The light balls kept swelling bigger and then shrinking smaller. A glowing white radiance was flowing inside. Lucien's fingers approached the light ball slowly, but when he was almost touching it, his hand stopped!
Lucien felt his heart beating very fast as if it was going to jump out of his chest. His heart-beating pace closely followed the contraction frequency of the light ball.
Lucien had a thin layer of sweat covering his forehead. He had no idea why he just decided to take such a great risk by touching this mysterious light ball when he knew completely nothing about it? What if the light ball had exploded? What if it had contained some kind of curse?
He felt very lucky that his discretion and prudence had stopped him in the last second. Meanwhile, Lucien also reckoned that it was very strange of him to be this reckless. Somehow at that moment, he was caught by his curiosity and greed. Although he was clearly aware of the danger, he could not help reaching out his hand.
Lucien withdrew his hand and stared at the mysterious light ball in front of him. Trying his best, he was analyzing what just happened.
He wondered why. Was it because of the underground palace, or the arrival of the demon, Greed? Or was it because of the light ball itself?
Or perhaps… they were the same thing? Were they all connected?
There were so many thoughts in Lucien's mind, but he soon made a decision: He could not simply focus on the light ball, instead, he should also try to look for the materials or documents left by Sun King somewhere else. Lucien could waste his time here no more. He had to hurry up and carry out the magic rite to activate the magic circle left by Rhine.
Rhine had checked this place carefully and did not find anything else except for the magic circles here. It seemed that the other secret chamber that Sophia and Relph just mentioned was more likely to be the one keeping all the precious documents of Sun King.
Lucien took out the gorse brooch containing the unknown power and carefully put it on the statue's left chest. The brooch had now been put back to where it belonged.
Taking a few steps back, Lucien started to activate the magic circle using complex hand gestures and an incomprehensible spell.
...
In the hall above.
The fight was becoming more and more intense, and Frederick's pale face was covered with countless protruding veins. Although he looked terrible, Frederick's power had grown stronger and stronger, and even the prince was not his match.
Since Arthen's power all came from the divine and magic items he had, he could not follow the prince's and Frederick's pace anymore. Right now he was standing beside one of the gates in case Beyer decided to flee.
Deniz was the same. Now he was not in the fight either. Frederick's way of fighting was too crazy and rude to take anyone else into consideration. Anyone who tried to help Frederick could be severely hurt by him. Therefore, Deniz was now standing in front of the other gate.
Only Sophia could follow Frederick's movements. The series of spells she cast had really put Beyer in an even bitter situation. Counting the seconds, Beyer had no idea how much longer he could hang in there!
Sophia had also put Claire back into sleep. However, she never tried to use Claire to threaten Beyer as she knew it clearly that a woman was never that important to her elder brother. Sophia had decided to save Claire until later in case more blood from the Gorse Family was required in the secret chamber.
At this time, the look on Arthen's face suddenly changed and he pulled the gate of the hall open.
"Jocelyn, what happened?" Arthen asked hurriedly.
Jocelyn's face had completely turned pale. Stumbling into the hall, she grabbed Arthen's arm and cried, "Run! Andris has turned into a monster! …Monster!"
"…What?" Being grabbed by the arm, Arthen, for a second, did not know what to do. He had no idea what Jocelyn was talking about. Speaking of monster, they also had one there.
It seemed that Jocelyn had been scared so bad that the words from her mouth had become messy, "Monster… Andris is a monster! Killed many people! No… ate! He ate people! Run!"
In the end, Jocelyn started wailing. Her face was covered with tears.
Seeing that Beyer and Frederick's fight was still going on, Arthen held Jocelyn in his arms and asked, "What do you mean…? He ate people? What happened? Are you alright?"
"I don't know. Andris has turned into a monster…" Jocelyn was still repeating herself. "He has forgotten me…"
Arthen could not understand Jocelyn, so he turned to look at Sophia for help.
Slightly frowning, Sophia pointed at Frederick. She was telling Arthen not to worry since they had a radiant knight there!
Arthen indeed calmed down immediately. That was right. They had Frederick, who was gradually mastering his power better and better. Even a monster was not a threat to them!
Arthen turned to comfort Jocelyn, and Sophia also cast a spell to calm her down. The gentle green light fell on Jocelyn's hair like a piece of veil. Slowly, Jocelyn's bitter crying had been replaced by weak sobs from time to time.
Seeing that everything had been under control and how Frederick was fighting Beyer for her like a monster, there was a triumphant but sarcastic smile on Sophia's face.
Greed was the most powerful sin. Thus, no one could escape the punishment.
Sophia took a glance at Beaulac, who was standing there just like a fool, and then looked at Relph. She gave Relph a hint with the eyes, telling him to get ready for the next step of their plan. Later Relph would take Beaulac to the secret chamber together with Sophia and Claire, and Arthen and his people would be killed by Frederick who had already turned lunatic.
Once Sophia got the secret of Sun King, Sir Metatron would come to the stage. Sir Metatron would kill the monster, Frederick, who would have already killed many young nobles, even including the prince, as well as Relph. People would get to know that it was Relph, the vicious sorcerer, who summoned the evil power and turned Frederick into such a beast.
Sophia had the entire play in her mind:
One of the inheritors of the Gorse family had been deluded by the demon and lost his belief as his years of effort of awakening his blood power still eventually turned out to be in vain. The young heritor thus became a vicious sorcerer, and by accident, he discovered the magic rite for summoning the demons from the most ancient books of the family. From the books, he also found the powerful spell which could temporarily deactivate the magic circles in the underground palace. Therefore, the young inheritor, whose name was Relph, decided to use the magic rite and the spell to defeat all the other candidates and become the count.
However, the summoned demon went out of control. Seizing the soul of a secret guard, the demon launched a horrible massacre in the underground palace. When Sir Metatron finally broke the magic circles and came in, only the princess survived as she was hiding in a secret chamber all the time.
The citizens would mourn for the righteous prince; they would mourn for the loyal knight whose name was Arthen; and the young noble whose name was Beaulac…
The entire play was flawless!
Sophia took a glance at Deniz with a sorry look on her face. She did not want to do this, but she had to. Anyone who knew what happened down here, except for uncle Ulrich, Sir Metatron and herself, had to be killed.
She did not have the power to kill the Gorse Count and the Glorious Crown, or she would have chosen to kill the two of them as well!
Only when the soul and body were not able to be found anymore could a dead person keep a secret safe!
Beyer was feeling his arms getting rather heavy. In his eyes, Frederick was moving so fast that he had turned into blurry shadows. The prince knew that he had reached his limit.
He knew that he had to go all out.
Looking rather determined, Beyer held his willpower strong. The hanging wings behind his back suddenly stretched out and a radiance started flowing out. The feathers fell, and the wings quickly disappeared. A layer of holy light covered Beyer. Even his green sword, Demon Horn, was dyed milk-white.
"The Anger of Justice!" Sophia burst out.
Only when the blood power, the Angel of Justice, reached the level equivalent to that of a radiant knight, could it exert the ability called Anger of Justice! The Anger of Justice could launch a powerful attack on all evil creatures by improving the knight's power by one level!
But how was this possible? Beyer was not yet a radiant knight!
The holy light flashed past, but it was so bright that the entire hall was lit up.
When the light was gone, Beyer was gasping hard, with the sword in his hands. He had completely lost his blond hair, and the wrinkled scalp was revealed! But he was still standing there!
Frederick took a few steps back and a bloody cut appeared in his face. The cut extended and stretched fast. Frederick's head was almost cut open in half!
Beyer's heart was full of hope. He guessed that his victory had come.
Sophia frowned. She wondered if Frederick had died.
Deniz and Arthen were deeply shocked by Beyer's incredible power, and they had no idea what to do next.
However, the corner of Frederick's lips curled up, even with his head cut open.
The creepy smile made them very nervous and scared. And at this time, the veins that were hiding underneath his skin were now stretching out like countless, scary tentacles!
The alien-looking blood veins quickly reached the corners of the hall and completely covered the gate and the walls.
The several main thick veins went right into the bodies on the floor. Soon, the bodies shrank and became the nutrient for Frederick through the veins.
"Come to me. This is what I deserve!" murmured Fredrick, whose tone was filled with vicious greed. Meanwhile, the deep cut in his head started healing very fast.
"Mon… Monster!" Jocelyn was shocked by the disgusting and horrible scene again.
They had no idea if Frederick should still be regarded as a human being. Was he going to be out of control?
Seeing that the entrance to the secret chamber had not been fully covered by the veins, Sophia, who grabbed Claire, started moving to the secret chamber secretly. She gave Relph a hint, asking him to grab Beaulac and come with her.
Frederick's power had exceeded Sophia's expectation. They could waste their time here no more.
However, when she took a glance at Relph, what she saw greatly surprised her. Beaulac, who was just standing there like a fool, had turned into piles of foams as soon as the veins touched his body.
Foam?
For a second, Sophia was beyond confused. However, when she saw the veins turning into ashes when she reached the secret chamber, she suddenly understood what just happened. She saw an almost transparent figure come out of the air and reveal itself. It was Beaulac!
Sophia realized that Beaulac was, in fact, a sorcerer who used the fake blood power to hide his own identity. He had just sneaked in to find the treasure of Sun King.
Sophia was always aware of the fact that Beaulac was not a fool. He pretended that he was in love with Sophia but had his own plans. However, Sophia did not care. No matter what plan Beaulac had, in Sophia's mind, he was never a threat to her in the presence of Frederick and Sir Metatron. And now she had finally figured out what Beaulac wanted.
"Catch him, Deniz!" cried Sophia.
She also moved. Flapping her six pairs of wings, green wind ropes were summoned surrounding Beaulac. Meanwhile, since Claire had fallen into sleep, another young noble on Sophia's side, whose name was Joseph, had the chance to rush at Beaulac, holding the sword tight in his hands.
However, at this time, Sophia was shocked when she saw her wind ropes being quickly absorbed by a summoned light wall. As the magic symbols in the wall flowed fast, the wind ropes were all gone.
"Douglas' Absorbing Wall?!" Sophia recognized the wall.
At this time, Joseph had arrived in front of Lucien before Deniz's lightning bolts were summoned. In front of Joseph, the young man with clear blue eyes was wearing a mild smile.
Puff… A cluster of black fume directly covered Joseph.
Deniz's eyes suddenly opened big, and out of his astonishment, the summoned lighting bolts attached to his sword had disappeared: he saw that, when the black fume dispersed, there was a pink rabbit on the floor, but Joseph had disappeared.
Rabbit?
Baleful Polymorph!
"You aren't Beaulac?!"
Sophia's face turned pale. For the first time, she was mildly in panic. It was not because of the fact that the fake Beaulac could cast the fourth-circle spell, Douglas' Absorbing Wall, or the fifth-circle spell, Baleful Polymorph; what mattered was how easily the light wall absorbed the wind ropes and ald how he could cast a fifth-circle spell without any effort!
Silence had seized all of the young nobles, except for Frederick, who had turned into a complete monster.