Imperial Crown

Black smoke gushed out from Margaret's palm, spreading out like a spider web, and piercing into Raven's facial features.

Raven felt that every inch of his skin was spreading unspeakable pain, just like wearing a mask full of sharp steel needles, and the mask was constantly shrinking inward, squeezing out the deepest pain between his skin, causing his consciousness to gradually move away from his body.

Margaret muttered a difficult spell in her mouth, and her rough palm slowly raised.

Raven's face appeared again, and the pair of eyes that were originally bright and energetic had turned into pure black without boundaries like Margaret.

In the black, silver light occasionally appeared, but it was squeezed and eliminated by the diffuse black air.

"What a strong mental power." Margaret's narrow mouth corners drew a smile: "It's a pity that you don't know how to use it."

Gradually, Raven's face began to change horribly, and blood vessels were dyed black, emerging and bursting, like worms swimming under the skin.

They twisted, pulsated, and jumped, propping up the skin piece by piece, showing a greasy, slippery and corrupt texture.

When the black blood vessels eroded under Raven's neck, Margaret raised her hands and let out a short scream.

As the scream broke out, a strong wind swept out with Raven as the center, and thick black smoke rushed out from under the ground, lifting Raven's body up.

The black gas was very thick, like ink in the clear water, condensed into whip-like tentacles, dancing wildly around Raven's body.

This is a curse ritual, the magic that witches are best at.

This curse, called "Song of Dark Souls", extracts the soul of the cursed and replaces it with a substitute carefully made by the witch.

Margaret's voice began to become high-pitched, and she kept making sharp, hoarse but strange rhythmic hisses. The black tentacles began to move according to this rhythm, and a little bit of silver light flowed out from Raven's facial features.

At first, it was mercury-like, and then it rose up and turned into a little star-like light. Every time it floated up, it was swallowed by the black air, and the black air slowly began to grow stronger.

Mental power is derived from the soul, and it also protects the soul from being harmed by strange forces. At this time, this curse is draining Raven's mental power bit by bit and stripping off the armor of the soul.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what a pure spiritual power." It was like a picky customer appreciating a product: "If you are really made into a puppet, maybe you can understand human nature better than others?"

Swoosh-

Just then, a sound of breaking through the air sounded, Margaret turned her head slightly, and a long sword wrapped in ice fighting spirit brushed past her, hit the wall and bounced to the ground.

She turned her head slightly, and saw Volaf struggling to crawl out of the crows, with a long pool of blood behind him. His facial features were all bloody and his ears were pecked, and even bones could be seen on his wrists.

"Oh, what a loyal knight." Margaret sniffed and smelled the bloody smell in the air: "Go to sleep, you sleep first, when you wake up you will find that all this is just a nightmare."

She raised her hand, and a black air flowed from Raven's body and fell on Volaf's face.

The latter widened his eyes, and his breathing began to become difficult. He felt that dozens of voices were echoing in his mind, urging him to fall asleep.

He didn't want to sleep because Baron Raven was still under the control of the witch, but the voice was magical, constantly tempting the fatigue in his heart, making his eyelids heavier and heavier.

"Baron... Sir...!" He muttered in his mouth, using his last strength to send his palm to his mouth and bite it hard!

Ten fingers connected to the heart.

The stinging pain dispelled the fatigue and refreshed him, but the next moment, he felt that he had lost consciousness from the neck down.

"Witch...! What did you do to me!?"

Margaret chuckled: "I told you to have a good rest and don't disturb our 'world of two'."

In a place where Volav couldn't see, a few strands of black air were interspersed in the center of his spine behind him, and it was they that blocked Volav's power.

Feeling weak, Volav could no longer resist and fell asleep unwillingly.

Although most of the power was involved in Raven, it would not take Margaret much effort to deal with a seriously injured knight.

Boom.

A staff rolled down to Margaret's feet.

She turned her head and saw that Nancy had struggled over and was less than ten meters away from her, but at this moment she finally ran out of power.

"Oh, I almost forgot about you." Margaret snapped her fingers lightly, and the black air lingering in Nancy's throat slightly dissipated: "I like your body very much. When I control Raven, I will become your appearance and follow him."

Nancy spit out a mouthful of blood, and then gasped: "Dream, I am from the Fox family..."

"Shh..." Margaret's dry fingers stood on her lips, and a black air locked Nancy's throat again: "Lady, you should be quiet."

Looking at Nancy's angry and desperate eyes, Margaret's heart was full of pleasure.

"Even the nobles who are so high up in the world can have such moments!" She laughed happily, because another noble was about to fall completely into her hands.

Nancy was furious when she heard this, and her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

No one could stop Margaret anymore.

At this time, Raven was completely surrounded by black tentacles. There was no silver liquid flowing out of the corners of his eyes and lips, but scarlet blood instead.

Margaret clapped her hands, and the black tentacles like trees lifted Raven and moved closer to her.

As Margaret's gestures kept changing, with a bang, smoke and dust rose, and the black tentacles fell on the ground, forming a complicated inverted pentagram magic circle.

"It's time." Margaret walked forward, carefully stroking Raven's chest, and slowly opened his clothes, revealing his body that was already swollen with black blood vessels.

Raven's heart had completely bulged out, beating vigorously on the surface of his skin, and his ribs seemed to no longer exist.

Taking out a knife from the dirty robe, Margaret cut her finger with it, and the purple-black blood stuck to her finger like asphalt.

She placed her fingers on Raven's chest, then squeezed gently, and the sticky blood dripped onto the surface of the heart.

The heart suddenly began to beat wildly, and the black blood melted, like ink seeping into paper.

"Mother of Pure Black..." Margaret chanted the name: "Please awaken the spirit in my blood!"

Raven's limbs began to twitch as if they were electrified, and a little bit of transparent and sticky stuff was squeezed out of the pores.

This is his soul.

When the soul dissipates, there will be no Raven in the world, only a puppet that obeys Margaret.

"Ah..." Margaret made a happy sound, she could feel an invisible connection being built between herself and Raven, like the silk thread that controls the puppet.

This feeling of holding the life and death of others in your hands is really wonderful, and Margaret will never get tired of it.

The connection gradually became stable, and the squeezed soul wrapped around Raven's body, like a layer of jelly, or a crystal coffin built close to the body.

This was not the first time Margaret had performed such a ritual. She knew that this meant that Raven's soul had been completely forced out of his body.

She took a deep breath, mobilized her mental power, and rushed through the invisible passage:

"Goodbye, Baron Raven!"

Boom.

With the impact of Margaret's mental power, the transparent substance on Raven's body suddenly collapsed like raindrops.

Raven, finally

his soul was scattered

?

The smile on Margaret's mouth suddenly froze.

Because at this moment, the soul that should have dissipated like dewdrops in the sun actually rolled back and poured into Raven's body from the center of his eyebrows.

At the same time, a layer of dark red light covered Raven's body, illuminating the entire cave in scarlet!

The choking smell of blood filled Margaret's nasal cavity, as if she was in a pool of blood.

The spiritual feedback also followed. Margaret felt that her spiritual power did not hit a crumbling soul, but hit a volcano that was about to erupt!

Her spiritual power was annihilated in it, and then the energy that almost burned her out rebounded and pierced her soul!

The originally dark eyes also showed a layer of blood!

"How... is this... possible!!" Margaret screamed miserably: "Curse... you, how can you have such a powerful curse on you!?"

She used her most proud curse ritual to dispel Raven's soul, but she didn't expect that Raven's soul had already been occupied by a more terrible curse.

The curse carried a power that she could not imagine, like a sleeping dragon, and she provoked the dragon!

"No... don't... don't!!!!" Margaret's shriveled skin began to show bloodstains, and then turned into black spots like branding, her hair began to turn into ashes and disappear, her nails broke, and fell into the ground like dust.

Raven also opened his eyes at this moment.

He was surrounded by surging red light, as if he had been reborn in blood.

His legs slowly landed on the ground, Raven's expression was full of surprise. He looked at his body, then at Margaret, and a smile of realization appeared on his face:

"It seems that although this curse does not want me to live too long, it does not want me to die too early."

"You, you--" Blood continued to flow into Margaret's body, making her scream wildly: "You knew it a long time ago, you knew it a long time ago, right!!"

"I don't know." Raven blurted out the truth: "Your strength is far above ours. The so-called 'all conspiracies are useless in the face of absolute power', you have indeed done this."

"Thank you for the lesson you taught me. Next time I face an unfamiliar power, I will never be so careless again."

This sentence made Margaret feel more uncomfortable than death. If all this was Raven's design, she could still convince herself that the other party had stronger power and more adequate preparation.

But it happened that luck determined the victory or defeat between them!

"Damn... Damn... Fate, this bitch..." The witch's body trembled, her voice was filled with fear and terror, and a strong sense of unwillingness.

As Raven woke up, the scarlet power began to fade, as if it had passed through an invisible crack and gradually disappeared without a trace.

Margaret was still frozen in place, unable to move.

Raven was not prepared to give her a chance to move again, so she picked up the staff and began to chant magic.

But Margaret's voice suddenly sounded.

"Don't kill me, please don't kill me!! I have lived for three hundred years and know a lot of useful knowledge!"

With a sneer on his lips, Raven was about to continue chanting the spell when he was suddenly startled.

Because he saw that Margaret's lips clearly didn't move.

"Master...Master!" Margaret's eyes showed a trace of pleading and flattery: "Please, don't kill me!"

A suspicious look appeared on Raven's face, and he thought in his mind:

"Am I dead now and all this is my hallucination? Or am I really controlled by Margaret, and what I see now is what she wants me to see?"

"No...! It's not an illusion!" Margaret's voice even sounded like crying: "The curse... I was bitten by my own curse, and now you are my master!"

"Really?" Raven still didn't want to believe it.

"Really! The curse in your body is too powerful, far beyond what I can match." Margaret sighed: "Now, I must do whatever you ask me to do. Without your order, I will Nothing can be done!"

When Lei Wen heard this, he immediately opened his Eyes of Truth, and then a sudden realization came to his mind.

He saw that there was an invisible rope connecting him and Margaret. One end of the rope was placed in his hand, connecting to the deep curse that wrapped his soul; the other end went deep into Margaret's head, connecting To the soul.

As long as she exerts a little force, Margaret will inevitably die immediately.

"Now, remove your magic." Raven ordered for the first time.

Margaret straightened up immediately, rubbing her hands on her chest, and black energy flew back to her palms and merged into her body.

The crows disappeared, and the black energy lingering on Nancy and Volaf had also dissipated.

The soldiers were all exhausted, but they immediately surrounded Margaret after seeing everything in front of them.

"Okay, there's no need to be so nervous." Raven shook his neck: "She doesn't pose any threat to us now. Get Volaf and Nancy settled, and bandage your respective wounds."

"Yes, sir!"

The strange thing is that the injuries of these soldiers are far less serious than those of Volav who broke out of the Crow Formation twice.

Sensing Raven's doubts, Margaret took the initiative to explain: "Master, the magic of 'Crow Storm' is actually mainly based on illusion. People who enter it will lose their sense of direction and sensitivity to time. Only Only those who see through the illusion will actually be attacked by crows, so Volaf’s injuries are the most serious.”

Raven nodded slowly, and suddenly realized something was wrong: "Margaret, I will give you two orders now."

"First, you are not allowed to peek into my heart without my permission."

"Second, if you have something to say, say it with your mouth. Unless reality doesn't allow it, don't speak in my heart!"

After saying these two sentences, Margaret froze on the spot and had no reaction at all.

Raven hesitated for a moment, and then tentatively ordered: "Third, you can move and speak freely from now on, but you can't run away, and you can't attack my people."

After saying this, the expression on Margaret's face suddenly became vivid. She rubbed her palms and approached Raven step by step, with a flattering smile on her face: "Lord Baron, you are so magnanimous and kind! Simply. He is the most perfect nobleman in the world!”

With that said, she knelt down and held Raven's shoes with both hands.

The latter took two steps back and said in a cold voice: "What are you going to do!?"

"Um..." Margaret opened her mouth, revealing a mouthful of black teeth: "Of course I'm cleaning your shoes!"

"Get out!" Raven's mouth twitched: "Don't touch me without my order!"

You wanted to lick me when I didn't subdue you before, and you still want to lick me now. Didn't I subdue you in vain?

Thinking of this, Raven rubbed his cheek: "If you dare to do this again, I will pull out your tongue!"

At this moment, Nancy also woke up.

She choked out a mouthful of saliva, her chest heaved violently, her eyes turned from blurry to clear, and her eyes moved around. The moment she saw Margaret, she immediately screamed, grabbed the staff at hand, and began to recite the incantation. .

"Nancy, stop!" Raven shouted.

But Nancy seemed not to hear Raven's words and continued to recite her own mantra.

Raven's expression darkened, and he raised his crossbow and pointed it at her: "I want you to stop!"

Nancy still didn't care. She didn't believe that Raven really dared to shoot her.

The fire began to wrap around the staff, and just when the magic was about to be completed, there was a whooshing sound, and the crossbow arrow grazed Nancy's wrist and drove into the ground, which also made Nancy listen to the spell in her mouth.

Her face turned from white to green, then from blue to red, and she shouted to Raven: "Raven! What are you doing!?"

The latter walked up to her in a few steps: "I asked you to stop, didn't you hear it!?"

"Please wake up, she is a witch!" Nancy's voice was furious: "Could it be that you have been controlled by her!?"

"I controlled her." Raven corrected her statement. At the same time, in order to verify his words, he turned around and ordered: "Xiao Ma, do a somersault!"

Margaret is so angry, do you think I'm your dog? Do you still think I'm Xiaoma?

But her body was much more active than her mind. She bent down and put her hands on the ground, doing an ugly somersault but with impeccable posture.

Raven nodded secretly.

As expected, he has lived for more than three hundred years and is so versatile!

Nancy was also stunned, but she came back to her senses immediately: "Since you control her, why don't you kill her now!?"

"Why should I kill her?" Raven asked in confusion: "Now that I can control her, she is my property and can play a very important role."

"But she almost killed me just now!!" Nancy pointed to her chest and said, "I was just a little bit away from dying at the hands of this old witch!"

"Actually, you are still alive." Raven's voice began to become a little impatient: "And you are so angry that you still have the energy to quarrel with me now!"

Nancy seemed surprised that Raven would say this to her: "I'm still alive now? Yes, I am still alive. Do you think this is enough? This can make up for the harm she did to me!?"

"Let me ask you one last time, will you kill her or not?"

Raven's answer was simple and straightforward: "Can't kill."

"Okay, great!" Nancy's face turned red, she nodded repeatedly, and then went straight to grab Raven's crossbow.

"What are you doing?" Raven pushed her out suddenly.

The latter took a few steps back and sat on the ground, staring at Raven unyieldingly: "If you don't kill her, then I will!"

"The Fox family must pay its debts!"

"Fox family, Fox family...!" Raven was really angry with her, and said in a stern tone, "This is the Bloody Highlands, not the Nord province, not the Hovey City of your Fox family!"

"No one here cares about your identity as Miss Fox Family!"

"Take care of your princess disease!"

This was the first time Nancy had heard such harsh words since she was a child. The humiliation she had felt along the way, the anger of being deceived by Margaret before, and the fear between life and death broke out at this moment:

"Princess disease? I gave you money, gave you spells, and asked you to take me to the Bloody Highlands! Did I do anything to feel sorry for you along the way? Did I disobey!?"

"Now, just because of this witch!" She pointed her finger at Margaret: "She wants my life! Not only did you not let me kill her, but you also came to reprimand me!? Is she that important!?"

"You want to keep her, right? OK, let me go!"

With that said, she picked up the staff on the ground and walked out angrily, but she couldn't help but slow down when she reached the entrance of the cave.

Raven looked at her back, his anger still lingering: "Okay, let's go, why don't you move?!"

"How simple, step out of this hole, mount your horse, and run!"

"How powerful you are, Miss Fox Family, 'Fire Rose', you can survive in the ice and snow by yourself, you will never freeze or starve, you will never be caught, and you will never die!"

"Bloody Heights is your Fox family's playground!"

Nancy clenched her fists and sobbed: "Do you really want me to die?!"

"Think so much!" Raven exclaimed, "So you'd better get out of here right now, and never, never come back!"

"Okay! This is what you said!" Nancy took a step forward and rushed out of the cave without looking back.

The cave immediately became quiet.

Margaret came forward and said, "Lord Baron, do you think the page I just turned was good?"

"Get out of here too! Get out of here where I can't see you!" Raven didn't bother to talk to her.

The witch was stunned, and suddenly black smoke flashed around her body, and she turned into a crow and flew out.

"Lord Baron..." Volaf had already drank the healing potion at this time, and the wounds on his body were closing quickly. He limped to Raven's side.

The latter rubbed his temples tiredly: "Are you also here to persuade me to kill Margaret?"

"Of course not." Volaf waved his hands repeatedly: "Her ability is very powerful. Your subduing her will be of great help to the next battle. How can I object."

"It would be great if Nancy could be as mature as you." Raven sighed helplessly.

"Speaking of this..." Volaf lowered his voice: "Do you really want Miss Nancy to leave like this?"

…