Chapter 1113 Powerful Guardian
The towering building stood quietly in the frozen dusk. There wasn’t any sound in the area, as though it was just an oil painting.
After pa.s.sing through such an environment, Derrick Berg became even more high-strung than when he had explored the depths of the darkness. The hair on his back stood on end.
After entering a place shrouded in dusk, the entire exploration team, including Chief Colin Iliad and Shepherd Elder Lovia, couldn’t help but show signs of exhaustion and looking worn out. It was as if they had reached the end of their lives. And as they proceeded forward, rotting giants ran out of different buildings in increasing numbers and increasing strength.
With one side weakened and the other side strengthened, it became difficult for them to advance. After several intense battles, the City of Silver’s expedition team finally broke through the “lockdown” and “barricades” of the monsters and came to an extremely quiet area. There wasn’t any sound at all, and that only served to leave their scalps tingling.
With regards to this, Demon Hunter Colin Iliad had no choice but to break the silence and remind everyone, “This means that we have truly entered the Giant King’s Court and are about to approach the core region. The danger level will only increase and not decrease.”
Upon hearing this, a few members of the expedition team began to waver due to the influence of the “twilight.” From their point of view, although they didn’t dare to stay in one place in the earlier stages most of the time, afraid that they would be surrounded by the rotting giants, they had ultimately eliminated all the monsters in a tiny area. They felt that they could rest for a while and obtain many Beyonder characteristics, mystical ingredients, and potion formulas. This expedition could be said to have been very fruitful, leaving them no reason to continue delving deeper. What they should do was seek out a suitable building and set up an advance camp to make preparations for a second expedition.
Faced with such a suggestion, Colin Iliad didn’t say much. He only emphasized that the objective of this explora was to figure out the general situation of the Giant King’s Court as much as possible, so as to acc.u.mulate sufficient information for the subsequent operations.
Then, he let one of the members named Antiona to “Placate” those who had wavering wills.
As the Shepherd Elder Lovia also supported the Chief, a small number of the members of the expedition team quickly adjusted their mindset and quietly followed the Chief forward.
After a while, they saw a huge stone staircase. It was entirely grayish-white, but it was dyed with an orange-yellow glow. It was gorgeous and silent.
Every step of the staircase was relatively high. If it were any ordinary human, they would definitely find it very difficult to walk. Fortunately, the shortest member of the expedition team, Elder Lovia, was nearly 1.9 meters tall, and she could muster strong winds.
On the huge staircase, it was so majestic that one had to look up to see the city walls at the top. There were many signs of burn marks and damage on the walls, and some places were impaled with arrows that were as thick as ordinary trees. The several-meter-long arrows had even caused some rocks to crumble.
In the middle of the city wall was a door that was tens of meters tall. Its color was closer to grayish-blue, and there were golden nails embedded in it. There were two guards standing outside that exuded an extremely oppressive stance simply by looking at them.
They were five to six meters tall, wearing exquisite, st.u.r.dy silver full-body armor. One of them held a great sword, while the other held a greataxe towards the ground. Behind the armored visor, there was a ball of orange light that looked like a single eye.
“Silver Knight…” Demon Hunter Colin raised his right hand and swung his sword horizontally to stop the members of the expedition team behind him.
He had long removed the two swords on his back and applied different concoctions on them.
Silver Knight… Derrick Berg’s eyelids twitched as he felt his heart palpitate.
He had recently come into contact with information that only the upper echelons of the City of Silver knew about. He knew that the Giant pathway’s Sequence 3 was called Silver Knight. He also knew that the City of Silver lacked the correct potion formula, but it had the corresponding Beyonder characteristic.
What horrified Derrick was that the guards of the Giant King’s Court core were actually two Sequence 3 demiG.o.ds.
This was a level higher than the City of Silver’s strongest combat force!
This was only the area of the royal court’s entrance. So it was questionable what they would encounter if they ventured deeper.
After the initial shock, Derrick couldn’t help but feel a sense of antic.i.p.ation.
Perhaps, he could find the potion formulas after the Giant pathway’s Sequence 4 in the Giant King’s Court.
That way, the Chief could become a Silver Knight and greatly increase the strength of the City of Silver. When the time came, they could explore the Giant King’s Court at a deeper level, find more potion formulas, hunt more monsters, and obtain even higher level Beyonder characteristics and magical materials.
Subconsciously, Derrick looked around and discovered that the reactions of the other members of the expedition team, such as Joshua, Haim, and Antiona, were basically identical to his. They were both nervous and fearful, but also somewhat hopeful.
At this moment, Shepherd Elder Lovia took two steps forward and stood beside Colin Iliad. She looked up at the gray- blue door and the two Silver Knights who were in an unknown state and said, “If there was only one, then we would have a chance of finis.h.i.+ng it off.”
What she really meant was that, now that there were two Silver Knights, even if they were willing to suffer heavy casualties, they were unable to clear the enemies. After all, even if the Chief could control his Mythical Creature form and normally battle a Sequence 3, the environment here didn’t permit him to make similar attempts—the decadence that the twilight had brought might make something that could previously be resisted into something impossible to withstand.
Colin Iliad nodded and glanced at both Lovia and Derrick Berg before observing the area ahead.
“From the looks of it, as long as we don’t get close to that door, the two guards won’t attack us.”
“Perhaps we can try to lure one of the Silver Knights away to finish it off?” The female warrior named Antiona suggested after some deliberation.
She had long, wine-red hair, and her facial features weren’t considered exquisite. However, when combined together, she looked extremely elegant and beautiful.
In this expedition, her main mission was to rely on a Sealed Artifact she wielded to treat her teammates’ psychological problems and fight against enemies of the psyche domain.
Her exact thoughts were to wait for the members to lure one of the Silver Knights away before using the terrain and their combined efforts. As for the Chief and Elder Lovia, they could work together to deal with the remaining one as soon as possible.
This was a textbook solution that the City of Silver had used in situations they had encountered.
“Even if there’s only one Silver Knight, it will be very difficult. Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that the Silver Knight you lure away won’t directly reveal its Mythical Creature form.” Demon Hunter Colin firmly rejected her suggestion.
Ignoring the fact that the Silver Knight had powerful Beyonder powers, as long as it revealed its Mythical Creature form, most of the members of the City of Silver’s expedition team wouldn’t be able to look at it directly and would be affected. There was no way they could run circles with it.
Without waiting for the rest of the team members to speak, Colin Iliad looked back and said, “Let’s take another path.
“Derrick found some information in the world of reflections in Afternoon Town. It recorded a tunnel behind the Giant King’s Court.”
Shepherd Elder Lovia cast her gaze on Derrick Berg. She was indifferent, calm, and without any emotions.
Derrick subconsciously raised the “Unshadowed Crucifix” higher, restraining his indescribable s.h.i.+vers.
“Alright.” Lovia agreed with Colin Iliad’s suggestion.
Hence, the expedition team retreated from the huge stone staircase and headed left.
Before long, they saw a rugged trail. On the right was a towering cliff, and on the left was a bottomless chasm that was tainted with the glow of the sunset.
Of course, it was only a trail for giants. To the members of the City of Silver’s expedition team, it was still relatively s.p.a.cious.
As they proceeded forward, Derrick and company’s spiritual perception were triggered as they subconsciously looked to the side.
At the edge of the cliff, grayish-blue swollen palms stretched out from the orange clouds and grabbed onto the ground. They were densely packed and difficult to count.
If they were all giants—even if they were Sequence 7 or 6 giants—they were able to destroy the City of Silver’s expedition team here relying on sheer numbers.
Just as Colin Iliad was about to swing his sword, Derrick suddenly had a strange, subtle feeling. He quickly raised the Unshadowed Crucifix higher and pressed one of his fingers onto a particular thorn, causing bright red blood to seep out.
The pure cross emitted a bright twilight glow as though it had returned to the state of “noon.” They surged towards the edge of the cliff, enveloping the gray-blue giants that attempted to climb up.
The giants froze at the same time as their bodies began to fade, quickly melting away.
They weren’t real giants, but that of wraith and shadows left behind after the tragic deaths of those giants. Therefore, the Unshadowed Crucifix had sensed them.
It was a saint-level Sealed Artifact of the Sun domain, the nemesis of wraiths, shadows, and evil spirits.
After easily killing these monsters, the City of Silver’s expedition team warily continued proceeding forward. After a while, they finally circled around the mountain wall and cliff and saw a dark forest.
In the forest, the trees were tens of meters tall and were extremely thick. However, their barks were peeling off, and the trunks rotting. The leaves were withered, giving the feeling that they were waning.
The leaves were supposed to be entangled together, but they formed a barricade in midair, blocking the light of dusk, darkening its interior. But at that moment, due to the large number of collapsed and fallen trees, the orange-red glow had already scattered across most of the areas within the forest that were visible with the naked eye.
Derrick looked ahead and silently calculated how much longer he could use the Unshadowed Crucifix. He said to the Chief and his teammates, “This is the Waning Forest where the ancestors of the giants are buried. In other words, the Giant King’s parents.”
Colin Iliad stared at the forest and said, “It has already been destroyed. Even if there are still remnants of danger, it won’t be too powerful. We can try exploring it.”
“Yes, Your Excellency,” Derrick replied without hesitation. “My cross can deal with the environment here. I’ll walk in front.”
He remembered that Mr. World had reminded him that there might be some kind of corruption lurking in the forest, and that the Unshadowed Crucifix could provide him with an effective warning.
The grizzled Colin nodded gently and said, “Be careful of your surroundings.”
Derrick took a silent breath and took a large stride forward and walked towards the Waning Forest.
At the same time, he used the convenience of walking ahead to softly recite Mr. Fool’s honorific name.
Then, Klein, whose gaze that had been blocked by the dusk and had been disconnected for some time, could finally see the actual situation. However, he was unable to significantly expand his range of sight.