Chapter 404: Act 158 – Antinna’s Orders (First Update)
“Knowing that you are not my opponent, yet still resisting, isn’t that foolish?” The Gray Saint, holding a giant sword taller than a person on his shoulder, looked at Brendel and said.
Otales smiled slightly: “Your swordsmanship is indeed powerful, but your vision is lacking.”
Brendel’s change in tone caused Mephistopheles to pause for a moment, but this doubt quickly flickered away like a dragonfly skimming over a lake. “Even so, do you still want to claim that you are not a Crusian?”
“Whether I am or not, you’ll know soon enough.”
“What, do you want to flee?” Mephistopheles looked at him.
Otales—Brendel smiled faintly. “Antinna.” She spoke quietly to her companion behind her, her voice as delicate as a thread.
“Understood.”
“Go north through this valley and wait for me at the Saintly White Stone.”
“Saintly White Stone?”
“Just look for the white stone.”
Antinna watched her lord, nodding in apparent understanding without asking further. Mephistopheles, standing not far away, observed the conversation, feeling the grip on his sword hilt loosen slightly, then tighten again. His perception was sharp enough to catch this exchange, and he thought that even if Brendel wanted to run, it wouldn’t necessarily take him far.
Moreover, his primary target was Veronika; as long as he ensured Brendel was under his control, that would suffice.
“Little cleverness,” the Gray Saint silently watched the scene, his pale, slender fingers on the sword hilt loosening a bit more.
Brendel had informed Otales about a resting point from the past game—a location in the Black Forest similar to the Saintly White Rock or the Holy Fountain, where the order was most stable. In simpler terms, it was a place provided by the game designers for players to rest. There were three resting points in the wolf disaster mission, all situated behind the Wolf’s Hollow, with the nearest one not far away.
After Otales finished speaking to Antinna, she turned back and lifted her sword.
“Oh?” Mephistopheles looked at her—he asked, “Are you ready?”
“Your confidence is impressive.” This was Otales’s reply, and Mephistopheles’s proud demeanor evidently sparked the pride of this ancient female knight spirit.
The Gray Saint said nothing; he pointed the great sword in his hand toward Otales—an indirect answer from Brendel.
“Let’s see how this goes,” was the implied meaning.
Otales snorted in a unique tone of pride, swinging her sword down, and six azure streams of energy rose from behind her like wings.
“This is!” Mephistopheles’s facial expression changed—Wind Spirit’s battle technique, Azure Sky Patrol. Otales took a small leap back, and her entire figure seemed to glide back like a phantom, the speed seeming slow—but it was an illusion, as the series of deceptive afterimages left in her wake proved otherwise.
To the eyes of observers, the young lord appeared momentarily in front of them, but in the blink of an eye, she was already at the edge of the forest. The Gray Saint snorted coldly and transformed into a black dragon to chase after her. His speed was slightly slower, turning this pursuit into a contest of endurance.
Otales changed direction at the forest’s edge and plunged into the woods. “Which direction?” she asked.
“A mile or two is enough.”
“That’s a bit far, young boy.” Otales’s wings behind her fluttered, gliding between the tall trees. She looked back and saw that Mephistopheles was just a step behind.
The Gray Saint’s speed was slow, but that was only relatively speaking.
“If you can hold him off for a moment with that move, it will be fine,” she responded.
“No, it won’t work—the Sacred Sword Technique requires conditions to be used.” Brendel led everyone through the Thorny Ridge, which took most of the day, but he had only been able to maintain the Sacred Sword in play for the first two hours. His earth elemental pool was already empty.
Their conversation lasted only a moment before Mephistopheles launched his attack.
He thrust the giant sword forward, and three strands of sword energy, like white ribbons, drew elegant arcs toward Otales. The lady knight ducked behind a tree, letting the three strands of sword energy hit the massive trunk, which could only be embraced by several people. The sword energy penetrated the trunk like an axe, wood chips flying everywhere as the massive tree crashed down.
Otales hastily jumped aside to escape the snapping branches. “Charge!” Brendel reminded.
“You fool, in a clash of this level, a straight line can be predicted.”
“Don’t worry.”
The two continued to exchange thoughts through their mental connection.
Meanwhile, Mephistopheles was carefully listening to the sounds of the surrounding winds and rustling grass. Otales was shielded by the fallen tree canopy, making it difficult for him to determine her exact position.
Suddenly, a green shadow flashed by him. The Gray Saint’s eyes twitched, and he instinctively drew his sword to slash, his heavy blade sweeping over in mid-air, and a wind-element spider leaping at him was sliced in half.
The air-elemental creature exploded mid-air, and Otales seized this moment of distraction from Mephistopheles to rush out, timing it perfectly. Mephistopheles turned sharply but could only catch a glimpse of Brendel disappearing into the distance.
Such little tricks.
Mephistopheles sheathed his sword, glanced in that direction, and then followed; he wasn’t afraid of falling into an ambush but wanted to deal with Veronika there if she happened to be present.
Meanwhile, the centaurs and tree spirits far away in the valley could only hear a sudden crashing sound from the distant forest, followed by the massive tree falling down.
Everyone could only speculate that a battle had erupted there, but they could not know the specifics of what happened.
Xi clenched her fingers white, tightly gripping her long spear, staring in that direction.
“So what now, Miss Antinna?” The tree spirit leader Quinelle approached and glanced at the human girl. Clearly, Brendel had passed command to her.
Antinna also withdrew her gaze.
“Move forward along the valley and wait at the Saintly White Stone for the Lord,” she replied calmly.
Quinelle nodded, turning to signal the others to continue. The tree spirit leader maintained his indifferent demeanor, though he stole one last glance at the forest.
The group began to advance slowly, moving forward in the extremely quiet snow scene. For a moment, it seemed the Erluin nobles were the only ones who hadn’t reacted yet.
In the distant forest, after the loud crash, all sounds fell silent. The figures of the two people pursuing each other had vanished completely after disappearing in that direction.
Xi stared blankly into the distance, her heart filled with concern to the point of discomfort—this red-haired girl felt her heart pounding. For a moment, she feared that Mephistopheles would return, tossing Brendel’s lifeless body before her, but after a while, with no movement to be seen, she felt a sense of loss.
She furrowed her brow, letting out a gentle sigh, scolding herself for always thinking of the worst possible things. Nevertheless, she couldn’t relax.
“Xi? It’s time to go.”
She looked up and saw Antinna looking at her—the noble girl stood in the snowstorm, wearing a long white fur dress, her round-toed leather boots sinking into a thin layer of snow. The aura of calm surrounding her seemed to instill a sense of stability in others.
“How wonderful, Antinna,” Xi said, looking a bit weary. “I wish I could be as strong as you.”
“I worry too,” Antinna sighed. “But worrying does no good; we must carry out the Lord’s orders.”
“So, I really hate being so weak,” Xi said sadly.
Antinna offered no reply, as she herself felt uncertain inside. The group advanced slowly through the snowstorm, the silent desolation drowning each person’s anxiety.
But as Antinna was lost in her worries, she suddenly heard a commotion at the back of the centaur team. Her brow, already furrowed, tightened even more. The girl turned around and noticed that their rear team seemed to have stopped in the snowfall.
“What’s going on?”
Antinna turned toward that direction and suddenly saw a group of centaurs emerging from the woods.
Her expression changed drastically upon seeing the woman at the forefront, adorned in a flowing azure cape—oh no, she realized—she had become too preoccupied with so many occurrences that she had not noticed another party approaching.
Especially as the snowstorm grew fiercer, perhaps no one had noticed this at all.
The one approaching was Veronika.
This female war god of Cruz had chased after Brendel until passing the Wolf’s Hollow before finally confirming the location of her target. She was unaware that others had arrived first; her gaze swept across the entire centaur and tree spirit group.
She did not see Faina, Rono, or Alman, nor did she see Brendel, but she recognized Xi and Antinna. Veronika’s long fingers rested on the hilt of the Azure Sky sword, and she stepped forward—
Just one step, and it felt as if she had crossed the limits of space and time—like she transformed into a gust of wind—one step, covering a distance of over a hundred meters.
Antinna was taken aback, instinctively retreating, but the cold blade was already pressed against her pale, slender neck.
At that moment, Quinelle had just raised his longbow, and Xi had not yet managed to raise her Thunder Spear.
A moment earlier, Veronika had still been at least a hundred meters away.
Antinna froze.
The war god looked down at the beautiful girl before her, black hair and eyes distinctly different from typical Erluin lineage. She paused slightly, as if discovering something peculiar.
This doubt vanished in an instant.
Veronika had already struck with full force, and it was no surprise that Xi and Quinelle could not react in time. Usually, she wouldn’t act so violently toward a defenseless girl, but this time, the Empire’s war god was genuinely anxious.
Faina, Rono, and Alman had been missing, especially Faina, that little princess of Leafrise, who could not afford any mishaps.
“Lady Veronika, what are you doing!” Quinelle shouted, raising his longbow and aiming a sharp arrow at the war god. Kuran, not far away, also subtly placed his hand on his sword hilt, ready to attack at any moment.
But Veronika didn’t spare him a glance; she simply asked, “You must have seen the Crusian envoy, right?”
“I don’t know,” Antinna replied. “They left long ago.”
“Brendel did not kill them?”
“Naturally, the Lord does not wish to incite a war.”
Veronika’s expression shifted: “When did they leave?”
“Sorry, I cannot answer that question without the Lord’s authorization,” Antinna said, the blade at her neck unflinching: “Even if you, Lady Veronika, were to kill me, it would be the same.”
“Hmph!” The azure-caped commander snorted, retracting her sword; threats were her bottom line, and she would never kill: “Then where is your lord?”
Antinna hesitated slightly but suddenly seemed to make up her mind as she replied, “He is not here right now.”
“Then take me to find him.” Veronika felt a bit restless inside, not noticing the subtle abnormality in the noble girl’s expression.
“As an ordinary person, I can’t keep up with you, Lady Veronika.”
“That’s fine; let her accompany me,” Veronika said, turning her gaze to Xi. Xi was startled and immediately stepped back, raising her spear protectively in front of herself, her expression extremely cautious as she looked at the war god.
It was clear that at that moment, the red-haired girl was tense; as soon as Veronika moved even slightly, she would fight to the death—Xi’s expression made it clear: she would rather die than disclose Brendel’s whereabouts to an outsider.
But Antinna called out to her: “Xi, don’t do anything foolish.”
Xi blinked, looking at her in confusion.
“Take Lady Veronika to meet the Lord—” the noble girl took a deep breath, stating word by word: “This—is—the—right—thing—I—command!”
…(To be continued. To know what happens next, please log in for more chapters and support the author for legitimate reading!)
