Through the special concealment effects of shadow magic, Clyde carryied Valkyrie Cynthia into this ancient city, meeting no resistance. The 200,000 insectmen monsters guarding the periphery of the city didn’t notice their old enemy. A valkyrie of God Race wandered into the city without any equipment just like this.
The former owners of Mahades had not been insectmen monsters,but rather Sigranians under the protection of the Moon God Clan more than a thousand years ago. Thus, the insectmen monsters were no more familiar with this city than Clyde was. With the help of Valkyrie Cynthia’s translation, Clyde easily found the right path to the center of Mahades. From the reaction head felt before when using dark perception magic, those three terrifying existences were all at the center of the city.
There were three buildings at the center of Mahades. One was the imperial palace of the Sigranians. This place had been the capital of the West Goth empire, the most powerful empire of the sky continent Sigrani. The scale and majesty of this palace far exceeded Adrian Empire’s palace that he had visited before. In terms of strength, the West Goth Empire of that time had far outclassed most of the human empires of Ximengsi Continent. Only the four border super empires might have been able to contend with the West Goth empire.
However, because the entire army of West Goth empire had been composed of mages, they had fallen into an extremely passive state upon encountering the insectoid monsters that were completely immune to magic and were unable to persist for long. Nevertheless, the palace they had left behind remained intact without any traces of that fearsome war. Even after over a thousand years, the bearing of this imperial palace remained the same. There were no signs of its deterioration.
One of the other two buildings was West Goth Empire’s mage tower. The mage tower could store all kinds of valuable magic items that far exceeded the national treasuries of most human empires. The Human Race of Ximengsi Continent, Ximengsians, was still at the low-magic civilization stage, far inferior to the flourishing sigranians. Only a few humans had magic professions, and their grades were low, so they didn’t have the materials to build a mage tower.
The last building was the imperial shrine, dedicated to enshrining and worshiping the Moon God Clan. The scale and luxury of that shrine far surpassed all the cathedrals of Light Church that Clyde had previously seen. Sigranians had not only far exceeded Ximengsians in terms of the scale of their empires, but also the scale of their religion, Sacred Moonlight Church. At that time, if they hadn’t suffered the invasion of insectoid monsters, the ruler of any Sigranian empire could have conquered every empire on Ximengsi Continent. From a certain aspect, Ximengsians should be grateful to the insectoid monsters; otherwise, their nations might have already been conquered by the Sigranians.
All along the way, Clyde learned a lot of things through Valkyrie Cynthia’s translations of murals. There were many records of Sigranians preparing to attack Ximengsi Continent. The humans of this different world divided themselves in accordance with their continent of origin, exactly like Europeans, Africans, Asians, and so on did from Earth. Merely, the number of races in this world far exceeded those few races on Earth.
Among all the human races of this different world, the Human Race of Ximengsi Continent was the least developed. Ximengsians had an impure bloodline. Originally, Ximengsi Continent hadd been an operation handled by various human races. Allegedly, Ximengsi Continent was where various human races had exiled their criminals. After many years of cross-breeding, they had become the current Ximengsians.
Roughly a thousand years ago, after several years of investigations conducted using the pretext of trade, the Sigranians had determined that the empires of Ximengsi Continent wouldn’t withstand a single blow and decided to dispatch troops. But, on the eve of the army’s expedition, the insectoid monsters had fallen from the sky and directly destroyed the East Goth Empire. Soon afterward, the insectoid monsters had quickly swallowed the North and South Goth Empires. In less than a week, among the four major empires of sigranians, only the strongest West Goth Empire had remained. A sea of insectoid armies had quickly wiped out the other three. Even the West Goth Empire had only been able to hold on for just three days longer before being destroyed. In roughly ten days, insectoid monsters had completely crushed the Sigranians’ four major empires and besieged the Moon God Clan. Their efficiency was terrifying.
“Cynthia, if the Ximengsians had been conquered by the Sigranians, wouldn’t your Heavenly God Clan have also been annexed by the Moon God Clan?”
“Lord Clyde, this… I have no way to answer this question. Moon God Clan indeed had that plan. Nevertheless, since we are all of the God Race, it would not have been good to shed all pretenses of cordiality and directly start a war. Losing the faith of our own people like that would have basically been the same as losing our dominance and influence.”
Cynthia somewhat awkwardly answered Clyde. In those years, Moon God Clan had indeed been thinking of subjugating Heavenly God Clan. At that time, Moon God Clan and Sea God Clan had been competing, but both sides had been matched in strength, so Moon God Clan had planned to annex the forces of Heavenly God Clan to gain an advantage. Merely, the affairs of life were unpredictable. Because of the invasion of the insectoid monsters, Mood God Clan was destroyed, and their opponent, Sea God Clan, also went into hiding. Now, over a thousand years had passed, but no news had appeared. It seemed that they feared becoming the insectoid monsters’ next target, so they avoided the limelight.
After understanding the history of the Moon God Clan and the Sigranians, Clyde had a difficult choice now. Because those three high-leveled existences were in three different locations: West Goth Empire’s imperial palace, mage tower and imperial shrine, he couldn’t immediately determine which was the leader of the insectoid monsters, his target.
Valkyrie Cynthia had no way to help. The Heavenly God Clan had not seen the real insectoid monsters, so they lacked intelligence on them. Clyde had a better understanding than the Heavenly God Clan. He had at least determined that the energy attribute of the fellow in the palace was similar to the insectmen monsters, meaning he was probably the leader of the insectmen monsters. Thus, the leader of insectoid monsters should be either in the mage tower or imperial shrine.
“These fellows truly are troublesome! Why aren’t they all together? They are actually in three different places.”
“Lord Clyde, didn’t you say that the fellow we are looking for is not in the palace? This direction isn’t right!”
“Cynthia, the one we are looking for is not in the palace, but it should know whether the person we are looking for is in the mage tower or the imperial shrine. I am going to ask it.”
Initially, Valkyrie Cynthia had noticed that Clyde was walking towards West Goth Empire’s palace and had been a little puzzled. However, Clyde had his own plans. He planned to directly control the king of the insectmen monsters who would know where the leader of the insectoid monsters was hiding.
In the palace of West Goth Empire, things remained unchanged, but the people were gone. Now, only insectmen guarded this place. These insectmen monsters had thicker carapaces and seemed much stronger and taller than those he had encountered outside. Nevertheless, these elite insectmen monsters didn’t notice Clyde and Valkyrie Cynthia whom he carried due to his shadow magic.
In the palace of West Goth Empire, Clyde finally found the whereabouts of those human females previously captured by the insectmen monsters. Iron cages designed like typical birdcages lined the palace. Those captured white lambs knelt and trembled inside those iron cages in completely bare states. Their limbs were bound with iron chains, and wickedly erotic, small black balls gagged their mouthsm and their eyes were covered with black blindfolds.
“Cynthia, insectmen monsters shouldn’t have that thing. Why did they capture these people?”
“They… should be… sacrifices for a certain evil ritual!”
Cynthia’s complexion was bright red as if she found it hard to speak of. However, because of the special contract, she couldn’t refuse to reply and could only shyly answer. For many evil rituals of the Demon Race, human sacrificial offerings were needed. Therefore, capturing humans was also a daily activity for many monsters. As for the concrete details of those evil sacrifice rituals, Cynthia found then embarrassing to recount. Although she was a Valkyrie, because of her natural instincts as a woman, she was uncomfortable with this topic.
There were many white lambs imprisoned in the palace being prepared for use as sacrificial offerings. Those small balls in their mouths each had an attached tube that forcibly poured a liquid similar to a nutrient fluid at fixed intervals. Even if they wanted to resist, they could only helplessly let the insectmen monsters treat them like livestock. With the insectmen monsters’ intelligence, it was unlikely for them to have been able to use those items, let alone design and make them. Clyde suspected that the method to use those wicked erotic items had been taught to these insectmen monsters by the leader of the insectoid monsters. Now though, he was confused. With the secret support of the leader of the insectoid monsters, why hadn’t the insectmen monsters defeated the underground ratmen by now? Moreover, why had they been seriously suppressed by this underground ratmen? This was difficult to explain.
The leader of the insectmen monsters, the King of the Insectmen Monsters, sat on a throne in the palace. Now, Clyde wanted to call it “Cockroach King.” The king of the insectmen monsters stood upright like a big humanoid cockroach. What made it different from the other insectmen monsters were its size, a golden imperial crown, and a golden scepter forged in accordance with the regal specifications of human emperors.
The strength of the Insectmen Monster King was much greater than the average insectmen monster. Not only did its physical strength far exceed a common insectmen monster, but it also possessed a large amount of dark magical power, so it could use high-level magic attacks. Fortunately, it had settled in the underground world. If it had emerged above ground, then even the high-leveled adventurer and mercenary groups might not have been able to defeat this Insectmen Monster King.
However, in front of Clyde, even this Insectmen Monster King wearing a crown and holding a golden scepter was blind. It was unable to notice the shadow magic of a higher-leveled existence of the same camp. Now, the Insectmen Monster King had no defense against Clyde and Valkyrie Cynthia. If Clyde made a single move, he could make this fellow disappear forever.
