Chapter 919: Act 92 – Brendel’s Old Acquaintance?
After the beam of light, Ferguson had long since vanished. The lonely building where he once stood now had just a nearly ten-meter-wide hole where its roof used to be. The dust that enveloped the battlefield seemed to have been dispersed by the light column, revealing a young sprite sitting dazed at the other end of the street. She cradled a silver lance, with Xainne perched atop her head, both waving their hands frantically and shouting in panic, “No, it’s not the sprite’s fault! It fired on its own!”
“The Demon Slayer Lance!” Cooper exclaimed as he noticed the lance in the sprite’s hand. “You’re from the Fleuruit family!”
“How dare you—!” Marlaxias roared, his voice deep and menacing. Although he didn’t care about the death of a mere ant, someone daring to act under his very nose was a blatant affront to the dragon’s dignity. Suddenly, countless golden vortexes appeared in the pitch-black night sky. Numerous meteors, trailing flames, shot forth from the vortices, forming a rain of fire that enveloped nearly half of Gravel Town, appearing above the sprite and Xainne.
“Ah—!” The young sprite and Xainne were so frightened by this terrifying scene that they clung together and cried out loudly, “Mommy, the sprite doesn’t want to die!”
Both the girl and the dragon thought they were doomed and shivered for a while in each other’s embrace. Although the sound of explosions filled their ears and the ground trembled, the expected death did not come. Out of curiosity, they opened their eyes, and a spectacular scene entered their view—fire rains swept across half the night sky, with a semi-transparent shield-like force field suspended in the air. Meteors collided violently with it, exploding into a dazzling flash of light, scattering sparks like fireworks from a revival ceremony.
Only a few fireballs managed to penetrate the force field and fell to the ground, causing sparse explosions.
Seeing this, Marlaxias let out a scream of both surprise and rage, “Mistral, you, you’ve recovered, how is that possible!?”
Mistral patted her massive wings and stood up slowly from the ruins. She elegantly stretched her form and sneered at Marlaxias in mid-air, “Marlaxias, it’s been years—yet you’ve only fallen so low as to bully a little girl. Truly a significant achievement.”
“How did you manage that?” Marlaxias stared intently at Mistral, sensing that she wasn’t just putting up a front—although she wasn’t back to her pre-battle state, she had at least regained some strength. His cold gaze swept across the square and eventually landed on Brendel beside her, roaring, “Damn human, it must be your doing!”
At the moment Brendel closed the flow pointer, he felt as if he had aged ten years. Of course, it wasn’t real aging, but an illusion brought on by the extraction of his life force. His complexion was terrifyingly pale, and he could barely stand. Immediately, he checked his status—his frost land guard level had dropped two levels due to the heavy experience loss, and his power had plummeted from the pinnacle of elemental manifestation to a mid-tier level.
Just then, Marlaxias’s oppression descended from the sky upon him. Every hair on Brendel’s body stood on end as he lifted his head to see the obsidian-like eyes of the dragon. What eyes they were—devoid of any hint of emotion, cold and empty, yet radiating a palpable sense of killing intent. The dragon’s pressure was terrifying, capable of making an ordinary person crumble instantly, but he happened to be Brendel, who was already filled with anger and subconsciously activated his fervor talent.
His aura suddenly surged, tearing Marlaxias’s pressure apart. He shot a glance at the massive sky lizard, choosing to ignore the latter’s words.
“Eh!” Marlaxias paused slightly, as if sensing something, and let out a soft “eh.”
Mistral also felt the change in Brendel. Silently, she cut off Marlaxias’s pressure and expressed her dissatisfaction towards him, saying, “What, are you only going to be rude to my human friend? Your opponent is here, Marlaxias.”
Marlaxias turned his gaze back to Mistral, snorting disdainfully, “You’ve just caught your breath, and you’ve already forgotten the pain? You weren’t this forgetful before, Mistral.”
Mistral raised a claw and gently tapped Brendel’s forehead, saying, “This is a gift for you, little one. Don’t forget our agreement; if you survive, I’ll let you pick a piece from my collection.” She looked up and coldly laughed at Marlaxias, “If it weren’t for your despicable actions—two of you ambushing one of me—the outcome might have been hard to tell, Marlaxias.”
“Hmph, battles between dragons never concern themselves with mundane rules.”
“True enough, so it’s not stipulated that I have to stay here and perish with you tonight!” Mistral finished speaking and flapped her wings. Her silver wings resembled enormous sails. With a gentle flap, she sent all those on the ground, as well as the sky beasts and gargoyles, tumbling in disarray. However, Mistral clearly controlled the airflow, as those dragon beasts entangled with the gargoyles let out pitiful cries as they fell to the ground or crashed into nearby buildings, while the gargoyles merely wobbled slightly in midair.
The silver dragon Mistral soared into the sky, deftly avoiding Marlaxias’s claw that swiped toward her. With a mocking laugh, she made a sharp turn and flew toward the southern hills, “Marlaxias, see you at the arbitration court!”
“You won’t escape!” Marlaxias understood very well what Mistral meant. They had violated their oath by coming to the surface world, and by chance, they encountered Mistral here. Fearing that she might attract other dragons, especially those ancient dragons from the elder council, they had attempted to ambush her in the clouds. Who would have thought that Mistral would turn out to be unexpectedly formidable? Despite her grave injuries, she had managed to escape to this location. If it weren’t for her revealing her aura by chance, they might not have even realized where she was.
Mistral was known for her speed in Vaunte. If she truly decided to flee, Marlaxias feared he wouldn’t be able to catch up. Therefore, upon her escape, he lost interest in staying in Gravel Town and, with a beat of his wings, pursued her direction.
Everyone on the ground looked up, astonished, at the sight of the two dragons disappearing into the clouds, especially the crusader nobles who could scarcely believe that the fearsome dragon had let them go just like that. As the terrifying pressure from above dissipated, everyone felt as though their souls had been drained; their legs turned to jelly and they collapsed to the ground. The relief of surviving sapped the last ounce of strength from them. Even the knights of the Summer Solstice and the young members of the White Lion Guard kneeled down on rooftops, let alone the others. Cooper sat down heavily, unable to restrain himself from tugging at his thigh, gasping in pain.
Brendel also exhaled a sigh of relief, feeling fortunate that the last gift Mistral had given him was the purest form of magic, the power of the dragons. In simple terms, it was experience. This portion of experience, while maybe negligible to her, not only compensated for his loss but exceeded it by more than double. It made Brendel feel that good people indeed receive good rewards.
Moreover, the silver dragon lady still owed him a piece from her collection, making it a foolproof bargain. He had felt a bit shortchanged, but now he couldn’t help wishing for a few more exchanges like this—not that such occurrences could be sought after like a high-level encounter from the “Amber Sword,” which was a matter of fate.
He didn’t have time to count the experience he gained, hastily awarding himself back the lost levels. When he lifted his head, he saw the Duchess running towards him.
“Captain, what exactly just happened? Did we win?” Oni frowned and asked. “What should we do next? Should we rest here, or leave this place first?”
To others, this battle was somewhat inexplicable. The process had been so intense that it left hearts racing. In a matter of minutes, they experienced heavy losses, with the greatest toll taken on the gargoyles, but the Summer Solstice Knights and White Lion Guards had also suffered severe casualties. Furthermore, the nature of the battle had been very brief, starting and ending mysteriously. Besides Brendel and Nemeses, everyone had acted passively to the commands, and then the two giant dragons had oddly left one after the other. Now, some hill-barking dragon beasts remained on the battlefield, but everyone could see they were no longer a threat.
Brendel shook his head, indicating that this was a matter internal to the dragons and couldn’t be explained: “We can’t stay to rest. We must leave this place immediately and rest downstream of the Torrent Galaxy on the map.”
“Downstream of the Torrent Galaxy? That’s quite a distance from here.” Oni glanced at the crusader nobles. Many had suffered injuries in this battle, and others were shaken; she doubted whether they could hold out until then. To be honest, she was exhausted herself.
“Don’t worry, just tell them the truth. There’s another dragon, who knows when it might turn back. If someone wants to stay around here to wait for death, they may do as they please,” Brendel replied.
Oni’s expression changed. Having seen those two dark figures through the cloud cover with her own eyes, that nightmarish scene truly made her not wish to go through it again.
In fact, Brendel was worried about more. He always felt that Mistral’s last words carried a hint of deceit, as if they were meant to confuse Marlaxias’s judgment. The silver dragon was known for her speed on the continent of Vaunte; if she wanted to run, she could do so anytime without needing to hide in this spot waiting to be discovered. He didn’t know how much effect the five minutes of accelerated flow pointer time would have on a dragon, but he faintly felt that the silver dragon lady was buying them time. Although he didn’t understand why she was doing this, the only choice he had now was to leave this perilous place quickly.
Moreover, after tonight’s battle, the plan to head to Ruin Port needed to be adjusted slightly. He hadn’t expected Jotungrund to come out in full force, with even the three black dragon lords joining in the fun. Although he didn’t clearly understand the entanglement between them and the dragons, he wasn’t overconfident enough to rely on a port to contend against a few adult dragons.
He had contacted Charles, who had run into good luck with the noble mercenaries attacking the west gate. That place could be said to have been the least affected during the night in Gravel Town. Although the mercenaries had been terrified when the dragons appeared, many scattered in panic almost instantly, those fleeing toward the west gate discovered that the troglodytes stationed there were just as frightened and had fled in disarray. They had hidden out all night until Marlaxias and Mistral left before realizing they had practically occupied the city gate and fortress west of Gravel Town.
It could be said that Charles, Rogers, and others had achieved victory without shedding a drop of blood, simply by taking a stroll inside the town. This incredible stroke of luck made Brendel inwardly marvel.
His orders were quickly relayed, and surprisingly, the resistance encountered was remarkably small. The nobles were already scared out of their wits; even if Brendel asked them to stay, they wouldn’t dare linger in Gravel Town. They would rather leave early, fleeing as far away as possible, hoping never to return to this place, lest they have nightmares afterward.
Brendel set the gathering point downstream of the Torrent Galaxy with his considerations because he knew there was an exit leading to that direction in the underground passages of Gravel Town—
Meanwhile, as Erluin’s envoy group was gathering to prepare to leave Gravel Town, Princess Margadale found him accompanied by an officer from the White Lion Guard.
Brendel had been discussing certain rumors about the dragons with Nemeses. Both of them had heard of the three black dragons in Jotungrund. However, no one had ever mentioned the agreements between them and the dragons. It was only known that these three dragons had been expelled from Dragon Valley at the same time. No one could pinpoint the time of their expulsion since the surface world had limited knowledge of Jotungrund, and related information regarding the mysterious dragons was even scarcer. It could only be speculated that it was around a hundred years ago, as he hadn’t heard of these three black dragons during the underground wars of the time of the Light’s Radiance, of which the Minotaur Lord Gelart had gained fame.
However, upon seeing Margadale, he couldn’t help but freeze. He had met this nun princess in Ampere Seale. He could say that he owed her a favor from the battle in Ampere Seale. Later, he had even gone to find the Heart of the Dragon for her, saving her from the clutches of death. Their bond was undeniable, but ever since this lady awakened, aside from coming to thank him once, they hadn’t had many dealings.
It was for this reason that he hadn’t revealed the secret about her body to the nun princess. On one hand, he didn’t know how to bring it up—did he say directly, “Sorry, Miss, you are an automaton?” He could only imagine how Margadale would react upon hearing that. On the other hand, Brendel also sensed that she seemed to be aware of the abnormalities in her own body, hence intentionally distancing herself from others.
For this reason, Brendel decided to drop the subject, thinking it was better to let her figure it out on her own. After all, a paper can’t wrap up a fire—just as he contained a lightning core within himself, Margadale would eventually sense the power of the Heart of the Dragon in her body. Perhaps after a long period of gradual acceptance, this nun princess would ultimately come to terms with this reality.
However, unexpectedly, Margadale had come to find him at this time. Brendel couldn’t help but unconsciously wonder if the Heart of the Dragon inside her had reacted when the two dragons appeared earlier.
“Mr. Brendel,” the nun princess appeared somewhat nervous, but when she spoke, it dispelled Brendel’s doubts, “Miss Dierphir sent me to find you; you’d better come see this.”
“Your Highness, what have you discovered?” Brendel asked, slightly taken aback.
“Not me, Mr. Brendel; Marjory and the others found someone.”
“Someone?”
Brendel certainly wouldn’t think that Marjory and the others had just casually found a stray cat or dog to come to him. The implication in Margadale’s words was that this person might be related to him. However, he was a bit puzzled; there were only a handful of people in the Cruz Empire connected to him—Faina, Veronika, and so on, yet none of them seemed to be someone that would make it hard to say. Looking at the princess’s expression, it seemed that the person in question should not be on too friendly terms with him. But as he pondered, he felt that he didn’t have any personal enemies in Cruz.
With such questions in mind, Brendel took Nemeses and the princess directly to where Marjory and the others were. There were already a number of young members of the White Lion Guard gathered there. As soon as he arrived, everyone immediately parted to make way for him. Brendel first saw the young sprite standing over there. He certainly remembered this little troublemaker; her Demon Slayer Lance had saved everyone present. Originally, he did not intend to keep this little girl, but Cooper insisted on keeping her because of the lance. Brendel had no intention of interfering in the private affairs of the Cruz nobles and chose to let Sir Cooper handle it himself.
However, at this moment, the sprite’s expression was quite haughty as she shot Brendel a resentful glare, clearly dissatisfied.
Brendel sighed at this scene, feeling the need to have a talk with Cooper. Bullying a little girl didn’t seem like a good reputation to spread.
And just at that moment, he finally spotted the “person” amid the crowd.
