It was getting late.
After travelling non-stop for twelve hours, everyone felt exhausted; even the warriors, who had higher Constitution than the workers and merchants, showed signs of getting tired.
The merchant guards had to stay alert throughout the entire journey, and staying alert continuously for so long was taxing on their minds. Under normal circumstances, the squad would stop and rest for the day after travelling six or so hours, but the squad could only march on since the mistress had yet to give them the order to stop. Many were getting discontent about her decision, but they continued moving on nonetheless.
Soran was especially silent in the dark night, his silhouette slightly shady as if the night was embracing him.
The road condition was getting worse. They were quite far away from Amber City at this point, thus the road was not well maintained due to low traffic. The condition would only take a turn for the better once they got within fifty kilometers of the next city, where there would be human activity.
The mysterious mistress did not return to the inside of her carriage, but instead stood on the outside and looked forward, turning her head back in the direction of Amber City from time to time.
She frowned out of the blue, set her gaze on the far distance, and coldly muttered, "How dare you use divination magic against me!"
A ray of cold light flashed through her hands. In her fingers, the mistress held a dark gold card decorated with an enneagram on the back and a crown on the front; Soran could not tell any further details as his vision was not that exceptional.
In an instant, the stars in the sky seemed to dim. The mistress was obviously angered by the other party's provocation and started chanting weird syllables, turning the atmosphere into a heavy one. The merchant guards swiftly gathered around the mistress, abandoning the merchants and their goods. It seemed that the lady's safety was of paramount importance for the guards; wizards and witches were vulnerable when chanting, thus it was reasonable for the guards to surround her and keep others away.
"SU...AU...SO…"
Spell incantations consisted of awkward and weird syllables. Unlike the commonly used languages, it was difficult for those who were not trained to pronounce these sounds. It required the basic profession abilities Chant Language and Chant Gesture.
Another bright ray of light appeared from her hands. The mysterious mistress sneered and retrieved the card, then said with a tired voice, "It's now safe.
"There's a lake not far ahead. We'll camp there for the night."
Back in a spooky underground chamber in Amber City, the red-robed priest shuddered, and blood gushed out from his mouth. His whole body was pale, but he kept muttering, "The prophecy failed!
"Someone interfered with my divination magic using Counterspell and Counter-Divination!
"The other party might be a Legendary Wizard! The Descendant of God's atmosphere has been concealed!
"Wake the terror knights up! The Descendant of God will awaken in desperation and fear!
"Begin the ritual now. Our lord's will shall fall upon his descendant soon."
Prayers resounded within the gloomy chamber. The evil followers dressed in black sliced the sacrifices' throats with daggers, the blood flowing into the demonic magic formation and dripping into the marble coffins. Death energy resonated and began to expand, with the atmosphere of the Abyss enshrouding the area. The marble coffins shattered into dust from the tempest of death energy, and along with the clattering sound of armor, eight terror knights equipped with black platemail stood up.
They had blood-red pupils which looked like burning flames. The moment they emerged from the coffins, they began massacring everyone within the chamber mercilessly. Unsheathing their vorpal swords, the knights slashed and cut down the evil followers.
Fresh blood and limbs flew everywhere.
The red-robed priest did not anticipate such a turn of events, and he laid frozen on top of the altar.
Clear, loud neighs could be heard as the scattered blood of the dead followers began to gather in a blob while the terror knights chanted in a blasphemous language. They knelt on one knee and stabbed their vorpal swords into the magic formation, and along with fiery flames, horse-like demons called nightmares rushed out from the formation one after another.
Without a single word, the terror knights got on the nightmares with their swords held high. The shadows of wronged ghosts could be seen as the knights’ black, tattered cloaks fluttered. The terror knights charged toward the two-meter-thick wall, the flaming hooves of the nightmares exploding as they rammed against it.
The wall crumbled as though it was made of sand. The evil cavalry did not stop there; they continued crashing through wall after wall until the nightmares found a path to fly above ground.
Legendary Terror Knights (Grade 5)
Challenge Rating: Level 16 (Monster Level: 24), Greater Undead
Highest and Lowest Attributes: 25 and 15 (Total Attribute Points: 95-110)
Specialty: Legendary Vorpal Sword User, Advanced Charge, Nightmare Rider, Call Undead, Blasphemous Language, Fear Aura, Death Aura, Abyss Knight, Devastating Strike, Smite Infidel, Sword Form—Behead, Sword Form—Waist Chop, Sword Form—Evil Crossed Slash
Difficulty: A
Nightmare (Grade 4)
Challenge Rating: Level 12 (Monster Level: 18), Large Outsider
Highest and Lowest Attributes: 21 and 12 (Total Attribute Points: 90-100)
Specialty: Flaming Hooves, Advanced Charge, Darkvision, Skyrunning, Advanced Bull Rush, Demonic Resistance, Outsider
Difficulty: A-
It was a calm and silent night out in the wilderness.
After travelling the entire day, everyone cheered from the bottom of their hearts after reaching the campsite. Everyone was exhausted, and they were glad that it was finally time for rest.
Although it was almost midnight, the workers were still busy fetching water and starting fires. They boiled large pots of water and added some ingredients into the pots, preparing a simple soup for everyone. After eating bread and smoked meat the entire day, it was only natural for them to yearn for a warm bowl of soup before heading to sleep.
On the other hand, the guards were patrolling the campsite vigilantly. After deciding the night shifts, they set up simple barricades as their line of defence. Monsters tended to gather at water sources, thus it would not be ideal to camp near a lake under normal circumstances. The mistress, however, specifically ordered them to camp here, so they could only do their best to protect everyone despite the danger.
Among the squad, there were two people who were feeling uneasy. The first one was Soran; he hadn’t considered at all the possibility that the mysterious mistress was Level 16 or higher, meaning she was almost at the Realm of Legends.
There were only a handful of Northern witches who had such strength. They all had great political power, being members of the Witch Council at the very least with ranks equivalent to the castellan of a small city in the Southern Principality. Soran could not understand why such a powerful witch had to take on the task of escorting a merchant squad; normal Northern merchant squads only had witches up to Level 12. (He’d learned about this as some players frequently attacked Northern merchant squads back in the game.)
There was only one reason he could think of—she was sent out for a special task.
If she was indeed carrying out some secret mission, travelling with the squad might not necessarily be a good idea for the siblings. There was a good chance that they would get dragged into rather dangerous incidents.
The other person who was feeling uneasy was the mistress of the merchant squad herself. She was gazing in the direction of Amber City with a worried expression, as though something horrible had happened in the city.
Time passed quickly.
The workers had finally finished preparing meals for everyone. The guards took turns eating, and the siblings were also each given a bowl of soup which gave off a sweet aroma. Perhaps she was really worn out, because Vivian quickly ate her portion with a drowsy face.
Setting down his food, Soran first went to set up a tent for the night. After spraying powder which acted as pesticide around their tent, he carried Vivian, who was dozing off, into the tent and laid her down.
Just when Soran was about to enjoy his meal, he felt a weird feeling of being haunted by something. He stood up abruptly, looked toward Amber City, and ran to the short hill nearby, unsheathing his curved sword as he ran.
The mistress got there before he did.
As the two looked into the far distance, they could see that the horizon had been painted red. The emerging smoke was also dyed red, looking almost like the fiery clouds commonly seen at dawn or dusk.
They were a hundred miles away from Amber City and were unable to tell where the smoke and fire originated from, but the two both knew in their hearts that tragedy was befalling the city.
It was the Level 9 spell, Legendary Meteor Swarm!
This was not the first time Soran had seen the spell in action, but he could not help but feel shocked by the scene nonetheless.
Meteor Swarm—it was one of the easiest Level 9 spells to learn, with the prerequisite of learning the spell being Level 20 in the Wizard profession. Given that the easiest was already so powerful, the others were of course even more amazing.
Professionals had once calculated the power of the spell, and they concluded that it was as powerful as eight tomahawk missiles bombarding a five-kilometer region. Back then, Legendary Warriors had joked that those who could survive the spell could be used as shields against air-to-surface missiles in real life.
Among all professions, only warriors and barbarians who had reached the Realm of Legends had the leeway to joke about taking a Meteor Swarm head on. There was once a Legendary Warrior who posted a video of him bathing in magma, and a lot of people were shocked by the resilience of the Warrior profession.
Warrior was once an underrated profession which was deemed poor by many, but those who persevered made it to their golden days where they were part of one of the most powerful groups in the game.
It was a pity that only a few had made it to the Realm of Legends as warriors.
* * *
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*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap