Green deeply regretted his actions. He hadn’t expected Ye Chui and Debbie to enrage Bilis, the president of Kiss of the Goddess, with just a few words. Bilis was a prominent figure in Stan Town, notorious for his eccentric personality and fiery temper. Once, a drunkard mocked his flamboyant appearance and was torn to pieces by a terrifying summoned beast.
Even the town’s strongest swordsman, Mayor Kas, or the most powerful sorcerers treated Bilis with courtesy. No one ever dared to comment on his appearance to his face.
Yet Ye Chui and Debbie had broken that precedent. Worse still, Green had just casually declared himself their friend.
Swallowing hard, Green cautiously observed Bilis and slowly backed away, hoping to slip off unnoticed.
Fortunately, Bilis paid him no mind. The blue-haired man was glaring furiously at Debbie and Ye Chui.
Ye Chui groaned inwardly. Though he’d planned to reject Bilis boldly, he hadn’t intended to provoke him so directly. Seeing Debbie about to speak again, he quickly covered her mouth. It was up to him to salvage the situation.
Smiling, he said to Bilis, “Sorry, please ignore her words. You don’t need to care about others’ opinions. Beauty is subjective. Even if the world thinks you’re unattractive, as long as you believe you’re beautiful, you are. Trust yourself, you make the world vibrant.” He waved his arm in a cheering gesture.
“Mmph, mmph…” Debbie struggled to free herself from Ye Chui’s grip, glaring at him.
But Ye Chui’s words only made Bilis angrier.
What did he mean by “the world thinks you’re unattractive”?
In the art of provocation, Ye Chui and Debbie were evenly matched.
Bilis’s forehead veins bulged, his orchid-like fingers trembling as he pointed at them, “Very well, you two brats. I feel insulted. You rejected my kindness, curse of the Magic Emperor (a Castro Continent exclamation). You’re done for!”
His right hand swung back, summoning a door behind him. As a summoner, he was preparing to call forth something.
“Damn, seriously?” Ye Chui exclaimed, startled, summoning his grimoire to escape. He and Debbie were no match for someone of Bilis’s caliber.
“Hmph, I was only interested in your golden spirit anyway. This saves me the trouble,” Bilis said coldly, his expression twitching with intensity. “Hand over the contract for the spirit that wields golden sword aura, and I’ll let you leave!”
A powerful spirit that could convert gold into sword aura, one that defeated Ryan, Tatak, and Meri with a single strike, was unreasonably strong. It was every summoner’s dream, so from the moment Bilis learned of Debbie, he knew his goal: to seize that spirit.
Coincidentally, he had encountered Debbie here.
He had initially planned to lure the girl into his guild before acting, but he hadn’t expected her to see through his sinister intentions (or so he thought) and provoke him. So now, he decided to take it by force.
The bond between a spirit and a summoner relied on a contract, enabling the summoner to call the spirit. Each spirit contract was priceless to a summoner, especially one as extraordinary as Jilga. Ye Chui and Debbie hadn’t realised how much Jilga’s power attracted other summoners.
“Jilga is a noble spirit. Even if you steal her contract, you can’t summon her!” Debbie finally broke free from Ye Chui’s hand, swiftly grabbing her summoning key to call a spirit.
She shot Ye Chui a subtle glance, and he quickly slid his finger across the iPad screen, hovering over a spell icon.
“You’re summoning Jilga to fight me? But do you have the money?” Bilis sneered. As a summoner, he knew spirits well. Some had unique needs, like Jilga’s for gold. While debts were possible, they strained the contract. In short, no money, no summoning?
He waved his hand, opening the summoning door behind him. Each summoner’s tool varied: keys, bracelets, or even tattooed runes. Bilis’s was a ring. As he opened the door, a terrifying “roar” echoed, followed by two grotesque, ugly tentacles stretching out.
Then a third, a fourth…
Soon, a monstrous, floating, octopus-like magical creature covered in tentacles emerged from the door.
Summoners could call two types of entities: spirits or magical creatures. Magical creatures were either once-real beings or fantasy creatures born from a summoner’s imagination. Debbie’s Xiululu was born from her fantasies, and Bilis’s grotesque tentacle monster was clearly a similar creation.
“What a disgusting summoned beast!” Debbie grimaced. Fantasy creatures partly reflected their summoner’s personality, and this tentacle monster showed how twisted Bilis was. Still, she quickly adopted a fearless expression, smirking as if to say, “Your summon is weak.”
A blue door appeared before her. When it opened, Xiululu poked its head out, “Meow?”
As Debbie’s summoned beast, Xiululu gained consciousness only when summoned, retaining memories of past summonings. As it crawled out, it scanned the surroundings, thinking of how to act cute to win Debbie’s affection, determined to please its mistress. Meow…
“Off you go!” Debbie, with practiced ease, grabbed Xiululu and hurled it at the tentacle monster.
Sensing something approaching, the monster’s dozens of tentacles shot toward the incoming object.
Seizing the moment as the monster’s attention shifted, Ye Chui grabbed Debbie’s waist, casting the basic support spell [Wind Walk]. In an instant, they vanished like the wind from Bilis and the tentacle monster’s presence, their coordination seamless.
Bilis was left dumbfounded.
