Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Solna River had become much fiercer after the rainy season. Roaring and rolling, the river currents marched forward.
In front of the temple that stood up high beside the river, Nob was waiting for Francis with a fine laurel wood staff in his hand and this very gloomy look on his face. He had never expected that the priest of the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption would challenge him to a duel. He wished it so bad that the duel could come one day later. After tonight, he would bear no more risk fighting against an enemy he knew pretty much nothing about, because all of them from that side would be dead by tomorrow.
Soon after the debate held in the morning ended, Nob received a secret command from Nena — The Lord of War needed the God of Moon and the Lord of Underworld to kill Leviathan and Francis tonight, in order to lure Ell out.
Therefore, he had spent the entire noon as well as afternoon sending secret messages to the God of Moon hiding in the nearby forest, and they had together worked out an almost perfect plan, including how to coordinate the priests to launch a sudden strike, how to rope in the other churches using the name of the Lord of War, and how to infuriate the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption by torturing and killing Leviathan and Francis in the most brutal manner.
However, when they were still celebrating their perfect plan and the near victory, a formal challenge letter was sent to Nob.
Nob was confused, but even more, intimidated.
And what horrified him the most was the look on the face of the God of Moon. Nob saw fear on the almighty God of Moon’s face as well, fear towards the boldness of the priests of god Ell and the one behind them. In the past, no one had ever heard about Ell the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption; no one knew how strong he was, and they could only draw guesses based on the description beyond imagination given during the debate.
Nob tried his very best to postpone the duel to the second day, but he failed. In a theocratic society, it was impossible to turn down a duel challenged in the name of profanity, as it was directly associated with the fame and reputation of one’s Lord. Nob had no choice.
“… It’s okay. Very possibly, they are just liars.” Nob murmured to himself as he watched the crowd gather.
In the Solna Valley, before the Lord of War came into power, fights between chief priests were quite common. Therefore, people in the city of Husum were already very experienced. They would like to see the fight but were also aware that they had to stay far away from the site, say, the other side of Solna river. After all, the fights between priests weren’t as plain as those between commoners, as the sound and light could be heard and seen from far away.
“I’ll say that Nob will return to the embrace of moonlight today. The God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption is so powerful, and, of course, so is his chief priest,” said a young man aloud beside the river. He was a new follower of the Lord of Underworld, but now he was on the edge of switching belief.
“It’s hard to say. A debate isn’t a fight.” Refuted a devoted follower of the God of Moon.
Standing behind, Ramiro folded his arms and listened to the discussion quietly. He was quite confused as before he had never heard of the title “the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption”, although he had done quite a bit of research prior to arriving in Erdo. Since the target was the God of Moon, Ramiro wondered if this new god was a role played by Alterna, or that it was a guise of the other forces.
Ramiro had turned himself into an ordinary Barril man. Standing in the crowd, he was like a drop of water in the vast ocean.
At this time, two young men wearing a simple white robe stepped onto the stairs in front of the God of Moon’s temple. And the crowd instantly quieted down.
Carrying a heavy sword, Lucien stopped when he was about ten meters away from Nob. Standing on the closer side to the river, he said seriously, “today, we fight for the glory of our Lord, and we shall fight until the last breath. Are you ready?”
Until the last breath… Anger rose beside fear in Nob’s heart. He asked, “Leviathan, is it you, or Francis?”
“I am the blessed one of the great God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption. I’m my Lord’s spokesperson and initiator. You, the priest of a false god, are far from being qualified to fight with me. Francis, send him to the underworld, and a just trial of my Lord awaits him!” Lucien tried his best to infuriate Nob.
“False god?! I’ll let you see who is the false one!” Nob, who had become infuriated, yelled furiously. He could feel the anger of his Lord in the temple behind him.
“After I kill Francis, I’ll challenge you! You can’t say no!”
Lucien smiled. “I have to remind you, priest Nob. A dead man cannot challenge anyone.”
“You’ll see!” Nob took a deep breath and tried to calm down at the moment. He had to focus on the fight against Francis, instead of losing his mind because of Leviathan’s evil words.
Francis drew the heavy sword from his back with both his hands and took a step forward. Gazing at Nob, he said, “on behalf of my Lord, I shall sentence you!”
“On behalf of the God of Moon, I will punish you!” roared Nob. Hearing this sentence, Lucien almost failed to hold back his laugh.
The priest from the Temple of War announced. “Let the fight begin!”
Holding the heavy sword, Francis thrust at Nob like a fierce blow. The heavy sword swept fiercely, its power could even cut off the wind.
A silver-white moon lit up in Nob’s eyes, and layers of illusions covered him, like the shadows cast by moonlight in the night.
The heavy sword hit the shadows and disappeared briefly as if it was lost in a haze.
Seizing the chance, Nob quickly pointed his laurel staff at Francis. The temperature within the range dropped significantly and a dense patch sharp icicles formed. The icicles formed a ball that trapped Francis within.
Nob was quite relieved seeing that Francis relied on the strength of his body to fight, instead of using magic. The icicles might not be able to hurt him badly, but they were totally capable of restraining him.
Facing the hideous spear-like icicles, a smile appeared at the corners of Francis’ lips. He swept the heavy sword horizontally and, with a deafening roar, slashed it downwards. Surrounding him, all of sudden, eight replicas of him emerged. With the same smile, and the same heavy sword, Francis and his replicas hacked downwards together in the joint power.
But the nine heavy words had different colors — one was covered with electric currents, one with green acid, one with flame, one looked rusted and rotten, one looked colorful, one looked freezing cold… The swords were not just shadows but carried real power.
The icicles reached Francis and a thick layer of ice expanded across. However, under Francis’s fierce strikes, the layer of ice instantly broke into pieces, yet there was not even a single shallow wound on Francis’ body.
The nine swords slashed at Nob, who did not have enough time to cast the next spell nor was fast enough to dodge.
Nob’s body broke into pieces like glass in the mixed colors of light.
From the shadow nearby, Nob appeared again. However, he looked rather embarrassed. All kinds of demi-divine spells reached Francis, however, Francis was not affected by them at all. Together with his eight replicas, he came right in front of Nob, and his sword was ready to taste Nob’s blood.
Lightning, acid, flame, withering, toxin, ice, death, mental… Highly resistant to magic and divine power… Lucien was watching from aside analyzed Francis’s blood power attentively. Without a doubt, it was the blood power called Hydra. Although Francis was only showing his power up to level seven, Lucien believed that he was at least a level-eight Hydra-blood knight. Therefore, Lucien was certain that Francis was neither a nobleman nor a knight from the Northland or the Dark Mountain Range. He was very likely a night watcher from the South or North Church, or from another secret religious organization.
There were a number of level-eight radiant knights in this world, but definitely not a lot. There was no way that a level-eight knight would pop out of nowhere. The Congress of Magic had information about most of the level-eight knights, except for those who were night watchers and those from other religious groups. Lucien carefully recalled the list, but could not relate anyone to Francis.
However, on the other side of the river, the look on Ramiro’s face had changed.
It was him?
“Impressive… Such a powerful Divine-blooded…” Those priests who were hiding in the crowd could not help murmuring to themselves. They had believed that the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption was not a false god.
At this time, the Solna River suddenly surged. Waves over ten-meter high, driven by the gravity of the moon, were thrown at Francis with great momentum.
Asin, the God of Moon, finally took action!
Lucien did not hesitate. He started running very fast, but still within the controlled speed to hide his real power. After a few seconds, he had come to the cliff where was not affected by the waves. Then, Lucien jumped directly into the Solna River.
Francis’ body leaned backward, and the eight shadows followed, like a hydra roaring at the sky. The lighting, flame, acid merged together and formed into huge black waves. The two different colored waves crashed right into each other.
The blood power of Hydra was also good at controlling water!
At this time, a slim glitter of moonlight lit up. Behind Francis, an old man with a white beard holding a bent blade appeared and was about to attack Francis. Covering in moonlight, the old man was Asin in the human look!
As soon as Asin’s blade reached out, His movement paused. A long, black sword carrying a great dark power of destruction came from above and slashed at His back!
Avando’s supporter? Asin was both shocked and furious. Then Asin recognized that it was Avando’s chief priest Jacob.
However, all the defense spells that Asin cast beforehand were for resisting the power in the field of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption. The spells would not do much help facing the black sword!
Lucien had no idea what was going on above the water. Before he jumped into the water, he heard Ell’s cold and detached voice.
“I sentence you to death!”
The river water embraced Lucien. The bracelet worn on his right wrist brought fresh air into his lungs. Instead of swimming along the currents, Lucien went countercurrent like a fish.
The cold light spots drifted away from Asin’s body as the power of moonlight was collected by Francis. When Ell was about to kill Asin with the next hack, a long black iron arrow suddenly pierced through Ell’s chest with horrible power and momentum!
“You false god!”
A terrifying roar came from the Temple of War.
It was the Lord of War! Somehow the Lord of War not in the Angornorma Empire but was in the Solna Valley, and he had joined the fight!
What attracted the Lord of War here?
