Chapter 691: Chapter 68: The Grandparents You Carry With You
Palermo Palace.
As time passed, the atmosphere within the entire city grew increasingly tense. The patrols of the Norman Guards increased as if the royal residence had sensed the unrest and conspiracy brewing on the outside.
However, to those with ulterior motives, this was nothing but a feigned display of strength in a time of weakness.
Three more Demigods from the Pure Blood Monastery had finally arrived in Palermo City under the cover of night.
After Agrippina’s defection and the successive capture and death of the Tiberius brothers, the Pure Blood Monastery had lost a total of three Demigods.
For the Monastery itself, which only had eight Demigods to begin with, these losses were undoubtedly painful. Moreover, since the events were clearly related to The Azure Longsword, the Monastery had long since added them to their revenge blacklist.
If everyone hadn’t promptly sought refuge in the Technology Camp’s center, Solomon City, after the Empire’s southern campaign ended, the retributive attacks would have come even sooner.
And the delayed revenge was bound to be all the more cruel and violent due to the mounting anger.
In the Palermo City at night, rat activity began to spike in the sewers and alleyways of the slums. People cursed as they swatted around with brooms, chasing the rats that had intruded into their homes.
Dense bat swarms fluttered in the night sky. Passersby in the streets suddenly raised their hands to touch droplets that had fallen onto their hair.
It seemed like rain, but it carried a foul odor reminiscent of bird droppings.
Unbeknownst to the populace, secret diseases spread silently throughout the city via the rats and bats.
At the harbor, sailors staggering drunk from a tavern suddenly spotted a dozen swollen corpses floating towards the shore.
These bodies, washed up on the beach by the sea, burst open, releasing a multitude of bats.
Every bat that landed on the harbor’s roads immediately transformed into a figure cloaked in black, wielding a weapon, and without hesitation commenced a ruthless and indiscriminate slaughter and assault on the surrounding crowds.
Blood Slave Army.
Quickly upon receiving the signal of chaos at the harbor, the Norman Guards hurried toward the alarm, only to suddenly feel dizzy and nauseous, breaking into cold sweats. One by one, they collapsed to the ground, convulsing, entirely incapacitated.
The Blood Slave Army ignored the City Guards writhing on the streets from the outbreak of disease and swiftly encircled the Palermo Palace.
Before long, a Blood Clan Demigod strolled down the street, stopping before the Blood Slave Army’s defensive line, silently contemplating the gates of the Palermo Palace.
“Gate of the Dead?” He studied the carvings on the wall with interest.
Not much later, the other two Demigods arrived in succession.
“Commodus, why haven’t you gone in yet?” one of the Demigods teased with eyes brimming with malice, “Are you afraid of being ambushed as soon as you enter, meeting the same fate as the Tiberius brothers?”
“Heh heh.” Commodus laughed but remained silent.
Repeating the same mistakes was, of course, impossible. The Tiberius brothers’ failure in Venice was no secret, attributed to their enemies exploiting the Magic Tide’s limitations on Demigods and sending a large number of Guards to overwhelm them.
Now with the Magic Tide’s cap at Lv.20, it was hardly a concern for exhausting a Demigod. Transcendents who didn’t get instantly killed within their first encounter with a Demigod could go brag about it.
However, Commodus’s hesitation to enter immediately was indeed due to fear of the opposing side’s various tactics.
By now, the techniques held by the members of The Azure Longsword were by no means a secret—Undead Illusion Sword, Unyielding Holy Sword, and the supposed Death Law that no one had yet mastered. Although it was unlikely they could kill a Demigod, it had to be admitted that they were somewhat troublesome to deal with.
“Now that we’re all here,” Commodus smiled, revealing his teeth in a somewhat ferocious grin filled with sinister killing intent, and said, “Let’s go in.”
Even if both opposing Demigods were inside the palace, with three on this side, the chances of losing were low. Moreover, the goal of this hunt was the members of The Azure Longsword. If the Demigods on the other side had a minimum of intelligence, they would choose to evacuate instead of fighting to the death.
Any Demigod who had lived until now should at least possess the most basic trait of “valuing their life.”
And as long as they could restrain or even repel the two Demigods, The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps would have no chance of turning the tables and could only allow the Pure Blood Monastery to deal with them as they saw fit.
Additionally, it was said that aside from their squad leader, all members were virgins of beautiful appearance and abundant spirituality, making them a rare and perfect blood source for the Blood Clan.
To kill them all in one go would be a terrible waste; the better approach was to imprison them within the organization, in a secret location where no sunlight could reach, to provide a delicious and sustained source of sustenance.
In fact, the Pure Blood Monastery had already built the imprisonment tools, the blood transfusion tubes, and blood storage freezers, just waiting for the three Demigods to successfully hunt and bring back these rare preys, then everyone could relish the sight of their twisted faces and painful screams while indulging in the joy of revenge and fine dining.
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Inside Palermo Palace, Peggy, who had been brought back by Eleanor and Medea, was now subjected to Nora’s rebuke and instruction.
“I told you!” Peggy attempted to argue in her defense, “I did it to go find Aske…”
“Where on earth would you go to find Aske!” Nora was also extremely angry, and it even seemed she could hardly resist slapping Peggy, “If we managed to save Aske and his group, only to discover that you hadn’t returned and wandered off somewhere, are we supposed to go looking for you again? Didn’t you remember the last time you were punished by Aske and had to wear that sign for a whole day?!”
Peggy pouted and said nothing more.
“Nora, they’re coming!” Medea suddenly warned.
“Coming? What’s coming?” Nora was initially puzzled, then realized, “Oh, they’ve enlisted a Demigod to assist, haven’t they?”
“Of course.” Medea sounded somewhat uneasy.
“Then let’s make our move too,” Thira said, clapping her hands beside them.
In the spacious hall where they were gathered, three items were neatly arranged from left to right:
A coffin containing a corpse, a built-up bonfire, and a table with candlesticks.
Thira approached and placed a coin in the mouth of the corpse.
Next was Eleanor, who took a torch and lit the bonfire.
Lastly, it was Medea’s turn to take the remaining half of the candle given by Marquina, insert it into the candlestick, and then light it with the flames from the bonfire.
Before long, a mist suddenly arose in the room. A small boat emerged from the mist, gliding along the River Styx, with Apilius and Agrippina on board.
“Grandfather!” “Master!” Thira and Peggy called out eagerly.
As the two Demigods stepped off the boat, the River Styx and the mist gradually dissipated. On the other hand, a figure began to emerge from the roaring bonfire.
“Ancestor!” Eleanor hurried over to greet him.
“Just call me Grandfather, little Eleanor,” replied the figure, who was none other than Bavaria’s Demigod, Red-haired Otto.
The candle on the far right burned brightly, and the Enchanting Demon Queen, accompanied by Marquina, suddenly appeared next to the table, with no one in the room noticing how they appeared.
Medea stood with her arms folded, her expression neither warm nor cold, silent. Marquina, however, stepped forward eagerly, wrapped an arm around Medea’s neck and dragged her over to the Enchanting Demon Queen, saying:
“Your Majesty, don’t you think Camellia has become a bit cuter?”
“Let go!” Medea pulled her arm away.
“A little,” the Enchanting Demon Queen said with a lazy smile, covering her mouth.
“The enemy has already broken in, a total of three Demigods, you all…” Sherry and Derek entered the hall and were about to suggest “Shouldn’t you find somewhere else to hide,” when they saw that four Demigods had already appeared inside the hall.
Sherry and Derek: ………..
Do you always carry Demigods with you? How come four more just appeared all of a sudden? Since when did Demigods become so cheap?!