Above the wilderness, a silver-white procession galloped furiously on horseback.
Both the armor they wore and the steeds beneath them radiated a faint, holy light.
This was the Judgment Knight Corps of the Ryan Empire, a special unit composed of high-ranking paladins, each mounted upon celestial steeds summoned by divine magic.
They had long since abandoned their birth names, addressing one another only by code names.
The leader of the group, a paladin known as "Starfall," had led the Judgment Knights in a relentless three-day and three-night ride, intent on reaching the Alchemy City as swiftly as possible.
This was the first time in the history of the Judgment Knight Corps that they would confront legendary-level undead, and each knight was so filled with excitement they could hardly sleep. They yearned to fly straight to Alchemy City and, in the name of the Holy Light, cleanse all evil.
But the distance between the two nations was vast, and the Ryan Empire's relations with other countries were strained. The powerful armed force of the Judgment Knights could not simply teleport into foreign lands.
Thus, Starfall had to lead his comrades on a long detour. Now, with only a narrow canyon standing between them and their destination, the rest of the journey promised to be smooth. However, according to reports, the canyon was inhabited by a vast pack of hyena-like dogmen.
The dogmen were cursed, twisted beings, inherently evil and brutal. After seizing this canyon, they had slaughtered countless passing humans. Starfall had prepared himself for this encounter, planning to purge the dogmen as a warm-up before facing the legendary undead.
Though the dogman tribe numbered in the thousands, Starfall was confident that his team of ten could easily dispatch them all.
However, upon reaching the edge of the canyon, one of his comrades spoke up. "Starfall, something's not right ahead."
Starfall looked around with a puzzled gaze, and soon he too noticed something unusual.
The canyon ahead was covered by a thin, eerie mist.
"Is that... the lingering Death Cloud?"
As an undead's arch-enemy, Starfall was well-versed in the common spells employed by the undead, and the Death Cloud was one of their primary area-of-effect attacks. The caster could summon a poisonous mist to blanket a designated area.
The Death Cloud had another name: the city-slaying spell.
When multiple necromancers combined their power, they could create a Death Cloud capable of engulfing an entire city, dealing immense damage in a short time.
But the dogmen were not necromancers by nature and could not possibly cast such a spell. This suggested that a necromancer had been in the canyon, and that a battle had taken place here.
"Activate toxin protection, let's move forward and see what's going on."
At Starfall's command, everyone's bodies shimmered with magical light, forming faint green magical sigils that shielded them from most toxins.
Mounted upon their celestial steeds, they charged into the canyon.
The majority of the toxic mist had already dissipated, so it posed no real danger. But when they reached the rudimentary encampment within the canyon, all of them instinctively held their breath.
The ground was littered with the bodies of the dogmen, each death more gruesome than the last.
Starfall dismounted and cautiously examined the fallen bodies of the dogmen.
To his shock, the dogmen had not only been poisoned but also mutilated—some pierced by weapons, others decapitated by brute force, and some even missing large portions of their bodies, as though they had been devoured by ghouls. From these details, Starfall concluded that it was not a necromancer but rather a vast undead army that had slaughtered the dogmen.
"Skeletons, zombies, ghouls, death knights, abominations… so many signs of high-level undead," Starfall muttered gravely.
The dogmen had not been ambushed unaware; rather, two armies had clashed head-on. The thousand-strong dogman tribe had been utterly obliterated, with no chance to resist.
"Let's move further in. A necromantic army, no matter how strong, can't leave behind nothing but corpses. This tribe of dogmen, with their shamans and chieftains, surely put up some fight."
Starfall's words were both a reassurance to his comrades and a self-motivational statement.
The scene before him was so absurd that it filled him with a bad premonition.
As they proceeded deeper into the canyon, they found more and more dogman bodies, many still clutching their weapons and showing signs of battle with the undead. But the most telling signs were the massive hoofprints scattered across the ground—those of death knights' nightmare steeds, capable of crushing even the toughest of enemies underfoot.
It was clear that the dogman shamans hadn't even had time to cast their spells before being impaled by the death knights' lances and trampled into the earth.
As they ventured further, they finally came across the mangled remains of a ghoul, likely dismembered during a feeding frenzy, with countless dogman corpses around it. At the center of the carnage lay a giant dogman, easily the size of a grizzly bear. This was obviously the chieftain of the tribe.
The chieftain, with his immense strength, could have torn apart tigers or leopards in life, but his body had been hollowed out—his organs completely missing, a typical sign of ghoul consumption.
Starfall examined the scene and came to a chilling conclusion.
The dogman chieftain had been pierced by a death knight's lance, his body discarded as food for the ghouls.
He had been unable to inflict any damage on the enemy, for his massive axe was devoid of any bloodstains.
The shredded ghoul was likely a casualty of a food fight among the ghouls themselves.
What was even more shocking to Starfall was that the Death Cloud had been cast *after* the battle—likely out of laziness to clean up the battlefield.
"They weren't here to collect corpses or loot; they were simply passing through, and unfortunately, this tribe of dogmen happened to be in their way."
Starfall's realization darkened the faces of his fellow paladins. As experts in combating undead, they understood the significance of this battlefield. An enormous undead army had passed through here, heading toward Alchemy City.
This army likely contained dozens of death knights, thousands of skeletons, ghouls, and other undead creatures, and—most troubling of all—numerous necromancers.
The question now was: what kind of powerful being could command such an army, one so formidable that they didn't even bother to collect the bodies of their enemies?
Starfall gazed toward Alchemy City, sensing that the mission ahead would be far more difficult than anticipated.
"Prepare yourselves, everyone. This time, we may be facing more than one legendary undead."
His words made every paladin tense, but soon one of his comrades spoke up.
"Such a vast undead army heading toward Alchemy City… could they be planning to attack it? If so, perhaps we can use the city's strength to help us defeat them."
The suggestion made Starfall's eyes light up—it was indeed a plausible plan.
"Agreed. Let's quicken our pace, and if possible, avoid this undead army. Let's reach Alchemy City ahead of them!"
With that, Starfall produced a scroll of mass flight, and before long, the paladins soared through the sky like shooting stars, carefully avoiding the massive undead army marching below.
What they didn't notice was a vast shadow lurking high in the clouds above them. Only after they had moved far enough away did the shadow reveal a massive dragon's head emerging from the clouds.
The enormous bone dragon, whose body stretched thirty to forty meters long, descended gracefully before a luxurious carriage crafted entirely from silver, drawn by sixteen nightmare steeds. The carriage resembled a small palace, exuding an air of unparalleled grandeur.
The bone dragon growled toward the carriage.
"Sister Rose, why not just dispose of these annoying paladins?"
A cold voice emanated from within the carriage.
"Didn't you say that you saved Gareth from the Ryan Empire, and that's why he fell in love with you?"
"I also want to try."
End of Chapter