The Mythical Path of a Princess from a Destroyed Kingdom

"? Am I the bad guy? What are you thinking?"

Putting down the half-eaten cake in her hand, Maginus sat up, licked her fingers, swallowed all the cream, and waited for Lenia to tell her her solution.

Lenia took a sip of her red tea, then held up a finger and pointed out something Maginus had completely overlooked:

"After defeating some people, you can use contracts and control to turn them into your allies."

“bia~~”

As their lips parted, Maginus paused for a moment, a happy smile spreading across her face as her eyes glowed red, contemplating an extremely wicked plan.

If Lenia hadn't mentioned it, she would have completely forgotten about it. People don't necessarily have to be killed. As long as they aren't your enemies, those weak people who oppose you can be given a chance to live.

"Lenia, you've really helped me a lot."

Maginus praised her, and the princess on the other side of the screen felt a little guilty, always feeling that Maginus would enslave many people.

Seeing what she was thinking, Maginus waved her hand to indicate that she didn't need to worry:

"Don't worry, I won't turn them into slaves. They would definitely think it's better to be dead. I will only give them contracts that are within their tolerance."

"You should think of it this way: many people survived because of your advice, Lenia, instead of dying at my hands after we met."

After comforting Lenya with a few words, the princess, who had begun to study politics, was no longer as naive as before. After giving herself a suitable reason, she directly abandoned her guilt.

After hanging up the communication, Maginus entered her mental dream and looked at the divine spark. She raised her hand and held it in her palm. After being reminded by Lenya, she finally decided on the divine ability she would develop next.

"Using stubborn vitality to control others, as long as their life force field cannot be cleared, I can activate the life force within them with just a thought, and then... hehe."

"Well, but it also depends on the restoration spell and the dispelling spell. In the anti-magic field, my divine abilities can only be suppressed, not completely eliminated."

"To achieve this, the life force remaining in the enemy's body cannot involve psionic energy; it must be a physical entity composed of pure life force that cannot be deconstructed."

"Right, we also need to ensure secrecy. Thinking about it carefully, we could also try using a curse to complete the contract? And there's also the oath signed by the gods."

Powerful curses and contracts or oaths made to gods cannot be dispelled by ordinary spells; only powerful spells like prayer or miracles can remove them.

Maginus didn't expect her bindings to hold people forever; at least they shouldn't be so easily broken by spells cast by mid-level rank.

She lightly stepped on the ground, and the scenery around her changed. She entered the library and searched through the memories of high-level spellcasters, and also planned to ask Rachel for advice.

"Ahem, I understand your idea. Considering your abilities, how about we do it this way?"

Maginus pushed open the study door, and Rachel was caught off guard, still lying in bed, looking languid as she read.

Shuling calmly stood up and, after learning of her question, quickly came up with a solution:

"How about this, you could try burying something in their heads, like bone fragments made from your life force. They won't be disposed of by the anti-magic field, right?"

"How to handle the issues of loyalty and distance is what I care about."

Maginus had considered it, but the problem was that putting bone fragments into the head of someone weaker than herself would be completely pointless if she was too close to her, as she could easily kill her with a wave of her hand. However, if she was too far away, she couldn't detonate them herself.

“The key is the shape of this bone fragment,” Rachel said with a confident smile, adjusting her hair ornament. “The simplest way would be for you to sculpt it into a statue or a sacred emblem that is directly associated with you.”

Maginus, who had overlooked this direction, suddenly brightened up. She took out a statue from her dimensional bag, felt a faint connection between it and herself, and understood Rachel's meaning.

The connection between the statues and emblems of the God of Death and the God of Death is unbreakable by the anti-magic field. They are not magical items, so they cannot be dispelled by magic.

The most convenient way for Maginus to monitor and control them was to stuff miniature versions of the holy emblem into their skulls or hearts, or even better, to carve his own emblem inside their bodies.

In this way, Maginus can transmit his malice or whispers, or even manipulate their life force by transmitting psychic energy, transmitting malicious life force to directly blast their vital organs.

There are ways to survive, of course. One is to dig out the place where Maginos carved it, but if she is going to carve it, she will definitely leave the emblem in a difficult place.

If they had to deal with it, they might as well commit suicide and then take on a new body. However, doing so would inevitably reduce their strength unless they could find someone to perform a complete resurrection spell.

Another option is to remain in a magical area similar to an anti-magic field forever, until the inscribed person dies of old age. After all, the connection is hard to resist, but if Maginus wants to detonate something, she can only transfer energy outside the anti-magic field.

Hmm, it's starting to look more and more like an evil god.

Having confirmed what they could do, Maginus and Rachel stayed in the study, working overtime to perfect the contract engraving.

Chapter 489 Forced Expansion of Manpower

There are many ways to copy a solution. In fact, Maginus's idea is not only something that gods can do; many powerful creatures can accomplish similar things.

For example, dragons can sign a trade-type dragon pact with a spellcaster, in which the spellcaster gains some of the dragon's spell-like abilities, and the dragon gains a portion of the spellcaster's magical energy.

This contract only terminates when one party dies and cannot be broken by magic.

Furthermore, the oath of a paladin is also a kind of contract. By making an oath, one can become stronger. When they are in the anti-magic field, they will only lose the ability to cast spells, while the power they originally gained will still exist. Once they leave the anti-magic field, they will return to normal, and the oath will not be broken even if the magic is dispelled.

Rachel improved the plan based on her own knowledge, and Maginus, as the practitioner, produced the finished product about two days later.

She picked up a piece of bone the size of a fingernail from the table and examined it closely. The bone was engraved with a holy emblem, a hand, and dripping blood, all clearly visible. The craftsmanship was exquisite.

With her eyes closed, she sculpted the exact same object in her mind. As a delicate task, it was a little difficult for Maginot to master, but even so, she quickly attached the same bone fragments inside her skull.

"We still need to find someone to try it on. We won't see any effect by trying it on ourselves. Rachel, do you want to come with me?"

"No, I need to hurry up and learn more spells so I can help you."

The Book Spirit declined Maginus's invitation. As a newborn creature, she was similar to a dragon, possessing peak mid-level strength from birth. This was before she had mastered magical knowledge; once she did, she would definitely become a high-level powerhouse.

Her starting line was completely different from everyone else's; being born from a legendary mage's spellbook was simply outrageous.

Two months later.

Having prepared for many years, the army's offensive was unstoppable. Any lords who did not want to surrender along the way were defeated by the army of the Wind Shelter with minimal losses.

Some fence-sitters surrendered to Maginus before the attack even began.

Due to geographical, interpersonal, and other factors, Maginus simply signed a treaty to absorb a portion of the surrendered lords' armies, and then temporarily abandoned them.

The army did not suffer heavy losses; on the contrary, as the number of attacking soldiers increased, the army became somewhat mixed. However, since it was formed by reorganizing troops from multiple territories, there were no mutinies or similar situations for the time being.

In the deep but clean dungeon, many surviving officers from the territory were temporarily imprisoned. Although they had become prisoners, at least they had not died.

Today, the dungeon welcomes a special guest.

"Your Majesty, all the soldiers are here."

Joseph's voice made the officers from all directions look up, and their hearts skipped a beat when they heard the title "Your Majesty".

"Well, General Joseph, how's your strength going? Don't let yourself be surpassed."

"Please rest assured, I have devoted most of my time to improving myself. With the vitality you provide, I believe I will be able to reach a high level in a few years."

Joseph followed behind Maginot, bending slightly to appear shorter than his nearly two-meter-tall self, trying to keep his height below that of his emperor.

He has potential, strength, intelligence, and emotional intelligence. Regardless of whether he was related to Dainan before, Maginus did not replace him because of his strength, but let him expand his territory.

He did a good job, allowing Maginus to rarely concern himself with military affairs, at most helping to control the situation when soldiers entered the city to prevent them from disturbing the people.

Over the past two months, she has used cultists and death row inmates to complete the control imprint, and naturally, she needs to increase the number of high-ranking personnel in the dungeon.

Regardless of whether she controls these high-ranking personnel or not, Maginus will decide whether to release them from the constraints later.

There was no other way; being used to throwing bricks with great force, she didn't want to waste time being polite to someone weaker than herself. Rather than wasting time on that, she'd rather spend it playing with Nei Ke.

Upon entering the cell, Maginus's gaze swept over the crowd without her speaking first. A soldier rose and saluted Maginus:

"Great Goddess of Death, Your Majesty Imperius, the true Queen of Nesery, what brings you to us?"

Not intending to put too much pressure on them, Maginus took the roster from Joseph and looked at it while saying:

"You are all elite officers under your respective lords, some of you even being nobles. I hope you will serve as my soldiers, fight for me, help me reclaim my territory, and rebuild a new Nesery."

"Of course we would. In fact, I have admired you for a long time, your story..."

The first soldier to bow was a former bard who also knew magic tricks. When Maginus announced that he was recruiting generals, he readily revealed his true colors and praised Maginus.

But before she could praise him, she was interrupted. Soldiers in the side cells gripped the steel bars of the cell door and hurled insults at Maginus through the bars:

"Damn offspring of the evil god, you remnant of the old kingdom deserve it!"

Bang!

With a light snap of his fingers, the incessant chatter exploded along with the entire brain. Maginus didn't even bother to listen. He took the key from Joseph's hand, opened the cell door, and pressed his hand against the forehead of the shocked bard soldier.

"I need you to sign a contract with me and read according to my instructions."

"Yes!"

The soldier answered quickly, clearly frightened by Maginus's ruthless killing.

“Great goddess of death, in your presence I hereby enter into a covenant with Maginos Imperius.”

"The great goddess of death..."

"For the next thirty years of my life, I will dedicate my loyalty and my life to her."

Thirty years?

The soldier looked surprised and immediately continued the story. He had originally thought that he and his descendants would be slaves of Maginus forever, but he never expected that it would only take thirty years!

The oath ceremony was very simple; the soldiers simply followed Maginus's instructions. After completing the oath, they felt no unusual sensations, except perhaps a slight tingling sensation on the top of their heads.

"Why is it thirty years?"

After lowering his hands, Maginus, along with the other prisoners, began to explain:

"What I need is not a puppet that obeys orders and has no future, but a subordinate who can become stronger and whose heart is full of hope and even desire, who will serve me loyally for thirty years, after which the contract will naturally be dissolved."

The above statement is partly true and partly false.

The first half is true; only those filled with desire and hope can create more benefits for themselves. Otherwise, why would the boss on another planet use PUA tactics?

The most important lie is in the second half: Maginus didn't actually draw up any contract; she didn't have that ability. She simply used physical means to restrain the soldiers.

After hearing her frank words, the generals in the prison cell looked at each other, hope flashing in their eyes, while some gave a self-deprecating smile.

The contents of the contract were not something they could decide themselves; they only had two choices: sign it or die.

Chapter 490 Recruitment Advertisement

The surgery was a success. The sergeant, who had been imprisoned and only did nothing, was finally put to use by Maginus, and the army's manpower problem was successfully alleviated.

Next, Maginus still has a major problem: her kingdom lacks high-end combat power. Not to mention high-level, she needs to find a few more mid-level fighters.

There wasn't even a single mid-ranking officer among those imprisoned; Maginus would have to find a way to do it himself.

While pondering how to recruit high-end combat power, she also received messengers from the Mage Association and the Bard Academy Alliance.

As can be seen from Maginus's past travels, these are two extremely powerful forces, whose tentacles can be said to have spread throughout the entire kingdom of Knoil.

The Mage Association had encountered this before; they had influence and territory in almost every major city.

Provided the price is right, they will provide many conveniences for the registered monks and also help the residents of the city with various tasks.

As for the Bard Academy, it is mainly located in the capital of each country, striving to develop more bards. They are not only that, but the Bard Academy is also an intelligence agency, with the most flexible ears and mouths.

"Have you two come here to discuss settling in Windsheltered Territory?"

A mid-level bard and a mid-level mage met the two messengers in her study. She spread her hands, inviting them to sit down, and got straight to the point.

The two men made no attempt to conceal the reason for their arrival. The poet gestured for the monk to speak first, and the monk, without refusing, bowed respectfully and inquired:

"Your Majesty Imperius, if I may ask, do you intend to remain permanently in the Windward Territory?"

"No, I will eventually return to the capital."

"In that case, we would like to establish a temporary mage association in Shelterlands, and we need your consent."

The mage came here to expand the association's territory. It is foreseeable that as long as Maginus does not suffer a devastating blow, the Windward Territory will become increasingly powerful in the near future.

The reason for asking Maginus's opinion was that some kings were too controlling, too vigilant, and too petty, and the sorcerer was worried that Maginus might be the same.

There was once a country that felt the existence of the Mage Guild would lead to an increase in mages, making the kingdom more dangerous and unstable, so it actually used brute force to drive the Mage Guild out.

The association's branches in those countries suffered heavy losses. To avoid similar situations, the current mage association usually sends people to inquire in advance and sign relevant contracts with the king.

"No problem, show me the contract. Does the Bards' Academy Alliance mean the same thing?"

"Yes, thank you."

These two are similar. Spellcasters are mainly divided into priests, mages, bards, druids, and warlocks, and their levels of cohesion and unity are not quite the same.

Warlocks are the most solitary, sometimes existing only as families, while priests and druids form groups based on their church or sect.

The mages and bards, as they are now, have formed a relatively large organization.

However, they are actually quite loosely organized internally, at least no one is trying to unify them, unlike some magical empires in the prime material plane, where the Mage Guild and the Bard Academy are not yet at that level.

After the contract was signed, Maginus looked at the two men but did not ask them to leave. Instead, he tapped the table and asked them other questions:

"What do you two think of this battle? Who do you and I think has a better chance of winning? More importantly, I saw a legendary mage from your association."