Being a knight is not easy

Chapter 143 Assimilation
The three of them fell into silence.

Elina subconsciously asked, "Are we still going to Frost Fortress to investigate?"

Alger quickly shook his head.

"Going now would mean making an enemy of the entire North. The risk is too great."

The three of them fell into a brief silence, with only the occasional "clicking" sound of the remaining gears in the mechanical workshop.

Elina's fingers unconsciously stroked the hilt of the sword, her brow furrowed. "If we don't go to the Frost Fortress, what else can we do? The Mechanicus won't stop, and the Frosthawk's sacrificial ceremony won't wait for us."

Alger leaned against the wall, his face still pale, but a sarcastic smile played at the corner of his mouth. "Going to Frost Fortress now is like walking straight into my father's trap. Do you think he'll be defenseless? The elite knights of the entire North, the Gear Eye of the Mechanicus, and even those brainwashed wizards... they will all be waiting for us there."

Robin thought for a moment and said, "Didn't you say that people from at least three villages have been assimilated? Let's go there and take a look."

"You're such a lunatic," Alger said, then took out a map.

Alger's finger slid across the map, finally stopping at an area circled in red ink—Ashes Village, the closest assimilated village to Frostdew Territory.

"Three days ago, there was smoke from cooking fires in this village," Alger said in a low voice. "Now, only 'them' are left."

Robin stared at the map, the silver-blue markings on the Tang sword flickered slightly, as if responding to some call.

"Then let's go to Ash Village," he said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

Elina's fingers loosened from the hilt of the sword, but her brows remained furrowed. "If the people in the village have been completely assimilated..."

"Then purify it." Robin interrupted her, his eyes sharp as a knife. "The Watcher's Key can reverse mechanical corrosion—Alger's experiments have proven this."

Alger grinned, revealing an almost insane smile: "Ha! I should have thought of it earlier - you wanted to use those villagers as 'experimental subjects'!"

The three set out under cover of darkness, avoiding the main roads and heading north along the frozen stream.

Alger led the way, his mechanical pocket watch constantly making subtle "clicking" sounds, and the pointer pointed strangely in the direction of Ash Village, as if attracted by some force.

"Listen." Elina suddenly lowered her voice.

There were intermittent, metallic friction sounds in the wind - like gears turning, or the crisp sound of bones being forcibly twisted.

Robin's Tang sword was silently unsheathed three inches, and the dark red marks flickered like breathing.

The outline of Ash Village emerged in the moonlight—but the scene before her made Elina's breath hitch.

The surface of the houses in the village is covered with a layer of silver-black mechanical veins, wriggling like blood vessels.

The villagers "walking" on the road are no longer in human form - their limbs are replaced by gear joints, and their heads are cracked, revealing the scarlet eyeballs rotating inside.

The most terrifying thing is that these "villagers" are still repeating their behaviors in life:

A mechanical body that looks like a peasant woman is "feeding" a group of metal crows. Her fingers are sharp blades, but she is cutting open her own mechanical internal organs.

Several "children" chased each other on the street, their laughter turned into sharp electronic sounds, and the metal tails extending from their spines pierced each other's bodies, but healed the next second.

"A perfect symbiote..." Alger's eyes flashed with morbid excitement, "A more advanced evolution than the Eye of Gear!"

Robin's Tang sword suddenly vibrated violently, and the silver-blue marks broke away from the blade, turning into a ray of light and floating towards the center of the village - there stood a twisted metal altar, on which was nailed a corpse that had not yet been fully mechanized.

He is the village chief.

His lower body had become a collection of metallic spider-like limbs, but he still retained his human features from the chest up.

When the silver-blue light approached, he suddenly looked up, and black oil flowed from his turbid eyes.

"Key...key..." He squeezed out broken words from his throat, "Save...us..." Elina's sword was unsheathed: "He is still conscious?!"

Alger suddenly grabbed Robin's wrist and said, "Don't go over there! It's a trap—there's something under the altar!"

Too late.

The village chief's body suddenly exploded, and countless silver-black mechanical tentacles rose from under the altar!
At the same time, all the "villagers" turned their heads in unison, their scarlet eyes locked onto the three people—

"Found...the key..."

"Dedicate...Container..."

The entire village came alive, and the mechanical veins on the surfaces of the houses surged like huge waves, rushing towards them!

The Ash Village completely changed before the eyes of the three people.

The house twisted like a living thing, its walls cracking to reveal the rotating gears within.

The ground trembled, and countless silver-black mechanical tentacles broke out of the ground, strangling them like hungry pythons.

"Stand back!" Alger suddenly ripped open his shirt, revealing his chest—where an ice-blue mechanical core was embedded, spinning madly.

“Ka-clang!”

Metal veins instantly spread under his skin, his arms turned into sharp mechanical blades, and ice-blue energy flowed through his joints.

"You--?!" Elina's pupils suddenly shrank.

Alger grinned, his mechanized vocal cords emitting an electronic mix: "Surprise? The Frosthawk family's 'curse'... is also a 'gift.'"

Alger charged into the swarm of mechanical tentacles like a ghost, his double-edged blades slashing out icy blue arcs of light, freezing and shattering the tentacles wherever he passed.

But more mechanical villagers have surrounded them, their bodies twisted and deformed, their limbs extended into weapons.

Robin's Tang sword was finally unsheathed, and the silver-blue markings wrapped around the blade like a living thing.

He rushed towards the altar, and wherever the sword flashed, the mechanical villagers let out shrill electronic screams - the parts that were cut actually recovered into flesh and blood, but were quickly eroded again by the surrounding mechanical veins.

"The key can reverse assimilation, but it needs to be kept in effect!" Robin yelled.

Elina's thorn pendant suddenly burst into golden light, and ancient runes appeared on the sword: "In the name of the Round Table - Eclipse!"

Golden sword energy swept across, severing over a dozen mechanical villagers in half, with sacred flames rising from their wounds. But the next second, the tentacles beneath the altar suddenly converged, transforming into a massive maw that swallowed Elina!

"boom!"

Alger knocked Elina away from the side, but was bitten on the right shoulder by the huge mouth.

A large piece of his mechanical and flesh-and-blood limb was torn off, but he actually laughed wildly and thrust his left arm into the giant mouth: "Taste this!"

The ice-blue core is overclocked, and extreme cold energy bursts out!
The giant mouth froze from the inside, and Alger took the opportunity to break free. Dozens of tiny mechanical tentacles extended from the broken right shoulder, quickly repairing itself.

Robin finally rushed to the altar and stabbed the Tang sword into the center——

"Zheng——!"

Silver-blue light poured into the altar like a torrent, and the mechanical veins of Ash Village convulsed simultaneously. The assimilated villagers fell to their knees, their mechanical parts ripped from their flesh, and they let out inhuman howls.

The altar collapsed, revealing a bottomless shaft below, the walls of which were engraved with gear-shaped runes.

(End of this chapter)