Chapter 591: The Third Marie (Please Subscribe, Asking for Monthly Tickets)
Hiromi Jounouchi took out her "Crimson Hymn" from her person, and as she opened the pages, she also landed in the pool of blood below. However, as a Blood Knight, she didn't sink into the blood but instead stood on its surface.
"The essence of the ancient, the hymn of the immortal, return to silent death."
She recited the incantation from the book in the unique Necromantic Language, a Magic Array emerged beneath her feet, and it swiftly expanded.
"Flowing torrents, tranquil splendor, forever coursing."
The blood began to whirl, further engulfing the palace that had already been reduced to ruins, spreading and forming a complete circle at the original location of the palace, with everything inside utterly devoured.
"Distilled death, refined remains, boiling spirits."
Within the swirling blood, an altar rose with eight spires on which symbols of the Eight Great Necromantic Schools were inscribed, appearing ancient and mysterious. Hiromi Jounouchi's position was precisely where the sacrifice would take place.
"Embers of destruction, pillars of balance, the stairway to the sun is devoured by a giant dragon."
With Jounouchi Hiromi's enchantment, crimson flames arose from the ancient altar, igniting under her feet and lighting up the Magic Array that covered the surface of the altar, with powers projecting from the eight spires dyeing the Array in different hues.
The flames gradually enveloped Hiromi Jounouchi's body, swallowing her whole, and the surrounding blood flowed upward through grooves specially left around the altar into the Magic Array within, filling every line, providing fuel for the crimson flames.
Witnessing the actions of Hiromi Jounouchi below, Yu Chen was shocked. He had not anticipated that she would choose to complete the Promotion Ceremony of a Legendary Class at such a time.
The risks involved were beyond doubt. Should the ceremony be disturbed, not only could it fail, but Jounouchi Hiromi might even lose her soul.
The Promotion Ceremony of the Crimson Empress involved summoning a Ritual Altar within the Blood River of a Blood Knight, then using the summoned Blood Flames to ignite oneself along with the Blood River, allowing the Blood Flames to smelt one's flesh and soul to achieve the class promotion from Blood Knight to Crimson Empress.
Originally, Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi had planned to consider the class transition ceremony after their honeymoon trip back to Japan. However, they didn't expect Hiromi Jounouchi to summon the altar and start the ceremony at this time, evidently putting Yu Chen in a passive position.
Faced with his wife who was undergoing promotion, Yu Chen couldn't possibly do nothing. He had to control the Angel Statue to descend above the altar, covering the entire altar with his Domain to prevent Queen Mary from interfering with the ceremony.
Queen Mary, who had also noticed this scene, laughed with delight. She was almost at her limit, but the current situation gave her the best opportunity.
Even though she couldn't escape while trapped in this space, if the tables were turned, there was much more she could do. Moreover, she didn't believe that a Demigod focusing on defense would be able to withstand "her" power.
"She" was the most powerful identity of Queen Mary, one she had been cultivating since the days of Mary Tudor, reaping power after three reincarnations, the ladder that allowed her almost to reach the legendary peak of Demigodhood. It was also the reason this space existed, and likewise the first name on the list that Sherlock Holmes had given to Yu Chen.
Yes, on the list of "Prisoners" given to Yu Chen by Sherlock Holmes, although the existence ranked first indeed referred to her, the name was not Mary Tudor, nor Marie Antoinette, nor Bloody Mary and the two Vampires, but Mary Shelley.
The Mother of Science Fiction who wrote "Frankenstein," the first true science fiction novel.
It may seem incredibly unbelievable that, in her lifetime, besides writing the science fiction novel "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley's achievements did not even surpass those of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, a famous British Romantic poet, one of the most outstanding English poets in history, and the first socialist poet.
But with "Frankenstein" alone, she is incontrovertibly the world's first true science fiction writer, the Mother of Science Fiction.
Every science fiction novel that we see today originates from her, including legendary, hall-of-fame novels like "Star Trek," "Star Wars," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "The Time Machine," and even the more familiar works like "The Three-body Problem"—all these iconic pieces of science fiction literature trace their roots back to "Frankenstein," penned by the Mother of Science Fiction.
She is the creator of the science fiction genre, the founding progenitor.
Even though she was not famous in her lifetime, the tremendous influence and vigorous development of science fiction in the more than two hundred years since she wrote "Frankenstein" have endowed this pioneer of science fiction with unparalleled power.
Even if she were to become a deity of science fiction through this power, Yu Chen would find it unsurprising.
As the mask representing Mary Shelley was placed on Marie Antoinette's face, her everything once again underwent a transformation.
The palace in the sky, once serving as a stage, disappeared, turning into a modest antique table with nothing more than a quill and a stack of white paper on it, and Queen Mary herself became plain and elegant, looking rather inconspicuous.
But when she appeared in this image, the other four faces that had still been present vanished as if they had merged into her body, and the surrounding pink domain gradually became a quiet, dark red color, seemingly less threatening.
But Yu Chen clearly felt the threat because, as Queen Mary's domain turned dark red, he found that his own grey Domain of Death seemed somewhat unable to suppress hers.
This made Yu Chen feel both troubled and awkward, and he also felt a bit of resentment towards Hiromi Jounouchi for having to change classes in the middle of a battlefield.
However, that feeling was fleeting, and he still maintained his defensive stance as the Angel positioned the Shield in front of him.
And Mary Shelley merely walked to the unremarkable little table, sat down, and began to write on the paper.
"His limbs were in proportion, and I had selected his features as beautiful. Beautiful! Great God! His yellow skin scarcely covered the work of muscles and arteries beneath; his hair was of a lustrous black and flowing; his teeth of pearly whiteness. But these luxuriances only formed a more horrid contrast with his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same color as the dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shriveled complexion and straight black lips."
This was a description of the monster's appearance from "Frankenstein," and as Mary Shelley wrote, a creature eight feet tall appeared before her.