Chapter 685: Chapter 62 Collaboration
Aske slowly woke up and, upon opening his eyes, saw little Mia’s face inches away from his own.
If last year’s Mia still had the innocence of a young girl, then Mia had now completed her initial transformation into a little beauty. Her eyelashes were long and curved, her nostrils fine and dainty, and her lips were slightly parted, breathing out a warm, moist breath.
Aske:………
He quietly withdrew his hand from under Mia’s neck, silently repeated to himself “I’m not a lolicon” a few times, and then got up from the mattress.
After eating a little of the food on the nearby table, considering it breakfast, Aske then sat in a chair and quietly looked around.
He was waiting for the synthetic human to return.
Sure enough, the door to the room opened about five minutes later.
“Good morning, visitor,” said the synthetic human as it walked in. “Did you sleep well last night?”
“Not very comfortably,” replied Aske with a wry smile.
The spiritual erosion of the Abyss was omnipresent, and at night it became even more intense. Last night he had several nightmares in a row, leaving him feeling somewhat hollow after waking.
Of course, compared to the dangerous outside world, the research institute was unquestionably safer. Even at the risk of erosion, Aske hoped to stay inside as long as possible, waiting for rescue from the Main Plane… or allowing Mia to gain a deeper mastery of the Ripple Sword to find a way to teleport back would also do.
“Normal,” answered the Kapei synthetic human. “There are diazepam tranquilizers in the pharmacy that can help with the treatment of phobias. You can come with me to get some.”
“Alright,” Aske nodded.
As he walked with the synthetic human for a while, Aske suddenly asked:
“What was this research institute studying before?”
“How to resist the Abyss’s spiritual erosion,” the synthetic human responded.
“Oh,” Aske didn’t inquire any further.
Upon reaching the pharmacy, the synthetic human took out three small bottles of medicine and handed them to Aske:
“Twice a day, two pills each time, one less for minors. They can help alleviate the impact of fear.”
“Okay.”
After being led back to the room by the synthetic human, Aske saw the two little girls were still sound asleep.
He sat down in the chair, and after a moment, he pulled out the three small bottles of medicine given by the synthetic human.
His intuition told him that taking the medicine would bring slight danger.
After some thought, he chose not to take them and put the medicine away again.
——————————
Palermo City, in a secret chamber.
“So, are the rumors in the city true?”
“Absolutely, I heard them discussing matters of the Abyss with my own ears.”
“The Lixini Family’s envoy has already gone to Milan, the Observer organization took up their business, starting to purchase equipment in large quantities.”
The atmosphere at the meeting immediately became somewhat chaotic.
“Even so, what can we do?” someone suddenly objected, throwing cold water on the group, “Don’t forget, the Outville family no longer has a demigod.”
“Even if they dispatch one demigod, or even two, do we now have the strength to defeat the people from The Azure Longsword? Of the Northern Horn’s army, how much is under our control, to pull out and go head-to-head with the Sicilian Guerrilla or even the forces of the Lixini Family?”
The voices of the discussion abruptly ceased.
Indeed, even if both of the opposing demigods along with The Azure Longsword went to the Abyss, the already severely weakened Outville family could not quickly drive out the guerrilla forces and the Lixini Family from Sicily.
“Relying on our family alone is indeed unrealistic.” A woman suddenly emerged from the inner chamber, draped in the black veil of mourning, yet someone immediately recognized the woman with the partly concealed face as Geta, the widow of the fallen demigod Robert.
“Lady Guiskate, we understand your feelings very well,” a Haska Guard said in a low voice, “But even if your family from Burgundy sends troops over, I’m afraid it won’t be enough to restore the glory of the Outville family. Due to the lack of demigod combat power, once we fall out with the Lixini Family, we cannot possibly be a match for the Church Court.”
“Stop deluding yourselves,” Geta said disdainfully. “It is, of course, impossible for the Outville family to be revived; our task is to survive.”
“Survive?”
“Do none of you men see? Sigrdrifa, that whore, is nothing but a puppet propped up by The Azure Longsword, claiming the blood of the Outville family,” Geta said with venomous bitterness, her thin lips quickly spewing harsh words, “They want to use her, use that filth who killed her father to enslave us, to force us to submit and lose our ambition, and then, when the time is right, they’ll slaughter us all!”
“This…” The people in the secret room looked at each other in disbelief.
Certainly, everyone agreed with the assertion that Sigrdrifa was a puppet. After all, unlike William, she hardly ever convened family meetings nor appeared at the Palermo Court; but was always with the people from The Azure Longsword, as if they were her true kin.
As for the speculation that they would slaughter the entire Outville family, this was somewhat sensational. The Northern Horn’s army hadn’t been annihilated! Such a scale of extraordinary military power, situated in South Italy, was already a significant force; the enemy would have to be foolish to deliberately weaken their strength and entertain the ludicrous notion of slaughtering the subdued Norman people.
“Idiots! So after the loss of my late husband and Lord William, the Outville family can’t produce even a single person with a brain?” Geta unabashedly insulted the group, causing the expressions of many to darken, “Do you even know the identities of the two demigods leading the Sicilian Guerrilla?”
No one spoke.
“One of them, the female demigod, is the leader of an assassin organization from the East,” Geta said with a raspy business-like voice, “The other demigod is from the Hafsi Dynasty of the South Continent, a Corpse Witch Lord.”
“A Corpse Witch Lord?!” Many people’s expressions drastically changed.
The Outville family was constantly at war with two major enemies, one being the Church Court of Northern Italy and the other being the Undead Kingdom south of the Mediterranean.
Therefore, the Normans were very familiar with the nature of the undead, and if there was one sentence that could summarize their traits, it would be:
The undead do not trust the living.
In most situations, the undead transcendent wouldn’t leave captives alive; they’d rather kill all captives and pile up the corpses, then use spiritual materials and ritual arrays to summon a large number of skeletons, zombies, or resentful spirits—fighting methods more in line with the abilities of the undead system transcendent and never betraying.
So, by connecting Geta’s two conclusions, the people naturally arrived at a horrifying deduction:
Sigrdrifa is actually a puppet leader pushed forward by the demigod, with the aim to placate and paralyze the temporarily defeated Outville family.
As for why the undead demigod would do so, it’s clear due to concerns about the remaining Northern Horn army. This doesn’t mean he will give up on targeting the Outville family; after all, it is well-known that the undead born from the corpses of the physically powerful Norman transcendent are much stronger than ordinary undead and more apt to be a source of forces for the undead.
Seeing everyone’s expression turn grim, Geta slightly squinted her eyes and took the opportunity to say:
“Because of this, we have no possibility of peaceful coexistence with the undead. Or rather, even if there were, we cannot entrust the life and death of our family to the whims of their fleeting nihility.”
“Even so, we do not have the power to restrain the opposing demigod,” someone hesitantly said, “Since Lords William and Robert fell, there has been no extraordinary force possessing a demigod around Sicily, aside from the Undead Kingdom.”
“No, there is one,” Geta immediately denied his statement, “Among the four main bloodlines of the undead system, there’s a lineage that doesn’t rely on creating and commanding the undead to fight. Thus, we can work with them with confidence.”
“You mean…” Prompted by her reminder, someone finally caught on.
“The Blood Clan? Could it be… the Pure Blood Monastery?”
“Yes, it is exactly our Pure Blood Monastery.” From behind Geta in the secret room, another person emerged, revealing a ferocious and wicked smile.