Chapter 1002: Act 174 – Prelude to the Counterattack
In a small human camp stationed in the mountain pass to the north of the valley, several gray tents surrounded a clearing amidst ancient trees. The tents were secured with ropes and stakes driven into the gravel, and not far off, a flagpole symbolically held the red and white battle flag of the White Legion.
Among the camp were about ten imperial knights, most of whom lay sprawled on the ground. Only four were able to stand: one person in a fur-collared coat with an obviously noble appearance, likely the leader of these imperial soldiers, along with three others—one dressed as a nun, a young nobleman, and a cowering skeleton.
Without a doubt, these three were Sidney, Brendel, and the decayed knight Cruz.
With a thud, Brendel furrowed his brow and tossed the crimson blessing onto the ground, along with various broken pieces of equipment. After the fight against White, most of his gear was in ruins. Fortunately, after the massive explosion in the Frost Death Forest, he didn’t have much left on him. A lot of the equipment had been hastily borrowed from Berun and the alchemist Tam, and its damage didn’t pain him too much.
The only valuable items left were the Lonia Gap and some rings and necklaces, which were generally hard to damage. As for the Lonia Gap, it was indeed one of the classical pieces passed down from the Age of Dusk, and under White’s attack, it remained unscathed. Thanks to this piece of armor, he was able to wait for Sidney to come and save him his life.
With White’s powers nearly reaching the realm of the sage, he could have easily suppressed Brendel, whose bloodline talent was not yet perfected. However, after the Lonia Gap weakened its rule level, White was left with only pure pinnacle power, unable to exceed the laws of the mortal realm. While he could still heavily injure Brendel, it allowed his unyielding talent to take effect, thus saving his life.
However, while the Lonia Gap had been preserved intact, the Gift of Bahamut was not so lucky. Directly affected by White’s force, this precious gauntlet had half of it blown off during combat. Regrettably, Brendel collected the remnants of the gauntlet and stored them in the dimensional pocket, hoping to see if there would ever be a chance to repair it. After all, it was dream-class equipment, a rare find even in the “Amber Sword.” Thinking about this made Brendel quite dissatisfied with White.
Although this sentiment might have been disrespectful to Medisa’s sister, it was infuriating that the woman, after dying, had been so stingy as to not drop a single piece of equipment, as if everything burned along with her soul, even the counterfeit volume of the Mavikarte book. Just thinking about that book made Brendel’s heart bleed; with the experiences he could gain from it, he might have solidly risen to the pinnacle of power, even possibly reaching the Extremity Plains.
But now, all of that was gone.
He also lost the majority of his own equipment.
He even began to doubt that since coming to this world, his luck seemed to have reversed from what it was in “Amber Sword.” Some artifacts he never thought he would see—power crystals, the Sword of Earth, the Lonia Gap, the Realm of Fire, the Affinity of Mountains, the Lionheart Sword had all come into his possession, and most of it wasn’t even acquired by his own planning. If this kind of luck were to happen in the past, he wouldn’t believe it even if he was killed.
Yet, after his encounter with White, the situation oddly reminded him of how things used to be—Brendel found he didn’t feel surprised at all, as if this was how it should be. Instead, the previous situation had made him somewhat uneasy, as if he had done something morally dubious.
However, upon careful thought, he realized that there had only been one change before this situation occurred—that was that his senior had come back to his side.
“Alright.” Brendel couldn’t help but click his tongue, quickly banishing this absurd thought from his mind.
Sidney had just returned to the camp after a round outside. Upon seeing Brendel’s actions, she finally understood where he had gotten the holy water from. Although dimensional pockets were rare, they weren’t as significant compared to other things around Brendel, such as Bud’s fleet or notions surrounding the Valkyrie. Moreover, there were rumors that this young earl from Erluin was an outstanding summoner, and most summoners had their own dimensional pockets, so after Sidney grasped this, she wasn’t too surprised and didn’t connect it to Amann.
However, hearing Brendel mutter to himself, she couldn’t help but ask, “What are you saying?”
Brendel snapped back to reality, glanced at the scattered items on the ground, and immediately shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied, “just organizing some things.”
Sidney didn’t bother to look at the junk on the ground; she only shot a glance at the nobleman pinned by the binding spell of the Wind, asking, “So, are you done interrogating him?”
Brendel nodded.
The imperial noble man before them was named Charles, a Bunker born and raised in a knightly family. Currently, he served as a knight captain in the White Legion. Their mission was to escort White and her companions to the Perkin Sanctuary. Of course, this escort was nominal; in reality, it was also for surveillance. After questioning, Brendel learned that this was not their first time on such a mission, and their underlying goal was likely to find the fragments of rules around Fatan Port. However, it was obvious that White hadn’t told them the truth; she clearly had the ability to locate those rule fragments but led these people around instead. It was uncertain if she aimed to conceal her true intentions or wished to gain more autonomy.
Perhaps a bit of both; after all, if she found the rule fragments from the start, she might not have had the time to look for what she wanted.
However, Brendel had no obligation to explain this to the man who was in the dark. He had previously confirmed the truth of these people’s words with the decayed knight Cruz. After receiving a positive response, he further pried more information from these people’s mouths, including the distribution and garrison of the White Legion around Owesen. Certainly, a knight captain might not know too many military secrets, but Brendel needed only a general idea. Besides, this man had encountered the undead before, so he likely had no taboos regarding skeletons, indicating he had experience dealing with such beings. As he inquired, he indeed found out that the presence of the undead army near Owesen was already common knowledge. It was just that the White Legion forbade anyone other than the military from crossing the Jin Needle Forest to reach Fatan Port, which was why this information was so tightly sealed.
“Where do those undead come from?” he asked.
“From the mountains—” Sir Charles, feeling incredibly unlucky, thought who would want to accompany a bunch of skeletons on a mission during this season, exposed to the cold winds at the mountain pass. It was already enough that those skeletons had messed things up, dragging him down with them. Sir Charles had been considering an exit strategy; if possible, he wouldn’t want to say another word. However, with Brendel’s sword at his throat, the chilling aura from the blade made him shiver and involuntarily spill the truth.
But he honestly couldn’t say with any certainty; most people knew that these skeletons came from the mountains, allegedly controlled by several necromancers. These necromancers had surrendered to the Legion Commander and were now serving them. This was the most widespread theory about Owesen and fit closely with the official explanation. When Brendel asked, without thinking, he immediately answered.
Brendel tapped his sword’s blade against this man’s neck, seeing his face turn pale with fear; he couldn’t help but sigh, noticing that the imperial nobles here seemed rather similar to those from Erluin. Besides the young, hot-blooded ones, those slightly older had become parasites like this. It was a worst of times, but also filled with opportunities and challenges. The dark empire in the east and Cruz had started their reforms spanning a century in this era. If Erluin could find its footing now, it might carve its own path.
As long as there was time, there was hope.
However, Charles’s words confirmed his expectations; this guy was definitely not a high-ranking individual, as his knowledge of the undead army was limited and mostly based on hearsay, probably not as informed as he was.
Thus, he asked another question: had any military forces been moving toward the Valarch direction recently? Surprisingly, this time he gained an unexpected yield. He keenly observed Charles shivering, almost instinctively understanding that this guy definitely knew something. After a series of follow-up inquiries—again keeping the sword at the forefront—after a rather intimate encounter with the Earth Sword and Sir Charles’s neck, this imperial noble finally spoke.
To his astonishment, he discovered that Charles had a brother in the mobilized military unit, without a doubt, and this knight’s brother was also somewhat loose-lipped. Although the brother was serving as an outer guard in this operation, it seemed he had grasped some understanding of the situation regarding this troop movement. There were a total of sixty-four knights, three knight captains escorting a “necromancer” to Bume, but no details on the route or specifics were known, which matched the involved status of this individual.
However, Brendel didn’t need any of that, as Yuta had already detected this undead army. As for what that necromancer truly was, Brendel was clear about it in his heart and didn’t need to hear it reiterated from an outsider, and what Charles had relayed was already fully sufficient.
Previously, he had been most worried about the strengths of the knights in the escort, as the highest combat power he could mobilize at present was his teacher Mephistopheles, a force at the Extremity realm. It sounded daunting, but within the empire, there were about three or five others at that level. Excluding Valarch, there was also David, the front captain of the Knight Sanctuary, as well as the Empire’s chief court mage, Ambriel; the remaining one was Duke, the strongest among the Red Legion’s sword saints—Duke, the Sword Saint of Red. These individuals were politically aligned with the royalist faction, serving as staunch loyalists to Constance. Not to mention, that woman had also won over the witch lineage, causing the number of Extremity-level powers, including the Witch Queen and Asgari, to almost double suddenly; these witches were elusive, and until he confirmed their locations, he couldn’t casually allow the Gray Saint to leave Fatan Port.
Moreover, there were also the mountain dwellers, the Sainya People, and the remnants of the Minren, and it would not surprise him at all if one or two reclusive Extremity powerhouses emerged from these ancient ethnic groups. This was precisely why he had to be cautious in his actions.
Excluding Mephistopheles, the highest combat power he had at his disposal was the Valkyrie Brynhildr sisters. However, despite being an ancient troop, their current strength was actually quite limited. Considering their combat power alone, they might be slightly weaker than him. Together with them, facing off against a genuine Extremity powerhouse without tricks would only yield a slim chance of victory, unless there was a pre-arranged ambush but facing head-on, they were most likely to lose.
However, it was clear that since the opposing side only had sixty-four formal knights and three knight captains, it would be simpler. According to the standards of the White Legion, formal knights would barely reach the mid-lower tier of gold class. The knight captains were likely at the same level as Charles here, at most reaching the zenith of gold rank. Even if a few outliers reached the elemental manifestation stage, he wouldn’t regard them as much.
Let alone elemental manifesting; what if they had reached enlightenment? He possessed time and space elemental powers and had gained insights from several brushes with death, having encountered realms of sages and even powers of existence. In this realm of truth, unless someone wielded equivalent elemental mastery and had comparable experiences, he truly had nothing to fear. That kind of half-baked elemental manifestation or even those at the side of truth might even find themselves dispatched with a single blow.
Having come to this conclusion, Brendel turned the sword’s hilt and knocked Charles unconscious, allowing the knight, who was nearly driven to the brink of collapse, to happily lose consciousness. Then he turned to Sidney by his side and said, “Madam Sidney, since we are now allies, I am about to engage in battle with Her Majesty the Queen, so I won’t be polite. I may soon need to entrust some matters to you.”
Sidney nodded in agreement with this relationship, asking, “Please go ahead.”
Brendel gave her a detailed explanation; the saintess of the Lionheart Sanctuary listened quietly, occasionally nodding. Time passed quickly, and suddenly a clear bird cry echoed through the valley. Brendel looked up at the sound, recognizing it as the call of the Dujuan; there were many such birds in the Mezz region, and in Valarch, there were also many white-tailed Dujuan. The mountain dwellers referred to them as sacred birds, but he still could not spot those beautiful little creatures here.
Silently, he took out two communication crystals, activating them and speaking softly into them:
“Xial, Yuta—”
……
(PS: A bit stuck on words today.)
