Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  After burning for who knew how many years, the lanterns still had a trace of kerosene. It was clearly out of the ordinary, but black zones were had always been out of the ordinary. This fact was strange but not unacceptable.

  This entire time, Ye Qingxuan had not met anyone else, but he had seen many strange things, such as statues.

  Whether he was in the backyard, the garden, the halls within the building, or even the servants’ resting room, he could see these realistic statues. They smiled and stood in different places, maintaining their action at that moment. It was as if they had been transformed into stone at that moment. There was a strange smile on their faces rather than terror. Their eyes could still move.

  From the distance, they could see through Ye Qingxuan’s disguise. The stone eyes rolled over; nothing was in their empty eyes except for his face. They watched him come and watched him leave.

  They had not done anything but Ye Qingxuan shuddered. What was with these weird things?! The entire way here, he saw signs of forceful cracking of the codes and traps. Broken statues lay in the center of the road. Fine red sand flowed from the cracks, floating in the air as if they were dancing in the dim light.

  Ye Qingxuan covered his nose and bypassed them. He quickly caught up by using his understanding of architecture of familiarity of the Royal Musician Division and got ahead of the dark musicians—this was all thanks to Ye Lanzhou.

  Ye Lanzhou had not stayed in the Royal Musician Division for long but he had taken his song everywhere. Ye Qingxuan still remembered how to go from the conference room to the bathroom. However, the more he remembered its original appearance, the more unsettled he felt.

  The statues along the way were all dressed like servants or nobles. No one wore the robe of the Royal Musician Division. Where did all the musicians go?

  During his rushed walking, his steps suddenly stopped. He looked up and saw that the clock on the wall had stopped moving. It was forever paused at that moment.

  It was 8:10 at night. Eight ten… Ye Qingxuan quietly memorized this time. He compared the direction of the parliament’s dark musicians and finally locked onto the final destination—the banquet hall on the third floor.

  “You’ve come this far just to have a picnic at dinner time?” he could not help but mutter as he looked toward the stairs. “Too much time on your hands?”

  Boom! An explosion sounded from the direction of the front hall. Smoke rose; the smell of rusting metal sand traveled with the cold wind. The enchantment had finally shattered.

  258 May My King Protect Me

  The dust-covered steel gate suddenly shook. The black aura around it danced, scraping past the musician’s face like a blade, causing sparks to fly.

  Before the steel gate, a burly and unfamiliar man raised his hammer. The strange and muscular skeleton enlarged his body. As the strange music played, he expanded to more than three meters tall. The ragged red robe around him showed signs of battle. There was also the Eyes Within the Eye before his heart.

  A distorted song came from his chest as if his internal organs were singing. His already-exaggerated muscles bulged once again amidst this song. His hammer swung down but there was no sound!

  All the power had been poured into the single nail, forcing it through the thick steel gate bit by bit. The dark cloud around the gate weakened a bit with each inch the nail dug in. There had already been six nails hammered into the gate. This was the last one.

  Enchantment-breaking nails. These were alchemy items used for unearthing ancient ruins. By pushing the nails made of alloy into the node of the enchantment, one could disrupt the flow of aether and force an entrance into the enchantment.

  “Eziz, hurry up,” said Aloise, the dark lord clad in a red robe behind him. He held an aether ball the size of a fist in his hand.

  Silver spots shone on the ball, representing the surrounding aether waves. In the distance, a writhing ball of darkness approached quickly. The darkness changed but no matter how he tried to investigate it, he could not see what was truly under the darkness. An abyss was approaching quickly, choosing prey to swallow.

  One must know that even a Round Table knight who had transformed into a dark knight after falling would be revealed on the aether ball. So what demonic thing was this?! To be honest, he did not want to know at all. He just wanted to finish his mission before this thing arrived and then use his powers to escape.

  Narrowing his eyes, he recited the god’s name, pushing down the unsettled feeling. He had entered the Disturbance level long ago with Hyakume’s blessing, he still felt unsettled here—after all, Avalon’s Shadow was where the late King Arthur’s scepter was. And why did the Royal Musician Division turn the banquet hall into a fortress? What did they hide inside?

  “The door’s almost open. Everyone, be careful,” he ordered quietly.

  The six dark musicians behind him emanated with an aura of destruction thick enough to be tangible. The black zone completely immersed with negativity was their paradise. Merely entering here had increased their power, practically allowing them to pass a whole level.

  The steel gate vibrated lowly but the darkness around it scattered. The seal had been forced apart by the enchantment-breaking nails!

  Pop! There was the sound of a bubble popping. The area surrounded by the seven enchantment-breaking nails shattered abruptly, flowing down as steel sand. A rotting odor thick enough to be liquid spewed out from behind the door!

  At the very front, Eziz’s expression changed abruptly. He squatted and rolled, barely missing the attack. The gray air instantly moved through the hallway and disappeared. Eziz climbed up from the corner with difficulty. Seeing the grayness crawl up his skin, he quickly grabbed a bottle of medicine from his waist and poured it onto himself.

  Sizzle! After the sounds of corrosion, the rusting scent disappeared but the muscular arm and half a chest had been corroded to the bone. Eziz’s face twisted. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his ragged red robe tightly, covering the bones that made up his body. He had been lucky and dodged the attack, but his companions were not as lucky.

  Lord Aloise had been swallowed completely. Gray mist snaked around his entire body as if Avalon’s fog was wrapped around him, eating away his body bit by bit. His body changed dramatically under the grayness.

  He transformed into a large werewolf instantly. After the werewolf was corroded by the grayness, the wolf quickly caved in and shriveled into a short and ugly dwarf. When the dwarf was corroded, he changed again, this time into something half-eagle and half-man.

  This transformation survived longer but still could not fight the grayness off. Having already lost two bodies, he took off a bell from his waist with difficulty and shook strongly.

  And so the sharp cry of an eagle sounded out of thin air. The apparition of a man with an eagle’s head and two wings appeared behind him. It waved, dissipating the rusting odor, murmured something, and disappeared.

  Aloise knelt onto the ground and fervently recited a scripture. He did not look back until his god’s physical incarnation had been sent away. Of the six dark musicians behind him, only three and a half were still alive.

  Two had been completely turned to stone after being shrouded in the gray mist. One had abandoned his body. In his last moment, his head had been yanked out of his neck, along with half a spine, with feet sprouting out like a centipede. Now he wandered aimlessly, still in shock.

  “Let’s not waste any more time. We must grasp the timing.” Aloise coughed hoarsely and held his aether ball. He crossed the crack after confirming that there were no more dangers inside.

  The gentle light fell onto his face. His wizened face was covered in wounds and blood seeped out; it was a mournful sight. But when he saw the inside of the banquet hall, deep fear appeared on that face involuntarily. Who were the true dark musicians who worshipped Satan?

  “What did you do exactly?” he muttered hoarsely.

  -

  The banquet hall finally had new guests after s
uch a long time. It was still filled with light; the chandeliers hung above the room, untouched by dust. It was a glamorous sight with pure white walls, pillars covered in gold foil, finely embossed and luxurious tiles, and gentle music that still echoed.

  The melody was gentle and beautiful. It wrapped around one’s ears, causing one to feel peaceful and serene. But here, it gave one the chills. This was not a melody that should appear at a banquet—this was Requiem No. 6 that Anglo musicians only played at funerals!

  “With the aether above, the dead would not decay.” Of course their bodies did not decay. The noble guests sat on either side of the only table in the room. Not a thread was out of place on their formal wear; their expressions were dignified and lifelike.

  There was the leader of the thirteen orchestras of all Anglo musicians. He was a Distortion musician, second only to a saint. In the center was the commander of the Royal Musician Division. He wore a crystal crown and white clothing and sat elegantly in his seat. His expression was serious and awesome.

  However, everyone was constrained to their metal chairs by heavy shackles. The shackles had been nailed into their bones and extended from their joints. They had become one with the heavy metal chair. How were they a group of musicians?

  They had been treated like a group of rabid dogs, but their expressions were so solemn, demanding respect and awe. Time seemed to have stopped at the moment they raised their glasses to celebrate and drank the wine. The glasses were still in their hands but they never moved again.

  Aloise looked at his companions. Someone went forward and cautiously stuck a finger into the glass. He dabbed a bit of the dried powder and tasted it. Crackles came from his throat instantly. He doubled over and began vomiting out fossilized flesh. The blood and flesh dropped onto the ground with echoes.

  “Drug of Penglai,” the man said with difficulty. “F*ck, where did they get so much of this? Many of the plants went extinct before the Dark Age ended!”

  Most dark musicians studied the School of Choir to transform their bodies, so many were experts at drugs and medicines. Some had even contributed to the School of Choir and were pioneers in the forbidden field of mutations as well.

  Hearing this, everyone’s expressions changed. According to legends, the drug of Penglai was the key to immortality, but everyone knew that that was bullsh*t. No one on this Earth could be immortal—no one.

  In the beginning, alchemists and herbalists from the East had wanted to create a drug that could help one sense the Originator. They had succeeded and those that took the drug received the power to undergo sublimation in the Originator. The cost was that they would lose their body and life. Their flesh would turn into stone and never decay as if they were immortal.

  For a moment, their minds were able to cross through the limitations of time and see the distant past and future, see the stars in the sky and the demons behind the stars, or see the fire underground and the sins hidden inside the fire. Perhaps they melded into the Originator at the end and reached all-knowing enlightenment. Perhaps they had merely died. Who knew?

  No one knew…

  No one knew why this group of musicians that made up Anglo had joined here at this time and chose to swallow this drug to commit suicide.

  Expressionless, Aloise walked past the musicians on either side and stopped before the solemn leader. He reached out and picked up the thin piece of paper before him that had degraded through time.

  The names of the thirteen men and their last words were written there: “Here, we sacrifice our life to the almighty and all-powerful king. May the gods protect the kingdom and may my king protect me.”

  A breeze blew past, crumbling the paper to powder and blowing it away.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The entire banquet hall suddenly shook. Cracks appeared on the walls. An enormous object seemed to be charging against the wall on the other side of the banquet.

  It was a ball of burning of darkness.

  It had come.

  259 Purification

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The entire banquet hall suddenly shook. Cracks appeared on the walls. An enormous object seemed to be charging against the wall on the other side of the banquet. It had come…

  “Everyone, stop wasting time and hurry up!” Aloise commanded loudly. “The object is here. Hurry and find it! Otherwise, we’d have sacrificed everything for nothing.”

  The remaining ‘three-and-a-half’ men quickly began moving without needing his command.

  Eziz took his bag off and flipped it over, dumping out a pile of metal plates onto the ground. The music scores carved onto the plates flashed. They absorbed the aether and transformed into hundreds of spiders. The teeming metal spiders spread from him and combed the ground, looking through everything carefully. The others showcased their skills as well. Even the musician with only a head was looking nonstop.

  The ceiling, walls, corners, tables, cups, the fossilized royal musicians… Soon, the entire banquet hall had been searched over but they did not find anything except silver utensils!

  Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! Nothing…There was nothing!

  “Search again!” Aloise roared. He began hacking at the floorboards in hysteria, searching for the object that did not belong there and destroying everything he touched.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The crack on the wall grew bigger and an almost-tangible black aura seeped in from the crack. The seal of the entire banquet hall had collapsed. Time that had been at a standstill for a millennium began flowing again. It transformed from a small trickle to a waterfall. Years flashed past in a snap of a finger. Everything began aging, eroding, and turning into dust.

  The gentle melody now transformed into a howling and wailing cry. It broke down and dissipated. All opulence quickly faded, turned obscure, and became rubbish. The bodies of the thirteen musicians at either side of the table quickly cracked as well. The solemn faces caved in, wrinkles growing.

  They instantly became aged. Their hair turned white and fell, revealing the ugly scalps. Wrinkles covered the fossilized flesh and decayed, revealing white bones. Everything turned to flying dust. Flying dust and smoke.

  Boom! The wall collapsed!

  Eziz turned in shock and saw it, and his upper body disappeared. All that remained were two legs standing on the ground. However, Eziz did not feel anything. He just looked at the guests of the banquet hall in ecstasy.

  Something shone within the thirteen weathered skeletons.

  As the skeletons shattered, the glow hidden within reappeared with the wind and burned like fire. As if sensing the reappearance of the glow, the clock tower at Avalon’s peak abruptly began ringing. The bell was grave and awe-inspiring. The corpses dissipated; the light shot to the sky and transformed into meteorites, flying in all directions of Avalon’s Shadow.

  “Capture them!” Aloise reached out and his ten fingers left his hands. Blood spewed from his fingers like living snakes and enveloped the scattering light with a wild melody. The other dimmer rays of light had scattered in all directions, but four beams were caught. There was a solemn sword, an odd black hat, a crystal eye, and an ancient scroll…

  “Here!” Ecstatic, Aloise grasped them. “You’re here! Oh, God bless!”

  “Really?” Someone smiled in the darkness. “Then, thank him for me.”

  A beam of moonlight suddenly shone in from outside the steel gate’s crack. It rushed toward the four meteorites stopped in the air. This sudden change caused everyone’s expression to change. The youth’s speed under the moonlight was incredibly fast and he flew into the sky instantly.

  “Stop him!” Aloise yelled.

  The bodiless musician flew up. He sang a dark hymn and swelled into a strange bird that rushed toward the youth’s face.

  Boom! In the air, the human figure waved and a flame ignited on the arm’s armor plate—the Sighing Shake!

  The strange bird was hit squarely. The power enough to siege a city stronghold poured onto him without restraint. Six levels of defenses crumbled
instantly. Being so small, the bird exploded. The newly-born feathers fell to the ground. The hairless bird caved in, turned into a ball of ground meat, and was slapped onto the wall. One could not even peel it off.

  Immediately after, the human figure raised his cane toward the other preparing musicians with an odd smile. With a shake, the cane narrowed and a mist of blood seeped out, dying the amber tip red. Chaotic lightning brewed inside the bloody red.

  “Do not let the three realms turn to ash!”

  Blinding light shot out, a scalding flood surged, and electricity flew. Thunder dragons plowed through two musicians in the way and finally converged on the cane, tearing apart the surroundings of the blood light. The four beams of light instantly flew in all directions.

  In a hurry, he randomly snatched the closest one and found that it was the strange hat. Though it was old fashioned, it seemed durable and easy to clean. The inside was also carved with music scores and had strong waves of aether. This suited him well!

  “This hat is nice. It’s mine now!” The youth laughed in the air and rolled onto the ground.

  Aloise had no time to bother with him. Abandoning everything, he pounced onto the crystal eye shooting toward the wall. A ray of blood light flew out of his aged body, shedding the flesh like taking off clothing.

  He transformed into a sinister demon with a man’s body, eagle’s head, and two wings on his back—he was clearly a soldier transformed by a natural catastrophe! Using all his power, his speed was unbelievable and instantly caught up to the eyeball that was about to fly out the wall. But…did he forget something?

  “Garbage, back off!” Outside the broken wall, a sharp roar sounded in the surging darkness. A translucent jade-like hand clawed at his face. They were meters away but his five sharp claw-marks appeared on his body, practically ripping him apart. Blood shone and his wounds could not heal. It was as if he was naturally incomplete.