Chapter 358 - 358 First Promise and Herself
William stopped what he was doing and turned to look in the direction of White Bone Castle.
This sound… Did something happen to Floral?
Before William could think carefully, the Lady of Starvation’s incarnation let out a roar that was like a rumbling mountain. It pulled him out of his thoughts.
The incarnation yanked its deep-rooted legs out of the earth and clumsily hauled its swollen corpse. The surrounding withered saplings started resonating with Her. A diaphanous flesh-hued tunnel resembling an umbilical cord tethered the subtrees to the incarnation’s distended belly.
Contrary to his expectations, the subtrees didn’t extract their strength from the incarnation. Instead, Mother Goddess constantly shared Her life force with the subtrees through the umbilical cords.
The withered tree trunks of the baring fangs and brandishing claws that looked like Gothic subtrees filled up again after receiving a gift from their ‘mother.’ Layers of green tender leaves began to grow on their withering branches again.
This looked like the incarnation was constantly dissipating its strength, but that wasn’t the case. To gods—be it Moon Realm gods or Currere gods, the greatest source of Their strength was always a symbol related to Their authority. As for the mana and life force They used, They were only catalysts for Them to exercise Their true strength.
It could be said to be a completely different system from magic chanters.
Mother yearned to be able to forever rely on Her children and protect them in Her arms forever. This was the core symbol of the Holy Spirit Mother—love. This love that corresponded to a child’s endless curiosity would evolve into extreme control.
Unlike the tyrannical control of Father, Father was more like a sovereign who required his children to grow up according to his standards and eventually grow up to be exactly the same as him (but at the same time, tyrants couldn’t tolerate the appearance of new tyrants, so patricide and filicide were eternal themes for the Father Holy Spirit). Mother’s desire for control was to hope that her children would never change. She even hoped that they could return to her body and become a part of her, just like before they were born.
Therefore, even though the Lady of Starvation’s Void Incarnation was distributing its strength to the subtrees, William felt the pressure from the other party constantly rising.
Mother controlled her children through the umbilical cord. The more they relied on her, the more compatible Mother had with her authority.
Therefore, according to my previous experience, the way to weaken the other party before attacking this Boss should be to cut off those umbilical cords one by one…
William looked up at the strange network of umbilical cords in the sky and muttered to himself.
Although there were no mission tips or forum guides, William relied on his understanding of this world to quickly formulate a plan to defeat this BOSS.
A battle without a strategy against the enhanced Lady of Starvation’s Void Incarnation could be said to be the highest-level battle William had faced since he came to this world. If the activation of the incarnation of the Holy Spirits to fight the Void Sovereign’s main body in the final cut scene in the Waning Moon ending wasn’t counted, the strongest BOSS he had to face in-game was only at this level.
However… what’s wrong with Floral…
William sped up the buffing process.
He could still keep his priorities straight. Now that this Void Incarnation had been activated, his top priority was to quickly blast the other party to pieces. Otherwise, the damage would only be greater.
Even if he had to make a choice…
William’s movements slowed down.
Then, he sighed slightly and slammed the magical medium in his hand on the ground. A huge spell stained with blood rose from under his feet.
A sticky, pitch-black, sticky liquid that was constantly deforming appeared in the middle of the spell. Then, the liquid pulled and flattened itself into a constantly spinning vortex. It was so deep that it seemed to lead to a bottomless abyss.
“Support the stone palace I marked and protect the people I left behind. You can kill any hostiles along the way. If the other party is about to die, use everything at your disposal to save her.”
What will I obtain?
A sound like gold coins colliding in a pocket echoed in the depths of William’s soul.
“If you protect the person I’m asking you to protect, our contract will be considered completed. When the time comes, I’ll return your freedom. Of course, that requires you to scram back to your master’s caravan and not wander around Currere.”
With that said, a pair of golden wings made of light spread out behind William through the ancient chain armor. He stomped his feet and appeared near an umbilical cord in the sky. A wide blood-colored saber beam extended from the magical medium in his hand.
On the ground, a pair of hands covered in gorgeous rings reached out of the spinning abyss. It held a tilted scale made of pure gold in one hand and a serrated staff in the other.
A middle-aged man with a handlebar mustache and a potbelly covered in gold and silver walked out. It wore a round hat and had a black eye patch over one eye. It first used its single eye to look at the corrupt giantess who was striding in their direction like a mountain before glancing in the direction of White Bone Castle. Finally, it raised the crooked scale in its hand and fiddled with it a few times.
“To take on such a job the moment I’m up. What a bad deal.”
It muttered before turning into countless clanging gold coins and gems and disappearing.
…
First Contract was a peak Summoning spell.
It allowed the caster to imitate a Void Sovereign’s strength and use a contract to forcefully restrain Demon General-level Lunar Monsters, making them listen to his orders.
However, during the spell’s effective period, it could only restrain one Demon General at a time. Moreover, after three uses, the effect of the First Contract would lose its effect. One had to defeat a new Demon General to sign a First Contract again.
William kept the Demon General he had contracted and only had one last summoning in effect. The one who had signed the First Contract with him wasn’t easy to control, so he always hesitated about using it.
However, he couldn’t care less now.
Without affecting his battle with the Lady of Starvation’s incarnation, he could only use this summoning spell to reinforce Floral, whose situation was unknown.
Even though letting that fellow return was troublesome for him.
However, he still couldn’t understand—Floral, who had sat on the Withering Throne again, relied on the entire palace to build the Mage King Nation’s spell nexus. In theory, the half-baked Living Saint from before shouldn’t be her match. There shouldn’t be any enemy in White Bone Castle who could defeat her.
How could it be possible…
“I’m very sorry, citizens of Ravenwood. A Moon Realm scoundrel tried to stop me from speaking the truth. It took me some time to resolve the other party.”
When William severed the third umbilical cord, Floral’s voice echoed in the sky above Holy Tree City.
“Please allow me to continue. That was 5,000 years ago, when our ancestors, the High Elf colonists…”
William heaved a sigh of relief when he heard Floral’s calm and indifferent voice.
Thank goodness, thank goodness…
Thankfully, Nehe’s successor is fine.
…
The Withering Throne in White Bone Castle’s conference hall was dyed bright red.
Why was she bleeding so much despite being a lich?
Floral, who was slumped on the throne and clutching the penetrating wound on her throat, thought, perplexed..
Not far from the throne, Mirror Shadow—who looked identical to her—continued her speech on her behalf.
That arrow was really ruthless… The defensive spells usually set up in front of the throne were shot through like paper, not giving her any time to react.
Moreover, the blood on the arrowhead carried an indescribable power. This power exceeded the separation of a lich’s soul and flesh and directly affected her soul.
She was about to die.
Floral thought calmly, as if she was examining another person’s life.
It was just like her seeing her adoptive parents die back then. She felt nothing.
The only thing she sighed about was her tenacity as a lich—she should have been able to last until she finished what the Presiding Judge had asked her to do.
This should be enough, she thought in relief.
It was also at this moment that the heavy stone door was pushed open from the outside with a creak.
Then, the injured Ebony was thrown into the hall.
He slid more than ten meters on the ground before being stopped by an invisible force. He let out a groan like a dying person.
“How surprising. You still have the strength to continue your speech?”
This was the first thing the person who had done all of this said when he walked in.
Floral didn’t reply. Instead, she stared fixedly at that person.
The entire White Bone Castle had been reinforced by Floral’s Mage King Nation nexus, especially the two stone doors, which were engraved with countless defensive spells. It wasn’t that no one could break through them, but she didn’t sense any signs of them opening as if nothing had happened. Even a peak magic chanter like William Kane couldn’t do it.
However, the person who walked in did it.
Moreover, it was very reasonable for her to do so.
Because the person who walked in was Floral herself.