Chapter 814: Act 163 – Bitter Struggle
The sky was filled with crisscrossing bright white rays of light.
Like a shower of light, they struck the platform, the brightly lit magical energy conduits, or crossed paths with Brendel, Veronika, and Mephistopheles, or hit the magic shield that Charles had just raised, sending out layers of violently vibrating ripples; Himelam struggled to dodge toward the edge of the platform, but a beam of light shattered the sacrificial staff in her hands before her astonished eyes. Other beams targeted the direction where the Crown Prince stood, turning the freezing cave into a honeycomb, with chunks of ice raining down and crashing onto the head-shouting Shi Do and Haruz.
The first layer of beams had yet to fade, and another layer emerged, following the path of the previous one. They scattered in the center of the platform like lines drawn with milky white paint on a dark canvas, like countless serpents sweeping toward everyone present.
“Brendel, the hunter siblings!” Veronika suddenly reacted.
Brendel was stunned, his expression changed drastically. They had been entangled with Kehua and her minions, and the fight hadn’t concerned Peiya and Aruta at all. But this time, Kehua launched an indiscriminate attack; the hunter siblings were only slightly stronger than ordinary people, let alone still being unconscious. If they were hit, it would be dire. The problem was that no one had thought of this before, and now each of them was a significant distance away from the hunter siblings.
And the white bolts of electric light were already looming—
Brendel could only watch helplessly as the tragedy unfolded before his eyes; he still remembered promising Peiya to protect her and her brother—his words still echoed in his ears.
But the first bolt of lightning struck very close to Peiya, creating a bright red spot on the platform. The second bolt adjusted direction, thrusting directly toward the hunter girl’s chest. At that moment, an unexpected protective holy light descended from above, enshrouding the hunter siblings and deflecting the attack. It was Himelam, the only one present capable of casting divine art! Brendel reacted but had a bad feeling in his heart. He turned and saw the priestess maiden throwing away her shattered staff, disregarding her own well-being, as she created a shield for Peiya and Aruta, who lay on the platform.
“Protect yourself, be careful!” Brendel certainly understood the price Himelam was paying for this.
A beam pierced through her left arm, and Himelam let out a painful scream, wobbling slightly. Then another beam pierced through her abdomen. “Ugh—” the priestess maiden bit her lip, letting out a low moan as blood spurted out like a fountain, and she collapsed onto the platform, soaked in blood. “Himelam!” Brendel felt a pang of anger, but another beam swept toward him, and he could only roll over and hide beneath a row of magic conduits, as dozens of beams struck overhead, creating showers of sparks. “Charles!” Brendel moved under the conduits and unfastened a bottle from his belt, tossing it at his wizard servant nearby: “Pass it over!”
Charles hurriedly adjusted the shield, still feeling the beams thudding against the cyan shield, making it ripple. He caught the bottle, weighed it, and immediately guessed it was Holy Water No. 13.
Veronika was swinging her sword like a mirror, redirecting the lights, but when she looked up, her blue eyes reflected the third wave of intertwining white lines rising behind Kehua. At this moment, the entire space was filled with blazing electric light.
“Kid, Mephistopheles, we need to think of a way; we can’t let her attack at will!” She was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
“Lord, I’m having some trouble here too.” Charles was also anxious, but the beams shot at them like torrential rain, making it impossible for him to move.
This couldn’t go on. Kehua had Milos as a continuous energy source and was trying to wear them down. Brendel pondered for a moment, then raised his voice to his teacher above: “Teacher, can you think of a way to attack Kehua, so she can’t concentrate all her power on us?” Among the five, only Mephistopheles still had the strength to fight back.
Mephistopheles immediately charged toward Kehua, and in an instant, countless white beams flew toward him. But every white line that reached the Gray Saint was deflected back by a gray reflective surface that appeared out of nowhere. The denser the white lines were, the more frequently they were reflected. A gray domain surrounded Mephistopheles, shimmering like dancing waves of light.
The Gray Saint seemed to tear a gap through the white electric light and explosions, startling Kehua. “Dammit, dammit!” she shouted in anger, quickly transferring most of her attack power toward Mephistopheles. As a result, the pressure on Brendel and Veronika suddenly eased.
But the cost was that Mephistopheles had to fall back for the time being; his power of order was severely depleted.
At this moment, Charles finally had the leisure to raise the shield and rush toward Himelam. The sky-full white beams were like tracer rounds, crackling against his shield, and on the platform, a stray shot even struck Himelam, who was trying to get back up, exploding a spray of blood from her shoulder. Letting out a mournful cry, she fell back into a pool of blood. Charles rushed over, intending to drag her back, but no matter what, he was always just a short distance away; Kehua seemed to see through their intentions and intensified her attack to block Charles’s next actions.
The shield in Charles’s hand flickered in and out, his magical energy consumed drastically, and beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead. If this continued, he would have to retreat under the conduits.
Brendel certainly saw the predicament and was filled with anxiety. At this moment, he couldn’t care about anything else and shouted, “Charles, quickly lift the shield toward me!”
Charles was slightly taken aback.
“Quickly!” Brendel was nearly frantic.
“Lord, you can’t take risks…” Himelam’s intermittent voice suddenly came from his mind. She seemed to endure immense pain and responded in a low voice: “I… I haven’t followed you for long; just give up on me.”
“What does it matter how long you’ve followed? Do you think I’m a merchant?” Brendel glared at Charles. “Hurry, this is an order!”
Charles smiled wryly but didn’t point the shield at Brendel; instead, he extended the shield’s edge a little more to cover the direction Brendel was facing. “That’s more like it,” Brendel breathed a sigh of relief and praised him. Charles replied, “But don’t get yourself killed saving me, Lord.”
“Nonsense, do you not want to save people?”
Charles shrugged, “I’ll cover you.”
“Himelam… Mr. Charles…” she murmured weakly in the pool of blood.
Brendel, of course, wasted no time; he activated Flash Sword, slashing toward Charles. “Buzz—” a light sound, and Charles’s shield shone more violently than ever; he couldn’t help but exclaim in horror, “Lord, are you trying to kill me!?”
“Shut up!” Brendel knew his unreliable servant was joking, but he didn’t have the mood for it. He pulled his sword back from Charles’s shield, his figure flashed, and he was already at Himelam’s side. The sight of the priestess maiden was so tragic that he could hardly bear to look: not a single spot on her body was free of blood. He felt a surge of hatred toward Kehua for her brutality, and he held Himelam’s soft body tightly. Just then, a beam of white light swept toward him, and Brendel had no choice but to roll with Himelam in his arms, tumbling to the edge of the platform. Looking down from the edge, he was pleasantly surprised to find several conduits below that could provide cover.
Brendel quickly jumped down and carefully placed Himelam on top of the conduit, gently propping her head up. He was immediately startled to see the tears flow down her blood-stained face like broken pearls, her eyes tightly shut, pale and trembling lips revealing her deep fear.
He finally understood how much courage it took for her to say those previous words; his heart softened. He patted her back to reassure her, then took out a bottle of Holy Water No. 13 and gently poured it into her mouth, bit by bit.
After a while, Himelam finally stirred, opening her eyes slightly, but in her sea-blue irises was only guilt: “I’m sorry, Lord…”
“Enough, you’ve done well enough.” Brendel replied; regardless of how her performance was for someone who had just reached the gold beginner level and had little battlefield experience, it could be deemed perfect. The key was courage. Brendel knew that the strength of will in Himelam’s heart came from her loyalty to him. He couldn’t understand why this priestess maiden’s devotion seemed more sincere than anyone else’s; it was almost like a follower’s submission to her deity. He could only interpret it as a problem of card and personality settings, but even so, it was enough to move him.
“Get some good rest; the next part is up to us.”
Himelam’s expression was filled with reluctance as she bit her lip.
Although Brendel said to leave the next part to them, he felt uncertain in his heart. Kehua’s current level of attack was indeed a bit outrageous—if even Mephistopheles couldn’t withstand it, her strength was already next to that of a sage! He carefully set Himelam down again, then raised his head. The space was intertwined with electric sparks and explosions; Kehua was at the center of the entire platform, easily manipulating countless white lines to attack everyone. Suddenly, a scream echoed above, and Brendel recognized it as Haruz’s voice. His heart tightened; he knew they could no longer delay.
A threat had to be posed to Kehua’s true form.
Only by taking risks, Brendel patted the blade of Earth Sword.
Within the intertwining white light, Black Kehua felt her internal energy rising geometrically. She couldn’t help but narrow her eyes, feeling a strange illusion that everything before her could turn to ashes with just a wave of her hand. This feeling of having complete control was simply too good; even in her heyday before the epoch, she had never experienced such exquisite pleasure. So this is what it felt like to be a deity in the world of order, she licked her lips, beginning to enjoy this feeling.
Although before her were but insects, manipulating lightning for her use and using these forces from nature to crush everything felt quite nice too.
She was still at ease, while the people in front of her were struggling bitterly.
At that moment, the images returned; Aokins had already turned into a sea of flames, the next city was Ten-Armed City, and a virtual hourglass was counting down in the sky above the city. The moment the energy overflowed would mark its doom. For Black Kehua, destruction was pleasure itself, and she couldn’t help but laugh out loud, her laughter echoing in the space like a demon’s shriek.
Mephistopheles and Veronika looked grim, but no one noticed that at this moment, Brendel had long lost his trace beneath the platform.
Haruz leaned against the icy wall, his face pale, shivering violently. Miss Scholar was nearly in tears, having covered the young prince with all the spare clothing she could find in her backpack, but his body temperature was still plummeting. A large pool of blood lay behind him, with fresh blood continuously oozing from his chest.
“Am I… going to die?”
“No, absolutely not. Right, Haruz, do you look like your sister?” Shi Do kept shifting the young prince’s attention at Rainwright’s suggestion, trying to keep him awake.
Haruz weakly shook his head.
“Really?” Shi Do was somewhat doubtful. “I don’t believe she’s even prettier than you.”
Haruz wanted to cry but couldn’t; he was a man: “Miss Shi Do, your words… don’t please me at all.”
“Who are you!?” At that moment, the voices of Laurena and her husband could be heard from outside the cave, mostly the loud voice of Phillas. Then came a muffled groan and sounds of fighting. The Crown Prince immediately furrowed his brows and looked in that direction. Soon, they saw Laurena supporting the injured Phillas, retreating.
Shi Do looked up, her expression instantly changing.
Because she saw a group of black-robed knights surging in from the outside.
“Everything Returns Society!”
…
The vision was sometimes clear, sometimes blurry.
Xi suddenly remembered an experience of encountering a pack of wolves in the forest, as if it were the current scene. However, in the dark forest, under the bright moon, the howls of wolves echoed, and the wolf pack emerged as shadows of the forest, one after another, surrounding her. Wolves were cunning and cruel in their group actions, just like the shadowy Crusian nobles creeping up, exchanging glances, like wolves trying to encircle and test in the jungle, growling and showing off their white fangs. Xi dazedly shook her head, and in her daze, she realized those were the flashing long swords in the hands of the noble soldiers.
The Crusian were surrounding her again.
Struggling to keep her eyelids from drooping, she saw a young man holding a crossbow not far away, seemingly trying to say something to her, but his voice was buzzing, near and far, completely inaudible. The expression on his face seemed exaggerated, at times smiling with a row of neat teeth that sent chills down her spine.
Time passed slowly.
Then she saw someone approaching her, coming close; she gritted her teeth and retreated but realized she had no strength to resist. “Lord…” Xi felt a wave of despair; she suddenly became afraid, afraid she might never see her Lord again, trembling with fear. Her face was covered in a layer of gray, and tears flowed uncontrollably down her cheeks. Just then, a cold blade was pressed against her neck, and a sharp pain gripped her scalp as someone grabbed her hair and forced her head up. She had to look at the person—her vision was already very dim, almost dizzy, but she could barely see that the person’s face bore a long scar, studying her with a teasing gaze.
“Mountain forest mother monkey, eh, what does that look in your eyes mean?” In her drowsiness, the person laughed heartily.
Xi felt a stab of pain and began to struggle violently; the person cursed angrily and slammed her head against the icy wall behind her.
The mountain girl felt darkness overwhelm her, and she coughed heavily.
Then she heard a series of shouts; the young man seemed to be scolding his companions loudly, but Xi felt no sense of security at all. She just wanted to curl up, providing herself with a bit of protection. But the person yanked her hair, forcing her to straighten her face, patting her cheeks as if saying something to her.
Something about Veronika, the Pashiru family, conspiracy, treason, Her Majesty, and various other matters seemed to mention the name of her Lord. Xi shivered, trying hard to hear what the other party said, but the voices grew weaker as if coming from the horizon, while her eyelids felt heavier, sleepiness engulfing her.
After the person finished speaking, they stopped and stared at her.
Yet she appeared somewhat dazed.
Then a heavy slap hit her, causing her to tilt to the side in a daze. She felt the left side of her face turn numb and swell up, her eyes couldn’t open, only managing to squint slightly. But she gritted her teeth and stared at those people. In that moment, it seemed like a revelation had struck her; Xi realized that their target was not her at all, but rather her Lord and Lady Veronika.
This realization injected a spark of faith into Xi’s heart, awakening her attentiveness.
In her already narrow vision, she saw the young man named Barbane dragging away the one questioning her, and a fierce argument broke out between them.
“No… must inform… Lord…”
The mountain girl could only have this thought swirling dizzily in her mind.
But just at that moment, a voice seemed to burrow deep into her soul:
“Xi, I remember that’s your name, right?”
