In an area beyond the darkness spread, two figures rapidly moved and clashed—one was a pale light and another emerald light. Still the darkness was growing around. Nearby all vegetation and landscape had collapsed due to the intense clash at Grey knight's level.
Clayren suddenly looked at the direction beyond darkness to Drudar's walls as she stopped for a second.
Suddenly, Clayren's sword changed to red from emerald as the black knight sighed. His body grew a bit bigger as the armor became even more protuded with black intricacy. The space around was compressing as crackling sound were heard all over. His sword also glowed as yellow lightning illuminated the dark surroundings and he shouted, "Do we really need to go this far!!!!"
Clayren clutched her sword as she bled. Her sword glowed even more profusely as her armor emitted emerald light and the sword red light.Her body was surrounded by strange red emerald light as the surroundings started to disappear, cracks spread all around. Everything near the cracks was swallowed by something deeply aura-invigorating as Clayren muttered, "It's already started...."
Even the dark hollow insects spreading were swallowed... by something—maybe it was the void.....
...
Just beyond the darkness's manifsted hand's sphere of darkness, John was again seated down as the knights cleared all the puppets around. He was very exhausted as he muttered,"Just how many times I have to overexert...". A knight, Rina, exclaimed, "You were this strong, John...!!"
John was too tired to say anything as he said tried to stand up, "Hurry up..."
The knights nodded as they split off to rescue the others.
John asked Moriel, a golden knight under Sythris, "...Take me to the two...prisoners..."
Moriel supported John as they went some distance away, clearing the path. There, two persons were tied up—the prince and princess...of Breavan.
The darkness was rising as John took a look back. He saw Sythris was almost done gathering the knights and was speaking with Marvis...
He looked ahead and gave a piercing look at the prince and asked, "Why are you so nonchalant... about this? Do you think it's a joke...?"
The prince laughed and said, "Do you think it's over... Even though Merissa somehow lost control and made a mess of everything...."
He spat and said, "Let me and my sister go—maybe you can survive...."
He couldn't finish the sentence as a sword went through his neck as blood spurted.... He died...
There was a scream as the princess started shouting crazily.
John put the sword back as the rest of the knights took a step back. Moriel took a gulp as he looked at John.
He looked at the princess who backed away, terrified of John....
The prince's body lay on the red ground full of puppet corpses. A prince of the kingdom had died in a sudden attack.
John asked slowly, "So what are you going to do?"
...
In the distance, Sythris was killing the dead puppets again as she wondered about what happened earlier to Eleana. Why something like that happened to her? Would it have been better if she was the one that stopped the strike and save Veer ? Was she jealous even after experiencing that harrowing experience ? She realised something the more she fought as her resolve grew.
She suddenly heard something as looked over in stunned silence. She had a totally changed mentality after witnessing the battle at the outer post but still she was stunned to see John killing the prince of Breavan.
She took a deep breath as she called, "Marvis, Rhaelle, Symon—let's move... now... We don't know if there is something deeper going on, but let's move inside the walls. At least the others will be safe..."
The three nodded with grave faces as Rhaelle said, "What about them?" pointing at Sethsi carrying Nyelle over, Neigrel, and the other Breavan knights.
Marvis said in a deep voice, "Let them come over, but they will be the first line of defense..."
The Breavan knights didn't utter a word as they followed.Sythris nodded as they started rallying back.
Deep inside he darkness the big hand with strange insects clenched again, swirls of threads followed and the dead puppets, completely broken bodies, started to slowly merge....inside the darkness sphere.
Sythris felt something as she looked back... but she could not pinpoint it as she just said, "We need to hurry...."
She saw the state around the battlefield—dead bodies twitching and struggling to get up as they were cleared by the moving knights. As she moved closer to John, she asked, "Can you not question her after this?"
She was met with a strange silence as eventually John nodded. She said, "We are also sad about what happened to Marvis... we need to prevent any such things again..."
John mounted as everyone started moving away.
Just then they heard a loud sound as though a landmass had collapsed.They looked at each other as they started riding back....
.....
The dual grey knight looked at the charming figure that stopped his blade. Blood dripped down her hands on the sword as the knight took his sword back and stepped back. He looked carefully at the figure ahead.
She had a slim figure with perfect curves. Her face was covered by a veil, and she wore strange red clothes. Her black hair flowed as she carefully placed her hand at the tip of her katana.
The knight's eyes squinted as he muttered with difficulty, "You... you are from the Nameless Temple... ha ha... So that's how it was..."
The figure in red gently threw a blanket at Veer with her other hand. It covered him as his injuries healed....slowly... She looked a bit lost when the knight muttered and said, "What did you discover? Care to share with me?"
The knight tsked and said, "You guys sent this variable to Drudar in the first place. Tell me—what is the purpose of that first?"
The woman had a stunned expression as she laughed and then looked at Veer with a smile that was not a smile and muttered, "Good... good... once I am done with this guy, next is you..."
Veer's body twitched for no reason as the lady pulled out her katana.
She asked the grey knight, "You seem pretty strong... even in our whole ranking you would be among the top five. Why are you doing all this bloodshed for?"
The knight answered with a dual thrust attack that the lady jumped over and dodged. Just when the knight passed by her, her sword gently swung as she landed after. The knight suddenly screamed as he uttered, "No—how did you...?"
She said, facing her back, "My brother over there already made it so much easier by exploiting your weakness... otherwise it would have been a tough fight..."
As the knight groaned in pain and dropped to the ground, he muttered, "You...."
The lady said, "Go on... call your secret attack or potion or whatever..."
The knight gritted his teeth as he glowed with emerald light. It was as though he was changing somehow as the lady muttered, a bit surprised, "Feeding of sacred weapons... this is going to be troublesome... I should have finished without talking..."
She jumped into the air as her hair floated... Her dress swirled as though petals were forming.... She muttered, "Nameless Dance... Origin," as she started dancing with the katana.
The knight's body bulged as he muttered,"Limit crossing strike" as though he disappered and the clash started.
The clash was so intense that the underground was breaking apart as the two forces collided. It was as though her dancing evaded the knight's moves every time, both moving at insane speeds and attacking each other.
Veer gradually opened his eyes and saw red petals everywhere between ice and fire illuminated with emerald light. He could barely make out two figures fighting very fast as he muttered in shock, "They have the same speed as that guy..."
He stood up, took the blanket that healed him, and muttered, "Is this crazy woman on my side..."
"Whatever, I need to move... this place is breaking..." He thrust his sword and added star energy to it. Then he backed up and ran fast. As he picked up the sword magically, he propelled himself high and inserted the sword near the roof that was almost collapsing.
He sighed as he looked back. The two figures were still engaged as he felt a chill and shivered involuntarily, though there was no killing intent. He climbed the broken rubble and somehow came up.
He looked ahead and saw the walls in the distance but visibliy was very low.
Suddenly it clicked... His heartbeat spiked. Veer sensed it—the threat—but there was recognition of himself... it had a part of him. A puppet stood in front of Veer with a strange, intricately designed greatsword. Strangely, its face was very similar to Veer's. Lots of nerve puppets sprawled all around it....
Veer was dazed as he started screaming. His head hurt like hell. All sorts of visions flooded his mind as the puppet raised its hands and grabbed toward Veer.
The blanket on Veer suddenly illuminated as his eyes gained clarity, and he appeared behind the puppet. One of its hands was torn away on the ground. Veer took a deep breath. He had just performed Quick Style. Now it was easier than earlier.
He looked back and said in a deep voice, "So I have to destroy you to get my memories, huh... Let's start and end this... Ahhhhhhh!"
Veer had many questions and visions flooding his mind. A lady similar to the veiled one clutched his head in the vision. What had they done to him? He did not know.
But he had clarity—and he was revitalized by the blanket. He parried the incoming attack from the star puppet of himself and thrust his sword into its head. The puppet made strange gestures as it leaped up. The sword turned slightly red as threads flowed all over it.
Veer performed Quick Style again and appeared behind the puppet. Its body and head were sliced.
Then Veer felt it—his memories leaking from the puppet. The puppet clutched its head and started screaming. Strange yellow-red threads spread all around... Veer's clarity began disappearing as he heard hundreds of voices.It was familiar yet distant.The echoes continued as tears began to fall.
"Hi, I am Eleana..."
"So you are that strange knight who came from nowhere..."
"Hi, I am Kerin..."
"Nice to meet you..."
"You will be Princess Eryssa's royal guard..."
"Veer..."
"Sythris likes you..."
"How can you be so nonchalant..."
"It was you, wasn't it..."
"Break his legs...put him in his place..."
"A spy, huh..."
"So you are that last Starweaver..."
"Ascendance...will be finally mine"
"Lythria... accompany him..."
Veer saw the visions merging as sound faded. The blanket shone brilliantly for a second, then dimmed.
Underground, within the petals, the red woman suddenly made a sound, "Huh... it was destroyed... what happened to him?"
She was viciously attacked from all sides by the grey knight's clones as she countered them, gritting her teeth.
The puppet above moved strangely and suddenly jumped high into the air, then came straight down piercing toward Veer. Veer barely had clarity as he blocked the attack—but it was the last straw.
The underground cracked violently. A large area along with the walls began to collapse as Veer and the puppet fell deep underground. Veer's eyes were devoid of light as he sank into the underground.