"Plop." "Plop."
Brando frowned as he walked through a thin layer of sticky blood. Every time he lifted his foot, his boots would leave long streaks of blood behind. It was nauseating.
What was even more unpleasant was that he could not find a place to walk. The room was filled with corpses. They could still save a lot of people at the previous ritual sites, but here, there were only lifeless corpses.
"Retch —"
The young man named Alcra was retching on the altar, but he could not vomit anything. Whatever he wanted to vomit, he had already vomited out.
The Shire floated back from the distance, hovering about a foot above the ground. He had no choice but to waste his magic in such a place. Otherwise, he would not be able to walk as fast as Brando.
"Not a single one of them is breathing. These people are simply professional killers. Even the butcher knows to pray to Mother Marsha before he kills them." He shook his head as he spoke. He had a new understanding of these cultists.
"… Actually, most of them died from excessive blood loss." Metisha added, "I've checked their wounds. Many of them did not die immediately after being cut. This ritual must have extracted their blood."
Brando stopped and looked at the pool of blood in front of him. It was as calm as a mirror. It was not a pool, but more like a drop of blood with a diameter of ten meters. The tension on the surface kept it at a height of thirty to forty centimeters.
Blood itself did not have such tension. As soon as Brando approached, the surging magic in his eyes converged. The pool of blood that was calm on the surface gushed out without warning. A twisted monster jumped out from it, screaming and pouncing on Brando with sticky blood all over its body.
Brendel took a step back, and the Flaming Blade in his hand flicked upwards. Countless metal shards that were fixed in the void pierced through the monster's chest without any resistance, like a hot knife piercing through butter. The flesh on both sides of the blade seemed to have encountered a high temperature of several thousand degrees, emitting flames and bubbling blood as it melted. Pus and blood flowed down from the open wound.
The monster let out a shrill scream, but Brando raised his left hand and an invisible wave swept across. The shrill scream came to an abrupt end.
The nobles stood far away from the house, but Chancellor Nidevan and his eldest son followed in and witnessed the scene with their own eyes.
They saw the terrifying monster's head twist and then disappear as if it was swallowed by a distorted space. The body that lost its head twitched, and an arrow of blood shot into the sky. However, it did not touch Brando at all. Before it could get within a few feet of the young lord, it was pushed away by an invisible force.
"Plop."
The monster's body fell back into the blood pool.
Brando glanced at the blood pool. The space on his left suddenly cracked open. He reached out, and a bottle of high-grade holy water flew out of the dimensional space and landed in his hand.
Just as Nidevan recognized what it was, he saw Brendel open the bottle and pour the entire bottle of holy water into the blood pool.
"Don't …" The young chancellor looked pained. Just as he was about to say that it was too wasteful, the blood pool that had been filled with holy water suddenly churned as if it was alive. It let out a deafening scream. Then, countless bubbles emerged from the blood pool, and clouds of red mist that represented high temperature rose into the air.
Such a violent reaction left all the nobles speechless, including Little Nidevan. His scream lasted for almost fifteen minutes before it gradually subsided. When the thick red mist in the room dispersed, everyone was surprised to find that the place where the blood pool used to be was now empty. There was only a lump of dark, dried blood on the ground, and in the center of the blood scab, there were only a few blood-red crystal-like objects that emitted a demonic light scattered around.
Brando waved his hand, and those crystals flew into his hand out of thin air.
"What on earth is that?" Little Nidevan finally reacted, and asked with a pale face.
Brando frowned and did not say anything.
The monster from before should be an oracle. It emitted a thick scent of top-grade divine blood. It should be the divine blood of the Dragon of Fanaticism, Alphonse. Brendel had never seen an oracle infected by divine blood in the game, but players had their own way of judging.
This angel was still in its infancy, but its strength was already on par with the adult earth angel he encountered in Chablis. He couldn't help but wonder where the disciples of the Black Flames Sect found this thing.
In the past, the most common ones were the four elemental God's Blood Oracles, followed by the Dark God's Blood Oracles and the Thunder God's Blood Oracles. Of course, this was excluding the disciples of the Demon Tree Fenlidos. The Golden Demon Tree had almost become a newbie killer in the game.
He turned to the young man not far away and asked, "Alcra, do you know what the disciples of the Conclave are summoning?"
Alcra's face was pale. He saw the dried blood pool and his stomach churned again. Fortunately, he had already vomited everything he could, so he only felt like his stomach was being scraped. After vomiting some jaundiced water, he answered, "My lord, the disciples of the Conclave claim that they will summon the Archangel Eroma to end the rule of the Empire …"
"Nonsense," Nidevan interrupted, "Look at this. Only fools would believe their nonsense."
"They should be summoning the Evil God Fredrich."
Old Nidevan suddenly spoke.
"The Evil God Fredrich?"
There were at least 800 Evil Gods in Wohnde, and not every type of Divine Blood corresponded to an Evil God. There were many failed experiments by the Divine Folk, and the players might not be able to recognize all of them.
The old chancellor nodded. "This is related to the origin of the Lust Tower. During the Twilight War, the Archangel Eroma with the Sacred Sword slew the Evil God Fredrich here. Later, the Flame King Gretel found the Archangel's Shield here and used it to build the Lust Tower. So this is not only the place where Eroma sacrificed herself, but also the place where the Evil God Fredrich fell."
Brando understood. "So they are using Eroma's name to resurrect the Evil God. How powerful is this Evil God?"
Just as there were many types of Evil Gods, their strength was often uneven. Powerful Evil Gods such as the Evil God Somari made with the blood of the Thunder God and the Demon Tree Fenlidos made with the blood of Gaia were rumored to have strength close to that of a God. Although they were not as powerful as the Seven Dragons or the Lord of Elements, they were close to a Demigod like the God of Giants, Milos.
Brando knew very well what kind of strength Milos had. Back in the Deadly Tundra, a remnant Demigod's will almost destroyed the world. It was easy to imagine what kind of strength Milos had in his complete form.
As for the weaker ones among the Evil Gods, it was hard to say. For example, the Evil God Fredrich could actually be killed by a Holy Angel. Although the Holy Sword Eroma was a Holy Seat of the Holy Cathedral of Fire, her strength wouldn't exceed the Silver Body.
Of course, this was a real Silver Body, and it was different from the Silver Body forged by the players with the War Slate.
Old Prime Minister Nidevan did not know that Brando had already classified the Evil God Fredrich as a 'weakling' in his mind, but the natives' understanding of power was obviously not the same as the players' understanding of power in the later stages of the game. He was silent for a moment before replying, "No matter what, at least he has crossed the step of the Sage. This is no longer something that you and I can understand. If they can really revive Fredrich in his complete form, the Empire will probably suffer an unprecedented calamity."
Brando was thinking, what is there not to know about those above the Sage Realm? But after a moment, he reacted. From the old Prime Minister's point of view, this seemed to be true.
What kind of concept was it to cross the Sage Realm?
The proud Silver Folk, the Sorcerer Kingdom that dominated everything above the floating clouds. Among the dozens of Sorcerer Leaders in the past thousand years, only William and Solomon were rumored to have crossed the line between Man and God. But in reality, William was only at the peak of the Sage Realm in this era. Moreover, the arrival of the Great Demonic Wave had a greater impact on the lower levels, and the impact on the upper levels was negligible. So, even after the Year of Sparks, William was still unable to cross the line between Man and God.
Solomon, on the other hand, did indeed have the strength of a Silver Body. The God of Mages was not a rumor, or else he would not have been able to dominate the Silver Alliance for thousands of years.
As for the more powerful Giant Dragons, only two of them had crossed the line between Man and God in thousands of years. They were Wohnde and Taos Kratz. The former was known as Wohnde, who was close to becoming a God, and was seen as the successor of the next Dragon God. Once her Golden Body broke through to the Power of Existence, she would be the first new God after the departure of the God of Wohnde.
The latter was the hero of both Giant Dragons and Humans, the Sky Dragon Taos Kratz. This title explained everything. His Golden Body was slightly weaker than Wohnde's, but it was still at the level of a Demigod.
These two Dragons were the only two Demigod Dragons left in the entire Giant Dragon Race.
Therefore, once one crossed the Sage Realm, it would be after the Holy Realm. Regardless of whether one had a Bronze Body or a Golden Body, they were all at the level of a Holy Realm. The only difference was whether one had the power of a normal Holy Realm or the power of a Demigod.
This was the reason why the Evil Gods were called Gods. For mortals, even people like Old Nidevan, who stood at the peak of mortal power, had to look up to the realm of Gods.
Therefore, for this old man, it was not surprising that he had such an understanding.
However, for Brando, in the post-war era of the War of the Slate, most players had entered the early stage of the Bronze Body. This was the limit that the Iron Folk could reach, and their strength was roughly equivalent to that of a weaker Divine Servant. However, the players — or rather, the game version — took a different approach and used the War Slate to simulate the power of the Superior Laws, allowing players to awaken the Silver Body. This Silver Body was still a distance away from the real Silver Holy Realm, but it could still reach the level of the Bronze Body Middle Stage, and it could also gain some abilities that the Bronze Body Middle Stage did not have.
For example, Brando was immune to all dark energy and negative corrosion. This was something that the Bronze Body Middle Stage did not have.
With this experience, players had killed real Demigods more than once, such as in the war against Échis. Therefore, they were not afraid of the so-called Demigods, let alone the Evil God Fredrich.
However, Brando also knew that if the Disciples of the Black Flames really resurrected the Evil God Fredrich in this era, it would be a big problem.
Fortunately, this was the Empire.
Brando thought for a moment and replied, "We've destroyed a lot of ritual places along the way, so we should be able to disrupt the arrangements of the Disciples of the Secret Society. But I can see that such places are scattered all over the Lushta Star, and we can't spare the effort to uproot them one by one. This is just a small lesson. I have plenty of time to settle the score with the Tree Herders. Our main goal now is to head to the White Rose Garden."
Old Nidevan nodded. He knew very well that Brando only attacked the Cultists for revenge, and there was no reason for him to help the Silver Queen solve her current problem. After spending some time together, he more or less understood the temperament of this Count from Erouine.
He did not have any objections to this.
The old Prime Minister had been able to stand tall in the eye of the storm precisely because he knew when to stand firm and when to compromise and give in.
"If the Disciples of the Secret Society can summon the Evil God, why didn't the Empire summon the Archangel Eroma to deal with them?" Alcra suddenly asked.
"It's not that simple." Young Nidevan shook his head. "The Cultists chose to use sacrifice to resurrect Fredrich. Who knows how many people would be sacrificed? Which royal family on the continent would dare to do that? Besides, even if they used other methods, they would need a Saint's Relic. I wonder where the Tree Herders found the remains of the Evil God Fredrich — "
"A Saint's Relic?" Although the young man was smarter than most people, his knowledge was still limited. He asked in confusion, "What about Lady Eroma's Shield? Isn't that Angel's Shield erected in the Victory Square? And I heard that the Angel's Sacred Remains have always been protecting the Empire beneath the Imperial Capital — "
"Although that shield was found by Lord Flame King, it's actually just a symbolic thing." The current Prime Minister shook his head. "To Lady Eroma, her most important weapon is her sword. That's why she's called the Angel with the Sacred Sword. As for the Sacred Remains, it's actually just an incomplete phalanx. It's even less useful."
"Archangel Eroma." Brando suddenly thought of something and asked, "Archangel Eroma? Is that the Angel with the Sacred Sword, the Golden Flame Angel Eroma?"
…
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