Chapter 478: Act 225 – Your Sword Will Always Shine, Erluin (Part 2)
The proud and fearsome army of Madara dared not take a single step across the thunderous pool.
For before this Undead Army stood two figures, a man and a woman. The woman was an elf, proud and calm like the twinkling stars in the sky. Despite her young age, she exuded a commanding aura that showed no signs of faltering.
Medisa held a silver spear, firmly positioned, quietly blocking the way less than a hundred steps away from Tagus. In her eyes, it seemed as if Madara’s army had long since been obliterated.
The man was a middle-aged swordsman. He hadn’t cast a single glance at Madara’s army, yet the tens of thousands of undead dared not ignore his presence.
For he was Mephistopheles, the Sword Saint of Ashes.
“Parsons has already charged,” a black knight whispered into Tagus’s ear.
Tagus nodded.
“What did Lord Instalung say?”
“The lord said that Erluin… is never without heroes. This is a soldier’s choice, and we must respect the honor on the battlefield,” the black knight responded softly.
Tagus nodded once more.
“Then let’s fall back. I hope to step on this land again in my lifetime.” The vampire commander glanced at Medisa and then at Mephistopheles as he spoke.
“We are already dead, my lord,” the black knight replied quietly.
Tagus pondered for a moment and then nodded.
The figures of the undead gradually vanished into the forest.
…
On the battlefield, the last two thousand soldiers faced nothing more than a mere few hundred mercenaries composed of tree elves and centaurs.
But the outcome was already predetermined.
These two thousand soldiers were merely of the black iron tier, with fewer than a hundred silver knights among them. Their enemies were hundreds of seasoned warriors who had survived wolf calamities, truly of the silver mid-tier or even silver peak.
The mounted steeds soared into the air as the tree elves’ arrows flew true. The battlefield became a one-sided massacre. Parsons listened to the cries of the young men around him, feeling heartache like a knife cutting through him. These were once the future he had hoped would belong to Erluin—yes, generations led by the older knights guiding the younger ones to the battlefield while singing the knights’ battle songs, granting them the highest honor—but the old knight now found himself powerless.
The charge had long since been halted, and on this side of the battlefield, Parsons had seen at least four golden-tier combatants.
A red-haired girl with a spear, a tree elf, a centaur, and an incredibly beautiful girl in boy’s attire with short hair.
This was the so-called rebellion—
He no longer knew when the golden-flashing banners on the battlefield had turned crimson with blood. The old knight watched as young faces disappeared before him and suddenly felt that this farce should come to an end.
Yes, it should end.
The spear in Xi’s hand was no longer the original Thunder Spear, as the Thunder Spear had been lost within the Black Forest and had not been recovered. Now, what she held was merely an ordinary magical spear. Brendel had promised her he would help her find a suitable weapon after leaving the Black Forest, yet the girl subconsciously did not wish to trouble the lord about it.
She feared that Brendel would find her bothersome, just as Makarolo had done.
But she could not fight without a weapon, for her strength had already made her the undisputed first among Brendel’s ranks. Though she was far from being a match for Mephistopheles, it should be noted that Mephistopheles was not exactly one of Brendel’s own; he was merely an ally. As for Brendel’s actual combat power, while high, it was merely in the mid-golden tier. Yet Xi was a true golden peak, just a step away from entering the elemental realm.
Such strength was limited by an ordinary magical spear, and yet, the girl now felt a sense of insecurity. She grasped the spear tightly, nervously biting her lip, as she weaved in and out among the remnants of Rendener’s forces.
The remaining soldiers of Rendener were but Parsons’ own troops. The knights and golden swordsmen who had supplemented from elsewhere had long since fled, leaving behind forces that posed no threat to her.
She worked alongside the crossdressing vampire Medephis to cut through the enemy’s formation, attempting to utterly divide and crush them. Even at this moment, Xi could feel that the enemy was already at the end of their rope.
At that moment, the spear in her hand trembled, and she suddenly felt an obstruction in front of her. The girl paused in surprise and looked up, flames reflected in her eyes revealing several figures.
To be precise, it was a small group of knights.
‘Parsons’s knights,’ Xi’s heart raced. She understood very well that silver knights were the backbone of an army. If she could first shatter them, then this war could be concluded early. With that thought, she surged toward them.
To her surprise, the enemy reacted quickly, almost immediately perceiving her intentions. Four or five knights quickly surrounded her.
‘Unaware of their own mortality,’ Xi frowned, thinking to herself. These knights should have been well aware of her power—golden peak—and when compared to these silver initial-tier and low-tier knights, she was in a completely different league. Yet, when they charged at her, they showed no hesitation, only determination in their eyes.
All were young—
Xi looked at their youthful, somewhat anxious faces and momentarily felt a pang of compassion. She recalled her fallen comrades, and at that instant, she slowed her hand. The spear, once full of murderous intent, changed its course, and with a flurry, she knocked each of those knights off their horses.
She moved forward, and then a knight fully encased in armor appeared within the throng.
‘Huh?’
Xi noted that the knight was merely of silver standard, yet his experience was astonishingly rich, allowing him to evade her thrust. The girl didn’t think much as she drove her spear forward again, only to find that the knight had deflected her spear with a sword and then slashed at her.
Xi felt a slight tension; she instinctively believed the opponent might be a hidden strength of golden rank, so she immediately pulled back her spear, no longer holding back. With a feint to mislead his balance, she managed to knock aside his sword, and ultimately her spear thrust struck true against his breastplate.
In a series of three strikes with hardly any pause in between, sharp clangs echoed, and the spear pierced through the armor in an instant, carrying a white luminescence as it pierced him clean.
‘High-grade magical armor?!’ Xi realized something was off as she penetrated his armor; the enchanted armor worn by him was not that of an ordinary knight but rather a higher-grade, commander-level armor.
And in this army, there was only one man who could wear such knightly armor.
She felt a shock, but suddenly the chaos around her quieted. All the knights and soldiers of Rendener who were fighting seemed to halt in that moment. Initially just the people beside her, but this ripple quickly spread like waves, and miraculously the entire battlefield came to a standstill.
“Lord Parsons!” a young man who had just risen from the ground immediately rushed to the knight felled by Xi’s spear.
The old knight, lying in a pool of blood, began to cough violently.
However, his first action was to remove his mask.
That was an elderly face—
Full of wrinkles, with snow-white brows that seemed to hold the weight of this kingdom’s hardships, his dim, grayish eyes appeared to have seen too many storms. He had witnessed the knights singing as they marched to battle, seen the older knights leading the younger knights to that one-way battlefield, witnessed the brilliance and victories of Erluin, and also the failures, the curtain fall, and the final dusk of this kingdom.
Yet this brilliance now seemed to flow into those pair of eyes, as they faded away in life; it sparkled, as though everything from the past had returned.
Parsons smiled faintly.
He weakly gestured to the knights beside him, then raised his head to ask Xi, “Young girl, where do you hail from? I can’t believe you’re merely… an ordinary rebel…”
Xi suddenly felt somewhat at a loss. Theoretically, the old man before her was their greatest enemy in this battle, but at this moment she found herself unable to refuse his question.
“I am an Erluin native,” she replied.
“Impossible, golden peak… golden peak… when did Erluin produce such a young genius… a true… genius…” The old man weakly shook his head.
“I truly am an Erluin native. I am a mountain dweller from within Rendener. I was once a mercenary, rescued by Lord Brendel,” Xi said earnestly.
“That defiant spirit, the defiance of an Erluin person, makes me believe you are indeed an Erluin native,” the old man smiled lightly, but his smile seemed to have spent its last light: “But a talent like you, how could you be reduced to being among rebels…”
“No, there’s no reduction. Lord Brendel is stronger than me. But even so, he treats everyone well; compared to Grudin, I feel he truly is the best lord,” Xi answered earnestly.
“Is that so? What is your lord’s name… cough, cough, what is his name?”
“His name is Brendel.”
“Brendel… Brendel…”
Parsons closed his eyes, suddenly letting out a long sigh. He felt his hands and feet growing cold, his consciousness fading, and his breathing becoming labored. But the old man had one last question; he looked at the battlefield, with blood flowing from the forest—those were Erluin’s blood.
“What do you… aim to achieve… here?”
“I don’t know, but Lord Brendel said he came to save Erluin.”
“Save Erluin?” Parsons’ eyes seemed to brim with all the light momentarily; he looked at Xi with a complex expression: “How does one save…?”
Xi shook her head frankly: “I don’t know, but I believe Lord Brendel can do it. Just like no one believed that your nobility could achieve it.”
“We nobility… we nobility… ha ha… cough cough…” The old knight suddenly burst into laughter, shaking his head with all his remaining strength: “Well said—listen to my command, my knights… you must surrender.”
These words struck like rolling thunder, shocking all the young knights around: “That’s impossible, my lord! If you perish here, we shall die here too; it’s our honor!”
“No,” the old man weakly closed his eyes.
He spoke each word carefully, as if he had used up his last strength to say it softly: “You must surrender; it is for… the glory of Erluin.”
For the supreme glory of Erluin.
…
PS: The promise of my outburst has come~~~~ Everyone, your support is much needed, please give me some motivation! Rolling for various support! (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
