Chapter 172: Griffin

A few minutes ago, the commander received a response from the kingdom via the communication method, which was an artifact that required time and effort to communicate.

And the response didn’t disappoint him.

“They will take this seriously and send help. We can finally get help! And we won’t have to deal with an abyssal gate!” The commander announced happily and raised his hands.

“Yahoo!”

“We will finally go back!”

“For the first time, I’m glad that I’m so weak!”

“As if the giants weren’t enough! However, I hope they counter that abyssal gate.”

“Man, I miss my wife.”

“Shut up! Don’t jinx it!”

The soldiers celebrated and joked at the news, while some were still concerned about the gate, though they knew they could do nothing about that.

The commander stood up and announced: “I’ll share the news personally with everyone. That’s a good chance to raise their morale.”

After the commander left, he headed directly toward the walls.

That was the most important part of the camp when it came to sharing such good news. Why? Because the soldiers who barely rested were there.

Even though everything had been great since Dante had appeared, the soldiers there were still under heavy pressure due to their past trauma.

After all, no one expected it when the giants appeared. They had learnt the hard way that anything could happen if they let their guards down.

“Oh, commander! Why are you here?”

“An extra meal? You know I won’t say no.”

“Stop thinking about your stomach! He must be here for an important matter.”

The commander smiled: “It’s not really a serious matter. It’s just that—”

Before the commander could complete his sentence, his eyes suddenly narrowed at a strange sight.

“Wait, what is this?”

“Everyone stay alert! There is a strange phenomenon there!”

In the far distance, a pillar of pure darkness rose to the sky. It was so far away, yet large enough to appear like a thin strand of hair.

“That’s… that’s the direction of the abyssal gate!” The commander’s face paled in dangerous realization.

But what did that pillar mean? He had never learned about that!

“I… I should make a report. Keep watching that pillar and stay cautious!” The commander swallowed heavily and turned around, but just then, he noticed that the soldiers didn’t respond to him.

Upon looking at the people in front of him, he also realized that they were frozen, looking at something in front of them with pure terror.

The commander’s instincts screamed at him to run. However, he held his courage, driven by his duties and responsibilities as the leader, and turned around again.

Then he saw him.

And he regretted it immediately.

A familiar man hovered in the air like he owned the sky and no one deserved to be above him.

He wore a blue outfit that covered his muscular body and seemed to be made of silks from the sky.

His long golden hair cascaded down his shoulders, sparkling with arcs of golden lightning moving through them.

He had the height of a giant, yet he held different features that said otherwise.

His crossed arms and his neck, the parts that weren’t covered by the outfit, were instead covered with strange feathers that looked durable and metallic.

His fingers ended with sharp claws, as though they could catch someone’s heart and never let it go.

A pair of huge feathered wings unfolded from his back, blocking the sun. They looked like the wings of a bird, yet the man wasn’t using them to fly and seemed to be standing in the air itself.

And finally, the commander noticed the pair of piercing, golden, eagle-like eyes fixed on him.

✧IMG✧

Only one thought formed in the commander’s mind.

’Pride demon!’

The giant had the Pride Bloodline!

The commander couldn’t mistake it. The eagle-like features existed in only two races, and one of them was the pride demons who had the griffin as the core of their bloodline!

Centipede for greed.

Black widow for lust.

Griffin for pride!

The commander opened his mouth immediately to shout at his army, but no words came out of his mouth.

His tongue was moving, his mouth was opening and closing, and his throat was shaking, yet not a single sound was produced.

Not even the sound of his breath or movements could be heard. Everything was blocked!

’What—!’

All of a sudden, a heavy pressure fell upon all the soldiers, forcing them to kneel.

The commander, despite being Rank 2, had no choice but to kneel as well. He knew the pressure was just mental or spiritual, but his body still obeyed it against his will.

Finally, the man spoke, his cold, confident tone holding absolute authority: “Do you have a black magic user here?”

The commander and the soldiers’ mouths opened on their own:

“No.”

“I have seen none.”

“Never in my life.”

A cold shiver ran down their spines upon realizing what had just happened.

They responded to the man like a bunch of subordinates, not even thinking for long before answering truthfully.

The experienced among them knew immediately that they were under a magical effect!

’Damn!’

The commander clung to his willpower and gritted his teeth, moving his hand to his sword.

He couldn’t speak after answering the question, and therefore he couldn’t cast spells. He had no choice but to use a physical attack.

The demonic giant nodded and asked the second question: “How many masked people have you seen here?”

The soldiers answered immediately.

“Only one.”

“One person.”

“Only one man wears a mask here.”

The soldiers realized immediately what the man was looking for.

The mysterious black magic user!

’Does he suspect that we’re working with a black magic user? And why is such an enemy even here?!’

The commander couldn’t understand anything. First, there was the abyssal gate, and now there was a demonic giant who seemed to be Rank 3?

How bad could their situation become? And why were there even that many problems here?

’Wait, I remember him!’

The commander stopped trying to reach for his sword and lowered his head.

He couldn’t win.

There was nothing he could do to harm that guy, unless…

’If he shows enmity… this will be the end.’

He glanced at all the soldiers… they all had the same eyes.

A mutual understanding was shared between them at this moment. All of them were ready to die.

’Unfortunately, they may not survive if we succeed, and they will definitely die if we fail.’ The commander sighed as his mind drifted to Elizabeth and Fafnir.

The next moment, the demonic giant asked the third question.

“So he has a mask but you don’t know if he uses black magic. Fine, answer this. Does he have the Shadow Aspect?”

’What?!’

All the soldiers were confused, but they answered regardless.

“I’m not sure.”

“He has the Shadow Aspect.”

“Likely yes.”

They all knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the demonic giant asked about a mask and then the Shadow Aspect specifically.

Something was wrong.

Something was so wrong!

’He was the one who warned us about the black magic user, but none of us had seen that person. Could it be…’

As soon as the commander started to doubt Dante, he immediately dismissed those thoughts.

He couldn’t suspect Dante after everything he had done for them just because of the order of the questions.

There were many soldiers with the Shadow Aspect, and wearing a mask wasn’t uncommon in a world filled with artifacts and relics.

Maybe the giants just mistook them, as both Dante and the black magic users had been attacking the giants. And maybe it was a bigger coincidence in which they both had the Shadow Aspect.

The demonic giant asked the fourth question.

“Do you know how the abyssal gate was opened or who destroyed my relic? It’s a fragment of the Sin Relics and can create portals.”

The soldiers responded with confusion.

“I don’t know.”

“No.”

“The giants are likely the ones who opened the gate.”

Smiling, the demonic giant asked the fifth question: “What about my son, Zoran? Do you know who that person was who had almost killed my son?”

“No.”

The soldiers didn’t know.

Taking a deep breath, the demonic giant laughed: “It’s likely him, and if that’s true, then you all were left in darkness while he slaughtered my kind and caused chaos everywhere. Is that masked man here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe, maybe not.”

“There is a chance.”

The demonic giant raised an eyebrow at their response: “I see. If he’s here, where can I find him? I think he has to pay for what he caused.”

The commander and the soldiers tried to keep their mouths shut, but they ultimately failed.

“The biggest tent.”

“He’s mostly with the saintess candidate, Elizabeth.”

“At the healer’s tent.”

The demonic giant nodded and stepped forward in the air: “I’ll deal with him and return to you. I might ask you more questions.”

His steps made no sound and his movements were completely normal, but if someone looked closely, he’d see a slab of air appearing under every step to support his weight.

The soldiers kept struggling to talk or move until he finally reached the camp. At this moment, they knew that they had no other choice.

They exchanged glances and communicated through lip-reading to sync together and say farewell to each other.

The next moment, the bodies of half the soldiers started glowing.

They channeled their mana and spiritual energy to one place, and that place was their core.

“Another dirty bunch of suicides.” The man sighed at their attempt to cause mutual death.

Using their cores as a heart of a bomb and overcharging it with different energies was a common method to cause the biggest possible amount of damage upon death.

Not all people had the guts to do something like that. Seeing half the soldiers here ready to kill themselves was both impressive and sad.

There was a possibility of surviving, but there was also a possibility of being used to get information. They were ready to die instead of helping their enemies.

If it had been someone else, they’d have had no time to escape the explosion, but they were facing the wrong person this time.

Once the first person reached the point of explosion, the man disappeared and appeared in Elizabeth’s tent, arcs of golden lightning and waves of wind dancing around his body.

Without hesitation, he raised a hand and caused an invisible pulling force that caught everyone in the tent along with some nearby soldiers.

The next moment, he flapped his wings and flew out of the tent, pulling everyone with him without giving them the chance to understand what was happening.

From Fafnir’s perception, a blurry figure suddenly entered the tent and left, and the next moment, he was flying out of the tent with Elizabeth.

’What the—’

However, as he looked at the camp becoming smaller in his vision, a second sun appeared out of nowhere, expanding in size rapidly.

The light was so intense that it weakened him slightly, and the hill seemed to shake violently in front of him.

Then it came. A sound that was more violent than thunder.

And that was the moment when both Dante and Fafnir realized… the camp exploded.

KRRUUMMPP—!

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