"No, no, you don't understand nearly enough."
Hearing his elder brother's rebuke, Lack offered no rebuttal. Instead, he simply raised a finger to his lips as he spoke. Then, he turned to the guards protecting the group and blew. A dragon-like blast of frost shot from his fingertip, fanning out to turn living n and snown alike into frozen fixtures of the icy corridor.
The snow and ice blanketing the deep corridor settled, emitting a strange, pale blue glow. While it brightened the dim surroundings, no one felt any joy at the sight of this light.
Tattoo-like, ice-blue runes appeared on Lack Stuart's face. His eyes turned completely white, and his complexion beca as pale as snow.
Dolores wrapped her arms around her younger sister, whispering words of comfort, telling her not to be afraid. She had never known this brother of hers was an Enchanter. Even when he returned from his disappearance, arousing much suspicion, the Church had examined him and concluded he was not.
"That parchnt scroll is powerful, yes. I can even help those who cannot touch the contract sign their nas upon it. But I also know that it alone is not enough to free our kingdom from the Church's grasp.
The parchnt itself isn't what's important. The real value is the knowledge it contains. The contract is rely a trivial function. Only soone as clever as I can see the truth of it all!
'[Contact the #$%&@#].' That is one of the rituals I learned from it. Once I perform this ritual and summon the Great One, doomsday will fall upon the material world. And when the Great One departs, the Stuarts will beco the kings of the new world."
Dolores only caught half the na of the ritual. Lack had spoken the most crucial word aloud, yet no one could make out what it was. To Dolores's ears, the sound was more like static, but it filled her heart with a profound sense of dread.
Dolores didn't understand what was happening. She instinctively glanced at her maid, only to see Julia making a motion as if to wipe her nose. The princess raised a sleeve to her own face and discovered that she, just like Julia, was having a nosebleed.
The blood wasn't red, but black. The instant she saw it, the young princess felt as if her head had been struck by a sledgehamr. Her strength gave out and she nearly collapsed, but thankfully, her younger sister was there to steady her.
The string of indiscernible static echoed relentlessly in her mind, and her consciousness began to fray. Her beautiful eyes lost their focus, her thoughts plumting into a near-silent abyss.
"Jenkins Williams..."
Her painted pink lips parted slightly. In the last second before her consciousness dissolved, she unconsciously uttered the na she kept hidden in her heart. It was as if a great bell had tolled in her mind; once the na was spoken in full, a single, life-saving drop of water fell upon her parched soul.
The whispers and static vanished in an instant. The pain in her head ceased, her mind felt whole again, and she could open her eyes. Though an unspeakable vexation and a dull headache lingered, at least the illusion of freezing to death was gone.
Her skin could once again clearly feel the frigid air of the underground passage, which lifted her spirits slightly. It was as if the last few monts had been an illusion, and most of the negative shadows had dispersed.
In surprise, she leaned on her sister and the wall to push herself back to her feet. In the distance, she could see that Julia’s face was still contorted in pain, though not as severely as her own had been. She touched her face—it was still smooth and supple, and the nosebleed had already stopped.
"See? Enchanters may know more about the world than ordinary people like us, but sotis, getting too close to the 'truth' just makes them go mad faster. I know none of you could understand the na of the ritual I just ntioned, but that's just how it is. The re na of the ritual to summon that being is more than a mortal can bear!"
Dolores wasn't the only one who had suffered an adverse reaction. Most of the hired Enchanters hidden among the guards were clutching their heads; two had even collapsed onto the ice. Even Dolores’s third-eldest sister was affected. As far as Dolores knew, among the Stuart children of their generation, only she and that sister possessed an Enchanter's talent.
"He calls himself an ordinary person? Could it be that Brother Lack isn't an Enchanter? Then where did he get this power?"
Dolores clutched her head, feigning a pained groan while her mind raced, planning her next move.
"Are you insane, Lack? You're trying to summon an evil god?"
It was unclear what thod Lack had used, but only the Enchanters showed any signs of pain, which was why the eldest prince, Sarrot, was still able to rebuke him so forcefully.
"No, you don't understand anything, my brother. Not an evil god, but a being far greater than any god. Once my ritual is successful, disaster will befall the world, and all order in the material realm will be destroyed. After that calamity, the Stuarts will forge a new order and truly beco the kings of humanity."
He reached out to grab Sarrot Stuart’s arm, but the prince imdiately drew the decorative longsword from his hip and thrust it forward.
Lack’s hand shot out and seized the blade. Even a ceremonial sword was sharpened, but he grabbed it without fear. With a series of sharp cracks, the longsword turned to ice—and so did half of Sarrot’s left arm.
"Aah~"
With a swift stroke from a nearby guard, the prince's left arm was severed completely, falling to the ground. He scread, clutching the stump as he groaned in agony, and the other Stuarts quickly pulled him back into the crowd.
Severing the left arm ant the frost clinging to it had no chance to spread to the rest of his body, or to his heart. The guard's decisiveness had given Sarrot a chance to live, but with no dical attention available, it was hard to say whether a quick death or prolonged suffering was the better option.
Having already witnessed the grotesque sight of the snown devouring people and transforming them into more of their kind, the prince’s severed arm failed to incite any greater panic among the onlookers.
The situation was now painfully clear: if they didn't agree to the blue-haired madman's demands, he wouldn't hesitate to kill a few more of them.
"Everything is for the sake of making the Stuarts greater."
Lack Stuart murmured under his breath, then turned his attention to a handso youth in the crowd and barked:
"Koller, hand over the pendant!"
Koller Stuart flinched at the sound of his na, nearly stumbling, but he bravely shook his head and defiantly clutched his chest with both hands.
"Brother, do you have any idea what you're doing? Don't you realize how much you sound like the madn and charlatans who are hanged by the dozen every year? That thing is entrusted to the family for safekeeping! You absolutely cannot touch it for your own selfish desires, or you'll bring ruin upon our entire family!"
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