The impact from the Star of Goliath clearly shook Montaigne's mind. His movements slowed a beat, letting David's sneak attack succeed.
But without one hand, he still had a leg that could move.
Montaigne raised a whip kick, sweeping David's waist and sending him flying again.
"That red arm of yours with the greatest power can't be used continuously in a short time, right?"
He grinned, and while kicking David away, raised his severed arm and unhesitatingly stabbed toward his own eye socket.
He was going to use the sharp bone spike on his stump to commit suicide!
Smack!
The pale Heretic's Arm extended out, grabbing Montaigne's thigh. The flying David pulled himself back!
[Heretic's Arm III: Can consume 80 psychic energy or life energy to activate ability "Touch of Folly," cooldown: 3 minutes.]
During that year, David had upgraded the Heretic's Arm to level three by occasionally hunting cultists in the viscounty, shortening its cooldown again. Montaigne's two attacks were separated by over ten minutes—the arm had long finished cooling down.
But this arm could only control Montaigne for a brief 1 second!
David, pulling himself back, grabbed Montaigne's arm. The instant the Touch of Folly's effect ended, he activated the Hand of Monster again, one claw severing Montaigne's leg!
The Undying was still flesh and blood after all. With his saw blade trapped by the life force field, he simply couldn't stop David's monster claw.
The seemingly cornered Montaigne let out a beast-like roar the instant he regained consciousness. A terrible mysterious force suddenly erupted from within his body.
David didn't care and swung the Hand of Monster again, wanting to tear his arm off completely.
However, a layer of black and white flames suddenly ignited from Montaigne's body. The Hand of Monster touching the flames involuntarily shrank back.
The terrifying death force made David feel like he'd fallen into an ice cave, as if his soul was being burned, incredibly painful. He had to let go of the opponent.
Death flames!
From the fifth-tier death ritual—the Death Goddess's Gaze!
The Undying Montaigne's entire body ignited with dark flames. His severed leg and hand reappeared in the black flames, perfectly intact—that wasn't resurrection, but directly returning to a perfect state.
Like the deity personally returned his hands and feet...
But in David's eyes, the opponent had fallen into a strange state.
The health bar representing life energy kept flashing, just like a roller coaster. It almost instantly emptied completely, then suddenly refilled the next instant, then emptied again... continuously cycling rapidly.
Montaigne's mouth let out screams. He seemed to have similarly fallen into the pain of being burned by death flames—actually, each time the health bar emptied meant he'd died once. In just this short while, he'd already died over a dozen times!
You could see how terrifyingly powerful this divine flame was. They could even ignite the life force field released by the Star of Goliath, forcibly burning through that layer of light protecting the prince!
Montaigne roared in pain. The black flames that devoured wielder and victim alike made him nearly lose his reason, his heart filled only with craving and obsession for that gem.
He struggled to extend his black-flame-wrapped hand and grabbed the Star of Goliath on the prince's chest.
The black flames were about to lick the prince's body.
A mortal body before this kind of flame might not even last a second before completely turning to ashes...
David rushed over fiercely and tackled the burning Montaigne against the carriage's side wall.
In such intimate contact, the flames quickly wrapped around David's body, burning away over ten thousand life energy in the blink of an eye.
David gritted his teeth and endured the pain of his soul burning, summoning the monster claw to punch Montaigne's chest.
Tremendous force penetrated the carriage's side wall. The steel plate was blasted with a huge hole. The black-flame-burning Montaigne fell out and rolled into the fog.
Breaking free from the death flames, David immediately breathed a sigh of relief. His remaining health of two hundred and eighty thousand had been burned down by half in that short time.
So this was the power a fifth-tier hunter wielded...
David sat down gasping, turning back to look at Prince Roland who'd also fallen to the ground.
Only then did the royal guards from the front and rear carriages rush in panicking. They frantically tried to help the prince up, but were driven away by Roland again.
David looked at the prince's now-empty neck and the half-broken necklace in his hand, his face darkening.
Montaigne had seized the moment when the flames broke through the life force field, ripped off the Star of Goliath and taken it away. The prince had now lost the forbidden object's protection, and he hadn't been able to keep the enemy...
There was no more chance.
"Don't worry. I think he won't come back."
Roland looked at him relaxedly with a smile.
"Why?" David didn't understand.
"He was only after the forbidden object... The death flames' burning won't disappear in a short time. The current Undying is far from his peak state. He doesn't have the energy to chase us anymore."
"Could it be... you deliberately gave him the gem?" David suddenly widened his eyes, somewhat incredulous.
Roland neither confirmed nor denied, looking up at the fog outside the carriage showing signs of receding.
"...Only by forcing out his flames could we escape him... For that, what does losing a forbidden object matter? Those fools who released him will taste the flavor of sowing the seeds of their own destruction... Compared to me, this insignificant mortal, Montaigne hates even more those who imprisoned him in the death prison."
David nodded thoughtfully. After recovering from the burning pain, he barely stood up and extended his hand to Prince Roland. "Your Highness's wisdom and magnanimity impress me."
Roland smiled and grasped his palm. "This has nothing to do with magnanimity. Though I lost the Star of Goliath, I gained you."
David suddenly felt that Prince Roland's hand seemed very soft. This made his heart stir. Looking at Roland's eyes, he found the gaze looking at him was flashing with inexplicable light.
What shocked him was that Roland's facial features were actually slowly changing.
Those azure eyes were getting larger and rounder. The handsome face shape was gradually becoming soft and beautiful. The smooth golden hair fell down, seemingly becoming much lighter.
Most obviously, when David pulled him up, he found his body had become very light. The originally upright figure was shrinking, becoming much more "delicate." That well-fitted outfit was also slowly loosening.
Conversely, his chest was slightly swelling...
He... she?
What happened???
David was stunned. He stared blankly at the "prince" who was turning into a beautiful woman, so shocked he forgot to breathe.
"You... aren't Prince Roland?"
"I am Roland."
The golden-haired, blue-eyed woman smiled calmly and said in an already-changed pleasant female voice: "I am Roland O'Brien Goliath."
"You... aren't a prince?"
"I can be."
Roland ignored David's complex gaze, turned to take a large black cloak from the rack, draped it over herself, concealing her female appearance.
"I mentioned before that wearing the Star of Goliath has side effects."
David opened his mouth wide, his mind arriving at that absurd answer... A forbidden object could actually have such a weird side effect???
"The Star of Duality has two side effects. One is permanently distorting some desire in the wearer's mind. Two is temporarily distorting part of the wearer's physical characteristics."
She sat back on the sofa, crossed her long legs, and said amusedly: "To protect me, my father, the Emperor had me wear the Star of Goliath since childhood. Then I discovered I'd become male... This is a royal secret that not many people know."
David suddenly realized he seemed to have discovered an incredible secret, the kind where you could easily be silenced after knowing it.
But Roland didn't seem to have any intention of silencing him.
He suddenly really wanted to ask what exactly the Star of Goliath's other side effect had distorted in her... But looking at the prince's (princess's?) meaningful smile, he finally chose to shut his mouth.
David already understood what Roland meant by "gaining him."
David Frank, who could use his body to block a fifth-tier fallen hunter's blood bullet, was undoubtedly far more promising than a mere forbidden object.
Plus, he already knew the prince's secret... Roland wouldn't worry at all about him revealing this secret. On the contrary, as long as he didn't want to die, he had to keep this secret and firmly bind himself to the "Fourth Prince's" chariot.
Until the day Roland became Emperor of the Goliath Empire.
But could a "prince" whose true body was a princess really sit in that position?
A female emperor?
David swallowed, forcibly closing his eyes that the Watcher pestered, making him unable to control.
Roland paid no attention to David's bizarre gaze. This extraordinarily wise Highness was already thinking about other things, including how to retaliate against her dear brothers after returning to the capital.
Perhaps she really could sit in that position...