Chapter 100: Treason
The next day, game time 7:03 AM.
Banshee City suburbs, Southeast Continent of Innocent World.
Ji Xiaodao slowly woke up in Duke Garros’ carriage, while Mo Tan, who was sitting beside her, was still asleep, his eyes closed beneath his mask, his breathing even and gentle…
“Ugh!” The girl, who had just logged into the game, suddenly realized she was leaning on his not-so-broad shoulder. She immediately sat up straight, a flush of crimson crossing her fair, almost bloodless, face.
Garros, sitting opposite the two, also opened his eyes from his doze and smiled slightly at Ji Xiaodao: “You can rest a little longer.”
We all know that this Grand Duke of the Shavin Empire must have long been controlled by one of Mo Tan’s talents, but that doesn't mean he has lost his sanity or ability to think independently. In fact, Duke Garros felt clearer than ever before, so even without the influence of a certain power, he was still grateful to his master, who always wore a mask.
Grateful that he could free his true self…
Although from an objective and essential point of view, his soul was now extremely twisted, almost without a trace of the former ‘Duke Garros’.
“That’s enough.” Ji Xiaodao shook her head, then asked seemingly casually, “How long did I sleep?”
“About ten minutes.” Garros replied softly, “Not much longer than it takes me to draw a low-level magic scroll…”
Ji Xiaodao nodded silently, while quickly calculating her offline time in her mind. The conclusion was almost the same as his answer.
Although she had spent twelve hours in reality, almost fallen victim to her sister’s specially made killer cuisine, and witnessed her mother, enraged by her father’s mockery, beating the former for an hour, in ‘Innocent World’, she had only slept for a little over ten minutes…
Because Mo Tan had always been with Garros, as a player, he and she did not disappear in a flash of white light when logging off under the watchful eye of this NPC, but rather entered a state between sleep and coma.
“How on earth do you know such things…?”
Ji Xiaodao stared blankly at the side profile of the man beside her. His sleeping face was unexpectedly well-behaved. Although he was just leaning against the back of the chair with his head bowed, in the girl’s eyes, he was unprecedentedly serene and gentle.
Of course, that so-called ‘well-behaved’ was just her illusion, just like when we are thrown into an environment of minus forty or fifty degrees for several days, and then return to a normal temperature, we will have the illusion of ‘holy crap, it’s hot’.
But in fact, it’s not really hot, it’s just that we have become accustomed to the cold that seems to freeze the soul…
However, even though she understood the principle, Ji Xiaodao still stared at Mo Tan beside her for almost a day before logging off. The latter had been offline the entire time since briefly appearing yesterday morning, ‘sleeping’ all the way from the capital to Banshee City, and the young girl had accompanied this body the entire way without doing anything.
You know, Garros had gone out for fresh air several times…
“Ms. Jidao.” Seeing that the young girl in front of him was no longer sleepy, Garros asked her in a low voice, “We are about forty minutes away from Banshee City. When will master wake up?”
The Dark Elf, who had been distracted, was startled for a moment, then reacted slightly. After her brain resumed functioning, she shook her head and said, “I don’t know, but it shouldn’t be much…”
“I’m already awake.”
A voice devoid of emotion sounded in Ji Xiaodao’s ear. Mo Tan, who had been ‘sleeping’ all the way in the game, had opened his eyes and looked up, asking Garros softly, “About forty minutes?”
“Yes, Master.” Garros replied respectfully, “If we march quickly, we can cut the time in half.”
Mo Tan nodded, then chuckled, “No need. We are already well ahead of schedule. Go tell His Excellency the Marshal to let everyone rest for a while, then find a Knight Order member who seems talkative and bring him to me. The most ordinary kind, so as not to attract anyone’s attention.”
“Your will.”
Garros stood up and saluted, then pulled open the side door and floated out of the fast-moving carriage, swiftly soaring towards the front of the main force with the aid of High-Rank wind magic.
Five minutes later,
A knight with a few freckles on his face appeared in Garros’ carriage and saluted Mo Tan: “Sin Duke, you called for me?”
This young man had deep blue curly hair, carrying a shield and a lance, looking a bit dusty from the journey. He looked somewhat nervously at Mo Tan and Ji Xiaodao in front of him, and when his eyes met hers, he shyly looked away.
“Don’t be nervous.” Mo Tan smiled gently and asked him with interest, “What’s your name? And to which unit do you belong?”
“My name is Thomas, sir.” The human young man immediately replied loudly, “I am an ordinary member of the Tsar’s Sword Knights, a Mid-Tier Knight.”
The last sentence seemed to be an impromptu addition after he quickly glanced at Ji Xiaodao…
“Very good.” Mo Tan nodded gently.
“You flatter me~” Thomas scratched his cheek a little awkwardly, chuckling, “The threshold for our Knight Order is Mid-Tier Knight.”
And then…
“I need you to do me a favor, Thomas.”
“Hmm?”
“Look into my eyes…”
…
One hour later,
Banshee City suburbs, within the Shavin Empire.
“Magnificent.”
Mo Tan stood at the very front of the Team, looking at the countless huge magic arrays in the distance and the layers of elemental runes surrounding them, and exclaimed sincerely.
Standing beside him were Marshal Galahad, Duke Garros, and Ji Xiaodao.
Behind them were the neatly arranged formation of the Tsar’s Sword Knights, and the Hurricane Mage Group on both sides.
A hint of unease was visible on everyone’s face. Although there was still some distance to Banshee City, this location was enough to make them feel a strong sense of oppression and a maliciousness mixed with frantic resentment in the air.
Standing before a dead city that had recently been completely slaughtered, lingering at the edge of this cursed land and feeling the endless hatred and despair in the air, was undoubtedly an extremely chilling experience.
But no commotion or Chaos occurred…
Not only because Marshal Galahad, who commanded the Knight Order, and Duke Garros, the leader of the Hurricane Mage Group, were both here, but also because the dazzling magical light, like a star map, directly above Banshee City at this moment, filled everyone with confidence.
In the eyes of the knights, that was the powerful force of their God of Law, Faraosis.
In the eyes of the mages, the countless magic arrays moving in mid-air were a grand miracle combining Great Astrology and all elemental systems, and the mysterious and profound runes made these elemental controllers utterly mesmerized.
“Unimaginable, unimaginable!” A High-Rank Mage from the Hurricane Mage Group looked up, dazed, and said, “This is art, a miracle! I feel that the word ‘sage’ is no longer enough to describe His Excellency Fara’s power… a super-tier composite magic of all elements, combined with the power of the stars… This is simply like, the authority of a God…”
A knight who had been trembling earlier also clicked his tongue, “His Excellency the God of Law, Duke Garros, and His Excellency the Marshal, plus us, tsk tsk, even a few dragons would probably be taken down, right?”
“Look at your lack of ambition, we are the nation’s military might! What are a mere few dragons?”
“I feel that if it’s just that level, His Excellency the God of Law alone would be enough…”
“Our Marshal can do it too!”
“What about Duke Garros…”
“Duke Garros might be a bit iffy…”
…
“Garros.” Mo Tan looked at the beautiful, powerful, immensely oppressive magic array above Banshee City, which was gradually nearing completion and composed of an unknown number of layers, and asked softly, “How much longer does our God of Law need to complete that magic?”
Garros pondered for a moment and replied, “I cannot be certain, but it seems to require at least another half an hour. I can feel at least forty magic nodes related to wind elements have not yet been activated. If we consider the longer estimate, several hours are not impossible…”
“That’s truly a pity~” Mo Tan raised a hand to cover his mask, and the killing intent, on the verge of erupting, escaped from his eyes. He turned and bowed dramatically to Galahad: “Your Excellency the Marshal…”
The latter shifted slightly, then turned and loudly commanded: “Enter the city!”
Enter the city??
Everyone was stunned, because the previous plan was not like this. Logically, at this time, only Marshal Galahad should enter the city to protect the God of Law while he chanted, and the Knight Order and Mage Group should have been stationed outside Banshee City until the Great Retrace Spell was completed…
“Enter the city!” Duke Garros’ voice, amplified by magic, then boomed in everyone’s ears like thunder: “Do not make His Excellency the Marshal say it a second time! I will tell you the reason later.”
“Yes!!”
The three thousand-plus people immediately obeyed. The previously somewhat loose formation became perfectly disciplined again, and they slowly began to advance towards Banshee City, which had already become a cursed land.
No one would question an order issued simultaneously by Marshal Galahad and Duke Garros.
…
Inside Banshee City,
“Hmm?” Fara, who had just cleared all the spellcasting materials and was fine-tuning the numerous magic nodes in mid-air, was slightly startled, then looked towards the city gate in the distance, muttering, “What’s the point of bringing so many people in? Is that old fellow Galahad out of his mind?”
Five minutes later,
The Shavin Empire’s strongest individual and combat teams converged on the central avenue of Banshee City’s ruins.
The Empire’s Twin Heroes, Marshal Galahad and the God of Law Fara.
The Hurricane Mage Group and its leader: Grand Magister of Wind Element, Duke Garros.
The Tsar’s Sword Knights.
In the sky, the magic nodes composed of various elements were gradually being lit up. A huge light curtain appeared behind Fara, constantly swirling with phantoms like starlight, while the countless seemingly chaotic magic arrays in mid-air began to continuously overlap or link up, interweaving into a dome of magic power like a sky curtain.
“I’m glad you weren’t late.” Fara turned to Galahad, who was dozens of meters away, and smiled, wiping a few strands of sweat from his forehead. Then, with a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, he outlined two magical symbols that seemed to burn with flames. While adjusting their positions, he loudly declared with full vigor, “I still need about an hour to complete the spellcasting. This time is yours.”
Galahad did not speak, but merely waved his hand, signaling the Knight Order behind him to move forward a bit.
“You old lion…” Fara, in the center of countless magic nodes, sighed and frowned, “I should have told you it’s best not to let the warriors enter the city. The aura here has too much of an impact on ordinary people, but you refused to listen. Never mind… Have everyone move closer. The environment around me will be slightly more stable.”
But Galahad, in the next second, drew the dark golden greatsword from his back, a powerful weapon bestowed upon him by the previous Shavin Emperor—the Sand Burial Gate.
This weapon, which looked more like a ‘shield’ than a ‘greatsword’, was rectangular. Except for the hilt and guard, the rest was painstakingly crafted over half a year by thousands of artisans using extremely precious sand gold and refined steel pearl powder. Theoretically, it could shatter all low-tier magic, and came with inherent armor penetration, piercing, and tearing effects. Furthermore, it had four permanent enchantments—‘Fortify’, ‘Giant Strength’, ‘Blade Wind’, and ‘Splash’—personally bestowed by Fara one time after Galahad had gotten him drunk. From a player’s perspective, it was at least a ‘Unique Epic’ with extremely high usage requirements.
“Enemy?” Fara’s expression immediately turned serious. His years of trust in Galahad did not lead him to any other thoughts. The God of Law’s first reaction was that his friend had detected some danger and had drawn his sword immediately to protect him.
However…
Galahad, his hair bristling, suddenly swung his sword upwards from his position. The ‘Sand Burial Gate’ in his hand instantly erupted with a dull yellow glow, then transformed into a phantom lance over ten meters long that whistled out, directly piercing through dozens of magic nodes that had just begun to slowly operate. At the same time, it shattered a large number of already stable elemental runes, causing a large section of the beautiful, star-map-like light curtain behind Fara to instantly shatter.
“Galahad! What are you doing!” Fara didn’t even react to what had happened for a moment. He looked at his white-haired, murderous old friend in disbelief, and after a long while, he sharply shouted, “My friend, Galahad Waldstein! Are you mad? Do you know what you’ve done?!”
The old Marshal remained silent, not answering Fara’s questioning.
But his doubts were soon answered.
A young man wearing a mask slowly walked out from the crowd, and in a silence where a pin drop could be heard, he walked to Marshal Galahad’s side. Then he turned and smiled at everyone, saying softly, “According to the secret investigation of His Excellency the Marshal and Duke Garros, our God of Law, the Dual-System Sage of Arcane and Spatial Magic, Imperial Great Astrologer, President of the Teron Mage Guild, Faraosis…”
“No Wrongdoing!” Galahad raised his greatsword again.
“No Wrongdoing!” Duke Garros’ hands surged with wind and thunder.
“No Wrongdoing!” Sin Duke sighed to the sky, his voice full of solemnity and sorrow: “What a pity…”
Chapter 97: End