Chapter 444: Act 194 – The Final Moment (Twelve)
Faina stood dumbfounded on the battlefield, holding Funiya in her arms, when she felt someone pull her from behind. She turned to see a serious red-haired girl with a ponytail looking at her. “Don’t stand here; it’s too dangerous.”
Without waiting for a response, she pulled her back.
“Xi!?”
“Xi sister.”
Xi affectionately patted Funiya’s head and said to Faina, “Come with me. You can’t interfere in the Lord’s battle; this area will likely be affected soon.”
“Really? He’s just relying on that Sword Saint; wasn’t he terrified of that woman just like us?” Faina responded irritably, but when she saw Xi glaring at her angrily, she dared not continue.
“Xi sister, look over there—” Funiya tugged at Xi’s sleeve.
The ponytail girl paused slightly, raising her head in confusion.
Brendel stated that he would use the Golden Magic Tree to absorb the natural energy of a region. He couldn’t possibly plant the Golden Magic Tree in a real battle, but if he could achieve some effect, it would be enough.
At that moment, Andisha and Mephistopheles were engaged in battle high in the air. They clashed multiple times; the decayed lord who had transformed into an evil dragon held a significant advantage in strength, but Mephistopheles remained temporarily unbeaten due to his skill. Both of them noticed Brendel and Veronika on the ground, yet Andisha cleverly avoided letting Mephistopheles shift the battlefield down, fearing a pincer attack.
“Your helper is useless,” Andisha mocked.
Mephistopheles, having no time to respond, expressed his disdain through his calm gaze, which conveyed his unwillingness to answer, as if his response lay in the gigantic sword he wielded. With a thrust, the gray sword surged forth, its striking light blade extending a hundred meters.
Andisha snorted and twisted her massive body in the air to evade the sword’s edge. Her steel-scaled wings flicked, deflecting Mephistopheles’s sword, and she lunged towards his head with a claw.
At the same time, she attempted to cast a small thunderstorm behind Mephistopheles, trying to trap his retreat route with this five-ring spell.
Andisha’s claws were quick and fierce; if they connected, Mephistopheles’s head would surely become a torn rag bag. But just then, she noticed her spell had lagged. The lightning that should have been summoned instantly allowed that human Sword Saint to slip through a gap.
What happened?
Andisha was startled and realized that her physical and magical flow had slowed down a bit. Although it was only a fraction, even the smallest change in magical flow could alert any spellcaster. Looking down, she quickly discovered Brendel’s small actions below.
Calling it a small action was a bit inaccurate.
Brendel was allowing blood to flow down from his wrist, dripping onto the bushes below. As he stepped forward, the bushes instantly grew wildly, forming a black ribbon.
The Golden Tree!
Andisha momentarily didn’t think about why Brendel knew the secret of the Golden Tree, but she was well aware of how the Golden Tree disrupted natural energies. Shocked and angry, she abandoned Mephistopheles and spread her wings to dive down.
At that moment, Brendel and Veronika heard a sharp scream and felt a shadow darken overhead. They looked up to see a mass of black clouds descending.
Veronika’s expression turned serious, and she immediately drew her sword to shield Brendel.
Meanwhile, Mephistopheles wouldn’t allow Andisha to change her target so easily. Although he wasn’t sure what Brendel was doing, he felt the delay in Andisha’s earlier spell acutely. From the monster’s reaction, he could guess it had to do with the young man below.
Mephistopheles had no time to think. He pressed his lips together and quickly turned his long sword to stab at Andisha’s exposed back.
“Get away, damn insect! Dark Lightning!” the decayed lord of the Arbor summoned an angry roar, and black lightning surrounded her. It seemed to obey her command, zigzagging through space; several bolts struck Mephistopheles’s sword blade.
The Sutherland Sword Saint felt a tingle in his hand as a tremendous force came from the sword, nearly causing him to lose his grip. The lightning’s power was highly peculiar; it wasn’t the typical paralysis of ordinary lightning but carried a burning sensation that was excruciatingly painful.
Mephistopheles promptly switched the sword to his left hand and raised his right palm to check, finding no burn marks but rather an inky blackness.
“Erosion damage?” The Sword Saint was momentarily taken aback; he was well-versed and recognized that this was not ordinary lightning, but some substance made of dark elements.
Meanwhile, the Gray Sword Saint was blocked by Andisha. The evil dragon she transformed into had already arrived above Veronika and Brendel. She circled in midair, attempting to pounce down and stop Brendel’s actions, but Veronika stood in front of Brendel, raising her Azure Sky in a combat stance.
Taking a deep breath, Andisha knew she couldn’t attack Brendel without dealing with Veronika first. Although the Crusian female warrior was not as powerful as her, she had no issues obstructing her.
She hesitated for a moment, extending her claws, and countless vines suddenly sprouted from the ground, stabbing towards Brendel.
These vines were plants twisted by darkness, emerging from the earth like a mass of venomous snakes. Veronika had to frown and direct these plants away to prevent them from affecting Brendel’s work.
“How much longer?”
“Don’t confront her head-on; let Mephistopheles hold her off!” Brendel replied without looking up, focused on the bushes below, where those spiky black plants were rapidly growing under the nourishment of the blood of the gods.
Seeing this scene, Andisha became increasingly agitated. Although this amount of twisted plants wasn’t enough to completely distort the local natural order, it sufficiently interfered with her connection to the natural energies. As a profession similar to a Druid, without her proud spellcasting abilities, her close combat skills were not much superior to Mephistopheles’s.
Moreover, with Veronika by the side, her chances of success were even lower.
Especially at their level of confrontation, the outcome could often be decided in a split second; even the slightest shift in the scales of war could impact the final result.
Thus, she immediately lowered her head and let out a low growl—those vines emerging from the ground were closing in, and Veronika was already completely entangled by these twisted plants—this was enough for Andisha to feel the timing was right. She squinted her eyes, disregarding the need for a hundred percent assurance and seized the opportunity to spread her wings and dive towards Brendel.
A terrible scream filled the air.
At this moment, Brendel finally lifted his head. He glanced at the direction in which Andisha was diving, his expression calm. Of course, he was actually terrified; nothing had ever been as stimulating as this moment, not even the most dangerous infiltration missions he had executed in the past.
That was one of the twelve Patriarchs of the Arbor. On a completely different level, she was at least forty levels higher than him, so by game metrics, just a breath could kill him.
It wasn’t as simple as losing a level in a game but true death.
Yet at this moment, Brendel’s mind was remarkably clear. He glanced aside, noting Veronika’s situation, and formulated a plan.
He almost instantaneously established a countermeasure and raised his hand to slash toward Veronika. Although the crescent-shaped sword qi created by the White Crow Sword Art rebounded immediately upon hitting the resilient vines, causing almost no damage, Brendel had no expectations for that.
His thought triggered; sharp rocks erupted from the ground in an instant—while they didn’t sever the vines, they temporarily blocked the twisted plants on the other side.
Veronika finally became free; she hesitated not at all, taking a step forward with her long sword raised, and a blue glow surged out from her body as if it were a material blade rushing in all directions. She lifted her Azure Sky and swung it toward Andisha—a blue wind dragon, roughly one-tenth the size of Andisha, erupted from the sword blade, roaring as it collided with the evil dragon in midair.
At that moment, Andisha, already in the final stage of her dive, could not change direction. She could only watch helplessly as the wind dragon crashed into her shoulder—of course, that wind dragon was merely a façade; in reality, the chaotic sword aura instantly tore through the scales on her shoulder, causing a spray of blood.
But that was all; Andisha merely felt intense pain, and her movements momentarily slowed. Just this brief hesitation allowed Brendel to evade her claw and reunite with Veronika.
The Decayed Lady, furious and wanting to pursue, suddenly felt a chill run down her spine, stopping her in her tracks. She turned around and, unsurprisingly, saw Mephistopheles tearing through the black lightning, closing in.
Although Andisha was frustrated, she had no choice but to turn back and confront him. She wasn’t foolish enough to expose her back to the Sword Saint of the Meyer people without any spells prepared.
Previously, Mephistopheles had already demonstrated to this Patriarch of the Arbor that he was not a foe to be trifled with.
As he obstructed her, Brendel took the opportunity to spread the black thorns on the ground; due to their hasty cultivation, their effect was minimal. At least from the young man’s perspective, it would require at least four more patches of similarly-sized plants to truly change the course of the battle.
This was not a simple task, as Andisha persistently tried to stop and destroy his ‘work.’ Initially, she used more direct methods like before, but Mephistopheles, far from being a pushover, quickly recognized that Brendel’s sowing of the thorns was the key to turning the tide.
Andisha’s spells began to slow down even further, while Mephistopheles found his own battles becoming increasingly easier, with opportunities to counterattack, which was something that had seemed utterly impossible at the start.
Thus, he simply followed Andisha like a specter, not giving her a chance to strike. Andisha quickly realized Mephistopheles’s strategy, forcing her to cease her somewhat clumsy maneuvers and resort to eroding those plants with her elements.
This initially produced remarkable results, nearly thwarting Brendel’s ‘efforts.’ However, Mephistopheles soon found a way to defend, covering those black thorns with his ‘Gray World,’ leaving Andisha with no way to act.
This tactic drove Andisha nearly mad, yet she found herself helpless against Mephistopheles’s elements.
Thus, the two sides engaged in a chase, establishing a black ‘Great Wall’ little by little. Although Brendel was beginning to feel dizzy from substantial blood loss, Andisha’s fighting power started to wane. During her final spellcasting, she even nearly failed, with a backlash almost costing her an eye.
So a bizarre scene unfolded on the battlefield—the once-mighty Patriarch of the Arbor was gradually being dragged towards oblivion by an obscure Erluin noble. This was not only surprising for Veronika, who was supporting Brendel, but also for Mephistopheles, who was engaged in battle with Andisha.
Andisha was increasingly filled with rage but began to feel a hint of unease. She understood all too well that continuing down this path would lead only to defeat. The lord of the Arbor finally came to her senses, turning her massive body in midair, preparing to flee.
“Don’t let her escape!” Brendel shouted immediately. The Golden Tree’s influence extended wide, covering an entire valley; in reality, by this time, Andisha realized it was already too late for her to think of escaping.
But at that very moment, he heard Xi’s startled voice from nearby: “Watch out, Lord!”
…(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider supporting it with recommendation votes and monthly votes on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)
