Chapter 302: Thorn Phoenix/ Nine Chamber Doors
Chapter 302: Thorn Phoenix/ Nine Chamber Doors
The Chief Alchemist snapped his finger and Godfrey appeared in the middle of nowhere. He saw two phoenixes flying. One was a pure flame phoenix with four wings made of blazing flames soaring above the mountains.
Everywhere she passed became charred. Above the clouds was another phoenix, a lightning tendril phoenix. It was in its white harmless lightning state, its brightness shining through the clouds so what he saw wasn’t a shadow but a shape formed on the clouds by its light!
Godfrey heard the flame phoenix cry out once more and the once harmless lightning phoenix turned golden. A great rumbling roared and thunder struck through the sky as the clouds were instantly vaporized.
It unleashed a lightning beam from its beak, melting open kilometers-long ravine through a mountain and deep into a forest.
The flame phoenix descended and unfurled her wings once more when she was a few hundred meters away from the tallest tree in the forest. Flames burst out, consuming the entire forest as she flew over it, leaving nothing but a scorched expanse behind.
They were beautiful but the destruction they caused reflected in Godfrey’s eyes. In the next moment, he found himself in the catacombs of the castle.
There, he found three huge doors.
’Three generals are dead!’ His eyes narrowed as the Chief Alchemist led him through the door in the middle.
In the heart of the small hall was a sarcophagus. On the lid was the sculpted image of the fallen knight. She held a two-meter long rapier, more beautiful than any weapon his other knights wielded.
The cross guard was something to explore for months, deciphering the intricate runes carved into it and how it was possible without damaging the cross guard which was like a rose blossom.
The blade of the rapier had thorns like the stem of a rose.
Then he gazed at the image on the lid; her armour was made after the likeness of a rose. The helmet was like a blossom, with all its petals open with sharpened edges, only leaving her lips and lower chin bare, a design he discovered to be common for most female knights except Isolde.
Her pauldrons, knee guards, even the intricate carvings on the chest plate suggested the same thing.
There were sharp rose blooms at both sides of her hips. This knight was elegant…This was the thorn phoenix.
“The chimeric phoenixes have what we’ve come to know as synergy. They are thunder and fire, two of the most violent elements yet tied together by the most delicate one. A bond between two genders. With their synergy, they always had the same tier, the lightning phoenix had stunted growth but the flame phoenix grows like the flame, ever rising. Through synergy, the lightning phoenix can keep up and it’s stronger at the same tier. The lightning phoenix was the flame phoenix’s guardian and she was his strength.” The Chief Alchemist caressed what was once his greatest pride.
Their bond was a wonder.
Godfrey’s heart drummed. Why… did it sound so much like him and Isolde. She was his dragon and he was her knight.
The Chief Alchemist tilted his head toward Godfrey. “The bond of both creatures naturally drew both knights together but Tempest was too tied to his knightly duties, unwilling to explore the future their bond holds other than battle partners until…” His eyes gleamed.
“She fell in battle. Killed by a corrupted orc, a demon-conquered variant race of the true orcs. She fell to a warchief wielding a relic that stabbed through her soul. A soul piercing rod. It destroys the soul, leaving nothing even for the afterlife and it has been five hundred years since then, nothing remains of her soul and body except this sarcophagus.” The Alchemist sighed heavily.
“We considered Lament resurrecting her but that would just be a soulless zombie without a trace of her true strength and Tempest was vehemently against it. In the end, without her, he became half of a whole. An incomplete piece of a masterpiece.”
“He grew in the mastery of the greatsword but so did the burden in his heart. His tier barely budged, he, the light of the clouds fell and became a mere flicker in the darkness. A nobility that was once a greater light in the realm of light, that had no shadow now had shadows that stretched for eternity as he hid in darkness.”
“You sound like it can’t be restored.” Godfrey spoke.
“It can’t. Our new form while immortal is different. You must have noticed that they are now bound to the armour, it’s like flesh to them. Only the knights you created later have the luxury of taking a few pieces or in some cases the entirety of their armour off.” The Chief Alchemist responded.
“But… if you find this phoenix, then Tempest might rise from the shadows and become true nobility once more. It might cure the pain of the creature within him. Once that happens, you shall bear witness to a perfect piece. Two knights that have conquered legions.”
Godfrey shut his eyes and opened it again. “There’s a lot more to being a king than it appears.”
The Chief Alchemist looked at him. “The mana tree gave you this civilization which has immense potential. We can keep growing yet what you have is glorious but broken and you will bear its burden to restore it.”
With all Godfrey had heard and faced, he had to be more careful when he wanted to create a knight. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed on the surface.
Regaining the main knights of the castle might be the best choice for the future of the Golden Order.
“I saw fifteen noble knight statues in the hall but I currently have eight. Isolde and Lysander are exceptions so I have just six out of fifteen.” Godfrey said.
“The others left the order. If you wish, you can try to bring them back to make the order whole again.” The Chief Alchemist waved his hand and nine golden doors appeared.
On each door was a weapon. He saw a lance, a mace, a tomahawk and poleaxe together, the ice witch’s frost, a rapier, a flail, a longsword and others which were quite blurred but he was sure there had to be a healer somewhere and a strategist, probably someone who can buff the entire army.
Although he guessed that last two, he was vaguely certain it was them.
The tomahawk and poleaxe knight was Abaddon while the frost symbol was Apollyon. The only gray door was that of the longsword which was probably the Taboo knight.
There was a spiked crown resting on the cross guard of the sword.
That aside, he had to figure out a way to win back Apollyon and Abaddon, then somehow bring them back to the castle. For now, he didn’t know how that would be possible.
Could… Humanoid summons disconnect from their summoners?! Percival told him that the Authorities said humanoid summoners were people who trapped the dead souls of intelligent races before they went to the Afterlife World. They carried memories of their past. Based on what he could see in Pathan, the Authorities’ description of the humanoid summoner was the truth.
Then came the next question… could they reject their summoners?
This was huge as that would mean the summon might die as the summoner is the only anchor that has kept it alive.
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