Chapter 199: Unbelievable - Continued (Part 1)

  "I really don't know what fucking secret chamber, go find it yourself." Ethan also became somewhat hysterical, shouting loudly. The immense psychological trauma from just now had already pushed him to his limit; he felt he was just one step away from going mad.

  Cardinal Javi showed no reaction to his angry roar, just quietly held the last finger of Drow's right hand, and said lightly, as if persuading a friend to have another cup of tea: "Think again, try to recall. Don't worry, she can still hold on. Even if you have no confidence in your own memory, please, you must have confidence in my white magic."

  Just at this moment, a series of urgent footsteps came from outside, followed by shouts: "Your Eminence, there is an urgent matter to report."

  "An urgent matter?" Cardinal Javi froze, quickly getting up. He had previously given strict orders that no one was allowed near here unless it was absolutely critical. Since someone was reporting now, it meant something truly critical had happened. He turned and walked out of the dungeon with Rodhart.

  The dungeon door closed with an extremely dull thud, leaving this place in silence, with only the panting sounds of Ethan and Drow remaining.

  "Beast, how could this be..." Ethan writhed in extreme pain on the ground, like a rotten snake with its spine pulled out. It was the first time in his life he had felt such pain.

  He had experienced many battles and suffered severe injuries, bones broken, muscles torn and pulled apart by the broken bones. Even internal organs shattered... he had experienced all these sensations, but only now did he know. The greatest pain wasn't physical pain, but this kind of mental torment.

  Every word Cardinal had just said to him struck heavily at his heart. The most painful words are undoubtedly the truth, because they represent an irrefutable reality.

  Regret, humiliation, anger, hostility... when one realizes all the causes are actually due to oneself, these emotions come back doubled, constantly gnawing, squeezing, and ravaging the heart. That's why people habitually look for excuses for their mistakes, and find targets to vent their hostility and humiliation upon. This isn't just evasion, but also a subconscious means of protecting one's own emotions.

  But reality is ultimately inescapable. And evasion never gives anyone strength. Only when a person confronts the inescapable pain and reality head-on, accepting this torment, can they gain the courage to transcend reality.

  This courage is the true strength a person possesses, strength born from pain.

  Ethan slowly straightened his body, half-sitting up, his gums bleeding from the force he exerted.

  Behind the library of the Magic Academy, Cardinal Javi, led by several priests, arrived here to look at a large hole in the wall, with Rodhart also present.

  "You said there was an urgent matter to report, just to show me this hole?" Cardinal Javi looked at the ruined wall, his face almost the same color as the wall.

  The priest beside him immediately lowered his head to report: "Your Eminence, it's like this, just now we were here when we suddenly saw this wall break. A large figure flew out from inside, instantly passing over the trees and the wall and disappearing."

  "You came to me for this? Couldn't you have gotten Grand Priest Ryan to look at it?" Although this did sound like a strange occurrence, Cardinal's mind wasn't on it; he was somewhat impatient.

  These few priests were also rather embarrassed; they were all young men. Due to the extraordinary skills Cardinal Javi had displayed recently, along with his own bearing, temperament, and presence, he had already established an image and prestige in the Magic Academy and the Royal Capital. Especially these young priests and mages revered him as an idol. So although several high-ranking Grand Priests and Priests in the upper echelons of the Magic Academy still refused to hand over power to him, in the eyes of many below, he was long seen as the successor to Bishop Ronis. Therefore, after this incident happened, the first person they sought was him.

  "It's like this..." a young priest quickly explained. "After seeing this strange thing, we initially thought someone's magic experiment had failed or something, so we went in through this hole to look. After wandering around for a while, we discovered... the stuffed eagle specimen inside the library was missing. Only then did we remember that the thing that crashed through the wall and flew out seemed to be that stuffed eagle specimen, and... it seemed someone was sitting on it..."

  "Hmm?" Cardinal Javi's expression changed slightly. Although anyone who heard that a specimen could move on its own and crash through a wall would surely not be calm, the look on his face seemed somewhat excessive for his status as a Cardinal. He exchanged a glance with Rodhart.

  The priest continued, lowering his voice: "I participated in the campaign to encircle that Necromancer in the Royal Capital a year ago. Later, I recalled... when that stuffed eagle specimen flew out... the faint magical fluctuation seemed to have... the scent of Necromancy... so we hurried to inform Your Eminence."

  Cardinal Javi's face became very grave and serious after hearing this report. He walked through the hole into the library, surveyed the surroundings, then stared at the hole the specimen had crashed through. Suddenly, his body trembled. He turned to nod to the priests: "You did very well, extremely well. By the way, don't mention this to anyone for now, understand?"

  Before the priests could even finish nodding excitedly, Cardinal's figure had already rushed out like a gust of wind.

  "I have urgent business to attend to. You'd better go check on those two first to ensure nothing goes wrong, then return to the Paladin Order headquarters to gather personnel and wait in case of contingencies." Javi said to Rodhart who was following behind.

  Rodhart nodded silently, then turned and walked towards the dungeon.

  The dungeon door opened. The situation inside seemed unchanged. Rodhart walked up, looked at Drow on the ground, then at Ethan in the cell, and sighed softly. Since being with Javi, his face had always been as calm as water and as cold as ice. Only now did a trace of guilt finally appear on his face as he said softly: "I'm sorry..."

  He said this very softly, and while looking at the ground rather than at Ethan. He bent down, placed his hand on the dying Drow's body, and chanted a spell in a low voice. After the white magic light flashed, Jessica took a long breath, and the muscles on her face weren't as twisted anymore. Rodhart then opened the cell and tossed her inside, placing her with Ethan.

  Ethan was still half-sitting against the wall. In this short while, he already looked as haggard and exhausted as if he had trekked ten thousand li through a harsh and perilous wilderness. His originally sharp expression was completely gone. The once-bright eyes in their sockets were now bloodshot, listless yet intentionally looking at Rodhart, without saying a word.

  Rodhart said nothing more either. He just quietly checked the cell, then turned to leave.

  "There's nothing to be sorry for." Ethan suddenly said from the cell.

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  "Hmm?" Rodhart froze slightly, turning to look at him.

  "I said there's nothing to be sorry for. You were just doing your job. It was my own fault for delivering myself into your hands. You're someone who understands trade-offs, who knows the bigger picture and makes rational choices. It was my own fault. I judged you by my own standards, thinking you were as naive as me. So there's nothing to be sorry for. If you side with him, you not only gain greater power and better opportunities, but he also seems more likely than me to handle Chris's situation properly." Ethan said calmly. His voice was also calm now. Though his bloodshot eyes were listless and haggard, something else began to emerge within them.

  "Thank you." Rodhart nodded, acknowledging the friend he had just betrayed. A difficult-to-describe expression appeared on his face. Despite his depth of mind and cunning, these feelings still couldn't be completely concealed.

  "You're welcome." Ethan also nodded politely to the friend who had stabbed him in the back. He was now completely calm. "I finally understand and admit that what that guy said just now was indeed right. Everything was my own fault... It's just that I find it a bit strange. You have so little confidence in your teacher? Do you really think Captain Roland can't handle you all?"

  "It's not a lack of confidence in Teacher Roland, but more confidence in the Diya Valley. And more confidence in Cardinal Javi..." Rodhart replied lightly.

  "It's clear he seems to have great confidence in you too. Trusting you enough to know everything, and trusting you enough to stay here and watch us." The calmer Ethan's expression became, the more obvious the thing deep within his eyes started to become.

  "You're wrong. It's not confidence in me, but confidence in interests. Trust built on vested interests is always stronger, more stable than trust built on feelings..." After saying this, Rodhart turned and walked towards the dungeon door. At the doorway, he suddenly stopped. Without turning back, he just said in a low voice: "Sometimes I also recall the past, when I believed in things like feelings and justice... it was truly naive and ridiculous... but... sometimes it's also a bit..."

  His voice faded completely at the end, becoming inaudible. He didn't turn back again, opened the door, and walked out.

  With the dull thud of the iron door closing again, Ethan also withdrew his gaze. He still looked haggard and disheveled, but the thing that had never been there before in his eyes began to shine.

  It was fire, and also molten rock. But it wasn't the kind of flame that releases heat and light outward. This fire was condensed like ice, because all its power and light were projected into his own heart. This was the power of the heart, born only from true pain and tempering.

  "Is that old bastard really not going to do anything?" Ethan sighed, slowly closed his eyes, drew this last exposed trace back into his heart, and lay still.

  At this very moment, in a place three hundred li away from the Royal Capital, a battle was nearing its end.

  The huge iron golem's giant hands merged, finally clamping the body of the swordsman in the middle. The sound of armor, bones, and internal organs mixing together was like someone crushing a hundred eggs at once. Blood sprayed violently from the completely twisted and deformed flesh.

  But it was only the swordsman's waist and abdomen that were shattered. His head, chest, and both arms remained. Although he was absolutely unable to live, he wasn't dead yet. He used all the remaining strength in his broken body to heavily slash his sword at the golem's chest.

  As the long sword shattered, many of the magical runes on the golem's body also broke, and the golem's movements became noticeably sluggish. These magical runes that maintain the golem's movement are engraved inside its body; even heavy weapons like hammers and axes can hardly damage them. This showed the immense force and destructive power of this sword.

  The golem released its hands, and the swordsman, who no longer looked human, fell to the ground. This warrior, who could undoubtedly be considered a master, didn't make even the slightest whimper, as if his very purpose for existing was just to strike this one blow.

  There were already many such wounds on the golem's body. Generally, compared to destroying the core hidden deep within, slowly destroying it like this was the only way to deal with these iron monsters. As long as the body structure was damaged enough, these golems would fall apart entirely.

  A huge, sharp earthen pillar suddenly burst from the ground and viciously slammed into the metal golem's body, emitting a dull thud like a bell being struck. Under such a heavy blow, the huge metal monster finally stood motionless, then trembled and fell.

  This was the last metal golem; the others had long since fallen into piles of scrap iron. Not only that, but there were also many gargoyle remains scattered around. These were the achievements of these swordsmen. But relatively... the one who just fell was also the last swordsman. The last mage in the party used his remaining magic power to cast an earth-element spell, completing this mutually destructive scene. At the same time, the mage's body trembled, two streams of black blood slowly flowed from his nose, and he slowly collapsed to the ground, curling up.

  Mid-air, the Necromancer withdrew his gaze and sighed softly. This was hundreds of meters above the ground. Killing someone with a dark soul impact at such a distance, especially when the opponent was a low-level adversary, was somewhat taxing even for him.

  "These guys are amazing..." another fat mage, also wearing a silver skeletal mask, said with a mournful face. Because all the metal golems below were his, and almost all the gargoyles were made by him. Each of these things, if not priceless, was worth at least half a city. And two metal golems had been turned into scrap iron by Roland in a single encounter.

  "These people protecting the emperor up close are all from the Paladin Order. It's indeed unlikely you could take them out unscathed with just your two piles of scrap metal." Master Aiden, floating mid-air, said lightly. Only he wasn't sitting on a gargoyle. Compared to his unparalleled mastery of air magic on the continent, the flexibility and speed of a flying golem like a gargoyle were about the same as a pig's.

  "Master Aiden, if you could have put in a little more effort, perhaps I wouldn't have suffered such losses." the Necromancer continued with a mournful face.

  Master Aiden still said coldly: "I said, I'm only responsible for containing Roland. And at least I've done that now. Norbolin, do you really think that pile of junk is worth more than my life? Do you want me to fly close and fight him head-on?" The long silver beard he originally had on his chin was now reduced to a ridiculous short stubble, with some abrasions on his lips. This was the consequence of his reckless approach at the start of the battle.

  It wasn't actually that Master Aiden was careless. In battles between mages and warriors, a distance of fifty meters is absolutely considered safe, let alone with Master Aiden's consummate flight skills. So he initially approached their upper airspace.

  But Captain Roland just drew his sword. No one knew how that sword, in the blink of an eye, crossed the fifty-meter distance to appear before Master Aiden. And the speed, suddenness, and unexpectedness of that sword strike – probably even the fastest, most agile falcon couldn't have dodged it. Fortunately, Master Aiden's flight skill was indeed just a tiny bit faster than a falcon's, allowing him to barely dodge it. Since then, he never approached within a hundred meters of Roland, only constantly harassing him with magic from an absolutely safe distance.

  "No need to argue anymore. Anyway, our goal seems to have been achieved. Although this guy's fighting power exceeded our imagination, in the end, we won." another Necromancer said coldly, looking down.

  Now, only two people stood below them. One was the Emperor of Ainfast. The other was Captain Roland of the Paladin Order. The ground around them was littered with gargoyle fragments, pits from magical bombardment, and the broken limbs and remains of guards.

  In this hellish battlefield, Roland still stood straight, his face as stern as a mountain, the sword in his hand still gripped tightly, without a single trace of battle wounds or dishevelment on his body, like an immortal statue of a god of war. But in truth, he himself knew he was nearing his limit.

  Anyone who could withstand the uninterrupted magical bombardment from three top mages in the sky for so long, while also occasionally breaking away to help others deal with the golems and gargoyles, would be utterly exhausted by this point.

  Grafenhardt XVII behind him, though already pale as earth, could still manage to stand. But Roland himself knew clearly that this wasn't due to his own and his men's effective protection, but because the three mages simply hadn't targeted the emperor.

  Given Grafenhardt XVII's complete lack of strength to even truss a chicken, if the three Necromancers' real target had been him, probably the entire Paladin Order present would have been powerless. The spellcaster among them using dark and Soul Magic was the perfect choice for assassinating such a weak target. Yet he had never made a move against His Majesty the Emperor. Instead, he slowly killed off the other swordsmen one by one from extreme long range. Meanwhile, the other two Necromancers: one controlled the golems to attack, the other relied on air magic far more flexible than flying birds to circle and maneuver above them. He and his men had attempted three times to use a teleportation scroll on His Majesty the Emperor, and this Necromancer would immediately rain down chain lightning and Thunderblast Bombs, while the other two used every means to attack, forcibly interrupting and terminating the teleportation magic the first two times. The last time, the priest in their party burned their own life force to cast Sacred Shelter to protect the emperor while using the teleportation scroll to escape, but the Necromancers used an extremely rare "Spatial Lock" scroll, completely sealing all spatial magic in this area.

  That the Necromancers were forced to use such a scroll showed its rarity and value. Besides this, the three Necromancers all carefully maintained an absolutely safe altitude, slowly wearing down Roland's Battle Qi, stamina, and his men's lives with golems and single-target attack magic.

  Roland could already see what the three Necromancers' goal was. Their target was actually himself.

  The Necromancer who used air magic with divine skill didn't use the top-tier air great magic "Falling Stars," and the other Necromancer didn't use the soul and dark fusion great area magic "Soul Devour." It wasn't that they couldn't use them, but they were unwilling to. Such large-scale destructive magic wouldn't be very effective against Roland, but Grafenhardt XVII in the middle would likely suffer.

  They didn't want to harm the emperor, but they had to stop him from using a teleportation scroll to escape, because for Roland, the emperor was a burden he couldn't abandon. As long as the emperor remained here, Roland would have reservations whether he tried to flee or fight back desperately; he would be hamstrung. Thus, they could safely wear Roland down to death from an absolutely safe distance.

  Although the three Necromancers' own strength was far above Roland's, to ensure they themselves remained unharmed while making it absolutely impossible for Roland to escape, this was undoubtedly the only way. Although it would take longer and the methods seemed somewhat despicable, it was absolutely effective.

  "It's about time to end this. Let's all attack together. I can see this guy's Battle Qi and stamina are almost completely drained." Master Aiden took the lead, flying down while casually gesturing, sending a Thunderblast Bomb flying towards Roland.

  Watching the thunderball approach, Roland felt his hand start to spasm slightly. He had already split, shattered, and dodged this magic many times before, along with fireballs, ice spikes, wind blades, etc. His senses were starting to numb, and the sword in his hand felt much heavier than usual. He wondered if he could still split it this time? If he could this time, what about the others that would surely follow like a storm?

  But just at this moment, a small black dot flew from somewhere unknown, swiftly drilling into the thunderball. The Thunderblast Bomb suddenly distorted, made a strange sound, and then disintegrated mid-air.

  Master Aiden's figure mid-air froze abruptly. Suddenly, he seemed to sense something, looked up, and his body trembled.

  Although he wore the dense silver skull mask, the exposed lower half of Master Aiden's face and his eyes revealed an expression of extreme horror. As if he had seen the most unbelievable scene imaginable.