Chapter 101: The Unfortunate Miss of the Throne

Kromans really wanted to curse.

Recently, it seemed like she was always encountering monsters that couldn’t be described by common sense. Once or twice could be overlooked, but if it kept happening, it was getting a bit ridiculous.

Let me formally introduce Miss Kromans: She is one of the high-ranking leaders of the underground organization known as the Throne of Immortality, occupying the ninth seat, and is known as the “Shapeshifting Phantom.”

True to her name, Kromans excels at shapeshifting, imitating others’ identities to gather intel or eliminate key figures.

Her ability to change appearance, or shapeshift, is an ancient skill that has long been lost. In her early years, she sought a secret method to preserve her youth but stumbled upon this power by chance.

The reason she can imitate others so accurately, even making it difficult for close acquaintances to see through her guise, lies in the powerful effects of this ancient transformation technique.

Kromans’s shapeshifting can read a significant portion of a target’s memories, habits, and even mimic a range of their abilities, ultimately leading to a performance nearly indistinguishable from the original. This results in a terrifying effect where she perfectly replaces the original in daily life.

However, this ancient art has its drawbacks; the process is quite complex. The caster must be in close proximity to the one being imitated for a time, and during the mimicry, the original must not die. If they do, the magic will automatically be undone.

Of course, these flaws are mostly known only to Kromans herself. After all, the Throne of Immortality is not a righteous organization, and even among the ranks, it’s normal to betray and fight each other for various interests.

Kromans doesn’t rank highly within the Throne and has relatively average combat abilities. If even the weaknesses and secrets of her powers were discovered, her status would be truly perilous.

Returning to the earlier topic.

Over a year ago, the Throne of Immortality suffered a crushing defeat during a power coup in the United Kingdom. Not only did their long-time collaborator, the kingdom’s second prince Ban Meikailande, fall to an unknown assailant, but several other high-level operatives, including the second seat, the Twin Dragon Maiden, also fell or went missing in various operations. The new queen, Liliya Meikailande, launched a vigorous crackdown, resulting in severe losses.

After all, with the strong support given to Ban Meikailande, and several direct assassination attempts on Queen Liliya herself, it was clear that the new queen was determined to eliminate the Throne of Immortality from her kingdom. Coupled with the confirmed traitor, the seventh seat Plakaka, providing intel, it was impossible for the organization to maintain a foothold in the area for the time being.

No matter how deep the roots of the Throne of Immortality are, it is still just a strictly underground organization with a total count of no more than ten thousand members. It would be more sensible to temporarily avoid a pointless deadlock with a superpower like the United Kingdom, which ranks among the top five in the world, and instead preserve their strength and minimize losses.

Thus, after managing to escape from the capital, the City of Courage, Kromans followed the orders from above and temporarily returned to Mingguang City in the Holy Empire. Many forces within the organization also pulled out of the United Kingdom and retracted towards the Beast Kingdom in the west and the Holy Kingdom in the east.

The religious beliefs in the Holy Empire are deeply entrenched, and the Church itself forms a massive ruling class. Therefore, it is significantly harder to infiltrate than the former United Kingdom. Even an influential organization like the Throne of Immortality only established two large strongholds over hundreds of years within the Holy Kingdom, each overseen by a different seat.

And on the western side, it just so happens to be Kromans.

After returning to the west, Kromans enjoyed a rare leisurely year in the city thanks to the organization’s temporary strategy of “laying low and recuperating.” Although she was also an undead, her transformation abilities made her the easiest member of the Throne to blend in with humans.

Unless facing extraordinarily perceptive old monsters, in normal circumstances, even a Transcendent Level Expert would find it challenging to detect her undead aura unless they were already aware and deliberately observing.

Kromans’s public identity in Mingguang City is a high-ranking nun from the eastern Star Bear Temple. Of course, this position wasn’t obtained through legitimate means but because of her shapeshifting abilities. The real nun has long been captured and locked away in the stronghold’s dungeon.

For the most part, Kromans led a life that should have belonged to that young nun, and even her family members, who had been living with her for over a year, had completely failed to notice the fact that their relative had been replaced.

It might sound unbelievable, but for the Shapeshifting Phantom, this was a common occurrence.

However, this peaceful life was recently disrupted.

Half a month ago, the chief seat, the Eternal Mage Demos Yang, inexplicably visited Mingguang City and handed Kromans a strange-looking black and white mask, instructing her to select a suitable candidate from the “material” within the stronghold to wear it.

Though perplexed by such a strange request, Kromans, being the ninth seat and knowing Demos Yang to be undeniable the strongest and true leader of the organization, naturally didn’t dare to refuse or push back outright and immediately acted under his supervision.

The individual ultimately chosen was a girl named Chloe Laurie, who carried one-quarter of Light Tribe blood in her veins.

While this experimental subject had previously suffered some issues—due to shenanigans by a fellow named Leopold—resulting in her mental state and physiological structure going awry, rendering her unable to grow, she spent most of her time in a semi-vegetative state of slumber.

However, her Light Tribe blood was genuine, granting her exceptional physical attributes. Kromans had also grown tired of taking care of the immobile girl, so it naturally made sense to put her forward as the experimental subject.

Then, Kromans witnessed a scene that filled her with bone-chilling fear that she couldn’t forget even now.

The girl, who should have been deep in slumber, jolted and stood up, as if a necromantic spell had awakened her from death, while the expression on the black and white mask, as if revived, released unimaginable and terrifying dark thoughts that even sent shivers down the spine of this legendary-level powerhouse.

It was smiling, joyfully having found a new host, delighting in… returning to this world.

After that, the mask, now operating through Chloe, had a private conversation with the Eternal Mage, a dialogue from which Kromans was excluded, so she didn’t know the specifics.

After briefly relaying some matters, Demos Yang quickly left Mingguang City again, but… that peculiar mask was left behind.

Thus, it began to spread and clone itself, right in front of Kromans’s eyes, converting many useless experimental subjects in the stronghold into similar but different entities, all controlled by that bizarre mask.

The most terrifying part? This thing could even convert the undead.

That mad, twisted malice was enough to make even Kromans, who prided herself on being wicked, feel disgusted and deeply fearful.

Although in her long time with the Throne of Immortality, the Shapeshifting Phantom had encountered her fair share of bizarre, strange, and even inhumane things, giving her considerable mental fortitude.

But watching the number of masked creatures increase day by day, haunting the stronghold like phantoms, even though the Eternal Mage had guaranteed before leaving that under normal circumstances they wouldn’t attack their own, Kromans couldn’t help but feel her anxiety growing.

Before long, the number of masked creatures in the stronghold reached saturation.

And so… they began to spread outward.

   

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