Lord: Sequence Master

"So that's how they found me," Rosen sneered as he looked at the information obtained from the Main God Computer's intrusion.

The Spirit Web was vast like an ocean, and without a specific target, searching through it was like finding a needle in a haystack. But once a target was identified, almost any trace left in the Spirit Web could be uncovered.

The culprit was Sashisai Coburn, the former husband of the Wood Elf Queen.

Currently, he was still imprisoned by the Wood Elf royal family. Out of consideration for Alicia, the Wood Elf Queen had not executed him, nor had she wiped out the entire Coburn family. Instead, she had exiled them from the Wood Elf Kingdom.

However, not eradicating them completely had come at a cost. The Coburn family had sought refuge with the Moore Family.

They had tracked Rosen by analyzing his movements, connecting him to the mysterious outsider who had made the Moore Family a laughingstock. Using their shared bloodline with Alicia, they had managed to locate her and lay a trap ahead of her path, waiting for her to walk into it while riding the mechanical mount.

Rosen believed that, after this incident, the Wood Elf Queen would no longer show mercy.

With confirmation that the Moore Family was involved, it was only a matter of time before their demigod Gourmet arrived.

If the Wood Elf Queen faced them alone, it would be a death sentence.

However, now that Rosen knew who the enemy was, he had the confidence to fight back.

Using the Stellar Emblem, Rosen logged into the Spirit Web and then accessed the Noble Council. As a hereditary duke, he filed for Honor Blood War against the Moore Family—a legal, sanctioned war between nobles, permitted under the laws of the World Government when the feud between high-ranking nobles reached life-and-death proportions.

However, Honor Blood Wars couldn't be initiated at will. Only the aggrieved party could file for such a deadly, no-holds-barred war.

Rosen's request was swiftly approved, granting him a three-year period for the Honor Blood War.

This was because, through the Spirit Web, the Noble Council had verified that the Moore Family had indeed hired a demigod assassin to kill Rosen.

The World Government was too large to monitor everything, but once a specific target was investigated, all actions within the Spirit Web could be uncovered.

Moments after Rosen's Honor Blood War request was approved, the current hereditary duke of the Moore Family was notified.

Rosen immediately pulled out his Void Sketchbook and posted a bounty on the Spirit Web for photos of all the Moore Family's direct descendants.

The task wasn't too difficult, and the reward was high. Soon, someone accepted the bounty.

The older a hereditary noble family was, the broader its network—and the more enemies it accumulated.

The Moore Family had been expanding rapidly, but all new gains came at someone else's expense.

As Rosen sifted through the five photos he had received, he was a bit surprised.

The current Moore Duke's father was only at Sequence 4, having abdicated his title and moved to the frontlines in pursuit of further advancement.

From the current duke onward, there were only four generations of direct descendants.

But in these four generations, there were only four direct members.

This didn't mean each generation only had one child. Rather, only the eldest child could advance in the Noble Sequence, open a Divine Domain at Sequence 6, and claim the right of direct inheritance.

As for younger sons and daughters, while it wasn't difficult for a hereditary duke's family to bestow them with lower, non-hereditary titles, the two younger sons and one daughter of the Moore Duke had all failed to advance in the Noble Sequence. Instead, they pursued ordinary Sequences and were eventually enlisted as heroes in their elder brother's Divine Domain.

This approach exemplified the extreme elite path among noble families.

The benefit was resource concentration, maximizing the development of each generation's Divine Domain.

Furthermore, the hero siblings became the primary helpers of the direct heir, avoiding sibling rivalry.

The downside, however, was the thin number of direct heirs. If one died, it wiped out an entire generation.

Rosen opened his Void Sketchbook and quickly finished drawing four portraits of the Moore Family members.

Once completed, he immediately activated Death Judgment, summoning his Self-Portrait Clone cloaked in a reaper's mantle.

...

In the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, the hereditary dukes of the Moore Family had ruled as lords of the city for generations.

The Moore Family ancestors had built this city with their own hands. Though it belonged to the Sacred Wood Empire, the Moore Family controlled everything within it. The millions of inhabitants were potential citizens for the family's Divine Domain Lords.

Despite the Moore Family's deep roots, the entire family, including both direct and collateral branches, only had a few dozen members.

Low birth rates among the extraordinary was one factor. The other was that collateral members often perished for various reasons.

There were noble rules that forbade using power to bully the weak.

Otherwise, a Sequence 4 could easily wipe out the entire younger generation of a rival noble family.

But rules often broke in the face of profit and hatred.

After receiving the Honor Blood War notice, the Moore Family immediately began an orderly retreat.

Everyone gathered in the family's castle. After activating their defense system, the four direct descendants, along with the collateral members, entered the Beast King Arena—a Sequence 3 miraculous treasure and the Moore Family's greatest asset.

Unless a Sequence 2 opponent attacked, the Beast King Arena would keep the family safe.

As a result, despite Rosen's repeated attempts to use Death Judgment, he failed to kill any of the Moore Family's direct members.

It was clear they had taken refuge in a place beyond the reach of Death Judgment.

Rosen immediately suspected the Beast King Arena. It was a game of hide and seek, with both sides vying to flush each other out. After considering his options, Rosen decided to try a sneak attack.

He downloaded a photo from the Spirit Web, which depicted the Ten Thousand Beast Festival held every decade in the City of Ten Thousand Beasts.

The photo captured many people, and Rosen randomly selected a few to sketch portraits.

After completing his portraits, Rosen, clad in his reaper's mantle, activated Death Judgment and entered the consciousness sea of one of the portrait subjects.

While the Moore Family members might hide in the Beast King Arena, they couldn't stop Rosen from using Death Judgment to infiltrate the consciousness of an ordinary person. In just a few seconds, Rosen had arrived in the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, over 100,000 miles away.

After exiting the person's consciousness sea, Rosen left behind a golden apple made of psychic energy, which would help the individual awaken spiritual abilities—a small reward for their unwitting assistance.

Using Void Shift, Rosen stealthily approached the Moore Family's castle. The entire area was shrouded in layers of magical barriers, making silent entry difficult even for a demigod. But to Sloth's Foot, barriers were as thin as air.

Rosen slipped into the castle but, after searching around, couldn't find the location of the Beast King Arena.

After capturing several terrified servants and reading their minds, he found no useful information.

It seemed that only the direct heirs of the Moore Family knew the exact location of the Beast King Arena.

At this point, Rosen thought of the remnants of the Coburn Family.

Alicia was Sequence 5, protected by the royal family's luck, the blessings of the Ancient Life Tree, and the Heroic Altar. Yet, despite all this, the Coburn Family had used their shared bloodline to track her.

Clearly, this was no ordinary method.

Rosen immediately pulled out his Void Sketchbook and began drawing portraits of all the remaining members of the Coburn Family.

With the Time Quick Sketch ability and the power of the Ancient God Relic, Rosen's drawing speed was enhanced 56 times.

Soon, he completed over a dozen portraits, and without the protection of something like the Beast King Arena, the Death Scythe of Death Judgment swiftly decapitated the remaining Coburn members. In moments, only Sashisai Coburn remained alive.

Sashisai Coburn was difficult to kill, so Rosen decided to leave him for the Wood Elf Queen to personally execute.

From the spiritual energy harvested through Death Judgment, Rosen quickly unearthed the Coburn Family's hidden secrets.

As a hereditary duke and former husband of the Wood Elf Queen, Sashisai Coburn had ruled the Wood Elf Kingdom for years.

Thus, the Coburn Family possessed deep foundations, particularly in their research on extraordinary bloodlines.

The Coburns were not half-elves but humans who carried the bloodline of elves through noble extraordinary essence.

Though Alicia's mother was an elf and her father a human, Alicia was born a pureblood elf with no trace of human blood.

Ordinarily, carrying elven bloodlines would greatly extend Sashisai Coburn's lifespan.

However, his lifespan had no advantage over that of an ordinary Sequence 4. The key was that, when he fathered Alicia, much of his life essence had been drained by the elven bloodline.

This was the price of becoming royal consort and grand duke. Enjoying power meant making sacrifices.

Thus, the Wood Elf Kingdom had three hereditary dukes, who would take turns becoming royal consort.

Sashisai's poor relationship with his wife and daughter was partly due to his later regret over becoming royal consort.

But being royal consort hadn't been forced on him. In his youth, he had coveted power and sacrificed everything to claim the title. Now, as an old man, he regretted it. The path was his own—who else could he blame?

Knowing there was no turning back, Sashisai had spent years seeking ways to extend his lifespan.

One such method involved stripping away his depleted elven bloodline and replacing it with the life essence of a new, more vibrant elven bloodline. Though he had not fully succeeded, he had made some discoveries.

The Coburn Family had uncovered an ancient Blood Elf Devouring Ritual, which allowed one to consume the bloodline of parents or children to strengthen their own bloodline.

This ritual was incredibly cruel but was of a Sequence 3 level.

Setting up the ritual was exceedingly difficult. The entire Coburn Family had exhausted their wealth to perform it just once.

The good news was that once the ritual was set up, it could be used multiple times before collapsing.

Rosen followed the memory traces of this ritual to a hidden Sequence 5 Spirit Realm, where the Coburn Family had hidden the ritual array. When Rosen arrived, he had also captured a distant collateral relative of the Moore Family.

While relations beyond the fifth generation were no longer considered close, bloodlines were not completely severed.

Rosen tossed this individual into the ritual array, and through it, he immediately pinpointed the location of all nearby individuals sharing the same bloodline. Fifty-two bloodline relatives were gathered in one place—clearly the Beast King Arena.

Rosen returned to the Moore Family's castle and entered an ordinary wine cellar.

The bloodline trace had led him here. Activating Void Scavenging, Rosen removed everything in the wine cellar.

In the end, all that was left was an empty wine bottle.

Upon closer inspection, Rosen realized this bottle contained an internal spirit realm. The Gourmet Sequence could create spirit realms, though doing so was difficult and expensive. However, the resulting spirit realms had unique properties.

Rosen infused his Greed Authority into his spiritual energy, converting it into golden divine essence as he began forcibly refining the spirit realm.

The bottle immediately resisted fiercely. Duke Kapak Moore, who was still lying in wait to kill Rosen, sensed the disturbance in the family's spirit realm. Instead of suspecting Rosen, he wondered if one of his old rivals was trying to take advantage of the situation.

Now he had a choice—should he go back or stay?

Returning would mean abandoning the plan to ambush Rosen, and after all this time, it was likely the Wood Elf Queen had already arrived nearby.

If he left now, the demigod assassin they had hired might not be able to handle things alone.

But if he didn't go back, the family's ancestral spirit realm and the Beast King Arena might be in danger.

After much deliberation, Duke Kapak decided to stay.

Rosen possessed abilities that even two demigods couldn't detect. If these abilities were due to some extraordinary treasure, it had to be incredibly rare and powerful—perhaps even a miraculous item of a higher Sequence.

Duke Kapak didn't want to miss the chance to capture Rosen, nor did he want to miss out on this unknown treasure.

Thus, he chose to remain. As for the City of Ten Thousand Beasts, he would have to entrust a few old friends to look after it for him.

...

Seizing a Sequence 3 Spirit Realm controlled by a demigod would be difficult even for another demigod.

Even with Greed Authority, it would take Rosen months to fully claim it.

But all he needed was to refine just enough to create a small opening, allowing Sloth's Foot to bypass the space barrier and enter the spirit realm. A partial refinement would be enough.

Besides, it would also serve to provoke the Moore Duke and test whether he would return.

If Kapak returned, Rosen would retreat, abandoning the Honor Blood War and waiting for a better opportunity later.

If Kapak chose not to return, Rosen wouldn't hold back.

Under the power of Sloth's Foot, Rosen bypassed the space barrier and forced his way into the spirit realm.

Inside, he found countless high-quality extraordinary plants being cultivated for winemaking. Hundreds of farmers worked the fields, and winemakers busily harvested materials for brewing extraordinary wines.

This was the kind of wealth and resources that only a hereditary duke family could possess, though it would soon belong to Rosen.

In the heart of the spirit realm, Rosen found the Beast King Arena.

The arena stood out like a sore thumb, its base covering over a hundred square meters. It resembled a skinless, severed hand, with golden blood flowing from its wrist. A massive wooden barrel below caught the flowing blood.

The palm of the hand grasped the enormous, skinless head of a beastman, which continuously bled, and the hand absorbed all of it.

Using Void Shift, Rosen slipped closer and activated Sloth's Foot to pass through the space barrier bit by bit.

Soon, he found himself inside the familiar arena. This time, he appeared in the highest row of the stands.

Inside the arena, a new, exquisite array of buildings had been constructed. Hundreds of people were preparing for what seemed to be a barbecue banquet, with no sign of concern or defensive measures. Clearly, they felt completely secure.

Rosen opened his Void Sketchbook, using Time Quick Sketch to accelerate his time flow 56 times.

In just half an hour, Rosen had completed 48 portraits of the Moore Family's collateral members.

Starting with the collateral members, Rosen unleashed Death Judgment one by one.

The first to die was a Sequence 9 from the fifth generation. As soon as he collapsed, the scene fell into chaos.

In just a few minutes, 45 of the Moore Family's 48 collateral descendants had been slain by Death Judgment.

Only three survived, all at Sequence 5. These were undoubtedly Kapak Moore's two brothers and one sister. Only they could withstand the curse of Death Judgment.

Rosen continued his death curses on the direct descendants, sparing none.

Kapak Moore's eldest son survived, but his Sequence 6 grandson was slain by the curse. However, his Sequence 9 great-grandson also survived.

At the end of it, only three direct descendants of the Moore Family remained, not counting Kapak himself. As for the collateral members, only Kapak's three brothers and sisters survived. Out of 52 people, only six were left alive. The loss drove Kapak to the brink of insanity.

Kapak knew exactly who the family was up against.

The Sequence 6 Hereditary Duke Rosen, the Sequence 3 Wood Elf Queen, and the unknown power backing Rosen.

Despite the Moore Family's strength, Kapak believed his family wouldn't lose.

As long as they protected the direct and collateral descendants from being ambushed, the Moore Family was confident they could win a decisive victory.

But now, right under his nose, his favorite grandson and almost all the collateral relatives had died without a sound. With nowhere to vent his furious rage, Kapak's body erupted into flames, transforming into a massive fire phoenix.

Boundless flames surged in all directions, enveloping the entire Beast King Arena.

Rosen's Void Shift could no longer conceal him, and there was no point in hiding anymore.

Rosen wasn't Kapak's match, but the newly ascended Hero Alicia was more than enough to face Kapak head-on.

Rosen projected his Divine Domain into the arena, attempting to make it manifest in the Beast King Arena's inner space.

Seeing this, the enraged Kapak instead began to smile.

If this killer had focused solely on escaping, with the stealth abilities he had displayed, Kapak might not have been able to stop him. But now that Rosen was unleashing his Divine Domain, reabsorbing it wouldn't be easy.

Kapak released his own Divine Domain, and as the two domains clashed, they began to weave together in overlapping spaces.

The spatial intersection created a buffer zone at the edge of the domains where space remained stable.

At that moment, Alicia arrived, riding her Feathered Serpent Mount, followed by 1,000 Forest Guardians and 1,000 Forest Mages.

She hadn't deployed the Forest Watchers because, as assassins, they were better suited for pursuit and ambush than direct combat.

Alicia activated her Hero's Aura, sharing part of her power with her entire army.

All 1,000 Forest Mages began chanting spells simultaneously. In just two seconds, a vast area of plants sprouted from the buffer zone. Soon, a thick Forest Mist enveloped the entire area, cutting off the enemy's ability to sense them.

While Alicia was busy shaping the battlefield to her advantage, Kapak had already mobilized all the troops in his Divine Domain.

He, too, had heroes—his two brothers and one sister.

Three Sequence 5 heroes, commanding 3,000 Knight Retainers mounted on extraordinary Firebirds, charged toward the battlefield.

Through the Forest Mist, Alicia spotted the approaching 3,000 Firebird Knight Retainers.

A wave of intense heat surged ahead of them as they began casting large-scale fire-type war spells.

All 3,000 of the knight retainers, along with their Firebird mounts, were at Sequence 7.

Meanwhile, Alicia's 2,000 Forest Elves were all newly promoted at Sequence 9.

A direct confrontation would lead to a crushing defeat. Alicia immediately used her hero's authority to activate the Void Gallery Rosen had lent her.

Suddenly, an endless Space Fog poured out, far beyond the Sequence 8 Magic Altar's standard space fog. This fog had been strengthened by the Fairy Dragon Orb, enhancing the Magic Altar to Sequence 6.

Unless an opponent was at Sequence 4 or had special means to counter space fog, there was no escaping its disorienting effects.

As the 3,000 Firebird Knight Retainers entered the fog, they immediately lost their sense of direction. Were it not for the Hero's Aura cast by Kapak's siblings, they might have started attacking each other.

Seizing the opportunity, Alicia led her Forest Mages in casting the war spell Life Wither.

War spells were difficult to master, especially for newly promoted troops.

However, Alicia had contracted a Nature Fairy, giving her access to its Nature Authority. With this, she could single-handedly cast the Life Wither spell array, while her mages only needed to channel their spiritual energy into it.

As the Life Wither spell unfolded, the plants Alicia had previously summoned began to wither and die.

The natural destructive force from these withered plants transformed into a magical torrent, sweeping toward the Firebird Knight Retainers.

Alicia, combining the spiritual power of 1,000 Sequence 9 mages, unleashed a spell with the destructive force of a Sequence 4 peak skill.

If Kapak's heroes were able to command their troops, they could have used their own war spells to counter Life Wither. But divided by the space fog, the knight retainers were in disarray.

In such a state, individual Sequence 7 warriors were no match for Sequence 4 peak-level magic.

As the war spell ravaged the battlefield, knights and Firebirds fell to the ground as dried husks. By the time the Life Wither spell had exhausted its destructive power, over 1,000 retainers had perished.

Witnessing the massacre of his troops, Kapak Moore's face contorted in grief and rage.

(End of Chapter)