Hearing the cold sound from the sky, the expressions of Astrid and Raphael changed drastically. They had thought they could buy more time but didn't expect the enemy to be this fast.
"Helios! Why do you keep clinging to us without letting go?" Raphael shouted.
He partly wanted to curse the man but his main goal was still to buy time so Astrid could stabilize her energy as much as possible. After all, a sacrifice was certain, couldn't let her sacrifice be in vain.
Helios glared at the three of them, his golden eyes flashing with a cold light. Having determined they didn't have much fighting strength left, with victory already in his grasp, he wanted to vent a little.
For a whole month he had lost sleep and appetite precisely to chase after these two who kept hiding east and west. As the temple master of the Great Sun temple, a position among the highest on the continent, revered by others every day, he naturally felt extremely uncomfortable.
"Hmph, anyway, you're about to die... Telling you is fine."
Helios spoke unhurriedly, his tone cold and arrogant. Now his ragged appearance had diminished not a little, he looked much more like a supreme being.
"Gabriel... That damn old father of yours stole our divine artifact. Not only that, but he betrayed us, attacked the branch temples of the Great Sun temple and recruited a bunch of commoners to follow him in rebellion. Tell me, doesn't your clan deserve death?"
The more he spoke, the angrier he felt, clearly everything was developing very well. Relations with the two great empires were growing closer, and wealth and influence were increasingly strong, yet suddenly such a huge disaster emerged.
"Attacking women and children, don't you feel shameful? Why don't you go settle accounts with that old man? This matter has nothing to do with us."
Even though he knew it was useless, Raphael still wanted to say it. If lucky, perhaps it really could save their lives.
Helios's brain wasn't waterlogged, he absolutely would not accept this stupid request. If he accepted, wouldn't that mean he had been playing the fool for the past month?
"You think I'm stupid? That damn old man, though his actions are despicable, has no character, is wicked, shameless, a thief and robber, betrays ancestors, disrespects deities, and backstabs comrades..."
He cursed a long string, who knows how many 'beautiful words' he used to describe someone who was once a core figure in the Great Sun temple.
"But that old man is a level ninety-nine contractor, one of the strongest on the continent. Tell me, what do I fight him with? Such a difficult matter should be left for my father to handle, I'll just deal with the remnants of this sinful clan."
A level ninety contractor and a level ninety-nine contractor, in terms of combat power stats, aren't that different. But the catch is from level ninety upwards, each time a level increases, the energy pool within the body grows enormously. If fighting in rotation until energy runs out, one level ninety-nine could very possibly defeat ten level nineties.
Helios was only level ninety-one, the two old men beside him were level ninety-two, Astrid was level ninety and Raphael was level ninety-one.
If he could only bring one person, Helios completely lacked the ability to hunt down Astrid and Raphael. But two people was a different matter, those two old men had a fusion secret technique that created a very powerful weakening and hindering effect.
"We've known each other for many years like this, are of the same generation, and can be considered each other's friends. Why can't you leave me a way out?" Raphael questioned.
Don't think that because they were fighting so fiercely, they had a deeply conflicted past. Quite the opposite, they were once comrades fighting side by side.
Helios hesitated for a moment. Memories from before, not exactly ancient, ran through his mind again but he shook his head.
"Raphael, this isn't what I want but what I'm forced to do. If possible, I'd also want to reconcile with Gabriel and sail on the same boat once more. But... you know that's impossible. You should understand what is most important to the Phoenix clan."
Raphael fell silent, others might not know but he knew many secrets. The Phoenix clan were actually the descendants of a god. The Great Sun temple wasn't just some superstitious organization tricking people into worship either, because the Sun God had once been on this continent tens of thousands of years ago.
That old man Gabriel definitely knew about this, which made his behavior even more confusing. If he wanted to help the common people, why did he need the divine artifact?
"How about I renounce the Dawn surname? Look, the two of us have reached demigod level anyway, surely we'd be useful. Moreover, if my father comes, you can use me as a hostage to distract him," Raphael probed.
He had no confidence that he could make that damn old man stop, but distracting him for a moment should be possible. After all, decades of father-son bond—if it couldn't move that old man even for a second, that would be too excessive.
Helios frowned and pondered a bit. He hadn't thought of this before. But then he immediately shook his head.
"The proposal is good, but you should have proposed it from the first day, not after making me chase around for so long like this."
The face of someone on par with an emperor, with supreme authority on this continent, cannot be trampled casually. Though regretting the loss of talent, the Great Sun Temple wasn't short of just two people.
Of course, him saying that was just to pose as a noble person. Family relations are incredibly hard to gauge, the chance of Raphael betraying in the future was extremely high.
"Raphael, help me!" Astrid shouted, the energy on her body erupted, and strange lines and symbols appeared all over her body.
The energy grew larger and larger, her body gradually turned into a mass of dazzling light and then shot straight up into the sky.
Raphael immediately drew the Celestial Holy Sword, poured all the energy he could muster into it and shot it straight into the sky. His eyes were already soaked wet to the point they couldn't get any wetter.
"Not good! Protect the temple master!"
The two old men cried out, disregarding their own safety to use all their strength to protect Helios.
From the sky, a voice as gentle but cold as ice rang out:
Ultimate Fusion Technique—Heaven Collapse!
A giant magic circle instantly covered dozens of miles, holy swords hundreds of times larger fell continuously like a meteor shower. An unavoidable attack aimed straight at the three figures in the sky.
The power of a demigod-level contractor's sacrifice was incredibly terrifying, even a level ninety-nine here would have to be wary.
Raphael didn't linger another second, immediately hugged Leo tight and bolted away deeper into the forest.
"You bastards!" Helios roared, the veins on his forehead twitching.
Faced with such a terrifying attack, he should have been defending, but now he only wanted Raphael dead or at least crippled.
Fourth Ultimate Technique—Eternal Flame!
A small flame gathered on his fingertip, a terrifying light erupted as if he held the sun in his hand.
Helios flicked his finger, and the flame flew several times faster than sound straight into Raphael's chest.
It didn't pierce through, didn't ignite, and left no trace. It was as if it suddenly disappeared.
At the same time, the powerful attack from the sky also fell, striking Helios and making him cough up blood, but the corner of his mouth curled up into a triumphant arc before he used all his strength along with the two old men to withstand the attack.
Running a few more seconds, Raphael suddenly collapsed to the ground. Vital energy spewed out fresh blood, his whole body was now like a living furnace, and he clearly felt a terrifying flame burning inside.
"Damn it! I can't die here... I promised her..."
He gritted his teeth, trying to use the remaining energy inside his body to suppress that flame.
Fortunately, not far across a river, he tied Leo securely to himself, grabbed a tree trunk and jumped into the water, then concentrated all his strength to block the flame.
The flame quickly subsided, but his vision grew dim, the excessive energy consumption made it impossible for him to stay conscious any longer.
Watching the water flow towards an unknown destination, he silently prayed and then lost consciousness.