Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 402: Head of the Watcher

When Arganti pushed open the door of the isolation ward, the two fire monks on the beds trembled noticeably and looked towards the door in disbelief.

The next second, they saw the figure that they had been longing for so long in their high fever coma, but were afraid to avoid when they actually saw it.

"grown ups."

"Lord Argonte"

"Get out now, this is not the place for you. Ahem. We will die, but you still have to lead your brothers to continue fighting!"

"The Watchers cannot be defeated by the Titans!"

The throat burned by the high temperature made a dry and unpleasant twitching sound, and it seemed that it would break at any time, but the two monks still called out with all their strength.

While struggling to sit up, they cast resentful glances at their comrades outside the door, blaming them for not stopping the adults outside.

The people outside the door could only respond with a helpless look, which also contained a hint of pity.

Arganti had strode into the room and sat on a stool between the two beds, holding the arms of the two monks, which were already beginning to glow faintly.

These are the Watchers, a group of rocks that have taken root here since the founding of the Flame Temple. At the location closest to the top of the Giant Mountain, they monitor the mortal enemies buried by the Dynasty day and night, devoting their entire lives and even their lives to strangle any possibility of the enemy's resurgence.

Since the beginning of the 30th year of the Golden Calendar, more than days and nights have passed.

As the unit with the highest death rate among the Templar monks, the monks in the fortress have been replaced by tens of thousands of people. But even among the 1,500 active Flame Monks and more than 500 reserve personnel, any two people picked out at random have probably entrusted their lives to each other several times.

Arganti is the most special one among them. In the first five years after the establishment of the fortress, he was the right-hand man of Yuno, the first generation of supervisors. After taking over, he worked in this position for fourteen years. He personally trained and saw off generations of supervisors.

In other words, including the two monks on the hospital bed, almost everyone in the fortress owed him a life, and more than one.

For the monitors, although the chief monitor is half a level lower in rank than the seven archbishops, in their hearts, Agonti is their only totem and belief. Even if he does not give any reason for them to die, they will not frown.

"Don't worry, kids—"

Agonti's voice was low and steady, still without any sadness or panic in it. Instead, it was filled with the solemnity of mountains and rivers, just as it had always been when he led them.

"I'm sorry. Because of my hesitation and cowardice, you have suffered a lot of pain that you didn't have to endure."

“But now, I’m ready.”

When he said these words, the monks outside the door could only see a determined back but could not observe the expression on the bishop's face.

Inside the ward, in the two monks' vision that was cloudy and red due to the high temperature, the adult's pupils were like two burning torches, not only stirring up a terrifying power that they could not understand, but also exuding an unprecedented ambition.

It was a look they had never seen in Arganti.

The bishop has always been a deep, solemn, and unsmiling man, but at this moment, he seemed to have taken off the heavy shackles that had been buried for a long time, and tore apart the body that had been suppressing and restraining him, and was so corrupt that it suffocated him, and he once again showed the posture that the once extremely talented fire monk should have!
"That's not pollution. It never was." He calmly stated the shocking truth, as if it had nothing to do with him. "The power that caused everyone to mutate comes from the Ten Chapters of Giant Prayer that I taught you."

"Giant's prayer?" a flame monk exclaimed, "But didn't the Lord say that it was a bishop-level prayer passed down in secret in the Holy Temple?"

"Idiot!" Another older middle-aged monk punched the man in front of him on the back of the head. "What the lord said is that he deceived us. The lord must have his reasons for deceiving us. Why do you need to talk nonsense!"

"To put it simply, the cathedral has fallen, the garrison has collapsed, the whereabouts of the six archbishops are unknown, and the North has become a dead end. Our only way to survive is to master the forbidden power of the giants, break through the thousands of miles of defense built by the enemy's Holy Land and Southern Warbands, recapture Lord Fortress from north to south, and return to Asia."

Arganti stood up, and a flame emerged from his chest, burning the entire light protective suit on his body.

"What you are studying is the first ten chapters of the replica of the giant's prayer book, or in other words, it is the translation that I created after deciphering it. I have personally tested each of the prayers on me hundreds of times." Everyone's eyes subconsciously focused on him. On the surface of his muscular and upright body, countless tiny scales, feathers and tumor-like protrusions had covered most of Arganti's skin.

Many of the proliferating tissues still showed signs of being burned by flames, but this method was obviously not enough to suppress the process of mutation. New tissues continued to emerge like mushrooms after rain, gradually infecting Arganti into a being similar to a humanoid hybrid.

However, these mutations were strictly confined to the area below the neck. Below the collarbone that was previously hidden by the collar, the monks saw a circle of dark burn marks.

Arganti ignited the hottest flame under his throat and even applied multiple forbidden-level seals to ensure that the forbidden power that was spreading wildly in his body would not rise along his heart and corrode his mind.

He always calculates gains and losses rationally, calmly and without any emotion. He must make sure that his decisions are not bewitched by evil gods like Pilak.

His own life was also included in the calculation.

"You may think that I am using you as test subjects. I will not deny this. Because in the past month, I have indeed been conducting experiments on you, testing the limits of the forbidden power that your bodies can bear while maintaining normal human rationality."

"But now, we no longer have the cost of trial and error."

"If you sit and wait for death, you will die. You will die when the giants break into your fortress and eat you wantonly. You will die like a group of miserable ants without any dignity."

"If you take the risk, you will probably die. You will die from the disordered mutation that occurs after the forbidden power takes control of your body. You will die like a piece of rotten meat that grows wildly. You will also die without dignity."

"The only difference is that I will be the first to try to take the last step."

Everyone had not yet recovered from the shocks that followed one after another, until they heard these words, when they suddenly realized that the bishop was going to take some kind of risk that he himself was not sure of, just to buy a glimmer of hope for everyone in the desperate situation.

"Sir, tell me exactly what to do, let me do it!"

"No, let me do it!"

"The first one can only be me. I'm seriously injured and won't live long!"

"Shut up," Arganti ordered calmly.

The excited monks suddenly fell silent, with only their red faces reflecting their intense emotions.

"If I do it, there's still a one in ten thousand chance of success, and then I can lead you all to complete the transformation. If any one of you replaces me, we will all just wait to die together."

"Now listen to my orders. Everyone, retreat to the third underground floor of the fortress and prepare all protective equipment. I cannot guarantee whether this body can bear the power after entering the forbidden door. It is better to die in a desperate charge against the giants than to be blown up by me."

"Joshua..." Argonti pointed out a name, and the person who came out was the high-level monk who had gone to the bottom of the dungeon with him before.

"If I don't meet you underground in thirty minutes, you will be the next head of the Overseers."

"No matter what I look like at that time, kill me. After that, whether you defend this fortress or try to break out, everything is up to you."

"I"

Joshua's lips trembled slightly, and his eyes were wet with tears.

But when he met Agonti's eyes and saw the same determination in his pupils as before, he finally had no choice but to respond with all his strength.

"I obey my orders!"

(End of this chapter)