Chapter 757 v4c131
White Valley(2)
The snow-covered woodland seemed to have gone through a fierce battle; the snow and bushes were full of the corpses of Winter Wolves. The corpses were turning into black particles, like black smoke, and the winner of the battle obviously belonged to the other party who was not lying down on the battlefield: the human knights from Kirrlutz.
Yoakam expressionlessly watched this scene, while slowly advancing along the clearing between the woodland. His leather boots stepped into the acc.u.mulated snow, “d.a.m.n it.” Yoakam cursed in a low voice and frowned as he lifted his foot, took his boots off, patted the barrel of the boots, shook the snow out, and then put them back on.
A grayish-white Winter Wolf came out of the bushes and whimpered to him a few times. Yoakam lifted his head and rubbed his chin, “A quarter of an hour or so? They’ve fled to the north?”
“Who are they, the group of Kirrlutzians?”
“I guess so, there’s no one else to be found in this forest except them.”
“Don’t worry, they’re just resisting, they can’t get far.”
The Winter Wolf whimpered, and Yoakam seemed to understand what the beast was trying to say as he touched its forehead.
Although he had long since ceased to be as self-appointed as he had been in Ampere Seale, he had indeed been killed by the swords of the disorganized soldiers in the rout in that war, and the wounds on his body from that time had then left him with indelible damage. Now his skin was as pale as paper, lacking radiance and moisture; his bare arms and palms were like bones wrapped with just skin, and permanently blind in one eye so he wore an eye patch with a skull printed on it.
He was also left with a fatal wound on his chest, which was caused by a heavy sword, which had not yet healed. The wound led to a gap in the rib cage, piercing the heart, but the heart once born as a human’s had long since decayed and no longer beated, instead, it was replaced by a blazing white flame.
All because of the deal he made when alive to those unnamed beings who promised him the power of eternal immortality, which he did enjoy in death, but in a different way.
He became an Undead.
Only after being an Undead he understood how painful eternal immortality was, as the Soul Fire was constantly bringing up the memory, pain, regret, anger, sorrow, and all kinds of negative emotions from the past, torturing him day and night. Day after day, humane emotions gradually wore away, leaving only cold hatred for everything in the past in his mind now.
Although he had become an Undead, he was not entirely at lost, as those unnamed beings did keep their words and gave him power; summoning the Winter Wolves in the forest was just one of them.
This was a power that was far beyond the mortal world, a power that was very different from the shallow power of humans that was based on status; it was a true power that could be mastered.
More and more Winter Wolves were surfacing in the forest like ghosts, and the wolves started dividing into smaller groups as they ran away in all directions.
Yoakam listened side-eared, and it did not take long before a wolf howl was heard from a distance. He smiled coldly as he knew his pets had really found the other party’s traces.
……
In the clearing between the forest, several Winter Wolves circled around the corpses of their companions, raising their heads as if they were sniffing the smell of blood in the air. Then the leading wolf let out a long howl and turned to charge in one direction.
Such a scene was playing out everywhere.
The wolves soon found more traces. Corpses were buried under the snowdrifts, among the th.o.r.n.y bushes, and some were even hidden above the tree trunk; all the way north, more and more traces of the battle were found. As if to outline such a scene, the knights of the Kirrlutzians fought and retreated, but they could not escape the wolves’ tracking.
The sword wounds on the corpses confirmed his suspicions. At first, the Kirrlutzians had time to dispose the corpses or at least bury them under the snow, but they eventually had to leave the battlefield haphazardly, leaving the corpses of the Winter Wolves exposed in the woodland.
Later on, the young men were simply fleeing the battlefield, with most of the wolves’ corpses remaining wherever they had been killed.
This meant that the Kirrlutzians no longer had time to deal with the corpses, and they are running away in a hurry.
On the other hand, it also meant that the wolves were getting closer and closer to them.
Yoakam trailed unhurriedly, he sometimes even had time to look up at the bright glacier to the north. If the other side knew the real name of that glacier, then they would surely regret their choice.
That was not a natural glacier, but the outer wall of the Holy Cathedral of the Hibernator, which was buried in the glacier.
To bypa.s.s that wall, one would have to be able to bypa.s.s the entire central area of Milos’ Breath.
About a quarter of an hour later, the wolves stopped in front, as if they had found something.
Yoakam separated the herd and walked to where they had stopped, and when he saw what his pets had found, he could not help but smile like a winner.
It was footprints, a long series of footprints in the middle of the snow that were obviously the Kirrlutzians’. The footprints left behind headed all the way into the black pine forest of Grinoires ahead.
“They didn’t even have time to clean up the trails, they seemed to have noticed me.” Yoakam thought for a moment and snapped his fingers. He got the wolves to spread out and run through the entire forest like a large net.
……
Freya’s group trudged through the black pine forest, and the steep ice wall was close at hand. The blue stag was still leading the way, walking along the edge of the glacier, jumping from one sloping ice surface to another, never slipping or losing its balance, as steady as ever.
But this section of the road was a bit difficult even for the young Knights of the Folded Sword Squad. Although almost every one of them was Gold-rank masters, not lacking Golden Upper rankings like Brund’s, there were still people slipping and falling from time to time.
In view of Freya’s own meager strength, Maynild and little Pero have taken special care of her, but even so, she still fell several times. The first time she fell and hurt her arm and now her forehead was still red from the second time she fell. She looked as if she was going to cry at any moment, which made her very embarra.s.sed.
Because of this, the team’s advancement became slower and slower, and everyone was silent. Not only this steep glacial cliff looked like there was no end to it, but also because the forest was getting quieter and quieter, which meant that those white Devils had already started coming through this black pine forest behind them.
”Ch–”, Brund casually threw the dry frozen food like a stone into the snow causing some snow to splash into the air, to which the ma.s.s he saw rolled down the steep terrain and eventually fell into an ice chasm and disappeared. If one fell here, they might face the same perilous situation; those ice chasms were connected to the bottomless glaciers underneath, if one accidentally lost their balance, it would be impossible for them to be able to climb back up by themselves.
Not to mention in a place like Milos’ Breath, even in the great glacier to the east of Farnezain, many adventurers disappeared under the glacier every year.
He felt cold and hungry, his eyelids were so heavy as if they were filled with lead, but unfortunately, they did not have time to stop to take a short rest, let alone build a fire.
“How long is this stag going to take us along this glacier? If we keep going at this rate the Winter Wolves are going to catch up on us.” Alea could not help but complain again, “It took us a lot of effort to drive them away.”
“No one would think you’re dumb if you stayed quiet.” Brund replied, not knowing why this guy was talking so much, “The wolves will have to slow down when they cross the glacier, and the only one who can walk freely in this kind of terrain is that guy.”
As he said this, he stared at the ghostly blue shadow in front of him.
But it was at this time that someone in the group suddenly let out a low cry, “Look over there!”
Alea was about to say something back when he heard this but could not help but look back. Everyone, including him, saw several white shadows appear at the edge of the dark forest in the distance.
They were clearly wolves, and apparently, they spotted the Kirrlutzians trekking along the craggy edge and glanced over at the far side before turning around and re-entering the forest.
“Oh, d.a.m.n it. Now, what do you have to say about that?” Alea said as he looked back at Brund.
“What’s there for you to be happy about?” Although it was so sarcastic, Brund lightly slapped his mouth for a moment and muttered, “How did they arrive so quickly.”
“Haha,” Alea, however, laughed out loud as if he was not afraid of death, “I have no regrets even if I die to see you get defeated.”
“You can jump from here if you want to die, Alea,” Little Pero said as he heard the nonsense coming from his mouth, “no one will hold you back.”
Strangely enough, once the short young man from Vincennes, Kirrlutz, spoke, Alea stopped talking. He snorted awkwardly, “I’m just saying. Besides, I really can’t walk anymore, so if the Lord Commander orders me to stop to guard the back, I’ll never refuse to have a good fight with those beasts.”
“There’s no need for that.” Freya did not know how to react. She really had some admiration for little Pero, who could shut that guy up. When she was the captain of the militia, there were some slick b.a.s.t.a.r.ds in the team, but compared to Alea, they were nothing.
This Kirrlutzian knight in front of her really changed her impression she had towards Kirrlutz.
“It stopped.” While everyone was arguing, Lolo was the only one who was still staring ahead. At this time he suddenly saw the beautiful ghostly blue creature stop near a wall of ice in front of him, and it looked over to the human side as if to tell them that they had arrived at their destination.
The next thing everyone noticed was this scene. “Go over and take a look.” Little Pero spoke up first.
So Alea and Brund stopped arguing and the team continued to move forward. About a quarter of an hour later, they finally arrived at the place.
But everyone froze at the next moment. As they approached the glacier, they realized that the glacier had sunk inward, forming a narrow canyon.
The foggy canyon, like a cleft struck by lightning, appeared before the eyes of the Folded Sword Squad……
……