Chapter 125: The Madness of Balnazzar

Not long after, Lin Xi, Reimu, and Altair, who had been waiting outside, entered. Lin Xi asked anxiously, "How is it, Neil? Did that guy do anything to you?"

Link shook his head in response, his gaze fixed on the "Heavenly Eye" on the table. "Take a look for yourselves."

The three of them immediately walked over. Upon seeing the "tablet" on the table, all of them displayed expressions of astonishment. Lin Xi exclaimed, "Isn't this the Heavenly Eye, a military treasure circulated from the Dongyun Empire? Neil, where did you get this?"

"The Prince gave it to me."

Lin Xi nodded in understanding, then added with a look of regret, "The Heavenly Eye can monitor everything within a ten-kilometer radius; only powerhouses of the Seventh Order or above can evade its surveillance. It’s a shame this is a one-time consumable. If we could have brought it back, our church would have gained another trump card."

Link and Altair nodded in firm agreement; even Bai Ling lacked such monitoring capabilities. Reimu, though quiet, watched the images on the Heavenly Eye with curious eyes.

At this moment, the royal palace had already been seized. Balthazar had been unlucky; unfamiliar with the palace layout, Sylvanas had used a secret escape passage to sneak into the palace, which was protected by a magical barrier. She destroyed the barrier from within, leading to the easy fall of Balthazar’s final stronghold.

In despair, Balthazar appeared strangely calm. He ordered his men to execute all the nobles and officials imprisoned in the palace, then told his subordinates to flee for their lives. He himself remained in the throne room with a group of loyalists who refused to leave, sitting upon the throne and staring silently at the entrance.

Soon, Sylvanas arrived with her troops. Balthazar’s men made a heroic stand, but it was like moths to a flame; they were all slaughtered outside the hall, leaving a river of blood. Sylvanas, wielding two golden blades, walked in slowly.

Seeing Balthazar sitting alone on the throne, Sylvanas did not allow anyone else to enter. With a confident and unquestionable tone, she ordered her subordinates to stay outside, then strode forward to stand before Balthazar. "Balthazar, my uncle, do you have anything left to say?"

Balthazar looked at Sylvanas with a blank expression, then said in a calm tone, "I have fulfilled your wish and cleared the kingdom of its parasites for you. All the infamy for these deeds shall depart with me. I only wish to know, who exactly dispelled your curse?"

Sylvanas narrowed her eyes, then spoke with a tone of condescension: "It would do no harm to tell you. It is the founder of a church, a very special person. His strength is mediocre, yet he could withstand my killing intent and cleanse the curse of the Pluto Summoning. I have made a wager with him, and he is likely watching this situation right now. Balthazar, does that answer satisfy you?"

Balthazar gave a cold laugh. "In the end, you still haven't revealed that person's identity."

Sylvanas scoffed, "Balthazar, you talk too much. I know you must still have a trump card. Bring it out. I will destroy your final reliance with my own hands. Once you are in despair, I will grant you the mercy of eternal sleep."

"Mercy?" Balthazar narrowed his eyes and slowly stood up. "Sylvanas, my niece, have these years of victory made you so arrogant that you’ve forgotten the meaning of humility?"

"That is something only the weak need. I am a monarch, and I shall look down upon the world!"

"A monarch who looks down upon everything? Indeed, you have received the inheritance of the ancient sage from five thousand years ago, the legendary tyrant Gilgamesh, and have learned all of his arrogance and dominance." Balthazar revealed Sylvanas's secret in a cold voice, but she remained indifferent. Balthazar then shifted his tone, "It is a pity that even that tyrant, now forgotten by the world, was destroyed by the gods because of his arrogance. With your meager power, you have inherited his tyranny—you are seeking your own death!"

Sylvanas did not even have the interest to reply to Balthazar's words; she merely stared at him with a look of contempt. This made Balthazar feel as though he had been slapped in the face. As a formidable leader and the sole Grand Duke of the Star Kingdom, he had never been treated with such disdain. Combined with the fact that all his plans had been thwarted by Sylvanas, his fury became unbearable.

"Fine! Since you seek death, I shall grant it to you! Sylvanas, today I will make you learn how to spell the word regret!" After roaring these words, Balthazar pulled out a magic scroll and tore it open. His face twisted into a crazed, sinister grin. "Sylvanas, my niece, since you are bent on my death, I will fulfill your wish. However, I will take you all with me—including you, everyone in the capital shall die! If I cannot have it, no one shall!"

By the end, Balthazar’s voice had become raspy, and disgusting tentacles erupted from his body. Immediately after, a powerful force exploded, blasting a massive hole in the palace ceiling. The tentacles intertwined and shot into the sky, creating a colossal spatial rift.

"Is this... the spatial rift mentioned in the intelligence reports? Hmph, Balthazar, so you teamed up with the Bal Sect. Truly pathetic. You have no dignity even in death, and you still want to drag others down with you. You are a disgrace to the name of a formidable leader." Sylvanas glanced at Balthazar’s corpse with a mocking gaze, then turned her expressionless face toward the sky.

At this moment, dark clouds gathered, lightning flashed, and a gale-force wind blew. The entire royal city was enveloped in an apocalyptic scene. Faced with this, the people in the city were gripped by panic, as the negative aura emanating from the rift was unbearable. Even before an enemy appeared, they felt an instinctive terror.

Even Link and his companions, who were well-acquainted with spatial rifts, could not help but look solemn. This rift was incomparable to any they had seen before; not only was it much larger, but the violent, negative energy was suffocating. Within the influence of the rift, ordinary people would find their magic and battle aura suppressed or even backfiring.

"You've caused quite a scene. How do you intend to clean this up, Sylvanas..." Link whispered to himself, his eyes fixed on Sylvanas via the Heavenly Eye.

At this moment, although Sylvanas was expressionless, there was not a trace of panic on her face, as if the massive spatial rift were nothing more than an inconsequential breeze.

"Your Highness!"

Just then, two elderly mages and three middle-aged warriors descended upon the throne room. The aura they exuded was far beyond that of ordinary people; they were all Seventh-Order powerhouses.

These five were the supreme experts guarding the Star Kingdom, acting as honorary guests. They would not reveal themselves unless the kingdom faced an attack from a Seventh-Order powerhouse or a crisis of national extinction. Given the Star Kingdom’s short history and relatively thin foundation, this was the only way they could cooperate with such experts.

After they appeared, one of the elder mages immediately asked, "Your Highness, what has happened? Why has a spatial rift suddenly appeared?"

Sylvanas replied in a flat tone, "Nothing much. My uncle simply used his life and soul before dying to open a spatial rift, hoping to drag everyone in the capital down with him."

Upon hearing this, the faces of the five changed in unison. They could sense the intensity of the rift; even they would be unable to defeat the monsters that would emerge from it.

Thinking of this, the elder mage added, "In that case, please forgive us for taking our leave. We stated that we would not interfere in your royal disputes. Since this is a matter the royal family brought upon itself, we have no obligation to intervene."

Sylvanas let out a mocking sneer. "What? Having taken so many benefits from the royal family, you want to bail the moment you encounter danger? You truly are a group of 'noble-minded' reclusive experts!"

The five felt a flush of shame, but as old men who had lived for decades or even a century, their skin was thicker than a fortress wall. The elder immediately retorted, "Your Highness, that is unfair. We have always said that we have our own principles. When the Star Kingdom faces a crisis from an external enemy, we will certainly help, but the current crisis is of your own making. It should be solved by the royal family itself. How can you ask us to violate our principles? Isn't that right, everyone?"

Although the other four thought the old man’s words were shameless, they nodded in agreement. While they had a sense of shame, charging at a powerful enemy they knew they could not defeat was not bravery—it was stupidity.

Experts like them cherished their lives dearly. The longer they lived, the more they feared death. They had lived for a long time, and even without breaking through to a higher realm, they still had decades left to live; they were unwilling to throw their lives away here.

Watching the shameless faces of this group, Sylvanas’s smirk vanished, replaced by contempt and indifference. She uttered something inexplicable: "Master, you saw it all, didn't you? How shameless these five are."

Upon hearing this, the five were stunned. Immediately after, a sigh echoed through the hall: "Very well, Sylvanas. Do as you wish."

Sylvanas’s face curled into a cold smile, causing the five to feel fear from the depths of their hearts, like frogs being watched by a snake.

The next moment, Sylvanas whispered four words: "Gate of Babylon!"

As the words fell, a red halo suddenly appeared behind her. It expanded like an opening door, eventually forming a red film of light. Countless weapons began to slowly emerge from the film, which rippled like the surface of water.

Among those weapons were every variety of armaments, each with unique designs and glowing materials. It was obvious they were not ordinary gear; many emitted a powerful and mysterious aura, divine weapons that would make even supreme experts drool with greed.

Indeed, upon seeing some of the weapons, the five Seventh-Order powerhouses displayed expressions of intense excitement.