Chapter 29: The Palace Incident (Part 3)
Feeling the brand on his back ache faintly, Aphrodite looked at the treacherous-faced Charlemagne VII with contempt. Then he looked at the thin member of his own kind in front of him and coldly snorted.
“After all these years, the imperial royal family is still this disgusting.”
“That really hurts to hear. Don’t forget, you are also a member of the imperial royal family, my dear younger brother.”
As soon as Charlemagne VII finished speaking, the sound of wind produced by extreme speed interrupted what he was about to say next. Immediately afterward, a weapon made from a zerg tendril attacked him.
Before anyone could react, that freely extending tendril had already reached the imperial emperor’s chest, only to be abruptly stopped by a golden cobra blocking its path.
“Thirteen?”
Bai Ye, who was behind Aphrodite, looked at the familiar little snake and then turned to Charlemagne VII in disbelief.
“What did you do?”
“Of course I followed the imperial royal family’s ancestral teachings and took what I was supposed to take.”
Furious, Bai Ye summoned his mental body and restrained the still-writhing tendril that was draining away Thirteen’s life. Then he caught the little snake as it fell, glaring fiercely at the indifferent emperor.
“He’s your son.”
“He is only a disgusting beastman who inherited foreign blood, just like that lingering first empress. Irritating and loathsome.”
Aphrodite looked at the brand on the golden snake’s vital point, the exact same totem as the one on his own back.
For a moment, nausea surged in his chest. The killing intent he had suppressed for many years gradually overflowed. The gaze he turned on Charlemagne VII carried hatred.
Only when Talir’s voice sounded did it pull him back from his thoughts.
“Emperor, this makes things a little difficult for us.”
Talir shook out the black robe on his body, revealing several zerg tendrils artificially stitched onto him, and continued attacking in the emperor’s direction.
“Now is not the time for you to catch up.”
Countless tendrils revealed sharp spikes and attacked the emperor’s chest from every direction, as if intending to tear him in half.
At the critical moment, Aphrodite pushed aside the motionless Charlemagne VII and used the silver dagger in his hand to block Talir’s attack.
Countless streams of venom flowed from the dagger’s hilt, seeping into the tendril it pierced.
In only a moment, the venom of the snake beastman invaded the tendril’s blood circulation, causing Talir, the main body it was connected to, to feel dizzy.
Then his body detected the threat the connected part posed to the main body. The tendril infected by snake venom detached itself from the main body, preventing the poison from invading further.
003, inside Talir’s consciousness cloud, was forced to stop actively controlling the body’s attacks and instead began repairing the mental power lost because of this.
Only after the tendrils stitched onto the body fell off one by one did 003 regain control over Talir’s body. His gaze turned cold as he looked at Brayden, whose spine had been broken.
“002, how long are you going to play dead? Get up already.”
After his words fell, the one who responded was not Brayden, who lay motionless on the ground, but one of the princes who had previously been knocked down by Brayden: the Seventh Prince.
“What a pity. I quite liked that body. Unfortunately, with its spine broken, my abilities alone can’t fully repair it for now.”
002 controlled the Seventh Prince’s body and slowly stood up. While looking at the people before him, he adapted to this new body, not forgetting to complain.
“The mental power is a little weak, and the mental body is rather small too. Looks like the rumor that the imperial royal family’s mental power has weakened generation by generation isn’t false.”
“Stop wasting words. Hurry and bring me the emperor’s body.”
“Stop ordering me around, 003. What a useless thing. That body of yours is a guide, yet you can’t even deal with one sentinel and one snake. Trash.”
002 looked at Aphrodite, who was standing in front of the emperor, and sized up the dagger in his hand that was soaked with venom.
“Looks like before dealing with the emperor, I have to deal with these few first.”
As he spoke, 002 flashed in front of Aphrodite and aimed a fully charged energy gun at the other party’s abdomen.
But the speed of a cobra beastman was not famous for nothing. In the blink of an eye, Aphrodite appeared behind him and sliced open the back of his neck with the dagger.
The instant blood surged out, venom invaded the Seventh Prince’s body.
002, located at the center of the consciousness cloud, sensed that this body’s functions were declining and immediately detached from the gradually weakening consciousness cloud.
The moment he released control, the Seventh Prince’s body collapsed to the ground. A transparent long worm, impossible for sentinels to perceive, crawled out of his brain and moved toward another body lying on the ground.
Immediately afterward, the older Third Prince stood up and summoned a giant elephant mental body from his repaired mental sea.
Just repairing the damage to this consciousness cloud had consumed quite a lot of 002’s energy. Because of this, when he controlled the body’s mental body, he seemed somewhat willing but unable.
“This body’s mental illness really is severe. If I hadn’t entered it, it would probably have reached the end of its lifespan soon.”
As 002 spoke, he took from the Third Prince’s waist an armor storage device connected to him through mental power.
Through the sensing of mental power, the biological mecha stored in the space revealed its original form. During automatic assembly, it took the Third Prince into the cockpit.
“Time is almost up, 003. I’ll leave the emperor to you.”
With that, 002 piloted the biological mecha connected to his consciousness and slashed down toward Aphrodite, who was holding the dagger.
The attack surpassed the speed of the human body itself, leaving Aphrodite no time to dodge. He could only grip the dagger and block the heavy sword attack, which was twice the size of his own body.
The enormous impact nearly knocked him down, but because of his half-beastman enhancement, he truly took the blow.
The feeling of his wrist bone breaking clearly entered his mind. Knowing that beastification would more easily accelerate wound healing, he transformed into his full beast form and dodged 002’s attacks.
Seeing the fight between the two enter a deadlock, 003, controlling Talir’s body, let out a cold laugh. He picked up a tendril that could still be used and looked toward the emperor, who now had no one protecting him.
Just as he was about to seize control of the emperor’s body, a vulture swooped down at him.
Caught off guard, 003 was forced to lose the weapon he had just obtained. Immediately afterward, a dagger identical to the one in Aphrodite’s hand attacked him.
Bai Ye clumsily swung the dagger, trying to stab through his head, while letting out a self-mocking laugh.
“Sorry, I’m not very good at close combat. But this person can’t be handed over to you for now.”
“Oh, is that so?”
003 laughed softly and somewhat awkwardly extended mental tendrils, aiming at Bai Ye’s head.
“I just happen to still be unfamiliar with the abilities of a guide’s body. I’ll use you to practice.”
Sensing the other party’s powerful mental attack, Bai Ye immediately stopped what he was doing and hurriedly dodged out of the range of the other party’s mental tendrils.
It seemed 003 had not yet become familiar with using a guide’s abilities, so the range of his mental tendrils was limited to within twenty meters of the main body.
Looking at Bai Ye, who had dodged dozens of meters away, a glint flashed through 003’s eyes, and mockery filled his gaze.
Under Bai Ye’s wary defense, 003 released his own mental energy, extending Talir’s mental tendrils.
Several offensive tendrils branched out and attacked Bai Ye’s consciousness cloud.
The moment the pathways of his consciousness cloud were severed, the secretary bird circling in the air let out a cry, then returned to Bai Ye’s mental sea as it fell.
As his consciousness cloud was damaged, Bai Ye’s mental power drained rapidly. The relapse of his mental illness made even breathing feel extremely difficult.
At this moment, Aphrodite, who was fighting 002, transformed back into human form. As soon as the injury on his wrist recovered, he sensed mental power draining from the ring on his ring finger.
“Bai Ye?”
Ignoring the mecha in front of him that was firing a charged cannon at him, Aphrodite turned his head and looked toward Bai Ye at the other end.
Seeing the person in his eyes kneel on the ground from intense pain, Aphrodite could no longer care about the power of the charged cannon. He turned around, deployed the personal defensive barrier he carried, and slammed into the mouth of the mecha’s cannon.
The shell that followed was blocked at the opening, creating a violent explosion and destroying the mecha controlled by 002 along with it.
In the aftermath of the explosion, a golden cobra shed its snake skin and dragged its scarred body toward Bai Ye on the other side.
When his body touched the dying person, Aphrodite curled up and enclosed him within his snake body, transferring his own mental energy.
Only when a drop of blood fell between Bai Ye’s brows did he recover from the chaos of mental decline. Weakly, he raised his head to look at the giant snake.
“Brother… my head hurts.”
“It’s all right, Xiao Ye.”
Aphrodite flicked his tongue, soothing Bai Ye, who was wrapped in his body, while trying to send a message through his optical computer, which was being affected by interference.
Looking at the ruined scene before him, Aphrodite heightened his vigilance and constantly watched the movements of the two aliens. Beneath the wreckage of the mecha that had just exploded, the Third Prince’s body was pinned under the heavy armor, nearly completely destroyed.
Talir, lying nearby, had also had his throat cut open by a flying piece of metal.
Just as Aphrodite began searching for the emperor’s figure, the connection between his optical computer and the outside world was restored. The communication linked to the beastman army was directly opened.
“Your Majesty…”
“Notify imperial command. I need a guide medical team. Have them arrive at the palace as quickly as possible.”
“Reporting, our forces are currently cracking the palace defense system. Approximately ten minutes are needed.”
Aphrodite used his snake tongue to lick Bai Ye’s somewhat pale lips, enduring the wounds across his body as he said with difficulty, “There is a breach above the southeastern part of the palace from where our aircraft crashed. Once you arrive, send the medical team to rendezvous with me. Everyone else is to establish contact with the marshal as quickly as possible.”
“Received.”
As the soldier’s voice fell, the communication in the optical computer disconnected.
Aphrodite let out a breath and searched among the fallen people for Charlemagne VII.
After searching with no results, he returned to human form. Ignoring the wounds still bleeding across his body, he carried Bai Ye horizontally in his arms and walked toward the tower within sight.
