Symphony for the Insect Princess

Page 68

The blood words left by Butcher, the message of his death.

"'Follow the great secret treasure'..."

This was no longer a secret; it was now widely known, but who had ever truly considered it? Everyone's first reaction to hearing it was that Butcher, before dying, wanted to write down the details or his purpose, "I followed the great secret treasure..." or something like that.

however……

"There is only one node on the outermost edge."

Further inside——

"Two appeared on the outer edge. Further in, there are five at the square node. There are two more inside. But if you add the two on Butcher, there are four further in..."

One, two, three, four.

Surrounded by the nodes where the four great treasures appeared were—

Taking the underground water conservancy hub distribution map again, Sako narrowed his eyes.

It is the very center of the water conservancy system, and the location of the underground water source in ancient times.

Use lines to connect the nodes where the great treasures appear one by one. It is obvious that the final line segment points to the center of the water conservancy system.

"Follow the great secret treasure."

"So that's what you mean... Based on where the fakes appear, we can find the real ones?"

At this moment——

"——!?"

Sarco suddenly felt a chill in his heart, and he immediately looked up. The sharp sense of the great war spirit told him that an extremely powerful magical fluctuation appeared somewhere on the surface!

"This is……"

The intensity of this magical fluctuation was unprecedented. At least in the Kasol region, there was absolutely no such a strong person! This power even surpassed his own!

Sarko stood up suddenly, and his subordinates immediately stood at attention, waiting for the leader's orders.

“…No, forget it.”

Sarko suppressed the desire to fight that was rising in his heart. Now was not the time for this. There were more important things to do. What good would it do to attack the enemy no matter how strong he was?

"Don't worry about the above, go get the real secret treasure first!"

““““““Yes sir! !!!””””””

----------------

A strange-shaped shadow streaked across the night sky, leaping from one rooftop to another, its speed increasing.

It was Cedroon and Charlotte. Charlotte, still maintaining her ladylike posture, rested on Cedroon's shoulders and upper arms. Cedroon, so used to it, didn't even bother to complain. While discussing their next move, Charlotte suggested searching for the young woman they'd seen earlier, who seemed to be carrying a great treasure. Cedroon agreed, and the two of them set off immediately.

At first, the two of them were chatting casually, with Setroon constantly telling dirty jokes and Charlotte responding calmly, but now both of them had serious expressions.

The source of the strange magical fluctuations was getting closer and closer.

The closer they got, the stronger the unnatural feeling of being "pulled toward death" grew, but both of them remained conscious. Having long associated with demons, Sedraon's spirit was inherently different from that of an ordinary human, and Charlotte, as a necromancer, had long been accustomed to the scent of death.

Even so…horrible things are still scary.

"……arrive."

Sedroon landed on a relatively flat roof and looked at the block.

A street stained with blood.

Even Sedroang couldn't help but frown.

Charlotte didn't realize what she saw at first. After a few seconds, she subconsciously covered her mouth with her hands and almost screamed.

At first glance, it looks like a forest.

Countless very thin tree trunks grow towards the sky, and each tree has a small crown on top.

The "trunk" is a spear, about the thickness of two hands, straight and slender, with a barb-like structure near the top.

The "crowns" were corpses, bleeding profusely. Some were pierced through the chest by bayonets, some through the abdomen, some through the mouth to the back of the head, and some through the lower body and out the top of the head. It was a miserable sight, and the strong smell of blood made people nauseous.

“…Impalment.”

This ancient and classic method of execution has long been abolished, but I didn’t expect it to reappear here.

Moreover, every corpse belonged to a member of the investigation team, and mixed in with some other people like mercenaries and adventurers. Each of them was quite powerful, but they were still killed instantly by these unremarkable bayonets.

"Who did it? Exactly—"

"--there!"

Just at the other end of the street, shrill screams were heard one after another. Just as the two were about to approach, suddenly two dark red objects fell from the sky and landed right in front of them.

There were two bloody human-shaped objects.

There was almost no visible flesh on the surface, only bloody bones were left on the limbs, the skin on the face was completely peeled off, the scalp was also cut off, the intestines were exposed, and the internal organs could be clearly seen under the ribs.

But still alive.

He is dying, with only his last breath left, gasping for breath miserably, but still alive.

"Oh my god... what are they doing..."

"First it was impalement, and now this is... lingchi?"

Chapter 81 Tyrant (Part )

These two beings, who were either alive or dead, were still entangled in something resembling thorns, which slowly squirmed. With each movement, a cold flash of a knife flashed between the branches and the thorns, slicing off a small piece of flesh from these two living beings, who were now no different from corpses. Although the nerve tissue in their torsos seemed to have completely rotted away, they still struggled and twisted with the cutting, uttering silent wails from their tongueless mouths.

Ling Chi.

It is a representative of torture in every era. It may not be the cruelest, but it is definitely the most well-known.

These two members of the investigation team had been cut countless times, but there was still a trace of breath under their noses. The executioner must be a dangerous person with extremely superb skills.

"...Charlotte, don't touch the thorns."

“…You don’t have to tell me.”

The two men left the place as quickly as possible, walked along the street that had turned into a river of blood from the roof, and looked at the miserable scene below.

"Blood flowed like a river" - at this moment this word was really not an exaggeration at all. A large amount of blood accumulated on the ground, covering everything with a strange red light.

"This... is too much blood? How can a human bleed so much?" Charlotte frowned and pinched her nose. She really couldn't stand the overly strong smell of blood.

"I read about it in a book. It seems to be some kind of bloodletting execution method, where hollow bone needles are pierced through the body... I think."

"Stop, stop talking, I'm about to vomit."

"Huh, the necromancer is afraid of these things?"

"A bare skeleton is much cuter than bloody flesh and bones."

"...That's true."

It was rare that Sedroon did not object.

……

"please……"

"..."

"Please..."

"..."

"Please, please ...

Before the knight could finish his words, thorns wrapped around his neck, and the sharp thorns instantly pierced his throat, forcibly silencing his voice.

“Gu… Wuu… Wuuu…”

Reflected in his pupils, dilated with fear, was the figure of the girl walking slowly towards him like a ghost.

How much bloodshed had she gone through? Her gothic lolita-style dress was completely soaked in blood. Her magic materialized into thorns that stretched out in all directions. Silver-white chains with blades swirled around her, making a rustling sound that made your scalp tingle.

In her right hand, she clutched a gleaming guillotine. In her right hand, she carried a man with rolled eyes, like he was carrying trash—Rodriguez, or rather, "half" Rodrigo. He appeared to be a mage, but at this moment, none of that aura could be seen. His body below the waist had vanished, and the thorn-wrapped flesh of his upper body was exposed, a horrific sight. These were the wounds of a lingchi (a form of torture).

A metal pliers was wrapped around the end of a thin thorn. The pliers were inserted into Rodrigo's mouth and pulled out his tongue, which was much longer than the normal length of the tongue. The pliers were still adding force bit by bit, keeping the tongue in a state of being about to break and pulling it out little by little.

Poof! ! !

As the knight watched, the forceps suddenly accelerated, and a thick stream of blood spurted out of Rodrigo's mouth. His entire tongue was ripped out! Even though he had lost consciousness, his body still reacted instinctively, convulsing!

As if she had finally lost interest in the toy in her hand, the girl's guillotine flashed in her right hand, and she raised her hand and slashed the knife, severing the neck tendons, cutting through the gaps between the joints, and chopped off Rodrigo's head without any hesitation. Then, she did something unknown, and the corpse, which had lost its head and lower body, exploded into pieces from the inside out, and the fishy flesh splashed all over the knight's face.

"..."

Despite having just brutally murdered a man, the girl's gaze remained hazy, as if she were dreaming. Her dull, orange-red eyes slowly shifted, scanning the grotesque corpses on the ground—finally locking onto the knight.

This is the last person left alive.

Qimila threw down the beheading knife——

"Iron maiden."

—something much larger took its place.

A heavy iron coffin-like object with patterns on the outside carved into the outline of a woman, connected on both sides by iron chains, and covered with sharp spikes on the inside. As long as a person is thrown in and the coffin is closed, the victim will be turned into a sieve. It is a classic torture device that even country children have heard of.

The Iron Maiden opened, revealing spikes covered in congealed blood.

Slowly approach the knight.

The latter's spirit collapsed at this moment and he cried like a baby.

……

"...I think we should save him."

"Huh? Are you an idiot or something? His death is his own business, don't get involved!!!"

Sedroon shouted at Charlotte. Although she often quarreled with Charlotte, this was the first time she shouted at her so harshly.

Realizing that Sedraon was dead serious, Charlotte shrugged and stepped back.

"Tsk... really... I didn't expect that..."

Sedroon's brow furrowed, her usual fearless and carefree demeanor completely gone, replaced by a serious and calm expression. She stroked her chin, carefully observing the girl's every move, not even missing the execution.

"...Sedroon?"

"I'm thinking……"

"What are you thinking about?"

"We..." Sai Zhuo'ang showed an unwilling expression for a moment, "Should we just ignore the great treasure on this girl and retreat first?"

“Hmm… Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Just ignore this girl?

retreat?

This woman who is always looking for trouble and seeking excitement all day long would actually say the word "retreat"?

Persuaded?

"Cowarded?"

"Aha!?"

She had spoken the wrong thing in a moment of haste—Charlotte quickly covered her mouth, but Sedroon readily admitted it.