From the Ship of Fools to Earl of Wugang

Chapter 111 The Guardian of the Royal Cause

The old man's breath began to condense into white mist, and his whole body began to tremble slightly, emanating a chill from him.

The summoned creature was draining his body of heat, but Edmund couldn't help him.

Moro landed on top of the cabinet and pecked at the wooden board twice in frustration, while Neud just stared intently at the bear spirit in the yard.

Edmund looked at Cissus again, his intuition making the spatial relationships within the courtyard exceptionally clear.

Due to its enormous size, Cirsus would first fix its left arm, tentacles, and facial wrists to a wall, stone slab, or courtyard wall before swinging, so as to withstand the force of its body rotation.

[Astral Flash] flashed through his consciousness briefly before being dismissed by Edmund.

I'd rather not become a human bomb myself... Besides, given the current situation, the teleportation endpoint might not even remain the same.

He moved with swift steps, skimming along the outside of the desk to the adjacent window.

In the new window, he noticed that the gill slits on either side of Cassis's collarbone were opening and closing with each breath.

With each breath it takes, the black water in the yard gathers towards its chest, and grayish-white cartilage is faintly visible behind its gill membrane.

Edmund raised the eagle in the wind, aimed at the most violently opening and closing gap, and pulled the trigger.

An airflow channel suddenly formed in front of the muzzle. The bullet tore through the gill membrane and entered it, spraying out black water along with several pieces of grayish-white cartilage.

The wound was quickly filled by the black water flowing upstream, and the torn gill membrane began to reattach.

Cassos's movements visibly faltered, and for the first time, the rise and fall of his chest and abdomen did not completely synchronize with the surface of the water in the courtyard.

The gill slits are indeed worth attacking, but ordinary firearms are still insufficient to inflict decisive damage.

Cisalus turned his head, and one of his arms hanging over his face suddenly split open from the center, revealing a ring-shaped mouthpart.

Bone fragments, salt grains, and black water swirled rapidly deep inside the mouth, then transformed into a ghastly white jet of water that sprayed toward the window.

Edmund only had time to turn his shoulder before the outermost glass curtain shattered upon contact with the water, followed by the second layer cracking.

A high-pressure water jet carrying bone fragments crashed into the office, throwing him from the window into the corridor.

His shoulders and back slammed into the door frame first, then he landed heavily on the floor, his ribs making intimate contact with the ground.

The glass barrier and the armor-enhanced coat blocked most of the salt and bone fragments, but the impact was still quite powerful.

Edmund struggled to his feet, his vision blurred, his chest felt like it had been run over by a runaway truck, and a sharp pain shot through his right ribs as he inhaled.

He was full of energy, keeping his consciousness and limbs active, but the pain wouldn't let him off easily.

He propped himself up against the wall, tasting a metallic, sweet, and metallic flavor in his throat.

Inside the office, Julian had reduced the golden border that originally covered the entire main building to this room.

The gold thread in the corner of the corridor quickly went out, while the light on the door and window frames suddenly became bright.

The aide-de-camp's expression wasn't much better than Neud's. He glanced at the Lion Head Medal in his palm, which was beginning to deform, as if he had finally made a decision.

Before he could speak, a soft sound like scales scraping against lime suddenly came from the side wall of the office.

A hand covered in crimson-gold scales reached out from the void, its index finger writing three lines of unfamiliar runes on the wall.

With each stroke, the dark, damp smell from the cracks in the bricks receded.

After the three lines of text closed, a vertical golden line lit up in the center of the wall, which then unfolded to the sides to form doors.

Heavy footsteps came from behind the door, and a tall, ethereal figure formed of golden light entered the office.

He wore an old-fashioned open crown, his long, red-gold beard reached down to his breastplate, and he carried a long chained meteor hammer in his right hand.

The star-shaped hammerhead dragged across the ground, leaving a brief, burning golden streak.

The black water boiled through the wall.

[The Ancestral Spirit Projection of Friedrich Noberssohn, the Red-Bearded King]

[The king and commander of the Norbus Soren dynasty, who sealed the rift in the Void during the Second Curtain War and ultimately died alongside his personal guards. His royal power and oaths have solidified into a stable legacy in the spirit world, and folklore says he and his fallen comrades rest in the Hall of Redstone, awaiting the conquerors' return to war.]

[The current projection responds to the "Royal Guardian" boundary violation alert, and briefly descends in accordance with the Crown Seal of the Principality of Plichni.]

When Edmund returned to his office, he saw a large, blond man walk straight across the window.

The afterimage passed through the brick wall, its feet landing on the black water in the courtyard. The meteor hammer was then swung out, the first blow striking Cassos' right forearm.

A golden shockwave exploded along the shoulder, and the raised claws snapped back instantly, the bones and flesh cracking with a dull thud.

Cirsus growled in a low voice, and several tentacles lashed out from his face, wrapping around the Ancestral Spirit's shoulder armor, waist, and hammer chain, attempting to drag him into the black water.

Red-Bearded King took a half step back with the pull, grabbed his wrists and feet with both hands, and suddenly turned around.

Cisalus was dragged forward and stumbled. Taking advantage of this, the bear spirit pounced on its lower limbs, its forepaws tightly gripping the back of its knees, creating space for the ancestral spirit to exert force a second time.

More tentacles immediately pierced the bear spirit's chest and abdomen. The teeth continued to bite, and the translucent body finally could not withstand it, dispersing into a large cloud of snow mist starting from the abdomen.

Neud then slumped to the ground, his back hitting the wall. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Moro threw himself onto his shoulder and shouted in Nloyd's voice, "I'm alive!"

Edmund confirmed that the old man was still breathing, and then turned his attention back to the courtyard.

The Red-Bearded King and Cisalpine have already completed several short exchanges.

Each time the meteor hammer fell, the Blackwater's body would collapse inward, its gill slits, cartilage, and tentacles scattered by the golden light.

However, the nearby black water quickly climbed back up the wound and filled the missing part.

The high-pressure water jets spewed by Cirsus could also weaken the Ancestral Spirit. Fine cracks appeared on the surface of the crimson-gold scales, and the luster of the long whiskers and the edges of the cloak gradually dimmed.

"This is the wartime oath of watchfulness initiated by His Majesty," Julian said quickly, leaning against the window.

"After the attack on Silverbell Palace, His Majesty Henry included Dusch, Plichni, and several allied nations in a joint vigil. If conflicts arise within the territory that exceed the monitoring capacity and persist for a certain period of time, the ancestral spirits of the royal lineage and the various families will respond to the coronation oath."

Despite the pain in his ribs, Edmund asked, "How long can it last?"

"It depends on the ancestral spirit's achievements and the enemy's strength." Julian watched the golden light in the courtyard gradually thinning. "Even after the projection dissipates, the alarm will remain. Nearby royal powerhouses or sworn beings will come to take over."

This is why the attendant felt as if he had been granted a pardon.

The whistling sound from the bottom of the gun handle stopped completely at this moment, and the headwind that the eagle had accumulated in the wind had been dissipated.

Edmund gripped the window frame and re-observed Cissus's breathing.

In the previous rounds of attack and defense, whenever the monster was about to spew out a high-pressure stream of water, all the gill slits on both sides of the collarbone would open completely at the same time, and the black water in the courtyard would also concentrate into the gill cavity and mouthparts in a very short time.

The Red-Bearded King was being restrained by tentacles that were entangled at the other end of the iron chain.

Cissus’s face, arms, and feet split open again, and bone fragments and salt began to swirl deep inside his mouth.

Edmund aimed at the previously injured gill membrane and pulled the trigger.

The bullet pierced through the not-yet-fully-healed wound. The wind pressure attached to it exploded deep within the gill cavity, and the pressure of the deep water that Cissus had just inhaled immediately escaped from the wound.

Black water, cartilage, and pale bubbles shot out several meters.

The monster's head and chest twisted to one side at the same time, and the tentacles that were wrapped around the hammer chain suddenly loosened in the loss of balance.

The Red-Bearded King tightened the iron chains with both hands, and the star-shaped hammerhead dragged a bright arc across the black water.