Witch Troupe and the Undead

"He believed in an omnipotent god called the Church of Spiritual Response, which claimed that wishes could be made, and he wished to become the new emperor of the empire..." The council hall of the Giant Rock Palace was silent. The emperor rubbed his forehead. "So? Did it come true?"

"In a sense, it has come true. He announced that he would establish a new empire and become the new emperor, and then he was declared a traitor by Count Arno, who was declared a heretic. Now the two sides are fighting on the border of their territories."

"...What about the local people?"

"It also caused a great deal of division. Like elsewhere, the conflicts that had been building up between villages and towns were completely ignited by this pretext. Many people were burned to death, many villages were destroyed, and even the slave trade had begun..."

"We need to find a way to slow down this fire and make it more controllable. At the current rate, this fire will soon burn down the entire empire!"

The empire is not the only country on the continent. It has hostile countries on both the east and west sides, as well as many small countries and independent forces in the south and southeast. However, it is large enough that, even though it is relatively loose, it still has a considerable advantage in terms of system and cohesion compared to other "true feudal kingdoms" with a king-lord-knight system.

At the very least, imperial power was greater than divine power, and the territorial rights of most nobles were greatly weakened. Roads and basic tax rates were basically unified, and even the construction of several railway lines was completed.

However, if you were to change it to the neighboring Kingdom of Rada, you could say that the young king needed the support of local nobles to accomplish anything he wanted to do. He could only rule and manage his own territory, and he couldn't even build a main road, let alone a railway.

However, the empire still has a large number of powerful nobles who have considerable independent territorial power and can even launch a war to split the empire. This is a remnant of the war of unification.

Successive royal families have tried their best to reclaim the rights that were originally distributed, and this religious war was also an opportunity, but the fire eventually got out of control.

"We must avoid religious wars between nobles, especially those fought in the name of faith..."

"Your Majesty!" A messenger rushed in, flustered. "A letter from Duke Carroll of Rye Valley..."

"Hmm?" The emperor took the letter, puzzled, and unfolded it: "To Stoll of Great Rock Fortress, Oathbreaker, disgrace to the Empire, Mad King: You are the offspring of a madman and a whore, your vile bloodline has been oozing the filth of rats since your great-grandfather, you maggot of a cesspool, only fit to fuck goats..."

He closed the letter, looked at the ministers around him, and his face was full of deep doubt. Why would the Grand Duke of Black Valley send him an insulting letter?

At this critical juncture, he shouldn't have any faith and wouldn't be involved in such a religious dispute, right? Even if he were involved, he would at most call himself a heretic, but this is just a bunch of vulgar language.

“…Listen to me, you stray dog ​​who deserves to steal food! Recall your so-called 'knights' who only know how to eat shit with pitchforks and teach your wives to prepare shrouds. I will use a rusty plow to cut open your belly and stuff your daughter into the pigpen to marry a boar!”

"What happened?" The emperor had no idea what was going on, and why recall the knights? What knights?

"Two civilian trains have headed to the old line, supposedly to deal with the previous theft of Count Antal's treasury..."

"So? What does this have to do with this letter?" The emperor knew about this, and was even amused. The treasury of a powerful earl had been emptied. No matter who did it, he would drink a few extra drinks to celebrate that night, but he still needed to show concern on the surface. Freya had already sent knights and an investigation team to investigate and transported a batch of gold coins and supplies as aid.

The quantity wasn't large, but it was more than enough for the royal family. Now it was up to the Grand Duke of Rye Valley to decide. Wait, was it all for this?

"You have given Princess Freya permission to mobilize the Imperial Guard," the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau said after a few seconds of hesitation.

"So, she sent the Imperial Guard Knights? For something so trivial, this will undoubtedly provoke the Grand Duke of Rye Valley."

"She only sent two small teams."

"Two squads?" Considering the situation in the old line and the Black Wheat Valley County, two squads of Imperial Guards is a normal size. It might be a bit difficult for Count Anta, but for the Grand Duke, it is the normal attitude of the royal family.

On the contrary, if the royal family only sends relief supplies and gold coins, then he should be more worried.

"Find that document for me..." the emperor said sternly.

The documents were quickly delivered to him. The first issue was money. Because the gold coins of Anta territory had been looted, it meant that the entire business and production had been severely damaged. Therefore, Count Anta requested the Empire to allocate 20 gold coins to resolve this series of disastrous consequences and requested tax reductions.

Of course, this request is a matter of attitude. In fact, he was mainly pleading with the Grand Duke of Rye Valley for the permission of his direct lord. This was a matter of attitude and procedure for the Empire. Of course, the Empire would allocate some funds, but not too much. It was just a symbolic gesture. Rather, the Emperor was happy to see something like this happen to Count Anta.

Whether he can maintain the army or not is none of the emperor's business. Rather, the less he can support his minor nobles and knights, the happier the emperor will be. If this document reaches him, he will probably just pretend he didn't see it, or simply reduce the taxes and give him a few hundred gold coins in his private capacity.

The emperor then turned to the second page, the one Freya had dealt with. She had applied for 20,000 gold coins, of which 10,000 gold coins were for the national treasury and 10,000 gold coins were for her private treasury. She also raised 50,000 gold coins from the merchants of the United Merchants Association and had them undertake the project of repairing the old lines and bridges. The total expenditure was about 100,000 gold coins.

"She spends money too much... Giving her 2000 gold coins would have been more than generous, but she actually took out 20,000 gold coins... Wait a minute." The emperor suddenly felt that something was wrong. The pain of taking 10,000 gold coins from the national treasury made him ignore the fatal problem at first - where did she get a secret stash of 10,000 gold coins?

"The arena profits... especially from the previous Holy Judgment match, she earned nearly 100 million gold coins..."

"How much!?" That's a quarter of the Empire's annual legal tax revenue. Are all the people in the capital this rich?

"The ticket sales earned 15,000 gold coins, the joint chamber of commerce's value-added services earned 21,000 gold coins, the Holy City bribed her to blow the whistle (which was ultimately not used) cost 100,000 gold coins, and the rest... were all won from gambling."

"She opened a betting pool on who would win, and the saint was ordained on the spot. Then, as you know, nobody won. About 60 of that money was lost by the church, because they bet on themselves to win..."

After all, they spent 100,000 to bribe the referees and the arena, so of course they would bet on themselves to win. But in the end, they all lost. In a sense, the Church's current madness is not entirely a matter of faith. There is also a heavy economic pressure. They lost a quarter of the Empire's tax revenue. Even for the Holy City Church, this was a serious blow.

"This is partly the reason for the riots in the capital; some pastors of small churches simply gambled away all the church land."

"The church's real estate..." The emperor didn't know whether to laugh or cry. God the hell, they'd lost all the church's real estate. "Yes, theoretically, the real estate in the Cathedral District surrounding Sky Plaza and the Cathedral is now in Her Highness's hands. Except for the Cathedral, they've lost everything."

"......."

"..." The council chamber fell into a deathly silence once again.

"Then the Redemptionists originally planned to rent Sky Plaza from His Highness to display their Horse-Headed Holy Lord statue..." This was nothing short of the ultimate insult to the Holy City Church!

"Now I understand why the church has gone to such extremes this time."

It's not just the ultimate insult, but also the financial pressure of trying to redeem these properties from Freya! Even without considering that, the paladins, priests, and clergy who have gambled away their fortunes are a problem in themselves, not to mention some churches that have lost all their assets!

So, everyone knows what these levels of piety mean. When a paladin can't pay his wages, it's obvious how much loyalty he has.

"Alright, now I know she made money, but it's not like she wasted it like that. Ten thousand gold coins! And why would these merchants take out fifty thousand gold coins? That's no small amount!"

"This is probably the reason behind the letter from the Grand Duke; these businessmen acquired the land leases along the railway line and the construction rights for various infrastructure projects."

"Will Count Anta agree?" This is a crucial power of a lord!

"Probably. He urgently needs money right now, just like when we built the new railway line in Silver Maple County. It wouldn't be surprising if he agreed. Besides, 50,000 gold coins is not a small amount, Your Majesty."

“That’s true, but I still feel something’s not right. Let’s investigate and find out what’s going on!” Since Freya didn’t hide anything from anyone, the relevant documents and details of the matter quickly appeared before the emperor.

However, the imperial decree had too many aftereffects, causing the emperor and the imperial ministers to completely ignore a count's request for funds and a princess's "commercial activities" from their current list of urgent tasks.

In contrast, the entire faith fracture in the capital and the empire, the trials of heresy, the emergence of cults, and even the heinous incident of an attack on a church convoy at the gates of the capital, one after another, left them with no time to deal with these "minor matters."

For example, a large number of paladins who had lost everything were hired by the princess. For example, the princess had a total of nearly one million gold coins in liquid funds. She spent 200,000 gold coins each to order two specially modified siege vehicles from the academy. She also ordered enough magical weapons from the Burke Armory to arm 15,000 people.

Upon seeing the number, the emperor gasped in shock; he almost thought his daughter was planning an armed coup.

She recruited a large number of thugs from the capital, as well as workers and civilians who had lost a lot of their property or even gone bankrupt due to the religious trial. She also recruited the church's holy knights who had lost everything and some priests, and many mercenaries who had been fined a large sum of money by the church.

Along with two squads of Imperial Guard knights, this large group, carrying magical weapons for 15,000 people and two siege chariots, marched majestically toward Anta Territory.

The pretext was something the emperor was familiar with: a "trial by heretics." The princess declared that she supported the church (after all, she still had the 10 gold coins the church had bribed her with). The disappearance of Count Antar's gold coins must have been a devilish trick by the Horse-Headed Saint and his gang of heretics.

!! Don't even mention that Count Anta might really be a heretic. Even if he isn't, most of the nobles next door are probably like that. Just the fact that the princess has 50,000 gold coins for hiring him, plus the excuse of "heretics," is enough for those paladins and priests who are blinded by their losses to legitimately join the expeditionary force.

"..." The emperor looked at the letter again. Based on the wording, he was certain that this was no longer a matter for the Anta Territory. So he asked a profound question: "Freya...where has she advanced to?"

"We're almost at Eagle's Nest..."

"...Isn't that..." Isn't that the gate to the direct territory of the Grand Duke of Black Rye Valley? No wonder the other party used such vulgar language and harsh words to insult them.

"Your Majesty, regarding the matter of religious war, I'm afraid we'll find it very difficult..." The heir to the empire, the next candidate for empress, has personally taken sides. Isn't it too late for you to say I'm neutral now?

"From this perspective, it's not surprising that the nobles used this excuse to attack each other..." After all, the imperial princess took the lead.

"How much money and manpower do you think the church has left?" the emperor asked after calming down. "If I announce my support for them now, how much money and manpower can I squeeze out of them?"

"I think there's not much left. Even if we obtained some funds through the Inquisition, I need to remind you that the burned-down villages were the empire's tax base!"

"Then let's support the Horse-Headed Holy Lord."

"Huh?" Your daughter supports the church, and you support the Horse-Headed Saint? Are you two having a split personality?!

“Of course, aren’t the cathedral properties already in our hands?” the emperor said matter-of-factly. “What do you think about me giving these properties to the church of the Horse-Headed Saint?”

"They lack a stable base and revenue, but I don't think they can get their hands on it safely. Even if it's Princess Freya, she only holds it in name, using it as an excuse and a deterrent to get the church's paladins and priests to join her ranks."

"If they could actually get their hands on it, I wouldn't give it to them." Since putting out the fire is impossible, let it burn even bigger, burn out the oxygen sooner, and extinguish it sooner.

"Isn't this a good thing? The nobles who support the Horse-Headed Saint will be wiped out by Freya and the Church's fighting force, which will deplete the fighting strength of both sides; the nobles who support the Church will be wiped out by me and the Horse-Headed Saint's people. Moreover, with me taking the lead, the intensity of the war can be kept under control."

"But if that happens, a large-scale internal war within the empire will be inevitable."

"Yes, but I think this war is necessary now. This country has accumulated too many rampant weeds that are difficult to eradicate through normal means. A raging fire is what it needs now."

"Then there's the Kingdom of Rada and the Orc Alliance in the North..."

"The north and south were almost unaffected. As long as we finish this quickly enough, nothing will happen. Besides... the Kingdom of Rada is slow to react, and they have their own faith in the Holy Lord. Do you think they won't be affected? They're more likely to split than we are."

At least the empire has remained unified for over a hundred years. If it were the Kingdom of Rada, it would be a testament to the young man's strong and unique leadership if it hadn't been torn apart into numerous city-states.

"The North is unaffected, but we need to strategically retreat, relying on the Northern Fortresses for resistance to prevent an invasion by the Orcish Alliance..."

The emperor quickly devised a new strategic plan. It must be said that with the help of Master Roach's treatment plan and the witch's potion, he felt much better. In the past, he would probably have collapsed from a headache by now. But thinking of Freya's crazy actions, he still felt his nerves and blood vessels throbbing.

Chapter 247 Abundant Martial Virtue

The Frost family castle, outside Wisteria Castle.

Smoke enveloped the entire outer fortress. Inside the castle, few soldiers remained loyal to the Grand Duke, yet the army was exceptionally strong, as the defensive line was filled with a large number of puppets and android soldiers. These alchemical creations were essentially the last trump cards of those old guys.

"You seem very happy?" The black cat walked slowly over, its golden eyes looking at Grand Duke Frosso, who was observing the Imperial Army's positions. "Is it because you are about to break free from this shackle?"

“Of course…” The Grand Duke looked at the expressionless android soldiers around him. These creations lacked sufficient intelligence but were the eyes and ears of those old guys who craved immortality. However, this black cat of unknown origin easily shielded these artificial creatures from perception.

"They became increasingly anxious, clearly not expecting His Majesty to actually make a move, and our defenses were destroyed before they could hold out for long."

“Indeed, that spinning, fire-breathing thing really surprised me,” the black cat licked its paw. “So, you really don’t need my help? Even if those zombies fail, your family will be finished. And once His Majesty the King discovers what’s here, it won’t end just because your family is gone.”

The black cat clearly understood the thirst and desire of those in power for immortality, power, and strength. Ancient kingdoms perished because of this; they even set a trap for this eternity, nearly imprisoning a true god.

"It's not that simple. Witches aren't born easily, and even if they were, do you think they'd be so easy to find?" Grand Duke Freud said dismissively. "Besides, this is just the first step. Creating a true Life Stone to bloom the Flower of Eternity is still a long way off."

“It’s rare to see an alchemist as clear-headed as you. Every alchemist considers the Stone of Life, the Orb of Power, and the Flower of Eternity as their ultimate pursuit,” the black cat flicked its tail. “Even I am one of the failures. Of course, I don’t have much desire for immortality. In a sense, my current state is not much different from immortality.”

"However, people don't really care that much about such things. Now, our deal is almost over. I'll shield you from these...minor measures, and you'll take care of my physical problems."

"It's all ready, but you know I can't directly interfere. I just deliberately dismissed my subordinates and let those old fogies open the alchemical dungeon to create these humanoid soldiers. As for you..."

"This is enough. I hope they haven't used up all the biomass. By the way, are you really ready? I don't mind taking on an older apprentice."

"No," the Grand Duke resolutely refused. "I have completely lost interest in magic and alchemy. You can't force an alchemical experiment subject or a magical sacrifice to like this profession."

“That’s true…” The black cat melted back into a drop of pitch-black water and seeped into the crack in the ground. The ancient empire’s defense mechanism was no obstacle to her, who was essentially a ball of silent magic. All the magic and rune effects created a brief blank and pause in an instant, and the gaps between them were enough for her to pass through.

Deep within the underground palace, in an ancient incubator, a mass of biomass was slowly developing into flesh and blood. "What a clumsy imitation of technology. It's been so many years and there hasn't been a single improvement." The black cat squatted beside the incubator. These alchemists existed even before the Dark Ages.

The initial goal was to create flesh and blood tools to expand the frontiers, stronger pack animals, and fiercer hunting dogs. Of course, it's not impossible to create humans, but the human soul is exceptionally complex, and most humans created in this way lack intelligence.

It's just a puppet of flesh and blood, only able to understand the simplest commands—not much better than a slightly smarter hunting dog—and probably even less so.

"The Flesh Seed School is right. If a person has no consciousness and soul, he is just a piece of flesh..." The black cat shook her head. She thought that in this era a thousand years later, not to mention completing the conquest of alchemical souls, at least slightly more complex artificial souls could be created, right?

The result is still the same as before. It relies on a soul core artificially synthesized from soul fragments to control the physical body. It is almost impossible to generate consciousness and a true soul, which means that this thing is essentially just a puppet made of flesh and blood that looks like a human.

"Fine, I'll make do with it. At least the flesh-making technology is up to standard..." Black magic flowed into the flesh that was beginning to take on a human form, and the newly formed magic veins were quickly assimilated. The soul core made from the fragments of the soul was devoured in an instant, serving as a rather nice little dessert.

Flesh and blood grew rapidly as magic was released, and the magic arrays and magic that maintained the entire alchemy laboratory were devoured by this silent magic.

"Who is it!?" A voice filled with anger and surprise echoed from the depths of the underground palace. "Who is destroying our laboratory...? This aura is... the Silent Witch!!! Hahahaha!!!! That damned descendant has finally been found... Our long-awaited wish..."

"Shut up!" A desolate magical storm swept through the dungeon, and the ancient runes and carvings on the ground glowed faintly, but they were extinguished one by one in an instant, along with the traps that had just been activated.

"How long do you think she observed before she acted?" The subtle tremor of magic transmitted the witch's meaning to each of the aged and deformed souls. "Also, this alchemical ritual array was designed by her, wasn't it? You all seem to have misunderstood her intentions. It's used to suspend the state of their souls and bodies, locking them in a fixed state, so that they can study the essence of their own magic in the form of a soul."

In other words, this is a tool and result she used to research and develop her own power, roughly similar to a sandbag used for weight training by ordinary people, but these people actually thought it was some kind of shackle used to restrain witches.

Well, it is indeed a shackle. After all, this kind of research does require shackles to maintain its stable form. Otherwise, she would become a special flow of magic that is constantly blurring the boundary with the natural ocean of magic, and would eventually be assimilated by the natural ocean of magic. Her increasingly blurred memories and increasingly chaotic mind are proof of this.

"..." The souls were speechless. The channels that had been drawing life force from the sacrifices had stopped working. A large amount of life magic, elemental magic, and void magic were converging on a certain part of the laboratory. The mass of flesh first disintegrated from a human form into a lump of soft mud, and then reformed into a human form.

Magical veins, shimmering with magnificent, multicolored light, spread through flesh and blood like a neural network, outlining a petite figure. Black magical patterns appeared on her fair, jade-like skin, but disappeared in an instant. A pair of golden eyes slowly opened, and the gold gradually gathered in the eyes, which had no whites, forming golden pupils that seemed like an illusion.

"It's not very stable yet, it still needs further adjustments... Hmm, what a pity... I can only maintain this form now~" With a body and appearance of about 10 years old, she could determine from this state that she had lost about half to one-third of her magical power and soul memories.

She shrunk from an adult female form to a toddler form—well, even in her adult form, she wasn't exactly tall and voluptuous.

She tried to adjust the growth of her flesh to restore her appearance as a mature witch, but each time the flesh would rot away. This meant that her soul and the magical energy flow that replaced the soul threads were insufficient to cover the extra flesh. Conceptually, those parts were "dead matter".

"Fortunately, the growth function itself is still normal. At most, it will recover in a year or two..." The witch shook her head. With the support of flesh and blood, the rest is to obtain enough soul essence to create jade threads to replace the soul threads and completely bind her soul to this artificial body. The soul, especially the witch's soul, has considerable self-healing ability. In essence, they are a ball of magical power with a soul. As the soul essence is absorbed, the real soul threads will soon be connected to the flesh and blood.

With the addition of absorbing and assimilating other magical energy, she should be able to restore her original form and appearance within a foreseeable time. "Leya!" The witch drew a triangular rune, and a hexagonal crystal appeared before her. With a physical body, she could summon her crystal servants and retrieve the items she had stored within them from the elemental realm.

"Ah, it's basically all destroyed..." Without the witch's magic and spells to sustain it, the small space carved out in the elemental realm is now completely soaked by elemental turbulence. Those less sturdy items have been completely corrupted or destroyed by the elements, and only some particularly resistant items are still barely usable.

A black staff appeared in her palm. The staff, made of an unknown black metal, was exceptionally large and heavy, forming a stark contrast with her current size. Both ends of the staff had three hollow rhombuses of different sizes overlapping like spear tips, and each of the bottom rhombuses was inlaid with a dazzling azure crystal.

At the center of the central rhomboid ring at one end of the staff, a silent purplish-black sphere of pure magic power floats. The narrow, elongated rhombus at the very top resembles a spear, and the fine gold ring is engraved with intricate runes. It seems that this weapon, in addition to its magical enhancements, also possesses considerable physical destructive power.

The rhomboid metal rings are all cast from refined gold. The hollow structure does not affect their extremely sturdy nature. In particular, apart from the bottom ring which is inlaid with a gemstone and is also the thickest and thickest, the rest are all gradually tapering to become sharp and thin, just like a spear blade. If this thing pokes someone, it is definitely no less than being hit by a knight's lance.

At the bottom, where the diamond rings meet, there are sharp spikes extending outwards for about 3 to 5 centimeters. The effect of this counterweight hitting a person's head is probably not much different from that of a heavy armor-piercing pickaxe.

The heavy staff twirled skillfully in the witch's hand. Unlike Livia, who grew up in the living forest, she was a witch living in the Dark Ages.

In that era, spellcasters' mastery of magic was secondary; however, proficiency in protective staff techniques and physical combat was a must. Magical items and quick ritual tools were not as readily available back then, and mages who couldn't engage in close combat wouldn't survive long.

Not to mention a witch like her, who could read ancient documents and study cutting-edge magical technology, and could also wield a staff that looked like a weapon to smash the heads of monsters or unruly otherworldly creatures she summoned. That was the normal style of witches back then. In fact, her staff, which looked particularly ferocious to modern people, would have been considered "delicate like a girl's toy" back then.