Azure Scepter

Page 171

In an instant, the earth shook and the ground collapsed. The hundred-meter-thick underground network was completely shattered in less than half a breath. The surging shock wave was like a meteorite crashing into the ocean. Beneath the shock wave, layers of rubble and soil were lifted high and shot out in all directions like ocean waves.

Amidst the continuous explosions, Losevie's right hand disappeared into the crater, and moments later, the giant hand accelerated to its maximum speed before crashing down upon the demon army in the underground mirror city.

As the saying goes, great strength can produce miracles. When strength reaches a certain critical point, even ordinary attacks can be comparable to divine punishment.

Above ground, the scorching shockwaves continued to spread like deep-sea bombs. The trap-like magical rituals that Trier had laid in the sewers were all detonated one after another in the face of the immense force. The power of these magical explosions was no less than that of Losevie's giant hand. Soon, the shockwaves from the explosions turned into terrifying tremors, and everything within a radius of tens of kilometers was engulfed in the tremors. Buildings collapsed beneath the ground towers.

Because Trier had carried out a large-scale evacuation in advance, there were not many casualties, but Saint-Saëns suffered a terrible loss.

Although Losevie's right hand wasn't aimed at Saint Seir on the ground, the aftershocks and intense heat from the explosion alone plunged the marching noble army on Saint Seir's side into complete chaos. Faced with this apocalyptic bombardment, those below the legendary level were utterly powerless to resist, and the already divided nobles were completely terrified.

Some turned and ran, some knelt and wept, and others were simply unaware that their internal organs had been shattered by the shockwave...

Blood-red dust mixed with thick black smoke, screams filled the sky, and for a moment the whole world seemed to be plunged into destruction.

That's just the power of one punch!

In the midst of this cataclysmic chaos, Saint-Ser's previously calm expression vanished completely. His pupils constricted, his breathing became rapid, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl into an increasingly exaggerated smile.

His original plan was to kill this body at the hands of Trier, thus making Trier meet the conditions for "parricide," and then activate the giant ritual array beneath Wirth to curse the other's soul.

Once he successfully curses Trier's soul, he will activate two smaller rituals hidden beneath the giant ritual, pulling Losevie and Trier, who meet the conditions for "parricide," into a soul duel. When Trier finally defeats the exhausted Losevie after overcoming numerous hardships, Trier, who no longer has a physical body, can then calmly enter the duel and complete the final harvest.

However, the premise of his plan seems to be flawed—Lossevier is by no means a lamb to the slaughter, and perhaps Trier's soul cannot defeat Lossevier.

However, this hidden move by Lothaway will certainly not only disrupt her own plans, but Trier's plans will also be greatly affected, and everything will fall into chaos in the face of sudden and massive violence.

However, chaos means possibility. In chaos, the original advantages and disadvantages of the participants will all disappear. In the current situation, all that is left is to adapt to the situation and rely on one's own abilities.

Saint-Sel excitedly rubbed his palm with his thumb; this high-stakes, uncertain game made him so euphoric that he was almost breathless.

The time has come to show my skills.

He turned his head sharply, his bright eyes looking at the young priest beside him—this priest did not serve him; on the contrary, the young priest served only the Vatican itself.

Surrounded by the staggering guards, the young priest was also trembling like a leaf, but he still clung tightly to a brown reliquary.

"Have you determined the location of the Holy Sword?" Saint Seir asked in a light tone.

The young priest paused for a moment, pursed his lips, and then knelt down, reverently placing the reliquary on the ground before opening the clasp.

"Click."

The relic box slowly opened, revealing a silver rod made of mithril in the center of a luxurious deep red velvet cushion. Although the whole world seemed to tremble, the crystal pointer hanging on the silver rod pointed firmly forward. On the far right of the relic box, three small orbs radiating holy light slowly emerged.

“The Holy Sword is right in front of us, three hundred meters away.” The priest’s voice trembled. “Your Grace, Lady Coria should be back soon. You need not worry, the Radiance will protect a devout believer like her.”

Saint-Sel smiled without saying a word, his eyes growing even brighter.

—Kolia is a paladin of the Holy See, accredited by the Holy Avenger's "silent judgment." In earthly wars, this devout fool wielding the Holy Avenger's power might be a decisive trump card, but in this cannibalistic vortex involving the gods, she is merely a pawn to be sacrificed.

Her sole purpose was to die at Trier's hands, carrying the Holy Sword, thus allowing it to fall into his possession. Once the Holy Sword was in Trier's hands, she could use the accompanying reliquary to pinpoint his location.

The last otherworldly servant who served him had already passed away a few minutes ago, which meant that the paladin named Kolia was also definitely dead.

The one holding the holy sword now is Trier.

"By the Radiant Light, Lady Kolia is only two hundred meters away from us now! How can she be so fast?!" the priest exclaimed in astonishment. "Now she's only one hundred and fifty meters away!"

Saint Seir raised his head, his eyes fixed intently on the scene ahead, filled with blood and smoke.

"The time has come to reveal the results of this round of betting," Saint-Ser said with a smile. "I invite you to witness it with me."

"What bet?" the pastor asked, bewildered.

"A bet about divine status and divine office."

As Saint Seir spoke, he took out a pure black magic storage stone.

This is a magic storage stone that Trier gave to Cohen in the past. It contains a "Random Teleportation" spell and a "Heal Fatal Wound" spell. On the outermost side of the magic storage stone is an "Arcane Eye" for monitoring.

"By the grace of the Radiant One, though you are a duke, such words are far too arrogant!" The priest's face turned pale, and his eyes widened suddenly. "Your thinking is simply too... too..."

“Young man, listen carefully. If you survive, this knowledge will be enough for you to be promoted to bishop—to become a saint, all you need is to be a person with divinity, to gather the divine title and the divine office. As long as the conditions are met, even the lowest ghoul can be made a god.” Saint Seir became more and more pleased. “Saints are no different from you. They are just people with greater power.”

"This is typical atheistic thinking!" The pastor's face turned ashen.

Saint Seir laughed and said, "I am the Saint."

“You’re insane! When Lady Coria returns, you arrogant usurper will be punished!” the priest said angrily.

However, at this very moment—

"Duke Cohen, the usurper is ahead of us, he's coming alone..." A messenger rushed up to Saint-Sel.

Saint Seil smiled and said, "Didn't you try to kill him with a crossbow?"

"Everyone who tried died." The messenger's voice trailed off. "By the light above, I cannot describe what I saw. The usurper merely raised his hand, and the next moment all those who shot arrows at him... melted away, like candles."

“Let’s go, we should go see Trier.” Saint-Sel pulled the young priest up and said in a deep voice.

P.S.: I'm back!

Chapter 327 The Underground Showdown (Part 1)

Ten minutes ago, in the underground mirror city.

Blood flowed like a torrent, corpses littered the ground, everywhere was a scene of torn flesh and bodies riddled with crossbow bolts. Decapitated zombies filled the steps before the Golden Palace, blood gushing from their wounds like waves of blood. Broken flagpoles were soaked in pools of blood, and tattered armor lay scattered in the blood, every lock and iron plate riddled with dents and holes, silently testifying to the ferocity of the battle.

Edith stood before the gates of the Golden Palace, atop a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood. The intense stench of blood and the cold, hard texture of the steel armor were all beneath her feet.

“Lossevier is right behind the door. Once we destroy her life box, it will all be over,” she said, turning around.

The fierce battle with the undead continued. The repeated assault tactics of the humans plowed a wedge-shaped gap of blood and iron through the dense undead lines. On every line of engagement in this wedge-shaped gap, the humans and the Asmos who came to their aid were fighting the undead to the death. At this moment, only a dozen or so people remained who had followed Edith to the very end.

"Is there any room for retreat now?" Futia drew her bowstring and casually shot down a lich in the distance. "Don't hesitate."

Edith nodded, then turned around abruptly and cleaved the heavy door in two with a single sword strike.

"boom!"

Dust billowed as boots stepped inside, and the cold glint of a sword shattered the tranquility of the room.

To Edith's surprise, there were no undead guarding behind the door, and the building behind the door was no ordinary structure—

Beneath their feet lay a shallow pool, its azure surface as still as a mirror, stretching out into the distance like a carpet, a welcoming path. The room had no walls; glittering stars surrounded them overhead, their brilliant brilliance creating a galaxy that reflected in the water.

At this moment, they felt as if they were beneath a star waterfall in a vast wilderness, and a sense of grandeur arose spontaneously with the rotation of the stars.

At the edge of this galaxy and water, there stands a throne towering above the stars. The main body of the throne is entirely cast from magnificent mithril, while countless gems, whose names are unknown, are densely inlaid on the armrests. These gems all shimmer with brilliance, even more dazzling than the stars themselves.

High on the throne sat a blue-haired woman dressed in a traditional court dress of Orco. Although they were far apart and she wore a veil, even a fleeting glimpse of her caused the accompanying knights to feel an indescribable amazement, as if the elegant woman whose face they could not see was the material embodiment of the concept of beauty.

At this moment, however, the exceptionally beautiful blue-haired woman was crossing her legs in a very unladylike manner, supporting her cheek with her left hand, yawning as she watched the crowd pouring in, as if the bloody battle outside had nothing to do with her.

"She is the water sprite Fusada. Never look directly into her face, or you'll go blind," Edith said as she quickly walked forward.

The boots stepped on the water, creating ripples that spread outwards in concentric circles; while in the distance, Fusada seemed to awaken from a dream. She slowly sat up, barefoot, her toes lightly touching the water's surface, and ripples spread like a dream across the mirror-like surface.

Ripples and waves meet in the middle of the water's surface, where a raft woven from flowers and twigs sits. Although the water is extremely shallow, barely a thin layer, the raft floats on its surface. Amidst the flowers and twigs lies a heavy, cold iron coffin.

"Finally here, I was so bored—ah, it took about the same time as Losevie predicted, you took a total of six hours." The water sprite Fusada fluttered her cicada wings and flew lightly to the back of the raft. "So, my sweet and soft little Edith, are you really going to be so heartless as to kill your own ancestor?"

Fythia nudged Edith's back with her elbow, indicating that she was charging up her aim, and Edith immediately understood.

"It's a bit too late to seek peace now." Edith gripped the hilt of her sword, round beads of blood slowly dripping down the blade. "You created the blood plague, causing children to lose their fathers, husbands to lose their wives, and people to tear each other apart—countless innocent people have died because of your ambition. From the perspective of justice, any explanation from you vicious and insane villains is utterly futile. For you, there is only one ending: death!"

As Edith's resolute words fell, the inscriptions on the holy sword seemed to resonate with them, and began to shimmer with a cobalt blue light.

“I don’t really want to argue, because what you said is basically correct, but I still have to argue—” Fusada raised her hand, as if she were a student answering a question, “The Blood Plague spell was not invented by me. Saint Seir found it in another world. In order to deal with the possible coming war between the divine kingdoms, Saint Seir needed to harvest a large number of souls to fill the divine kingdoms, so he found this thing—which is why so many clergy in the Church of Radiance support this plan.”

“Nonsense.” Edith glanced at Fythia behind her and, noticing that the latter needed more time to prepare, deliberately retorted, “Trill told me that the death of believers due to the plague would only reduce the information pressure on Losevie. Wouldn’t Saint Sel be committing suicide by doing that?”

“Planning is planning, and execution is execution. Lothaway and I interfered in his planning and preparation stages, so his entire operation was a disaster from the very beginning.” Fusada’s eyes lit up. “No matter how good the initial intention and plan are, they will become absurd over time. Isn’t that interesting? Unexpected events and uncertainties are the source of what makes this world so interesting.”

Suddenly, Futia released the bowstring.

A muffled roar like thunder suddenly shattered the silence, and the spiraling airflow pulverized the sound barrier layer by layer like a meat grinder. The arrow, with its blinding silver light mixed with blue tail flames, pierced towards the jubilant water sprite like a burning comet with a swaying tail flame.

The exploding sound barrier cloud crashed into the shallow water, creating towering waves, but before the water curtain could rise, it was instantly evaporated by the intense heat.

The arrow was so fast that even though Fusada was prepared, she couldn't react at all!

Almost simultaneously, Edith also suddenly raised her hand, unleashing a Holy Sword-enhanced version of the Holy Slash towards the smiling water sprite in the distance.

In terms of destructive power alone, the combined attack of the two, enhanced by Noi's divine magic, is no less powerful than Bitriel's Nine-Ring Holy Slash!

Suddenly, the water sprite's reflection in the water stood up abruptly, transforming into a streak of light and an illusory human figure. The figure casually grabbed a branch from the raft and then delivered a seemingly slow but actually swift diagonal slash towards itself.

"boom!"

The light arrow, trailing a terrifying flame, exploded with a deafening roar. The impact force, comparable to that of a meteorite strike, shattered into two pieces and then floated helplessly on the water's surface.

The next moment, the figure casually twirled the branch in his hand and thrust it at the overwhelming Holy Slash. The raging white holy flames turned into harmless sparks like glass suddenly shattering!

Amidst the orange-red sparks, the figure slowly lowered her left arm, revealing her face—though her form was ethereal, one could still see that she had soft gray hair and emerald green eyes.

Judging from her appearance alone, she looks at least nine-tenths like Edith. If it weren't for their very different temperaments, the two would even look exactly alike!

Although she destroyed Edith and Feudia's offensive with a single slash and thrust, Losevie did not advance further. She simply stood quietly on the water, staring at Edith expressionlessly.

"Thanks, Losevie." The water sprite stuck out her tongue.

She snapped her fingers, conjuring a slender fairy wand, and then, like a magician on stage, said in an exaggerated tone, "Ta-da! You didn't expect this, did you? Here, my lover can move with her soul! However, she is not omnipotent; she cannot cross her own coffin. So, little Edith, do you really want to kill these two poor, helpless ancestors before you?"

PS: Only one update today, two updates tomorrow.

Chapter 328 The Underground Showdown (Part Two)

Although the water sprite said that Losewey would not cross the coffin, the Asmo warriors present were still gripped by extreme terror—they were all survivors of the night of Eraf's massacre, and they knew Losewey's horror all too well. Now, facing the blade again, these celestial beings trembled.

Panic spread, and trembling and unease spread like a contagious disease. The human knights who had fought alongside Asmo also realized the gravity of the situation from their comrade's unusual behavior.

Fusada fluttered her cicada wings, sat on the iron coffin, and looked at the trembling people with a smile.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you coming up?" She reached out and rested her chin on her hand, feigning a thoughtful expression. "Eh~ are you scared?"

No one responded. With the appearance of Losevie's soul, a suffocating silence filled the space like a giant hand choking people, and the silence seemed to confirm the water sprite's mockery.

But at that very moment, Edith stepped forward, dragging her sword, its blade slicing through the water and creating wedge-shaped ripples. Her emerald eyes reflected the scattering water and the glow of the holy sword.

Fythia reached out in surprise, trying to grab her best friend's back: "Calm down, Edith, wait a bit longer. What are you going to do now that the main force is here?"

“They want my body,” Edith replied softly, but the barely audible answer seemed irrelevant.

"Huh? Little Edith, are you giving up?" The water sprite tilted her head and swung her legs. "But if you give up, Trier will probably be very sad."

Edith kept her head down and didn't say a word, but she walked faster and faster, gripping the sword hilt tighter and tighter, and the ripples on the water became more and more fragmented.

—She's drawing her sword and gathering her strength!

Suddenly, Losevie grabbed the water sprite by the back of the neck and pulled her behind her: "Back off!"

Almost the instant Lothaway spoke, Edith vanished from her spot. The next moment, the blade, carrying a chilling gust of wind, slammed into the spot where the water sprite had just been sitting, exploding into a shower of scorching sparks!

"If you want it, then come and take it yourself!" Edith roared. "Come on!"

Without hesitation, she kicked over her ancestor's coffin and ran towards Lothaway, who was right in front of her.

At this moment, because she was too close to Losevie, hot blood was gushing from every pore of Edith's body. Indescribable pain, like flames, shot through her spinal cord and pierced her brain. A terrifying tearing sensation ravaged every muscle fiber and every inch of her skin.

However, at this moment, although Edith was covered in blood, her eyes, which were filled with ferocious bloodshot veins, were full of murderous intent.

The world before my eyes was now a blood-red mess, and every burst of intense pain exploded into a boiling killing intent—kill! kill! kill! kill! kill! kill!

As Edith pressed closer, Losevie's previously solid figure suddenly fluctuated violently, as if a full-scale projection had been subjected to strong interference, and she abruptly covered her head.

Edith flicked her wrist, and the sword's edge transformed into a dazzling silver light, delivering a ruthless and unreserved thrust straight towards Lothaway's face!

With his mind distracted, the strike was quite crude, the distance was completely wrong, and the force was not consistent. Even from a beginner's perspective, this unreserved thrust seemed somewhat clumsy.

However, Losevie's mind was also strongly disturbed. Unlike the one-sided advantage she had with Eraf, Losevie was now unable to suppress Edith, whose mind had grown further, from the realm of the soul. Edith's emotions and memories flooded into her soul like a flood, while her past martial arts knowledge, desires, and resentments also surged back towards Edith!

In a daze, Lorse managed to take a step and twist her waist at the last moment, using a tree branch to deflect the opponent's thrust, but the blade of the holy sword still grazed her cheek.

Despite being covered in blood, Edith continued to relentlessly close in on Losevie, who, at this moment, completely abandoned any intention to create distance and charged at him as well!

Under their mutual influence, Edith's swordsmanship improved rapidly. The moment they clashed, the battle immediately entered a fierce stage. On the water's surface, the two engaged in a high-intensity offensive and defensive exchange that was barely perceptible to the naked eye, moving with incredible speed and agility. Sword lights flashed by like lightning, and apart from the occasional drop of blood or a burst of sparks, their deadly struggle produced no shockwaves—all their power was concentrated on the blades.

This was not like an ordinary sword duel, but rather a battle between mirror images, a duel of will and soul.

Encouraged by Edith, an Asmo warrior charged forward. However, both sides moved too swiftly and fiercely. He watched for a few seconds but couldn't find an opportunity to intervene. A few seconds later, Losevie dodged a vicious and cunning slash, then quickly passed by the Asmo warrior. The branch, moving at high speed, slammed directly into the man's throat.

The next instant, Losevie released her grip, ducked to avoid the arrow shot by Fythia, reached out and pulled, grabbed the Asmo warrior's short sword, and then pounced on Edith again.

At this moment, Edith was almost literally covered in blood. Due to the close proximity and the overwhelming flow of information, her entire left eyeball had completely exploded, leaving a bloody mess inside the empty eye socket. But even so, she did not back down at all.

Loseweave was also greatly affected; her soul was at least half thinner, and at this point, she couldn't even unleash the Time Stop Slash.