Then, Sarah turned to look at Yasenia, and her body exploded with a wrathful feeling. "Yasenia, it's all your fault!"
The dragoness looked at her and smiled. "My fault?"
Sarah began screaming, her hands gesturing out the deep and uncontrolled emotions she couldn't hold back anymore. "You fault! Of course, it is your fault! Everything would have been perfectly fine if you hadn't appeared in my life! Why!? What did I do!? What the fuck did I do to deserve this!?"
With apathetic eyes, Yasenia answered. "What did you do? Target me after so many warnings to stay away from me. Insult my integrity. You even tried to make me a villain when I've done nothing but help you. Moreover, everything you are suffering is your fault."
Sarah laughed, tears still streaming through her eyes as she looked at Lillian's corpse. "I thought you were not so pathetic as to use my origins like that! I regret ever trusting you. I regret ever speaking to you."
Yasenia spoke again in a nonchalant manner. "If you hadn't lied to them, nothing would have happened. I just revealed to those closest to you what and who you are."
Sarah screamed hysterically. "AND WHO GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO DO EVEN THAT!?"
Then, she hissed through her teeth. "You are always so high and mighty because of your pretty face! Why did you seduce me!? Why did you change me!? Couldn't you have ignored me since the beginning if you didn't want to do anything with me!? Why console me when I was at my lowest and trample on my feelings!? Why give me a hand and then pull it back!?"
Yasenia sneered. "Are you done shifting responsibility to others? The answer to those questions is another question. Why did you expect anything at all in the first place? I showed friendliness but nothing deeper. You are the one obsessed with trying to seduce me when I've rejected your approaches many times."
Sarah's eyes trembled and shone with animosity. Then she smiled dangerously. "Right, all of it was my delusion, no? How about I return the favor you've done to me."
The dragoness's face became serious, and her eyes quickly moved toward Sarah's hand. 'Two talismans?'
However, she didn't know what it was.
"[Spatial Shift Talisman]."
Yasenia got alert and expanded her spiritual sense to the limits. However, she didn't feel anything around her.
Still, there was a strange fluctuation on Du Xian's and Angel's side, and she shouted. "Du Xian, Angel, move!"
Angel had been alert, and her cultivation base exploded, successfully resisting whatever the aura around her was trying to do.
However, her warning came too late for the other girl, and because Du Xian was not on guard since the conflict was around Yasenia, she got caught.
The dragoness's eyes widened when Du Xian disappeared and reappeared before Sarah. 'Huh!? What kind of talisman is that?'
Yasenia wanted to rush forward, but Sarah caught her by the neck like Yasenia had previously done with Lillian.
Sarah laughed, her eyes shining with ruthlessness. "Although it's a shame that I didn't catch your lover, at least I managed to grab this one. You seemed to like her, right?"
Du Lian shouted. "What are you doing!?"
The dragoness's expressionless face became cold, and her brain turned quickly, thinking of ways to save her.
On the other side, Du Xian was startled, but her energy instantly began rotating inside her, ready to fight if needed.
Of course, Sarah wouldn't allow Du Xian to react, so she swung her sword while grabbing her by the neck and pierced Du Xian's chest. "AH!!"
Yasenia's body twitched as she saw Sarah's sword piercing through Du Xian and the petite woman screaming in pain.
Du Lian naturally got extremely angry. "If you dare kill her, I'm going to hunt you down for the rest of my life!"
The human girls had their faces frowning at Sarah's actions, but they didn't stop her.
On the other side, the beast human ex-lovers sneered as if they weren't surprised. They couldn't wait to rush forward and continue their fight with Sarah, but they waited to see what happened between Yasenia and their ex-lover.
Sarah smiled widely as her energy locked around the squirrel woman. With just a thought, the energy inside the sword would explode, killing her. "Since you killed Lillian, I should reciprocate, right? Hahahaha."
While Sarah boasted, the dragoness's eyes flashed, and she thought of something.
Sarah saw Yasenia reach over and tensed, prepared to kill Du Xian if she did something suspicious. However, her actions halted because the person Yasenia took was Lea.
Unlike Sarah, she didn't pierce anything and just grabbed her by the scurf of her neck. "Have you forgotten about this?"
Sarah's face twisted, but she smiled weirdly with a hint of dropping sanity. "So what? Neither you nor I can move now. How about this? If you surrender the competition or give Lea to me, I'll release Du Xian."
Yasenia easily nodded. "Sure."
Then, she threw Lea forward with her tail.
Lea stumbled a few steps, stunned at Yasenia's quick agreement.
Sarah, who had been aggressively smiling, froze for a second. "Huh, what?"
Yasenia spoke coldly. "Now, release her. Didn't you want to fight me? Good, release Du Xian, and I'll fight you."
Tatyana and Angel had been silently observing, and while Angel was leaking murderous intent from every pore of her body, Tatyana had a thoughtful gaze. Then, she communicated with Mirrory in less than a second.
'That talisman should be from the system. It was so perfect that it almost surprised me because it aimed at Du Xian, who I wasn't paying attention to. Mirrory, why did you not stop it? You could've done so, right?'
Mirrory answered indifferently. 'Why should I? As long as Sarah doesn't target Angel, I'd rather allow things to develop naturally. If Angel wouldn't have been able to react, I would've blocked that talisman. We won't be by Yasenia's side forever, so if Sarah can make her feel a loss, it will be because she was not prepared enough.'
Tatyana blinked and got thoughtful. 'But a system is not something she can be prepared against, right? It's an otherworldly thing that defies reality in multiple ways."
Mirrory commented after a slight pause. 'You have been quite wary of her; is it because of her system? You seem quite afraid of them.'
Then, Mirrory commented. 'Moreover, if you really wanted, you could've stopped Du Xian from falling into Sarah's grasp. I don't believe you are helpless against that kind of trick.'
Tatyana wasn't afraid to admit it. 'You are right, but I felt like not reacting for reasons similar to yours. Also, I'm wary because I have… A slight trauma with those things. I have yet to discover how they work completely or how they come to be, but their means are basically endless.'
Mirrory spoke after a moment of thought. 'Just let things move. Regardless of what we might do, Yasenia seems to have a plan.'
Tatyana nodded. 'Agreed. Let's hope it works. Seeing Yasenia sad will break my heart.'
After Yasenia released her, Lea hurriedly returned to Sarah's side, making Sarah feel troubled.
She wanted to use Du Xian as a hostage to avoid facing Yasenia and leave, or in the best-case scenario, force Yasenia to surrender, effectively making her disappear. Still, she didn't expect such decisiveness, making her stumped at what to do now.
The dragoness looked coldly at Sarah, a silent wrath building inside herself and ready to burst at the slightest chance. 'Not only did you target Du Xian, you targeted Angel. You wanted to do what you are currently doing to Du Xian to Angel, my precious Baby. Sarah, Sarah… Pray to the heavens that you know how to navigate my traps because the only thing that can save you now is something as powerful as them.'
Harmony's mocking voice reached her. "What, have you fallen so low that you won't even follow your own words?"
Sarah looked around and realized that even her human lovers were looking at her with frowns because she was still holding Du Xian tightly. 'What do I do, what do I do? Won't Yasenia attack me after I return Du Xian back to her? If I release her, Yasenia can attack me without consequences. Still, if I kill her, I will also be in the same situation because, without Du Xian, she will not hold back and come after me.'
Flustered and not knowing what to do, her eyes darted around, trying to find a solution to her situation. After a few moments, Sarah felt resentful instead of grateful that Yasenia released Lea so quickly. 'Why did she have to let go of her so quickly!? Don't people usually doubt or be suspicious when someone gives their conditions!? I have a sword pierced through her chest, for fucks sake! Why is her face so calm!?'
While Sarah was confused and did not know what to do, Yasenia kept calm and observed her actions.
The reason she released Lea so quickly was because of her deep understanding of Sarah. She knew that while Sarah was still heartbroken and furious at Lillian's death, she was also terrified.
Right now, Sarah's four lovers have betrayed her and attacked her, and during all of that, one of them, Lea, was captured, and another, Lillian, was killed. The convoluted feelings have placed her sanity on the edge, and the only thing holding it together were the lovers that were still around her.
Through personal experience, the War Trial taught Yasenia how the psychology of someone who loses a close person works. It had taught her by making her experience situations like the one Sarah was in and dozens much worse than this one.
Therefore, Yasenia knew that Sarah was at a crossroads with two paths.
The first road is for Sarah to release Du Xian and flee the competition with her human lovers by surrendering, trying to use the time it took Yasenia to finish it to hide from her.
The second path was again for Sarah to release Du Xian, but instead of fleeing, she was overconfident in her own capabilities and chose to fight her.
Killing Du Xian in any shape or form was not something Sarah could do because she was afraid of her human lovers despising her when she herself had been quick to release her hostage in a show of "goodwill."
But there was no goodwill in Yasenia's actions; they were coldly and ruthlessly calculated to constrict Sarah's choices and allow Yasenia to lead the situation toward an end that only benefited her.
The cold reptilian eyes observed every little expression on her prey, prepared to jump and finish it off at the slightest chance she had.
Astarea, the tall, righteous, blonde woman, spoke to Sarah. "Sarah, release Du Xian."
Sarah's body trembled, and Du Xian grunted in pain as the sword inside her also moved with her.
Du Lian wanted to shout as he felt nervous for his wife, but he suddenly felt a tyrannical aura surrounding him, forcing him to shut up. The origin of the aura was Yasenia herself, who wouldn't allow others to create unknown factors.
Even then, the dragoness hadn't even moved an inch, and she wasn't even looking at him, showing the control of the scene she had thanks to her ever-present spiritual sense.
Sarah spoke, not realizing how much her voice was trembling. "A-Astarea, if I let go, Yasenia will attack! E-Even if I'm confident, you all will be in danger!"
Bai Ling spoke. "Then, kill her. We can always give up the competition."
Sarah looked at Bai Ling and gulped to moisten her dry throat. 'T-That's right, I can kill her. Either way, we can always surrender.'
The dragoness's eyes moved for the first time, and she looked deeply at Bai Ling. Bai Ling was about to smile, thinking that she had disrupted Yasenia's plans, but after two seconds, the draconic gaze moved away from her, returning to observe Sarah as if her words were inconsequential.
This made Bai Ling's expression fall.
Yet, Bai Ling didn't realize that Yasenia had done so to make her expression change.
When Sarah saw Bai Ling's expression falling when she didn't answer, she thought that she was unhappy that she was considering killing. Therefore, she quickly gave up the option of killing Du Xian.
It was all mind games that the dragoness was puppeteering.
Astarea spoke soothingly one more time. "Sarah, let go. Whatever challenges are ahead of us, we'll fight them together."
Taking into account her recent thoughts and because of the righteous and soft tone, Sarah decided to trust Astarea.
She took out her sword from Du Xian and then pushed her forward. However, Sarah's eyes were locked on Yasenia, preparing to move again if Yasenia recklessly charged forward.
Knowing how tense Sarah was, Yasenia remained calm on the outside and beckoned Du Xian. "Come here, Du Xian."
The squirrel girl hurriedly scurried forward toward Yasenia, who gave her a greater sense of security than her husband. She fell into her arms, burying her face in Yasenia's warm bosom. The sweet floral scent quickly calmed her taut nerves, and her entire body melted in her arms.
She was the Matriarch of a race with hundreds of years of experience, so even if she was shocked, she had a strong mentality and quickly recovered her mood. She coughed twice and then looked up at Yasenia with a smile. "Thanks, Yasenia."
Angel didn't say or feel anything this time, as Du Xian had been on the verge of dying. Yasenia took out a peak-level Heaven-ranked healing pill and fed it to her. She didn't have many pills of this quality, but it didn't matter. It was her fault that Du Xian ended up in that situation, and giving her anything other than the "best" to heal her didn't sit well with Yasenia.
The dragoness gently caressed her hair and asked with a soft tone. "Do you feel anything strange, Du Xian?"
Du Xian closed her eyes, quickly feeling the powerful healing capabilities of the pill, and she shook her head. "Nothing, I'm okay, Yasenia."
Yasenia nodded and then turned to look at Sara coldly, separating from Du Xian and walking forward slowly.
Almost 200 meters separated them, not too far for cultivators at their level.
Her steps were unhurried, and she didn't really cover much distance with them, but the presence around Yasenia began condensing.
"Sarah."
The woman flinched when Yasenia called.
"This is the first time I've abhorred someone so much outside the War Trial."
Then, a message popped in front of Sarah with a static-like sound that hurt her ears.
[Ding! Y@se#&a Dr@#$ry favorability De#re@#d by ** points, rea#$ing -100 points (Mortal Enemy).]
[Ding! All missions related to Y#@en#a Dra&##@ and those close to her will be automatically canceled, and those accepted will be counted as failures.]
[Ding! Warning! You've provoked the rage of a powerful enemy!]
[Ding! An urgent mission is being generated. Please, wait for a second.]
Yasenia grabbed the heavy Draconic Heart with one arm and lifted it effortlessly, stepping toward Sarah without placing others in her eyes. "Sarah, I had one thought from the first moment I met with you. Either we became close allies, or we became enemies. That's why I tried to become close to you at first. That's why I kept trying to pull you to my side even while I felt my doubts."
CRACK!
The ground under Yasenia split, creating a dreadful sound that steps shouldn't make.
"Now, I challenge you to a Death and Life duel."