Saint Patron Bôrakos weighed his options.

Grunleden was the strongest being that had been there. Yet that snake had no clue about what actually happened and only made use of the situation.

Still, it was quite commendable that they managed to defeat the eyeless… Nightmare’s pawns were not easy to deal with.

And it remained a mistake on his part that this whole event even happened.

They, as the Righteous, were supposed to keep the Evil at bay. They did not this time. They became complacent.

Even Neutrals made moves here today.

He thought for a while before he asked: “Why were you here?”

Grunleden expected from the beginning that there would be a question he could not answer. This was one of the possible ones. However, lying to a Saint after swearing to answer him with the truth…

He breathed in deeply and said: “A friend asked for help to protect the people”

Saint Bôrakos nodded. It was laudable to help the weak and such was the righteous way. He asked further: “Who is this friend?”

Grunleden smiled sadly and did not speak.

Saint Bôrakos frowned.

The Saint that previously left came back at this moment as he lazily stated: “It’s taken care of, I sent them home gently”

Bôrakos was still focused on Grunleden: “You do understand that not answering is the same as lying, right?”

Grunleden got up. He looked straight in the eyes of Bôrakos and affirmed: “I do”

Bôrakos sighed. He planned to reason some more with him. However, before he could, Grunleden’s head separated from his neck as blood flowed like a fountain. The drops never reaching any of the Saints while splashing all around.

Bôrakos glared at Shalonna as she waved a hand: “Forget it, forget it, no one cares how it happened, let’s just deal with it, I don’t have time for this shit”

Another Saint added: “She’s right, let’s not waste time”

Bôrakos clenched his fist in anger before relaxing. He turned towards the tree and looked over.

His gaze pierced through everything as he saw the secret room and the formation.

His frown deepened.

The last protector of this formation died on the control throne.

He waved his hand: “Let’s go”

The five disappeared.

They reappeared within the secret room.

“To think there would be someone with enough knowledge and enough strength to force his way here” said a Saint.

Shalonna admitted: “Quite impressive, yes”

Saint Bôrakos was examining the dagger still within the corpse. He stated: “Soul techniques. Powerful ones”

The lazy Saint moved towards the back wall and tapped on the formation then whistled: “Well, well, well, now that’s quite ingenious”

They all turned their gazes over and rushed there as soon as they saw what was there.

Shalonna exclaimed: “He used a fucking fifth of his own soul just to buy some time?! Now that’s some insane dedication”

Saint Bôrakos added: “There should not be many capable of such a feat in the world. Anyone recognize this soul frequency?”

He did not.

The others did not either except for one who frowned hard. The Ex-Saint Patron, Saint Arialdo, knew who this fifth of soul belonged to.

However, he did not speak of it.

He diverted the topic instead: “How should we proceed to repair the formation?”

The five Saints frowned. None wanted to spend one of their supreme grade items for that.

Saint Bôrakos pondered for a moment before he asked them: “How about we close this node?”

They all frowned.

Closing the node meant deleting the entire area of the node. The entire land would be sunk. It was doable but it was not an easy call to make.

It was certainly the most efficient and easy way to remedial the situation and none of them would be losing anything in this equation.

However, people lived on these lands.

Saint Arialdo sighed before he took out a compass. It was grey and unassuming however all of them knew of it.

The grand compass of destiny.

A supreme grade treasure that could help someone find certain truths for lower costs. A very powerful item.

Saint Arialdo sent it within the formation and stated: “I will soon ascend, let it be my last gift to this world before I part”

The other four bowed to him.

Sacrificing oneself was never easy, especially when it came to such things.

The compass drifted in the formation and they closed it. The rules returned to how they were previously, restricting everyone to the 30th stage.

Of course, the five Saints were unaffected as they had control over this formation.

Saint Bôrakos then stated: “Now, we should focus on finding the thief”

Saint Arialdo waved a hand and spoke: “Forget it. Whoever did this has managed an impossible feat, it was his fate. Let us focus on reinforcing the protection of the node from now on instead. The reappearance of Nightmare is quite alarming as well”

Saint Bôrakos nodded: “You’re right, we should do as such. Alright, let us not waste any more time”

A portal appeared and they left.

They would send people back later to deal with all this. They had other matters to take care of, mainly the reemergence of the Evil Path.

…

Sarina cried as she ran away.

Cheng sweated as he fled.

…

Meanwhile, from the newly created lake, a small drop of red and dark liquid reached the shore. It did not stop there and began to ascend upon it and move forward. As it did, all the life contained within the soil was absorbed by it as it grew ever so little.

It reached a corpse and began to absorb it and grew from that to a blob the size of a fist.

It proceeded to move onto the next corpse.