Chapter 1142: Chapter 1077: Good Sisters
"Hmm?"
Serafe suddenly paused her action in front of the long table.
The surgical knife held in her pale right hand dripped thick black-red blood onto the iron bed.
"Your Majesty?"
Hearing the call of the Blood Servant, Serafe finally came back to her senses.
She looked at the pleading eyes of the Vampire Count on the operating table, and the still-beating pale heart, then shook her head with her eyes closed.
Bound by a mortal body, she had actually made the kind of mistake only lower beings would: lack of concentration.
"Your Majesty, we..."
Without answering the Blood Servant, Serafe simply tossed aside the surgical knife and walked to the window.
Contrary to the commonly used large arched windows on the empire’s side, or the recently popular transparent glass square windows of the Holy Alliance, No Light City, the capital of Blood and Flesh Royal Court, exuded the style of centuries past.
Before Serafe was a small arched window the size of a washbasin, with glass mosaics of dark red, purple, and emerald green.
Opening the arched window with a hand, a scent of corruption mixed with the decay of flowers and the incense of cedar and myrrh permeated the air.
For humans, this level of incense was lethal, but for vampires, it was just right.
Serafe didn’t like this smell, nor did she like this city of Li Yang.
But if the hybrid elves of that time wanted to survive, they could only adapt to such an environment.
She raised her head, and beyond the narrow window, the distant sky fell into view.
Covering the sky was a purple-black cloud layer, thick and solid like congealed blood, long and pure.
Occasionally, lightning passed through, projecting through the murky clouds and blocking sunlight entirely.
Beneath the cloud layer, the white light from the lightning cut the boundary between the sky and the city, creating silhouettes of bloodline halls and Gothic spires.
As far as the eye could see, everything was black, with only the water shimmering with an unnatural indigo glow.
No Light City was truly a city without sunlight, owing entirely to the constantly erupting volcano nearby.
An impossible volcano erupting for a thousand years — see what the elves have done!
The once fertile and rich Western Continent had been forcibly turned into a desert over centuries.
Standing by the window, Serafe squinted slightly as if sensing something.
She stood there for a full minute before a smile suddenly crept up the corners of her mouth, as if realizing something.
"To the Treasury of the Immortal." Turning, Serafe ordered the night palace servant in a low voice.
Led by the night palace servant, this incarnation of Lilith stepped out of the damp, cold room.
Through a hundred-meter-long corridor of dark murals, she spiraled up steep stairs; the Treasury of the Immortal was on the third floor of the Blood Moon Hall.
The treasury held countless gold and silver treasures, diamonds, and artistic gems accumulated by the Tedis clan.
The treasures, once well-maintained by their former owner, were now piled like trash.
At the center, on the red velvet cushion of the Pope’s throne, lay a soft crown.
Formed by interlinking three crowns with ornate gold-threaded patterns over white silk, inlaid with red and green gems at the front, and topped with pearls.
But to Serafe, she cared little for the gems and silk; her focus was the triple crown itself.
Gently placing the triple crown on her head, Serafe crossed her legs, looking at her reflection in the door mirror.
Skin pale as snow, a face marked with tear troughs and wrinkles, with veins visible beneath.
She wore a dark velvet and deep red silk suit typically donned by male vampires, yet in a year and a half, she had countless male vampires bowing down to her.
But the wrinkles on her hands and the furrows on her face made Serafe look away — this damn mortal body, mortal soul!
Calming herself, Serafe tapped the triple crown with the acquired Pope’s Staff.
"Hey, wake up, I’m talking to you."
The triple crown showed no response, but Serafe burst into strange laughter: "I know you don’t want to talk to me, but you have no choice, do you?"
"..."
"Just like you opened the Holy Cabinet, you have no choice but to keep raising the stakes at the gambling table."
"..."
"Oh my, you’re so impatient, ah, too impatient, you’re killing me with your urgency?" Unlike the careful and submissive demeanor during her first meeting with Prince Tedis, Serafe laughed heartily on the throne.
"The one you wanted to kill with Angel’s descent, whom you forcibly woke up several times, is now your lifeline."
"Hey, what’s your mood now? How does it feel to be overthrown by your own pawn?"
"..."
"Yes, yes, I want to hear that tone, that begrudging yet forcedly cheerful tone, hahahaha."
In the empty room with only Serafe, or rather Lilith, her rampant laughter filled the air.
She couldn’t help but laugh, as in her view, the two were essentially one, with aligned interests.
But then Miseria became a traitor, not only thwarting Lilith’s schemes but also entangling with her for a millennium.
The two warred over 1,400 years through sleep and awakening, fabricating countless battles.
Several blood wars, re-conquest wars, coupled with the Hundred-Year Culver’s War; neither could circumvent the other.
Even due to the increasing costs of war, both sides’ human proxies showed signs of escaping control.
By exploiting Serafe as a pawn, Lilith managed to find a loophole, only to be interrupted at the crucial turn by Miseria.
Even as twins, both were filled with hatred towards each other as siblings.
Unexpectedly, the pawn Miseria used to hinder her plan, the farmer from Thousand River Valley, unexpectedly depleted the Northern Church’s fighting power.
When the Falan Kingdom, known as the "Saint Master’s Filial Son," headed north, Serafe seized the opportunity to break the thousand-year-old Sacred Seat City, successfully obtaining the Triple Crown.
The key to victory in this game was now in Lilith’s hands; as long as the empire could be settled within the last thirty years of this body, the millennia-long game could end.
As the true entity, Lilith would reclaim the heart, head, and reunite the twin souls, restoring the true soul’s place.
The True God Witch, who nearly annihilated the dragons, shall again resurrect thenceforth in the river of fate.
"..."
Whatever Miseria said next, it made Serafe’s smile gradually fade.
Staring at herself in the mirror without a word for a full minute, she finally spoke, as if talking to herself or perhaps to the triple crown in the mirror.
"What do you mean by that? Wasn’t it you who put the farmer’s soul back? Trying to trick me?"
"..."
Serafe narrowed her eyes: "Of course, I know, but even without the true soul, unable to see fate, I have other means."
"..."
"While your empire is suffering internal friction, my Royal Court has been amassing power; they merely lack a true leader."
No need for schemes or tricks; just unite the Blood and Flesh Royal Court’s might and crush forward openly.
Even the True God Witch before death could not withstand the dragons’ open and successive onslaughts when meddling with fate.
That little farmer, unknowingly, stumbled on the optimal solution.
Geniuses of the world truly are like bass over the Narran River.
But no matter how talented, in front of her, the True God Witch, they could only turn to dust.
"..."
"Then watch and see, how could children be a match for their parents?"
Tossing the triple crown aside, Lilith, finishing her sisterly act, told the servant at the door: "Inform the eight clans remaining in No Light City that vampires of the second generation and above shall go to Vengeance Volcano to worship the sacred chalice to decide the next Prince of the Tedis clan."
