Cornflower Witch

Chapter 274 Night of Despair
Mysterious Valley
Scorched flames encircled the hounds as they ran, devouring the carcasses in their path, leaving trails of burning embers on the ground behind them.

The entire valley was ablaze with flames, and the sounds of dogs barking and struggling could be heard from time to time.

Many of the lower-ranking members of the Hundred-Eyed Cult died, and Antiy's side was also in dire straits. Many soldiers were caught in the flames before they could escape the valley and eventually perished there.

At the center of the magic circle in the middle of the valley, the strange meteorite emitted beams of light, and the lines and trajectories formed by these lights were clearly visible, piercing through the obstacles in their path.

Some of the black hounds were shot, their bodies instantly riddled with small holes, which took a long time to heal.

Then, these rays began to wander, like precise engraving knives, drawing more intricate patterns on the ground. These patterns had an extremely delicate geometric aesthetic, as neat as a design blueprint, layered one on top of another.

Half an hour later, layers of azure lines outlined the magic array rising up, forming a giant and complex magic array of seventeen layers, each with a different pattern.

At this moment, the aura of the 'alien' filled the valley like a raging wind, dimming the flames of the Purgatory Black Hound that was chasing the Hundred-Eyed Cult, making them flicker like candles.

Faced with this magnificent magic array that gradually rose to a height of about 100 meters, Kachis at the foot of the mountain could only look up, a nameless fear spreading in his heart.

He couldn't imagine the sheer power this magic array and ritual would unleash when fully activated.

They absolutely must interrupt their ceremony!

But at this point, the power of the Hellhound was already struggling to break through the suppression of the gradually rising 'alien' rank.

Upon seeing this, Kachis gritted his teeth and pulled out a dark red dagger from his pocket. The dagger had a double snake emblem drawn on its end, making it look eerie and mysterious.

This is a sacred object of the 'Twin Serpents Cult'. Although it is very powerful, if it were to be exposed as a general of the Kingdom of Antioch, he would inevitably be attacked and ostracized by countless people.

But at this point, there's no time to worry about that.

Kachis lightly sliced ​​his chest with his dagger, the blood seeping out and being absorbed by the dagger. Then he summoned the three most powerful black hounds in the valley once again.

In this special world, the sublimation of destiny and the elevation of rank are the goals of all life to become stronger, but there is not only one way to achieve this goal.

In its ancient times, when mysterious knowledge had not yet been fully explored and many life forms were savagely pursuing strength, many different paths to advancement were born. One of them was to merge life forms of the same species, linking them together to form a powerful new life form.

The most famous example of this method of advancement is the "two-headed giant serpent" Heques, who was an enemy of the "King of the Ancients." Later, the Twin Serpent Cult, which worshipped Heques, also mastered the forbidden secret method of fusing life.

After absorbing Kachis's blood, the dagger turned an eerie red. Kachis then summoned three 'Tier 3 Death Ash' Infernal Black Dogs.

Suddenly, the dagger flashed past, and the heads of three infernal black hounds flew off, their bodies then melting in the bloody light.

Invisible, charred flames ignited from their bodies and then changed continuously; the eyes of the three floating hound heads also shone with an orange-red light.

Afterward, the three heads were thrown back into the charred flames of the burning body.

The flames twisted and turned, emitting a burnt and scorching aura, and a peculiar heartbeat emanated from the flames.

Kachis gasped for breath as he manipulated the bizarre fusion ritual, constantly adjusting the powerful monster that was gradually brewing within the sea of ​​fire.

Ten minutes later, a black foreleg stepped out of the flames, followed by a second, a third, and a fourth.

Above the black hound's paws, three menacing heads rose, their eyes bloodshot, thick black smoke billowing from between their teeth. When they opened their mouths, dark red and terrifying streams of fire shot out, scorching the ground into a glassy, ​​crystalline state.

Three-Headed Hellhound (Tier 4 - Death Ashes): A life form that has evolved by fusing three black hellhounds of the same tier and species. Its body is engulfed in inextinguishable flames, making it ferocious and powerful.

The three-headed hellhound, nearly six meters tall, burst forth from the flames and charged toward the intricate ritual array rising in the distance. Its speed increased rapidly, its body resembling an elongated flame, leaving a long, conspicuous crimson tail in the darkness.

On the ground, a series of black hellhounds followed behind, forming a wave of fire like arrowheads. As they ran, they transformed into twisted flames, merging with the three hellhounds, causing their size to gradually increase and their flames to become increasingly intense and dazzling.

The originally charred flames now resembled a blazing red sun, rushing through the valley. They distorted the air, and the aura they brought burned the entire valley. Any eye demons that tried to block their way were ignited and turned into fireballs, scorched into charcoal and ashes.

Even though there is no obvious concept of high temperature in the 'Death Ash' nature, as the son of the 'Sun', when the nature reaches its extreme, it will still reproduce some of the terrifying power of the Sun.

Inside the valley, black and red sparks drifted, shaking the aura of the 'alien' descent. The once magnificent azure magic array also began to sway and distort.

Outside the rising silver-blue light mist beacon, a giant three-headed hellhound, which had swelled to nearly forty meters, relentlessly tore at the barrier that was blocking its way. Black flames bursting from between its teeth burned and melted the barrier, causing holes to slowly appear in the blue barrier membrane.

If we cannot defend against them at this moment, and these three hellhounds rush into the inner side of the magic array and cause damage, the Hundred-Eyed Sect's hundreds of years of hard work will be destroyed in an instant.

"Your Highness, it is your turn to act."

Inside the magic circle, Jobs looked up and saw a giant three-headed hellhound forty meters tall outside the azure barrier. It was like a mountain range, giving people a terrifying sense of oppression, as if it could burn the entire night sky. Looking at this scene, he could no longer move his feet, and his legs trembled.

"Are we sure we want to fight this terrifying behemoth?" he asked, his face pale and his voice trembling.

"Yes, Your Highness, there is not much time left." The cultist said urgently, grabbing Jobs's hand and pulling him into a star position within the magic circle as if by force.

“Please stand here and recite the prayer as written here.” Two believers handed him a whiteboard on which his task was written.

"This..." Jobs hesitated.

"Hurry up! Otherwise we'll all die here!" the cultists shouted again.

The knight behind Jobs, seeing this scene, also wavered. He wanted to step forward to protect Prince Jobs, but he also felt that if the ritual could not be carried out, he and Prince Jobs would probably die under the suffocating and terrifying flames.

Prince Steve Jobs, his fingers trembling, gripped the cardboard and read the words aloud with a shaken expression.

"I, Gabriel, the forty-seventh heir of the Kingdom of Regas, the unborn ruler of the kingdom, and a descendant of the pioneer Regas, hereby declare."

"I pledge the legitimacy of this ceremony by the oath and glorious promise of my ancestors, by the foundation of the kingdom and the people, and by the sacrifice of the entire kingdom, to receive this ceremony, to raise the beacon, and to guide lost souls. He will descend from the stars of all ages, with this land as his foundation."

With each verse of the prayer, Prince Jobs grew paler, until the very last verse ended, at which point several halos suddenly spread from the rising beacon beam, extending into the distant horizon.

On the dark earth, a beautiful halo streaked across the night sky above the cities and towns that Regas had once known, followed by the illusory silhouettes of castles symbolizing foundations and territories. Although the Kingdom of Antioch ruled this land, a year or two was not enough to completely erase the traces of Regas, and many in this land still believed that only the descendants of the Knight King Regard were qualified to be their king.

Every ritual has its price, or like a scale, only when the price on one side is sufficient can it yield an equal reward.

When Jobs recited that prayer, he was essentially staking the last vestiges of the Legacy of Regas's prestige and legitimacy on the table, offering it as a sacrificial response as part of the ritual.

Using this body as an anchor, the Demon Pact user can keep a 'alien' life of the same level in the present world, preventing it from being rejected by the world.

If a higher-ranking, more powerful alien life form were to descend, what would be the anchor point and the cost required? Perhaps only one nation could bear and maintain it.

The illusory 'castles' that gathered above these towns turned into quicksand, slowly converging into the spreading halo, while the central beacon became even brighter.

The suspended seventeen-layered magic array began to rotate, like an ancient and mysterious gear lock, slowly opening the dusty door.

The bottommost layer of patterns changed, transforming into sixteen pillars supporting the palace and dome, each engraved with floating bewitching creatures and their derivative tentacles.

Then the pattern on the second-to-last layer changes, becoming an arched dome covering the magic circle, with starlight twinkling on the dome, outlining unknown creatures.

The patterns on the third-to-last layer change, revealing floating doomsday codes, inscriptions proclaiming the truth of deciphering the world.

The pattern on the fourth floor from the bottom changes, with eleven knight statues dressed in swan armor standing tall, their lances converging to illuminate a dazzling display of lights.

The patterns on the fifth layer from the bottom change, with ancient dynastic banners towering high, as if countless creatures are shouting in the long river of history behind them.

……

Faced with the ever-changing patterns, magnificent halos pierced down from the beacon, pouring into the earth. Waves of air swept through, shattering and flattening the entire valley. Shattered rocks flew through the gale and the air waves, causing the Antian soldiers who had not yet left to panic and dodge. Every now and then, someone was hit and turned into dust and blood.

A halo spread across the land, and strange blue patterns began to appear on the ground within a radius of nearly ten kilometers. If viewed from the sky, these patterns outlined an eye that was slowly opening.

In the center of the magic circle, Prince Jobs knelt on the ground. His aura changed drastically as countless free-floating 'alien' elements converged, causing him to slowly rise and then merge into his body.

The previously solidified 'castle' rank quickly dissipated, and a brand-new 'alien' rank gradually solidified. However, this process was accompanied by distortion and mutation. His eyes gradually turned into an eerie purple, and his hair seemed to come alive, slowly floating like tentacles. Beneath the skin of his body, it seemed as if insects were wriggling, causing it to gradually swell and reveal ferocious and incongruous muscles.

The force was so violently injected that he couldn't control it, nor did he know how to control it. He could only let the force circulate and fill his body, eventually transforming into a violent power.

Prince Steve Jobs, standing seven meters tall, descended slowly like a giant. Then, his bright purple eyes fixed on the three-headed hellhound outside the barrier. Brilliant rays shot out from it, piercing through the forty-meter-tall behemoth and creating two huge holes.

The black dog howled, its own flames once again covering and twisting, filling the hole, and then spewing out charred flames that poured into the hole in the barrier that Jobs had shot through.

These flames moved about, burning and melting the cultists who were originally around Jobs into moving fireballs.

In the sea of ​​fire filled with the aura of death, Jobs waved his arm, the cold star wind he generated dispelling the surrounding black flames. At this moment, he took a deep breath, and then his body expanded further, and then pairs of eyes opened on his shoulders, chest, arms, and palms.

These eerie blue-purple eyes locked onto the black hound tearing and spitting flames outside the barrier. Then, a dazzling beam of light struck the three-headed hellhound, piercing it like a hedgehog.

As the light faded, the enormous beast was riddled with holes. It slowly collapsed, turning into flowing flames, which then coalesced again, transforming into a ferocious, howling three-headed hellhound.

The sea of ​​fire remained, engulfing the outer perimeter of the complex magic array in front of it. In the collapse and shattering of the valley just now, a large number of Antian soldiers died, and their corpses once again filled the body of this behemoth, making it even more powerful.

An atmosphere of despair and fear permeated the wilderness, becoming nourishment for the behemoth. The cultists within the magic circle were all terrified by its crimson eyes, some even suffering mental breakdowns and collapsing to their deaths.

The ceremony continued, and Prince Jobs and the three-headed hellhound in front of him remained locked in a stalemate.

A small team shrouded in black cloaks burst out from the rubble and ruins. The leader, carrying a beautiful and delicate figure, shouted at Jobs inside the magic circle.

“Open the barrier and abandon the ritual, or we will kill your sister, Princess Musa.”

On a dark warhorse, this member of the 'Mistblade Squad' held the bound Princess Musa, one hand around her neck and the other holding a dull dagger, pointing it at the princess and threatening Prince Jobs inside.

At this moment, Princess Musa's eyes were filled with tears as she looked at her brother, who was no longer human, and at the scene of utter destruction, as if she were in a nightmare from which she could never wake up.

Everything has changed. Even if Legas is restored in the future, will they still be her family? Is this what she, as the royal family of Legas, wants?

Princess Musa felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow, pitying her younger brother and herself for her own powerlessness, forced to watch helplessly as everything unfolded.

However, Steve Jobs, inside the magic circle, could no longer hear her thoughts; or rather, at this moment he was no longer Steve Jobs, but a different being.

Faced with the threat from this Mist Blade squad member, his blazing eyes flashed, and a dazzling ray struck the opponent directly. If the Mist Blade squad member hadn't been so vigilant, that strike would have melted and pierced through him.

"you!"

They went to great lengths to sneak into the valley and capture Princess Musa, thinking she would be a useful trump card, but now she's completely useless.

Seeing that Jobs continued his attack, the squad members simply abandoned the princess and scattered in all directions.

Their figures vanished into mist as they ran, barely perceptible to ordinary people, but the eyes on Prince Jobs' shoulders could still discern the outlines of their movements. Several deep purple rays flashed, turning these elite Antioch scouts to ashes.

"Damn it!"

Knowing they couldn't escape the ray's attack, a member of the Mistblade squad turned around and threw his dagger at Princess Musa, who was lying on the ground.

Just as the dagger was about to kill the last normal bloodline of the Regas royal family, a faint deep purple light shot out from afar, striking the thrown dagger, causing it to tumble through the air and finally land on the scorched ground beside Princess Musa.

This unexpected ray attack diverted the attention of both sides in the struggle, drawing their gaze to a hill in the wilderness.

An unfamiliar mounted caravan appeared, with the leader standing at the head of the caravan, holding a long spear. Her face was illuminated by the sea of ​​fire, and her delicate hair brushed past her ears, fluttering gently amidst the sparks.

(End of this chapter)