Assassin’s Chronicle - Chapter 261

“Master,” Anfey glanced up at Slabrea with some respect, but mostly calm. He looked appropriate. If he looked completely respectful, it would have seemed too fake. Slanbrea was experienced and could tell what was fake and what was sincere. If he had looked completely calm, it would have seemed that he did not respect Slanbrea at all, which was not appropriate either.

Christian and Suzanna both turned to look at Slanbrea. They each had a headache. They were not too young anymore. They had developed their own worldviews and values with plenty of time and experiences they had had. They thought nothing was more boring than hearing a religious person preach. However, since it was Slanbrea, an archpriest, they had to listen to him even though they did not want to.

“If you want to learn about this world from these forbidden books, you are already wrong,” Slanbrea said with a smile.

“I was just curious,” Christian said, smiling bitterly.

Slanbrea wanted to say something but he hesitated for a second and swallowed it. He was aware of the situation. As an archpriest, preaching the principles of his religion and spreading the glory of the God of Light was his job. He knew Anfey, Christian and Suzanna did not believe in the God of Light. No matter how much and how deep he talked about his religion, they would not convert, but only dislike him. Slanbrea smiled and looked at Anfey. “Anfey, does the book of Hearts of Young Girls really tell stories of creation?”

“Huh…yes.” Anfey was shocked for a second, then nodded.

“I read a similar book before, but it had a different name.” Slanbrea squinted.

“What book did you read?” Anfey asked.

“Heart of A Saint Girl. After the God of Light created this world, it had neither light nor lives, only endless darkness, so…” Slanbrea said.

Christian and Suzanna felt they were going to have so much trouble. Christian even gave Anfey a dirty look to signal that it was all Anfey’s fault that they were talking even more about religion. Anfey bit his lips and stared at the tips of his shoes. Nobody could tell whether he was listening to Slanbrea. Christian was shocked that Anfey’s lips looked pale. It looked like Anfey was trying to control something.

There were footsteps from the staircase. Bruzuryano slowly walked upstairs. His steps sounded very slow and heavy. The floor even made squeaking sounds. He looked shaken and seemed nothing could make him perk up again.

Slanbrea stopped his preaching. He had been friends with Bruzuryano for a long time. They believed in different religions and sometimes they had fought for their own religion’s sake. He knew Bruzuryano very well. “What happened? Did you find those druids?”

Bruzuryano nodded. “Get ready. We need leave soon, otherwise we will not be able to get to Mambo territory tomorrow.”

Slanbrea could tell Bruzuryano did not want to talk about the druids. He sighed, “Ok.”

“We actually do not have anything to pack. We can leave at any time.” Anfey cleared his throat.

“I need go back.” Slanbrea smiled. “I am not done with today’s stories. I will continue when we have more time.”

Anfey and his group stayed longer in the hotel, watching Slanbrea walking out of the back yard. Bruzuryano left the hotel as well. Christian scratched his head and frowned. “I hope he will never have any time. It was a torture to listen to him telling stories.”

“You are right about that. So dry, not interesting at all. Once he started each story, I already knew the ending. At the end, it must be the God of Light and the Virgin Mary who created lives together.” Anfey stressed “together.”

“Together?” No matter how different their upbringings had been, Christian was a man who could easily pick up on these jokes.

“Yes, together,” Anfey said.

“You! Don’t let Slanbrea hear it. He would kill you,” Christian said with a bitter smile.

“Why? What did Anfey do wrong?” Hearing Anfey might be in danger, Suzanna immediately stared, with her eyes wide open. She looked like she was ready to fight.

“Nothing. I was just joking with Anfey.” Christian did not know how to explain. If he explained everything to Suzanna, he might get himself into trouble and get blamed for flirting with Suzanna.

With the sound of a door swinging open, the left side door was pushed open. Niya rubbed her eyes and yawned as she walked over. Her hair was messy and her clothes had many wrinkles. She looked like she went to sleep with clothes on.

“Niya, go sleep a little more. We have to be on the road during the day,” Anfey said in a low voice. Whether his plan could escape his opponents’ eyes depended on whether he could plan everything in detail. He had confiscated Nana’s collections. If he travelled too slowly, the necromancers would suspect that Anfey was setting them up. Therefore, Anfey was not opposed when Bruzuryano suggested leaving soon.

“I could not fall asleep. I had nightmares whenever I fell asleep.” Niya put her hands down. Her eyes had been rubbed red.

“Hehehe…you look like a rabbit.” Anfey smiled. Niya looked way too nervous. He hoped Niya could be distracted and not be so tense.

“What rabbit?” Niya did not get it.

“Anfey was talking about you.” Christian smiled.

Suzanna rolled her eyes at Anfey. She grabbed Niya and took her to their room. After a while, Niya looked clean and tidy again. Niya walked out in anger. To a woman, there was nothing more shameful than letting others see her with messy hair and clothes.

What made her even more angry was Anfey’s comment. He even called her a rabbit. Any way you looked at it, a rabbit was not a pleasant way to describe a girl.

“Kids, time to go.” As Niya was ready to yell at Anfey, Bruzuryano’s voice came from downstairs.

“Let’s go.” Anfey smiled. He did not care if Niya understood that he cared about her and wanted to help her. He only cared if Niya could feel better.

Bruzuryano had obtained two wagons. One was a lot bigger than the other. He gave Slanbrea the bigger wagon considering his position and his living habits. The bigger wagon was very fancy. The wagon’s five horses were all white. The horses Anfey and his group rode were around Bruzuryano. They looked close to him. Druids had the natural ability to easily gain the affection and trust from animals.

Bruzuryano patted the horse’s muzzle and looked up. He said, “Kids, go sit with Slanbrea. My wagon is a little too small.”

“Master, I have something to ask you. If it is not too much trouble, can I ride in the wagon with you?” Anfey always had the quickest response.

“Sure.” Bruzuryano nodded. He also wanted to talk to Anfey. He gave the Heart of Nature to Anfey and now it had irreversible effects. The person who connected with the Heart of Nature also became the messenger of the Goddess of Nature. Whether for business or personal reasons, he had to accept that fact. Therefore, he needed to have Anfey promise to help sprites and druids in the future, otherwise he did not know how to explain what happened to the Heart of Nature.

“Master, I want to ask you about something too. I hope you could help me with it.” Christian’s response was just a little slower than Anfey’s.

Suzanna did not react at all. In other words, she did not even care to react. She only wanted to be with Anfey.

“You are…” Bruzuryano did not understand at first why they acted this way. The corners of his mouth curled up immediately. This was the first time he smiled since he heard those druids had died. “Hehehe, do you guys dislike Priest Slanbrea?” Bruzuryano did not talk loud, but it was loud enough to let Slanbrea in the other wagon hear it.

“No!” Christian smiled bitterly. “We just have some questions to ask.” They had to explain clearly here that they could not convert to God of Light, but they never doubted the God of Light and his religion. He could not show any dislike towards Slanbrea and his religion either, otherwise they would be causing troubles.

“Young men, you need tell the truth.” Bruzuryano saw Christian being troubled and smiled. “Alright, if you do not mind being too crammed in, you can ride with me.”

Niya looked around and did not get why they wanted to ride in a small wagon instead of the bigger one. The smaller wagon already looked crowded with four people in it. Even if she wanted to follow them, there would be no room for her. She hesitated for a second and walked to Slanbrea’s wagon.

The two wagons travelled towards the city gate. It was still a little dark, but there were already many people on the streets. To most regular citizens, they had to wake up early for work. There was a famous saying that early birds get the worm, meaning only people who could wake up early for work had the best chance for success. It was ok for royal family members to wake up a little late. If regular people woke up late, they would starve to death.

The news that the city master was dead had not gotten out yet. The city was still in order. There were more followers of the Goddess of Nature on the streets. They volunteered to be the patrols, which was very surprising to Anfey.

Four druids quietly walked next to the wagons. Anfey lifted up the curtain to look out. He could sense those four druids were pretty powerful. They must work for Bruzuryano. The two druids in the front noticed Anfey looking at them. They both turned around to greet Anfey by slightly bowing to him. There was no hostility or hatred in their eyes, only respect. Anfey was relieved. It seemed that there was not much aftermath from the previous night’s conflicts. In fact, it was not hard to deal with this kind of follower, as long as Anfey was protected by a God.

“Anfey, do you think Niya would be too naughty in that wagon?” Christian asked worriedly.

“No, you underestimate her.” Anfey smiled. He still remembered the first time he met Niya. Ernest was not being very nice to her. She was not angry at him at all. Instead, she kissed his ass and showed how much affection she had towards him. She was stubborn, but she also knew the bottom line well. She would not be totally stubborn. It depended on the situation.

The carriage was going at a controlled speed. If it was too slow, it would seem suspicious. If it was going too fast, the necromancers may not react fast enough. Bruzuryano could only decide how fast the carriage should go based on his feelings.

Except for math, most things in the world lacked a proper formula. A general could predict his enemy’s moves using thousands of pieces of information available to him. A merchant could find opportunity in an extremely competitive market. There was no formula to success. The only thing a man could do was to trust his instincts. No one knew exactly how they succeeded.

The carriage reached Buenos City by noon. Black Eleven and Apa appeared outside of the city and stopped the carriage. Their job was to stand guard and wait for Anfey, Suzanna, Christian, and Niya. When the four did not show up, they became worried. Buenos City did not have a transmission portal, and after the city gate was closed, the two were practically stranded in the city without any source of information. They did not have the authority to reopen the gate, and even if they did, they could not travel back during the night. In the morning, Black Eleven and Apa received the news of the four being involved in a conflict in Punk City, but did not know the details. They had been very worried about the safety of their four companions.

Even though they were no longer worried, the two were still frustrated. Christian, Niya, and Anfey were all very important, and if they were hurt, Black Eleven and Apa would be responsible. Whenever something went wrong, everyone wanted to contribute to overcoming it. Black Eleven and Apa felt left out and were frustrated.

The two greeted Bruzuryano first, then turned to Christian. “Are you hurt?” Black Eleven said. He knew that no one was seriously hurt, but he wanted to show that he did care about their wellbeing.

“Don’t worry about me,” Christian smiled. He glanced at Anfey and lifted an eyebrow. “I told you that would make them angry,” he said.

“I think we should change our carriage,” Bruzuryano said with a smile. He did not know how popular he was. Compared to Slanbrea, he was clearly winning.

What had happened earlier was already fading from Bruzuryano’s mind. Since he was purposely trying to forget about it, it was not hard. He had seen too many deaths in his life, and knew that sadness could not bring the deceased back. He knew that it was better to prepare to avenge the dead than to keep thinking about the deaths.

“We’ve already prepared everything, my lord,” Apa said quietly. He waved his hand, and two men in blue appeared with a carriage behind them. They handed the reins of the horses to Apa and disappeared into the crowd.

“You’re efficient,” Anfey praised.

This praise was intended to lighten the mood and work as an apology, but Black Eleven ignored it. Instead, he turned to Bruzuryano and said, “Please, my lord. After you.”

Bruzuryano glanced at Anfey but did not wait for him. It was Anfey’s fault for changing the plan and inconveniencing others, including Bruzuryano and Slanbrea. What made Bruzuryano even more unhappy was Anfey’s clash with the believers of Goddess of Nature. Even though the keeper of the temple was a just woman, and she had explained the situation, Bruzuryano still felt uncomfortable.

Of course, Bruzuryano still did not want Christian, Niya, or Anfey to get hurt or die during the conflict. If if was them instead of those followers of Goddess of Nature, Saul, Ernest, and even Yolanthe would react badly. It could be disastrous to his religion.

The temple keeper also told Bruzuryano about Anfey using the Heart of Nature. Because of this, Bruzuryano decided that he could not talk to Anfey about it. Keeping everything in made Bruzuryano uneasy, however, and so he was happy to see the others getting angry at Anfey as well.

The conversation and changing of the carriage took only a few minutes. Soon, the carriage began moving again. Black Eleven thought that Anfey’s actions were inappropriate, but he still trusted him. His attitude towards Anfey softened significantly before the carriage even left the city. He found a package in his bag and handed it to Anfey. “It’s for you,” he said curtly and gestured at Apa.

Anfey understood Black Eleven’s gesture and nodded. He leaned back against the wall of the carriage and hid the scroll from Apa’s sight.

The scroll contained information, though Anfey wasn’t sure which information would be useful to him. He skimmed through the scroll, and a small paragraph on the last page drew his attention. He recognized Black Eleven’s handwriting instantly.

Black Eleven did not write a lot. It was mostly about Marquis Djoser. A day after Shansa Empire withdrew its army, the marquis went to Sacred City with some of his guards and met with Yolanthe. He immediately returned to his own house after the meeting, and did not meet any other important nobles in the city. He appeared at a feast the eldest prince, Wester, hosted, and was seen speaking with the prince like an old friend. The two had a private meeting after the feast, and it was unclear what they had talked about. According to the marquis’s servants, the marquis was happy enough that when he returned home that day, he was humming a song.

Black Eleven underlined the servants’ words. It was not hard to imagine what made the marquis so happy. He had always wanted to be the city lord of Violet City, and the prince must have promised him that.

Anfey tapped the paper lightly and flipped back to the front. The last page had a different texture compared to the rest of the scroll. Clearly, Black Eleven added the last page by himself. This was not something Anfey should know, which was why Black Eleven did not want Apa to know.

Anfey frowned, then relaxed. He knew what to do. If he was in conflict with the emperor Yolanthe, Black Eleven would never take his side. If his opponent was the prince, he knew where Black Eleven’s allegiance lied.

As long as he did not create any major conflicts, he was certain that he had Black Eleven’s support. Anfey was not worried about this. No one wanted to follow the wrong leader. Anfey knew that Yolanthe was a wise king, and he would not change his mind, unless he ran out of options. Yolanthe was smart, and he was much better than Anfey at avoiding unnecessary conflicts.

“Did you finish?” Black Eleven asked under his breath. “Destroy it when you finish. This was delivered under the order of His Majesty.” He paused and added, “He really trusts you, Anfey.”

“Yes,” Apa agreed. “Even the prime minister may not have access to that.”

Anfey smiled and handed the scroll to Suzanna, who summoned her combat power and burned the scroll.

Anfey stretched himself on his seat, then closed his eyes. He did not realize how easy it would be to make himself an enemy of the prince. Even though Yolanthe had planned everything and he had nothing to do with it, Prince Wester would not blame his own father. Anfey was nothing more than a scapegoat.

The prince may not hate Anfey yet, but he must have disliked him. What would Prince Wester think when the news from Violet City reached him?

“Anfey, what’s wrong?” Suzanna asked quietly. She was alarmed by Anfey’s frown. “Are you unwell?”

“Don’t worry,” Anfey said. He looked at Suzanna and smiled at her. “I’m just tired. I think I’m going to take a nap. Don’t worry about me.” Whenever he was under pressure, he often chose not to think about it too much. He liked napping or meditating to temporarily avoiding dealing with the problem. He found it easier to find a new perspective if he was calm.

Anfey relaxed himself and let his mind float. He filtered out the sounds of conversation around him, and could not hear anything. Everyone was already used to Anfey’s meditation and did not say anything, but Bruzuryano kept staring at Anfey.

After a while, Suzanna suddenly asked curiously, “Why did the carriage behind us stop?”

Bruzuryano peered through the curtains and glanced about. “Stop,” he said quietly.

Anfey opened his eyes as the carriage came to a stop. He sat up and peered out the window.

A group of people attending the funeral were crossing the road from a side road. A man around thirty years old walked in front. He wore a white gown with a viscount badge on it. He looked sad. A group of people dressed like farmers followed him. Four of the farmers carried a coffin. Crying came out of the coffin.

Slanbrea slowly got off the wagon. He frowned as he watched the group of people. The viscount saw Slanbrea as well. The privilege he enjoyed as viscount had taught him what Slanbrea’s priest gown meant. That viscount was shocked. The farmers behind him stopped as well. They whispered in groups.

“Excuse me, who is in the coffin?” Slanbrea raised his voice and asked.

“Master, it is my son,” the viscount answered with respect.

“Then what are you going to do to him?” Slanbrea asked.

“Master, my son had serious disease. The doctor in the town told us there is no cure for him. He could only live for a few more days. I do not want to see him being tortured by the pain so I want to…” the viscount said, his voice tailing off.

“Don’t be silly!” Slanbrea looked cold. “Open the coffin. Let me take a look.”

“Yes.” The viscount looked surprised and excited. He turned around and yelled at the farmers. “Why are you standing there? Hurry up! Put the coffin down and open it. Hurry up!”

“Slanbrea is spreading the glory of the God of Light again,” Bruzuryano said, smiling. “Let’s get off.”

Anfey and his group had different looks on their faces. In fact, in order to have their own religions better known and convert more people, every religion claimed to be able to help with the pain from disease. The followers of the Goddess of Nature were no different. To be more specific, Bruzuryano, even though he was a religious person, did not constantly talk about his Goddess.

The coffin was pried open quickly. The crying stopped for a second and became even louder. It sounded like he was crying to protest the fact he had been dropped. Slanbrea slowly walked up. There was a baby laying in the coffin, wrapped in black linen. He only had a small face exposed. The baby looked pale. He was so thin that his cheeks sucked in and his face was full of wrinkles.

“How old is he?” Slanbrea asked.

“A little over a year old,” the viscount said.

“You are so cold,” Slanbrea snorted.

“Master, I do not have other options. I only have one son.” Looking deeply sad, the viscount timidly answered Slanbrea.

Slanbrea bent down and careful picked the baby up in his arms. His smile looked so loving. Hundreds of sweet words were no better than actually helping by actions. Slanbrea understood it as well. There were principles in his religion that travelling priests needed to offer help whenever they saw things like this.

Anfey jumped off the wagon after Bruzuryano. He looked around first and laid his eyes on Slanbrea. Suddenly, a slight yellowness caught Anfey’s eye. After getting connected with the Heart of Nature, his vision had become very sharp. Anfey could sense things that others could hardly see. He could clearly see things far away from him. Right now he clearly saw the calluses on the baby’s heel, a thick layer of calluses.

Anfey immediately realized something was wrong. He jumped forward and yelled in anger, “Be careful!” Before he finished his warning, Air elements gathered quickly on his palm. He shot out the spear made of Air elements.

Slanbrea, as a priest of Light, was not that great in a physical fight. His reaction time was very, very short. As he heard Anfey’s warning, he tossed the baby in his arms into the air immediately without any hesitation. However, at the same time, the baby grinned like an adult. A cold silver light came through the black linen and thrust at Slanbrea’s heart.

Blood splashed. Slanbrea was hurt. He stepped back while that weird baby floated in the air. The baby tried to chase after Slanbrea. The soaring spear made of Air elements flew at the baby, which bought Slanbrea some time. It was enough time for Slanbrea to cover himself under a Light Shield. Thick vines even appeared in front of him. Some vines wobbled towards the baby while the rest tangled together to create a green protection wall. This was the magic released by Bruzuryano.

“How could this happen? You are not my son. You are…” That viscount suddenly jumped up.

The baby wriggled out of the vines. He passed the viscount with a cold silver light. The head of the viscount had been tossed in the air.

The farmers in the funeral procession were startled. They did not know what was going on. That baby did not care about killing them. He floated in the air and suddenly shot high in the sky. He successfully escaped the chase of vines and ran away. As he ran, a strong gust shot at him. The baby waved the knife in his hand to block the arrow flying at him. The arrow’s speed was as fast as a flash of light. The Wind Blade on the arrow hit the baby. A light blue light flashed. A layer of blurry light countered the Wind Blade.

The baby’s body was too small and too light. Although the Wind Blade did not hurt him, his body could not help rolling backwards in the air. When he finally steadied himself, he saw Anfey pull the bow again from about a dozen yards away.

“Stop!” Anfey said calmly.

The baby’s body froze there. At this moment, whoever moved first would put himself in a disadvantaged position. If Anfey shot first, the baby might be able to dodge the arrow and run away. If the baby moved first, the arrow could cause serious damage to him. The magic shield had been ruined by the recent attack. He did not have the shield anymore.

At the same time, Suzanna, covered by combat power, approached the baby from the side to pose a greater threat. Bruzuryano coldly stood behind Anfey. He did not want to attack the baby in a group, so he only released magic once. A weird light flashed in the baby’s eyes. A hardly visible surge rushed at Anfey. Anfey did not move at all. He loaded the arrow and firmly pointed at the kid’s chest. The telepathy attack at this angle could cause no damage to Anfey.

The baby looked pained. He wobbled and fell to the ground. The counter for his telepathy from Anfey made him lose control. At the same time, Suzanna swung her sword into an arch in the air, thrusting at the baby’s shoulder. Anfey also let his fingers go. An arrow shot out fast.

The baby screamed as if his life depended on it. However, this kind of noise could not be used as a weapon to hurt his opponents. Suzannas’ sword thrusted into the baby’s left shoulder, pierced through his body with force, and came out at the right shoulder. Anfey’s arrow got the baby’s chest and created a big bloody hole on the left chest.

Anfey put the bow back into his Dimensional Ring. He turned around and yelled, “Let’s go. We’ve got to return on the same route we came here. Let’s go. Hurry!”

“Wait. Take his weapon,” Slanbrea said in a low and depressing tone. He added, “Be careful!”

Anfey was shocked for a second before he took the sword from Suzanna. He thrashed the sword at the baby’s arm and cut it off. He pointed the sword at the hand and pierced it through the right hand of the baby. If Slanbrea asked him to be careful, he definitely had to be careful. He did not want Suzanna to do something so bloody like this so he did it for Suzanna.

The four druids with Bruzuryano had rushed over, trying to hold Slanbrea, but Slanbrea did not appreciate it. He pushed them away and stubbornly stood there. As a top power, he had his own pride. Even though he was hurt, but he did not want others’ help. The priest’s ripped gown slightly showed the strong muscles on his chest. It was weird that the color of the chest muscle around the wound kept changing colors. It was black sometimes and pale at other times.

Anfey walked over with sword in hand. Slanbrea quietly took the knife from the baby’s hand. He looked perplexed. “It is Annunciata. It is her revenge.”

“It is a Fang of Curse!” Bruzuryano recognized the knife as well.

“It was my bad,” Slanbrea said, smiling bitterly. “I only thought of necromancers but forgot about the assassins who were willing to work with them.”

“Master, we do not have much time left. We should leave now,” Anfey said in a low voice. If they were going to fight with necromancers, Slanbrea was definitely the main force. In the Country of Mercenaries, Anfey had seen many zombies die and turn into ashes under his magic. With Slanbrea hurt, Anfey was worried and did not want to take risks.

“No.” Slanbrea shook his head. “You do not know Annunciata. We cannot go back now. We have to continue going forward.”

“Forward?” Anfey turned to look at Bruzuryano.

“Slanbrea was right,” Bruzuryano said calmly.

“Why? Anfey, are you scared?” Slanbrea smiled. “Don’t worry. These kinds of curses are not going to affect me.”

Anfey heaved a sigh. He could tell the wound on Slanbrea’s chest was about 3 inches long. The cut was not terribly deep, but not good either. Slanbrea slowed down his blood flow with magic of Light. No matter what, his wound did not look too good.

Slanbrea was not concerned about his wound but about the curse. It was easy to guess how powerful the curse was.

In fact, there were many top powers in this world, but many of them died of mistakes they made or all kinds of reasons. The surviving top powers were the only few on the top of the pyramid. They were the best of the elites. They had experienced many difficulties and dangers that most people could not imagine. The deceit, pain and other negativity actions did not affect them, but only encouraged them to fight. At that moment, Slanbrea and Bruzuryano were displaying the pride that only real top powers could have.

Two carriages sped along the road. Due the differences in the strength of the horse teams, the two carriages were at least twenty feet apart. The four druids were all in the second carriage, and one had taken over driving the carriage himself.

The carriage in the back was, in fact, empty. All the important people were gathered in the first carriage. This was Slanbrea’s idea. The attack did not affect him. If necromancers tried to attack with magic, the second carriage would be their first choice. Both carriages were going at a high speed, and if the first carriage was attacked, the second carriage would arrive fast and support the first. If the second was attacked, the first carriage would be left alone. The druids in the second carriage were meant to be bait. They were willing volunteers, a testament to their fervent belief in their religion and trust in Bruzuryano. It was very easy for them to tell where it was safer and where it was more dangerous.

Luckily, the carriage was large enough to fit half a dozen people without feeling crowded. Slanbrea looked tired, perhaps due to the curse, but he was still smiling. “Bruzuryano,” he said quietly, “you are in charge.”

“Don’t worry,” Bruzuryano promised. “You won’t die before I do.”

“Really?” Slanbrea chuckled. “Our friendship moves me.”

“Shut it. I don’t want to see William by myself. If you want someone to explain what happened, you’ve got to do it yourself.”

Bruzuryano made this decision not only because they were friends. Two religions becoming allies was a decision made after a long time of careful thinking. An alliance between religions was much stronger than an alliance between nations. Religious figures were representatives of gods and the personification of glory and holiness. No one would lash out against another unless the situation permitted no other alternative. It would be a bad influence on the followers of the religion if religious alliances shifted the way alliances between nations do.

Two sides would actively try to maintain a friendly relationship, and anyone who tried to disrupt the peace would be punished by both religions. This was why Bruzuryano was taking this so seriously. He’d rather die than face Pope William and explain why one of his most important cardinals was killed.

Friendships were important, but interests were much more so. Outside of specially charted districts, both religions had the right to built temples and churches and the right to oppress smaller religions. Where there were interests there were conflicts, but most were resolved or buried. Bruzuryano and Slanbrea were both representatives active in their respective religions, and that made their relationship even more complicated. They had their fair share of conflicts. They were not quite friends, but they trusted each other enough that they were not enemies, either.

Anfey sat quietly and observed Bruzuryano and Slanbrea. They were all nervous about the battle, but Anfey tried not let his emotions show.

Bruzuryano glanced at the others in the carriage and must have sensed the tension. He turned to Slanbrea and asked, “Can you still use forbidden spells?”

“If someone can stall for me,” Slanbrea said, “I can still use a few.”

“Great,” Bruzuryano said with a grin. He sat back and let out a sigh of relief. He did not believe that Slanbrea could still use even one forbidden spell, let alone a few. But he knew that Slanbrea did not want to add to the pressure, and he did not expose his lie.

Bruzuryano knew that the people who can survive impossible situations were the people who would never give up. He wanted the young people to become ones who would never give up, and if their lies helped them, so be it.

Niya’s frown disappeared first. She glanced at Slanbrea, her eyes filled with admiration. She was not a mage, but she knew enough about it from her father. She knew very well what it meant for a mage to use a forbidden spell. Black Eleven and Apa smiled as well. The three types of mages were like the child’s game of rock-paper-scissors. Elemental mages tended to be more powerful than light mages, because elemental magic could cause much more damage than light magic. When elemental mages encountered necromancers, however, their hands were tied. Necromancers’ magic tended to be instantaneous and had explosive results. They could also summon other creatures like skeletons, zombies, and death knights to aid them in a fight. This number advantage easily placed necromancers in an advantage over elemental mages. Light mages were necromancers’ natural enemies. Unless there was too great a difference in power, a necromancer would never be able to defeat a light mage. Even a simple healing spell could be deadly to a necromancer.

If Slanbrea could still use magic, they were sure to win.

Suzanna kept calm and played with her sword. As a swordsmaster, the only person she trusted was herself. She was her own master. Swordsmasters did not only practice their skills with the sword, but also their courage.

Suddenly, a hoarse voice boomed in the carriage, “Dear cardinal, how’s the Fang of Curse?” The voice giggled ominously.

Slanbrea frowned and coughed violently. “Annunciata,” he replied, “you’ve sunk lower than I expected! Don’t forget who I am. The pope will avenge me.” Slanbrea grinned and winked at Niya, Christian, Suzanna, and Anfey, who were all shocked by his words.

“Really?” Annunciata asked, laughing. “Too bad you won’t see that.”

Anfey smiled. He already heard doubt in Annunciata’s voice. If Slanbrea was trying to prove that he was alright, she might have already attacked. Instead, he showed his weakness by telling her that someone else would avenge him, and easily made her suspicious.

A loud explosion ripped through the air, and the second carriage was blown apart. The carriage’s splinters flew through the air, and the horses were bloody messes on the ground. None of the horses was dead, however. Instead, they were writhing on the ground. Their eyes slowly turned to light red.

The four druids all transformed instantly and none of them were injured in the explosion. Three druids turned into large bears, and one into a wolf. Their thick armor prevented the explosion from harming them.

“Did a body explode? Where did they get the body?” Christian asked under his breath. Body explosions were powerful but very limited. The body must be fresh in order to trigger the explosion.

“There must be a village nearby,” Bruzuryano said quietly. “They must have killed everyone there.” He frowned, then jumped out of the carriage and bellowed. The horses took a sharp turn and ran off of the path and began dashing towards a meadow nearby.

Anfey tapped on his leg, then followed Bruzuryano out. Suzanna was about to follow him when he turned and said, “Stay. You need to protect Niya and Slanbrea.”

Others might have believed Slanbrea, but Anfey was skeptical. He knew Slanbrea must have enough strength to deal a final blow, and he needed Suzanna to stall as long as possible.

Suzanna frowned. She was used to being at the front of the attack, and Anfey’s instruction shocked her. She looked up at him, but he had already turned away from her.

“Be careful,” she whispered after a few moments. Anfey’s strange arrangement made her uncomfortable.

Anfey did not reply. He raised his hand and summoned a dozen wind blades that slowly gathered into a spear. He kept summoning elements and compressing those elements until the spear was a deep blue.

“Impressive,” Bruzuryano said. He knew that Anfey was a twin-discipliner, but he was still amazed by his ability to control the elements.

“Thanks,” Anfey said. “This is Indigo dragon crescent blade, a weapon that belongs to the legendary sacred warrior, Guang Yu.”

Bruzuryano lifted an eyebrow. “Strange name,” he said. “I’ve heard of Gold, Black, Red, and Green dragon, but not Indigo.”

“It is one of the legendary dragons,” Anfey said.

“Did your teacher tell you that?” Bruzuryano asked, smiling. He knew that Anfey once had a very powerful teacher who might have entered the sacred state. It came as no surprise to Bruzuryano that Anfey’s teacher had told him about things normal people did not know about.

Druids yelled and screamed in the distance. Obviously they had been hurt in the battle. Anfey turned around to take a look and then turned to look at Bruzuryano. Bruzuryano had been peacefully looking at something in front of him. He did not seem to be able to hear anything. People in high positions not only had to be cruel to their opponents. Sometimes they had to be hard on the people who worked for them, even to themselves. The key was to be cold and emotionless.

The running horse seemed to sense something and screamed in anxiety as he slowed down. A group of zombies came from the woods, some walking and some crawling, and slowly blocked Anfey on the grass. Their eyes did not have any focus, only staring at what was in front of them. Anfey raised his eyebrows. He had sensed death in the woods a long time ago. It was not reasonable that Bruzuryano did not sense it. As Bruzuryano’s assistant, he could not do anything right now but wait for Bruzuryano to start the fight.

“It was weird.” Bruzuryano looked up at the sunset. He said quietly, “You stay!” He jumped off the wagon. Without any acceleration, he passed the wagon in the blink of an eye and rushed diagonally at the zombies who blocked the road.

Suzanna ran at full speed. She looked like a meteor. The combat power left a trace like the bright light tail of meteor. Bruzuryano ran like a furious gigantic beast. Although he was much smaller than a gigantic beast, he looked very similar to one. The clouds of dirt underneath his feet blew so far that they fell onto the grass dozens of yards away. The grass was crushed and covered with dirt, indicating the power of Bruzuryano’s pounding feet.

When Bruzuryano was only less than 20 yards away from the zombies, he suddenly jumped up. A gigantic bear created by light and fog appeared behind Bruzuryano. As Bruzuryano landed on the ground, the gigantic bear smashed hard on the ground. Invisible but intense shockwaves swept the ground. The zombies on the other side were sent high in the air like peas tossed into a pot. The next moment, countless vines began to appear on the ground. They created a gigantic web and covered all the zombies underneath it. It wrapped tighter and tighter around the zombies. Zombies seemed to disappear under the web of the vines. Only moving vines were seen. The zombies were strong. Some zombies were strangled into halves by vines, but they still struggled moving after that. The rotten and smelly blood dripped out. There was a disgusting smell in the air.

“Annunciata, stop your tricks.” Bruzuryano’s voice was as loud as a tsunami in the air.

“As you wish.” Annunciata gave tit for tat.

Light grey fog appeared from the woods. Where the grey fog passed, the trees died, the falling leaves turning to ashes before even falling to the ground, the branches, trunks and grass all dying. The color of the ground changed from dark black into grey white, death grey.

Bruzuryano stood in the front. He quietly clenched his fists. This was a test for Slanbrea instead of him. If Slanbrea asked any druid to deal with the Fog of Decay, it only proved that he did not have much fighting power left.

Twenty yards, ten yards, the Fog of Decay was approaching. The vines could not handle this kind of corrosion. They moved back underground. The zombies who regained their freedom roared and crawled towards Bruzuryano. Slanbrea did not respond to any of this. Bruzuryano took a deep breath and then he heard Annunciata giggling. Three dark knights rushed out from the Fog of Decay. They formed into a triangle and rushed towards Bruzuryano.

In the blink of an eye, Bruzuryano got several times bigger. A silver gigantic bear as big as a small hill appeared in front of everyone. The bear’s paw was as large as a car wheel. He broke through the air currents and smashed the dark knight in the front. That dark knight looked weightless and spun backwards in the air and hit another dark knight behind him. The putrid blood splashed everywhere. Those two dark knights’ bodies were heavily torn and twisted together with the bones of the horse they had ridden.

The dark knight on the left in the back thrust his spear at Bruzuryano’s chest. Bruzuryano waved his hand upwards. He looked like he was swatting an annoying fly. The dark knight flew off with his horse into the Fog of Decay and disappeared.

“Hmm, why did you transform into a bear so early?” Annunciata’s giggles were not very pleasant, but she still sounded very nice. She sounded like she was talking to an old friend.

“Uhhhhhhhhhh…” Bruzuryano roared. The spreading Fog of Decay seemed to meet tornadoes. The fog rolled back a couple of yards. A piece of lifeless land showed up.

A person leading a horse walked out of the fog. It was not very appropriate to call him a person because he was a death spirit. Compared to his peers, he looked very arrogant. He took the time to walk, like he was going to attend a party. His appearance was highly unusual. He was taller than a person and protected by dark red armor. He wore a broken crown. His eyes looked brighter than the fire series crystals, which made him look scary. The spear in his hand was at least 3 yards long, and pointing at Bruzuryano. The war horse was tall as well and hung with many light blue flames, as fine as hairs. Its muscles bulged through the light blue flames.

Bruzuryano slowly stepped back. He was not scared. The concept was not in his dictionary. A fight with the powerful Death Knight in the Fog of Decay would be nothing different than a lion trying to catch a shark in the ocean. He might as well commit suicide if he did that. Bruzuryano had the courage for the fight, but he was not inclined to committing suicide.

The arrogant knight raised the spear in his hand and greeted Bruzuryano. He proclaimed the fight. The Fog of Decay had already moved around, but stopped behind the knight. Bruzuryano was shocked for a second. Did this Death Knight know about fairness? Bruzuryano knew what kind of person Annunciata was. The way the Death Knight behaved made him feel that this Death Knight might be too powerful for Annunciata to have total control of him. Therefore, she did not let the Fog of Decay keep spreading and instead stopped it behind him.

“Glory…” The knight squeezed out the word.

Bruzuryano felt sad. It was part of his nature never to forget the meaning of this word, but he did not know what the glory really was. A death spirit had no right to talk about glory. He only brought terror and fear to people.

Zombies slowly crawled out of the Fog of Decay. Five dark knights led those zombies around Bruzuryano, and they kept crawling over to the wagons that were parked farther away. The Death Knight stood still, looking at Bruzuryano. He only wanted to have a fair fight with Bruzuryano. He had no intention of interfering in others’ business.

“Do you think I am easily bullied?” Anfey murmured. He jumped off the wagon and plunged his Indigo dragon crescent blade into the ground. He put his hands on his hips to allow himself to stretch his back. He kicked his legs and shook his arms to warm up. A long time ago, he had already guessed what his task was, so he tried to make an Indigo dragon crescent blade out of the wind blade. It was hard to make any fatal damage to death spirits with a wind blade spear. The flame sword’s attack range was too limited. The Indigo dragon crescent blade did not only look fancy, but was also very practical. Its power could reach very far.

Anfey’s moves looked weird to others. The zombies slowed down. The few dark knights also kept their distance. The death spirit’s hesitation did not mean they had the ability to think. However, it did show the changes in Annunciata’s thinking. In fact, Anfey was wrong. No one thought it was easy to bully him. When many people knew about something, it was not a secret anymore. At that moment, the whole world seemed to have been looking for a village head called Ben Ladeng. Besides Yolanthe’s hurricane team, Evil Mist was looking for him as well. Yolanthe could publicly look for him while Evil Mist had to do it secretly because of their background. They were afraid that they would be killed immediately after they got a chance to see the Master Swordsman who had taught Anfey. The reason they wanted to catch Anfey alive was not only to get more secrets from him, but also to blackmail his master when it was needed.

Annunciata thought Anfey’s weird moves were all from that super powerful Master Swordsman. She not only needed to think about it, but also tried to memorize everything.

“Anfey, I do not want to hurt you.” Annunciata sounded even nicer.

“Then do not hurt me,” Anfey played along. He pulled out his indigo dragon crescent blade.

“Would you like to visit me at my house?” Annunciata did not think it was really going to happen, but she still wanted to give it a try. The best result would be Anfey volunteering to join them. If that happened, everything would fall into place. Annunciata thought her ancestors were too simple and naïve. They always wanted others to choose between assimilation and death and dreamed to rule the Pan Continent. As a result, people were against them even more. After countless failures, they finally learned to work with others. In the Evil Mist, besides necromancers, there were many allies and followers who did not become necromancers. Necromancers learned to share their cake with others. The road was measured step by step. They needed to take their place in the world before they could think of doing something else. They would be day dreaming if they thought they could control the world immediately.

“Visit you?” Anfey could not believe what he heard. He thought to himself that Annunciata should hate him with passion instead of inviting him over for a visit. Anfey did not want to believe anything she said. He placed the Indigo dragon crescent blade on his shoulder and smiled. “Sure.”

Anfey’s tone was too fake and everyone could tell he was lying. Annunciata frowned and did not say anything. If it was up to her, she would not care about his so-called secrets. Annunuciata went to Country of Mercenaries by herself because she wanted to be stronger and fulfill a legend. Now, all of her plans had gone to waste, and she herself was injured. The Mark of Holy Glory had been torturing her everyday and she was suffering. Anfey was the one that alerted Slanbrea and caused her suffering. What was even more infuriating was the fact that she could not do anything. In order to calm the other elders down, she had volunteered to host the chase. One of her most important goals was to capture Anfey alive.

“Do you want me to go first?” Anfey asked. He glanced at Bruzuryano and the Death Knight, who were staring at each other but did not attack each other. Anfey frowned and suddenly jumped forward.

His blade swept forward as he ran. Compared to Bruzuryano, Anfey’s figure appeared much lighter. He could jump forward several feet by just pushing on the ground, and was in front of the zombies in a flash. He jumped up into the air and brought the blade down on the head of one of the dark knights.

Anfey was used to disguising himself, and even in extreme situations like this, he would still pretend he was not using his full power. He may have appeared to be in control and relaxed, but he was already using all of his strength. He did not know why Slanbrea had insisted on advancing, and did not know if Slanbrea had another plan. Now was not the time to think about that, however, because the only thing he could do was to stall for as long as possible. He wished he had the power to control the situation, but he did not, and all of his hope rested on Slanbrea. He had protect his friends.

Anfey felt power amassing within him. He may have looked relaxed, but he was much stronger than he appeared.

The dark knight still had its battle instinct, and raised its lance to block Anfey’s attack. The two weapons clanged against each other loudly. The knight’s body shook, and the blade in Anfey’s hand bounced back.

His attack was only an illusion. Anfey knew his own strengths and weaknesses, and would not do anything that could put himself in danger.

As his blade bounced away from the lance, Anfey, still in the air, kicked the knight in the head. The skull shattered upon impact with a sickening crunch. Anfey landed and kicked out towards the knight’s chest.

The dark knight was still trying to defend himself with a lance, but Anfey’s blade had already pierced its body and thrown him off the horse.

Another knight rode over to its companion’s rescue. It raised its lance and aimed it at Anfey’s chest.

Anfey understood what the knight was planning, and dove forward with his blade held out in front of him. The knight’s lance quivered, but it continued to ride forward, and the lance thrust forward towards Anfey’s shoulder.

Anfey had just landed, and his body leaned back. His blade hit the ground and helped him to maintain his balance and avoid the lance. The knight rode past Anfey, and its figure was suddenly shorter. Its horse’s legs were all cut through by Anfey’s blade. The horse should have fallen, but it was still struggling to walk. The knight’s legs were dragging on the ground.

Anfey jumped up and twisted a few times in the air. He dove down towards the knight, his blade aimed at the knight’s back.

The dark knight raised its lance, but it could not block Anfey’s blade. Anfey swept his weapon across the knight’s neck. Its head flew off and rolled into a nearby bush. Thick, dark blood oozed out of the knight’s neck. The grass that was touched by the blood quickly withered and died.

Bruzuryano smiled. He could tell that Anfey was already very good at controlling his strength, and could defeat two dark knights in a short amount of time. He knew he did not have to worry about Anfey.

“Glory…” a dark knight croaked as it dashed towards Bruzuryano. It was much slower than the other knights, and its lance was dragging on the ground. It was about fifteen feet away from Bruzuryano when its speed suddenly picked up. Its ghost horse created a pale blue shadow behind it due to its high speed, and its lance was pointing at Bruzuryano’s chest.

Bruzuryano bellowed and his large bear claw struck out towards the knight. The knight’s attack was very powerful, but Bruzuryano was even more so. The lance was almost knocked out of the knight’s hand by Bruzuryano’s attack. Bruzuryano slammed his claw into the ghost horse’s head and shattered the animal’s skull. Chunks of rotting flesh flew everywhere, the ground was covered with thick, blue droplets.

Bruzuryano was not expecting the strength of his attack. He did not have the time to think when he was fighting. He slammed his claw into the knight’s body as it began to lean forward. The knight’s body bent back and snapped.

Bruzuryano felt a sudden wave of dizziness. The dead horse and the snapped knight disappeared like an illusion, and another knight came riding towards him.

The lance was less than five feet away from him when he realized something was wrong. He only had enough time to knock the lance off of its course. He realized what this knight was. It must be the shadow knight from over two centuries ago.

Before the two were about to collide, the lance suddenly sank, and the lance glided past Bruzuryano’s claw and towards his chest. Bruzuryano swept his left claw across towards the knight’s body.

With a loud boom, the lance struck Bruzuryano’s chest and Bruzuryano’s claw hit the knight’s body. Dozens of cracks appeared in Bruzuryano’s armor and there was a hole in the middle of his chest. Blood oozed out slowly, and Bruzuryano was forced to take a few steps back to steady himself.

The knight did not fare better. Even though Bruzuryano was struck first, he was still a bear over fifteen feet tall, and his claw was not much shorter than the knight’s lance. The knight was still moving and was hit by the claw. Its dark red armor had half a dozen deep, long gashes, and the gemstone on its armor shattered. Bruzuryano’s paw was as wide as the knight’s chest, and his claws were over ten inches long. The claws were as important to the druids as swords were to swordsmen, and could rip through most armor.

The upper half of the ghost horse disappeared again. Blue flame burst from its broken neck.

If knights and swordsmen were turned into dark creatures after death, their combat power would be turned into death power. Converting combat power to death power was not an equal conversion, however, and a person would lose part of his power after it was converted into death power. Of course, the amount lost often depended on how powerful the necromancer was. Annunciata was one of the necromancer elders, and she was no doubt very powerful. The shadow knight, however, was also very old. By comparison, the shadow knight was only half as powerful as he had been in his heyday. Otherwise Bruzuryano would not have been able to rip the knight’s armor apart so easily, and Bruzuryano’s wounds would be much more serious.

Bruzuryano grunted and he walked forward slowly, dragging his body. The wound on his chest was no longer bleeding. Druids healed much faster than knights and swordsmen. This was an advantage of fighting near nature. If they had been fighting in Fog of Decay, the wound would have been enough to kill Bruzuryano and turn him into a creature like the shadow knight. Here on the meadow clearing, however, his wound was already healing.

The shadow knight’s healing ability, however, was much stronger than Bruzuryano’s and worked much faster. The dark red armor wiggled like it was alive, and the gashes were welding together at a visible rate. What was even stranger was the horse. It was stomping on the ground and backing away, but did not show signs of falling to the ground. It stopped by the edge of the fog. After a few seconds, a new head appeared among the blue flames bursting from its neck. After the head was completely grown, it shook its new head, as if showing off its regenerating ability.

Suzanna tore off the curtain on the wagon to watch Anfey. At that moment, Anfey did not seem to have an advantage in the fight. He had killed two Dark Knights at the beginning, and seemed to keep up with the other three Dark Knights. Under the attack of the other three, he kept moving back, but he still moved fast. He moved left and right to avoid the Dark Knights’ attacks. As he avoided the Dark Knights’ attacks, he would kill a few zombies.

“Do not worry about him. He is very wise.” Slanbrea smiled when he saw Suzanna so worried.

“What? What do you mean by that” Suzanna was confused.

Slanbrea shook his head and smiled. He did not have time to explain. Anfey tried to prevent Annunciata from using Death magic and to buy himself some time. Unfortunately, Slanbrea did not think these kind of tricks could escape Annunciata’s eyes. A wooden case with fragrance appeared in Slanbrea’s palm. He carefully opened the case with a ceremonial gesture. There was a golden scepter in it. The golden scepter was carved with runes. A small angel statue rested on top of it. Before Slanbrea took the scepter out of the case, there was already a strong bright feeling. It made everybody in the wagon feel good about themselves.

“Kid, come here.” Slanbrea held the scepter and then waved at Suzanna.

Anfey looked like he was dancing on an ice rink. He could always move from one place to another with lightning speed. The three Dark Knights yelled and chased him, but they could not touch him at all. Slanbrea was not wrong. Anfey did not care about these Dark Knights. If he wanted, he could kill them at any time on the spot. Dark knights could be considered junior-level death spirits, but they did not have their own thinking and lacked the speed to pose any threat to Anfey. Anfey focused on the zombies.

He found the zombies were not scared of lights and were abnormally difficult to kill. Even when their heads were cut off, the zombies still did not die. Their headless bodies still could walk and even change direction as Anfey moved. Anfey had a bad feeling about this. With the knowledge he had about necromancers, he could not figure out what was going on.

A roar as loud as thunder came from the sky. Bruzuryano finally had started his attacks. His gigantic body unbelievably moved faster than lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, he had already rushed in front of that Death Knight. He waved his palm. Before his palm reached the Death Knight, the messy air currents he created had covered the Death Knight. That ghost horse with light blue flames flew backwards, like it was wrapped in a tornado.

That Death Knight used the Shadow strategy. His real person appeared in the back, but with a huge sound, the shadow shattered under the attack. He left deep paw prints on the lifeless ground. Many cracks showed around the paws. Some cracks were as wide as a few inches. They were wide enough to fit a hand.

A white shadow flashed. Bruzuryano threw himself onto it. He waved his palm at the Death Knight’s right shoulder. Bruzuryano did not get him with his first strike. However, in the blink of an eye, he had carried out a second strike. When Bruzuryano attacked with full force, no matter the power or the speed, he had reached a point very few people could exceed. After that shadow of the knight was created, his power decreased significantly. If he was at his peak, he was a match for Bruzuryano. This time he had to use the shadow strategy again to avoid the furious attacks from Bruzuryano.

Shadow strategy got Bruzuryano once. If Bruzuryano could be fooled several times, he was not good enough to be a top power. The silver white gigantic bear chased after that Death Knight with an undescribed speed. As the real Death Knight showed up, the gigantic bear had already lashed out at him.

The Death Knight could not release his shadows anymore. When he saw no way to dodge, he roared and thrust his spear at Bruzuryano’s chest. Bruzuryano had been forced to make a suicidal attack before, but now it was the shadow’s turn to use the same strategy.

As the spear was half way between Bruzuryano and the shadow, the gigantic bear hit hard on the ground with his paw. Besides the cracks underneath the paw, there was only a pile of black rotten flesh and flattened and twisted armor. This strike was so powerful that the Death Knight’s body was smashed like mashed tofu. The ghost horse lost most of his body as well. Only its forelegs and head were still rolling on the ground.

After the successful strike, Bruzuryano turned around and rushed back to Anfey. He did not have extra fancy moves. The zombies on the way were either knocked high into the sky or smashed to the ground.

When Anfey saw Bruzuryano rushing toward him, Anfey slowed down his blade. He slayed a zombie on the ground with a backhand. He jumped high to get closer to Bruzuryano.

A strong magic surge came from the distance. Bruzuryano let out a deep roar. It sounded that he was warning Anfey of something.

Anfey was alert to it. He readjusted his internal energy to the maximum. He saw the Dark Knight and his spear in front of him. He jumped high and kicked at the tip of the spear to gain momentum to jump higher. He kicked the head of the Dark Knight with his right foot. As he jumped over the Dark Knight, he swung his blade at the knight’s neck. A deep cut appeared on the Dark Knight’s neck and almost cut it off.

When Anfey was in the air, he suddenly found that countless zombies and skeletons showed in the Fog of Decay. They moved towards Anfey in waves.

A bone spear flew over the sky, shooting at Bruzuryano among the zombies. The spear flew here and there in an unpredictable way. The bone spear was just a junior spell, but it was a pain. Besides Meteor magic and wind blades, usually magic did not have any physical damage. It could only cause damage with active elements. The physical damage Meteor magic and wind blades could cause was not strong anyway. It would not be life-threatening. A bone spear was special. The physical damaging power and magic power were about the same, which could cause a decent amount of damage.

Even Bruzuryano could not ignore the bone spear’s attacks. He slowed down a little bit and hit the bone spear as it approached to him. The bone spear shattered into pieces.

The next moment, a bone jail appeared in the sky and locked Bruzuryano’s gigantic body inside it. Before Bruzuryano could react, a row of bone walls seven yards tall suddenly appeared and blocked Bruzuryano’s way.

This bone wall was actually just a different form of magic Kekkai, because the zombies and skeletons from behind could pass the bone wall without any trouble.

Bruzuryano’s roaring got louder and louder. Broken limbs, blood, flesh, and broken bones flew out of the bone wall like rain drops. The magic surges in the distance got even stronger. Every strike Bruzuryano made shattered some of the bone jail. Many zombies and skeletons rushing at him were killed. A new bone jail appeared above him. The bone spears Bruzuryano worried about kept coming at him. The bone spears flew in the sky with a whooshing sound one after another.

Nobody was better at adjusting to such situations than Anfey. As he landed, he had already turned around. He waved his arms with big blades to create many images and slayed the Dark Knights and rotten zombies who were in his way.

If a top power were not beaten by those kinds of attacks, Anfey knew those necromancers only wanted to hold Bruzuryano in the fight. The reason they did that was to do something afterwards. It was easy to guess the people who were going to face the dangers were not Bruzuryano in the fight. It should be Anfey himself or Slanbrea in the wagon.

By the time the Dark Knight in the front had waved his spear, Anfey had already swung his big blade toward him. Before his wounds showed up, Anfey swung two more times. When when Dark Knight fell to the ground, his body had been chopped into a few sections. He lost all of his fighting ability.

Many people thought the key to winning a battle was to be fast. It was just a line in the movies. Whether a physical fighter or martial arts practitioner, they all stressed the importance of speed. No matter how physically or internally strong the fighters were, it would be meaningless if they could not be quick enough to hit their opponents. To a real martial arts practitioner, it was not very hard to be fast. The hard part was to combine the speed and power in a perfect ratio. The fastest boxer could punch thirteen jabs in a second, but these jabs would not damage the opponents as hard as one hard uppercut.

Anfey’s speed was super fast. He was so fast that the big blade in his hand had looked like a small tornado. He used all his power without any conservation. The last Dark Knight was knocked away with his ride. The leftover zombies did not allow him to pause for a second. He moved like a flagship on the sea fighting the waves. He rushed straight towards the wagon.

A bone wall suddenly grew out from the ground and blocked Anfey’s way. Anfey had waited for this for a while. Those necromancers who hid in the dark could not see him rushing out. A person who was good at learning from mistakes would always think about what mistake he made and also pay attention to the mistakes others made. Bruzuryano was trapped, because the flying bone spears made Bruzuryano paused a little bit. There was no attack that did not cost time. Instant magic still needed a certain time to hit the target. That was the reason that necromancers needed to use bone spears to make the initial attacks. It even took a very short time to activate elements. As long as Anfey was prepared for it, he believed he had the chance to escape.

By the time the bone wall appeared on the ground, Anfey had already swung his blade to the left, but borrowed the momentum to move to the right. As the bone wall grew to about two yards tall, Anfey pushed onto the bone wall with his hand to jump a few yards higher than the bone wall and ran away as fast as he could. There was an empty bone jail standing there.

Anfey did not relax because he was able to avoid the bone cage. Instead, he became more alert. The bone cage was only an intermediate spell, and the hidden mages could use it over and over again if they wanted to. He avoided this one, but it did not mean he could avoid the next one.

Sometimes the Heart of Nature would beat along with his heartbeat, but now the situation was reversed. Normally, tense movements would cause his heartbeat increase, but under the influence of the Heart of Nature, his heartbeat hardly changed.

Anfey felt another wave of familiar magical surges in the distance. He recognized the surge of bone spears, and there were at least two different surges. Anfey frowned, then saw two bone spears rip through the air and fly towards him at a breakneck speed. Anfey took a deep breath and dashed forward, gripping his blade in his hand. He took a few steps forward and leapt into the air.

As the bone spears approached him, he held out his blade and swept it across. The blade hit the spears and changed the courses of the spears. Then Anfey jumped forward and passed in between the two spears.

Another bone cage appeared, but it appeared too late and narrowly missing Anfey.

Anfey pushed off of the ground and jumped to the right. After he fuzed with the Heart of Nature, his instincts grew much stronger. He could feel that there were elements amassing over him, and knew that another bone cage was coming.

Anfey raised his blade and dashed to the right, then he suddenly changed direction and began running to the left. Another bone cage appeared and narrowly missed him.

Anfey frowned as a strange sensation tingled in his heart. Normally, no matter how many elements he amassed when he was using magic, others could not see the elements. They could only see the elements when he released the magic. There had to be a connection. Elements were usually in a state of invisibility and had no right effect on the real world. The process of elements transforming from invisible energy to a visible state was a short one. It happened in less of a process and more of a burst. Elements were only elements, and they had to be transformed into a physical state for them to have power.

In the past, Anfey had never noticed this. It was like someone who first began learning math would not propose questions about complex mathematical processes. Anfey had always thought this was just a necessary step in magic and never questioned it. Just then, however, he felt acutely aware of the process of the bone cage’s creation. He could feel the entire process, including the surges and the elements coming together.

Anfey raised his blade and looked at the spears coming toward him. He jumped aside and let the spears glide past him. As the elemental surges above him grew stronger, it was as if time had suddenly slowed down. Anfey took a deep breath and felt the changes in the elements.

The ground, sky, grass, even the roaring zombies lost meaning to Anfey. The only things he could feel were the elements. It was as if he had opened the doors to a whole new world, and the only things that excited him in that world were elements.

The amassing of elements suddenly stopped, and Anfey raised his blade and slashed upwards. His dark blue blade glistened with gold.

A dozen thick bone columns were stopped by the slashing of his blade. His momentum threw the bones forward.

Except for Suzanna, everyone else was watching the fight. Seeing what Anfey had just done, they all appeared shocked. Even Slanbrea, despite his shaking fingers and tight lips, forced a smile.

Magic could be deflected and a lot of people could do it. What was strange was that Anfey was able to predict where the magic was. This was a rare ability, and there were only a few people in the world capable of it. Slanbrea wondered how powerful Anfey’s mentor must be.

Zombies began running towards Anfey. Bruzuryano had already warned them that zombies were strange in that they could attack even after they were severely injured. Even the broken limbs were crawling on the ground. The black blood was pulling together as if it was alive. For Anfey, however, all of this was just elements.

Anfey raised his arm and dashed towards the zombies. He swept his sword through half a dozen clouds of elements. The zombies sank to the ground and let out bloodcurdling shrieks. The zombies, who were almost invincible before, could not last long without support of elements.

Annunciata growled under her breath in anger. She did not care about normal zombies and skeletons, but those zombies were necessary for her to become an elder.

Anfey moved again. He walked towards Burzuryano, who was still trapped under layers of bone cages and bone walls. He could tell the elements that made up Burzuryano were warm and welcoming.

Anfey walked very slowly. He was waiting for the necromancers to attack again so he could practice his newfound power, but he was let down.

Behind Annunciata, two necromancers watched Anfey with a frown. They both saw their companions fall to the ground and turn into a pile of bones when Anfey destroyed the bone cage. They did not want to use magic against Anfey again. They became necromancers because they were afraid of death, and no necromancer wanted to risk his life. Even though this life was only half a life, it was still a life.

More and more zombies and skeletons turned to piles of bones under Anfey’s blade. His attack was not as vicious as before, but it was no less powerful.

The necromancers who were responsible for keeping Bruzuryano entrapped all took a few steps back when they saw Anfey. They did not want to use magic around him. Before they learned how Anfey was destroying their magic, it was better to be cautious. If there was one thing necromancers did not lack, it was caution. Normal people would fight each other to death over a word or two on the street, but necromancers would never do that. They have long lives and no need to take risks. Of course, they do not mind torturing and killing those who had offended them.

Burzuryano bellowed. Without the necromancers, the zombies and skeletons were no match for him. His sharp claws swept through the air, and the zombies and skeletons were thrown back into the air. Some were reduced to piles of bones and rotting flesh.

Another surge of magic reached them. The zombies and skeletons began retreating. It seemed like even Annunciata did not want additional meaningless deaths.

Bruzuryano did not care about those skeletons and zombies. He turned and looked at Anfey with his calm grey eyes. He was one of the most powerful men in the world, and it was strange for him to rely on anyone but himself to escape a dangerous situation. Bruzuryano did not care about his own dignity, though. He was thinking about his promise. He cared about Anfey, and he could see things about the boy no one could.

The zombies and skeletons retreated fast. Anfey felt strange without threat, and slowly the world of elements turned back into a normal world. He glanced around, and could no longer see elements. He recalled the feelings just a few moments ago, and sighed. He wanted to say something, but in the end he chose to be silent.

“Anfey, what are you doing?” Bruzuryano called. He had already changed back from his bear form. “Don’t be distracted. There’s still a fight going on.”

“I thought you would be naked,” Anfey said. “I thought wrong.”

“Transformation is just magic,” Bruzuryano said with a shrug. “It’s just like your fire sword won’t burn you.”

“I’m just unfamiliar with transformation spells,” Anfey said.

“Don’t worry. You’ll understand once you learn it.”

Anfey smiled. “It’s alright,” he said. “I enjoy my body now.”

There was a dull roaring in the distance. Waves of roaring surrounded them. Suddenly there was a terrifying coldness. Bruzuryano looked pale, and then he looked off in the distance as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. He felt something fierce pressing on him. Anfey, on the other hand, seemed to have the protection of the Heart of Nature and did not feel anything.

Slanbrea had chills in the wagon and rudely pushed Black Eleven away. He nervously looked out. Black Eleven was a little confused why Slanbrea had done that to him, but he dared not have any conflict with this famous Light Priest. He obediently stepped back.

“Whoa! They even…” Bruzuryano’s breathing got heavier.

A greyish shadow rushed into the sky and flew towards Bruzuryano. Bruzuryano felt the the air was getting colder and colder. An invisible pressing feeling got more real. It felt like there was a tsunami coming at them.

Christian and others in the wagon felt the pressing feeling as well. Their bodies started to tremble uncontrollably. Niya was never calm, but Christian and Black Eleven were super calm, and now their minds were blank. Besides terrors, they felt nothing else.

There was another roaring in the sky. Christian had another chill. When he came out of it, he could barely control his body. He asked with a trembling voice, “Master, what is that?”

“It is a dragon, a phantom dragon,” Slanbrea said quietly.

After different Gods had fought long ago, the map of Pan Continent had changed considerably. It shrank to half of it original size. The supreme powers died or disappeared in the battle. Many secrets and precious cultures disappeared with them into history. “No More Supreme Powers.” This was a desperate sigh from a king of that era. Luckily, many super creatures with supreme powers also disappeared. The world had another new balance.

There were still stories and legends about them. These stories and legends suggested the supreme creatures, such as dragons and behemoths, needed more than a few top powers to fight against. Only the top powers who had been to Sacred State could be a match for supreme creatures. That was why there were many stories about slaughtering dragons and being killed by dragons. These stories allowed people to experience the happiness and sadness of the people in the past.

As one of the leaders in the Church of Light, Slanbrea knew a lot of secrets. He even had the chance to see a supreme creature. He never thought it would appear now. This was not a battle that would decide the fate of necromancers. Did those necromancers go crazy or did they have too many supreme creatures to use? Slanbrea suddenly remembered how Anfey had swung and totally destroyed bone jail. He felt he understood something.

The greyish shadow flew closer to them. Anfey squinted his eyes to look at it. He could clearly see a gigantic beast made of greyish bones. It was weird to see bone wings flapping in the air. Could he actually fly with those bone wings? It was not consistent aerodynamics.

As Anfey analyzed the dragon, the greyish shadow suddenly opened its mouth wide. A white ball flew at them.

“Move!” Bruzuryano gave a startled cry.

Bruzuryano acted like a loving father figure here. After Anfey got connected with the Heart of Nature, it brought many good things to Anfey, but not everything. Right now Anfey could not feel any pressure. From Bruzuryano’s look, he knew it must be very scary, but he still way underestimated the power of supreme creatures. Of course, he did not know it was a phantom dragon. Bruzuryano knew it but he did not dodge away. Instead he warned Anfey and let him move first. It was not easy to keep calm under the pressing feeling as strong as a tsunami coming at him.

Anfey paused for a second and jumped into the air. In the blink of an eye, he activated the Heart of Nature, trying to find the key to break the magic. Breaking the magic had given him an accomplished feeling. He wanted to do it again. He took a look and found that the white ball contained elements way beyond just energy or physical being. It seemed to be a dense and hard crystal ball. Anfey immediately knew what he should do.

Bruzuryano and Anfey ran in opposite directions. Opposite directions could distract the phantom dragon, but Bruzuryano was afraid the dragon would chase after Anfey. He would rather sacrifice himself for his promise if it was needed.

“Bang!” The white ball hit the ground. It did not sound very loud, but white frost appeared on the ground and spread like ripples in a lake. In a flash, hundreds of square feet of ground had turned white. The air got colder as well. Anfey had jumped dozens of yards away but still felt the coldness behind him. The coldness made him feel pain and numbness. The dragon crescent blade felt like a piece of ice in his hand.

Anfey knew that was because there was slight damage to his capillaries and nerve endings. He did get affected by it, but did not get much damage from it. If he had been hit in the face, Anfey could not imagine what would have happened to him.

The phantom dragon flapped its bone wings and spit out another white ball. Anfey was sure it was small-scale forbidden magic. When he looked up to check the magic the gigantic beast released, he could not help gasping. He immediately flew over the dragon.

Bruzuryano was about eight yards away from Anfey. From that distance, he definitely could tell who the real target of the phantom dragon was. He did not want Anfey to get hit because of him.

As Bruzuryano expected, the dragon chased after him. The dragon released more magic from his mouth. Bruzuryano transformed into a gigantic bear in the blink of an eye. His speed doubled. He ran out like a cloud of silver light. It was not important whether he could outrun the phantom dragon. He wanted the people here to be away from the threat of the dragon.

Bruzuryano thought quickly. Anfey thought fast as well. He turned around to look at Bruzuryano with gratitude. Anfey knew who was inclined to help him and who had evil intentions. Bruzuryano cared about Anfey, but he also used Anfey occasionally. Sometimes it was not a bad thing to be used. A person without values was really pathetic.

The dragon did not care about Bruzuryano running away. Neither did he care about Anfey. The dragon flapped its wings and flew towards the wagon. He opened his mouth and spit out another white ball, which they had expected. The white ball fell onto the wagon.

Anfey stared with his eyes wide open. He thought Slanbrea must still have some fighting ability left. The reason he had not fought yet was because he was waiting for the perfect time. Even if he made mistakes, Suzanna should be able to take Niya and run out. He was not worried about Christian and Black Eleven. The magic that gigantic beast released was powerful, but the speed was not so great. They were hit by his first attack due to their careless. Their timing had been bad.

A person shot out into the sky from the wagon. The roof of the wagon was broken into pieces and flew out. That person flew at the phantom dragon with great speed. Before Anfey could see who it was, the person and the dragon clashed. The magic released by the phantom dragon was hit by the contact. Crystals in different sizes splashed everywhere, like falling flower petals in the wind. The person fell hard to the ground as well.

Two blurry light wings grew out of the person’s back, flopping in the wind. The person looked holy. Anfey was shock when he recognized it was Suzanna.

Suzanna did not see Anfey though. She slowly looked up at the phantom dragon hovering above her. She looked brave and cold with eyebrows showing an angry frown. She was clearly hurt, with blood coming out of a corner of her mouth.

An unbearable rage arose in Anfey. What he worried about most had happened. He had the most secrets among everyone. He had the value to be explored. Christian had royal family background. Niya was the daughter of Saul. Black Eleven and Apa did not have enough fighting ability to counter the dragon. When the dangers came, Suzanna was the best pick to make a sacrifice. She became a senior swordswoman when she was less than twenty years old. It sounded like she had a bright future waiting for her. But a bright future was not a bargaining chip, at least not to the big people who were used to controlling others’ lives.

Anfey suddenly looked even colder than Suzanna. He seemed to lose control of himself. In most cases, the more hatred Anfey had towards a person, the more friendly he would treat that person. He would find a perfect time to give a fatal strike to that person. However, right now, he really could not control himself and did not want to control himself.

The grass started to move. A row of dark knights appeared. The one in the front was actually not a dark knight. He held an indigo crescent blade with skeleton death spirit. He looked taller than most dark knights. He did not look like he was made of human bones. When he rode on his bone horse, his legs almost touched the ground. His ride looked like it could not take his weight.

Slanbrea stood up from the broken wagon. Christian looked to be in pain. He stood behind Slanbrea with others. Niya could not stand still. She could not counter the pressing feeling from the supreme creature. She could barely stand up with the help of Christian.

Slanbrea seemed to feel something. He took a look at Anfey and saw Anfey looking at him with obvious hostility. He was shocked by what he saw.

Bruzuryano rushed back to the dark knights. He slaughtered those dark knights. He had no trouble killing them until a gigantic indigo crescent blade swung at him. Bruzuryano moved back a few steps. The silver white furs stood up like needles. Bruzuryano’s eyes had turned blood red. He was a little regretful. Both he and Slanbrea had underestimated the potential ability of the Evil Abyss. However, there was no point in feeling regret.

The battle began again. Bruzuryano could ignore the threat from the dark knight, but he could not ignore the giant skeleton. The speed of the skeleton’s movements was not much slower than Bruzuryano’s. There was possession magic on the skeleton’s scythe, which made the weapon give off a dark smoke. The smoke would turn Bruzuryano’s white coat dark, even if he was just standing too close to the weapon. Even then it took a long time for Bruzuryano to recover. It was hard to imagine what would happen if the scythe actually wounded him.

Anfey was not having an easy time, either. It seemed like Annunciata deemed him an opponent worthy of her men’s attention. Several necromancers were focusing on him, attacking him with bone spears. Even the dark knight joined the fight against Anfey. Anfey relied mostly on his speed during a fight, and was not like knights and swordsmen, who had combat power to protect themselves. He did not have the time and spare energy to notice what was happening to Suzanna.

Suzanna’s power suddenly grew and she was somehow almost as powerful as some of the best men in the world. She was able to deflect the attack of a phantom dragon, albeit barely. She was wounded during the process, but under normal circumstances she would already be dead. Since the dragon disliked light, it tried to stay away from her wings of light. It flew higher than Suzanna, and would only attack from an advantageous position.

Normally, when she was fighting alongside her friends, Suzanna would always check on them first before fully engaging her enemy, no matter how powerful her opponent was. Now, however, she did not look at any of her companions. Instead, her eyes did not even move away from the phantom dragon and were filled with hatred. It was as if nothing else mattered to her.

Slanbrea was perhaps the most relaxed. Even though he was wounded and he recognized it, he was already a cardinal of the Church of Light. For a creature of darkness, he was the worst enemy. None of the necromancers tried to attack him.

Black Eleven and Apa were observing the fight anxiously. They knew that it was not their place to help even if they wanted to. Joining the fight might go badly for them. The only person who noticed Suzanna’s strange behavior was Christian. He split his time thinking with his eyes closed and sneaking glances at Slanbrea’s scepter. When he first took the scepter out, Christian noticed, there was a figurine of an angel on it. Now, however, it was gone.

Christian frowned and tried to recall his readings, trying to see if he remembered anything related to the scepter. Light magic was very different from elemental magic, however, which meant Christian would not have had a lot of opportunity to read about it. He did not understand much about light magic, and could not recall any useful information.

No one noticed that the broken limbs and thick, dark blood on the battlefield were all shaking and moving slowly towards a certain point. A small mound of blood and rotting flesh began building.

Slanbrea was the first to notice the elemental surge. When he looked over, rows of zombies dashed out of the fog and towards the mound of flesh. The zombies disappeared into the mound, but more and more continued to jump onto it as if it had a strange magnetism.

When the mound swallowed the last zombie, a loud thud ripped through the air, and two arms sprouted out of the mound and slammed into the ground. It was made up of the bodies of several dozen zombies. Then the mound sprouted two legs and stood up.

The ground shook under the bloody giant’s steps; the smell of blood filled the air. The giant was too heavy, and since its body was made up of zombies, the zombies’ bodies could not take this kind of force. The giant only took one step, but the force was already too great for the zombies.

Slanbrea and Bruzuryano’s expression all changed from serious to grave. They both knew about one of the most vile Puppet spells the necromancers could use. Slanbrea swallowed and stared at the giant. Bruzuryano was distracted and was almost hit by the skeleton’s scythe.

The first step was just a test. Soon, the bloody giant began walking towards the fight, the ground rumbling under its feet and blood rained down from its body. If the path was too long, the giant could crumble under the pressure. Unfortunately, it was less than a hundred feet from the fight, and its body could endure that distance.

The fog that lingered there began moving as well. It expanded slowly, draining the earth of its life force. Necromancers’ skill of controlling their magic was as powerful as their skill of killing. If they were trapped by the fog, the fight would be over.

Slanbrea raised his arm, and bright light surrounded him. The scepter in his hand suddenly came to life and rose into the air. Light around the scepter grew stronger as Slanbrea began his incantation, and the scepter itself began spinning. It looked like a small sun hanging above the man.

When Slanbrea finished his incantation, his body suddenly shook, and he almost stumbled to the ground. Christian hurried over to help him up, but his hand froze midair and he let it fall back to his side without offering it to Slanbrea. “Are you alright, my lord?”

“Don’t worry,” Slanbrea said with a smile. He looked up at his scepter, which was still spinning in midair.

Warm light radiated from the scepter and covered the ground around in a soft glow. The light cast light gold over everything it touched. The golden light blocked the advance of the dark fog, but the bloody giant did not appear to be affected. It kept moving forward, and its entire body was covered in dark smoke as if it was burning.

Slanbrea frowned. An evil puppet like this could not be killed by normal attacks. The only way to destroy it would be magic, since no swordsmen could harm it, not even a grandmaster swordsman. Even if the bloody giant was severed in two, its body could reknit itself and began its advance again. Only magic could destroy it and leave it with no possibility of regenerating. The only one present with the ability and knowledge to destroy puppets was Slanbrea, but even he was useless against it.

“Kill him,” Annunciata bellowed as she watched the fight. “Kill him.”

Her life had been torturous since the day she was branded by Slanbrea’s Mark of Holy Glory in Country of Mercenaries. Even though Mark of Holy Glory did not have great power, and its only effect was to protect an individual from the effect of death magic, it had caused severe damage to Annunciata. This was because everything she stood for was rejected by Mark of Holy Glory. It caused her great, continuous pain. Annunciata knew a lesser necromancer would have already gone mad.

If it had only caused her pain, Annunciata would not have taken such drastic steps. A necromancer with Mark of Holy Glory was laughable, and even her men, who were so loyal to her once, tried to avoid her as much as possible. Annunciata knew that the only way to restore her honor would be to kill Slanbrea.

According to the original plan, her mission was to capture Niya and Anfey and take them to their base. The others should be disposed of. Annunciata agreed to it, but she had a plan of her own as well. She wanted to wash away her shame and restore her fellow necromancer’s trust in her. She had to kill Slanbrea. Not only did she bring every artifact she had, she even stole the sacred artifact. Now, with victory in sight, she could not control her hatred for Slanbrea.

“Attack, you idiot,” Annunciata snarled. She waved her staff, and the phantom dragon bellowed as it dove towards Suzanna. Annunciata was already using all of her power. She had to control both the phantom dragon and the giant puppet. She was doing something none of the other elders would ever even try. Death magic was even more terrifying when it turned against its user.

“Kill all of them,” Annunciata ordered. Before the dragon could anything, however, she felt a sudden wave of magical surge. She turned around and saw a sprawling fire dragon flying towards her.

Annunciata did not move. Her plan had been flawless, and she had already set up a powerful protective magic array. Even though she was alone, the dragon could not harm her.

The fire dragon exploded about fifty feet away from Annunciata with a loud crack and turned into a cloud of fire.

“Show yourself,” Annunciata commanded as she released a magic signal. She needed the other necromancers there as soon as possible. The fact that she was still controlling the puppet and the phantom dragon made her usage of the magic signal very impressive.

“Let me introduce myself,” a man said as he stepped into the light. He was a normal looking, middle-aged man. He did not use spells, but he was floating. “My name is Entos.”

“Entos?” Annunciata frowned. The name felt familiar, but she could not remember where she had heard it.