Chapter 613: Act 356 – Requiem VI
The Mother Spider flicked her pincers outward, sweeping towards Brendel’s back like a sharp curved sword, sending vibrations through the air and creating a transparent light band in the darkness of the underground.
Brendel heard a shrill scream resembling an explosion, the sound seemingly reaching his back the moment it was emitted. This was the power from the most formidable creature; at that moment, various attack patterns from Annelron’s front pincers flashed through Brendel’s mind. In a split second, he pushed the princess forward and drew the Earth Sword behind him.
A sickeningly loud bang echoed. Although Brendel could not see it, he could feel the Earth Sword bending due to the excessive stress. The insurmountable force transmitted through it, and he felt a tremendous power coming from behind, flinging him away.
The distance between him and the cliff ahead seemed to shrink in an instant.
But Brendel knew it was an illusion; he was actually flying over the cliff and into the abyss. Thankfully, his willpower enhanced his body’s nerve endurance; otherwise, this impact would have triggered his protective mechanisms, causing him to lose consciousness. Brendel did not wish to fall into the abyss while unconscious.
He shot forward like a cannonball, tumbling in mid-air, even though the sharp pain felt like a rasp scraping against his nerves. Nevertheless, he grit his teeth and plunged the Earth Sword into the cave floor.
The force of element manifestation drove Harlangya’s blade directly into the rock by more than a foot, immediately generating a golden spark in the darkness.
Brendel’s momentum slowed significantly, but the Earth Sword still cut through the cliff like it was tofu, leaving a deep trench on the ground as he stubbornly approached the cliff’s edge.
All of this occurred in less than a tenth of a second; it seemed that the last breath had yet to finish when Brendel flew off the cliff. With a whoosh, he kicked up a cloud of rocks, coming to a halt at last.
Brendel flipped in mid-air, raising his right hand with the Queen Wind’s ring, and fired a gust ball towards the opposing cliff. The air surged instantly around his ring, then slammed into the rock on the other side, smashing the giant gray boulders into pieces while the tremendous recoil allowed Brendel to momentarily pause in the air.
He looked up.
The wind above brought another shrill scream; it was the Mother Spider’s right front pincer, her left limb having swept out while the other six legs supported her massive body, raising her right limb to stab at Brendel in mid-air.
To outsiders—especially the silver tier knights—these two attacks appeared to take place simultaneously. But only Brendel understood that one came before the other; this was the most frequently employed tactic of that cunning creature.
If the first strike didn’t kill, the second would perfectly follow up. But this time, no one was there to draw attention away from him. Brendel’s eyes widened as he fixed his gaze on the scythe-like claw, which was drawing ever closer in his vision.
But he knew this was futile; it was too fast, even surpassing his ‘In-depth Analysis’ level.
The only thing that worked was his dark perception attribute gained from the Firefly, as the magical power within Annelron’s body flowed like starlight in the dark. In an instant, it was right before him.
In this moment.
Brendel had only this one chance. He reached out and grabbed the sharp tip of the Mother Spider’s right front pincer, and his body was dragged backward.
At that moment, time seemed to slow in his perception; he saw himself pulling on the retracted pincer, being yanked back towards the cliff, then arcing gracefully towards the side of the rock wall. He could nearly see the growing crack and the faces of the knights.
They seemed to have just realized what was happening; they didn’t have time to let out a scream; Brendel only saw some of them gaping.
Then he gauged the distance and released his grip; the crack was right before him.
He landed perfectly, his nerves tensed but then relaxed, and like a cannonball, he slammed into the rock wall with a loud bang.
“Damn it, ah…” Brendel let out a painfully anguished cry, as if he had never dreamed he would make a mistake at the last moment. Regardless, this blunder would be etched into his memory; the underground rock was indeed frighteningly hard.
However, he had no time to wallow in regret and instead shouted desperately, “Pull me in!” Fortunately, the others hadn’t noticed the young lord’s minor mistake; after all, escaping from that horrifying creature was already an impressive feat.
The knights of Lantonrand snapped out of their daze, and the three closest knights immediately charged out to drag him back. Brendel wasn’t far from them; with just a meter or so of error, the knights leaned out half their bodies and pulled him back.
On the other side, the princess had been pushed to Babasha’s feet by Brendel earlier. The old witch hurriedly assisted her and JarSugar into safety. It had to be said that although the old witch looked withered and small, she still possessed considerable strength. “Thank you,” Grifian replied weakly. There was a horrifying, blood-red patch on her shoulder; the significant blood loss made her already pale face even whiter than paper, but until this moment, she still managed to muster the demeanor of a noble—if not the prestige.
To Brendel or the others, it might be hard to comprehend why nobles valued face more than life, but for a princess who had endured such lessons since childhood, some values were merely given.
However, for this eldest princess, perhaps there was one more thing to add—her stubbornness.
Seeing Brendel lying on the ground, covered in blood, Grifian gasped, quickly asking in a whisper, “Mister Brendel?”
“I’m fine.” Brendel didn’t lie; in fact, most of his injuries were abrasions from the last impact with the rock wall. He merely looked disheveled; compared to Princess Grifian’s injuries, his were far less severe. But Brendel had no time for idle talk, as the Mother Spider reached into the crack again, trying to grab them with her two front claws.
Everyone was startled and quickly retreated further into the crack. The Mother Spider was almost able to reach the knights outside, letting out a series of furious, shrill screams that sounded like sharp objects scraping against glass, chilling to the bone. Yet only Brendel knew that the Mother Spider absolutely couldn’t enter here, though it wasn’t safe either. He ordered, “Don’t stop, keep moving in; there are many of her offspring here, and she will find a way to send them in to hunt us down.”
The group was already terrified by Annelron, and hearing about the little spiders made them dare not tarry, hastily proceeding deeper into the crack. Brendel was supported forward by a knight, and after resting a moment, he finally caught his breath, then took out holy water to distribute to the injured knights and the princess. The power of the holy water needed no elaboration, and soon they looked at him with a mix of curiosity and reverence.
To them, Brendel was almost synonymous with the omnipotent—a young lord who had defeated the Temple of Fire and escaped from terrifying monsters, treasures seeming to emerge endlessly from him, never facing any plight that could bring him down. Such a person might not even have existed in epics and legends.
Even the knights couldn’t help but privately think that if today’s story was spread, it might one day become legendary folk songs in bars across Erluin and even Vaunte.
After consuming a vial of No. 7 holy water, the princess held the bottle in both hands, momentarily dazed. She looked at Brendel with questioning eyes; holy water was not a common magical item, as making it often required both advanced alchemy knowledge and being a high-ranking priest of the Temple of Fire. Brendel surprisingly had so much holy water—though she only saw a few vials, that number was already substantial. Moreover, Brendel had shared this holy water with the knights; she saw no sign of regret on his face.
This indicated that he must have even more holy water on hand. Although Grifian didn’t covet these potions, it didn’t stop her curiosity from growing about Brendel’s experiences.
She increasingly wanted to know what secrets this man might be hiding, just as she had always wanted to ascertain his identity and purpose. The half-elf maiden acknowledged Brendel as her knight, but everyone knew that this identity was somewhat hollow; even the princess herself felt that he carried too many inexplicable things. Their relationship didn’t resemble that of a knight and princess; it felt more like an equality—one that she had no choice but to accept his help.
Such a relationship once made her feel uneasy; she had been subtly seeking to correct it. Yet all was in vain. She had no idea whether Brendel could understand the goodwill she had expressed or her desire for change, but in that moment he was in danger, she suddenly understood she could not allow him to perish.
The taste of loneliness had been savored for far too long.
Even someone as esteemed as Sir Wolf could not completely grasp her thoughts, while Viscount Begning, despite his nearly perfect facade, was only someone who could assist her.
Suddenly, the princess felt her heart stir. She clenched her heart, hurriedly furrowing her brow to suppress her feelings, restoring her original calm.
Because she understood, it was impossible. She had to be cautious.
This was already her limit.
After entering the crevice, the group had delved deep into Ampere Seale’s subterrain. The temperature had risen slightly; initially just enough to offset the chill outside, but gradually it became a bit stifling. Especially with no airflow underground, the air was filled with a musty scent.
Brendel was speaking with Babasha, “Babasha, do you know which direction that secret passage is in?”
“Just to the north here, I know there should be a hidden door.”
“So it’s just along the way?” Brendel’s eyes lit up; this was good news. He was afraid the secret tunnel was in the eastern ruins hall or even further east in ancient underground corridors; not to mention whether he would remember the labyrinthine terrain after such a long time, the key was that area also belonged to the Mother Spider Annelron. He did not want to stir that mother bug to trouble him again.
That was indeed a giant mother bug.
Babasha looked at him mysteriously, saying nothing. It was as if the rumors of the Dark Dragon knowing everything had deeply penetrated people’s hearts; “the master obviously knows all of this,” she thought without a doubt, her beliefs in dark prophecies deeply ingrained.
However, at that moment, Brendel, who was leading the way, suddenly halted.
He stopped and raised his hand to stop everyone behind him. Everyone was slightly startled because they had felt no abnormalities at all. However, after going through several battles to reach this point, the group had developed tacit understanding—no one easily questioned him. Moments later, they indeed saw several shadows emerging from a crack not far away.
The knights looked at each other; encountering other “humanoid creatures” in this crisis-ridden underground was evidently beyond their expectations. Only Brendel could see clearly—
They were cave dwellers.
He made a shushing gesture; cave dwellers had remarkably acute hearing, especially in the silent, sound-suppressing underground. Thankfully, after reaching the level of elemental manifestation, his senses were a hundred times sharper than normal; otherwise, he would likely have been discovered first.
Aside from the clan that had fled from the underground world to the surface like those from Cold Fir Territory, there were rarely any who wandered beyond the underground lord’s domain. Even one group was quite rare, and Brendel did not think himself lucky enough to encounter such a thing consecutively; they could only belong to one identity—part of the Jotungrund underground army.
But how did they get here? Had they also discovered this secret passage?
Brendel doubted this possibility; he thought perhaps there was a connection to the Jotungrund underground nearby? That was very likely; he couldn’t help but frown as he watched the cave dwellers lazily crawl into another crack.
The underground was crisscrossed with paths, but most naturally formed channels led to dead ends. Some even connected to monster nests or traps. However, Brendel remembered that this path should lead toward the ancient ruins hall.
It seemed they had not discovered the hidden door Babasha mentioned.
He let out a slight sigh of relief. After the cave dwellers left, the knights asked, “Lord, what about them?” These Lantonrand knights had previously called Brendel “sir,” but now they directly addressed him as “lord.”
However, Brendel likely didn’t know that the change in this form of address was not just out of respect for his power; the main reason was that Aike often spoke of his achievements in Eternalwood Forest among these knights. They originally might have looked down on their heir, who was full of chivalric ideas, but now, it seemed, Aike’s standing in their hearts had increased considerably.
Unfortunately, Brendel knew nothing of these details; otherwise, he would undoubtedly feel embarrassed. He waited for a moment before quietly answering, “Cave dwellers understand the underground world far better than we do; it’s not surprising that they can find this place. It doesn’t indicate anything significant. We should continue moving forward.”
The others nodded with an air of “whatever the lord says goes.” But in fact, Brendel himself wasn’t too certain; he just hoped that the old witch Babasha hadn’t been boasting.
That secret passage had better be as hidden as she claimed, or else this effort would likely be in vain. Moreover, how to exit was still a question.
He couldn’t help but glance at Babasha. Unfortunately, the old witch’s face was hidden under her hood, making it impossible to discern anything, yet she didn’t appear nervous at all.
(PS: I had to go out today for some business, and by the time I returned it was already 8 PM. Although I felt a bit tired and didn’t want to write, I thought it would be better not to break the continuity, so I wrote a chapter. Thank you for your patience.) (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider casting a recommendation or monthly vote on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
