Conquering His Cold Heart

Chapter 633 Fierce operation

Almost a month after the second family gathering ended and word of the Floor jumping stones had spread far and wide, many minute changes within the Dungeon and the Camp had taken place. The fifteenth floor was now fully developed with multiple expansions, secondary rooms and was awash with dynamic, high priced 2 star environments of the ice element.

Following that the sixteenth floor had even been prepared but was instead decorated with a range of environments and monsters of the spatial element.

Following their joint development on the Floor Jumping Stones the two siblings engaged in a large transaction involving elemental environments, monsters, magic books and even unique mines – The last one being due to Daki's incessant pleading.

On the sixteenth floor instead of being greeted by a world of ice one would be met with a range of ancient mazes wherein every step could teleport victims halfway across the room. It was a floor filled with illusions, transpositional traps, eery elongated hallways that took ages to travel through and deadly teleporting monsters, a very different experience to the previous floors but no less deadly.

With Frost's acumen in war and his experience in dealing with the monster stampede he greatly improved upon Void's initial layouts, establishing a truly puzzling and deadly floor.

There was even a small section in the final area that was a just a dimension of space, no paths, walls or objects. Those who entered would be encapsulated in a deep darkness with only the glimmer of stars allowing them to see around them. To escape a victim would need to tread blindly through a complicated path lest they wished to remain trapped forever.

This mini environment like trap was something Void had developed personally after pooling together his knowledge of spatial environments. Initially he had no intention in selling this piece of work but Frost's vast sums of DP as well as his access to unique ice fire magic- which Void found particularly fascinating- finally won him over.

Now all that was needed was for a group of high powered adventurers to make it down to the bottommost floor and experience its grandeur. Alas given the Dungeon's current clientele it would be an event in the far future. Because of that he held off on trading with Indra, Aqua and the rest of his siblings.

As the Dungeon, the camp and even the internal outpost continued to develop, welcoming more and more people the situation in the Northrend empire grew dire. Every day crime was rampant throughout the realm, the hands of both the first and second prince playing a crucial part. Whether on their orders or those of their subordinates the empire was inches away from being embroiled in flames. Stay tuned to m-v l|e'-NovelBin.net

Black market groups, underworld gangs, illegal slavers and even drug cartels stopped showing restraint. With the entire empire consumed by the war of the princes there was no one left to contain their antics, hell a few opportunistic nobles even hired them to further the chaos and or seek revenge against their enemies. It was a dark period far worse than Emperor Franz could have ever anticipated.

Every day he'd see the reports of his country in chaos and the lack of care in the expressions of both his sons and the people who supported them. His power had already dwindled to a fraction of what it once was.

His abdication was already in motion thus making the remaining officials and nobles seek shelter under the umbrella that they believed would prevail regardless of its intentions and capabilities.

Franz had tried to stem the transition as best he could while he garnered support for his daughter but once the die for abdication had been cast it was almost impossible to take it back. Only the most loyal and good in nature were left but as if in complete agreement the two factions holden to the princes actively suppressed them, preventing them from rising to any meaningful level of power.

Franz actions even seemed to incur Randolph's wrath; the occasional glance his son sent his way made his blood chill. It wasn't long until he started growing suspicious of the people taking care of the daily needs of his wife, daughter and himself, and quite frankly it was lucky he did.

Shortly after ordering his most loyal shadow guards to monitor the servants and investigate the defences a report was delivered to his desk that caused his face to pale and indescribable anger to shoot through his veins.

"Bastards! Do you really think this empire is already yours!" Franz roared at the top of his lungs, his aura and cultivated strength causing the very walls surrounding his office to tremble.

Franz being of noble blood and from growing up surrounded with the best medicines, teachers and books was naturally powerful. The man despite in his later years was still a world renowned A-rank expert who could cleave the earth in twain with a single swing of his sword.

"Cough Cough!" His powerful outburst however resulted in a powerful backlash, aggravating some deep seated wounds that he accumulated in his youth that even the best medicines couldn't completely cure.

"Damn bastards, I have no sons!" Though blood flowed out his throat and his chest felt as though a mountain was pressing down upon it Franz grew angrier and angrier.

7 cases there was actually 7 cases in the past week that were labelled suspicious by the shadow guards -suspicious in this case being treasonous. Servants had been swapped out with unrecognisable faces without his knowledge while others had been seen in contact with members of the princes' factions. Alone this wasn't anything too worrisome but given what followed….

The new servants were highly skilled in martial arts rather than caretaking, hidden soldiers or rather assassins while the ones in contact with the princes' factions were assigned to either sensitive positions or were somewhat close to the empress and princess.

It was clear that both Randolph and Sedrick wished to control the imperial palace, to lock their father and even their mother and sister in a prison while they finished their duel.

If this was all then perhaps Franz could have accepted it as these actions could be considered precautionary, a warning but that's only when they weren't acted upon.

The shadow guards discovered traces of poison in the meals provided to both him and the empress, while Avira also had her tea spiked. The poison was insidious and almost impossible to trace and or even notice unless one was looking for it.

By the time Franz had noticed and taken action his wife had already ingested several doses of the substance and had begun to fall ill. His daughter being wiser than he ever gave her credit for had miraculously avoided being poisoned, treating ever meal and drink she ever ingested once the war began with harsh scrutiny.

A doctor of great renown and who could be completely trusted was sneaked into the imperial palace but unfortunately there was nothing he could do.

The poison used was called 'Fairy's passing' a concoction that had no known cure. Though the process was slow and minorly painless the victim would die, nonetheless.

The Empress perhaps had a couple months before her body would completely give out. The doctor's diagnosis was an arrow threw the Emperor's heart. That night he coughed up a great deal of blood resulting in the same doctor examining him. What he found in the Emperor was even more devasting than what afflicted the Empress.

While Amelia's poison could be considered gentle in nature the one afflicting Franz was truly insidious. The poison was practically useless against the young and fit in body but was merciless to those with hidden injuries such as Franz. Slowly the poison would gnaw at these wounds, aggravate them more and more until the victim was internally torn apart.

Both the Emperor and Empress were poisoned and given a clear death sentence; the only silver lining being that Avira was healthy and that they still had the strength needed to protect her.

"Shadow guards I want round the clock protection for Avira, kill anyone who dares intrude upon her sanctuary as well as anyone you find remotely suspicious!" Franz coldly ordered before receiving a cold reply from a nearby shadow.

"As you command your majesty."

"Someone bring me general Anya." Franz then summoned the only general who was completely loyal to his daughter. There were some things he needed to arrange before he and his wife inevitably passed.

While chaos reigned in the Northrend empire a relatively normal looking group of adventurers arrived at the gates of the Niflheim Camp. From their attire, speech and even the level of strength that they displayed this group was a run of the mill D-rank party just like the rest who were drawn over to the Niflheim Dungeon.

But looks can be deceiving.

"Has everyone memorised the appearance of the targets." The apparent party leader questioned with a cold voice. The friendly mannerisms and brutish attitude this man displayed while in the presence of outsiders vanished the moment this group were alone in a locked room, away from any prying eyes.

""Yes sir."" Five people, three women and two men replied from their positions around the room.

"Well then let the operation begin, our client does not tolerate failure." The leader's harsh reminder caused the other five to grimace but a moment later the group split up to take care of their assigned duties.