Chapter 657 - 657: A king’s role (part 19)
The Bane Lord couldn’t help but be at disbelief at the feeling he was getting from the blond-haired girl, who shared half of her roots with him.
‘What the hell is that mist, it doesn’t feel like something from Byron’s lineage alone anymore… but there is some of mine mixed into it now as well!’, he screamed in his heart.
That being said, and as much as the Bane Lord was at disbelief, Aslan wasn’t the most surprised due to Reyne’s improve, but a certain girl with half black and half white hair, who was visible only for Daimon’s eyes as of current.
‘Would you look at that, she actually combined “Death” and vitality to create “Life” and not the common positive healing type, but a much more domineering one, as expected of someone with the same talent as me~’, she said, which Daimon raise an eyebrow at the Ivory progenitor.
‘If others heard that happy tone, they would believe it is you the one who awakened such a talent, instead of Reyne’, he jokingly said to which Joanna stuck her tongue at him in response.
‘What, is it bad for someone to be excited after finding out an amazingly talented girl has appeared among their descendants, besides you say that but the one who was the happiest here when that crimson crown appeared was you!’, exclaimed the girl with half black and half white hair, which earned Daimon an accusatory gaze from Eve.
‘Ahem, I know how hard it is for a knight to develop a composed battle aura, and she is making one that will have two different sides, so she deserves this much recognition at least’, said Daimon.
He couldn’t help but feel happy for Reyne now that she has found out her way, even if it was just half of it, that was enough for her to be able to summon her crown at will, and even the ability of her crown has changed onto a much more refined and stronger version of what she obtained when she awakened it.
You might wonder how, if back then she took over the undead that were being controlled by the enemy queen piece, and now she just restrained them, well, the difference lies in the quality of the targets and the one directly on control of them.
This time she sealed the undead under the direct control of a master necromancer such as Aslan, and the targets were elite undead created with some of the most talented enemies that the Lords had killed through the years, and the cost were only a few drops of blood.
But that’s not all, as the Bane Lord was about to find out, Aslan saw the elite reaper and the crusher not getting rid of the restriction even now, so he gritted his teeth and directly called them back into the black coffin.
Luckily for him, the nelapsi girl actually gave him a few seconds of peace, since she was absorbed into the sight of the blood mist which was radiating from her body thanks t the drops of blood which dripped down her hands all the way to her elbows.
It’s not like Reyne is careless or anything like that, she was basking in what remained of the enlightenment she just gained, as every fraction of it counted for the nelapsi girl who had it harder at the time of improving than her sisters due to the complex nature of her talent.
Besides, attacking Reyne was the last of the worries in the mind of the Bane Lord as of current, his train of thought was occupied by trying to understand how come his undead… weren’t returning to the coffin at his order, or more accurately they couldn’t, due to the crimson ethereal chains that appeared around the undead bodies when the coffin tried to retrieve them.
“Right, I forgot to tell you that the name of my crown’s innate ability is “Naught”, which means that your control over them is now null in every aspect, they are of no use for you and have also become a waste of your power”, said the nelapsi girl, as she snapped her fingers.
Now imagine Aslan’s twisted face when he saw those chains extend all the way from the undead to his black coffin, since though invisible, there was a link between them and the coffin, as that was the medium used by Aslan to supply mana to them.
“What the hell is this!”, cursed the Bane Lord, he couldn’t use those undead, and since he couldn’t call them back nor cut the connection between himself and them, they were using up a part of his mana and focus, it was worse than just having them destroyed.
Because with them out, he couldn’t summon other elite undead as of current, just calling the fourth one, in other words the crusher, made him bleed internally, if he tried to call a fifth one, his body might collapse on the spot.
And that was a huge problem, because Reyne once again focused her attention on him, as in she turned into a crimson star that flashed towards the Bane Lord.
“Stop her!”, shouted Aslan as he retreated on the spot, the elite guard and the champion were still ready to fight, so the Bane Lord sent them to intercept the nelapsi girl who fiercely clashed with them.
“Crack!”, Reyne whose body was cladded in crimson flames, clashed with the guard head on, her pretty left hand formed a fist which she used to counter the incoming punch from the elite guard, however unlike before where the elite undead could tie with Reyne, this time there was a clear winner, and to Aslan’s disbelief it was the nelapsi girl.
With that punch, the whole left side of the elite guard’s armor cracked on the spot, as for the champion, he swung his sword at Reyne’s neck, only for it to be… stopped by the nelapsi girl’s bare hand, more accurately she used her right index finger only.
“Clang!”, sparks flew as Reyne’s finger, which was covered in red blood mist stopped the champions sword, that was enough to prove that gaining control over her crown wasn’t the only improve attained by Reyne, the strength of her royal nether battle aura, has gone up a notch.
“Humph!”, with a soft snort, Reyne’s body exploded in crimson flames, which sent both elite undead flying on the spot, and now came something that even Daimon didn’t expect, the nelapsi girl extended her right hand and her flaming lance which was stabbed on the ground not too far from her… moved towards her.
That’s right, she couldn’t make it float yet, but Reyne was starting to show signs of obtaining Will Manipulation, which would put her at the same level as Sarah back when they went to Kerrol, in this aspect.
Feeling Daimon’s gaze on her, the happy nelapsi girl pointed her lance frontwards and the crimson flames burning on it, ignited once again, the blood mist which was concentrated on her forearms and hands, seemed to further intensify her crimson flames.
“Damn it!”, the Bane Lord recognized the sensation coming from Reyne, it was that martial art which vaporized almost all his elite corps on the spot earlier.
“Royal Black Death Elite Corps!”, since he couldn’t call another elite undead, Aslan threw out a whole bunch of elite corps on Reyne’s way, they weren’t the water specialized ones though, since all of them had been destroyed by the nelapsi girl, so it was a random bunch of red, green and yellow armored skeletons.
Still, the Bane Lord realized at the last second that those elite corps weren’t enough to buy him the time he needed, so he called the remaining elite undead he had out and planned to use them as shields, as he saw the crimson light gather at the tip of Reyne’s lance.
“Royal Crimson…”, the pupils of the nelapsi girl who was about to release her martial art, contracted like needles as she felt danger coming at her from every direction, a displeased light shone in her pretty red-green eyes for a moment, but after a second of contemplation, she changed the direction at which her lance was pointing at, from frontwards to upwards.
“Boooom!”, instead of casting her martial art, the nelapsi girl released a large amount of crimson flames, which engulfed her, creating a pilar of flames that reached high into the sky, just in time for countless black arrows to land on said pilar of flames, which resulted in a loud energy explosion.
“Hurry up and come with me you fool!”, Reed who flew past Aslan, shouted as he flashed towards a specific direction, the Bane Lord wanted to curse but he followed right away, their destination was easy to guess, they were aiming for Jasmine, or at least that was the idea.
Unfortunately for them, a certain crazy girl casually appeared out of nowhere, blocking those two from encircling the light princess who was clashing with Byron as of current.
“Now I know why you focused in mind related spells, your acting skills suck~”, mockingly said Sarah, referring to the fact that Reed feigned to be targeting Reyne, when his real plan was to go for Jasmine alongside Aslan.
The Asmadian Lord was thrilled to see the crazy girl following him, because he thought she had fall for his trick, but of course that wasn’t the case, she completely stopped moving after reaching a certain distance from Jasmine’s battlefield, and hid herself to intercept the two Lords on their way back.
Of course, that meant she was too far to help Reyne in case Reed and Aslan teamed against her, but Sarah was sure that her sister in the middle wouldn’t be in immediate danger, even if she were to face two of the three Lords at the same time, not now that her royal nether had advanced and she could use her crown.
The fact that Reed was interrupting her fight, was the origin of the displease Reyne felt, as she knew Sarah shouldn’t have had any trouble stopping him, but any complain she had, disappeared as soon a she realized what was Sarah aiming for, it was for the sake of their younger sister after all.
That being said, she couldn’t help but snort at the amused expression the crazy girl had, knowing that since it regarded Jasmine’s safety, Reyne who normally would have lashed out at her, remained silent.
‘Damn it, Reed!’, cursed the Bane Lord as he saw Reyne flying towards them, being trapped between the nelapsi girl and Sarah was worse than his previous situation after all.
‘Shut up, Byron, the three of them have their damn crowns, it’s now or never!’, shouted the Asmadian Lord in a voice that only the three of them could hear.
‘Idiots can’t even perform an ambush tactic properly’, cursed the Balax Lord in his heart, to then say.
‘Fine, let’s start now’, and with those words, Jasmine’s slash clashed against nothing, because Byron had disappeared from her vicinity.
“Mm?”, the light princess frowned for a second, before she turned into a white bright star that shot itself towards the left side of the throne room, where Reyne was about to arrive at where Sarah was floating.
“Domain!”, Reed and Aslan who were in the middle of the two sisters, suddenly exploded in neon pink and black nether, respectively, creating a large wave of nether, similar to what happened when Reed used the Mind Link, but on a much smaller scale, since it was done with only their nether this time.
In exchange, those two focused on a single target, instead of trying to cover the whole throne room like before, their aim was to drown the nelapsi girl who had gotten closer to them and didn’t have the time to stop herself.
But then, just as Reyne was about to thrust her lance in order to pierce a hole into the incoming tsunami of nether, a white blinding star appeared in front of her, Jasmine who came out of that mass of light mana and nether, pointed her palms frontwards to then say.
“Retribution Fortress!”, following Jasmine’s chant, a light wall which was then reinforced by a layer of white crystal appeared in front of her, blocking the wave of nether that tried to drown her sister and herself, but of course even if it was a double layered defense spell, and with the buffing magical and physical boost Jasmien was still under, the light princess couldn’t stop the byproduct of two Lords summoning their Domains in unison.
“Crack!”, a crack immediately appeared on the white mana and nether wall, however judging by the smile on Jasmine’s pretty face, that’s what she was hoping for, because thanks to the white crystal solid layer, the sole “weakness” that her original spell had, being the fact that the reduced defense means the damage it can take to then convert into an offensive amplified attack, it’s limited, has been reduced.
And thus, the moment the white wall crumbled apart, after blocking more than twice the damage it would have normally been able to, before the second part of the spell came to action, a bright white light came to life.
“Boooom!”, the result was that the nether tsunami created by Reed and Aslan was forcefully divided in half by a white light stream, the final result of her spell was strong enough to affect the combined byproduct of two early stage Archmage’s manifesting their Domains!
And what’s more important, the light princess had created a path so that the three of them could reunite, just in time for Byron’s battle avatar to appear once again on the battlefield, which signaled the end of the initial nether outburst caused by Aslan and Reed.
“I thought they were already using their Domains and Battle Avatar to maintain that armor and armament…”, mumbled Jasmine whose breath was a bit ragged, Retribution Fortress used a lot of mana and she has been using big amounts of it during her fight already, so the light princess naturally finally reached the bottom of her mana reserves.
“That’s the trump card they have kept “hidden” in order to take us down”, said the crazy girl as she gently patted Jasmine’s head, to which Reyne softly snorted.
“It would have been more impactful if they used it before”, she said, making Sarah giggle, to then mockingly smile at the three Lord’s direction.
“Well, it’s not like they didn’t want to, but they couldn’t, after all, this is a last resort which will shorten their already low remaining lifespan, so they had to wait until the last of us had reached the “point” where they would benefit the most if they were to steal our nether power away~”, she disdainfully said.
The three Lords glared at the crazy girl in response, to be honest they expected Sarah who somehow could learn about them, through their nether, to realize what their plan was, since they purposedly dragged the fight, waiting for the moment when the three of them had matured enough to fulfill their roles as sacrifices perfectly.
Originally, it would have sufficed with just Jasmine, since they only needed to recover enough to break into a certain place, but Sarah and Daimon’s appearance forced them to alter their plans.
Then, they were sure they would at least need to also drain Reyne out of her powers in order to fight against the purple haired girl who has turned into a nightmare for them, and with that they would be confident to deal with the masked silver haired youth who radiating the most threatening sensation out of them all.
And now the conditions for their revised plan were all met, so they no longer bothered to save whatever time they had left, not when the way to perfectly recover was in front of them.
“It’s time to reap the benefits of our efforts, don’t screw up this time, Reed”, said the Bane Lord, whose eyes were filled with greed as he glared at the nelapsi girl, using his death nether to “corrupt” the creation of another Lord, took quite the toll on him, in fact he was the one with the lowest remaining time among the Lords.
Which is why he had modified his body, luckily since the concept of his nether is “death”, he didn’t weaken as he approached the end of his existence, unlike what it would have normally happened, after pouring so much of his nether to alter Reyne who originally only had Byron’s nether into her.
“You heard them, there is no need to hold back anymore as well~”, casually said the crazy girl, which made both Jasmine and Reyne smile in response.
“Heavenly Paladin”, for starters, the light princess had used up almost all her mana, which was one of the conditions to enter her strongest state, and so, white light condensed around her, forming a tall and imposing ethereal looking nether armor which covered her from head to toe.
Just like before, Jasmine looked cute in that oversized armor, at least for a second, before a crystal layer was added to it, unlike back at her fight against the enemy queen piece, her armor now covered both energy and physical aspects.
And she isn’t the only one who has improved a technique due to her recent advances, the nelapsi girl tightened her grip on the handle of her lance, then without the need for a wound, the blood red mist flowed out of her hand and was infused on the lance.
“Royal Crimson Lance”, following Reyne’s chant, her lance was cladded in blood red mist, which then lit up in crimson flames, this was the royal version of her crimson lance martial art.
The difference might be of a single word, but the fierce crimson flames which were causing crackling sounds as they burned the death nether in the nearby area around Reyne, made it clear that the nelapsi girl had became incredibly more dangerous than before.
And then last but of course not least, we have the crazy girl, she has been pretty much ahead of her enemy from beginning to end, so Reed was secretly praying to his ancestors that she didn’t have anything special in store for the final clash.
And this time, fortune smiled to the Asmadian Lord, as in Sarah didn’t have any techniques with a stronger impact than her “Nemesis” with which she stole the innate abilities of the three Lords earlier.
However, she did have something she has been preparing for this moment since she used her crown’s ability, let’s not forget that the crazy girl only used the abilities she stole from Byron and Aslan on her sisters, after modifying them, in other words… she hasn’t used the one that was reserved for herself.
“Royal Reinforcement, Mind Flame Demon~”, with a happy voice that didn’t match the resulting hand sized purple flame skull, which manifested next to her, the crazy girl smiled at her sisters to then turn into a purple comet which shot itself towards the Asmadian Lord.
“Royal Black Pleasure Breaking Arrow!”, in response to Sara’s charge, an arrow appeared on Reed’s bow, which he then proposed to shot at the incoming purple comet, but then at the last second and completely against his wishes, the aim of his bow took an interesting change, as in at the last second Reed’s bow was pointed at Aslan.
While the Bane Lord who had sneakily summoned another elite undead, an assassin to be more accurate, actually ordered it to attack Reed from a blind point.
“Booooom!”, the Bane Lord was taken by surprise, but managed to use the elite guard to block the arrow, resulting in a loud explosion which forcefully separated Aslan from the other two Lords.
“Clang!”, the Asmadian Lord on the other hand, used his bow to stop the dagger of the elite assassin, but was sent flying into the distance due to the impact.
“Reed, what the hell are you doing!”, shouted the Bane Lord, to which the Asmadian Lord actually shouted back in response.
“That’s what I want to know, why the hell did you made one of your elite undead attack me!”.
“Huh, what do you mean by that, it was you who shot an arrow at me…”, the Bane Lord’s confused words, were interrupted by Byron who as a third party managed to see what actually happened.
“Enough you two, I don’t know what you saw, but you both were attacked by that purple haired abomination, after she dodged your attacks!”, he said which made both Lords feel a chill running down their backs.
“I’m not good with buffs like little Jas, but luckily weakening enemies can also count as helping your teammates, so I changed this innate ability from causing “unity” to “dissension”, pretty cool right, good luck guessing who will be the next target~”, casually said the crazy girl as she snapped her fingers.
The purple flame skull next to her, once again vanished, while Sarah flew towards Reed who has been separated from the group, leaving her sisters to face their respective opponents.