For some reason, once he made up his mind, the realm he had been stuck in on the sword path actually showed signs of improvement.
Karlen twitched the corner of his mouth, utterly exhausted.
‘Why have I started to get used to Her Highness the Princess being so capricious over that girl?’
‘And what about the injuries I’ve suffered on this trip? What are they worth?’
‘This won’t do. I have to set things up so that Elena personally kills Shiya.’
‘Then she’ll willingly drag Shiya’s corpse to beg me to resurrect her as a puppet.’
‘Only then can I completely shatter the princess’s mental defenses and make her bow to me.’
But just as Karlen was about to carefully choose his words to speak, the ground shuddered violently.
Screams erupted from the Flower God villagers not far away, as if something horrifying was happening.
Houses made of clusters of gorgeous flowers collapsed, petals soaring upward and then falling.
They sliced across the villagers’ necks, severing heads.
Bodies toppled, blood splattered everywhere.
Then these sentient flowers gathered into a colorful wave like a school of fish, charging toward a village woman protecting a baby in her arms.
A golden holy sword rose from below, dragging a sword aura that spanned the entire space, shredding them all to pieces.
The princess silently watched this sudden tragedy.
Some villagers lit torches, trying to drive away the tide of flowers that had always been closely tied to the Flower God.
But they only provoked a more violent wave that swallowed them along with the flames.
Finally, as that vivid color faded, only pools of blood and a pale white skeleton remained.
“What in the world happened here?”
Elena instinctively looked up at the church on the hilltop, now completely wrapped in a sea of purple violets.
Shiya must be there too.
In a few days, Edwin would sacrifice her to the so-called Flower God.
Just then, an old villager who had frantically taken refuge with the Student Council members began cursing loudly.
“I knew it. Edwin would mess up the Flower Bride wedding ceremony.”
“That man lost his daughter and has held a grudge against the gods ever since.”
Though she had expected it, more and more fleeing villagers gathered.
The line of students began to loosen, and one by one they were wounded.
Just as an archer fired an arrow to support the front line, a flower that had been lying in ambush for a long time suddenly burst up and stabbed straight into her eye socket.
Then it pierced out through the back of her head, spraying an elegant arc of blood.
As a Student Council member fell, the crowd erupted into chaos.
Morale was crumbling, about to turn into a scattered mess.
Elena’s heart tightened.
She knew she had to force herself to change in the face of this situation.
The golden holy sword flipped in the air.
The princess placed the hilt at her waist, slightly bending half her body into a drawing stance.
In an instant, her breathing steadied.
The golden holy sword was unsheathed at a speed barely visible to the naked eye, and in that moment, she slashed out a dense web of sword auras across the wide area filled with man-eating flowers.
She cleared a vacuum zone around herself.
But she couldn’t use that technique indefinitely.
“Everyone rest. Reinforcements will arrive soon.”
With that, Elena turned and strode toward the ignorant villagers still begging the Flower God for forgiveness.
Thankfully, while the Student Council members fought desperately to protect these villagers, the villagers themselves contributed their efforts in the rear.
They used the petals that had withered after being cut down by Elena’s own hand to build a makeshift Flower God altar.
Then they formed a circle, continuously kowtowing, begging forgiveness from the god they had raised their blades against.
A brilliant sword aura split the ground, cutting the altar in two.
The villagers scrambled and dodged the debris from the princess’s casual strike.
“We’re here begging the Flower God for forgiveness! Why are you frontline students coming over here?”
A relatively young villager shouted in displeasure.
Elena scanned the crowd, confirming there were about thirty to forty villagers, then said calmly:
“The Student Council needs your help. Form groups of three into battle formations…”
But before she could finish, an old villager with white hair interrupted her.
“How can that be? Are you asking us to blaspheme against the great god?”
As the old man finished, the younger villager instead complained:
“Don’t get in the way, old man. I’ll agree, but there’s a condition.”
The younger villager’s latter words were directed at Elena, and then he looked her up and down with a wanton gaze.
Elena gave a slight nod, took the empire’s banner handed to her by a Student Council member.
She suddenly thrust hard, driving it straight through the young villager’s abdomen, hoisting him into the air.
Knowing he was about to die, the young villager finally grew terrified.
He weakly slapped the pole, trying to beg for mercy, but the strength to even make a sound was fading.
Blood slowly stained the empire’s banner embroidered with a dragon pattern.
Elena flung the dead male corpse away like trash.
“Don’t misunderstand, everyone.”
The princess raised the banner, letting it fly freely under the blood-and-fire-stained sky.
“I am now issuing a military order as the imperial royal family. As subjects, you have only two choices: submission or death.”
As her words fell, specks of white light drifted down from the banner, forming a magnificent white horse.
Surprise lasted only a moment.
The next second, Elena didn’t hesitate; she swung onto the horse’s back.
The golden holy sword and this empire’s banner were both heirlooms left to Elena by her mother, retrieved at great cost back then.
Then, perched high on the horse, the princess issued military orders one after another, forming the ten most powerful mages into an execution squad.
“Your Highness, are you making us fight alongside these uncouth villagers?”
A noble student protested.
His answer was a cold flash of white light.
Crack.
The blood-drunk empire’s banner pierced the ground beside the noble student.
If he hadn’t flinched in time, he would have been swinging on that pole.
“Want to disobey a military order? You’ll be the next to be sacrificed to the banner.”
Elena’s voice was as cold as ice.
Then Elena raised her head, looking down at the silent Flower God villagers, whom she had forcibly pulled out of their faith in the gods.
“From now on, these high-and-mighty noble children will fight on the same front as you. Rich or poor, anyone who tries to retreat will be executed on the spot.”
“Soldiers, if you want to survive, or even earn military merit, follow me and crush everything ahead.”
Reflected in the burning houses, the figure on the white horse galloped across the battlefield, the wind blowing back her dazzling golden hair.
—
A little earlier.
The Old Village Chief grabbed the girl by the neck and threw her into the vast sea of violets that symbolized the Flower God’s origin.
Then he clasped his hands behind his back, overlooking the purple flowers covering the mountainside, lost in thought—
Or perhaps just waiting for someone.
“Edwin, you’re quick.”
Fluite, arriving a few steps later, tossed the unconscious Ilya to the ground, keeping a wide distance from the Old Village Chief.
The Old Village Chief shouted sternly, “Less talk. The Flower God bride has been sacrificed to the god. Now let Ilya go.”
At the same time, a faint earthy yellow aura coalesced into armor around him.
Edwin turned and lunged at Fluite’s face with terrifying speed.