Azure Scepter

Page 150

Trier tightened the threads in his hands, and in the next instant, a ghostly blue flame formed from negative energy appeared out of thin air. It then abruptly attached itself to the halfling's soul. The moment the flame touched the soul, it immediately spread and exploded, relentlessly licking every inch of the victim's skin, penetrating the skin, burrowing into the flesh, reaching deep into the bone marrow, and scorching every organ...

The soul of Emerald Tongue couldn't help but scream. Perhaps because it had been a paladin for so long, the wailing that should have been melodious now annoyed Trier, so he increased the firepower even further.

[Warning: Your alignment is shifting slightly; current alignment: Lawful Good]

"Who sent you?" Trier whispered in the soul of Emerald Tongue.

Sobbing, screaming, wailing...

"Please let me go, please let me go!"

“I’ll ask you questions, you’ll answer them. Please don’t talk nonsense,” Trier said softly, deliberately slowing his pace.

As a master of torture, Trier knew exactly how to break down someone's psychological defenses; alternating between harm and appeasement was the key to a mental breakdown.

So he increased the intensity of the burning, and the flames instantly exploded, blurring the features of the Emerald Tongue's soul.

[Warning: Your alignment is shifting slightly; current alignment: Lawful Good]

The cobalt blue message appeared in Trier's eyes for the second time.

"It's the Duke of the South! The Duke of the South!" the assassin wailed in agony. "He hired me through the Withered Roses! Please spare me!"

The Duke of the South? The Withered Rose?

Trier slightly reduced the intensity of the burning flames, then recalled information about the withered rose.

The Withered Rose is an old and highly secretive assassin guild that operates mainly in the region south of the Kingdom of Gorland. Behind it is a powerful demon lord whose combat strength is roughly equal to that of Lady Bloodthorn.

Emerald Tongue was probably not lying, because the Withered Rose is extremely secretive; very few people in the world know about this organization. Its name circulates only within a very small circle of master assassins whose skills have reached the pinnacle, who are well-versed in the art of murder, and who aspire to go even further...

But how did the Duke of the South know about this organization? And why were the assassins he hired not even legends?

If the Duke of the South's unusual behavior today was intended to murder him, then how did he end up dead now?

What is the relationship between that shadowy figure and the Duke of the South?

Countless thoughts surged through his mind, making the whole situation increasingly perplexing. Trier shook his head, calmed himself down, and then looked at the soul of Emerald Tongue.

He pondered for a moment, then clenched his fist.

—Since he could question the soul of the Green Tongue, he could naturally question the soul of the old duke as well. Although the old duke had died suddenly, his soul certainly couldn't have escaped.

"boom!"

The threads of death wind tightened instantly, and in a moment the impurities in the Emerald Tongue's soul disintegrated, with a trace of its immortal essence ascending to heaven. Meanwhile, a black crystal appeared in Trier's palm.

Trier glanced at the destination of the immortal essence of the Emerald Tongue and found that its soul probably belonged to Hell, then shook his head.

The next moment, he looked at the freshly formed pure magic storage stone in his hand...

To be honest, he had never actually seen such a high-quality storage stone before.

"As expected of a storage stone created with divine blessing, but using divinity like this is too sinister," Trier thought to himself, then glanced at the corner of his eye.

[WARNING: Your faction has shifted significantly; current faction: Lawful Neutral]

Chapter 290 Impersonation

From the moment the assassin appeared until Trier finished interrogating him, it seemed like a long time had passed, but because both sides acted extremely quickly, and the subsequent interrogation only took place in the soul realm, the entire process actually only lasted a few seconds.

Except for a very small number of people, most people were not even aware that another assassination attempt had just taken place. They only vaguely sensed that the chaos, which had just begun to stabilize, seemed to have intensified again.

Only after everything had settled down did Noy and Edith, who had been trying to salvage the Duke's fragments, realize that someone had just attempted to assassinate Trier.

At this point, Noy and Edith's efforts to save him had undoubtedly failed; the Duke was completely dead.

Both were quite shocked by this result, since, according to common sense, a legendary priest and a legendary paladin casting a spell together would be enough to bring back someone who had just been chewed to pieces by a dragon.

Count Cohen stood dejectedly before the spherical remains, a mass of rubble. Round beads of blood trickled slowly from the gruesome wound on his severed arm, forming a pool on the ground. He staggered toward his father's body, like a toy about to run out of wind. He knelt down, his shadow stretching long in the midday sun, darkness enveloping his bride's tear-streaked face like a tidal wave.

Trier was completely unmoved by the Duke's sudden death. To him, the old Duke was just a strange, arrogant, and hostile madman. He calmly looked at the Duke's corpse, trying to find the other's soul.

Regardless, the other person's soul must be found. Once the other person's soul is found, both the mystery of the murder and the strange shadowy figure will be solved.

However, above the grotesque and bloody corpses, there was no soul present.

Trier frowned and suddenly turned his head to look to his side—and then he saw a somewhat familiar red-haired angel in the crowd not far away.

In the game "Azure Scepter", the angels who guide souls are generally invisible and can only be seen when special states such as "negative energy vision", "eye of insight", and "divine vision" are activated.

She was the red-haired angel Trier saw in Beaver Town.

At this moment, the red-haired angel seemed to be trembling. She curled up and tried to hide herself in the crowd. She had just witnessed the entire process of Trier torturing the halfling's soul. Although angels are usually synonymous with piety and bravery, at this moment, she was indeed frightened by Trier's cold-blooded behavior.

Upon noticing Trier's gaze, she instinctively looked away, but after a moment, she seemed to realize that it wouldn't work, so she mustered her courage and cautiously walked over to Trier's side.

"Lord Trill, I am here to guide souls; I harbor no hostility." The red-haired angel carefully chose his words, his attitude a stark contrast to his demeanor in Beaver Town. "I do not represent any saint; from the moment of my creation, I have served only the functioning of the pantheon's soul..."

Trier shook his head: "I need to use the Duke's soul temporarily. I have many questions to ask him—where is he now?"

Upon hearing Trier's words, the red-haired angel was stunned.

"Didn't you kill him and then take his soul?"

It took Trier a full half second to understand what the other person meant.

“Of course not!” he denied categorically. “Although I can’t say I like him, I have no reason to kill him—I’m not a serial killer.”

"So it wasn't a conspiracy you orchestrated..." The red-haired angel glanced at Trier with considerable suspicion, then muttered to himself, "How strange..."

Trillen fell silent. It seemed that his reputation in the higher planes... was a little off.

"Have you seen anything strange in the direction of the Golden Palace?" After a moment, he turned to ask another question.

Logically speaking, both the shadowy figure and the Duke's sudden death are highly unusual, and there is likely some inevitable connection between the two anomalies. If one of them achieves a breakthrough, then the other will also achieve a breakthrough.

"The Golden Palace?" The red-haired angel shook his head in confusion. "I have absolutely no recollection of it, but..."

She hesitated for a moment, then said, "However, I do know of another unusual phenomenon, but I'm not sure if it's related to the disappearance of the Duke's soul."

"Among the guests at the wedding banquet, there was an imposter—she was in the middle noble's seat."

“Impersonation?” Trier pondered the meaning of the word carefully. After a moment, he said in a deep voice, “How do you know someone is impersonating you?”

Impersonation is a common tactic used by devils in hell, which is indeed quite suspicious.

“I know the imposter. I witnessed her baptism, so I know her real name,” the red-haired angel said hesitantly. “I just checked the guest list, but her original name isn’t on it.”

“In the division of labor in the mortal world, she was originally a personal maid of a baron’s daughter, but now she’s impersonating the baron’s daughter—” Suddenly, the angel’s gaze sharpened, and she swiftly stretched out her hand, “Trier, there she is! Go after them! They’re getting away!”

Trier turned his head sharply, then his pupils contracted slightly—he saw someone he knew again.

Amidst the chaotic and noisy crowd, Hult, who had already been promoted to knight, was tightly holding the hand of a woman wearing a corseted dress and a veil. Their fingers were intertwined as they struggled through the dense and disorderly flow of people. Seemingly worried that the woman might be harmed, Hult simply lifted her up in his arms and then quickly headed towards the exit.

Trier drew his longsword "Lightless," and using the shadow-jumping ability granted by this ancient weapon, he directly slipped into the shadows, appearing in front of the two in the next instant.

Hult was startled when he saw Trier suddenly appear before him. He instinctively took a step back, but after a moment, he took a deep breath, gently put the woman down, and stood in front of her. Then he looked at Trier without fear.

Trier's gaze passed over Hult and went directly to the woman behind him. The woman looked extremely nervous, her face behind the veil filled with tears and despair.

"We've caught the mastermind!" the red-haired angel flying in the sky said excitedly.

Trier looked at Hult and said in a deep voice, "Sir, your companion is an imposter; you've been deceived! I now suspect that she and..."

“Your Excellency Trier, I know,” Hult said firmly, and then he recounted quite frankly everything that had happened between him and the maid.

The story is quite simple: because the baron's daughter was seriously ill, the young maid boldly dressed up in the baron's daughter's clothes, put on a veil, and impersonated the baron's daughter to attend the wedding banquet—she longed to encounter a beautiful love, even if that love was like a bubble that could burst at the slightest touch, she was willing to do so.

Logically, her insane act had no chance of success, especially since the Baron himself was present. However, coincidentally, the Baron had suffered severe intellectual and sensory impairments due to a skull fractured by a skeleton warrior during a battle with the undead. Furthermore, the maid's physical appearance and voice were similar to his daughter's, and with the veil concealing her identity, the Baron genuinely failed to recognize her as his daughter...

Thus, the maid's romantic and whimsical adventures continued.

At the banquet, the maid actually encountered a knight who had been promoted to a higher rank due to his outstanding achievements. This newly promoted knight was Hult.

On the advice of the dragon Aurelius, Hult intended to use the Duke's wedding to find a suitable marriage to help him advance further in the military aristocracy. Then, he encountered this imposter maid.

The two hit it off immediately and had a very pleasant conversation, but dreams always come to an end. At some point, the maid revealed her true identity—and then the Duke exploded.

Hult wasn't stupid. He immediately realized that the maid would be the prime suspect. Logically, he should have severed ties with her immediately, or even run away. However, under the influence of love, he made a choice that could be described as crazy—he abandoned his original plan and instead grabbed the maid to try and escape the scene in the chaos!

Then, Trier emerged directly from the shadows...

“My lord, I know it’s crazy to gamble everything on an unrealistic dream.” The maid removed her veil, revealing a face streaked with powder and tears. “If you want to arrest me for my transgression, then so be it, but please let Sir Hurt go. He was just fooled by me, a liar. He is completely innocent.”

The angel was filled with mixed emotions, while Trier was speechless—he had completely missed his chance. The maid had absolutely nothing to do with the Duke's sudden death. And because he had missed his chance, the already scarce clues would inevitably decrease further, as the enemy would certainly hurry up and deal with them.

Upon realizing this, Trier couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

But disappointment was useless. He shook his head and then took out three golden dragons.

"Lord Trier?" Hult opened his eyes wide in surprise.

Trier didn't say anything, but simply stuffed the gold coins into Hult's hand, then turned and left.

When Trier and the angel returned to the high ground, even Noy had completely given up on saving the shattered Duke. At this time, she was directing the soldiers and servants to collect the remains of the Duke and the assassin "Emerald Tongue," while Edith was treating the wounded free of charge.

The angel suddenly stopped, then said quite seriously, "Lord Trier, you are indeed a kind and good person."

Trier shook his head: "They inspired me."

"Huh?" The red-haired angel tilted his head in confusion. "You mean, this is a vendetta caused by lust?"

“Impersonation.” Trier glanced at the pieces of flesh on the ground, then fell silent. He activated his Negative Energy Vision, attempting to study the Duke’s corpse from the perspective of necromancy.

A moment later, Trier smiled.

"Just as I thought," he thought to himself.

Under the hazy vision of negative energy, thick black lines, like the thorns of roses, tightly entwined the pieces of flesh on the ground. Trier reached out and grasped one of the lines, then smiled.

The Duke didn't just die today; he's been dead for over five days!

If we calculate based on the timeline, the Duke had already died the day he awoke, and what subsequently occupied his body was some unknown entity...

“An unknown has become a known,” Trier thought. “If nothing unexpected happens, that shadowy figure is the thing that murdered and possessed the Duke’s body.”

The time traveler felt a surge of excitement; he knew he was slowly getting closer to the truth.

Suddenly, Faudia's voice came from behind him.

"Trier."

He instinctively turned his head and then noticed that Futia was holding a wine glass, but the glass was empty.

Faldia's expression was quite serious. "There's something wrong with the Duke's body."

"The Duke is a fake?" Trier raised an eyebrow.

Fythia blinked. "Huh? How did you know—you smelled it too?"

"Smell it?" Trier reacted for a moment, then realized that Fythia wasn't drawing conclusions through reasoning, but rather brute-force her way through the mystery using only her sense of smell...

Trier raised his hand and cast a [Wise Owl] buff on himself, which added 4 points to his perception. Then he took a sniff—even with his extraordinary perception, Trier couldn't smell anything else at all.

How exactly did Fythia detect it by smell? Do rangers have this kind of expertise?

“The corpse is oozing an invisible liquid, and I’ve already collected some of it,” Futia said, pointing to the wine glass in her hand. “The source of the smell should be the Golden Palace.”

"Now we've really caught the murderer red-handed," Trier thought to himself.

However, when Trier, with his guards, tracked the trail all the way to the throne room of the Golden Palace, he was shocked to find that the trail had completely ended there.

Chapter 291 Nighttime Conversation

The Duke died, and the wedding of the century turned into a funeral.

This shocking news, which caught everyone off guard, caused a huge uproar in the entire city of Wilt, like a bomb dropped into the deep sea.

Everyone knew that the Duke had an outstanding political record and was skilled in military affairs. Therefore, when people learned that the Duke had awakened from his coma and would announce his return with a wedding of the century, they were full of hope: the blood plague was about to end, and the wise and powerful Duke would return like the legendary Queen Lorraine, when the kingdom was in crisis, turn the tide, and save the people suffering in the flames.

However, this hope has now been shattered—under the immense pressure of the blood plague and the undead, the unease and fear that had been building up in people's hearts were instantly ignited by the news of the Duke's death. In an instant, undercurrents surged, and chaotic news and panic spread rapidly from Wilt to the entire southern duchy, like ripples on a low-pressure sea before a storm.

Although the local nobles of Wilt attempted to suppress the unrest, their efforts were largely ineffective. Rumors and panic, fueled by those with ulterior motives, escalated into hysterical riots and chaos. Once ignited, the unrest spread rapidly—until Trier brought in the Asmo army stationed outside the city and unleashed some high-level magic as an aid, finally managing to quell the chaos by midnight.

"The Death of the Duke [Folk Rumor]. In late June of the Year of Stars and Crimson Moon, in the Southern Duchy of the Kingdom of Orco, the Southern Duke suddenly died during his wedding of the century. As a relative, you witnessed everything and intervened to control the resulting riot at the last moment when the situation was about to spiral out of control. Your actions greatly shocked the human nobles of Wilt. Over time, you will gain up to 3 Legendary Points, and an additional 2 Legendary Points will be gained from the entire noble class of the Southern Duchy."

"Nameless Mage [Legend Resurrected]: At the end of June in the Year of Stars and Crimson Moon, your image of unleashing high-level spells to solve problems on a large scale reminded many of the terrifying legends of the Nameless Mage that once circulated in the Southern Dukedom. In these legends, the Nameless Mage was obsessed with carrying out extremely bloody private justice to punish illegal acts within his territory, and would cruelly torture his victims, turning them into material for necromancy in their hysterical despair and pain. Now, people realize with horror that the serial killer who once existed only in legends and nightmares may have returned... As time goes by, the Nameless Mage's terrifying infamy will gradually overlap with yours, and you will gain a maximum of 10 points of Legendary Points (Infamy)!"

Trier glanced at the cobalt blue information stream that flashed past the corner of his eye and shook his head slightly.

It was nearly midnight, and a bright moon hung in the sky. All the nobles in Wilt who still held some power had gathered in front of the chapel in the Duke's courtyard. They attended the Duke's brief memorial service like penguins, and then, amidst Neu's ethereal blessings, they witnessed the old Duke's rather bizarre spherical body being placed into a stone coffin.

Trier remained quietly among the crowd, waiting for the ceremony to complete. He had already calculated the approximate location of the entrance to the underground mirror city of Wirth. As the mourning ceremony ended, he intended to send several Asmos as an advance party to find the actual location of the entrance, but Count Cohen blocked his way.

“Trier.” Uncle Cohen, whose left arm had been reattached, looked haggard. “Do you have time to talk?”

Trier studied the man for a moment, and then he read a kind of pain in his face—Uncle Cohen was genuinely grieving the death of his father, who had insulted and abused him.