Novel Full Chapter 482
A city howled in flame, black smoke coiling around toppled spires like a great python.
Amid that chaos, a distinctly different army marched in precise formation through the ruined streets.
At the front the knight raised a banner embroidered with a gilt lion; the soldiers behind wore polished blue armor, winged hawks embossed on their breastplates, every face beneath their helms carved like stone, indifferent to the corpses strewn along the way.
In the center of this elite force sat a middle-aged man in marshal’s armor, astride a six-legged warhorse covered in black scales.
When his gaze passed over the charred bodies curled by the roadside, the corner of his mouth pulled into a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
“Your Majesty, remnants of the Fourth Prince’s forces in the eastern district still resist.” A general at his side reported quietly.
“My useless brother abandoned the city himself — yet there are still diehards in the city?” The man called king waved his hand carelessly with a chuckle. “Leave them to the following units to clear. We take the palace straightaway.”
Before the faint smile at Elias’s lips could vanish, the general beside him suddenly surged forward, hoisting the crown prince from his saddle and stepping back.
The courtyard wall to the right split apart with a deafening crack; countless thorny branches as thick as pythons burst through the wall, sweeping across with irresistible force.
The silver-armored soldiers didn’t even have time to raise shields; in an instant the sudden green tide engulfed them, and the elite force turned to wreckage before anyone could blink.
Smoke and dust swirled. Sirian walked slowly out from behind the collapsed wall.
The elf’s robes were spotless; his emerald eyes fixed coldly on Elias, who was being shielded by the general, and his tone carried clear impatience:
“Time’s tight. Couldn’t you just be quietly killed, Elias, eldest son of Arthur?”
Elias, having faced such a sudden turn, did not panic; instead he regarded Sirian with amused interest. “I’ve never seen you at court. Are you the helper my good brother hired? No… you call our father by name — who are you?”
“Why waste words on some mist-made impostor like you?” Sirian sighed, a faint green glow coiling at his fingertips.
“Impostor?” Elias laughed. “This may be a mist, but what makes you presume my memories are false and your own true? How can you be certain?”
“Things without souls, why pretend to be the living.”
Elias remained composed until he vanished in an instant; his handsome face hardened: “Kill him.”
The general who had constantly protected him stepped forward in response; a terrifying aura burst forth like an earthquake and tidal wave, and the flagstones beneath the general cracked inch by inch.
Sirian merely stamped his foot. Tender green sprouts thrust up through the fissures, and in moments countless young branches sprouted.
The terrible clash razed the whole street to the ground in an instant.
The battle lasted long. When thorns finally pierced Elias’s chest, this so-called thing with true will shattered to pieces amid unbelieving gazes.
The surrounding mist churned violently and then receded like a retreating tide.
Sirian staggered and landed in a forest.
He tugged his sleeve down to hide an arm that had already turned to wood.
Looking around, a trace of worry passed through his emerald eyes: “I hope Veyra and the others are safe…”
…
“Veyra? What… what happened to you?” Louisa’s trembling voice sounded helpless.
She knelt in a pool of blood, unable to believe that the wounded, dying warrior before her was the Veyra who always smiled at her — her last glimmer of dawn.
Not long before, the mist that had been about to swallow Golden Valley City had suddenly withdrawn at the brink of disaster, leaving the city in chaos.
Louisa found Veyra gravely wounded at the edge where the mist had receded.
Veyra’s lips trembled, but not a full syllable escaped him.
Louisa hastily tore off a strip of her dress and clumsily attempted to bind the deep, bone-revealing wounds.
“I—I’ll go find someone to help. Veyra, you must hold on!” Her voice broke as she ran toward Golden Valley City.
But the city’s soldiers and civilians, still shaken by the mist, were already in complete disarray.
Louisa pleaded and ran through the panicked crowds only to be coldly shoved and ignored.
Because of her identity, someone even landed a few punches on her face without hesitation.
When she returned empty-handed, the ground beneath Veyra was soaked with blood; his chest no longer rose.
“Veyra? Veyra!” Louisa shook him in disbelief.
Her cries did not awaken Veyra — they instead drew an unwelcome guest.
A heavy blow struck the back of her head; Louisa’s vision blacked out and she collapsed beside Veyra.
When Sirian arrived here, Louisa was gone.
The elf crouched down and looked at the dozens of wounds across Veyra’s body.
From the scars it was clear Veyra had endured repeated fierce battles; the vast bloodstains on the ground indicated he had bled out.
Yet Sirian could sense that life had not entirely slipped away from Veyra.
He sighed softly, the sound threaded with apology.
If not for him, Veyra and the others likely would not have encountered such an over-the-top mist scenario.
“Veyra, don’t die. At least… you shouldn’t die because of me…”
Brushing the fungal filaments that tried to creep over Veyra’s body aside, Sirian let a drop of transparent sap-like liquid ooze from his fingertip and gently place it into Veyra’s mouth.
A miracle followed: the hideous wounds closed at a speed visible to the eye, the pallid face returned to a healthy color, and the still heart began to beat again.
If Lin Jun had been paying attention, he would have noticed this healing scene was strangely familiar — but Lin Jun’s focus was entirely on the battlefield over by Funpogi and the impending feast.
In the end Veyra’s breathing was steady; he lay peacefully beneath the tree.
Sirian’s figure gradually transformed into a rustic wooden carving and quietly dissipated in the breeze, leaving a few tender green leaves drifting down.
【Virtue — Sacrifice Check】
【Hero Acquisition Difficulty −50% (×)】
【Reaping Phase (√), Salvation Value (√), Sacrifice Event (√)】
【Check Passed】
【Title Acquired: Sacrifice of Virtue】
Veyra’s eyelashes fluttered; he slowly opened his eyes.
In his blurred sight he saw Phylline and Fein running anxiously toward him…
…
Louisa woke in agony and first felt the cold against her ankle.
A coarse iron shackle was clamped there; the other end was fixed to a wooden stake in the camp center.
A goblin noticed Louisa awake and bared its fanged grin in a shrill laugh.
It picked up a stone and smashed it onto Louisa’s brow.
She did not flinch; she did not even raise a hand to block. The stone carved a wound along her brow.
Warm blood trickled down her cheek, leaving a streak on her nutritionally pale skin.
The goblin expected a cry but Louisa instead sat quietly, eyes empty, staring at the ground as if the blow had struck someone else’s body.
This reaction bored the goblin; it turned away in disgust.
Blood dripped into the dirt with a faint “plip plip.”
Louisa’s thoughts had already drifted far away.
She remembered Veyra’s death for lack of rescue, her father’s head severed in the square as he looked at her with guilty eyes in his last moment, the housekeeper shielding her from the pig-man as the battle axe split her in two…
They were all dead.
Why?
That question echoed in her heart again and again.
She had no choices. She had done nothing wrong. Why did everyone who had been good to her meet such ends?
Why was she alone forced to live in this malicious world?
Hands with nine remaining fingers covered her eyes; she no longer prayed for help, no longer hoped for tomorrow — only hatred for the world remained.
“Humans, demons — all of them should die.”
“I wish I had been killed with the housekeeper back then.”
【Seven Sins — Wrath Check】
【Hero Acquisition Difficulty −50% (×)】
【Reaping Phase (√), Hatred Value (√), Character Importance (×)】
【Check Failed】
The mist silently enveloped the camp.
The goblins panicked and looked around; serpentfolk warriors bristled their scales and hissed.
The mist thickened until it swallowed the entire camp.
Within the fog, the sound of chains being ripped apart rang out.
Before dispersion, a hand with only four fingers latched onto the goblin that had been tormenting Louisa and, with ease, snapped its neck.
【Seven Sins — Wrath Check】
【Hero Acquisition Difficulty −50% (×)】
【Reaping Phase (√), Hatred Value (√)】
【Check Passed】
【Title Acquired: Wrath of the Seven Sins】
“Everything… be destroyed…”