Chapter 54: The Grand Priestess Breaks In!
"Witch, vixen…human calamity! It's you! It has to be you! Elektra, you have ruined this nation! Arrgh!" In an explosion of murderous rage, the Grand Commandant launched at Elektra, unsheathing his greatsword, and aiming for the queen's neck.
At the 12th level of Great Expansion, the Grand Commandant of the Royal Guard ranked second among the Blood-Smelting Kingdom's templars—only below Gaiseric. Yet as the mighty general's blade whistled at her neck, Elektra didn't bat an eye, ignoring the blow entirely.
The Commandant's blade slammed into an invisible wall, shattering at the point of impact. The Grand Commandant's wrists snapped as well, and he tumbled down, crashing at Elektra's feet.
"Inner Shield?" Recognizing that ability, the Grand Commandant went livid, gawking in a stupor.
When Gurus reached superior levels of Sid mastery, they could start fusing with the Nexus of Sid, becoming one with their Sid units and unlocking the Inner Shield. Those Inner Shields not only improved Gurus' all-around attributes massively but they also surrounded them in invisible barriers that protected them 24/7—making it nigh impossible for templars to scratch their skin.
"Do you really want to join your king that badly? Enough people have died already. Why bother throwing your life away?" Elektra asked with clear hints of annoyance in her voice.
"Why bother? The entire male line of this royal house was wiped out overnight by foul magic and you want me to believe it wasn't you?! Witch, you murdered my sovereign and destroyed my nation yet have the nerve to ask me 'why bother?' His Majesty was right, House Elektra should have been destroyed centuries ago!" The Grand Commandant snapped.
In his youth, Gaiseric theorized that of the four ducal houses, only the Elektra were an actual threat to the Uriah throne, and if left unchecked, would eventually overthrow them.
The previous king brushed it off with a smile, marrying his son to the eldest of the Elektra sisters, Lyssandra, before abdicating the throne and vanishing from public view. It was that marriage that prevented Gaiseric from making moves against the Elektra as he originally planned.
Smitten by his wife, the king forgot his initial worries, then centuries later Elektra was born, enthralling Gaiseric with her divine charm, and the king's prophecy became reality.
Of course, had the previous king not offered Lyssandra in sacrifice to the Dark Preceptor, Elektra would have never endeavored to destroy the House of Uriah, and the Elektra wouldn't now be on the cusp of taking over the nation.
The Grand Commandant didn't have such considerations, and determined to take Elektra down with him, he pulled out a red pill from his storage ring, swallowing it directly.
"AAAAAARGH—HAAHAAHAHAHA!" The Grand Commandant's skin turned dark red, swelling with bulging veins as his bones and muscles expanded at a rapid pace. The four commanders made similar moves, bringing out red pills and swallowing them directly. They too ballooned into hulking monsters, with dark-red skin and crystal spires sprouting from their massive backs.
The leaders of the royal guard had turned into monsters. It was incomprehensible. But before their subordinates could make sense of the situation, the commanders uttered a guttural chant, casting a pool of blood mist that sent all royal guards fusing with the Grand Commandant.
The moment next, his body shrank into a 2.6-m-tall, shredded monster, with a lanky frame and blood-red skin.
"What madness is this?" Elektra couldn't believe her eyes. She knew that Vel'Asha and the royal guard hid many secrets, but she didn't expect them to be able to fuse into an actual demonic monstrosity.
"THE DUTY OF THE ROYAL GUARD IS TO BECOME ONE BODY FOR THE KING'S USE! THANKS TO THE BLOOD-SMELTING DRUG, WE HAVE ACHIEVED THAT GOAL! BUT BECAUSE OF YOU, WE NO LONGER HAVE A KING TO DEVOTE OURSELVES TO!
Elektraaaaaaa! DIEEEEEEEEEE!" The creature howled in grief, lunging at Elektra, and swinging its impossibly long arms in whipping strikes.
This time around, Elektra didn't dare to meet the move head-on, bending back to let the blows fly past her while throwing bolts of silver flames with her left kick. The Royal Guard weaved left and right, effortlessly dodging Elektra's flaming bolts while chopping back at her.
Its joints turned elastic, enabling its limbs to extend and bend at impossible angles. And as its whipping blows closed in on Elektra's neck, they morphed into razor-sharp blades and projectiles, attempting to pierce through the Queen's Inner Shield and hack her to death.
Pulling in a deep breath, Elektra let her Sid units explode at her feet, sending her shooting back with explosive momentum. The Blades and projectiles hit empty air, crashing into the ground, and blasting a crater in Gaiseric's resting place.
Elektra reappeared in the distance, activating her Sensory Secret, and scanning the capital.
The 300 Zealots approached with great strides. Although she set up a barrier and had her troops support it to buy her time, Elektra had no time to waste here and needed to deal with the invaders personally.
"Your current strength would be more than a match for the late Grand Priest. But instead of using it to defend the nation, here you are wasting my time and resources to mourn a dead piece of shit.
I really can't see what you found in that scumbag that makes you so determined to die for him but, very well, since you're so desperate to join your king, I will honor your wish…and send you to hell," Elektra said in a calm and straightforward tone, her voice showing no hint of pride or arrogance.
A large silver wheel took shape above her, and the Queen joined her hands in an arcane sign, activating her saint-class talent: the Wheel of Fortune.
"First Calamity: Fox in the Palace," Elektra whispered the words, and instantly, the Royal Guard entered a spiritual trance, living the life of a king in a far eastern land whose kingdom would eventually be destroyed by his love for a fox demoness. Just like that king, the Royal Guard failed to resist the vixen's charms, falling on his knees, and bursting into flames.
Not surprised by this result, Elektra leisurely walked past the Royal Guard's charred remains, stopping at Gaiseric's corpse.
It seemed that in his final moments, the king had grabbed a woman's portrait, holding onto it even in death. That woman bore a striking resemblance to Elektra, but with short dark hair and more mature charm: her eldest sister, Queen Lyssandra.
"At least you have a conscience." Elektra's face softened at Lyssandra's portrait, and after stripping it from Gaiseric's dead hands, she snapped her fingers, rebuilding the broken chambers with a mantra before lighting the king's corpse on fire.
But as Elektra walked out of the dead king's chambers…
"Woooh, so ruthless. You really went ahead and ended an entire bloodline just to make sure one man would have no chance at coming back to life.
And you won't even give his mom a chance to mourn his corpse. Impressive. Would give me the jitters...if I weren't so bad myself." A playful voice greeted the queen at the entrance, and to Elektra's shock, the 300 Zealots of the Angra Theocracy had appeared in front of her, lining up behind a pair of masked women.
One, a purple-haired maiden whose cyan eyes sparkled like gemstones, the other, a millennium-old demoness whose name alone made billions shake in suffocating terror.
The voice came from that woman. From Grand Priestess Akamana of the Angra Theocracy.