Chapter 664: A Knight from England

A warm wind passed through the broken pillars and carried some of the dust in the air toward the surrounding cliffs.

Lian stood in the middle of the ruined battlefield.

In front of him, the Nine-Venom Castellan was still kneeling on one knee, parts of the creature’s black armor had been broken, and weak streams of poison were moving through its cracks.

Four.

The newest special member of the Colony.

He was about to check the condition of its wounds, but at that very moment, his senses detected two human presences in the distance.

One of them had a familiar mana flow.

Guests?

He looked at Four, he still did not want others to know about the existence of his new Colony member; especially now that even he did not know much about the Castellan’s past.

"Go back for now, I’ll talk to you later."

Streams of light formed around the Castellan’s body, and a moment later, its huge figure disappeared.

[ Special Member Four: Returned to Colony House ]

Lian opened his black wings and flew toward the northern platform.

Rindo was sitting on one of the undamaged rocks and examining his palms.

When he landed, Rindo raised his head.

"Is it over?"

"For now, yeah." Lian looked at his hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, it’s just that my fingers still hurt when I use a lot of mana."

Rindo opened and closed his hand.

"I think I’ll need a few hours of rest."

Lian nodded.

"You should take it seriously, by the way, congratulations. You finally reached level thirty."

He gave a short smile.

"Yeah, although when I look at your current level, it doesn’t feel that exciting."

"Level thirty-four, there’s only a four-level difference between us."

Rindo gave him a tired look.

"You say that like those four levels don’t matter at all, I need to use several forms just to defeat a level thirty-three Withered, and you just killed several hundred of them."

"Well, the difference isn’t just about levels." Lian laughed.

"I noticed."

Rindo sighed, but his smile remained, and at that moment, Lian looked toward the north.

"By the way, we have guests."

"Guests? Here?"

"Two people are coming from that direction."

Both of them looked toward the path between the broken pillars.

A few moments later, two human figures appeared through the dust.

One was a young man with damaged armor and a closed umbrella attached to his back, while the other was a girl with tied-up golden hair, white armor, and a blue cloak.

Rindo recognized the young man at first glance.

"Noah?!"

The young Frenchman raised his head, paused for a moment, and then a big smile appeared on his face.

"Rindo?!"

Noah walked faster.

"Damn it! It’s really you guys!"

"We thought you were dead too!" Rindo walked toward him.

Noah gave a short laugh.

"What a heartwarming welcome! I’m happy to see you too."

But when Rindo placed his hand on his shoulder, his laughter became quieter.

For several seconds, the two only looked at each other.

In a land where dozens of people had disappeared over the past few days, seeing a familiar face meant a lot.

"So you’re alive." Lian also approached.

The young Frenchman placed a hand on his chest.

"Vorhelm, my dear friend, couldn’t you have chosen a more emotional sentence?"

"It’s good that you’re alive."

Noah remained silent for a moment and then laughed.

"Well, that one was better."

But when Rindo asked about the base, his smile slowly disappeared.

"Noah... where were you when the base collapsed?"

"So you found out too?" The French young man did not answer for several seconds.

Lian nodded.

"I went there, but when I arrived, there was nothing left except lava."

Noah lowered his gaze.

"I was a little far from the base at that time, I had gone to check one of the outer routes."

He pointed behind him.

"When the shaking started, I tried to return, but the ground between me and the central area split apart, the second route also collapsed before I could reach it."

"So you couldn’t make it back?" Rindo asked quietly.

"No."

Noah let out a short breath.

"I only survived because I was away from the base."

He remained silent for a few moments.

"The others didn’t have that chance."

"What about Alric? Myra? Mathieu? Did you see anyone who managed to escape?" Rindo slowly removed his hand from his shoulder.

The young Frenchman lowered his head.

"I don’t know, the last time I heard the commander’s voice was through the communication system, he was ordering the forces to retreat from the southern section."

He pressed his lips together for a moment.

"Then there was a very loud crash, and the communication was cut off, when I returned and looked from above, even the old route was gone."

The student council president lowered his gaze to the ground.

"Alric had been preparing for an emergency evacuation since the first day, maybe he managed to get some people out."

Noah nodded.

"I hope so."

Silence settled between them.

Lian did not have a better answer either, when he searched the base’s location, he had found no sign of survivors, but he could not confirm that all of them were dead.

Finally, he looked at Noah.

"Anyway, it’s good that you managed to escape."

The young Frenchman gave a weak smile.

"Thanks, I didn’t think hearing that from you would make me this happy."

"Don’t get too used to it." The corner of young Vorhelm’s mouth rose.

This time, all three gave a short laugh, but their laughter came more from relief after several days of worry than from happiness.

Both sides had thought the others were dead and that they were the only survivors of this cursed and damned land, and now, seeing each other alive and safe, they felt much more relieved.

The young girl had been standing a few steps away during all this time.

Her eyes constantly examined the surroundings; from the huge cracks to the scattered bodies of the Withered and the pillars that had been destroyed by heavy attacks.

Noah finally noticed her silent presence.

"By the way, I haven’t introduced you yet, this is Alicia; a Chosen who came from England."

The girl took a step forward.

Her golden hair was tied behind her head, and her light blue eyes had a calm and direct gaze.

Her white and silver armor had several scratches on the shoulders and forearms, but the way she stood was still disciplined and dignified.

"Alicia Sterling, it’s a pleasure to meet you."

"I’m Rindo, the student council president of the American National Academy." Rindo also answered politely.

"Nice to meet you." She nodded.

Lian glanced at the sword beside the girl’s waist, its simple but elegant handle and the signs of regular use on its sheath showed that it was not just a decorative weapon.

"Lian Vorhelm."

"I’ve heard your name." Alicia nodded.

"I hope they were good things."

The girl looked at the plain behind him for a moment.

"I think I understand some of those stories better now."

Noah laughed.

"Yeah, this is a good scene for introducing Lian."

"Did you two kill all these creatures?" She pointed toward the scattered bodies, many of the bodies had been torn apart, and only parts of them remained.

But even so, it was clear that a bloody battle had taken place.

Rindo glanced at Lian.

"Pretty much, although most of it was his work."

"I guess you’re very powerful." Alicia looked at young Vorhelm again.

Lian laughed.

"Thanks for the compliment."

"You’re welcome." The girl nodded calmly.

Noah moved his gaze between the two of them.

But before the conversation could continue, they felt a short tremor beneath their feet.

Several pieces of rock fell from the edge of a nearby crack.

Young Vorhelm raised his head.

"We shouldn’t stay here too long."

"Actually, we were planning to head toward the center too." The young Frenchman also looked at the path ahead.

"And one of the reasons we came this way was to find you guys." He then added.

He explained that before leaving the base, he had heard that Alric had given Lian and Rindo permission to head toward the center to investigate the Withered.

"I thought if you were alive, you’d probably still be somewhere around there."

"Not a bad guess." Lian gave a faint smile.

"Now that we’ve found each other, we should continue together." Rindo added.

Alicia looked at the surrounding cracks.

"Have you found a suitable route to travel?"

"More or less."

"More or less? Because everywhere I look, all I see are cliffs." Noah raised an eyebrow.

Lian smiled.

"Don’t worry."

Then he raised his right hand.

[ Hive Dominion ]

Two summoning streams formed.

A moment later, One’s huge body appeared on the ground, and beside it, the Eight-Disaster Wolf landed.

Two.

"Wait... you have two of these?!" Noah took a step back for a moment, he did not know that this man also had the ability to summon creatures.

Why hadn’t any of the reports mentioned it?

"Yeah." Lian nodded.

Unlike Noah, Alicia did not step back, but her gaze remained fixed on the two creatures.

"Are you a summoner?"

"Kind of." He shrugged.

"Kind of?"

"It’s a little complicated to explain."

The girl looked at the creatures again, but did not ask any more questions.

Lian pointed at One.

"Rindo and I will ride that one, and you two can sit on the wolf."

A few moments later, all four of them had climbed onto their mounts.

Lian and Rindo sat on One’s back, while Noah and Alicia sat on Two’s back.

Noah carefully placed his hand among the thick fur on Two’s neck.

"Just one question, riding this wolf is safe, right?"

"I guess so." Young Vorhelm answered calmly.