Nothing spurs a man's fighting spirit more than the sight of women battling fiercely.
The arrival of the Blood Rose Knight Order intensely stirred the allied knights' fervor. These valiant female knights outshone them in bravery. While the allied knights hesitated before the defensive formation of the Silver Hand Knight Order, these women in rose-colored armor charged fearlessly into the enemy ranks!
One fell, then another, and another.
Soon, this all-female knight order suffered heavy casualties under the combined assault of the Shadow Mage Corps and the Silver Hand Knight Order. They were like frail grasses in a storm.
"For Lady Elizabeth's glory!" the female knights shouted in unison. Their beautiful faces set in determination, they gripped their Viking greatswords and marched unwaveringly towards the palace, braving the mages' onslaught.
This was a fight to the death for their beliefs – a knight's honor!
Someone roared, and the allied knights, initially indecisive, turned into frenzied warriors. Protecting women and children is a knight's creed. Yet now, a group of women was dying for their beliefs right before their eyes.
Were these men lesser than a few women?!
Felix’s eyes turned a fiery red in an instant.
The self-sacrificing bravery of these female knights, who faced death for their beliefs, deeply shook him. It was a trembling of the soul. He had never imagined women could be so valiant.
They were true knights!
To watch women die in front of them was an insult to their knightly faith, a trampling of male dignity. Without needing orders, the allied knights launched a do-or-die attack on the palace.
The shame of letting women lead the charge on the battlefield was a stain no warrior could ever erase.
Felix once thought he understood Lady Elizabeth, but the way these female knights embraced death told him he was wrong. He had yet to truly understand her. She was an enigma, forever elusive.
"Awaken, my servants!"
"There's plenty of fresh blood and souls of trembling knights here, all for you. Awaken, my servants! Your master needs you. Fight for me, puppets from hell!"
The Silver Hand had set up a massive defense Barrier at the palace gates, sustained by forty-two Shadow Mages. The allied knights suffered heavy losses here, as the large composite defensive magic Barrier hindered their elemental powers.
"Break!"
A thunderous sound seemed to shake the earth itself.
As Felix's deep, raspy voice finished the last incantation, a gigantic figure with a wingspan of ten meters and a height of five meters appeared at the palace gates.
"Demons! Demons! Demons!"
The entire square fell deathly silent. Both sides of the conflict held their breath, their eyes filled with terror as they gazed at the massive demon at the palace entrance.
It had been centuries since a demon of this high order, from the depths of hell, appeared in the Prime Material plane.
Even the fully demonized ogre battle servants bowed their heads in submission to this mightier being as it descended from the sky.
Felix’s slender figure rose into the air, landing gently on the shoulder of the demon puppet. His white, crystalline hair fluttered in the wind, drawing all eyes to him. The allied knights cheered.
"Warlock! Warlock! Warlock!" echoed across the square.
"Burn, my servant!"
"I grant you the flames of the soul, the power to incinerate all. Burn, my servant! Let the enemies’ souls wail under your flames!"
As Felix finished the last syllables of his incantation, deep purple flames ignited in the demon puppet's eyes, spreading rapidly to engulf its massive body.
The deep purple flames, the fire of the soul!
The demon puppet's body began to wither at a slow pace, its flesh turning to dust under the deep purple flames, while a terrifying power gradually emerged within it.
Runes carved into its flesh lit up, rearranging themselves in sync with Felix's chanting, eventually forming a continuously spinning nine-pointed star array on the demon's chest.
Felix gently floated down from the demon's shoulder. Under his commanding mental force, the demon, now a blazing inferno, roared and slammed a powerful fist onto the large defensive Barrier.
"Bang!"
"Spurt! Spurt!"
The forty-two mages sustaining the Barrier trembled, spurting blood from their mouths. A few, weaker in foundation, were instantly killed by the tremendous backlash.
"Bang!"
Another loud noise! Amidst the cheers of the allied knights, the last defense Barrier of the palace shattered into pieces, and the forty-two mages supporting it collapsed, lifeless.
As the Barrier broke, under Felix's command, the nine ogre battle servants charged into the palace.
At last, Felix saw Lady Elizabeth. She was in a pink gown, crimson blood dripping from her pale arm. Even at the brink of life and death, she maintained her composed elegance. When her gaze met Felix's, she even tried to suppress her pain and gave a faint smile...
Catherine stood guard beside Lady Elizabeth. Previously forced into her fallen angel form, she was fiercely resisting attacks from three men: a Silver Hand knight, a blood shadow assassin, and a fallen warlock in a dark red cloak.
As a fallen angel, Catherine was far more powerful than these three men, but their attacks weren't aimed at her. All their assaults targeted Lady Elizabeth, whom Catherine was desperately defending.
Lady Elizabeth was injured.
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A flicker of rage crossed Felix's face. His pale hands clenched tightly, and his slender figure soared into the midst of the battle.
Sensing its master's fury, the demon puppet also roared and, with its massive demon wings, swooped down on the blood shadow assassin attempting to sneak past Catherine to attack Elizabeth.
With the ogre army's onslaught, the Silver Hand Knight Order's defense line began to falter. A portion of the allied knights, following the ogre battle servants, stormed into the palace, rushing towards Felix's location.
"Clomp! Clomp! Clomp!"
Just as the Silver Hand Knight Order's defense line was about to completely collapse, a rhythmic sound of horse hooves filled everyone's ears. Then, sixteen royal knights in golden heavy armor charged valiantly into the fray!
The Royal Knight Order had arrived!
The battle once again reached a stalemate, and casualties began to appear among Felix's ogre battle servants. Two ogres were decapitated by the sixteen golden-armored royal knights.
The demon puppet, aflame, blocked the blood shadow assassin's attack and then, under Felix's control, confronted the Silver Hand knight, shrouded in holy light.
With the demon puppet's help, Catherine's burden was significantly lessened. Meanwhile, Felix swiftly reached Lady Elizabeth's side, taking out a bottle of hemostatic medicine from the Blue Crystal and applying it to her wound.
"You shouldn't have come," Lady Elizabeth said, looking at Felix, her face splattered with blood, her hair flowing in the wind. For some reason, her voice choked up.
She could no longer maintain her usual poised elegance. Tears glistened in her beautiful, starry eyes, a heartbreaking beauty amidst the chaos of blood and fire.
“I know.” Felix's voice was hoarse and low. After bandaging Lady Elizabeth's wounds, he looked up at the woman before him and sighed, “I also know that if I hadn't come today, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. So, I came.”
A single tear fell from Lady Elizabeth's eye, tracing down her exquisite face to drop onto the blood-stained marble floor, shattering into sparkling fragments…
"Fool, fool, you shouldn't have come, fool!" Lady Elizabeth couldn’t hold back her emotions any longer. She threw her arms around the man who had transformed from a mere chess piece into the love of her life, holding him tightly, never to part.
Felix gently stroked Lady Elizabeth's hair, a look of indescribable sorrow on his face. He saw Princess Helen, the legendary Lost Enchanters’ sword that brought both glory and disaster to the Titans, and even the Heart of the Ocean from the sea god Poseidon.
"Forgive me." Felix kissed the woman's earlobe, then swiftly struck her neck with his hand.
Shadow Bind!
After handing the unconscious Lady Elizabeth and a package from the Blue Crystal to Catherine, Felix leaped into the fray. He turned to Catherine and roared, “Take her and go! Now! Immediately!!!”
A surge of magic erupted from Felix, Mammon’s Redemption gleaming like a constellation. Pure shadow elements gathered around him, swirling in a strange pattern around his slender figure.
Catherine glanced at the unconscious Lady Elizabeth in her arms, hesitation on her face. She looked at Felix, a profound sadness welling up inside her.
“Go!” A roaring elemental storm began to unfold around Felix, his usually gentle and pale face contorted in anguish. A fiery red cloud swirled crazily in the sky above the palace, and the marble floor beneath Felix cracked under the terrible force of the storm.
The Silver Hand showed a look of horror. He desperately tried to approach and disrupt Felix's spellcasting but was blocked by the demon puppet's flesh and blood.
“Go! Go now!!!” Felix's figure was obscured in the elemental storm, with flashes of lightning and swirling sand filling the air.
Catherine looked at Felix, now completely enveloped in the storm, an uncontrollable sadness on her delicate face.
A blood-red tear slowly trickled from her ruby eyes. Casting one last lingering look at Felix, she turned and flew away from the palace, cradling the unconscious Lady Elizabeth.
Watching the two women’s figures disappear into the distance, Felix finally allowed a smile to cross his face.
Raising Mammon’s Redemption, he called out to the ascending Princess Helen, “Let the fiery rage from the depths of hell cleanse the sins of this world! I offer living souls, summoning you from the molten lava!”
“Hellfire Descend!”
Meteors, blazing with ferocious flames, one after another, fell from the sky.
“Roar! Roar! Roar!”
With earth-shattering booms, the palace square turned into a hell on earth. Huge craters appeared on the battlefield, and from each, ten-meter-tall beings of fire climbed out, the Hellfire from the deep lava of hell, beings as powerful as golden subspecies.
“Cough, cough, Your Highness, cough, cough.”
In one of the giant craters, the Silver Hand lay bloodied, a mangled ogre battle servant on his chest.
At the moment of Hellfire's descent, he was clutched tightly by an ogre battle servant. Despite his efforts, he couldn't escape the tremendous physical force.
Though he managed to flip the ogre to face him in the last moment, the massive impact from the Hellfire shattered all his bones.
The descending Hellfire began its indiscriminate attack.
The demon puppet, already battered under the assault of the blood shadow assassin and fallen warlock, was reduced to a flaming skeletal frame, its energy completely depleted.
Such powerful flesh golems were destined for a brief life from the moment of their creation, incredibly short-lived. Mammon’s Redemption supported Felix, the magic consumption causing his legs to tremble slightly.
Princess Helen, descending from the sky, her pale face showing a hint of a smile. She couldn't ignore the situation, as the Hellfire summoned by Felix could destroy everything in the capital. Their flames, born from the lava of hell, could even burn stone...
Princess Helen's face was cold and beautiful as she swept her gaze over Felix and then focused on the Silver Hand.
The fallen warlock in a dark red robe helped the Silver Hand up.
Looking at the now lifeless Silver Hand in his arms, the warlock’s resolute face was filled with desolation. He knelt before Princess Helen and said solemnly, “We are honored to have fought for you, Your Highness!”
After speaking, the warlock chanted a few arcane syllables. Then, he and the Silver Hand's corpse exploded together, turning into a cloud of blood mist that enveloped the demon puppet released by Felix.
The purple flames burning on the demon puppet dimmed visibly. When the blood mist enveloped it completely, the puppet, drained of its power and stripped of flesh, disintegrated into ash within the mist.
The Hellfire roared, carrying out a massacre, but at the epicenter, there was only silence.
“You shouldn't have come,” a cold sword pressed against Felix's neck, and Princess Helen looked at him coldly. Yet, for some reason, her beautiful face showed a hint of struggle and hesitation.
“I... cough, cough... know.” Felix, holding Mammon’s Redemption, trembled. He looked at the woman in front of him and managed a strained smile.
“Leave,” Princess Helen withdrew the Lost Enchanters’ sword from Felix's neck and commanded coldly.
Felix lifted his head, gazing deeply at Princess Helen, then slowly turned and walked towards the palace exit.
“Ah! Cough!” Felix's steps halted.
He heard the sound of something shattering at his heart – the sound of crystal breaking...
Mammon’s Redemption supported Felix’s faltering body. He looked down to see a sword pierced through his heart.
The Lost Enchanters’ sword, a blade that brought both glory and disaster to the Titans...
“What have I done?” Princess Helen stared incredulously at her hands.
The Lost Enchanters’ sword trembled slightly.
Felix felt his soul trying to leave, but a strange force held him in his body, a deep gray Power of Pestilence emerging from his wound.
Under the erosion of the Power of Pestilence, the Lost Enchanters’ sword, piercing his heart, emitted a terrified tremble. The Power of Pestilence enveloped Felix’s entire body, draining his remaining magic and life.
The Lost Enchanters’ sword began to crumble piece by piece, and even the Blue Crystal in Felix's hand started to crack.
The only intact thing was Mammon’s Redemption, guiding the Power of Pestilence. The Blue Crystal turned to dust, and a dark red card appeared from the void.
The deep gray Power of Pestilence infused into the card, which hovered and spun rapidly.
A silver-gray light beamed from the card onto Felix’s body, and then, his lifeless body, along with the dark red card, vanished from the Prime Material plane...
“Crack.”
The Lost Enchanters’ sword turned to ash, eroded by the Power of Pestilence, leaving only a broken hilt.
Princess Helen gazed in disbelief at everything before her, speechless.
In the third year of the Continental Calendar, the path to chaos began.
The division of the Titans Empire led the continent into an unpredictable future.
And an unknown figure in all this left an indelible mark. No one knew his name; people only knew him by a vague alias: Lady Elizabeth’s Cat.
On the third day, news of Felix’s death reached Lady Elizabeth.
It was a bottle filled with dark red blood that seemed to flow. A book accompanied it, with a delicate inscription: “Drink it when you are most desperate.”
Lady Elizabeth smiled, tears falling drop by drop. She opened the bottle and poured the bitter dark red liquid into her mouth without hesitation.
On the ninth day, Princess Helen was attacked by a mysterious assassin.
This enigmatic assassin was known as the Dark Ranger.
...
To be continue...