Chapter 699: A Knight Full of Surprises

"You’d better worry about your own fate before worrying about mine." Lian said calmly.

There was silence for a moment.

Then the Forsaken Apostate raised his sword, and the pressure around the plateau changed.

First, the small stones floating in the air fell to the ground.

Then several broken pillars that were still shaking under the storm’s pressure became motionless.

Lian immediately noticed the change.

He stopped the storm?

The knight raised his sword vertically, one of his upper pairs of wings opened completely, and the remaining wings moved into specific positions.

[ Atlas’ Burden of Heaven ]

At that moment, a huge pressure came down from above onto a large part of the plateau.

The stone ground beneath One’s feet sank.

Two’s bone structures cracked with a loud sound.

Even Three was forced to lower his body to avoid losing his balance under the heavy pressure.

Lian looked at the mana flows for a moment.

Atlas?

The name was familiar again.

In Greek mythology, Atlas was a Titan who had been sentenced to hold up the sky on his shoulders.

This skill also seemed to bring the entire sky down onto the ground.

The pressure increased, and several huge pillars broke in different places, parts of the plateau’s edge collapsed, and large masses of stone fell into the abyss.

Farther away, part of a huge rocky slope cracked, and heavy stones broke away from it.

He quickly took something out of his storage space.

[ Core of the Fallen Star Activated ]

He used it to reduce part of the pressure affecting the area close to him.

But the knight’s skill covered such a large area that he could not cancel all the pressure.

’Then we need to get out of its main range.’

Lian opened the Wings of God and left the ground.

At the same time, he sent a short retreat command to his Colony members.

One used his destructive hands to break part of the stone ground and escape from the sunken area.

Two moved at high speed between the cracks in the ground.

Three created bone structures to separate his own path and Four’s path from the damaged area.

Four also maintained the flow of his poisons around the knight while retreating.

But the Forsaken Apostate had not finished his attack yet, he slowly held his sword in front of his body, and a thin line of gray and golden light formed along the blade.

Lian, who was in the air, immediately noticed it.

This one...

[ Gungnir’s Edict ]

A focused attack that released energy along a narrow path and could adjust the final direction of the strike within a certain range.

For a moment, Lian remembered Gungnir, Odin’s legendary spear in Norse mythology.

A weapon famous for its accuracy and ability to never miss.

Gungnir?

’So we’ve gone from Greek mythology to Norse mythology?’

He looked at the knight’s sword.

But this one isn’t a spear.

At that moment, the line of light was released toward him.

Young Vorhelm changed his direction using the flight power of the Wings of God.

But just when he thought he had escaped the attack’s range, the line of light adjusted its direction slightly.

’So it really follows the target.’

He accelerated again.

But the distance was not enough to completely escape its path, so he folded his black wings around his body.

[ Wings of God — Defense ]

The compressed light struck the wings’ defense, and a terrible sound echoed high in the air.

A wave of pressure spread through the air, scattering the floating ashes in different directions for a moment.

Lian felt a considerable amount of his mana being consumed, but the attack could not pass through the wings’ defense.

A few moments later, he descended through the dust and landed on an undamaged part of the plateau, his black wings opening behind his body.

He checked his remaining mana for a moment.

That one was expensive, however, his reserves had still not reached a critical level.

Then he looked at the knight.

Aegis, Typhon, Atlas, and now Gungnir...

Why are the skills of an ancient creature from this world so similar to Earth’s legends?

Lian thought about this question for a moment, but he had no answer for now, and the knight was not giving him a chance to investigate further.

The Forsaken Apostate lowered his sword and stepped toward him again.

Young Vorhelm did not take his eyes off him.

’So you still have several more powerful abilities.’

Even so, there was no fear on his face, he now understood an important part of the enemy’s fighting style.

And up to this point, despite the knight’s great power, Lian and the Colony still had a slight advantage.

But this situation was not going to last forever.

In the northeastern part of the plateau, Rindo, along with Alicia and Noah, was passing between the broken stone statues.

The sounds of battle could be heard behind them.

Every few moments, a wave of pressure spread from the center of the battlefield, moving the ashes on the ground.

But they were now far enough away from the main battle area.

Rindo looked at the path ahead for a moment.

A narrow passage continued between two cliffs, and at its end, the edge of a huge abyss could be seen.

"Let’s check that side."

Alicia nodded.

"Maybe we can see the back of the plateau from there."

Noah glanced at the battlefield.

"I hope we find a way before that knight destroys the entire plateau."

Rindo did not answer, he was worried too, but he now had a clear task and wanted to do it properly.

After passing through the final part of the passage, the three reached the edge of the abyss.

Below them, a wide land of broken stones, deep cracks, and uneven areas stretched into the distance.

But something far away caught Noah’s attention.

"Wait..."

He took a few steps forward.

"Look down there."

Rindo turned toward him, and a moment later, a strange scene appeared before his eyes.

Thousands of Withered.

Creatures of different sizes and shapes were standing among the stones and wide cracks in the ground.

But unlike what they had seen during the past few days, they were no longer moving.

None of them were advancing toward the center, there was no fighting among them, and even creatures with damaged limbs remained motionless in their places.

Alicia looked at the crowd for a moment.

"These creatures... Why have they stopped?"

Noah frowned.

"I don’t know."

There was an empty path among the crowd, the Withered stood on both sides of it, and none of them entered the path.

As if they were waiting for something to pass.

Rindo kept his gaze on the end of the path for a moment.

This behavior isn’t normal.

At that moment, almost all the Withered turned their heads in one direction, not with a delay, but at the exact same moment.

Alicia unconsciously took one step backward.

"Rindo..."

But he did not answer, something at the end of the empty path had caught his attention.

Very far away, behind some broken cliffs, a human figure could be seen.

Rindo took several steps forward to get a better look, at first, he could only recognize its general shape, but when the figure moved slightly, more of its face became visible.

For a moment, Rindo stopped breathing.

Wait...

He narrowed his eyes.

No.

That’s impossible.

He looked again to make sure.

But this time, his fingers tightened around the handle of his spear, what stood before him went against something he had personally seen and was certain about.

Alicia noticed the change in his expression.

"Rindo?"

But the young man said nothing, Noah also looked toward the end of the path and remained motionless for a moment.

"That..."

He could not finish his sentence.

Rindo took one step backward.

Then another.

He no longer intended to get closer to investigate.

"We’re going back."

Alicia looked at him.

"What?"

"Right now."

His tone was so serious that the girl did not ask anything else.

Noah also stepped back without making his usual jokes, the three immediately moved away from the edge of the abyss and headed toward the battlefield.

As Rindo ran, he kept going over the same image in his mind.

’No, I’m certain.’

That had happened.

His breathing became faster.

Then how is it possible...?

He looked toward the path ahead for a moment.

’I need to tell Lian.’

’Right now.’

When the three reached the plateau again, the scene before them had changed greatly.

Large parts of the stone ground had collapsed.

Pillars that had still been standing when they left were now broken and lying on the ground, and in several places, deep cracks extended all the way to the edge of the abyss.

In the center of the battlefield, the Special Members of the Colony were putting pressure on the Forsaken Apostate from different directions.

Lian was also standing directly in front of the knight.

His armor shone under the red light of sunset, and two dragon wings were open behind his body.

Rindo took a short breath when he saw his friend.

"Lian!"

Young Vorhelm turned his head, even from their current distance, he noticed the change in Rindo’s expression.

What happened?

He had already ordered his companions to stay away from the battlefield, if they had returned in such a hurry, something important had probably happened.

"What did you find?"

Rindo approached while breathing heavily.

"Down there... We saw something that—"

But he could not finish his sentence.

Because at that exact moment, the Forsaken Apostate began preparing a huge attack, one much greater than all his previous attacks.

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( A/N: One small note, we’re not going to have mythological gods in the way you might think or guess, because the worldbuilding would become too complicated. )