Chapter 320: 100 Frostings at Once

Chapter 320: Chapter 320: 100 Frostings at Once

The Snow Lady, contrary to her usual behavior, walked right up to Lance.

Her icy blue eyes stared unblinkingly into his.

She stared for a long while.

Then, she reached out with her fair fingers and tightly gripped the corner of his tunic.

"Nieve will go with you."

Her voice was quiet, but stubborn.

Hearing this, Julius’s brow furrowed immediately.

"Nieve, this is no time for you two to be all lovey-dovey."

Julius’s face grew stern, his tone uncharacteristically harsh and scolding.

As the man who had watched Nieve grow up like an older brother, he absolutely would not allow his sister to risk her life at a time like this.

"Rejoin the squad immediately! You’ll help us evacuate everyone!"

But faced with Julius’s stern command,

Nieve only hesitated for a brief moment, her head lowered.

Then, she decisively shook her head at Julius, refusing the order.

Not only did her fingers not loosen their grip on Lance’s tunic, but they clenched even tighter.

She stared intently at Lance, her stubborn gaze seeming to say: ’If you don’t agree, I’m never letting go.’

Lance looked down at Nieve’s earnest expression.

Something stirred in his heart, as if a soft spot had been touched.

He knew what that look meant. It was the unwavering resolve of a Snow Lady.

He didn’t refuse again.

He knew it would be useless anyway.

Instead, he reached out his large hand and took her small, cool one in his.

He looked at her and said with a smile, "Alright, I’ll take you with me."

"Lance!" Julius cried out anxiously, trying to stop him.

"Don’t worry, Julius."

Lance turned his head to look at the highly responsible Knight.

"I will absolutely guarantee her safety. I swear it on my life."

Julius opened his mouth.

He looked at Nieve, who was still clinging tightly to Lance, clearly having no intention of listening to his advice.

In the end, he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue and could only nod with a look of resignation, tacitly approving the decision.

With the tactical arrangements settled,

Lance quickly thought of another, more important matter.

"Right."

Lance’s expression turned serious.

"According to secret intelligence I intercepted from the Crimson Bell of Death,"

"there’s an underground cult called the Faceless Hermitage Association hiding behind them."

"Furthermore, the intelligence explicitly states that tonight, they will likely use the Power of an Evil God from the outside to forcibly interfere with this Underground City and activate a localized Earth-Sundering Monarchy!"

Upon hearing the words "Faceless Hermitage Association" and "Earth-Sundering Monarchy,"

Viters’s gaze sharpened.

He subconsciously glanced at Felix beside him, as if considering whether to reveal certain secrets of the noble circles in front of the other two.

Felix noticed Viters’s hesitation.

He gave a wry smile and waved his hand.

"Don’t mind me. You know our Valentine Clan has long since fallen into decline. We’ve always been excluded from the core circle of power in the Royal Capital."

To dispel everyone’s doubts, he took the initiative to explain:

"Actually, this so-called Faceless Hermitage Association has long been secretly backed by many Great Noble factions, who provide enormous financial support and political asylum."

"Just like the notorious Rebel Star Sect, it’s one of the secrets of the noble circles."

At this point, Felix’s expression grew even more solemn.

"However,"

"the matter of forcibly activating the Earth-Sundering Monarchy on a small scale within a Province is even more appalling."

He looked at Lance and analyzed the situation:

"If the intelligence is true, then things are about to get out of hand!"

"After all, interfering with the operational rules of the Underground City’s will, and even forcibly changing the reward mechanism of the Summer Crown..."

"That’s already touching upon the level of divine authority!"

"I don’t know why those lunatics from the Faceless Hermitage Association would choose to do something like this at such a critical juncture. But it will undoubtedly infuriate the will of the Underground City."

"No one can say for sure what kind of strange transformations this Underground City will undergo next."

Felix turned to the other two captains and made a decisive call:

"There’s no time to lose! We must act immediately. Organize everyone and prepare for a breakout and evacuation at top speed!"

Julius and Viters both nodded in agreement.

Time was short.

The three of them immediately descended from the high platform and split up, heading to their respective phalanxes to relay the specific formations and evacuation orders.

The once-crowded high platform now held only Lance and Nieve.

Nieve still clung to the corner of Lance’s tunic like a little shadow.

The two of them walked side-by-side down the wooden stairs from the platform.

Thanks to his [Imaginary Number Dark Grid], most of his gains from this period were stored inside, so he had no luggage to pack.

They had just descended a few steps

when Nieve suddenly stopped.

She looked up, her eyes fixed on the side of Lance’s face, and abruptly said:

"Lance was just lying."

Lance stopped and turned his head.

He had actually noticed a strange look in Nieve’s eyes when she was watching him earlier.

He had thought it was his imagination, but he didn’t expect the girl’s Intuition to be so sharp that she had actually seen through his lie.

"You saw right through me, huh?" Lance admitted openly.

"Mhm," Nieve nodded, her tone certain.

"Lance never intended to use that Hand Decree to escape. That’s why Nieve has to go with Lance."

Looking at the Snow Lady’s earnest expression,

Lance couldn’t help but reach out and ruffle her soft, long hair.

It was true.

As a High Tier item, the [Hand Decree of the Great Monarch of the Void] had extremely strict conditions for use.

The most crucial one was the environmental requirement: the user absolutely could not be in a combat-locked state.

Once he initiated "Seizing Proof" and entered that sealed space,

it would be a battle to the death.

Between him and the Heroic Spirit Galeos, one of them had to die for the battle to end.

In that situation, the Hand Decree was just a useless piece of paper.

"It was actually a white lie."

Lance lowered his head, patiently explaining to Nieve.

He hoped that this girl, who was just beginning to grasp complex human emotions, could understand why he had to lie to his comrades.

"Creatures like humans find it very difficult to believe things that are beyond their common sense and understanding."

"If I had told Julius and the others directly that with my current strength, it’s possible for me to face Galeos head-on, or even kill him,"

"they absolutely wouldn’t have believed me. Not only that, they would have thought the pressure had driven me completely mad."

Lance looked at the Adventurers gathering in the distance.

"So I had to use a little lie to package the truth. I had to give them a reason that fit their common sense, so they could carry out the evacuation order with peace of mind."

After speaking, Lance turned his head and looked into Nieve’s eyes again.

"But you’re different."

Lance’s gaze softened.

"You trust me with all your heart. So, with you, I don’t need to use any lies to hide myself."

Hearing these words, which were so candid they were almost a confession,

a lovely blush suddenly spread across Nieve’s delicate face, which was usually devoid of expression.

The change left her feeling a little flustered.

She lowered her head, seemingly trying to digest the meaning behind his words, and thought seriously for a long while.

Then.

She raised her head again, a hint of stubbornness in her eyes, and said earnestly,

"Then... if Lance lies to Nieve in the future, and Nieve finds out,"

Nieve bit her pale pink lip, seemingly racking her brain for what she considered a very severe punishment.

"Lance will have to treat Nieve to 100 helpings of frosting before Nieve will stop being mad."

"100 helpings?"

Lance quickly calculated his current stamina recovery rate in his head. ’Seems doable.’

"100 helpings all at once!"

Fearing that Lance might go back on his word or find a loophole, Nieve deliberately stressed her tone, emphasizing the three words "all at once."

The smile on Lance’s face froze solid the moment he heard those three words.

The corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably, his eyes filled with shock.

"All at once?"

’Forget about me being a human! Even a full-grown Giant Dragon would be squeezed dry and turned into a desiccated specimen at that frequency!’

Just as Lance took a deep breath, preparing to educate this adorably clueless girl who lacked common sense on what "an unbearable burden" truly meant...

Suddenly!

RUMBLE!

A deep, muffled roar suddenly erupted from beneath the Underground City.

Immediately after, the entire, incomparably vast space of the Underground City began to shake and tremble violently, as if struck by a magnitude-10 earthquake.

CRACK! CRACK!

Lance snapped his head up toward the sky.

He saw the massive radiant arrays on the dome, which were used to simulate natural celestial phenomena, begin to develop huge, dense, spiderweb-like cracks under the violent Energy shockwaves.

A massive amount of rubble mixed with the glowing remains of the arrays rained down from a hundred meters up like a meteor shower.

It crashed hard onto the open ground of the camp, kicking up vast clouds of choking dust.

Lance cursed under his breath, "Damn it, the ritual has begun!"

On the streets,

the Adventurers who had just packed their bags and were preparing to evacuate were stunned by the sudden scene, unsure of what to do.

An unavoidable panic rippled through the crowd.

’As expected of an organization backed by an Evil God. What kind of item is worth making such a scene? This is too much.’

Just then, a red warning notification popped up on Lance’s retina.

[Status: Corroding in high-concentration Ether environment...]

Lance’s heart skipped a beat.

This meant that the safe zone, which was supposed to insulate them from the Chaos Ether, had failed ahead of schedule!