"It's the holy Mark!"
"God has come before us!"
All around, the fervent followers started chanting in unison.
Levelling his shapeless sword directly at Zhao Yao's head, the holy priest commanded, "Are you willing to accept the grace of God and join us as brothers?"
Gazing upon a seemingly awestruck Zhao Yao, the holy priest was confident in his ability to convert him.
After all, he had already converted countless acolytes using similar methods and had gained loyal followers for the following months with this awesome display of power.
Furthermore, once he carves out the holy mark on Zhao Yao's face using the invisible sword in his hand, it would represent a symbolic and marvelous mark bestowed by the God and certainly cement Zhao Yao's loyalty for him.
However, just as the holy priest was lost in thought, Zhao Yao stood up fiercely in defiance, putting on a mask that was seemingly in his pocket just moments ago.
"Speaking of such mystic arts, the most fitting power is actually…"
"Meow!" Elizabeth let loose a cry which sounded out within the hall and overwhelmed all the acolytes in the vicinity.
The next moment, an inferno emerged from behind Zhao Yao, morphing into a pair of fiery wings over 6 meters long. It was as if the fire had been summoned from the pits of hell, burning brilliantly before the eyes of the acolytes.
With this summoning, all hell broke loose and the acolytes broke rank, screaming and shouting while retreating to any possible corner of the hall.
The holy priest himself was dumbfounded, looking on in confusion as Zhao Yao approached them with the fiery wings flanking him.
As the acolytes fled, fiery skeletons began to morph out of the fiery pit behind Zhao Yao as if the gates of hell have just opened.
"Such audacity!" Zhao Yao bellowed.
"Who is to be sacrificed to the Holy One?!"
All around, the acolytes were wailing as they fled in fear, cursing themselves for getting themselves into this mess in the first place.
Some of the female acolytes collapsed on the ground in fear, so terrified that they were unable to move a single limb.
Bai Quan stared astonishingly at Zhao Yao's demonic appearance with his jaw dropped and his mind in a complete mess.
"Devil? Is he the Devil?" Bai Quan's heart was gripped with fear. "Definitely, with powers like teleportation, mind-reading, and puppetry, who else could he be but the Devil?"
By now the holy priest had turned as white as a sheet and the invisible sword he once wielded in his hand had become completely visible. With the wooden classical sword trembling in his hand, the priest stumbled away from Zhao Yao, "Stay… Stay Away! You evil demon, God will strike you down!"
"Oh God can't kill me…" Zhao Yao began as he instantly teleported behind the holy priest, crushing his windpipe with one hand.
"AHHH!" Watching the fiery skeletons march on towards him from all sides while having the life choked out of him, the holy priest tried to turn invisible in hopes of escaping from this death grip.
Nevertheless, it was already too late as Zhao Yao landed a solid punch to the priest's stomach, knocking the wind out of the priest just as he turned invisible. With the priest winded, Zhao Yao quickly tied the priest up with his rope.
Amongst the fleeing acolytes remained the fanatics who at this point decided to charge towards Zhao Yao in a bid to take him down.
However, before they could even approach Zhao Yao, they all collapsed screaming, as if being knocked out by an invisible force.
Zhao Yao resembled a blur as he dealt out blow after blow, taking out the charging acolytes one by one.
Meanwhile, within the cat pouch, Elizabeth continued to observe the phone screen as she continued to keep up the illusion that was taking place in the hall.
The scene on the screen depicted exactly a fiery-winged Devil releasing hordes of fiery skeletons.
As it appears, this had been pre-arranged between Elizabeth and Zhao Yao, as the plan was for Elizabeth to set up the entire illusion with the fiery Devil in order to expose this fraudulent cult.
Despite possessing the ability to freeze time, it would still be troublesome to take on so many enemies at once. Furthermore, Zhao Yao was unwilling to utilize weapons that may jeopardize the lives of others.
As a result, he utilized Elizabeth's illusions to frighten the acolytes, causing them to flee in fear.
However, her powers were limited. Her illusions could only disrupt the hearing and vision of her targets but were harmless and unable to inflict tangible sensations such as pain, hotness, and coldness. Nonetheless, they worked out magically in this situation, greatly magnifying the acolytes' fear of the Devil.
In a corner far from the commotion, a face filled with dullness spectated the ongoing drama. "Such a disappointing illusion." Matcha noted. Snatching the phone away from Elizabeth, he remarked, "Let me find a better one."
"Don't touch it!" Elizabeth exclaimed.
It was too late, as Matcha had begun fiddling with the phone the second Zhao Yao froze the time around them.
When Elizabeth finally grabbed her phone back from Matcha, the picture of the Devil has already disappeared. In its place, a large yellow face materialized, its eyes staring out wretchedly.
"What's this? Where did the picture go?" Elizabeth questioned.
Matcha replied excitedly, "Oh, that's called a comical emoticon. What is so interesting about Devils? Transform this instead, it's definitely going to be much better!"
"Really?" Elizabeth asked with a tinge of doubt.
"Of course!. I'm a man of my word!"
Evidently, Elizabeth was far from knowledgeable when it comes to areas like phones and the internet. Despite having her suspicions regarding what Matcha said, she continued conjuring the illusion with comical emoticons.
"Meow", a voice sounded through the hall. In an instance, the mass of skeletons vanished into thin air. Shortly afterward, flying emoticons roamed the air in all directions, and even Zhao Yao's head became a huge emoticon! It was a bizarre and unbelievable sight.
Matcha lifted his head high up, shouting:" Hey, hurry up yeah! Give me a 3D effect too!"
Observing the sight of emoticons soaring through the air, Matcha could not help but unleash a mischievous laughter.
As soon as Zhao Yao finished off the remaining attackers, he noticed Matcha's laughter. He frowned, and asked:" What happened?" He had deliberately instructed Elizabeth not to conjure and illusions on him so as to avoid any hindrances in his battle.
Matcha ignored Zhao Yao's question and continued laughing. Soon after, Zhao Yao realized something was amiss. Even though the acolytes were still fleeing, their fear had slowly resided, and puzzled faces appeared in place.
"Emoticons?" "Who uses emoticons in hell?"
"There's nothing special about this Devil."
"Get lost!" Zhao Yao lifted his eyebrows, and with a flicker, he appeared in front of everyone.
Watching the fiery-winged emoticon speeding towards them, the remaining acolytes screamed as they fled from the hall. What was left was the tied-up holy priest and a dazzled Bai Quan.
Fear and shock filled the eyes of the holy priest. Bai Quan, on the other hand, continued staring at Zhao Yao in confusion. From his eyes, a mix of emotions began stirring. Fear, amazement, and a hint of admiration gradually surfaced…
"So those emoticons are actually the Devil's expressions? "
After he had taken care of all the acolytes, Zhao Yao made Elizabeth retract her power. He walked to the holy priest and asked:" Alright, tell me. Your ability to turn invisible…". Suddenly, he stopped. Zhao Yao spotted lumps of cat fur on the holy priest's pants. He raised his eyebrows and asked, "Do you own a cat?"