Chapter 836: Third Apocalypse & Birth of aLegend Grade Treasure (part 1)
"Dad!"
The youngest princess of the Gales Kingdom who just like Bai Zemin was on everyone"s mouth due to the great increase in her status and name received from belonging to the royal family of the rising kingdom jumped off her mount, without hesitation ignoring the eyes of the millions behind her and running towards the middle-aged man walking in her direction.
King Philip did nothing to stop Seraphina from throwing herself into his arms. Unlike in the past, he preferred more a hug from his daughter that he could have at any time over the dignity that could only be obtained on certain occasions in front of the ma.s.ses.... Because unlike in the past, King Philip had understood with the loss of his wife Helena that the hugs he usually took for granted could disappear at the least expected moment.
Bai Zemin raised his hand in silence and the troops, as well as the citizens who followed him from the northeast, stopped without asking questions. The generals riding mounts behind him silently watched the meeting between father and daughter.
Approximately half a month had pa.s.sed at the most, however, the dangers that Philip Di Gales and Seraphina Di Gales faced during those days were so extreme that neither of them was guaranteed to see the other again.
After several seconds of hugging, the King of Gales slowly released his grip on his youngest daughter. He looked into those two emerald eyes that sparkled like precious jewels and although he noticed some confusion in them what mattered most to Philip was the fact that she was safe and sound in front of him.
"Thank the G.o.ds you are well, child." The king sighed.
Seraphina wrinkled her little nose to hold back the urge to cry and said with some concern, "Dad, I heard you were wounded in the northwest during your battle against the enemy king. How are your wounds?"
"Hahaha!" King Philip laughed loudly and even slapped his left shoulder hard as if to show that there was nothing to worry about, "That old thing managed to give me a good cut with his sword but in return, I pierced his brain with my spear! After resting for a week and receiving treatment from various healers I find myself ready to return to the battlefield and fight fifty or sixty more rounds!"
Seraphina looked at her father with a dead expression on her face, and before the great king of Gales who was now one of the six brightest figures in Eventide World could react, she slammed her small fist into his right shoulder.
Bang.
"Ow!"
A small explosion sounded but could barely be heard by two people as the whinnying of the mutated horses and the low growls of the tamed beasts covered it.
King Philip covered his right shoulder with a slightly pale face as he looked at Seraphina with a bitter smile on his face, "Child, have some mercy on these old bones. Do you want to kill your father or what?"
"Hmph! That"s what you get for trying to fool this princess." Seraphina snorted under her breath before biting her lip, "Say, father.... Is the wound you suffered too serious?"
The king sighed, and while stroking his daughter"s head, he said in a calm voice, "Sera, let"s talk inside. Let me finish some urgent matters together with that boy first, you go with your sister in the meantime."
"Mm." Seraphina didn"t argue and obediently nodded. Looking beyond her father, she saw that her older sister Ellis with her trademark black diamond-shaped s.h.i.+eld and deep purple armor was looking at her with a faint smile as her long unbound blonde hair swayed gently in the wind.
"Sera, it"s been less than 15 days but you seem to have accomplished quite a few things. I"m proud of you, little sis." Ellis chuckled as she winked at her, which earned a blank stare from Seraphina.
Meanwhile, King Philip and Bai Zemin had already greeted each other and were currently looking at the large army of soldiers and citizens waiting for orders to mobilize.
After about a minute of silence, the king"s sigh sounded next to Bai Zemin followed by honest words.
"Child, you..."
Bai Zemin looked sideways at him and said with a faint smile, "Your Majesty, I told you that you just needed to trust me, didn"t I?" He turned his eyes to the front and pointed with a slight nod as he slowly said, "This should be proof that I really am capable of raising Gales to the top of the world. The occurrence of the apocalypse will only make everything faster and easier for us."
King Philip looked at the more than 7,000,000 human beings in front of him with mixed feelings. Not even in his wildest dreams did he ever imagine that in such a short time the young man standing next to him would manage to gather a number of people equivalent to approximately 1/3 of the total population of Gales.
"I knew you were strong since I saw you overwhelm the demon general Bel"gos with such ease, however, I did not expect this.... This is simply insane." The king shook his head while in his heart he felt extremely relieved and happy with his second daughter.
At the end of the day, the one who found Bai Zemin unconscious in the Forest of the Ancients and cared for him while firmly opposing allowing anyone to touch his belongings or locking him up for interrogation regarding the terrifying explosion that occurred that day was Seraphina Di Gales, the king"s daughter.
Were it not for Seraphina, many things would be different.... In fact, if not for her finding and helping Bai Zemin at that time, it was highly probable that the Gales Kingdom would no longer exist after being attacked by the demon race.
Bai Zemin was oblivious to King Philip"s thoughts, instead, his thoughts were very simple as he said indifferently, "The number would be higher were it not for the King of Dazia taking his army to protect his kingdom. Well, that also makes things easier for us, doesn"t it?"
"Of course, it does. I"m having a severe headache with the citizens of the Krap Kingdom who were mobilized to Weamor City just the way you asked me to do." The King of Gales rubbed both temples as he looked straight ahead and said in a weak voice, "Now, there are several million more people who need to be settled in some way inside Bearcrest City.... Really, too much work to do."
"... Good luck with that." Bai Zemin said as he patted the king"s shoulder before turning away.
"Wait a minute!" The king quickly stopped him and his eyes widened as he said in an incredulous voice, "Don"t tell me you"re going to leave all the work to me, are you? I"m wounded, remember?!"
Bai Zemin rolled his eyes and proceeded to walk towards the city as he said in a loud voice, "Your Majesty has exemplary subordinates, I"m sure they will do a good job as a team!"
"Hey, wait! Cunning kid, come back!"
Too bad, it didn"t matter how much the king shouted as Bai Zemin disregarded his words and within seconds disappeared from everyone"s line of sight.
Seraphina and Ellis looked at each other with helpless smiles on their faces at the same time as the soul evolvers didn"t know whether to laugh or cry.
* * *
Two days later, exactly eight days after the world-shaking earthquake occurred, the world again experienced another phenomenon. However, unlike the world-scale earthquake, this phenomenon was rarer even though it did not directly harm anyone.
Gales Kingdom, Bearcrest City.
Standing at the top of the royal family"s castle, a small number of people were gathered there and everyone was looking up at the sky with serious expressions on their faces except for one who looked indifferent.
The color of the sky had turned completely perfect black with no stars present except for two large bright yellow suns that despite burning brightly their light was unable to spread properly as a result of the thick clouds filled with mana.
Rumble...
The purple lightning flashed furiously in and out of the mana clouds, partially illuminating the surroundings with its light for a brief second before disappearing and being replaced by the light of a new lightning flash.
Standing to Ellis" right, Liam looked up at the sky with a pale face. The purple light of the lightning sparkled in his red eyes as he muttered under his breath, "Awesome.... This is the first time in my life I"ve ever seen anything like this. I can feel how just one of those lightning strikes has enough power to shatter me into a thousand pieces if I were to be hit by one of them."
"... Don"t worry, Liam. I"m sure not even the oldest tree or root in the world has lived long enough to see this kind of sight." Ellis said in a serious voice, clenching her s.h.i.+eld tightly as she looked skyward with a slight frown.
Seraphina"s face was completely pale and the fear in her eyes was so great that anyone would find it hard to understand. However, Seraphina simply could not explain it as due to her special World Priestess cla.s.s she was able to feel the will of the world strengthen, but along with that strengthening, there was fear; the world seemed to be trembling as if it feared something or someone.
"I- It is really happening?" she asked in a whispering and barely audible voice amidst the constant rumbling.
After a few seconds during which everyone remained silent, Philip Di Gales slowly said, "All citizens have been ordered to stay inside the shelters that were built 400 meters underground in order to avoid large-scale losses in extreme situations. Fortunately, those shelters were built to be almost as big as the city, so despite being quite tight, everyone managed to find a s.p.a.ce there."
RUMBLE..!!!!
What responded to the words of the King of Gales was the much louder rumbling of the sky.
He continued, this time speaking louder to be heard, "Over 2,500,000 soul evolvers belonging to Gales, Krap, and Maiston have been stationed to the east, north, and west of the city. The magic towers used to attack any type of air-type magical beast have been moved to the southern mountain.... Except for the city"s energy s.h.i.+elds, all available mechanisms have been activated to the maximum and will fire when required."
RUMBLE!!!
This time it wasn"t just the sky but the ground also began to rumble so hard that the castle itself seemed to shake for a split second.
"It"s starting." Bai Zemin said in a flat voice as he looked off into the distance with an indifferent expression on his face.
Everyone"s expressions changed when only seconds after he said those words they noticed how the giant trees barely visible from a distance thanks to their heights began to fall one after another.
"They are magical beasts and orcs!" shouted Liam loudly as he looked westward with a frown on his face.
Soon, explosions of varying magnitudes were heard from the castle as the defending humans began to fight back against the attackers who wanted nothing more than to absorb as much Soul Power as possible to level up and become powerful enough to survive the changes the world was about to experience.
Suddenly, Ellis" face turned pale as she cried out loudly, "What"s that?! Look north quickly!"
When the king and the others looked to the north, they all underwent drastic changes in their expressions as they saw two colossal-sized creatures charging towards the city, especially because of the fact that those two creatures were anything but weak.
Bai Zemin looked at the two creatures before looking up at the sky. A flash of purple lightning shook the surroundings and illuminated his figure as he muttered to himself, "Welcome to the apocalypse.... For the third time."
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