Azure Scepter

Page 141

Dust drifted slowly as a boot stepped onto the bloodstains scattered on the ground.

“I’ll use a maze spell to trap Losevie first. While she’s trapped, these Death Knights will cast a massive corpse explosion. Once Losevie comes out, she’ll be met with an unavoidable massive explosion and a round of high-level roars,” Trier said in a low voice. “Edith, no matter what happens, don’t leave my side.”

Edith nodded silently and firmly.

As she approached the point of impact of the explosion, layers upon layers of auditory hallucinations surged into her ears like waves. Everything before her eyes was shrouded in a hazy, gray shadow, and her mind seemed to sink into some kind of viscous, stagnant swamp. At this moment, she seemed to gain some kind of strange synesthesia. She seemed to hear the muffled sound of stars turning, and a faint, ethereal song spread and permeated the dust.

After a moment of confusion, she realized that the screams seemed to be coming from the distant city.

Edith took a deep breath and, with her extraordinary willpower, regained her composure.

Without a doubt, Lorraine is very close. She is about to face a fierce battle on a soul level. If she loses, not only will her soul and body be taken away by her, but Trier will also be killed by Lorraine after she recovers.

She absolutely, absolutely cannot fail!

A gust of wind carrying the pungent smell of blood and gunpowder blew by, and the thick dust kicked up by the explosion slowly dissipated. Beside the raging ruins, Edith saw Oris lying on the ground, badly injured, and a rather lonely and thin figure.

It's Lothar Laurence!

Edith instinctively tightened her grip on the holy sword.

However, the next moment, a warm hand pressed down on the back of her hand.

She turned her head to look at Trier, and then saw that he had silently shaken his head.

“Don’t panic, there are other attackers,” Trier said in a low voice. “Look over there, it seems to be an elf.”

Edith followed Trill's gaze and, in the shadow cast by the crumbling statue of Saint Seir, saw a winged elf.

“Don’t rush in. Let it make the first move, then we’ll make ours last,” Trier said in a deep voice.

Due to the series of battles, Lorraine's avatar had reached its limit, and her perception had declined significantly, so she did not detect the new attacker.

Rosevie had planned to take advantage of the last remaining time of her avatar to kill the cowardly brass dragon Aurelius, but when she used her phylactery to sense the dragon's location again, she was quite disappointed to find that the dragon had run away again.

At this moment, the prayers that rose like waves in Lothaway's ears grew clearer and clearer. The desperate prayers and resentful curses of the people, mixed with the pungent smell of blood, assaulted her soul. She felt dizzy and simply sat down next to the collapsed statue of Saint Seir, looking down at the burning city below.

—This avatar made from her eldest daughter's corpse couldn't last long, and her conscious time for the month was also coming to an end. Therefore, Sel's final attempt to break through the limits of power and thus summon the Azure Law was purely a case of being too clever for her own good and was unnecessary.

In a daze, Losevie caught another glimpse of Oris beside the flames out of the corner of her eye.

The vessel that carried the spirit of the serpent did not flee as she had predicted; instead, it lay calmly beside the flames.

"Aren't you going to get lost?" Losevie raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the other person.

Oris paused for a moment, then his ugly face revealed a strange, bitter smile that was twisted with obsequiousness mixed with helplessness.

"I won't survive if I go out. Those who try to stop the massacre will tear me apart. Rather than go out and die, I'd rather stay here and recover my strength."

Looking at Oris's fawning face, which was crammed together like chrysanthemums, and the survival instinct revealed in his small eyes that were almost slits, Rosevie felt a sudden and inexplicable disgust rising in her soul, which had long since suppressed any normal emotional fluctuations.

Lorraine reached out and scooped a translucent blood plague maggot from the blood plasma. As soon as the maggot was picked up, it immediately wrapped around the tip of her index finger, wriggling and twisting its head, trying to probe into Lorraine's scorched fingertip.

“You’re just like that maggot.” Lothaway glanced at Oris’s face. “Wriggling in corpses and shit, trying your best to climb up, struggling to get a step closer, but in the process you scramble, you scatter shit and pieces of corpses everywhere. Even if you manage to get a step closer, you’ll just become a more disgusting fly.”

Oris quickly reached out to support himself, then lowered his gaze and revealed an even more fawning smile.

"Your Majesty is right, I will definitely mend my ways!"

The maggots on Rosevie's fingertips burrowed through her charred skin, plunging their heads deep into her black and pink flesh. Rosevie stared at them for a moment, then pressed her thumb against the maggots' plump tails.

"Such a despicable soul, how pathetic! How did you even discover your true nature and reach the level of a legend?"

Lorraine turned her bulging, bloodshot eyes toward Oris.

"As a knight, you betrayed the king you were loyal to; as a chosen one, you betrayed the god you served; as a leader, you betrayed your subordinates; as a paladin, you slaughtered the innocent—your existence was only to stir up a huge pile of shit, to hurt and disgust others. Now everyone else is dead, but you have survived."

Seemingly sensing Lothaway's subtle hostility, Oris immediately knelt down, pressing his head tightly to the ground in a gesture of serving a deity.

Seeing the other party's disgusting state, Losevie suddenly exerted force with her fingertips, instantly crushing the maggots!

Losevie abruptly stood up. Under the scorching heat of the flames, the skin and pale fascia on her face clung and sagged like melted wax. At that moment, she appeared…

It became increasingly ferocious and terrifying.

"Since you refuse to leave, then die here," Lothaway said in a deep voice.

Oris looked up in horror, instinctively raising his hands.

Only then did he realize that Lothaway and Saint-Sel had completely different personalities. The latter would enjoy her cowardice and flattery, while the former would be enraged by flattery and ugliness!

To survive, you must confront Lothaway and, while doing so, say what she truly wants to say!

"I didn't want this to happen either!" Oris cried out in a flash, "Before you do it, I want to ask a question—why did I do this?"

Lothaway slowly turned her eyes, which were about to fall out. She struggled to regain her gradually blurring consciousness from the layers of auditory hallucinations, and then said coldly, "A maggot will always be a maggot. A maggot is a maggot because it is born a maggot. You were born to be such a sycophantic, cowardly, and despicable person who flatters superiors and bullies inferiors."

Like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, or a cripple whose knee has been pierced by a spear, Oris clenched his fist tightly.

"Born this way?" He tried his best to appear tough. "Yes, you're absolutely right, you were fucking born this way!"

Lothaway lowered her gaze slightly, a cryptic smile appearing on her charred gums.

"Oh? You don't agree with my conclusion?"

“The bed I was born into doesn’t allow me to have lofty ambitions, nor does it allow me to enjoy luxurious dignity and morality,” Oris said in a deep voice. “I am the second son, and my father’s property has nothing to do with me. When I came of age, all I had was an old horse and a rusty longsword—no one taught me swordsmanship, no one introduced me or paved the way for me, and I don’t even have any wisdom. I know better than anyone that I am just a damn poor, talentless mediocre man!”

"My childhood sweetheart, whom I admired, was married off to the idiot I despised the most. My beloved family forcibly expelled me to prevent the division of our territory. My brewing business, which I was so proud of when I was young, was destroyed by my own brother. I had nothing left! I could only become a mercenary, you know, the most damn lowly kind of mercenary, the kind that serves as cannon fodder on the battlefield!"

“And then you gave up even the only virtue you had,” Rosevie said softly, as if talking to herself.

“Virtue?” Oris paused for a moment, then slowly stretched his lips into an exaggerated smile. “You really know how to tell a joke.”

Lothaway narrowed her eyes slightly, and for a moment, all the flames seemed to freeze.

Although his heart was trembling, fueled by the anger brought on by past memories, Oris glared back without hesitation.

“Virtue is a luxury, and this luxury is too expensive for me,” Oris said in a deep voice. “You and the naive and ridiculous Edith were born into noble princesses. How could people like you possibly understand my suffering? Your pain, your suffering, your torment are all just whining! I have no right to choose virtue; on the contrary, it is you who have abandoned virtue.”

Lorraine nodded slightly.

P.S.: Thank you so much for the generous donation and recommendation votes! I'll be adding an extra chapter tomorrow!

Chapter 273 The King and the Court jester (Part Two)

“Perhaps you cannot choose virtue, but you are a paladin.” Lothaway’s voice grew softer. “However, you are not a qualified paladin either.”

“A qualified paladin?” Oris paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

He slowly stood up, his gaze fixed on the hideous-looking Lorraine.

"There are no qualified paladins in this world!" Oris said, emphasizing each word. "The idea of ​​paladins helping the weak and eliminating evil is just a fairy tale to fool idiots! Only a fool like Edith, who loves reading chivalric novels and has completely ruined his brain, would believe it!"

He mustered his courage and suddenly pressed down on Lothaway's shoulder.

Lothaway slowly turned her eyes, silently gazing at the crazed Oris, quietly listening to his hysterical outburst.

“You call me a maggot, and you’re right, I am a maggot right now,” Oris said coldly, his face grim. “But why am I a maggot? Because this world is a fucking giant cesspool!”

Oris shook Lothaway's thin shoulders hard, the creaking of her bones echoing amidst the crackling of sparks.

"I just want to live, even if it's without dignity! Is such a simple wish wrong?! People like you have no idea how much I've given up to survive!"

"Where were the righteous paladins when I was driven from my home and starving to death? Where were the righteous paladins when I helped the serfs fight against the tyrannical baron, only to be betrayed by them and nearly hanged? Where were the righteous paladins when I was ambushed by orcs in Champagne Castle and left isolated and helpless?! Do you know that to alleviate my hunger, I sold my old horse that had been with me for over a decade; to avoid being hanged, I gave up my virginity; and to escape from the orcs, I even abandoned the only comrade I had trusted for over a decade!"

"What is all this for? It's all for survival! Only the most foolish idiots would believe in the fairy tale of the paladin, the lie of virtue!"

In the firelight, Oris's veins bulged and his eyes were bloodshot. At this moment, he could no longer tell whether he was acting or truly enraged to the extreme—his face was now even more ferocious and terrifying than Rosevier's rotting flesh.

"What right do you have to criticize me?! I may not be a qualified paladin, but you are even less so. You, Losevie, the noble princess, the great conqueror of the Dark Lands, the invincible representative of the Church of Radiance, are essentially no different from this maggot!"

Lorther slowly turned his eyeballs, which were about to be severed, and a few drops of blood slowly dripped from the wound.

“I am no longer a paladin—never again,” she said in a hoarse voice. “Oris, you are right about one thing.”

She paused for a moment, and a stream of hot, sparkling air rushed out of her ruptured, bellows-like lungs.

“I’m no different from you. I see myself in you, so I find you disgusting.”

Oris was stunned. Lothaway's light words hit him like a hammer blow to the head. For a moment, he even forgot what he had prepared to say.

Lothaway was breathing heavily; she seemed even weaker.

“But there’s one thing you’re wrong about,” Lothaway said slowly. “I understand the suffering you’ve been through. I’m not some noble princess; I’m just an ordinary political exile. I came to the Dark Lands not because of any ambition for land or power, but simply to escape my father and stepmother’s pursuit.”

As Oris looked at the Queen's rotting eyeballs, he inexplicably sensed a power called sincerity within them.

“During my exile, all of my mother’s former followers died one by one. To make a living, I had no choice but to become a mercenary. The funds and manpower I used to conquer the Dark Lands were all accumulated bit by bit by me with my sword.”

“Your power…” Oris found his voice was dry.

“No matter how bloody the battle, as long as there are enough mercenaries, there will always be survivors. I am one of those survivors,” Lothaway said. “In an environment that feels like a bloodbath in the abyss, as long as you don’t die, you will always improve. By the way, I really did go down into the abyss to fight bloodbaths in order to hone my skills.”

"Why were you able to become a paladin?" Oris asked.

Lothaway was silent for a moment, then shook her head.

“Before I died, no matter how dark the circumstances, I always adhered to virtue, and then one morning, I was naturally inspired and became a paladin.”

Before he died... Oris pondered the other person's choice of words, a strange emotion rising in his heart.

Just as he was pondering, a gold-plated ring stained with blood suddenly spun into his hand. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the ring was inlaid with a bright green gem that shimmered with magical light.

He looked up in surprise at the increasingly hunched-over Rosevie.

At this moment, the legendary queen who had broken through the army as if it were a stroll, slaughtered otherworldly gods as if it were ants, and whose fame resounded throughout the ages, was now like an ordinary old woman, hunched over, clutching her chest, and slumped against the holy statue.

“I picked it up from a corpse. It can heal wounds, I guess,” Lothaway said in a low voice. “Take this ring and head west from the city. There aren’t many people in that direction. Okay, I’m tired. Get out of here before I change my mind.”

After saying that, she waved her hand impatiently.

Oris didn't move. He was in a daze, and he felt a strange emotion surging in his chest, as if it was about to burst forth.

At this moment, although Lothaway looked even more terrifying than a zombie infected with the blood plague, for the first time in his life, Oris felt an inexplicable urge to follow her.

He sensed a certain personal charisma, a charisma in a spiritual sense.

At this moment, the layers of prayers around Losevie became clearer and more chaotic, and her vision became increasingly blurred. In this moment, she seemed to have returned to the distant past. She saw the ruthless court assassins, the overwhelming army of demons, the enormous fireballs that occupied half the size of a mountain range, and the people who loved her and lined the streets to welcome her.

"By the radiance above, save me, save my child..."

"Wake up! The enemy is coming! Lothaway, not now!"

"Why? Why!? Save my child, Glorious..."

Wait, is that Fusada's voice?

Rosevie suddenly opened her eyes.

The flames surged, the shadows shifted, and in the next moment, she was shocked to see a figure she least wanted to see amidst the changing shadows—Edith!

The next instant, endless dizziness and hallucinations swept over her will, and almost at the same time, a muffled longsword silently pierced her back from the shadows!

PS: First update!

Chapter 274 The Final Battle (Part 1)

At the last moment before she was about to be stabbed, Lothaway narrowly grabbed the scabbard at Oris's waist and drew her longsword.

Without even looking, she simply swung backward based on her experience, and in the next instant, the scalding sparks from the clashing blades struck the back of her neck.

The force surged into her through the blade, and Lorraine pushed off the ground, twisted her waist, and turned around to parry with her sword.

"boom!"

A strong wind carrying the cold smell of rust rushed towards us. The next instant, the counterweight at the end of the sword hilt suddenly exploded into a burst of sparks. In the flash of light, the face of an elf with emerald green skin disappeared.

Another otherworldly divine servant! And an elf at that!

Before Losevie could think any further, the dazzling reflection of the blade suddenly shifted and turned, followed by a series of sparks that flew along the hilt towards her fingers and eyes!

There is no way to avoid it!

In a flash, Losevie deflected the force of the blow and swung her sword. Then, she suddenly released the hilt, pushed off the ground, and lunged forward, delivering a fierce kick to her opponent's shinbone.

However, at that very moment, the hallucinations of the past returned! Lorraine felt as if she were a drowning sailor in a cold ocean, her vision blurred, and in that blur, she seemed to be in a golden banquet hall filled with the fragrance of lilies of the valley, where people with indistinct faces were clinking glasses and talking loudly. It seemed that she was attending a diplomatic banquet.

"Assassin! Assassin!" someone screamed.

Blood splattered onto the crystal chandelier, a maid collapsed to the ground, and a handsome elven assassin, wielding a dull longsword, stabbed the dwarven envoy beside her who was raising a toast in celebration!

She instinctively grabbed a fork and unleashed the Shadow Sword School's signature move, "Phantom Blade," at the assassin.

"Bang!" The crisp sound of bone cracking startled the bewildered Lothaway.

The figure of the elven assassin in her memory and the elven attendant before her eyes became increasingly similar—Losevier's pupils suddenly contracted; the two elves were essentially the same person!

The elf grunted and immediately retreated into the shadows. Losevie wanted to finish him off, but the next moment, an even more overwhelming hallucination surged in.