Chapter 621: Act 364 – Requiem XIV
Brendel understood that his objective was to utilize the flash sword’s special effect to create a displacement effect, rather than to kill enemies. Therefore, he intentionally aimed at those defenseless opponents, locking onto the lesser demons among the demon army from twenty or thirty meters away. He would flash in, behead one, and simultaneously create an illusion using the Queen Wind’s Nine Suns to execute a piercing strike.
The demons soon fell into chaos.
Not every one of them was a lowly, unintelligent lesser demon; the higher-ranking demons quickly assessed Brendel’s forward path—though they did not need to think about it, they were already aware that the damned human was heading straight for the portal.
They absolutely could not let him succeed. The long-horned demon in the back was the first to scream, calling out in the shrill voice of the abyss to alert its companions to stop Brendel.
Unfortunately, it had limited effect; as the hell lord Lomoka put it, those inferior demons and lesser demons were worse than a pile of rubbish. Although that remark was vulgar, it was quite apt; they could become confused by their own commands, leaving them powerless against a sword-wielding human capable of teleportation.
As the demons turned tail, the knights of Lantonrand felt their pressure suddenly ease. Most of them had the time to look at the battlefield at that moment, and they soon witnessed Brendel’s remarkable feats, unable to resist letting out simultaneous cheers.
Babasha was not surprised by Brendel’s performance, but could not help but feel immensely proud. She wasn’t proud on behalf of the Dark Dragon but for her own insight; although strong witches existed in the Winter Kingdom, none of the twelve purebloods were related to her. But who could have sight as good as hers?
The old witch had never considered that the Dark Dragon would fail; they were merely a bunch of lame, hoofed demons. She cackled as if she was a lesser demon, transforming one into a deaf and blind creature—allowing the knights to pin it to the ground. Humans generally did not discuss knightly spirit with demons.
However, Babasha did not realize that Brendel was not faring well at that moment.
Although the portal was now within sight, he felt his stamina and mana rapidly declining. The simultaneous use of piercing strikes, the Queen Wind’s Nine Suns, and the flash sword was taking a significant toll on his body. After leaping forward about two-thirds of the distance, Brendel noticed that his muscles and movements were gradually becoming stiff, and his mental energy was showing unstable fluctuations.
He had to shake his head to try to dispel the drowsy feeling.
On the tenth flash above the demon army, Brendel brought down the Earth Sword, aiming for a poor soul who was still clutching onto a bloody human leg; the pale skin was covered in bite marks, making Brendel feel nauseous.
However, that was just a fleeting thought, as the Earth Sword struck the opponent’s shoulder. The heavy blade sank into the purplish-red, rough skin and muscle, crunching against the spine, driving that poor creature directly into the ground and breaking its body into two pieces, even shattering bones that pierced through the skin and turned it into a mass of bloody flesh.
This scene looked ‘spectacular,’ yet it tightened Brendel’s heart. The sword strike should have theoretically severed the opponent’s muscles and bones cleanly, just like before. The occurrence of such an event was not coincidental; it wasn’t that these lesser demons had become stronger, but that his stamina was already diminishing.
“Antinna, are you hurt?” he gasped.
“No…” Antinna was held in Brendel’s arms and, at that moment, did not know whether to feel fear or anxiety. She had indeed fantasized about such a scene when alone, but not in the midst of the demon army, and as a noble lady, she couldn’t spare a moment to contemplate—she didn’t even dare look at what was happening outside.
Afraid of seeing Brendel make a mistake, she tightly closed her eyes, clutching to him in a mindset of ‘if I’m to die, I might as well die together; no, at least die in front of that person for reassurance.’
When Brendel asked about her, her mind was a chaotic blur as she shook her head.
That’s good. Brendel let out a sigh of relief. Imagining the sense of bravado in the face of thousands of enemies seemed grand, but when reality dawned on him, it was nothing like that. Facing enemies everywhere was not the exhilarating sensation he had imagined, only overwhelming tension and cold sweat.
His palms were already soaked; the pressure of impending death loomed like a forest of thorns and blades closing in, where a single misstep could lead to utter ruin.
What comes after death? Brendel had pondered such a question in his youth in another world, but most people could only draw a blank conclusion.
It was only when death’s breath truly approached that he felt the biting cold from another world. Discussing the topic of death meant little to life itself, for beyond it lay only emptiness.
Brendel knew that he could not be certain if he would have time to regret that moment before death.
But at least he still wanted to live.
The desire to survive heightened his senses dramatically; he swung his sword, sending the rotting corpse flying, and the attack paths of the demons rushing toward him became discernible. Brendel raised his head, looking over dozens of meters ahead, where he spotted a retreating individual.
It’s you.
“Brendel, be careful.” Antinna closed her eyes, completely unable to assess her surroundings, but it was the Queen Wind who spoke up. She reminded him, “Watch out for that demon sorcerer over there!”
Brendel turned his head and saw that those demon sorcerers were standing by the portal, casting spells at him.
To be honest, he wasn’t a wizard, having only a limited understanding of the mage’s world. But fortunately, he was a player; there was a joke: if players represented a world, then wizards at least represented half a world. While he couldn’t discern every spell’s gesture and incantation from this half world, the will to survive seemed to sharpen his memory at that moment.
Dimensional anchor.
Brendel felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, like a cat arching its back. His eyes widened with fear.
He didn’t have the time to debate whether the flash sword’s ability to distort dimensions could evade the dimensional anchor’s ability to lock down spatial transfer effects—he was not a theory aficionado, and reality did not allow him a second chance. He activated his charge skill without a moment’s hesitation; as the circular runes glowing with white light appeared above his head, he had already launched himself from the small demons beneath him.
Like a beautiful bending line, he pierced through all spell effects.
The demon sorcerers’ attempts fell completely flat.
The witches fortunate enough to witness this scene looked on with fear in their eyes; besides the rebirth of the Dark Dragon, which twenty-year-old possessed such terrifying combat experience? This was not a duel of swordsmen but a perfect example of sword technique dismantling spells.
Not everyone had such experience.
Without mentioning the witches, even the Mage Gherlok couldn’t help but show intrigue in his eyes. At the very least, Brendel’s actions had proven that he fully understood the enemy’s spells and intentions, even the Grand Sorcerer from Siphai could not ascertain how he accomplished such feats—
Dismantling incantations was Gherlok’s specialty, spending most of his life mastering them, yet he dared not claim to know every spell. To identify the hidden spells behind subtle gestures was an exceedingly profound expertise.
At that moment, Gherlok even experienced a sense of delusion—perhaps this young man had a brighter future as a wizard than as a swordsman. He completely forgot that even regarding swordsmanship, Brendel was a top-level genius.
After penetrating the dimensional anchor’s coverage area with his charge, Brendel executed another flash sword in mid-air. At this point, the flash sword had entirely absorbed the martial experiences of Erluin’s swordsmanship, advancing to level four.
Flash Sword 4+1 Level [Entry] (Dragonkin/Ancient): A unique technique allowing your sword edge to bend dimensions. Each attack can ignore a certain spatial distance (60m).
At this level, it had become a realm out of reach for ordinary knights. It seemed that Stephen had only just realized what he had witnessed—if someone had told him beforehand that a person could immediately ascend into mastery of a sword technique after slightly comprehending its intricacies, he would have thought that person was mad or that he was being treated as a fool.
But now, he felt like an actual fool.
He was even frozen in place; had those clueless lesser demons not followed the long-horned demon’s orders to attack Brendel, he likely would have been minced to pieces by their assault. Fortunately, another knight sensed his lord’s distress and pulled him back, preventing a tragedy of losing another high-ranking member of the Temple of Fire that day.
“This is impossible!”
Stephen seemed to come to his senses, shouting, “By Martha, the fragments of the Flame Blade must be on him. So that’s it! He is the chosen one!”
This poor knight blurted out in disbelief.
As Brendel turned in mid-air, he had already locked onto the next target, raising the Earth Sword in his hand, the blade shining with white light. “Wait,” the Queen Wind called out: “Brendel, you can flash about sixty meters now; you still need at least two more casts to reach the portal. Have you thought this through?”
Brendel was startled.
He had been keeping an eye on his status panel; his mana and stamina were running low, but two more casts of the flash sword were still within reach. However, the latter part of the Queen’s statement extinguished that thought completely: “If I can assess your flash distance, they can do the same.”
For a brief moment, he too considered this issue. If he were locked again by the dimensional anchor, he could escape using the Queen Wind’s Nine Suns, but what then? Would he have the ability to cast the flash sword once more?
The status panel clearly stated that Brendel could not conjure mana and stamina out of nowhere unless he could take a breather. But where would he find such an opportunity on this battlefield?
Fortunately, he hadn’t made a move yet.
Brendel couldn’t help but feel fortunate to be alongside the Queen Wind; she was truly a sage from the Age of Saints, capable of considering every aspect in a moment.
At this moment, his charge skill had reached its peak. Brendel felt his body beginning to descend. However, finding a solution was quite simple; he quickly opened his skill tab and dumped all remaining experience from Mavikale into it.
The flash sword immediately leveled up again.
Flash Sword 5+1 Level [Entry] (Dragonkin/Ancient): A unique technique allowing your sword edge to bend dimensions. Each attack can ignore a certain spatial distance (100m).
After reaching level 5, the name of the flash sword became dimmed. This was just like his earlier White Crow Sword technique; Brendel understood that it was because the publicly available flash sword technique at the Temple was incomplete, so he did not think much of it and struck forward.
With one strike, he immediately appeared next to the massive portal.
There were no lesser demons near the portal, only three tall long-horned demons. Brendel suddenly flashed above one of the long-horned demons and swung down.
However, the long-horned demon seemed to have anticipated it; its massive head, resembling that of a wolf, suddenly lifted, raising its hand toward the void. As a sound clashed like metal hitting metal, Brendel felt as if he had struck a steel pipe.
Regardless, he did not dare to pause for a moment; he immediately rolled back, landing steadily not far from the three long-horned demons.
He instinctively looked up.
Standing by the immense portal to the Temple of Fire, he and those demons appeared as small as ants. From farther away, this feeling had not set in, but as he approached, the oppressive sensation of the flaming door hit him directly.
What felt even more suffocating was the sulfuric river behind the flaming door, growing increasingly tangible.
Brendel couldn’t help but spit; the earlier impact had left his gums bleeding. Yet he wiped the corner of his mouth and immediately released the noble lady, saying, “Antinna, are you okay?”
“Um.”
“I’ll try to draw them away. How much time do you need?”
“I… I don’t know, I’ll try my best.” Antinna frowned, staring at the massive portal, which itself was a half-magic engine. It was not a complete magical device; the best option was to find a sorcerer to work with her, but it was clear that there was no such condition at the moment.
“I’ll give you five minutes.”
Brendel glanced back; the lesser demons had turned around. Although those fools were in chaos, a few minutes would be enough for them to regroup. The knights of Lantonrand were clearly not enough to stop this army.
Antinna nodded with a pale face.
……
(PS: I’ve been experiencing a period of exhaustion for several days, but today I finally feel free from it. Sigh, it was tough; please drop some monthly tickets.) (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
