Empress Carolina did not anticipate the sneak attack coming from Leon, she was only able to realize it when Leon hastily poured the jar of cure potion into the last spirit fragment.
The sparkling liquid splashed all over the spirit fragment and a large portion of it was also able to reach the unguarded Empress Carolina.
"AAAAAAH!!!" Empress Carolina let out a pained howl as she waved her hand to ward off everyone near her proximity.
"Ahhhh… Curse you, the third prince!! Curse all of you!" Empress Carolina looked at her body which seemed to be melted by the cure potion. The potion worked like acid on her body and brought her extreme pain.
Since it contained Eli's holy power, the wounds on her flesh were visibly slow to heal. It was so slow that Kayden estimated that it would take her a full minute to recover her wounds completely.
On the other hand, the significant effect of the cure potion was in the last spirit fragment.
Tssssss! hoooooo!
Their attention was drawn by the faint sizzling sound and a haunting ghostly scream that followed as the fragment slowly reduced into a small ping pong ball-sized ball of flame.
"Ahh… it was not enough to make it dissipate…" Kayden mumbled faintly, all those precious cure potions from Eli's power could only manage to reduce a spirit fragment in size.
But he heard High Priest Enoch's remark with a comforting tone saying, "Do not be dejected, didn't you see that even if we have not managed to defeat the enemy, it created an opening for us to attack?"
Kayden then saw the situation on the battlefield.
Carolina's wound greatly affected her judgment and movements, as such, her injuries increased with the joint attack by the people who did not waste the opportunity created by the cure potion.
The anger burning inside her increased when she saw Kazimir's face among the people who were attacking her.
'Hah… There goes my son… I gave birth to him for nothing but this???' She mocked herself as she saw her son doing his best to attack her even if the gap in his power was too big.
'Anyways, I will just buy time, my wounds are gradually healing…' She thought as she tried to concentrate her best in avoiding being injured any further.
Soon enough the pain from her wounds was completely gone and her mobility slowly recovered. However, after repairing her wounds she was only able to restore her strength by absorbing five spirit fragments.
'What kind of potion is that?! To think that it would make me consume all the energy from one spirit fragment?!' She looked towards the High Priest, wondering if he was the one who made this scary potion.
'Nonetheless, this was already strong enough to take on these people.' With her focus back on fighting, Carolina ascertained her victory over her opponents.
As she was attacked by Leon before she was able to meld the power of all six fragments, it also did not allow her to immediately defend herself with the power of six spirit fragments. But now that she was able to complete the melding, she could already feel the difference between her initial powers and the fragments.
'Too bad… I can no longer absorb the last fragment…' Empress Carolina regretfully looked at the spirit fragment which was now already faint like puny candle light. 'But I'll have a use for you later on…' She squinted towards the waning fire of the spirit fragment before finally stepping towards the men.
"Something changed!" Emperor Valentin warned everyone, it was like Carolina suddenly became a different person when she finally moved from her original position.
General Farauld and the three princes also assumed a careful stance as they felt an extremely disturbing aura coming out of Empress Carolina. It was so revolting and oppressive that everyone wanted to step back and avoid her instinctively.
"She definitely became stronger." Leon's eyes focused on the menacing black and purple aura that was coming out of Carolina's body.
Carolina's amethyst eyes squinted in delight when she saw their interesting reaction, "Now you still know how to tremble in fear…" she taunted.
What startled everyone was her voice doubled. The first voice was her voice while the other one was a familiar male voice - the voice Leon and the bunch heard from the first spirit fragment!
"This is the power that none of you could ever best!" She declared as she spread her dark wings wide and flew in the air.
The morning sun seemed to have eclipsed the shadow Carolina created with her enormous wingspan.
"A-a demon!" They all exclaimed, trembling hard.
In an instance, Carolina held out her hand and a mysterious black and purple blade appeared. Without letting the people react, she attacked them relentlessly.
Boom! Woosh!!
The first to go down was the already severely injured General Farauld. His body fell violently to the ground with blood gushing from a large wound in his stomach. "Urkkk…" He let out a groan as purple blood immediately went out of his mouth and his veins turned purple.
However, everyone no longer have the luxury to worry about him as they had soon fell victim to the Empress's attack
Kayden rushed to prevent General Faraul's body from falling. He took out all his remaining regular cure potions and tried to stop the curse from spreading in his body. Desperation came into his being as he knew that the damage General Farauld sustained was far more severe than the others because he had already been injured by Duke Maxim and his dark knights.
The next to go down were the Temple knights and Emperor Valentin, then the blades, and lastly Leon and Antoine.
High Priest Enoch and his priest had already withdrawn to the battlefield as they knew they had to move to attend to the wounded.
The situation was dire and the damage was severe, General Farauld is in critical condition, and Emperor Valentin has a grave injury in his eyes. Antoine and Leon were also gravely wounded. Most of the knights had been incapacitated also.
Everybody is down… except for one person - Kazimir.
Kazimir looked at his comrades and then into the shell of her mother. Yes, by this time he knew that the mother he truly loved was already gone because she had truly and willingly joined herself with whoever was the owner of the spirit fragment.
"Whoever you are… stop this…" Kazimir held his sword tightly and he pointed it towards the approaching Carolina.
"What are you talking about son? I am your mother!" Empress Carolina raised her brows, she looked at Kazimir like she was looking at a child throwing a fit.
"Do you not like this strength that I wield, son? With this power, we will rule over the Empire!" Empress Carolina casually waved her hand and pointed at the ruins made by the ruthless battle and the fallen people of the land. "Can't you see that no one was able to even pick a fight with me right now?"
"No! Stop all of this! I wish to no longer see you use my mother's body to do this evil!" Kazimir shouted in anger, as he was triggered by the menacing voices overlapping his mother's. How much more does the person behind the mysterious power use her mother for this kind of evil.
"Ahahaha! What a stupid child!" Carolina laughed at Kazimir's disbelief. Then she held out her hand and suddenly a gravitational force pulled Kazimir closer to her, with her hand placed on his neck.
"This is the true power of the Vesala, long before the glory ages of the Empire began! How dare you say that I am not your mother? Look, this is me, everything is me, even this power! This is already in our blood!"
"Urkkkk…" Kazimir tried to escape from Carolina's grasp. "I don't want that power! I don't want to be used by evil!"
"Let go of my son!" Emperor Valentin immediately rushed and attacked Carolina only to be casually flicked by her and fly a hundred meters away.
"Valentin, stay put!" She ordered before continuing her conversation with her son.
"Our family received a blessing from a heavenly being and is now flowing through your veins. Do not reject it! Even if the sun perishes, the blood of the Vesala flows into your veins!" She looked at the struggling Kazimir who was still rejecting her ideas.
"Hah… So stubborn. I didn't know that I had given birth to a stubborn son." Empress Carolina seemed to have been distressed by Kazimir's rebellion.
Feeling a little helpless about the situation, she held out her hand and beckoned the tiny ball of flame that was almost on the brink of perishing.
"Well, you might be convinced if you are able to try the power out do you?" She nonchalantly asked while slowly forcing the spirit fragment into Kazimir's stomach, her eyes were dead, disregarding the strong rejection coming from his son.
"Do not worry, you'll feel the mighty power soon and will realize that Vesala's powers are the best in the world." She caressed her son's red blood hair, letting out an innocent smile, which turned out to be utterly eerie.
