Throne of the North.

Chapter 657 The Knight in the Nightmare (Part 9)

A sword pierced through the nightmare before him, a sensation like stabbing tofu. The stag servant realized he hadn't caused any real damage and tried to pull his sword back, but was blocked by the tattered armor covering the misty surface.

"Find their core!"

The centurion arrived just in time, his longsword blocking the Nightmare's attack and pulling the stag servant back.

"They must have a core, just like the Frost Demons."

When Frostfiends were mentioned, the stag servants understood; they had dealt with Frostfiends many times.

With a sweep of his longsword, he repelled the nightmare, then leaped forward, drew a dagger from his waist, and plunged it into the face of the tattered armor, revealing the blood-red eyes.

As the dagger was inserted, Nightmare instantly lost all its ability to move. It let out a sharp howl and roar to the sky before turning into gusts of air and disappearing into the void.

"Nightmare isn't invincible. We've faced many enemies, and they all died."

That being said, the difficulty is extraordinary. First, these second-stage Nightmare Knights are no longer flesh and blood bodies with weaknesses everywhere; they can only be killed by penetrating their 'soul'. Second, in this chaotic battlefield, their enemies also include normal Nightmare Knights, who are Nightmare Knights' allies and pose an equally powerful threat.

Unsurprisingly, the Bucks began to fall behind, only managing to balance the situation thanks to the dragon warriors; such was the difference between flesh and blood and these ethereal monsters.

"As the weaker party, I must first demonstrate my abilities to His Excellency the Grand Duke."

Ryan remained standing in place, hesitating about when to make his move, but ultimately he was unwilling to let the Bucks suffer too many losses.

A loud horn sounded, and huge craters once again appeared on the ground of Redwing Plains. But this time, what emerged from those craters was not flesh and blood.

"Come on, let them see the alchemist's new invention! Hahahaha!!!"

Alchemists rode on towering metal monsters, their hands gripping the gears that whirred rapidly, burning purple mist with each friction. On the bodies of these metal monsters were engraved magical runes of life magic, the principle behind their ability to move like wild beasts.

There is no magic on this battlefield; alchemy fills the gap, though it appears exceptionally mad.

Grand Duke Meyers also looked at the dozens of tall metal monsters with heavy breathing.

"Dwarven technology?"

He turned to ask Chrysus, who shook his head.

"Dwarven technology... isn't this... crude."

"This seems to be alchemy."

“Magicians have always rejected alchemy, believing that alchemists are a magical system that has been aristocratized, because the magic of sorcery that can be passed down through bloodlines is inherently inconsistent with the idea of ​​magic seeking truth.”

What are their effects?

Krysus asked himself, then looked at the distant battlefield. The important thing about the metal monsters was not their size. Under the charge of the Nightmare Knight Legion, even the largest ones were turned into scrap metal.

It wasn't the magic runes engraved on his body either. Those magic runes belonged to very high-level magic, but they only provided mobility.

What truly matters is the purple flame generated by the friction of the gears in the transmission; these flames possess extraordinary power.

Gears spun through the nightmares, and purple flames swept across their bodies. The nightmares did not die, but they became weak.

“Ariris said that any power can be worn down by pure energy, whether it is one to one or ten to one. As long as there is enough energy, it can be exchanged for everything.”

"This is the principle of dragon breath. However, in the extraordinary world, most powers are not pure enough and cannot compare to the power of dragon breath."

"Nightmare, spiritual beings, you seem to be very pure."

The dozens of alchemical monsters are the only new objects created by the Alchemy Academy during the construction of the Northern Wall, originating from a series of accidental alchemical experiments.

Most of those mad alchemists found strange results from failures.

"Can the Grand Duke see this?"

"This is Ryan's glory."

Ryan looked at the nightmare path of the Redwing Plains, but he still couldn't see the Grand Duke.

"But this is not the end. I specially chose this place as the battlefield for Nightmare. It was where the two-legged dragon was buried. It is a feng shui treasure land."

Ryan grabbed the longbow from his horse, the crystal-forged arrows were fully drawn, and the burning flames illuminated the surroundings, like torches lighting up the high slope.

With a gentle flick of his fingers, the bowstring vibrated incessantly. The crystal arrow had long since vanished, swiftly traversing the sky and landing in the center of the distant battlefield.

The crystal arrow pierced the chest of a Nightmare Knight of the Sky Rank, pinning him firmly to the ground. The faint flame did not go out; it burned all the flesh beneath the Nightmare Knight's armor, turning him into a dried-up corpse, and ignited the surrounding weeds.

The flames grew larger and larger.

The raging fire finally made the dark sky less oppressive. The crimson light burned the earth with the flames, melting everything around it until the soil was mixed in with the fire and turned into scalding mud.

Magma appeared on the battlefield beneath the dark clouds, with blazing, scalding rivers of magma flowing like veins, spewing orange-red sparks and echoing ancient war cries.

"With the wars and bloodshed, death and slaughter, nightmares of the abyss, and spiritual flesh of this land, I share with my friend—the guide of twilight, the giant awakened in the flames."

"Surtur."

Ryan sang, then rode his white horse slowly toward the world of twilight and orange-red, stopping at the edge of the Nightmare Kingdom that Grand Duke Meyers could see.

In the center of this dark sky and earth, magma gathered into lakes, and a great being heard his call and was willing to descend.

A gigantic, fiery hand, over three hundred meters long, emerged from the lava lake. Surtur had eaten too well last time, and had become even stronger.

A massive, fiery hand descended from the sky, slamming down and killing countless Nightmare Knights. Surtur seemed dissatisfied with Ryan's call, offering only one hand to him. Then, the sound of chewing filled everyone's ears.

This nightmare kingdom is crumbling and falling apart, and Surtur at dusk is devouring the abyss-like energy within it.

The appearance of a deity, one of the few that has awakened, finally made Grand Duke Meyers unable to sit still any longer.

He attempted to sacrifice the province of Northwind in order to make a deal with the gods and exchange it for the renewed greatness of the Meyers bloodline.

But now, this war has even involved the gods.

Chrysus stood there, unsure of what to do. He still held many of Meyers's treasures in his hands, each one incredibly powerful and a formidable possession befitting a grand duke's family.

Looking at the white horse on the distant northern battlefield, the Grand Duke began to ponder the gains and losses.

Should this matter be fought to the death? Grand Duke Meyers seemed to foresee the emergence of an earth-shattering war. What would happen if the war continued to escalate?
That would be terrifying, possibly even surpassing the scale of the war between the Empire and the Dawn Church, barring the words of Dawn Sunbird Ifrit.

Red Wing Plain.

The horn finally sounded. The war horn, forged from the horn of an ancient monster, let out a deep roar. The knights from the Nightmare withdrew their desire to attack and began to retreat into the Nightmare's path.

Later on, Surtur will probably devour their path.

Above, the dark clouds gradually dissipated as the war came to an end. Ryan calmly gazed into the depths of the path. In this nightmare kingdom, the Baron and the Grand Duke finally locked eyes.

Ryan lowered his head, placed his palms on his chest, and bent slightly over on his warhorse.

Bowing is a noble etiquette; the difference between a baron and a grand duke is not as great as the difference between a baron and a king.

Lean stood up, turned and left without regard for the Grand Duke's reaction behind him. His steps were slow and deliberate, like a bard walking through an ancient land full of stories.

Gradually, the white horse galloped towards the Frozen Territory, followed by a horde of rumbling Northern cavalry, awakening the slumbering Northwind Province.

The nobles arrived at Redwing Plains belatedly, and seeing this once barren wasteland transformed into a pitted ruin, not one of them could remain calm.

They sensed something was happening here, but they couldn't fathom the consequences of the war. What were those charred, steaming, hardened objects? Was it lava? How could something like that appear in Redwing Plains?

And why does that muddy ground smell so strongly of metal shavings? The broken metal fragments easily sliced ​​through the thick animal hides of the feet. Soldiers picked them up with delight, wanting to reforge them into their own weapons. What kind of force shattered such hard and sharp metal into these fragments?
The nobles could only imagine, but no third noble would know what had actually happened on Redwing Plains that day.

However, this did not prevent the nobles from having such a high level of awareness.

"Grand Duke Meyers and Baron Ryan have engaged in a fierce war? Countless dead and wounded? Rivers of blood?"

"A great aura exists, whether it's a nightmare or that scorching, intense energy, both symbolize that something very irrational has happened on that land."

"Under the light of faith, there is no fertile ground for other gods."

His Majesty the Emperor sternly questioned Grand Duke Meyers and Baron Ryan: What exactly is the conflict between you?!

"The nobles of the empire should live in peace and should never engage in war or conflict, let alone such a terrible war!"

"Meyers and Ryan must give all the nobles an explanation!"

The nobles, whether out of curiosity, curiosity, or ulterior motives, shouted and made noise, targeting Grand Duke Meyers.

"War? I've never even thought about it."

Grand Duke Meyers's nonchalant response displeased the nobles, who then turned their attention to Baron Ryan, the Northern Baron who had previously enjoyed undermining the Grand Duke to annoy the old man.

"Nothing."

The Baron of Rhinoceros Horn Mountain waved his hand in response.

The fact that the two parties gave the exact same response left the nobles somewhat puzzled, since these two were in the midst of a heated conflict.
ended?
Many nobles were curious about what that war was like, feeling as if ants were crawling all over them.

"Where is Lady Pora, the Prophet Witch? Wasn't she supposed to have gone to the Northwind Province? Doesn't she know anything about this either?"

"She has come back."

"She knows nothing."

The nobles had no choice but to wait for the next confrontation between Grand Duke Meyers and Baron Ryan, hoping to get the outcome from them.

The war between the Grand Duke and the Baron sounds like an incredibly legendary event.

"Speaking of legends, it seems that Baron Ryan has also become a legend."

"Oh my god, I'm going to ask a woman from the Clayton family for her hand in marriage."

Is there any necessary connection between these two things?

"As long as I have many children, sooner or later I will be able to give birth to a Baron Ryan."

"..."

In the days that followed, the empire seemed to enter a period of spiritual tranquility. Not only did the nobles lose their fun, but even many of the Black Swan assassins disappeared.

Dopamine was being released, and the nobles awaited Ryan and Meyers' next move, but it never came.

Along the North Wind Avenue, various merchant guilds began to travel one after another to the eastern kingdoms and back to the interior of the empire.

Within Zero Crossing City, the Northern Merchant Guild headquarters began organizing a team to gradually cross the Flying Wing Canyon, bringing Northern specialties to the southern lands to announce the arrival of winter. They brought with them the new Dragon Elephant Armor series, which had already reached the point of being pre-ordered; everyone wanted the extraordinary armor personally forged by Master Brock.

On this vast land, the people on those roads, like ants that have finally cleared the obstacles, began to densely dot the roads, frequently enjoying their lives.

Everything fell silent.

The nobles finally realized that the conflict between Baron Ryan and Grand Duke Meyers had come to an end.

The problem is that, to this day, the nobles still don't know what kind of conflict has erupted.

What was the purpose of that war?
They didn't know; the nobles didn't know.

Ryan didn't know either.

Even after all the trouble he and Meyers had gone through, Ryan still couldn't figure out what Grand Duke Meyers wanted to do with the Northwind Province.

I always feel that we are persisting in war without knowing why.

After thinking for a long time, Ryan still couldn't figure out what Grand Duke Meyers' purpose was, and could only shake his head.

"Whatever, if I don't know, I don't know."

Meyers now understands the cost of targeting the Northwind Province, which is no longer what it was thirty years ago, and Ryan's reputation has been elevated to its peak through these battles.

From the moment it was born, Ryan was already doomed to a bitter end in the conflict between a baron and a grand duke.

The quiet ending only fueled the endless speculation among the nobles.

(End of this chapter)