Azure Scepter

Page 131

Edith's emerald green eyes were staring coldly at him, and Vercingetori inexplicably thought of Trier.

However, having already put the matter to this point, Vercingetori had no choice but to continue speaking despite his reluctance.

“Your father was also a staunch advocate of this matter. He wanted to resurrect his ancestors to bring the kingdom to new heights—you are isolated and in a very dangerous situation.”

“But I will guarantee your safety,” Vercingtoli lied.

"Your Excellency Trier has been very kind to me in the past, and I am a person who is happy to repay you, so I will stop Laurence from taking over your body no matter what."

At this point, Vercingetori, like a selfless saint, stretched out his arms and opened his chest.

“Your Highness, if you think I am guilty, if you insist on going against Livitt’s own will, then come on, I am willing to die.”

Edith sighed almost imperceptibly, then asked softly.

"You are the protector behind the Silent Whisper Society, and you were the one who released the blood plague, right?"

Vercingetori paused for a moment, his thoughts racing. When he noticed the Realm of Honesty around him, he managed a weak smile.

"Those... were all necessary costs."

"Haha." Edith suddenly laughed with relief.

The next moment, she said coldly, "You really deserve to die."

She suddenly raised the holy sword in her hand and slashed straight at Vercingetorius's face.

Chapter 256, Second Part: Token of Love, Nothing Left, The Deathly Knight

Before the blade even arrived, the air in front of it had already piled up in layers, turning into a raging wave.

The violent airflow whipped Vercingetorli's dry hair into the wind, and his gaunt face trembled violently as if it were a dough being kneaded flat.

"boom!"

The next instant, the violent blade crashed straight into an invisible golden shield. A sharp sonic boom, accompanied by a scorching white shockwave, suddenly exploded in all directions, shattering the remaining glass dome and scattering glass shards like raindrops.

The scorching sonic boom cloud slowly dissipated, while Vercingetorius remained unharmed.

“You’re really stubborn,” Vercingtorli said with a chuckle. “Little Edith, you don’t actually think I’d stand right in front of you without any defenses, do you?”

"This cold and cruel world is not suitable for naive people to live in, Edith, you have always been a naive fool."

He slowly raised the scepter.

Edith's gaze sharpened slightly, and she shook her head.

“You’re really naive, Vercingetorius. Of course, I don’t expect to kill you with one sword.”

At this point, she reached out and took out a magic storage stone covered in cracks.

This was a token of love that Trier had given her a few weeks ago, containing a "dispelling spell".

The "Iolum Longevity Spell" used by Vichingtori to prolong his life is a magical state. Once the spell is dispelled by a caster of a sufficiently high level, he will die instantly.

Vercingetori's calm and composed expression suddenly changed. His eyes widened abruptly, and a series of complex expressions appeared on his withered and emaciated face—first disdain, then confusion, then anger, then fear, and finally a hint of pleading.

“You will kill everyone, Edith, this city will die because of you,” Vercingtorli cursed. “Your impulsiveness and naivety have ruined everything.”

"Let's wait and see."

Having said that, Edith loosened her hand, and the black powder of the storage stone immediately drifted out through her fingers, while the black ash drifted away like dandelion seeds in the wind.

The ground was covered with thousands of shards of glass, the cracks reflecting a holy light like a funhouse mirror, highlighting Vercingetorius's withered and dehydrated eyes.

The next moment, the new pope of the Church of Radiance fell silently to the ground, and the instant he touched the ground, his withered flesh and bones turned into dust carrying negative energy and a putrid stench.

"Bang." The golden scepter struck the crown, the dull sound echoing throughout the domed hall, and a foul, muddy stench emanated from the wide priest's robes.

"Vicington is dead?" Fyodor covered her mouth in disbelief.

Edith didn't speak. She quickly walked to the foot of Levitt and pulled the mechanical device binding her.

At that moment, the unnatural emptiness in her heart reached its peak—she had completely broken her vow; she was no longer a paladin.

But at the same time, Edith felt a sense of exhilaration from the bottom of her heart. The confusion, depression and anger that had been pressing on her heart for a long time seemed to have been dispersed with the powder of the storage stone.

The holy sword, which had been radiating a pure white light, had now lost all its brilliance.

Only a paladin can unleash the true power of the Holy Avenger.

“Your Highness…” Livitt said timidly.

“There’s nothing, Your Highness. I’ve been stripped of my title as Crown Prince.” Edith’s eyes were lowered. “Hurry up and leave, or it will be too late.”

Livitt stood on tiptoe, reached out, and gently ruffled Edith's blood-stained gray hair.

“You and Alex are both true paladins, thank you.”

“I am no longer a paladin,” Edith laughed self-deprecatingly. “Even my name no longer belongs to me.”

As she spoke, she handed the wounded Livitt to Feudia, who was on horseback.

Feudia gently caught Livitt, then took out first aid supplies from her deerskin bag and quickly treated the shocking wounds on her body.

"What else do you have?" Levitt hesitated for a moment, then asked in a low voice.

Edith picked up the papal scepter and crown from the ground and then strode towards Pegasus Nina.

“I still have peace—at least I haven’t broken my vow.” Edith’s answer was without the slightest hesitation.

However, just as she was about to mount the horse, the celestial horse suddenly disappeared!

Both Feudia and Livitt fell to the ground.

It's the art of banishment!

Edith's pupils contracted as she looked up at the dome above her head.

Above the vast, domed opening, an otherworldly divine servant clad in heavy golden armor glared down at the scene below, his face ashen. He held a massive, flaming sword and appeared extremely furious.

"An angel?!" Futia exclaimed in surprise, so shocked that she even forgot to stand up.

“You have made me fail in my duty, Oathbreaker,” the otherworldly messenger said coldly. “You despicable and shameless madman, how dare you attempt to assassinate the Pope!”

Edith gripped the hilt of her sword and stood firmly in front of Feudia and Livitt without backing down.

“Vicington is the despicable and shameless madman. I was merely fulfilling my vow—why are you the one who stood by and watched evil grow stronger?”

"Absurd!" The otherworldly divine servant, as if a cat had been stepped on, instantly flew into a rage. "Order is order!"

“Then you should go find the devil,” Edith retorted without hesitation. “Get out of my way.”

The otherworldly attendant suddenly fell silent. He stared coldly at Edith for a few seconds, then surprisingly nodded.

As the holy light flashed, the otherworldly divine servant directly exiled himself.

However, before Edith could even catch her breath, the hall door was violently kicked open!

A large group of tall, humanoid figures draped in black robes rushed in.

Through the tattered cloaks covered in blood-red mold, Edith saw decaying gauntlets beneath the cloaks, and withered flesh exuding a strong aura of negative energy. Each of these withered hands tightly gripped an exquisitely crafted rune sword.

“The Death Knight?” Edith was stunned.

Why are there so many high-ranking undead around Vercingetor?!

Even if he is the actual controller of the Silent Whisper Society, such a large number of Death Tomb Knights is still quite terrifying.

Edith instinctively gripped the holy sword in her hand, wanting to unleash the Holy Slash. However, after a moment, she realized that she was no longer a paladin.

"Bang!" Livitt raised her hand and fired a fire arrow at the group of Tomb Knights, but before it could get close, the fire arrow was annihilated by the dense negative energy around them.

The flaming arrows seemed to be a signal. The next moment, at least twenty Death Knights suddenly stopped in their tracks, and then at least ten "Death Finger" arrows flew straight toward Edith.

These Tomb Knights can actually cast spells!

A flash of dark red lightning disappeared in an instant.

There is no way to avoid it!

"boom!"

Just as she was about to be hit, Edith suddenly felt a tremendous force behind her, and she fell backward. The next moment, a cold and deadly spell bombarded her head by a narrow margin.

—Fodia saved her life.

"boom!"

Twenty Deadly Finger shots struck the solid stone wall behind Edith.

A piercing shockwave rapidly expanded outwards, and within a fraction of a breath, the entire stone wall shattered into a pile of rubble. A foul-smelling and scalding gale violently erupted, and the rubble flew in all directions like a crossbow bolt!

As the load-bearing walls were blown apart, the entire hall groaned under the weight of the explosion, and the magnificent glass dome slowly collapsed.

"Go this way!"

As she shouted, Futia clenched her fists, pushed off the ground, and threw a powerful punch at the wall beside her.

"boom!"

The wall cracked, and rubble flew everywhere. The load-bearing wall, which was tens of meters high, was punched through by Futia!

Edith and Livitt stared at the elf in disbelief.

As the second load-bearing wall was shattered, the entire hall swayed like a drunken giant, and in an instant, the vaulted ceiling, glass windows, and rubble reliefs all crashed down mixed with dust.

With one hand holding Livitt and the other pulling Edith, Futia stomped on a crack in the wall and then jumped through a large hole in the load-bearing wall into another room.

"boom!"

The deerskin boots stomped on the floor, splashing up a pool of putrid blood.

Fatiya nervously looked up and scanned her surroundings, then realized that it seemed to be a dark room.

With the elf's dim vision, she spotted a strange device in the corner of the building. It was a wheelchair-like device with a complex gear system supporting the upper slide, from which hung countless threads, and below the threads hung a limbless half-human figure.

The half-human figure was completely naked, and the blood vessels on the severed limbs were clearly visible.

Fatiah felt a little nauseous, but her long life of killing made her suppress the urge to vomit.

Without a doubt, this was Vercingetori's "little hobby," and Vercingetori was simply an incomparably evil, hypocritical, and perverted man.

"Ugh—" Seemingly upon seeing the terrifying instrument, Levitt suddenly vomited.

The next moment, the half-human being suspended from the instrument slowly raised its head.

—The halfling's eyes were gouged out, and her eyes were bound with the same black ribbons as her sister Futia's.

The halfling's nose twitched slightly.

“You are… friends of Lord Trier? I can smell his scent.”

The halfling's voice was beautiful, like the dying lament of a nightingale impaled on thorns by a shrike.

Just as Futia was about to answer, a series of heavy, rapid footsteps sounded behind her.

The Death Knights are coming after us!

The halfling's expression suddenly changed, and she immediately said, "There's a secret passage under the instrument! Quick, let's go there!"

Following the halfling's description, Futia looked down at the ground and indeed saw a pipe leading to the outside world.

Fatiya hesitated.

Should we really trust this halfling?

Perhaps breaking through the wall and running away would be a better option?

"Who are you? Why are you helping us?" the princess asked.

“I was imprisoned here by Vercingetorius.” The halfling shook his head painfully. “The reason I helped you is simple: in my long and painful life, Lord Trier is the only one who has ever helped me—hurry up, stop talking nonsense, those monsters are intelligent, they can understand us!”

The next moment, three heavy footsteps suddenly came from outside the building, startling Futia, whose pointed ears perked up.

—It was the Shadowsteel Golem she had seen a few months ago!

Those Shadowsteel Golems are very powerful and cannot be dealt with in a short time. Once you are entangled by the Shadowsteel Golems, those ridiculously strong Death Tomb Knights will swarm up.

The only way out was through the secret passage provided by the halflings.

"Then what are you going to do?" Edith hesitated for a moment before asking.

The halfling dancer gave a smile that was a mixture of relief and sorrow.

"Like a puppet that has lost its master, accept its fate of being destroyed."

Chapter 257 Epilogue: Escape, Conflict, and the Appearance