Chapter 714: The Holy Death Knight
Everyone was stunned, and they stared blankly at everything in front of them. Who would believe that that was Osric’s mausoleum? Even though they knew that the High Elves liked luxury, and they had also excavated many ruins of High Elves, they had never seen one that was as luxurious and extravagant as Osric’s mausoleum.
However, at this moment, before everyone could recover from the shock, a sudden and crisp sound of horses galloping rang in their years. Everyone turned to look in the direction of the sound, only to see that it was actually a team of knights in armor, rushing towards the crowd with great menacing aura.
Although the army of knights was riding Nightmares like Death Knights, they were wearing glittering silver armor, and seemed to be exuding strong and pure Holy aura as if they were the most devout followers of the Brilliance Shrine.
“d.a.m.n it, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Rosario. Since when has he colluded with the Highlord? He actually sent his paladins to guard the mausoleum for Osric!” Andoine hollered in anger when he saw the knights.
The knights in silver armor did not stay behind, and instead raised their lances and began charging at the crowd. All of a sudden, they collided with everyone forcefully. The mages could only support the Elemental Shield for more than 10 seconds despite the Magical Crystal Cannons no longer being a threat[1]. However, there were numerous cracks under the attacks of the knights, and their shield seemed to be on the verge of breaking.
Although the mages were rather capable, they obviously couldn’t compete with the silver-armored knights. The Legendary powerhouses like Lin Li had no choice but to take action again by attacking them and preventing them from teaming up to charge again.
There were only 20 silver-armored knights, and they seemed to be outnumbered compared to Lin Li and the other intruders, but their average strength of about level-22 made them absolutely horrifying. The Holy aura that they were giving out was pure, and gave them significant resistance to all sorts of elemental magic.
Andoine said that the knights were sent by Rosario, which seemed like a joke to others, but no one could find a reason to refute it. That pure Holy aura could be owned by anyone and not just the followers of the Brilliance Shrine. Faced with the charging silver-armored knights and the formidably substantial Holy aura, everyone was doubting and wondering if the Brilliance Shrine was really involved with Osric right from the beginning.
In order to avoid incurring too many loses, the several Legendary powerhouses had no choice but to intervene and stop a few silver-armored knights each in order to disrupt their formation. However, Lin Li and Andoine looked at each other in dismay because they discovered that although the attacks of the silver-armored knights contained Holy aura, their methods were very different from those of the Paladins.
Although the true Paladins did not completely use theurgy like the bishops did, they would often use divine attacks. However, the silver-armored knights did not know how to use theurgy at all, and would simply add Divine Power to their attacks or defense. That would undoubtedly remind them of the Death Knights!
But was this possible? Although the Death Knights were different from other Undead creatures, they couldn’t change the fact that they were Undead creatures regardless of how special they might be. Divine Power was also a basic nomological power of Anril which no one could change.
“What a joke. Has that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Osric really become a G.o.d!?” Andoine waved the staff in his hand, and a Legendary level-22 magic s.p.a.ce spell seemed to have exploded and instantly hit a silver-armored knight who was opposite him. There was no explosive roar, but a crack began to gradually increase in size, revealing the body beneath the armor.
At this moment, everyone was stunned. It was unbelievable. It turned out that there was a gilded skeleton beneath the silver full-body armor!
“What the h.e.l.l did Osric do!?” Andoine swallowed hard, and watched everything that was taking place in front of him. It was beyond what he could imagine, and he wondered, Can these silver-armored knights really be Death Knights manipulating Divine Power? Even the G.o.ds probably couldn’t contradict the rules of Anril.
Not only was Andoine stunned, Rosen, Aldwin, and the other mages were all beyond astonished. Although the mages had yet to reach the Legendary-realm, and they had yet to understand the nomological power of the world, they still knew how incredible everything was.
However, after feeling shocked, Lin Li’s gaze was gradually filled with a tinge of enlightenment. The Eternal Furnace that had been created by the lunatic Osric was the only thing that could defy the rules of Anril!
No matter how different a Death Knight was from the other Undead creatures, their soul fire was the root of their existence. The Divine Power had a powerful purification ability. Under Divine Power, soul fire would definitely be purified. Hence, even a low-level Purge Spell would cause damage to Undead creatures. Without soul fire, Undead creatures would just be like humans without souls.
If Lin Li had had yet to explore the Sky Castle, he would have never believed that the Eternal Furnace could create the silver-armored knights despite owning the Eternal Furnace. However, he found out that Osric had almost emptied out the Immortal King’s laboratory in the Sky Castle, yet he did leave plenty of experimental information which included miscellaneous alchemy formulas and amazing alchemy techniques. However, most of it were the experimental records of the Immortal King.
Although most of the experimental records were incomplete, Lin Li was able to deduce that 99% of those experiments were not completed, and the degree of insanity involved was truly unbearable. It was no wonder that the Highlord Osric could become a disciple of the Immortal King. They were simply two lunatics who were constantly trying to enter the realm of the G.o.ds, and were only getting crazier.
In those experimental records, Lin Li once saw the Immortal King’s experimental theory of the adaption and use of Divine Power by Undead creatures. The specific experimental process was incomplete, but Lin Li didn’t have the time to infer and draw conclusions. However, there was a section at the end that was similar to a kind of imagined text left behind by the Immortal King.
According to the vision of the Immortal King, it would not be possible to make Undead creatures possess Divine Power under the rules of Anril. However, by creating a microcosm that was fully controlled by him could he create the same elements that were present in Anril, such as earth, fire, water, wind, light, darkness, and chaos, as well as s.p.a.ce, time, justice, and evil.
With all these elements, in theory, anyone who mastered the microcosm would be able to become the G.o.d of that microcosm and be in control of all the rules and regulation. Creation and destruction would be up to him too. The rule-defying fusion of Divine Power and Undead creatures would then be made possible in the microcosm.
It was no longer a Magical Domain, but an actual world that was similar to the divine kingdoms created by the G.o.ds. In their own kingdoms, the G.o.ds could arbitrarily set rules and create all kinds of things that otherwise couldn’t exist. They could even create the people who believed in them.
Regarding this miniature world, Lin Li did not find too many clues in the journal left behind by the Immortal King, but he made some speculations about Osric building the Eternal Furnace with some intentions that were beyond just replicating the Sky Castle later during the conversation with Connoris. Both Lin Li and Connoris felt that there was a link between the Eternal Furnace and the world that the Immortal King had envisioned.
Faced with the silver-armored knights that had Divine Power, Lin Li further confirmed his guesses. Although everything was beyond human imagination, that was enough to make the people at the Brilliance Shrine go crazy. The Death Knights that were manipulating Divine Power were using their powerful and sharp attacks to prove their existence.
If they were ordinary Death Knights, level-22 power would be enough for them to be deemed the formidable Retribution Knights. However, not only did they possess strong power, they also had pure Holy aura, and were almost void of the weaknesses that the Death Knights should have. In Anril, they might not be invincible, but they were definitely enough to ruin a strong kingdom.
Even though Lin Li’s team was comprised of three level-23 Legendary-mages and more than 200 Archmages, it was not an easy feat for them to get rid of the 20 silver-armored knights within a short period of time. Besides, they also needed to pay a huge price for it.
It was only a short battle, but the lifelike turquoise tree statues around the square that were all priceless in Anril were ruthlessly destroyed during the battle. Under the violent attacks of the various forces, the beautiful pieces of artwork that served as pavement were also ruined beyond recognition. Any artist would definitely berate the destroyers of art without restrain.
However, in the fierce battle, only two Death Knights who manipulated Divine Power were destroyed, while more than 10 mages were injured.
All of a sudden, Rosen stopped attacking, and after supporting the large Elemental Shield, he slowly took out a peculiar-looking staff which had a top that resembled a two-headed snake. It was also embellished with a large magical gemstone that was continuously emitting an eye-catching glow and breathtaking mana wave.
Sensing the strange magical waves that were appearing around him, Lin Li glanced at Rosen while restraining one silver-armored knight. Rosen’s peculiar staff reminded him of the slingshot he played with as a child. However, he had no idea what power the gemstone-embellished “slingshot” possessed.
Next, Rosen ignored the cracks that appeared on the Elemental Shield, and slowly chanted a magic spell while the gemstone on the top of his staff began to shine brightly. The dazzling light engulfed him, and ma.s.sive magical aura seemed to be surging outwards like tides.
With a loud roar, Rosen’s Elemental Shield finally broke and collapsed under the fierce attack of three Death Knights. However, they did not immediately attack Rosen, who no longer had the shield to protect him. Instead, they stopped and retreated as if they had felt an uncontrollable fear.
With the end of the casting of the spell, the light that shrouded Rosen suddenly exploded and dazzled everyone’s eyes. Even Lin Li had no choice but to close his eyes which hurt because of the dazzling light. When he regained his vision, he found that the sky above everyone’s head had been blocked by two huge shadows.
The two shadows quickly magnified in front of everyone, and they soon saw their true appearance. It turned out to be a double-bodied wyrm that consisted of a golden dragon and a silver dragon. The color of the body of those two dragons was proof of their ident.i.ty. It was definitely not the descendant of mixed genetics, but a pure ancient wyrm.
Moreover, Lin Li knew that even amongst the ancient wyrms, the golden and silver dragons had always been the most powerful ones. Although tens of thousands of years had pa.s.sed since the prehistoric times, Lin Li had witnessed the evolution of Anril over 10,000,000 years when he was in the Sky Castle. During the war between the Ancient Wyrm and the t.i.tans, the golden and silver dragons left a very deep impression on him.
The golden dragon had incredible defense that could even resist the destructiveness of the t.i.tan Dragon Spear as its huge body gave it power that was greater than the other wyrms’. A mere wag of its tail was enough to sweep a mountain clear, and its claws could easily tear the body of the t.i.tans, making them truly invincible. The splendid golden dragon’s breath that it spat out had the power to melt everything, including the st.u.r.dy t.i.tan Dragon Spears.
[1] I think it means that that shield spell had 50% of its power left.