The Witch Hunter System

With the black pillar standing between Pangea and Gehenna, only those who could withstand the gravitational pressure could travel between the realms.

Only the strongest beings were granted passage, no matter how big the opening.

At the very least, that would continue to be the case as long as the black pillar wasn't destroyed or the crimson light domain didn't expand.

Vaan was quite confident in the sturdiness of the black pillar. But after learning about the Asura Law, he was not so much anymore. Whether Abaddon could destroy the black pillar remained to be seen.

However, based on his estimate, he had about thirty minutes until the small shifts in the black pillar left a slight opening of the crimson light domain, connecting the two realms.

'Half an hour… What can I do to increase our chances of survival and victory?' Vaan mused.

Although Hecate had warned him not to face Abaddon, he had no choice but to do so. There wasn't a single person on their side who could stand up to Abaddon's power.

He was aware that abandoning the imperial capital and waiting for Hecate's arrival was the most logical choice for survival.

However, he also found it unacceptable.

He had already become everyone's pillar of support. He couldn't disappoint them or abandon them. Thinking back on it, his old self would be quite surprised by his choice; he was living for things other than himself.

Nevertheless, the best future couldn't always be obtained through safe measures, and the best growth could only be found through trials and tribulations.

After a moment, Vaan decided his course of action.

"Thank you for your assistance, Lady Ophelia. However, you should leave this area now. Great Devil Abaddon will most likely descend in another half an hour," Vaan informed.

"What will you do?" Ophelia asked with surprise, vaguely sensing something.

"Whatever I can to buy time until Lady Hecate arrives," Vaan said before turning to Narvim. "I'll be counting on you to keep Lady Ophelia safe, Lord Narvim. She is crucial for keeping in contact with Lady Hecate."

"Understood, Supreme Leader. You can leave that to it," Narvim acknowledged.

Shortly after, Vaan relayed the news of Abaddon's inevitable descent to Emperor Varan, Henrietta, Astoria, and Dragon Lord Astarot and had them withdraw their forces to a safe distance away from the black pillar.

No one knew how the following battle would turn out, but its magnitude would be much greater once Abaddon descended.

"Vaan, if there's no other way, I will borrow my master's power to deal with Abaddon once and for all," Henrietta promised.

Vaan paused before glancing at her with a frown, asking, "And what kind of price do you have to pay for that?"

"…" Henrietta remained silent, unable to answer.

"Don't worry. That time won't come," Vaan calmly smiled and patted Henrietta's shoulders, reassuring her, "I will make sure of it."

On the side, Astoria couldn't help but clench her fist, feeling powerless. She lacked both trump cards and power to help Vaan carry his burdens. She was too weak!

'I need more power!' Astoria cried in her heart.

Rumble…!

The world suddenly shook.

However, it was hard to determine whether it came from the other side of the black pillar or the world itself.

…

After giving the united forces some instructions, Vaan used his remaining time to pay a secret visit to the treasuries of the top families in the imperial capital.

"Stop! You can't be here! This is the private property of the Goldleaf family! Ah, you can't do that! That belongs to the Goldleaf family! Stop, please! The family head will kill me!" a Goldleaf guard protested, knowing he wasn't Vaan's match.

He could only helplessly watch Vaan break into the Goldleaf family's treasury and loot everything seemingly of value.

"Who cares about a treasury when Great Devil Abaddon is about to descend? There won't be anything to protect if we lose this war. Just blame everything on the vampires," Vaan casually stated.

Shortly after he finished looting, he immediately left for the next family treasury that secretly hoarded Deepsea Silver.

In a short ten minutes, the treasury of seventeen top families was quickly plundered, regardless of objections and protests. Coincidently, these seventeen families belonged to Duke Zohar and Duke Gamliel's factions.

Secretly possessing Deepsea Steel was a capital offense.

Thus, once it was exposed, the protest against Vaan quickly turned into a pleading to keep the secret from the emperor.

"I'm plundering your treasury. You're not going to stop me anymore?"

"Hahaha, what plundering? You speak too seriously, Lord Pendragon. We are willing to gift everything to you! Please, by all means, take whatever you want. Hahaha…"

"Then, why are you crying?"

"Crying? No, no, no… These aren't tears of sadness; these are tears of joy! I'm just happy someone is so kind to take such dangerous goods off my hands, hahaha…" a family head said despite looking extremely reluctant to part with everything.

Nevertheless, Vaan accumulated over ten tons of Deepsea Steel, including many more rare minerals, magical plants, and sea monster materials.

"Don't worry. If we win this war against Abaddon, your contributions will be remembered, and you will all be hailed as heroes in the future," Vaan casually stated.

"That's great and all, but… Never mind…" the family head sighed.

…

Time ticked, and eventually, what was bound to come, came.

Boom!

Under another powerful impact, the black pillar tilted again, causing a triangular beam of crimson light from the dimensional crack to emerge on its side.

The path between the two realms had been opened once again, albeit a small one.

Moments later, a dark figure emerged from the opening on the side of the black pillar, blocking some of the crimson light shining through from the other side.

Given the figure's casual movement under the black pillar's suppressive power, Vaan didn't need to guess who it was.

Great Devil Abaddon has descended!

Abaddon swept his studying gaze across the foreign land before him. Due to his high vantage point, he could see much of the imperial capital's southern half.

The mountains of vampire corpses near the foot of the black pillar immediately made him frown.

However, he didn't find it surprising, considering the first and second vampire armies had their path of retreat sealed off.

Swish!

Vaan boldly appeared within Abaddon's line of sight but kept a safe distance between them.

"You're the Soul Master?" Abaddon's frown deepened.