Category: The Azure Longsword

Chapter 73: Leviathan

The group arrived at the top floor of Olympia. The battle against the Thornbirds was nearing its end.

As Asker had predicted, intelligent races like Dark Elves were different from mindless Thornbirds.

Even with countless companions slain, these Thornbirds still fiercely pounced on the phantoms, lacking the basic thinking to distinguish between the main body and the phantoms.

The phantom mechanism of Undead Phantom Sword perfectly countered the Thornbirds’ “Vengeance” ability, which they relied on for survival.

With the pressure from the air greatly reduced, some Arcane Mages also joined the battle.

For example, using air pressure to force the Thornbirds to land, or using gravity to forcibly lower their altitude, making it easier for Peggy’s phantoms to kill them.

Suddenly, a mournful cry erupted from the Thornbird flock, as if they could no longer bear the massive damage. Countless shining light spots soared into the sky like a brilliant beam of light, disappearing into the clouds of the night.

The mages and city guards clearly breathed a sigh of relief, and then cheers erupted.

“Take a break.” City Lord Appius said to Peggy, then stood up and looked north.

Not towards the Crusader siege camp in the south, but towards Thessaloniki in the north.

(Because Mount Olympus sloped downwards from north to south, the Crusaders actually circled around from the city and started their siege from the south.)

Because the Thornbird flock had come from the south, the Crusader camp and Olympia had blocked these supernatural creatures, preventing them from affecting Thessaloniki.

The coastal city in the distance twinkled with lights in the night, seemingly unaffected by the recent war.

Is it over? Appius frowned. If it was over, that would be best, however…

His expression suddenly changed as he looked towards the Aegean Sea to the northeast, his spirituality suddenly becoming uneasy.

A huge shadow emerged from the sea under the cover of night, its breath like a hurricane, flattening the forests on the shore.

As it surfaced, a huge tsunami rose in Thessaloniki’s harbor. Waves more than ten meters high crashed down, capsizing fishing boats, collapsing buildings, and washing over the trembling docks.

“That’s impossible!” A mage nearby exclaimed. “At the current magic tide level… how can there be a demigod creature?!”

“It’s not a demigod creature!” Appius shouted.

His voice seemed to have a special magic, making the spirits of everyone present tremble, their attention involuntarily drawn to him.

“That’s the larval form of the Leviathan! Currently only level 10, not invincible!”

Not invincible, my ass… Asker complained inwardly. Even a level 10 Leviathan larva possessed the “Giant V” supernatural characteristic, its HP ridiculously high, okay?

It was a boss that NPCs or players at this stage couldn’t defeat at all.

The girls of Azure Longsword, looking at the figure slowly crawling ashore in the distance, also turned pale.

However, Appius, as a demigod who had lived for who knows how many years, definitely had some hidden cards, so Asker firmly believed that the Leviathan wouldn’t be a problem.

Just wait and watch the cutscene.

Seeing Asker’s calm expression, the girls gradually regained their composure, a habit and tacit understanding cultivated over time in the Azure Longsword team.

As long as the Captain was still there, there was nothing to fear.

Even if the sky fell, there was still the Captain, this great god, to hold it up!

In the distance, the Leviathan larva had climbed onto the port of Thessaloniki, and a visible commotion quickly arose in the city.

Lights flickered, buildings collapsed, and many citizens, awakened from their sleep, rushed out of their homes in their pajamas, running barefoot through the streets, scrambling to escape the city.

Appius stared at the Leviathan in the distance, his face expressionless.

If he had his full demigod strength, he could certainly deal with that monster.

However, the current magic tide cap didn’t allow him to do so.

Soon, the Leviathan completely left the sea, revealing its mountain-like body.

It grabbed a residential building with its huge webbed hand, pulled it up along with its foundation, and then stuffed it into its mouth, chewing slowly.

…

West, Solomon City, ruins of the Pantheon.

This place, originally strictly sealed by the military, was immediately activated after the magic tide surge ended.

Countless Church personnel were busy here, either staring at the giant machine in the center of the temple and recording data, or directing Templar Knights to carry components and materials.

This machine, 30 meters long, 28 meters wide, 2 meters high, and covering an area of 840 square meters, was called the “Civilization Restorer.” Its power was drawn from the Tiber River outside, driven by an ingenious device composed of hydraulic oil, connecting rods, and pistons.

This machine was divided into two parts. The front part was a Surface Mount Technology (SMT) machine, which used a large number of mechanical devices to install various electronic components onto circuit boards.

All the electronic components were urgently manufactured after the magic tide surge ended, using pre-stored materials, and were continuously transported in by workers hired by the Church.

The rear part of the machine was a Data Loading Machine (DLM), which loaded designated data information from external sources into the newly manufactured electronic storage media.

Because during the magic tide surge, the intensely erupting magnetic field would destroy all electronic information storage media, naturally including all the information stored within, causing fundamental damage to technological civilization.

The solution for humans in the First and Second Ages was to hand-copy.

Hand-copy electronic information for backup, and then manually enter it after the magic tide surge ended.

Hand-copying, of course, had problems. First, it was inefficient and prone to errors, both in copying and inputting.

Moreover, paper could only store a limited amount of information. Even the design drawings of the simplest manned spacecraft, when stacked together, would be as tall as a human.

Second, paper as a medium was too fragile. The Peloponnesian War in the Second Age was essentially fought over these technical documents, but it resulted in the destruction of a large number of them.

Therefore, in the Third Age, the ancient Solomon mechanic Heron invented mechanical array plates, composed of densely arranged probes.

A raised probe represented “1”; a recessed probe represented “0.” Using mechanical positions to store data avoided the destructive effect of the magic tide surge (similar to burning data onto a CD).

Paired with an optical reader, all the data on the mechanical array plates could be quickly written into electronic media after the magic tide surge ended.

Initially, this invention didn’t attract the attention of the imperial authorities because the mechanical array plates stored the most basic “01” binary data streams. How much information could such a plate store?

Not even as much as handwritten paper.

Just like when firearms were first invented, they were far less effective than bows and arrows. The development of scientific civilization was always a qualitative leap over quantitative changes.

In the mid-to-late Fourth Age, the Imperial Academy of Sciences gradually discovered the advantages of mechanical array plates – compared to paper, they had better storage capacity and a lower error rate.

Most importantly, the re-entry process could be fully automated, avoiding the inefficiency of manual input.

On the ruins of the Western Solomon Empire, the Church of the Fifth Age made unremitting efforts to optimize this technology.

The current mechanical array plates were made of special high-molecular flexible materials, with excellent embedded inert materials, and the spacing was controlled at about 0.1 micrometers.

A 1-square-meter mechanical array plate could store 11 petabytes of data (1PB = 1000TB).

Through the opening of the DLM, these array plates, often tens of kilometers long, were carefully fed into the machine. The information recorded at the beginning of the first array plate was all Raphael’s core data, so it needed to be loaded first, with extreme care.

As the optical reader quickly read the information on the array plates, large amounts of data began to refresh on the screens outside the machine, monitored in real-time by several data expert teams.

At 11:30 pm, the main screen inside the Pantheon finally lit up.

“Artificial intelligence Raphael installed, self-test normal, restarting.” A mechanical electronic voice said.

Cheers immediately erupted in the hall, and many clergy even knelt down excitedly, fervently kissing the crosses on their pendants.

Above the temple, Pope Innocent sat on the Holy See, a relieved smile on his face.

Chapter 72: The End

Although he was the one who had charged into their encirclement, the Dark Elves’ faces changed drastically. They suddenly felt a strong sense of being surrounded.

One elf raised his twin blades, trying to distract Asker, his feet light, ready to flee. Another elf stealthily approached from behind, drawing a dagger for a backstab.

Asker thrust his sword forward, the Celestial Ninefold Strike’s Sharp Break. The tip of his sword pierced the gap between the twin blades with pinpoint accuracy, striking the Dark Elf’s throat.

The elf attempting the backstab felt a chill and lunged forward with his dagger, but a dark muzzle suddenly appeared in his vision.

Bang.

Asker, still in his forward thrust, extended his pistol from under his right arm, muzzle flashing behind him.

The bullet, as if guided, struck the elf’s forehead, breaking his neck. The force of the impact threw his body backward.

The last remaining Dark Elf, seeing that the situation was hopeless, suddenly froze. He bit the poison capsule hidden in his false tooth and instantly collapsed, dead.

Asker looked back and saw the Spartans, with Medea’s help, finally kill the remaining Dark Elf.

“Tandanio, hold on!” Rudashius rushed to the wounded Spartan warrior’s side and quickly removed his damaged arm armor.

The warrior’s arm had been slashed in the battle. The flesh around the wound was bruised and purple, clearly poisoned by the Dark Elves.

“It’s some kind of fast-acting neurotoxin. The trouble is, we don’t have a doctor here.” Asker picked up a poisoned blade from the ground, examined it, and said, “You can cut open the wound, there’s a chance of draining the poisoned blood, but if detoxification fails, the best-case scenario is paralysis, he’ll be crippled.”

“The other option is to amputate. That will save his life. Whatever you choose, don’t wait more than ten minutes.”

“Tandanio, what’s your choice?” Rudashius asked gravely.

The Spartan warrior, Tandanio, didn’t speak. He gritted his teeth, raised his injured left arm, and with his right hand, swiftly severed it.

The severed arm fell to the ground and rolled a few times. His face was pale as a sheet from the intense pain, but he gritted his teeth and remained silent.

Another Spartan warrior took out bandages and a splint from his pouch, trying to stop the bleeding from the severed limb.

“That won’t stop the bleeding,” Rudashius said, picking up his greatsword and heating it on the burning Dark Elf corpse.

“Cauterize the wound.” He said calmly to the Spartan beside him. “And find something to put in his mouth so he doesn’t bite off his tongue.”

The other Spartan stuffed the broken arm armor into Tandanio’s mouth. Rudashius said, “Bear with it,” and pressed the red-hot greatsword firmly against the wound.

Even Tandanio, who hadn’t flinched while having his arm cut off, now convulsed in pain, sweat pouring down his face, his whole body trembling.

In just a few seconds, the wound was cauterized. Rudashius removed the greatsword. Tandanio supported himself on the ground with his remaining arm, spat out the armor piece, and gasped for air.

Faint teeth marks were visible on the piece of armor.

The Spartan beside him, his expression unchanged, helped his one-armed comrade up and quickly applied medicine and bandages to the wound to prevent infection.

“Can Miss Nuo heal him?” Rudashius asked Asker.

“No.” Asker shook his head. Regenerating a completely severed limb required at least a Life IV ability. “But you can take him to Solomon City. They can clone a new arm for him.”

“Clone?” Rudashius didn’t understand the word, but he memorized it and nodded in thanks.

…

Dark transcendental characteristics slowly emanated from the Dark Elves’ corpses – a fusion of “Sharp Weapon I,” “Dodge I,” and “Intuition I.”

The Spartans, knowing the use of these characteristics, didn’t take any, giving them all to Asker.

After all, he had saved them.

Asker accepted them without hesitation.

After a hasty farewell to the three Spartan warriors, Asker and Medea quickly rushed to the other floors to find the rest of the girls.

Dark Elves were indeed formidable opponents for Level 3 Transcendents, especially with the poison on their weapons. A single scratch could have dire consequences.

However, the other two groups were led by Eleanor and Thira. Asker trusted their tactical skills. If they were outmatched, they would evade and avoid direct confrontation. They wouldn’t throw their lives away needlessly.

After all, he had trained them himself.

In the central square of the residential area on the 52nd floor, they finally found Thira’s team at the scene of the battle.

Because this was an upper-class residential area, not only Spartans but also additional mage troops were stationed there. Relying on their numerical advantage and the range of their arcane magic, they had dealt with the invaders with relative ease.

Eleanor’s team on the 30th floor, however, had encountered serious trouble. The guards there were almost all killed, forcing them to fight alongside the arriving Spartans.

With her sturdy Magic Copper Armor, Eleanor played the role of a tank, absorbing most of the Dark Elves’ attacks.

When Asker arrived, they were being besieged by more than a dozen Dark Elves, their line on the verge of collapse.

However, the tide of battle quickly turned. With Asker and Medea joining the fight, the Dark Elves, who originally had the upper hand, were quickly divided and isolated, then annihilated.

After the battle, they discovered that Mia’s shoulder had been cut at some point and poisoned. Fortunately, Nuo was there and performed emergency surgery, cutting open the wound and letting the blood flow. Using “Life I” to stimulate blood flow, she managed to remove the toxin.

Medea was relieved, but also felt a twinge of regret.

Quintus quickly arrived with his men and collected the Dark Elves’ bodies, preparing to send them to the specialized department for identification.

Judging from the noble officer’s furrowed brows, he, too, realized that the appearance of the Dark Elves was an unexpected variable.

But as Asker had said, this had nothing to do with the Azure Longsword mercenary group.

For Azure Longsword, this was a valuable experience in independent combat, demonstrating that even without Asker present, the girls had the basic ability to deal with enemies on their own.

“I’m dying of pain!” Mia, her shoulder bandaged, cried tearfully upon seeing Asker. “That Flash Step thing is useless! I ran straight into his blade!”

“That’s why I said you’re only at the beginner stage. When you can freely control your direction changes during Flash Step, then you can be considered to have initially mastered this technique.” Asker said helplessly, taking something out of his bullet pouch and handing it to Mia.

“What is it?” Mia asked with a pitiful expression.

“A lollipop. Here, have it.” Asker said.

Mia tore open the wrapper and focused on enjoying her lollipop, making the other girls giggle.

Chapter 71: Overwhelming Power

Asker stepped forward alone.

Just by placing his hand on his sword, he immediately caused a ripple of unease among the snarling monsters.

Through the spiritual intuition of the same Sequence, the Dark Elves realized that this guy also possessed the “Sharp Weapon” and “Dodge” Sequences.

In other words, he was a skilled human swordsman.

Although he was just standing there, one hand on his sword, without even drawing his weapon, their “Intuition” ability was screaming warnings. If any Dark Elf dared to approach, there would be immense danger!

The Spartan warriors surrounded him, protecting Medea, the spellcaster, in the center, and stared gravely at the monsters ahead.

Although they didn’t understand why these monsters hadn’t attacked yet, it was as if they were intimidated by Asker alone.

Asker took a step forward.

The Dark Elves took a step back.

Asker stepped forward again.

The Dark Elves retreated again.

Finally, one Dark Elf apprentice swordsman, unable to bear the pressure, drew a hidden weapon from his leg and threw it forcefully at the human man.

It was a bladeless weapon, its sharp edge specially forged, making no sound as it flew through the darkness.

Asker drew his sword and casually swung it forward.

With a ding, the blade was accurately struck by the sword and instantly flew back in the direction it came from.

The Dark Elf was still in his throwing posture when, the next second, his own blade pierced his chest. He fell to the ground, convulsing violently under the effects of the poison.

A flurry of agitated chatter erupted in the darkness, and a more intense unease spread among the Dark Elves.

Deflecting a hidden weapon with a sword, they could also do that. But deflecting a hidden weapon so that it flew back along its original trajectory was simply too unbelievable.

This human… his strength was unfathomable!

Just as the Dark Elves were about to make a strategic retreat, they saw Asker draw a pistol from his waist with his left hand.

The action seemed to be saying, “Whoever runs first, I’ll shoot them dead.”

Dark Elves: …

Wait, aren’t you a skilled swordsman? Why are you also using a gun? Are all humans so despicable and shameless?

Since the opponent had a gun, running away was basically equivalent to suicide. The Dark Elves exchanged glances and suddenly charged towards the human, their charge even forming a rough formation.

The two leading Dark Elves were the first to approach Asker. The elf on the left swung his double blades horizontally, while the one on the right held an ink bomb in his hand and, while the sword light obscured Asker’s vision, suddenly smashed it at his face.

Asker quickly retreated, dodging the double blades, his sword thrusting upwards at the ink bomb, then suddenly turning the blade to its spine, flicking it back lightly.

The Dark Elf wielding the double blades quickly leaned back, dodging the trajectory of the ink bomb.

The ink bomb flew over his head and suddenly exploded in mid-air, the blinding insect ink inside splattering all over his head and face.

The unlucky Dark Elf immediately screamed, but the scream quickly stopped. The highly corrosive ink had burned through his skull, corroding his vocal cords and trachea.

Asker, holding his Aphrodite rapid-fire pistol, quickly aimed at the Dark Elf on the right – it was he who had fired the incredibly accurate shot that detonated the ink bomb in mid-air. He immediately fired three shots at the next target.

The Dark Elf hurriedly swung his double blades, but Asker’s three shots targeted his head, left chest, and right leg respectively. He deflected the bullets aimed at his head and left chest, but his right leg was hit, causing him to stagger backward and involuntarily tilt to the right.

The Dark Elf behind him, originally intending to pass him on the right, saw him suddenly tilt and hurriedly dodged to the right.

Asker, having calculated the lead, fired two bullets. One hit the Dark Elf in the chest, embedding itself in the muscles between his ribs.

The other bullet hit the tail of the first bullet, forcibly pushing it further in, finally piercing his heart.

Bullet tailgating, an advanced gun technique, greatly increasing armor penetration.

“Medea, big fire, right two!” Asker called out.

Big fire referred to a large flame that could ignite the entire body; right two referred to the second enemy from the right.

Medea naturally understood his tactical language and immediately snapped her fingers, a flame shooting towards the target Dark Elf.

Among the Dark Elves on the right, the one targeted by the flame was the one charging at the front. He was instantly set ablaze, turning into a human torch, rolling on the ground frantically in pain.

The moment the flames rose, the Dark Elves behind him covered their eyes and screamed.

Accustomed to the dim light around them, the sudden appearance of bright and intense flames temporarily blinded them.

The next second, Asker had already drawn his Desert Eagle and fired three more shots at these blinded elves.

All headshots.

“Rudas, left one, Earth Splitter!” He blocked the attack of the Dark Elf in front of him with his sword and suddenly shouted, turning his head.

Rudas, is he calling me? Rudashius didn’t react immediately. He saw a Dark Elf charge towards him, his sword thrusting upwards sharply, aiming for his throat.

Damn it, too slow! In a split second, Rudashius realized he had reacted too slowly. If he had acted immediately after Asker gave the command, with the length of his greatsword, he could have preemptively cut down this Dark Elf.

He was about to block with his sword horizontally when he saw the Dark Elf in front of him suddenly freeze, his arm twitching as if he had a cramp.

Rudashius wouldn’t miss this opportunity. With a roar, he used Earth Splitter, directly knocking the Dark Elf to the ground.

Earth Splitter was the Spartan version of “Mountain Splitter.” The Dark Elf, hit by this heavy blow, his head cracked open, and he died on the spot.

Behind Rudashius, Medea calmly looked away, ending her mind control over the dead target.

Asker had already charged into the group of Dark Elves, a Drawing Slash followed by a Moon Slash, carving out a huge arc of nearly 270 degrees.

The Dark Elves hurriedly rolled and jumped back. As soon as they dodged, Asker had already stepped forward and unleashed another Moon Slash with lightning speed.

Moon Slash followed by Moon Slash, the professional term was Double Moon Slash, taking advantage of the enemy’s psychology of relaxing their guard after dodging the first attack, following up with another attack to catch them off guard.

The difficulty lay in the fact that Moon Slash itself was a powerful move. After the first slash, forcefully twisting the arm back to unleash a second Moon Slash required very high explosive power and control of the arms.

Too much force, and you couldn’t retract it, the second move would be easily dodged; too little force, and it wouldn’t be Moon Slash, just an ordinary horizontal slash.

The Double Moon Slash Asker used was, naturally, textbook perfect. Two crescent moons, one bright and one dark, one heavy and one light, flashed twice in the darkness. Like a mantis wielding its blade, or a general slashing with his sword, the enemy chief was instantly beheaded, the heads of three Dark Elves flying high in the air.

Then he quickly turned around, shifted his steps, and charged into the center of the few Dark Elves on the left.

Chapter 70: Dark Elves

On the 57th floor of Olympia, all the residential buildings on both sides had their doors tightly shut, and the streets were deserted.

Relying on the limited power from the emergency generators, the streetlights emitted a dim glow. Asker walked briskly with his sword, Medea following closely behind.

“Are you sure splitting into three groups is a good idea?” Medea asked with a smile. “Aren’t you worried that they will encounter unmanageable crises on floors 52 and 30?”

“After all this time training under me, I have at least some faith in them,” Asker replied.

“Then why did you choose only me to accompany you?” Medea pressed.

Asker glanced at her but didn’t answer.

Medea sneered inwardly. She knew he was worried about her split personality, afraid that Medusa would come out and unleash even more carnage in the city.

But what about trust between people? You trust them, but not me?

She fidgeted with the ends of her wine-red hair, growing increasingly angrier, wanting to rush forward and hug him, then explode on the spot.

As they continued walking, they saw a large number of bodies of combatants, first mercenaries, then Spartans, mixed with the remains of some strange creatures.

The corpses of these creatures had sharp, horizontally protruding ears, extremely coarse and messy hair like straw, tied up at the back of their heads with metal rings. They had two pairs of eyes, four eyeballs with bright red irises, a single protrusion where the nose should be, and sharp, shark-like teeth.

Dark Elves.

Unlike the “beautiful humans with pointy ears” in fairy tales, the native elves in the world of “Iron and Fire” looked like these monstrous, inhuman creatures, and there was a 100% reproductive isolation between them and humans.

Rather, the so-called “half-elves” were closer to the descriptions in fairy tales. They were the descendants of human individuals mixed with a small amount of elven genes through genetic engineering experiments in the Second Age. “Succubus bloodlines” like Medea’s were actually similar products.

“These are Dark Elves?” Medea mused.

“Something’s not right.” Asker said. “Dark Elves are an intelligent race that lives in the Abyss. They have no connection to the magic tide. They shouldn’t be here.”

“Could it be…” Medea’s imagination immediately took flight. “A mysterious force deliberately released these Dark Elves into the city during the magic tide surge, trying to achieve some ulterior motive?”

“Hard to say.” Asker shook his head. “Has your Conspiracy ability sensed anything?”

Medea paused and frowned. “No.”

“Then, even if there is a mysterious force as you said, their malice isn’t directed at us.” Asker said calmly. “We just need to eliminate the enemies, and leave the rest for Olympia to worry about.”

“Should we call the others back?” Medea asked.

Since the magic tide surge had disrupted radio equipment, only Medea’s psychic abilities were currently functional, but the communication range of her Mind I wasn’t wide.

Calling back the others would definitely take a long time.

“No need.” Asker said. “They’re just Dark Elves, they should be able to handle them.”

“Besides, I can’t protect you all forever.”

“So touching,” Medea said, half-joking. “My heart is aflutter.”

“Put away your girlish heart.” Asker said. “There’s a fight ahead.”

Medea hurriedly looked forward and saw several Spartan warriors retreating from the darkness amidst the clash of swords, Rudashius leading the way.

Guttural sounds echoed in the darkness, like the jaws of a giant beast chewing frantically.

“Asker!” Seeing Asker and Medea, Rudashius immediately shouted a warning. “Come over here! These monsters are good at launching sneak attacks from the darkness! And their weapons are highly poisonous, a single scratch is fatal!”

“Alright.” Asker said, gesturing for Medea to follow.

The two joined the three Spartan warriors and saw monsters rushing out from the darkness.

They were living Dark Elves, about seven or eight of them, quickly forming a line to intercept.

Their nerve-like hair swayed in the air as if communicating secretly, and their four crimson eyes darted around in their sockets.

Their withered, bird-like hands gripped extremely sharp double blades, the surfaces gleaming with a blue-red luster, clearly coated with poison.

“Thug-Ro-Chusta’ka!” The Dark Elves bared their teeth and roared in a strange language.

Thug-Ro-Chusta’ka, be a slave or die. Asker knew some Dark Elvish from the forums in his previous life.

So these Dark Elves were here to capture slaves? What a joke, coming to the largest human Transcendental city in the world, where even the city lord was a demigod, to capture slaves?

Asker pondered for a moment and asked Rudashius:

“Where are your men?”

“The rest are dead.” Rudashius said. “The poison on these guys’ weapons is very potent. A single scratch will cause immediate coma and near-death. Be careful.”

Almost a complete wipeout. Only Spartans could speak of such a thing so casually.

In the game of his previous life, in order to hone his Celestial Ninefold Strike skills, Asker had also studied in the Spartan city-state and had a good impression of these simple and straightforward warriors.

Seeing that almost all of them were dead, Asker felt a little emotional and sympathetic, so he suggested:

“Why don’t you leave first, we can handle these monsters.”

“Hey!” Medea said, both amused and exasperated. What kind of misplaced sympathy was this?!

“Spartans never turn their backs on the enemy.” Rudashius replied resolutely.

“Even if it means death?” Asker asked.

“Even if it means death.” Rudashius raised his greatsword.

“Alright.” Asker sighed.

This was the Spartans’ temper, never retreating from battle. He already knew this.

But honestly, fighting these monsters alone was much easier than fighting with a team of NPCs, because he wouldn’t have to be distracted by protecting his teammates.

These Dark Elves, if the settings were the same as in the game of his previous life, judging from their attire, should be apprentice swordsmen, the third tier of Dark Elf clan society.

Dark Elf apprentice swordsmen who could come to the main plane to capture slaves were generally level 3, about the same level as these Spartans, possessing the sequences “Sharp Weapon I,” “Dodge I,” and “Intuition I.”

If they advanced to the second tier and became official swordsmen, then depending on their profession, they might choose to take the sequence potions of “Toxin,” “Weakness,” or “Shadow.”

Because they were skilled in combat techniques and stealth assassinations, and with the current city-wide blackout and the dim environment, these Dark Elf apprentice swordsmen at this stage almost completely countered the Spartans’ brute force fighting style.

However, for the current Asker, their assassination techniques were completely insufficient.

After all, he was a professional player who could defeat a White-Clad Assassin of a higher level.

Chapter 69: Undead Phantom Sword

The Spirit Sequence allowed direct manipulation of spirits, enabling them to possess other people or even inanimate objects.

By possessing an enemy, one could contend with their spirit for control of their body; by possessing an ally, one could provide them with their own spirituality.

As spirituality surged into her, Peggy immediately felt her own spirituality swell, almost to the point of bursting.

She quickly used the Golden Finger, held her breath, focused her mind, visualized herself, and then rapidly activated her stealing ability to pull it out.

One, two, three… More than a hundred Peggys appeared on the field within seconds, and the number continued to increase.

“Grandfather!” Thira called out worriedly, seeing the increasing number of phantoms.

Although the magic tide level cap had been raised to 10, it was still a suppression for demigods.

Could it be that her grandfather was planning to unleash his full spirituality, risking losing control to save the entire city?!

“Don’t worry, I will control the output of my spirituality within level 10.” Appius said calmly.

Even if the output was within level 10, what about the consumption and replenishment? At the current magic tide level, it was very difficult for a demigod to replenish their spiritual depletion.

Just as Asker was thinking this, he saw Appius take out an emerald green Philosopher’s Stone from a nearby bag and crush it.

His heart skipped a beat.

Holy crap! Stone-crushing boss!

In the game world of his previous life, if players wanted to master their Sequence abilities, they had to fight more monsters and run more dungeons to improve their proficiency.

Especially for purely spiritual Transcendents, without the bonus of physical strength and experience, their combat power completely depended on the operation and utilization of their Transcendental abilities. Therefore, it was normal for their spirituality to be completely depleted after running a few dungeons.

What free-to-play players did: Log off and wait for their spirituality to recover naturally.

What low-spending players did: Spend a little money to buy spiritual potions to increase their sustainability.

What mid-spending players did: Buy Philosopher’s Stones to carry with them, along with spiritual potions to replenish their spirituality.

What high-spending players did: Directly crush the stones.

An egg-sized Philosopher’s Stone cost $99.99 in the cash shop and 648 yuan in China. Because it was rich in spirituality, even the most hardcore spenders only needed to crush a fingernail-sized piece each time.

As for Appius, this demigod-level powerhouse, he let Asker see for the first time what it meant to be “rich and imposing” – he directly crushed the entire stone! The entire stone!

With the endless influx of spirituality, there were more and more Peggys around, their numbers quickly exceeding one thousand.

“Attention, the Life Cage is about to end.” Appius said in a deep voice. “Get ready!”

Amidst the Thornbirds’ furious cries, the Wall of the Life Cage shattered, and flocks of yellow thornbirds immediately swooped down, as if to unleash a bloody storm on the crowd.

Then, the horde of “Peggys” also moved.

“Whoa, my eyes are blurry!” Sidlipha suddenly exclaimed.

Due to the super-high muscle strength and explosive power unique to the “Flesh” Sequence, Peggy herself was already very fast, and at full sprint, she could even achieve a “teleportation”-like effect.

Then, what would it feel like for a thousand Peggys to teleport simultaneously in the eyes of the audience?

Others didn’t know, but the girls of Azure Longsword probably felt like throwing up.

Countless afterimages darted and intertwined on the ground, the sound of their footsteps merging into a continuous buzzing sound.

Many mages and city guards could only stand still, not daring to move, because if they moved, they would be bumped into by the phantoms passing by.

Because the figures created by Undead Phantom Sword were very fragile, almost disappearing at a touch, in the eyes of the unsuspecting crowd, it was like they bumped into someone, and then the person exploded…

So they could only remain motionless, watching this grand performance in shock.

The Peggys’ tactics were also very simple, no fancy footwork or feints, only direct charges and swift thrusts.

Whenever a Thornbird descended to within reach, a Peggy would sprint towards it at high speed and slash at it with her Thermal Blade.

The Thermal Blade was also a phantom, of course, but the secret of Undead Phantom Sword was that all the phantoms were composed of replicated mental bodies. The essence of a phantom’s attack was to use the phantom’s existence in the opponent’s perception to impose the idea of “being attacked” on them, thus creating the fact of being injured in their minds.

If believed, “illusion” became “reality.”

And the red-hot Thermal Blade, coupled with the almost distorted air under the high temperature, immediately made the Thornbirds flap their wings and cry out in fear.

With a light slash, the attacked Thornbird was cut in two, the needle-like feathers at the wound completely curled up, even the bleeding wound was cauterized and sealed, the cut smooth and clean.

Through the ability of the Vengeance Sequence, this damage was also transmitted back to the phantom itself. So the Peggy phantom who performed the attack would instantly have the same red-hot linear wound on her neck, abdomen, or limbs.

Then it would dissipate.

As a large number of phantoms dissipated, more “Peggys” were continuously split off, quickly rejoining the battlefield.

Thira watched in shock, only one thought in her mind:

This is the power of demigod-level spirituality + Transcendental swordsmanship? A one-person army, nothing more than this!

If I could also master a Transcendental sword technique, and then, with my grandfather’s… no, with my own advancement to demigod rank, then even reclaiming Constantinople alone wouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?

She couldn’t help but start to fantasize, her mind filled with thoughts of how to restore the country and how to get a Transcendental sword technique from Asker.

“Mr. Asker,” Appius, who had already crushed countless stones, suddenly said, “Anomalies have occurred on the 30th, 52nd, and 57th floors of Olympia. Please assist the stationed Spartans.”

“Okay, we’ll help deal with them.” Asker nodded and called out to the remaining Azure Longsword girls, “Let’s go.”

The girls stood up and followed Asker towards the stairs.

Thira walked at the back of the team, taking one last look at Peggy, who was still exerting her power.

If I could also have such swordsmanship, such transcendental strength…

“What are you thinking about?” Asker patted her head. “Or do you want to stay here?”

Stay here with your grandfather?

“It’s nothing.” Thira shook her head and smiled beautifully.

Then she remembered that she was still wearing a mask.

So Thira slightly lifted the edge of her mask, revealing her flawless face, and gave Asker another sweet smile.

“What are you doing?” Asker asked, puzzled.

“The mask has been on for too long, I need some air.” Thira said with a smile.

On the stairs, Medea suddenly sensed something and looked at Thira’s smiling face ahead.

A thoughtful expression appeared on her face.

Chapter 68: The Magic Tide

Solomon City, Bishop’s Observatory.

Gregor Mendel, the Church’s chief bishop for astronomical projects, was quickly directing everyone, closely monitoring the moon’s data.

“The moon has entered an elliptical near-Earth orbit!” As the screen suddenly started flashing alerts, Gregor immediately connected to the Holy See’s communication line. “With the strengthening of the planet’s external magnetic field, the lunar magnetic field has been disturbed, and its orbit is starting to change!”

“Is the orbital model ready?” Pope Innocent asked.

“It’s ready. This perigee… is closer than any recorded data in history. It’s expected to be the largest magic tide ever.”

“Keep a close watch on the moon.” Pope Innocent replied. “Most of the city’s power supply has been cut off. Your project’s energy needs will be prioritized until the magic tide begins to rise.”

“Your Holiness, that… is the information backup complete?”

“The bishop of the Data Maintenance Center has reported to me. Most of the data in the Raphael database has been engraved through mechanical arrays, and the probe reader has been calibrated.” Innocent said slowly. “You don’t have to worry about the observatory’s historical data being destroyed.”

“That’s wonderful. I also spent all night printing and transcribing important data.” Bishop Gregor clearly breathed a sigh of relief. “May God bless humanity, bless technological civilization.”

“God bless you.” Innocent replied.

In Solomon City, the colorful lights had all gone out. Tourists looked at the sky uneasily, as if it was the first time they had discovered that Solomon City could also experience power outages.

Within the Holy Solomon Empire, an instruction from Emperor Otto was sent to the major nobles and lords.

The level of digital control in the Holy Roman Empire was lower, so the impact of the magic tide was not as severe as in the Church’s territory. Some nobles and lords chose to believe the emperor, digging up underground cables and conduits, waiting for replacements. More lords, however, chose to ignore it.

Well, whether it was true or not, they would know in a few hours.

At the foot of Mount Olympus, Crusader artillerymen were reloading their shells when the spotter suddenly said:

“Is the moon bigger than usual today?”

“I don’t think so.” The artilleryman casually replied, his gaze resting on the moon. “Hmm, it does seem a bit bigger.”

“Like breasts.” The spotter said.

“A little bigger and it’ll be like buttocks.” The artilleryman picked up on the crude joke, and the two poor men laughed knowingly.

At the top of the Olympus Tree, a mage apprentice came to the members of the Azure Longsword mercenary group with an open box.

“Please put all electronic devices inside.” He said. “Electronic devices will spontaneously combust when the magic tide rises.”

Led by Asker, the girls reluctantly took out their phones and threw them into the box.

“That watch?” The mage apprentice’s gaze fell on Nuo’s fair left wrist.

“This is purely mechanical, driven by a spring.” Nuo hurriedly replied.

“Oh.” The mage apprentice nodded curiously, completely unaware of how much such a watch was worth.

About half an hour later, the box filled with electronic devices was placed on the open ground by the mage apprentice.

Several firefighters stood by, ready. Fire extinguishers and water guns were all prepared.

Once the contents of the box caught fire, it would mean the official arrival of the magic tide.

Everyone stared at the box, time ticking by.

But nothing happened.

Nuo’s spirituality suddenly sensed something and activated her spirit vision.

She saw four transparent spirits emerge from the air, slowly descending and surrounding the box.

They began to sing a mysterious, unknown song, in a language humans couldn’t understand, but somehow Nuo could.

The blood moon will fall, the magic tide will rise.
Weapons clash, the battle never ends.

“That’s the language of the Spirit World.” Appius, who had appeared behind her at some point, said in a deep voice. “A language that directly affects spirits.”

“Are you… the City Lord?” Through the spiritual intuition of the same Sequence, Nuo realized that this man in front of her was a high-ranking Transcendental of the “Spirit” Sequence, so high that she couldn’t comprehend it.

“See those spirits?” Appius said, “Before the human colonists arrived in the First Age, the Siris Peninsula was the kingdom of the High Elves, and this Eden Tree was their sacred tree.”

“Every time the magic tide was about to rise, their priests would climb to the top of the tree and pray in the language of the Spirit World for their tribe to survive the chaos after the magic tide’s rise.”

“In other words…” Nuo hurriedly looked at the box containing the phones. Flames were already rising from inside the box, and the firefighters were spraying it with high-pressure water guns and fire extinguishing foam.

“This magic tide will be more vast and terrifying than any recorded in history…” Appius sighed softly, looking at the clouds in the night sky.

“It’s coming.”

…

The magic tide has risen!

Asker suddenly felt a sense of shackles loosening from his body.

At this moment, the main plane’s Transcendental level cap had been raised to level 10.

Then, those Transcendental creatures between levels 5 and 10, who had been forced into slumber by the magic tide suppression, should now be awakening and becoming active.

Asker looked at the distant sky and saw countless light spots appearing in the night.

“Those are…”

“Thornbirds!” Appius immediately turned around and ordered, “Activate the Life Cage!”

The prepared Union mages quickly activated the magic circle connected to the Olympus Tree, and a huge, translucent spherical wall instantly appeared, almost enveloping the entire Mount Olympus.

Everyone’s hearts sank: although it was the City Lord’s order, the Life Cage was one of their last resorts. Why use it so readily at the beginning?

Driven by their desire for Transcendental power, these light spots quickly split into two groups: half swooped down towards the Crusader camp below, while the other half crashed directly into the Wall of the Life Cage.

At this time, everyone could clearly see that each light spot was a bird covered in thorns. Their feathers were bright yellow, fine, and shaped like pine needles, giving a sharp impression just by looking at them.

“Thornbirds, the source of ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Thunder’ Sequence transcendental materials.” Appius said lightly, as if talking to himself, and also like he was giving a science lesson to the members of Azure Longsword.

“Their main attack methods are pecking and clawing, with a small amount of electric current that can cause paralysis when transmitted to the human body.”

“And the ability of the Vengeance Sequence is to reflect a certain percentage of the damage taken back to the attacker through causal connection.”

Attack it and be counter-attacked, don’t attack it and be paralyzed? Then how do we fight?

This troublesome thought arose in the minds of the girls.

“Undead Phantom Sword.” Asker said.

“Indeed.” Appius showed an approving expression. “Undead Phantom Sword.”

Outside the Life Cage, the Thornbirds stared greedily at the large number of Transcendents inside, unable to enter, and frantically attacked the cage wall.

Every collective impact caused electric currents to surge on the wall of the cage. Many Thornbirds even smashed their heads bloody and slid down the wall.

And this damage was also transmitted to the attacker through causal connection, accumulating rapidly.

Everyone felt the trunk of the Eden Tree beneath their feet begin to tremble, as if it was bearing an increasing amount of pressure, gradually becoming overwhelmed.

“The Life Cage won’t last much longer.” Appius placed his hand on Peggy’s shoulder and said indifferently, “Activate Undead Phantom Sword, split off as many phantoms as possible.”

“Don’t worry about consumption, I’ll provide all the spirituality.”

Chapter 67: Pre-Eve

The shelling continued for three more days. The Olympus Tree, though shaken, showed no signs of collapsing.

So, Boniface, in his fury, ordered that even the mortars still under repair in the warehouse be brought out for a full-scale bombardment to destroy Olympia’s defenses as quickly as possible.

The tense state of preparation within the city also continued for a long time. It was ironic that both sides were preparing for war, but against vastly different enemies.

That afternoon, Hood was sitting in a chair in the common room, watching TV, when the screen suddenly filled with static.

The static was fleeting, quickly returning to normal.

A moment later, the screen was filled with static again.

Is the TV broken? Hood took the wall-mounted TV off the wall and began to disassemble and inspect it.

The result of his inspection was that all the electronic components seemed to have unstable resistance.

Just as Hood was scratching his head, Asker’s voice came from the doorway.

“What are you doing?”

“The TV is broken,” Hood said. “It looks like all these components need to be replaced. What a hassle.”

“Oh, the TV is broken.” Asker suddenly seemed to remember something. “Broken? All the components have problems?”

“Yeah, maybe it’s internal aging.” Hood said uncertainly. All the components aging at the same time? That was strange.

Asker immediately called all the girls out and announced solemnly:

“Everyone, take out your phones.”

Girls: ???

“Any important information on your phones, write it down and back it up in your notebooks. Print out any pictures as soon as possible. There’s no way to back up audio files. Listen to them while your phones still work.”

“Asker?” Nuo asked strangely. “Why back up the information on our phones? Is someone going to confiscate them?”

“No.” Asker was about to explain when he saw Quintus enter the barracks.

“The magic tide is coming early, expected around 6:30 tonight. Has Miss Peggy mastered her sword technique yet?”

“Not yet.” Asker shook his head. “It came too quickly; we probably won’t make it in time according to the plan.”

Quintus sighed and took an object from his waist, handing it over.

“What’s this?” Asker asked.

“A Golden Finger,” Quintus said.

“What Golden Finger?”

“Something to help Miss Peggy improve her stealing ability,” Quintus said.

Asker picked up the object and realized it seemed to be an index finger model cast in gold. The fingernail, fingertip, fingerprints… every detail was incredibly lifelike.

“Want to try it?” Asker handed it to Peggy.

“How do I use this?” Peggy asked.

“Just activate it with your spirituality.” Asker said.

Peggy tried to extend her spirituality. The moment it touched the Golden Finger, she felt the spirituality in her mind expand like water, her perception suddenly sharpening.

She could even “see” all the valuable items in the room. For example, the Thermal Blade at her waist, Asker’s Desert Eagle, the small pendant inside Eleanor’s underwear, etc., all shone with a “high-value” light in her vision.

She just needed to focus her attention to roughly estimate their value.

However, the brightest light was still Nuo. The seemingly ordinary clothes, skirt, shoes, underwear she was wearing, the watch on her wrist, the hairpin in her hair, and even the notebook and pen in her backpack, all shone with a terrifying “astronomical price” light.

It almost blinded Peggy.

“What’s wrong?” Seeing Peggy’s eyes redden and tears welling up, Asker hurriedly asked, “Why are you crying?”

They had even brought out a supernatural item. If it still didn’t work for you, things would be troublesome.

“Nothing.” Peggy wiped her eyes. “I just felt a pang of poverty.”

Asker: …

Focusing her attention back on herself, she concentrated on meditating on her own image, then used her surging “Steal” ability to pull it outwards forcefully.

“It’s out!” The girls cheered.

Peggy looked closely and saw a “herself” standing next to her. Whether it was her facial features, body details, or clothes, pants, and boots, everything was exactly the same.

A strange feeling connected the two. Peggy could sense that the other came from her own mental body. As long as she moved her mind slightly, the other would follow suit.

“That’s great.” Quintus said urgently. “Come with me to the treetop to set up defenses immediately.”

The Azure Longsword mercenary group arrived at the treetop and saw mages busy running around everywhere.

It was around 6:20 pm, and the Crusader shelling from the foot of the mountain seemed to have weakened. Judging from the wisps of smoke rising from the plain, they should have temporarily stopped to eat.

Olympia, however, was in no mood for dinner. The mages were adjusting the magic circle and performing calculations, while the city guards were running around, moving equipment here and there according to the mages’ instructions.

The Spartans, along with their men, had gone to various locations in the city to set up defenses.

The girls of Azure Longsword were boredly backing up information on the treetop, while watching the incoming artillery fire from the foot of the mountain explode on the scale magic circle outside the Olympus Tree, blooming into brilliant flowers of smoke and fire.

“What’s the magic tide like?” Nuo sat beside Asker and asked curiously.

“When the magic tide level cap rises from level 5 to level 10, your phones, pads, laptops, and so on, any device containing electronic components, will spontaneously combust during this period.” Asker replied.

Nuo: …

“Then what should we do?” She asked in confusion.

“That’s why I told you to back up the information on paper.” Asker said. “Don’t trust anything electronic, it will all be destroyed during the magic tide surge. The only things that can be preserved are notes and your brain.”

Just as he finished speaking, all the lights around them went out.

Olympia had stopped all electricity-related production activities and cut off all power supply.

“Olympia has lost power!” As the light around the Olympus Tree dimmed, this news began to spread among the Crusaders.

They firmly believed that it was the Crusaders’ bombardment that caused Olympia’s power supply to overload, leading to a city-wide blackout.

So the Crusaders’ offensive became even more fierce.

On the treetop, Nuo looked boredly at the darkening sky and suddenly pointed above her head:

“Hey, Captain!”

“Hmm?”

“Look at the moon tonight, it seems a bit red, doesn’t it?” Nuo asked.

“Indeed.” Asker observed carefully, and it seemed that the moonlight was indeed a bit reddish.

“And it seems bigger than usual.” Nuo said strangely.

Chapter 66: Interlude

The Crusader shelling from the foot of the mountain had continued unabated for a full week.

During this time, the members of the Azure Longsword mercenary group had little to do. After all, when warfare escalated to the level of mortars and projectile spells, the role an individual could play was quite limited.

So Asker had everyone on a professional player’s daily training schedule, including positioning, timing, and micro-management.

As part of the agreement from the other day, City Lord Appius soon sent two items.

The first was a Wizard’s Circlet. It was made of gilded brass with a circular base, inlaid with thirteen emerald green Philosopher’s Stones.

These stones had a special magnetic field that could slowly replenish a Transcendental’s depleted spirituality when worn. In fact, it was said that the magic tide’s magnetic field, which enveloped the entire planet, originated from the massive amount of Philosopher’s Stones stored within the planet’s crust. However, this mineral was buried too deep, making it too difficult to mine from the surface. Therefore, the Wizard’s Circlet had a nickname in the forums of Asker’s past life: the “RMB Circlet,” a symbol of prestige that only the most dedicated (and wealthy) players could afford.

Although Appius had specified that this was a gift for his beloved granddaughter, Theodora, Asker knew that it was intended to help master the Undead Phantom Sword.

As long as Peggy wore it, her endurance in practicing “Steal” would be greatly enhanced, without having to worry about spiritual depletion.

Grinding and spending were the only two ways to increase strength. Now that Peggy had both, if she still couldn’t learn Undead Phantom Sword, it could only be said that she had no affinity for this sword technique.

The other item was a precious original copy of “The Song of Roland.” Roland was Charlemagne’s chief paladin, and this epic poem recorded the events of his life, said to contain the secrets to learning the “Holy Sword.”

It was said to, however, no one had actually discovered the secret—at least not the NPCs at this point in time. In his previous life, after it fell into the hands of players, the hidden secret was discovered almost instantly.

After all, players were magical creatures who could stay online 24/7 without sleeping, running between game forums, Tieba, and Weibo. They could even discern countless clues and details from a single poster released by the official planners with their Leeuwenhoek-like observation skills.

They quickly discovered that as long as a Transcendental possessed the supernatural ability of the “Will” Sequence, they could obtain the knowledge of the Holy Sword from this book.

The “Holy Sword,” also known as “Charlemagne’s Holy Sword” or the “Indomitable Holy Sword,” had the “Will” Sequence as its transcendental threshold. The higher the Transcendental’s Will Sequence, the greater the power of the Holy Sword they could unleash.

So Asker gave this book to Eleanor, after all, she was currently the only one with the “Will” Sequence.

As for whether she could learn this Transcendental sword technique, Asker wasn’t hopeful, at least not in the short term, judging from Peggy’s struggles.

In the main plane outside Furnace Island, due to the increasingly frequent Crusader bombardments, many buildings in Olympia had begun to shake and collapse, causing panic among the people.

Many citizens even gathered day and night at the entrance to the barracks floor, waiting for the day when the Crusaders really broke into the city, so that the Azure Longsword mercenary group inside could protect them and escape.

Hood was also having a hard time at the entrance, trying to calm the citizens and prevent them from panicking, while also guarding against some agitated individuals from rushing in.

Some people, seeing that he was an underage boy, were very rude to him, telling him to get lost and leave, saying they wanted to find the Azure Longsword inside to save their lives.

Annoyed by being pushed around, Hood simply brought out the Sabre Turret with wheels from the workshop. Now no one dared to speak harshly to him.

After all, truth could not be twisted with words, and the turret was equivalent to truth.

As the siege bombardment intensified day by day, intermittent gaps began to appear in the scale-shaped magic circle jointly maintained by the mages.

Seeing that Olympia’s defenses had begun to weaken, the morale of the Crusaders in the camp at the foot of the mountain immediately soared. King Boniface of Thessaloniki even gave a passionate speech in front of the army, declaring that Olympia, a city of sin under God’s watchful eye, would soon be purged by the brave and fearless Crusaders!

The Crusaders excitedly banged their firearms against their shields and cheered loudly – however, firearms and spears were different after all, resulting in a dozen accidental discharges on the spot. King Boniface on the stage thought he was being targeted by a sniper and was instantly tackled by several bodyguards around him.

On the other side, Viscount Joel, the newly appointed front line commander, found Alfred in the rear camp with a bottle of wine.

“Alfred! My friend! The defenders of Olympia are about to collapse… Wait, what are you doing?” He asked drunkenly.

“Returning to the Holy Solomon Empire, of course!” Alfred didn’t even look up at him, just continued packing his luggage, putting away his valuables.

“My dear friend, even if you’ve been dismissed by our respected King, why should you leave the East in a fit of pique?” Joel laughed heartily. “What about your fief and manor in Macedonia? Your factories and investments? Can you bear to leave all this wealth behind and go back in such disgrace?”

“What else can I do if I don’t go back? Stay here and wait for death?” Alfred said angrily.

“Wait for death?” Joel said in surprise. “No way. Since you’ve lost your military position, His Majesty will definitely not blame you afterwards… What good would that do him?”

“Foolish Joel, you understand nothing.” Alfred looked at him with disdain. “Do you know about the magic tide? Do you know about the transcendental riot? Sometimes I truly admire you mortals, living in this world in a daze, ignorant and fearless even in the face of death.”

“Uh…” Joel was speechless, hiccuped, and watched Alfred zip up his suitcase. Then he asked in confusion:

“Transcendental riot? You mean…”

“There’s no time.” Alfred interrupted him impatiently. “I said from the beginning that we had to quickly capture Olympia within a few days and control its city defense magic circle. Did anyone listen to my advice?”

“Now it’s been almost two weeks, and I’m truly impressed by you idiot nobles. I don’t know if Olympia can be captured, but the Crusader knights here, eight or nine out of ten, will surely die.”

“That Boniface is just an opportunist, a pawn of the Church, and he doesn’t even know it. Pawns are meant to be discarded, but I’m sorry, I don’t intend to stay on this sinking ship any longer. I have to go and seek refuge first.”

He roughly pushed Joel aside, grabbed his suitcase, and strode out the door. Joel stumbled from the push, shivered in the cold wind, and suddenly sobered up.

He and Alfred had been classmates at the Holy Roman Military Academy, so he knew his friend’s character well:

When Alfred proudly said, “This will work,” it most likely wouldn’t;

But if Alfred said, “This won’t work,” then it would almost certainly fail.

In short, Alfred’s judgments were like a reverse oracle, a walking jinx.

The more Joel thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. Although he didn’t know what was wrong, it was precisely because he didn’t know that it was terrifying!

He shivered in the cold wind and immediately returned to his tent in the barracks, asking his adjutant to take over his military duties starting tomorrow.

Yes, he would say that he had caught a cold and couldn’t fight, and would temporarily return to the rear base to recuperate.

Chapter 65: Behind-the-Scenes Communication

On the rooftop, Appius had put away his smile, his gaze returning to the distant horizon, once again entering a state of cold, rigorous, rational calculation.

The addition of Undead Phantom Sword undoubtedly increased the certainty of his plan.

However, a politician couldn’t rely solely on probability. Even with a 99% chance of success, there was still a 1% risk of complete failure.

As the city lord, he had to make good use of every card in his hand.

He took out his phone and dialed a special number. The phone signal went up through the atmosphere, reached the Church’s space-based communication base station satellite, and then, after special transcoding and encryption, descended again to Solomon City on the Apennine Peninsula.

Inside the Sistine Chapel, a slender hand answered the phone.

“City Lord Appius.”

“Pope Innocent.”

“Your Crusaders are causing me some trouble.”

“Are they? The Church has already anticipated this. They shouldn’t be able to harm your Olympia.”

“Even so, the nightly shelling is still annoying, especially when we are also preparing for the magic tide.”

“I understand. You are requesting aid from the Church.”

“The Church desires to negotiate, hence this call. The mortar fire is merely a nuisance; the matter we are about to discuss is the key.”

“Indeed. What kind of aid does Olympia require?”

“Space-based tactical nuclear warheads.”

The Pope’s voice on the other end paused. “Leviathan?”

“Has the Church not detected the enormous life signal at the bottom of the Aegean Sea? I assumed you were monitoring the entire world at all times.”

“Of course. That is precisely why I am concerned. Raphael has over 300 processes monitoring that Leviathan. We believe it is unlikely to awaken in the near future.”

“Can the Church guarantee with 100% certainty that it will not be awakened by the coming magic tide?”

“No. The term ‘100%’ does not exist in science. It is only used in theological propaganda.”

“Your seamless switching between science and theology is astonishing, but I am not a foolish, ignorant believer.” Appius said in a deep voice, “I am a politician, not a scientific researcher. As long as there is a greater than 50% possibility, a scientific researcher might believe it will happen based on mathematical expectation.”

“However, even with a 99% chance of success, a politician must eliminate the remaining 1% of potential risk.”

“Even if it means incurring additional costs in the negotiation?” Innocent chuckled. “Very well, after all, this poses no disadvantage to the Church.”

“What is your asking price?”

“We demand that Olympia sever all ties with Emperor Otto, including recalling all Transcendents within the Holy Roman Empire.”

“You should understand that Olympia does not hold the same transcendent position in the supernatural world as the Church does in the scientific world. I can promise to do so, but please do not harbor any unnecessary expectations.”

“Naturally. However, the Crusader mortar attacks will continue. This will help exacerbate the hostility between your forces and Emperor Otto.”

“As it will for the Church.”

“The Church cares not for worldly hostility.” Innocent said indifferently. “The Church’s sole focus has always been the Antichrist.”

“By Antichrist, do you mean Chaos?”

“That is the broader definition. You may understand it as such.”

“That does not explain your vigilance and apprehension towards Otto.”

“Then allow me to offer a less rigorous but more easily understood explanation.” Innocent carefully chose his words. “Emperor Otto is destined to be defeated in the coming war, just as the Crusaders are destined to be defeated in the upcoming battle.”

“However, Olympia’s concern has never been the Crusaders, and the Church’s concern is not Emperor Otto, but the Chaos lurking behind these events.”

“You preach that your supercomputer can calculate everything, so how can Chaos exist?” Appius asked coldly.

“Raphael was never created to calculate everything. Infinite information requires infinite energy to acquire, which is considered scientifically unfeasible.”

“Unfeasible? I believe it is impossible.”

“You see, this is the difference between Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.” Innocent sneered. “Although we both believe in science, we firmly believe that the laws of all things in the world can be understood, while you Orthodox believers are almost all agnostic.”

“Once trapped in the pitfall of agnosticism, your faith in science will waver, and you will succumb to the mysterious and the unknown.”

“It was your Church that first raised the banner of theology.” Appius said calmly.

“We disguised ourselves in order to maintain order, and reality has proven that this is feasible. What about you?”

“The original definition of the Antichrist is ‘mortal becoming god.’ The upgrade and advancement that you Transcendents yearn for will inevitably lead only to becoming a god.”

“However, this path has been proven to be a dead end, reaching its end means losing one’s sanity. Are there not enough demigods beneath Hippocrates University who tried to become gods but ended up insane? Why not show them to your Transcendents?”

“They voluntarily chose this path; everyone should have the right to choose.” Appius said.

“People can be responsible for the consequences of their choices, but who will be responsible for the destruction of human civilization?” Innocent’s tone became stern. “Constantinople has fallen. How much further do you intend to wander down this dead end?”

“With the magic tide imminent, shouldn’t the Church focus on Solomon City first?” Appius didn’t mention the fact that it was the Crusaders who conquered Constantinople, but simply changed the subject indifferently.

“We are prepared.” Innocent said coldly. “As for Olympia, as a condition of this exchange, we will provide two space-based neutron bombs, should Leviathan truly awaken.”

Silence fell on the communication channel.

Almost every exchange between the Eastern and Western Churches would erupt into arguments about differences in faith. The West believed that the East was playing with fire, while the East believed that the West was too conservative. There was no possibility of mutual understanding between the two sides in the short term.

Yet they could still reach an agreement on matters of interest; this had almost become a tacit understanding between the two sides.

“Where does the hour hand of Giotto’s Bell point now?” Appius asked.

“Six o’clock.” Innocent replied. “After the next magic tide arrives, it is expected to reach 6:30.”

Giotto’s Bell, a famous bell tower located at the Church headquarters, only had an hour hand on its clock face.

According to the Book of Revelation, once the hour hand reached 12 o’clock, a terrifying apocalyptic punishment would arrive. Therefore, there were always groups of believers piously prostrating themselves in prayer beneath the Giotto bell tower.

However, Appius knew that the hour hand of that clock wasn’t moved by the invisible hand of God, but controlled by the super artificial intelligence “Raphael.”

The countdown wasn’t for the world, but for technological civilization.

The closer it got to 12 o’clock, the closer technological civilization was to collapse, and the Church’s actions would become correspondingly more drastic.

“At least our goals are aligned.” Appius said.

“At least for now,” came the reply from the other side.

Chapter 64: A Friendly Reminder

“I want to continue following Asker,” she replied.

Appius keenly noticed that she didn’t say “I want to be a mercenary,” but “I want to follow Asker.” He raised his eyebrows and asked with a smile:

“His strength is not bad, but he’s on the wrong path.”

“Being a mercenary is a dead-end job, wandering around with no fixed abode, relying on wars in various places to make a living. Sooner or later, you’ll be unwelcome by the local lords.”

“Lords only treat mercenaries as a temporary source of military strength. Once the military construction in their territory is complete, they will regard mercenaries as a threat to public order, a serious problem.”

“The magic tide is about to rise, and Transcendents will soon take to the world stage. According to the historical precedent of each era, the lords and nobles will merge with high-ranking Transcendents, eventually forming a stable Transcendental ruling class. At that time, mercenaries will have even less of a place.”

“What you should do is settle down as soon as possible, use Olympia’s influence and resources, and steadily improve your own rank. This way, even if the magic tide rises rapidly, and new powers constantly emerge, you can still maintain your existing power and status with your own strength.”

“Instead of following a wandering mercenary, dying in some desolate corner, unknown to anyone.”

Asker listened, his expression noncommittal, secretly amused.

Appius’s idea represented a very popular school of thought among players in his previous life, the “farming” type.

The essence of the “farming” type wasn’t exploring ruins and anomaly dungeons, or going to the battlefield to absorb transcendental power and improve attributes, but interacting with NPC factions, increasing reputation and faction strength, and ultimately reaping benefits by leveraging their improved status.

Compared to the traditional sword and magic adventure style of players, the farming type, although weak in the early stages and only becoming powerful in the later stages, was also very popular among RPG fans.

However, starting from Version 7, the game company intended to shift towards e-sports, so various gameplays encouraging in-game PvP were introduced, and PvE gameplay was greatly weakened.

The most typical example was the demigod rank. In order to encourage everyone to quickly level up and improve their skills, the designers created a setting where “the intensity of this magic tide is unprecedented,” resulting in a significant enhancement of the demigod rank.

The famous forum saying “Below demigod, all are mortal flesh” came from this, meaning that once you reached the demigod level, it was basically very difficult for ordinary people below the demigod realm to kill you.

So the flaw of slow progress for farming-type players was exposed: you painstakingly farmed, developed your forces, and others had already advanced to demigod.

You had thousands of troops and horses, and they could destroy them with one punch.

You had a high position and great power, and they could destroy it with one punch.

You ruled the world, and they could destroy it with one punch.

Of course, “destroy with one punch” was just an exaggeration, but that was the general idea. Similar sayings included “Murder and arson lead to riches, while farming leads to elimination.”

“Grandfather.” Thira said calmly, “If I stay here, can you help me revive the Eastern Solomon Empire?”

Appius was stunned and speechless.

With the recent emergence of the Seljuk Empire’s strength, any discerning person could see that even with the return of the magic tide, the Eastern Solomon Empire had little chance of revival. The number of Transcendents and demigods on the other side was no less than that of Siris.

Unable to recapture Constantinople, clinging to the Achaea Peninsula and calling themselves the “Eastern Solomon Empire” was simply self-deception.

“Even if the empire has lost its future, at least Grandfather hopes you can have your own life.” Appius said slowly.

“So, Grandfather, I have chosen my own life.” Thira looked at him seriously.

Appius was somewhat lost in thought.

In Theodora’s eyes, he vaguely saw the shadow of his daughter, Helena.

As a child born from a demigod suppressing her bloodline, his daughter Helena was naturally frail, and childbirth would cause great harm to her body.

However, as the Empress of the Empire, she couldn’t be without an heir. Therefore, when Appius tried to persuade her, she just stared at him with firm and stubborn eyes and said seriously:

“Father, I want to have a normal family.”

That expression made it impossible for Appius to refuse. Now, in Theodora’s eyes, he saw the shadow of Helena.

His children and grandchildren had their own paths, he couldn’t choose their lives for them.

Appius took a deep breath and said with difficulty:

“Alright.”

He turned to Asker, his expression gradually turning cold:

“Asker, the thing I regret most now is not killing you at the Netherworld overlap point.”

“Since things have come to this, I won’t attack you again. However, if you dare to let Theodora down one day, I will let you experience what it means to ‘not even find peace in death’!”

Thira: ???

Asker: ???

“Grandfather!” Thira exclaimed in embarrassment.

Asker was also completely dumbfounded, but he quickly realized that Appius’s “let down” had a double meaning, it could be letting down in terms of feelings, or betrayal in terms of ideals.

Whether you are lovers or like-minded companions, if you dare to make Theodora sad, you’re dead, that was what Appius meant.

What could Asker say to this? He could only smile politely.

Fortunately, Appius wasn’t forcing him to make a statement. Facing Thira’s embarrassed and angry shouts, he immediately put on a stern face and said:

“What? Are you unhappy that your grandfather is teaching him a lesson for you?”

Thira, being an intelligent girl, immediately understood. Appius didn’t know what her relationship with Asker was, so he used vague rhetoric to warn him.

Even so, she still felt a little embarrassed and said persistently:

“Then you can’t use such ambiguous wording.”

“Hmph.” Appius flicked his sleeve. “I don’t care about the love and hate between you young people. But you are my granddaughter, Appius’, you can’t be bullied outside.”

“If you ever feel tired, come back to Olympia as soon as possible.” He looked at his granddaughter’s pretty face, his gaze softening again.

…

Asker went downstairs with the two girls.

“Phew.” Thira let out a long breath, clasped her hands together, and smiled brightly. “It’s so great to be reunited with Grandfather.”

“Thira.” Asker chuckled. “When we settle the military merit and exchange for things in a few days, can you ask your uncle to give us a discount?”

“Hey!” Thira exclaimed. “That’s my family’s wealth! You actually want to take advantage of my family?”

“Don’t put it so harshly, the money will be used on you, okay?” Asker argued.

“Okay.” Thira said, “Since you want my family to give us an extra discount, I’ll count the subsidized portion towards the team’s equity ratio.”

“Do we really have to be so meticulous about the calculations?” Asker complained.

“Peggy?” Thira suddenly noticed that Peggy’s face was a little pale, wondering if her reunion with her family had triggered her sadness over the loss of her parents. She quickly put her arm around Peggy’s shoulder and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Peggy said sullenly, her right hand unconsciously rubbing the hilt of her sword.