Constantine's expression visibly froze for a moment when he heard "that thing in the temple".
The fingers of his left hand that were pressing on the carvings of the armrest stopped.
"Who... are you?" His voice was very low, and the phlegm in his throat was reduced, leaving only dryness.
"You can call me...Merlin." Lin Ze stood up straight and stopped pretending to be humble.
The ministers in the palace looked at each other, some gasped, and some took half a step back.
The moment that name came out of Lin Ze's mouth, the eyes of several veterans had changed. Boqin stood in the crowd and moved his lips twice without making a sound.
Constantine's left hand that was pressing on the carved pattern suddenly pressed down.
There was a dull tremor on the stone floor.
Lin Ze The carpet under his feet began to feel hot, and a dark red light seeped out from the gaps in the stone slabs, spreading in all directions like a spider web.
Those dark red light patterns converge in only one direction.
throne.
Constantine was sitting in the center of the dark red light pattern, and his whole body was reflected red by the light.
"You think I don't know your purpose?" His voice changed, becoming too hoarse to sound like a human voice, as if there was another person hiding in his throat talking with him.
"It's just that you take it for granted and underestimate me!"
There was chaos in the palace.
The ministers crowded towards the door, and the soldiers didn't know whether to stop them or draw their swords. Several princes stood there at a loss, and the youngest one was held by the wet nurse and ran out.
Lin Ze didn't move.
He held the wand in his cuff with his right hand and waved his left hand slightly behind him, signaling Arthur not to come over.
"Constantine." He stared at the rickety old man on the throne.
"You feed it so much blood every year, what does it give you? Does it allow you to live for a few more years? Or does it allow you to turn those soldiers who should have died on the battlefield into shadows under your feet?"
"What do you know?" Constantine stood up from the chair.
When he stood up, his back made a "click" sound. He was taller than before, his shoulders became wider, his arms became thicker, and the blood vessels under his skin bulged one by one, and the color changed from blue-black to dark red.
The royal robe was stretched tight, the cuffs were torn, and the exposed forearms were covered with dense dark red lines, which were exactly the same as the silk threads in the North's bones.
"What do you think that is in the temple?" Constantine's voice became thicker and thicker, becoming more and more like it was coming directly from the suspended heart.
"It has given me fifty years of national fortune. I just need to give it some food every year."
"Those soldiers... those soldiers who died in the temple on the battlefield... they were just one innocent life after another... and you... you fed them to the evil god."
"They were meant to die on the battlefield!" Constantine roared, and the candlelight in the entire inner hall was extinguished at the same time, leaving only those dark red light patterns still shining.
"I just made their death more worthwhile."
Lin Ze did not answer the call.
Because the changes in Constantine haven't stopped yet.
Those dark red lines crawled from his arms to his neck, and from his neck to his face, converging into a thumb-sized dark red crystal on his forehead, which was exactly the same as the dark red stone in the temple.
"You think you can make a fool of my sons by coming with a broken sword, and then let that handyman appear from nowhere to draw the sword and claim the throne?" Constantine took a step forward, and the floor cracked like spiderweb patterns under his feet.
He knows Arthur is here.
Lin Ze's pupils shrank.
Constantine's eyes crossed Lin Ze's shoulders and fell on the figure in the uniform behind the crowd.
"Arthur·Pendragon." He pronounced the name very slowly, chewing each word into pieces before spitting it out.
"You think I don't know you're back?"
Arthur stood still, his hands hanging by his sides, his face expressionless, but Lin Ze noticed that his fingers were trembling slightly.
"When your father died, I should have sent you away with him." Constantine took another step forward, the dark red lines on his body so bright that it was dazzling.
"But I kept you alive and raised you outside the city to make you think that I still have some conscience towards you. Guess why?"
"Why?" Arthur's voice was very flat.
"Because I want you to live outside, live until the day of the Spring Festival, and live until I walk into this temple myself." Constantine smiled, and the dark red crystals on his face cracked as he smiled.
"Shedding Gods not only needs the blood of soldiers, but what it likes more is the blood of the royal family."
The few remaining soldiers in the palace finally realized what they were doing, carrying their halberds and surrounding Arthur.
Lin Ze took out his right hand from his cuff and flicked the wand in the air.
"Impedimenta"
A transparent wall rose up from around Arthur, and the soldiers bumped into it, like hitting cotton, and they were bounced around.
"Sirius." Lin Ze shouted.
In the corner of the inner hall, a big black dog sprang out from the shadows. When it landed, its figure suddenly elongated and turned into a tall, thin man with unkempt hair.
Sirius pulled Arthur behind him, raised his hand, and a wand with a gem embedded at the bottom flew out from under the throne in the hall and fell into his hand.
"I knew you would definitely take it with you." Sirius rubbed the lost wand.
Constantine snorted coldly, raised his right hand, palm facing up, and the dark red light patterns above his head gathered into a slender beam of light, which shot straight into the dome.
"The Lord Witch King is here too. Since everyone is here, don't leave."
The moment the light beam exploded, the walls on all sides of the inner hall cracked at the same time. Dark red threads poured out from the cracks and swam along the ground like living creatures. Wherever they passed, they left scorched black marks on the stone slabs.
They are exactly the same as those threads in the the North bone pile.
Lin Ze's wand is on the ground.
"Frost Charm"
White frost exploded from the tip of his staff, spreading close to the ground in all directions, freezing the dark red threads halfway.
But the silk thread just paused for a moment, and the frost layer on the surface cracked into fine lines, and continued to crawl forward.
Constantine stood in the center of those silk threads, like an old tree growing out of the ground, its roots digging into the foundation stone of the throne, and his whole body was wrapped in dark red light.
"Merlin." He read the name with a strange pleasure in his mouth.
"I've heard this name before, God told me."
Lin Ze's eyelids twitched.
"It tells me that there will be a person with a power that does not belong to this era and a bone to ruin my affairs."
Constantine raised his hands, and those dark red threads formed the shape of a spear in front of him.
Lin Ze stared at the dark red spear, his mind spinning rapidly.
Shedding Gods is looking for him?
No, Shedding Gods is looking for the "space" phalanx.
The fake statue has been in the temple for so many years. Every time Constantine goes to worship, it is observing everything outside through Constantine's perception.
"It wants this finger bone." Lin Ze said.
Constantine smiled.
The laughter was dry and hoarse, mixed with the beating of the heart, making one's scalp tense.
"I will never refuse what it wants."
He raised his hand and waved.
The dark red spear separated from the light beam in the air and shot toward Lin Ze with a harsh sound.