by Feng Yue
Every ruptured iron plate would generate explosive impact on the aether movement. With tens of thousands of them exploding at the same time, they caused terrible whirls in the air. Such was the aether application in the level of armies.
Very soon, the defense of the 13 masters were breached by the “Scrubbing Noise” of the iron plates. Then, under the massive physical attacks, the cracked defense was shattered completely.
Three rounds of storms of iron and fire!
After the three rounds of attacks, Ye Qingxuan, within the Galahad defense looked around and saw only the earth liquefied and the rocks smashed by the terrible power of the attack, and the 11 masters who were so miserable.
The ground had sunk several meters, full of holes and ditches. Even the scepter of the hell was trembling.
The Dark Sovereign stared at the man at the center of the protective circle of armored knights, his face distorted by anger and cruelty. “Lancelot!”
Lancelot said nothing but waved his hand again. Hundreds of Archangel armors took off, giving off hot light. Among them, seven horrible aether movements spread out.
Round table knights! Those were the war machines created by King Arthur to defend his country when he ascended to the throne. The armors cost a huge fortune.
In the later years of King Arthur, due to the ruthlessness of King Arthur and the wars lasting for so many years, only nine sets of armor were still intact. And all of them, except Lancelot and Galahad, who were protecting Mary and Ye Qingxuan, were on the battlefield to fight against the heads of the first-generation royal musician divisions and the Dark Sovereign.
The enemies were right in front of them. Led by the seven round table armors, the round table knights charged to the battlefield.
The war began! Since the very beginning, warriors all over the world had been thinking about how to kill the musicians. Indeed, compared to the almost infinite aether powers, the strength of the flesh was so little that it was not even worth a speck of dust. However, the power armor had given new hope to the warriors.
There had been many combat theories against musicians, the most popular of which was surprise attack: kill the musician with just one strike before the musician even knew what had happened. The warrior had to tear up all of the musician’s defense with brutal force and behead the musician with one blow. However, for the musicians who had infinite means to protect themselves, it would not work if the musician was on guard. Then, the armor designed against musicians would upgrade the adaptability to the environment and defense.
This was to try by any and all means to protect the knights and the armor against all sorts of adverse circumstances, like high temperature, cold, and drastic and abrupt changes in the environment. As long as the knight and the armor were intact, there would be some chance to kill the musician.
And finally, there was the most effective way, which was far beyond the reach of most warriors and engineers: to equip the armor with powers greater than the musicians so that it could defeat the musicians at any cost.
The round table armor was one of the best achievements following this philosophy. They, created by Arthur with the Chapter of the Golden Victory, were born with powers beyond ordinary musicians and were able to strike the fatal blow to the enemy.
583 I’ll Be Back in a Momen
The moment when the Knights of the Round Table rushed into the battlefield, the powers contained in their armor was released onto the battlefield with the clanging of their swords.
The first to descend from the sky was a vortex formed by distorted air. Lifted up by a pair of hands in power armor, the vortex slowly materialized in the sky. An unmatched pressure radiated from it like rays of light.
The air particles collided and made a low rumble as if they were gravel or pebbles. The air was pulled and collapsed inwards, forming a ghastly white hurricane. Music theory of the school of abstinence brewed up within, like seeds that started off growing slowly but turned into big trees in a flash. Finally, the blurry vortex descended from the sky.
Boom! The ground quaked. Innumerable pieces of gravel and debris flew into the sky, but the ground sank suddenly. As if invisible feet of giants were trampling down forcefully, everything beneath was squashed into mud.
It was the result of chaotic gravity.
Turbulent currents of gravity erupted from it, tearing two stone figurines apart almost instantly and turned the smaller pieces into dust. The next moment, they struggled to put themselves back together and sensed a gale sweeping in their direction. If the wind moments before could only be considered a breeze, then the wind at the moment was truly a disaster-level tornado.
As the thin figure in armor advanced, the hurricane swept and formed a huge pair of wings of a ghastly white behind him. The slightest wave of the wings destroyed the buildings covered in cracks and blew away the stone carvings and steel that had been lifted from the ground.
As he clenched his hands, a pale white lance formed in his hands as the gale gathered around him—it consisted of turbulent air pressure.
A terrifying pressure like that of the deep sea blended with the vacuum of absolute nothingness and evolved into an invincible blade. In an instant, it advanced along the ripples created by the turbulent currents of gravity and made its way into the battle array of the 11 masters.
It was like electricity.
In just an instant, the terrifying air pressure propelled him forward, and he smashed into the core. Disregarding the fact that he was besieged by the stone figurines, whose attacks were enough to tear him apart, he held the lance of air pressure high and stabbed it into the ground with all his might. As if it was liquid, the wind was injected into the earth beneath the black bricks. The next moment, a terrifying explosion broke out from far below the ground.
There wasn’t even enough time for the horrifying pressure to blow up the bricks, and the air simply escaped through the cracks on the bricks forcefully, spewing out of the gaps. Propelled by the strong pressure, the wind which was of an incredibly fast speed was like a knife or an axe!
In a flash, countless knives and axes hacked away in all directions, razing everything to the ground. The terrifying pressure erupted from underground belatedly, completely blowing everything into the sky. Only then did the swift and fierce counter-attacks of the eleven masters began, tearing the steel-clad knight who had broken into the core of their battle array apart.
Vaguely, one could see that at the last moment of their attack, a figure was popped out from the armor and escaped as the storm raged on, bringing the core of the armor with him. However, he had undoubtedly been badly wounded.
But he had already completed his mission.
The turbulent currents of gravity destroyed the defenses set up by the stone figurines, and the vacuum explosion tore their defense position apart, separating them from each other as the explosion broke out.
It was as if a heavy siege engine, which had been started, smashed the enemy’s enchantment of defense. Then, the cavalry rode into the battlefield and charged at the enemy, splitting up their battle array and separating them from each other.
From then on, the musicians would have to fight on their own. Such a tactic had nothing to do with the control of the overall situation, which was crucial to musicians in battle, nor was it a technique to reverse the situation in one’s favor. It was the kingdom’s military strategy, the combat method unique to armored legions!
At that very moment, the remaining Knights of the Round Table simultaneously rushed toward the enemy they had been assigned to, obeying their orders. The 11 stone figurines were separated, and in just an instant, they were surrounded by the Knights of the Round Table who had charged at them. The form of the war had quietly shifted from siege warfare to skirmish warfare.
Under the orders of Lancelot, the armored knights awaiting orders on the outer circle had long since tossed aside their cumbersome longbows. They took out the giant swords that were divided into six parts from the equipment boxes they
carried with them, In the sharp sound of steel scraping against each other, the swords were done being assembled.
The vacuum explosion carried out by the Knight of the Round Table, who had disregarded his personal safety to complete the mission, not only tore apart the defense position of the musicians but also provided room for the remaining knights clad in mass-produced armor to make themselves useful.
At the moment, it was time for them to come on stage.
Hundreds of aether furnaces were simultaneously operating on overload. The efficiency which was more than three times higher than that of the ordinary mode brought about a terrifying power more than three times stronger than that of the ordinary mode. At the same time, it also caused a horrifying resonance.
Music theory naturally exerted its own gravitational force. It was the same for alchemy matrices, which were essentially materialized products of music theory.
Whenever an aether furnace operated in full strength, it would form static and a gravitational force unique to itself in the sea of aether. When similar noises and gravitational forces were superimposed simultaneously for hundreds of times, the result would exceed the limit of tolerance of the ordinary musician, causing destructive interference.
It might even use up all the aether in the area, causing other musicians to have no more aether to use. Precisely because of that, in large-scale combat engagements on the battlefield, unless they were playing a legion-level movement, ordinary musicians could hardly make use of one-tenth of their abilities. Because of their few numbers, more often than not, they could only serve in the vanguard or as backups and supporting roles.
At the moment, when hundreds of power armors were launched at the same time, the resulting clutter covered the entire battlefield in an instant. It disturbed almost the entire environment, and even the domain set up by the scepter of hell became turbulent.
The scorching red hell in the sky that was could initially be clearly seen shook and trembled nonstop as if the illusion had been interfered with, it had difficulties operate smoothly.
What made the Dark Sovereign even more furious was that, in the rear, the attendants continuous handed the backup knights wielding longbows special alchemy arrows, which were fired at the battlefield nonstop. The arrows cracked and disintegrated in midair, rapidly splitting and decaying. Before they even landed, they had turned into a huge amount of gray dust and didn’t even bare a semblance of lethality.
But the process of splitting of the metal required it to absorb aether, just like how a water-absorbing material falling into the water would expand rapidly, and drain all the water completely.
Not only that, but once the disintegration of the metal was complete and it had absorbed enough aether, the stability of the structure would plummet. The material would become difficult to preserve and hyper-sensitive to the stimulation of sound.
There wasn’t even a need for movement. A bit of sharp noise would be enough to excite the material, which would then produce high temperatures.
Armored knights were protected by their armor and didn’t fear the corrosion of the high temperature. Furthermore, the resulting turbulent aether flows would only exert pressure on the aether furnace and cause no harm to the knights themselves.
But for musicians, once the material had accumulated to a certain amount, the environment would become a quagmire for them, as if they were deeply trapped in mud and could hardly take any actions.
The special metal, which had been completely banned by the Sacred City, its use and study prohibited, was called solder. All along, countries could only keep a small number of samples in private and dared not conduct research and development for military purposes with great fanfare.
When the Sacred City could no longer exercise control over the nations, the countries that were freed from the shackles spared no time in putting the research of it back on the agenda. Even Anglo was no exception.
In a short span of time, the sea of aether corresponding to the area had become thinner than ever, and couldn’t be replenished in time. The more of a behemoth something was, the more it would need to depend on the external environment. It was especially so as the Dark Sovereign was weaker than ever, and didn’t even possess sufficient power to open up the sea of aether to directly draw energy from the realm of aether.
After the Knights of the Round Table robbed him of the aether in the shadow of Avalon, the scepter of hell could hardly be sustained. It was especially difficult for the Dark Sovereign when four Knights of the Round Table were leading fierce attacks against him at the same time, disregarding their own safety.
The large number of armored knights used the human sea attack tactic to separate the rest of the musicians from the Dark Sovereign, keeping them at a distance. The higher ranking forces were concentrated in one place, and they instantly stifled the faceless principal conductor.
The principal conductor had once almost completely dissolved into the realm of aether. Under backup measures and with the emergency aid of others, most of him managed to be pulled back and was reshaped. Since then, the principal conductor lost his face and his past aura and became a half-oddity being. His own movements also became very strange and couldn’t be understood with normal logic.
Even though four Knights of the Round Table were attacking him ferociously with little regard for their own safety, he was able to keep his defenses up, and even counterattacked several times, taking control of the situation every time. However, his attempts were suppressed again and again by the constant and unrelenting attacks of the Knights of the Round Table.
The battle had entered a feverish stage.
In the distance, Lancelot sighed softly. He turned back, looked at the squire that had grown old along with him, and said, “Put my armor on for me.”
The squire did not appear to be as shocked as other people, nor did he stop Lancelot hurriedly. He merely nodded dully and put the iron box he had been carrying on his back onto the ground. Reaching out, he felt around the hinge of the iron box and forcefully pulled out the copper ring.
In the sharp sound of steel scraping against each other, the gears hidden in the box was activated. Innumerable gears rotated, circlips extended, and the iron box that had been passed down for centuries slowly opened, a stream of biting cold air gushing from it.
In the terrifyingly low temperature, the steel armor slumbering in the box slowly rose. After decades of not setting foot on the world, it displayed its stateliness.
Lancelot stepped forward, towards the innumerable pieces of steel that had unfolded, and walked towards the armor. The armor was like a living thing. Steel stretched and shrank again, covering him inch by inch. In the end, the silver helmet covered his pale blue eyes. He was finally Lancelot once more.
The war god of steel, the unparalleled knight—the real Lancelot!
Coughs and wheezes no longer came from him. The armored knight moved forward, towards the core of the battlefield, the besieged principal commander and the Dark Sovereign. He reached out and pulled out the silent long sword at his waist. The sword was like a mirror reflecting the dark city, the blood and the fire on the battlefield.
The aged squire went down on one knee and bid him farewell earnestly, “My Lord, may the victory be yours.”
Facing the raging wind and the metallic fire, Lancelot slowly raised his long sword and brought it close to his forehead, performing a sword salute. He examined the mirrored image of the blade of the sword, which resembled the surface of a lake. The mirror-like sword blade reflected his face, which was covered in steel. The other side of the blade reflected his enemy’s…scepter from hell.
“Be patient.” Lancelot’s voice was hoarse. He said, “I’ll be back in a moment.”
There was a flash. In the short span of an instant, a light seemed to flash across everyone’s eyes. Illusion-like light descended on the battlefield. In the momentarily paused time, the light flitted deftly and gracefully over everything and soared in the sky.
The lig
ht possessed a thrilling beauty.
But in the next moment, it dissipated.
It lost interest in the battlefield, and God knew where it went.
It did so because everything had come to an end.
584 Time to Leave
Mary had a dream. In the dark dream, she was wading through knee-high. There was no light. Someone was singing from afar, the voice of whom was so familiar, yet so evil.
Yet, the melody seemed like her own singing.
“The king and his accomplice kidnapped the queen and jailed her in the dream…
“We have the power, yet where should we go? Oh, men, hoist the sail! Pull, thieves and beggars, we’ll live forever…”
The sing came from all around her.
Mary looked around and chased the sound in a rush, but whenever she approached it, the voice would disappear, like the mischief of evil spirits, fleeting in the darkness and luring her to chase them.
Finally, she was exhausted and fell into the water. The water smelled like good wine, fragrant and sweet, making her thirsty as if her throat was burning. The thirst urged her to drink the water to quench the draught and the longing in her.
The voice singing was just around her, like an invisible ghost. It brought her some dim light, illuminating Mary’s pale face and her trembling hands. She held some bloody water with both her hands. The scarlet water fell through the gaps between her fingers and into the stream. Everything she could see was covered by the scarlet water.
Mary stood still in astonishment. Looking at her shaking hands, she was enraged by the song that indicated ill fate. She howled, “Stop singing!” The singing stopped immediately. A girl’s giggling came from behind her, as if glad that her mischief had worked.
Mary turned back slowly and saw a big mirror standing in the blood water. In the reflection of the mirror, there was a young girl in a pure white dress. That was herself—the respectable, elegant and perfect princess.