Dragon Monarch System

Chapter 873: Chapter 873:- Dark Ritual and its consequences ”What happened here?” Riya asked while frowning.

It was very obvious that the goddess of nature was angry.

The crowd did not make any sound. They maintained a respectful distance from the goddess and silently observed the situation. ”Your Highness, we have no idea what happened. Around 20 minutes back, a black carriage suddenly stopped and left with these corpses.” ”Some of us tried to stop this carriage...” ”What happened?” Riya impatiently asked.

The elf-race man who spoke looked in the direction of right. Riya and Aditya also looked in that direction and saw the black carriage under the shade of a tree. ”When we stopped the carriage, there was no one inside.”

Around the same time, the guards came running.

Seeing their Goddess and the Dragon Monarch, the guards knew that they were in deep trouble. ”Why are you all so late?” Riya asked in a cold, authoritative voice.

Her cold look made them tremble in fear.

In her opinion, as guards, they should have arrived within the first 10 minutes, yet they took about more than 20 minutes to get there.

Riya saw this as the guards being lazy in their work.

Normally, she might have tolerated this kind of negligence, but this was a very serious situation. ”Someone just dropped nine freaking dead bodies in the middle of the capital, which is the busiest part of the capital, yet you guys took so long to come here.” ”You all better have a reasonable explanation; otherwise, you all will be heavily punished.” The guards felt like they werenʼt facing the kind and gentle goddess of nature; rather, they were facing the goddess of death. They had never seen their Goddess this cold. ”Yo.... Your Royal Highness, we were having lunch when the news reached our ears.” Under her cold stare, none of the gods dare to lie. They felt that if they lied in this situation, they would be in deeper trouble.

Not to mention the shame and humiliation that their actions will bring to their family. ”So you guys prioritized having lunch over your duties?” Riyaʼs cold tone made them sweat. Their faces turned pale. Some of the guardʼs arms and legs were noticeably shaking in fear.

Their goddess was right. And they had no excuse for this. They took the situation lightly, and now they were paying the price for it.

And in the first place, who would have thought that the first person to reach the scene would be their own goddess, who is supposed to be in the Istarin Empire?

Riya coldly stared at them for about 20 seconds. Those 20 seconds felt like 20 long hours. They have never felt this uncomfortable and fearful. ”Riya, I will go and look inside the carriage. Maybe I can find some clues about the culprit.” Saying that Aditya walked towards the carriage.

As for what she did with the guards, who clearly did not take their job seriously, it did not matter to him. After all, he was neither the king nor the prince of this Empire. It was up to Riya or Amelia to decide. ”I will decide your punishment later. For now, get to work.” Riya then looked around to see if she could find anyone suspicious. Who knows, the culprit might be hiding somewhere among the crowd.

Seeing that she could not find anyone suspicious, she went to Aditya. ”Mom?” Amelia also appeared as soon as the news reached her ears.

The elven society is very peaceful.

So the death of nine elves was so shocking that the Empress herself had to come.

Amelia looked at the nine corpses and then shook her head. ”How can something like this happen in the busiest part of the city?” The only reasonable explanation was that the guards had become too lazy since, these days, there rarely was any violence within the capital.

Before, most of the violent acts within the capital were done by the order of her sister, but since her demise, the capital has entered into a peaceful era. ”Apparently, a black carriage dropped the nine dead bodies before trying to escape. When the crowd forcefully stopped the carriage, they found no one inside.”

Just as Riya finished with her explanation, Aditya appeared next to her and added. ”There is nothing useful inside the carriage other than the blood of the victims, which is all over the carriage.” ”It seems like the victims were already killed before being put into the carriage.” ”But still, I am not an expert in finding clues. You should ask the guards to look for some clues. Maybe they will find something that I have missed.” After all, this wasnʼt his profession, or this wasnʼt something that he did every single day.

Amelia nodded her head. She signaled a few guards to thoroughly investigate the carriage. ”Daughter...!”

Riya just nodded her head and approached the corpses.

As the Goddess of Nature, she could feel and see things that other people couldnʼt. Maybe she will find something that everyone else has missed. ”Your Royal Highness, all the victims were pure elves.”

Riya nodded her head. Just from their auras, it was pretty obvious. ”Aside from their ears being cut off, the victims are also missing an eye, one tooth, lower left rib cage bone, and their pinky finger.”

Amelia and Riya looked at each other grimly. All the evidence pointed to the fact that these victims were killed for the purpose of performing a dark ritual. ”Someone is using elves to conduct dark rituals.” Aditya was also shocked.

Dark rituals are typically performed by necromancers, witches, warlocks, shadow priests, blood mages, hexweavers, demonologists, occultists, ritualists, and soulbinders. All of these professions are considered to come under the category of Dark Mage.

This does not mean that dark rituals are limited to these professions. Even a holy priest can perform dark rituals. However, a consequence of using dark rituals is that the soul loses its bright color, and the auras become more sinister and darker.

Just like how dark and sinister spear hero Robertʼs Aura was.

The more rituals one performs, the more corrupt oneʼs soul becomes. This poses a major hindrance when these dark ritual practitioners try to break through higher orders, above Peak 5th-order.

To break through Peak 5th-order or Higher Orders, one would need to face heavenly tribulations. Those with corrupt souls struggle to pass the Heavenly tribulations. Corrupt souls are weaker against Heavenly Tribulations compared to normal souls. Meaning they feel more pain and take more damage facing heavenly Tribulations.

Riya kneeled down and gently touched the forehead of one of the victims. ʼAs expected...!!!ʼ She could feel traces of an evil Aura on their bodies. This Aura must belong to the culprit who did this to them. ʼThis person intentionally left his/her Aura on these bodies. But why?ʼ Riya could not understand. ”Actually, this isnʼt the first time something like this has happened.” ”What?” Aditya and Riya both looked shocked. ”Mom, why didnʼt you tell me about it?” This was a serious matter, yet her mother did not even tell her about this. ”I did not think this matter would escalate to this point. I thought that without needing to involve you, my subordinates would be able to resolve the whole situation. But it seems I was wrong.” Amelia admitted her mistakes.

She felt that if she had taken some serious steps from the beginning, maybe the death of these nine innocent elves could have been prevented. ”Aunty, when did all of this begin?” Aditya curiously asked. ”Around a few months back.” ”Suddenly, people around the capital started going missing. At first, I did not take this matter seriously, thinking that this was a small matter that my subordinates could handle. But other times, not only did more people start disappearing, but also, the guards began discovering their bodies just outside of the capital.” ”Everywhere, the corpses did not have any ears. Someone purposely cut off the ears along with other body parts just to conduct dark rituals.” ”Mom, this is something so serious, yet you did not bother to tell me. This is irresponsible of you.” Riya was very angry. She did not hold back, even against her mother.

Amelia also felt guilty. ”I am not trying to justify my mistake, but we only found 11 bodies in the span of the last three months.” ”So I thought that the other kidnapped victims were still alive.” ”And itʼs not like I did not do anything. I have dispatched an entire force to investigate and find the culprit. But so far, we have found nothing.” When she was done, she looked disappointed. If her people had been more efficient, then this whole disaster could have been avoided.

In her eyes, this was a disaster. After all, the Celestial Terrain was one of the safest continents among the six continents. It was considered one of the safest places in the whole world.

But the only thing that prevented people from other races from settling in this continent was the extremist elves who did not like people from other races.

They saw members of other races coming to live among them as an invasion of their homeland.

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