Chapter 405: Act 159 – Convergence (First Update)
Otales moved through the forest like a ghost, followed at a distance by Gray Saint Mephistopheles. The two advanced through the forest for several minutes, but Otales suddenly frowned slightly.
She raised her head toward a certain direction. It seemed that the deeper they went into the forest, the more she sensed a familiar scent lingering in the air.
“Eh.”
“What’s wrong?” Brendel asked in his mind.
“There’s a strong smell of blood, almost overwhelming. Are there any monsters nearby?”
“Blood? Let’s go check it out—”
“This is not the time to meddle, young one.”
Brendel did not expect Otales to be unfamiliar with the Black Forest. Monsters typically fed on magical power, and even when they sometimes attacked other animals, there should not be such an intense blood scent. What worried Brendel was that if they encountered adventurers, it meant there could be unknown dangers lurking around.
But it should not be too surprising; since the Flame King Gilt had experiences traversing the wilderness, the wind sprites from back then should not have been that much worse. Perhaps the Black Forest of this era was different from the past? He shook his head and said, “Let’s go take a look, Lady Otales.”
“Oh?” This made Otales stop suddenly, narrowing her eyes as she looked in that direction, then darted off like an arrow.
This sudden change in direction caused a slight frown on Gray Saint Mephistopheles’s face. He raised his alertness and followed after her.
Otales—Brendel did not pay much attention to the Gray Saint behind him—passed through clusters of tall, moss-covered black pines, and the smell of blood in the air grew stronger.
Then she suddenly stopped.
Before the two of them, the forest opened up into a valley, revealing a small clearing, but the scene there was gruesome. The once-grassy ground seemed to have been smeared with blood, with human limbs and blood-soaked entrails scattered everywhere. The bodies stretched from one end to the other, at least a couple of hundred, piled on top of one another, covered by a thin layer of snow.
But the white snow was also soaked in bright red blood.
Otales and Brendel both inhaled sharply. The Lady Knight, although accustomed to scenes of slaughter, had not witnessed such a bloody battle in centuries.
The air was filled with a thick, nauseating scent of blood.
“It’s from the Temple of Fire.” Brendel recognized it instantly: “Nearly the entire army has perished.” He confirmed this upon seeing the bodies of two lower-tier priests beneath layers of soldiers.
The battle had claimed at least two priests, which was a significant deal.
In fact, the clergy of the Temple of Fire was divided into three categories. The first were the high priests from various countries, totaling eleven, who constituted the core of power known as the Flame Council.
Next were the regional high priests, priests, and lower-tier priests, each belonging to different factions and forming the backbone of the Temple. To truly be part of this hierarchy, one not only needed to possess unwavering faith in the golden fire they served but also had to at least achieve gold rank strength.
The lower-tier priests corresponded to the Temple’s armed reserve knights but held a much higher status due to their scarcity. Every loss was a significant blow to the Temple.
Thus, each lower-tier priest on a mission was supposed to be accompanied by at least three reserve knights, meaning there were at least eight gold-ranked individuals among the corpses here.
Brendel sucked in a cold breath, not because of the formidable strength of the Temple forces but because he wondered—what trouble had these individuals gotten themselves into? A team this powerful could meet such a tragic fate. He recalled the bodies of those knights from the Temple discovered just a few hours earlier.
He furrowed his brow deeply; this BOSS was unfairly powerful.
At that moment, Otales heard a sound behind her. She turned around to see Gray Saint Mephistopheles stepping through the fog of the forest, his huge sword resting on his shoulder, crunching the dried branches beneath his feet. However, when Mephistopheles caught sight of the gruesome scene, he couldn’t help but freeze in shock.
He frowned and asked, “What happened here?”
“Attacked by monsters, I suppose.”
“Hmph, the lackeys of the Crusians got what they deserved,” the Gray Saint said indifferently. Their conversation didn’t sound like that of enemies—until the gray-haired man lowered the giant sword, pointing it at Brendel: “Alright, since you know you can’t escape, you might as well come with me obediently.”
Otales was stunned, thinking this guy really was straightforward. Just as she was about to pull out the brooch given to Brendel by the regent princess, she heard Brendel’s voice in her mind:
“Something is coming from the west, Lady Otales.”
The Lady Knight raised an eyebrow impassively, “How do you know?”
“My wind sprites are disappearing in large numbers; it’s coming.” Brendel’s tone became urgent, suspecting that the approaching entity was likely that BOSS, given how quickly the wind sprites were vanishing.
“Wait, something is coming from the east as well,” he said suddenly.
Otales felt a slight tension in her heart, “You mean there are two monsters?”
“It’s hard to say, but we should get out of here quickly,” Brendel urged.
“But young one, if we withdraw at this time, that thing will definitely attack,” Otales said, looking at Mephistopheles. “At this close distance, I can’t guarantee a way out. Your strength is too weak; the Sky-Wanderer can’t be used again in a short time.”
Brendel was hearing for the first time that he was considered too weak.
He thought to himself that he was barely in his early twenties, possessing gold-ranked power was already quite remarkable. What more could one expect? But he knew there was no point in arguing with a sister of centuries of age. In her eyes, his strength indeed looked pitiful.
He shook his head and said, “Let’s switch bodies; I’ll explain.”
Hearing this, Otales did not object and retracted her consciousness into her ring space. Brendel’s consciousness took over, appearing as if he had momentarily spaced out before his eyes regained clarity.
“Something is coming.” Brendel looked up at Mephistopheles, and his first words were alarming: “You wouldn’t want to know what killed these people, would you?”
Mephistopheles froze slightly, about to say something when he suddenly saw the young man pull out a silver brooch from his chest. However, before he could take a good look at the brooch, two figures suddenly emerged from the bushes with a rustling sound.
“Gray Saint Mephistopheles!”
“Veronika!” Mephistopheles recognized the newcomer and instinctively retreated a step, drawing his sword and pointing it at her.
“Lord!” came Xi’s voice.
Brendel looked up in surprise, his action of holding the brooch freezing midair. He couldn’t help but curse silently; it turned out that the old witch from the empire was coming from the east. Why was she pursuing him again, and this time with Xi?
Wasn’t this just making things worse?
But risk often accompanies opportunity.
Brendel quickly noticed that as Veronika and Mephistopheles recognized each other, all attention shifted completely to one another, almost forgetting about anyone else in their immediate vicinity.
After all, in confrontations at their level, any mistake could be fatal.
However, the tense atmosphere between the two parties was precisely Brendel’s opportunity.
He took a deep breath and subtly signaled to Xi, standing beside Veronika, to quickly join him. In Brendel’s perception, the number of wind sprites in the west was dramatically decreasing, and he feared the BOSS might charge out of the forest at any moment.
As for the life-and-death struggle between Veronika and Mephistopheles, he couldn’t care less. He was no longer just a player who dropped a level upon dying; if that BOSS targeted him, he would have nowhere to cry.
At this moment, Veronika’s focus was entirely off Xi, and the red-haired girl noticed this. In fact, she couldn’t help but want to rush over to Brendel when she saw him—if it weren’t for the worry that Brendel might blame her for bringing Veronika.
But seeing that Brendel seemed indifferent, the weight in Xi’s heart finally eased. She cautiously walked over to Brendel’s side, gazing with relief at her lord.
However, what Xi didn’t expect was that before she could steady herself, Brendel grabbed her hand: “Quick, come with me.”
“Ah!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Xi felt that despite being in the wind and snow, there was a warm current transmitted from his hand to her heart and face, causing her cheeks to blush as if they were on fire.
But she lowered her head, feigning calmness.
Brendel nodded, first glancing to the west, then at the standoff between Veronika and Mephistopheles. He surveyed the surrounding environment, ensuring he retained his sense of direction before running in that direction.
Xi held her breath behind him, feeling at a loss as she watched her admired lord drag her along in flight.
Her mind went blank.
She felt like a marionette, unwittingly being pulled by Brendel towards a certain direction. She could not distinguish it, only feeling as if one sound could lead to her demise.
Xi could hear her heart pounding heavily.
Yet at this moment, Brendel remained completely unaware of Xi’s abnormality. Although he found her actions somewhat strange, the worry about the approaching entity overshadowed his doubts; furthermore, neither he nor Xi had a flame seed—having given it to Antinna earlier—and both of them, as golden-ranked individuals, would only last a few hours in the frost tide without it.
They needed to get back to the Saintly White Stone quickly.
But just then, Brendel suddenly heard Otales’s warning: “Be careful, something is coming from behind.”
Then he heard a sharp whistle slicing through the air behind him.
……(To be continued. To find out what happens next, please log in for more chapters, support the author, and support legitimate reading!)
