Myths Reawakened

The damaged office building was now in ruins. Anastasia, arriving a little late, stood on the side, attempting to break through the spatial barrier unhurriedly. Her efficiency was average, but her grace was extraordinary.

The four legendary mages started a new battlefield and escalated the fight, creating vitality fields. Before leaving, Bourne had received orders to release spores of Life to conjure the flesh of Astral Beasts, creating a pale swamp.

Prince Edward’s four bodyguards were quite capable, and they managed to let out a cry before getting swallowed by the highly corruptive flesh.

The strongest one even managed to let out several cries!

Writhing white foam surrounded Edward and Carol. Bourne’s study seemed to have made a major breakthrough. The flesh of Astral Beasts was supposed to attack indiscriminately, but now it surrounded them without striking, leaving their bloodlines intact.

Edward’s surname was Windsor, and Carol’s surname was Bourbon. The former was a current royal, while the latter had once been a royal. Both possessed dormant divine blood. Alistair, who was nearby, also had divine blood. The royal families of the old kingdoms and the current royal family all had divine blood and their own ways of triggering it.

Setting aside the cost, having a sword and not using it was different from not having one at all; the more cards for stabilizing power, the better.

Prince Edward was mediocre in power. The talent granted by his divine blood manifested in womanizing. When facing the surrounding white swamp, he rationally shielded his fiancée Carol behind him.

Edward had a teleportation ring that, once activated, could take him between the office buildings owned by the Minister of Magic. Due to the mysterious man disrupting space, though, the ring had been rendered a worthless decoration, leaving him to rely on Carol’s offense.

Carol’s magic was quite obscure. She played a flute to affect the flesh of the Astral Beasts, even causing it to go dormant temporarily. It wasn’t the power of a mainstream faith in the Chosen Land, but a power related to Carol’s own bloodline.

Divine blood didn’t refer to the blood of one particular deity. It could be a subordinate god or a major god, or even gods whose names had been lost in history.

There was a flash, followed by a strange laughter. Carol’s hands burned with pain, her flute gone. She lifted her hands while trembling, looking at her palms; they were scraped and bleeding. Before she could say anything, a shadow loomed over her from behind.

Douglas had grown bigger again. After transforming into a demon familiar, he had been constantly evolving. His torso grew stronger, his limbs more powerful, and his vast thoughts soared endlessly, with no limit.

He now stood five meters tall, casting a large shadow. Queen Sophelia was trapped in his chest, submerged in corpse-like cold skin. Only her delicate, stunning face remained visible.

Standing behind Edward and Carol, Douglas crushed the flute with a crack before grasping the couple, the flesh of his palms writhing to drag them into his body.

Douglas wanted nothing more than to strangle the bastard son, but a voice in his mind told him that while the Prince wasn’t his, the divine blood of Windsor’s royals flowed within him. To conquer Windsor in one fell swoop and defeat Auston to reclaim everything, he had to let the Prince live.

Carol, Juno, and Alistair all had divine blood, too.

Soon, another two faces appeared on Douglas’s chest—he had imprisoned Edward and Carol. The power gap was so big that they couldn’t even resist.

In the sprawling ruins, Juno alone struggled desperately. She had lost control over her two puppet maids, created through alchemy, because of the Astral Beast’s flesh filling their joints. They launched a suicide attack on Alistair.

Juno didn’t know who the demon familiar was, nor did she know why the familiar had captured them alive. Not daring to expose her angel evolution, she chose to wear Elizabeth.

Prince Elizabeth was a half-finished Philosopher’s Stone, roughly made by the Ministry of Magic before being refined by the Church of Heavenly Father. It had considerable combat power and had always been Juno’s strongest trump card.

Wearing the skin, she transformed into a winged angel in white armor, wielding a spear of Holy Light. Her sacred aura would intimidate anyone from sacrilegious acts—except for demons, or the flesh of Astral Beasts.

With the enhancement to all her stats, both Juno’s thoughts and mana were buffed. Like Mona with her cross pendant and the Holy Lance of Heaven, Juno’s power was no longer tied to her rank, but her devotion to her faith. Her strength fluctuated between Gold and Legendary ranks.

Mona’s faith was unquestionable. For her angel master, she would give, take, and create lives. Juno’s faith, however, was less clearly defined. She was a free mage with a singular faith, believing in Heaven and craving angel evolution only because Heaven and angels represented absolute power to her.

If she became queen, Windsor’s strategy toward the various churches wouldn’t change. Windsor wouldn’t just lift its restriction on the Church of Heavenly Father because of her faith in Heavenly Father.

One could deduce that Princess Elizabeth was a catalyst that the Papal State created to amplify Juno’s faith. The more Juno wore her, the more her thoughts would be affected.

There were no honest people or pushovers in politics. It was all a game of push and pull.

The spear of Holy Light swung and unleashed sacred flames. The white flames spread with limitless momentum. The next second, white waves surged. Terrifying vitality crashed into the sacred flames and drowned them out with suicidal impact. The all-consuming fire of Heaven sputtered before going out.

Juno had tasted failure before and showed little disappointment. Her attempt at the impossible was meant to create an opening for her to sneak up on the two disobedient maids.

Her sacred spear moved with a flourish, leaving afterimages in the air. A massive white pentagram blazed with light, trapping the two maids in the center of the magic circle. As the phantom of a sacred angel enveloped the two puppets, they breathed out white flames before burning to ashes from the inside out.

The maid puppets had taken a great fortune to create. They were Juno’s attempt at replicating Elizabeth. The pain of burning her money away like this was indescribable.

Even the Princess was running on a deficit!

Her fiancé was wearing undergarments she had changed out of yesterday. That was how poor she was.

Juno had no time to cry over her loss. She tried and failed to teleport away with her ring, after which she went up to Alistair and grabbed her arm, taking flight with her wings.

The chaotic space confused her senses, so she couldn’t tell the front from the back or the left from the right. Juno charged five hundred meters, only to return to her original position.

“What on earth is happening? Why were Yvette and Hermann the only ones who showed up? Where did everyone else go? Hurry and rescue your masters!” Juno was beyond anxious, the worst-case scenario flashing through her mind.

The image of the royal family’s power being wiped out and them bleeding a river of blood was so terrible that she didn’t dare dwell on it. She quickly dismissed the possibility. The monsters from the Lando family, at least, would not die.

So why weren’t they coming yet? Had Auston abandoned his old flame?

“Kekekeke—”

Sinister laughter came from above. Juno’s eyes flashed with a golden light as she grasped a blinding radiance with her hands and raised it above her head.

A magnificent pillar of light shot toward the dark sky. When the chaotic space changed course and hit Juno from the side, she calmly used Holy Light to conjure a great spear of energy, aiming at the face of the familiar of Pride descending from above.

Douglas laughed viciously. Facing the incoming spear, he tilted his head and pushed his chest out. The spear tip overflowing with sacred flames ended up thrusting toward the Queen’s delicate face.

Juno hastily withdrew her spear. She had almost achieved the feat of killing her lord and mother with one hit.

When she stepped back, the ground gave way beneath her feet, and she fell through a rift in space. When she recovered, the world spun around her, and she ended up on the outer rim of the chaotic space.

Overjoyed, Juno clutched her fiancé tightly while her spear shot out of her hand, turning into blazing sacred flames that burned everything. Unfortunately, the flames failed to melt the thin spatial barrier because her faith wasn’t devout. Praising the Holy Father’s radiance in her heart before the attack didn’t help.

Unaffected by the chaotic space, Douglas let out a low roar, growing in size once more. His skin was still pale, but his bulging muscles now radiated a crimson steam. The lower face covered by a carapace mask had grown a lion’s mane. He looked majestic and imposing.

Lion was one of Pride’s symbols!

Douglas had grown more powerful once more, exchanging his brain for power. His intelligence and reason declined further. Now, he had forgotten that Juno was Auston’s daughter, only remembering that she had divine blood and had to be captured alive.

Juno took a deep breath. The armor of Holy Light she wore melted and flowed down her arm to cover Alistair instead, wrapping her completely without leaving even a breathing hole.

She cast Alistair away, letting the pale swamp submerge her. Though both were Astral beings, Elizabeth was more advanced, so Juno didn’t have to worry about her body and thoughts getting corrupted.

With no one around, no reinforcements coming, and her mother and brother fallen into deep slumber, Juno shot up in height, turning into her angel form.

Flutter!

The bird-headed creature flapped her wings, all pale skin and slender limbs. If not for the spear condensed with Holy Light she was gripping, her skin color and strange figure would’ve made her seem like a relative to Douglas, a familiar of the Lord of Pride.

Douglas was caught momentarily off guard. Then ecstasy flashed through his eyes, and the mysterious man spoke through his mouth.

“Angel evolution. The Book of Hell needs you!”

“Hand it over!”

Douglas roared toward the sky, plunging both hands into the void to tear space into pieces and inject hellish energy. Two pitch-black scimitars took shape.

The two figures flickered and collided in midair.

Boom!!!

***

Banquet hall.

The guests stared at each other, quietly waiting for the Queen to return with their wine glasses in hand. They were all nobles with dark and depraved thoughts. They had guessed why the Queen hadn’t returned after so long.

A fierce battle was unlikely to be taking place. Douglas, the former Prince Consort, had turned and fled at the sight of the Death Knight, making its inferior power clear. Most likely, he had already been decapitated. The two legendary mages must have fallen, too.

Auston cared about his reputation and was unwilling to become the Prince Consort by force, so right now, the Death Knight had to be tormenting the Queen to make her willingly remarry. She resisted until the Death Knight brought out his warhorse.

Oh, that part could be skipped. After all, the Queen still had to marry Prince Auston.

Auston glared at them with a frown.

As an old Londan noble, he knew what these vermin were imagining. They were overthinking it. He wouldn’t and couldn’t become the Prince Consort.

Silvia crossed her arms, scoffing, while Filomina was still looking for her prince. When he refused to show up, she fumed, planning to punish him tonight.

Alnwick and Charlee, the two newly appointed Vice Ministers, hadn’t chased after the Queen to rescue her. They had affirmed their stance. After exchanging a glance, they slowly went up to Auston, prepared to build rapport with their new boss.