Amber Sword

But Curiosity Seeker Gallock gently waved his hand and pushed the others aside. He picked up the Magic Wand, his gaze sweeping over everyone one by one, finally lingering on the Teleportation Gate that seemed as distant as the sky.

Only then did he begin chanting the Spell—struggling at first, but gradually growing smoother.

Space began to quake once more.

A familiar white aura unfolded over the battlefield. But this time there were no Demon Magicians left to disrupt the Spell taking shape, because they had long since become reeking corpses.

The aura suddenly spread open before the Demon Army like a great door. In the next instant, Princess Griffine and the others appeared on the grassland. A moment ago they had still been behind the Demon Army, trailing far behind those chaotic creatures, but the next moment they were standing squarely in the path of that advancing host.

By now everyone had developed a certain resistance to Teleportation Magic; this time they only felt a brief dizziness before recovering. They immediately saw the Demon Army bearing down on them, and each of them turned around at once, bracing themselves for battle.

But it was at that very moment that the Princess suddenly realized Gallock and the two gravely wounded Lantoniyan Knights were gone.

"Where is Master Gallock and the others?" Princess Griffine asked at once.

"He stayed behind, Your Highness. His Strength was no longer enough to Teleport everyone—those three decided, after discussion, to remain," Reid answered with a sigh.

The Princess froze for a heartbeat. As clever as she was, how could she not understand what that meant.

"But why didn’t he tell me?"

"Everyone has the right to choose to become a hero, Your Highness. He’s waiting for us in another World; we’re only going to follow after—once we’ve stopped these monsters."

The Half-Elf Girl bit down on her lower lip.

"I understand." She nodded.

The old White Lion bowed slightly to her—that was the courtesy an aged vassal paid to a young Princess. Then the wizened Knight turned back, Longsword in hand. At that moment thunder and Lightning tangled together, winding and flashing across the sky, piercing layer after layer of dark cloud.

The Demon Army had already noticed the ’mantis’ blocking its way.

It had no intention of stopping.

...

On the battlefield, the Demons’ advantage had been stripped away layer by layer. What had been overwhelming superiority was now a desperate entanglement between two dying foes, each waiting to see which would be the first to stop breathing.

Brand stood in the pouring rain, glaring at the Eagle Djal before him—this Sword Master of Anlek. The two of them looked as if they had just been dragged out of a river from head to toe, but neither spared that a glance.

What is Anlek trying to do?

Players had already harbored such suspicions back in Amber Sword.

Because of the elder Princess’s strange Death, all fingers pointed to this Duke—and to the Kruz people. But the conspiracy behind it clearly went far beyond that; players had once found traces of Cultists mixed in, only for that entire chain of investigation to dissolve completely with Erune’s fall.

Brand preferred to believe Duke Anliek was deeply suspect, and now the sudden appearance of Eagle Djal confirmed his conjecture.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Just not in a way he particularly wanted.

The Eagle Knight De Jia’er had already drawn his Longsword before him. It left Brand momentarily torn—should he release the King of Chaos? The problem was obvious: Char was clearly no match for De Jia’er.

This bastard, whatever his condition, had regrown a severed hand in just a few days—no doubt thanks to the Demons. At least back in the Holy Temple, when Brand had seen him holding his Sword one-handed, he hadn’t looked anywhere near recovered.

The thought flashed through his mind.

De Jia’er was already lunging at him like an arrow. "Char!" Brand shouted.

Char immediately began to set up the next Protection Magic. He raised his Magic Wand—but unexpectedly, at that very moment, the oak Wand in his hand shattered like glass without warning.

The splintered wood fragments flew apart as if struck by some unseen force, then instantly combusted, turning to ash in the blink of an eye. The young Wizard couldn’t help screaming—large patches of skin on the hand that had held the Wand had been seared away.

"What the hell is that!" He looked up.

A visible ripple in the air was sweeping across the entire battlefield.

Arcs of Lightning crackled as they swept over the grassland, scorching the turf wherever they passed. People’s hair stood on end as if blasted by static, immediately giving off the acrid stench of singeing.

"Lightning Ring!" Char squawked.

This was by no means an advanced Spell, nor did it occupy any impressive tier in the Ring Magic System. But no one had ever heard of a Second-tier Spell covering a battlefield several kilometers wide.

With Char’s magical cover gone, De Jia’er streaked toward Brand like a bolt of Lightning. With no choice, Brand had to drop Messika, wrench the Earth Sword free from the King of Chaos’s chest, and roll backward to evade the strike.

Messika let out another agonized howl from the ground. But at last it found a chance to break free; it couldn’t afford to wait for the wound in its chest to heal and scrambled to its feet at once.

"Char, what’s happening, where’s your magic?" Brand couldn’t spare a thought for the loss—he asked without even looking back. He was frantic; he had no idea how much longer Antitina could hold on. If her soul completely dissolved, then even Martha might be unable to bring her back.

The problem was, time was running out.

"I don’t know!" Char was staring in the direction from which the Lightning Ring had come.

He immediately let out a shrill, broken scream.

Brand had never heard Char lose control like that before. He heard his Mage Attendant shouting his name at the top of his lungs: "Lord, look behind you!"

A thunderous boom.

Brand turned instinctively—and then froze, dumbstruck, as he saw, in the direction of Ambeser, a colossal black Shadow ripping through the ground, slowly rising from beneath the earth.

For a moment his mind went utterly blank: "That’s impossible!"

There couldn’t be a Titan Statue here.

Had he already crossed into the final era of the Stone Plate War?

...(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you’re welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) and cast your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)