<h4>Chapter 261 - Paying the Price (7)</h4>


    “Ahh! Ghaa...!”


    “Hmm... Well, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.”


    The royal pce of Amaris, once filled with the fragrance of flowers, was now permeated by a nauseating stench of blood, which came from all the fallen warriors who had tried to protect their kingdom.


    At the center of all of this was a woman, seated on a mound of corpses and holding H by the neck with her tail, which was simr to that of a reptile. The mysterious woman was so terrifyingly strong that H was struggling to breathe.


    H was powerless, unable to resist. Her life depended solely on what the woman decided to do with her tail. The Snake Tongue, her beloved sword,y shattered somewhere on the ground. The Nine Flowers, her guardians, had also been wiped out; they hadn’t been able to fulfill their duty of protecting Empress H to the end.


    The woman with the tail sneered, “You go by the name of the Iron and Blood Empress? Do you not know what iron is?”


    “Gha... Ghh...! Ju... Just kill me...!”


    “Hehe, there we go. Seeing you struggle like this was worth sparing your life, but...”


    The woman then twisted her tail, tightening her grip on H''s neck even more, causing herplexion to turn from pale to purple.


    “Ghh...Kha...!”


    “You shouldn’t just challenge anyone youe across, you see. That’s not very wise of you.”


    The mysterious woman went by the name of A. She was the sole surviving female Chimera among the nine apostles of Arthus. Her distinguishing feature was herrge tail that resembled that of a dragon.


    A stood up on the mound of corpses, but she was just choking H. She was ying with her life as if she were ying the violin. Every stroke brought H on the brink of death.


    H was thest survivor of Amaris.


    When A had offered to preach about Arthus’ teachings to H, the Empress of Iron and Blood had firmly refused, iming that Arthus didn’t suit her taste. This defiant act had been more than enough to send A on a killing spree. It was enough to warrant the killing of the empress of Amaris.


    H had attacked A with every single one of her warriors, as tigers always went all out no matter how small their prey was. However, to A, H’s efforts had but no more than child’s y.


    A had massacred every single person in the kingdom of Amaris except for its leader, and now she was savoring the moment.


    “Hmm, now what should I do with you?” A pondered.


    She had massacred the people of Amaris out of rage, which was sort of a problem. A had actuallye here to spread the gospel of Arthus, ultimately to increase the number of followers. The more followers Arthus had, the greater his divine power would be, until he became the sole god of the Eurasian continent.


    However, everyone in Amaris was now dead. A scratched the back of her head, realizing her blunder and thinking of what she ought to do.


    “Hmm...”


    A kept contemting until she suddenly came up with a good idea.


    “Yeah, that’ll do.”


    A dropped H on the ground like she was nothing. Her neck had bruised quite badly from A’s intense grip.


    <i>“Cough! Cough!”</i>


    Even though she had told Aa to kill her earlier, H desperately gasped for air the moment she hit the ground, clinging onto life. She felt miserable and bitter that she had been brought to such a pitiful state.


    A looked down at H as she struggled and said, “A strong body gives birth to strong descendants, and we need lots of strong females. So in regards to that...”


    With that, A raised her index finger, and a long tentacle burst forth and pierced H through her shoulder.


    “Ghaa!!”


    Blood gushed out from H’s shoulder. A purposely avoided her vital points; instead, she had stabbed her shoulder because it would be more painful due to the ligaments and the joints. In fact, the pain was so excruciating that H had only managed to yelp once.


    Once A drove her tentacle deep into H’s shoulder, she lifted her tail high. Her tail soon split at the end, taking the shape of a flower. This was the Devil’s Flower, a demonic flower Dracan had grown countless times to extract grebells to acquire more power.


    Dracan had sessfully nted these flowers into the apostles. As a result, each of them had evolved to the point where they could fully harvest grebells as if this power was their own.


    After finishing her preparation, A said, “As an empress, you have to take responsibility for your transgression and pay the price.”


    “...!”


    With that, A used her magic to extract H’s blood through her tentacle. Blood was an essential nutrient for grebells to develop.


    A took her time to slowly extract H’s blood so that she wouldn’t die of shock, but this didn’t make this any less barbaric.


    H was going through immense pain; she couldn’t even make a sound because of how excruciating the pain was.


    However, A couldn’t care less about H’s agony. She used the empress’ blood to disperse purple spores from the flower on her tail. Then, at hermand, the spores scattered over the dead Amaris soldiers.


    The moment the spores made contact with the fallen warriors, something unbelievable happened. Their stiff muscles softened, and their blood flow was being restored—they were being brought back from the dead.


    However, the dead Amaris warriors weren’t actually being revived. They had already died, which meant their souls were already in the Underworld. It was just their lifeless bodies that were being reanimated.


    As she observed the corpses spring up, A said to H, “I guess you aren’t the empress for nothing... H, open your eyes and take a close look at what’s happening. I’m sharing your life force with your dead people.”


    Even though H was injured, her life force,bined with A’s abilities as an apostle, reanimated the corpses. Although the dead warriors didn’t have as much life force as living people, it was enough for what A needed out of them.


    The restored blood flow partially revived the brains of the warriors, and together with Dracan’s magic that A had imnted into them, the warriors had regained some of their functions.


    <i>-Krr?</i>


    One of those functions restored by the magic was hunger. A figured that if she could get their appetite going again, the corpses would constantly seek nutrients, which in turn, would lead them to strengthen their life force, ultimately letting A get the best out of them for minimal effort.


    “So? How do you like them? Even though the only thing they’re capable of is hunger, they still came back to life. And now, your people will serve as excellent resources for the Chimera army of Master Arthus.”


    One of the strengths of mammalsy in their ability to reproduce. While other beings could also reproduce, they couldn’t directly transfer their own power to their offspring like mammals did.


    “Aagh! You crazy bitch...!”


    H moaned in pain and cursed at A after she exined what she had done to her fallen warriors.


    A’s acts could only be described as vile and inhumane, but she remainedposed as her act wasn’t her own idea, but the cruel discovery made by an evil wizard who specialized in pure anthropology.


    In response to H’s furious reaction, A cupped her own cheeks and smiled ecstatically.


    “I expected nothing less from Sir Dracan... How did you manage toe up with something so grand?!”


    Everything was the result of Dracan''s imagination, expertise in anthropology, and the power of death Arthus had received from Janus.


    A was in awe at this harmonious oue. She continued, “Sir Dracan sure is amazing, so you better hold on for as long as you can. Such blessings don’te every day. And since you’re the queen, you should feel responsible to bring back more of your dead people. Aren’t I right?”


    “You crazy...!”


    Given that H was the only one left alive in Amaris, A nned to extract as much blood from her as she could without killing her. When H was on the brink of death, barely breathing, A would make her just like her now-undeadpanions.


    After all, H was an incredibly powerful woman, one that would be an invaluable asset to Arthus.


    “Alright then. Keep it up, will you?” A requested.


    Knowing what she truly meant, H was horrified by the fate that would await her.


    ***


    “Thank goddess...!”


    After arriving at the Khan Pce, Herarion was deeply relieved to find that the capital hadn’t been attacked. He had teleported here with great apprehension, knowing that if Shahatra ended up like Enkelmann, his already troubled mind would shatter.


    “This is great news, but it would still be a good idea to prepare for a possible attack, right?”


    “Of course.”


    Hector suggested to Herarion that they raise the alert levels within Shahatra. Herarion immediately dered a state of emergency in the entire kingdom and dispatched messengers to the remaining three kingdoms to update them on the situation.


    <i>‘I hope nothing happened in the other kingdoms either.’</i>


    Herarion had made preparations after hearing the news about Enkelmann, but he still couldn’t dispel his worries.


    In order to assuage his anxiety, Herarion quickly summoned his best soldiers to the outdoor conference hall within the pce. He nned toe up with a defense n against a possible invasion by Arthus.


    However, the best soldiers in Shahatra weren’t exactly impressive. This was because Benedict had summoned all the armed forces that were worthy as soldiers and annihted them after deeming them rebels. Knowing this, Herarion couldn''t help but sigh. Hector was the only one who actually reassured him a bit.


    Kale, a teacher of the Shahatra Magic School, noticed Herarion’s distress and asked, “Your Majesty, why did you suddenly summon us together? Did something happen?”


    Kale was a useful tool to Henry and also an important person for Herarion. Because of this, Kale held a lot of power in Shahatra. In a way, he had more influence in the Magical Spire than some of the mages, as power within the spire was rtive.


    Thanks to his influence, Kale was well-informed about Arthus and the current situation. Knowing this, Herarion had no reason to hide the truth from him, so he told him everything that had recently happened.


    Hearing his story, Kale frowned, visibly concerned. After thinking for a while, he asked reluctantly, “Then... Um, what’s going to happen to us now?”


    “Well, in the worst-case scenario, we might have to go to war with Arthus’ Chimera army.”


    “A war you say...?!”


    Even though Kale was all about destroying things, he was a small fry in the grand scheme of things. He was strong against the weak, but weak against the strong. Hence, the prospect of going to war with Arthus was deeply distressing to him.


    <i>Swoosh–</i>


    At that moment, everyone was alerted by a faint, sweeping sound. Kale looked up to see where the sound hade from.


    “...?”


    <i>Thwip!</i>


    A spear suddenly fell from the sky, piercing Kale straight through his forehead and reaching his groin area.