The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 156

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Eldest Daughter Walks the Path of Flowers Episode 156

Claudio said.

“What is this?”

He couldn’t believe what was before his eyes.

In front of him stood a tall man wearing silver armor.

The short-cut hair and angular facial features were all too familiar.

It was himself.

It wasn’t just Claudio.

The knights who had been descending to the Abandoned Tower Basement under Carno’s orders suddenly saw duplicates that looked exactly like themselves slowly emerging from the walls.

“Wh-what is this?”

“Those mage bastards, what kind of trick is this?”

It was no wonder that panicked voices erupted from here and there.

Those panicked voices grew louder as the duplicates that emerged from the walls began charging toward the knights.

If it had been on level ground, the knights wouldn’t have been this flustered.

However, while they were busy descending the stairs, the cramped space suddenly doubled in occupancy, making it impossible to properly assume combat positions due to the confined area.

Claudio, who was at the front, shouted.

“Retreat! Fall back and secure space!”

A duplicate charged toward him as he shouted.

“Ugh…!”

Honestly, he didn’t want to clash with something of unknown identity like that.

However, as the leader at the front of the group, he had no room to retreat. All that remained was to fight back.

He raised his greatsword. Greatsword clashed against greatsword, creating a thunderous roar.

With their swords locked, Claudio tried to push the duplicate back to secure space.

However, the heavy sensation transmitted through his grip told him that was impossible.

His duplicate was chillingly identical to him not just in appearance, but in strength as well.

“Hah…”

Claudio, who had been speechless for a moment, regained his composure and swung his sword once to break free from the standoff.

However, the absurd situation continued.

His duplicate, having retreated two steps down the stairs, was staring at him while assuming the exact same stance as him.

“This is… impossible…!”

He was ignorant about magic arts and, frankly, looked down on them.

He had thought that at best, mages could only shoot fist-sized fireballs with their so-called magic arts.

But to think such spine-chilling feats were possible.

Claudio, who had been standing with his sword tip lowered, suddenly moved like lightning.

The swordsmanship he was now using was different from the Imperial swordsmanship he usually employed.

It was the unique swordsmanship of his family that he had mastered in his childhood.

It was born from the thought that surely it couldn’t copy even this.

But it was useless.

The duplicate responded using the same strength and the same swordsmanship as him, like a mirror reflection.

The more their swords clashed, the more hopelessness washed over him.

‘If I keep fighting this thing, it’ll never end.’

Claudio looked around at the surrounding walls while holding his greatsword raised.

He wondered if there might be something at the place where the duplicate had emerged.

However, the walls were just dirty, with nothing particularly unusual visible.

Then a loud noise came from behind and gradually drew closer.

Claudio could hear Carno, the commander of Baekryeong, shouting.

“Knights of Baekryeong, duck your heads!”

Looking back, Claudio could see Carno in silver armor charging like a ray of light, cutting off the heads of the duplicates.

Faced with such ruthlessness, Claudio had no choice but to duck his head first.

The moment Claudio crouched like a turtle, he heard the sound of Carno sheathing his sword with a click as he leaped between him and the duplicate.

Carno said in a cold voice.

“To think you’re struggling against such phantoms.”

Seeing the beheaded duplicate fade away dimly, Claudio shouted.

“They weren’t phantoms. Somehow, they had substance!”

“Even so, they’re finished once you cut them down.”

Then something dropped from the ceiling and landed right in front of Carno’s nose.

It was Carno’s duplicate.

Carno raised his slender longsword and assumed a ready stance.

Then Carno’s duplicate did exactly the same.

“Hmm…!”

Carno let out an unpleasant groan and then kicked off the floor and leaped up.

Clang clang clang clang clang!

Claudio, who had been mesmerized by the spectacle of Carno and Carno’s duplicate clashing, snapped back to attention when he saw his own duplicate slowly emerging from the wall.

He turned around and shouted.

“It’s not over yet! Reform the battle line!”

Radis came out of the research room through the door that Berard Russel had opened for her.

What lay ahead was a battlefield.

Radis stood still in place to assess the situation, looking around.

Where she stood was a narrow staircase.

In that cramped space, knights in silver armor were tangled together fighting.

“…?”

Something was strange.

The faces of the knights fighting each other looked identical like twins.

Realizing the situation was not normal, Radis slowly drew up her mana.

Soon she realized that some kind of magic art was cast over this entire passage.

‘What kind of magic art is this?’

As she raised her head and concentrated on feeling the flow of mana, she felt her mana gradually scattering and then being drawn toward a single point.

She didn’t take countermeasures for now and looked in the direction her mana was being pulled.

The magic art cast on the passage was absorbing her mana. And it was gathering at one point to create her duplicate.

“Aha.”

Radis realized the identity of this magic art.

The magic art cast on this passage was absorbing the intruders’ mana to create their duplicates.

First, the intruders would be flustered by this unfamiliar magic art, and second, they would lose stamina while fighting duplicates that weren’t real.

Meanwhile, the magic art would steadily devour the intruders’ mana, weakening them.

Its purpose was…

“Buying time.”

Radis drew Regia and stabbed it into the wall where her duplicate was about to be created.

She felt the mana that had just been taking shape return to her.

She didn’t stop there.

If she left the magic art alone, the knights in this passage would be in danger.

This was a magic art that became more effective the stronger the intruders were.

If one had just a handful of mana, they would lose part of their mana and be done, but if they had abundant mana, they would fight their duplicate until it was all depleted.

She stabbed Regia into the wall.

[Wow, who created this magic art?]

Regia chattered excitedly and deployed a counter-formula for the magic art.

[Interesting! Though it’s nothing special when you get down to it.]

The magic art began to be destroyed starting from where Regia was embedded.

Starting from near them, the knights’ duplicates scattered like mist one by one.

With a bit more space available, Radis realized where this was.

This was the staircase leading to the Abandoned Tower Basement of the Imperial Capital.

Radis, realizing where she was, ran down the stairs as if flying.

Since her running speed was faster than the spell’s destruction, she had to pass by the knights who were each fighting their own duplicates.

Most of the knights looked exhausted, but every second was urgent, so it couldn’t be helped.

However, she couldn’t just pass by Carno at the front and Carno’s duplicate.

They were blocking the entire passage while fighting spectacularly.

“Really…”

Radis drew Regia while maintaining her running speed and plunged between Carno and his duplicate who were locked in combat.

Since their appearances were identical, she couldn’t tell which was the duplicate and which was real, so she attacked both for now.

“Ugh!”

One retreated, and one rushed at her.

Radis parried the sword of the one rushing toward her.

She twisted her blade according to the direction of the applied force to deflect the attack, then struck upward again during the weakened moment to change the flow.

The next moment, Regia glowed pure white and unleashed sword energy.

Radis sliced through her opponent entirely.

The duplicate and one wall of the passage crumbled together.

From beyond the broken wall, Carno shouted.

“If that had been me, I’d be dead right now!”

Radis said.

“If that hadn’t been a spell, I might have died.”

She retrieved Regia and ran down the stairs again.

Carno watched her retreating figure with pleased eyes and muttered.

“Perfect! She’s exactly the talent Baekryeong needs.”

Behind him, Claudio, who was fighting his own duplicate, shouted.

“Captain, please help me!”

Carno shook his head slightly and gripped his sword properly.

As she went down the stairs, the magical energy grew thicker, and when she reached the basement, it felt like diving into a boiling furnace.

Radis kicked open the basement door and entered.

White Mask, who had been standing in front of the matogu, sensed the presence and turned around.

“Ah, the new throne. How was my spell? Quite interesting, wasn’t it?”

He pointed at the matogu with his hand.

“You came at just the right time. Hestia’s soul seems to have truly reached its limit now.”

Radis looked at the matogu with horrified eyes.

Somehow, the small thorny bush mass had now grown large enough to fill the entire matogu.

The thorny bushes were writhing as if alive, with sharp silver spears stuck densely like a hedgehog’s quills all over them.

From where the spears were embedded, black substance was flowing down like spring water.

The black substance that flowed down was now overflowing from the basin, creating black puddles around the matogu.

Radis muttered like a groan.

“Alexis…”

At her dejected voice, White Mask burst into maniacal laughter.

“Yes, that very Alexis Tillord will now fulfill my long-held dream. Everything will become fair, and I will become closer to god!”

Then Radis turned her gaze to stare intently at White Mask and opened her mouth.

“That black cloak told me one last thing.”

White Mask, who was about to tear a teleportation scroll from his chest, hesitated and looked at her.

“What?”

At that moment, her form moved faster than light.

The next moment, she had thrust her sword into his side along with the hand holding the scroll.

Radis said.

“It taught me that I must never let my guard down when dealing with rat-like bastards like you.”

As she pulled out Regia, the teleportation scroll, now useless and soaked in blood, dropped to the floor with a thud.

White Mask collapsed with an agonized scream.

Radis looked at him and said coldly.

“What did you want to do by becoming closer to god? If you want to create a fair world, start by changing your surroundings.”

Just as she was about to raise Regia.

A long black arm shot out from the darkness behind and grabbed White Mask’s head.

“Ugh, aaaah!”

Before Radis’s eyes, White Mask turned bright red and shattered.

At that horrific sight, Radis let out a groan and turned her head to look in the direction the arm had extended from.

The arm had come from inside the thorny bushes.

Moreover, it wasn’t just one.

An arm that protruded from the opposite side was roughly tearing away the thorny bushes.

The writhing thorny bushes and the sharp spears that had been embedded in them fell to the floor with thuds.

‘Am I too late?’

Regia screamed in her place.

[Ah, Alexis…!]

From within the thorny bushes, eyes red as blood could be seen emitting light.

Now there was no choice.

If she didn’t stop Alexis here, everything would be over.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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