Chapter 299: The Price of Ambition

  "Since they can kill Moriel, what if they come back to kill again? There will only be the two of us left..."

  "They absolutely have no chance of returning." High Priest Tima spat out the words viciously. "I will settle this debt with Celeste sooner or later."

  "A cavity up there? How could the Temple Knights possibly know about this when even we don't?" Loralei looked at the fissure at the top of the cave, the place where the Temple Knights had escaped.

  "Now is not the time to worry about that. Moriel is dead. Those dark-skinned devils must be in a panic. Let's go gather the remaining troops and wipe them all out first." The High Priest let out a long breath. Although this Forbidden Spell storm was indeed a huge blow, compared to his long-cherished wish of unifying Nighon being about to be fulfilled, it could slightly tip the psychological balance in a better direction.

  But when Tima and Loralei arrived at the Minotaur's main base, the Horned Demon Temple, that balance immediately collapsed completely.

  The Bone Niche, meticulously repaired and maintained by generations of High Priests and accumulated from countless bones, was now a field of fragments. And this was not what was infuriating High Priest Tima the most. Outside the temple, the corpses of young Minotaurs and female Minotaurs littered the largest Minotaur residential area, the labyrinth. This was what almost made him truly go mad.

  Even the female Minotaurs and young Minotaurs, who could not go to the battlefield, were not foes that ordinary warriors could handle easily, let alone the thousands of women and children left here. But what they faced was the great mage Diana from the Temple Knights.

  To break away from the team and face the slaughter of over a thousand Minotaur women and children alone, being assigned this task was a testament to the depth of Great Mage Diana's magical power and her superb combat ability. Moreover, she carried more than a dozen magical scrolls for summoning elemental giants.

  Without powerful warriors and priests, no one could deal with the more than ten earth elementals summoned by the mage. Great Mage Diana was not in a hurry to use grand magic. Instantaneously cast intermediate-level magic were fired from her hands like a repeating crossbow. A sea of fire formed by walls of fire, and piles of quicksand blocked all exits and passages. Two air elements drifted around, scouting for any Minotaur attempting to escape and seek help. Ice explosions and lightning flying everywhere wantonly slaughtered the Minotaurs. Although the Minotaur women and cubs dodged deeper into the residential labyrinth, under the Great Mage's Mana Divine Eye, the slaughter was not hindered in the slightest.

  By the time the Minotaur troops withdrawn from Othello arrived, they could just see the blue afterglow from the Great Mage's use of a teleportation scroll. In this largest labyrinth, only a scattered few dozen Minotaur women and children remained.

  The Minotaur's reproductive rate was originally very low. These Minotaur women and children were the future of the race. And those killed at the hands of Great Mage Diana alone were more than half of the Minotaur tribe's future. Coupled with the warriors in Othello and the thousands of adult warriors burned to ash by the Purgatory of Paradise, the entire Minotaur race, though not completely uprooted, was not far from it.

  Standing on the wreckage of the Horned Demon Shrine, hearing the report of the casualties among the women and children, High Priest Tima's huge, solid body, like a stone statue, swayed. A mouthful of blood finally spurted out.

  "Celeste... I will definitely settle this debt with you." The High Priest roared, and the remaining Minotaur warriors around him also roared. Their roars, like muffled thunder, rumbled and shook the Horned Demon Temple.

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  But before their fury could fully burn, another, newer battle report came, making High Priest Tima almost spit out another mouthful of blood.

  The one who delivered this report was a Harpy under Loralei's command. She was responsible for monitoring the situation near Moriel's dragon lair. With her frail body, it was naturally impossible for her to enter the dragon lair with the Minotaur warriors and Temple Knights. But she was also one of the few remaining witches of the Harpy clan. Although her magical power was not even comparable to that of an ordinary human mage, her years of practice with a half-baked Mana Divine Eye, combined with her own agility and high speed, made reconnaissance tasks no problem.

  "Moriel is not dead... The remaining Drow forces are gathering and killing their way here." The Harpy reported to Loralei, panting heavily. The Harpy, who had flown here at full speed, had a hoarse and intermittent voice, but to the ears of High Priest Tima and Loralei, it was like a clap of thunder. In terms of shock, it had long surpassed Moriel's dragon's roar that had shaken all of Nighon not long ago.

  "What? Say that again? Speak more clearly!" High Priest Tima lost all self-control and grabbed the Harpy. "How could she not be dead? We all heard her scream of agony."

  "I heard it too..." The Harpy flapped her wings and limbs. Her wrinkled face had turned completely red, like a chicken being held in the strong hand of a human man. "In my Mana Divine Eye, I saw... after that scream, her life force indeed declined, almost to the point of death... but then a person appeared, and her life force recovered... Finally, the matriarch of the Duden family led her troops into the dragon lair. I heard them shouting as they came out that they were going to gather their troops to attack here..."

  "Damn it. How could this be?" The veins on High Priest Tima's bull head all bulged, and so did the large hand that was holding the Harpy. He was about to go mad. His originally deep voice was starting to lean towards Loralei's. "What about those Temple Knights? What about Priest Marquez?"

  "One of them seems to be dead, but the others seem to have escaped... Help... Oh..." As the High Priest's hand tightened spasmodically, the Harpy's face grew redder, and her flailing became more violent. Finally, she let out a cry like a rooster's crow, convulsed violently, and then fell limp.

  "Marquez failed? How could he have failed? He had those scrolls..." High Priest Tima muttered to himself. His huge body shook like a chicken in a cold wind. He seemed to have forgotten that he was still holding the Harpy's body in his hand. The corpse in his hand continued to deform with the crunching sound of breaking bones.

  "How could this be? How could this be?" The Harpy screamed as if she had gone mad, seemingly not caring at all that the only remaining witch of her clan had been crushed into a pulp. "What do we do now? What do we do now? Moriel will never let us go. As soon as she recovers, she will immediately leave the cave to deal with us."

  "She has already recovered. She can probably leave the cave at any moment. Otherwise, the Drow wouldn't have such high morale and wouldn't take the initiative to attack us." High Priest Tima said softly.

  The ground trembled slightly. It was the vibration caused by the running of giant lizard knight squads. The Drow's fully assembled forces were not far from here. The High Priest could feel it.

  "What do we do? What do we do?"

  "Retreat, all of you. Let's escape. Moriel will never allow another Minotaur or Harpy to live." The High Priest's voice returned to its deepness. The eyes, which were originally like torches, now had no light left in them. They were now filled with a blood-red color, a blood-red color forged from despair and anger.

  "Escape? Escape where?" Loralei asked mournfully. She really couldn't think of anywhere else in all of Nighon they could go.

  "The surface." High Priest Tima with great difficulty spat out a very simple word from his mouth. Then, a low growl, whether a moan or a roar, rolled from his throat. This roar was still huge, but it did not match the bull head; it carried a strong smell of blood, as if it should have come from the head of a carnivorous beast. "Celeste, Magnus, you just wait."

  Moriel was actually sealed in Nighon by Archibald five hundred years ago. Archibald sealed a part of her life and soul into one of her own drops of blood as the center of the seal. As long as she was far from the seal, her power and life would continuously weaken. Therefore, Moriel had never left Nighon for so many years. I believe that whether it's due to a dragon's own collecting fetish for rare treasures, or her dissatisfaction with Archibald, she would definitely accept this sword hilt.

  This gem is the dragon's blood that sealed Moriel's life force. On it is a seal personally placed by Lord Archibald. This should have been properly kept by Moriel's side. Why has it fallen into your hands now?

  Someone must have wanted to deal with her, so they broke the seal. Fortunately, judging from this gem, Moriel is still temporarily alive. Go to Nighon immediately and return this to her. As long as you help her complete the seal, she will surely be grateful to you.

  These were the words Aunt El told Ethan after seeing this black gem.

  From the time he could remember, of the words that came from Aunt El's mouth, whether they were profound teachings or straightforward explanations, Ethan had never had the slightest doubt. In fact, this was true. The words from this old woman, the most insightful, powerful, well-connected, and experienced on the continent, had never deviated in the slightest, always guiding the direction of Ethan's progress, both in reality and in his soul. So when Aunt El said this, Ethan believed it as a matter of course. He believed that Aunt El could never deceive him, nor did she have any reason to.

  Even in the last instant before he fell unconscious, what echoed in Ethan's mind was all shock and bewilderment, not yet suspicion. Even after waking up, the feeling swirling in his mind was the same.