Knight and Wand

Chapter 282 Dawn (Part )

The scarlet blood slowly gathered into the pupils; the memories of the past broke free from thousands of hideous cries and re-emerged in the depths of the soul.

"You are still alive, Aqi." The five fingers that were tightly strangling his neck gradually relaxed, and the voice that was originally full of hatred also softened.

When Azerien heard his childhood nickname in the monster's hoarse voice, his struggle froze instantly.

"No!" The son of nobility widened his eyes in disbelief, "This is impossible.!" Feeling that the force on his throat was no longer restraining him, Azerien kicked hard at the other person and broke free.

He rolled over and fell onto the terrace, using his hands and feet to escape from the other party. He stumbled back and looked at the bloodthirsty monster who had killed his lord and countless comrades and soldiers.

"You can't be him!!" Azerien muttered in shock, stepping back.

The familiar standard long swords in the hands of the Blood Mist Knights flashed through his mind.

In the moonlight shining on the terrace, the high crown of the ferocious helmet faded like snow, and Charleman's pale face appeared in front of Azerien.

".Father."

Looking at the face of his loved one that had appeared countless times in his dreams, the boy clenched his teeth and tears fell from his eyes: "Who did it? What did they turn you into?"

His voice was trembling with anger and sadness.

However, Xuetong's body seemed to be deaf to the noise and just moved forward tentatively, trying to get closer to the lost relative who was recovered.

".He betrayed you. He joined the kinslayers. He walked with the sinners.
Correct his mistakes and let him let your child come back to you this time. You will never be separated again."

The "regret" of the snake's hissing lingering in his ears deeply hurt Shaleman's soul.

Countless resentments in his mind tortured his consciousness at the same time.

His memory became increasingly blurred, his right hand that was tightly gripping the magic sword trembled slightly, and strands of blood wrapped around his arm.

".Kill him, kill him, kill him
Kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him."

Thousands of murderous intentions and calls were entangled like a nightmare. Every atrocity that Rolandar had encountered constantly stimulated the remaining sanity of the dead. Tyranny, anger, sadness, and fear were intertwined.

"Shut up!!!!!!"

The blood-armored baron struggled and roared to the sky. The magic storm stirred up rolling waves of air, shaking the earth. The charred floor under his feet cracked and exploded like a spider web, and huge bricks and stones fell from the cracks in the hall to the lower level of the fortress.

The razor-like wind forced Azerien to cover his face. His body was instantly blown away and with a bang, he sank deeply into the stone wall.

The dwarf's armor crumbled and broke, dissipating a considerable amount of the force, but the heavy blow to the back of the head still made Azerien almost faint.

Blood filled Charleman's eyes again.

A scarlet figure flashed, and he pressed the neck of the boy in front of him.

The demonic sword, surging with blood, was raised, ready to pierce through the only living relative.

However, every inch that the advancing sword moved in his hand seemed to be resisted by a force.

". I gave you the power to take revenge. Mortal
Hear your beloved's final wail, hear her pain
You didn’t see her end, I’ll let you know everything.”

Scenes of his wife being tortured to death flashed across his bloodshot, ferocious eyes.

In his ears, he could also hear the resentful questions from his "beloved".

The soul was resisting. Shaleman screamed with red eyes, angrily questioning his only son in front of him: "Why are you here! Why are you protecting these sinners who insulted and killed your mother and destroyed our home! Answer me - Aqi!!"

The hollow roar was as terrifying as if it came from the abyss.

"It is you, father, who are with the criminals who killed you and your mother.
I am protecting my friends, protecting innocent people, and living up to the honor of Flarel."

Azerien held his father's wrist tightly, his teeth bleeding as he smiled miserably, but his eyes showed calmness and comfort:
".As for my mother, she was not insulted or tortured. I used myself and my treasures to trick those thugs away and hid the body of my mother after she committed suicide. Please rest in peace, father."

In an instant, the heartache from the bottom of his soul penetrated through countless noises and poured into Charleman's brain.

The illusion of his resentful wife in front of him shattered, and he could see Azerien's face clearly again.

"..What am I..doing.!" His consciousness was buffeted by endless whispers. Shaleman's bloodshot eyes trembled. He let go of his son and retreated in despair.

Feeling the blood-red shadow following him again, Shaleman reached out to grab his face with his dragon-claw-like hand armor.

His handsome face was immediately covered in blood, but the horrific lacerations healed almost immediately as he grabbed.

“——Ahhhh!!!”

Screaming out in agony from within his soul, the Bloody Baron used the last of his sanity to transform into blood mist, which then emerged from the fortress like a puff of thick smoke and soared into the sky.

The sky was filled with scarlet color, as if a pair of huge red mist dragon wings stretched out and flew into the night sky at an unimaginable speed, carrying the struggling and fleeing Shaleman.

Enduring the severe pain, Azerien struggled to free his limbs from the depression in the stone wall and fell heavily back onto the sunken floor.

He struggled to get up, his eyes looking through the night sky on the terrace, staring deeply in the direction where his father had disappeared.

He had imagined the worst-case scenario, that his parents' bodies would be desecrated by necromancy, but he never expected that his closest relatives would become the leaders of the enemies of the living.
What to do? He doesn't know
Azerien endured the confusion and sadness, drew his sword to support his weak body, and turned to leave the fortress restaurant that seemed to be about to collapse.

He groped his way toward the stairs leading downstairs, holding onto the wall of the corridor in the dark.

After taking a few steps, I vaguely heard shouting and killing coming from not far away.

There was a flash of fire ahead, and Azerien quickened his pace and tried to call for help.

At the same time, a faint cold wind blew towards him, frightening him so much that he raised his sword to block it.

With a sharp sound, another extremely sharp sword blade took the lead and pierced through the heart of the banshee in the dark cleanly.

With a flicker of light, the sword was quickly drawn back. Then, the first sword beheaded the man, and the second sword cut him in half, with smooth movements.

As the monster's body fell apart, the female knight with only chain mail on her upper body and a bloody face was revealed.

Agatha looked at the miserable young knight in front of her and breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, you did not die at the hands of that monster."

Azerien felt mixed emotions when he heard this.

He nodded to the female knight in thanks and followed her steps to join the others. "Thank you for coming to rescue me, Sir Agatha."

"You saved my life, I won't owe you anything." The princess's guard, holding the thorn blade tightly in his left hand, shook off the blood and turned back to shout: "Come here quickly, Sir Flarel is here!"

Several torches quickly gathered together, and Azerien saw the battle-scarred Knight Corinth having resolved the battle, and hurried over with Avalon's squires and warriors.

Colint, who had come to the rescue with the determination to die, was relieved when he saw that the butler had survived the terrible monster.

"Where are the others?" Azerien asked hopefully, looking around and found that many familiar figures were missing.

Hearing Azerien's question, Colint could hardly hide the grief on his face: "Carven and Ryan have died gloriously in battle, and the family's knights have evacuated from another street with Sir David.

Sir, let's hurry up too. Lord Ron is leading the Shatai Group to cover the rear and attract those blood-sucking monsters that hate the Kantardars. We must hurry to the suspension bridge on the west side of the fortress and escape back to the city wall."

Azerien's heart darkened.

He knew very well what fate those Shatai mercenaries who chose to serve as the rear guard of the defeated army would face in the end.
After passing through the Iselin Valley and marching to a flat field, Leon no longer worried about possible ambushes and ordered the entire army to march day and night.

They encountered an ambush of thousands of Rolandar Undead in the south of the valley. After a bloody battle at the cost of many warriors' lives, they finally eliminated that group of strange and powerful enemies. Although they won the victory, Leon's anxiety became more and more intense.

The speed of these undead troops was much faster than the previous zombie armies. They did not even carry Soul Bell Corpse Carts, but they took the initiative to invade the area outside the dark clouds.

Leon had a hunch that with their current pattern of action, the Kilmerton Fortress might be facing a similar huge threat at this moment.

Under the stars and the moon, Leon, who was on horseback, glanced at Lohak, who had been silent for days, thinking that he was still thinking about the curse he had made on those vampire knights and banshees before they were destroyed.

Although there are legends of blood-sucking monsters in this world, there is no specific concept of vampires. This name is still the name Leon gave to those strange undead spirits based on similar existences in his previous life.

Leon had no choice but to enlighten his brother: "Don't take their irrational resentment to heart. The resurrected souls are being used by the enemy. If they really have the will and mind for revenge, then their primary targets should be the direct murderers who actually slaughtered Rolandar, the undead army transformed by the Kantadar Eastern Expedition, and the enemy behind the scenes who manipulated them.

But now, even the people in Serion are being slaughtered mercilessly by the Scourge. You also know the tragic situation that Lord Irem and those Dinethian rangers witnessed when they passed through Serion.

We are using the Kantardar army to fight this disaster, not only to protect Orland and Kantardar, but also to save our homeland."

Lohak came back to his senses and looked at Leon's concerned expression. He relaxed slightly and shook his head: "Don't worry, I don't dwell too much on their resentment."

As he spoke, Lohak suppressed his anger and whispered, "I just thought that my father and mother's bodies and souls might be distorted by the enemy, and even become accomplices of the person behind this disaster."

Leon was silent. At this point, he could not comfort them any more. The only thing he could do now was to end everything and let the dead on earth rest in peace.

At this time, Corvis's nervous voice came from the sky. The Hippogriff flew back to the front of the team and slowly lowered its altitude. "My Lord! A large number of figures were spotted ahead. There were also formations of what looked like flying units in the sky. They might be groups of giant bat ghosts. The light is too dark for me to see clearly, but there are at least three to five thousand troops on the ground."

".Three to five thousand?" Leon frowned. If they were still the same elite undead led by vampires, it would undoubtedly be disadvantageous for the troops who had just experienced a bloody battle and a long journey to fight against the enemy again.

He looked up at Akau: "Can we go around it?"

"It's difficult. They have already discovered us and the team is approaching here." Corvis answered anxiously.

Upon hearing this, Leon no longer hesitated and immediately ordered the entire army to stop advancing and prepare for battle.

Under the cover of night, he didn't dare to imagine that the other party was a friendly force that happened to come back to provide support.

The sudden defeat on the southern battlefield was so devastating that only a few remnants escaped back to the pass. Even if there were rare survivors, they could not have been on such a large scale.

Since Princess Ines and Lord Elliver sent Sir Tiger to issue a warning, it was obviously impossible for them to send such a large army to leave the fortress at night and rush to the fields south of the pass to meet me.

The only possibility ahead is the army of the undead.

Leon looked at the night sky in the distance with a heavy heart. The other party had set up layers of obstacles on the road back to the fortress, as if they were ambushing him on purpose.

Trumpets and whistles suddenly rang out in the team, and the knights once again led the soldiers to gradually form a formation.

The soldiers, who were full of energy, dismounted one after another, formed a strong formation in rows, and walked slowly.

Soon, the coalition forces encountered a neat army in front of them, also in formation and with rumbling footsteps.
A streak of light spread across the field. Leon opened his eyes wide and discovered that the light there did not seem to belong to the undead army.

Looking calmly into the distance, at the outer wall where the undead kept pouring in, the brutal and bloody fight was spreading on the top of the city.

The outermost area of ​​the fortress finally couldn't bear the burden and gradually fell.

On the city wall, the torches held high by the survivors were extinguished one by one. After the main force withdrew, the soldiers responsible for covering the rear fell one by one.

Until the last few Sea Eagle Knights successively ignited the high channels built by the coalition forces on the inside of the outer wall, separating their own lives from the entire army forever.

The raging fire spread along the troughs filled with haystacks, firewood and oil tanks, forming a series of flame curtains that shot up into the sky.

The undead who tried to pass through the raging flames were turned into ashes with screams.

Without the maintenance of the strange power of the underworld, the corpse's body was burned faster than when it was under the dark clouds.

The fire surrounding the fortress temporarily stopped the attack of the undead army, but Ines did not feel relieved at all.

This can only block it for a short time.

After making the final stage of troop deployment and gathering the remaining soldiers, the girl turned around and looked at the fortress and streets that were completely shrouded in darkness and deathly silence.

In addition to the three thousand soldiers guarding the second gate of the city wall system, they are still resisting the infiltration of blood-sucking monsters.

In the inner city, no shouting or screaming could be heard, and no light could be seen.

This means that Lord Elliver did not succeed in retaking the fortress, and the warriors of the Thorn Flower may have been swallowed up by the terrible darkness.

Master Harvey was not among the warlock apprentices who had earlier fled to the city wall. Agatha, who had escorted the messenger to escape, had not returned yet.

The people she trusted most were not around, and she couldn't help but wonder if today would be the day she would die.
Looking down, Ines looked at the sharp and gorgeous light sword in her hand, touched her neck, and smiled helplessly.

She was quite afraid of pain and probably didn't dare to do it herself at the last moment.

Looking at the loyal guards with frowns on their faces beside her, Ines only hoped that the knight she would entrust with the task would be more skillful when swinging his sword.

She had already prepared oil tanks that could burn her body. Even if she had to go to the underworld of the god Vinolis to be punished, she did not want to become that ugly and bloodthirsty monster.

There was a commotion coming from the other side of the city wall. The little princess looked to the side and saw a small group of blood-soaked Thorn Flower soldiers passing through rows of soldiers, carrying a knight who was obviously seriously injured, and shouting for doctors and warlocks.

But there was still no sign of Count Elliver among the crowd.

The messenger came to the tower to report.

After hearing the news that the Lord of Thorn Flowers had died in battle, Ines closed her eyes and nodded sadly.

Not long after, another wave of noise surged on the west wall.

Agatha, holding the Sword of Thorns in her hand, walked through the crowd and pulled the soldier aside to ask where her master was.

Without caring about her disheveled hair, the female knight quickly came to the tower where Ines was commanding the entire army.

She was about to kneel down and report to the princess, but Ines quickly stepped forward and hugged her tightly.

The female knight was a little embarrassed, but she did not struggle. She just lowered her voice and said, "Your Highness has lived up to your trust. Sir Angor who went to seek help has already left through the secret passage."

Ines clung to her most reliable warrior, not caring about the blood all over his body. As if she had gained enough sense of security, she slowly let go of him and the slight fragility in her eyes disappeared.

"Can you still fight?" asked the little princess.

Agatha raised her sword: "Fight for you."

On the city wall, Azerien leaned against the parapet to catch his breath, looking around at the last of the Allied soldiers standing in every corner of the fortress's inner wall.

When he arrived, he saw that on the inner wall of the city, the soldiers guarding the entrances and passages were still fighting with the monsters in the dark.

After several moments of hard fighting, this seemed to be the final battle, but the time until dawn was still so long that it was despairing.

Climbing up the arrow-shaped parapet and standing up, he looked into the distance at the outer wall and the outer city wall that were burning with flames.

The fire was weakening, and many zombies illuminated by the flames had crossed the last barrier. An endless tide of zombies, crowded and roaring, were rapidly approaching behind the flames.

Azerien raised his sword, kissed the Holy Sun on the hilt, closed his eyes, and made a final devout prayer.

“I pray to You, my supreme Savior.

May I end my suffering by basking in your sunshine, and I will clear you of all evil and heresy.

May you protect our souls and allow them to reach your other shore with glory."

The distant and deep sound of the horn seemed to come from the distant sky.

Azerien opened his eyes and gripped his sword tightly.

But after a moment of pause, he could hear clearly that the horn did not come from the city wall.

I looked up at the sky in the direction of the sound.

In the night sky illuminated by the fire, there seemed to be hundreds and thousands of shadows, pressing down like dark clouds.

(Hraan)
“——In the name of the desolate mountain!!” The strong lion scorpion rider blew his long beard, raised the heavy spear high, and roared loudly.

The scorpion-tailed lion swooped down, blocking out the sun and the sky.

The iron balls hanging on the side of the giant beast loosened their chains and fell into the sea of ​​corpses with a roar.

——Boom boom boom!!!

In an instant, a series of explosions and roars made Azerien's ears buzz and he lost his voice.

Thousands of fireballs rose up inside and outside the fortress, and countless broken limbs and corpses were blown into the sky, flying all over the sky.

Outside Kilmerton Pass.

Waves of orderly footsteps slowly stepped onto the high slope.

The mountains were filled with fine steel armor, reflecting the brilliance of silver and bronze under the moonlight.

Earthquake-like tremors continued to be heard from behind the army formation. Three giant golden and bronze creatures took heavy steps out of the shadows. The ancient furnace at the center of their chests flickered with amber light.

A dragon beast even larger than them, carrying the Contempt Throne of the King of Steelforge, with blazing flames on its thorny scales, stepped out with footprints on the scorched earth and passed through the huge army formation.

The Molten Dragon Lizard snorted fieryly, and its huge eyes were too lazy to even look at the ants full of stench in the distance. It just stared at the annoying "cousin" hovering in the night sky with unfamiliarity.

A gigantic black-scaled flying dragon flew low over the heavily armored phalanx of the dwarf army. The King of the Barren Mountains hefted the giant hammer with one hand on the dragon saddle. He looked at the undead below, spat in disgust, pulled the iron reins, and urged the fire dragon to fly towards the sea of ​​corpses.

Thousands of iron hooves trampled and roared, the sword-winged flag of Avalon fluttered in the night wind on the high slope, and Leon raised his sword and roared.

The knights who charged at the undead led a huge coalition of dwarves and humans to rush onto the battlefield like a torrent.

(End of this chapter)