CA – Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Vandent once had a Rose Manor, which was famous throughout the Statu Continent. The manor occupied nearly a third of Vandent's area and was a place of pleasure accessible only to the nobility.
Words like "extravagant" and "magnificent" were insufficient to describe the Rose Manor. Everything here was beyond the imagination of commoners. It was more luxurious than the royal palaces of the three great empires. Nobles from all over the continent flocked here, their exquisite and beautiful carriages flowing through Vandent in an endless stream.
It was said that some elegant and noble vampires also mingled among these aristocrats, freely selecting their prey within the Rose Manor. The tall, handsome, and bewitchingly beautiful vampires were extremely popular among the nobility, and they eventually became the secret masters of the Rose Manor.
A world of debauchery and wild extravagance, the Rose Manor was like a divine realm to the nobles of that time, until… the Black Death suddenly spread through Vandent.
The Rose Manor was the most severely damaged place in Vandent. Of the former castle, only a few walls remained. When the epidemic spiraled out of control and the King of Bill ordered the city to be sealed and burned, the surviving commoners, in their despair and fury, stormed the manor with torches and destroyed everything inside.
They believed this was the source of the Black Death.
This place once held all the most beautiful things in the world, but it also held the countless resentful souls of those who died in despair. Laurel was very fond of this place. Coupled with the fact that witchcraft had ultimately chosen this as the best location to awaken the Dark God, she believed it was all guided by him.
The failure in Edry was perhaps just a small test from the Dark God.
Standing on a high platform, Laurel looked down at the massive array that had taken days and nights to complete. A satisfied smile touched her lips. The wind blew her white robes back, revealing the dark red bloodstains on the hem. She sneered and said, "The Statu Continent has been controlled by the light for too long. It's time for darkness to rule."
On the platform with her were three other witches in white robes. One was intently dismembering a cleric who was not yet fully dead. The screams and desperate pleas did not cause her hands to pause in the slightest. The warm blood splashing on her face only made her lips curl into a smile. She slit open the cleric's stomach, met his gradually fading eyes, and whispered, "A sacrifice from Vera Garcia to the Dark God… the one thousand and eighth."
"Vera." Another witch gestured for Vera to come over. Looking at the image conjured by witchcraft, she said, "The people from the Holy See are about to find this place."
The image before them showed Monica and the others in the square. They had placed "eyes" around the square in advance.
"Priests…" Laurel curled her lip in disdain. "This gift was originally prepared for a bishop. Now, a few priests get it for free."
"They are not worthy of being a congratulatory gift for the Dark God's awakening. Feed them to those beasts."
A short-haired witch suddenly grew excited and volunteered, "I'll go deliver the gift to them."
Laurel glanced at her and said, "Take that wolf with you."
The short-haired witch licked her lips. A skeleton over two meters tall emerged from the shadows, bent down to pick her up, and strode away.
Vera wiped her blood-stained knife on her white robe, then slashed it forcefully across her own wrist. Blood sprayed onto the array below. She casually handed the knife to Laurel, then jumped down and stood in the center of the array. As her blood dripped down, she expressionlessly chanted an ancient spell.
The Garcia family were servants of the Dark God. Their blood had a chance of summoning one of the Dark God's powerful generals—the Gorefiend. This was a unique talent of their clan.
When the Black Witches went underground and the other two families abandoned their faith in the Dark God, only they continued to strive for his awakening.
The array flickered with red light. Vera stood within it, her arms outstretched and her eyes slightly closed, savoring the dark aura emanating from the array. A ferocious figure appeared behind her.
Laurel watched all this from the high platform, a flash of jealousy in her eyes. Not every member of the Garcia clan could successfully summon a Gorefiend. Clearly, Vera was one of those with the talent.
"Vera," Laurel said coldly, "after the people from the Holy See are trapped by the dark array, you will be the one to finish them."
Vera looked up, and the Gorefiend behind her looked up as well. She said expressionlessly, "I will turn them all into sacrifices."
In the square, Monica was still leading the clerics against the monsters. The Holy Knights guarded them in the center. Just like the war of attrition against the lion-men, they planned to use the same method to eliminate the monsters together.
On a pointed rooftop, a wolf with snow-white fur stood looking down at the square. From time to time, it would throw its head back and let out a howl, directing the monsters' attacks below.
Jillian and Eva, who were highly sensitive to wolf howls, both looked up in the direction of the white wolf. Jillian threw aside the monster she had torn in half and shot off in that direction like a bolt of lightning.
The white wolf sensed the danger and suddenly turned to flee. Jillian pursued it closely. In mid-chase, her figure suddenly elongated, transforming into a gray wolf twice the size of the white one. With a single leap, she bit down on the white wolf's neck, a threatening growl rumbling in her throat.
Eva flexed her wrists. Her hands grew slender, and her sharp nails glinted with a cold light. Her hair gradually turned snow-white, and a furry tail poked out from under her clothes.
She was about to go after Jillian when a thought stopped her. She paused and turned to the stunned Erin, frowning as she said, "Thirty bottles of Holy Water of Light was the payment for hiring swordsmen. For werewolves, you'll have to double it."
Erin was speechless. She had only wanted to hire swordsmen, not werewolves.
Eva's figure flashed, and in a few moves, she cleared out all the monsters near Erin. She clapped her hands and, while walking towards Jillian, grumbled, "If I'd known it would be this much trouble, I wouldn't have taken this job."
Erin stared at Eva's back, still in a daze. She had sensed that these two weren't ordinary swordsmen, but she never imagined they were werewolves.
Werewolves were so rare and usually active in the Gru Empire. She couldn't believe she had actually seen two this time.
The werewolves' combat prowess gave Erin a sudden surge of security. But then, thinking about the relationship between werewolves and the Holy See, she grew worried about the possibility of infighting.
Tang Qiu emerged from the ruins. Instead of returning directly to the square to join the clerics, she came to Erin's side. Her timing was unfortunate; she had just missed Eva's departure.
Seeing Erin staring blankly ahead, she spoke to get her attention. "The Black Witches might have help."
Erin turned to look at her and asked quizzically, "What kind of help?"
"Werewolves," Tang Qiu said flatly. "These monsters are defective products created by werewolves."
Although she had no memory of the full moon nights, the note she had left for herself had already written down the true identity of the monsters.
Erin was a little surprised. "Are you sure?"
Tang Qiu nodded. Just as she was about to say more, a sudden change occurred in the square. The stone pillars on all four sides collapsed without warning, sealing off the square. Black energy surged out from beneath the fallen pillars, and a dark array suddenly took shape.
The short-haired witch sat in the arms of the two-meter-tall skeleton, holding a staff made from the bone of some unknown animal. She smugly chanted a spell, watching as the black energy instantly devoured the priests and clerics in the square, and she laughed with delight.
After the darkness swallowed everyone, the Holy See's team of dozens vanished into thin air. Tang Qiu's eyes widened slightly, and she subconsciously tightened her grip on her staff.
Erin froze for a moment, then frowned. "It's a teleportation array."
Her gaze shifted to the short-haired witch's face. She subtly hid behind Tang Qiu and pulled out a black handkerchief to cover her face.
Tang Qiu caught this series of movements out of the corner of her eye. After a moment of silence, she cast a small spell to obscure Erin's features.
Erin's eyes lit up. She pulled off the handkerchief and whispered, "Thanks."
"...Who is she?"
"Laurel's sister."
Having lost their targets in the square, the monsters turned their attention to Tang Qiu, Erin, and Lucille. They lowered their bodies and began to approach in a semi-circle.
The short-haired witch laughed her fill before noticing the three small fish that had slipped through the net. The skeleton turned her to face them. She looked the three of them up and down, her voice filled with irrepressible excitement. "What a beautiful face. Perfect for my dolls."
Tang Qiu waved her staff, and a barrier of light enveloped them, separating them from the approaching monsters. Lucille, her face cold, cleared away the monsters that swarmed them, and the ground was soon littered with corpses.
Erin was stunned by Lucille's combat prowess. "...Who is she?"
Tang Qiu didn't answer, her eyes fixed on the short-haired witch.
Seeing how easily Lucille dealt with the monsters, the short-haired witch snorted coldly. She flicked the bone staff in her hand, and five dried corpses with bluish-black skin appeared before her, their heads, limbs, and bodies looking as if they had been stitched together.
Their movements seemed extremely stiff, and their skin had a greenish tint, a clear sign of potent poison.
Erin also summoned a few small rats to her side and warned, "Be careful of her dolls. They're even harder to deal with than the half-human monsters."
Three dolls charged at Lucille, while two came toward them. A horde of monsters waited for an opportunity to strike. The three of them were quickly separated.
If Tang Qiu, as a cleric, was engaged in close combat, she could only use half of her strength. She had been intentionally keeping her distance, but the dolls were incredibly fast. She also had to be wary of sneak attacks from the monsters, and was eventually forced into a corner.
The doll let out a strange noise and raised its bony hand to grab Tang Qiu, but she dodged it with a quick movement. Tang Qiu raised her staff and unleashed the light spell she had been preparing for a long time onto the doll.
Because she cast it at close range, the doll had no time to dodge. White light enveloped it, and it struggled violently, trying to break free. But Tang Qiu's second prepared spell had already arrived.
She calmly observed the doll's condition, her chanting never ceasing. She bombarded it with one light spell after another. After a while, its struggles finally slowed.
Tang Qiu let out a small sigh of relief. Just as she looked up to find Lucille and Erin, a giant skeletal hand reached out from behind her. By the time she sensed the danger and tried to dodge, it had already scooped her up and slammed her down in front of the short-haired witch.
The pain of being lifted and thrown to the ground made Tang Qiu gasp. The faint taste of blood spread in her mouth. She gripped her staff tightly and tried to chant a spell.
The short-haired witch used her staff to lift Tang Qiu's chin, looking down at her face with a crazed excitement. "What a perfect face! Peel it off for me! And this golden hair, peel it all off and sew it onto my dolls."
Tang Qiu pressed her lips together, her gaze fixed on the short-haired witch, her eyes growing cold. The skeleton behind her received the witch's command and reached out to grab the golden-haired cleric.
Tang Qiu subconsciously raised her arm, blocking with her staff of light. The staff snapped in the middle, and she was knocked to the ground again by the force.
Both Erin and Lucille noticed the golden-haired cleric being seized by the skeleton. Erin was worried and began preparing a summoning spell. Lucille's eyes turned cold. She abandoned the dolls attacking her and moved toward Tang Qiu, but stopped halfway as if sensing something.
The short-haired witch glanced disdainfully at the broken staff of light and sneered, as if mocking the golden-haired cleric's stubborn resistance. "What good is a cleric without her staff?"
The skeleton reached out again. As it touched the golden-haired cleric's clothes, she raised a hand and pressed down on its arm. The skeleton struggled but couldn't break free, momentarily stunned.
Tang Qiu sat on the ground and sighed. She actually responded to the short-haired witch's taunt. "You're right. It really is dangerous without a staff."
The short-haired girl was taken aback. She frowned at Tang Qiu, feeling a subtle change in her aura. A sense of unease suddenly rose in her heart. She once again urged the motionless skeleton to grab the golden-haired cleric.
But the skeleton didn't react, no matter how much she urged it.
Even the monsters that had been circling them, waiting for a chance to pounce and tear at the golden-haired cleric, reversed their earlier malice. They all prostrated themselves on the ground, trembling.
"You…" The short-haired witch's eyes widened, but she had no idea what had just happened. "What kind of light spell did you use?"
Hearing the tremor in the short-haired witch's voice, Tang Qiu looked up, a little surprised, and said softly, "Are you afraid?"
The short-haired witch's eyes sharpened. Just as she was about to retort, she was shocked to see the cleric's golden hair lose its color. Snow-white hair cascaded over her chest, her hands grew slender, and her nails became hard and sharp. The frail cleric was gone, replaced by what was clearly a transformed werewolf.
"How could you be…" The short-haired witch's face was filled with disbelief. If one looked closely, a trace of panic could be seen in her eyes.
Tang Qiu stood up from the ground and gently pushed aside the skeleton, which had crumbled into two halves. Her sky-blue eyes stared at the short-haired witch. Her tone was gentle, her smile friendly. "Are you afraid now that a werewolf is this close?"
"Calm down. Fear is making that pretty face of yours less beautiful."
The short-haired witch let out a terrified scream. Her dolls paused, then all turned and ran back toward her.
Erin was startled by the scream. She glanced over and was startled again by Tang Qiu's appearance.
What is going on…
A werewolf?
Erin was dumbfounded.
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