Chapter 475
Flame Demon Karl
The instant the ritual began, Eivass felt as though something was blocking his throat.
He couldn’t speak a word, barely even able to make a sound.
It was like having a dream where he lost the ability to speak.
If he tried to forcefully resist the effects of the ritual array and struggle to speak, he would only end up suffocating himself.
Clearly, Eivass was not the only one restrained. Apart from Sherlock, who was already in a coma, the other three who were awake were instantly silenced.
…Group silence?
Eivass knew that with so many teammates guarding him… General Karl, who was alone, probably didn’t need his concern.
So, before General Karl arrived, Eivass walked to the window, looked up, and focused on the ritual above, diligently studying and analyzing its effects.
As a Transcendent who had reached the Fifth Tier, he obviously couldn’t stop a ritual set up by someone of the same Tier. However, he could see if there was anything he could utilize.
He saw crimson runes forming three concentric circular plates in the sky—written in a mixture of Hrasal Empire script and Elvish, with triple incantations.
From the outer ring to the inner ring, they rotated clockwise, counter-clockwise, and clockwise respectively, at speeds of slow, extremely fast, and fast.
The blood-red runes, spinning like a millstone, emitted a growing hum like a machine starting up.
Analyzing the text roughly, it could be translated as:
“We implore Hengwo, the God of Sacred Number One, the God of Death and Rebirth, the God of Long Sight and Ignorance/We beseech the Blood Heavenly Envoy, the Heavenly Envoy of Eternal Feast, the Heavenly Envoy of Endless Thirst/We invite the Amber Heavenly Envoy, the Heavenly Envoy of Remembrance, the Heavenly Envoy of Engraving.”
“He who lives long and yearns for death shall be king of kings.”
“Binding: Those who have existed for over 119 years are forbidden to leave this place; Chaos: Fire is higher than it here; Engraving: Silence.”
This was not any existing ritual.
It was a trap specifically set up by General Leo Karl, a Demon Avatar of the Fifth Tier, to capture Shafiya!
These area-of-effect rituals usually lacked friendly fire identification. Or rather, any ritual that included friendly fire identification would be significantly weakened due to its lack of absolute power.
The stricter the ritual’s requirements, the stronger its binding force. It was just like the terms of a contract.
Therefore, the best method was to add a condition that precisely covered the opponent and a result that would minimally affect oneself.
This ritual drew power from Hengwo, the Blood Heavenly Envoy, and the Amber Heavenly Envoy, making it impossible for anyone over 119 years old to escape this place.
Both General Karl and that Twilight Path expert were ordinary humans. Even Queen Star Antinomy was similar—although she was an immortal Child of the Moon, she was not that old. Even counting her lifespan as a human, she was only a little over a hundred years old.
As a half-elf, Shafiya was just over a hundred and twenty years old this year. Therefore, this restriction would only affect her. In other words, this number was a line specifically drawn for her based on intelligence.
Barely meeting the criteria, the ritual’s suppressive power on her would be the strongest.
Simultaneously, this ritual array also increased the priority of “fire” category abilities by half a level—it couldn’t penetrate defenses of a higher tier, but it could always overpower opponents of the same tier. Shafiya did not possess fire-type spells; her specialties were counter-magic and binding spells.
Thus, she could not benefit from the ritual’s enhancements at all, and instead, she would be silenced.
When everyone was silenced, Law Masters, who relied on verbal components to cast attacks, suffered the greatest loss—at least much greater than the Demon Avatar.
—Forbidden to flee, fire penetration, group silence.
If Shafiya were alone, this would have been a fatal trap.
In the game’s original timeline, this might have been Shafiya’s cause of death—she could send Isabel out, but she couldn’t escort her to the Church. Those Gryphon Knights dared not pursue her… So, as soon as she had safely sent the Princess away, she must have turned back and walked into the trap herself.
However, in this timeline, things clearly wouldn’t unfold that way.
After General Karl’s threat, he didn’t appear immediately.
After nearly ten seconds, a wave of abnormal heat suddenly emanated from the Queen’s bedchamber.
The surrounding space became increasingly scorching and distorted. Plants in the room began to emit white smoke and withered rapidly.
Then came the papers.
They smoked, blackened, curled, and turned to ash.
Following that were the light veils, which were broken by black holes in the middle. They were burned away by the instantly ignited flames like a spiderweb.
Then came the wooden floor and bed, with charred spots appearing on them.
The sunlight in the sky became even more dazzling and intense. An ever-increasing heat caused the air to distort and shimmer. The entire Glass Island’s exposed waters turned yellowish-brown, churning with yellowish-brown vortices, gradually evaporating and drying up. Green plants withered and turned yellow. An increasingly strong smell of sulfur began to appear in the air.
Shafiya took a deep breath and tightened her grip on her staff.
“For Her Majesty the Queen!”
“For Avalon!!”
She silently chanted, and a silvery-white radiance ignited in her eyes. A silvery-white ring appeared deep within her originally dark blue pupils, and her light golden, long curly hair moved without any wind.
The people who had become panicked due to the abnormal phenomena calmed down once again.
A clear ring of silver-white light appeared in the depths of their pupils, and a clear instruction surfaced in their minds:
“Leave the Silver and Tin Hall!”
The silver triangles on each lamppost emitted a sacred, silvery-white radiance under the daylight, reflecting the aura of authority. They sounded clear, orderly chimes like triangles, acting as signal towers, continuously spreading Shafiya’s will.
If one were to look down upon Avalon from above at this moment, one would see a ring of yellowish-brown drought spreading outwards from the Silver and Tin Hall as the center.
The Silver and Tin Hall itself was on an island in the middle of the lake. The clear, jewel-like, deep blue lake had turned yellowish-brown. The crowd poured out like ants before rain, orderly dividing into thin black lines and heading outwards.
Neither Shafiya nor General Karl had used any spells.
This was an anomalous phenomenon naturally induced when Fifth Tier Extraordinary beings resonated with Path Power.
The next moment, a section of the wall, reinforced by the Preservation Technique, suddenly bulged and changed color. This wall, which could withstand the full force of a Fourth Tier Extraordinary’s attack and was stronger than steel, now curled like scorched and bent steel.
Then, it finally shattered completely!
Countless streams of flame roared in, surging like a tsunami.
Karl was very cautious and did not attempt to enter through the main entrance. Instead, he completely enveloped the entire bedchamber in scorching flames!
His golden pupils burned fiercely, and the clothes on his upper body had already been ignited by the flames.
His right fist was clenched, and his abnormally swollen arms were massive. They were even disproportionately thick. The protruding veins on his forearms and the backs of his hands flashed with the purple radiance of a Transcendent Path.
His aged body bore both withered, wrinkled skin and clearly visible muscles. His entire body was covered in scars, as if they were wounds caused by a scorching sword thrust through him.
At this moment, all of Old Karl’s wounds were like passages, like open doors.
Golden-red flames flowed out from them like bodily fluid, flowing like liquid, crawling on the walls like living things. From those wounds, a deep crimson firelight, like embers, was still visible.
That was the power of the Flame Demon continuously drawn from within him.
If fully unleashed, the destructive power of his self-detonation would be enough to destroy the entire Glass Island.
Even without awakening as a demon… relying solely on borrowing power from the demon within him, he could be considered an absolute powerhouse.
But when Karl broke through the wall and stepped into the room, the cruel smile on his face suddenly froze, and he was stunned for a moment.
…Why are there so many people?
