Pirate Kingship-Chapter 579 - 420 Sacred Relics: Time Thief, The Petty Thief Must Die!
Antisuyu, the territory of the Second Prince, was located in the eastern part of the Sun Empire, bordering the interior. At its very heart lay his splendid and luxurious Royal Palace.
"Ah—! You despicable thief!"
A voice full of intense anger, yet still laced with a seductive charm, suddenly erupted, affecting many of the maidservants working in the nearby gardens.
Their faces turned rapidly red, their eyes glazed over, and their bodies suddenly trembled as they collapsed to the ground with weakened legs.
What set this particular palace apart from other areas in the Royal Palace, where beautiful maidens served, was that here, every attendant was a strikingly handsome young man, and at the very least, a robust warrior of strong build and muscular frame.
Clearly, the master of the palace had different tastes.
Whether it was because they were closer in proximity or because of their different gender, the reaction these men showed was extremely shocking.
"HUFF... HUFF..."
They were all panting like bulls, their eyes and skin turning scarlet, and their bodies emanating heat.
"My love, Lady Ashubel!"
They began by invoking the name of their beloved in an adulatory, almost hymnal chant. Then, they sought any available hole to start their actions, their flesh even beginning to contort and proliferate uncontrollably.
They soon became horrible, writhing masses of blood and flesh on the ground. In the blink of an eye, they fused grotesquely with the holes in the trees, the grass, and the cracks between bricks and stones, giving birth to a host of grotesquely-shaped Bizarres.
Before they could writhe much more, they all dissolved into puddles of blood.
A dense Blood Mist rose and seeped through the crevices of the palace, leaving no trace behind except for several odd holes in the ground.
Normally, even in a state of extreme anger, Succubus Theresis Achebeir, a Fourth Order Mythical Creature, would only be capable of punching through ten centimeters of steel at most. She should not possess that thread of terror-inducing power that seemed beyond comprehension. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
The answer lay within the palace chambers, in a bedroom more spacious than those of the Old Continent's Kingdom palaces. Specifically, it lay upon the enormous bed at the center, which could comfortably sleep dozens of people.
The true form of Succubus Teris hid here, enjoying the highest honors as a guest of the Second Prince, even taking on a somewhat dominating presence.
Contrary to what Byron had imagined, this Fourth Order succubus was not a native born and bred of the Southern Continent.
Her skin was as white as snow, her neck as graceful as that of a swan, her waist delicate, her buttocks full, and her legs long and straight—she was the epitome of beauty.
Her slightly upturned, fiery red lips were so enticing that one could hardly resist feeling a burning desire at the sight, while her clear, doe-like eyes sparked an instinctive need to protect.
Her gorgeous purple hair cascaded down to her hips.
And while her features were gentle and similar to those of the natives, she also bore a distinct resemblance to the lineages of the Old Continent.
It was probable that, like the ancestors of the Bay Exiles, she was a descendant of the ancient Dragon Court, whose members had been displaced to the Hundred Beasts Paradise or the Sea of Origin Matter by supernatural disasters like Blue Holes. It was unclear exactly when her ancestors had migrated and how many generations had quietly flourished since then.
There was also another dignified man who bore a resemblance to the Fourth Prince Atahualpa, though markedly more mature, kneeling very humbly at the foot of the bed.
He held one of her delicate, fair feet in his hands, diligently applying a bright red nail polish to her toes.
While the consciousness of Teris occupied Princess Perta, a Zealot, her true form was not idle. She was engaged in intimate communication with her chosen Crown Prince, a known playboy.
Besides these two living beings, all that remained was a large gold cup positioned on the bedside.
The Blood Mist converged from all directions, stirring a thin layer of plasma at the base of the cup. Although the volume was vastly reduced, the exceptionally alluring sweet scent was tantalizing.
The golden cup was engraved with the image of Mahalath, one of the four succubus queens from two thousand years ago in the Mythological Era.
She rode upon a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns, wore long gowns of purple and scarlet, and held a golden cup filled with blood.
Above, an ancient inscription read: "Mystery, the great! Mahalath, mother of all fornications and abominations on earth."
This golden cup was none other than the Night Demon Sacred Relic—the Zero-Level Sacred Relic, the Cup of Mahalath, once held by the succubus queen herself.
To distinguish it from the Church's Holy Grail, it was also referred to by them as the Blood Cup.
It was said to be one of the Thirteen Holy Artifacts held by the Night Demon Nobles, having once contained genuine Seventh Order Divine Blood and possessing unbelievable Might in the hands of the Night Demons.
However, upon closer inspection, one would realize that while the base of this golden cup embodied an unfathomable original Might, the most vital upper part had merely been repaired with ordinary gold to resemble its complete form.
Just as with the Church's True Cross, Spear of Longinus, Shroud, Holy Grail, and Holy Prepuce, among others.
In that cataclysmic event that marked the Era Transition and the Twilight of the Gods, shrouded in inexplicability, they all met the same fate.
This powerful Sacred Relic also helped Theresis Achebeir withstand the information assimilation from the Sailing Logbook, allowing her to establish a vast force within the Sun Empire while still at the Fourth Order.
Even the Second Prince, a man with a promising prospect of contesting for the throne, fell prostrate under her skirts.
Looking at his face, filled with sycophantic infatuation, he was not much better than any of those servants.
"CREAK... CREAK... Lord of the Celestial Kingdom! You are quite something!"
Teris's heaving bosom gradually subsided after a bout of intense fluctuations, yet the hatred in her heart was not easily quenched.
But she no longer continued her impotent fury, which might spill over to the other carefully-selected male servants she had painstakingly gathered.
She looked down at the Second Prince, Vascar Kapak, the 'Playboy', in front of her, who only had eyes for her and had not moved an inch despite the countless screams of agony emanating from outside the hall.
The ice and frost on her face eased slightly.
When the Fourth Prince Atahualpa introduced his brothers, there was something he wasn't quite accurate about.
Apart from being fickle-hearted, the Second Prince was also the most attractive among all his brothers, which is why he had caught the affection of someone as appearance-focused as Succubus Teris.
The reason he had fallen into Byron's invincible hands in matters of "physical attraction" this time also had a cause.
Teris knew that compared to that shameless young thief, this Second Prince merely looked young on the outside.
Vascar Kapak, the 'Playboy', as the Second Prince, may not be as prominent as the Eldest Prince, Ninan Coyuchi, 'Earthquake Glow', who had been the Eldest Prince for ninety years, but he was seventy years old nonetheless.
A ninety-year-old prince and a seventy-year-old prince; the two brothers were much of a muchness, neither able to mock the other.
Between them were more than a dozen other brothers who were relatively mediocre, not even reaching Fourth Order; mere also-rans in the succession, with virtually no hope at all.
"Vaskar, look up."
Teris picked up the Blood Cup, which granted her its powerful Authority, and carefully scrutinized the faint pink luster in the depths of his eyes for a long while.
She then issued several more commands that trampled on male dignity. Contrary to Byron, who had obtained a "dog" to deal with her, the Second Prince didn't hesitate to obey each one.
She repeatedly confirmed that this critically important investment was indeed completely under her control and wouldn't capsize her plans in the gutters like that shameless thief she had encountered in Chinchasuyu.
Only then did she finally make up her mind. Raising her hand, an Obsidian Dagger with a deerskin sheath appeared in her hand.
She carefully handed it over to the Second Prince.
It was only then that he smacked his lips, snapping out of his reverie from the beauty's probing "benevolence," regaining a shred of sobriety.
"My love, what is this?"
The object looked like nothing more than a common obsidian sacrificial dagger: a short, sharp blade of black obsidian at the front, and a crudely processed deer antler for a handle.
It wasn't much different from the ordinary sacrificial daggers typically used to slit the throats of sacrificial victims in native tribes.
Only the ominous, blood-red Divine Light that suffused the whole object testified to its extraordinary nature.
Teris clarified for him,
"This is the Level 1 Cursed Object: Time Thief.
"Spawned from an extremely bloody sacrificial ceremony, it just needs to leave an indiscernible cut on someone's body to immediately slash half of the victim's lifespan, bestowing it to the wielder.
"In theory, you can attain immortality!
"However, for the rest of your life, you will be hunted by a Bizarre called the Time Hunter, who seeks to reclaim the time that doesn't belong to you from your body and charge you a penalty on top of that.
"But you can also repel that Bizarre with this sacrificial dagger.
"The Time Hunter comes once a year, continuously growing stronger, typically multiplying its strength by two every year, until it retrieves the stolen time."
Seeing the Second Prince's eyes light up at the mention of "immortality," she warned him,
"Don't use it on yourself; no one can defeat the Time Hunter forever.
"You take this treasure and sacrifice one of your subordinates. With it, during your coronation, your team of three will be able to kill anyone in your path, be they man or god.
"As long as they are neither a Long-lived Species with an infinite lifespan nor a Pseudo-God who has already achieved immortality, this sacrificial dagger from some native tribe will be invincible.
"But for providing you with additional help, I have one condition."
Teris Achebeir's eyes, once filled with the innocence of a young doe, now emptied of all coquettishness, only to be replaced by endless coldness and venom, with what seemed like the twisted howls of countless men's vengeful spirits swirling in their depths.
"Isn't the coronation ceremony at the Holy Lake conducted in groups of three this time?
"I'll accompany you, and there's a certain thief who must die!
"I don't care whether he attempted assassination because he discovered Perta's identity as a traitor or if he's the long-planned disruptor of another power.
"But a mere human of a Short-lived Species dared to mock the noble Night Demon Nobles, and for that, he must die.
"I want to slash his lifespan, drain him of his essence, and watch him age and die slowly."
Even for someone as shameless and promiscuous as her, being used and attacked with an "object of pleasure" during intimacy was a humiliation, even causing psychological trauma to that kind of practice for a while.
Now, flushed with anger and shame on her cheeks, she vowed to tear apart that sly and cunning thief, to devour him alive, again and again!
