Martha, Aron, Angelian, Lea, Monica, and Meister Strongholden ran with all their might. Behind them were the Cyclops that chased after them. Several spiders and Sherah followed closely behind. Nightwing was standing over one of the Cyclops, and the Emperor Assassin stood on another.
"Help!" Martha shouted and shouted toward the kingdom.
"Save us!" Angelian cried as well.
Lea pretended to stumble down and made Meister Strongholden run back to save him.
"Capture the Princess! Do not make him enter the kingdom!" Nightwing shouted.
He glanced at his cheat sheet.
"YOU shout and use [Deception] to make the Kingdom think that YOU are chasing after Lea and the team. Shout 'Capture the Princess! Do not make him enter the kingdom!'" Nightwing checked the item off his checklist.
"YOU shoot dark attacks and DO NOT AIM TO HIT YOUR ALLIES… Do these things have to be in all caps in this cheat sheet? I'm not that dumb!" Nightwing complained and harnessed the power of his attack.
He sent out a blast of darkness that exploded to the side.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
On the walls of the kingdom, there were several guards watching over the running women. They saw that the women were dangerously beautiful. Especially Lea and Angelian. Their beauties caused the guards to believe that they were, in fact, princesses of another Midland kingdom.
"Open the gates! Are you blind?! They are definitely princesses being chased!" The Cardinal guarding the fort gave orders. He was the highest-ranking man with the strongest Cultivation in the fortress as all marched off to war.
The Cardinal saw the beauties and couldn't help but recall how all those powerful fighters were bending over backward to claim the hearts of those two stunningly beautiful Lowland women. Mechiel and Scarlet were well known that even pictures or recordings of them sold at extremely high prices! But now, there was a chance!
"Knight in shining armor…" He could not help but mutter out loud, drawing the strange looks of the team he commanded.
"Er… I mean, Knights, shine your armor with holy as the enemies of darkness approach!" The Cardinal ordered.
"And open the gates!"
The gates of the massive walls that stood as tall as a mountain began to move up.
"I am curious. Could you cut the walls?" Lea asked as they approached.
"Yeah. But it's pointless. The cut will be paper thin. And that doesn't do anything helpful." Aron answered.
"I see… Well, let's go crazy. I'll flood the kingdom with my ability. And ever since that water Fallen fell, I felt my power increase." Lea revealed a small drop of water. But it contained a massive amount of water that was somehow compressed in a dimensional realm.
Lea then harnessed the energy. She had absorbed a sea's worth of water in the Dark Sea and managed to contain it in her power.
She had the Corruption of Hydron and had the power to devour waters of vast amounts.
The group moved through the gates. Lea immediately threw the droplet toward the center of the kingdom.
"[Pelagei Tes Okeanos]!
The power of a Crown appeared as the drop flew towards the large palace and into the rooms inside.
BOOM!
It was like a massive explosion made of water occurred, creating a devastating blast that destroyed the entire palace as the waters flooded over the kingdom.
The Cardinal was shocked and turned around as he saw the palace unleash an ocean inside.
"What happened?!" The Cardinal exclaimed.
He turned to his allies and realized that his vision had begun to spin. He then saw the lower half of his body as he was spinning in the air.
Aron had flown up and made a powerful slash that severed everything within five hundred meters of his slash.
The entire army above the walls of the gates was killed.
Nightwing's allies saw the massive attacks and were shocked.
"As expected of the Queen of the Netherlands…" Ikarod and his team watched as they flew from afar and began to dash closer.
"That attack was an attack that contained a sea! No Crown could block that attack unscathed. But our mission begins now! Attack the Crowns that survive!" Ikarod ordered as they flew down.
As the waters swept through the land, a strange dark power was moving within it and weakening the light.
Those who had a cultivation at the Champion level and those who were lower were killed by the sudden blast.
Commanders were wounded, while a few were struggling to remain alive, and only Cardinals managed to block the attack.
The waters were trying to rush out on the various exits within the kingdom. But with Lea's power, the waters began to plug the holes using the stones and structures that were blown away.
At the entrance, the waters gathered and did not spill out of the exits as the team of Nightwing had all arrived.
Krysta watched in horror as an entire kingdom sank into the water instantly.
"I'd say eighty percent of those who lived here are dead." Lea made her estimate.
"Kill the remaining twenty percent. Killian. Bring your wife, Krysta, and Christopher to the palace. Find the throne of the king and see his belongings. You will see what sins this kingdom has." Nightwing ordered and began to spread out his blood into the dark waters below and began to seek out those who were dying.
The Crown-level attack with no warrior strong enough to resist or block it had killed close to a million people. The cities were full of laughter, and marriages were being held when all of a sudden, the kingdom fell into the depths of the ocean.
Ikarod had a Crown cultivation, and against the dying Cardinals, they were easy picking.
A dark spell began to appear as Nightwing's power merged with Lea's sea.
Lea did not even take any for herself but allowed all the energy and life to be given to Nightwing.
Killian and his family swam deep into the waters. Lea had marked them, and the waters were friendly and even aided them in swimming.
They soon reached the palace and could see the strongest cultivator within.
He was a high-ranking Cardinal, only a step away from becoming a Crown. But Killian and Krysta could tell that he was weak. His strength should have sufficed to survive the sea, yet he died.
"What do Kyros and Nightwing want us to see?" Krysta didn't understand.
Killian, however, had an ugly expression.
"The Light quivers. The darkness of malice is here." Killian spoke.
Chrislie and Christopher followed Killian as he swam into the depths of the palace.
"Why is the darkness of the Abyss rushing out of there? What's in that room?" Krysta asked as she could feel great death energy leaking out.
"Wrong. That's not the Abyss powers of Lea." Killian answered.
"That's the death energy that this kingdom has been gathering. I see what this kingdom has been doing now." Killian moved inside the room.
A strange ball of flesh was seen.
"What… is that?! Why is it similar to the flesh of… Mamon?!" Krysta exclaimed.
"This is a gift. A gift that this kingdom was preparing. They were creating pills using the life of many humans here so that they could gift them to a Dark Dependent. An Eldrich servant, perhaps. This is proof that Nightwing wanted to show us this kingdom's atrocity."
"How… is this made?"
"This isn't just mere flesh. The Dark Dependents eat the power of death energy. But the greatest source of death energy would be those that are alive. You kill them, and that energy is yours to have. The stronger the being, the greater the amount. This is roughly enough energy that could turn a Death Dependent Caridnal to step to become a Crown or for a Crown to level up. And I doubt this product is completed."
"But what does this have to do with all the innocent lives that-"
"Life offering. That's what this kingdom called it." A voice spoke.
The group turned and saw Kyros and Lea arrive.
"Life offering?"
"I'll leave it to Princess Lea to tell you what that is."
"Oh? This is quite a treasure. As Killian said, it's enough to level a Crown. But making this is difficult. I'd estimate… Several thousands of lives were used to make this so that it could contain such energy. Too bad I hurt it with my attack. It's dying and is beyond healing. More food for Nightwing, I guess."
"No. This one goes to the Fortress. They need the life energy for their ongoing battle." Kyros approached and used his power to transport the ball into the Fortress.
"The kingdom funded this. People can willingly draw out the life energy in them to make this. Part of the taxes of this kingdom is to offer up the life energy you cultivate. And this kingdom was feeding the Eldrich."
"Right. This is far beyond the reach of my father's network. We only have Lowland spies to help us plant spies and networks. But reaching the Midlands would be hard. Only the Eldrich could reach here."
"...Why are you showing this to us?" Killian asked.
"Although you have been submissive, Nightwing is not that dumb to know that you despise these methods. He wanted me to show you. You hold to the old ways. But light and darkness do not equal good and wicked."
"...We will serve Nightwing even if it means massacring kingdoms for his power. We know what's at stake." Killian answered.
"Good." Kyros turned around and left.
"...But this eases our conscience," Killian spoke as Kyros left.
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