Chapter 16 – Five Years
Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 16 Five Years
The war between the Baruch Empire and the Rohault Empire entered a paused state.
“Father, everyone, what do you think we should do?” Within the main hall of Dragonblood Castle, a group of people were gathered, including Cena, Wharton, Gates, Hillman, and Nina. They were discussing how to handle the two new Saints that had just appeared out of nowhere in the Rohault Empire.
Wharton, Zassler, Gates, and the others had just finished listening to Cena’s explanation.
They were all extremely shocked.
“This Rohault Empire…when did it have two such powerful Saints come out of nowhere?” Hillman frowned.
Now that he was able to train in top tier battle-qi methods, he had reached the eighth rank as a warrior. Although his power was far inferior to that of Wharton, Gates, and the others, his status in Dragonblood Castle was still very high.
“Father, Uncles, do you have confidence in being able to deal with them?” Cena looked towards Wharton and Gates.
Wharton muttered, “Although we don’t have a very high level of understanding with regards to the Laws, we have divine artifacts and are Supreme Warriors. If we really were to have a fight with those two Saints, we should still be able to achieve victory.”
Gates, Ankh, and the others all nodded.
Zassler let out a soft chuckle. “Wharton, are you planning to go have a tussle with those fellows?”
“What of it?” Wharton looked at Zassler.
“Zassler, you think that isn’t an option?” Gates and Ankh all looked at Zassler.
Zassler let out a chuckle, but the sound of it was so cold and insidious. “First of all, I want to ask you. If I were to ask one of you to fight against the Gold Dragon and the Tyrant Wyrm at the same time, would you be able to easily defeat those two Saint-level magical beasts?”
“This…” Wharton, Gates, and the others all hesitated.
Against one Saint-level magical beast, it would be fairly simple.
But against two…they would be able to at most fight them to a standstill.
“Hrmph, you aren’t able to do so, but you still want to go?” Zassler laughed condescendingly. “Can it be that you have forgotten what Lord Linley said before entering his closed door training?”
Wharton and the others suddenly started.
They now remembered.
At the time, Linley had strongly and repeatedly instructed them that if they encountered a strange situation, Wharton and the others were strictly forbidden from getting in over their head. In addition, Linley had also said that this war had major dangers hidden within it. This was the reason why Linley had been uneasy.
“At the time, Lord Linley had said that there are terrifying dangers hidden within this war, dangers which not even Deities could underestimate.” Zassler looked towards Wharton and the others. “You said that you didn’t understand how this seemingly simple war with a fixed outcome could have dangers hidden in it, right? Well, now you know.”
At the start of the war, not even Linley had known what the dangers were, exactly.
Only, because of Lord Beirut’s warning, Linley felt uneasy, so he warned Wharton and the others as well.
Wharton and the others hadn’t understood. They had felt that there shouldn’t be any unexpected occurrences to this war.
“Mr. Zassler, what do you intend, then?” Cena frowned.
Wharton, Gates, and the others were all somewhat secretly shocked.
“You need to use your brains. There’s only a few Saints in the Yulan continent. The likes of Lord Linley and Lord Desri should know about even those who are training in seclusion, right? But both of them said that the Rohault Empire has no top-class Saints. So where did those two Saints come from?” Zassler said.
“They suddenly appeared, and caused the war to grind to a halt.”
Zassler laughed coldly. “Clearly, the hidden dangers within this war are already beginning to reveal themselves.”
“Then right now, we…” Wharton looked towards Zassler. He remembered what Linley had told him; if they encountered any major event, they were to discuss it with the highly experienced Zassler.
Zassler said calmly, “It is simple. Don’t be in a hurry to go deal with those two Saints. Lord Linley also said that in this war, our goal isn’t necessarily to totally dominate the other Empires. It is fine if we take over a bit less land. The most important thing is, we have to protect ourselves.”
Everyone nodded slightly.
Wharton said in a low voice, “Fine. For now, let’s watch and see what is hidden within this war.”
“If we encounter any major, critical circumstances, let’s not get in over our heads. At that time, it’s best if we go ask Lord Linley for help.” Zassler said. “But of course, right now, Lord Linley has only been training for half a year, and the situation isn’t too severe yet. There’s no need for us to go disturb Lord Linley.”
Time flowed like water. In the blink of an eye, Linley had been in training for five years.
During these five years, the Yulan continent was secretly in a state of utter chaos. The Baruch Empire, the Yulan Empire, and the O’Brien Empire’s wars had all ground to a halt, and even the Holy Union and Dark Alliance had mysterious experts appear within them.
These mysterious experts were exceedingly powerful.
The wars had ground to a halt.
Yulan calendar, year 10039. Winter. The dark winter night was exceedingly cold. Three middle-aged men dressed in thick cloaks were riding on handsome stallions, hurrying at high speed through the desolate, unpopulated road towards a nearby city.
“Haha, Bluelion City is up ahead. When we reach Bluelion City, we three brothers need to have a good cup of wine or two to help warm us up.” The leader of the three, a big, burly man, laughed loudly. This business trip they had made had been very profitable, and they were now in an excellent mood.
The city walls of Bluelion City rose up ahead of them.
They travelled on horseback through it.
“Huh, weird. Why is it so quiet?” The three brothers rode past the gates of Bluelion City, but found that the gates were open and unmanned. Not a person could be seen.
“Although Bluelion City isn’t a large one, it’s still a fairly bustling one. It has a hundred thousand people. Why is it that early in the morning, not a single person can be seen?” The three brothers dismounted, walking the stallions into the city with curiosity.
The wide streets didn’t have a single person in them.
Utter stillness!
It was roughly seven or eight in the morning now. Logically speaking, the streets should be extremely noisy and bustling right now.
“The hell is this?” The three experienced travelers couldn’t help but feel their hearts quiver.
This bizarre scene caused them to feel rather uneasy.
“Look up ahead. What’s that?!” One of the men pointed up ahead in shock. Nearby, there were two people lying on the street. The three middle-aged men immediately ran over to take a close look.
But as soon as they drew near…
“They are dead!” The three middle-aged men’s faces changed. The two people lying on the ground were bleeding from all orifices, and their blood stained the ground, creating a large, dark violet pool around them.
The cold winter wind blew through, causing the three middle-aged men to suddenly shudder.
“Ahhhhh!” A terrified scream from far away.
The three middle-aged men immediately turned their head. They saw that in the distance, there was a woman with unbound hair running in terror.
“Why are you running? What’s going on?” The leader of the middle-aged men immediately shouted. They, too, were travelers who roamed the lands. They often saw death, and dead people weren’t enough to frighten them. What made them uneasy was…this utterly still environment.
“Dead. All dead. They are all dead.” The woman looked at the three-middle aged men, her eyes round and trembling.
“What do you mean, they are all dead?” A hint of fear awoke in the hearts of the three men.
“All the people in the city are dead. Every single person is dead. Every single one of them!” The woman said in a somewhat deranged manner.
The three middle-aged men were instantly stupefied with terror.
Everyone in the city was dead?
“All dead, all dead!” The deranged woman ran around wildly.
In a single night, the city of Bluelion, with a population of a hundred thousand, now had only a few dozen lucky survivors. The rest had all died. Those few dozen lucky survivors, at daybreak, ran to the city gates in terror, fleeing from this terrifying city.
A city of death!
The news regarding this event quickly spread to the imperial capital, and to Emperor Cena.
The furious Cena immediately sent people to investigate why and how Bluelion City had turned into a city of the dead in but a single night. At the same time, he sent people to find and ask those few dozen lucky survivors what exactly had happened.
Upon the completion of the investigation, Cena, feeling things were taking a turn for the worse, immediately hurried to Dragonblood Castle.
Within Dragonblood Castle.
There were many people gathered within the castle. Not just Wharton and Gates; even Nina, Rebecca, Leena, and the others had come as well. Everyone felt that this was a thorny problem, and all of them had come together to discuss how this problem should be resolved.
“The situation is extremely strange. The nearly hundred thousand people of that city all died with blood flowing from every orifice, and there wasn’t a hint of a wound on their bodies. From the youngest of infants to the warriors of the seventh rank…it was all the same.” Cena said.
In a short night, an entire city’s worth of people had died in such a bizarre manner.
Even experts like Wharton and the others had a hint of a cold feeling in their hearts.
“From what I know, this isn’t even the first time that an entire city’s worth of people died like this.” Cena said solemnly.
“Oh?” Wharton looked at Cena.
Cena continued, “Based on what I know, roughly a month ago, at the borders of the O’Brien Empire, something like this happened to them as well. In a single night, virtually all the people in a city died. However, because it wasn’t within our Empire’s borders, I didn’t pay too much attention to it.”
Housekeeper Hiri frowned. “This event is very strange. For example, what happened to those hundred thousand people in Bluelion City, and why were there a few dozen survivors?”
“Right. Why were there a few dozen survivors?” Zassler also felt that this was very suspicious.
If an extremely powerful expert had used some sort of unknown forbidden-level spell to kill them, everyone within the range of the spell should have died. Even if there were a few lucky survivors, the survivors should all be extremely powerful experts themselves. But the lucky survivors were all ordinary commoners.
“In addition, there was no damage done to the buildings at all.” Cena continued.
Everyone in the hall was confused.
“I sent people to investigate, but we couldn’t find any clues at all.” Cena was also frustrated. “Oh, right. There was one commonality to the tens of lucky survivors.”
Everyone in the hall immediately turned to look at Cena.
“Those lucky survivors were all in fairly hard-to-reach areas. For example, half of the lucky survivors were being held in the deepest prison cells of Bluelion City. The others were all either in underground rooms or in other hard-to-reach areas.” Cena explained.
“Hard to reach areas…so they didn’t die?” Zassler nodded. “Perhaps this wasn’t a magic spell after all. After all, a magic spell capable of covering an entire city wouldn’t possibly care about whether an area was ‘hard to reach’ or not.”
“I recommend that we ask Lord Linley for help.” Zassler sighed.
“Lord Linley?” The eyes of Wharton and the others all lit up.
If Linley were to come out, they would feel much more confident with their leader present and wouldn’t be in such a state of disarray when events occurred.
“Right. In the past five years, there have been simply too many strange events which have occurred. For example, the war entering a state of stalemate, or those mysterious new religions appearing within our Empire, or this dead city…” Zassler said in one breath.
“I agree that we should go speak with my big brother.” Wharton nodded.
Leena’s face revealed a smile on it. “If big brother Ley were to come out, this affair would definitely be resolved easily. Big brother Ley has been in training for five years now. I wonder what level big brother Ley has reached now.”
Everyone’s faces had smiles on them when discussing Linley.
Afterwards, Wharton, Gates, and Zassler served as the representatives of the group and headed to the entrance to the training room.
“Wait a moment.” Wharton’s body was covered with a layer of battle-qi, and then he went straight through to the pocket dimension.
Moments later.
“Crackle, crackle.” A few moments later, passing through those clashing attacking energy streams, Wharton and Linley, dressed in a sky-blue robe and with his hair unbound, stepped out. Zassler and Gates, upon seeing Linley, suddenly felt much more at ease.
“Gates, Zassler, what has happened for all of you to come looking for me in such haste?” Linley said with a smile.