Chapter 163: Empress VS Empress

“Hall, where are you going?”

“To the east of Fort Saint Elizabeth. We will follow the main road between Fort Saint Elizabeth and Fort Saint Yerona to Fort Saint Yerona.”

“Are you going to find Her Majesty Cateline?”

Christine, in Hall’s arms, frowned slightly.

She was very smart.

Because the mysterious train track in the Cateline Kingdom only went as far as Fort Saint Yerona.

There was no direct mysterious train to Fort Saint Elizabeth at present.

According to the Cateline citizens just now, since Sophia was coming, she must have first taken the train to Fort Saint Yerona, and then traveled to Saint Catherinesburg by horse or magitech motorcycle.

The distance in between was less than fifty kilometers.

It would take an hour to arrive.

“Will Her Majesty Cateline be in danger?”

When she spoke again, Hall chose to nod.

This was what was good about Christine.

You didn’t need to explain to her at all.

Just a slight hint, and she would be able to guess what you were thinking.

Hall sometimes felt that she was like a worm in his stomach.

“Mm.”

“Then let’s go, Young Master Hall. Let’s go and save Her Majesty Cateline.”

Christine went along with Hall’s thoughts.

For whatever reason, she planned to go.

And Parousia was a little worried.

“Hall, Hall, are you going to find Her Majesty Cateline? What if I’m discovered?!”

“Then you can leave this place and go back to Fort Noss… forget it, just follow me for now.”

Hall was also afraid that this idiot Parousia would be ambushed on her way back.

Yerona Cateline and the true high-level members of the Cult of the Living and Dead had not yet shown themselves.

It was still uncertain if they were really going to intercept and kill Sophia halfway.

“Pinare, that guy, what on earth is he doing? He’s not answering the magic scroll. What is he doing?!”

Ambassador Yabolun was now pacing anxiously in the Black Knights’ Cateline branch.

This branch, for the sake of concealment, was built in the mountains about two hundred miles away from Saint Catherinesburg.

It was basically day-less and covered with ice and snow all year round.

The only way to determine the time here was through a clock instrument.

“Perhaps Lord Pinare has already completed his mission, Ambassador Yabolun. You don’t have to be too anxious. According to the latest intelligence, the Empress of Cateline left Saint Catherinesburg early this morning.”

The deputy commander comforted him from the side.

They were of course not on good terms with the Black Knights headquarters.

But they would not side with the Cateline Kingdom either.

To establish a branch in the Cateline Kingdom, which did not support the church, required a lot of money, and the part of the money that came from the cardinals’ finances was of course not enough.

And the Child family mainly sponsored the headquarters in Saint Louis.

These people were actually sponsored by the old nobles of the Pope, led by Saint Gregory and the Cavendish family.

When Hela had led the elites of the headquarters, the Elan Kingdom branch, and the Cateline branch to destroy the Frost Elf race, the old nobles of the Pope had even increased their investment.

Because Hela herself could not be controlled.

Now the designated person for the Black Knights headquarters was Hall Faxtius.

These few, who were almost representatives of the new great noble families.

The old nobles would of course cause trouble.

The cardinals also turned a blind eye to this.

After all, the old nobles had paid the money.

If they were to forcibly interfere, there would be conflicts within the cardinals, not to mention.

On the other hand, if Hall could solve it smoothly, it would represent that the chosen heir was completely correct.

The final benchmark of the Black Knights was the first generation of the White Knights who had followed the brave into the Demon God’s royal city a thousand years ago.

If the designated person was not formidable, he would naturally not be able to hold the scene.

“The Empress of Cateline has left the city?”

“Yes. It is said that something big happened in Saint Elizabeth, and the Cult of the Living and Dead has started to act. I think we can directly contact the lower levels of the Cult of the Living and Dead without going through Pinare, and then pass it up to their high-level ears. With the two sides working together…”

“Is there a chance to enter the ice imperial tomb?”

Yabolun thought for a while.

Then he asked another question, “Where is the fifth section of the Judgment Bureau? Inform them that we have to find a way to secretly sneak into Saint Catherinesburg and wait for an opportunity.”

Now the deputy commander’s face showed an embarrassed expression.

The Judgment Bureau had seven sections, from the sixth to the zeroth.

The fifth section of the Judgment Bureau was the elite of the Judgment Bureau.

He might be able to compare in terms of title, but in terms of real level.

Even Yabolun couldn’t determine the other party’s whereabouts, so how could he?

But he didn’t doubt that the people from the Judgment Bureau’s methods would be more ruthless than theirs.

“Your Majesty, this is the latest battle report from the magic scroll. A so-called trio is very conspicuous. It’s a black-haired youth and a blonde girl with high sanctity. I suspect they are Saintess Candidate Christine and His Highness Hall. As for the other woman, her identity is a bit unclear. She doesn’t look like Hall’s maid, Lov.”

Tarasha was searching through the intelligence transmitted by various magic scrolls.

The reason she judged that the other person was not Lov was because in the description, the other party’s characteristic was that her breasts were very large.

“Is that so?”

Sophia, who had gotten off the Holy Train and was riding a special icefield white horse from Fort Saint Yerona towards Fort Saint Elizabeth, actually found that she was not too excited.

She didn’t have much emotion, and was not even surprised that Christine and Hall had appeared here.

Actually, thinking about it, it was understandable.

They were the former [Angel] and [Holy Son] of the Salvation Church.

They and the politicians of the cardinals were probably not on the same side.

The two of them had not shown their faces from beginning to end, and probably had other considerations.

And the place in the Cateline Kingdom where the wind and clouds were rising now was only the border of the Bal Kingdom and the Cateline Kingdom, and Saint Catherinesburg.

They were not idle people, and it was normal for them to appear here.

But after carefully listening to the trio’s story, Sophia felt a little annoyed again.

Christine and Hall’s performance now was undoubtedly helping the Cateline Kingdom.

But Christine had once single-handedly destroyed the future of the Cateline Kingdom—her sister.

So Sophia was very calm.

She chose to give up thinking about those upsetting things.

Now she only had one thought.

After solving the undead army of Saint Elizabeth, she would capture Christine and have her atone in front of her sister’s ice coffin.

“Your Majesty, Lieutenant General Greco has asked you not to worry too much. He has already led an army to quell the unrest. You only need to wait for his good news in the mayor’s building after you arrive at Saint Elizabeth.”

“I hope so… send a message to Lieutenant General Greco to be careful. There is an existence among the enemy that has a part of the Winter Saintess’s power. Their strength is not low, and may be much stronger than my strength when I liberated [Fimbulvetr].”

Sophia thought of the black ice that had been stained with a necromantic aura at the accident site and continued to instruct, “It may be a necromantic puppet created by Samigina by imitating and researching our Winter Saintess’s power. That guy has always been exploring all kinds of strange powers in this world, not even letting go of the power of the Demon God. Of course, it is also possible that he has created a masterpiece similar to mine.”

As an empress of a country, she was a little unwilling to admit that imposter.

So her description had to be relatively vague.

In reality, she was sure that that person was much stronger than her.

“Your Majesty, is there such a thing?”

Tarasha was greatly surprised and then a little angry, “We must kill that puppet that is imitating Your Majesty! The power of the Winter Saintess cannot be desecrated by other races!”

“Mm.”

The white-haired empress nodded slightly.

She also had this intention.

She would absolutely not let Samigina do whatever he wanted with the power that had been passed down from generation to generation of the Cateline empresses.

On the main road that had been widened by Elizabeth six years ago for military marches and the establishment of Fort Saint Elizabeth, she led Tarasha and a group of the Cateline Kingdom’s royal female guards on horseback.

With the speed of the icefield white horse, they could actually arrive in just over half an hour.

But just about fifteen minutes after leaving Fort Saint Yerona.

A strange noise came from the hills on both sides of the road.

“Your Majesty, be careful!”

It was a rain of purple arrows, like a large net, covering Sophia and her group.

And Sophia was not flustered.

She immediately drew the [Glory of the Snow Kingdom] from her waist and said, “Welcome the guests with me. It must be people from the Cult of the Living and Dead!”

Sophia’s group was nearly a hundred strong.

They were all royal guards, female soldiers who had been selected through layers of strict conditions.

Even the very young ones were at level sixty.

The two women of about forty who were leading the team on the left and guarding the rear were in their early eighties.

And the captain of the guards, who was in the center-rear, was at about level ninety.

On this numerical basis, the configuration was not low.

If their talent were converted to the game, the swordsmanship talent of these guards was generally between [B] and [A].

Although they couldn’t be considered cheaters, they could be considered absolute top students if they were placed in the swordsmanship academy of the Holy Light University when they were young.

And if a player were to configure them to conquer a dungeon, this unit, with a continuous blessing, would have no problem sweeping through the eighty-something floors of the Demon God’s Labyrinth.

At this moment, almost every one of them had found their duty in the first moment.

They had dispersed the arrow rain that had covered them.

After gaining a respite, the captain of the guards immediately came to Sophia.

“Your Majesty, should we pursue the enemy? They should be hiding in the nearby mountains and forests.”

“Concentrate our forces and break through one side. Do not disperse.”

Sophia answered after a moment of thought.

If they were injured while alone, they might be turned into undead puppets by the necromancers of the Cult of the Living and Dead.

Although in a thousand years, it was a normal thing for the empresses, generals, and soldiers of Cateline to personally kill the undead puppets of their subordinates, Sophia still couldn’t bear it.

It had only been a little over a year since she had finished her training and taken her sister’s name and ascended the throne.

This was the first time she had dealt with such a large-scale disturbance by the Cult of the Living and Dead.

“As you command, Your Majesty.”

The captain of the guards immediately instructed one of the four deputy captains to lead a small number of people to hide on the road at the foot of the left mountain and observe the situation on the right.

The rest of them all followed her and rushed to the top of the left mountain, prioritizing clearing the enemies on the left.

Sophia was naturally also charging at the front.

Her hatred for the necromancers was from the bottom of her heart.

The attack was very smooth.

In the mountains and forests where there was still a lot of unmelted snow, they quickly found the undead puppets that had been ambushing them.

These undead puppets were generally monsters that had been controlled long ago, so they could suppress their desire to attack the living and quietly lurked in the forest by the roadside.

But this also gave Sophia and her group an opportunity.

They did not have to use too much strength to annihilate these undead puppets, and some of them, when they started to move, their strength could not surpass them.

Nearly a hundred people advanced upwards, maintaining their formation.

Sophia, the captain of the guards, and Tarasha were at the very front, clearing the way.

Of course, Tarasha, as an assassin, did not participate in the attack on the undead puppets.

She was just always on guard for anything that might attack them from a special angle.

“Your Majesty, judging by the undead puppets that started to move later, the necromancer controlling them is on the mountain. The arrows that were released at the beginning were probably released by the regular army of the northwestern demon army or the core human members of the Cult of the Living and Dead.”

The old captain of the guards analyzed with a hint of worry in his heart.

She didn’t quite understand the meaning of the other party attacking Sophia in this place.

Was it to stall for time?

They should not be able to take down Fort Saint Elizabeth, which was protected by layers of magic arrays, in a short time.

If they wanted to kill Sophia, it would also be a bit of an exaggeration.

With nearly a hundred of them working together in an orderly manner, the other party would have to have at least four level ninety powerhouses.

According to the intelligence, there were only six level ninety and above powerhouses in the Cult of the Living and Dead.

And they were all mages.

If the mages didn’t ambush in advance, four mages would not be enough.

And their special armor all came with strong magic resistance.

Unless there was a mage of level ninety-five or above.

Or the other party had set up a magic array in advance.

But the crystal ball specially used to detect necromancy had not detected that the earth veins had been heavily polluted by necromancy.

There was no very threatening magic array here.

Then why did the other party split into two sides and ambush?

It was impossible that they had predicted that they would concentrate their forces and attack the left side.

Even if all six necromancers were to come out, the undead army that was currently active around Saint Elizabeth also needed a level ninety necromancer to guide them from behind.

And if the remaining five were all here, then there would also be at least one level ninety necromancer on the right.

They would be facing four, and they were not sure of winning.

What’s more, it was unlikely that they would all be deployed, right?

At least there was still one in the headquarters.

Where on earth did the other party get the confidence to launch this surprise attack?

If they did not succeed quickly, the guard forces of Fort Saint Yerona might also immediately provide support.

Looking at the reaction of the crystal ball, there was not even a sign of them leaving.

They were waiting for them at the top or back of this hill.

The captain of the guards subconsciously protected Sophia.

She was at level ninety, and Sophia, after the battle on the seventieth floor of the Demon God’s Labyrinth, had basically eaten the experience of the seventieth-floor lord of the Demon God’s Labyrinth alone.

And had killed many small monsters and Lost ones.

As the Winter Saintess, who had an extra growth in experience in the game, the experience she got from killing five monsters was the same as an ordinary character killing three.

Her current level had also reached eighty-five long ago.

Coupled with her exaggerated attribute growth and talent, her own strength when using the Glory of the Snow Kingdom was only slightly inferior to a true level ninety swordsman.

And that was in the situation where the other party already had level ninety universal skills like [Super Perception].

The three of them led the team, clearing the scattered undead puppets as they continued to advance.

This hill was about three hundred meters high, and the road was not very steep.

When they reached the highest point of the hill, they would find that the mountain land ahead was still horizontal.

Then, the captain of the guards showed an expression of extreme surprise.

As someone who had been selected into the Cateline royal guards since she was a child, she had seen almost all kinds of great storms and waves.

Even when she had followed Elizabeth to participate in that war against the demon army and had faced a mountain of corpses, she had not been so surprised.

She had originally thought that the rest of her life would be spent in peace, protecting each generation of the Cateline empress.

But now, she couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe her eyes.

Because she saw that girl.

A person who looked three or four years older than Sophia, between a mature woman and a girl.

Almost in an instant, the other party’s face overlapped with the face of the late empress, Sophia’s mother.

And the other party’s aura could not be said to be stronger than Sophia’s mother, but that deep feeling, just by gazing at the black-ice-like pupils, it was as if she could be sucked in like an abyss.

The girl was in a purple dress, standing under a somewhat withered tree at the end of the line of sight.

Her posture might not be considered elegant on other women, just stroking the small tree trunk with one hand, but anyone who saw her would instinctively feel a kind of elegance in it.

Her body seemed to be surrounded by a light wind barrier, which made the corners of her purple dress flutter slightly, and the leaves that were blown by the wind would also show a black-purple, withered look after a moment.

That was a necromantic aura.

A necromantic aura was emanating from this cold, ancient, and majestic girl, who also had a hint of elegance.

Although the captain of the guards was surprised by the other party’s appearance and temperament, the fact that she was emitting a necromantic aura would not change.

The other party was an enemy.

But when did the Cult of the Living and Dead have such a person?

It had never appeared in the intelligence?

What’s more, that person was simply unfathomable.

Could this be the “necromantic puppet made to imitate the Winter Saintess” that His Majesty had mentioned?

But this was too realistic.

If it weren’t for the necromantic aura, she really didn’t look like an undead.

The few faint black lines that appeared at the corners of her eyes did give her a hint of evil charm.

“Who are you?”

The captain of the guards knew very well that she shouldn’t talk to this kind of dangerous person, but she really wanted to know.

The girl slowly turned around.

Those black-ice-like pupils stared at the captain of the guards.

The captain of the guards felt that these eyes seemed to be able to see through her.

“You, do you know who I am?”

The girl’s voice was very cold, very crisp, with a chilling feeling.

“His Majesty has seen you before.”

The captain of the guards said.

The girl frowned.

“She’s still alive?”

“Of course His Majesty is still alive, and will always be alive, until all of you undead, scum, are all burned to ashes.”

The captain of the guards drew her sword from her waist and pointed it at the girl.

“Burned to ashes? Just by you?”

The captain of the guards subconsciously felt that the other party should be conscious.

An ordinary undead puppet would not be conscious.

But she felt that the other party was conscious, and had a very high level of consciousness.

“Are the current royal guards so weak? Then they are not worthy of knowing my name.”

Yerona said coldly.

Her gaze lingered on the captain of the guards for a moment, and then after a quick sweep, it locked onto Sophia, whose appearance was younger than hers.

Sophia was also looking at her.

The empress of seven hundred years ago and the current empress of Cateline were sizing each other up.

“What right do you have to call yourself ‘I’? Does an imposter also want to force herself to be the empress of Cateline? You are a fool!”

Sophia would not allow a necromantic puppet controlled by Samigina to challenge the Empress of Cateline.

The Cateline Kingdom and the northwestern demon domain had fought for a thousand years and were almost mortal enemies.

Now that the other party had made such a move, how could she not be angry?

“Sophia Cateline, what makes you so confident as to call yourself an empress?”

Yerona quickly issued a soul-searching question.

And in front of nearly a hundred royal guards, she exposed the matter of Sophia playing the role of Elizabeth.

Now even Tarasha was shocked.

They were all girls who had been trained to believe in Her Majesty.

So even when Sophia was a bit slow in playing the role of Elizabeth in the early stages, they had thought that Elizabeth had become weaker because her foundation had been affected by the injuries she had suffered that year.

They had never doubted it for so long.

According to the super-healing ability of the Winter Saintess, she should have recovered long ago.

“Don’t you talk nonsense!”

Sophia was very anxious.

She was indeed not as good as her sister in terms of political ability.

Her current personality had been formed in the later stages.

As a child, she had been a simple, ordinary, and not-so-interested-in-adult-affairs model student.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have said such a shocking thing as “kissing won’t get you pregnant” when she was asked about kissing Hall.

Before her sister woke up, she had to play her sister’s role well.

In her worldview, the fact that Cateline was still stable after she had ascended the throne.

It wasn’t because she was good at politics, but because her sister was too outstanding, and everyone also believed that her sister was not wrong.

She had to shut this imposter up.

And this puppet that Samigina had created by imitating her and her sister, it was very likely that it was created to replace them.

This person called herself “I,” so she must have wanted to be the new empress of Cateline.

Now saying such a thing was still to make everyone doubt her.

The white-haired girl’s Glory of the Snow Kingdom slashed over at a super high speed.

But the older white-haired girl under the tree did not dodge at all.

She caught the blade of the Glory of the Snow Kingdom with one hand in a casual manner.

This legendary-grade weapon, which could originally apply a [freeze] characteristic to the attacked person, at this moment, could not form a single bit of frost on the other party’s hand.

This was the absolute resistance of the Winter Saintess to the ice attribute.

Ninety-nine percent of the ice attribute effects and their additional effects in the game were ineffective on the Winter Saintess.

“Where is Fimbulvetr? Since you’re so angry with me, you can’t even summon Fimbulvetr? You want to win against me with just this sword?”

Yerona’s words were heart-piercing.

Sophia really couldn’t summon Fimbulvetr directly.

At her current level, unless she summoned Fimbulvetr when she entered the ice imperial tomb and brought it out.

She basically couldn’t summon it in other places.

The only time was when Hall had kissed her, and she had been able to summon Fimbulvetr on the seventieth floor of the Demon God’s Labyrinth.

“It’s none of your business! To deal with an imposter Winter Saintess like you, I still need to use Fimbulvetr!”

“You can’t summon it, can you? Your sister, Elizabeth Cateline, was able to summon the Eternal Winter Sacred Sword on the battlefield at the age of thirteen.”

Yerona continued to say coldly.

She held Sophia’s blade with one hand and stared at Sophia with her black-ice-like pupils at close range.

Sophia couldn’t stand her gaze and wanted to pull her sword back, but Yerona’s strength was greater than hers.

She could only be forced to look at her and listen to her continue to say.

“With you like this, can you also be called the empress of Cateline? Sophia Cateline…”

“You can’t even use Fimbulvetr freely. How are you going to protect the people of Cateline? You are already sixteen or seventeen, yet you are no match for an undead puppet. If a Demon Lord were to lead a large army to attack, the only thing waiting for you would be a humble death and the millions of corpses that will accompany you.”

Her words almost made Sophia’s sword heart collapse.

The relatively younger white-haired girl’s eyes seemed to be welling up with tears.

“Your Majesty!”

At this very moment, Tarasha came from the side.

But Yerona had already noticed her and had not used both hands to control Sophia.

And at almost the same time.

A pure laser shot straight from a distance, piercing the dark evening.

Because she had to deal with Tarasha, Yerona’s reaction to the appearance of the laser was a half-beat slow.

Although she had dodged it with her battle instinct, Sophia had also finally broken free from her control.

“Who is it?”

Yerona looked in the direction the laser had come from.

“Hall Faxtius.”

A male voice answered faintly.