Chapter 777: Act 130 – The White Gorge
As Brendel was heading towards the Spiral Hall, an exhausted knightly order was traversing the icy forest, shimmering with crystalline light. The forest lay silent in its world clad in white, with every branch growing from the snow-white trunks appearing as fragile as glass; a gentle touch would crack and turn it to powder.
Heavy footsteps drew closer, the varying depths of the sounds revealing the tension of their owner.
Then came the rustling sounds that followed, akin to insects crawling beneath the grass, but in fact, it was the soft footfalls of some four-legged beast.
“These damned things!” the young knights of the Broken Sword Order cursed through clenched teeth as they drew their long swords.
In the next moment, a demon with white fur emerged from the darkness—a snow-white wolf, fully covered in white, except for a pair of icy cold eyes shimmering with a yellowish glow; the wolf pack roared through the thorny thicket, launching an assault on the knights from the bushes, from beneath the snow, and from all directions.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze, one side the low growl of the winter wolves, the other the angry roar of the knights.
“Fifteen wolves.”
“Seven on this side.”
The winter wolf lunged, its movement arrested in the cold air, when a narrow, bright blade pierced its throat and withdrew like lightning. The white beast tumbled, rolling to the edge of the thicket.
The knights retreated in unison, leaving a long line of corpses quietly oozing murky black blood, black smoke rising from the monsters’ bodies, disappearing in an instant.
The wolf pack surged like an avalanche over the bodies of their fallen kin. They stood side by side, low howls escaping, their silver fur fluttering without wind. Amidst these demons’ growls, dark magic was visibly coalescing within the forest.
The magic formed intertwining azure curves, then solidified into crystalline ice pillars, which hovered in mid-air for a moment before rushing forward like a storm.
“Ma—sa—up—high!”
Accompanied by a hoarse scream, halos unfolded one after another from the knights of the Broken Sword Order. The knights swung their long swords, shattering the ice pillars, while a few that slipped through the gaps of their blades shattered against the armor’s halo, exploding into a cloud of ice mist.
Brendel frowned and delivered a punch into the gaping maw of the winter wolf, nearly sending it flying back with a spray of blood and broken teeth. Then he turned, swinging his sword against another winter wolf that was crouching to pounce, leaving a deep wound that bared bone.
The beast whimpered, turning to flee with a gushing wound, quickly vanishing into the darkness.
“Hahaha,” Arleigh’s coarse laughter came from the side. Brendel looked over to see his companion, blood spilling from his mouth, having just killed a wolf. He laughed loudly, “They bite me, then I bite them—it’s only fair. This is why I love to fight; here, no one cares about your origins, everyone is equal, Brendel.”
Around his neck, he had thick bandages wrapped, swaying as he spoke, and his face was pale as paper, blood continuously seeping from where he had been wounded the night before. Yet this did not dampen his furious temperament or loud voice; in fact, someone had to stop him from getting off the stretcher to join the fray.
Brendel frowned. “What about your manners, Arleigh?”
“I only show manners to those who have them. Why would I speak properly to a dog?” Arleigh replied nonchalantly.
“That’s not a dog; it’s a wolf,” Rolo corrected.
“Same difference.”
Brendel shrugged off the two and shook the droplets of blood from the dark steel blade, looking around. The forest appeared as a dark, elusive realm, shadows of white beasts encircling them both near and far.
In the distance, an elegant stag stood on a patch of white rock, seemingly waiting for them to advance.
Having tracked it for hours, they had trekked through the snow, the winter wolf pack had pursued them all night. Everyone was cold and tired, relying solely on willpower to sustain them.
Like the people of Erluin, the Cruz people also believed that these rare, graceful creatures of the forest would bring good fortune. This stag had indeed led them through the dark forest all night, as though blessed by a deity unseen.
However, the good times were short-lived; the sky was gradually brightening, and the first light of dawn appeared on the eastern horizon, revealing a long white wall of ice miles away—a glacial cliff stretching across the treetops, its crystalline surface sparkling in the morning light.
The weight of that glacier pressed heavily against Brendel’s chest, making his heart pound.
Was there really no path ahead?
Freya breathed softly, her light brown eyes filled with doubt.
“Ladies, there may not be a way ahead; what do we do next?” a knight from the Broken Sword Order shouted.
“It’s not that there’s no way; glaciers cannot extend endlessly. Since the stag has brought us here, there must be a way around it,” Xiao Peiluo responded.
This sickly Cruz youth was bundled in a thick bear fur coat, one hand holding a shortsword and the other a crossbow. In battle, he was just as capable as his companions. Many winter wolves lay at his feet, each wound dealt with a single strike.
Seeing the others looking his way, Xiao Peiluo answered slowly, “As long as we find the natural edges where the glacier has broken—”
“Will there be any?” Freya couldn’t help but blurt, then quickly covered her mouth; such a lack of confidence was not suitable for a commander.
“There will be,” Xiao Peiluo shot her a glance, answering determinedly, “if it is indeed a naturally formed glacier.”
“And if it isn’t?” Arleigh hurried up from behind, just catching the end of the conversation.
The sickly young man glanced at him, not responding.
Arleigh opened his mouth; he wasn’t scared of Brendel from a noble family, and even faced the Crown Prince without lowering his head, but before Xiao Peiluo, he felt like a mouse before a cat—he couldn’t figure out why.
But this didn’t mean he would remain silent. He thought a moment, complaining, “If you ask me, we shouldn’t have trusted a stag. I really don’t know what you were all thinking.”
“I’m sorry, that was my decision,” Freya stepped forward and replied.
“I’m not targeting you, Commander. I just find it strange that we are so many people, yet there seemed to be no dissent at the time,” Arleigh replied. This commander from Erluin was not as strong as they were, her tactical skills only average, but that didn’t mean they could disrespect her.
If not for investigating the cause of Anika’s death, she wouldn’t have been trapped in this situation.
At least she had the awareness and courage of a commander; this feeling was very akin to what they often sensed in Veronika.
“That’s precisely the peculiar thing about this situation,” Brendel said as he finished repelling another wave of winter wolves and approached, “Arleigh, we Cruz people and Erluin people grew up hearing the legends of the stag. The stag in the dark forest, like the unicorn, symbolizes kindness and order. It has guided the great Flame King and Eke; now it comes to guide us again. Your silence against it then was because you subconsciously agreed with it.”
“Nonsense.” The rugged knight scoffed.
“Arleigh, it’s understandable if you don’t know the stag’s legends, given you’re from the Inir.” Brendel chuckled lightly, “But you can’t deny there are some mysterious, inexplicable things in this world.”
Only then did Freya notice that Arleigh seemingly possessed some portion of Inir blood, evident from the light golden curls at his forehead and his slender nose. He also had a heavy local accent, making him appear as if he were from Fanzan or a northern ethnicity.
But Arleigh leaped up, as if stung by a sore point: “Brendel, what do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said, if you had a bit more confidence, you wouldn’t see your birth and bloodline as an attack.” Brendel replied nonchalantly.
“Hmph!” The former huffed but did not respond further.
Having gotten used to the quarrels between these two during the night, Freya knew it would do no good to resolve their arguments in face of the current predicament.
What needed to be done now was to completely stifle the wolves’ offense.
“Regardless, we need to break through them first, then find a way around the glacier and continue north.” Freya paused and addressed the others, “If possible, we should meet up with Brendel and Lady Veronika.”
“But it’s too difficult to shake off the wolves in the forest,” Rolo shook his head, frowning.
“How do you know if we don’t try?” Arleigh turned back, answered carelessly.
“You don’t understand wolves, Arleigh. You don’t know how cunning they are.”
“That’s natural; I’m not a mountain dweller, so how could I know about these beasts?” He shrugged with a grin.
The dark-skinned mountain knight fixed his gaze on him, silent.
“That’s precisely why,” a girl from Buche tore off her cloak, “we need to strike back. Once they have us entangled, we can’t shake them off; we must take the initiative to crush them until they no longer dare to pursue.”
Xiao Peiluo noticed Freya tying her cloak to a long spear, immediately understanding her intentions. “That’s too risky; if you recklessly expose your position, who knows if that silver beast is lying in ambush nearby? It’s clearly coming for you.”
Freya hesitated, “There’s no time to consider more; we are all exhausted, and I don’t want to be driven forward by the wolves only to sit helplessly when we can’t move anymore.”
She raised the flag in her hand: “I am the commander; I will lead everyone in breaking through. If I fall, you will take up my flag and pass the information about that beast to Brendel and Lady Veronika.”
“You are just a junior commander.”
A somewhat icy voice came from behind, and then Freya felt someone grip her spear. She was taken aback and turned to see Nemeses’s expressionless face.
“Nemeses?”
“Let me take the flag,” the black-haired knight gently took the makeshift battle flag from her hand, “Order us here.”
“Senior Sister…”
“Don’t waste words; give the orders.”
Freya took a deep breath, looking back at the others. Both Xiao Peiluo and Brendel nodded at her. Her gaze swept over the undulating forest and snowfield, formulating a plan in her mind.
“Descendants of the Flame King, knights of Cruz, gather around the flag, wings converging towards the center.”
The girl’s clear voice resonated through the forest, and all the knights of the Broken Sword Order turned back in shock. Within the forest, a silver flag had already been raised; it was clearly a cloak fluttering in the morning breeze.
The cloak bore an embroidered emblem of a white lion.
“Knights, prepare to charge forward!”
