Chapter 284: Save Your Sister
A heavy silence blanketed the night.
Violet stood guard beside Angelica.
Ekaterina, her crimson greatsword clutched in her arms, stood like a statue in the courtyard.
Norma knelt, one hand on the ground, sensing the earth’s vibrations. Anastasia stood on the Residence’s rooftop, bathed in moonlight, gazing into the distance.
Qin Chu had left with Heloise and Iyeta. The Residence’s defense rested on their shoulders.
Suddenly, Norma lifted her head, her expression grim: “They’re coming…”
“Approximately two thousand enemies, encircling us. They’re less than three hundred meters away…”
Her voice echoed through the Residence.
A smile finally touched Ekaterina’s lips. A streak of ruthlessness ran through her. She wouldn’t miss this opportunity for a good fight.
She gripped her greatsword’s hilt, the heavy blade dragging along the ground as she walked towards the gate.
In the moonlight, shadowy figures appeared in the distance.
As they drew closer, Ekaterina saw them clearly.
They were mostly armored soldiers and mercenaries, their movements stiff, their faces blank, their eyes dull and lifeless in the moonlight.
If not for their movement, they could have been mistaken for puppets.
They were under the Witch Society’s control.
As Qin Chu had predicted, Mavis wasn’t foolish. She had deployed numerous agents to wreak havoc throughout the Imperial City, targeting not only the palace and the Hero’s Residence, but also the noble district.
They were like grim reapers, killing indiscriminately.
Creating chaos, diverting the soldiers’ attention.
Mavis hadn’t wanted to limit the number of sacrifices for the Divine Descent ritual, but… the women might not be able to handle more.
Despite their eerie appearance, Ekaterina was undaunted. She continued forward, her greatsword dragging behind her.
The puppets’ eyes reddened, and with chilling howls, they charged, weapons raised.
Their orders were to eliminate all life within the Residence.
Buzz…
Crimson flames engulfed Ekaterina’s greatsword.
The bright light dispelled the darkness as she raised the heavy blade.
With a powerful swing, a fiery arc tore through the night.
“Flame… Slash!”
Swoosh!
The blade swept across the ground, cleaving through dozens of figures a hundred meters away.
Their armor offered no protection, the wounds cauterized by the flames.
…
Within the Imperial Palace.
Wadsworth stood on the highest point.
Having deployed all his guards to search for Mavis, the palace’s defenses were at their weakest. The controlled puppets had actually managed to breach the walls.
He sighed as he watched his sons and daughters screaming in terror.
He had dozens of children, but most were fools.
The invaders weren’t particularly strong. His children, if they had any courage, could easily handle them, but they were paralyzed by fear.
Only a handful of princes, along with their guards, were fighting back.
Wadsworth mentally added their names to the list of potential heirs.
The most impressive among them was Princess Carol.
However… he frowned. Please don’t laugh maniacally while dragging a corpse around by its head with your whip.
People might think you’re a psychopath.
He thought of the First Prince. Despite his flaws and troublesome nature, his talent and strength were undeniable. He would have been at the forefront of the defense, rallying his siblings…
Too bad Qin Chu had killed him.
No, not too bad.
With Mavis being the Vice President of the Witch Society, he wasn’t even sure if the First Prince was truly his son.
Damn it!
The weight of all those metaphorical hats was giving him a neck ache.
After dealing with Mavis, he would tighten security within the harem. This couldn’t happen again.
Around the same time, a group of elite soldiers finally reached the abandoned church.
From a distance, they saw a faint light emanating from the supposedly deserted building.
Their leader frowned and signaled his men to approach. Peeking through the windows, they were stunned by what they saw.
Gods, what was this?
Hundreds of figures were entangled within the church, copulating like animals.
There was nothing beautiful or seductive about it, only a chilling grotesqueness.
The men were mostly emaciated, their skin clinging to their bones.
Their bodies were covered in filth and blood.
Yet, their eyes shone with a crazed light, like machines driven beyond their limits, their trembling legs still pumping.
They were oblivious to the blood flowing from their orifices, their lives nearing their end.
They didn’t see the hundreds of dried corpses scattered on the floor.
The women, equally lost in their frenzy, didn’t notice their bodies giving out. Some noble ladies lay motionless on the ground, their chests still, clearly dead.
Blood flowed along the grooves on the floor, forming a gruesome, crimson pattern.
What kind of unholy ritual was this?
In the center of the magic circle stood a tall woman, her abdomen grotesquely swollen, dark purple threads wrapped around her upper body, crimson threads around her lower body.
Her disheveled hair framed a face twisted in a smile.
The scene made their scalps crawl.
Their leader, his throat constricting, stumbled back, grabbing a magic scroll and pressing his ear.
His name was Nikles.
He had once been one of the Hero’s guards, seemingly on good terms with him.
But during the conflict between the First Prince and Qin Chu, he had sided with the prince, providing him with information.
After the prince’s death, he had been demoted.
However, having served in the Royal Guard for so long, he still held some influence.
If he could report this information quickly, it would be a great service, potentially restoring his former status.
He had to inform the Emperor immediately.
“Your Majesty, the abandoned Church of the Earth Mother Godd…”
But before he could finish, Mavis sensed his presence.
She looked up sharply, her voice shrill: “No one will harm my child!”
Bang!
An invisible shockwave erupted from the church.
The already fragile windows shattered, and the soldiers felt as if their heads had been struck by hammers.
Nikles saw only red, blood gushing from his nose.
He was thrown backwards by the force of the blast.
After a few seconds, he regained his senses and looked around. His comrades lay on the ground, their faces covered in blood, their bodies twitching. They were dead.
Only Nikles, the strongest among them, and slightly further from the window, had survived.
“Die!”
Another shout from within the church, and another invisible force slammed Nikles against a tree.
His back felt broken, the pain making his face contort.
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
Then, countless ice-white, shimmering threads emerged from the church windows.
Mavis’s hair, growing rapidly as if with a life of its own, reached Nikles, binding him tightly.
He struggled, but the seemingly delicate strands were as strong as chains.
The hair tightened.
Blood trickled from Nikles’s lips.
A sickening cracking sound filled the air as his bones broke under the pressure. He screamed in agony.
Broken bones pierced his flesh, some protruding through his skin.
It was worse than death.
Suddenly, he felt a shadow fall over him. He turned his head with difficulty and saw several figures behind him.
Two inhumanly beautiful women, the Snow Woman Heloise and the Blood Elf Iyeta.
And a proud elf, a member of the Hero Squad, Sylph.
Between them stood a tall, well-built young man, slightly more handsome than before.
It was none other than the Hero, Qin Chu.
Hope flared in Nikles’s eyes. The Hero was here. He was saved.
“Hero! Save me…”
He cried out, his voice filled with desperation.
He felt his organs being crushed, the hair tearing his skin and flesh. The pain was unbearable.
Seeing Nikles’s plight, hearing his pleas, a smile touched Qin Chu’s lips.
He remembered. In the first loop, this was the man who had killed Karen, the only girl who had spoken up for him when he was crippled and confined to a wheelchair.
He also remembered how, even in the second loop, Nikles had betrayed him, providing information to the First Prince and helping to frame him.
Some things never changed. Nikles was despicable, in both loops.
As for saving him?
Save your sister!
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