Knight: from Apprentice to the Almighty

Chapter 331: Chapter 318: Attack

Deep within a remote, dense forest in the eastern Golden Valley Kingdom.

The air was humid and heavy, a rich aroma mixing the thick scent of humus with the strange fragrance of unknown wildflowers.

Massive buttress roots, like the claws of a slumbering behemoth, twisted and coiled, tearing through the dark surface of the earth.

Yet, within this primitive and serene area, there was a profoundly unnatural rupture.

The ground had collapsed downward, forming a nearly perfect circular pit about ten feet in diameter, its edges jagged and uneven.

The vegetation around the pit’s mouth was a sickly, scorched black and withered, creating a shocking contrast with the vibrant green of the surroundings.

Gloria stood silently at the edge of the pit, her lips pressed into a thin line as she gazed down into the bottomless opening.

The scene below was far from ordinary soil and rock.

At first, it was just common earth, but further down, the walls were gradually covered in a smooth, greasy, dark purple substance, as if saturated by some creature’s bodily fluids over a long period.

This bizarre substance throbbed faintly, emitting a weak heat and a sweet, coppery stench so strong it was nauseating.

Light was twisted and devoured here.

The passage stretched down endlessly, plunging into a Darkness as thick and heart-pounding as asphalt.

Occasionally, a few unnatural, sickly points of phosphorescence would flicker from the deepest part of the Darkness, like the blinking eyes of some enormous creature, vanishing in an instant.

"It is a trace of the Abyss, as I thought. And..."

She bent down, picking up a pinch of dirt from beside her foot and rubbing it between her fingers.

"It was created by manual excavation."

Confirming this, a sliver of doubt rose in the Princess’s heart.

’But... according to the ancient texts, there’s a barrier of Law between the Abyss and the Prime Material Plane. How could a passage be opened by human effort alone?’

’Who on earth could have done this?’

Just as she was lost in thought, the sound of slightly hurried footsteps came from the woods.

"Her Highness Princess Gloria!"

The lady-in-waiting Mel’s dark face was filled with visible panic.

Gloria frowned slightly, motioning to the dozen or so Guards beside her to secure the area before she stood and walked away from the pit.

"What happened, Mel?"

Gloria pulled a white silk handkerchief from her sleeve and carefully wiped her hands.

Though she asked the question, the strange, ominous image of the pit continued to flash through her mind.

Mel took a deep breath, her voice tight with tension.

"Your Highness, a great deal of terrible news has come from the Royal Capital. Recently, several of your brothers and sisters have met with mishaps. His Highness the Sixth Prince... passed away in his chambers, and His Highness Prince Adams, during a hunt..."

Having spent so long tracking traces of the Abyss in the border forests, Gloria had been cut off from news from the Royal Capital for a long time.

Upon hearing this sudden, dreadful news, she snapped her head up, and the silk handkerchief drifted from her hand to the ground.

Her face instantly turned pale, and for the first time, shock and disbelief were clearly reflected in eyes that were usually as calm as a lake.

"How dare they..."

She murmured in a trembling voice, the inscrutable smile of Duke Anno and the seemingly foolish but actually frigid gaze of her brother, Prince Lucius, already appearing in her mind.

"Also, Your Highness..."

Mel steadied herself and continued to report urgently.

"Regarding the envoys from the River Domain nations, notices for their capture have been posted throughout the kingdom, saying they..."

Before she could finish, everything changed.

The light twisted and the temperature plummeted, as if winter had descended in an instant.

The deep Shadow of a giant tree behind and to Gloria’s side began to writhe violently as if it had a life of its own. A humanoid silhouette separated from it, moving in a way that defied logic.

It wasn’t running, but rather skimming along the ground like a glider, silent and so fast it was nothing but a blurred Residual Shadow.

The attacker was cloaked in a deep darkness that blended seamlessly with the environment, making its features impossible to discern.

Only the Short Blade in its hand, which seemed to be forged from pure Void, radiated a terrifying, light-devouring aura.

And that was only the beginning.

In almost the same instant, another ghostly figure shot up from a Shadow on the ground to Gloria’s front-left, its movements so coordinated it was as if they were two sides of the same entity.

Immediately after, a third attacker lunged down from the shadows of the branches above, sealing off all avenues of escape.

They appeared without warning, as if they were a part of the shadows themselves, only now coalescing to deliver a fatal blow.

A cold killing intent, like a tangible net, snapped shut, completely enveloping Gloria.

"Your Highness!"

Mel’s cry of alarm was swallowed by a sudden, suffocating silence.

Gloria didn’t even have time to turn completely before a bone-chilling coldness rushed at her back.

In that moment, her mask of composure finally cracked.

Her azure pupils contracted sharply in response to the multi-directional, logic-defying assault.

For the first time, the panic of a young woman and a sense of overwhelming crisis surfaced uncontrollably on her face.

......

......

"Roland, I have to say, you were born with the charisma and talent of a leader..."

Recalling the scene of Master Reggie and the students finding their Hope renewed by Roland’s words, the Minstrel couldn’t help but strum his lute and praise him in a low voice.

"Ally with the Princess, gather like-minded people, overthrow the conspiracy of the Duke and the Prince... Tsk tsk, when all this is over, I’ll have to spend a few days composing this story into a proper ballad!"

"Spare me your nonsense, Galvis."

Roland cut him off with a sigh, suddenly pulling his reins tight and closing his eyes.

[Shadow Perception] expanded silently, spreading out like a spiderweb, keenly catching the faint, almost nonexistent trace of the Abyss’s aura in the air.

"But seriously, Roland..."

Apparently, without Avril to restrain him, the Minstrel wasn’t about to stop talking just because of Roland’s impatience.

"Will the Princess really agree to your plan? Even if she is willing to cooperate... forgive me for being blunt, but despite her high reputation among the commoners and soldiers, taking on a powerful Duke and a Prince with just that... it sounds a bit unrealistic. And what’s more..."

Galvis glanced around at the dense jungle, so thick it nearly blocked out the sky, a hint of doubt in his tone.

"And how can you be so sure a noble Princess would still be in a place where even birds won’t land?"

"This way."

Roland pointed in a direction, exchanged a look with the silent but ever-vigilant Teresa at his side, and then spurred his horse forward again.

"Hey! Roland! I’m still talking to you!"

Watching the two of them ride off without hesitation, Galvis sighed in resignation, muttered a few words under his breath, and finally urged his horse to catch up, riding alongside Roland.

"Roland, you still haven’t answered me..."

"Shh!"

Roland suddenly cut him off with a finger to his lips, dismounting in one fluid motion. His sharp gaze fixed on a spot in the woods.

Several bodies in standard-issue Armor lay sprawled among the fallen leaves and rot, their gruesome state a clear sign of a brief but brutal battle.

Seeing this, he raised a hand to signal Teresa and Galvis behind him to be on guard, then lowered his body and crept forward silently, as if melting into the shadows of the forest.

The smell of blood in the air mixed with that unsettling aura of the Abyss, growing ever stronger.

He pushed aside the last thick bush blocking his view, and the scene ahead opened up.

In a ravaged forest clearing, three ghostly attackers were launching a relentless assault from different angles.

And their target was the figure surrounded in the center.

Compared to the dignified and elegant bearing he remembered, the Gloria before him now was like a completely different person.

Her dress was torn in several places by sharp blades, and her long, gold hair, caked with dirt and grass, clung messily to her sweat-slicked cheeks and neck.

Her fair face was spattered with blood, whether her own or her enemies’, it was impossible to tell.

Her once clear and determined gold eyes were now wide with exhaustion, pain, and extreme Concentration. Every parry and dodge was a hair’s breadth from failure, her breathing ragged and frantic. She was clearly at the end of her rope.

But what was even more eye-catching were the strange and blazing gold patterns emerging on her exposed arms and slender neck.

The patterns seemed to have a life of their own, spreading up from the back of her hands.

Like Burning vines coiling around her skin, they emitted a faint light that was both sacred and unsettling.