After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

The cramped tunnel disappeared, replaced by a rather spacious space.

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all made of gray stone. A few oil lamps provided faint light, and the atmosphere looked like a dungeon.

But the roof is as high as two stories of a regular building and the area is quite large. Although there are no windows, there is no unpleasant smell. It is much better than the environment in a cell.

There are various furnishings in this space.

There were more than ten beds made of stones, a long table filled with bottles and jars, an oversized magic-removing stone with similar specifications to those in the Royal Capital Workshop, bookshelves filled with books, and a bunch of other things whose functions Heidi couldn't understand.

At least it can be recognized that this is a magic workshop.

The magic circuits that were previously seen everywhere in the tunnel are still everywhere in the field of vision here, and continue to extend deep into the workshop.

Although I don’t know what happened, I don’t know where the others went.

But this is definitely the destination.

Then, it is clear what needs to be done.

Heidi sighed softly, took out her one-handed battle axe from the belt around her waist, and after preparing for battle, she headed deeper into the workshop.

There was no one in the huge workshop.

But the discarded food, open notebooks, etc. indicate that there were people living here until recently.

Did they evacuate because they discovered Aize and the others' activities?

With all sorts of questions in mind, Heidi pushed open a door at the end of the workshop and came to what should be the innermost room of this mysterious facility.

This is a square area. Countless magic circuits converge in a giant crystal in the middle of the area, and then split into more than a dozen channels from the top, flowing into more than a dozen glowing rectangular objects fixed on the surrounding walls.

Apparently, this is the final location for handling the vast magical power of the Omni-King.

And those rectangular objects may very well contain the biggest secret of this incident in the royal capital.

Heidi gritted her teeth, walked forward, and stretched out her hand toward one of the objects.

Then--

"Welcome, Princess. I apologize for the mess here."

A familiar voice suddenly came from behind, which made Heidi shudder and her outstretched hand froze in the air.

Turned around suddenly.

Sure enough, not far behind her, the regent of the kingdom, Arthur Art, who had been missing for several days, her uncle and actual adoptive father, appeared there at some point.

He even bowed respectfully to her as a sign of respect.

"Arthur... So, it's really you!?"

Heidi's voice trembled slightly.

Previously, Aize had found sufficient evidence to accuse Arthur through various investigations, from spreading the blood plague to planning the assassination.

At the same time, it is also unforgivable.

But Heidi still held on to a glimmer of hope.

After all, Arthur had been missing since that night, hadn't he?

Maybe there will be a reversal?

Maybe he was actually framed by someone?

Maybe he is actually dead now?

Heidi would rather he died - because this would at least prove his innocence, and she would not need to kill her own relatives for the sake of justice, she just needed to find the real murderer and avenge him.

However, all these fantasies were completely shattered the moment Arthur appeared here.

Facing Heidi's question, Arthur calmly pressed his chest and bowed again, then replied respectfully:

"Yes, Your Highness, the blood plague incident in the capital and the assassination of the brave Aize were both planned and carried out by me..."

"Why!!!!? Why would you do such a thing?!? Are you really a traitor?!"

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Heidi's angry and hysterical roar.

All the emotions of the past few days burst out in the simplest words, echoing in vain and hollowly in this underground space.

"Killing so many people, so many innocent civilians... Is this what the royal family should do?! Why?! Tell me, why?!"

His eyes turned red and tears gushed out.

Faced with this situation, Arthur just shook his head:

"I can't tell you the reason. It's not the right time yet."

No excuses, no guilt, no complicated emotions.

The only thing that made Heidi shudder was... his frankness.

Is this really the right attitude to adopt when discussing a crime involving the deaths of over 100,000 people?

Arthur even took a step forward, bent down again, and said:

"But Your Highness, I can guarantee that from this moment on, no one else will die in this incident. As for you, Your Highness, you can stay here, or I can send you back to the surface. I respect your choice. As long as you do nothing, all future problems will be resolved."

Chapter 115 Blood for Life

These words and this attitude made Heidi, who was already extremely irritable, extremely angry.

"Everything will be solved!? Are you kidding!?"

The one-handed axe in his hand was raised and pointed at the regent in front of him with an indifferent expression.

"Hundreds of thousands of people died, and you call it just a 'problem'!? How can you stand here like nothing happened after doing something like this? What the hell are you thinking!?"

This is not just about simple anger.

All the negative emotions accumulated over the past month now transformed into anger and genuine murderous intent, directly attacking the opponent in front of him.

The hero's serious killing intent is enough to scare a large monster to death.

But Arthur remained unmoved.

Even still just bowed lightly and said expressionlessly:

"Your Highness, please forgive me. You will know the truth soon."

"...Yes, I will find out soon enough."

There was no point in saying more. Heidi exhaled lightly, then lowered her body slightly, ready for battle.

Seeing this, Arthur sighed:

"Princess, why are you doing this? Brave Aize and the others will never find this place, and they will never be able to leave that tunnel. You are isolated and helpless here. If you act recklessly, you will only hurt yourself. See?"

Arthur raised his hand and snapped his fingers softly.

The sound of flapping wings echoed in this oppressive and dark space. More than ten bats flew out from the dark corners and landed all over the room.

Then, they transformed into human figures wearing black cloaks, each holding a weapon, and formed a circle to surround Heidi in the middle.

The vampire has the ability to transform into a bat, but the aura he gives off is different from the vampires he has fought before.

It should be the hybrid of humans and vampires created by the new blood plague that Aize mentioned before.

Heidi couldn't help showing a look of contempt:

"Hide like rats in this dark tunnel, just to create these disgusting monsters?"

"They are merely a necessary part of the experiment. Each of them was an elite member of the Adventurer's Guild or Knight Order in their lifetime. They have been strengthened with the blood of the True Ancestor. Even Your Highness can be injured if you're not careful."

As he spoke, Arthur reached for his waist, pulled out the rapier he was wearing from under his shawl, raised it in front of him and bowed slightly.

"What's about to happen may be a little rough, Your Highness, please forgive me. Believe me, for your own good, please lay down your weapons and return to the ground now."

As if in response to his words, the half-bloods surrounding Heidi all emitted an unusually terrifying red light from their eyes beneath their cloaks.

There is no sense of human presence at all.

I don’t know if it’s just like this, or if his mind is completely controlled like those blood slaves outside.

Of course, none of this matters anymore.

Heidi snorted contemptuously, and while holding the battle axe, her free left hand reached to her waist and grabbed another weapon hanging there.

"You've really made it, Arthur. What are you waiting for? Come on! As a princess, as a head of a family, and as a brave man, I will personally send you to the guillotine!"

"Maybe, but that's after the deed is done. Go ahead and remember to spare her life."

With a sudden wave of his hand, the half-bloods who stood like sculptures immediately took action.

According to Arthur, these people, like the female assassin before, were dead people who were resurrected, and each of them was an elite when they were alive.

At this moment, they indeed demonstrated a strong fighting capability that matched their strength.

A figure in a black robe, carrying a red trail, moved quickly back and forth in this dim space, like a pack of hunting wolves, pouncing on the target in unison.

She is not good at frontal combat or agility, and when facing enemies that far outnumber her, she will be in a more disadvantageous situation than other heroes.

After blocking one attack, several more, or even more than ten, attacks will come from other places.

"Woo——"

Almost in an instant, several shallow wounds appeared all over Heidi's body. The princess gritted her teeth and let out a small cry of pain.

However, this does not mean that Heidi will surrender.

click-

At the moment when the opponent's attack hit and retreated, Heidi swung the meteor hammer in her left hand quickly, and hit the head of a half-vampire with amazing power.

With a crisp sound like a watermelon bursting, half of the opponent's head turned into pieces in an instant, and fell to the ground with a smell of blood.

Then, without waiting for the opponent to react, he met the weapon of the nearest enemy and charged directly at the opponent, while raising his axe and chopping it down to the ground.

In an instant, the two half-bloods returned to their original corpse state.

This made Arthur, who was holding the sword, frown.

In fact, this was the combat advice that Aize gave her when they were in the team before.

Except for defective products like Aize, the other heroes all possess a series of special abilities that can perhaps be called skills based on their own blessings.

For example, Rosaline's treatment, various buffs, Leah's accelerated thinking, etc.

Heidi's skills are almost all related to the tank's positioning, such as taunt, steadfastness, and stagnation that has been used before.

These abilities are very useful in team battles, but are worthless when used alone.

After all, most of them are to ensure that you will be beaten, or to make you take the beating better. Without teammates to assist in output, you will be killed sooner or later even if you are just scratching.

So, since parrying and defending are useless, just give up completely.

Relying purely on the defense of one's own body to take the damage, counterattack when the opponent is in a gap, and exchange blood for life.

As long as the opponent is not a hero or a leader, it should be effective.

Heidi was very annoyed by this suggestion:

"What do you mean!? Just charging with my shield like this, those nobles are already calling me the Punching Princess. If I were to do that in a duel of honor, or some other situation, wouldn't I, as a princess, become a complete laughing stock? No, absolutely not!"

So it ended in nothing.

I didn't expect it to come in handy at a time like this. Aize's words are really...

But things are not that simple.

After realizing her intention, Arthur drew his sword and joined the battle himself.

In this kingdom that values martial arts very much, all nobles practice swordsmanship and almost all of them are good fighters.

Before becoming regent, Arthur had led the Knights to fight in his family's territory. Although he was not a top master, he was by no means an ordinary person.

He was no match for Heidi in a direct fight, but every time Heidi took damage and tried to fight back, he would be the first to stop her and suppress her.

The half-bloods who launched the attack at the same time also became more cautious. Relying on their flexible bodies and superior numbers, they cooperated with Arthur to keep pulling.

This greatly reduced Heidi's counterattack efficiency and turned the strategy of exchanging blood for life into a simple war of attrition to determine who had more blood or more lives.

But the situation is not favorable to Heidi.

As a few minutes passed, the number of bodies on the ground increased from two to five.