Chapter 378: Fifteen Days

Chapter 378: Chapter 378: Fifteen Days

Chapter 378: Fifteen Days

The gorge was silent.

Rhain stood between the two kneeling leaders, his brows knitting together in deep thought.

There was no clearly righteous side here.

If he sided with the Crystalveil and executed Skarn here, he would be completing a genocide that began five hundred years ago.

If he sided with the Bone Skull and forced Fridleif to hand over the Spring, he would be condemning the Crystalveil’s own children to death, for the Spring was drying. He would be punishing the present for the sins of ancestors who had long turned to ashes.

Choosing either side would be a wrong decision.

And a wrong decision, in a trial designed to judge his heart, could only mean one thing — failure.

To pass this trial, he had only one choice left.

"This battle ends now," Rhain finally stated, his calm voice echoing clearly across the silent battlefield.

The words fell like a thunderclap.

Both sides stared at him as if he had spoken madness.

"Ends... here?" a Crystalveil elder stammered, his face contorted with disbelief. "Benefactor, what do you mean?"

Skarn lifted his bloodied head, his yellow eyes wide with shock and then twisting into fury. "End? How can it end?!"

Fridleif was equally stunned. His saber still pressed against Skarn’s throat, he turned his head sharply toward Rhain. "Benefactor?"

Skarn slammed his fist into the ground, roaring even from his knees.

"End?" Skarn spat a mouthful of blood, "It will not end! This enmity has been carved into our bones for five hundred years! It will never end until my people get their rightful share of the Spring of Life!"

Fridleif also gritted his teeth.

"Benefactor, we cannot!" Fridleif pleaded frantically. "I have already told you! The Spring of Life is drying up! If we give it to them, my people will perish!"

The two leaders glared at each other with an unyielding glint in their eyes.

Their warriors behind them mirrored them, hands tightening again on weapons.

Five centuries of blood could not be wiped away with a word.

Rhain had expected this.

He looked at Fridleif, his expression still calm.

"You both want your people to live," Rhain said quietly. "And I have a way to fullfill both of your wishes."

Rhain turned to look directly into Skarn’s bloodshot eyes.

"I will cure the Marrow-Rot Plague."

The words dropped like a boulder into a quiet pond.

"Without the need for the Spring of Life," Rhain added.

For a moment, the entire battlefield descended into a mind-numbing silence.

The Bone Skull warriors stared at him as if he had just claimed he would pluck the sun from the sky.

" Cure... cure the plague?" one gaunt warrior whispered, his eyes hollow.

"Impossible!" Another shook his head violently, "We have suffered this disease for centuries! For five hundred years! Our Alchemists have tried every herb in the canyons! Nothing works! Nothing except the Spring of Life! How can you cure it?!"

Skarn’s shock quickly turned into a sneer of suspicion. His yellow eyes narrowed, filled with deep distrust as he stared at Rhain.

"And why should I believe you?" Skarn spat, "You are an enemy! Why in the name of the gods should I trust a single word from your mouth?"

"Because you have no choice, you thick-skulled idiot!"

Lyra’s sharp voice cut through the air like a blade.

glared at the kneeling giant, her crimson eyes blazing with arrogant disdain.

"If you don’t believe him, then what do you want? Do you want to die right here along with your men?!" Lyra demanded, placing her hands on her hips. "You ignorant barbarians have no idea who is standing in front of you! He is the man who has even defeated the Alchemy Emperor! If he is telling you that he will cure your pathetic disease, then you should just drop your heads to the ground and pay your gratitude, instead of questioning him!"

Karsten and the mercenaries standing at the ridge — who had been nodding along with Lyra’s first few sentences — suddenly turned pale as if they had been struck by lightning.

Karsten’s jaw dropped. His eyes bulged as he stared at Lyra in pure horror.

’What in the heavens is Lady Lyra saying?!’ Karsten screamed inwardly, cold sweat pouring down his scarred face.

Defeated the Alchemy Emperor?!

There was only one Alchemy Emperor in the entire Solathane Dynasty, and that was the untouchable Lord Marcellis!

They all knew Lord Rhain was an extraordinary monster, but to claim he defeated the Alchemy Emperor? That was a blasphemous lie!

’She is spouting absolute madness just to scare these savages!’ the mercenaries thought, terrified that the heavens might strike them down for such disrespect.

Even Rhain turned his head and looked at Lyra with a strange expression. There was no need for her to say all of that.

Lyra, noticing Rhain’s look, flushed slightly but lifted her chin even higher, as if daring anyone to challenge her.

But Lyra’s grand declaration landed on completely deaf ears.

Skarn and the Bone Skull warriors, however, could only look at Rhain blankly.

Alchemy Emperor? What was that?

Trapped in the desolate Howling Dust Canyons for their entire lives, they had no idea how great an Alchemy Emperor was supposed to be. To them, it was just a grand, incomprehensible title

To them, Lyra was just yelling nonsensical words.

Rhain sighed faintly and shook his head at Lyra before turning back to Skarn.

"I only need fifteen days," Rhain stated, his voice carrying a god-like confidence. "Within fifteen days, I will find the cure for the Marrow-Rot Plague. If I cannot find a cure by then, you are entirely free to do whatever you want. You can resume your war."

He paused, his dark grey eyes narrowing slightly.

"Furthermore, until those fifteen days are up, I also promise that the sick children of the Bone Skull Tribe will be granted access to the Spring of Life."

The moment those words left his lips, the faces of the Bone Skull warriors suddenly lit up with an ecstatic, disbelieving joy.

"The Spring of Life!"

Warriors who had been kneeling in despair moments ago now looked at each other with tears streaming down their scarred faces.

However, Skarn did not celebrate.

He stared intensely at Rhain, and then shifted his gaze toward Fridleif.

"Your words sound beautiful, outsider," Skarn sneered bitterly. "But you do not rule this valley. Until Fridleif agrees to open his gates, your promise has absolutely no value."

Instantly, all eyes turned to the Crystalveil Chieftain.

Fridleif’s face was incredibly ugly.

The Crystalveil tribesmen standing behind him gripped their weapons tightly, their eyes filled with deep hesitation and killing intent.

They had just defeated the invincible Bone Skull army! Their enemy’s chieftain was crippled on the ground!

This was their one and only chance to wipe the Bone Skull Tribe off the face of the earth, once and for all. Why should they show mercy to the monsters who had butchered them for a decade?

Sensing the boiling bloodlust radiating from the Crystalveil warriors, Rhain’s expression turned chillingly cold.

"Chief Fridleif," Rhain spoke, his voice completely devoid of any warmth.

The Crystalveil Chieftain flinched, looking up at the dark-robed youth.

"If your tribe attempts to use this opportunity to slaughter them," Rhain declared, his dark grey eyes piercing straight through Fridleif’s soul, "then I will no longer stand by your side. In fact, I will be forced to protect the Bone Skull Tribe."

He looked at the Crystalveil warriors, his tone turning as merciless as a frozen blade.

"I understand that their actions over the past decade were brutal. But they did it to save their own dying children from a plague your ancestors refused to help cure. If you choose to massacre them today, then you are no longer victims. You are simply butchers."

The effect was instantaneous.

The Crystalveil tribesmen turned deathly pale.

A profound terror gripped their hearts.

They knew, better than anyone, that the only reason they had won this battle was because Rhain was on their side.

It was Rhain who had rebuilt their warriors’ foundations. It was Rhain who had guided Fridleif to the Domain Master Realm. And it was only because of him that they could defeat Skarn.

The Crystalveil warriors had trained under Rhain’s guidance for a month.

They knew how terrifying he was.

If this demonic youth turned his fists against them... the Crystalveil Tribe would be annihilated for certain.

"I just need fifteen days," Rhain repeated, his gaze locking onto Fridleif.

Fridleif’s chest heaved. He looked at his saber, then at his own trembling tribesmen, and finally at the blank, desperate faces of the Bone Skull warriors.

His mind spun with rapid calculations.

First, he knew with certainty that he could not fight Rhain. If the benefactor stood against them, they would all die.

Second, the brutal truth remained: the Spring of Life was truly drying up.

If they simply wiped out the Bone Skulls today, the Crystalveil Tribe would still face extinction in a few generations when the spring completely vanished and the lingering remnants of the plague resurfaced in their own bloodline.

If this unfathomable youth could truly concoct a permanent cure... it wouldn’t just save the Bone Skulls. It would save the Crystalveil Tribe’s future as well.

Fridleif closed his eyes, letting out a long, heavy exhale.

He slowly withdrew the blade from Skarn’s throat, sliding the shattered heavy saber back into its sheath.

"I believe in the benefactor," Fridleif declared, his voice ringing across the gorge.

He looked down at Skarn. "For the next fifteen days, the gates of the Crystalveil Valley will remain open to the sick children of the Bone Skull Tribe."

The Crystalveil warriors lowered their shields and spears.

They did not protest.

Rhain had been their mentor for an entire month.

Their reverence and fear for him far outweighed their hatred for the Bone Skulls.

If the Instructor commanded a ceasefire, they would obey.

Skarn stared at Fridleif in utter shock. He had not excepted that Fridleif would agree to share the Spring of Life just because of a single man’s words.

He then slowly turned his head, his yellow eyes locking onto Rhain. The gaze was filled with a complex emotion of deep suspicion, hatred, and a tiny flicker of hope.

With a grunt of pain, the giant forced himself up onto his one good leg.

"Fifteen days," Skarn muttered.

He turned his back, limping toward his defeated army.

"FALL BACK!" Skarn roared to his tribesmen.

The Bone Skull warriors hurriedly supported their injured, collecting their fallen weapons.

Without another word, the savage horde slowly retreated into the desolate Howling Dust Canyons, leaving the blood-stained gorge behind.

And thus, the war that had burned for five hundred years ended for a temporary moment.

Whether the canyons would drown in blood once more, or whether this fragile peace would be maintained...now rested entirely on the shoulders of a single man.