Azure Scepter

Page 61

In any case, it's a good idea to remove your undead army from the church and store it elsewhere temporarily to reduce risk.

Next, he planned to first try to mobilize the forces of the southern duchy of the Kingdom of Orko to block the transportation system and the outward transport of food, and this action would not require the use of his own undead army.

If the plan doesn't go well, or if the situation escalates to the point where a massacre of the city is necessary to resolve the problem, then Trier has no intention of fleeing—at that point, Trier will simply rely on the undead army to take matters into his own hands.

Princess Edith might be indecisive and have a guilty conscience; but Trier believed he would not have such a psychological burden at all. Although his personality seemed to have changed slightly since his transmigration, Trier still detested timid and indecisive inefficient behavior from the bottom of his heart.

Moreover, from another perspective, as the number of deaths among the ducal residents increases, while Lorseville's strength will certainly increase, his power will increase even more significantly—in terms of necromancy, his level far surpasses Lorseville's.

Even in terms of how to quickly slaughter and convert the undead, Trier is confident that, with his extensive experience in the game, he can slaughter and convert the undead several times faster than Lorraine.

But does this truly align with his promise to Harlan?

Trier suddenly felt as if something was blocking his chest, and his cold, coherent, and logical thoughts seemed to have been erased from his linguistic center at that moment.

A sense of frustration and restlessness he felt when facing Olius in Beaver Town welled up within him once again.

“Speaking of which, Master, aren’t you worried that we might just miss Fytia?” Noy’s voice interrupted Trier’s thoughts.

blink.

Trier took a deep breath, and as the abundant oxygen rushed into his brain through his veins, he barely managed to shake off his tedious moralizing.

“There’s absolutely no need to worry. Futia is an excellent ranger. She’ll definitely be able to follow the trail we left behind. I reckon we’ll meet her soon.”

"Really? I don't believe it." Noi made a playful face. "Want to make a bet?"

Before he could finish speaking, Trier suddenly sensed a commotion near the hanged corpse that served as a scout.

"Please don't bother me! I have a very important guest! Get out of my way!" came a hoarse male voice.

A cold female voice: "Don't even think about it, you devil."

Trier severed his connection with the hanged corpse and turned to Noy with a smile: "Fodia is just ahead."

My fingers gently rested on the hilt of the scimitar; its cold, curved shape was captivating.

Fatiya's azure eyes were fixed on the stranger in front of her, her body unconsciously shifting slightly to the left.

Beneath the fir tree stood a mangled human body, covered in blood and scorch marks. The stranger appeared to have suffered inhuman torture; he had no eyelids, and his bulging eyes now blazed with burning rage.

"What does this have to do with you? What do you want? Are you trying to rob me? I'm warning you, I can crush you as easily as crushing a reptile!" the stranger threatened, suppressing his anger.

Although the other person was covered in perfumed powder, the pungent cosmetics couldn't mask the sulfur smell emanating from them.

—This is a demon disguised as a human.

A demon blocking his path to Trier—a simple deduction is that this demon is waiting for Trier.

Faldia loathed this evil being from hell—her sister had been obsessed with studying everything about demons before abandoning her magical career to become a monk and eventually disappearing.

Although there was no direct evidence linking her sister's death to the devil, Fythia instinctively harbored suspicions. At that moment, she felt a strange worry that Trill might be bewitched by the devil, so rather than increasing unnecessary risks, it was better to kill the monster directly.

Chapter 120 The Devil's Advice (Part Two)

"Listen, elf. Hear my offer." The humanoid demon, covered in wounds, suddenly changed its tone. It raised its left hand, which was covered in festering cysts, and held up five fingers. "Five golden dragons, five golden dragons! I only ask that you get out of here immediately, as far away as possible! This has nothing to do with you, so don't meddle!"

“No,” Futia replied simply and directly.

"What exactly do you want?!" The devil seemed to laugh in anger, leaning against the fir tree and grinning, "Fine, fine, fine! You asked for it..."

Snapped!

A cold, hard blade of light suddenly slashed down, its sharp wind striking the demon's face like a silver lightning bolt.

madman!

The humanoid demon's pupils suddenly contracted. Unable to dodge in time, it was struck squarely in the forehead by a knife. With a dull cracking sound, its bald head shattered into two pieces. Brain matter and blood sprayed from the jawbone upwards behind it, and the optic nerve bundles behind its eyeballs were severed and fell to the ground.

The second slash followed like a shadow. The headless demon instinctively reached out to block, but the powerful blade suddenly changed direction and rolled into the space between his shoulder and elbow.

boom!

Suddenly, the elf attacked, flitting past, blood mist mingling with the parted devil's hair, dripping onto the ground. The mud-covered deerskin boots landed lightly among the lush green grass, and behind the devil, a fir tree several people could barely encircle collapsed with a crash.

Dust is everywhere.

Futia turned to look at the enemy's corpse, but the corpse mysteriously vanished.

A flock of greylag geese took flight in fright. Frye closed her eyes and tried to sense the devil's location using her hearing, but to no avail.

A deathly silence once again enveloped the brief commotion. Time ticked by, and Futia and the devil were locked in a brief stalemate.

“Much easier to deal with than the high-ranking cultists of the Silent Whisperers,” the elf thought. “Even the devil is nothing more than this.”

"It looks like you need help?" Suddenly, a familiar, gentle female voice rang in her ear, almost touching it.

Fatiya was startled.

Noi!?

Almost the instant the thought crossed her mind, she caught a glimpse of a hunched creature draped in a black cloak. The creature appeared abruptly by the Vaal River not far away, and something seemed to be wriggling inside the rusty chainmail beneath the cloak. The tattered black cloak swayed in the forest, making it seem completely out of place with its surroundings.

Her heart raced, and Fythia instinctively sensed danger from the black cloak. She even suspected that the dragon Orius had caught up with her.

The invisible demon reappeared, its body, which had just been cleaved in four pieces, now fully restored. It stared at Futia expressionlessly, its bulging eyes revealing no emotion.

It seems the demon didn't notice the strangely appearing black cloak, nor did it seem to realize that it was no longer invisible.

"Shh, don't make a sound—it doesn't know it's no longer invisible." A cool finger pressed against Fythia's lips, and Noy continued to whisper, "It's surrounded."

Futia tried her best to move her eyes.

The leaves rustled, the Waal River flowed on and on, and the weak cries of greylag geese echoed in the sky.

A large group of corpse demons appeared silently.

In the shadow of the fir trees, a milky-white horde of undead emerged silently, like frost falling on a winter morning.

The transparent blade reflected the sunlight, making her eyes sting.

When did they appear? Futia couldn't help but feel a sense of fear.

Then she saw Trier.

The paladin made no attempt to conceal his presence; he walked unhurriedly toward the devil, as if he hadn't noticed him at all.

Upon seeing the paladin, the previously expressionless demon suddenly smiled. A tongue as long as a forearm extended from behind its withered, broken teeth. Completely unaware that it was surrounded, the demon glared menacingly at Fudia before slowly rising to its feet.

"Night is falling, claws are about to fall, you are in trouble, paladin," the devil said in a tone like that of a third-rate, mediocre theatrical actor.

As she spoke, the humanoid demon leaped out from under the fir tree, extending its left index finger. Its affected, pretentious, and comical appearance reminded Futia of Noy, who preached.

What struck Futia as even more bizarre was the faint hint of anticipation on the demon's scarred face—it seemed to be trying to intimidate Trill...

Noi, who was invisible beside Futia, chuckled. The nun, who had become a spirit binder, smiled and said, "By the Radiance, this is too interesting. This demon is completely unaware of his situation. Futia, please don't speak. Let's just watch the show quietly."

“But what good can there be in talking to the devil? It’s all harmful,” Futia asked softly.

"The master suspects that this devil is part of a more complex plan."

-

“I’ve seen you,” Trier said in a flat tone, “in the crypt of St. Ser’s Church, when you were being tortured.”

“You’re in trouble!” the devil repeated, seemingly without considering the consequences if Trier didn’t follow its script.

Trier watched the devil in silence, and when he realized the devil wasn't going to continue, he could only read aloud expressionlessly, "Very good."

“Very good? You’re about to face disaster!” the devil repeated incredulously.

"Is that all you can say, Harvester?" Trier's expression turned cold. "If you dare to keep repeating this, I'll chop you from head to toe. It's a paladin's oath. Now, say what you have to say."

Harvesters are a type of demon that occupies the middle ranks of the hierarchical structure of Hell. Their primary duty is generally to corrupt mortals and establish contracts.

Generally speaking, these monsters are experts at calculating profits, understanding people's hearts, and deceiving others, but the one in front of Trier is clearly very incompetent.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that the other party is deliberately playing dumb.

"How do you know I am..." The reaper demon subconsciously took two steps back, then seemed to realize that it was very inappropriate to be successfully intimidated by a mortal, so it forced itself to speak fiercely, "Mortal, you have created an immortal enemy for yourself. Death cannot restrain it at all. It will constantly return from death, and I am your only savior!"

Chapter 121 The Devil's Advice (Part 3)

After a moment's thought, Trier realized that the undead enemy the other party was referring to was the "Shadowless Man." He thought for another half second and then completely deduced the cause and effect of the matter.

A mid-level demon is naturally incapable of dealing with a legendary being. The only possibility that it would come into contact with the Shadowless Man is that its superiors are also unable to deal with the Shadowless Man who has broken his promise. Thus, this troublesome task was assigned to this weak reaper demon.

A very typical and straightforward devilish idea is: since you can't deal with powerful defaulters, you can bring in other people who have a grudge against the contractor, and it would be even better if you could also fool a few other souls.

Trier coldly surveyed the devil, quickly reassessing the monster's worth in his mind.

It seems that this demon was not an agent sent by any other entity with whom Lothaway had a conflict; its appearance in the basement of St. Ser's Church was merely a coincidence.

With this thought in mind, Trier summoned the hanging corpse that had been lurking on the north side.

Without warning, a hunchbacked humanoid figure in a black cloak suddenly appeared behind the devil. Due to the speed of the movement, the explosive airflow split the airflow in two like an axe. The devil, who had just been pretending to be arrogant, was hit in the spine by the iron hook in an instant. A moment later, the sound of the sonic boom finally arrived, and the fir tree swayed precariously.

“Good news and bad news.” Looking at the demon that had been completely subdued, Trier said slowly, “The good news is that you don’t have to worry about the Shadow Man anymore. It’s finished. Now even a lesser demon is enough to kill it.”

"The bad news is, this achievement has nothing to do with you."

Crushed by its wounds, the Reaper Demon revealed its true form. It wore a magnificent and fashionable short robe, had animal hooves, a tail covered in dark red scales, and small, lamb-like horns on its forehead. At this moment, the demon looked horrified, struggling to look up at the cold-faced paladin, but it found that its muscles seemed to have gone out of control.

Undead?!

The Reaper suddenly realized it seemed to have misjudged something—it had observed the battle between the temple guards and paladins and the old mage, but it had only seen half of it. When it saw the Solar Flare, it assumed the priest had sacrificed himself for victory, and therefore it hadn't seen Trill use ritual to engage the old mage in a magical duel, or to control the undead.

It had initially thought that, with divine support, the paladins would suffer a pyrrhic victory over the shadowless men, and that the paladins, having lost their accompanying priest, would be demoralized and mentally vulnerable, making them easier to manipulate. But now it seemed that things were not so simple at all...

"I meant no harm, paladin!" This time, the reaper didn't recite its clumsy theatrical lines. It quickly forced out a strange smile—a smile that contained both flattery and embarrassment from its overly arrogant demeanor. "I really meant no harm! Please hear me out a few more words."

The paladin before him remained silent, and an invisible pressure seemed to seep into his spine along with the iron hooks. For a moment, the demon even had the illusion that he was not facing a rigid paladin, but rather his hellish demon-training boss who was fanatical about physical torture.

After a long silence, the paladin said in a deep voice, "Say it in five sentences, or I'll make sure you never get back to hell."

Generally speaking, demons and monsters are resurrected in their respective dimensions after death, but through some special magical means, people also have ways to temporarily prevent them from returning and being resurrected.

"What is the definition of a sentence?" the Harvester asked subconsciously.

Trier did not answer; he quietly watched the Reaper.

"A free intelligence report!" the Harvest Demon said hastily.

"The little girl you released in the dungeon is a vessel for a powerful lesser demon lord to descend. Once it descends upon the material world, you are doomed. This is all the evil consequence of your cheap goodwill."

Trier suddenly laughed, and the Reaper Demon didn't understand what was so funny about it—perhaps this paladin was on the verge of breaking his oath and his mental state was not very stable?

“Two sentences,” Trier said softly.

The reaper breathed a sigh of relief, forcing a seemingly sincere smile: "I won't hide my motives. That lesser demon lord has a conflict with my superior, and I will stop him at all costs."

"You must have heard of the Black Roland serial murders. Behind these murders are the worshippers of the Demon Lord. When their ritual is completed, the powerful Demon Lord will descend here and destroy everything!"

"Paladin, this is all your fault, remember that!"

“Is there anything else you’d like to add?” Trier asked gently.

The reaper was momentarily flattered and laughed, "No."

The next moment, its expression suddenly changed—six sentences!

Trier swiftly drew his wooden-handled longsword and unleashed a Holy Slash that struck the Reaper Demon's head. The blade, imbued with blazing holy flames, sliced ​​through the Reaper Demon's flesh, marrow, and internal organs with the speed of a hot knife through butter, cleaving the demon in two from head to toe.

[XP+500!]

Trier stared at the slowly burning wreckage, then slowly sheathed his longsword, Wuguang.

"Such a stupid harvester is extremely rare," he thought to himself. "It's not easy for someone with this level of intelligence to advance in Hell."

“If this reaper isn’t lying, then that lesser demon lord must be after Losevie—Losevie once infiltrated the abyss and killed a demon lord.”

"Currently, the number of powerful beings standing against Losevie is astonishing. There's the sealed demigod of the Dream Realm, the lesser demon lord thirsting for revenge, the Sunset Sage who personally intervened in the game's history to aid the human expeditionary force, and then there's Saint Seil's ambiguous attitude..."

In the first major version of the game, players generally did not yet possess great power, so their perspective on events was still superficial. However, now that Trier is considering things from a higher perspective, he suddenly finds it a bit too far-fetched that Lorraine could succeed.

Trier took a deep breath: "Lossway has powerful opponents everywhere from the Abyss to the Upper Planes, yet it is isolated and helpless. Now, how exactly did it succeed in the past?"

Chapter 122 The Dragon Awakens

A leaf fell on his face, and Aurelius stretched sleepily.

Looking at the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees, he paused for a moment, then muttered to himself, "It's already noon."

Since being hunted by Loseville, he hadn't been able to revert to his human form for a long time. Over time, he had even become somewhat familiar with human daily routines.

Although his brain was not fully awake, Aurelius subconsciously stood up, then skillfully took out a spellbook from beside his sleeping bag and cast three spells in sequence on himself.