Antonius ...... He was poisoned some time ago, and then the snake worshippers took control of him......"

Keros turned his head and looked at Emperor Marius blankly, his voice deep and deep.

Emperor Marius's eyes widened: "You mean...... Your son joined the Serpent Cult? ”

"Nope! …… Neither Antonius nor myself could have joined the Serpent Cult, although we have encountered many bribes over the years...... He was controlled by poison by the Serpent Cult! I've got to get him back! ”

Keros spoke incoherently.

"Let's be clear...... What the hell is going on? What does this have to do with these corpses? ”

Emperor Marius obviously did not understand, looked at the terrifying scene in the altar, and forced his tone to soothe a little.

"It's a conspiracy...... I know it's a conspiracy, but there's no way I'm going to give up my eldest son......"

Keros finally began to tell the story of what he had been through.

It all started a few months ago.

When Kairos took over the village of Buyulin, he put his eldest son Antonius in charge of dealing with the Red Death in the village of Buyulin, and he himself helped Leon arrange food and ships and then went to Siyuan City - he handed over Livius's IOU to Emperor Marius according to Leon's suggestion, so Livius was transferred to the Shield Wind Fortress.

None of this was inherently problematic, the only problem was that since then, Keros has not been able to return to Dillingang, and has almost lost contact with his family.

This is because Keros has been ordered to exterminate Sheila Yuzas's rebels ever since, and his Shadow Legion has a lot of spies who report to the rebels.

In order to track down the spies and to prevent the whereabouts of the army from being exposed to the rebels, he forbade the army to go out and did not send anyone to the outside world.

As a result, the whereabouts of his troops were unknown, and he could not be contacted by his family, even Emperor Marius at the time.

For the sake of the country's security, Kairos acted cautiously to ensure that the army was not ambushed, which was also due to his sense of responsibility as a marshal.

But because he didn't go home for a long time, and he didn't contact his family, the things that happened at home were not properly handled—or rather, they were dealt with abnormally.

The Snake Cult had been infiltrating the Emperor's Harbor before, and many people knew about it, and of course Keros knew it.

In fact, if it weren't for the control of Keros, the Serpent Cult might have infiltrated the army.

However, although the serpent worshippers of the Emperor Lingang failed to mix sand in the army, they achieved a lot of success in the homes of the nobles.

Especially in the homes of the aristocracy who often did not come home outside – such as the Keros family.

With a long time since Keros returned home and no news has come back, the lonely woman knows that Keros has a mission, but she still can't help but think about it.

】

And Kairos's son Antonius, after completing the blockade mission of Buyulin Village, went out to play for a while, but returned home and became poisoned.

It wasn't an accident, it wasn't that Antonius accidentally contracted the Red Death, he was attacked.

And the reason for this attack has something to do with the carriage that Leon sold to Keros.

Since Kairos was going to fight outside, this luxury carriage was naturally used by Antonius for a while—every young man was the same, and when he saw his father buy a luxury car, of course, he wanted to get it for a few days and have a good time.

So after dealing with his father's business, he wandered around in this luxurious carriage for a while, but as soon as he returned to the port of Dilin, he was hit by a stinger.

In fact, the person who instructed the servant to shoot the stinger was none other than Lady Alast, Antonios's mother.

That is, Kairos's wife, a lonely middle-aged woman of fifty.

Keros had retrieved a special luxury carriage and had not told Lady Aras about the origin of the carriage - it had been traded from Leon's enemy, and the deal involved food, and Keros was not going to tell anyone.

But the problem is that this carriage was ridden by Amy and Sarah before, and it was sold in a bit of a hurry, and of course there was inevitably some taste of young women left behind - especially Sarah, who usually uses a lot of spices......

As a result, Ms. Aras had a bit of a misunderstanding - Keros was a famous handsome guy when he was young, and he was very popular with aristocratic women in the Bacchus Empire, and even now he is still quite attractive......

With Bacchus's ethos, it is too normal for the great nobles to secretly keep a few lovers.

After all, Ms. Aras was old, and the folds on her face could no longer be smoothed out with an iron, so she naturally had little confidence in her charm, and some servants with evil intentions were encouraging her......

So when he saw the carriage, he decided that Kairos had another new love.

Subsequently, a 'loyal' servant said that he should deal with the possible 'little three'......

So Lady Aras found a poison needle, and told the servant to find an opportunity to attack any woman who appeared in the carriage when the luxury car returned to the port of Dillin.

In Ms. Aras's opinion, the needle should have been nailed to the neck of Keros's lover......

But the problem is that Kairos didn't take this carriage to Siyuan City, and it was her son, Antonius, a young unmarried young man, who went out to fool around with his friends in a luxury car, which is indeed a very normal social behavior.

Since the curtain of this carriage was transformed into a mask by Leon, the windows were hung with the usual tulle of the Bacchus Empire by Antonius, and the figures could be clearly seen from the outside of the car, but they could not tell who the people in the car were.

As a result, Antonius took the luxury car back to Dilingang and was beaten ......

In fact, Antonius did bring the girl back, and the girl in the car was fine, but Antonius was hit by a dart - the servant apparently shot at Antonius......

In fact, being shot by that poisonous needle should not have been a big problem, and the wound was not big, and the toxin on the needle would not have been fatal.

It will only cause the skin to be swollen, and it will make the skin peel and ulcerate and produce a foul smell, but there will be no sequelae after healing - this is the characteristic of many highly infectious toxins, and even needles soaked in feces and rust can do this, and the poisonous needles that Aras himself can find are naturally not a rare thing.

This is just the jealousy of a lonely middle-aged and elderly woman, not to kill people, but to make a certain junior temporarily break his appearance.

However, after Antonius was poisoned, he thought that the Serpent Cult had contracted the Red Death - he had just dealt with the Red Death in the village of Buyulin, and knew that it was deliberately created by the Serpent Cult, and it was obviously not incomprehensible that he, as the eldest son of Kairos, was targeted by the Serpent Cult.

He immediately returned home, and after some examination, he found that he had symptoms similar to those of the Red Death—the skin at the wound was beginning to fester, and it was foul-smelling.

Antonius was a brave and resolute young man, and although he immediately decided that he might die, he didn't panic too much, and even locked himself in his room to self-isolate.

But his mother, Ms. Aras, didn't want to lose her promising son—she knew it wasn't the Red Death, but she didn't know how to explain to him that it was a needle she had shot......

The lady could only take a quick remedy—she had the needle-shooting servant suck the toxin, which seemed to her to be sucked out.

But no one knew what the 'faithful' servant had sucked Antonius, and since then Antonius had been asleep, his symptoms getting worse and worse, and the servant had disappeared.

Lady Aras panicked.

Unable to contact Governor Kairos, Ms. Aras was frightened and had no way to do anything, and hurriedly summoned a large number of various doctors to her home to treat her son, and even used the bloodletting therapy of some unreliable doctors.

As a result, by the time the most experienced doctors of the Knights of the Radiant Cross arrived, various quacks had already treated Antonius, who had been mildly ill, to a dying condition.

The Radiant Cross healers were able to determine that it was not the Red Death, but a poison mixed with multiple snake venoms, presumably a hallucinogen.

The symptoms caused by these mixed poisons look similar to those of the Red Death, but they are treatable and can be resolved if the composition of the toxin can be determined.

But the quacks before were all used to treat each other, and they used all the smoke and fire, and they also used a lot of home remedies to fight poison with poison, and they also put a large basin of blood on Antonios, and they didn't kill people on the spot, so Antonius was in good enough health to withstand the toss......

If Antonius had done nothing by locking himself in his room and isolating himself, simply based on the toxicity of that poisonous needle, it was estimated that he would have been able to heal himself after a few days of sleep......

But by this time, Antonius had been bloodletted and put in a dying coma, unable to consult a doctor. I have been tossed around blindly for too long, and I have been poured too many useless drugs, and I can't find any clues that may have been left, so that no matter how clever the detoxification expert is, he can't judge the composition of the poison.

However, Lady Aras did not want to believe that she had killed her son by looking for quacks, and the anxious lady banished the Knights of the Radiant Cross, and turned around to find a few chaotic priests outside the door.

Or rather, it's a god stick.

Superstitious activities are very marketable these days, and the typical idea of aristocratic women is also like this - since doctors can't do it, let the gods do it.

In the eyes of these old women, whether they are sick or poisoned, or evil or even have a stroke, it is the same thing...... Anyway, it can be solved in the way of jumping gods.

If it really doesn't work out, it's clearly God's will......

This really can't blame Kairos for marrying a wife, after all, most aristocratic old women are like this.

Of course, if it were a smart and clever girl like Alina or Amy, she would definitely be able to think about it - why is there a magic stick waiting at the door at this time?

But Ms. Aras's heart was already in a mess, and she didn't think about it so much, she only knew a proverb that was common in the mainland: 'Sincerity is spirit'......

Of course, the priest who will take the initiative to appear at the door of the big nobles at the level of the governor will not be an ordinary god, that is, a person who worships the snake sect, but is disguised as a priest of the temple of the goddess of Damia.

But those people weren't priestesses like Alyssa, they were men.

Half-threatening and half-foolish, these gods easily led Lady Aras and her family to join the Serpent Cult before proceeding to 'cure' Antonius.

I don't know what kind of treatment they had, but Antonius did wake up, but when he woke up, he looked so confused that he couldn't even speak, only obeyed orders, and even looked like he had become a puppet of those snake worshippers.

Moreover, on his neck, snakeskin-like green scales began to appear.

But for Ms. Arras, at least her son has been 'saved'.

The snake worshippers said that it would take some time to recover completely, so Ms. Aras was extremely cooperative with those snake worshippers, and even really planned to take the whole family to believe in the snake worshippers.

In the first half of Kairos's life, he may have different political views from Emperor Marius, but he never showed mercy when he met the snake worshippers, but he didn't expect that when he was fighting with the snake worship sect outside, the whole family was absorbed by the snake worship sect......

Of course, the snake worshippers went to Kairos's house to do things, of course, with a bigger plan.

After taking control of the Keros family, the Serpentarians had planned to drive Antonius to disarm the Emperor's Harbor and let the Serpent Cult army outside the city enter the city.

But it didn't work out - let alone Antonius, and even Keros himself couldn't convey such an order in plain sight.

What's more, Antonius can't even speak now.

Soon after, the family of Kairos abruptly left the port and disappeared - due to the consul's family's 'fleeing without a fight', most of the nobles of the port fled the area, but fortunately, the pig serf general Yin Vaylo came out to defend the city.

And a few days ago, when Kairos was dealing with the devoured people in Siyuan City, he met his wife, Ms. Aarasi, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

But his wife didn't come because she missed him......

Lady Aras had made a special trip to Siyuan City to find him, and she tried to convince Kairos to assassinate Emperor Marius!

It took a lot of effort for an incredulous Keros to confirm that the fifty-year-old woman in front of him was indeed his wife, and that she was sane and didn't talk nonsense......

And the reason why Lady Aras tried to get Kairos to assassinate Emperor Marius was because the magic stick told her that only the blood of Emperor Marius could restore Antonius to a normal person.

Otherwise, Antonios' soul will be devoured!

This is probably not a lie, although Keros did not know how the Devoured Snake Cult was created, but he knew that the Snake Worship Cult could do this.

After all, he was already clearing out the Devoured in Siyuan City.

Later, a priest-like figure brought Keros to Brethon and gave him a glimpse of Antonius on the altar.

Antonius's face and neck were almost covered with a miserable green, scaly, dry shell, and his face was covered with herpes, which seemed to be gradually turning into snake skin, and his eyes were open, but he was basically a child—his whole face looked like a snake.

The serpent emissary pressed Antonius into a pool of blood, and the scales on Antonios' face receded noticeably, but it didn't take long for him to regain his snakeskin.

Later, the serpent messenger told Keros that only the blood of kings could save his son, and that he would seal Antonius in this altar while Kairos brought Emperor Marius with him.

Keros saw the temple sealed with his own eyes.

Knowing the situation, Keros is faced with a difficult choice.

The Serpent worshippers must have done it on purpose, in order to assassinate Emperor Marius - they were supposed to control Kairos himself, and Antonius suffered on his behalf.

The old Bacchus Empire on the continent of Amara was torn apart and fell into chaos because of the assassination of the emperor, which gave the Snake Worship Sect an opportunity to establish a religious state on the ruins of the old Bacchus Empire.

And this time, the people of the Snake Cult obviously wanted to repeat the story of the year in the Pander Continent......

The so-called need for the blood of kings may be a pure deception, or it may be true, but in any case, Kairos must keep Emperor Marius by his side.

"But now, the man on this altar is not Antonius......

Emperor Marius apparently did not feel that his blood could bring the dead back to life, and he shook his head to look at the altar, where the man with his chest and abdomen was open and was clearly not the son of Kairos.

"Lord Kairos, when you first saw this temple sealed, there were so many corpses here?"

"Leon! How do you ......"

Suddenly hearing the voice of the lord, Emperor Marius and Kairos were startled at the same time.

Kairos was silent for a while, but still replied, "No...... At that time, there were no bodies in this temple, not a single one...... It's just my son, Antonius, alone. ”