landbeastnovel Chapter 677 Battle in the Imperial Palace - 02
Chapter 677 Battle in the Imperial Palace - 02
677 battle in the imperial palace - 02
daniel didn't wait, he immediately sinked his mind into his mindscape and use a dark apell card on achilles.
—
card: soul strip
picture: a lich holding a green crystal emitting a dark green aura from the soul within, shining. in front of the lich, a knight lies on the ground, breathless.
rarity: common
type: spell
mana cost: 2 dark, 1 wood, 1 non-element
description:
destroy a target creature. you gain an artifact token named "soul crystal" with "tap: get 1 mana of any element."
flavor text:
"soul is a kind of currency. don't waste them by just killing the host."—archlich thalassar
—
the spell was cast, and dark power erupted from within achilles' body, bursting inside out. achilles didn't even have a chance to scream before his body collapsed to the ground. the mana that burst forth quickly flowed into daniel's hand, materializing as a green crystal.
the abrupt killing spell daniel used startled garret. he hadn't even had the chance to defend himself. how could a spell activate so quickly!?
garret hastily retreated behind the horde of golems. he needed time to cast his own spell. while his magic wasn't as fast as daniel's, he believed it to be far more powerful than the quick-casting spell daniel had just used.
using the golems as a shield, garret began his incantation. he cut his arm to prepare a blood shield, then started crafting a blood blade to strike daniel down.
"wait... a contract like that is possible!?" koyuki exclaimed. "a contract needs to be agreed upon by both parties. the subjects of the ruler wouldn't have consented. it should be impossible to enforce this!"
"it's possible," pride replied. "especially in countries where the people place absolute trust in their ruler or king. for example, in the tessia kingdom, the population is so fanatically loyal to their king that such a contract could work without direct consent."
"but... this guy isn't even the emperor! i recognize him—he's general wang dahui, the right-hand man of crown prince tianhao zhisheng," koyuki objected.
"you saw him wearing imperial robes, right? if i had to guess, this guy must have usurped the throne. or maybe he harbored ambitions but didn't dare act on them until some mage offered him a deal—help him become emperor in exchange for agreeing to the contract. if that's the case, it explains all the chaos we've seen along the way," pride explained.
pride examined the red wooden stake pinning the corpse to the throne once more, using her magic to probe and try to dispel it. however, she was unable to get any readings—an overwhelmingly dark power shielded the stake.
"koyuki, can you use your magic to destroy this? it needs divine power to break its defensive mechanism," pride asked.
koyuki nodded and stepped back. "danny, pride, step back a few more meters. i'll use lightning to try to destroy it," she warned.
heeding her words, the two retreated further. after a few seconds, koyuki raised her hand, and the sound of thunder roared outside. as she lowered her hand, a white-blue bolt of lightning tore through the palace roof and struck wang dahui's body and the red wooden stake.
the first lightning strike had no effect. then came the second strike. this time, the red wooden stake cracked, and the corpse of the usurper emperor was burned to a crisp.
pride quickly inspected the cracked stake and used her magic again, hoping to get a reading. after a few moments, she nodded.
"the contract linked through the emperor's body has been severed. there's no need to worry about the people of the qing empire anymore. but we still need to check the ritual magic circle. right now, we've only cut off the additional mana flow of the person behind this. we need to undo the ritual completely and release the soldiers from the spell," pride said, leading the group toward the palace basement.
they followed the trail of bloodlines etched into the floor, which guided them deeper into the palace. upon reaching the basement, they found a group of hightower mages, with one particularly ominous figure wearing an owl mask. the masked man and his accomplices were fervently praying to higher powers.
"you're late, mr. emberweave! it's over! we've won! this time, magekind will rise, and the mana in the world will return to the levels of the era of the gods!" the man in the owl mask declared with euphoria.
hearing this, daniel frowned. the effort to restore the world's mana to the level of the era of the gods felt eerily familiar to him. but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't pinpoint where this feeling came from.
"have we met before?" daniel asked, leading the group cautiously forward. he aimed to get as close as possible without provoking the mages. daniel could protect himself, but protecting both pride and koyuki at the same time? that was a risk he wasn't willing to take. for now, he chose to observe and assess their capabilities before making any move.
"take a guess, mr. emberweave," the man in the owl mask said in a relaxed tone. he no longer needed to be on guard against daniel—he believed he had already won.
but at that moment, pride's face paled as she sensed something amiss. piecing together the clues from her investigations and the words of the man in the owl mask, a horrifying realization dawned on her.