Chapter 261 - Paying the Price (7)

“Ahh! Ghaa...!”

“Hmm... Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.”

The royal palace of Amaris, once filled with the fragrance of flowers, was now permeated by a nauseating stench of blood, which came from all the fallen warriors who had tried to protect their kingdom.

At the center of all of this was a woman, seated on a mound of corpses and holding Hela by the neck with her tail, which was similar to that of a reptile. The mysterious woman was so terrifyingly strong that Hela was struggling to breathe.

Hela was powerless, unable to resist. Her life depended solely on what the woman decided to do with her tail. The Snake Tongue, her beloved sword, lay shattered somewhere on the ground. The Nine Flowers, her guardians, had also been wiped out; they hadn’t been able to fulfill their duty of protecting Empress Hela to the end.

The woman with the tail sneered, “You go by the name of the Iron and Blood Empress? Do you not know what iron is?”

“Gha... Ghh...! Ju... Just kill me...!”

“Hehe, there we go. Seeing you struggle like this was worth sparing your life, but...”

The woman then twisted her tail, tightening her grip on Hela's neck even more, causing her complexion to turn from pale to purple.

“Ghh...Kha...!”

“You shouldn’t just challenge anyone you come across, you see. That’s not very wise of you.”

The mysterious woman went by the name of Ayla. She was the sole surviving female Chimera among the nine apostles of Arthus. Her distinguishing feature was her large tail that resembled that of a dragon.

Ayla stood up on the mound of corpses, but she was just choking Hela. She was playing with her life as if she were playing the violin. Every stroke brought Hela on the brink of death.

Hela was the last survivor of Amaris.

When Ayla had offered to preach about Arthus’ teachings to Hela, the Empress of Iron and Blood had firmly refused, claiming that Arthus didn’t suit her taste. This defiant act had been more than enough to send Ayla on a killing spree. It was enough to warrant the killing of the empress of Amaris.

Hela had attacked Ayla with every single one of her warriors, as tigers always went all out no matter how small their prey was. However, to Ayla, Hela’s efforts had but no more than child’s play.

Ayla had massacred every single person in the kingdom of Amaris except for its leader, and now she was savoring the moment.

“Hmm, now what should I do with you?” Ayla pondered.

She had massacred the people of Amaris out of rage, which was sort of a problem. Ayla had actually come here to spread the gospel of Arthus, ultimately to increase the number of followers. The more followers Arthus had, the greater his divine power would become, until he became the sole god of the Eurasian continent.

However, everyone in Amaris was now dead. Ayla scratched the back of her head, realizing her blunder and thinking of what she ought to do.

“Hmm...”

Ayla kept contemplating until she suddenly came up with a good idea.

“Yeah, that’ll do.”

Ayla dropped Hela on the ground like she was nothing. Her neck had bruised quite badly from Ayla’s intense grip.

“Cough! Cough!”

Even though she had told Aylaa to kill her earlier, Hela desperately gasped for air the moment she hit the ground, clinging onto life. She felt miserable and bitter that she had been brought to such a pitiful state.

Ayla looked down at Hela as she struggled and said, “A strong body gives birth to strong descendants, and we need lots of strong females. So in regards to that...”

With that, Ayla raised her index finger, and a long tentacle burst forth and pierced Hela through her shoulder.

“Ghaa!!”

Blood gushed out from Hela’s shoulder. Ayla purposely avoided her vital points; instead, she had stabbed her shoulder because it would be more painful due to the ligaments and the joints. In fact, the pain was so excruciating that Hela had only managed to yelp once.

Once Ayla drove her tentacle deep into Hela’s shoulder, she lifted her tail high. Her tail soon split at the end, taking the shape of a flower. This was the Devil’s Flower, a demonic flower Dracan had grown countless times to extract grebells to acquire more power.

Dracan had successfully planted these flowers into the apostles. As a result, each of them had evolved to the point where they could fully harvest grebells as if this power was their own.

After finishing her preparation, Ayla said, “As an empress, you have to take responsibility for your transgression and pay the price.”

“...!”

With that, Ayla used her magic to extract Hela’s blood through her tentacle. Blood was an essential nutrient for grebells to develop.

Ayla took her time to slowly extract Hela’s blood so that she wouldn’t die of shock, but this didn’t make this any less barbaric.

Hela was going through immense pain; she couldn’t even make a sound because of how excruciating the pain was.

However, Ayla couldn’t care less about Hela’s agony. She used the empress’ blood to disperse purple spores from the flower on her tail. Then, at her command, the spores scattered over the dead Amaris soldiers.

The moment the spores made contact with the fallen warriors, something unbelievable happened. Their stiff muscles softened, and their blood flow was being restored—they were being brought back from the dead.

However, the dead Amaris warriors weren’t actually being revived. They had already died, which meant their souls were already in the Underworld. It was just their lifeless bodies that were being reanimated.

As she observed the corpses spring up, Ayla said to Hela, “I guess you aren’t the empress for nothing... Hela, open your eyes and take a close look at what’s happening. I’m sharing your life force with your dead people.”

Even though Hela was injured, her life force, combined with Ayla’s abilities as an apostle, reanimated the corpses. Although the dead warriors didn’t have as much life force as living people, it was enough for what Ayla needed out of them.

The restored blood flow partially revived the brains of the warriors, and together with Dracan’s magic that Ayla had implanted into them, the warriors had regained some of their functions.

-Krr?

One of those functions restored by the magic was hunger. Ayla figured that if she could get their appetite going again, the corpses would constantly seek nutrients, which in turn, would lead them to strengthen their life force, ultimately letting Ayla get the best out of them for minimal effort.

“So? How do you like them? Even though the only thing they’re capable of is hunger, they still came back to life. And now, your people will serve as excellent resources for the Chimera army of Master Arthus.”

One of the strengths of mammals lay in their ability to reproduce. While other beings could also reproduce, they couldn’t directly transfer their own power to their offspring like mammals did.

“Aagh! You crazy bitch...!”

Hela moaned in pain and cursed at Ayla after she explained what she had done to her fallen warriors.

Ayla’s acts could only be described as vile and inhumane, but she remained composed as her act wasn’t her own idea, but the cruel discovery made by an evil wizard who specialized in pure anthropology.

In response to Hela’s furious reaction, Ayla cupped her own cheeks and smiled ecstatically.

“I expected nothing less from Sir Dracan... How did you manage to come up with something so grand?!”

Everything was the result of Dracan's imagination, expertise in anthropology, and the power of death Arthus had received from Janus.

Ayla was in awe at this harmonious outcome. She continued, “Sir Dracan sure is amazing, so you better hold on for as long as you can. Such blessings don’t come every day. And since you’re the queen, you should feel responsible to bring back more of your dead people. Aren’t I right?”

“You crazy...!”

Given that Hela was the only one left alive in Amaris, Ayla planned to extract as much blood from her as she could without killing her. When Hela was on the brink of death, barely breathing, Ayla would make her just like her now-undead companions.

After all, Hela was an incredibly powerful woman, one that would be an invaluable asset to Arthus.

“Alright then. Keep it up, will you?” Ayla requested.

Knowing what she truly meant, Hela was horrified by the fate that would await her.

***

“Thank goddess...!”

After arriving at the Khan Palace, Herarion was deeply relieved to find that the capital hadn’t been attacked. He had teleported here with great apprehension, knowing that if Shahatra ended up like Enkelmann, his already troubled mind would shatter.

“This is great news, but it would still be a good idea to prepare for a possible attack, right?”

“Of course.”

Hector suggested to Herarion that they raise the alert levels within Shahatra. Herarion immediately declared a state of emergency in the entire kingdom and dispatched messengers to the remaining three kingdoms to update them on the situation.

‘I hope nothing happened in the other kingdoms either.’

Herarion had made preparations after hearing the news about Enkelmann, but he still couldn’t dispel his worries.

In order to assuage his anxiety, Herarion quickly summoned his best soldiers to the outdoor conference hall within the palace. He planned to come up with a defense plan against a possible invasion by Arthus.

However, the best soldiers in Shahatra weren’t exactly impressive. This was because Benedict had summoned all the armed forces that were worthy as soldiers and annihilated them after deeming them rebels. Knowing this, Herarion couldn't help but sigh. Hector was the only one who actually reassured him a bit.

Kale, a teacher of the Shahatra Magic School, noticed Herarion’s distress and asked, “Your Majesty, why did you suddenly summon us together? Did something happen?”

Kale was a useful tool to Henry and also an important person for Herarion. Because of this, Kale held a lot of power in Shahatra. In a way, he had more influence in the Magical Spire than some of the mages, as power within the spire was relative.

Thanks to his influence, Kale was well-informed about Arthus and the current situation. Knowing this, Herarion had no reason to hide the truth from him, so he told him everything that had recently happened.

Hearing his story, Kale frowned, visibly concerned. After thinking for a while, he asked reluctantly, “Then... Um, what’s going to happen to us now?”

“Well, in the worst-case scenario, we might have to go to war with Arthus’ Chimera army.”

“A war you say...?!”

Even though Kale was all about destroying things, he was a small fry in the grand scheme of things. He was strong against the weak, but weak against the strong. Hence, the prospect of going to war with Arthus was deeply distressing to him.

Swoosh–

At that moment, everyone was alerted by a faint, sweeping sound. Kale looked up to see where the sound had come from.

“...?”

Thwip!

A spear suddenly fell from the sky, piercing Kale straight through his forehead and reaching his groin area.