Your Majesty's money, why don't you engrave my name on it?

"Because you ordered me to do so..."

The magical voice made the monsters and cultists become stagnant and stiff. The disadvantages of this kind of coercive force were obvious. The followers could no longer rely on terrain to attack as before. But at this moment, their mistress did not expect these guys to win. She just wanted them to buy some time!

Give her time to escape! I'm afraid we can't stay underground any longer!

She had prepared a series of words to say to the dwarf, the little princess, and even to the worthless druid! But just now, all that came out of her mouth was screaming! She had no time to think about anything else!

Forget about traps and inducements. She can't gain the upper hand, so what's the point of talking about them?

Wait, the upper position...?

The monster running wildly in the darkness suddenly had an idea. Its huge lion body immediately turned and rushed in another direction.

Behind her, the monsters' wails overwhelmed everything. Even if the bard behind Raslaufer played at his highest notes, he couldn't surpass the horrific sound barrier. With horrifying brutality, the mercenaries had forcibly created a realm where magic was virtually forbidden to the bards who channeled their magic through music.

But fortunately, all this is about to end.

"boom!"

The body of the last werewolf slammed the metal door behind it to the ground. On the mercenary's face, which was almost dyed red, an exaggerated smile was faintly visible. He held the giant sword upside down in one hand like a war hammer, and stretched out the other hand forward, constantly shaking the sword that pierced the werewolf's eye socket, trying to pull his weapon out of the head that had been smashed into mud.

Just a few seconds ago, he had been carving his work on the door like a sculptor, until the door hinges could no longer bear the weight and broke completely.

The final wailing sound also completely ended as the road ahead opened up. In this space, only the mercenary's heavy breathing remained.

"Let's go."

Accompanied by a loud exhalation, as if all the hostility in his body was blown away, when Reslaufer stood up again, except for the sticky liquid on his body that told everything just now, he was almost no different from an ordinary person.

"Whether you want to vomit or something else, hurry up, we still have a monster to kill." Turning around and glancing at Bella and Daisy who looked pale behind them, Leslough kindly reminded them.

"No... no need," the druid forced a smile. "I just vomited up all of last night's dinner, and now I'm just dry heaving."

"It's not a monster, it's just a wild beast," the bard said, still trying to swallow, but it was unclear how much longer she could hold out. "It's just a Lamia, a Level 4 challenge creature. How can it compare to you? Hahahaha..."

Leslaufer looked at Daisy in surprise. "You surprised me. Bella, on the other hand, you've seen me fight before. How come you're not as good as her?"

"The smell wasn't this strong last time!" Bella protested. "And that was in the wild. The wind would have blown the smell away. Can't you smell how unbearable the smell here is right now?"

The druid regretted his words the moment he finished speaking—of course he couldn't smell it, how could this guy possibly smell it?!

"Annie, you--" Bella tried to get the girl next to her to support her point of view, but when she saw Angelita's blushing face, she knew there was no explanation.

"Uh, actually... it's not that bad?" Angelita blinked innocently. "Although there's a bit of a smell, it's not too unbearable."

"Perhaps a druid's sense of smell is more acute," the dwarf Vondar agreed. "But she called you Annie? Buddy Antich, did she use your last name as your nickname?"

"Well, what's so strange about that?" the bard casually deflected the dwarf's cryptic reminder. "That's the Empire's excellent matchmaking system. I've even heard of a man named John Fatto being called 'Jack the Barber.' How does that make sense?"

Chapter 86 Delaying time

"Let's not talk about John first," Leslough forced the subject back. "What name did you mention just now? Was it the half-man, half-lion monster?"

"Lamia," Daisy nodded. "It is said that they are monsters created by the demon lord Graz'zt using his mortal servants. He gave them immortality in exchange for the power of powerful monsters and an oath of loyalty. The jackals are their servants."

"Their upper bodies resemble beautiful women, but their beastly forms symbolize their desire to plunder and torture the flesh of humanoids. While possessing immense power, they are also users of magic, particularly fond of using illusions and slaves to capture adventurers of pure hearts, tempting them to fall into evil and savoring the pleasure of destroying their virtues. However..."

Daisy glanced cautiously at the blood-soaked Raslaufer, confirming he wasn't angry before saying, "She probably won't find that in you. Your evil... uh, I mean, your purity is above that."

"That's really unfortunate," Reslaufer shrugged. "Lamia, right? She's a demonic creation, yet she's worse than a mortal?"

"If Sister Daisy's story is true, it's just a monster made of mortals," Angelita reminded her. "In that respect, it's not really... particularly remarkable."

Of course, this is only relative to Leslaufer. The existence of Lamia is still quite dangerous to Angelita and others, and even more so to the civilians on the surface.

"Let's catch it back," Leslough nodded. "Well, since it calls itself Fun, let it entertain us."

The monster's huge body made it extremely difficult to leave no traces during its panic escape. With this guidance, Leslaufer and others followed a clear route. Although there were some traps that had been prepared long ago or hastily set up, none of them could stop them.

"This is the place it lured me to in my dream." After pushing open a secret door, Vondar looked around and saw the monster corpse lying on the ground, which had been dead for several days and had been gnawed. He couldn't help but say, "It seems she was just lying. There's nothing here."

"Master, you don't really have any illusions about the devil's lackeys, do you?" Daisy looked around. "These corpses look like they were blown to death. Was it you who did this?"

"It was me," Vondar nodded, "but I was also seriously injured here, and I used up quite a few of the smoke and powder bombs, which were not many to begin with."

The Lamia was clearly not a trustworthy monster. The place she had lured Vondar to was completely empty, let alone anything the dwarves could use. Therefore, the group didn't linger there and continued their pursuit deeper into the depths.

Lamia's escape route seemed to initially point to the area she was most familiar with. When they arrived at an area that was clearly different from other places, they found a large number of decorated clothes and jewelry. There was also a soft bed set up high with a lot of black lion hair on it, which was obviously left by the monster.

"And these fragments," Daisy kicked the irregular copper pieces on the ground. They looked like they might have formed a basin when complete. "I heard Lamia use mirrors or containers filled with water as a medium to use magic to monitor their prey. Maybe we were monitored by them before, but it's hard to say when it started."

"It might have been since you rescued me," the dwarf stroked his beard. "No wonder. I always wondered why those monsters could find me no matter where I hid. Now it seems that this is what they did."

After Vondal was rescued, Lamia's surveillance target changed from Vondal himself to everyone with him.

"I thought it would be more eager to fight me again in its own lair," Leslaufer wiped the blood from the sword on the expensive-looking bed, "but it obviously doesn't think so."

A row of footprints with a little blood and mud ran towards a narrow passage. It seemed that it did not even have the chance to heal its wounds in its own nest and continued to escape.

"These lingering idiots!"

Lamia did escape, but she didn't go too far. She just watched the movements of Reslaufer and the others from the shadows. This was not because she had regained her courage, but because she had found her helper.

"Honey, are you ready?" The soft little hands caressed the barren head lovingly, causing the man's breathing to gradually become rapid.

This is what a normal human being does. Lamia nodded with satisfaction. "Then let your experiment out. Haha, isn't it kind of romantic to let your rival cover for us both?"

The panting became heavier, and a burst of obscure spells caused an ominous arcane glow in the darkness. When Leslaufer and others noticed the movement here, a black-robed wizard had already taken the hand of Lamia, who had transformed into a human form, and disappeared into the ground one after another.

"What is that?" Vondar warned. "It looks like a monster has been awakened! Did someone tamper with some mechanism?"

"Or summoned!" A burst of passionate notes leaped on Daisy's harp, making everyone who heard it play invigorate. "Restlover, can you handle this?"

A strong gnoll with a twisted body rushed out from the shadows like a wild bull. Leslaufer quickly stepped forward to take the blow, but after only two moves, the mercenary found that the gnoll did not seem to be alive.

Its movements were unusually stiff, and there was a fatal sword wound on its chest—but this did not affect its activity at all.

But what shocked Reslaufer even more was that the hyena was holding a three-headed flail in his hand!

Reslaufer recognized this weapon! It was supposed to be in the hands of a wizard named Jonata, who they wanted to visit recently!

Why is it here?! If we were to speculate on the identity of this undead gnoll, it might be the gnoll leader that Raslaufer had killed before!

Why does it appear here too?

"Uncle Reslaufer—" Angelita also recognized this illogical enemy and quickly reminded Reslaufer, "Be careful with that flail!"

The mercenary responded with a disdainful snort: When this monster was still alive, it could only hurt one of his hands. Now that it was dead, how could it be possible to defeat him?

Chapter 87 The beginning of chaos

"Second Battalion! Where is the Second Battalion? Quickly head to Dusk Street for support! A large number of monsters have appeared there too!"

While Reslaufer and his companions were engaged in a fierce battle underground, a situation also unfolded above ground in Xinmu City. Without warning, groups of cultists emerged from every corner, attacking anyone they encountered. Once they had a chance to free themselves, they would open the nearest manhole cover, releasing a multitude of monsters from underground.

Of course there are gnolls or jackals among them, but even worse are giant rats and bats. Although these creatures are not as powerful as gnolls, they are numerous and ordinary citizens are simply unable to resist!

Count Xinmu stood before his mansion, forcing himself to remain calm, but beads of sweat streamed down his forehead. Meanwhile, the citizens and merchants who had finally managed to escape from their respective neighborhoods were completely bewildered. Besides huddling together, they had no idea how to face this apocalyptic scene.

All he could muster were the priests of various churches and the city's garrison.

"Where are the puppets? Where are the people who control them? Bring the puppets here!"

"Sir, the Golden Eagle Guild, which produces the Xinmu puppets, said that they also lack garrison forces and cannot transfer puppets to support them!" A guard commander covered in blood stumbled over. If Leslaufer was there, he should be able to recognize him.

"Asshole!" The Count was so angry that his eyes almost burst into fire. "This is my order! This is my order!"

"How dare they do this?! Where are our four 'Masters'? Are they also planning to stay in their own Mage Tower and not come out?"

"Rumble--"

A fireball with a diameter of tens of meters instantly engulfed most of the nearby block. From the location of the Earl's mansion, one could see a middle-aged woman in a fiery red robe flying towards this side.

"Don't worry, there are no ordinary people in the area I bombed. I was almost trapped at my doorstep and couldn't even get out!" The female mage ran straight to the earl after landing. "When did Xinmu City have so many enemies? This is completely different from the scale we expected!"

"How should I know?!" The Count seemed finally relieved. "Where's Favi? That old fellow better not be on the run! Our plans are all based on his estimates!"

"Master Favi is completely trapped in his own tower. I just communicated with him before leaving," the female mage pointed to a shield-shaped mage tower in the distance, where a series of flashes of light happened to appear. "You know, he's a protection scholar, there's no way he can get out! We can only try to lean on the tower to attract some firepower!"

"Where are Master Jonata and Master Kundi?"

"I don't know about that," the female mage flipped her hands, and another fireball roared into the sky. "Yonata is probably still tinkering with the corpse in her laboratory. As for that woman Kundi, shouldn't you know more about her than I do?"

"What do you mean I know better than you?!" Count Xinmu yelled angrily, "Yes, I slept with her, but she's not a prostitute. How can I control her?"

"She is it." The red-robed female mage snorted coldly, and suddenly raised her head and looked in one direction.

"Look, no wonder she didn't look for you, it turns out she has a new love."

The dark-skinned wizard in blue jumped from the air to the ground, unconsciously posing in various graceful postures. In contrast, the black-robed wizard Jonata next to him was like a piece of wood, motionless and silent.

"Don't spit bloody words at me. I heard everything," said Kundi, another female arcane master in this city. Her mere appearance completely stunned Count Xinmu. "I went to pick up Master Jonata. He was so engrossed in his experiments that he had no idea what was going on outside."

The red-robed mage tsk- ...

The bald black-robed wizard looked at the other party with some struggle, then turned to the anxious Earl Xinmu, and finally looked at Master Kundi who came with him.

"No more." This word came out of his mouth.

So fast? Kundi's face suddenly changed.

"What do you mean 'gone'?!" Count Xinmu was anxious. "Yonata, don't forget what happened a few days ago! You got such a great deal, and now you tell me it's 'gone'?! Believe it or not, I'll tear down your wizard tower! I'll report you to Magpares and have you removed from the list of royal wizards!"

"I'm afraid there won't be many mages left in the imperial court in a while, my Lord Earl," the red-robed mage curled his lips. "Don't forget why the situation has become what it is now."

"But now, it's clearly beyond our control."

Despite saying "no", Jonata still summoned some undead creatures to join the defense team. However, this level of support was like throwing a fist-sized ice cube into a lava lake, which was completely useless. Master Quendi was a spellcaster specializing in the field of enchantment. Although he could regain some control of the situation to a certain extent, they had to face enemies in half of the city.

Only the red-robed female mage from the School of Shaping could repel the besieging monsters for a long distance whenever a fireball or lightning chain appeared in her hands, leaving large piles of corpses in the middle area between the two sides.

But magic power is limited just like physical strength. Under the continuous attack, one arcane master alone is obviously not enough to calm the situation.

"These monsters won't retreat no matter how hard we try! There must be someone behind them directing them, or maybe it's that 'Fun'!" The mage roared, tearing open a magic scroll. His own chanting unleashed a wall of flames in front of the crowd's defenses. "Quendi! You can't do anything here anyway, so find that guy and kill him! Otherwise, I'll be dragged here to death sooner or later!"

"Very good." The cold words came out of the mouth of the blue-clothed woman behind the mage.

"What did you say—" The sorceress sensed something was wrong and tried to turn, but it was too late. Having poured her magical power into the distant enemy group, she had no time to mobilize her strength to defend herself before a black lion claw pierced her heart.

"You...what's going on..." Count Xinmu was stunned by this sudden change. Without the ability to cast spells like those arcane masters, he could only look at Jonata helplessly, "Master Jonata, do something!"

"He has been doing it for a long time, Master." A charming smile appeared on the corners of Kundi's mouth. The fabric on her body slid down like water, revealing the body that once fascinated the Count. But now, the lower part of her body was more like a black lion than a human. "Just like I have been looking for 'fun'."

"Don't you want to find me?" The lion claws were retracted, and when a master fell to the dust, the still beating heart appeared in the monster's grasp.

"I'm 'Fun'. Stupid people."

Chapter 88 The Mages of Xinmu City

"I hadn't intended to show up so early," Lamia, the half-human, half-lion monster, reveled in watching the faces of the mortals around her twisted in fear. "You know, my Lord, I really appreciate that look of yours that makes you think you have everything under control. It gives me an incredible... pleasure."

"It would have been in my best interest to enjoy it for a while longer, but unfortunately, a bunch of idiots have ruined the atmosphere between us. If I don't take action now, I'm afraid I'll have nowhere to stay. Oh, how pitiful I am."

"Those mercenaries?" Count Xinmu looked at the monster in disbelief. It was impossible for him not to secretly keep an eye on someone who could wipe out an entire band of gnolls outside the city.

“But what did they do?”

"They raided my lair!" Lamia couldn't help but raise her voice as she recalled the fear the monster in human form had brought upon her. "And I can't defeat him while still hiding my strength!"

She could, of course, drown them with a flood of slaves, but how many slaves would that require? A hundred? Such a movement would be impossible to conceal! Rather than that, it would be better to attack proactively! Once the entire city was in chaos, the power of a few mortals would naturally become insignificant.

"But their appearance isn't entirely a bad thing, right, my dear Master Jonata?" Qundi moved pretentiously closer to the necromancer beside him. "They brought back the weapons of my favorite subordinates, but by some strange coincidence, they've provided me with even more powerful helpers!"

Count Xinmu looked at Fun and Jonata in confusion. He couldn't understand why a master of mathematics could fall into the control of this monster so quietly. Although the other party was disguised as Master Kundi, now that he thought about it carefully, it seemed that Kundi had not displayed his advanced magical skills for a long time.

"What did you do to him? Where did Master Quendi go?"

"I did nothing, sir. Don't you think that the only one who can defeat an arcane master is himself? The temptation of knowledge is not something that everyone can resist, especially when on the other side is the powerful abyss." The monster smiled and looked at Earl Xinmu from above the black-robed wizard.

"Isn't there a saying that goes, 'When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you?' This is not just a saying. When our dear Master Jonata tried to study Yeenoghu's power, the Lord of the Abyss naturally sought him out."

The gap between the Abyss Lord and a mortal mage is even greater than the gap between a mage and an ordinary person.

"As for the real Kundi? I broke her neck in bed, that's all."

"What about Favi?" The Count couldn't help but despair. "Is he your man too? He gave us a wrong estimate, otherwise you would never have gotten what you wanted!"

"He simply provided the estimate you requested," Lamia curled her lips in disdain. "Are you trying to shift the blame onto a fool who plays with the wind and make yourself look innocent?"

"Believe me, you won't," the monster leisurely walked up to the count and slapped his chest with its black claws. "You are still somewhat useful, and I will make you even more useful—for example, after you have lost all your value, you can provide another meal for my starving slaves."

It didn't intend to simply kill the noble. Controlling him, and then conveying its master's or its own orders through the earl's mouth would have been much easier. However, when the monster touched the earl, ripples of magic rippled through his chest, blocking its power.