Scepter of Thorns

The atmosphere froze.

Nine of Spades' eyes were like sharp knives, "You are responsible for your words, Lieutenant Osa."

"I leaked military secrets." Osa repeated numbly. "It was me. I told my friends in the Holy Academy that there might be spies hidden among them."

"It's not an ordinary friend." The general said in a cold tone, "You have been trained before, so you shouldn't make such a low-level mistake."

normal friend?

Osa's spirit was shaken, and she couldn't let Nine of Spades know about Camus, she had already been sentenced to death, and she couldn't involve innocent people in it.

"Several students in the same class as me received the task of investigating in the Gale Valley. I couldn't just watch them die, so I just..."

"Okay." Nine of Spades interrupted her unceremoniously, "They survived, but 1 Celestial Clan fighters died because of this."

Osa lost her voice, and she fell to her knees powerlessly on the ground, like a dying swan.

Nine of Spades clapped their hands and said, "Come here, Lieutenant Osa is suspected of leaking military secrets. He has been dismissed from all positions in the army and is being held pending trial."

A servant came in and took away Osa who was kneeling on the ground.The girl's eyes were stained with despair, and she knew that she would never go back.

The news of the defeat was sent back to the heaven, and the king of heaven was furious.This extraordinarily bloody battle was named the Battle of the Red Valley. The demons burned the corpses of the Celestial Clans to make half of the sky red, but the bright colors in the profane sun were formed by the accumulation of lives.The Celestial Realm and the Human Realm officially signed a cooperation agreement. The previous advantages of the Celestial Clan disappeared in the Battle of the Red Valley. Pope Mufujie and Lieutenant General Spades Nine came forward. The Celestial Realm agreed to withdraw from the Human Realm territory after repelling the invasion of the Demon Race .

The biggest winner this time was Pope Mufujie, who refused to sign a formal contract with the Celestial messengers before the Battle of the Red Valley, thereby maximizing the benefits of the human world: not only frightened the Demons with human reinforcements, but also saved the Heavenly Race. family, making the beneficiaries of the treaty change.

As for the leaker Osa, in view of her military exploits and contributions in the Holy See of the Human World, the death penalty was changed to lifelong rape.

When Seru learned the news, she was hypnotizing a branch of the Senna family. The sleepwalker didn't know that he had stepped into the border of death. The woman in the dream wore black eyeshadow, floated in the air and laughed, "jump go down."

The collateral obediently jumped from the roof of the sixteenth floor.

The blood stained the ground, Osa wiped his hands, and said carefully, as if full of guilt, "Hold, I'm sorry, if I don't kill you, I will lose a way."

The dead man was silent.

"Osa was sentenced to lifelong rape? Is it because of leaking secrets?" She asked the woman in the illusion, they are almost exactly the same now, "She...is a very good person."

"That's going to go wrong, Selo," the man replied. "Osa is a nice person, but she's also smart."

Selu thought for a moment, "She was sentenced for leaking information. Earlier, the Reticent mentioned to me that Osa had questioned his identity, and I used privileges to resolve it, so her leak of secrets is most likely indirectly caused by the Reticent. Yes. Are you worried that... she will find this loophole?"

"Yes." Heselu said solemnly, "As long as she is alive, she has a lot of time to think. It is only a matter of time before she finds out that the identity of the silent person is different. Once something happens to the silent person, it will be over for us who recommended the place of duchess to the king of heaven."

Seru understood what she wanted to say, she moved her lips, "Osa is a very good person, she comforted me when I was most desperate, I can't..."

"The Countess of Heaven may be destroyed because of this." Hesse showed a blank expression, "What do you think the meaning of the existence of the Countess is?"

"...technology and economy?"

"It's peace." She stared at Seru with an invisible weight in her eyes, "Everything is based on peace, and the hatred of all races is nothing but the contradiction of the main god. What we do is to let people get rid of the shackles of religion, through Economics and trade have strengthened exchanges among all walks of life. You must know that what really destroyed Osa was not the so-called military secrets, but the ambition and hatred of the Celestial Clan and the Demon Clan.”

Because of ambition, so war.Kill because of hatred.

"...You are right." Seru was silent for a moment, then said slowly, "If this problem is not solved fundamentally, there will be countless people like her and the soldiers who died in the Battle of Red Valley .”

"So if the Countess does not want to fail, Osa must die." Hesel said firmly, "Two of the twelve judges are Countesses, and judging from the consequences she caused, the death penalty will be commuted for life. Not difficult."

"I used to simply think that the world was divided into righteousness and evil." Selu said softly, "but now I realize that it is gray. Many times what we face is not extreme darkness or light, but points of light and Beams. Beams can only be bright if they swallow light spots, but in fact no one is guilty, they are just pursuing differences."

"As long as you can figure it out."

After Selu left the illusion, she tapped on the portable mirror, and a sharp-eyed face appeared in the mirror, "May I ask who you are?"

"Hello, Judge Bincia." She said sternly, "I am Seru Senna, the temporary ruler of the Countess. I have objections to Osa's execution."

……

Prison is the prison with the strictest control in the heavens, because it is mainly used to detain political prisoners, and some prisoners do not seem to be aggressive, or even slightly sick.However, most of the people here were once at the peak, but later people pushed hard and fell from the peak.

The jailer announced, "Female prisoner No. 94, Osa, will be burned for life and will be executed tomorrow."

Seru heard the jailer's words when she first stepped into the prison.Prisoners have become numb to this. There have been many fallen climbers who were executed by the ruler because of their inadvertent behavior. Prisons are such places.

She found Osa's cell. The girl's brilliant blond hair withered and yellowed like straw. Seeing Seru coming, she forced a smile.

"You're here." She said hoarsely, laughing uglier than crying, "I thought no one was looking at me, after all everyone knows that I'm... a leaker."

Selu didn't know how to speak for a moment.

"I committed such a crime, and I should have been sentenced to death." Osa moved closer to the railing, "Well, Selu, are you okay with the baroness?"

"It's, it's okay, my mother-in-law doesn't let me take care of many things, and she also said that there are many collaterals that can inherit the duchess..."

Osa grabbed Seru's hand, with deep worry in his eyes, "I'm going to die soon, so I don't care about anything. The Countess is very dangerous. I suspect that this leak of secrets has something to do with them. You must be careful, I When I was in heaven, I felt that you were so simple, like a little lamb, you must protect yourself."

The person outside the railing suddenly cried, she nodded desperately, tears blurred her eye shadow, Selu wiped it with her sleeve hastily, revealing the cleanness and purity of her eyes.

"You, why are you crying!" Osa panicked, "Look, I didn't cry... Go back quickly, don't come again, prison is not a good place."

It was as if a needle had pierced Seru's heart, and the pain was long and delicate, deep into the bones and blood.

※※※

The Celestial Clan is a race favored by the gods, their lifespan is endless, and they are born with powerful light power.When the gods created the world, the God of Light burned the body of the Celestial Clan with raging flames, so the burning was not too painful for the Celestial Clan. They would turn into broken light elements in the flames and dissipate in the air.

A day is shorter than Selu imagined.Osa was chained to a cross-shaped pillar of salt that towered above the altar, and black crowds came from all directions to watch the death of a maiden.

The oil-soaked firewood piled up under his feet, and Osa suddenly thought of his father and life in the palace.Ostana's shadow came out again, and she couldn't help laughing when she saw her childhood madly indulging in gloomy poems and stories.

Father Mephisto stroked her hair gently. No one thought that the princess would plot against her father, or that the officer would reveal military secrets.In those long and dark days, everything was her own choice, and all the bloody and difficult roads were walked by herself.

The torch lit the firewood, and the Celestial Clan was born in this blazing flame, and Osa actually felt a little warm.

And... Camus.

It was the first time for Osa to like someone so much that he would destroy himself.She recalled Camus' eyes, every word he said, every movement he made, his occasional smile and cold expression, the book he handed over, and the hand holding the book.She felt that her body was dissipating, like evaporated water droplets, and her light soul seemed to have risen into the air.Then Osa saw Seru, sitting in a corner, covering her eyes with her arms, as if she could escape by doing so.

For the weary soul, death may be a relief.

"Osa is a very good person." Selu couldn't stop crying, repeating this monotonous description, "She is a very good person..."

The flames died down, the pillar of salt was empty, and the maiden had vanished into nothingness.Someone cheered quietly, as if celebrating the burning of the leaker.

Selu looked at the dark auditorium, where there were dignitaries, military officers, and family members of the deceased in the Battle of the Red Valley. They held flowers in their hands and threw them towards the pillar of salt.The residual heat scorched the delicate flowers, making a scorching sound.

The people of the church immediately banned this behavior, but they still couldn't stop the people's joy.The death penalty became absurd, leaving the banquet was filled with laughter and weeping.Selu was mixed in the crowd, she looked up, and the archangel painted on the dome looked compassionate and indifferent.

She couldn't hold back the tears at last, because of Osa, but also because of something else.

----Chapter102. Flame & End----