The descent of the deathly aura was sudden and without warning.
It differed sharply from the pure, winter-like cold of the Knight Order.
This was an energy brimming with decay, filth, and a viscous, venomous malice.
A stench like that of a centuries-old tomb, pried open after centuries, seeped into every pore, assaulting the mind with a domineering force that threatened to stain the very soul with its foul, black taint.
Wooo—woooo—
A piercing horn blared, shattering the tranquility and jolting the entire outpost awake.
The magical glows that had illuminated the outpost abruptly contracted, transforming into cold, fierce combat lights.
Countless Elf Rangers and Mages flashed between treehouses and corridors, bows already strung and staves ablaze with magical energy.
The outpost's entire defensive system activated in an instant, bristling with lethal intent.
"More undead?" Lin Xiyue immediately raised her Immovable Mountain shield before her, shielding her sister behind her as she warily scanned the aura's source.
"No, these aren't the same as those earlier grunts," Su Wan said, her face as pale as frost, her fingertips wreathed in icy mist as water vapor in the air rapidly crystallized into visible ice shards. "This magic power... it's incredibly dense and of an extremely high level!"
Lin Qingyue narrowed her eyes as well.
She could sense that this enemy was not of the same dimension as the cannon fodder they had faced in the canyon.
If the previous undead were a motley rabble of rotting flesh, then what was approaching now was a Death Legion forged from hundred-times-tempered steel.
"Stay close to me!"
For the first time, Aeldara's voice carried genuine gravity.
Instead of remaining within the outpost and relying on its defenses, she strode resolutely toward the main gate, her long legs eating up the distance.
The Apprentice Knights behind her drew their weapons without hesitation, their footsteps firm and unwavering as they followed her.
"Are we... launching a preemptive strike?" Lin Qingyue asked, surprised.
"They're after me," Aeldara replied, her voice cold and crisp without turning her head. "Staying here would only invite the flames of war to engulf the outpost, causing unnecessary casualties."
Her silhouette, framed by the flickering light and shadows, radiated unwavering resolve and noble solitude, embodying the honor and duty of a true knight.
Lin Qingyue and her companions exchanged glances and immediately fell into step behind her.
Seriously? She's our only guide and bodyguard to Silvermoon City. If we lose her, we'll be completely lost in this unfamiliar forest!
The moment they stepped through the outpost gate, the sight before them stole their breath.
In the forest ahead, over a hundred pitch-black figures had materialized as if from nowhere.
They wore heavy armor and rode skeletal warhorses, but their armor was grotesquely twisted, bristling with sharp bone spikes and etched with runes that seemed to writhe with agonizing screams.
The eye sockets of their steeds burned not with the ethereal blue of Soul Fire, but with a savage, bloodthirsty crimson.
Visible black miasma swirled around them like a choking mist. Wherever they passed, lush green grasslands withered instantly into scorched, lifeless earth, their vitality forcibly stripped away.
Leading the charge were three Death Knights whose overwhelming aura crushed all others.
The central figure was exceptionally massive, his skeletal warhorse towering a full circle larger than its peers. Each colossal hoofbeat landed with not a thunderous roar, but a suffocating, deathly silence that reverberated deep within the chest.
He carried a colossal battleaxe on his shoulder, its blade forged from countless screaming skulls and dripping with an ominous, dark purple light.
Most chilling was his helmet. Behind the slits lay not Soul Fire, but an unfathomable void, as if a single glance would draw one's very soul into its abyss.
To his left rode a lean, gaunt Death Knight wielding twin scimitars shaped like venomous fangs, radiating an eerie, ghostlike stillness.
The figure on the right wasn't mounted; instead, he floated in mid-air, cradling a magic book bound in deathly pale leather. Its pages turned on their own, emitting eerie whispers that threatened to shatter Lin Qingyue's sanity.
[ High-density energy reaction detected! Initiating deep scan! ]
Lin Qingyue's class panel flashed into view, a cascade of glaring crimson data sending her eyelids into a frantic twitch.
[ Death Lord Mograss Lv.??? ]
[ Death Lord Ghost Blade Lv.??? ]
[ Death Lord The Blighted Lv.??? ]
Three BOSS-level threats!
Further down the ranks, the hundred or so black-armored knights were uniformly listed as [ Death Knight Lv.33-35 ].
Lin Qingyue: "..."
Wait, Your Majesty, are you a prophet now? Just say something will happen, and it does? And that mage-looking guy is a Death Knight too? Do you Death Knights have this many class branches?
"Mograss."
Aeldara fixed her gaze on the giant axe-wielding knight leading the charge. Her voice, though devoid of emotion, seemed to chill the surrounding air by several degrees.
"You gutter rat, finally crawling out of your grave."
"Aeldara!"
The knight known as Mograss roared, his voice like a tombstone dragged across gravel, each word scraping against the eardrums with maddening venom.
"You traitor! Look at what you've done! How dare you let these living creatures—their hearts still beating, their blood still warm—defile the supreme art of death! Look at these half-baked, defective abominations behind you!"
His massive axe pointed menacingly at Aeldara and the Apprentice Knights gripping their weapons nervously behind her.
"Death is the end, the ultimate destination! Absolute stillness! Not some toy for you living parasites, clinging to the lingering warmth of life, to amuse yourselves!"
"Today, I will personally correct your errors. I will grant you true death, then transform you into the Death Lord's most loyal warriors!"
Mograss's roar echoed through the forest, burning with the fervor of a religious fanatic.
Lin Qingyue, listening from behind, understood everything clearly.
Oh-ho, looks like the fundamentalists have come knocking.
One side—the 'reformists'—believes the Power of Death is a force that can be learned and harnessed, adopting foreign techniques to conquer foreign lands.
The other side—the 'conservatives'—considers the Power of Death sacred and inviolable, claiming only purebred undead with proper lineage are worthy to wield it—a blatant display of bloodline supremacy.
This is getting interesting. The internal power struggles among the Death Knights are far more entertaining than hacking skeletons!
"Your 'destiny,'" Aeldara countered sharply, her voice low yet sharp as an ice pick, easily piercing Mograss's roar, "is merely an excuse for your obsession with destruction and hatred."
"You've long been enslaved by death, reduced to a mindless husk spreading decay. You are not the master of death; you are its dog."
"Silver-tongued serpent!" Mograss erupted in fury. "Aeldara, today I will represent the true will of death and purify you and your arrogant Apprentice Knights! I will make everyone understand that only by embracing eternal decay can one attain true power!"
"Then let's see if you can."
Aeldara slowly raised her hand and grasped the hilt of her Knight Sword at her waist.
It was a simple, silver Knight Sword, devoid of any superfluous ornamentation.
But the moment it slid from its scabbard, all sound vanished.
A pure, absolute wave of death energy radiated outward, silent and intangible. It had no temperature, yet it froze the souls of everyone present in place.
"Knights of the Silent Watch!" Aeldara's voice resonated across the battlefield. "For Her Majesty the Queen! For the order we protect behind us!"
"For Her Majesty the Queen!"
The dozens of Apprentice Knights behind her roared in unison, their voices still youthful and trembling with barely suppressed fear, yet their resolve was unwavering.
They raised their weapons, each emitting the same icy aura that coalesced into a frail but resolute barrier against the surging tide of profane death.
"Stubborn fools!" Mograss lost all patience. "Charge! Tear them apart! Let their dying screams teach them who the true master of death is!"
The hundred Death Knights behind him unleashed inhuman roars, urging their Skeletal Warhorses into a black flood of charging fury.
The earth trembled beneath their iron hooves, and the air wailed with resentful spirits.
"Stay away from the BOSS!" Lin Qingyue barked, her voice chillingly calm. "Su Wan, Ice Wall to divide the battlefield! Xia Lian, flank them and set traps! Xiyue, prepare to tank the incoming mobs and hold the line! Don't let them break our formation!"
Even as her orders rang out, an overwhelming pressure far greater than before erupted from Aeldara!
It was a deathly stillness, as absolute zero as it could be.
Centered around her, a thin layer of black frost instantly crystallized on the ground, freezing even the air's movement.
The next moment, Aeldara moved.
She took only a single step forward.
Then, her figure vanished from her original position.
When she reappeared, she had already torn through space, crashing into the vanguard of the enemy's surging ranks and confronting Mograss head-on!
Simultaneously, the Ghost Blade and The Blighted flanking Mograss moved as well.
In an instant, the trio formed a perfect triangular killing formation, trapping the charging Aeldara firmly in the center.
"Your opponent is us!" Mograss's maniacal laughter reverberated through the heavens. "Aeldara, this very place shall be your final resting ground!"
Before Lin Qingyue and the others, an internal war between elite Death Knights erupted with earth-shattering force and savage intensity!