This necromancer is going to seduce the beautiful girls who are already dead.

No one expected that the group that stormed in would start a killing spree right away. This was Golden Griffin City, the capital of the Western Empire, where the nation's most elite security forces were stationed. Who would dare to act recklessly here? Unless they were courting death.

However, these madmen were truly reckless. After killing all the guests who had just been singing, they didn't run away. Instead, they calmly arranged their corpses in a circle with their feet facing outwards, and then used daggers to stab them in the heart, driving them directly into the wooden floor.

The rest of the tavern was terrified. Several customers who hadn't participated in the singing and had been spared collapsed to the ground in horror, soiling themselves. Dahl and his two employees huddled behind the counter, too afraid to utter a sound.

The screams that suddenly came from inside the tavern naturally attracted the attention of those outside. Perhaps someone immediately notified the nearby patrol team, and a group of fully armed soldiers kicked open the tavern door and stormed in after the group of madmen finished their ritual.

The soldiers were initially shocked by the hellish scene inside the tavern and the overwhelming stench of blood and other foul odors. However, their excellent training quickly turned on them, and the soldiers swiftly and decisively beheaded the madmen. The madmen were no match for the soldiers; their headless corpses, spurting blood, fell to the ground, their heads rolling wildly, their contorted expressions still etched on their faces. The sight of this horrific scene caused Dahl's young waiter to faint on the spot.

The soldiers quickly resolved the incident, leaving two survivors for interrogation, and took away all the bodies from the ground, leaving only bloodstains and filth everywhere.

The subsequent interrogation results did not seem to reveal any real truth behind the scenes. The two madmen who were arrested said nothing, only cursing Jiu Shen as a stupid clay puppet. The two madmen eventually died in their cell.

After that, the people of Golden Griffin City dared not sing songs praising the Nine Gods for a long time, and some even stopped donating to the Holy See. Because of the fear of the unknown cultists, people did not go out for entertainment at night for a long time.

Although Dahl, as a victim, wasn't blamed, few people wanted to patronize the tavern of the ugly dwarf and his wife after such a tragedy, and all the original employees resigned. Dahl even paid to replace the tavern's floor, but it still couldn't entice the fearful people back to drink and have fun. Now, the only people still going into Dahl's tavern, besides newcomers to Golden Griffin City, are a few seasoned drinkers who would risk their lives for fine wine.

Dar, who had suffered an undeserved calamity, was furious. After finishing his story, he rubbed his red nose and said, "Damn those Lords of the Fallen! I can't believe there's such a cult gathering in Golden Griffin City. I wonder if there are any remnants left. I really hope the Lord of the Storm will unleash his divine power and burn them all to ashes!"

"This so-called Lord of Fall can not only bewitch people's minds, but also change their appearance?" Abyss pondered. "I can't help but wonder if He has any connection to the monster I encountered in my hallucinations before..."

"What do you plan to do?" Leona took a sip of her drink. "Kill Him?"

“Let’s continue the investigation. Since He came to pick a fight with me, how can I not return the favor?” Abyss also took a sip of wine.

Chapter Thirty-One: Preparing to Settle Old Scores

Abyss was not satisfied with the evidence he had at hand, but he had decided to investigate this so-called Fallen Lord thoroughly. Before that, he decided to resolve the problem with the Queen immediately.

Nobles generally possess some magical abilities, but this is merely one of the compulsory courses for them, a tool used in high society to prove they aren't uncultured, and perhaps for self-defense when necessary. It's fundamentally different from that of a professional mage. Therefore, their mental strength is significantly weaker than that of a mage. The Abyss can easily subdue such a person with a mere glance, making dealing with a seventy-year-old queen a simple matter.

The problem would be solved if she personally ordered her confidants to cancel the twice-yearly inspections of the princess's tomb and abandon the magic circle there.

All that remains is for Leona, whom she killed, to decide her fate.

Necromancers should not allow their undead to slaughter the living indiscriminately. However, if the dead have a legitimate reason for revenge, the principle of upholding dignity should take precedence over defending the balance between life and death, allowing the dead to decide what to do next according to their own will.

In other words, necromancers don't need to get involved in matters of revenge or settling scores.

"Before I knew it, it was already evening! Wow, the ABC spells are pretty effective. If I had drunk this much in my previous life, I probably wouldn't be able to walk straight by now, but I'm still so sober!" Leona walked out of the tavern and tried to walk in a straight line on the ground. She was quite happy to praise her success. "I don't feel any discomfort in my stomach. It's so great to be able to enjoy fine wine without having to bear the consequences!"

“Of course, my magic is not just about waking you up.” Abyss said to Leona as he led Flora out of the tavern, “You won’t get drunk even if you drink another barrel. Your current resistance to poison is equivalent to a whole nest of two-headed ogres.”

"I'll rip your head off!" Leona glared and kicked him.

Abyss lightly leaped away, dodging Leona's attack.

Flora, holding Abyss's hand, jumped a little awkwardly as well, and she quickly noticed Abyss's difference.

“Abis, your steps seem much lighter and stronger than before.”

“Oh, that’s true,” Abyss said with a smile. “The power within you will gradually be copied to me as your trust in me increases. If the two of you become completely mine, I will possess all your power. Although we are equal as human beings, within the system of magic, you are still considered my servants, which is called a power offering.”

"So, you got the power of that god you told me about on the way?" Leona curiously pinched Abyss's arm and found it was still skin and bones with little muscle. "I don't feel like you've become much stronger. You're still so thin. I could break your bones with just a light touch."

"Your feelings for me aren't quite that high yet, are they?" Abyss said with self-awareness. "After all, I've been describing you as a two-headed ogre."

“Of course, if you ever make me feel that you’re not worthy of being my partner, I’ll kick you aside immediately!” Leona brandished her fist defiantly. Flora, standing to the side, didn’t say anything, but her eyes clearly showed that she shared Leona’s thoughts.

Abyss is currently under observation by the two girls. So far, his actions haven't provoked their resentment, and he's the one who awakened them. That's why the two newly awakened, helpless girls are willing to follow him. If he does anything that crosses their bottom line, he might instantly become all alone—unless he uses necromancy to forcibly turn them into his servants.

Of course, this was the kind of thing the Abyss would never stoop to, and he wasn't in a hurry at all. He knew very well what level of people he had resurrected; they were all former prodigies, the cream of the crop, how could he possibly entrust their loyalty to someone he had only known for a short time?

"So, are we going to find the Queen next?" Leona asked, feeling that the topic was rather uninteresting.

“That’s right, we need to go to the Queen and resolve her problem quickly. I have a million ways to make her retract her orders, whether willingly or under duress, and set the tomb guards free.”

Abyss spoke to Leona with considerable confidence.

"So how do you plan to get to the palace?" Leona asked. "I'm a dead man now. If I show up at the palace and say I want to go in, the Queen will definitely go crazy and send out all her troops to surround and kill us, right?"

“My former status as a saintess is also useless…” Flora lowered her head. “I’m sorry.”

“What’s there to apologize for?” Abyss waved his hand. “We can just walk through the Underworld. No one will notice us. We’ll just walk right up to the Queen and scare her half to death—don’t worry, with Flora around, no one will really die.”

"That's so boring!" Leona firmly denied. "I already said I don't like using the Underworld, it's too tedious!"

“You really have a lot of quirks,” Abyss said. “How about this, I have a more fun idea, would you like to try it?”

"What is it? Tell me quickly!"

“I can turn all of us into rats,” Abyss said mysteriously, pointing to the ground beneath his feet. “As long as we avoid the cleaning maids, we can get close to the Queen silently.”

Flora was startled: "I...I'm terrified of mice."

"This sounds fun!" Leona was indeed very enthusiastic about the plan. She immediately persuaded Flora, "Flora, don't worry. You're afraid of mice because they are small animals that run fast and burrow everywhere. But if you become a mouse yourself, it will be different. Mice will be as big as wild boars in front of you, and you definitely won't be afraid!"

"By the Nine Gods! A rat the size of a wild boar!" Flora was even more frightened by Leona's words.

"ABC! Cast the spell quickly! I need to see what it looks like from the mouse's perspective!"

Abyss then led the two girls to a secluded corner, chanting incantations. The three of them gradually changed in a faint green light.

The powerful control of high-level necromancy manifested itself at this moment. The forms of the familiars began to change according to the will of the Abyss. The two girls quickly turned into two small mice, while the Abyss himself used advanced polymorphism. Although the principle was different, he soon became like Leona and Flora.

Three tiny mice silently emerged side by side from a dark corner and headed towards the palace.

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Rat Special Operations Team

"ABC! This is so much fun!"

Leona, now a white mouse, speaks directly into the Abyss's mind through a necromancy bond. She is now only half the size of a palm and speaks in a soft, delicate voice.

"It doesn't seem scary anymore... but the feeling of being on all fours is weird..."

Flora's slightly confused voice came through. The mouse she had transformed into was a little larger than Riona, with beautiful golden fur, and was touching her ears with her little paws, trying to familiarize herself with her new body structure.

"After turning into rats, we became much more discreet. Although rats don't come out much in winter, I noticed on the way here that there are still a lot of rats in the city."

Abyss transformed into a leaden-gray rat, peering out from a gap in the wall as he spoke.

"When we were drinking at the tavern, I saw a few rats sneaking past the wall. Some of them looked a bit drunk, probably because they had been stealing alcohol from the warehouse. Although this city is prosperous, no one seems to care about the rats. It's clear that everyone is well-off and doesn't care about the little things that the rats steal or gnaw on. I just hope that these rats won't bring a plague in the future."

Flora twitched her mustache and said, "If a plague breaks out, the Vatican will immediately dispatch priests to prevent its large-scale spread. If the city can be sealed off in time, it won't cause too much of a problem."

“This city has such a bad relationship with the Vatican, I don’t know if the Vatican will take care of things here in time.” Abis shook his head. “The Vatican has never been a charity, and those who are enemies of the Vatican will never receive the same treatment.”

“…You’re right.” Flora nodded helplessly. In her lifetime, Flora had been qualified to sit at the same table with the highest leaders of the Holy See, and she had some understanding of some of the Holy See’s ideas. Believers who consistently donated money and made tributes were considered good believers. Many times, the Holy See’s intervention to save believers was not out of justice, but out of consideration for its own interests.

“But I’m not worried about that now. The Holy See has one of its most outstanding divine mages living abroad. If needed, I can bring you over to help.” Abyss looked at Flora trustingly, then turned to Leona, “Compared to the rat infestation in Liaocheng, do you remember the road to the palace and Queen Sian’s address?”

“Of course I remember. Forty years of slumber haven’t damaged my brain.” Leona stood up on her hind legs, her little paws folded to her chest. “Look at the clock on that tower over there. It’s 9:43 now, and the streets are getting quieter. Today is February 14th. The guards at the palace will change shifts at 10:06 tonight. We can sneak in when the clock strikes. The soldiers on shift are either rushing to their posts or rushing back to camp; they definitely won’t have time to stop three little mice.”

"You seem quite familiar with the palace guards."

"of course."

Leona wagged her tail smugly, seemingly quite pleased with her current appearance. In her past life, she had been a mischievous and unruly child. She remembered the changing of the guards at the palace every day perfectly, and she would take full advantage of every little opportunity to sneak out of the palace and find fun in the city that was unavailable there. She would earn some money from the palace maids in exchange for holidays, and go out to drink, eat street food, watch acrobatics, listen to bards sing, and occasionally even encounter touring theater troupes. She had even single-handedly taken on more than thirty ignorant thugs—but she hadn't fought since she was thirteen, as she couldn't control her strength and was afraid she would just rip someone's head off.

Under the cover of night, the three rats scurried along the walls and ditches through the streets and alleys. Ordinary citizens had nothing to worry about. Abyss told the two that although their bodies had shrunk, their minds and powers remained the same. For example, Leona could even smash through the outer wall of the Golden Griffin City if she put her strength into it, and Flora could also chant prayers and unleash divine magic with a squeaking sound.

The Golden Griffin City was indeed very large. The three rats ran quite fast, twice as fast as an average person. Even so, it was past ten o'clock when they arrived at the palace gate.

Just as Leona had predicted, the palace guards changed shifts precisely at 10:06. Leona, intimately familiar with the palace, led Abyss and Flora through the main gate, quickly across a large garden, and along a rarely traveled path straight to the inner palace complex, arriving before a magnificent palace. The palace walls were thick, adorned with gold bricks at the top, and blazing braziers were fixed to sturdy pillars. The semi-circular vaulted ceiling was decorated with glazed tiles from the East, and numerous statues of various shapes and sizes stood around the perimeter. Flowerbeds beside the palace were in full bloom, and the meticulously manicured trees were lush and verdant—the royal family had clearly used expensive magic to make them grow even in winter.

"Tch, the broken wall in the garden has been repaired, otherwise it would have been even faster." Leona stood up again and pointed with her little paw at the luxurious palace behind her. "This dilapidated building is the bedroom of the core members of the royal family. All the highest-ranking people in the Western Empire sleep here. The Empress Dowager's bedroom should be on the top floor. The royal family never cares how troublesome it is for the elderly to go upstairs."

Abyss interjected, "Leona, you're a mouse now, so you'd better talk while lying down. You know how a mouse's body is structured; if you stand up, I can see everything clearly..."

"squeak!"

One of the guards at the door seemed to see a mouse fly up and then fall back down in the flower bed. He shook his head and began to regret not having a good night's sleep before his shift ended.

The entire palace is protected by a magic circle, with mages guarding it day and night in the shadows. There is also a magic circle to detect polymorph spells, so even if an outsider uses polymorph to turn themselves into a fly, they cannot get in.

However, the Abyss's polymorph and necromancy were of such high rank that they completely ignored these magic arrays, and the mages guarding the palace were unaware that even a mouse had entered.

Bypassing the sleepy palace maids, the three mice ran all the way to the top floor of the palace and, guided by Leona, stopped in front of a tightly closed door.

"Shake back into human form now? Or go straight in?" Abyss asked Leona and Flora for their opinions.

"If we're going to do it, let's go all the way." Leona shook her head. "Let's think of a better way to get in."

Flora had gotten used to being a mouse by now. She looked around and seemed to have discovered something. She whispered, "Abyss, look! There's a small crack under the wall over there. We can try crawling in."

"Ah, you have sharp eyes."

Abyss gave a word of praise, and the three mice immediately ran to the front of the crevice. The faint airflow coming from the crevice indicated that there should be space inside and another exit.

Just as Leona was about to plunge in, the Abyss suddenly bit her tail, preventing her from moving forward.

“Wait, I’m going first.” Abyss’s blue-green rat eyes showed a hint of alertness. “I smell dark magic.”

Chapter Thirty-Three: Forty-Two Years Apart, We Should Look at Each Other with New Eyes

"Dark magic? What dark magic?" Leona sniffed the air in the crack, but there was nothing but the smell of dust and mold.

“There’s a magic circle inside, and it’s not an ordinary protective one,” Abyss said with certainty. “You’re a martial arts practitioner, and you’ve probably only learned a couple of basic magic tricks. It’s impossible for you to have discovered the subtle difference between forbidden magic and ordinary magic.”

Flora added, "I also have an unusual intuition that there's something inside the wall. Leona, it would be better to let the more knowledgeable Abyss go first."

Leona didn't argue in this context. While she wasn't completely ignorant of magic, she wasn't particularly skilled either. Her magical abilities were limited to reheating cold food after intermittently chanting spells, or overturning a chair three meters away. Thus, the proud princess obediently relinquished the leading position to the expert when faced with a field she didn't understand.

Abis then darted into the crevice beneath the wall.

The gap was quite narrow at first, and the three mice slowly squeezed in, relying on their flexible bodies. But after passing through the narrow entrance, the space opened up dramatically. It turned out that the walls of the palace weren't entirely solid; for insulation, there was a layer of insulating, foam-like material, resembling solidified plant sap. This material was very flexible, but the gaps in the middle were quite large, making it seem like a maze of paths for the small house mice.

"Logically, shouldn't the walls that need insulation be the exterior walls? Why are these things inside the interior walls?" Following the subtle magical reaction, Abyss nimbly darted in and out of the path, with Leona and Flora following behind. Soon, the source of the magical reaction that Abyss sensed was found: a small skull, its fontanelle not yet closed, seemingly a goblin baby. The skull was impaled in the middle by two branches in an X shape, forlornly wedged inside the wall.

The skull that appeared before her eyes clearly shocked Flora, who had just been transformed into a rat. She hid behind Leona in fear, asking, "Abyss, what is this?"