Witch Troupe and the Undead

"Alright, take your positions." The leader tapped her cane. As the ritual operator, she didn't need to chant, but she needed to guide and coordinate magical power through gestures and body dance, just like a conductor of an orchestra.

As a blasphemous sin mage, she has a great advantage—she has many limbs! Just like the liar sin mage who is placed in the second to last position, the reason for his important position is: he has many mouths. No matter how much trouble the people in front of him cause due to lack of coordination, he can cover it up.

"Begin!" The invisible magic seemed to come alive the moment the leader placed the final implement into the brass tray; every particle in the ritual space seemed to sing in unison, "Resonance begins!"

The first one, [Arrogance], spoke cautiously, a strange and distorted tone flowing from his mouth. After the initial awkwardness, his own secret source began to vibrate.

It was as if some invisible force was urging her to chant the incantation syllables faster. She had to try her best to control the rhythm, so that each syllable hit the chorus of all things, incorporating her own rhythm into it and influencing its rhythm.

However, this process is difficult, like a child trying to swing a sledgehammer. But soon a second sorcerer joins the chorus, and the physical sound becomes barely audible, but in the world of magic, the "sound waves" suddenly increase.

As the last sorcerer joined the chorus, the rhythm of the magic began to shift under the influence of the ritual field. The invisible magic took on a tangible pink hue, like a tornado swirling around the ritual field. With a clang, the magical wind spread out with a silent command, and the eyes of the greedy demons scrambling for treasure instantly lit up.

If one could see the flow of magic, one could see the long-accumulated greedy magic surging into the Black Forest like a flood bursting its banks, colliding with the dam built of wild reefs, and the splashing water creating a distorted halo in the material world.

Even ordinary people and warriors who cannot perceive magic can feel the strange whispers coming from the sky and the earth, with twisted and chaotic emotions and mysterious powers spreading and colliding wildly.

"They're coming! Get ready!" Commander Augros, who had a premonition that these sinful mages wouldn't be planning anything big, shouted. Adventurers and soldiers alike rushed onto the city walls and watchtowers, watching as the trees of the distant Black Forest were burned to ashes by the fires of greed, with countless golden sparks dancing in the sky like swarms of golden butterflies.

Each golden butterfly that hits the mental barrier instantly ignites into a ball of silvery-white flame. Even those that cannot be stopped are slowed down in the mental maze and eventually disappear as a ball of silver fire.

However, this is merely the aftermath or the prelude.

"Achoo!" The loli witch with golden hair slowly walked to the already set-up ritual core. Unlike the products that the great sin mages spent weeks setting up, Livia's ritual site was not even noticeably different from usual. All the symbols seemed to have always been there.

She didn't need any other singers' help. She held her cane in front of her with both hands, pursed her lips slightly, and green leaves unfurled on the cane. The pale yellow flowers that had been drooping their heads suddenly raised their heads and spread their petals freely.

Almost everyone heard a voice like that of a child resounding in their hearts at that moment, but upon closer listening, it seemed as if there was nothing there. The incantation composed of an unknown language flowed rapidly through the environment.

In the witch's perception, the noisy world instantly fell silent, everything shut its mouth, the clamor of the material world became blurred as if separated by a thick layer of water, and the magical world was also completely silent.

For the witch, who had been tormented by such noise and clamor for years and whose physical reactions were somewhat sluggish, this was like a very effective cold medicine, making her feel much better.

Why does she like magic, or rather, arcane spells? It's because of this.

Her small mouth opened slightly, emitting a silent chant. The beautiful song, which no one could hear, resounded in the quiet world. In response to the song, the things placed in various corners and nodes also hesitated to speak, joining in her rhythm and melody.

"Boom!" The solid ground cracked open, and countless dark gray roots rose up, lifting the entire camp's ground upwards. Pale yellow flowers gradually bloomed on the layers of roots.

"Such powerful magic..." The magic of the concepts of wilderness and life almost materialized. Even the most oblivious person, except for Roach, could sense Livia's power and had no doubt about the true strength of this seemingly young "witch".

"Is this the true majesty of a strong person?" Leslie and Vivi were both a little dumbfounded. After all, the little guy rarely showed any demeanor of a strong person, except when he was making potions or giving lectures, where he seemed to be a child deliberately imitating an adult.

Vivi, in particular, only knew the witch for her extraordinary potion-making skills, but she didn't have a direct understanding of her combat power or magical abilities. After all, most of the time, the little witch didn't use proper arcane spells; she simply used her senses and extraordinary charm to drive elements and magic.

The chaotic magic of the Black Forest was gradually organized by the ritual, just as a savage and disorderly mob was transformed into an army, orderly and ready for battle.

In the world of magic, the surging invading torrents collided with the well-prepared army. In the world of matter, the demon of greed constantly poured into the Black Forest. Wherever it passed, the black trees lost their color, turning into an eerie yellowish-brown, or simply withered away. But the demon of greed was also constantly pierced by roots and pulled deep underground to be strangled.

The little witch stood in the center of the ritual field with her eyes closed and her forehead pressed against her cane. Her mind was completely immersed in the ritual. At this moment, she was at her most powerless, and even Old Ma could not intervene to protect her in order to avoid interfering with her ritual.

If there are other chanters to share the burden, then we can try it. The addition of hellish magic is like a powerful noise. If a second or more chanters cover it up, the little witch can immediately adjust it and incorporate her hellish magic into the song.

However, at present, only the Little Witch can preside over and chant this super-large-scale ritual. In other words, she will bear the brunt of any noise at this time. It is hard to say whether the damage caused by the enemy or the backlash from the ritual caused by our own people will be greater.

However, this does not mean that the little witch is without defenses. Whether it is the temporary defensive barrier set up by the mages of the Imperial Survey Corps or Alessina guarding her side with a greatsword, they are all insurmountable obstacles for any attacker.

Especially for Alessina, when the Little Witch's ritual reached its peak, she felt her heartbeat become more rapid. The life essence within her body resonated with the life essence of the environment, and the vast life force accumulated in the Black Forest was a solid backing for every warrior.

"This ritual..." The investigation team's sorcerer looked at the giant emerald green magic circle pattern projected into the sky by the fully formed ritual array. It seemed familiar, but he wasn't quite sure, since many details were different from what he remembered.

"What's wrong?" Commander Augros asked the mage, who was staring blankly, with some displeasure. The enemy had already invaded the position and they were about to engage the enemy. What were you doing standing there in a daze?

"This ritual...it's a bit like...well, maybe it's just my imagination." The guardian ritual of the elven kingdom condenses the life force and magic of the entire magical forest into one, connecting it with every elven warrior, giving them extraordinary physical abilities and various supernatural powers in the forest, such as moving freely in the dense forest without being hindered by thorny trees.

At the same time, it also brings the entire forest to life, turning it into a terrifying maze that can constantly strangle enemies. The trees become movable walls, and their interconnected life force means that you can either destroy the entire forest with one blow or be worn down to death inside by the infinitely regenerating trees.

It was this massive ritual spell that allowed the Elven race, with a population nearly driven to extinction, to still survive in this world and remain a relatively powerful force, since they were the only ones to attack others, making it almost impossible for others to break through.

However, this ritual array has also been "lost" in the Elf Kingdom. Simply put, they can use it and maintain it, but it is impossible to set up another one.

Because the magic book that recorded this thing was switched out. Yes, it's the one with the different cover that's on the altar in front of the little witch, the one that's turned to the page on "The Thorn Lock".

"Bang!" The outermost trip mines were triggered. Even though the ritual field remained stable, greedy demons continued to intrude into this distance. After all, the core of the Black Forest was not here, which meant that the physical defense was much weaker than that of the true [Wrath of the Forest] ritual.

If the little witch performs this ritual at the heart of the Black Forest, the Thorn Lock formed by primal magic will lock all the evil demons in place, turning them into nourishment for the forest.

"Bang!" More explosives were triggered, and after the elemental magic was released, it was incorporated into the ritual field by the little witch. The spellcasters in the investigation team and among the adventurers who knew some arcane spells also began to guide the elemental magic and life magic in the ritual field, which were like well-trained soldiers.

The moment the first Greed Demon appeared, wielding a longsword made of bone, it was blasted back by a fireball, not even managing to touch the edge of the defensive barrier. However, as the number of Greed Demons increased, a clear bulge formed by Greed Demon power had materialized, with almost inexhaustible forces on both sides. Now, the contest was about who had the better stamina and endurance, and the Little Witch was clearly the weaker party.

However, in dealing with the fluctuations of the ritual itself and various situations, the opponent's response speed and reaction ability are much worse than the little witch's. Although she is weak in physical strength, she is good at fighting in this technical field and bears far less pressure than the opponent. However, the opponent has multiple people sharing the burden, while she is presiding over it alone, so the situation is not very optimistic.

At this moment, every warrior and other arcane mage knew what to do: share the pressure of the ritual and add as much pressure as possible to the unknown ritual launched by the other side. Killing these greedy demons did not add much pressure. What really added a lot of pressure to the sinful mages were the things that Roach had set up.

When the Greedy Magic clearly formed a protrusion, Roach detonated the arcane bombs that had no triggers installed. This meant that a large amount of disordered elemental magic and "dynamic elements" that the Sinful Mage probably had never heard of were released. These unfamiliar elemental sub-items almost caused the opponent's arcane ritual to collapse.

Fortunately, the leader managed to stabilize the ritual structure in time and keenly perceived the similarity between the wind element and the ritual, successfully adjusting the situation. This sudden change caused Pride to feel a dull pain in her chest, clearly indicating that the backlash from the ritual had caused her own magical resonance to become somewhat out of control, and it was beginning to harm her physical body.

Chapter 104 The Villain Always Needs a Plan B (Free)

The Greed Demon, its body wrapped in tattered, golden-brown fur, leaped up with its dozens of arms swinging across its abdomen, grabbed an adventurer who was too close to the outside of the city wall, and pulled him off the wall. After realizing what had happened, the adventurer released his weapon and quickly pulled a small knife from his sleeve, stabbing it into the Greed Demon's eyeball.

With a tremor from the impact, the adventurer struggled to break free of his arms. Before he could even wipe the blood from his face, he was pounced on by another Greedy Demon. Then, more Greedy Demons completely overwhelmed him, and bloody human parts flew everywhere between their claws. The Greedy Demon that snatched a head jumped and leaped as if it were holding a treasure.

"Whoosh!" A silver-plated arrow pierced the head of the small, greedy demon. The silver metal touched the demonic energy of greed, producing thick white smoke. The arrow in its head hardly affected the demon's movements. Enraged, it threw away the severed head and began to climb up the city wall.

The thorns that were curling up on the wall suddenly wrapped around its body, trying to pull it down, but could only barely hold on until a silver-plated spear pierced down from above, piercing the greedy demon, turning it into a ball of silver-white flames and falling silver dust.

Under the constant onslaught of the greedy demon, black rust gradually crept onto the surfaces of the mithril daggers and ritual implements fixed at various nodes. When these ritual implements were completely corrupted, the barrier would collapse.

"Boom!" Strange elemental explosions occurred intermittently among the swarming Greed Demons, disrupting the ever-flowing Great Sin Magic. However, as the red lights in the forest decreased, everyone knew that Master Roach's trap could only hold for a very limited time.

However, Roach, who was assembling a strange thing, was not flustered at all. It was a U-shaped metal groove with a trigger similar to a crossbow. Several roughly riveted metal rings on the U-shaped groove served to fix it. The inside of the groove was covered with a pattern of tiny runes. Different colored gemstone powder was used to avoid the maker mixing up the circuit.

Roach inserted one runestone after another, made of gems and magical alloys, into the U-shaped slot. At the very end was the dynamic element runestone, from which the [Arrow Shot], separated from the wind element [Wind Arrow Shot], was connected to the launch port via a mithril track at the bottom of the U-shaped slot. In the middle was a very ordinary flame runestone, which could create a ball of flame. It was generally used for stoves in the runestone system of Mystic Runemasters.

Its advantage is stability, but its disadvantage is that it's just an ordinary ball of magical flame. For Roach, the reason for choosing it is that its shape and size can be adjusted, and it won't explode no matter how much elemental and runic magic is stuffed into it.

Finally, at the very front was an enlarged Prismatic Blast Runestone. Following the principle of stuffing it with as much as possible, Roach stuffed in six elemental effects instead of a random one. Moreover, instead of a random one, all six elements exploded simultaneously. Apart from blowing himself up when it detonated, it had no drawbacks.

"Master, are you done yet!?"

"Right away, right away. This thing is very troublesome and dangerous." Commander Augros didn't know if it was troublesome or not, but it was definitely dangerous.

Previously, everyone thought the little gadgets he made were just things like bear traps or ordinary magic traps, until they saw how that "this side faces the enemy" box tore apart a rather huge Greedy Demon Warrior. With two loud bangs, dense blood flowers exploded on the monster's body, and then the explosion from the inside out completely tore it into a big mess.

The broadsword with a secondary high-energy explosion of bullets—frankly, Roach felt that on Earth, this thing would probably lead to the user and the inventor being court-martialed, or become another bloody name in the history of human weaponry. Anyone hit by these exploding bullets would have a body that would be no larger than 5 centimeters on average.

The cost is a bit high even in the magical world. The price of one of these is enough to hire a warrior of Alessina's caliber to chop your enemy into even finer pieces, and you might even have some money left over.

After hearing that even the master had claimed danger, many people quietly moved a little further away from Roach. Only the soldier in front of him who was responsible for blocking the knife for him looked miserable and prayed to all the gods that the guy behind him would keep his hand steady.

Considering the U-shaped channel and rune stone design made of scrap metal by Roach to reduce processing costs and time, even in modern society, people who see this thing will instinctively tremble—isn't this the "Fat Man" shoulder-fired nuclear launcher? It's so accurate!

After assembling the last component, Roach pressed the output mechanical switch of the rune disk, grabbed the ball of magic light, pulled it to the back of the transmitter, and inserted it like a plug, forming a light cable connecting the weapon and the rune disk on his back.

Roach nodded after inspecting the weapon. He then pried open a square structure on the side, revealing a simple enchanting tool made by a little witch. With the infusion of runic magic, he could activate the spells on it just like a normal arcane mage.

【Precision Eye】is essentially a magical 4x scope, and comes with infrared, life scanning, and anti-stealth functions. Roach hoisted this rather heavy weapon onto the arrow, half-kneeling behind the parapet, and said, "Clear the rear!" This thing doesn't have a tail flame, but given the atmosphere we're in, I'll still add that.

"Buzz!" Magical energy converged within the runic structure, and a terrifying, multicolored fireball expanded wildly. Before it exploded, the Arrow Spell was activated, and the fireball transformed into a stream of flames and was launched. As it flew, it grew larger and larger, finally exploding into a flat, oval fireball when it reached its unstable end.

Like a cloud of ever-changing fire and mist, Roach calmly pulled out a pair of sunglasses made of smoky crystal and put them on. Just as everyone was wondering why this weapon, despite its impressive appearance, only reached a temperature suitable for cooking and didn't even burn many of the sin demons...

"Boom!" The elemental conflict within the exploding fireball finally reached its peak, and a fireball that literally meant "smiling" rose up. The shockwave swept across hundreds of acres of nearby black forest. The shockwave was wrapped with tiny arcs of electricity. If this were in modern times, it would be a thermobaric bomb with EMP capabilities. Of course, it had more than just EMP capabilities.

The corpses of the dead elemental spirits fell one after another, while the earth elemental explosion caused the soil to churn up. Countless solid stalagmites became obstacles for the subsequent evil demons. Even more terrifying was that along with the smoke and dust from the explosion, there was also an endless rain of acid (earth elemental), and the acidic vapor spread along with the explosion. The trees in the dark forest were visibly rotting.

Fortunately, the life force guided by the little witch quickly regenerated the destroyed forest. The grinning mushroom-shaped fire giant was still whipping everything around it with the six elements in the last second before it disappeared. Well, this is not a metaphor, it really is a mushroom-shaped head that looks like a fire giant, and it is laughing very ferociously.

"It's broken." Luo Qi calmly pulled out the specially made Prismatic Explosion Rune Stone that had withstood the greatest pressure. It had been turned into a pile of fragments by high-energy transmission. But it didn't matter. Under the premise of safe preservation, he had made several more. If it weren't for the fact that even without the injection of rune energy, it could not be preserved for a long time and would easily explode, Luo Qi would have planned to make hundreds of boxes of these things and blow them all the way from here to the Lost Capital.

As for the launching end and the fireball generating end, it's a ruthless throwing machine and a ruthless flame-producing machine, with basically no pressure, roughly equivalent to the gas tank and trigger of a pneumatic launcher.

"Considering the poor performance of rapid fire, I plan to launch a quadruple-firing version in the future, and instead of using the rune disk function, I will use liquid propellant." Roach was referring to using high-concentration Brilliant Essence as propellant or energy, which is more expensive and not as convenient as the rune disk.

And this is truly a trigger-activated bomb, which is far inferior to the rune disk that allows him to gain a trial version of mage abilities. However, after making this rune disk, he has not seriously used any proper spells, except for the mental spells of the traps he activated before.

"Whoosh!" The hot wind made the flags flutter wildly, and the suffocating, oppressive wind made the adventurers on the city wall feel breathless. It was the feeling of the wind elemental spirit being completely killed. An indescribable sorrow appeared in everyone's heart, a sense of grief that the earth beneath their feet and all things had died.

If the Imperial Investigation Team's experience was a physical shock, then the Sinful Mage's was a spiritual one. If the previous small-scale elemental explosions were at best like the sound of a suona being played in their orchestra, then this thing could only be described as a "steel pipe for beef" or an "iron basin for feeding pigs."

On the spot, the weakest one, [Arrogance], coughed up blood. Her lungs felt as if they were being torn apart, and she couldn't breathe. Blood kept surging up her throat, blocking the incantation she was chanting. Seeing this, [Lies] hurriedly took over her part of the incantation, and countless mouths on her body chanted the incantation for both of them in turn.

Livia's reaction speed in magical combat is extremely fast. Almost the instant her opponent is disturbed, her singing cuts into the opponent's rhythm. In arcane magic, this is called spell counterspell or ritual counterspell, which takes away the opponent's control or interferes with the opponent's ritual control.

Using similar incantations to create resonance to disrupt or cancel the opponent's spell effects, or even to seize control of the ritual, usually means that the two sides are not on the same level, or that one side has made a fatal mistake.

Even though the [Lies] managed to pick up the chant in time, it only managed to bring the ritual back on track. It was completely unable and too late to effectively counter the little witch's intervention.

"Clang!" The second runestone was loaded, and Roach climbed up the watchtower. The sentry shooting arrows at him immediately slid down as soon as he saw him. The previous shots were at a relatively short distance and used prism blasting runestones made of inferior materials. The sound and light effects were greater than the killing power. But this time, Roach used a new runestone.

The bluish-black fireball rapidly expanded at the launch port. Roach locked onto the direction from which the demon of sin was coming with his aiming frame. Then the fireball flew out, leaving a bluish-black trail of flame, and landed at the edge of the Black Forest. Nothing happened, but the forest itself began to close inward.

"Pfft!" [Rage] was the second to spit blood and collapse. His symptoms were even more severe than [Pride]. Invisible flames scorched his body, and the excruciating pain from his soul made his entire body hunch over. After struggling for a long time with blood flowing from almost all seven orifices, he finally stopped moving completely.

[Lies] Once again frantically took over the incantation from her companion, but thankfully, the entire Great Sin Ritual was nearing its end; all she had to do was hold on a little longer…

"Damn it!" [Lies] no longer cared about chanting incantations. A golden fireball flew into the sky. "Boom!" Thunder fell like raindrops, and twisted magical energy pressed towards the graveyard. The greedy demon in the forest screamed and turned into dust. The same was true at the edge of the forest. The tombs and tombstones in the graveyard were also shattered in the surging waves of magic.

Where the second fireball landed, black demonic flames spread rampantly. Hellfire, like the silver fire of the spirit's mystic source, is an effective means of dealing with major sin spells. After all, this thing directly burns the soul. In addition, for demons—what is sin? It is fuel.

However, this method is not recommended because there may be some great sinners who walk the righteous path. Even if most of them are bad, there are a few good ones. Moreover, those bad ones are obviously bad—with their deformed bodies and appearances, it's hard to say that they aren't openly causing trouble.

However, Hell Wizards are the type that are very insidiously evil and have absolutely nothing good. Simply put, if you are discovered to be a Sinful Wizard, you might be imprisoned in the dungeon, but if you are discovered to be a Hell Wizard, you will usually be beheaded on the spot—no noble would dare to gamble that he would summon a Hell Gate for you in the dungeon—after countless failed attempts by their predecessors, Hell Wizards have been proven to be able to attempt to summon a Hell Gate by sacrificing themselves, even if their eyes are gouged out, their tongues are cut off, and their limbs are severed, as long as they are still alive.

Even removing their prefrontal cortex and turning them into idiots isn't entirely safe, because the eighth level of hell is the level of idiocy, and your action might trigger some kind of pre-ordained ritual within them.

Therefore, the best solution is to kill him on the spot, and it's best to avoid even torture or interrogation. The only safe option is to burn the body to ashes with the sacred fire.

Therefore, if you use Hellfire to deal with the Great Sin Ritual and the Sin Demon, who knows who the "Ill-fated Justice" will come and kill first. Fortunately, Roch's weapon is an alchemical weapon. He can just say that it was made with materials from Hell Demons. Besides, he is not afraid of being questioned because it is indeed made with materials from Hell Demons and it is still warm.

The third fireball was actually something Roach had to do out of necessity; it was just a simple lightning-attracting ball, a basic spell used to draw waste energy from the battlefield to create lightning. However, this was the final straw that broke the back of the sinful mages.

The leader calmly stopped gesturing and quickly retreated, letting the bronze scepter at the heart of the ritual turn into a pool of scorching metal. The magical storm, now out of control, instantly swept over every mage who hadn't managed to escape in time.

From the initial spurting of blood from all seven orifices to the twisting and breaking of limbs, the damage increased with each attack. Jealousy glanced at [Blind Faith], who was still blindly chanting, and endured the intense mental confusion and pain caused by severing the connection, forcibly breaking free from the ritual. Such a tsunami of energy then acted on [Blind Faith], the only one who unconditionally believed in the leader's commands.

"Bang!" Fragments of bone, flesh, and internal organs exploded like fireworks, covering the entire ritual site. The leader expressionlessly touched the flesh and blood on his cheek, tasted it, and a strange blush appeared on his face.

"Ah, failed~" After saying that, she looked at her dejected subordinates, stuck out her purplish-red tongue and lightly licked the corner of her mouth. Now, everyone knew what her blasphemous sin was.

"Wait, Chief, we still have a use for it, and you haven't gotten that yet..."

"Pfft!" The tentacle slowly withdrew from [Arrogance]'s chest. "That was just a failed plan. One person is enough for the path to godhood."

"Beneath the leader's cloak were not only crimson, drooping tentacles, but also rotting scales growing on their surfaces. Everyone knew what that meant."

"I originally planned to deal with you after I got the Crown of Sin, but now that the plan has failed, it's time to use the backup plan."

"The capital hasn't fallen into chaos yet, you still need us!" Lie quickly spoke up. Among the people here, he was the most skilled at persuading others. Just kidding, if people don't believe your lies, are they still lies? They're just jokes.

It's like claiming that your creator god, who was just stranded on Earth for some reason, will make you an archangel if you pay him 50 points—is that a lie? That's a joke!

"No, I don't need..." The leader walked to the tentacles under the [Rage] skirt lying on the ground, wrapped him up, and pulled him into the cloak. Then a chewing sound and the sound of bones crushing were heard. A strange bulge appeared in his lower abdomen, and two unusual blushes rose on the leader's handsome face.

"If I get that spellbook, I'll still need a few meat shields to perform the lost rituals and bear the backlash, but you're useless now. As for replacements... I can have as many as I want..." After all, it's difficult to find a few exceptionally talented magical geniuses in this world, but it's much easier to find a few idiots who are good at everything.

"..." [Jealousy] said nothing, decisively scattering a patch of thorns. Before being enveloped by tentacles, she decisively switched places with the unsuspecting Lie, watching him being wrapped by tentacles full of sharp teeth, while she herself fled into the distance.

"..." The leader did not pursue, after all, there were still so many immobile desserts here, and the Sinful Mage's Great Sin Core was not unique; there could be countless [Jealousy], the only difference being how much time it would take to re-cultivate them.

From this perspective, if we act quickly, we should be able to train a new batch of "tools" (human resources/personnel) when the ceremony in the capital reaches its climax.

Chapter 105 The Three Treasures' Grand Birthday Celebration

Outside the Black Iron Palace, the drawbridge could not be raised in time. The Imperial Guards, who had been urgently dispatched, were forced to fight on foot against wave after wave of civilians. They shouted indistinct slogans and brandished their broken weapons, but they were no match for the fully armed Imperial Guards and were cut down like grass in large numbers.

However, despite this seemingly positive scene, the old emperor inside the Black Iron Palace twitched at the corner of his mouth. He was not unaware of what these nobles in the capital usually did, but he never expected that they would be able to mobilize so many lower-class commoners to storm the Black Iron Palace.

This made him wonder if his governance was really that bad, that there was such a large opposition group, even to the point of being willing to risk their lives.

"Your Majesty, something is amiss outside. Our arcane knights have detected faint traces of a spiritual ritual." Arcane knights are an exclusive unit of the Imperial Military Intelligence Bureau. After all, it's impossible for them to be completely ignorant of arcane arts and rituals for their daily work. The hired arcane mages have already proven with the curse on the Emperor that these people are not so reliable.

Therefore, the empire began to secretly cultivate a group of specialized units. Arcane Knights were not true dual practitioners of magic and martial arts; they could not actually cast magic. They had only learned the basic elements of various arcane spells and could detect clues when curses or arcane spells were cast, so they could take appropriate action.

Well, this response doesn't mean countering the opponent's spells, but rather rushing in to cut down the spellcaster or using one's own body to protect the important person. Of course, arcane knights are also among intelligence personnel, since those magically encrypted intelligence also require a certain amount of arcane and alchemical knowledge.

Through long-term combat and training, most arcane knights have a more acute sense of magic, or rather, an intuitive ability, than ordinary mages. If they say they have detected traces of spiritual rituals, then it is most likely that someone is indeed behind it.

"No need to say anything more. Given the current situation, if the Holy Church hadn't been behind it all, I would have to wonder if I'm getting old and blind." The emperor looked indifferently at the capital city, where thick black smoke was billowing everywhere. There was only one mastermind behind this turmoil, but there were four driving forces behind it.

The Holy Church behind his daughter was a mere figurehead, but precisely because she was a perfect figurehead, she aligned perfectly with the Church's interests. Compared to himself, a hardliner who advocated for the separation of papal and royal authority, a figurehead queen who simply followed others' opinions and lacked independent thought was more in line with the Church's interests.