Chapter 34: She’s Just a Pawn
The moment Empress Siana removed her eyepatch, Abyss realized what was going on.
All the strange events he had encountered seemed to be connected by a single thread, suddenly pulled taut.
“Are you looking for this?”
Abyss clapped his hands, attracting the Empress’s attention, then pulled out the blood-red gemstone he had extracted from Leona’s stomach and dangled it before her.
“Ah… Tongue of Greed… Why do you have it?! My master’s arrival… My master’s arrival is being hindered by this despicable wretch… Ah!”
As Abyss had expected, Empress Siana’s remaining eye widened in shock upon seeing the gemstone. She mustered all her strength, letting out a desperate scream. If Abyss hadn’t prepared beforehand and cast a localized silencing spell, the Empress’s scream would have alerted the guards.
“My mission… My mission is incomplete… My master won’t let me go… I must continue… I must continue…” The Empress, her spirit broken, changed direction and crawled towards Abyss, her mouth wide open, wailing with all her might. “Give me the Tongue of Greed! Give it back!”
“Don’t be so hasty,” Abyss said, flicking a finger. Several long bones sprouted from the ground, forming a cage around the Empress, trapping her. “Let Leona settle her issue first, then we’ll talk about your pathetic master.”
Leona looked at Abyss gratefully, finally willing to approach the immobilized Empress.
“What were you planning to do with me?” she asked, crouching before Empress Siana, staring into her cloudy, bloodshot eye. She couldn’t help but feel a sense of irony. This withered, pathetic old woman had secretly cursed and killed her forty-two years ago and then helped her son ascend the throne—Leona didn’t need to ask to know what had happened to her estranged siblings.
Such meticulous planning, such ruthlessness, and yet, here she was, reduced to this state.
“Leona, beautiful Leona, you were meant to be the vessel for my master’s arrival…” the Empress said, her struggles proving futile against the bone cage. She slumped back, gasping for breath. “You consumed the Tongue of Greed, your body slowly eroded by Dou Qi, turning into a hollowed-out cheese. When the time was right, the Eye of Fear and the Eye of Envy would meet you by fate’s design, allowing my master to descend. When my master dons the Face of Hell, the entire world will be redeemed…”
“What kind of bullshit is that?” Leona looked up at Abyss. “Come on, ABC, translate this for me. What does ‘arrival’ mean?”
“I think I’ve figured out the sequence of events surrounding you,” Abyss said, crouching beside Leona. Flora wanted to join them, but after a moment of hesitation, she decided to stay standing, wary of the monstrous old woman.
“The Council of the Dead used this power-hungry Empress. They, or some of them, orchestrated a scheme. The Empress wanted her son to ascend the throne, so she had to eliminate the children with higher claims, the offspring of the Emperor’s previous Empress. And the Council of the Dead wanted your body for their master to possess and descend upon Haitville. They had similar goals, so the Council gave Empress Siana two treasures: the Tongue of Greed and the Eye of Envy.”
Abyss pointed to the blood-red gemstone in his hand and then to the orange gemstone embedded in the Empress’s eye socket.
Leona frowned. “Why me? Wouldn’t it be better to find a slimy sea monster as a vessel?”
“Remember what I told you? Part of your power comes from the highest god of this world, the Creator God. This power made you an unprecedented Dou Qi genius. With the support of divine power, your body’s strength surpasses even that of sea monsters. The only thing that could kill you was your own Dou Qi, and the Tongue of Greed in your stomach achieved that. It caused your Dou Qi to grow abnormally, bypassing the process of physical tempering, ultimately eroding your internal organs and leading to your death.”
Leona instinctively covered her stomach. The Empress’s description of her body being “eroded into cheese” made her shudder.
“After your death, the Council of the Dead continued with their other plans. Forty-two years later, their plans seem to have reached a stage of success. So, Leiner, carrying the Eye of Fear, set off towards your tomb. Poor, foolish him, he didn’t realize he was just a pawn. When the Eye of Fear met the Tongue of Greed, it would gradually control Leiner, turning him into your nourishment somehow. Then, that ‘master’ would parasitize your body, its tendrils spreading through your ravaged body, completing the first stage of its arrival.”
The thought of being parasitized by an unknown creature made Leona’s expression even more troubled.
“Then, the two gemstones, now part of your body, would guide you back to your former home, the palace, to find the Empress. The Empress and her gemstone were also meant to be your nourishment. After consuming the Empress, it would complete the second stage of its arrival.”
“That’s disgusting…” Leona started to regret asking Abyss to translate.
“Next, it would either return to the Council of the Dead or have them deliver the ‘Face of Hell.’ Once it wears that, it will completely possess you, completing the final stage of its arrival.”
Abyss finished explaining with a smile, then shook his head. “Such a shame, such a shame. It was meant to be a seamless operation, potentially completed within days, perfectly executed. Leiner’s Eye of Fear could have made him invincible on the continent, and after your resurrection, you would have been unstoppable. This mission shouldn’t have gone wrong, but Leiner encountered me, and so did you.”
“You… How did you know…” Fear filled the Empress’s face. Clearly, she was not only mentally slow but also completely insane. She should have been laid to rest years, maybe even decades ago, but necromancy had kept her alive until now.
“What are you going to do, Leona?” Abyss asked. “It seems she’s just a pitiful pawn, but she did kill you for power.”
“I don’t care about settling scores with her anymore. Just destroy the magic circle and let her die. I only hated her. My death was so sudden that I didn’t even have time to develop true hatred,” Leona said, standing up dejectedly. “She should have died a long time ago. Before she dies, make her release the tomb guardians from their duty and set those poor souls free.”
“That’s easy,” Abyss nodded.
“And then? What are you going to do next?”
“Then?” Abyss smiled mysteriously. “Then I want to find a place outside the city and sleep with you two.”
“What?!” Leona was thunderstruck. Was this damned necromancer about to reveal his lecherous nature?
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