, every child playing in the alleys, and every stray dog roaming the streets had already been bound, rewritten, and completely possessed by Roy’s divine domain.

The absolute divine authority of Mindcraft.

Out of the tens of thousands of living souls breathing within the borders of Jayrel City... the Peerless Supreme Elder was the only creature left who still believed he possessed free will..