Chapter 773
Conquering Instinct!
“…Me, am I going?”
Prince Xiardo’s eyes suddenly widened, and he turned his head back to look at Alistair beside him in astonishment.
Alistair’s lips curved slightly, and her dark red, wine-like pupils rippled. “Otherwise, Your Highness?
“—Star Antinomy has reached this point. You don’t think you can still remain uninvolved, do you?”
With just a glance, she could tell that Xiardo had never killed anyone.
For the former prince, this degree of kindness was inconsequential. In fact, it could be considered a virtue.
But with the Child of the Moon already determined to usurp the throne, hesitating to kill, to kill one’s enemies, could only be called weakness.
—Far from Isabel.
This thought appeared in Alistair’s mind.
If it were Isabel, she would have become stronger in the face of hatred and crisis—forget killing, she would have been perfectly fine stepping onto the front lines of the battlefield.
Because in another timeline, this was how she had transformed into a true “Iron-Blooded Queen.”
At this moment, Alistair’s emotions were almost boiling, as if she were an excited student about to go on vacation. She reached out and pressed on the clearly resistant Prince Xiardo, gradually raising his hand, while muttering in a low voice, “What are you still hesitating about? They are your enemies, the rebels who want to imprison you. They deserve death, and you are merely carrying out the sentence early.
“It is precisely because I am here that you are safe. But I cannot always be with you, protecting you… I do not belong here, nor do I belong in Star Antinomy.”
“I…”
Prince Xiardo bit his lip, a hint of confusion in his eyes.
Yes… What am I hesitating about?
His hand gradually relaxed its resistance, and with Alistair’s support, it slowly rose, the muzzle of the gun pointed at the forehead of the guard, whose body was swaying slightly, his eyes vacant.
Then, Alistair let go of his hand.
He looked at Alistair with a mix of surprise and hesitation.
Alistair only raised an eyebrow. “What are you looking at me for? Look at the question!
“I mean— do you still want me to hold your hand and teach you how to kill? Are you that reliant on your mother? Then go ask that Queen, the Child of the Moon. She might take you to drink blood. Or, do you need me to be your mother and feed you, Your Highness?”
“…No.”
Facing Alistair’s sarcastic tone, Prince Xiardo bit his lip hard and licked the blood from his lips.
He was silent for a moment, then said in a slightly hoarse voice, “I just… wasn’t mentally prepared yet.”
“Then let me see your mental preparation.”
Alistair said casually.
—Bang!
The next moment, the gun spat fire.
Prince Xiardo had no control over the muzzle—or rather, he underestimated the recoil of the gun.
He held the gun with one hand, his posture outwardly cool but completely incorrect. Under the force of the recoil, his wrist was almost broken, and the muzzle veered towards the adjacent wall. The ricocheting bullet immediately bounced back, grazing his temple.
This shot grazed the man’s ear, and the intense pain instantly brought him to his senses.
Watching the man’s pupils quickly clear, Prince Xiardo’s heart began to pound violently. He felt his eardrums throb, and the sounds from outside became muffled.
Under fear and tension, he endured the severe pain in his wrist, gripped the gun with both hands, pressed it against his chest, and fired repeatedly!
The first two shots missed their mark—one hit his shoulder, and the second hit his arm. The third shot finally hit his abdomen.
However, this non-vital wound was not fatal to a Third Tier Extraordinary. Instead, it helped the assailant fully regain his senses.
The assailant’s pupils instantly turned deep purple, and he let out a mad roar like a wolf’s howl. His body rapidly expanded and enlarged, his skin turning a deep purple with bulging veins, saliva dripping. The bone protrusions on the outer sides of his arms extended and transformed into sharp, long blades.
—This is a Fiend!
When severely injured, they unleash the demon sealed within their bodies, using the materialized demonic tissue to fill their damaged parts, achieving a terrifying fusion with the demon for a short period!
Prince Xiardo stumbled back two steps in panic, his right hand, which was somewhat fractured, hanging low and gripping the gun, while his left hand frantically fumbled at his waist—he seemed to be trying to retrieve something but couldn’t find it.
The frenzied Fiend, in an instant, recovered its healthy state. Although it had lost most of its reason, it instinctively bypassed Alistair and lunged at Prince Xiardo, absorbing two bullets and forcefully slamming him against the opposite wall!
Prince Xiardo’s gun fell to the ground from the powerful impact, and the satchel at his waist was torn open, spilling its bottles and jars everywhere. The Fiend then raised its fist and delivered a heavy punch to Prince Xiardo’s abdomen!
With a single blow, Prince Xiardo spat out a mouthful of blood.
The Fiend released him, letting Prince Xiardo slide slowly downwards, then clenched its fist, ready to strike his chin!
But at this moment, the fingertips of Xiardo’s left hand twitched slightly, as if spasming. One of the medicine bottles on the ground emitted a dim yellow light, then turned into powder—
In an instant, the Fiend, with its clenched fist, was encased in a thick layer of rock.
It merely clenched its fist and pulled back its right arm—before even reaching its limit, its body was instantly petrified in that pose!
This was a petrification agent.
An Alchemist, when using an alchemical potion, could directly borrow the potion’s power to cast spells without consuming or throwing it.
A potion that could petrify a Third Tier Fiend in its transformed state in less than a tenth of a second was clearly not something Prince Xiardo could concoct himself.
This must have come from the hands of a Fifth Tier Equilibrium Enforcer! It was likely Prince Xiardo’s Alchemy teacher…
Prince Xiardo, spitting blood, wiggled his left hand slightly. Two bottles shook and turned into crystal powder, with green light blooming.
Xiardo’s complexion almost instantly improved, and he slowly stood up, leaning against the wall.
At this time, Alistair still stood motionless.
Prince Xiardo did not question Alistair, saying things like “Why are you just standing there watching?”
He just panted heavily while staring at the petrified Fiend, his face a mixture of complex emotions.
“…I was careless.”
After a long while, he finally managed to catch his breath.
The first words he spoke after being able to talk were an apology: “I underestimated them… they are so fragile in front of you, but that doesn’t mean I can look down on them.
“I’ve learned my lesson, Lady Alistair.”
Unknowingly, Prince Xiardo’s address from “Miss Alistair” changed to “Lady Alistair.”
The look in his eyes towards Alistair also shifted from apprehension to respect.
Before he was actually attacked, he felt Alistair’s methods were somewhat cruel… but after taking a solid blow from the Fiend, his mind instantly cleared.
They were not weaklings, but true traitors and rebels. They were not his subjects, but enemies who could, and would, take his life.
And he himself had completely broken away from his former noble status and stable life.
Rather, his current identity had become a constraint, a weakness, and… an old wound that could be fatal.
“—You just needed a good beating.”
Alistair walked over slowly, a faint smile in her voice. “A beating made you obedient.
“One precious alchemical potion and a beating for this lesson… I don’t think you lost out.”
“…Yes.”
Xiardo nodded slightly to Alistair, then bowed, his voice becoming deep and rational. “I have remembered it…”
As he spoke, he bent down and picked up the elixirs one by one, organizing them back into the satchel on his waist.
He finally held a tube of dim yellow ointment in his hand. It looked only slightly larger than lipstick, like a thin glass test tube, containing a substance that flowed like cod liver oil.
Xiardo gripped it tightly, then suddenly flung it at the petrified sculpture!
The vial shattered, turning into powder in mid-air. It emitted a brilliant dim yellow light, enveloping the statue.
Under the radiance, the statue gradually crumbled into dust. Finally, like the vials that had turned into white crystal powder on the ground, it dissolved into a pile of fine sand.
“Does killing with alchemy make you proud?”
Alistair said softly from the side.
“…No.”
Xiardo was silent for a moment, faced the question squarely, and replied, “But it will make me more confident.
“—Confident that I am also capable of killing. I just need to conquer my own cowardly instinct… I can do this too.”
“These words are quite laughable in Star Antinomy.”
Alistair chuckled and shook her head slightly.
While suppressing the increasingly rampant evil thoughts and impatience within her, she casually waved her hand. “Go in and tell your good friend—you’ve come to save him.”
Alistair leaned against the wall, her eyes closed slightly as if tired. She looked like a blooming rose.
The hallway floor was covered in blood, yet her shoes and skirt remained unstained.
She took a deep breath—the humid, bloody air seemed to make her teeth ache.
…I really want to drink blood.
I want to drink Eivass’s blood.
Thinking of this, Alistair’s pupils became even redder.
She felt her head throbbing more intensely, and the strong thirst was causing her stomach to cramp—she felt like she could eat a whole cow raw!
I really want to drink blood…
I really want to make love…
I really want to kill…
I really want to…
Alistair hugged her left arm, leaned against the wall, closed her eyes, and silently endured the increasingly chaotic thoughts in her mind.
Suddenly, Alistair opened her eyes in confusion.
For some reason, the chaotic thoughts in her mind briefly vanished.
Her emerald green pupils had regained their clarity.
She didn’t know if that hazy madness would return— seizing the brief moment of lucidity, Alistair suddenly bit down hard on her thumb.
Not on her nails, but directly through to the bone!
Under the intense pain, she crunched her bone, her eyes gradually filling with a deeper purple hue, making her pupils reflect a violet color.
A strong desire to win made Alistair finally confront the terrifying instincts of the Child of the Moon, rather than accepting it as common sense.
—I will conquer this sinful instinct of the Child of the Moon.
If I cannot even conquer the fallen nature within myself, how can I talk about defeating a Fallen Heavenly Envoy?
(Chapter End)
