Her eyes, hollow and devoid of light due to Eivass’s concealment, widened slightly.
A layer of twilight crystals, like frosting, coated her as she emitted a *crackle*, turning flesh into rock and freezing her soul.
Caught off guard and petrified, Andrea was frozen in the pose of condensing lightning, her entire body turned into a statue!
The pure white lightning clutched in her right hand dissipated, unable to be maintained.
The escaping sparks scattered into countless pure white snakes, falling onto the chandeliers, carpet, and corpses, leaving behind scorched marks. One could imagine – if this attack had landed directly on the Crown Princess’s soul, even if it wouldn’t instantly obliterate her, it would have caused severe injury!
Andrea also lost her ability to fly, plummeting directly from the air.
As she crashed to the ground, the brittle stone statue shattered and collapsed, breaking into several pieces.
If Eivass were to cancel the petrification now, it would be equivalent to tearing her into several pieces… causing immediate fatal damage.
However, Eivass did not do that; instead, he slowly retracted his hand.
For others, perhaps releasing the petrification would cause immediate death. But for a Child of the Moon, especially one at the Blood Lord level… it was better to keep her sealed like this.
“You’re quite courageous.”
Eivass said with admiration to the Crown Princess, whose black soul had flown out and returned to her body, “She must be a Blood Lord… facing a caster with such flexible casting abilities, you still dared to expose your weakness and charge forward.”
As a superior profession to the Blood Mage, Blood Lord is the main profession of the Blood Heavenly Envoy. Therefore, even when transformed into a Child of the Moon, all Extraordinary Power is retained. This is equivalent to stacking spellcasting abilities of the same level and path on top of the powerful racial attributes of a Child of the Moon.
The characteristic of the Blood Mage profession is that they can ignore spellcasting materials, incantations, and required mana attributes, directly drawing on their own life force for spellcasting… They can also convert their entire Mana Pool into their own life force.
However, their most troublesome aspect lies in the flexibility of their spellcasting.
Although they learn spells very slowly, much slower than other casters, and can only learn spells one Energy Level below their own… once they learn a spell, they can freely use all spells in an almost instantaneous manner, ignoring the restrictions of Mana Pool and spellcasting materials. Although casting spells causes blood loss and there is a cooldown for the same type of spell, they can still cast a large number of different spells in a short period of time.
Their burst potential is extremely terrifying.
Coupled with the extremely vigorous life force of a Blood Lord… as long as they are not killed instantly, they can quickly recover their life force by absorbing blood. Even without absorbing blood, under the moonlight, they can still recover health at a visible rate.
Furthermore, for Blood Lords, even if they receive a fatal injury from an Assassin or Warrior of the same Energy Level, their bodies will automatically recover, whether it is a shattered heart or a severed head.
This is why the Assassins of the Eagle Eye organization needed to use “curse poison” on their fatal weapons.
While this might be considered overkill for Ordinary Persons – like enchanting an armor penetration on an RPG and then attacking infantry, whether enchanted or not, the damage is evenly distributed within fifty meters, with no difference.
However, when fighting Blood Lords of the same level, even ten stab wounds to vital points might not kill them. In such cases, poisoning becomes meaningful.
In the game, this is a highly favored casting profession among PVP players in the mid-game. Even if players cannot become Children of the Moon, the profession’s inherent strength alone is enough to be considered T1 level.
Since Blood Lords do not need incantations or Mana Pools for spellcasting, they don’t even need staves… and there’s no worry about casting success rates decreasing due to wearing armor.
If they also take on other warrior-type professions, they can wear reassuring heavy armor. With a great hammer or a halberd, they can be both tanky and deal damage. This profession is purely about stats… and the operation is simple enough.
The most crucial point is that Blood Lords are not even like slow-witted opponents who can be kited – if they are willing to burn their health, they can fly at high speeds for a short period, charging in for a “big hammer eighty” combo.
This profession remains potent until later stages when casters acquire high-Energy Level spells and their overall strength increases… Their spell levels are always one level lower, and only then do they start to feel like they are just “scratching” the enemy.
“I can’t help it…”
Crown Princess Noel sighed, feeling somewhat shaken.
She shook her head, “All I have to offer is courage…”
As she said this, she inexplicably appeared somewhat dejected.
This was clearly due to her helplessness regarding the current political situation of Star Antinomy.
Even with the desire to rectify everything, she had no idea how to proceed.
With the independence of the Daffodil Duchy, a major export and profit region, Star Antinomy’s economy had completely collapsed; chaos swept the entire nation, prices soared; people, in a panic, hoarded food and weapons and fled to the countryside to hide. The streets of large cities were filled with robbers, with no normal customers in sight; government departments at all levels had completely shut down, and even the police had gone on strike…
Even the high-level officials were completely divided into four factions, with no room for compromise between them.
The Spirit Tower had been completely isolated, appearing as if it could flee at any moment; the Demonology Association and the Alchemy Association had completely separated and were in intense conflict. The Red Phase remnants, though weak, were exceptionally united, with the help of foreign powers… combined with the covetous Iris Flower, and the recently independent Daffodil Duchy and Black Hawk Duchy, Star Antinomy had entered the most difficult period since its founding.
At this time, Noel had no idea what she could or should do.
Noel was certainly willing to make an effort… but her talents were limited, whether in governance, interpersonal skills, or Extraordinary Abilities, none were outstanding. Valentine VII did not dare to entrust the country to her, but her siblings were also unreliable.
… If only she had been more resolute at the time and forcefully taken Avalon, would things have been better?
Sometimes, Noel would ponder this late at night.
It wouldn’t have worked, she thought.
Although the bombing by the Avalon Gryphon Legion was merely a warning, she had no doubt… that if war truly broke out, the people of Avalon would also launch an equivalent retaliation against Star Antinomy.
Or perhaps it would have been better to cede power earlier, allowing the Children of the Moon to control authority and merge with the Children of the Moon of the Iris Flower, thereby restoring the territory from the Imperial era… In that case, although the ruler would no longer be Valentine, perhaps the people would have lived better.
But no matter what, she could not come up with any solution to the desperate situation before her.
“If I could ascend to the Fifth Tier, perhaps the situation would improve somewhat.”
Ordinary Fifth Tier strength would not be enough – it would only be possible to help if the ascension was through the New Moon Ritual, obtaining rare Path Traits.
This was the last resort she could think of.
It was precisely because of this that she had come to participate in this extremely dangerous ascension.
Only because “courage” was the last trump card she could play…
“–No.”
Eivass, as if seeing through her thoughts, shook his head slightly.
“This is not courage at all.”
The young Pope said softly, “This is avoidance.
“You are simply using methods that cause yourself pain, risk, and self-harm… to save your own collapsing spirit. Because you have done everything you could, there is nothing you can do even if the current situation is unfavorable. So you do as much as you can to do things that ‘will make you give your all,’ thereby quickly exhausting all your energy…
“This is escapism, Highness. It is not beneficial for solving any problem, nor is it beneficial for yourself… It only serves to maintain your self-esteem, nothing more.”
