Chapter 673: Real and Fake Elders

"You..."

The furious Princess still wanted to argue back, but was rewarded with another kick from Loren that sent her sprawling.

"Cut the nonsense. Get those cowardly elders to crawl out here. They sent you to die, you know that?"

"Die!"

The Princess, her reason completely drowned by rage, drew that terrifyingly powerful Merfolk Sword.

From this brief exchange, Loren had roughly pieced things together. This princess clearly didn't get along with Melody, and after losing the competition for the position of Merfolk Princess to her, had been nursing a grudge ever since. Later, when Melody actually succeeded in finding Loren, the elders grew wary and stripped Melody of her title as princess. Only then did this one become Princess.

She had obtained her position illegitimately, which was why she couldn't tolerate anyone mentioning Melody.

The Merfolk Princess was the public leader of the merfolk race, chosen by the Perpetual Observer's pendant. No one else had the right to make that choice.

The Princess swung the Merfolk Sword. This blade's power was extraordinarily terrifying. Previously, when Melody had given it a casual wave, it had cleaved a pirate ship in two.

But before the current Loren, this sword was nothing impressive, especially when wielded by a fraud.

Loren stomped the Princess's sword-wielding hand into the ground and twisted it a few times. The Princess let out a heart-wrenching scream of agony.

He then picked up the fallen Merfolk Sword and casually tossed it to Korali, who fumbled frantically before managing to catch it.

She knew exactly what this sword represented. Never in her life had she imagined she would one day hold this blade.

Loren grabbed the Princess by her hair and yanked her up, asking:

"What's your name?"

By now the Princess was thoroughly terrified out of her wits. Whatever Loren asked, she answered:

"My name is Crystal..."

"Alright, Crystal. Tell me, where are those elders hiding?"

Loren still had Crystal by the hair, sweeping her gaze across the royal palace.

"No need. We've come out."

Just as Loren finished speaking, several elderly merfolk emerged from a hidden door. They had been watching everything from the start.

"Are you the real elders?"

Even after these merfolk appeared, Loren didn't believe them immediately. He probed further.

"Yes... they're the ones who pushed me up to become Merfolk Princess..."

Before the elderly merfolk could speak, Crystal blurted out hastily.

She was telling the truth.

But Loren didn't quite believe it. He didn't think these old hags had the guts to meet him face to face.

The lie-detection ability was based on the speaker's own judgment. It showed Crystal was telling the truth, but that was simply because Crystal believed these people were the elders. It didn't mean they actually were.

"I was asking these old hags."

Loren casually slapped Crystal across the face, shutting her up.

"No, I should call you little things. When I was teaching the Dawn Princess, your ancestors hadn't even been born yet.

"Unfortunately, it seems today I might have to watch the young die before the old."

"We are the elders of the merfolk race, the true rulers here."

As those elderly merfolk spoke, Loren confirmed they were lying.

They were fake elders.

"Sometimes I really can't figure you little things out. Call you stupid, yet you come up with all these smoke screens, push out a Merfolk Princess as a puppet, make your own body doubles, all just to keep yourselves safer.

"Call you clever, yet you actually thought you could fool me with a trick like this. Do you still remember what my authority is?"

Loren swept his gaze over them. These people's combat strength probably wasn't weak, otherwise they would have been knocked unconscious by the Requiem long ago.

"Arrogance! You..."

One of the fake elders loudly berated Loren. She wanted to continue cursing him, but discovered she couldn't make a sound. Then she saw her own body, and Loren sheathing his blade.

"You are too presumptuous. I hereby sentence you to Blasphemy. Death penalty, to be carried out immediately."

Loren's patience had limits. He hadn't killed anyone so far, but that didn't mean he wouldn't now.

Besides, these few before him were most likely useless to Loren. They answered to those real elders. It was unlikely they would ever offer Loren their loyalty.

Someone suddenly dying right before her eyes startled Korali badly. She instinctively moved closer to Loren, completely unaware that Loren was the one who had done the killing.

A elder suddenly dead, yet the other merfolk weren't particularly surprised. They had probably known they would die when they came to meet Loren.

They weren't ordinary body doubles. They were deathsworn.

That being the case, Loren had even fewer qualms about killing them.

"Korali, you abandoned your faith, escaped prison, colluded with a human, killed an elder... Do you know how deep your sins run? Your family will be implicated as well."

"I..."

Being suddenly singled out startled Korali, and worry immediately set in.

Unlike the others, she had a mother. This made even Loren dazed for a moment.

In this world, mothers were rare too.

"A bunch of death row inmates have no right to judge others."

Loren swung his blade a few more times, cutting down the rest of them. Even to the end, they didn't retreat a single step.

They no longer counted as independent people.

"Lord Observer..."

Korali was worried, and Loren promptly placed his hand on her hair:

"Don't worry. After today, all of Atlantis will be ours. You can be an elder."

Just as Loren and Korali were talking, blood from those corpses kept flowing out, eventually forming an Altar on the ground. It then began to glow.

"Lord Observer!"

Seeing this, Korali hurriedly warned Loren, but Loren was not alarmed in the slightest:

"It's fine. I don't know how many times I've dealt with tricks like this. I was prepared."

Loren snapped his fingers. The next moment, the ritual was covered by shadow and ground to a halt.

"Lord Observer, I've caught the ones controlling the ritual."

At that moment, Reflection Naclis suddenly emerged from the shadows, several people bound in shadow tendrils.

When he had first entered, Loren sensed something was off, so he had secretly sent Reflection Naclis to capture the culprits and disrupt the ritual.

"So you're the real elders?"

Loren walked up to one of the captives and asked.

This merfolk was very young, looking flustered.

"We're really not elders. We were just following the elders' orders to control the ritual..."

That was a lie.

"Never mind 'you all.' I'm asking you. Are you an elder?"

This young merfolk was considerably stronger than the others. Loren could sense it, so his follow-up questions became more pointed.

"No..."

That was a lie.

Which meant she was an elder. Even Korali couldn't help but exclaim:

"How could an elder be this young..."

Hearing Korali's words, Loren suddenly understood something. He asked:

"Are the ones who normally show their faces all those body double elders?"

"Yes... the ones people see are all them..."

"Then this is easy..."

Loren snapped his fingers, and the fake elders he had killed suddenly came back to life. It had been a long time since Loren had used necromancy.

"And here I was worried I'd need to kill a lot of people to make everyone believe me..."