Azure Scepter

Page 153

In an instant, a wedge-shaped bloodstain burst from Asmo's head, and in the scalding air, a thick spear suddenly smashed his upper body and then slammed into the floor.

boom!

Before the pieces of flesh even hit the ground, a hail of arrows followed, instantly turning all the creatures that entered the city hall into a bloody mist.

Blood flowed freely, and countless arrows the size of spears were stuck in the floor, their shafts swaying slightly, like tattered flags on a battlefield.

On the suspended second floor of the city hall stood a giant nearly six meters tall, clad in light silver armor. In his left hand he held a massive bow, also nearly six meters long, while in his right hand he slowly drew an extremely long spear, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, from its quiver. Beside him stood a large group of slightly smaller giant archers, all of whose arrows were the same size as a normal person's spear.

These giants are powerful natives of the Dream Realm, the Wild Hunt.

Even more outrageous, the gluttonous insects were not all dead. Beside the giant, the gluttonous insects condensed into several cloaked figures that looked exactly alike, and those cloaked figures actually began to cast spells!

One is unleashing an extreme cold ray, another is unleashing a hell sphere, and yet another is amplifying a disintegration spell!

This swarm of tiny, all-consuming gluttonous insects is intelligent and can even cast spells!

This is never going to end. Trier's eyes were dark as he slowly gripped the hilt of his sword.

"No entry allowed." The Wild Hunt leader's deep voice echoed in the city hall. The next moment, he drew his bow and aimed at the succubus flying in the sky. "Those who disobey will die."

Before the words were even finished, the Wild Hunt leader's head exploded instantly. An arrow silently sliced ​​through his skull, and his helmet, mixed with blood mist and skull fragments, slammed backward. In the firework-like scattering of blood mist, the wall behind him was also wiped out along with him.

Fythia arrived as well, and she shot and killed the Wild Hunt leader with an arrow from an extremely long distance!

The situation changed so quickly that the Wild Hunt were all stunned in an instant.

And that is fatal.

The shadows cast by the flames writhed like vengeful ghosts, and in the next instant, a piercing sonic boom suddenly exploded!

A flash of cold sword light passed by, followed by scorching sparks, and then the pungent smell of flesh and blood disintegrating.

Trier suddenly stepped out of the shadows on the second floor, lunged forward amidst the black smoke from the fire, and unleashed a powerful cleave at the Wild Hunt in front of him!

The three-headed gluttonous insect aggregate suddenly twisted its necks in unison, trying to turn its head. However, before it could finish turning, a thick, deathly white substance, like an eraser, suddenly wrapped around its neck and swallowed it whole.

The Holy Slash!

The next moment, the walls on the second floor suddenly shattered, and countless gluttonous insects surged in from all directions like waves!

Trier glanced at it only once, then raised his longsword. In an instant, holy flames descended from the sky, burning the gluttonous insect sea to ashes!

Magic resistance; does not resist holy damage.

The surviving Wild Hunt members not far away hadn't even realized what was happening yet. Some of the quicker ones had already started preparing to run away, but Trier certainly wasn't going to give them the chance.

Do your best to eliminate evil.

Trier slowly raised his longsword.

Moments later, the ground was littered with corpses, and holy flames and purple flames burned fiercely, giving everything an apocalyptic feel.

By this time, the succubus flying in the sky outside was completely numb. She had witnessed Trier's entire massacre. To be fair, she felt that Trier's terrifying melee ability was even more frightening than his spellcasting ability in the dream world; its terror was akin to that of a saint walking on the prime material plane.

She suddenly felt a sense of relief; thankfully, she hadn't chosen the wrong side this time, otherwise, she would surely have lost her last life in the Prime Material Plane...

Trier slightly tilted the blade, and thick blood and bits of flesh slowly flowed down the edge—now it was clean, all killed. The only pity was that he hadn't found the person behind the swarm of gluttonous insects; the other party could still be resurrected by the remaining gluttonous insects.

He glanced at his experience points and realized that he had accumulated enough to level up his legendary class.

"It's a pity there's still no clue about becoming a Planeswalker." Trier shook his head and then dismissed the thought.

Even though he wasn't a Planeswalker yet, with his divine power and various super-powerful specialties, he was already a top-tier fighter in the Prime Material Plane before the Gods descended. So instead of rushing to level up now, he should wait a little longer and wait for a higher ceiling.

Trier walked slowly to the damaged exterior wall on the second floor and looked out.

Outside was not the night sky of Wirth, but a vast, black void, silent, colorless, and lightless, the immense emptiness and darkness conveying a sense of loneliness and destruction.

Outside lies the depths of the Dream Realm, or rather, the true form of the Dream Realm. Part of Wilt's City Hall has been forever dragged into the depths of the Dream Realm, which is why the exaggerated magical battle just now did not damage the main structure of the building.

What people can see in the dream world are actually the coupling points between the depths of the dream and the dream world. Some of these coupling points are the dreams of beings from various planes, while others are the bodies of dream world demigods. This description is not entirely accurate, because dream world demigods, including Fusada, do not strictly have a distinction between body and soul in the general sense. Their thoughts are their extensions.

Just as Trier was gazing at the boundless dream world outside, lost in thought, a faint cry for help came from downstairs.

Could there be any survivors in this godforsaken place?

Trier paused for a moment, then turned to look at the first floor. He stopped to listen and realized that the cries for help were coming from a hidden basement.

He pondered for a moment and did not rush downstairs. He waited until the third wave of Asmo and the mixed soldiers of the ghouls were in place before he went downstairs. Then he reached out and pushed the duke's bust at the bottom of the spiral staircase.

The dull thud of gears and levers meshing and turning filled the air. A moment later, the base of the spiral staircase dipped downwards, revealing a dark path leading to the basement.

How did he know there was a secret room here?! The high-ranking succubus Orianna was completely dumbfounded.

Trier didn't seem to be using any spells like divination, so why did he seem so familiar with this place?

“Let’s go in and take a look,” Trier said.

The soldiers immediately carried out the order, and about five minutes later, they came out again, and surprisingly, they actually brought out several survivors!

It was at this moment that a faint sense of threat suddenly rose in Trier's heart again—the same feeling he had when he saw the dark figure before the wedding!

P.S.: I'm not very satisfied with how it's written, but maintaining a stable update schedule is still more important...

Chapter 296 Reasoning and History

Trier's gaze sharpened, his dark eyes quickly sweeping over the survivors who had been brought out, before confirming that the cold and subtle sense of being watched and threatened did not come from the survivors in front of him.

As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. This time, Trier was not as at a loss as before. He closed his eyes and carefully felt the sensations.

His scalp tingled, and the chilling killing intent seemed to transform into hundreds of polar ice needles, piercing every inch of his skin, penetrating his bone marrow, and seeping into his soul.

This sense of threat comes from the level of the soul!

Just as Trier was making progress, a faint voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Your Excellency Trier..."

Trier slowly opened his eyes and looked toward the source of the sound.

Among the survivors was a man with sunken eyes, so emaciated that he was almost nothing but bones and skin. He was stretching out his hand, which looked like a withered tree branch, and speaking in a trembling voice.

Trier stared for a moment, then blinked in surprise.

The man, who was starving and looked emaciated, turned out to be an acquaintance of his—a moneylender from Beaver Town!

How did he get here?

Although Trier was quite curious, he had more important things to do at the moment, so he simply nodded slightly and did not give any further response.

He reached in and pulled out a crystal cone-shaped flask from his backpack. The flask appeared to be empty.

However, the conical flask could not possibly be empty; it contained the unknown, invisible liquid that Futia had collected from the scene of the Duke's assassination.

Trier's thinking was quite clear: if the reason he felt threatened twice was the same, and this strange invisible liquid appeared when the Duke was assassinated, then it should also exist this time. And through the most basic theory of sympathetic magic, he could track the liquid here through the liquid in the conical flask, thus achieving a similar tracking effect.

With this thought in mind, he flicked his thumb to open the bottle, then reached out and guided the magical wind to slowly swirl around the reagent bottle.

Within the dream realm, the magical winds were exceptionally violent. Trier had only just begun channeling the magic when the conical flask began to crack slightly under the terrifying pressure. However, Trier simply pressed down, and the surging winds of death were instantly choked, then firmly restrained by the spell's form.

Grasp it once, and refine it in an instant!

The next moment, Trier activated his negative energy vision.

In an instant, the colorful world was reduced to the gray of matter and the black and red of the wind of death. At this moment, the black and red, like ribbons, circled around the conical flask, slowly drifting and swirling.

Under the influence of the sympathetic law, the death wind, like a black and red ribbon, was spreading out some dim particles in all directions, which at first glance looked like dust fluttering and floating in the light.

Trier narrowed his eyes slightly, and the dim particles scattered by the wind of death immediately became clear. They gathered together and started from the mouth of the conical flask, descending the stairs and slowly extending towards the basement of the Wilt City Hall, forming an illusory blood-red path.

Sure enough, there were clues here.

Without any hesitation, he gripped his longsword and led the succubus and soldiers straight to the basement.

Although the person who created the shadow and murdered the Duke seemed efficient and left no important clues, every action leaves traces and information. Now, Trier felt he had enough information—he had narrowed down the general area of ​​this conspirator.

The reasoning is not complicated, in fact, it is quite simple—the city hall has been missing for a long time, yet there is a swarm of microscopic gluttonous insects lurking inside, blocking the way with wild hunts, and then an invisible liquid similar to the one that appeared when the shadowy figure appeared is found here. So there is obviously a connection between the two.

Considering the stakes and the ability to commit the crime, the mastermind behind it is nothing more than one or a few of those vying for the divine status, or at most a few more unknown outsiders.

If we consider that the deceased duke was our grandfather, and Uncle Cohen also saw the shadowy figure, then we can reasonably guess that the planner's actions are related to our family bloodline, or in other words, the other party is very likely related to our family.

Of course, the possibility of this being a frame-up or misleading cannot be ruled out, but Trier tends not to consider this possibility without relevant clues.

So, which of these participants fits this criterion? Lothaway, Fusada, and Saint-Sel are all possibilities, but intuitively, Trier feels that Saint-Sel is highly suspicious. After all, given her clownish nature, she is very likely to do something that harms others without benefiting herself.

Although Trier wasn't particularly interested in or familiar with the chaotic aristocratic history of the Southern Duchy, he did some research and cramming after discovering the female corpse in the ice coffin in the family cemetery.

Before Lorse conquered the Darklands, there were actually scattered human settlers here.

One group of human settlers, who had united the present-day southern duchy, originally worshipped the ancient lich Rakwald of the Great Swamp. However, after Loseville arrived, they converted to the Church of Radiant Light under the leadership of a powerful legendary rogue.

This legendary wanderer steadfastly supported Losevie from the very beginning of her military adventures, overcoming twelve tribulations together. At the most critical moment when the entire kingdom was dragged into the depths of the Dream Realm by the water sprite Fusada, he turned the tide. Through a series of sweet words and unparalleled thieving skills, he directly stole Fusada's conscience from the crowd. In the end, together with the others, he defeated the true darkness behind the Dark Land, the Dream Realm demigods.

After the kingdom was established, this legendary wanderer became the first Duke of the South, and about fifty years later, Fusada, through some strange magic that even Trier did not know, had a daughter with Losewey.

What followed, already vague and ambiguous historical accounts, became completely fragmented and difficult to read. However, Trier still managed to deduce what happened next based on his knowledge.

According to Trier's deduction, the fourth Southern Duke on the outer wall of the City Hall, the nameless Duke "The Bard," is actually Sel, a fact corroborated by their appearances. In short, Sel successfully seduced Lorsevie's eldest daughter and, during Lorsevie's crucial ritual for achieving godhood, betrayed her through some unknown method, successfully stealing her divinity and causing Lorsevie's sudden death.

After this detailed investigation, Trier believed that he was close to the truth of the matter. The research by players in the past, which suggested that Lorraine became a lich to protect the kingdom, was completely wrong—after all, Lorraine was immortal under the blessing of the water sprite lord and was not affected by the theory of lifespan.

Trier shook his head, bringing his thoughts back to the present.

As he stepped onto the stairs leading to the basement, the light gradually faded, and the cold air in the narrow, dark passage became increasingly viscous. Under the influence of the negative energy vision, the illusory crimson guidance became more and more solid, almost solidifying into a tangible form.

As you pass through the narrow doorway, your view suddenly opens up.

Chapter 297 Absurdity

As you pass through the narrow doorway, your view suddenly opens up.

As a magnificent building that was once famous throughout the kingdoms of mankind, the underground of Wirth's town hall is quite spacious—although it is called a basement, it can almost be called an underground city, with a height of nearly fifty meters supported by arched columns.

Upon entering, Trier was immediately struck by two magnificent statues. One depicted the spirited Laurence Rosé, sword in one hand and scales in the other; the other was of the Church of Radiant Light, a saint of justice and vengeance, holding a longbow. The longbow and scales crossed to form an archway resembling a doorway.

That was the entrance to the underground mirror city of Wirth, but at the moment, Trier ignored it. Following the guidance of the black and red particles, he slowly walked to a crumbling granite cliff.

That's where the clues end.

Trier frowned. He paused and stared at the wall for a moment, then noticed a faint dent. He picked up his longsword and thrust the tip into the dent.

A melodious sound echoed – there was a secret chamber behind the cliff!

Wilt's basement was a secret room in itself, and now, within that secret room, a second secret room has appeared.

Even Trier was somewhat surprised at this moment. This extremely well-hidden secret room was something that even players in the game "Azure Scepter" had never found.

But how do we get into this secret room?

Trier pondered for a moment, then raised his longsword.

Decryption is too inefficient; people who truly value efficiency use physics!

"boom!"

The flash of fire disappeared in an instant, and the blade of the ancient longsword sliced ​​through the granite as easily as cutting butter, revealing a narrow passage amidst the flying debris.

The narrow, cramped, and dark cave entrance exuded an unsettling atmosphere, like the gaping maw of an abyss that could devour everything...

Trier didn't even look, and then struck again with his sword.

"Click..." The narrow passage suddenly widened, and another deep staircase appeared before them, leading into even deeper darkness.

At this moment, in Trier's negative energy vision, a magical wind that could be described as a storm was escaping from this gap. Even the rubble at the crack seemed to be trembling slightly due to resonance.

There seemed to be an extremely powerful spellcaster in the secret chamber, and the caster was performing a terrifying spell that was at least legendary level.

Strangely, even though Trier forcibly demolished the outer wall, the other party didn't seem to react at all.

"There might be a big battle," Trier thought to himself.

He couldn't help but turn around and look.

At this moment, Edith, Fytia, and Noy have all arrived, and more undead and Asmo mixed soldiers are on their way not far away.

Trier's gaze slowly turned to Neuer.

Seemingly sensing his gaze, Noi asked directly in his mind, "Master, should I go scout ahead?"

Trier pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

If there really is an extremely powerful spellcaster inside, then instead of letting Noi become a suicide bomber, it would be better to let her buff everyone.

"Apply a group divine buff," Trier said succinctly in his mind. "I'll use the Death Knight to scout ahead."

As Noi began casting various buff spells, the Asmo soldiers, who had been quite relaxed, began to become restless—generally, buff spells were only cast so intensively before a major battle.