Chapter 610: Chapter 611: Escape She saw too much. That was all Damon could think about. Renata Malcrist was a fellow student of the academy. Honestly, Damon once held a grudge against her. However, after she had helped them with Rashi Ignath, his hostility toward her was more or less gone. There had been no need for it. In terms of power, she was an anomaly—like Damon and Lilith Astranova—capable of crossing ranks and battling foes stronger than her rankl should normally allow. But what she had seen now was far too much for him to even consider letting her walk away. Renata raised her hand with a calm, confident smirk that couldn’t help but appear seductive. "My my... what’s with the sudden hostility? Don’t mind me... I was just passing by..." Her forehead glistened with beads of sweat, a clear sign she had been exerting herself. "How much did you see..." Lilith asked, even though she already knew the answer. Renata must have followed her all the way from the academy. Lilith was certain of it. Renata had been nosy lately, probing at Lilith’s secrets, trying to uncover what she was hiding. At first, Lilith chalked it up to Renata’s competitive nature and did her best to avoid her. But now... this was troublesome. "You used your zero attribute to turn your aura and presence to nothing, didn’t you?" Renata lowered her hand, remaining calm. "I was right. You are suspicious. Lilith... how does a duchess end up in league with the unknown god?" Her words were met with a cold reply from Damon. "Why don’t you come here and I’ll show you." She didn’t seem impressed in the slightest. "No. I think I’ll just leave...!" As soon as she said that, she blasted them with her zero magic. Damon had already expected it. Renata was taking the initiative, knowing fully well her life was in danger. The safest option for Damon and Lilith was to silence her for good. That was troubling, because no one truly knew where she was. Following Lilith had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. Damon slipped out of the shadows, reappearing behind her with a high kick aimed at her face. Renata whipped her hand backward. [Zero Out] With her attribute, she reduced the speed and momentum of his attack. It wasn’t entirely negated—Damon’s immense physical strength ensured that—but it was still slowed significantly. "You grew stronger..." Renata muttered, unable to help herself. She couldn’t help but wonder what Lilith Astranova had been feeding her so-called boyfriend for him to grow this powerful. She could sense he was already at the cusp of the third class. The last time she had seen him, less than a month ago, he had just returned from a death zone, making a name for himself and earning a page in the history books. "But back then, he had only just reached the second class..." Her feet left the ground as she flipped, landing on a pillar just in time to avoid a slicing tear through the void. Gritting her teeth, she rolled out of the way of a flying piece of metal—obviously a sword—that streaked after her like a serpent, twisting and turning through the temple interior with relentless momentum. Renata waved her hand. "Zero." A barrier of zero wrapped around her body. One wrong move here would mean her death. They truly intended to kill her. And while she would not die easily, one mistake in this place was fatal. Sweat dripped down her forehead. Her breathing grew heavy. "I did not think this through..." Yet, there were still things she wanted to know, questions burning in her mind. Her gaze fell on the dark-haired figure of Damon Grey. "How did you do it..." Damon stepped forward, flames flickering in his hands, flames as black as the deepest shadow. "How did I do what..." Lilith nodded to him as they moved to encircle Renata. She must have realized she couldn’t escape, not with Lilith’s barrier sealing the temple. The smart choice would be for Renata to take on Lilith, distract her long enough to use that particular zero technique—the Mobius Strip, a loop of energy coiling endlessly around itself. If she struck Lilith’s half-hearted barrier with it, the spell would shatter. But Renata needed time to use it. Time she didn’t have. "Control that lesser demon..." Damon’s heart sank. There was no chance of letting Renata live now. If word spread that he had been seen on the back of a lesser demon, it would cause endless trouble. The implication would be that he was working with demons. No one would leap to the conclusion that he was the Dominator, that he had used Demon Dominate on the creature. Though the effect had long since worn off, demon dominate was active only when in use, yet lesser demons still seemed compelled to obey him even without it. "It’s a simple trick... what’s it to you..." Renata clung to the side of a pillar. Her form seemed lighter than air, her weight and centrifugal force reduced to digits close to zero, but never fully nothing. "I see. So be it then..." She leapt down, but before she could land, Lilith teleported mid-air, appearing directly in front of her. Her leg shot upward in a vicious kick. The movement was too fast. Renata had been focused on Damon, but the true threat was Lilith. The kick sent her flying, slamming into the ceiling before she fell like a ragdoll. She lessened the impact with her zero magic, but Lilith Astranova was one of the few people capable of piercing her defenses. "Void magic..." The urge to curse almost slipped out, but it would do her no good. There was only a split second before she hit the ground and received an even more lethal attack. Renata reminded herself of one thing. She was in danger. If she lost here, her life would not be spared. That single thought pushed her into action. This was life and death. She did not crash into the ground. Halfway down, Damon heard the sudden sound of flapping. A pair of wings sprouted from Renata’s back, spreading wide and giving her lift. He froze for a moment. Just a moment. These wings were not the wings of a fairy, nor a harpy, nor any fae or any goddess races. They were like those of a bat. Lifting Renata into the air. It was too shocking, too unexpected. Damon could not help but glance at Lilith, who was equally taken aback, her green eyes fixed on Renata. "You... you are a demon..." Renata smiled with cold glee at Lilith’s words. Her wings creaked as if stretching for the first time in a long time. "Now I can fight at my full power..." Her wings glowed softly, each flap releasing waves of zero magic into the air. Within those waves, if one looked closely, the number zero appeared in countless tiny inscriptions. The insides of her wings bore the Mobius Strip, one etched into each span. Renata’s confidence radiated from her expression, her smirk that of someone who believed victory was already hers. "Do you think I need time to use my full power... well, you wouldn’t be wrong..." Blood still poured from her shoulder where Damon had struck her earlier, yet before his eyes, the wound closed. The bruise on her face from Lilith’s kick faded as well. She could reduce even her injuries to zero, as if they had never existed. "That has to be cheating..." Damon muttered under his breath. A powerful conceptual attribute truly was a nuisance. Renata tore one of the Mobius Strips free from her wing. With a deadly shift in the air, she hurled it toward them. Damon was shoved out of the way by Lilith, his body dissolving into shadows as he reappeared to the side. Lilith teleported, preparing a counterattack in case the strip collided with her. But both of them had miscalculated. Renata’s Mobius Strip hadn’t been aimed at them from the beginning. It had been set to strike the barrier Lilith had created to trap her inside the temple. At the root of it, Renata knew she could not win. There was no reason to die here. They shouldn’t have much of a problem with her now that they knew she was a demon. The real danger was not her reporting to the temple, but the possibility of her reporting to the demon continent. Flapping her wings, she dove toward the exit with a sonic boom, her body breaking the sound barrier as she propelled forward. Lilith glanced at her, now soaring outside, climbing higher into the night sky. "What now..." she asked Damon. He smiled coldly, the expression never reaching his dark eyes. "Don’t worry. She won’t escape." He raised his hand, though it wasn’t necessary. His lips curled into a whisper. "Demon Dominate." In the sky, Renata faltered. She turned her head back toward Damon as his fierce will crashed into her mind. She should have resisted. She should have feared. But instead, her violet eyes flickered—and she did nothing. "Lord Ashcroft..." she whispered, surrendering. "Fall," Damon commanded. Like a meteor, her body was embraced by gravity, pulled from the heavens back down toward the earth.