243: Chapter 243 Alarm at the Wizard's Tower! Earl Silverleaf's Fall! A Sacrifice!

Gino City, Wizard Tower.

The monitoring array inside the tower emitted a faint blue light, pulsing rhythmically.

Suddenly, a shout, so excited it cracked, rang out: "It's exploding! It's exploding!..."

At the top of the tower, in the meditation room, Aurora sat cross-legged in the center of an array, meditating with her eyes closed.

Hearing the familiar shouting from downstairs, she slowly opened her eyes, sighed helplessly, stood up, and walked down the spiral staircase.

As she walked, she said crossly: "Garrett, what kind of mischief are you up to again? What's exploding? If you've blown up the experimental equipment again, the repair costs for this month will be deducted from your allowance!"

Downstairs, Garrett stood before a monitoring instrument, pointing at a wavy curve on the device with an excited face, his voice filled with irrepressible excitement: "Senior Sister! It's not the equipment that exploded! It's the monitoring data! Look at this wave, this amplitude, this frequency—it's definitely someone holding a large-scale Red Moon sacrifice!"

"The scale is larger than anything we've monitored before! It's too intense! Too intense!"

Hearing this, Aurora's expression changed, and she immediately hurried over to look.

Her gaze fell on the violently fluctuating wavy curve, and her pupils constricted slightly.

As a Fourth-Ring Wizard specializing in the Red Moon field, she naturally understood what this waveform meant.

She immediately asked: "Where is the location? Can you pinpoint it?"

Hearing this, Garrett hurriedly began adjusting the angles of several crystals on the instrument.

A moment later, he pointed to a blinking red dot on a simplified map projected on the side of the instrument and said: "Southwest direction, but not within the territory of Gino County. It's just that the commotion is too great, and the fluctuations reached our monitoring range."

Seeing this, Aurora immediately turned and walked to the wall, took down a map of Will Province hanging there, and quickly made a comparison.

When her finger landed on the marked location on the map, she exclaimed: "Velen City?!"

She realized something major had happened.

Velen City was a medium-sized city in Will Province that was even more prosperous than Gino City.

If a large-scale Red Moon sacrifice was being held there, the number of casualties might far exceed everyone's imagination!

It might even spread to Gino County afterward.

Furthermore, Rowan had specifically instructed her that once a similar sacrificial event was detected, she must notify him immediately.

She made a prompt decision and said to Garrett: "You keep watching the instrument and record all the data. I'm going to notify The Count!"

After speaking, she hurried downstairs and headed toward Golden Flame Castle.

Golden Flame Castle, top-floor master bedroom.

A series of soft but urgent knocks on the door awakened Rowan from his sleep.

He opened his eyes and listened intently.

He knew that if there wasn't an urgent matter, no one would usually disturb him at this time.

Thus, he released the warm, soft body in his arms and prepared to get out of bed to open the door.

Beside him, Elena was awakened by his movements.

She opened her eyes groggily: "What's wrong?"

Rowan said in a low voice: "You go back to sleep. I'll go see what's the matter."

"Oh." Elena responded vaguely upon hearing this and fell back asleep.

Rowan got out of bed, put on a robe, and opened the door.

Standing outside the door was the senior maid on night duty, Rachel, who whispered: "My Lord, Miss Aurora is requesting an urgent audience, saying she has a very important matter that needs to be reported to you immediately."

Rowan's expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

It could never be a small matter if it could make Aurora rush to the castle to see him at this hour.

He nodded: "Take me to her."

On the first floor of the castle, in a small meeting room.

Aurora stood by the window, pacing back and forth.

Hearing the sound of the door opening, she immediately turned around. Seeing that it was Rowan who had entered, she spoke directly: "Rowan, something major has happened!"

"The Wizard Tower's monitoring array just captured that a large-scale Red Moon sacrificial ceremony is being held in Velen City in the southwest direction."

"The intensity of the fluctuations far exceeds anything we have monitored before."

Hearing this, Rowan's eyes suddenly became grave.

Velen City—he certainly knew this city.

After all, Velen County bordered the southwest boundary of Gino County. And Velen City, the county seat of Velen County, had a long history and was even more prosperous than Gino City.

If a city of this scale had fallen into a place for a Red Moon sacrifice, the number of casualties would be unimaginable.

The Church had only just withdrawn from the North, and those guys lurking in the shadows were already jumping out impatiently?!

But he immediately thought that the Lord of Velen City, the Silver Leaf Count Edmund Lawrence, was a High-Order Grand Knight who had been famous for a long time.

To be able to hold such a large-scale sacrifice in Velen City without being stopped meant that the Silver Leaf Count was likely in grave danger.

The power capable of defeating or even killing a High-Order Grand Knight was definitely not simple.

It just so happened that his current proficiency in his Breathing Technique was still some distance away from breaking through to a Sky Knight...

Thinking of this, he said: "We will depart immediately. We'll go and return quickly to figure out what's going on and see if this side will be affected."

Hearing this, Aurora said no more and nodded directly.

The two did not alert anyone else, rode horses to leave the castle, and disappeared into the vast night.

...

Velen City, Silver Leaf Castle.

The battle in the square had subsided.

The paved ground was covered with crisscrossing sword marks and dark red bloodstains.

The edge of the square.

The Silver Leaf Count Edmund knelt on one knee, leaning on his sword.

The longsword that had accompanied him through half his life of battles was now stained with blood.

His body was covered with wounds of varying depths.

The deepest one extended from his left shoulder to his right rib, with the flesh curled back, vaguely revealing the stark white bone.

His breathing was rapid and weak, each breath accompanied by a hoarse sound.

But his eyes, which had already become somewhat unfocused, were still staring fixedly at the Blood Blade Knight standing before him.

The Blood Blade Knight stood before him, looking down at this once high-and-mighty Silver Leaf Count, a smile appearing on the corner of his mouth.

The victor is king, the loser is the villain.

Bullying the few with the many is the traditional virtue of their Scarlet Cult.

He did not say anything more, but slowly raised the greatsword in his hand.

Then, the sword fell.

Edmund's body collapsed to the ground with a boom.

Behind the Blood Blade Knight, the Red Moon Wizard Bjorn smiled and stepped forward slowly.

Next, it was his turn to perform.

He looked down at the once immensely powerful body on the ground, a flash of fanaticism in his eyes.

"High-Order Grand Knight..." he muttered to himself, "This is an essential main material for the ritual."

He squatted down and took out a fist-sized dark red crystal ball from his bosom.

Inside the crystal ball, it seemed as if blood was flowing, emitting a bewitching crimson.

Bjorn placed the crystal ball on the chest of Edmund's corpse, then stretched out his hands, clasped his fingers together, and began to chant an obscure incantation.

The chanting sound hummed, low and rhythmic.

As he chanted, the dark red crystal ball began to glow.

At first, it was as faint as a firefly, then it became brighter and brighter, more and more Blazing, as if it were a beating heart.

The final chapter of the ritual had begun...