Annabell’s body suddenly stiffened.
The Abyss curse energy invading her body surged even more violently, clashing completely with her extremely pure demon race royal bloodline.
The dagger, transformed into a shadow, charged forward. The moment her body stiffened, “Emily” lunged with that dagger, closing the distance in just a few steps.
The Spectral Bridge, dozens of meters long, seemed to cease to exist under the nightmare demon soul’s speed.
Suppressed by the barrier, Anabell couldn’t use spatial evasion. She could only flip out her staff and condense a crystal-clear extreme ice sword.
It clashed fiercely with “Emily’s” dagger, producing a series of harsh clanging sounds on the dim bridge surface.
“Hehehe, can you feel your mana growing more and more sluggish? Helpless, aren’t you?”
“This is only the first step. The Abyss curse will slowly erode your Trandy bloodline. You’ll die soon!”
As a top-tier assassin, “Emily” quickly retreated after the initial exchange, transforming into a mass of black mist at incredible speed, circling around Annabell.
She was waiting.
Waiting for the Abyss curse to erode Annabell’s heart.
The endless resentment of the entire Shadow Song Family’s massacre was attached to that dagger. Using it to kill the Trandy Family’s Heir was simply too fitting.
“Emily” only needed to wear her down bit by bit, letting the curse power sink deeper, then kill Annabell, release the abyssal holy artifact, and let the rampaging demon sword destroy the entire Trandy Family!
Sure enough, before long, Annabell’s mana gradually weakened. The time had come—time to take her life.
Annabell knelt on one knee, leaning on her staff, seemingly unable to even lift her head.
“Emily” revealed a triumphant sneer, raised her dagger, and stabbed straight down.
At that very moment, the head-hanging Annabell suddenly curled the corner of her lips into a bone-chilling cold smile.
“So, you’re the one who invaded Xue Lei’s Sea of Consciousness, tormenting her day and night with those venomous words, manipulating her emotions—am I right?”
“Emily” shrugged, the dagger’s momentum undiminished:
“I merely fulfilled the desires deep within her heart. I didn’t manipulate her. I just… gave a little push.”
“What? Can a cold-blooded demon like you actually care about the feelings of a useless waste?”
“But well, looking at that despairing, sorrowful state she was in just now, she won’t last much longer. Even the fire of survival in her soul is gradually dying out… hehehe, she doesn’t have long to live.”
Annabell suddenly raised her head, her heterochromia eyes erupting with tangible, sky-burning fury!
“…Perhaps. But you’ll have to die right now.”
“Huh?”
A sense of dread suddenly rose in “Emily’s” heart.
The black flame that had been constantly concealed around Annabell’s body, protecting her, suddenly erupted at this moment, directly transforming into a Dual Element Giant towering dozens of meters high.
The giant wielded a colossal sword condensed from absolute zero and void black flame, slashing down with the might to destroy everything!
“Strange fire?!”
“Emily” was stunned. Her proud assassin techniques seemed utterly laughable under the giant sword’s lock-on. She could only roll and dodge desperately across the Spectral Bridge.
Even a wild swing of that strange fire, carrying soul burning, was enough to deal devastating damage to a soul body.
“How dare you bully my little sister?!”
“It was you, you old silver coin, wasn’t it? You even got me stabbed!”
Annabell held her staff, her body slowly rising into the air, releasing the full, terrifying pressure of an Eighth-Circle Archmage.
“Void black flame, and the end sword array!”
The seven mithril floating blades shot out one after another, merging in midair into a single sky-covering giant sword.
Void black flame attached itself to the blade! Sword light surged wildly, stabbing straight into the sky!
These two were System rewards, requiring none of Annabell’s own mana. In other words, this domain’s suppression was ineffective against her.
The black flame giant raised that massive ice-fire sword and roared within the crumbling domain.
“Rat in the gutter! Trash!”
“Even if I stood still, you’d never be my match. Now, it’s time to settle new grudges and old hatreds together!”
“Raging Waves: Heaven and Earth Splitter!”
Under “Emily’s” disbelieving gaze, the Spectral Domain evolved from the abyssal holy artifact was torn apart from the middle like fragile paper by that giant sword, effortlessly.
The giant sword’s residual force continued undiminished, reaching the bottom of the Sword Furnace in reality.
The originally churning molten magma was forcibly parted by this ultimate power, forming a massive vacuum zone at the furnace’s center.
The sacred weapon embryo stuck in the sacrificial altar let out a violent wail of agony. Every eye on the blade looked up in terror at the silver-haired girl in midair.
“No wonder you’re the Trandy Family’s strongest genius. When it comes to battle…”
“Emily”, her soul body shredded by the sword aura’s residual waves, let out an utterly venomous screech:
“But this isn’t over!”
“What the Shadow Family has always excelled at was never physical combat, but… soul possession!”
Seeing the situation was lost, “Emily” directly abandoned resistance.
She transformed her broken soul body into a wisp of extremely vicious black soulfire, charging straight at Annabell’s brow in a mutual-destruction stance!
Annabell had just unleashed her ultimate move and couldn’t evade in time. That mass of black soulfire crashed directly into her spiritual world!
A powerful wave of dizziness assaulted her, and Annabell’s consciousness gradually blurred.
The next second, deep within her mind, a scream far more miserable than before suddenly came from “Emily”!
“What’s going on?!”
“What is this place?!”
“You… how do you have these eyes in your soul…”
“How is this possible!!!”
“This defies science!!!”
“And what’s wrong with your soul?! This isn’t right. This…”
At Trandi Castle.
Before the scarlet gauze bed with its curtains drawn back, an oppressive aura suffocated the air.
Xue Lei knelt dumbfounded on the ground, raising her head to look at her aunt hidden behind the curtains—no, now she should call her her biological mother.
She had just learned the truth. Xue Lei and Annabell were “children” born from Grand Duke Camilla and her sister merging their bloodlines.
The impact of this fact on her was immense.
The Grand Duke of Trandil was currently gazing at her silently.
Silver hair flowed like a waterfall, spreading across the entire wide gauze bed.
It was a face of stunning beauty extremely similar to Annabell’s. Those deep, cold blood-red pupils were almost identical to her sister’s.
Though her expression seemed utterly blank, Xue Lei could truly feel a sorrow suppressed to the extreme.
This was the first time in Xue Lei’s sixteen years that she had been this close, this clearly, to seeing this lofty Grand Duke.
In those cold blood-red pupils, Xue Lei actually caught a trace of extremely rare gentleness.
A tenderness that belonged only to a mother’s love for her daughter.
But that tenderness vanished in an instant.
Then, the Grand Duke’s pupils projected an image constructed from mana.
It was the bottom of the abyss furnace. Annabell, blood flowing from her chest, leaning on her staff, struggling step by step amid all over the sky black flames.
She had just exhausted her mana to unleash that sword strike, and was now in a state of extreme weakness.
“Sister!”
Xue Lei’s eyes nearly split open. She cried out and instinctively lunged forward.
But she was steadily held back by an irresistible yet gentle mana force, sent back below the steps.
The gauze bed’s curtains slowly fell, once again concealing Camilla’s figure.
“Although the abyssal holy artifact wasn’t completely forged, it already possesses a measure of divine weapon destructive power.”
The Grand Duke’s voice came from within the gauze bed, the lofty coldness diminished by a fraction, replaced by an imperceptible weariness and softness.
“With her current state and remaining mana, she’s utterly incapable of completely destroying that sword embryo. If she stays in there, she’ll only sink deeper and deeper.”
“In the end, the only one devoured and destroyed by the Abyss will be her alone.”
Deathly silence fell within the gauze bed. Then, that voice slowly asked:
“I’ll ask you one last time. Are you willing to go and perform the sword sacrifice?”
Xue Lei didn’t hesitate. Even though her throat was hoarse and bleeding from crying, she answered loudly:
“I’m willing to perform the sword sacrifice! I’m willing to trade my life for my sister’s!”
A faint sigh came from within the gauze bed:
“Since you’re willing to give yourself for her, then go.”
“With your wholehearted consent, untainted by any resentment, my mana can be perfectly channeled into you.”
“My sealing barrier will protect you for a short while. In that brief time… you may have a proper farewell with her.”
Hearing this, Xue Lei wept tears of joy, her vision blurring once more.
“Thank you… thank you, Grand Duke!”
She heavily knocked her head against the hard stone floor:
“Thank you…”
Being able to see her one last time before dying, to personally say thank you and I’m sorry to her face—for Xue Lei, that was already tremendous fortune.
She definitely… definitely, absolutely had to, face to face, like a normal younger sister, tightly embrace her, and also…
Perhaps, she could even muster the courage to act a little spoiled with her…
How wonderful.
Xue Lei stood up. Though her face was pale as paper from excessive blood loss, the respectful, relieved, and happy smile at the corner of her mouth couldn’t be hidden.
She respectfully withdrew from the Main Hall.
Behind her, Camilla seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she let out a long sigh. Then, as if using the last of her strength, she collapsed onto the bed.
“Sister, for the family’s glory, I can be as brave as our ancestors…”
“Don’t cry, sister. You are Lifia’s pride, the Trandy Family’s future. What would crying and whimpering look like?”
“…I don’t care about any of that. Let’s leave. Leave this place, leave this family, leave…”
“Mother won’t let us go. Where could we possibly flee to?”
“To be able to die for my sister, to be together with my sister forever—Lifia is so happy!”
“Another defective product. The demon sword’s awakening ritual has failed again. Seal the furnace.”
“Wait, Lifia, Lifia is still in there! Mother, please, I beg you, please…”
“Die, you old hag. Your era is over!”
“I thought this tragedy had already ended long ago. Why…”
She recalled the relieved expression on her mother’s face before she died, and only then understood—the “curse” attached to the family bloodline.
“Get out of my head… A thousand years of glory, a thousand years of obsession—get out! We’re not your puppets, you ancient hag!”
If anyone had been present, they would have been shocked to notice that this Grand Duke who ruled over the Empire was now acting like a madwoman.
Then, as if forcibly suppressed by some power, her gaze returned to coldness once more.
“It’s for Trandil, for the ancestors…”