Chapter 257

In the Western Territory, on the Affetus Great Plains.

A group of the Iron Blood Army are on a frantic run, searching for the so-called Space Rift and the 'Duchess' who could appear anywhere at any time.

Ha?

You ask Duchess?

You dare say such things in the Western Territory? Be careful, the Grand Duke might jump up and punch your head in the head!

The officers were also bewildered. Yesterday at the meeting, the Grand Duke had said something about strengthening defenses and that the decisive battle with the Western Barbarian Army was just around the corner. Now, the entire army was searching for the Lady, and they couldn't understand the situation at all.

Of course, it might be the Grand Duke's wisdom that this was a trap deliberately set for the Western Barbarian Army, because even though the Iron Blood Army seemed somewhat chaotic, the Western Barbarian Army, which was confronting them, still did not take any action.

The Western Barbarian Army isn't stupid. Why did you suddenly panic and lose your composure? Who are you trying to impress?

Trying to fool us? Our great hero saw through your tricks long ago!

The Western Barbarian Army dared not make a move, and the Iron Blood Army soldiers were even more certain that this must be the Grand Duke's scheme.

Meanwhile, Grand Duke Duchess Magana had already taken out the Book of Death, intending to inquire about Ryan's whereabouts.

If that doesn't work, then she'll prepare to perform a ritual to use the power of the God of Death to find Ryan.

She was, after all, a chosen one, so she could ask the God of Death for advice, though it was troublesome and costly.

Before Magana could even open the Book of Death, the mirror she used to communicate with Ryan began to show Magic Power fluctuations.

Magana was overjoyed and quickly activated the relic.

"Ryan!"

Seeing Ryan appear in the mirror, the Grand Duke finally felt relieved.

"Where did you go?!"

"Your Grand Duke, where is Haino?" Ryan asked anxiously.

"She's fine," Magana pouted. "But if you had been any later, she might have been in trouble."

If there's no news from the Book of Death or the God of Death, she'll definitely hang Haino up and kill him.

You were with Ryan, so why are you okay but Ryan is nowhere to be found?

Actually, Haino wasn't entirely unharmed, as two days had already passed since she emerged from the Chaos Space. However, she wasn't targeted by the God of Desire; she was simply influenced by the power of Desire and Janus, which caused her to remain in the Chaos Space for an extra two days.

"What exactly happened?"

"It's a long story, but I'll keep it short. I'm with Kazar right now, dealing with some... well, temporary matters. As long as Haino is alright, I'll go back when I find an opportunity. As for the Western Territory, Grand Duke, you can proceed according to plan."

"Hmm... okay."

Anyway, as long as Ryan is alright.

It's a pity, though. According to the plan, Magana intended to use this war as a 'transformation ceremony' for the Iron Blood Army, allowing the name 'Iron Blood Legion' to enter the ranks of extraordinary legions.

It would be a grand ceremony, and she had been preparing for it for a long time, even hoping to witness it with Ryan.

Hmph, it's all that Haino's fault. I'll make her stay in the Western Territory and work hard there!

"Alright, Your Grand Duke, I have some urgent business to attend to, so I'll leave now."

To avoid being discovered by Kachina, Ryan quickly put away the relics after explaining the situation. He then looked around; they were on a grassy field outside the City of Sin, just before entering.

Kachina suddenly said she had to leave for a bit and would be right back, so Ryan took the time to let the Grand Duke know she was safe.

He had originally planned to escape, but the setup for the Janus Ritual would take time, and after what had happened before, he was now hesitant to use the Chaos Space teleportation. As for running away on foot, that was basically out of the question. The Janus Scroll was an option, but it was too precious, so he decided to save it for later.

And since it's Kachina, the Twin Empresses of Arcadia, the other party seems to have some misunderstanding about him? Anyway, since we're safe for now, let's see how things go first.

We might even be able to extract some important information from them.

"Speaking of which, Caslathdi mentioned that her dwarf classmate seems to be around the Kazar Plain... but this place is quite big, I wonder where she is."

Caslathdi is coming over.

There's no problem leaving the dwarfs' affairs to the other party to handle.

The main reason is that Kachina is there.

What if the twins discover Caslathdi's true identity?

Having spent two extra days in the Chaos Space, according to Caslathdi's itinerary, they should arrive here soon.

I don't know if the other party is clear about this or not. Judging from the situation, they don't seem very interested in politics. Maybe they can't resist Caslathdi? But anyway, I won't run into them. More importantly, to make me Prince right off the bat, do you think I, Ryan, am that kind of person? Even if I am a handsome guy, I'm not just any handsome guy.

As Ryan thought about it, he glanced at the mark on his right hand. He really wanted to spit on it and wipe it off. "Damn it, is the God of Desire playing dirty tricks on me?"

This thing has been quiet all this time, but I didn't expect the God of Desire to cause trouble for it. It seems that I should spend less time wandering around the Chaos Space in the future, since that is the territory of the Outer Gods.

What puzzled Ryan was that the God of Desire was right in front of him; if the other party had come out at that time, it was possible that he could have forcibly kept him there.

After all, whether it was Janus, the moon god, or the Earth Goddess, the three gods only possessed power within them and certainly couldn't contend with true gods. Or perhaps... the God of Desire wasn't unwilling to emerge, but rather decided to come out?

"Desire in the room... does that mean being trapped in the room? If so, are the Blood God, the Lord of the Bizarre, and the God of Chaos also in the same situation?"

"But those are gods! Who else could possibly trap them? The gods like Janus?"

Ryan didn't think so, because since the Golden Dawn era, the power of the gods had clearly been dormant. Although there were still responses to believers, they were far less than in the previous era.

Otherwise, Mechanical Civilization wouldn't have risen so rapidly; with the decline of divine power, other forces naturally emerged.

There are still too few clues. It's impossible to deduce anything from Creed's words alone. The game's official background didn't mention anything either. I guess even if there were any, it would be in the DLC later. It's all the fault of the game company for not releasing it sooner.

However, on the other hand, this at least verifies the truth of Creed's words. It's just a mystery where that bastard got that information from and then told him about it. He clearly had ill intentions. If it weren't for the protection of the three gods' power, an ordinary person would probably be dead by now.

"Hmm... never mind, don't overthink it, just stay away from danger."

Ryan lay on the grass, giving up on thinking about it. Since he couldn't figure it out, he decided to leave it alone for now. The principle of "if you don't court death, you won't die" applies everywhere.

On the other side.

In the woods not far from Ryan.

Kachina looked at the illusory figure in front of her, a somewhat helpless expression on her face. "Kachia, my dear sister, it's only been a few days since I left and you already miss me? Why are you in such a hurry to contact me?"

Kachia remained seated on the throne, looking at Kachina with a serious expression.

"August has allied with the Northern Federation. I originally planned to use the cardinal's information to get that Saintess on our side, but it seems that won't work."

"Isn't it obvious? I heard that the Saintess is from Augustus. She would definitely choose to help her hometown."

"This is different. The Gate of Janus even abandoned a cardinal. That's an attitude, you understand?" Kachina shook her head slightly. "What's more troublesome is that Wildea's army has already entered Rugon and will soon run into our frontline troops. They have nearly 20,000 Moonlight Cavalry. The few men Williams brought are probably no match for them."

"So soon?" Kachina scoffed. "Queen Wildea probably isn't too keen on it, is she? The Empress of Augustus is truly cunning."

"Who knows? In any case, things will be very important for Arcadia next. Kachina, come back as soon as you've had enough fun outside."

"Oh, Kachia, I'm not kidding. I'm looking for clues about the dwarves."

"So, did you find it?"

"I didn't find it, but..." Kachina's lips curled into a smile, "I found something more important than the dwarves."

"Oh?" Kachia's expression remained unchanged. She knew Kachina too well; the latter always exaggerated things.

"It's true, I've found a potential Chosen of the Earth God!"

"Um?"

Kachia was slightly moved. "Really? Kachia, this is no joke."

Chosen of the Gods are very rare, especially since the Golden Dawn era. There have been very few Chosen of the Gods of the 'faction of justice' since then. It is unclear about the other gods, but as for the Earth Goddess, Kachia once held a huge sacrifice to try to communicate with the Earth Goddess, but the response she received was very weak.

The miracles that appear today seem more like a pre-existing 'mechanism' operating on its own, maintaining the mystery and greatness of the gods in the eyes of the world in order to fill the most basic gaps in faith.

After realizing this, Kachia gave up the idea of making the two sisters the Chosen of the Gods.

"Really, he'll be with me right now." Kachina chuckled. "I plan to take him back to be my Prince."

"..."

Kachia initially thought Kachina was just making up an excuse to recruit Prince, but she soon discovered that the latter wasn't lying. There was a magical power of empathy between them, and she could feel that Kachina's words came from the heart.

"Chosen of the Gods has really appeared? Then what are you waiting for? Bring him back quickly!"

"Don't rush, let's stay in City of Sin for a few days. Maybe we'll find some news about the dwarves," Kachina said cheerfully. "And while we're at it, we can also get to know my future Prince better."

Kachia frowned. "If he really is the chosen one, then he is the one chosen by the Earth Goddess."

"Isn't that better?"

"You... now some people in the empire think you're driven by lust."

Kachia gently shook her head, revealing a look of affection that she only showed when facing Kachina. Although they were Twin Empresses of almost the same age, Kachia was always used to taking care of Kachina because of her personality.

Therefore, she is the older sister.

Even so, it's still a bit helpless. If the Chosen of the Earth God are really so blatant in snatching people... Although there's no conflict between the Prince and the chosen ones, Kachia thinks Kachina will get tired of it after a while, because the so-called recruitment of the Prince is just Kachina's fun. The latter is the type who is only three parts enthusiastic about things but ninety-seven parts curious about new things.

"In short, come back as soon as possible. The Kazar Plain will become unsafe soon. As for the City of Sin, the Watcher Legion will destroy it for us, and everyone there will die."

"Oh dear, don't say such terrible things... Alright, alright, I'll go back as soon as possible. I'm going to find my Prince now."

After putting away the relics, Kachia hummed a song as she walked out of the forest. In the distance, she saw Ryan lying on the grass, emanating a faint, ethereal earth power.

A faint golden light seemed to fall upon Ryan, making him appear exceptionally holy... but his posture was rather ungentlemanly, lying on the ground sucking on his penis, which was a bit too carefree.

However, Kachia did not find it offensive; on the contrary, she found Ryan even more genuine. She had seen many hypocritical and pretentious people whose true nature had long been revealed.

Suddenly.

Kachia noticed several figures quietly approaching Ryan.

The most distinctive feature of the Kazar Plain is its chaos and disorder, which becomes more pronounced the closer you get to the City of Sin. If a stranger comes here, it would be abnormal if they didn't encounter a robbery in a day.

Kachia snorted and waved her hand, sending golden power flying into the distance. Suddenly, several stone giants rose up from the ground.

The appearance of these stone giants startled those who were preparing to ambush Ryan, and they turned and ran, only to be hit on the head by a large number of stones, red and white splattering all over the ground.

Before long, those bandits went to meet the God of Death.

Ryan sat up and glanced at Kachia, who was walking towards him. He had noticed those sneaky guys earlier, but he hadn't paid them any attention.

"City of Sin is always chaotic, Rider, you'd better watch out."

Kachia said with a smile, "Let's go into the city."

"Yes, Your Empress."

Ryan stood up and brushed the grass off his clothes.

This was his first time in Kazar. He had only heard of the City of Sin before. Unlike the City of Desire, this was the most chaotic place in Kazar, a place where evil was hidden.

Many wanted criminals choose to come here when they have nowhere else to go.

Even wanted criminals fear other wanted criminals; evil people fear those who are even more evil than themselves.

As Ryan followed Kachina into the City of Sin, he instantly felt countless eyes converge on him, and then someone in the crowd gasped in surprise—

"Empress Kachina has arrived!!!"

"Kachina?!"

"Help!"

"Hurry up, hurry up!!"

Amidst gasps of alarm, the once bustling main street of the city gate was suddenly deserted, with only a few people remaining.

Ryan: "?"

He turned his head in surprise. "Wait, just how bad is your reputation, girl?"

Ryan was previously slandered, but even so, he doesn't scare children when he goes out normally.

Kachina didn't mind. With a smile on her face, she hummed Arcadia lullaby and walked along the street with great interest, occasionally giving Ryan a brief introduction to the situation here.

This was clearly not her first time here, but her second... Well, her last visit had left a deep impression, because some blind fool had coveted her beauty, Kachia's order caused the entire City of Sin to be ravaged by blood, reducing its population by a third.

Later, everyone in City of Sin remembered the Twin Empresses' appearance.

In fact, the Arcadia Empire was certainly capable of razing the City of Sin to the ground, but Kachia deliberately kept the Kazar Plain in a state of chaos, after all, she also needed to guard against the Northern Coalition from back then.

"This girl is indeed a bit ruthless." Ryan's gaze swept over the Confucian scholar, then, with a gentlemanly air, shifted to survey the city.

It's a bit like the old Berman City; it's not a place with advanced civil engineering. Perhaps the construction couldn't keep up with the daily damage, so they simply didn't want to waste money on it.