Chapter 106: I'm Going to Kill Him!

Chapter 106: "I Am Going to Kill Him!"

On the third floor of Castle Allen,

In the Patriarch’s master bedroom.

Her Majesty the Queen had just swallowed that seed. She now lay stark naked upon the bed while the gramophone nearby played the melody *Vienne, Please Do Not Cry For Me*.

The old maidservant knelt reverently by the bedside, offering silent prayers.

"I feel somewhat thirsty."

"I shall fetch water for Your Majesty." The old maidservant rose to her feet, but just as she was about to leave, she beheld a dense, creeping mass of black roots manifesting upon the Queen’s skin.

The Queen opened her eyes as well. She lifted her hands; the roots at her palms were growing the fastest. Especially at the very center of her palms, the roots had already torn through the flesh, revealing small, vine-like entities.

"Oh, so it is they who are thirsty." The Queen smiled, clenching and unclenching her hands as the black vines coiled continuously between her fingers, as though possessed of some strange sentience. "They tell me they long for the blood of the Allen family."

The old maidservant spoke: "It seems the research was correct. The ancestors of the Allen family did indeed once possess it, though it was later reclaimed by that brave ancestor of the Gloria family."

"Yes, gratitude is owed to that ancestor for risking life and limb to seize this seed;

Therefore, I am all the more curious. This seed is so wondrous and grand; surely the ancestors of the Allen family must have held something far greater than this seed in their hands back then.

Yet why is it that, after so many years, the Allen family has drifted into such continuous ruin?"

"There are many reasons that can lead to a family’s decline, Your Majesty."

"Mm."

The black roots upon the Queen's body gradually began to grow thick and robust, like spider legs hoisting her up from the bed.

"Right now, I so wish to devour Judia first." The Queen licked her lips. "I can already smell the enchanting fragrance upon her."

"You may do whatever you wish, for you are the supreme Majesty."

"No." A thick vine rose in place of the Queen’s hand. "The better the prize, the more it must be saved for the end to be savored properly. Go, open the door."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The old maidservant walked to the bedroom door and attempted to open it, only to find the door entirely unyielding.

Perplexed, she took two steps back and intoned in a deep voice:

"O merciful and great Lord of the Abyss, to convey your divine will, grant your believer the power to traverse boundaries."

As the incantation concluded, a white radiance flared across the old maidservant. When the light faded, her form grew faint; she then stepped toward the bedroom door, her torso passing directly through it.

Yet at that exact moment, a crimson ring of light flashed at the center of the door. The old maidservant let out a muffled groan and was flung back. She immediately turned and cried out to the Queen:

"Your Majesty, the Allen family has activated the family array, sealing this place!"

Supported by the vines, the Queen arrived before the bedroom door. "Have they... noticed something?"

The old maidservant drew a purple scroll from her bodice. "Your Majesty, the array shouldn't be able to shield the transmission of messages from a scroll. I shall notify the captain of the accompanying guards at once."

"There is no need."

The Queen shook her head, and the black vines behind her swayed in unison.

"I shall open the door myself."

One by one, the black vines draped themselves over the bedroom door. The red light flashed upon the door once more, emitting a sharp, crackling sizzle where it met the vines. The black hue of the vines began to cling to the door, and the crimson started to fade.

"The capability of this seed surpasses my imagination. I merely intended for it to help me break this door, yet now it tells me that through assimilation, it can seize control of all the arrays within this old castle.

Furthermore, its roots can spread along the paths of the array to drain the people of the Allen family within the castle.

Oh...

Things are far simpler than I imagined. I need only stand here and do nothing at all."

"If one remains entirely motionless, where is the pleasure in that?"

A man's voice drifted in from outside the window.

The Queen immediately snapped her head toward the window, while the old maidservant rushed there ahead of her:

"Your Majesty, there is an array here; he cannot enter!"

*Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!*

The protective bars outside the window fell away, and the window swung open. The man stepped inside; a blue ripple swept over his body without offering any resistance.

"Do you know why the Allen family's array does not bar its own people? Because we believe that if a patriarch does poorly, it is only natural for a capable clansman to kill and replace them to ascend. This belongs to a family’s positive survival of the fittest."

The man who entered the room raised his head. Beneath the pirate hat was a gaunt, withered face.

"Who on earth are you!"

The old maidservant bellowed, lashing out directly at the intruder with a black-and-white striped leather whip.

*Snap!*

The hand of Count Recar caught the whip directly in its grasp.

The power of freezing frost spread along the whip. The old maidservant hastily released the sacred artifact, yet even so, her right wrist was already completely frozen through.

Count Recar’s form vanished from the spot, reappearing the next instant before the old maidservant. His left hand shot out to grip her head, and his form vanished once more, subsequently appearing before Her Majesty the Queen;

Only now, he held a head in his hand, while at his previous position, the headless corpse of the old maidservant still stood.

Count Recar loosened his grip,

The head dropped to the floor,

*Thud.*

*Thump.*

The latter was the sound of the headless corpse collapsing.

The Queen stared at the man before her in utter terror. She could sense his immense and frightening power. Though she too could feel power surging within her now, it was still in its seedling stage because she had not yet had time to absorb the blood of the Allen family.

"Are you Gloria IX?" Recar inquired.

"Yes, I am the Queen of Vienne!"

"Very well. Right now, you must be in great pain."

Count Recar extended his hand toward the Queen. In an instant, a colossal hand composed entirely of surging waves gripped her body completely.

Then,

Count Recar wrenched downward,

*Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!!!*

A succession of shattering sounds rang out. The Queen was now like the roots of a plant; she had previously thrust a massive network of roots into the structure of this building. At this moment, it was as though the old roots were being violently violently unearthed, severing her connection to them entirely.

And those roots, deprived of their base, gradually turned to ash within the building.

"Glacial... Absolute Domain!"

Beneath the Queen, a sheet of ice manifested. Soon, ice walls rose on all four sides, expanding rapidly until she was sealed within. The roots upon her body seemed to dread the biting chill of the ice, retreating hastily at the slightest contact.

Simultaneously, Count Recar sealed himself within this domain of ice as well.

Count Recar walked toward the Queen.

From start to finish, he showed not the slightest hint of surprise at the Queen's "youth" and "beauty."

"Ah ah ah ah!!!"

The Queen unleashed a piercing shriek at Count Recal, the black vines upon her body transforming into a dreadful venom that lunged directly for him.

Recal did not move a muscle. Every vine that touched his flesh was instantly encased in frost, followed immediately by a succession of crisp, advancing snaps—the unmistakable sign of vitality frozen dead in its tracks.

Thus, Recal practically ignored the resistance, continuing his stride toward the Queen. The flesh at the corners of his mouth was taut, making a smile difficult to form, so he tilted his lower jaw to the left, carving out an exaggerated arc.

"Great Ancestor, bestow upon me the strength to combat evil!"

The Queen invoked her family's belief system. A vestment of pristine white draped over her, making her appear so noble and inviolable.

Upon witnessing this, Count Recal could not help but pause in his tracks, a flicker of reminiscence stirring deep within his blue eye sockets.

"In the past, when I was behind her, I always liked it when she summoned the holy vestment to enliven the mood."

Count Recal lifted his leg, his figure vanishing from the spot. The next instant, he appeared before the Queen, his leg descending as the upper of his high-riding boot stepped directly onto her shoulder.

"Crack!"

The holy vestment the Queen had just summoned shattered in a flash, and the Queen herself was trampled beneath his foot.

"Still just a sapling, fragile and unfit for a fight. If she had consumed a blood meal and grown a bit, she might have been fun to play with. So, why didn't he wake me later? What on earth was the purpose of his experiment?

Never mind, I shall grant you release first. The Queen of Wien ought to be free, not kept in captivity."

Count Recal raised his fist to his face and exhaled softly upon it.

At this moment, he paused again, remembering how during every naval battle of the past, he would always make such a gesture before leaping into the air to crush the enemy's flagship.

In the end, Recal's fist fell.

"Bang!"

The punch struck the Queen's back. No scene of exploding flesh and blood followed, but a frosted crater formed on her spine. Immediately, this freezing power began to spread across her entire body, and the black rootlets originally growing from her pores shrank back in terror.

The Queen's body was quickly entirely encased in ice, forming a human-shaped ice sculpture.

Count Recal tapped the Queen's head with the knuckles of the back of his hand. A sound akin to shattering glass echoed as the Queen's body began to self-exfoliate, scattering all over the floor.

Amidst the blocks of ice, a cluster of black rootlets curled there, squirming relentlessly.

Recal reached out to pick it up. The moment he made contact, the rootlets seemed to think they had found a new host, attempting to bore into his skin.

In fact, they did succeed.

Recal simply watched his own palm and arm being pierced, offering no reaction whatsoever.

Before long, all the rootlets retreated again, for upon boring into Recal's body, they discovered that this form possessed absolutely no vitality, and they could extract no nourishment from it.

The retreated cluster of black rootlets appeared even more withered.

"Looking at you now, who could possibly imagine that this would actually be the seed of light?"

With that, he clenched his fist. A terrifying freezing power condensed rapidly, and when he reopened his palm, the rootlets had long since completely perished, leaving only a single seed frozen inside a block of ice.

Then, he scanned his surroundings, finally walking over to a frost-covered chest. By now, due to the preceding battle, this patriarch's master bedroom could almost be described as a "world of ice and snow."

Count Recal opened the chest.

Revealed inside was Judia, her chest pinned to the chest, shivering violently from the cold.

Judia raised her head with some difficulty, looking at the mummy-like man standing outside the chest. At once, crystal tears welled in her eyes.

"Da... dad..."

Count Recal reached out, pulling the large spike straight out from her chest before freezing her wound and lifting her out of the chest.

"Da... dad..."

Having gained her freedom, Judia ignored her injuries and weakness, proactively reaching up to clasp Count Recal's neck. The blue luster upon her body began to circulate, entering into a remarkably harmonious blend with the aura of Count Recal.

"You still show some semblance."

Judia could no longer hear these words, for she had already fallen asleep. Like a wandering orphan who had finally returned to the embrace of her biological father, she had attained the greatest sense of security since her memory began, swiftly drifting into a sweet dreamland.

Cradling her, Count Recal vanished from the master bedroom, reappearing in the study in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, Boge was standing just inside the study door. His task was to observe the situation in the master bedroom, and no place was more fitting than this; of course, it also meant the greatest danger, for he was the closest person to Her Majesty the Queen.

Suddenly, Boge felt a profound chill. He turned his head in surprise, spotting an unfamiliar, towering figure that had appeared behind him at some unknown point.

"You..."

Boge was just about to blow the whistle pressed against his lips, but the surrounding air suddenly froze, and the whistle could make no sound at all.

Recal's hand pressed upon Boge's head.

A piercing cold surged forward.

A red luster immediately flashed upon Boge's body to resist the chill, while a slightly weaker blue luster assisted in dismantling the cold.

"You are quite good as well."

The cold within Recal's palm continued to pour in. Far from being dismantled, the blue luster belonging to Boge was forcibly bolstered by the opposition, expanding until the blue light on his body grew to form a standoff with the red.

Because Boge had previously absorbed the fire-attributed power from Mr. Mike, relying on that fire power to advance to the second rank of the family belief system, he now possessed second-rank strength in both attributes of the family belief system.

Immediately afterward, the newly elevated Boge also fell unconscious and was hoisted up by Count Recal.

...

Inside the bedroom, Eunice was fast asleep, entirely unaware of a man's figure appearing beside her bed.

Count Recal looked upon the sleeping Eunice.

"You are... hope."

Count Recal's fingertip gently pressed against Eunice's forehead.

He murmured softly:

"Bloodline... awaken."

...

In the pitch-black dining room, Old Anderson's hands were densely covered in wounds. Previously, under Pu'er's instructions, he had used his own power to control the central hub of the family array. However, as Her Majesty the Queen forcibly assimilated the castle array, Old Anderson suffered a backlash and was now lying unconscious on the floor, while Pu'er stood on the adjacent table.

Just then, Pu'er suddenly turned his head, looking behind himself.

Count Recal stood behind him, cradling Eunice in his arms, with Boge and Judia slung over his shoulders. He proceeded to place Eunice, Boge, and Judia onto the dining table one after another.

Then,

Man and cat stared at each other.

Count Recal spoke, "I truly did not expect that there would actually be a great treasure here."

"I do not care for that form of address," Pu'er said.

"How did you... end up like this?" Count Recal pointed to his own face, adding, "I ought to be frowning right now, but my current muscles cannot manage the expression."

"My experiences... are somewhat complicated," Pu'er said.

Count Recal reached out, intending to catch Pu'er, but Pu'er took a few steps back, evading his hand.

"You cannot unravel my binding."

"One can always try."

"Very well."

Count Recar placed his hand upon Purr’s head, and a sudden chill descended.

Purr’s eyes snapped open. Utterly disregarding the fact that the man was attempting to break the seal, she gasped in pure disbelief:

"You are not an Eighth Order!"

Count Recar withdrew his hand from her form, then reached up to pull at the corners of his own mouth, forcing a smile.

"I cannot break your binding," he said. "Nor could this vessel of yours withstand the attempt."

"You are a Ninth Order... no, you are beyond even the Ninth Order! How is this possible? The secret chronicles of the family could not contain such an error!"

Count Recar nodded. "The chronicles are not wrong," he said. "In truth, when I first crawled out from my grave, I too felt immense surprise. I had suddenly become... this powerful."

"Why?" Purr pressed on. "Your mastery of the water aspect completely shatters everything I knew of the fire aspect when I was a Ninth Order!"

"I can roughly guess the answer."

"And what is it?"

"Because I died, and I remained dead for a very long time." Count Recar spread his palm, upon which a layer of frost hovered in the air. "The ultimate form of the water attribute is ice. The portrait of the Ancestor hanging in the study does not actually depict the blending of water and fire. It depicts... the convergence of life and death.

Is it not laughable?

When I stepped out of my tomb after death, my faith system in the water attribute underwent a sublimation. Because death is the ultimate sublimation of ice."

"This... how can this be?" Purr was struck with absolute astonishment.

"Therefore, that little darling of a Queen in the master bedroom, who swallowed that seed—she died a most pathetic death. For I have already reached the level of the Ancestor within the family's water attribute faith system.

Barring any anomalies, I am likely the one who has walked the furthest along this path in the entire history of our lineage.

What utter nonsense. What absolute nonsense.

To think I am a corpse,

and I can feel that before long, I will die once more, and this time it will be absolute.

The faith system of the Allen family is nothing short of a joke. Must one die before reaching the peak of the Ancestor?"

"She will do well enough."

Count Recar pointed toward Judia, who still lay fast asleep upon the dining table.

"This little creature, with two naturally symbiotic attributes, will also suffice."

Recar pointed toward the unconscious Borg.

"And this one possesses the highest lineage talent. I have helped awaken her bloodline; she will likely remain lethargic for nearly half a year, but upon waking, she will be at least a Third Order, and normally a Fourth Order."

Purr turned her head to look at the sleeping Eunice, immediately cursing aloud:

"You meddlesome fool! She was preparing to be wed. You curse her with half a year of slumber—how is she supposed to marry now? How is she to bear children?"

Recar took a seat by the table, gazing at Purr as he asked:

"To marry the man who awakened me? I am aware he holds a marriage contract with the Allen family."

"Exactly."

"So, has the family now been domesticated by the Church of Order?"

"Hmm?"

Purr looked at Count Recar with a tinge of confusion. Why would he suddenly ask this? Had he not already spoken with Karen?

"No?" Observing Purr's reaction, Count Recar nodded. "Then the family is currently being kept as the private livestock of that Archbishop. The variant demon servant by his side carried a thick scent of the Church of Principles when utilizing the rendering array. The Church of Principles has always been the most obsessed with conducting all manner of experiments."

"Oh?"

Count Recar tossed the frozen seed onto the table.

"Has the Gloria family also been broken to his leash?

Furthermore, what is the true theme of tonight's experiment?

Is it to use the fused constitution of the Gloria family alongside the flesh-nourishment of the Allen family to study the habits of the Light Seed?

Or is it using the opportunity of my awakening to study the true principles of the Allen family's faith system, to dissect the essence of Ancestor Allen?

Never mind, I shall not ask. My time grows short; I cannot afford to waste it.

Flee with the three of them. These three are the future hopes of the family whom I have chosen.

The awakening techniques of the Church of Order cannot control the soul and body of the resurrected.

Which means that at this moment, I am still free.

As for him, he must have paid a considerable price to awaken me; he is certainly not at his peak.

Therefore,

I shall go now to buy you a chance to escape this place, in hopes of dealing him a grievous wound.

Of course,

he likely does not know that the version of me he awoke holds a faith system far exceeding common understanding. If the Ancestor protects us, there is even a sliver of a chance that I might attempt to slay him."

"..." Purr.

I revised this chapter several times, even deleting and rewriting it twice. It delayed me quite a bit, which is why it is posted late. I apologize for making everyone wait so long.