v3c350p1

The Abyss(9)

As the demons were fighting with the northern allies of Aouine and the armies of the Holy Cathedral of Fire, Jorgendy Ridge’s army quickly captured the entire harbor of Ampere Seale. The Coast Guards were thoroughly defeated by Brendel. However, the beings from down below were spared. With All for One’s guidance, they easily opened the gates and dispersed the remaining port guards. By nightfall, there was scarcely any resistance remaining in the port.

Amidst the pouring rain, a beautiful figure was slowly making its way up the hovering staircase of the city building.

Medusa Lysemeka wore a clean white linen gown, revealing bronze scaly skin underneath, her legs were far more slender than those of a human woman. She liked to wrap her bronze-speckled python tail around her shoulders, like a shawl.

She ascended the balcony at the top of the city building, separating the twittering eagle demons and saw the dying Viscount Benninger. She took his wrist and recited a byte, a faint black pattern emerged above the third joint of his left hand index finger. She brought it to her beautiful eyes and examined it for a moment before raising her head and asking, “Where did you find him?”

The Eagle Demons replied in a shrill voice and a language unique to the underground, “Nearby, ma’am.”

“Why didn’t the messenger wake up?”

“The messenger has been knocked unconscious, ma’am.”

“Humans are still so fragile.” Lysmeka was full of disdain. However, she didn’t dare to reveal this kind of emotion, as this person was an important figure from All for One; All for One was a follower of the Twilight Dragon and worked closely with demons. This was not someone that a lower class like her could judge. She lowered her head and flicked out her forked tongue, creating a black mark on Viscount Benninger’s forehead. Then with a gentle stroke of her hand, she created a cover for him to protect him from the rain.

“Wait until Lord Broca arrives, you guys take good care of him. Our enemy this time is the dreaded Holy Cathedral of Fire, and the Lords need All for One to unearth that instrument for them. As long as we stand firm, ‘we’ shall obtain massive pieces of land.” Lysmeka looked eager, her beautiful serpentine hair rising up in excitement.

She looked at the Arreck Mountain Ranges in the distance and saw the rolling shadows of the mountains shrouded beneath gloomy dark clouds, the color of lightning reflected in her beautiful eyes as if lighting a spark.

But not far from her, two women were discussing in earnest. “White Mist, we were right to leave Viscount Benninger there: now we caught the big fish. Turns out they were plotting some sort of conspiracy.”

Scheming was a certainty, or else All for One would not even be here. “So what, are you going to follow her?” White Mist glanced at her. “Of course.” Romaine nodded as if it was obvious

“With your inconsistent tracking skills, it won’t take more than a minute for us to be discovered and then you’ll be caught and killed, in which case I’ll have to die too.” White Mist coolly knowcked her down. Romaine couldn’t help but reveal a disgruntled face and raised her eyebrow, “Is it really that bad?”

“It’s worse than that.”

“Then we’ll just have to abandon the plan. White mist, white mist. What do we do next?” The merchant girl very liberally dismissed her long thought out plan as if it wasn’t even hers.

“Think for yourself.” White Mist replied lazily.

“I know, Brendel won’t be scared by the enemies in the plain sight, but hidden plots are much harder to guard against, it’s always written like that in those chivalric novels. Besides, Brendel looks dumb and gullible, we have to dig up what they’re digging for before them.” Romaine immediately came to a new conclusion.

“How do you plan to do it?” White Mist felt that using a chivalric novel as a model for action is the perfect example of what not to do. But since she was on the right trail of thought, she didn’t bother to pick on it. To be honest, if she could, she wouldn’t say anything. “Let’s go find that sneaky guy first,” Romaine replied confidently.

“Sneaky guy?”

“I just saw Duke Arreck. Didn’t viscount ‘what’s-his-name’ say they were members of the “what’s-its-name organization as well?”

“Say stuff like this earlier next time,” White Mist finally barely rolled her eyes, which was the first move she made today that could be called an expression.

……..

“Is that you? Babasha?” Brendel already recognized the wrinkle faced old woman as the old witch Babasha he blackmailed in Riedon Fortress.

“A witch? Brendel, who is she?” Princess Gryphine was the first to react. Because they once followed the Darkness Dragon, witches didn’t have a good reputation in the human world. As a result, most of them lived a reclusive life. With an aura of evil, mystery, and mischief, many of Vaunte’s bedtime stories used them as the typical anti-human.

Princess Gryphine, who grew up in this kind of culture, was naturally no exception. The fact that she only frowned already showed that she was well-mannered, though of course, also because they had stepped up to help them once. Count Audine also raised his eyebrows slightly, but as a mature nobleman he was obviously much more composed and did not express his shock.

“It is I, my lord,” wearing a long black robe, an old woman that hid her wrinkled face beneath her witch hat bowed respectfully to Brendel, “You all need not worry, my lord has helped this old woman once in the past, and I made a vow before the Darkness Dragon that I will repay it. This is the day that I shall repay your kindness so please don’t be bothered my lord.” Babasha sized them up with her tiny eyes and replied.

This is clearly a lie. Helpedher, more like blackmailed her. But Brendel was more or less able to guess why she would help him, and soon a voice in his head confirmed this hypothesis.

“O my king, there is no need to be suspicious. We were always your faithful followers, and at this turning point of history, it is time for the witches of the Winter Kingdom to fulfill their promises.”

Just as he thought. When Babasha prophesied in Riedon Fortress that he would bring the return of the Darkness Dragon, he only felt that it was nonsense. However, the world is unpredictable; he really did become the heir to the Odin legacy though he only got a fraction of this legacy. In fact, it’s not really the Darkness Dragon, so heck knows how this old witch found him.

“Hmph!” Another voice grumbled. “Brendel, where did you get these filthy allies. Could it be that you really want to be the Darkness Dragon?” It was the Wind Empress.

Brendel was startled, he did not expect the Wind Empress to chime in at this time, she and Odin were archenemies, in other words, one of the great enemies of these witches. He hurriedly looked up and found that there were no strange expressions on Babasha’s face, and only then did he settle down. It seemed that Barbara’s voice was only a magical effect, she wasn’t able to peer into his mind.

“She came here herself, it wasn’t me.” Brendel couldn’t help but whine.

“Hmph, do yourself a favor and don’t get too cocky.” The Wind Empress coldly dropped this sentence and went silent again. Brendel thought of something, ”Wind Empress, I thought you really wouldn’t see me all day today.”

“You….”

The Wind Empress gritted her teeth, mentally cursing the pig-headed Brendel for the tenth time, then made up her mind that she wouldn’t acknowledge this guy until the verylast moment..

Brendel didn’t know that he just pissed offthe Wind Elf’s Sage once again and that if it was possible, he would be burning at the stake in the Holy Cathedral of Windby now. “Babasha, how did you know all this?” He asked.

The old witch smiled mysteriously. “Master, you need not hide it. As long as the covenants on the dark prophecy are not gone, we witches will be able to read all of its secrets. The dark prophecy has already foretold everything that happened today; the Darkness Dragon will return to the earth.”

“The Dark Prophecy also said that Madara will rule the earth and the Twelve Branches of the Witch organization would eventually merge into one, which ended up being a hoax.” Brendel thought in his head. But he didn’t want to get involved with these people, witches didn’t have a good reputation in the mortal world. To be associated with them is to admit to an identity of a Darkness Dragon follower. Under the rule of the four Holy Cathedrals, the followers of the Darkness Dragon were treated like cultists in Vaunte, sewer rats for anyone to trample on. “Could you have messed up?” He asked.

“No,” Babasha responded. She humbly replied, ”Is My Lord worried about his identity? That’s no problem, we will help you in the shadows but never to the point of revealing your identity — at least until the second Judgement Day.”

“What is the second Judgement Day?” Brendel felt that he would go crazy sooner or later talking to these god-awful witches. But if Babasha was really what she said, the witches would be good support for him.

Witches and prophets were the first mortals in the world to master the power of magic.Ancient mages achieved what we perceive as modern magic by exploiting the magic in words and languages; the source of their power was actually the twelve phases of the moon reflected by the dark magic of the sky, therefore there were twelve different types of witches who walked on earth. For example, Romaine’s aunt is the Eternal Witch of the Enchanted Moon in the astrological region of Lyra. And the strongest witch, Bunosong, is the Winter Witch of the Witch Throne.

Witches have been subjected to the erosion of Dark Magic for a long time and which caused them to become eccentric as a result. Most of them were vicious and brutal but there were some that were kind and rational, though all of them, without exception, were steadfast followers of order. No matter how different the world may be, it cannot be denied that they are at odds with the majority, just like the pagans are.

This is exactly why though Brendel would never be in the same boat as All for One, he was able to accept the Darkness Dragon’s legacy. Hence for the same reason, he didn’t mind Babasha’s help as long as it didn’t bring any trouble.

He mused for a moment, “Babasha, you said that the Winter Kingdom was fulfilling their promise, so you didn’t accomplish that Dark Canopy on your own?”

“Master, there were several other sisters with me,” Babasha replied.

The same dry and wrinkled face appeared in Brendel’s mind. Since they specialized in dark magic, witches liked to hide in barren areas. Small kingdoms like Aouine on the borders of civilization were their paradise, and he knew many more witches just like Babasha in Aouine.

Actually, Romaine’s aunt, Aunt Jenny is a prime example. “How strong are they?”

“Basically the same as me, Master.” Brendel raised his head and looked at Babasha with eagle eyes. “Babasha, you say that the Kingdom of Winter will respond to the Witch King’s vow to the Darkness Dragon, don’t tell me there are only a few of you in the Witch’s Kingdom of Bunosong?”

“Of course not, they are just confined by their own constraints and were not able to come. My lord, please do not doubt our loyalty.” Babasha spoke most respectfully, but she was stammering.

Brendel understood now. He knew that the twelve witches were scattered all over the earth, and figured that it was unlikely for them to agree with each other. Although he was heir to the Darkness Dragon, he wasn’t necessarily the only heir, and Babasha had clearly come to him as a long-term investment.

The old witch was quite shrewd, but Brendel did not think highly of the few Silver-ranked witches, and could not help but be a little disappointed. “Babasha, don’t tell me that you think this feeble strength of yours will help me?”

“Of course not,” said Babasha in a hurriedly, “but my lord, the witch’s power has always resided more in wisdom than strength. Difficulties that cannot be solved by strength can be solved by wisdom.”

For the last two sentences, Brendel and Babasha had stopped using Whispering Magic, and Count Audine after hearing this immediately opened his mouth, “In that case, old witch, what wisdom do you bring forth?” His tone was hardly polite, for witches were the definition of treachery and deceit.

“My lord, we can take you through this area while avoiding the Eagle Demon’s watch,” Babasha replied.

“Really?” Brendel asked carefully with a faint glint in his eyes. “You say you can take us through the area without being discovered by Jorgendy Ridge’s army?”

“Exactly.”

“No matter if it’s to the south or north?” Brendel continued asking.

“Mr. Brendel, what do you plan to do?” Princess Gryphine was shocked. She turned her head and looked at Brendel with wide silver eyes. It was as if she was getting to know him all over again.

“Ye……Yes.” A few more wrinkles seemed to appear on Babasha’s face. She was thinking about something, but she was not lying.

“Babasha, how many people can you guarantee will cross this blockade undetected?” Brendel didn’t acknowledge the others as the path in his mind was becoming clearer.

“No more than twenty people.”

“I see,” Brendel nodded, “Your Highness, the Anchor Key you gave me can be used to determine an anchor point for the First Royal Fleet of Aouine, right? How much magic do you need to activate it?”

“Mr. Brendel……”

Gryphine looked at him and whispered, “It’s too risky….”