The icy killing intent made all the blood in Sophia's body seem ready to freeze.
Almost instinctively, she reached for the black-feather brooch at her chest.
The next instant, spilling lightning illuminated the entire palace. Thunder roared, and the maid named Hannah was struck by a bolt as thick as a wrist, blasted several meters away with a scorched hole burned through her chest.
Yet she was still smiling.
"Mission... complete... Sophia Petrovna eliminated..."
With a clang, a silver dagger fell to the floor. The black aura that had originally clung to it remained condensed into the phantom image of a dagger, which burrowed into the wound less than an inch deep in the Empress's back.
"Murphy..." Sophia only had time to call out once before her body went limp.
Murphy stepped forward and caught her, pressing a hand over the wound on her back. Strangely, although the wound was not small, only a tiny amount of blood flowed from it.
"Your Majesty!" Grand Shaman Maxim and Murphy had appeared at the same time, but Maxim only reacted now. He hurried forward and shouted at the guards in the hall, "Assassin! Protect the Empress!"
The guards were utterly panicked. In their eyes, the Empress had merely summoned a maid. How had things suddenly turned into this?
Just now, some force had prevented them from receiving more information. They had not even noticed the maid's assassination attempt against Sophia. Only when Murphy and Grand Shaman Maxim suddenly appeared through the black feather's lightning teleportation were they jolted awake by the thunderous blast.
The enemy's power was far beyond theirs. It could even achieve an effect similar to how wizards used the Disillusionment Charm to block Muggles' perception.
"Murphy." The Empress's azure eyes were losing focus, yet she still tried her best