Chapter 809: Act 159 – Resurrection V
Deep underground in the Abyss, after the ice layer fell away, the surrounding dark artificial structures gradually became clearer. On the obsidian-smooth walls, a platinum light extended along the engravings, quickly illuminating the entire corridor. Alorze and Medisa walked curiously down the long hallway, unaware of how long they had been lost.
“It seems like we’re walking in circles, Sister Alorze.”
The young female dragon’s face flushed, but with one hand cradling a star-shaped stone, she waved her claw dismissively, awkwardly revealing her little fangs as she replied, “How is that possible? You must be remembering it wrong.”
Medisa smiled slightly.
“Yes,” she nodded and said with a smile, “it’s just like when we were in the Wilderness of Four Realms; the reason we haven’t reached our destination is simply that we are walking too slowly.”
Alorze seemed taken aback, turning her head sharply to stare at Medisa with wide eyes. “Y-You know?!”
“I also know that you were the youngest dragon on the battlefield of the Saints’ War, Sister Alorze.”
“In Morlos, you sneaked out to date Lady Flourfa and were caught red-handed by the Wind Elf’s Guard, and Lord Erlandta gave you a good scolding,” Medisa whispered, “Do you remember what she said back then? ‘Getting lost while sneaking out? My subordinates can’t be worse than Gilt and that dead girl, what a disgrace! Get out of here!'” The little elf princess mimicked the scene vividly.
Alorze’s mouth slightly opened, resembling a dazed puppy revealing her sharp canines, her face like a ripe apple. “Impossible, how could anyone know about that? W-Who are you?!”
Medisa tilted her head, laughing without answering.
“Ah!” Alorze suddenly screamed in surprise, looking at the other person joyfully, “I remember now! It’s you, Princess New Moon! Why did you change to such a strange name?!”
“That’s my surname, Sister Alorze,” Medisa sighed, “My real name is still Medisa.”
The young dragon stuck out her tongue, slightly annoyed. “You’ve changed.”
Medisa rubbed her forehead. “Sister Alorze, I am a spirit; my appearance doesn’t change.”
“Is that so?” Alorze scratched her round cheeks. “Then I must have remembered wrong.”
“So let me lead the way,” Medisa replied, “just like when we worked together before, okay?”
But Alorze didn’t respond either way; she instead put a finger over Medisa’s lips, saying, “Shh! Did you hear that sound?”
Medisa was taken aback, quickly stepping back a little, staring at her.
“There really is a sound!” the young dragon quickly replied.
“Really?” The Silver Elf Princess raised an eyebrow; she knew that the senses of the Golden Race were much keener than those of other races, but suddenly her pointed ears also perked up. The two turned to look in a certain direction, where, at the long corridor’s intersection, a disheveled silhouette was limping by.
After a pause, Alorze and Medisa revealed themselves from their invisibility spell.
“That guy looks familiar,” the young dragon said, showing her teeth. “Suspicious.”
“That’s Duke Anlek,” Medisa replied.
She exchanged glances with Alorze.
…
A white pillar of light pierced through heaven and earth.
Nemeses and the others turned back, staring intently in that direction.
The second time—
Veronika furiously watched yet another scene before Kehua dissolve in white light; Lewoz, the border city of Cruz, had turned to ash. She was so angry that she nearly crushed the hilt of her sword, but Brendel held onto the female legion commander tightly, fearing she would lose her rationality. The three of them had launched multiple assaults against Kehua, all of which had been in vain; the divine power barrier loomed like a wall of despair between mortals and deities.
There was no way to break through.
Kehua shifted her gaze to the next image—Oskin, a city of wind elves. Brendel anxiously watched the rapidly shifting scenes, with two more images left, one of which was the beautiful castle by Lake Cru.
He was nervously sweating in his palms.
What kind of battle is this?
He had to think of a way.
At this moment, Kehua suddenly lifted her head as if looking at something; her voice rang out once again on the platform:
“Sister, you have arrived.”
Brendel was slightly taken aback; he turned his head to see the silhouette of the younger prince and Prince Rainwright appearing atop the cliff. “Teacher!” “Lady Veronika!” Their voices were the first to reach him, and only then did Brendel see another Kehua appearing behind them. Kehua’s dark side frowned while the benevolent Kehua simply nodded gently.
Could the key to the battle lie with the benevolent Kehua? This thought flashed through Brendel’s mind.
“Who is she?” Mephistopheles asked.
“That’s also Kehua; the one controlling Milos is her dark soul.”
“One body, two faces?”
Brendel nodded slightly, almost. “Ah, wait!” He suddenly noticed that Veronika was charging straight in that direction, evidently, this female legionary had thought of the same thing at the first moment, but the issue was that Veronika was much more decisive than him. By the time he reacted, Veronika’s sword tip had nearly reached Kehua.
The benevolent Kehua looked dumbfounded; she stared wide-eyed, standing there in shock, not understanding why this human woman would attack her indiscriminately. Of course, even if she weren’t so stunned, she wouldn’t necessarily be able to dodge Veronika’s sword, after all, one was a spellcaster, and the other was a warrior; in close combat, there was no comparison.
Kehua slightly parted her lips, about to be pierced through by Veronika’s sword, when Brendel’s urgent shout finally reached them:
“Haruz, block her!”
The younger prince drew his sword without hesitation, but Veronika didn’t even glance his way; the difference in their levels was simply insurmountable. As soon as Haruz drew his sword, he felt a gentle force on his hand, and before he could react, the longsword had already slipped from his grasp, clattering as it embedded itself in the ceiling. However, with this slight delay, the benevolent Kehua finally reacted; she let out a startled ‘ah’ and fell backward in fright.
Thus, Veronika’s azure sword energy just barely flew over the benevolent Kehua’s head, merely cutting off a few strands of hair. She frowned, preparing to attack again when at that moment, Kehua’s dark side finally struck.
“You dare!” The dark Kehua’s voice rumbled, and a white electric whip lashed out toward Veronika. She dared not resist head-on and could only sidestep, letting the electric whip crash heavily against the cliff, tearing off a chunk of tabletop-sized debris from the solid wall.
In that slight moment, Veronika lost the opportunity to continue her assault on the benevolent Kehua.
Unable to help herself, she turned back and shot Brendel a glare.
But Brendel felt nothing but relief.
Actually, he had already figured it out; the key to this battle could not possibly lie with Kehua. She was here because of him and the younger prince, and the pivotal point of a battle undoubtedly could not be determined by a factor that merely might appear on the battlefield. In other words, wouldn’t it imply that if Kehua didn’t appear, there would be no way to fight this battle?
This was clearly illogical.
He quickly signaled to Veronika, indicating he needed to explain something, but at that moment, he saw the debris that had fallen from the electric whip rolling down from behind Veronika, heavily crashing onto one of the energy conduits. There was a crunching sound as the conduit was dented. The line flickered, and the light above quickly extinguished.
Seeing this, Brendel’s heart skipped a beat.
“I see, it’s right here!”
He immediately raised his head, shouting to Mephistopheles and Veronika, “Attack the platform! Attack those conduits!”
The Gray Saint and Veronika both slightly startled, looking at him in confusion; evidently, they hadn’t understood him yet. Brendel, anxious, jumped up, unable to help but gesture wildly, shouting, “She, Kehua, is still just a false god! She doesn’t have any divine power barriers; the absolute difference in strength comes from Milos! Her power comes from this platform, and she hasn’t fully merged with Milos’ body yet! We just need to cut off her connection to this platform!”
As soon as Brendel finished speaking, the dark Kehua’s face changed.
“Don’t joke around; you’ve guessed wrong!” she hurriedly argued.
It sounded entirely guilty. Veronika and Mephistopheles exchanged glances and immediately split left and right, flying towards the platform’s energy conduit network. Several beams of sword light sliced through, and dozens of energy conduits were severed. The disordered magic flow erupted like a supernova pulse, quickly blasting several enormous voids in the dense network.
“Damn it!” Kehua screamed, unable to maintain her composure any longer. She raised both hands, and countless bolts of lightning appeared out of thin air, like raindrops striking at Brendel, Mephistopheles, and Veronika. For Mephistopheles and Veronika, they could manage with a little distraction, but for Brendel, it was quite unfortunate; it seemed the opponent had targeted him in retaliation for uncovering that weakness. Almost half of the lightning was directed at him. He managed to block two or three bolts before the fourth struck him squarely, his body going numb, and he was immediately engulfed in the lightning storm. If it weren’t for his remarkably high willpower, this blow would have likely sent him straight to meet Martha.
Nevertheless, even so, the dense lightning drained nearly two-thirds of his life, and crucially, his clothes had turned into rags. Brendel found it both amusing and infuriating; he knew full well that this AOE attack was meant to be shared by the entire group. Yet now their team consisted only of the three of them, and Kehua had set him as her primary target, so he could only blame his own bad luck.
After the lightning storm, Veronika and Mephistopheles launched their assault again. However, this time Kehua had learned her lesson; she directly abandoned all offense, channeling all energy into a strong protective barrier on the ground. At first, Brendel could cut several conduits with one sword strike, but now with the added protection from Kehua, a single strike might not even be enough to sever one of them. He glanced back and saw that even Veronika and Mephistopheles’ progress had significantly slowed.
However, Brendel felt that Kehua might actually be a bit unhinged; while this indeed greatly slowed them down, if she didn’t attack, they would eventually cut through those conduits one by one.
Of course, he was glad to see the BOSS acting foolish; nobody would complain about an easier BOSS battle.
Moreover, he had a subtle feeling that the problem probably wasn’t that simple.
…
“Please wait a moment.”
Xi heard a voice from behind and turned her head; she glanced at the young man who had caught up from behind and remembered he had introduced himself as Babain or something similar. This name sounded a bit odd to her, as Erluin rarely had such names, which was why it stuck in her mind.
The young man was panting heavily, seemingly in a hurry; the mountain girl stared at him blankly for a while before recollecting that she should ask him a question. “What do you want?”
“Beautiful Miss, I don’t even know your name yet.”
Xi furrowed her brow. “What does my name have to do with you?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend; I just wanted to thank you.” The young man replied breathlessly, sensing a hint of hostility from her, feeling somewhat startled, but quickly added, “Thank you for saving us; a life-saving grace cannot go unreciprocated.”
Xi pondered for a moment.
Babain seemed a bit nervous; he didn’t know why he felt constrained in front of her. Initially, he thought it was simply because she was to his liking. However, after spending a little time with her, he began to feel that she possessed a certain unique quality, exuding an unsettling aura.
He certainly didn’t know that Xi was of both dragon and thunder god lineage; he merely sensed that this count’s attendant was somewhat extraordinary. He suddenly felt a bit apprehensive, starting to regret that he had agreed to join those fellows.
At this moment, Xi finally snapped back from her daze. She raised her head and glanced around the cliff, as if pointedly asking, “You said you wanted to thank me; is this how you plan to do it?”
The young man was taken aback for a moment.
But Xi had already lifted her spear, pointing it in various directions in the underground glacier, “These mice hiding in the corners are your companions, right?”
Babain’s expression changed at once.
Similarly, the expressions of the noble soldiers pointed out by the mountain girl were also not pleasant; they awkwardly stepped out from the shadows, looking somewhat surprised at the girl. Only the one who had led earlier clapped his hands stiltedly, praising, “Truly unexpected; we didn’t realize the young lady was a real master.”
Xi quietly looked at these people, frowning slightly, already on high alert. After all, she had a mercenary background; just one glance at their positions, and she understood that they were not here with good intentions.
“There’s no need to worry,” the man continued, “We genuinely want to thank you, and we hope to invite you to Cruz as our guest. The Empire is known for its hospitality; we will definitely not treat you poorly.”
Babain quickly nodded. “Yes, we won’t make things difficult for you; we just want to ask you for a favor.”
“A favor?”
“Yes, beautiful Miss, if you agree to our request, I will personally ask His Majesty to restore your freedom, allowing you to become a free citizen of Cruz. You won’t have to bow down to anyone, and given your capabilities, becoming a noble of the Empire is not impossible.” Babain explained.
But he had no idea where he had gone wrong; in fact, as soon as he mentioned restoring her freedom, he noticed that the seemingly innocent mountain girl’s eyes revealed a fierce, beast-like light.
