"Your Highness."
Anne couldn’t help but feel sentintal. If it hadn’t been for an accident, by now they might have already been one family. She never imagined they would et again in such a manner.
Byron returned the gesture and then clapped his hands. "Alright, since we’re all friends here, I’ll get straight to the point. My Crystal Skull No. 13, the [Goddess of Suicide], has kept you suicides in a state between life and death. Now I offer you two choices to decide your own futures."
"One option is for to help you cultivate new bodies. Simply possess those new bodies, and you can live again, returning to your original path as [Knights of Judgnt]."
Anne and her sisters glanced at each other. Biting her pale lips, she asked, "Can we take revenge on that monstrosity by relying on this?"
Byron shook his head. "Although I don’t want to dash your enthusiasm, the [Devil Duke] is already a Fourth Order Banker and Devil. Even if you perfected the skills of a [Knight of Judgnt], the likelihood of defeating him is slim. You might only get a chance to throw a dagger at him from eight hundred ters away."
The girls, filled with a desire for vengeance, imdiately shook their heads. "Not choosing, not choosing."
Byron then took out a large to from his pocket with *Book of the Dead* written on the cover, flipping through it as he spoke, "The other choice involves partaking in the path of forbidden knowledge and walking on two legs, just like the Duke of Demons. The [Book of the Dead] from the Edge of the World offers you hundreds of choices. For example, how about a [Vampire Witch], proficient in Illusion Technique and feeding on fresh blood?"
The girls still had the sa question, "Can we take revenge on that monstrosity with this?"
"No."
They imdiately shook their heads together. "We won’t learn, we won’t learn."
Byron continued to flip the pages. "What about a [Sewn Corpse] that can replace its organs anywhere on the battlefield even if the body is torn asunder? Or a [Mummy] that nurtures countless Sacred Beetles in its body and can spew them out from its orifices to wreak havoc at critical monts? Or a [Bloated Woman] who controls sewage and whose swollen body is filled with deadly poison?..."
The group of girls turned paler as they listened, their eyes growing wider and their heads tilting more and more.
"We won’t learn, won’t learn."
When you thought about it, turning a group of charming and lovely girls into Undead Creatures was already tragic enough. Becoming a grotesque monster on top of that would be utterly inhumane. What is a tragedy? A tragedy is destroying sothing beautiful for all to see. Even Byron couldn’t bear it. He was more worried that soday his cousin would co to him with an ostentatiously decaying corpse in his arms, seeking a fight to the death.
As the discussion continued into dusk, Byron recited a path that finally made their eyes light up. "One of the most powerful Mythical Creatures from the Edge of the World in terms of combat strength... the Headless Knight! It fits best with your original path as [Knights of Judgnt]; they can complent each other, producing a synergistic effect greater than the sum of their parts."
"That’s it, we’ll learn that!"
The girls, who had been shaking their heads in refusal, quickly changed their tune. And with swift efficiency, they began the transformation imdiately.
The first requirent for the bloodline sublimation ritual was simple: self-decapitation. Not even a sliver of skin could remain connected. If soone earned the nickna ’Almost Headless So-and-So,’ they would be disqualified for life from becoming a Headless Knight. However, while committing suicide by slitting one’s throat is straightforward, the difficulty of chopping off one’s own head completely was comparable to dying by suicide after being shot eight tis.
Fortuitously, the [Curse Spirit - Headless Knight] helped them achieve this. Afterward, only a simple ceremony was necessary.
However, as a corporeal Undead Creature, the [Headless Knight] still required its own corpse and mount. Byron then used his Secret Arcane Art, the [Bloodline River]—which allowed him to freely modify organisms—to clone robust bodies and the finest breed of warhorses for each of them. From then on, they, like Bruh and the others, beca Byron’s kin, with no possibility of betrayal.
After all, this was Cousin Edward’s fiancée, not his. So, when orchestrating such a significant act as rebellion, a final failsafe was still essential.
Of course, Anne was, after all, his prospective sister-in-law. After initiating the Ritual Witchcraft, he stepped out, allowing her rapidly developing new body to mature on its own.
「Half an hour later」
The ritual ended, and Byron successfully harvested a female Order of Headless Knights.
The re-erging girls looked strikingly different. Ard with long-handled battle-axes and clad in form-fitting black knight’s armor that accentuated their beautiful feminine figures, they rode upon skeletal warhorses, each exuding a heroic and valiant aura. Instead of bells, the warhorses’ chests bore cages. When needed, the knights could place their own heads inside to serve as decoration and, incidentally, to intimidate their enemies.
Anne rode up to Byron, a hint of hope flickering in her eyes, "Your Highness, legend has it that Saint Byron sank the [Blue Dragon King] for the second ti on the Southern Continent. But since Saint Byron was your disguise, does that an Edward, who was swallowed into the Kraken’s belly along with it, is also...?"
Byron smiled and nodded at her, then gestured for the freshly-minted Headless Knights to follow him to the river outside the city.
SNAP!
With a snap of his fingers, through the [Golden Law], he connected with Edward, who was at the Edge of the World.
A ghostly figure soon surfaced on the water. He was clad in a [Law Mage]’s robe, his face pale, and his eyes—a shade of azure identical to Byron’s—shimred with a faint, ghostly fire. In his hand, he carried a Whale Oil Lantern, its wick burning with a ghostly fla.
This was none other than Edward Lancaster, who had long since transford into a [Lich].
He clearly hadn’t noticed the others following Byron and said nonchalantly, "Byron, what do you want? I’m still busy expanding our Undead Parun Farm and building my ice throne. You know, the na you ca up with later sounds increasingly fitting. The term seems as if it were tailor-made for this endeavor of ours. The mont the Undead hear it, they feel a surge of power throughout their bodies! Oh, right, that buxom Vampire Witch I promised to send you after I escaped from the Old God’s stomach is already on her way (Chapter 320). Lately, the water levels at the Edge of the World have been continuously rising, causing a lot of trouble. The slave-hunting... ahem, I an, the Human Resources departnt I dispatched just raided a Vampire Witch’s lair. They recruited over a hundred of them, young and old alike. When the ti cos, I’ll pick them carefully, choosing the ones with the largest chests. One for you, then one for , then one for you, then one for ! Vampire Witches are masters of Illusion Technique; they can beco whatever type you desire. Don’t worry, brother, I’d never forget you when there’s good stuff to be had! Ghehehe..."
However, as he spoke, he realized that Byron kept winking at him and asked in confusion, "What’s wrong? Is there sothing in your eye?"
Just then, a very familiar and tender voice reached his ears, "Edward, you seem to be living quite the comfortable life, hmm? Vampire Witches? Large chests? They can beco any type you want? Well, can any of them beco like ?"
Edward’s body instantly stiffened. With great difficulty, he turned his head to finally see his fiancée, who looked much more haggard, her complexion as pale as his own. He had no ti to ponder why Anne, who should have been on the ho continent, had suddenly appeared here. He hastily covered his face with his hands, "No... no, no, you’ve got the wrong person! I’m not Edward!"
Just as he was about to turn and flee, he heard a haunting voice from behind him, "If you dare to run, don’t even think about coming back."
His steps halted imdiately. He swallowed hard, all the previous lofty ambition of aspiring to be the Lich King gone. After a mont’s hesitation, he still used the [Edge of World Pass] to open a passage between the two realms. He threw himself at his fiancée’s feet, clutching her slender thighs and begging for rcy, "Anne, please, let explain! I didn’t want to! It was all... It was Byron who put up to it!"
Driven by an intense desire to survive, he sold out his brother in an instant. To make his plea more convincing, he even shook her legs vigorously.
Unexpectedly, just after a couple of shakes...
THUD!
A head fell to the ground again.
Edward instinctively caught it. Staring into his fiancée’s eyes, his gaze went vacant as he stamred, "Uhh... a Vampire Witch like that? We don’t really have those."
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