“Boom!”
With a heaven-shaking roar, the death aura, transformed into countless screaming faces, surged out like a storm.
Wherever it passed, the atmosphere decayed, and the ground withered. Like poisonous gas corroding the world itself, it carried a terrifying aura, enveloping Shien and the others.
“Danger!”
Everyone, including Diere and Capeline, felt this and realized they couldn’t dodge in time, instinctively raising their arms to shield themselves.
This was futile. How could such a weak defense block the terrifying death aura?
Fortunately, Shien acted.
“[Bestowal: Dispel].”
Shien teleported in front of Diere and Capeline, shielding the entire Broken Blade Knight Order, and unleashed the dispelling magic towards the incoming death aura storm.
The storm froze, then exploded, not dissipating completely, but turning into chaotic black air currents that swept through the surroundings.
Wherever the currents touched, the ground withered and dissipated like dust.
The Broken Blade knights screamed, their scalps tingling, not daring to touch the death aura currents, and dodged frantically.
But the soldiers and knights outside the throne room, who weren’t allowed to enter due to Mara’s orders, suffered a terrible fate.
Caught off guard, they were directly hit by the death aura currents.
“What… what is this…!?”
“Aaaaaah…!”
“My body…!”
“Help…!”
Those who touched the death aura currents screamed as their bodies withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning into mummies and collapsing on the ground without even shedding a drop of blood. Their life force was drained by the death aura, further strengthening it.
“…” Diere gasped.
“Damn it!” Capeline was enraged upon seeing this gruesome scene.
Shien stared coldly at Mara, killing intent flickering in his eyes.
Seeing this, Mara, enveloped in death aura, smiled, a joyful smile.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she said playfully, “It only makes me more excited.”
She enjoyed seeing those connected to Heroes suffer, and the more Shien hated her, the more excited she became.
“It makes me want to kill you, to make you despair even more.”
Saying this, Mara waved her hand, and countless death auras transformed into a storm again. However, this time, it wasn’t just faces filled with pain, but various expressions: pain, wailing, despair, fear, all kinds of negative emotions.
Shien sensed that this death aura was far more powerful than the High Priest’s, not just in quantity, but also in quality.
“This is a magic I created based on [Astarte], an upgraded version. Its power and effects are far greater, and it has many variations, but it also requires a more terrifying amount of death energy.”
Mara’s playful laughter echoed through the hall.
“Fortunately, this Empire has always been plagued by disasters, and countless corpses and blood are buried beneath this land. As long as I use necromancy to extract the life force of this land, I can have as much death energy as I want. Only a fool like the High Priest would painstakingly extract it from individuals, accumulating death energy for thousands of years, yet still not matching the amount I’ve accumulated in the Empire in ten.”
Mara’s words made Shien’s gaze even colder.
“Who are you?” Shien forced out these words.
Necromancy.
Greater Spirit of Death.
And that Limit Level power.
All of these indicated Mara’s extraordinary origins.
Mara didn’t hide it.
“At this point, it’s no longer a secret,” she said casually, “It seems you already know about the existence of Greater Spirits, right?”
Mara naturally knew about the High Priest cultivating Limgir as a Greater Spirit.
And since that base was destroyed, the existence of the High Priest and Limgir being exposed was inevitable.
Moreover, Mara had placed a soul curse on the High Priest. She knew that if anything happened, a coward like the High Priest would definitely reveal everything.
That’s why she placed the curse beforehand. Once the High Priest mentioned her plans or her true existence to outsiders, the curse would activate, obliterating her soul.
But even so, some information leakage was unavoidable.
So, Mara no longer hid the matter of Greater Spirits.
“That young master you saw was just a Greater Spirit recently created by that High Priest.”
Mara looked directly at Shien and smiled sweetly.
“And I am the first Greater Spirit created by the High Priest, an ancient existence born a thousand years ago.”
The High Priest created a Greater Spirit a thousand years ago and called it a failure. That failure, although successfully reaching Limit Level, couldn’t overcome the final hurdle to Transcendence.
“I am that failure,” Mara readily admitted, but her tone was dismissive, “Of course, no matter how many Greater Spirits she creates, they will all ultimately be failures.”