Chapter 370: Mastermind 2
Ann-Rue swallowed, and was already shrunk into the corner.
"Why should I tell you!?"
As though thinking she was acting too weak. She instantly puffed out her chest.
"I advise you to let me go as soon as possible, or else once they realize you did it, even I wouldn’t be able to keep it under wraps! Be it the Royal Family or Obscuro, they’re not people you can afford to piss off!"
Garen was at a loss for words, shaking his head and laughing.
"Are you really so stupid or just pretending? I killed so many people of yours, and you’re still hoping I will let you go?"
Bam!!
He kicked Ann-Rue’s waist mercilessly.
The golden Totem Light fought against the black Totem Light on his foot, spraying out small flecks of black and gold light. The many flecks scattered onto the ground, and rapidly disappeared.
"Ahh!!!" Ann-Rue screamed loudly, her whole body kicked to the wall, the golden Totem Light on her body dimming significantly.
"Speak, what is this thing?"
"It’s... it’s, it’s a sealed scroll!! It’s sealed with three shots of Wade’s Thunder God Spear!!!" Ann-Rue was utterly terrified, and immediately spilled everything.
"Tsk-tsk, such a powerful item, and you kept it with you without daring to use it, just watching as I killed off your beloved subordinates. I finally understand how stupid you are." Garen was in awe.
Three shots of the Thunder God Spear, if used well, would be completely enough to wound him slightly and put his guard up.
Looking at the piece of crap in front of him, a hint of ruthlessness flashed past Garen’s eyes. She was useless alive anyway, so he might as well get rid of her.
"No!! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I don’t want to die! I know a huge secret! You’ll definitely be interested in it, don’t kill me!!" Ann-Rue immediately sensed the possible danger, and instantly closed her eyes, screaming.
"Secret?" Garen kept pulled back his hint of killing instant, rather surprised at how sensitive Ann-Rue was to danger. "Tell me, if it’s not worth any money, you know the consequences."
"It’s a secret to do with the Endor precious heirlooms!!" Ann-Rue immediately said it without hesitation. "You’ll definitely be interested in it, it’s the Endor heirlooms! Legend has it each heirloom has the power to reach the skies and split the earth!! As long as you don’t kill me, I’ll immediately tell you everything I know!"
Endor!
Garen’s heart gave a jolt. Although he didn’t show a thing on the surface, his heart was already extremely shocked.
In his previous life, he had entered and left the Endor ruins multiple times, so he heard a lot about this old and mysterious civilization. To think that even in this world, he could still hear rumors of this civilization.
"Are you sure it’s the Endor heirlooms?" He raised his voice and asked, this secret room was completely soundproof anyway, so he didn’t have to worry about his voice getting out.
"Of course, I’m a hundred percent sure!" Ann-Rue hurriedly answered like a chick pecking at rice, "It’s just that... just that..."
"Just what?"
"It’s just that this precious heirloom was made when Father called strong fighters from all over to mimic it, but it’s definitely a masterpiece that’s the closest to the Endor heirlooms! Believe me! I’ve seen what it can do!" Ann-Rue hastened to add.
Garen faintly sensed that Ann-Rue’s words contained a territory he had never experienced before -- precious heirlooms.
"Tell me properly what these heirlooms are. How are they divided?"
Ann-Rue nodded quickly.
"Most people don’t really know about precious heirlooms, only the people at the very top know about these secrets." She paused, and seeing that Garen didn’t look at all impatient, she grew slightly braver, getting up and crawling to the wall.
"Precious heirlooms were originally found by a totem user scholar, in a certain set of ruins. They’re mysterious tools with special abilities. These are the Original Heirlooms, four in total, one here in our Kovistan, one in Daniela, and two others currently missing. Father thinks they might have been lost to the West Continent or towards the Archipelago.
"Get to the point." Garen hastened her with a frown.
Ann-Rue was so scared her whole body shook, and she quickly spoke faster.
"Precious heirlooms can be divided into three levels, the Original Heirlooms, the Ultimate Heirlooms that mimic the Original Heirlooms, and the Regular Heirlooms that mimic the Ultimate Heirlooms. Most powers have the Regular Heirlooms, some just have more than others, even the totem storage tool is an Heirloom technique.
And Ultimate Heirlooms were passed down from the golden age of Heirlooms five hundred years ago, so there are exceedingly few of them. Now, only a few main powers have the ability to create them. Their strength is obviously more powerful, for example the two Grand Duke families in the Kingdom both have one Ultimate Heirloom each. And then there are the Original Heirlooms, also known as the Endor heirlooms, the strongest tools in legend, there are only two in the East Continent."
"How strong are they?" Garen said evenly.
"Original, Ultimate, Regular, the three levels are only general ratings, since their abilities are different, it’s hard to decide how their powers stack up against each other, they’re all grades according to how rare they are, how widely they can be used and their uses. The order of precious heirlooms also depends a lot of the influence of the wielder. If someone can make full use of a precious heirloom, this heirloom would naturally be placed higher and graded better." Ann-Rue hastily revealed everything she knew.
"But the Original are definitely the strongest, without a doubt," she added on.
"Then where is the Original Heirloom in Kovistan now? What’s it called, what can it do?" Garen asked the key of the matter.
Ann-Rue hesitated for a moment.
"Kovistan’s Original Heirloom is called Caesarton, its ability is Absolute Protection. Since Father took the throne, he’s always been wearing it on his finger. As for its power... Once, three Spiritualized totem users used their strongest attacks on him at once, and Father was still unharmed."
Garen’s heart gave a little jolt.
His Majesty Avic was just a normal person, to think he could use this precious heirloom to fight against three Spiritualized totem users.
"Wait! His Majesty Avic isn’t a totem user, is he?" he suddenly noticed the key to the question.
Ann-Rue’s gaze was complicated as she nodded.
"Yes, Father is just a normal person. The strongest point of the Endor heirlooms, is that even normal people can use them."
Garen instantly fell silent.
The secret room sank into a long silence, neither of them spoke.
After a long time, Garen completely accepted this unbelievable fact, and finally looked at Ann-Rue, her expression full of fear and respect, again.
"Then do you know exactly how many elite fighters there are in the Kovistan palace?"
Ann-Rue shook her head.
"I don’t know, everyone hidden very, very well. In the palace or even in the whole Kingdom, the stupidest thing to do is to completely reveal your own power, that’ll bring death upon your head. So I don’t know how many powerful people there are either. Father’s thoughts run deep, I have no idea how many secrets he’s hiding."
Garen arranged the information he just got.
"What about Obscuro? Aren’t you one of Obscuro’s Elemental Generals? Why do you want to assassinate Avic? Doesn’t he have Absolute Protection?"
"It’s precisely to get Absolute Protection. Firstly, this Endor heirloom has no attack power whatsoever. Secondly, it can choose some trusted person and lower the defenses against that person. This requires a Ritual of Trust信任仪式, and the trusted person will also be protected by the Heirloom’s power. And of all the concubines in the harem, only the First Concubine Delouse will soon receive Father’s total trust, with the Ritual of Trust in the works. Delouse gave Father three sons and a daughter. Twice she saved Father from a serious loss.The moment Delouse’s Ritual of Trust succeeds, that will be the moment of Avic’s death!" Ann-Rue’s voice deepened without her knowing.
It was hard to imagine, the internal conflict among the Royal Family had already reached such a cruel state. His own daughter wanted her father to die as soon as possible.
"What about you? As a royal princess, why are you willing to join the Obscuro Society?" Garen looked at this woman of paradoxes, both cowardly and cruel, and couldn’t help but ask.
"Me?" Ann-Rue gave a chilling smile. "Can you.imagine how a daughter feels when her father has taken her to bed since she was ten years old? Out of the twelve princesses and royal daughters, the first eight took turns entertaining Father in bed every night. As for the other four, perhaps they were too far away, or maybe there was some other reason, maybe because they were too young, only then did that beast reluctantly let them go. He liked to play like that."
She looked at Garen without shame, the sorrow of throwing it all to the sails in her eyes.
"To outsiders, it looks like we the twelve royal daughters are much beloved by the king, but in truth this love had a reason."
Garen fell silent, he found it hard to believe that King Avic was secretly such a perverted and shameless person.
"Before having us, that beast first chose wives of different looks and auras, his real aim wasn’t these concubines, but us, born to those concubines. He is such a pervert! My mother was starved to death in the palace thanks to him, the only reason being she broke a crystal glass."
Now that Ann-Rue had said it all, she felt relief instead, as though she had put down a heavy burden and was all the lighter for it.
"Anything else you want to ask?"
Garen glanced at this pitiful woman,
"That’s alright, I know everything I want to now."
"Oh, yeah, I kept that maid of yours in the Nongarde Villa, you go look for her yourself." Ann-Rue has also guessed that there was no way Garen would let her go, so she closed her eyes. "Make it quick."
Garen released a long breath, and his right hand shot out like lightning.
Psst!
The moment her Totem Light blocked it, it was immediately pierced through, and his finger accurately pierced into Ann-Rue’s forehead.
A fountain of blood and brain fluid sprayed out of the back of Ann-Rue’s head, splattering onto the walls behind.
With a whump, Ann-Rue slid to the ground softly.
"Pitiful woman, pitiful royalty." Garen shook his head, the perverse inner nature the Royal Family had earned his eye as well. Such a Royal Family was beautiful on the outside but rotten on the inside, although Avic was particularly kind to his ministers and acted like a breath of fresh air, towards his own family he was unusually cruel. And his largest weak point just happened to be with his family.
In the original history, the Kovistan empire was headed towards becoming one of the strongest countries in the East Continent after he ascended the throne, but then it abruptly collapsed. This was probably the main reason.