"We are the personal army of the Goddess. By divine decree, you all must surrender all your wealth to us and pledge loyalty to our Goddess and obey all her orders. If you don't, you are committing blasphemy and that it is a death penalty."
The man who seemed the leader of the bandits defined himself like that, but no one believed it.
The merchants had been far from that area, so they had yet to meet with the cult of the Goddess that had been spread the previous months.
"Who are you tiring to trick, you are just a bandit, just like you were years ago. Today I will avenge my wife and son."
Like a prank of fate, the leader of the so-called army of the Goddess was the leader of the bandits that killed the family of the merchant's leader. Again, on a stormy day, that man appeared before him to rob him of everything.
At that moment, it didn't matter if the person in front of him was really representing a Goddess or not, he was his deadly enemy, and there was no space for reconciliation.
Of course, those bandits had always roamed that area, so they continued to act there even after becoming part of the army of the Goddess. However, the merchant had never met them previously despite that since the area that the bandits covered was quite big.
It would be a lie if he said that he didn't always pick routes that went that way with the hope of meeting those bandits again and avenging his family.
Based on the strength the bandits had back then, he believed that he would annihilate them the next time since he already reached Rank 4.
He didn't expect that the bandit leader would have also reached Rank 4. Moreover, that bandit was even a level higher than him based on the energy he was emanating.
"These bandits are the same that attacked you?"
One of his merchant companions was shocked when he heard the words of his leader.
"No doubt about it. I don't know the others, but the leader in the same. I can't forget him."
He was worried because the bandits' strength was far higher than what he had expected, but it wasn't like they couldn't win.
"Gregor, try to hide. You won't be able to endure a single hit from them."
Gregor felt the voice of the merchant leader on his mind. The leader sent him a message through Spiritual Sense to prevent the bandits from hearing him.
After all, Gregor would be great as a hostage, so it was better if the bandits didn't focus on him too much.
"So, you have met me before? I was just a bandit back then, but now I follow our Goddess. Now, I am the justice! Even if I kill you all, I am on the right side!"
The bandit leader smiled as he knew that the merchants wouldn't surrender. After all, he loved the feeling of killing others, but he couldn't kill them without asking them to pledge loyalty to the Goddess first, or he would be breaking the rules.
"Who cares about things like justice or the right side. There is no absolute for that. However, you killed my family, so I will kill you today to avenge them."
What the merchant leader said was a simple truth. Everything was just a matter of perspective.
However, it was a fact that the bandit leader killed the family of the merchant leader in the past, so the grudge was real no matter what reasons led to it happing or if that man had changed. Anyway, he still had that vicious smile that the merchant leader remembered so well even after many years.
"I won't tolerate any blasphemy to our Goddess. She is the justice. Her words are justice. Whoever opposes her is an evil that must be eradicated."
Although that bandit leader served the Goddess for his own purposes, he had already been brainwashed enough to really think what he was saying. He might think that some rules were annoying, but he didn't dare to break them.
"My fellow holy warriors. Destroy this evil barrier and kill everyone inside!"
As the bandit leader spoke, all the bandits let out a war cry and started to attack the barrier, which broke quite easily.
The battle started immediately. Both leaders clashed with each other, but the bandits had far more people, so each of the merchants needed to deal with several.
Gregor tried to hide, but he was found immediately.
"We have been informed about a son of the demon that had a lot of wealth stolen from the Goddess. Be a good kid and return it so I can kill you quickly. Well, killing you slowly will also be fun, though."
They had been informed about Gregor, so there was no way they would ignore him.
Although Gregor wasn't wealthier than the merchants, robbing him was far easier.
Gregor didn't answer, but instead, he activated the most useless skill he learned from Shiba, Earth Step.
The bandit wasn't paying that much attention to him, so he managed to make the bandit lose balance, and Gregor used the chance to run.
"Damnable kid. I will kill you!"
The bandit ran behind Gregor, but since the bandit was at Rank 3, it was impossible for Gregor to flee.
That bandit was the weakest bandit among the group, but the weakest was still too strong for Gregor.
Seeing that the bandit was attacking him, Gregor wielded the sword he received from Shiba. It was a normal sword, but with Earth Blade, he managed to endure the attack. However, the sword broke after that.
Gregor hadn't mastered Earth Blade, so he was far less proficient than Shiba. Still, it saved him once.
Of course, the bandit just used a normal attack, if he had used a skill, Gregor would have been killed even if he used Earth Blade to parry it.
Moreover, it wasn't like if Gregor didn't receive any damage. All his body was in pain after enduring that attack, and he fell to the ground.
"The playtime is over. Suffer the wrath of our Goddess!"
The bandit was ashamed that a mere kid endured his attack, so he was planning to kill him and play with his corpse afterward.
The bandit pointed his sword to the sky, ready to give Gregor the final blow.
"So, here is where I die. Sorry, master."
Gregor knew that he couldn't do anything else.
He was reinforcing his body with Earth Armor, but it wouldn't be able to endure the attack.
Just as Gregor expected the last blow, the world, or rather the whole universe stopped.
Everything returned to normal without anyone on the universe noticing about it, but something had changed.
At the next instant, the bandit was struck by lightning directed at his sword and died on the spot.
Usually, he wouldn't die with just that, but that lightning had been overly strong, and the timing was also bad. Moreover, he also had the bad luck to have the lightening destroy all his body from inside.
Of course, it was a stormy day, and the storm had already started, so it wasn't impossible for lightning to fall on him once he pointed his sword towards the sky.
However, Gregor felt that there was no way there was such a timely coincidence to save his life.
On his mind, it appeared the name of his master's master. He didn't know that Liye was reincarnating, so he believed that Liye was helping him from behind the scenes.
The merchants and the bandits also noticed the end of the bandit attacking Gregor, but they all thought that it was just because he was foolish enough to point a metallic weapon to the sky in the midst of a storm.
Gregor stood up and picked the weapon of the deceased bandit. It seemed miraculous that it was in a perfect state despite its owner being roasted to death by the lightning that went through the weapon.
Gregor didn't think that it was a coincidence, so he picked it up and ran towards other bandits thinking that they would also be killed by Master Liye as long as he didn't give up.
Master Liye wasn't there, and Lina wasn't there either. There wasn't a hidden expert controlling the lightning. However, what happened wasn't a coincidence.
Each time Gregor got near his opponents, it seemed that their luck dropped to negative numbers as they were struck by lightning, or their feet would be struck on mud, which gave their opponents the chance to kill them.
At that moment, no one thought that it was still just a coincidence. It was too strange that anyone who faced Gregor would end up with such bad luck.
If the creator of the Forest of Illusions had been there, he would have found the scene quite familiar, since it looked a lot to what happened to everyone on his family above Rank 2 after he was cursed.
Soon, only the bandit leader remained.
"Impossible! We are blessed by our Goddess! Why is the lightning falling onto us?"
Being struck by lightning was something the common people related to divine punishment, so he found illogical that holy warriors like them were stricken by lightning.