Chapter 401: The Causes

Duda was still panicking after killing the other noble by mistake and experiencing all the changes in the underground palace. Seeing that someone was standing right in front of him, his brain was completely blank. Slowly, he looked up and saw the man who was wearing a pair of brand new boots.

"It's you..." Duda felt much relieved seeing his friend, Andris. After releasing a sigh, Duda's heart started beating fast and fiercely again, as if his heart was trying to compensate the beats that it missed in the previous few seconds.

"It's me," said Andris with the corner of his mouth curling up.

"I'll tell you. This underground palace is horrible! The teleportation magic circles are not working. Come here, Andris. We wait here until the competition finishes..." Duda hurriedly told his trusted friend what had happened, but he did not mention the part where he killed someone.

Then, Duda became confused, "Where is your armor?"

Duda remembered clearly that in the morning when they came here together, Andris was fully equipped with a set of the black armor, instead of the white shirt and the tight pants he was wearing now. The only part that had not been changed was the pair of brand new boots.

The weird smile on Andris' face lingered, and he did not answer his friend's question, but murmured, "You think it's horrible here? I think this place is nice." Andris closed his eyes, and if he was tasting a glass of beautiful wine, "I have smelled the blood, the sweet aroma... I have also smelled the pain, hatred, and greed that have been piling up for hundreds of years..."

Duda somehow felt very cold, and his heart was full of fear, "Andris? Are you alright? You killed someone by mistake... too?"

"Killed someone by mistake?" The muscles in Andris' face suddenly started wriggling very fast, like a flour dough.

Very quickly, his hand went through Duda's chest. "Like this?" Andris asked like he was sleep-talking.

Duda's face was written with such great fear that it had been twisted. He saw that Andris' face quickly aged and became terribly wrinkled, but a second later, his face became young and familiar to Duda again.

Now Andris had retreated his right hand. The hand was holding Duda's heart, bloody, but still beating.

Before falling into the eternal darkness, Duda saw what his own heart looked like.

"The pain is so sweet," Andris closed his eyes and tasted the smell of blood in the air.

...

In the hall, the six pairs of white wings behind Sophia were slightly flapping. She was now like the Monarch of Wind described in the legends, and her face was written with mercy in the holy light, which made her look even more gorgeous.

In Lucien's eyes, although Sophia was definitely a beauty, she was too young and inexperienced. Compared to the outstanding beauties such as Natasha and Silvia, her beauty was not as impressive. However, at that moment, like an angel, Sophia was no inferior to anyone.

Her magic staff pointed forward, and more wind ropes severely restrained the prince's movements and were further strengthened. Deniz, whose hair was tied in a ponytail, looked very determined. His successive attacks were like bolts of lightning, forcing Beyer to hurriedly retreat.

On the other side, Arthen had been cured by Sophia's power, and surprisingly, his strength had also fully recovered. It seemed that Arthen's blood power might be quite special.

Holding a black shield, Arthen charged toward the prince with the dazzling sword in his right hand. How dared Arthen, who had just become a grand knight, to launch the direct combat against the prince?

Beyer's sword shining with a dim green light blocked Arthen's attack, however, as soon as the two swords crossed, the prince felt the great strength from Arthen's weapon.

What sword was Arthen using? Beyer had no idea.

"My brother, Arthen is fully equipped with a level-five knight armor, called the Nameless Starlight. Anyone who fights against him will become slower and slower, including you. Now since you have been confined, Arthen can finally exert the power of his equipment," said Sophia coldly to her brother. Meanwhile, Sophia further numbed Beyer with small clusters of lightning.

Deniz's and Arthen's swords were now right above Beyer's head!

Suddenly, white wings spread out behind Beyer and embraced him in the middle.

Bolts of lightning and starlight fiercely burst out when the swords hacked at the wings. Many white feathers were falling to the ground. The wings had given Beyer a few seconds to fight back. Wielding his green sword, the prince managed to force Deniz and Arthen back.

However, when Beyer was about to take a step forward and launch a second attack, the space around him suddenly twisted, and for a second Beyer lost his balance.

"Twisted Magnetic Field!"

Seizing the chance, Deniz and Arthen quickly turned around and rushed at the prince again.

Feeblemind, Hypnosis, Fear, Sleep, Wind Rope, Twisted Magnetic Field, Magnetic Field Vibrating, Spider Net... Sophia cast a series of spells to constrain her brother. She did not try to attack but was interfering with Beyer's movement properly to create the chances for the two knights.

Sophia's strategy worked, and Beyer was now in a disadvantageous situation. In the ancient magic system, the element of wind was linked to Illusion.

However, because of his blood power, Seraph, Beyer was very resistant to magic. Most of Sophia's spells could only affect him a little bit, and the light from Beyer's wings soon drove the magic effects away.

Sophia stuck to her own pace. On the one hand, she kept casting her spells, and on the other hand, she kept distracting Beyer.

"My brother, are you still trying to figure out where our father got his power from? Are you still wondering why he managed to reach the legendary level? Think about it. Why could you find the hidden document? Do you think our father would have written down his biggest secret?"

Beyer's heart sank, "Was it you?"

"Ha, I did quite a good job in imitating our father's handwriting, right? If you had never seen those documents, you would have never come down here, and you would have never left me such a great chance to kill you." The smile on Sophia's face was still pure.

"So the secret does not exist?" Beyer murmured. His hope had been destroyed. Deniz's and Arthen's swords almost cut him. Claire was also almost defeated by the several nobles who had awakened their blood powers.

"No, it does exist, but it belongs only to us. Me and my knights! I am very lucky. Relph found this biggest secret from the family legend, thus we were able to put you into this trap. Including Arthen, they are my knights. They are willing to do everything for me, even at the cost of their lives! Our performance wasn't bad, right?" Sophia's smile was very charming by nature, and her petal-like lips could easily seize a man's heart, "Also, many thanks to Beaulac, this little fool. You thought I was trying to control and help Beaulac, but you had no idea what my true purpose was."

Then she turned around, and within her expectation, she saw the expressionless face of Beaulac. She slightly pouted and said to Lucien like a little girl, "I do like you very much. Without you, my brother would never have fallen into our trap."

"You..." Lucien responded as if he was totally speechless. In his mind, he had almost figured out the location of the secret chamber.

Sophia giggled, "Stop playing. I know you're not simple-minded and you never fell in love with me."

"How do you know?" Lucien asked sincerely. He always regarded himself as a good actor, and he had no idea which part of his performance failed.

After further confining Beyer with the wind ropes, Sophia answered, "Your enthusiasm was just on the surface. I saw no heart-felt passion. You know, women are always very sensitive in this aspect. I was also playing my role. No matter what plan you have, it is not important anymore."

Now Lucien was really speechless.

Turning back to her brother again, Sophia kept pissing Beyer off, "You are even crueler than what I expected. You had almost killed Arthen before we carried out our plan. You almost ruined the plan."

Although she was saying so, she was not worrying and her voice had no fear at all, as if everything was under her control.

"It was you who found the secret?" Lucien said to Relph who was standing beside him.

Relph had cast the spell, Slow, on Beaulac and made him unable to move freely. Now he laughed hard, feeling rather proud of himself, "Right! It was me! You were quite surprised that all of a sudden I had awakened the blood power, Sun, weren't you?"

"Was it fake?" Lucien would never tell Relph that he had seen it through already.

The triumphant smile on Relph's face was even bigger, "It was not a blood power. I'm a sorcerer, an honorable sorcerer! The Gorse family is the descendant of the Sun King, Thanos, the greatest sorcerer ever! But now they are begging for awakening their blood powers, which came from the experiments that the sorcerers did on their slaves. That's completely wrong! So I have been secretly studying magic, and by chance, I found a secret scroll left by the Sun King. Thus, I discovered the big secret of this underground palace, the secret that made Sun King so powerful!"

Lucien did not respond, so Relph kept showing off.

"In the secret chamber hung with many paintings, there is another chamber. It requires the blood of a real Thanos' descendant and half of his life force. When everything is ready, we will use your blood to open the gate and acquire the unimaginable power. At that time, I will become as powerful as the Sun King, and then I can marry..."

Relph's voice lowered. He took a glance at Sophia with the corner of his eyes.

Lucien guessed that Relph was talking about a different chamber, not the one Rhine told him. He wondered how many secrets were still hiding here.

Seeing that Beaulac did not reply, Relph was quite disappointed, "You don't want to say anything, Beaulac?"

"...Well, thanks for telling me," said Lucien sincerely.

...

Hearing Sophia's words, Beyer burst out laughing all of a sudden, "My dear sister, thank you. I'm so glad to hear that the secret does exist!"

Beyer's six pairs of wings saved him again from Deniz's and Arthen's swords and Sophia's magic, but one of the wings almost broke.

At this time, Lucien sensed the ancient and horrible power under the wings. Then, he saw Beyer holding a small scale in his right hand. The left side of the scale was white and the right side black.

"Justice Scale?" The look on Sophia's face suddenly changed.

It was a well-known divine item from Holy Heilz Empire. It was said that the scale was left by God and its power could be compared to that of a legendary leader.

Obviously, the scale Beyer was holding was just a projection of the real item, like the duplicate of the Sword of Truth that Lucien saw before. However, the projection was still a level-five extraordinary item, and a projected item like that always had some special power that anyone under legendary level was unable to be immune to.

Even if the power could only be used once, the scale was already powerful enough to turn the things around!