Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 473 The True Meaning of the Power of Termination

"I remember now, you came down to the dungeon to find me..."

In the silence of the three, Sacel spoke softly.

"It's because of that modified Dragon Slayer sword from back then—and you've been implying that our misfortunes all stem from those two unspeakable supreme magic masters."

Ricky turned around and smiled:
"Who isn't subject to fate?"

Sackel was not fooled by Ricky's evasive answer; he calmly pressed on:

"So, the purpose of the Sword of Calamity is the opposite of its name: to combat calamity?"

Under Sackel's questioning, Thales suddenly realized that the organization Ricky led was a better starting point than questioning the mystery surrounding Ricky.

Ricky clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Correction,” Ricky said with a disdainful look.
“We are inheritors from outside the tower, not some ‘sword of calamity’.”

Sackel stared intently at Ricky.

“You want me to join you, but I know nothing about you—only the Secret Service has records of you: whether it’s those strange powers of termination or your long-standing activities as mercenaries in the Western Wilderness.”

But Sakel shook his head:

"But what I find strange is that the Secret Service has always turned a blind eye to you."

Upon hearing the name Secret Service, Thales felt a chill run down his spine.

Thinking of something, he looked at Sacel, but the latter simply shook his head slightly.

Ricky smiled slightly:
"If this dispels your doubts, Knight—our relationship with the Starry Sky Secrets is closer than you imagine."

Upon hearing this, Thales became wary:
He recalled the "Dragon Blood" from six years ago.

At that time, Miko and Rumba were closer than he had imagined—if only Thales hadn't been the last to know.

Perhaps it was the softening of Sackel's tone that gave him hope, for Ricky smiled and continued:
"More than a hundred years ago, Qiu Crassus, who had left the Tower of the End, came to the Star Kingdom to escape being hunted down: at that time, the 'Red King' was wreaking havoc on Blade Valley, which was the worst period in the relationship between the Star Kingdom and the Tower of the End."

"At that time, Crassus made a deal with the 'Red King' John II, in which he obtained the king's permission and protection, allowing him to hide in the Western Wilderness under the guise of a mercenary group."

Sacel and Thales were both taken aback.

Ricky smiled and gestured to the people around him:
"This is the origin of the 'Blood Siren,' and it is also what you see today as us."

More than a hundred years ago, Crassus and the Red King, the Blade of Calamity and the Star Kingdom, made a deal?

A thought flashed through Thales' mind.

"What deal?"

Sakel pressed on solemnly, "The king has his own royal guards and servants to serve him, why should he turn to a stranger..."

"Persuade your men to join us, Knight, and I'll tell you more," Ricky interrupted Sackel confidently.
"Believe me, we are not in conflict with the kingdom you love; in fact, we have a long-standing connection with it."

"And I can help you."

Ricky's tone was full of seduction.

To his disappointment, Sacel simply lowered his head and pondered for a moment.

"But there's a reason why the Tower of the End calls you the 'Sword of Calamity,' isn't there?" the Punishment Knight said softly.

Ricky sighed:

"Correction: We have never acknowledged ourselves as a disaster..."

He seemed to care a lot about this.

But at that moment, Sacelle suddenly raised his head, his eyes burning.

"According to you, more than a hundred years ago, the first Crassus established your organization under the guise of mercenaries and hid in the Western Wilderness."

Do you know what I was thinking about?

Ricky raised an eyebrow and gave a "So what?" look.

The next second, Sacel's tone turned serious:
"Coincidentally, it was around that time that an underground mutual aid society that started by smuggling bootlegging in the Western Wilderness also gradually grew in Yongxing City with the tacit approval of many powerful nobles, until it controlled the entire underworld."

Ricky was slightly taken aback.

Upon hearing this, Thales' mind began to wander!
Before becoming a prince, his experiences in the underworld returned to his mind.

They started by smuggling illicit liquor in the Western Wilderness...

Underground mutual aid societies...

Powerful nobles...

It gradually grew stronger in Yongxing City...

Control the underground world...

Wouldn't that be—

"The Blood Bottle Gang?"

Thales blurted out the name instinctively, unable to contain his surprise.

At that moment, Ricky's face turned ugly.

Thales suddenly understood many things: Sacel had connected him with a bridge of intelligence.

"of course."

Sacelle confirmed Thales's guess in a cold tone:
"Later, we all found out who was behind the Blood Bottle Gang."

Blood Bottle Gang...

Thales couldn't help but recall those two strange figures again: one graceful and elegant, the other sweet and charming, yet...

Ricky's eyebrows were furrowed.

The demon suddenly realized:
He underestimated the humans before him.

But Saxeel, like a knight pressing his advantage, coldly said:

"Then, at the height of the Blood Vial Gang's rise, Crassus and his newly established Outer Legacy were called the 'Sword of Calamity' by the Tower of the End?"

At that moment, Ricky's face turned ashen.

Thales remembered.

Rolf had once told him that during the gang wars six years ago, the Blood Bottle Gang had hired a swordsman with strange finishing powers, and that the swordsman was directly under the command of…

Aishida.

Moreover, as Thales watched Ricky's increasingly grim expression, he recalled another detail.

When Aishida left Dragon City, she said...

He's going to the Tower of the End.

Thales clenched his fist involuntarily.

Never before had he so desperately wanted to meet the mastermind behind the Blood Bottle Gang:
Aishida, and...

Well, maybe only Ashida.

"To be established alongside the Blood Vial Gang, to fight alongside the calamities," Sacel's tone was full of sarcasm after seeing through the lie:

"Yes, come on, tell me again: you are not the 'Sword of Calamity'?"

Ricky remained silent.

Thales watched their standoff cautiously.

It's unclear when exactly, but the aggressive Ricky and the speechless Sackel have switched places.

The Knight of Punishment is now on the offensive.

"You don't intend to join us, do you, knight?"

Ricky, his eyes growing colder, finally raised his head:
"You're just going along with what I say to get information out of me."

"Just like when you guessed I was a demon."

Sacel snorted coldly.

“You came to me not just to recruit me.”

Sacel gritted his teeth and raised his voice:

"The Blood Bottle Gang and the Calamity were both involved in the turmoil eighteen years ago—and you, who have such a good relationship with them, were certainly involved too, weren't you?"

Ricky did not answer his question.

The demon's attitude, from top to bottom and inside to out, became utterly cold:
"It seems you're skilled in more than just combat, knight."

“I’m only good at fighting,” Sacel said calmly, meeting Ricky’s gaze head-on.

"But fighting doesn't necessarily have to be done with a sword."

The two stared at each other, their gazes sharp as swords, clashing back and forth.

Thales, who was watching from the side, felt a chill run down his spine.

Finally, after a suffocating standoff, Ricky turned around.

"Semir!"

Ricky said coldly in a loud voice:

“I think Sakel’s legs are getting a little numb from sitting. Could you kindly accompany your old superior for a walk?” Samir walked over from a distance, glanced questioningly at the two who were almost at each other’s throats, and nodded.
"my pleasure."

Sacel scoffed and shook his head.

Without waiting for Samir to help him up, the Knight of Punishment stood up on his own and, dragging his badly injured body, limped away into the distance.

"So he can walk by himself."

Ricky stared coldly at Sackel's retreating figure, a deep wariness rising in his eyes: "That was just a show of weakness to me, a deliberate attempt to extract information."

This man is not just a reckless brute who only knows how to fight and kill.

On the contrary, he has keen insight and amazing comprehension.

Even in conversations outside of battle, he would deceive the enemy, feign weakness, and set traps...

To obtain the information he wanted.

Punishment Knight...

Ricky gripped his sword tightly.

"He made you nervous."

Ricky turned around.

Thales narrowed his eyes, looking at the demon with a hint of schadenfreude: "In the battle of words, you lost to a human, and he extracted quite a bit of information from you, didn't he?"

Ricky's face darkened.

Thales sighed softly:
"But you just said that the real demons are so inhuman that you would believe they have humanity..."

As the boy repeated his words, Ricky, who had been lost in thought, frowned:
"what?"

Thales looked up.

"'The real demon'?"

Thales asked suspiciously:

"What does this mean, Ricky?"

"So, you're not a real demon?"

Ricky's cheek twitched slightly.

But Thales' journey is not over yet.

"Besides, back in the tavern, I tried to copy your power of termination, didn't I?"

"Tales said softly, watching Ricky's expression."

“I know that the power of termination is the pride of mankind…and I also know that the power of both vampires and orcs is vastly different from that of mankind.”

Thales became serious:
"If you truly are a demonic being living underground, in hell, Ricky... then why do you possess the power of termination?"

"Is it really as Sacel said, that you possessed someone else?"

"If so, then where did this body of yours come from?"

Ricky's expression turned ugly again.

He suddenly realized... that the boy in front of him might not be any easier to deal with than Sakel.

“I’ve told you before, Your Highness, there have been many wonders in this world,” Ricky said, looking intently at him.
"And my existence is a little more complicated than you think."

It's a bit more complicated...

Just as Thales was pondering how to extract more information, Ricky suddenly interrupted.

"So, you're using the Sin of the River of Hell to replicate other Ending Powers, right..."

Ricky squinted:

"Did you figure this out yourself, or did someone teach you?"

Thales vaguely knew that the other person was trying to change the subject, but he had to admit that the thing he used to change the subject had attracted the boy's attention.

The crime of the River of Prisons.

The image of the black sword appeared before Thales' eyes.

"Does it matter?"

Ricky laughed:

"of course."

"If that's what you came up with, then you're doing very well."

But Ricky's expression immediately changed, as if a cold wave was approaching:

"If someone else taught you..."

Ricky said coldly and seriously:

"Then he's deliberately trying to harm you."

"Or perhaps they simply don't want you to benefit from anything."

For a moment, Thales was completely stunned.

To harm me?

Thinking of the other party's demonic identity, Thales was about to retort dismissively, but he suddenly remembered the scene when he parted ways with the Black Sword.

Regarding the Sin of the River of Hell... you'd better not use it again after tonight.

No way?
The boy clenched his fist subconsciously.

Thinking of this, Thales paused before uttering his sarcastic remark, which ultimately turned into a rhetorical question:
"Harm me? What do you mean?"

Ricky took a deep breath, unhurriedly—Thales suspected that what the other man wanted was this kind of comforting feeling of watching others bewildered while he offered guidance—and leaned back, shaking his head and chuckling:
"Because the transformative properties of the River of Hell have so many uses, there are also so many ways to improve oneself..."

"But you chose the stupidest, least efficient, most time-consuming, and most boring one of them."

Ricky's eyes flashed, his face becoming deep and thoughtful:
"imitate."

Thales frowned:
"Any questions?"

Ricky snorted coldly.

"Of course, the first Crassus discussed this issue."

Thales's heart skipped a beat: The first Crassus?

That's the one...

“I know it might be effective, fun, and sound impressive at first,” Ricky said, unusually serious and focused on him this time.

"'The omnipotent power of ending,' is it?"

Upon hearing "the omnipotent power of termination," Thales's expression changed.

Yes, he does know something.

Seeing Thales's tacit approval, Ricky sneered:
"So you think that your future path is simply to encounter powerful masters and useful finishing powers, then activate your River of Sin to imitate and replicate them, easily making them your possessions and spoils of war, acquiring their power almost like cheating?"

The young man was stunned.

He... hadn't really thought about that question.

Yara's extraordinary swordsmanship, Wyah's unstoppable blade, Nikolai's twisted fate...

He has imitated quite a few people over the years, but...

“So, the power of termination is to you either an apple or a sword,” Ricky’s expression grew increasingly stern, especially clear amidst the surrounding rumble:

"So you can eat it as soon as it's put in your mouth, or use it as soon as it's placed in your hand?"

Thales was taken aback by his sudden sharp tone.

Ricky then gave a soft hum.

“Tell me, Thales.”

This time, Ricky, who usually addressed him either distantly as "Your Highness" or jokingly as "Darling," surprisingly called out Thales's name.

Ricky coldly replied:

"Do you think this is the meaning of the Sin of the River of Hell, or even the true essence of the power of ending?"

Thales raised an eyebrow and gave an awkward twitch at the corner of his mouth:
"Uh...no?"

He certainly wouldn't be foolish enough to say "yes".

But Thales had a feeling that Ricky seemed to become a different person whenever he talked about certain topics, whether it was his previous duels with Barney and Sackel, his stories about his men, or now his talk about the Sins of the River of Hell.

It was as if that was his only remaining... final act of respect.

At that moment, Ricky stared intently at Thales, as if trying to see into his heart.

“Barney—if I remember his name correctly—did you imitate his finishing power?”

Thales, who was wondering what kind of person Ricky was, was suddenly taken aback.

Barney... Barney?
Quiz: What deal did Crassus and the Red King make over a hundred years ago? The answer is hidden in the latest volume.

Friendly reminder: Keyword: Western Wilderness.

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(End of this chapter)