Chapter 227 – Your sword shall shine for all eternity, Aouine (3)

============= Tarkas’s POV =============

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TL reminder: Tarkas is the general who led Madara’s army in the early chapters to invade Aouine.

Madara’s haughty army that made people fearful ultimately did not dare to cross the final line to engage Firburh’s army.

That was because there were two people who constantly stood in front of this undead army.

A man and a woman.

The female was an Elf, her proud composure as radiant as the stars in the sky. Her young age seemed to be unable to express the fact that she was the commander of Firburh’s army, but it did not interfere with her skills as one.

Medissa held a silver lance and placed it horizontally while she sat straight up on her horse, quietly blocking Tarkas’s path less than fifty meters away. In her eyes, Madara’s army did not exist.

The man was a middle-aged swordsman. He did not even look at Madara’s army from the very start, but the tens of thousands of undead did not dare to overlook his presence.

That was because he was Mephisto, the Sword Saint of Ashes.

“Lord Palas has started advancing.” A black knight whispered next to Tarkas’s ear.

The latter nodded.

“What does Lord Incirsta say?”

“His Lordship says, Aouine…… never lacks heroes. This is a decision of a military man, and we must respect the glory in a battlefield.”

Tarkas nodded.

“Then let us retreat. Hopefully, we can still come back to this land once again if I still live.”

The vampire commander looked at Medissa and Mephisto as he spoke.

“We’re already dead, my Lord.” The black knight replied.

Tarkas paused for a moment before he nodded.

The presence of the undead left bit by bit.

=========== Scarlett’s POV ===========

There were two thousand-odd men on the battlefield, and their encountered resistance was a small army made up of several hundred mercenaries, Tree Elves, and Centaurs.

But the outcome was already decided.

These two thousand men under Lord Palas were Iron-ranked soldiers, with less than a hundred knights in the Silver-rank. On the opposite end, they faced powerful Silver-rankers with a considerable amount nearing the strength of Gold-rankers, veteran warriors who had survived the Calamity of Wolves.

The flying horses soared to the sky and the Tree Elves’ arrows never missed their mark. It was a one-sided massacre. Lord Palas’s heart was strangled as he heard the screams of the young soldiers around him. The future for Aouine that he saw……

[Indeed, it is supposed to be Aouine’s senior knights leading the younger ones, singing the battle songs, gifting them the highest honor they can attain.]

But the old knight found that he could not do anything.

Their full-on assault had long been stopped ago. Putting aside the enemy army’s regular soldiers, he saw at least four Gold-rankers fighting on the battlefield.

A red-haired young girl using a spear, a Tree Elf, a Centaur, and an astonishingly pretty girl wearing male clothes.

This was the supposed rebel army.

No one knew when it started. The bright golden flags in the battlefield were dyed with blood. As the old knight continued to watch each youthful face disappear from him, he felt that it was time to end this farce.

The spear in Scarlett’s hand was no longer her original lightning spear, as it was lost in the Dark Forest. Even after a search was made, it was to no avail.

Thus she was now wielding an ordinary spear enchanted with some magic. Brendel promised her to find a favorable weapon for her, but she subconsciously did not want to bother him with this matter, afraid of making Brendel feel she was troublesome, and eventually getting to the point where he would abandon her like Makarov.

But it would not be fine if she did not have a weapon. She was currently the strongest person under Brendel’s retainers and friends after the dragon blood in her awakened, excluding Mephisto. The latter was much stronger than her, but at the same time he was not really part of Brendel’s force, and at best a business partner.

Technically speaking, if Brendel were to look at her in terms of levels, she would be even higher than his own. That meant that an ordinary magic spear would limit her combat prowess.

The anxious girl pursed her lips and used her spear to charge in and out of Randner’s army.

Count Randner’s coalition army only had Lord Palas’s troops remaining on the battlefield. The other knights and Gold-ranked swordsmen had all ran away, and there was no one who could form a threat to her. She and Morpheus pierced through the enemies’ formation, separating and destroying each section. At that moment, she felt that the opposition was hanging on by a thread that was about to snap.

However, her spear was suddenly met by another weapon, causing her hands to shake a little. There was resistance and it surprised the young girl for a moment. She looked up to study the men in front of her.

A group of knights was reflected in her eyes.

[The core knights of Lord Palas. These knights are the backbone of the enemy army. This battle will end quickly if I take them down.]

She immediately rushed over as she pondered. But contrary to her expectations of the enemy knights retreating and allowing the soldiers to surround her, they instead charged at her.

[These fools.]

These knights should have already known her strength by now and that they were no match for her. But they had no hesitation when they charged in, and she saw nothing but determination in their eyes.

They were not very much older than her—

Despite their looks in their eyes, their bodies betrayed them. They were trembling from anxiety and had full of holes in their attacks. At that moment, Scarlett recalled her past comrades who lost their lives after Makarov’s betrayal. Her spear that was originally full of killing intent changed its direction, and she smacked them all down from their horses instead.

She moved forward, intending to take down more of the knights riding on the horses, but there was one particular knight that stood out.

“What?”

He was clad in full armor and was also a Silver-ranker, but his experience was remarkable. He avoided her attack and even fought back. Scarlett easily defended against the blow and countered, only for her spear to be deflected away with skillful techniques.

Scarlett was slightly on edge, thinking that her opponent was a Gold-ranker who tried to hide his strength. She pulled back her spear and attacked with a full lunge— which was a feint.

That knight lurched backward, appearing to be unconfident of deflecting the missile-like spear. Scarlett then moved in to attach her spear to his sword, then forced it away to the side and struck at her opponent’s chest. The three consecutive spears were done one after another without pausing. A loud cracking noise could be heard as the spear was thrust into the armor with rays of light emitting from it.

“A High-armor!?” Scarlett instantly felt something was wrong. Her opponent was wearing something that an ordinary knight would not have, rather, it was more fitting for a commander.

Surely.

There was only one possible person who would have this in the entire army.

There was a jolt of electricity running through her veins as she realized there was silence around her. All the soldiers and knights stopped fighting, which eventually spread to the others like a rippling wave. The entire battlefield froze like a miracle.

“Lord Palas!” One of the young knights who was smacked down from his horse immediately got up and rushed to the knight who fell under Scarlett’s spear.

Lord Palas coughed as blood pooled around his injury, but his first reaction was not to staunch it and instead push up his faceplate.

It was a weary face that belonged to an old man, full of wrinkles and a pair of snow-white eyebrows that seemed to hold in all the stormy weathers of the kingdom. His dull grey eyes looked as though they had seen too many things, which had seen a certain war where the senior knights bringing along the younger ones into a battlefield that many of them did not return for all eternity, but also seeing glorious victories amidst the sorrowful ones. Finally, they had seemingly seen the end of the kingdom’s final moment.

These pair of eyes sparkled for a few seconds before they quickly disappeared as his life was drained away, and the images of his past were forever sealed away.

Lord Palas laughed.

He first shook his hand at the knight beside him, looked up at Scarlett and said:

“Lass, where exactly are you from? I don’t believe, you are simply…… rebels…..”

Scarlett suddenly found herself at a loss for words. Logically speaking, this old man was their biggest enemy in this war, but she found it hard to reject answering his question at this moment.

“I’m a citizen of Aouine.”

“Impossible, a peak Gold-ranker…… a peak Gold-ranker…… When did Aouine have such a young prodigy…… a true…… prodigy……” The old man shook his head weakly in disbelief.

“I’m truly a citizen of Aouine, a Highlander within the Randner region, originally a mercenary until I met my lord,” Scarlett spoke in an earnest tone.

“A stubborn person, eh? You certainly demonstrate the kingdom’s stubbornness. I do believe you are one.” the old man smiled, but his smile seemed like it had used up of its vitality: “But a prodigy like you, why would you lower yourself by being with the rebels……”

“What? No, I’m not lowering myself, my lord is even stronger than I am. But putting aside that, he’s also a good person, especially compared to that Graudin. I think he’s the best lord in this continent—”

“Is that so? What is the….. name….. of your lord?” He asked between coughs.

“Brendel.”

“Brendel……Brendel……”

Lord Palas closed his eyes and breathed out a long sigh. He felt his limbs getting colder. He was losing consciousness and breathing was becoming hard. But he still had one more question, and his eyes sprang open once more, staring at the blood on the forest ground. All of it was Aouine’s blood.

“What is……exactly…… your…… goal?”

“I have no idea, but my lord says he is doing this to save Aouine.”

“Save Aouine?” Light returned to Lord Palas’s eyes, and he stared at the girl with a complicated expression: “How…..?”

“I’m sorry,” Scarlett shook her head to show that she did not know, “but I believe my lord is capable of doing so. Not one of us believes that you nobles are capable of doing that.”

“Us nobles…… us nobles……” The old man coughed repeatedly before he laughed with all his might, shaking his head: “Listen well, my knights…… This is an order…… Surrender.”

This was a thunderous shock to the young knights around him: “My Lord, it’s not possible, if you die here, we will follow you, this is our glory!”

“No.” The old man closed his eyes weakly, his voice lowering to a whisper because of his fading strength, “you must surrender, because…… this is the glory of Aouine.”

For the highest honor of Aouine.

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