It shouldn’t have been possible for Roel and the knights to witness the arrival of dawn.
Tark Stronghold was a humongous fortress located between two steep mountains. Its sheer scale was reminiscent of a man-made mountain, comparable to the massive dams in Roel’s previous world.
Given their proximity to Tark Stronghold, Roel and the knights should have been cloaked in the shadows of the towering fortress. The rays of dawn might dye its edges golden, but it shouldn’t have directly appeared in their line of sight.
Yet, the impossible was happening here.
Roel and the knights were utterly confused and horrified as they witnessed a sight they were unlikely to forget for life.
Tark Stronghold had vanished.
It was neither breached nor destroyed. It had literally vanished in the most direct sense of the word.
What Roel and the knights were witnessing was an empty space between the two steep mountains. The massive fortress that had stood tall in the eastern border for centuries was nowhere to be seen, granting free passageway through Tark Prairie.
Afterlife Of The Party
It Came From Below
Free Guy: Guy Meets Girl (60 Second Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Icon (Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Tickets On Sale (Spot)
A Journal For Jordan (Teaser Trailer 1)
Everyone's Talking About Jamie: (Trailer 2)
He's All That (French Trailer 1)
Free Guy: Las Reacciones Maximas De Deadpool (Latin America Market Subtitled)
Collection
Roel’s mind fuzzed out from shock. All that was left in his incapacitated mind was a name.
Shrouding Mist.
That was the name of the enigmatic fog Roel had fought against last night, and he was only starting to understand the significance of it. There were hardly any records about the Shrouding Mist. There were only vague mentions about the Calamity silently erasing everything from existence.
Roel previously thought that the destruction it brought about would have been similar to that of Sire Darkness, Glacier Creator, or Tempest Caller, but his assumptions couldn’t be more wrong. It was only now that he finally understood why there were barely any records on this terrifying Calamity.
It was because the Calamity had silently devoured everything.
It was as if the Tark Stronghold had been dragged into a hidden dimensional pocket, thus erasing it from the surface of the world. It didn’t vanish because the fortress had been breached. To be more exact, the soldiers in the fortress didn’t even put up a fight at all.
Had the soldiers in the fortress activated any of their large-scale magic armaments, it would have induced huge mana ripples that Roel could perceive, but that was not so. There were also no traces of arrows or spells in the vicinity, meaning that everything was calm last night.
Everyone in Tark Stronghold was unknowingly taken away by Shrouding Mist. They might have been doing their own stuff at the very moment before being spirited away, thinking that it was just an anomalous weather pattern.
Goosebumps rose all over Roel’s body.
“H-how is this possible? Am I dreaming?”
“Where is the fortress? Where is the fortress?!”
“Hah. Hahahaha. Ahhhhh!”
All sorts of hysterical sounds could be heard from the knights behind him. Some of them murmured under their breath, trying to convince themselves that it was all a bad dream, whereas some started going on a mental breakdown from their inability to comprehend what was going on.
It was simply ridiculous how an infallible stronghold that was a hundred thousand strong could vanish just like that.
Roel was able to comprehend their feelings, for he was also pushed to his breaking point.
What Shrouding Mist devoured wasn’t just the fortress that had been painstakingly built to its current size over centuries of effort. More than that, it took away the hundred thousand strong elites of the Theocracy, countless resources, as well the first successor to the Theocracy’s throne, Prince Kane!
This was a catastrophe that could potentially tear the Theocracy apart!
Politics, economics, and military; these were the three vital factors that made up a country. The loss of Tark Stronghold would greatly diminish the Theocracy’s influence. But more than that, it also opened up one of the key pathways for the deviants to infiltrate human civilization.
This day would surely go down in history as the turning point of humankind’s fate, the day that the eastern border succumbed to chaos. It was the inception to an era of fear and suffering.
Just thinking about the consequences of this unprecedented situation left Roel feeling as if someone had lit his mind ablaze. The only thing that was keeping him together was his fervent prayer that Nora wasn’t in Tark Stronghold when it all happened.
She shouldn’t have been there.
That was his deduction based on all of the factors he had gathered.
Prince Kane had mentioned in his letter that Nora’s condition improved after reading the letter Roel wrote two months ago about his victory in the Challenger Cup. He didn’t write anything else after that letter, and that was why he was in such a rush to get to Tark Stronghold.
Theoretically speaking, if his letter was insufficient to suppress Nora’s increasing degree of Seraphication, she would have headed into the depths of Tark Prairie to hunt more deviants so as to vent her aggression. On top of that, he also had concrete evidence that Nora was still in the same world as him.
With trembling hands, he reached for the angelic white short sword hanging on his waist and gently touched its feathery inscriptions. It allowed him to regain some composure.
Ascendwing was a holy weapon that Roel and Nora had activated with their bloodlines. Through it, they could sense each other’s presence. As faint as her aura was, Roel was certain that Nora was still around.
“She’s still here, she’s still here…”
Roel muttered to himself as he calmed down his hastened breathing, forcing himself to calm down. Having survived many dangers, he knew the importance of maintaining his composure when placed in a critical situation. Nora was in danger right now and urgently needed his help, so he had to quickly recover and rush to her side.
Having thought things through, he began releasing a crimson aura, summoning a massive skeleton around him. The sudden appearance of Grandar exerted suffocating pressure on the knights, grabbing their attention.
“Are you done with your tantrum yet?!”
Roel turned to the knights and bellowed at them harshly. His sharp golden eyes glowered with authority, compelling the knights to fall silent and tremble before his might. With order restored, he slowly moved his gaze across the knights and began his speech.
“Tark Stronghold has fallen. It’s hard to accept this fact, but you shouldn’t forget why you’re here in the first place.
“Look at the armor you’re wearing and the sword in your sheaths. You’re knights of the Saint Mesit Theocracy! I didn’t protect you yesterday to watch you throwing a tantrum here and turn your eyes away from reality. Our country is in danger now! You have to stand up and prove your worth at times like this, not crumble amidst hysteria!”
Roel furiously berated the knights for their own weakness.
His reprimand brought senses back to the knights. Those who were murmuring to themselves shut their mouths and looked up at Roel, and those who had fallen into a state of shock slowly regained focus in their eyes.
Roel paused for a moment to let his message sink in before continuing on.
“What did you think happened to Tark Stronghold? Divine retribution? Sia’s wrath? Preposterous! I can tell you with certainty that what happened yesterday was an attack from the evil gods of the ancient era. It’s a coordinated assault schemed and executed by the evil cults. It’s a provocation against the church, an act of blasphemy against Sia!
“You’re the warriors of God, the most devout believers of Sia! You have to stand up against the evil gods and guard Sia’s honor. The whole of humankind is behind us; there are countless lives resting on our shoulders! Tark Stronghold might have disappeared, but there’s still a chance that we can bring it back.
“What you have to do right now is to pull yourself together!”
With the knights losing their faith in this despairing situation, Roel sought to instill motivation in them by pointing out a clear enemy and planting a seed of hope in them.
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to call the Six Calamities evil gods. The organization that worshiped them, the Saints Convocation, was an evil cult through and through, and any attempt to destroy this world and its civilizations could be viewed as an act to refute Sia and the intelligent lifeforms she had created.
The knights had to be able to make sense of the irrationality around them, or else they wouldn’t be able to regain their morale.
As for Roel’s claim about being able to bring Tark Stronghold back, that was nothing more than a white lie. That was the only way to get the knights to pull themselves together.
That’s right! We can get the fortress back the same way we lost it!”
“It’s just an illusion created by the evil gods! We mustn’t fall for their ploy! Those damned evil cults think that they can pull one over us!”
“We need to first relay the news to others and strengthen our defenses here for the time being.”
Under Roel’s galvanizing spech, the knights, who had been believers of Goddess Sia from a young age, were able to find a new way to look at the situation. Through that, they found a new pillar of mental support and furiously swore to get back on the evil cults.
Two knights were dispatched to head back to Balk Town to report the matter, whereas the remaining members searched the vicinity for clues and constructed a simple base.
Tark Stronghold might have fallen, but the mountain pass still needed to be guarded. If they allowed the deviants to march in freely, they would swiftly scatter in all directions and wreak havoc along the eastern border, making it difficult for humankind to sustain its defense line.
Afterlife Of The Party
It Came From Below
Free Guy: Guy Meets Girl (60 Second Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Icon (Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Tickets On Sale (Spot)
A Journal For Jordan (Teaser Trailer 1)
Everyone's Talking About Jamie: (Trailer 2)
He's All That (French Trailer 1)
Free Guy: Las Reacciones Maximas De Deadpool (Latin America Market Subtitled)
Collection
Of course, there was no way a unit of knights could have guarded Tark Prairie by itself. If the deviants were to launch a large-scale invasion, they would get overrun within moments. Both Roel and the knights were aware of that, but they chose not to mention it.
They knew that their lives were of little importance in comparison to the crisis that could potentially befall humankind. Their country, family, friends, and brethren were all behind them. They couldn’t afford to back down now.
The sudden catastrophe might have momentarily crushed their will, but they swiftly recalled everything they had vowed to protect. They suppressed their fear and forced themselves to stand their ground.
Meanwhile, there was another mission Roel needed to accomplish.
“Lord Roel, are you really going?”
While the knights were busy building a temporary camp, the commanders of the Third Knight Order gathered together and looked at the black-haired man in front of them.
Roel nodded his head in response to the question.
“Yes. Now that Prince Kane has gone missing, Her Highness Nora is the final hope of the Theocracy. For the stability and survival of our country. I need to go.”
“…”
A heavy silence fell upon the knight commanders. The sun had already risen into the sky by now, but the armored knights couldn’t feel the slightest warmth from it.
It was for a good reason that Tark Prairie was dubbed as the ‘Graveyard of Humans’, and Roel was planning to march right into its depths to look for Nora, who might not even be in there. Everyone thought that it was an act of utter madness, but none of them were able to find the words to stop him. They knew that what Roel had said was true.
For the Theocracy, this was something that had to be done.
Prince Kane might have disappeared with the hundred thousand soldiers of Tark Stronghold, but the Xeclydes still needed a successor. The Genesis Goddess Church mustn’t lose its lineage of Angel Bloodline. The royal family served as the centerpiece that brought the people together in times of turmoil. If the royal family couldn’t maintain internal stability, how could they inspire trust in the people?
Once the Theocracy collapsed, unease would swiftly ripple across the entire humankind like a disease, starting a pandemonium.
The knights knew that Roel was shouldering the fate of the country on his shoulders, and that was why none of them dared to stop him. They could only bid Roel farewell with heavy hearts.
“Take my insignia and pay a visit to Pendor and Rosa’s base camps at the eastern border. Tell them that the proxy fief lord of the Ascart Fiefdom, Roel Ascart, formally requests reinforcement at Tark Stronghold. I’ll personally explain things to their higher-ups afterward. Don’t worry, they’ll make a move.
“Till then, you have to guard this opening with everything you have. Remember this: There are no countries here, only humans. We’re all fighting with the same goal in mind.”
“Lord Roel…”
The knight captain received Roel’s insignia with a heavy heart. Roel patted his shoulder before silently leaping on top of a horse. He gently touched the warm blade of Ascendwing and mustered his determination.
“Hold on till I return. Warriors of Goddess Sia, may luck be on your side!”
With those words, Roel pulled the reins of his steed and galloped into the depths of Tark Prairie.
…
Roel knew that this was a mission he couldn’t afford to fail.
Nora was the only successor left in the Xeclyde Royal Family. Her position was so important that it could sway the future of humankind.
The Theocracy was hardly as stable as it looked on the surface. Should Prince Kane and Nora meet with a mishap, the Elrics would immediately step forward and rally all of those ambitious nobles to his side to confront the greatly weakened royal faction.
It was unlikely that the Elrics would blatantly stage a rebellion under the looming threat of the deviants and the powerful influence of the Xeclydes, but the fragmented Theocracy would become fraught with infighting. The cracks would continue to deepen till Holy Eminence John departed from the world.
With the extinction of the Xeclydes and the emptying of the throne, the Elrics could finally remove all their shackles and start an internal war.
A fight would inevitably break out between the Ascarts and the Elrics. The Genesis Goddess Church would likely back the Ascarts, but the Elrics would also be supported by the evil cults. No matter who won in this battle of good and evil, all semblance of order would be eroded.
With most resources depleted from the infighting, it would be hard for the Theocracy to put up a strong defense at Tark Prairie. If the deviants were to launch a large-scale invasion as they had on four previous occasions at that moment, there was no guarantee that humankind would be able to withstand the onslaught.
That was the conclusion Roel arrived at with just a bit of guesswork.
It was a grim future that he mustn’t allow to be realized, but that wasn’t what he was the most concerned about. There was only one thing in his mind now that terrified him, and that was the possibility that Nora might disappear.
Several days had passed since Nora’s degree of Seraphication reached its peak. Nora was only barely holding on with her own willpower, but her father, Kane, had suddenly disappeared together with Tark Stronghold at this crucial juncture. That would have come as a devastating shock to her.
Roel didn’t know if Nora was aware of the disaster that had befallen Tark Stronghold, but he prayed for her to remain ignorant. If he could conceal this matter from her till her condition stabilized, all would be all good.
He continued to gallop forth under the vague guidance of Ascendwing. After he had traveled for several hours, he started noticing bizarre piles ahead of him that caused his complexion to turn grave.
He wasn’t certain at first, but the overpowering stench became apparent as he got closer. A scenery of hell unfolded before Roel’s eyes.
It was a mountain of carcasses formed by hundreds of deviants stacked on top of one another.
The rotting stench could be smelled even from a thousand meters away, causing one’s stomach to churn with revulsion. Blood flowed away from the mountain like many little tributaries diverging away from its source, dyeing the ground red. Crows and hawks circled persistently in the sky.
This hyperrealistic scene felt like some sort of warped gorish artwork.
Roel felt his heart falling into the abyss as he stared at the mountain of carcasses. He galloped forward to check on the mutilated carcasses, and his face paled when he sensed familiar mana from them.
It really is her.
The violent mutilation of those carcasses was at odds with the kind and righteous woman Roel remembered, but his logical mind told him that there was no mistake here.
He stood in the midst of this hellish scenery for a brief moment before he focused his attention on the guidance of Ascendwing once more. He decided to turn his eyes away from the brutality and continue his journey.
Such sights continued as he ventured further into Tark Prairie. By sunset, he had already encountered three such mountains of carcasses.
The setting sun shrouded his body in an ominous blood glow. He could feel the guidance from Ascendwing slowly growing stronger.
At the same time, in a faraway hill stained with flesh and blood, a woman bearing majestic light wings slowly raised her head to direct an emotionless gaze westward.
It shouldn’t have been possible for Roel and the knights to witness the arrival of dawn.
Tark Stronghold was a humongous fortress located between two steep mountains. Its sheer scale was reminiscent of a man-made mountain, comparable to the massive dams in Roel’s previous world.
Given their proximity to Tark Stronghold, Roel and the knights should have been cloaked in the shadows of the towering fortress. The rays of dawn might dye its edges golden, but it shouldn’t have directly appeared in their line of sight.
Yet, the impossible was happening here.
Roel and the knights were utterly confused and horrified as they witnessed a sight they were unlikely to forget for life.
Tark Stronghold had vanished.
It was neither breached nor destroyed. It had literally vanished in the most direct sense of the word.
What Roel and the knights were witnessing was an empty space between the two steep mountains. The massive fortress that had stood tall in the eastern border for centuries was nowhere to be seen, granting free passageway through Tark Prairie.
Afterlife Of The Party
It Came From Below
Free Guy: Guy Meets Girl (60 Second Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Icon (Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Tickets On Sale (Spot)
A Journal For Jordan (Teaser Trailer 1)
Everyone's Talking About Jamie: (Trailer 2)
He's All That (French Trailer 1)
Free Guy: Las Reacciones Maximas De Deadpool (Latin America Market Subtitled)
Collection
Roel’s mind fuzzed out from shock. All that was left in his incapacitated mind was a name.
Shrouding Mist.
That was the name of the enigmatic fog Roel had fought against last night, and he was only starting to understand the significance of it. There were hardly any records about the Shrouding Mist. There were only vague mentions about the Calamity silently erasing everything from existence.
Roel previously thought that the destruction it brought about would have been similar to that of Sire Darkness, Glacier Creator, or Tempest Caller, but his assumptions couldn’t be more wrong. It was only now that he finally understood why there were barely any records on this terrifying Calamity.
It was because the Calamity had silently devoured everything.
It was as if the Tark Stronghold had been dragged into a hidden dimensional pocket, thus erasing it from the surface of the world. It didn’t vanish because the fortress had been breached. To be more exact, the soldiers in the fortress didn’t even put up a fight at all.
Had the soldiers in the fortress activated any of their large-scale magic armaments, it would have induced huge mana ripples that Roel could perceive, but that was not so. There were also no traces of arrows or spells in the vicinity, meaning that everything was calm last night.
Everyone in Tark Stronghold was unknowingly taken away by Shrouding Mist. They might have been doing their own stuff at the very moment before being spirited away, thinking that it was just an anomalous weather pattern.
Goosebumps rose all over Roel’s body.
“H-how is this possible? Am I dreaming?”
“Where is the fortress? Where is the fortress?!”
“Hah. Hahahaha. Ahhhhh!”
All sorts of hysterical sounds could be heard from the knights behind him. Some of them murmured under their breath, trying to convince themselves that it was all a bad dream, whereas some started going on a mental breakdown from their inability to comprehend what was going on.
It was simply ridiculous how an infallible stronghold that was a hundred thousand strong could vanish just like that.
Roel was able to comprehend their feelings, for he was also pushed to his breaking point.
What Shrouding Mist devoured wasn’t just the fortress that had been painstakingly built to its current size over centuries of effort. More than that, it took away the hundred thousand strong elites of the Theocracy, countless resources, as well the first successor to the Theocracy’s throne, Prince Kane!
This was a catastrophe that could potentially tear the Theocracy apart!
Politics, economics, and military; these were the three vital factors that made up a country. The loss of Tark Stronghold would greatly diminish the Theocracy’s influence. But more than that, it also opened up one of the key pathways for the deviants to infiltrate human civilization.
This day would surely go down in history as the turning point of humankind’s fate, the day that the eastern border succumbed to chaos. It was the inception to an era of fear and suffering.
Just thinking about the consequences of this unprecedented situation left Roel feeling as if someone had lit his mind ablaze. The only thing that was keeping him together was his fervent prayer that Nora wasn’t in Tark Stronghold when it all happened.
She shouldn’t have been there.
That was his deduction based on all of the factors he had gathered.
Prince Kane had mentioned in his letter that Nora’s condition improved after reading the letter Roel wrote two months ago about his victory in the Challenger Cup. He didn’t write anything else after that letter, and that was why he was in such a rush to get to Tark Stronghold.
Theoretically speaking, if his letter was insufficient to suppress Nora’s increasing degree of Seraphication, she would have headed into the depths of Tark Prairie to hunt more deviants so as to vent her aggression. On top of that, he also had concrete evidence that Nora was still in the same world as him.
With trembling hands, he reached for the angelic white short sword hanging on his waist and gently touched its feathery inscriptions. It allowed him to regain some composure.
Ascendwing was a holy weapon that Roel and Nora had activated with their bloodlines. Through it, they could sense each other’s presence. As faint as her aura was, Roel was certain that Nora was still around.
“She’s still here, she’s still here…”
Roel muttered to himself as he calmed down his hastened breathing, forcing himself to calm down. Having survived many dangers, he knew the importance of maintaining his composure when placed in a critical situation. Nora was in danger right now and urgently needed his help, so he had to quickly recover and rush to her side.
Having thought things through, he began releasing a crimson aura, summoning a massive skeleton around him. The sudden appearance of Grandar exerted suffocating pressure on the knights, grabbing their attention.
“Are you done with your tantrum yet?!”
Roel turned to the knights and bellowed at them harshly. His sharp golden eyes glowered with authority, compelling the knights to fall silent and tremble before his might. With order restored, he slowly moved his gaze across the knights and began his speech.
“Tark Stronghold has fallen. It’s hard to accept this fact, but you shouldn’t forget why you’re here in the first place.
“Look at the armor you’re wearing and the sword in your sheaths. You’re knights of the Saint Mesit Theocracy! I didn’t protect you yesterday to watch you throwing a tantrum here and turn your eyes away from reality. Our country is in danger now! You have to stand up and prove your worth at times like this, not crumble amidst hysteria!”
Roel furiously berated the knights for their own weakness.
His reprimand brought senses back to the knights. Those who were murmuring to themselves shut their mouths and looked up at Roel, and those who had fallen into a state of shock slowly regained focus in their eyes.
Roel paused for a moment to let his message sink in before continuing on.
“What did you think happened to Tark Stronghold? Divine retribution? Sia’s wrath? Preposterous! I can tell you with certainty that what happened yesterday was an attack from the evil gods of the ancient era. It’s a coordinated assault schemed and executed by the evil cults. It’s a provocation against the church, an act of blasphemy against Sia!
“You’re the warriors of God, the most devout believers of Sia! You have to stand up against the evil gods and guard Sia’s honor. The whole of humankind is behind us; there are countless lives resting on our shoulders! Tark Stronghold might have disappeared, but there’s still a chance that we can bring it back.
“What you have to do right now is to pull yourself together!”
With the knights losing their faith in this despairing situation, Roel sought to instill motivation in them by pointing out a clear enemy and planting a seed of hope in them.
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to call the Six Calamities evil gods. The organization that worshiped them, the Saints Convocation, was an evil cult through and through, and any attempt to destroy this world and its civilizations could be viewed as an act to refute Sia and the intelligent lifeforms she had created.
The knights had to be able to make sense of the irrationality around them, or else they wouldn’t be able to regain their morale.
As for Roel’s claim about being able to bring Tark Stronghold back, that was nothing more than a white lie. That was the only way to get the knights to pull themselves together.
That’s right! We can get the fortress back the same way we lost it!”
“It’s just an illusion created by the evil gods! We mustn’t fall for their ploy! Those damned evil cults think that they can pull one over us!”
“We need to first relay the news to others and strengthen our defenses here for the time being.”
Under Roel’s galvanizing spech, the knights, who had been believers of Goddess Sia from a young age, were able to find a new way to look at the situation. Through that, they found a new pillar of mental support and furiously swore to get back on the evil cults.
Two knights were dispatched to head back to Balk Town to report the matter, whereas the remaining members searched the vicinity for clues and constructed a simple base.
Tark Stronghold might have fallen, but the mountain pass still needed to be guarded. If they allowed the deviants to march in freely, they would swiftly scatter in all directions and wreak havoc along the eastern border, making it difficult for humankind to sustain its defense line.
Afterlife Of The Party
It Came From Below
Free Guy: Guy Meets Girl (60 Second Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Icon (Spot)
Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Tickets On Sale (Spot)
A Journal For Jordan (Teaser Trailer 1)
Everyone's Talking About Jamie: (Trailer 2)
He's All That (French Trailer 1)
Free Guy: Las Reacciones Maximas De Deadpool (Latin America Market Subtitled)
Collection
Of course, there was no way a unit of knights could have guarded Tark Prairie by itself. If the deviants were to launch a large-scale invasion, they would get overrun within moments. Both Roel and the knights were aware of that, but they chose not to mention it.
They knew that their lives were of little importance in comparison to the crisis that could potentially befall humankind. Their country, family, friends, and brethren were all behind them. They couldn’t afford to back down now.
The sudden catastrophe might have momentarily crushed their will, but they swiftly recalled everything they had vowed to protect. They suppressed their fear and forced themselves to stand their ground.
Meanwhile, there was another mission Roel needed to accomplish.
“Lord Roel, are you really going?”
While the knights were busy building a temporary camp, the commanders of the Third Knight Order gathered together and looked at the black-haired man in front of them.
Roel nodded his head in response to the question.
“Yes. Now that Prince Kane has gone missing, Her Highness Nora is the final hope of the Theocracy. For the stability and survival of our country. I need to go.”
“…”
A heavy silence fell upon the knight commanders. The sun had already risen into the sky by now, but the armored knights couldn’t feel the slightest warmth from it.
It was for a good reason that Tark Prairie was dubbed as the ‘Graveyard of Humans’, and Roel was planning to march right into its depths to look for Nora, who might not even be in there. Everyone thought that it was an act of utter madness, but none of them were able to find the words to stop him. They knew that what Roel had said was true.
For the Theocracy, this was something that had to be done.
Prince Kane might have disappeared with the hundred thousand soldiers of Tark Stronghold, but the Xeclydes still needed a successor. The Genesis Goddess Church mustn’t lose its lineage of Angel Bloodline. The royal family served as the centerpiece that brought the people together in times of turmoil. If the royal family couldn’t maintain internal stability, how could they inspire trust in the people?
Once the Theocracy collapsed, unease would swiftly ripple across the entire humankind like a disease, starting a pandemonium.
The knights knew that Roel was shouldering the fate of the country on his shoulders, and that was why none of them dared to stop him. They could only bid Roel farewell with heavy hearts.
“Take my insignia and pay a visit to Pendor and Rosa’s base camps at the eastern border. Tell them that the proxy fief lord of the Ascart Fiefdom, Roel Ascart, formally requests reinforcement at Tark Stronghold. I’ll personally explain things to their higher-ups afterward. Don’t worry, they’ll make a move.
“Till then, you have to guard this opening with everything you have. Remember this: There are no countries here, only humans. We’re all fighting with the same goal in mind.”
“Lord Roel…”
The knight captain received Roel’s insignia with a heavy heart. Roel patted his shoulder before silently leaping on top of a horse. He gently touched the warm blade of Ascendwing and mustered his determination.
“Hold on till I return. Warriors of Goddess Sia, may luck be on your side!”
With those words, Roel pulled the reins of his steed and galloped into the depths of Tark Prairie.
…
Roel knew that this was a mission he couldn’t afford to fail.
Nora was the only successor left in the Xeclyde Royal Family. Her position was so important that it could sway the future of humankind.
The Theocracy was hardly as stable as it looked on the surface. Should Prince Kane and Nora meet with a mishap, the Elrics would immediately step forward and rally all of those ambitious nobles to his side to confront the greatly weakened royal faction.
It was unlikely that the Elrics would blatantly stage a rebellion under the looming threat of the deviants and the powerful influence of the Xeclydes, but the fragmented Theocracy would become fraught with infighting. The cracks would continue to deepen till Holy Eminence John departed from the world.
With the extinction of the Xeclydes and the emptying of the throne, the Elrics could finally remove all their shackles and start an internal war.
A fight would inevitably break out between the Ascarts and the Elrics. The Genesis Goddess Church would likely back the Ascarts, but the Elrics would also be supported by the evil cults. No matter who won in this battle of good and evil, all semblance of order would be eroded.
With most resources depleted from the infighting, it would be hard for the Theocracy to put up a strong defense at Tark Prairie. If the deviants were to launch a large-scale invasion as they had on four previous occasions at that moment, there was no guarantee that humankind would be able to withstand the onslaught.
That was the conclusion Roel arrived at with just a bit of guesswork.
It was a grim future that he mustn’t allow to be realized, but that wasn’t what he was the most concerned about. There was only one thing in his mind now that terrified him, and that was the possibility that Nora might disappear.
Several days had passed since Nora’s degree of Seraphication reached its peak. Nora was only barely holding on with her own willpower, but her father, Kane, had suddenly disappeared together with Tark Stronghold at this crucial juncture. That would have come as a devastating shock to her.
Roel didn’t know if Nora was aware of the disaster that had befallen Tark Stronghold, but he prayed for her to remain ignorant. If he could conceal this matter from her till her condition stabilized, all would be all good.
He continued to gallop forth under the vague guidance of Ascendwing. After he had traveled for several hours, he started noticing bizarre piles ahead of him that caused his complexion to turn grave.
He wasn’t certain at first, but the overpowering stench became apparent as he got closer. A scenery of hell unfolded before Roel’s eyes.
It was a mountain of carcasses formed by hundreds of deviants stacked on top of one another.
The rotting stench could be smelled even from a thousand meters away, causing one’s stomach to churn with revulsion. Blood flowed away from the mountain like many little tributaries diverging away from its source, dyeing the ground red. Crows and hawks circled persistently in the sky.
This hyperrealistic scene felt like some sort of warped gorish artwork.
Roel felt his heart falling into the abyss as he stared at the mountain of carcasses. He galloped forward to check on the mutilated carcasses, and his face paled when he sensed familiar mana from them.
It really is her.
The violent mutilation of those carcasses was at odds with the kind and righteous woman Roel remembered, but his logical mind told him that there was no mistake here.
He stood in the midst of this hellish scenery for a brief moment before he focused his attention on the guidance of Ascendwing once more. He decided to turn his eyes away from the brutality and continue his journey.
Such sights continued as he ventured further into Tark Prairie. By sunset, he had already encountered three such mountains of carcasses.
The setting sun shrouded his body in an ominous blood glow. He could feel the guidance from Ascendwing slowly growing stronger.
At the same time, in a faraway hill stained with flesh and blood, a woman bearing majestic light wings slowly raised her head to direct an emotionless gaze westward.
