Chapter 950: Act 121 – The Silver Ship
Antinna’s eyelids reflected a silvery light as she silently withdrew her gaze from the tree windows of Valhalla. Tanya smiled slightly at her, passing the image of Brendel in her hands back to the past.
Beyond the sea of trees, sails were woven like clouds—
“Lord, we need more anchor points.”
As the gentle voice of the aide came through the image in the communication spell, Brendel was slightly taken aback, raising his head to exchange glances with Charles, who had approached him. “What do the Buds want?” “I don’t know, my lord, but it seems this isn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision.” “I thought perhaps these old-timers were acting more reasonable this time; I even believed my negotiation skills had improved,” Brendel subconsciously clicked his tongue.
“Negotiation skills?”
“You could interpret it as my level of negotiation art.”
“Wizards never make a losing deal; that’s a saying often voiced by bards around the Silver Bay coast. Besides, my lord, your negotiation art…” Charles shrugged with a slight smile.
“Yes, it’s because some self-proclaimed wizards next to me have given me the illusion that they seem to have become foolish in this era; it’s proven to be an exception,” Brendel replied lightly. “Can it be done?”
“It’ll take some time, but we need to know exactly how many anchor points the Buds need.” The young wizard licked his wind-chapped lips. “Are they planning to bring over a main fleet?”
“Main fleet?”
That would not be the case.
Brendel shook his head gently.
—
Beneath the air port.
As the escapee nobles fell silent, the situation began to be controlled by the officials of Ruin Port. A rotund fellow was eloquently mocking the entire plan’s flaws, while none from the other side were familiar with port affairs to counter him. The feelings previously calmed by Margadale’s identity as a nun princess began to stir again. Vielo was so enraged she almost lost it, wanting to step forward multiple times but was firmly held back by Eynid. “Oni, we can’t cause trouble for the princess; the more pressing we are now, the less we can easily express our opinions…” The gentle little girl said almost timidly.
“I know, but I have to kill that damned guy!”
“Oni, I’m running out of strength; please don’t be so agitated—” Eynid was almost in tears.
On the other side, QiYala remained unusually calm, observing everything with a detached interest, disdainfully glancing at the young prince next to her, who appeared frightened, and said, “Hey, snot-nosed brat, stay away from me! Don’t worry, I have no interest in arguing with these guys; mere summer insects can’t speak of ice.”
“QiqiYala, you you you look at the sky…” Haruz responded, trembling.
“Look at the sky—!”
At almost the same moment, a shriek arose from the crowd.
Everyone was momentarily stunned, instinctively looking up. In the sky unfolded a magnificent scene—a white tower rose into the clouds like ivory, and the areas that originally flickered with faint light expanded hundreds of times, resembling a vast net covering the entire Ruin Port. Amidst the surging energy of the airspace, clusters of silvery light flashed and vanished, like pairs of silver pupils opening and closing, coldly watching the insignificant crowd on the ground.
“What is that?” All the Cruz nobles were entranced by this spectacular vision. Although they didn’t understand what was in the sky, they vaguely guessed it might be related to the young Earl from Erluin.
But the port officials were more informed; their expressions shifted, showing a mixed state of astonishment and incomprehension.
“It’s anchor points; why are there so many?!” Someone finally exclaimed.
“Have they gone mad? The air port will collapse!”
“Those damned Erluin bumpkins, they know nothing; this is simply chaos!” The loquacious fat man opened his mouth, then began to scream hysterically. Hundreds of anchor points seemed like they were to simultaneously teleport a hundred warships—but could the Erluins possibly have such a fleet? Clearly not, at least not in his belief. In his view, there was only one possibility: those damned Erluins knew nothing, and it was a grave error on their part that led to such a blunder. “What’s that damned Walas doing?!” The fat man felt his colleagues had failed to fulfill their monitoring duties and shouted angrily, “Quick, we need to go stop them, or the port will be done for!”
A group of port officials seemed to wake up, rushing towards the air port as if out of a dream. Just as they lifted their feet, a low buzzing resonated above the port, followed by the ground starting to tremble slightly. A cracking sound spread from deep underground, like the sound of glass shattering, growing from far to near, then increasing in volume until, with a sharp cracking noise, a fissure half a meter wide appeared in everyone’s sight. This fissure extended from beneath the air port straight into the dock area, as if it had torn the entire Ruin Port apart. Everyone was stunned; with the appearance of this crack, more fine fissures began to emerge on the ground, and the port’s surface shattered into countless fragments, sinking like waves amid the roaring noise.
“Damn it, those hellish Erluin crooks, we’re finished!” The fat man shouted, his face pale with regret. “Look, this is what you believed in.”
The escapee nobles were quickly thrown into a panic, unsteadily looking towards the center of the crowd where Margadale and her company stood, shouting, “Your Highness!”
Margadale bit her lip and frowned lightly but did not panic. She focused on the sky, her hand supporting Dierphir next to her while softly saying, “Everyone, don’t panic; look at the sky.”
The nobles were momentarily stunned and then raised their heads.
Above the sky—
Walas, pale-faced, leaned against the railing of the crossbridge, staring at the scene unfolding before him—beside him, Earl Orkans and Earl Ji’en had equally grim expressions. The three men were so focused that they entirely missed the aide next to them tearfully detailing Brendel and Charles’s ‘misdeeds.’ “Lord Walas, Lord Orkans, those Erluin people have tossed in too many anchor points; they must be insane. The space magic formation of Ruin Port can’t withstand such great turbulence; if this continues, the port will collapse!”
“I can guarantee with my life that those damned Erluin don’t have any fleet; they can’t possibly summon so many ships—”
But the vice-officer’s words halted abruptly as his jaw dropped; he was now witnessing what he could hardly believe.
Not far from him in the air, a point of silver light grew larger, resembling a rapidly expanding gateway of light. When this silver light expanded to its limit, a long silver horn emerged from within— as the port’s overseer, he naturally recognized this thing—this was the main mast and bowsprit. The mast was so long that he could accurately gauge that a great ship must be behind this light gate; it had to be a battleship of at least first-class, no, even the empire’s flagship ‘Supremacy Flame-class’ might not possess such a long mast. This could only be a super battleship.
But how could the Erluins have a super battleship?
The white ivory tower trembled slightly amidst the spatial turbulence, as if even the air surrounding the tower emitted a buzzing sound. The bowsprit of the gigantic ship slowly extended from the light gate, first the main mast, then the flashing silvery horn sail, and finally the figurehead. When Walas, Earl Orkans, and Earl Ji’en caught sight of that figurehead, they couldn’t help but be slightly taken aback. That glimmering silver serpent lady figure was so familiar to them that the three could not help but slightly open their mouths. Across the entire Vaunte continent, only one force used such a figurehead.
The Mana Saint Statue.
Mana is the goddess from ancient legends of the Council of Sages, who once mastered the Vaunte magical network, the weaver of the previous generation’s fate. Her wise gaze symbolized knowledge and insight throughout ancient times, and her abstract eye image became the symbol of an organization thousands of years later. The Buds painted it on the tip of silver towers, on the cover of the Book of Knowledge, on the silver sails above floating clouds, and in all places where silver wizards trod.
This was the Eye of Insight, the emblem of the Silver Alliance, and simultaneously, the descendants of the Council of Sages flowed with the bloodline of the magical goddess.
This was Bud’s warship.
The silver fleet appeared in the sky like an ocean. After shimmering with silver light, clusters of ships gradually came into everyone’s view. The first to complete the teleportation were the second-class frigates, which immediately organized into a defensive formation to prevent attacks from any direction, thus protecting the more slowly teleported main fleet.
Three first-class battleships, one super battleship. Although Walas was a port official of the empire, he had never seen such a luxurious formation in his life. Even in the Cruz Empire, only one fleet could match such a fleet.
And this fleet could not possibly stay in such a backup port as Ruin Port.
“My God.” He almost moaned this statement.
—
“Is this the work of the Buds? My lord, can you guess what price the Buds need to pay to teleport such a fleet?” Charles marveled at the scene, reflecting that since the age of falling stars, the People of Silver had not appeared on the ground for a very long time, but that did not mean they had declined or disappeared; on the contrary, these transcendent powers constantly observed this world, and at this moment, they were presenting themselves in this manner to everyone.
At this moment.
The Buds intervened in the Holy War.
The People of Silver intervened in the mortal war.
“At this moment, at least tens of thousands of wizards are straining with everything to open this teleportation gate spanning a thousand miles on the other side of Valhalla,” Brendel murmured.
As he spoke these words, he felt a mix of complexity inside, uncertain if this was a blessing or a curse. For a moment, he recalled what Lady Tanya had told him alone not long ago— “This is the transaction of the Silver Alliance with you, merely to help us reclaim the Azure Spear. In the agreement, we promised to establish a navy for you and agreed to sell and lease warships to the Erluins. In the agreement, we stipulated a minimum number of warships that must be sold and leased to you but did not specify an upper limit; therefore, in a sense, we did not violate the agreement between the People of Silver and the mortals; our agreement is extraneous to war, merely coincidental.”
“Yes, this is just a coincidence—”
Brendel understood that these crafty wizards had indeed exploited a loophole; the agreements made by both parties did not stipulate related contents, and he clearly could not set a hard ceiling on the agreements for leasing and selling warships. In fact, when the two sides signed the agreements, he hoped the other side would provide as much as possible. But he never imagined it would exceed this extent. The Buds claimed it was a coincidence, but was it truly? Brendel didn’t know if the deceptive explanation of the People of Silver could be accepted in the sacred covenant or by other human empires on the continent. At least for him, he absolutely could not naively believe it.
“You guess what the Buds’ real intention is?” Thinking of this, he turned to ask Yuta and Marjory, who were not too far behind him.
At this moment, the crossbridge of the air port had tilted beneath the tremendous spatial turbulence, with some places even showing signs of cracking. The mercenary leader held onto the cracking wall with one hand and frowned as she answered, “Those cunning wizards seem bent on obtaining the Azure Spear; they are using us as bait!”
This answer was not outside of Brendel’s expectations; however, he shook his head.
“I initially thought the same, but now I want to know—what role the Buds play in the secret between the Silver Queen, the Temple of Fire, the dragons, and my grandfather,” Brendel said softly. “I should have guessed long ago that these self-proclaimed world overseers would not be oblivious when the dragons intervened in the internal succession of the Cruz Empire.”
“My lord, you mean…” Yuta asked, surprised.
Brendel nodded, answering firmly: “The Buds have long known what the Silver Queen intends, and now they can no longer resist intervening.”
The remaining three exchanged stunned looks, falling into silence, but at this moment, Brendel thought further: the People of Silver and the Gold kin clearly had some tacit understanding within the sacred covenant. These powerful forces silently disappeared from the continent long ago; according to the history familiar to players, this was the beginning of the age of mortals, but was it really so? At least in his view, it did not conform to the laws of historical development.
Not just the Buds; Brendel suddenly recalled the Silver Elves. Evidently, the People of Silver were returning to the continent.
This seemed to foreshadow something.
“Sir Earl,” among the few present, only Marjory did not belong to Brendel’s circle, and therefore, this young officer knew the least about these secrets. In fact, he was not concerned with these things, which he thought were far from the fate of the Erluin Kingdom. However, another issue happening before him made him worry enough to remind Brendel: “You better look over here—”
In the direction he pointed, a shadow like a storm cloud was swiftly approaching above the plains of Ruin Port; it was a horde of dragon beasts.
A deafening alarm suddenly rang out across Ruin Port. The soldiers on the city walls stared dumbfoundedly at the massive swarm of beasts in the sky. They spread their wings, riding the fierce winds, sweeping in from over ten miles away. Though they were still far from entering the attacking range, the strong stench of sulfur had already permeated the entire city. Jotungrund’s army had finally arrived at the foot of Ruin Port.
“That was fast.” Charles, watching this scene, couldn’t help but sneer.
“The Queen of Dragons probably thinks we have some connection to the Earth Sage and is quite wary of us,” Brendel quietly observed the dark cloud in the sky and replied nonchalantly.
The calmness of this master and subordinate only made Walas, not far away, anxious. He couldn’t help but shout, “My Lord, Mr. Charles, the fleet’s teleportation is not yet complete; we can’t let them approach the port! Those frigates alone can’t stop these dragon beasts!” At this moment, the port official finally no longer doubted Brendel’s power, but he was more worried that this young earl, acting on impulse, would ruin everything. The survival of the whole port was now tied to this suddenly appeared fleet.
“No need to worry.” Brendel glanced at the guy in exasperation and replied casually.
“No need to worry?” Walas opened his mouth, feeling as if he and these two damned Erluin people lived in entirely different dimensions.
But Brendel couldn’t be bothered with him, instead, he turned back to the image of the communication spell, which now displayed Tanya again after Antinna. The elven lady first glanced at Brendel before responding nonchalantly, “Mr. Brendel, the Buds will not intervene in mortal wars; from now on, the command of this fleet is handed over to you. Don’t let us down.”
“Aunt Tanya, that joke isn’t funny at all,” Brendel replied irritably. “Do you think such a statement can be accepted by other forces?”
“Perhaps it can, perhaps it can’t, but what does that matter?” Tanya replied matter-of-factly.
“Well, that’s that…” Brendel was taken aback.
