Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 109 - 13: Separation

Chapter 109: Chapter 13: Separation

The process of persuading The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps was unexpectedly smooth.

Of course, Phibes thought Aske was easy to talk to, partly because Aske had intended from the beginning to involve his team in this mutant aberration.

Unlike other mercenary groups that are motivated solely by profit, Aske’s first and foremost consideration has always been how to rapidly enhance his team members’ combat capabilities.

The Undead aberration represented a rare training opportunity.

Since the Night Watch had extended an invitation, it was a convenient opportunity to negotiate terms.

After some haggling, The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps secured the status of honorary members of the Night Watch.

With this status, they would have transaction privileges with other Night Watch branches around the world, without going through layers of approval again.

Of course, this status still had to be applied for and approved by headquarters, but Phibes had already assured with a pat on his chest that it was almost certain to pass.

After all, headquarters didn’t really understand who The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps was, nor did they know how much they had contributed to this Undead aberration—it was whatever our Eastern branch said.

"By the way," Phibes remembered something else and reminded them, "you need to have a medical examination before heading to the center of the aberration."

"A medical examination?" Nora asked puzzled.

"The atmosphere of the three secondary planes is different from that of the main plane," Phibes explained. "This atmosphere can contaminate your mind body, leading to negative impacts on your primary sanity."

"For example, when we humans are in the Netherworld, we will inevitably experience depressive emotions. This phenomenon becomes more obvious over time."

"When depression reaches a certain level, you will fall into a state of near-insanity, resulting in a loss of sanity. Therefore, everyone entering the Netherworld must take antidepressant medication regularly."

"The purpose of the medical exam is, one, to test the baseline level of 5-hydroxytryptamine in your body, and two, to confirm whether you are allergic to antidepressants."

"Eh? I remember 5-hydroxytryptamine, isn’t that the scientific name for serotonin?" Nora suddenly realized.

Medea pricked up her ears immediately. Serotonin was a key ingredient in her Conspiracy I Recipe.

"Hmm, I’m not very knowledgeable about medicine, but I’ve heard that one of the effects of the Netherworld on the human body is serotonin concentration disorder," Phibes said. "Therefore, the corresponding antidepressants are essential."

And so Aske took his people for the medical examination.

If this were any other hospital, he might have worried about leaking genetic information, as this was not a purely Extraordinary World. Others could take your blood sample, tinker in the lab for a while, and figure out your approximate Sequence.

But with the Night Watch, he could be assured. As one of the few kind and orderly Extraordinary organizations, the blood samples collected by the Night Watch were transparent in their testing and disposal process, without retaining any genetic information.

Of course, most foreign mercenaries didn’t care about that either.

The examination results came out quickly, placed in specially sealed document bags, and the girls went to collect them in the order they were tested. Since the exams were anonymous, only the person who received the sealed bag could see the results.

However, this did not prevent the girls from opening the documents and looking at them in curious fascination, reminiscent of high school girls eager to share psychological assessments.

"Why are your physical and spiritual strengths relatively balanced, while mine are heavily skewed towards physical power?" Sigrdrifa looked at Eleanor’s medical report and spoke with confusion.

"I don’t know." Eleanor certainly knew it was because of "Will I" and said jestingly, "Maybe this spiritual power is affected by one’s innate intelligence."

"Does that mean I’m naturally stupid?" Sigrdrifa was startled, and hurriedly took her report to their Squad Leader, her voice anxious with a hint of tears, "Aske! Aske!! Look, there must be a mistake with my results..."

Aske listened to her and fell into a speechless silence: ......

Spiritual power and intelligence had little to do with one another, but Eleanor’s remarks about you, subtly hit the mark.

He reviewed the reports of all the girls.

In general, thanks to the previous large-scale operations, everyone’s attributes were above those of an average Transcendent at the same level.

Medea, Nora, and Theodora were biased towards spirituality, as their Bloodline Sequences primarily consisted of the Magic System.

Sigrdrifa’s emphasis on physical power was simply because she was only Level 1. The Titan Bloodline with upcoming Frost and Thunder Sequences would rebalance her attributes.

The rest of the members had generally balanced development of physical and spiritual strength, typical of most player builds in the past life.

In the words of the players, physical power was suitable for brute force, direct attacks; spiritual power was for trickery, stealth attacks.

Rushing in without caution could easily lead to falling victim to stealthy tricks.

Being too tricky could easily result in annoying everyone until someone knocked you out with a single punch.

Below brute force and trickery lay the truly steadfast strategies.

Even his own Weapon Master Bloodline, known for the fierce, aggressive "brute force" style, could not avoid incorporating "Tactics" and "Intuition" Sequences to increase resistance to stealth attacks.

While he was deep in thought, Peggy was quietly observing the side of his face.

Her right hand silently pressed against her own medical report.

The last page, unseen by Aske, contained a special test result.

"Low levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine detected, further specialized assessment recommended."

While everyone else’s results were normal, hers was the anomaly.

The team was soon to depart. If Aske saw her abnormal result, she would probably be left behind at the camp.

He couldn’t know.

She absolutely couldn’t let that happen.

......

A few hours later, the troop of Night Watch Knights approached just beneath the Undead Sky.

The beginning of the group consisted of over 800 elite knights from the Holy Sun, Silver Moon, and Morning Star divisions.

Every time they encountered Undead Spirits, a special team of knights would break away to intercept them, ensuring the rest of the people could continue to advance.

If one looked down from the sky, they could see them using such spearhead tactics, moving full speed towards the center of the Undead mutancy without stopping.

At the edge of the Undead Sky, the group faced an attack by a wave of Undead Banshees.

"We’re going ahead first," shouted the Knight Commander of the Silver Moon Knights, Ailuo Wen, raising his rifle and charging forward.

"Silver Moon Knights of the night watch, charge with me!"

A dozen Power Armor Knights, carrying Firearms, flanked Madame Ailuo Wen as she unleashed her ability.

A sea made of Radiance flooded towards the Banshees like a tide, and the dark aura surrounding the Undead seemed to evaporate into the air like dry ice.

This Madame Ailuo Wen had already become a level 5 "Crusader of Death," and her extraordinary ability "Radiance II" was the bane of all Undead.

After splitting off from the Silver Moon knights, only twenty Holy Sun Knights were left in the group, the strongest elite among the Night Watch Knights.

Leading them were His Excellency Blaise, commander of the Night Watchman’s Eastern Legion, and the Knight Commanders of the Holy Sun and Morning Star, Kolmer and Phibes.

And the entire Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps.

"Up ahead is the Undead Sky. Everyone, immediately take the standard dose of anti-depressants!" Blaise commanded.

Everyone then took out their medicine and water, consuming the pre-measured doses.

"I suddenly feel energized," said Sigrdrifa, moving her arms.

"That’s just the placebo effect," laughed Nora, "It’s all in your mind. The medicine doesn’t work that fast."

Peggy was walking at the back of the group, feeling increasingly uneasy.

The medicine had no effect on her; her limbs began to feel heavy, and some profound sadness took control of her consciousness.

Soon, she could barely see what was in front of her, as tears blurred her vision.

She couldn’t control the spread of inner sorrow, and tears slid down her cheeks unstoppably.

Two figures appeared faintly ahead.

Was it Aske? She tried to open her eyes wider, only to realize that they were her parents, who had already passed away.

"Peggy, come over here," her mother called out to her with a warm expression.

"Why are you crying like this? A girl shouldn’t be too delicate," her father said with authoritative tone, yet his gaze was filled with obvious affection.

For a moment, Peggy felt a surreal happiness as if her parents had never died that day and were still with her.

However, as a level 2 Transcendent, her Spirituality quickly returned to normal.

That’s not right, they’re not real.

My parents... are already dead.

The light around her had dimmed, and Peggy, having regained her sanity, could only rely on memory to identify the direction.

If she remembered correctly, she had just stopped.

So Aske and the others should be right ahead.

But the illusions masquerading as her parents were also in front of her, waving her over.

Peggy couldn’t move forward and didn’t dare to run in random directions, so she just stood there in fear, crying out miserably as she lost control.

"Aske!" she hugged herself, trembling like an abandoned fledgling, and seemed to scream with all her might, "Aske! Aske!!!"

"What’s wrong?!" Just as she was about to slip into the abyss of despair, Aske’s long-missed voice finally rang out, like a beam of light piercing through dark clouds, appearing in her dark world.

"Aske!" Peggy clutched his arm tightly, feeling as if all her strength was rapidly returning, "Did you come back looking for me because you heard my cries?"

"Cries?" Aske said, puzzled, "No, I didn’t hear any sounds. I just noticed you’d fallen behind. When I doubled back, I saw you kneeling and crying. Did you not take the anti-depressants?"

"I did," Peggy said somewhat guiltily, "but they seemed to have no effect."

"Let’s hurry back," Aske said calmly.

The illusions of Peggy’s parents that had troubled her just moments before had also vanished, as if they had never been there.

The two continued forward. Peggy held onto Aske’s arm and asked cautiously,

"Are you really Aske?"

"Yes," Aske said, "Do you need me to prove it?"

"Then tell me," Peggy paused to think, "where did we first meet?"

"The cemetery," Aske replied.

Peggy hummed in acknowledgment, feeling a warmth finally spreading through the cold depths of her heart.

"But that’s not right," Aske suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"With our current pace, we should have caught up to them by now, but there’s not even a hint of noise around us." He fiddled with his wireless earpiece, "There’s no communication signal, and the Mind Communication is silent."

"Are you saying..." Peggy said anxiously.

"We’ve gotten separated from them," Aske frowned.