The highest title bestowed by the Titans' royal family was that of a Duke, and there were only three such positions.
As one of the Dukes holding the primary voice in the council, he had already died in the bloody Strangler Incident by the time Felix arrived in the capital.
This event had opened the door for Lady Elizabeth, who seized the opportunity to become one of the three key controllers of the council. She was on the verge of becoming the youngest Duke, and moreover, a female one.
When Felix trapped the struggling soul of a demon into a flesh golem, engraved with countless profound and obscure inscriptions, its lackluster eyes seemed to suddenly regain vitality.
The eyes, a blood-red with a blazing flame swirling within the pupils, bore the imprint of a fiery seed Felix left in its body—a spark from the soul!
"In the name of Felix, sleep now, my servant," he intoned.
As Felix chanted in a deep voice, the flame in the flesh golem's eyes gradually extinguished. It slowly closed its eyes, looking more like a finely crafted, realistic sculpture.
Having completed the ritual, Felix let out a long breath. The day and night of intense magical exertion had left him exhausted, a fatigue that sparked a sharp, needle-like pain in his brain, greatly affecting his concentration.
After storing the now-dormant flesh golem in the Blue Crystal, Felix turned to the equally weary Vivian, gesturing for her to rest. He still needed to check the progress of his demonic ogre battle servant's transformation, as his sense of unease was growing stronger.
Just then, a powerful elemental fluctuation emanated from the direction of the capital, causing a resonance with the free-floating magical elements in the air. Even within Felendia, Felix could feel the terrifying elemental storm brewing at the epicenter of these waves.
"So, it has begun?"
Realizing that everything was underway, Felix felt an eerie calmness within him. He donned the Doom Robe, clutched Mammon’s Redemption, and began chanting in a hoarse voice. Nine ogre battle puppets, partially demonized, appeared before him. The leader, a fully demonized half-undead ogre, its body covered in black keratinous skin and sprouting bone spikes and sharp claws, didn't even need a weapon.
"If I don’t return in seven days, seal off Felendia."
Turning to Vivian, whose face was etched with complexity, Felix took a mysterious silver-white "stick," a legacy from the enigmatic Master Gamma, from the Blue Crystal and handed it to her.
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Then, in a low, raspy voice, he commanded, "Activate the anti-magic field, release the Dark Guardians. Kill anyone who approaches without mercy!"
A deep, heartfelt emotion prompted Felix to lift his pale hand, gently caressing the sorrow-tinged beauty of the woman before him. "This was left to me, it might hold the key to your freedom."
"Master," Vivian’s warm, soft hands grasped Felix’s cold ones. She looked into Felix’s handsome face, opening her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. She knew she couldn't change Felix's mind. He was a stubborn man.
Felix’s expression quickly returned to calm. Suppressing the emotional stirrings within him, he set off with his nine Bloodthirsty-enhanced ogre battle servants, swiftly heading toward the capital through the snow and wind.
The streets were littered with patchy bloodstains, doors on both sides tightly shut. Through the windows, Felix saw the terrified eyes of the civilians, who could never understand why this war had come so suddenly.
The epicenter of the elemental fluctuations, originating from the palace, was the heart of all the fighting, the decisive battleground.
Bodies, the bodies of knights, lay scattered. Felix saw knights wearing the badge of the Borage Flower. Among these corpses were figures eerily familiar to Felix: members of the Silver Hand Knight Order!
Spellcasters in the sky had spotted Felix, his nine massive ogre battle servants too conspicuous to miss.
Hawkeye!
Felix squinted at the spellcaster hovering high in the sky, clad in a gray cloak adorned with a skull-adorned badge, clearly his badge of identity.
The spellcaster, who had stepped into the Silver Domain, tentatively launched a magical attack at Felix, but soon let out a wail as he plummeted from the sky.
The resonant cry of a griffin!
Felix watched as a rune javelin, swift as lightning, pierced through the frail body of the spellcaster. Twelve griffin knights appeared in the sky, circling overhead. After confirming Felix’s identity, they let out three sharp shrieks and then swiftly headed towards the palace.
It seemed Lady Elizabeth was at a disadvantage, but the situation wasn’t too dire. She appeared to have gained air superiority!
The path to the palace was lined with corpses, with dried bloodstains stretching to the end of the road. Felix encountered a group of knights harvesting the lives of the wounded, wearing the badges of the Silver Hand Knight Order.
"Rage!"
With Felix's deep, raspy chanting, the eyes of the nine ogre battle servants turned blood red. The leading demonized ogre battle servant, like a starving tiger pouncing on sheep, ferociously attacked the terrified knights.
Horses neighed in terror. The leading Silver Knight, clad in silver-white heavy armor, was overwhelmed before he could react. The fully demonized ogre battle servant, now a beast-like existence, twisted him and his horse into a mangled mass of flesh and metal.
"Squeak, squeak!"
Driven mad by the scent of blood, the demonized ogre battle servant opened its mouth wide, stuffing the fleshy mass mixed with metal chunks into it.
Chewing mouthful by mouthful, blood mixed with human limbs spilled from its mouth, its visage as horrific as a devil from the deepest pits of hell. "Roar! Roar! Roar!"
The eight other ogre battle servants, injected with dirty blood, roared, wielding massive clubs as thick as a man's waist, and pounced on the knights now controlled by fear.
The battle had just begun.