Chapter 357: The Sorrow of Shadows (Part 1)
The sky outside the window is gray, and the clouds are pulled low by the trapped moisture, weighing down on the top of the head like a ceiling that is about to collapse.
The air seemed to be suffocating, with no wind at all.
The whole world is like being covered with a pot lid, and all living things will be suffocated inside, and any struggle will become meaningless.
The ghost prince Agrila, who was standing in front of the window, withdrew his gaze and sat back in silence on the chair behind the desk.
His former brothers and allies Revalan, Yada and Oripa were all dead. The seriously injured and dying Ekasia was sent back to the temple of the Kingdom of Sambia for treatment. Even Lamorak, who disgusted him, also fled. The floating city of Sacros is trying to go to the realm of the magic network to find its own path.
He is the only one left in the floating city at this moment.
Alone... Agrella sighed, looked at the empty study with a complicated expression, and murmured to herself.
As a believer in the Lost Lady, he didn’t know whether he should be grateful or desperate at this moment.
Maybe it’s both, he pushed away the books in front of him that made him restless, leaned back on the chair with a tired face, and guessed in his heart.
In a daze, the ghost prince Agrilla couldn't remember when he closed his eyes.
He only felt that in the depths of his mind, those long-sealed memories were being opened up like a dam bursting.
This time, he did not deliberately resist, which caused him to return to Karsus Territory for no reason. He looked down at his father from the high tower.
This time, High King Telamant Tanshur looks much younger, his hair is still black, and there is no gray strands mixed with it.
He lowered his head, like a whisper in the forest, "...I hope my children can respect and love each other from beginning to end."
Then, he prayed, "May my wife sincerely forgive me..."
"Father." Agrela softly called out this strange title that he had long forgotten, and his voice turned into wind. Medium whisper.
Telamant Tanshur raised his head and stared at the tower for a long time.
He frowned but did not speak. Then he continued to pray, but the rest of the prayer was drowned by the sudden sound of knocking on wood.
Telamante Tanshur's figure dissipated like morning mist in the sun, replaced by two children jumping for joy in the woods of the surface world, chasing each other and waving broken branches.
Agrila hit Brenas in the thigh with a wooden stick and knocked him into the pool, where he kept flopping and screaming.
“Keep your voice down, idiot.” Agrela threw away the branch in her hand, “Didn’t it just fall into the water? Do you want your mother to hear it and tell your father?”
He knelt by the pool and pulled his brother out of the water, but before Brenas came out, both men disappeared.
The images flashed faster and faster, including the proud Revalan, the stubborn Yada, the prank-loving twin brothers Mattik and Vatik, and the soft-spoken and kind-hearted Desude ...Their faces confused Agrella until he no longer saw his father, nor did he see Brenas and other brothers.
When the image was frozen, he finally saw his mother.
She knelt in front of the statue of the lost lady Shar and prayed, as if she was begging. Then his eldest brother Revalan appeared. He pulled out a long knife menacingly, grabbed her mother's hair, and pulled it back violently. He gave her a hard blow on the neck.
Life is lost like this with the pouring red tide.
"It seems like it's all over a long time ago." Agrella murmured to himself, and the image fixed in his mind seemed to let him taste the taste of blood himself.
The taste was undoubtedly bitter, but it gradually made his confused eyes become determined.
He sighed deeply, like a twilight old man, slowly stood up from the chair and staggered to the huge floor-to-ceiling window.
He stared at the gray sky, which was hazy like an invisible net, binding his thoughts. He once had the urge to shout out his feelings, but they were all tightly wrapped in this depressing atmosphere. , unable to break free, unable to speak, suppressed to the point of being unable to speak, and then a person is submerged in this empty and deep darkness.
But the dusty memories have passed through the mist of thousands of years, allowing the ghost prince Agrila to find his final destination.
The next morning, there was a hint of desolation.
Agrila met with the spokesperson of the Lost Lady in the material world: Priestess ‘Black Veil’ Illyriel in the high tower of the Floating City.
"Are you here to ask me for sin, madam?" Agrella calmly looked at the priestess standing quietly in front of the desk and asked.
His brothers died and left, and unknowingly he had become the leader of the floating city of Sacross, but Agrela was not happy at all.
"Ask for guilt?" Illyriel looked at the Prince of Shadows with a frivolous look and smiled, "Ask for what crime? Praise our goddess who keeps secrets. Even if your plan has failed, there will be another one. What does it matter? After all, everything is under my control. "
It's your goddess, not my goddess, Agrela thought to herself.
The tone of the priestess's words and the sense of confidence exuded made him secretly frightened, and even made him doubt whether the other party had seen through his thoughts at the moment.
He forced himself to calm down, hummed softly, then deliberately relaxed, and said slowly, "In that case, what is the purpose of your coming here?"
"For what?" the priestess repeated in a low voice, with an extremely pious look, "Of course it is for our great lost lady Shar."
"Although we have two plans for the Magic Network, both It has ended in failure." She regained her composure and said in a relaxed tone, "But it was these two failures that gave us another chance."
"The ritual of the Dark Canyon was destroyed. "That's what you said at that time." Agrela replied calmly, "The same is true in the Valley of Shadows. You still said that in the world of the magic network. I have..."
"Are you doubting me?" Before the prince finished speaking, he was suddenly interrupted by the priestess, with an icy chill hidden in his words.
“What can I doubt?” Agrela shrugged her shoulders and chuckled, “I just want to learn some experience from failure.”
"Now is not the time to sum up the experience." The priestess turned and looked in the direction of the Eno Oak Desert, and said in a solemn tone: "Although the magic network has been repaired, in the world of the magic network, the relationship between Silinxi and Larok During the battle, she ignored the ruins of Myth Drannor that she was guarding. I have sent people to retrieve another complete set of Nese scrolls hidden in the ruins."
Hearing the Nese scrolls. , Agrila raised her eyelids and glanced at Illyriel, then lost interest again.
“As long as we use the power hidden in this set of Nese scrolls, we can cooperate with "Black Chronicle" and "A Thousand Petals of a Night" to arrange a powerful shadow ritual in the Eno Oak Desert, allowing the remaining The nine Shadow Evils took this opportunity to break free from the prison set by Azuth and Gond."
Agrila quietly reflected on the words of the priestess, showing that she could not remember anything. Looking interested, he said casually, "What if we fail?"
"Fail?" Illyriel smiled, "It won't fail."
"Why are you so sure?" Agrilla asked.
"Because I chose the location for the ceremony..." Illyriel deliberately paused for a moment, and then slowly said, "On the forbidden wall set up by the Saren spirit for the Felin Demon Kui, if the ceremony fails, , then the entire forbidden wall will be destroyed by this terrible energy, and then all the oldest Felin demons sleeping in the memory tower of the 'Mother's Nest' will be awakened."
Hearing this, Agrela was silent. .
After a long silence, he looked at the veiled priestess, "What is your purpose in telling me such a great plan? You are not afraid..."
"In In my impression, you should be considered the most rational and intelligent among all the ghost princes," the priestess said, "So, I believe you will make a choice that is in line with my expectations."
She has seen that my faith in the Lost Lady has begun to waver, Agrella thought, why tell me these secrets if she already has doubts?
Obviously, she is testing my loyalty, or... using me to convey some news to the outside world.
A deep sense of exhaustion flowed through Agrella's body like running water, making his eyes gradually become firm.
He looked at the priestess standing in front of him casually, and said slowly:
"In terms of intelligence, I am not as good as Desude. In terms of talent, Brenas and I are different. There is a huge difference. In terms of belief in the Lost Lady, I am not as good as Revalan and Yada, and even in terms of persistence in magic, I am not as good as Lamorak. So, Ms. Illyriel, I regret to tell you. , this time, you may be disappointed.”
"Because... mortals are mortal." After saying this, the Prince of Shadows, who had closed his eyes, activated the detonation circle of the Myser Energy Core.
…………
It is easy for the female barbarian Brunhiti to leave the confinement tower, walk down the back stairs, and then disappear into Sergante City.
However, Brunhiti did not choose to escape. Instead, she turned into a guarded passage and passed through the back of the mansion, preparing to complete the most important task in her life.
She passed by an endless stream of maids, valets and butlers.
Although Telina's magic is very powerful, even if her disguise is revealed, it can help her quickly regroup and fight back, but Brunhiti still remains unobtrusive at all times, not looking at others, not speaking.
A quarter of an hour later, Brunhiti walked out of the guarded passage and entered the dim hall in front of the private wing of the ghost prince Ekasia.
The door between the front hall and the wing was closed, and the ghost warriors were still wearing the armor they had fought in Mokou Town. For a moment, she felt despair about her plan.
There is no other way to enter the wing, at least she has not seen it, and even if she remains invisible, she cannot defeat the dozen or so ghost warriors under Ecacia.
However, just as Brunhiti hoped, even while lying half-dead in bed, the ghost prince Ekasia had to deal with the shadow people's official business against the Kingdom of Sambia.
This made her secretly thank the Kingdom of Cormyr. They won a beautiful battle and allowed these damn shadow people to hide here like bereaved dogs.
It was precisely because of this that she found the opportunity for revenge. Not long after, Brunhiti saw a hurried messenger approaching the door with a message bottle filled with shadows.
Brunhitti followed so closely that when a guard ordered the messenger to stop three steps away from the door, she had to quickly duck behind him. Drive to avoid hitting him.
The guard took the message bottle and sent the messenger away. After the latter disappeared into the corridor, the former turned around and knocked lightly on the door.
Brunhiti stood beside the guard for a long time, not even daring to take a breath for fear of blowing her breath on his arm.
Finally, a shadowman dressed as a butler opened the door, and the door crack was just open enough for him to lean out and take away the message bottle.
Perhaps it would have been wise to wait for the maid or other domestic servant to come in, since their service would require the door to be opened two shoulder-widths away, but Brunhetti wasted no precious time in making a decision, and Brunhetti Sheedy knew that the murders in the Tower of Confinement would not remain unsolved forever.
She squatted down, carefully keeping her body from touching the guard, and then walked sideways through the narrow door opening, trying her best not to step on the butler's feet. Unexpectedly, the butler suddenly closed the door and trapped her. feet.
The guard shouted at the butler's mistake, and then reached out to push the door open.
Brunhitti turned her flat feet sideways and pulled them into the room before the heavy door was forced shut.
What a risk!
The door clicked shut tightly, Brunhiti sat on a seat in the back hall, immediately opened her mouth and took a deep breath to calm her heartbeat.
After a while, she stood up from her seat, picked up her weapon, and walked towards the interior of the back hall of the Ecathia Wing, where six shadowfolk mages were sitting, handling official business for the prince.
On her hands and knees, Brunhiti walked through the back hall and entered the dark corridor leading to the prince's inner sanctum while avoiding the staff who were passing around.
In the corridor, she had to crouch and slip under the crossed halberds of a group of guards.
Finally, Brunhiti finally entered the prince's spacious and gorgeous bedroom from the dressing room.
She was pleasantly surprised to see that the ghost prince Ekasia was really lying alone on his big bed, with a human-shaped shadow clinging to a cage of black ribs.
His beating black heart was clearly visible in his ribcage, and the fire of the magic network that almost burned him to death still emitted a faint silver light that could not be dissipated for a long time.
It is said that in the battle in Mokou Town, Ekasia was almost burned to death by the silver fire erupted by the mage lord, and finally had to flee to Sergante's castle to recuperate.
Brunhiti also saw a servant serving him on one side of the bed, and a black-robed priestess wearing a Shar purple mask on the other side taking care of him with divine magic.
Two of Ecacia's guards stood in front of the bed. Brunhiti's former weapon, the Dark Sword, was displayed on the shelf above the prince's bedside table, locked in a crystal glass cabinet.
"Brunhiti!"
The voice of Sister Glorious Telina came from her mind: "I have temporarily controlled the castle guards, in the room of the Prince of Shadows. There is a shadow stone inside. You must break this stone to make it useless."
Brunhitti nodded slightly. Her purpose here is not to kill the ghost prince Ekasia. In addition, there is a more important task, which is to destroy the stone in Telina's mouth.
This stone caused most of the senior officials of the Kingdom of Sambia, as well as the members of the Council of Elders, to be possessed by shadows. Only by destroying the stone can the core members of the Kingdom of Sambia be completely freed from the control of the shadow people.
But what does this have to do with her?
Brunhiti walked to the bed indifferently, swung the dagger left and right like lightning, and mercilessly slit the throats of the two warriors.
Two streams of blood arrows spurted out, and as soon as they fell down, the priestess who was healing the Prince of Shadows instantly noticed the abnormality, and quickly raised her hands, preparing to cast magical spells.
Brunhitti, who was well prepared, swung the whip with her other hand, interrupting her spellcasting.
The long whip's barbed rope was tightly wrapped around the woman's throat, pulling her down to the ground. The latter's prayers suddenly turned into sobs before she was suffocated.
The servant seized the opportunity and ran towards the door. He was so frightened that he could not scream, but only gasped.
It turns out that you are also afraid!
Recalling the scene of her people being massacred, the female barbarian smiled coldly.
She immediately turned sideways at the end of the bed, raised her leg high, and kicked the servant's chin hard with her heel. The powerful force caused his feet to fly off the ground suddenly, and the back of his head hit the marble. It made a terrifying head-crackling sound.
Seeing this scene, the priestess gave up chanting the spell and rushed forward desperately, pulling the whip around her neck with her left hand and waving her dagger wildly with her right hand.
Brunhiti grabbed her right hand and pushed the dagger into the woman's jaw.
The priestess's eyes rolled white, the dagger slipped from her hand, she staggered a few steps and fell to the ground in despair.
Brunhit threw down the whip, turned around and jumped onto the bed.
A pair of weak copper-colored flames flickered in the dark eye sockets of the seriously injured and dying ghost prince Ekasia, as he struggled to regain consciousness.
The female barbarian walked towards the display cabinet without hesitation. The fire in Ecacia's eyes brightened, and she knew that the prince was gradually regaining his strength.
She broke the cabinet with a dagger, took out her own dark sword, ignored the shadow stone urged by Telina, and jumped back on the bed.
At this moment, a dark arm stretched out from the quilt.
Brunhitti swung her sword to block, but the sword was bounced upward, smashing a crystal door. Something hit her chest like a hammer. She was pushed out of the bed, her face Landed face down on the floor.
"Guards!"
Ecacia's voice was as low as a grunt, but this grunt was enough to cause a commotion in the locker room, "There is an assassin, come and save me!"
Brunhitti calmly raised her right hand. , silently calling for the magic weapon her father gave her at the coming-of-age ceremony.
Then she heard the sound of crystal shards being scratched. The weapon, which seemed to be connected to her blood, flew towards the big bed. She caught the hilt of the sword with one hand, like an old friend meeting again.
When the sharp sword blade grazed Ekasia's body, it also dragged a shadow.
The moment she saw the ghost prince Ekasia trying to escape from the other side of the big bed, the female barbarian threw the sword out without hesitation.
The sword blade was accurately inserted between the shoulder blades of the Prince of Shadows, slicing open his two ribs and his faintly beating heart from back to front.
Ecacia's ribcage was simply broken into two pieces and fell to the ground, and the split heart was turning into a shadow.
Brunhitti, the female barbarian who avenged her genocide, did not get the hearty pleasure she imagined, because the ghost prince who was about to die was smiling contemptuously at her.
Brunhiti raised her foot and stepped hard on Ekasia's body with only ribs left, and said coldly, "I didn't expect that, Prince Ekasia, you will die after all. In my hand, on behalf of all the people of the Griffon Tribe, I would like to express my warmest greetings to you."
"All mortals will die sooner or later..." The ghost prince said in a weak tone. The momentum continued, "There is nothing terrible about death. I just feel sorry for you, dear Miss Brunhiti."
Ekasia's words made the female barbarian feel angry and disgusted.
Recalling the scene of her tribe being mercilessly slaughtered by the shadow people, she exerted force on her feet, crushing the ghost prince's ribs like breaking branches.
"What are you still doing? Destroy the Shadow Stone as soon as possible!" Sister Jelina of Glory urged, "The guards will be here soon!"
"Shut up!" Renciti said impatiently, "From now on, devil, you are no longer qualified to order me!"
"As expected, I guessed it, hahaha..." The Prince of Shadows was on his deathbed. At this moment, I suddenly laughed, this laughter was full of irony and ridicule:
"In order to kill me, you did not hesitate to cooperate with the devil, and you are also the radiant nun of the Succubus Queen. I have already thought of your future ending. Dear Miss Brunhiti, you are ready to use your body to serve the abyss. Are you ready for the demons? There are not only many types of demons in the bottomless abyss, but also many types of demons, such as the toad-like Berserker, the vulture-headed Flo Demon, the Enchanted Demon, and the Giant Bull Demon. Balor Fire Demon..."
The ghost prince Ekasia died before he finished speaking, and his beating black heart completely turned into a shadow and disappeared into the air.
"Are you desperate for your life?" Sister Huiyao's urgent voice sounded again, "The guards are coming soon. As long as you destroy the Shadow Stone, I will send you away from here immediately."
"I said it." The female barbarian Brunhiti said viciously, "The deal between us is over. Go to hell with the Shadow Stone and leave it to your mother, you noisy bitch. !”
Although the ghost prince Ekasia was killed by her, the other party’s mocking laughter echoed in her mind for a long time.
Brunhiti ignored Sister Huiyao's urging and threats. She stood quietly in front of the mirror in the bedroom, her face proud and stiff, expressionless.
She straightened her long messy hair, smoothed her dress, wiped the blood from her sleeves, then took off a ruby necklace from the neck of the murdered priestess and put it on her chest. forward.
She has personally killed the ghost prince who massacred her own people. Her great revenge has been avenged, and she no longer has any worries in her heart.
The sound of the heavy leather boots of the guards outside the door was heard stepping on the ground. Brunhiti stood motionless in front of the window, not even turning around.
The sunset, as red as blood, slowly sank under the roof.
Brunhiti ignored Sister Huiyao's mad roar. She sat quietly on the chair in front of the table, blew out a candle, and then slit her own throat with a dagger before the guards kicked the room open.
…………
(End of this chapter)