Chapter 245: If you stay away from home for a long time, it is easy to get into trouble
"Antonius...was poisoned some time ago, and then the snake cult took control of him..."
Kairos turned his head, looked at Emperor Marius with lifeless eyes, and spoke in a very low voice.
Emperor Marius' eyes widened. "You mean... your son has joined the Snake Cult?"
"No!... There is no way Antonius or I would join the Snake Cult, although we have certainly encountered bribery many times over the years... He is being controlled by the Snake Cult using poison! I have to get him back!"
Kairos spoke incoherently.
"Explain it clearly... What's going on? How does this relate to these bodies?"
Emperor Marius obviously didn't understand. He looked at the horrific scene in the altar and forced himself to soften his tone.
"This is a conspiracy... I know it's a conspiracy, but I can't give up my eldest son..."
Kairos finally began to tell what he had experienced.
This story begins a few months ago.
After Kairos took over Buyulin Village, he asked his eldest son Antonius to deal with the Red Death in Buyulin Village, while he helped Leon arrange food and ships and went to Siyuan City. He followed Leon's advice and handed Levius's IOU to Emperor Marius in person, so Levius was transferred to Shieldwind Fortress.
There is nothing wrong with these things in themselves. The only problem is that since then, Kailos has never been able to return to Dilingang and has almost lost contact with his family.
Because since then, Kairos has been ordered to wipe out the rebels of Shira Yuzas, and there are many spies in his Shadow Legion who tip off the rebels.
In order to track down spies and prevent the army's whereabouts from being exposed to the rebels, he banned the army from going out and did not send anyone out.
This meant that no one knew the whereabouts of his troops, and he had no way of contacting his family - even Emperor Marius couldn't contact him at the time.
War is a dangerous time. For the sake of national security, Kairos acts cautiously to ensure that the army is not ambushed. This is also due to his sense of responsibility as a marshal.
But because he had not been home for a long time and had no contact with his family, the things that happened at home were not handled properly - or rather, they were handled in an abnormal way.
The Snake Cult had been infiltrating Dilingang before, and many people knew about this, including Kailos.
In fact, if it weren't for Kairos's continued control, the Snake Cult might have infiltrated the army.
However, although the snake worshippers of Dilingang failed to infiltrate the army, they achieved many results in the homes of the nobles.
Especially in the homes of nobles who were often away from home - such as Kailos's home.
Kairos has not returned home for a long time and has not sent any news back. Although this lonely woman knows that Kairos has a mission, she still can't help but think about it.
Kairos' son Antonius, after completing the blockade of Buyulin Village, went out for some fun and was poisoned when he returned home.
This was not an accident, nor did Antonius accidentally contract the Red Death; he was attacked.
And the reason for the attack was somewhat related to the carriage that Leon sold to Kairos.
Since Kairos had to fight outside, this luxurious carriage was naturally used by Antonius for a while - every young man is the same, when he sees his father buy a luxury car, he naturally wants to get it to play with for a few days .
So after finishing the important matters assigned by his father, he rode around in this luxurious carriage for a while. As a result, as soon as he returned to Dilingang, he was stung by a poisonous sting.
In fact, the person who ordered the servant to shoot the stinger was none other than Antonius' mother, Lady Arras.
That is Kairos' wife, a lonely middle-aged woman in her fifties.
Previously, Kairos brought back a luxurious carriage of special style, and did not tell Ms. Alas about the origin of the carriage at all - it was traded from Leon, his enemy, and the transaction also involved food, so Kairos did not intend to tell anyone.
But the problem was that this carriage was previously used by Amy and Sarah, and it was sold in a hurry, so of course it would have some young woman's smell left over - especially Sarah, who usually used a lot of spices...
As a result, Ms. Arras had some misunderstandings. When Kairos was young, he was a famous handsome man, very popular among noble women in the Bacchus Empire. Even at this age, he is still quite charming...
According to the customs of Bacchus, it is quite normal for nobles to keep several lovers secretly.
After all, Ms. Arras was old, and the wrinkles on her face could no longer be smoothed out with an iron. Naturally, she had no confidence in her own charm, and some servants with ulterior motives instigated her...
So when they saw the carriage, they concluded that Kairos had a new love.
Then, a "loyal" servant said that they should deal with the possible "mistress"...
So, Ms. Arras found a poison needle and asked the servant to find an opportunity to use the poison needle to attack any woman who appeared in the carriage when the luxury carriage returned to Dilingang again.
In Ms. Arras's opinion, the poison needle should have been inserted into the neck of Kairos's lover...
But the problem is, Kairos did not take the carriage to Siyuan City. The one who drove the carriage out to fool around was her son, Antonius. It was indeed a normal social behavior for a young unmarried man like him to drive a luxury car out to fool around with friends.
Since the curtains of this carriage were transformed into masks by Leon, Antonius hung the gauze commonly used in the Bacchus Empire on the windows. People's figures can be clearly seen from outside the carriage, but it is impossible to tell who is in the carriage.
As a result, when Antonius returned to Dilingang with this luxury car, he was hit...
In fact, Antonius did bring the girl back. The girl in the car was fine, but Antonius was hit by a dart - the servant was obviously aiming at Antonius...
In fact, being shot by the poison needle should not be a big problem. The wound is not big, and the poison in the needle is not fatal.
It will only cause swelling of the skin, peeling, ulceration and a foul odor, but there will be no sequelae after healing - this is a characteristic of many highly infectious toxins. Even a rusty needle soaked in feces can do this. The poisonous needle that Arath himself can find is naturally not a rare thing.
This was just an act of jealousy from a confused and lonely middle-aged woman. She didn't intend to murder anyone, but just wanted to temporarily disfigure a mistress.
But after Antonius was shot with the poison needle, he thought that it was the Snake Cult that made him contract the Red Death - he had just dealt with the Red Death in Buyulin Village and knew that it was deliberately created by the Snake Cult. As the eldest son of Kairos, it was not incomprehensible that he was targeted by the Snake Cult.
So he immediately returned home, and after a check-up, he found that he had symptoms similar to the Red Death - the skin on the wound began to fester and pus, and emitted a foul odor.
Antonius could actually be described as a brave and resolute young man. Although he immediately determined that he was probably going to die, he was not too panicked and even locked himself in the house for self-isolation.
However, his mother, Ms. Arras, did not want to lose this son who had a bright future. She knew it was not the Red Death, but she did not know how to explain to her son that it was a poison needle that she had hired someone to shoot...
The lady could only take a quick remedial measure - she asked the servant who shot the poison needle to suck out the poison from her son 's wound. In her opinion, the poison could definitely be sucked out.
But no one knows what the "loyal" servant gave Antonius to suck. Anyway, since then, Antonius has been in a deep sleep, his symptoms have become more and more serious, and the servant has disappeared.
Mrs. Arras was panicked.
Unable to contact Governor Kairos, Ms. Arras panicked and did not know what to do. She hurriedly summoned a large number of various doctors to her home to treat her son, and even used bloodletting therapy from some unreliable doctors.
As a result, by the time the most experienced doctor from the Knights of the Glory Cross arrived, various quacks had already turned Antonius, who originally had mild symptoms, into a critically ill patient.
The doctors of the Glorious Cross finally determined that this was not the Red Death, but a mixture of poisons from multiple snake venoms, probably including some kind of hallucinogen.
The symptoms caused by these mixed poisons look very similar to those of the Red Death, but they are actually treatable if the composition of the toxin can be determined.
But those quack doctors had treated him in a messy way before, using all kinds of methods, such as smoking and burning, and using poison to fight poison. They also drained a large basin of blood from Antonius. The fact that they didn't kill him on the spot was that Antonius' body was strong enough to withstand the ordeal...
If Antonius followed his own wishes and locked himself in his room and did nothing, considering the toxicity of the poison needle, he would probably recover by sleeping for a few days...
But by this time, Antonius had been bleeding to the point of being in a coma and could not be examined. He had been tortured for too long and given too many useless drugs, so any clues that might have been left were gone. As a result, even the most skilled detoxification expert could not determine the composition of the poison.
However, Ms. Arras was unwilling to believe that it was she who killed her son by visiting a quack doctor. As a result, the anxious lady expelled the people from the Knights of the Glorious Cross and turned around to find a few messy priests outside her house.
In other words, he is a charlatan.
Superstitious activities are very popular these days, and this is the typical thinking of aristocratic women - since doctors can't do it, let the charlatan do it.
In the eyes of these old ladies, whether it is illness, poisoning, possession by evil spirits or even stroke, it is all the same thing...anyway, it can be solved by performing shaman rituals.
If it really doesn't work out, then that's obviously God's will...
It really cannot be blamed on Kairos for choosing a wife carelessly, after all, most aristocratic old women are like this.
Of course, if it was a smart girl like Alina or Amy, she would definitely think of it - why is there a charlatan waiting at the door at this time?
But Ms. Arasi's mind was already in a mess. She didn't think too much about it. She only knew a proverb that was popular in the mainland: "Sincerity is the key to success."
The priest who would show up at the doorstep of a nobleman at the governor level was certainly not an ordinary charlatan. He was a member of the Snake Cult, disguised as a priest of the Temple of the Goddess Damia.
But those people were not priestesses like Elisa, but some men.
These charlatans used a half-threatening and half-deceiving method to easily make Ms. Arras and her family join the Snake Cult, and then began to "treat" Antonius.
I don't know what kind of treatment they used, but Antonius did wake up. However, he seemed confused and couldn't even speak. He only knew to obey orders, and it seemed that he had even become a puppet of the snake worshippers.
Moreover, green scales like snake skin began to appear on his neck.
But for Ms. Arras, at least her son has been 'saved'.
The members of the Snake Cult said that it would take some time for her to fully recover, so Ms. Alasi was very cooperative with the Snake Cult members and even planned to bring her whole family to believe in the Snake Cult.
In the first half of his life, Kairos might have had different political views from Emperor Marius, but he never showed mercy when he encountered the Snake Worshipers. Unexpectedly, when he was fighting the Snake Worshipers outside, his whole family was recruited by the Snake Worshipers...
The Snake Cult members definitely had a bigger agenda by deliberately going to Kairos's house to cause trouble.
After controlling Kairos's family, these Snake Worshipers planned to force Antonius to lift the defenses of Dilingang and let the Snake Worshipers army outside the city enter the city.
But this did not succeed - not to mention Antonius, even Kairos himself could not convey such an order in public.
What's more, Antonius can't even speak now.
Soon after, Kairos's family suddenly left Dilingang and disappeared - because the archon's family "fled without fighting", most of the nobles in Dilingang also fled the place. Fortunately, the pig-raising serf general Ivaylo appeared out of nowhere and defended the city.
A few days ago, when Kailos was dealing with the devoured people in Siyuan City, he met his wife, Ms. Alas, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.
But his wife didn't come here because she missed him...
Ms. Arras came to Siyuan City specifically to find him. She tried to persuade Kairos to assassinate Emperor Marius!
Kairos was in disbelief and spent a lot of effort to confirm that the fifty-year-old woman in front of him was indeed his wife, and that she was conscious and not talking nonsense...
The reason why Ms. Arras tried to let Kairos assassinate Emperor Marius was because the charlatan told her that only the blood of Emperor Marius could restore Antonius to normal.
Otherwise, Antonius' soul will be devoured!
This was probably not a lie. Although Kairos did not know how the Devoured Ones of the Snake Cult were created, he knew that the Snake Cult could indeed do it.
After all, he was clearing out those who were devoured in Siyuan City at that time.
Afterwards, a man who looked like a priest brought Kairos to Bretven and let him witness Antony on the altar.
At that time, Antonius's face and neck were almost covered with pale green scaly dry shells, and his face was covered with blisters, which seemed to be gradually turning into snake skin. His eyes were open, but their pupils had basically become vertical - his whole face looked like a snake.
The messenger of the snake cult pushed Antonius into the pool of blood. When Antonius floated up, the scales on his face had obviously faded a little, but soon they returned to the appearance of snake skin.
Then, the messenger of the Snake Cult told Kairos that only the blood of the king could save his son, and he would seal Antony in this altar and wait for Kairos to come with Emperor Marius.
Kairos saw the temple being closed with his own eyes.
After understanding the situation, Kairos was faced with a difficult decision.
The Snake Cult must have done this on purpose, in order to assassinate Emperor Marius - originally they were planning to control Kairos himself, so Antonius suffered for Kairos.
The old Bacchus Empire on the continent of Amala fell apart and fell into chaos because the emperor was assassinated, which gave the Snake Cult an opportunity to establish a religious state on the ruins of the old Bacchus Empire.
This time, the people of the Snake Cult clearly wanted to repeat the story of the past in the continent of Pande...
The so-called need for the blood of the king might be a pure hoax, or it might be true, but in any case, Kairos had to keep Emperor Marius by his side.
"But now, the person on the altar is not Antonius..."
Emperor Marius obviously did not think that his blood could bring the dead back to life. He shook his head and looked at the altar. The man with his chest and abdomen ripped open was obviously not the son of Kairos.
"Sir Kairos, when you first saw this temple being sealed, were there so many corpses here?"
"Leon! Why are you..."
Emperor Marius and Kairos were both startled when they suddenly heard the lord's voice.
Kairos was silent for a while, but still gave an answer: "No... There was no body in the temple at that time, not a single one... There was only my son Antonius."
