Chapter 574: The Endgame (Part 2)
Chapter 574: The Endgame (Part 2)
"Sss..."
Upon hearing Leon's words, the two siblings of the Corlock Royal Family couldn't help but exchange a glance, only to find that their pupils were equally trembling with madness.
Although they had long known that this person was a bit eccentric, was he taking it a bit too far? Even with the most divergent thinking, no one would consider directly destroying an entire kingdom, right?
"It's up to you whether to act on it or not, I'm just throwing out an idea."
Leon spread his hands and said nonchalantly, "After your surrender, the Blood Oath was indeed partially broken, proving that my thinking is not entirely wrong. The premise of this Blood Oath is indeed based on your Corlock Royal Family identity.
And just as the Corlock Kingdom has declared its demise, its territory remains intact. You still have a chance to leave here or be taken beyond its borders, so the Blood Oath on you is not completely broken."
"So, if you want to remove the remaining half of the Blood Oath, the best approach is to target the root cause. Destroy the Corlock Kingdom in one fell swoop, rendering the Blood Oath of the Butcher King Guild ineffective, and your problem will naturally be solved."
"..."
The logic was sound, but wasn't the method he chose a bit extreme?
After listening to Leon's words, Prince Andre couldn't help but suggest, "Is there a gentler way? For example, you could lead your people to occupy the kingdom temporarily and then do something else to make the Corlock Kingdom lose its territory in name."
"Do you think you can wait that long?"
Leon pointed at Felicia, whose body was covered in crow feathers, and said, "Apart from taking direct action and destroying the entire Corlock Kingdom in one go, no other method can achieve the 'destruction' of the Corlock Kingdom's territory before your souls are annihilated. There is no possibility of 'coexistence' between you two and the entire Corlock Kingdom."
Indeed, this was the only solution.
After glancing at his sister's condition, Prince Andre sighed and stumbled, turning around and waving towards the massive painting of 'Sunset' in the distance.
He had become a king of a fallen kingdom, and now he had to personally destroy the entire Corlock Kingdom.
As he stood before the painting, contemplating, and carefully painting the people out of the kingdom, Prince Andre seemed to realize something, and with a complex expression, he turned to look at Leon.
Noticing his peculiar gaze, Leon asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing..."
Prince Andre shook his head, "I was just thinking about why you came up with this solution."
"Of course, it's to protect the Watch Palace and, by extension, all of humanity."
Hearing Prince Andre's words, Leon, who was always loyal to the Cleanup Bureau, replied without hesitation, "For the Cleanup Bureau, if any one of the Twelve Royal Families is completely severed, Holy Spirit-level 'anomalies' will be able to freely enter the mortal realm. If more than three lineages are severed, even some of the weaker True Gods could force their way in. This is a result that the Bureau can never tolerate."
"Is there any other reason?"
Prince Andre turned his head away, continuing to paint the people out of the Corlock Kingdom's territory while speaking in a low, confused voice, "Actually, from the first time I met you, I felt that you seemed to harbor some inexplicable malice towards the entire Corlock Kingdom. This feeling intensified after the attack on District 3, as if..."
"You must be mistaken.
Without hesitation, Lyon interrupted Prince Andre's words, his gaze fixed forward as he explained earnestly, "I hold no ill will towards any kingdom and treat them all equally. I bear no particular malice towards you."
"Well..."
After a glance at Lyon's expression, Prince Andre hesitated for a moment, then said no more. He continued preparing to destroy the Corlock Kingdom, brush in hand, while Lyon, standing beside Prince Andre, signaled for the young Ha to take away the bandit siblings. Lyon shot him a sidelong glance.
This man's intuition was exceptionally sharp. The Corlock Kingdom, with its extremely distorted 'system', was indeed a place where Lyon held no good intentions.
According to the documents he obtained after attacking District 3, the entire Corlock Kingdom controlled an enormous territory of nearly four hundred thousand square kilometers, with over thirty-seven million people living under their 'system'.
Apart from the one hundred and thirty thousand citizens in the Corlock Kingdom's eight hundred neighborhoods, who endured the disgusting vegetable mud daily, the remaining ninety-six percent of the population couldn't be said to be living; they were merely surviving.
Especially in the floating crystal mines, where an unknown number of people died each year due to the extraction process. The other types of mines and resource sites, though not as bloody as the floating crystal mines, were not much better off.
The prosperity and advancement of the entire Corlock Kingdom were built upon the sacrifices of over thirty-five million people, whose suffering fueled the wealth of a mere three to four percent.
While this situation existed in most kingdoms to some degree, the Corlock Kingdom took it to an extreme, truly only reaping the 'benefits' and discarding all the 'burdens' without exception.
Normally, considering that even the worst order was better than complete chaos, and that destroying a kingdom would result in consequences from the Cleanup Bureau, Lyon might have sought a gentler approach, taking things one step at a time.
But now, with the situation involving the Watchwatch Palace, and with the 'greater good' of protecting all humanity as a reason, Lyon was determined to go all out and completely remove this scar!
It was almost done...
After a lengthy depiction, Prince Andre personally distorted the painting, turning 'Sunset Over Corrok' into 'The Corlock Kingdom, Emptied as its Citizens were Safely Blown Abroad by the Storm'.
Looking at the wild side of the painting, where countless tiny black dots with bewildered expressions floated, Prince Andre breathed a slight sigh of relief. Then, under Lyon's expectant gaze, he lifted the brush, thick with paint, and firmly twisted it at the far end of the canvas.
A radiant glow emanated.
As Prince Andre's brush moved, the edge of the orange-red sunset subtly tinged with gold, quickly fading, and surprisingly, as the colors on the canvas lightened, the sun's radiance intensified.
When Prince Andre took out the half-broken painting knife and scraped away the heavy base color, applying a thin layer of pale white paint, the once gentle sunset on the horizon had become so bright that it was difficult to keep one's eyes open.
In the Corlock Kingdom's eight hundred neighborhoods, countless raging flames erupted, igniting everything flammable, and even non-combustible metals began to peel off under the intense white sun's scorching heat.
(End of Chapter)
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