[Ragon City - Duke’s Mansion]
The spatial tear snapped shut, cutting off the oppressive, suffocating aura of the First and Second Lords. The sudden silence in the ruined hall was deafening, broken only by the steady drip of the Duke’s blood pooling onto the expensive carpets.
"Who was that woman?" Delphine asked in shock, her voice trembling. She had grown up surrounded by the Empire’s strongest knights, yet the re presence of that woman had made her feel like prey trapped in a cage.
Mirabella didn’t answer imdiately. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the hilt of her legendary weapon. "That was the first Lord of the devil cult, the overlord ruler... I thought I’m strong enough to kill her, but it seems I am still weak." Mirabella answered, staring at her cracked sword. For a regressor who had ticulously gained the System and accumulate monstrous stats, the realization that raw numbers ant nothing against the First Lord’s rule-breaking abilities was a bitter pill to swallow.
"Strong enough?! Mirabella, you’re not older than , and you’re already had the mindset of defeating such a person?!" Delphine asked in disbelief. To the Princess, Mirabella was a prodigy, but the sheer arrogance required to look at an apocalyptic threat and think ’I can kill that’ was terrifying.
Hayatobi, ignoring the girls’ exchange, deactivated his multi-colored Soul Eyes. He stepped carefully over the wreckage and walked towards the Duke’s daughter, staring at her mutilated body.
"Why did they co after her? I thought we hid her well in this rundown city?" He muttered, staring at the body with a dreadful expression. His mind raced through the Empire’s classified intelligence networks, searching for a leak.
"Huh?"
"...?!"
Delphine and Mirabella turned to Hayatobi in surprise, stunned by his words. The God General’s statent implied that this massacre wasn’t just a random Cult attack.
"What do you an, Master Hayatobi?" Mirabella asked, keeping Sunder in her soul sea. The massive blade dissolved into golden light, retreating into the taphysical space within her consciousness.
’I need to find a way to repair my blade, for now... I need to know what he ant by that.’ She thought, forcibly shelving her bruised ego to focus on the imdiate mystery.
"This girl is Vijo, she has a very special ability... It’s weak, but it’s there." Hayatobi said, looking over his shoulder at Mirabella. His silver eyes were grim, burdened by state secrets.
"Um... What special ability?" Delphine asked in confusion. She knew the nobility of the outer cities well, but the na Vijo ant nothing to her royal education.
Hayatobi sighed, gesturing to the girl’s chest. "Her ability can absorb spirit energy, but these spirit energy isn’t stored in her body or soul sea, but stored in her heart... Due to this anomaly, she remained an ordinary human without a single bit of spirit energy. When we discovered this, the top powers and even the grand Mage and grand Alchemist were clueless, so we brought their family to this city, and made her father the Duke. This way, we can keep an eye on her, while studying in secret." He explained, and pointed a finger at Vijo’s chest, then pointed at the massive, slaughtered form of the Duke nearby.
"The way the heart was removed is different from the way the Duke’s heart was removed... I am sure Sagittarius did this, using the hidden skill of the Azul clan."
"Hidden skill?"
The two ladies were confused. Clan secrets were usually fiercely protected, passed down only through bloodline linage, and it’s understandable Sagittarius will know the Azul clan’s secrets.
"This skill made the User bypass all restrictions, and objects... It’s like phasing through physical objects. I am sure he used this skill to take the heart making sure not to damage it." Hayatobi added. It was a terrifying application of space-ti magic—reaching directly through bone and flesh to cleanly sever an organ without a single misplaced cut.
Delphine frowned, trying to apply her academic knowledge of spirit energy chanics to the grueso scene. "This is truly strange... Why are they even after the heart? This girl is weak, even if she can store Spirit energy in it, the heart won’t have that much." Delphine pointed out. A vessel could only hold so much before shattering, especially a mortal human’s organ.
"That might not be it." Mirabella said, holding her jaw as the pieces of her past-life knowledge began to align with the current tiline’s deviations.
"With the devil cult’s actions, and the information we got about Ragon city. They are taking the parts of their victims, from limbs to heads, and even organs. It shows they’re likely hosting a ritual sowhere, and this Girl’s heart is the core, which can absorb a huge amount of spirit energy to help stabilize this ritual." She analyzed. A macabre jigsaw puzzle was forming.
"As Expected of Mirabella..." Hayatobi gave a small smile, genuinely impressed by the young lady’s tactical mind.
"You are right, they need the heart to help draw spirit energy from the atmosphere... This energy will then be transmitted from the heart to the ritual... But, what is the ritual about?" Hayatobi muttered, his brow furrowing as he ntally charted the Cult’s recent movents across the continent.
Mirabella’s eyes darkened as a catastrophic mory from her previous life surfaced. "I am sure they’re planning on resurrecting sothing powerful, maybe sothing from the third Server."
The slip of the tongue happened before she could catch it. In her mind, Galaxy Fall was a construct driven by System chanics, divided into massive expansion zones or ’Servers’.
"You an the Third World? Wait, how did you even co to such a conclusion?" Hayatobi asked with a sharp frown, turning fully around to face Mirabella. To the inhabitants of this reality, the realms beyond the dinsional veil were known as ’Worlds’, not ’Servers’.
Realizing her mistake, Mirabella kept her face entirely blank, employing her iron-clad poker face. "I read it on so ancient writings I found in a dungeon." Mirabella lied flatly. It was the perfect excuse; dungeons were chaotic ruins filled with lost, incomprehensible lore.
"Oh..." Hayatobi nodded his head, accepting the explanation. Dungeon divers often stumbled upon knowledge far beyond their current Era.
"Forget all that!" Delphine stepped forward, staring intently at the bloody form of the slaughtered lady on the floor. Her mind was racing past the magical theory and straight toward the terrifying political implications.
"If what Master Hayatobi said is reliable; that only the royal family and the heads of the empire know about her, then how did the devil cult get this information?" She asked, her voice echoing coldly in the ruined hall.
"Yes! This is truly strange, there must be a spy in the court." Mirabella added, her eyes narrowing as she shifted into high-alert.
"You two have a point... But the only people who knew about this, is the emperor, the imperial advisor, and ... No one else." Hayatobi stated, absolute certainty in his tone. The circle of trust was practically impenetrable.
The two ladies looked at one another. Delphine’s expression paled rapidly, all the blood draining from her face as the horrific logical conclusion struck her.
"Master Hayatobi, when my father sent Xavier to this city, what was the order?" She asked in a low, tight voice, her heart pounding painfully against her ribs.
"The Order? Well, the Emperor sent him here to keep watch and wait until the troops arrives."
"So... Why did Xavier leave before the troops arrive?" Mirabella asked, staring unblinkingly at Hayatobi, twisting the knife of logic.
"This?"
Hayatobi was stunned speechless. With Mirabella’s questions, she was actually suspecting the Imperial Advisor’s son—and by extension, the Ironfist family itself. The silence that followed was heavier than the First Lord’s aura, as the shadow of high treason fell over the young man Delphine loved.
User Comments
0 comments from readers