Chapter 1709 - 134: Coercion

At this moment, the truth behind the strange Cardinal and Alagina Fisher, who secretly observed from behind it, were both unknown. He just looked seriously at the anxious Emhardt in front of him and Alicia, who was bowing her head beside him.

It was evident that Alicia actually knew nothing about what happened in last night’s dream. She seemed completely unaware at that time, yet it wasn’t her first time seeing a reaction like Emhardt’s.

When she was still with Helson, the expression on the maid’s face beside her upon waking and the chaos by the bed would remind her that last night she was far from calm. Their expressions bore a certain resemblance to Emhardt’s at this moment.

She thought she had gotten used to it, yet at this moment, she couldn’t help but recall the pain that hurt her grandfather, and thus she bowed her head, feeling somewhat sad and guilty.

But Fisher just looked at her petite body, then took a step back, clearing the way to the sleeping chamber and said,

"Come in first, calm down."

The first sentence was directed at Alicia, and the second was aimed at Emhardt.

Just after speaking, he only then realized that Alicia couldn’t see him and told Emhardt to lead her in first.

"Alright, alright, let’s all calm down... Eh, what’s this, Cardinal? Why place such a big Cardinal here, what’s it for?"

Just as they entered, Emhardt was drawn to the Cardinal floating in mid-air, so he moved closer and looked around before asking.

Fisher glanced at Emhardt, realizing that this thing might be Elizabeth’s device she is currently scrutinizing. If Emhardt said something dangerous, he would suffer and get torn apart by the prosthetic eye, not to mention that saying more about other Ladies would consequently blow up Fisher as well.

"This might be Elizabeth’s Cardinal. She’s working in the atrium, possibly observing me with it."

"Really? It doesn’t look like it at all..."

Emhardt squinted his eyes, scrutinizing the seemingly silly-looking Cardinal for a long time. Inside, he couldn’t believe this was Elizabeth’s device. Instead, he felt the blue moonstone glow circulating on the Cardinal had a hint of green.

The more he looked, the more Emhardt felt this thing was vastly different from the Cardinal that had just brought them over from outside. He turned his head to Fisher and asked,

"Could it just be broken? For the past two nights, I’ve been wandering around the Golden Palace. I’ve discovered that all these Cardinals are uniformly controlled by devices within a certain area, and when manipulated too much, they are prone to losing control and malfunction. There are plenty of spare and faulty Cardinals placed in the pile of junk outside, which are far inferior compared to before..."

"Well, that’s indeed the case..."

Fisher recalled there seemed to be such a thing as "network" regarding the Cardinals. Not only could the models created by Mikhail and Michael instantly connect the Holy Land and the ground, but even the Cardinal of the Creation Society could achieve remote control. Only the ones Nali fiddled with couldn’t, and it’s unclear why.

Nali should have obtained the technology from the fallen Holy Land, which theoretically should share a lineage with the Angels’ most glorious technology. Yet, when it comes to "network," it’s inferior to the prototypes just created.

Fisher did not know the reasoning behind it, but Alagina, hidden behind the Cardinal, did know. From "David" in the Spirit Realm Sanctuary, she learned that long ago, for unknown reasons, the network function between David and the Cardinal was closed, making it unable to instantly connect any Cardinal as it once did.

Now, most of the Cardinals created rely only on short-distance direct manipulation to control them, no longer able to use the network to swiftly transmit commands or control thousands of Cardinals from miles away.

However, through Alagina’s research, this "closed" function can actually be reopened.

The Nali people hadn’t fully understood the working principle of the Cardinal. Many components inside it were unclear in their function to them. They only knew how to use it, merely replicating the machines obtained from the Storm Sea. Thus, the network-related components remained intact, only waiting to be reconnected and opened.

This is Alagina’s anticipated method to defeat the Nali Cardinal army, seeking to directly control them and turn enemy forces to her own use.

Unfortunately, the process of opening the network link is extremely difficult. It’s evident that those extinct Angels put a lot of effort into closing it, for reasons unknown.

Anyway, Alagina spent a long time cracking one of the Golden Palace’s Cardinals, using it to find Fisher.

However, this Elizabeth’s Cardinal is not Fisher’s main concern for now. What truly worries him is the issue with Alicia before him.

He turned to Emhardt, asking him,

"Just what happened last night? Was it serious?"

"More than serious; you have no idea how terrifying it is to watch her transform from a human little girl into a monstrous creature, then watch her gradually shrink back into a little girl again!"