Chapter 595: Act 340 – Glory IV
As the Ekronians constructed their Platinum Wooden Horse, the siege of Liege reached a critical moment. However, like a last-minute redemption, the Ekronians finally found hope in the midst of despair.
From adversity to paradise, it was merely a line.
—Trishman Neumannkexi
Despair Wooden Horse (Adversity Paradise I), 25 Darkness; [Treasure—Artifact/Curio]; Effect: This card enters the battlefield tapped. Look at your library and search for four creature cards, removing them from the game. Then shuffle your library. Tapped, pay 40~ (0) any (This card has forty counters on it. Each time a non-black creature you control dies after this card enters the battlefield, remove a counter from it. When the last counter is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost), put the removed cards onto the battlefield.
“Opportunities lurk within the storm, hope lies hidden in despair.”
The Despair Wooden Horse entered the battlefield.
A gear sphere floated above Brendel’s head, and his dark element pool dropped to 16/60. Then, his library opened before him, layers upon layers of fate cards swirling around his body, but only the creature cards glimmered with light.
Vampire Earl, Cryptic Summoner, Radiant Martyr, five Doom Guards, four Radiant Hornblowers, four Ekronian Spellweavers, one Holy Archangel, and one Silver Mare.
Brendel reached out, selecting the Radiant Martyr, Vampire Earl, and two Doom Guards, placing them out of play.
On the battlefield, the Crusian White Wing Knights began to regroup in the sky.
The vast wings of white launched another attack, but this time they faced ready Lubis mercenaries and two teams of Fireclaw Spearmen under Repal.
Flour coldly extended her five fingers forward, and Ice Spears erupted from behind her, with razor-sharp icy wind swirling in spirals, slicing through the formation of White Wing Knights, coating their armor in a thick layer of frost. The sub-zero temperatures slowed the rhythm of the winged horses’ flapping wings, significantly reducing their speed.
At that moment, Diya seized the opportunity to unleash fine bolts of lightning from her fingertips. Her targets were not the knights on horseback—being in the golden tier, while Elementalists could suppress the knights, it would be too mana-consuming and time-wasting to kill them—her targets were the flying horses; the heavy cavalry’s role depended on group assaults, and without their horses, were the knights still knights?
Do not underestimate Diya’s small stature; she was a genuine Lubis mercenary, born for battle in the eyes of players. By her words, she had participated in numerous wars between White City and foreign countries, and now it seemed her claims were indeed not empty. Her strategy was effective; once the flying horses were paralyzed, the White Wing Knights began to fall one after another from the sky, dazed and stumbling.
However, the powerful warriors of the golden tier were not so easily killed by falling from several dozen meters; although the White Wing Knights were disoriented, they quickly got back up, shouting to each other as they regrouped in the forest and picked up their spears to launch counterattacks from the ground.
However, almost thirty Fireclaw Lizardmen Spearmen and Husher stood ready, forming a huge horizontal line alongside the young officers of the Royal Knight Order, waiting for the White Wing Knights to come to them. The Druid Master Vochik stood behind them, clearly intending to drag these Crusian troops down here.
They were buying time.
Brendel was also hastily filtering cards; he was sacrificing Doom Guards en masse on the battlefield to gain energy from the Nightmare Furnace, then showcased the Rising.
Rising (Adversity Paradise V), 4 Energy; [Spell—Instant]; Immediately reset all tapped Ekronian cards. After use, goes to the graveyard. “Glory pushes forward, morale high, the soldiers are unyielding.”
The Nightmare Furnace Construct, which had been tapped and smoking from the lightning storm, instantly returned to normal with a crackle, while the gear sphere ‘Despair Wooden Horse’ above its head also recovered from its tapped state and began to spin.
And at the same time.
Since Rising was a spell, it activated the ‘Accelerated Thought’ enchantment. Brendel once again got an opportunity to draw cards, and three fate cards flew out before him—
Lightning Storm, Rising, Energy Loss.
No dawn. Brendel looked up just in time to see two Temple Knights attacking Charles, and the Fireclaw Lord Repal was struck on the shoulder while stopping to protect the young mage, hot blood spurted out amidst white smoke.
He glanced into the distance; on the other side of the battlefield, Lantonrand’s army was entangled with the Northern Coalition, while Livwz, Bud, and Mage Gherlok fought alongside the flame-headed Nicolas. The current crossbowman Bud was slightly inferior to Nicolas, but Livwz was clearly gaining the advantage over Gherlok, living up to his reputation as the kingdom’s foremost wizard.
At that moment, Mage Gherlok suddenly released a spell of Disintegrating Sword. Without hesitation, Brendel raised his hand to cast Energy Loss, directly stripping Gherlok of the Disintegrating Sword and throwing it toward the Temple Knight in midair.
The Temple Knight responded quickly, backing away just in time to avoid the Disintegrating Sword. But unfortunately, Brendel seemed to have predicted this; he had already triggered the lightning storm, again tapping the Nightmare Furnace Construct to envelop the unfortunate one in a veil of black lightning.
That guy let out a painful cry as he took the hit, almost falling from the air.
Brendel withdrew his attention and placed the remaining last card in hand: Ekronian Spellweaver onto the battlefield.
Ekronian Spellweaver (Adversity Paradise X) 7 Darkness [Creature—Ekronian/Spellweaver, Level 25 Elite] Tapped, pay 5% life, gain Light 1. “Eye of Ero—”
In an instant, four-handed Spellweavers appeared beside Brendel, but he didn’t even have time to see what they had transformed into under the golden flag; immediately, he tapped this card, paying 5% life, and then showcased the second Rising.
The Spellweaver and Nightmare Furnace Construct entered a cooling state once again.
In that moment, Brendel had consecutively cast Energy Loss, Lightning Storm, summoned the Ekronian Spellweaver, and Rising, all four spells; his element pools instantly transformed into Fire Element 63/78, Wind Element 17/51, Earth Element 11/55, Water Element 48, Light Element 0/50, Dark Element 34/60.
At the same time, four dense white halos spread from the activated Life Codex; Brendel’s recently lost life was instantly replenished, and the others above him, including Repal, also recovered fully.
Across from them, the ten Temple Knights of the Temple of Fire suddenly looked a bit pale; they finally realized that if they could not eliminate one of the four opposing figures immediately, what awaited them might be a slow death.
However, Brendel did not need to worry about what the enemy thought; recovery was only an additional benefit for him—more importantly, his Accelerated Thought enchantment had been activated three times in succession.
This time, nine fate cards appeared in his hand.
Three Dawns, two Ekronian Spellweavers, one Doom Guard, one Rising, and two Lightning Storms.
“This time is a true miracle draw!” Brendel couldn’t help but smile.
As the number of drawn cards increased, the chances of obtaining the cards he wanted also rose significantly. He looked up at the entire battlefield and extended his hand to play three Dawns in succession.
Dawn (Adversity Paradise XII), 1 Light/Dark; [Spell—Instant]; Effect: Add 6 Light to your mana pool. For each Dawn in your graveyard, add 3 Darkness to your mana pool. After use, goes to the graveyard. “Dawn breaks, light comes forth.”
The first time, six Light.
The second time, six Light and three Darkness.
The third time, six Light and six Darkness.
The Light and Darkness element pools immediately increased to 18/50 and 40/60.
High above, Williams seemed to finally catch his breath; the deputy captain drew his flame-shaped longsword once more. Brendel noticed this detail and immediately whispered, “Medephis.”
“I’m by your side, Master.”
“Protect me well.”
The vampire boy lightly nodded.
Then Brendel placed two Ekronian Spellweavers onto the battlefield, tapping all three Spellweavers. Another three Light elements entered his element pool.
21/50.
But at that moment, Williams’s figure suddenly vanished from his sight. Brendel’s heart tightened, realizing the opponent must be coming for him; he quickly communicated in his mind:
“Repal, Charles, Medisa!”
“Here, Lord!”
“Sacrifice!” Brendel commanded after a brief hesitation.
In the sky, Charles, Repal, and Medisa, who were entangled with the ten Temple Knights, suddenly transformed into a torrent of blood light and instantly converged towards Brendel.
Under the blessing of the golden flag, Medephis, who had already reached elemental manifestation’s strength, entered the elemental awakening phase for the first time upon absorbing Charles’s blood. Black secret flame runes began to appear on her body. Upon the second infusion of Repal’s blood, she brushed against the edge of the truth; and upon the third infusion of Medisa’s blood, she finally broke through the boundary of the truth, the black runes on her body seemed to come alive, swirling like a circle of black moths around the vampire boy.
Medephis seemed to sense something; she suddenly stepped forward, her white hand palm outstretched, slamming against something in the void, causing her to be thrown back with a bang. The next moment, Williams’s figure appeared before Brendel, clearly having exchanged blows with the vampire boy, taking an involuntary step back.
“Vampire Earl?” Williams stared coldly at Medephis, nearly forcing these words out through gritted teeth. He was surprised because he had clearly felt only one aura of elemental manifestation beside Brendel, but it seemed to grow directly to the mid-stage of the truth in an instant.
Even if hiding power, this was too ridiculous.
The vampire boy ignored him, turned into a wisp of black smoke, dashed in front of Brendel, blocking his master behind her with a vigilant gaze on Williams.
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