The Record of Unusual Creatures - Chapter 554

Chapter 554: Digging

 

As the scan deepened, more details were revealed as a visual of the subterrain, where the Giant Tree of Life was located, was presented before the crowd.

Although a burned stump was all that remained of the Giant Tree of Life, its underground part was a massive wonder. Its entangled roots reigned the underground world within a radius of nearly 200 km. Unlike the other two mage-emperors, Lorrisa the former Elven-Queen had used a completely different method to suppress the First Born. It seemed that she did not want to hurt the First Born with violence. Instead, she chose a “gentler” method, which befitted her feminine nature: she had created a cage that fused with the First Born.

Vivian carefully observed the visual for a few moments and scratched her chin as she murmured to herself, “Looks like these roots mimic the tentacles of the First Born.”

“Well, they are very close in form.” Hao Ren nodded. “Especially the way they’ve spread and grown. It’s almost a duplicate of the First Born. It seems that Elven Queen Lorrisa had created a creature to mimic the First Born by magic. They’re experts on life; the elves have always been good at this.”

Y’lisabet went up and poked at the holographic projection. Due to the height of the hologram, she could only reach it by jumping. Hao Ren curiously asked her, “What are you doing?”

“Zoom in! Zoom in!” Y’lisabet continued jumping. “I can’t see!”

The MDT was irritated at once. “Who told you that you need to double-click to enlarge?”

Hao Ren placed her two fingers on the display, pinching to zoom in. “What’s there?”

“Look, these roots are all joined together,” said Y’lisabet, pointing a small screwdriver at a spot on the holographic projection. “These roots! You can hardly tell whether they’re roots or tentacles. They’re all connected end to end!”

“Perfect integration.” Vivian grinned. “Obviously, this isn’t a simple imitation. Lorrisa had the ability to physically integrate the artificial life she created with the First Born. She may have very well been the only one among the few mage-emperors who’s found the right path.”

“As in, if you can’t fight them, join them?” Y’zaks shook his head as he crossed his arms. “I really don’t appreciate this strategy. This is something the weak and minorities like to do. However, I have to admit that I used to be badly tossed by such tactics.”

However, regardless if the Giant Tree of Life created by Lorrisa had fused with the First Born or not, it was evidently a failed product as well: even if the route was correct, there was no way to compensate the disparity in absolute strength between them. The Giant Tree of Life was said to have ignited during the catastrophe. The tree crumbled after it burned for several days. This was apparently the result of a counter-attack before the First Born slept. The power of the Giant Tree of Life had failed to defeat the primordial forces of this world. After being eroded by the First Born, the tree was destroyed in a spontaneous combustion.

The engineers completed their scanning of the entire underground world and found enough optimal entry points. The cutters, which resembled spaceships were hovering in their respective positions. They began to hit the marked drilling points on the ground with light beams. At the same time, a cruiser flew directly above the Giant Tree of Life and dropped a gray cylinder down. As the cylinder touched the ground, it quickly drilled and disappeared into the hole as smoke rose up.

“The ‘messenger’ is descending. It’s now descending to the target area of the active brain waves. Three thousand metres to target… two thousand five hundred metres…”

“The messenger has arrived at the set depth. Now releasing the ‘lullaby’ device.”

Hao Ren took out the controller, carefully entered the confirmation code and pressed the Play button.

Some kind of complicated mixed electromagnetic waves immediately leaked out from beneath. The elven engineer who was responsible for monitoring all system operations reported in. “‘Lullaby’ has started playing. Test is underway.”

The ‘lullaby’ device refers to the nerve suppressor manufactured by Hao Ren on his own spacecraft. It is a highly precise and perpetual imitation of the progenitor. Before First Born was moved, the device must be properly planted in it.

Vivian turned to Ophra. “Bring the Divine Sarcophagus. We’ll try to shield it off.”

Ophra took a deep breath and gestured to the knights and priests behind her with a nod. Under the escort of a few ascetic, the Divine Sarcophagus used to suppress the Giant Tree of Life was handed to Hao Ren.

Hao Ren had already taken out a special container out of the dimensional pocket. He carefully placed the Divine Sarcophagus in the container and then activated the shielding system of the container.

For ten thousand years, the suppressor used to keep the First Born asleep was switched off for the first time.

Within a few seconds, the surroundings was so silent that they could hear a pin drop. Everyone was so nervous listening to the movement from the ground. Becky pinched the family emblem on her collar (which she had just custom-ordered two days ago) while chanting something in her mouth. Lily’s ears stood erect and overheard it. “…copper, coin, paper money, cash, passbook, credit card, dollar, Euro, Renminbi, copper coin, silver coin, gold shield, OMG please don’t go wrong, it’s not easy to become a parvenu…”

Lily thought for a moment and closed her eyes chanting. “…meat bones, spicy strips, meat bones, spicy strips, meat bones…”

It turned out that Lily was more innocent; her so-called dirty-mindedness was no match for Becky’s money-mindedness.

After the one-minute test cycle (the time needed to calculate the First Born’s wake-up sign), the underground remained quiet. The monitor voice excitedly reported the good news. “Target remains asleep, confirm the ‘lullaby’ is working.”

Hao Ren breathed a sigh of relief and immediately contacted the other team. “Team A, Team A, this is Team B, the lullaby is tested successfully. You can start work right now. Don’t forget to give the First Born a jab of interference pheromone after it’s dug out.”

Lily shouted happily. “Let’s roll!”

Before firing up the excavation equipment, the head of the engineering team asked, “Sun King, the root of this giant tree is entangled with the target. Should we separate them first?”

Hao Ren thought a moment before waving his hand. “… Things may go wrong if we separate them by force. Don’t worry about it, dig it out together!”

In the blink of an eye, the cutters around the basin were fired up at the same time with a roar. Hundreds of light beams penetrated the ground at a slanting angle, pulsating like a thunderbolt.

The powerful pyrolytic beams cut through rock layers with ease, as each beam could precisely pierce through any point within a hundred kilometres. Wherever the light beam passed, everything in its way just vanished instantly. These obsolete equipment were replicas of another older equipment—the prototype, which was once used to dismantle the original Planet Aerym, was powerful enough to enable it to perform any cutting operations other than cutting neutron stars.

The pyrolytic beam was invincible as long as the First Born remained asleep.

Dozens of radiant rays slowly moved around the crater. The whole basin was cut out from the planet. The rock stratum slip caused by the evaporation of the strata would soon show its power: the monastery was originally located on a hill on the edge of the basin, but vibration could clearly be felt from under their feet. Although shocked, the trained knights and priests remained composed. The ascetics, who managed the monastery, immediately activated the divinity array in the church to stabilize the place, and the soldiers brought by Ophra was looking after the record and other ordinary officials.

Don’t worry, this place’s not going to collapse,” said Y’zaks, arms crossed and looking at Ophra who was slightly nervous. “The elves had successfully dug an even bigger pit than this, and they had broken up their entire planet and yet everything was fine.”

The cutting beam that shot down from the sky had completed making a round. The rock around the First Born had been cut, and the ring-shaped rift valley that was left behind had a series of inverted cone-shaped shaft. Standing on the edge of the rift, the faint red glow beneath could clearly be seen: it was molten rock melted by the powerful pyrolytic beam.

“Enter the next stage. Blow up the connecting columns.”

Under the order of the commander, twenty armed cruisers immediately descended into the rift where hot air was still rushing up and out. A moment later, these cruisers re-emerged followed by a series of thunderous explosions.

Steam and hot draft rushing up the rift to the surface. The entire basin was as hot as a frying pan.

The rock column that had lost support in the centre of the basin was shaken slightly. The rock column holding up the First Born and the Giant Tree of Life had lost support and began to tilt slowly to a side. As soon as it touched the surrounding body of the mountain, it would surely cause an unprecedented earthquakes and landslides. But the follow-up equipment were already in place.

A large number of gravity tractors were hovering above the Giant Tree of Life.

“Gravity tractors, full power. Pull it out!”

Chapter 555: Leaving Two Holes Behind

 

The soldiers who had experienced the thrilling scene first-hand would still remember what they saw for many years to come.

The roar of the engines and the thunderous noise of the evaporating rocks filled the heavens and the earth. The entire basin where the Giant Tree of Life was located was shrouded in hot air and thick fog. The earth was shaking as mountains which had stood for thousands of years began to collapse in the distortion. Countless boulders were rolling down the mountains, while the basin in the centre was slowly rising.

More than a dozen cylindrical spacecraft hovered over the Giant Tree of Life. The lights of the spacecraft shone down and pulled a 170-kilometre of rock column out of the earth. Inside the rock column was entangled Giant Tree of Life and the First Born.

As the thing slowly rose, a large number of cruisers came in. Each cruiser had a set of mechanical arm which was holding an anti-gravity generator. The persons who flew the cruisers were skilled engineers, they rose with the rock pillar, and installed the anti-gravity generators in the predetermined positions. Everything was working smoothly according to plan.

As more and more anti-gravity generators were activated, the ascending speed and stability of the entire mass were enhanced, and a dozen or more cylindrical aircrafts responsible for the initial anti-gravity force started to disengage as two-thirds of them quickly retreated to a distance, while the rest were using their limited anti-gravity beam to maintain the stability of the entire structure.

After five minutes, the bottom of the mass had still not completely emerged up from the earth, but the upper part had left the air shrouded in dust and fog. Its grotesque appearance could be seen clearly by the distant observers: roots were tangled together like a lump of vines, which had completely eroded the surrounding rocks, leaving no room for soil or stone in the rock column which was entirely occupied by these living tissues. In between the gaps in the tangled roots, there were occasional faint red pulses which were emitted by the deepest organ of the First Born—as the giant creature was still asleep, red pulses underneath the layers of ‘vines’ appeared faint and weak.

In the upper part of the mass, the vines clearly appeared like normal roots, which was the main body of the Giant Tree of Life—the part that had not mutated.

The formation of the cruisers and the towing ship hovered around the mass, and like leaves in a tornado, they constantly kept making minor corrections and examinations to the mass. Some of the cruisers flew close to the ‘living tumour’ entangled by the tentacles and pierced some large probes into the First Born’s ganglion, which according to current research understanding, those living tumours were ganglions.

They were injecting this big guy with an interference pheromone, the most potent tranquilizer in the world, and effective only for the First Born.

The whole scene was as epic as it could get. And it was like a miracle to the people of Holletta.

Who has got a better digging skill? The Sun King of Aerymian elves; two hundred drilling rigs against the anal of the earth, five-hundred-man-strong engineering team…

Well, roughly that’s what it means.

This spectacular scene could be seen 100 kilometres away, not to mention near the basin. A magical shield was shimmering above the priory, blocking out the hot tornado air and steam, and the flying debris in the air slamming on the shield triggering layers of magical ripples. Ophra squinted trying to see the tree stump of the Giant Tree of Life, but it was out of her range of sight. She sighed and appeared a little emotional. “It’s less epic than the light in Dragonspine Ridge, but it’s equally thrilling nonetheless.”

“Dealing with a big guy with a radius of two hundred kilometres, you can’t say it’s not thrilling.” Hao Ren shrugged. “The needle used for injecting half a tonne of tranquilizers into that thing is already one meter in diameter. Who created this massive monster?”

Lily hugged her arm and said, “Stop saying it, Mr. Landlord, I’ve got my goose bumps up. I’m most afraid of needle…”

Vivian looked at the husky maiden in surprise. “I didn’t know you were afraid of this? You look fearless in any other days.”

“That’s embarrassing, it all happened a few years ago. When I first heard about the rabies vaccine, I thought it was specifically for me… I ‘borrowed’ two boxes of the vaccine which were expired and after emptying them into my body, I was suffering from allergies, nausea and vomiting for three days.”

Vivian: “…..”

“The progress over the Volcano of Dusk is slightly slower, but it goes very smoothly,” Hao Ren had contacted the other team of engineers. Hilda and Big Beardy were accompanying Mhoren inspecting the operation in the Volcano of Dusk.”

“The King personally went to the Volcano of Dusk?” Opra was a little surprised. “This is not in his schedule…”

“Yeah, he didn’t expect the Queen of Aerym in his schedule as well. It was even more unexpected in your schedule that the engineering team I brought was of such a scale.” Hao Ren shrugged. “You have to get used to the unscheduled situation.”

After most of the anti-gravity generators had been activated, the entire mass appeared weightless as it climbed in an increasing speed without risking disintegration and causing excessive turbulence. After thirty minutes, the Giant Tree of Life and two-thirds of the basin had become a vague shadow in the sky, while the place where it once lived was now freaking hot hole with heavy smoke billowing and shrouded in dust and fog. No one could see the situation down at the bottom.

Vivian summoned a gust of wind, but the wind could only bring the fog near the hills away temporarily but not the strong heated air draft rising up from the crater. So it seemed the dust and fog might be here to stay for some time.

Hao Ren tilted his head skyward, the sky was clear, but the plume from the deep pit of the basin was slowly spreading out. Perhaps plume would engulf the whole area for a few days. “This reminds me of my hometown.” He lamented.

Y’lisabet was sitting on the shoulder of her dad, waving her fist and shouted, “I also miss my hometown!”

Listening on, Opra was surprised. “You have such smoke in your hometown every day?”

Hao Ren shrugged. “It depends. When the weather is good, you can see the stars. When the weather is bad, you would gasp for air. The situation in Y’zaks’ hometown is even worse. When the weather is bad, they all run towards the mouth of the volcanoes gasping for fresh air.”

Opra said, “… No wonder you guys possess are so strong. So essentially you guys are living in a place where warriors are trained and tested.”

Hao Ren felt that the marshal had misunderstood, but it seemed that he was also unable to clear the misunderstanding.

An hour later, the first space signal came from Holletta’s synchronous orbit: “Team B logistics has arrived pre-set orbit. ‘Cargo’ is stable. ‘Lullaby’ device is working properly!”

After a few minutes, the news that Team A was in orbit was heard too.

What remained to be done was transport the two living First Borns to Tannagot’s orbit. However, the Aerymian elven spacecraft were not capable of doing this. So the responsibility fell on the Petrachelys.

Of course, the space expansion installation of Petrachelys had its limit, and at least the storage window was limited. To stuff the First Born with a width of nearly two hundred kilometres into the cargo space would be out of the question, so the Petrachelys would have to use spatial bubble transfer method to send the two living samples onto the orbit of Tannagost.

After sending the First Born together with the Giant Tree of Life into the predetermined orbit, the Aerymian engineering fleet left as schedule. The Petrachelys appeared near to the two samples piloted by the auto pilot computer. The host computer of the spacecraft launched its warp function and increased the coverage into nearby space.

Starlight from afar appeared distorted within the space of several hundred kilometres around the spacecraft, as if there was an unprecedentedly large gravitational force that was interfering with the optical phenomena. The starlight was twisted into a circular arc and forming rapidly into a ring. The space was closed up becoming a spatial bubble before the Petrachelys and the two living First Borns vanished in it.

The next moment, starlight returned to normal, and the spacecraft and the two strange entangled tentacles were gone.

Hao Ren and the others returned to the capital of Holletta through the portal before the two engineering teams arrived later. Hilda and Big Beardy, who was accompanying the king and the Pope to the Volcano of Dusk, had also arrived through the portal.

As everyone was back, the first thing Hao Ren had to do was put away those scarily massive engineering equipment, so as to prevent the old guys of the Royal Masters Association getting heart attack (and by the way, to prevent the screwdriver frenzy of Y’lisabet from getting aroused). Hao Ren checked the time: they arrived on the planet earlier in the morning, and now the sun was still hanging on the west side of the horizon; it had been a massive operation but it was accomplished faster than expected.

Hilda had found Hao Ren, she was all smile. “The operation was finished successfully. I hope we have been of help.”

“Yeah, sure you were,” Hao Ren quickly nodded. “Is your diplomacy going smoothly?”

“What can I say?” Hilda grinned and spread out her hand. “We are two worlds apart. Only through your portal we can communicate. So we were just exchanging culture and history and things like that. I might be out of my personal curiosity…nothing too serious.”

Meanwhile, Opra came up and interrupted their conversation. “I hate to interrupt you guys but the King invites all the foreign guests to his banquet. I guess you’d have time to join this time?”

Hao Ren smiled and looked at Lily whose eyes were glowing in eagerness. He waved his hand and said, “It would be impolite to decline the invitation especially when there’s so much food to eat. Why not? Think of it as a compensation for our hard work!”

Chapter 556: The Banquet

 

The Royal Family of Holletta was holding a grand banquet in honor of their otherworldly friends who had worked tirelessly to avert a catastrophic disaster from happening. It was also to welcome the first alien civilization that visited their planet. The banquet was held on the eastern side of the Royal Palace, in the Vaishamn Hall—it was a special place for hosting foreign envoys and other grand state banquets.

Originally, the banquet was supposed to be held when the elves arrived. But the pragmatic attitude of the Aerymian Elves had the banquet delayed until the dust settled. Officials of the Royal Court who came to the feast earlier had no choice but to return home and wait. Hao Ren felt sorry for keeping these people waiting. But apparently, that was not what Hilda and her men thought: they put work above all else. On top of that, they already had their meal before they set out. So naturally, the banquet was to be postponed until their work was done.

The Aerymians were definitely not one of, but the single simplest and most honest elves in the universe.

The Vaishamn Hall was as grand as it got. The royal feast was dazzling with beautiful decorations all around and splendid costumes worn by its participants. It was much grander than the secret meeting Hao Ren had attended the last time. The observant Vivian very quickly discovered something special about the personnel of the royal feast: aside from the Aerymian Elves who formed the majority, Hollettan people were not many. Some of them were senior officials of the Royal Court and clergies, while others seemed to be trained “escorts”. These “escorts” dressed in fine attire, were well-mannered, and behaved almost like noblemen. They were responsible for maintaining the atmosphere at the banquet and providing assistance to other nobles. Strictly speaking, they were not considered as guests at the banquet, but specially-trained security agents.

Regarding the arrival of the Aerymian Elves, the narrative the Disciples of Glory sold to the public was somewhat different. The feast was held with a certain degree of confidentiality.

Hao Ren snorted after he heard what Vivian said. “Oh, that’s why I’m not keen on meeting politicians; it’s troublesome.”

“Am I also one of your ‘troublesome’ politicians?” Ophra was heard from the side. She attended the feast in her armor. This armor was a ceremonial armor, which was more form than function. The edge of the armor was inlaid with beautiful patterns and lavender ornaments. She smiled and looked at Hao Ren. “But I agree, politicians are troublesome.”

Hao Ren looked up at the marshal. “You’re wearing this to the feast? Besides armor, it’s still armor, eh? You know, it clinks pretty loudly as you walk.”

Ophra shrugged. “Old habits die hard. In the beginning when I first took office, the whole country was at war. I followed King Geddon III, and since then, armor has been my only attire. I’m comfortable this way; it looks the best.”

Lil Pea jumped to the edge of the table and touched Ophra’s armor. “It looks best, it looks best… It’s hard, I can’t go inside. Not good.”

The little one had gotten used to squirming in her dad’s clothes, and she was using that as a benchmark to rate Ophra’s attire. Ophra was not entirely happy, and this gave Hao Ren a little headache: Lil Pea was growing up, and soon, he would not be able to carry her around like that. That morning, he had used a ruler to measure her, and the baby had grown by a centimeter. He wondered how he was going to take care of her when she finally grew into a normal-sized mermaid.

He figured when that time came, the basin and fish tank at home would certainly not be enough to accommodate her. So, he first had to find a place and dig a bigger pool, then get some timber and other stuff for that purpose… Raising a child was really troublesome, he thought.

Lily was drooling as she looked at the food on the table. As if she was held back by a leash, she had no choice but to wait. “When can I eat? When can I eat? When…”

Y’zaks sat across the table, nodding like butter would not melt in his mouth. “According to human customs, it’s time for the VIP to take the stage, say a few words, and leave the audience hanging before dinner starts.”

Y’zaks was right. Soon enough, Mhoren and the pope stood up one after the other. They thanked Heaven and the earth, they thanked the goddess for creating the world, and they expressed their thanks for the help provided by the strangers from the Otherworld. As if that was not enough, the two men started the whole thanking process all over again. The table where Hao Ren was sitting at was closest to the two old men’s table (because he was a VIP guest). Everyone could not help but be bored to death. Lily laid her head on the table and her eyes almost rolled to the back of her head. “It’s taking forever. Can I just say ‘you’re welcome and let’s get dinner started’?”

Lily’s voice was by no means soft. Mhoren choked upon hearing her as he was halfway through his thanking. The old king looked at them with a smile, then turned to Hilda and said, “We welcome Your Majesty the Elven Queen to say a few words…”

Hilda nodded and stood up, raising her glass to a toast. “Let the dinner begin!”

What a speech—simple and straight to the point. Meanwhile, those Hollettan court officials, who had wasted no time in getting some shut eye, had expected the elven queen’s speech to be just as long. They were caught by surprise and it took them a while before they came to their senses. Some old men had instinctively raised their hands to give Hilda an applause, but they stopped short of doing so when they realized that her speech was so short. It felt strange. Hoffman rubbed his shiny forehead and whispered to Hilda, “Your Majesty, that’s it?”

Hilda nodded. “That’s it!”

And so, the feast began. In accordance to Hollettan etiquette, they were obliged to keep their foreign guests entertained by carrying on casual conversation with them. However, they soon found that they were not able to keep up with the rhythm of these foreign guests: as soon as Hilda delivered her speech, the elves lowered their heads and had their meal in total silence like obedient soldiers. No one made a sound. No one looked at another person. The elves really liked the food, but they did not waste time in saying appreciative words. They just wolfed down their food, and within minutes, all that was left were clean plates.

Holding his glass, Prince Hoffman went up to an Aerymian official. All he could do was blink.

“Aerymians are known for their simplicity and efficiency, as well as their mantra of ‘waste nothing’,” Hao Ren said, looking up and smiling with a fork still in his hand. “The more formal the dinner is, the quicker they eat, because to them, banquets are expensive and a high amount of resources are consumed. Hence, they would rather eat at their own pace. Please don’t be bothered by them.”

Hilda nodded apologetically to King Mhoren. “This is our tradition. Please, do not be offended. We really appreciate your hospitality. It is just that, we are not very good at eating slowly.”

She then pointed at herself. “By the way, because of my unique body, I do not need food.”

Hao Ren was curious when he heard this. He asked, “I’ve wanted to ask you about that. but I forgot: if you can live without food or drink, where do you get your energy from?”

“From the surrounding environment, solar energy and natural radiations.” Hilda laughed. “I experimented a bit not too long ago, and it seemed like I could survive in space. However, I got tired after a long while. It may have something to do with the excessive radiation.”

“Oh, solar energy recharging,” said Becky. Oil stains were glittering at the corner of her mouth. She still liked to interject at the dining table. “Looks like Vimm can forget about the throne.”

Hao Ren quickly hemmed. “Let’s not discuss that.”

“When the time is right, I will abdicate. I used to say that I was just waiting for him to grow up.” Hilda laughed, not minding the topic. “I have already transferred a lot of power to him recently. Otherwise, there would be no way for me to come out as much as I wish.”

Mhoren and Ophra listened to the foreigners, especially the queen herself, speaking about royal succession so casually. They were amazed. They had a hard time imagining how the Aerymian society developed to the way it was today.

At this time, Lily handed a big portion of barbecue to Hao Ren, holding it right in front of his mouth. “Try this. I think we should try making it at home. You and Battie need to keep the taste in mind and make it for me back home.”

Hao Ren was touched. He had been feeding the dog for so long, and now, the dog was finally returning the favor, he thought.

All of a sudden, a senior royal knight hurried into the banquet ball and strode towards the pope.

It caught Hao Ren’s attention.

He felt suspicious of the knight.

Chapter 557: Heretic

 

The Royal Knight who suddenly appeared at the banquet wore clergy robes that were lined with armor. And his breastplate had the insignia of a ranked Disciple of Glory. This meant that he was at least on par with the bishops of the realm. Having the authority to enter the palace at will however, meant that he was ranked even higher. The knight headed straight to the Pope as soon as he got into the hall. Two of the cardinals beside the pope stood up to stop him. The knight stopped gingerly before he reported something to the cardinals. The two cardinals then nodded and sat down, giving him the approval for the urgent report.

Yet Hao Ren found the knight fishy in all aspects. A sense of danger tingled his senses.

Vivian stood up too as she silently shuffled to a more spacious area by the corner. Y’zaks patted Y’lisabet on her little head as well. “Stay here and don’t move.”

By then, the knight was about 10 m from the pope and the king. Before the latter rose to question him, the knight bowed and reported, “Your Holiness, Your Majesty, I bring news about the Cult of Origination!”

King Mhoren quickly rose. “What? Have we finally found them?”

“We found a coven near the capital. The heretics have already fled, but we managed to gather a list of their members and ritual records.” The ranked knight pulled out a scroll from a pouch on his chest. “This is the main information compiled by Cardinal Bluck.”

The pope raised his hand and the scroll flew into his grip. He then opened the scroll to read its contents.

“Your Holiness…” The ranked knight waited for a few seconds before he looked at the pope. He noticed that the latter was frozen in place upon reading the scroll. Turning around, he spread his arms open, and in a peculiar high-pitched voice, he proclaimed, “The Pope has returned to the goddess’ side!”

The silence in the hall was palpable as confusion reigned. King Mhoren suddenly shouted. “Seize him!”

The undercover guards, who dotted the hall recovered from their stupor and went into a furore. Most of the attendees quickly drew all sorts of small arms from their dress, and with various enchantments protecting them, they charged at the knight. The Royal Guards outside swarmed into the hall as well. It was a scene of total chaos.

However, the first to attack was Big Beardy, who sat on the table to the left of the pope. The moment the ascetic monk realized that something was wrong with the pope, he swiftly deployed a few divine spells to protect the pope. Even before the king gave his order, Big Beardy had already began to lunge at the enemy.

A blast rang out as Big Beardy’s twin fists, enchanted with a faint golden glow, slammed against the knight’s chest. His divine spell created a massive shockwave around him. But the knight did not appear to feel any pain as he gave Big Beardy a maniacal smile. He then lifted his arms to grab the ascetic.

Big Beardy realized that his attack—meant to pulverize the target’s innards and bring the battle to a swift end—was ineffective. The target before him was clearly not human. He immediately pulled back, keeping some distance. At the same time, the charging guards had reached the knight with dozens of blades plunging into him.

A crackling sound like metal piercing into rotten wood was heard. The rotten blood that bled from the knight’s wounds was so black that it was unnatural. The guards, sensing that things were amiss, prepared to pull back, but their weapons were stuck inside the enemy. They immediately let go of their weapons as they retreated, while the rest of the soldier formed a shield wall in front of King Mhoren and the pope.

The next second, even more cracking sounds came from the knight’s body as a gush of rotten, blood-like liquid flowed out of his wounds like it was alive. It headed with deadly intention towards the nearest Royal Guard. Another pool of blood splashed against the floor before it made its way towards the heavily guarded King Mhoren, smoke trailing in its wake.

At that very moment, a blinding flash of lightning swept past them as a swarm of bats appeared out of thin air. They surrounded the knight, and formed an impenetrable shell of bats. Within the shell, lightning struck and a miniature storm formed. As the screeching wind bellowed, the rotten blood seeped out from the gaps between the bats. The blood curled about as it streamed forward, seemingly trying to escape. Yet, its attempts were futile as ice-cold winds formed around the shell, and every strand of blood that attempted to escape froze in the blink of an eye!

The guests and audience in the hall had only begun to realize what was going on. The ministers fled the hall, while the knights and clergymen with combat prowess swarmed forward to protect the king and pope. The scene was chaotic as shouts and screams of panic rang. Amid the chaos, the Aerym elves deployed their magical barriers to protect their queen, Hao Ren and the rest as well.

The “storm of bats” in the middle of the great hall lasted a good 10 seconds, and as every second passed, the sounds of clashing within the shell grew. Then, with a final violent roar, the shell disintegrated as Vivian reformed mid-air. The vampiress landed beside Hao Ren and her face was pale, almost sick. “…That stinks! The blood’s gone bad! I shouldn’t have tasted it!”

Hao Ren almost puked on Vivian’s behalf the moment he heard that…

As the bat swarm went away, the monstrous knight appeared once again before the crowd… His armor was rent and scorch marks were all over his body. The massive loss of blood had caused his form to shrivel, and he was encased in a block of ice. Yet, the ice block was rapidly coming apart and the weapons that were stuck in him had corroded to a point where only their grips remained. This was undoubtedly a monster in the guise of a human, and it was still alive!

The cracking of the ice continued before the ice block was destroyed by the monster’s enormous strength. The blood within his body was pretty much drained by now, and it seemed that it had lost the ability to control it after being encased in ice. The monster gave up on using the blood to attack, and charged headlong towards Hao Ren.

“F*ck! It’s coming our way!” Hao Ren was disgusted by the creature’s look and immediately responded with a high kick. He seemed to have underestimated the monster’s strength, because even though his kick sent the monster back, his other leg had sunk a good few inches into the ground.

The monster did not try to attack again after it was kicked. As it growled, it turned to face the closest window. It wanted to escape.

By now, Hao Ren had drawn his pistol, and just before he pulled the trigger, something sparked in his mind. “Take it alive!”

Lily charged forth with fang and fury the moment the monster tried to escape. As she heard Hao Ren’s request, she quickly retracted her claws. The werehusky deftly leapt about 10 m into the air before she landed in the middle of the monster’s escape route. She then shot out a punch at the monster.

The monster did not dodge and responded in kind. A massive crash followed as the shockwave shattered the dishes on the nearby tables The ground behind Lily started to crumble as cracks, which streched a few meters formed under her feet.

“Grrrrrrrr—” Lily’s irides glowed as she growled menacingly. Raising her arms again, she charged at the monster once more.

This was a pure brawl without much finesse. The two beings of immense strength were destroying everything around them. Every time Lily threw a fist, the air around her exploded. Every punch, every jab caused the floor to shake. It was clear that she was the superior melee fighter: she had the hunting instincts of a wol… canine, and her strikes were lightning quick. She could even find time to pick up a loose brick to act as a weapon. Her fighting style was pretty much a random storm of fists and bricks. The monster on the other hand, was sluggish. Perhaps Vivian’s attack had severely damaged it or its physiology. The monster’s reaction was always a step slower than Lily, and it was not long before it was beaten to a pulp.

After a frantic exchange, Lily drew a distance between herself and the monster. Most of the tables and flooring around them had already been pounded to dust. Lily’s eyes were glowing and she was looking around for something to use as a weapon. But alas, all broken tables and bricks had already been thrown. That left the werehusky in an extremely foul mood.

The monster realized it was no match against Lily and turned tail to run.

It ran directly into Y’zaks.

The next scene was basically something you would want to censor with mosaic. Even in human form, Y’zaks was the best fighter present, and facing the monster knight was nothing to him. Hao Ren only saw the demon king grabbing his opponent by the arm before twisting and cracking its limbs into impropable angles. The monster even tried to use a spell to counter him, but against a demon king’s resistance to spells, the sparks it produced were harmless.

The demon king threw the immobilized monster to the ground. Before he could speak, a white shadow darted towards the monster. Lily sank her fangs into the monster’s limb, trying to tear it apart. As she tore into the monster, she let out a low growl, “Arrrr… Grrrr…”

She was really consumed by battlelust.

Y’zaks raised an eyebrow. “Trying to one-up?”

Vivian simply shrugged. “A glory hound you might say.”

“Awooo?”