As long as she could become the sword in her hands, she could stay by her side forever.
For a cripple who should have been dead already, there could be no happier fate in this world.
So why hesitate?
Within the canopied bed, a deathly silence lingered for a long while.
Then, a pale hand slowly swept aside the heavy crimson curtains.
Camilla, the Grand Duchess of Trandi, emerged from within the gauze canopy, her waterfall of silver hair spread across the entire bed. Her breathtaking beauty was enough to turn the heads of all who beheld her.
Her eyes, streaked with traces of blood and tears, gazed down at the black-haired girl kneeling below, her face smeared with blood.
“Come closer…”
For the first time, the Grand Duchess’s voice had shed its usual lofty coldness. Instead, it carried a rare, hoarse warmth—the warmth of blood relatives.
“Let me have a good look at you. You look exactly like ‘her’…”
“You only have one chance. You must not fail again. Do you understand?”
Xuelei didn’t quite understand.
She had noticed that the Grand Duchess’s gaze was strange, as though she wasn’t really looking at her at all, but at someone else…
***
Meanwhile, elsewhere, the screen faded to black as the scene loaded.
At the bottom of the Abyssal Forge, magma churned like a boiling sea of blood.
The unfinished Abyssal Holy Weapon, after drinking its fill of Annabell’s pure blood, finally awakened from its slumber.
The ownerless holy weapon instinctively unleashed a terrifying tide of magical power belonging to a mythic-grade weapon.
The overwhelming force abruptly transformed the surrounding sea of molten rock into an incredibly bizarre “Netherworld Domain.”
Annabell was forcibly dragged into this domain.
It was a shadowy space surrounded by countless blood-red eyes of the void, all staring fixedly at her.
She stood upon a dilapidated stone bridge that straddled the boundary between the mortal world and the hell of the Netherworld.
The strange laws governing this place directly weakened her connection to the magic of the outside world.
One step forward meant life; one step backward meant death. It would be no exaggeration to call it a single step from heaven to hell.
“As expected of a weapon of slaughter forged through a century of the Trandi family’s blood, sweat, and tears. It’s only a sword embryo, yet it already possesses such terrifying power.”
Annabell surveyed her surroundings.
Within this Netherworld Domain, even a high-ranking mage could lose their mind at any moment, fall eternally into the abyss, and end up with their soul completely annihilated.
Though the holy weapon had no master, it possessed an instinctive urge to devour everything.
Destroying it easily would be far from simple.
Annabell had originally planned to wait until she was close enough to the holy weapon itself, then unleash [Void Blackflame] along with the trump-card sword formation from the system’s gift package, crushing the thing into scrap metal through sheer overwhelming force.
Against a weapon that had yet to fully take shape, she was more than ninety percent confident of victory.
However, before that, she had to deal with a rat hiding in the shadows and stirring up trouble.
“Are you still not coming out?”
Annabell’s gaze turned cold as she looked toward the other end of the Netherworld Bridge.
At the far end of the bridge, the Abyssal Curse Dagger that had previously pierced her chest suddenly twisted in an eerie manner, transforming into a burning black talisman.
Then, amid the black flames, the talisman transformed into a slender figure.
The woman had long, blood-red hair. Her ghastly pale eyes were devoid of pupils, while strange, dark-purple demonic markings covered her face. She wore a tight-fitting suit of dark leather armor.
What was most chilling of all was that her face bore an uncanny resemblance to Annabell’s.
Or rather—
She looked exactly like Xuelei!
“Hehehehe…”
The laughter was as grating as fingernails scraping across glass. Yet on that face identical to Xuelei’s was an expression twisted like that of an evil spirit.
“As expected of the chief heir of the Trandi family, blessed with the Truth Demon Eyes that can see through all things.”
The woman spread her hands and let out an amused, helpless chuckle.
“This Dream Infiltration Art seems to be completely useless against you.”
Annabell pressed a hand against the wound in her chest, which still throbbed faintly, and said calmly, “So, you’re the one who orchestrated all of this from behind the scenes?”
The woman clapped her hands, her laughter making her whole body tremble.
“That’s right, that’s right! I’ve been whispering in her mind all along, telling her to use this dagger to stab you straight through the heart. I spent a full three years planning this perfect scheme.”
Seeing the woman use her younger sister’s face to make such a twisted, grotesque expression, an uncontrollable fury rose within Annabell.
She coldly demanded, “Who the hell are you?”
“Who?”
The woman tilted her head, putting on an exaggeratedly puzzled expression.
“I’m a soul. Dream Soul Art… Think carefully. Who am I?”
“Dream Soul Art…”
Her hint immediately made Annabell’s expression turn solemn.
“Oh, dear, dear. The young lady really is forgetful.”
“Right now, I’m speaking to you through the pure soul of a Dream Demon.”
Dream Soul Art was one of the strangest and most unpredictable forms of shadow magic on the continent, as well as a secret technique of the ancient assassin sect.
It placed extraordinarily high demands on the caster. The slightest mistake could cause the caster’s own soul to suffer a backlash, reducing them to a mindless fool.
More than a decade ago, there had been an ancient assassin sect on the continent that specialized in this very magic.
Their bodies and bloodlines had been specifically adapted for infiltrating dreams and souls.
Yet this once-powerful sect had been completely trampled beneath the iron cavalry of the Trandi family in a single blood-soaked night.
The entire clan had been annihilated.
That clan was—
The Shadow Clan!
And the personal maid named Emilia, who had been arranged to serve the original host at the beginning of the story, was the sole survivor of the Shadow Clan!
“A remnant of the Shadow Clan?”
The soul before her was undoubtedly one of the surviving members of the Shadow Clan.
To infiltrate Xuelei’s spiritual world without being detected and deceive everyone, only a direct descendant of the Shadow Clan could possibly accomplish it.
The woman laughed wildly and maniacally.
“Looks like the young lady hasn’t forgotten after all. Hahahaha…”
She gently brushed a hand across her face.
The disguise belonging to Xuelei faded away, revealing a face that was extremely familiar to Annabell.
“Me? I used to be your most loyal personal maid, you know. In fact, when we were little, I was even your playmate.”
Her ghastly white eyes were filled with venomous hatred.
“Emily? No… That’s not right!”
Although this face was identical to “Emily’s,” Annabell could see it clearly.
Above the woman’s head, her Favorability Level was displayed in a vivid, blood-red color:
[Blood Feud]
Annabell’s Truth Demon Eyes swirled with mysterious light as she snorted coldly.
“Enough with your tricks.”
“Emily” gave her a smile that was neither quite a smile nor quite a sneer.
“You know nothing about the Shadow Clan’s soul arts.”
“That timid maid waiting for you at the academy right now is me. And this Dream Soul standing before you is also me.”
“The two of us were originally supposed to fight it out. Whoever won would become the true ‘Emily’—the heir to the clan. I would have been the one to replace Charlotte and form the closest possible contract with you.”
“But… before I ever had the chance to kill the other ‘Emily,’ the clan was destroyed.”
“With the clan gone, I had no reason left to live.”
“So I abandoned my physical body, transformed myself into a Dream Soul, and infiltrated the mind of your useless little sister.”
“Emily,” who had once again taken on Xuelei’s appearance, casually tossed the dagger in her hand as she looked at Annabell as though she were already a corpse.
“But it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“After all, the Trandi family is about to be finished too!”