NOVPUBNinth-order magic power began to interfere and resonate, causing the barriers of the Regency Hall in the royal palace of Necaris to start trembling.
Crimson thunder surrounded the open space in the center of the hall, as if turning the protective enchantment of the transparent palace into an illusion, which began to take shape and collapse. A gloomy aura pervaded, and as the barrier was eroded and twisted, it revealed its true form, gradually becoming the layers of screens that sealed off the Regency Hall.
At either end of the royal hall, the silver-white and blood-red magic power was clearly distinct, and the Fallen Lord Calila was exerting all her strength to control Eduado, the Fourth Progenitor.
Originally, Calila had hoped that the Great Demon Clan would awaken first to assist her in awakening more of the Great Demon Clan and sealing off the Fourth Progenitor, Eduado.
"Impossible..."
The Fallen Lord Calila’s eyes widened.
The worst had happened.
An Ancestor of the Blood Clan had managed to awaken so swiftly within her phantasmagoria.
She had never considered that there would be a creature that could almost completely ignore her full use of the "Falling Hometown."
"There’s nothing impossible, I just don’t have any unattainable dreams, that’s all."
Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, chuckled lightly and simply reached forward with his hand to successfully dissolve a thin layer of the palace’s barrier.
Without the precise control of the Fallen Lord, who wielded the authority, the protective barrier of Necaris’s royal throne hall was nothing more than a bunch of ownerless magic power.
Now, it was clear that the state of the Fallen Lord was very bad, already unable to face another opponent.
Ulysses floated down from the high seats, touched the ground with the tip of his toe, and walked towards the throne stage along the oval square at the center of the Regency Hall.
"The Tenth Progenitor...!"
Seeing the unusual look in Marquis Ulysses’s eyes, the Fallen Lord Calila couldn’t help but feel a chill creeping over her.
This was a monster beyond her understanding.
She finally understood that the Blood Clan had calculated from the beginning that this Progenitor could completely counter her innate magic.
The self-destruction of Duke Eduado, the Fourth Progenitor, was just a trial.
The Blood Clan knew that her innate magic was almost unsolvable unless avoided with space magic, so they prepared a corresponding contingency.
Even if Duke Eduado failed to self-destruct, the attempt would force Calila to reveal her innate magic, indiscriminately taking all the Demon Clan under control.
And once she used the "Falling Hometown," the Tenth Progenitor would become the only being able to move freely.
"Fallen Lord, breaking your magic is actually very simple. If the dreams you create are more boring to me than reality, why would I indulge in them?"
Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, murmured as he walked toward the throne.
"We’ll see whether you break through the barrier faster, or the Great Demon Clan awakens first."
Calila bowed her head, trembling slightly at the back of her hand, and tried to keep her voice as calm as possible.
"The True Night Sir, whom Your Excellency had placed such high hopes in, seems to be unable to awaken for quite a while, which will be enough time for me to take the Princess."
The Tenth Progenitor Ulysses looked at the Fallen Lord Calila and said with polite civility.
The royal palace barrier could temporarily stall Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, but he was quickly dissolving it one by one.
His speed was so fast that Ulysses seemed to be naturally strolling through the hall, with the Fallen Lord having no hope of the True Night Sir awakening in time to help her.
Perhaps in just tens of seconds, he would have walked up to the high platform in front of the throne!
"Rest assured, Fallen Queen, I won’t disturb your control over Duke Eduado, I will only take her away."
Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, smiled, his gaze fixed on Hyperion, who was sunken into slumber upon the throne.
The Spells of Calila were particularly effective on the Princess.
Now, there was no need to worry about the Princess resisting or running away.
And his Bloodline Powers could easily create the Eighth-order flying creatures he desired, which would engulf him and carry him and the Princess away during daylight from the Demon King Castle Necaris.
For him, if given the choice, he certainly did not wish to be blasted to ash today by the Ninth-order "Blood Destruction" of the Fourth Progenitor.
"No! If you dare come closer! I guarantee I will tear you apart at all costs!"
Fallen Lord Calila roared like a lioness protecting her cubs.
"Hmph."
Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, simply chuckled.
That look in his eye seemed to ask Calila whether she would risk letting Duke Eduado of the Fourth Progenitor break free and blow up the entire Demon King’s Castle, killing all the Great Demon Clan within, or could she only watch helplessly as he took the Princess away?
Ulysses knew better than anyone what the Fallen Queen would choose.
If Fallen Lord Calila got distracted, it was highly likely that the escapist illusion of Duke Eduado of the Fourth Progenitor’s Falling Hometown might reveal a flaw.
Faced with a choice between the Demon King’s Army’s main force and the Princess, the Fallen Queen could only choose the Demon King’s Army.
Even if the Fourth Progenitor perished here, it did not really matter how many of the Demon Race could be taken down in exchange.
Before coming to the Demon World, the Fourth Progenitor Eduado had used his own Essence Blood to heal the Second Progenitor with all his might.
The Ancestor of the Blood Clan, gravely wounded by the Demon King, would recover a lot of years ahead of time.
The Fourth Progenitor Eduado was already in a state of dissatisfaction. If he could just destroy the Great Demon Clan of the Demon King’s Castle, a successful strike would bring total victory.
Without the Ancestral Land Key, the Demon Race would spend all their strength and time trying to suppress the Fourth Progenitor.
Even if the explosion did not succeed, by exchanging the gravely injured Fourth Progenitor for the Princess, the last key to the Demon Ancestral Land, the goal would nonetheless be achieved.
The Blood Clan would have control over the one and only key, and take this Princess of the Demon Clan to the Huo Ning Empire to become a breeding machine, creating more keys for them.
Once the Blood Clan’s army captures Purgatory City Pasqual, they would seize control of the Demon Ancestral Land, and from that moment on, no race on this earth could stop the birth of the glorious Blood Moon era.
"Princess!"
As she saw Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, who was getting closer and could not be stopped by anyone, Calila’s voice carried a trace of powerlessness, trying to awaken Hyperion.
If only Hyperion could wake up, at least the Princess could run away quickly. Calila was aware that the Princess was very good at escaping.
But at this moment, Hyperion was deeply immersed in her dreams, tears spilling from the corners of her eyes, her lips muttering, as if she had fallen deeper into the Gentle Town than anyone else.
"Give it up, Fallen Queen, it’s a happy thing for her to have dreams, at least she won’t feel void about reality like I do."
Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, approached methodically, his eyes tinged with a hint of loss.
"However, it is precisely because of that, destroying her is also a kind of sublime art. It has been a long time since I found such a great material as her."
He had realized this the moment he laid eyes on Hyperion.
The princess was as pure as falling snow. If life were a journey, she experienced despair, loneliness, yet she was able to dispel these emotions—an epitome of elegance, bravery and kindness with a beauty worth cherishing in the palm of one’s hand—an exquisite embryo.
If one could destroy her thoroughly, from soul to body, it would surely be an unparalleled tragedy, providing an unforgettable impact on the viewers.
"As long as you fail to leave the Demon King’s Castle today, I guarantee I will subject you to the deepest and most cruel fear!!"
Fallen Lord Calila said with a trembling voice.
She was gradually understanding the plan of the Blood Clan, they were actually willing to trade the princess for the Fourth Progenitor in the worst-case scenario.
The fangs suddenly bared by the Blood Clan caught them off guard, giving the Demon Race no chance to catch their breath.
From the beginning, the Blood Clan had no intention of negotiating.
The Blood Clan only wanted to accelerate the annexation of the Northern Continent.
If all the members of the Great Demon Clan gathered here died, the Demon Race was almost destined to lose.
But if the princess were taken away, the consequences would be unimaginable!
"Oh? Now, I’m really a bit scared."
The voice of Marquis Ulysses, the Tenth Progenitor, carried no trace of fear as he feigned weakness with a laugh.
"True Night Sir! Esmod, wake up!"
Fallen Lord Calila called out without hope.
Although there were members of the Great Demon Clan present who had undergone her Falling Hometown’s immunity training, every member of the Demon Race had a limit to withstand the Gentle Town.
After all, a being with a completely flawless heart did not exist in Calila’s mind.
No one could achieve a state free from desires, devoid of dreams they wished to fulfill.
At full power, her Phantasmagoria was even more real than reality itself, completely blocking all memories of those affected and any clues they might deduce that this was a dream.
At this moment, for Calila to forcefully control Eduado, the Fourth Progenitor, using her strongest state of Falling Hometown, there was no member of the Great Demon Clan who could withstand it!
Regrettably, it was all in vain.
The supreme Illusion Technique, the Fallen Wonderland, could not possibly be broken by loud external calls.
Such was the harsh reality.
Fallen Lord Calila, as the owner of this magic, knew this better than anyone.
Suddenly, the palace went silent.
Calila, straining herself, seemed finally overtaken by exhaustion.
The last speck of hope flickered through her pupils before plummeting sharply.
The ripples from the breaking barrier were as fragile as her current prayers.
She had barely begun to develop a good relationship with this princess she had just started to accept but was about to lose her.
Calila hung her head in near despair.
All she could do was wait as Marquis Ulysses approached swiftly.
Perhaps this was their Demon Race’s fate.
However.
At that moment.
"..."
The Tenth Progenitor, Ulysses, who had been continuously advancing on the dark-brown carpet, suddenly stopped.
A figure approached from the side, stepping into Ulysses’s path.
He looked up, his emerald-green eyes equally clear.
Both figures exuded a subtle radiance.
"I didn’t expect you to free yourself so quickly."
Ulysses clapped his hands together in surprise, praising the Demon Race member before him.
"That’s an overstatement."
Lanci sighed, glancing back at Hyperion sleeping soundly on the throne.
He himself had truly been controlled for a brief moment, waking a few seconds later than the Blood Clan member.
It seemed that since returning from the Northern Continent, he was no longer at his peak from years past.
But even now, he was enough to deal with the man before him.
"You probably didn’t have a dream to realize either, that’s why you could come out so quickly."
Marquis Ulysses no longer seemed eager to break through the barrier and move forward; instead, he became increasingly interested in the Demon Race member before him.
He rarely encountered beings who could understand him, or rather, those who stepped into the same realm as him.
Only creatures whose hearts were either empty or filled to the brink could ignore the magic of the Gentle Town.
And whether it was emptiness or being filled to the brim, they both led to the same destination—no longer possessing beautiful dreams.
"Maybe."
Lanci was indifferent to that issue, but now he stopped concealing the aura of his status as a member of the Great Demon Clan. The luminescent crack-like patterns that began to emanate from him tentatively carried traits of one approaching kingship.
"So what’s the purpose of you standing before me?"
The Tenth Progenitor, Ulysses, stepped forward again.
He wasn’t confused by the opponent’s apparent traits of a Great Demon Clan member.
The Fourth Progenitor, Eduado, had made it clear to him that this member of the Great Demon Clan was merely Fourth-Order. Once the barrier was broken, he could crush him with a flip of his hand.
Upon hearing Ulysses’s words, Lanci also smiled, akin to a headmaster addressing a rule-breaking student, with duty as the meaning.
He didn’t flee but instead stepped toward Ulysses.
"I may not have a dream myself, but I can protect hers."
He stood like the ultimate knight guarding the throne and the princess, his shimmering magic shadow and those swaying emerald eyes exceptionally clear.
