Along with the melody, the drop of blood in the basin had gradually gotten thicker and started spreading rapidly. From only a drop of blood, it had turned a washbasin-sized black basin with a red-stained interior.
Raffaele raised her head, looked at the statue in the eyes, and used her bleeding index finger to gently stroke in between her eyebrows, leaving a vermillion mark.
She closed her eyes. When the ceremony was just about to end and the witches were about to throw away the stuff, suddenly.
Buzz!!!!
A powerful, coarse yet gentle force suddenly befell.
This force focussed on the statue with a dazzling, hazy white light and strangely, the stone statue started moving. The statue stretched out her right arm and gently caressed Raffaele’s cheek.
“The Lion Mother has arrived!” the witches exclaimed in wonder.
“The great Lion Mother! Please bless the leader of Grano!”
“The Supreme Witch King!”
The witches were in a joyful commotion.
Raffaele’s grandmother had a happy look on her face while she stared at Raffaele and the statue without blinking an eye. The advent of the Lion Mother was so rare that one hand alone was enough to count the number of times it had happened. Previously, she only had the chance to communicate slightly with the Lion Mother during special holidays, but now, the will of the Witch King had appeared right before them and surprisingly came just to bless Raffaele.
“Bless you, Grano’s Raffaele, the beautiful sun witch, you will have a greater position and power in the future….” a majestic will spirit shrouded over Raffaele.
Raffaele had a sweet smile on her face. However, no one noticed that the liveliness in her eyes was gone, leaving only indescribable emptiness.
*****************
In a distant underground cave.
The Lion Mother slowly opened her eyes, and the look of sympathy in her eyes had gotten worse.
“Please do not put the blame on me…. In order to eliminate all sources of evil, any sacrifice will be worth it….”
***************
“The seventh mask is in an ancient tomb in Asia?”
“The Holy Fist Palace has definitely sent someone to look for it. As long as we send someone over, we will certainly be able to delay or even prevent him from getting the seventh mask.”
“Then who should we send?”
“Someone who’s at least an Upper-Level Blood Breed as the leader. Otherwise, it would be hard for them to deal with Hochman and Dahm.”
In the hall of the Blood Union.
The four Death Apostles of the Secret Party and Light Party were sitting in the top four seats. The Blood Breed representatives of each ancestral family surrounded the four of them, and they were all crowded into a large circle. This was the first time that both parties, the Secret Party and the Light Party, have peacefully co-existed in the Blood Alliance conference since the fight.
Although the members of both parties were still hostile towards one another, ever since the pressure from the humans was getting bigger and heavier, their actions towards the blood breeds have gotten extreme. The newly invented detector had sleuthed out many older generation Blood Breeds, who were executed on the spot.
Humans named the Blood Breeds who joined the Holy Fist Palace as the new generation Blood Breeds, the neo-humans, whereas the Blood Breeds that did not join the Holy Fist Palace were named as the old generation Blood Breeds. With such a distinctive classification, it greatly suppressed both the Light Party and the Secret Party, as well as the neutral Blood Breeds.
Under such circumstances, many furious humans were unable to control their emotions and as a result, their actions against the Blood Breeds were starting to get out of control.
At this point, the Blood Breed’s Blood Alliance had no choice but to hold an emergency meeting to discuss methods to deal with the problem they were facing.
Surprisingly, the four Death Apostles came to an agreement regarding the issue about the Holy Fist Palace’s search of the Sleepless Faces.
Wellington looked at the remaining two Death Apostles.
“I did some research and found that the Sleepless Faces do have the ability to change one’s physique and convert them into ancestral Blood Breeds. In addition to having a long life, the ancestral Blood Breeds were able to locate all Death Apostles, but other than that, they had no other special abilities. Even so, I cannot help but tremble in fear at the thought of Garen being able to continue putting pressure on us.”
“I have found records on the abilities of ancestral Blood Breeds,” the only female death apostle said calmly.
“Me too,” another unfamiliar looking blonde man dressed in a black robe answered curtly.
The three of them were the three key figures of the Secret Party, and that man was the most mysterious among them.
Scarlet Moon from the Light Party was sitting opposite to them.
He was a pale looking dark-haired young man with a cold look on his face, and only when his eyes moved slightly could people tell that he was alive and not merely a sculpture.
“Scarlet Moon, what do you think?” the female Death Apostle looked towards Scarlet Moon.
“We are not participating; joining the Holy Fist Palace might also be an option,” Scarlet Moon answered coldly. The two Death Apostles from the Secret Party had chased him from such a long time that even now, he has yet to regain his full strength, so he was simply unbothered about these things.
“Fortunately, it is obvious that we have the advantage of our large number of usable manpower as compared to the Holy Fist Palace. All he has is just one Death Apostle and two Upper-Level Blood Breeds. Hence, he himself has to be in the headquarters and will not be able to leave,” Wellington analyzed, “I think that we can directly launch a nuclear attack onto the Holy Fist Palace and destroy the hope of mankind with their own technology, hehe…” a glimpse of cruelty flashed through his eyes.
When he recalled the memories of Garen slaughtering him continuously, he could not suppress the anger in his heart; that had been how Garen had traumatized him. If Garen were to find a way to kill the Death Apostles, then killing them would be easier than slaughtering a chicken if he was also able to locate the Death Apostles.
“We clearly cannot let him find the last few masks. If possible, I suggest that we should also start looking for the last few masks, and keep them in the hands of the Blood Alliance,” he suggested.
“This could work too.”
“Since we need to stop him from getting the masks, why not just directly eliminate his organization?”
Although the few of them did not respond to Wellington’s nuclear attack idea, it did not mean that they would give up on that method. However, the nuclear strike would be their last resort, and they will not use it until the very last minute. Otherwise, they would need to sacrifice eight hundred of them in order to kill a thousand of them, and that would be an outrageous loss.
“Both Hochman and Dahm are only Upper-Leveled, so as long as we are careful, we can easily settle the both of them.”
“What if they are using this trick too?” the female Death Apostle frowned.
“We can lure him into a trap, since he’s so strong, right? Let us see if a large number of strong explosives will be able to kill him, or how many toxic bombs will be enough to infect him. We can also use a thousand degrees flamethrower and laser splicing. I doubt that he will be able to survive,” the blonde man in the black robe surprised Wellington by uttering those words with a calm look on his face. Furthermore, the methods that he mentioned were almost all humans’ methods. This man was obviously very familiar with the humans’ science and technology.
“It seems like your human economic group has deeply affected you,” Scarlet Moon sneered. “Once you’ve used this method, do you think that they won’t use the same method to deal with us? You should know that human beings are far greater than us in terms of numbers.”
“This is a war, and we’re supposed to resort to every possible method,” the blonde man in the black robe said.
“I agree,” Wellington raised his hand. “Let’s vote to decide.”
Two hands were raised; the female Death Apostle hesitated, but still raised her hand.
Scarlet Moon remained impassive.
“All of you can do what you want. The Light Party won’t be participating.” he hit on the armrest of his chair and gradually disappeared from his seat.
At the same time, the representatives from the Light Party got the signal and left one after another.
“Even without them, we can easily conquer the Holy Fist Palace,” the blonde man in the black robe shrugged, maintaining his calm expression.
*******************
Asia, Forwade Mountains.
The brown mountains looked like a brown giant serpent with a little white peak that lay between Asia and Europe, completely separating the two regions.
A dozen of small countries surrounded the mountain, and Cassarne was one of them.
Cassarne was a small Buddhist country with a population of not more than 20 million, with only five cities including the capital. The vast majority of them were Buddhists.
During the afternoon, when the sky was still slightly dim, the bell started ringing as usual on top of Cassarne’s capital, Mount Roland.
The heavy bronze bell was being hit repeatedly, accompanied by the temple’s distant chants.
Bustling crowds filled the streets of Mount Roland, and from time to time, gray elephants passed by in a line. Women were walking around, dressed in veils that could only cover their upper body, and most of them had a red mark in between their eyebrows, indicating that they were married.
On the other hand, unmarried young women kept a long braid and were without any marking in between their eyebrows. They were walking together in groups.
From time to time, skinny and dark-skinned ascetic monks could be seen on the streets. Some of them were bare from the waist up, and with their long hair and beards, they looked very sloppy.
Some ascetic monks were sitting cross-legged on the large piece of cement in the largest temple near Mount Roland, Garlot temple, with their eyes closed while they murmured their chants.
Many local children and young men and women surrounded them. There were also foreign tourists who constantly took pictures with their cameras.
There were blonde-haired and black-haired tourists. The special characteristics from different countries were gathered in this place, and even black people with skin as dark as charcoal were present.
A fashionable female tourist with luscious blonde hair and a curvy body was wearing a pair of dark brown sunglasses as well as a beautiful black dress. Two sturdy bodyguards with closely cropped hair were following behind her.
She saluted the ascetic monks by putting her palms together in front of them, then she started browsing the stuff from a small accessory stall. However, her eyes were inconspicuously focussed on Garlot Temple on top of the mountains.
“It has been confirmed that the seventh mask is just below the Buddha stupa located at the back of Garlot Temple. There should be an underground ancient tomb palace,” the woman heard a man’s mosquito-like thin voice in her ears.
She nodded slightly.
“Hold on, that place only allows devout Buddhists to enter, so you might start a large-scale riot by entering recklessly. Wait until it gets dark before entering. According to the order of Sir Caesar, it would be the best if we can retrieve the mask without alerting anyone.”
“Understood.”
The man’s voice slowly faded out.