The Villain Princess survived the Imperial Riot

does not exist?

Hestia did not act rashly.

"Why aren't you talking? Don't you like talking? Hehe, it doesn't matter if you don't talk. I can use my tongue to pry open your mouth—"

"Whoosh!"

The sound of flickering flames echoed in the library. The glowing jade in Viola's hand suddenly went out. In the pitch-black darkness, Hestia could no longer see the floating heads. However, with the blessing of the [Eye of Truth], she was still able to observe the underground environment through her spiritual perception beyond the material world.

However, from the perspective of the [Eye of Truth], there is no human head.

"Here—"

The woman's voice drifted in their ears.

"Ah ah--"

Viola screamed and shook her fist at the sound, but her fist missed.

"Your Highness, are you still there?" The little maid cried for help in a trembling voice, "A ghost, a ghost seems to be next to me..."

"Don't move, I'm here to protect you."

A reassuring voice sounded, and a soft hand pressed against Viola's shoulder.

“Hmm…” Viola felt warm in her heart.

"Idiot, back off!"

With a "bang" sound, the flames of the five guns briefly illuminated the dim ground, and the alchemical lead bullets flew past Viola's ears accurately.

"clang!"

The lead bullets sparked as they rubbed against the metal, and flew up into the sky like rubber.

Hestia was using a single-shot percussion rifle. If she had used the High Knight's standard revolver, it was hard to say whether the moving figure would have been blown to pieces. Her maid might have had half her head burned off by the scorching flames.

When the firelight briefly illuminated the library, the princess and the maid saw the outline of the figure at the same time - a faceless steel body, twisting and turning like a puppet.

"Ahhhhh-"

Anyone who sees a "live" body without facial features would probably be scared out of their wits at the first sight.

"Shut your bitch!"

Hestia snorted in dissatisfaction, and at the moment the steel figure stabbed the maid with the sword, she took a step forward, unsheathed the rapier at her waist, and lightning and sparks burst out with dazzling brilliance. As the clang of metal collision rang out, Hestia grabbed Viola by the back of the collar and threw her behind her.

"clang!"

Hestia drew her sword to block and kicked the not-so-heavy hollow body to the ground.

She made a sword flower and stared at the steel figure in the darkness.

Under the unique vision of the Eye of Truth, the energy of the magic stone circulates along the arcane circuit and finally converges at the chest core engraved with secret text, protected by a hard metal breastplate.

She can read out several weak areas, and if she hits them, she can dismantle them on the spot.

"Your Highness, where are you..." Viola had never been so dependent on the princess as she was at this moment.

"I'm here, little idiot..."

"Ah, my Lord, there's a ghost next to me—"

Viola almost shed tears, but she still bravely maintained her last bit of calmness and fled in the dark in the opposite direction.

"Don't bother with that thing, idiot."

Hestia deconstructed an alchemical pellet with a flick of her finger, igniting the special gunpowder and instantly setting a bookshelf ablaze. As the flames roared, the dark library lit up again, and the beautiful yet maddened head took shape.

The woman smiled sinisterly and said, "Tsk tsk tsk, little girl, how did you know I wasn't your dear 'Your Highness'?"

"Because Your Highness wouldn't speak in such a gentle tone." Viola's chest heaved violently. Suppressing her fear, she faced the woman's question. "Your Highness, if she is a ghost, then I should be able to drive her away with the secret technique of glow. But I've only learned the basics, and I'm not even a secret practitioner yet..."

"Idiot, don't use secret techniques on her." Hestia cursed again, looking at the head coldly.

"Hey, a little one like you also has such insight?" The woman exclaimed softly.

"It's just that you're so stupid—"

"Be careful, Your Highness!"

Just when her mind was distracted, the iron mountain swung its sword again. If it weren't for the "Jiujiu Punishment Shirt" that restrained everything close to her, causing the iron mountain's attack to stagnate for a moment, Hestia might have been pierced through the abdomen by this sword.

The princess dodged sideways and used a sword to pierce the runes on the shoulder of the steel body. The decomposition mark was still in a continuous state, and now it spread along her arm to the joints of the body, pulling out a steel limb.

Gears and nuts scattered all over the sky, and Hestia once again distanced herself from the steel body.

"Very good, worthy of being a Celestial Dragon with strong martial virtues." Hestia muttered to herself silently.

In her memory, the princess's martial arts skills were far inferior to those of the high knights or senior Iron Knights, but with her extraordinary dragon body, she was able to wrestle with a rune puppet.

"Your Highness!" Viola didn't care how many of her beloved books were burned. She hurried to the princess' side and said, "The fire will soon spread to the library. We'd better leave quickly."

"What's the rush?" Hestia ignored the smoke drifting between the bookshelves and stared intently at the head. She tilted her head and asked, "Witch, witch?"

She hadn't expected to see a witch or even a sorceress in such a situation. But judging by her appearance, she truly lived up to the title of the Four Calamities of Dreams. From top to bottom, there was no part of her that didn't resemble a villain.

"Hehehe, you're truly worthy of being called 'Your Highness'. Children born into a royal family are truly knowledgeable." The woman smiled seductively and then looked cruelly at Hestia. "You didn't run away even though you knew I was a witch. If you want to die here, then go ahead and die—"

As she spoke, the entire library began to tremble. Countless ugly spirits emerged from the books, and their dizzying howling and screaming could almost pierce the listener's brain. Viola covered her ears, but she could not stop the sound from entering.

"Your Highness, please leave first. I can still use the secret art of glow to deal with these ghosts--" As she said this, the maid took out the light furnace cross prayed for by the Glow Church from her pocket, and prayed for a miracle in the way of the clergy.

As for whether it would be useful, even Viola herself was not sure.

"Use your skills, aren't you? Giving the witch a skill? Why do you think she was able to extinguish the Glowing Jade?"

Hestia slapped the cross in the maid's hand to the ground and looked at the head.

"There's no need to leave. She's trying to scare you." Hestia sneered. "She doesn't exist. You could say she's not entirely real."

"Eh? Your Highness, be careful..."

Viola was stunned for a moment, then saw a ghostly figure rushing towards her. Hesterlingya did not try to avoid it, but let it pass through like smoke.

"You truly exceeded my expectations, Royal Princess." The head stared at the princess gloomily.

"Royal family? Fuck your royal family! I'm the ninth-generation descendant of the noble Divine Emperor. I'm an old idiot who's only got hair left, hundreds or thousands of years old. How dare you point fingers at a descendant of the Heavenly Dragon?"

Although Hestia was looking towards the head of the people, her eyes were actually focused on the wall behind her.

A more secret space was hidden at the back, invisible even to the Eye of Truth. However, she could calculate the weak areas based on the library's structure and rune layout.

It takes time.

"Old thing?" The woman's expression was very unhappy. She said with a grin, "I hope your lower mouth can be as hard as the upper one."

"I'm afraid you're not even a ghost. You're not worthy of the body of a dragon, you dead man." Hestia smiled contemptuously, and easily avoided the attack of a small gargoyle squatting on the stone platform between the bookshelves.

The woman's frantic expression calmed down, but her eyes remained fierce and her tone became anxious: "Which sect of Tibetan cultivators are you from? You are so familiar with the witch's talents, and you are so defensive that even I can't get a glimpse of your power."

Because I'm a witch.

Hestia thought silently.

But she also deliberately did not let the range of the secret technique be too far away from herself, so as to avoid being snatched away by the other party.

She had no experience playing against witches, and wasn't even familiar with their abilities, so she didn't know if this would be effective. But now it seemed like this girl was completely helpless against her.

"Why don't you take a guess?" Hestia chuckled.

"I hope you can still be that confident when you kneel before me. If you don't want to escape..." Her gaze fixed, and in an instant, sixteen small gargoyles and four rune puppets simultaneously darted out of the shadows of the library's mechanisms. "Then never leave!"

"Boom, boom, boom——"

Hestia pulled out her revolver, shattering the small gargoyles that flew in front of her one by one under the gunfire. The sword blade wrapped with black lines aimed at the weak area and easily disintegrated the steel body. The exposed magic stone core was immediately damaged, and corrosive luminous acid flowed all over the ground.

"Clara didn't hear such a loud noise." Hestia murmured, "Sure enough, I was right."

"If you keep talking nonsense, your little lover will——"

"Shh!"

Hestia threw her rapier, pinning the small gargoyle that was rushing towards Viola to the wall.

"What did you say, an old thing with not even rotten flesh left?" Hestia glanced at the human head, and the contempt of a Celestial Dragon was clearly revealed.

The woman seemed to have never been looked at with such contempt. She enjoyed the hatred and fear of mortals and secret cultivators. No one dared to underestimate a witch who could call the wind and rain.

"little monster."

The woman grinned grimly, and a strong wind suddenly blew up in the library full of smoke. The arcane circuits surged towards her, and endless airflow and energy filled the spine wrapped with white nerve bundles. Each of her braids seemed to condense an invisible magic that could destroy the world and the ground, and could turn the underground and even the surface into a deep pit at any time.

She laughed wildly and said, "You must pay the price for being arrogant. Go to hell—"

"Be careful, Your Highness!"

Even if Viola was inexperienced, she could tell that the woman was about to use her ultimate move.

Hestia remained unmoved and dismantled a nearby steel body with her bare hands. The decomposition mark dimmed again, and those silk threads floating in the void could no longer leave her body.

"Give me—"

"Go to hell——"

"Bar--"

Like a slow-motion shot, my body was filled with a terrifying, oppressive feeling.

After clearing the gargoyles and the steel body, Hestia went straight through the head without encountering any obstruction.

The princess looked at the wall behind the head and said to herself, "Use your skills quickly after you finish chanting. Don't be so lazy here. You're still a witch, but you're acting like a stupid dog."

"You!" The woman's fury was like a swirling flame, her hair like a sinister red viper. She paused for a moment, then demanded in a venomous voice, "How did you see that?"

"Because you didn't use any powers." After confirming the danger was over, Hestia used [Punishment] to extinguish most of the fire and looked at the structure of the wall. "If you didn't use this method, I wouldn't have known the depth of that old woman Aynive. She's a hermit who practices the Spiritual Hidden Path, the Path of Apparition, and the Silent Organ, right? The old woman is not a Tibetan cultivator at all, hehe..."

"I asked you how you knew that!"

"Idiot, wasn't I clear enough? Thousands of years of sealing have shut down your brain? Oh, you never had a brain in the first place. You're just an illusion." Hestia sneered at her. "The mystics of the Silent Organ serve both the Secret Treasure and the Heavenly Authority, while the mystics of the Path of Manifestation embark on a path of puzzle-solving and knowledge-seeking, searching for reflections of those sounds within the Secret Treasure and seeking the ultimate answer to their own existence."

"I don't understand, Your Highness..." Viola also imitated the princess, trembling as she moved through the crowd, sticking close to the princess. "Are you saying that she is an illusion? Why does it seem so real?"