Pillar of Yita

Inside the hall of the Summer’s End Tower, Leiya and Tang De suddenly paused after a brief conversation. Or rather, they did not exactly stop, but instead both simultaneously looked toward the direction of the door, where a high-arched door remained firmly closed without any sign of change. At this moment, the Sorcerer-Ghoul Tang De took the initiative to speak: ”Miss Leiya–”

”Is this what you referred to as...?” Leiya’s voice remained crisp and vibrant, carrying the peculiar innocence of the Papalar people, yet as the Captain of the Holy Word Knights, she also exuded an irresistible authority.

”Those with ill intentions,” Tang De supplemented her words and nodded. ”These fellows came rather quickly; I fear they have been tracking me all the way from Dulun to here.”

”Tracking you?”

”Ha, it’s a long story.”

With a flash of light in the dark recesses of Tang De’s hollow eyes, he pulled back his chair, stood up, and bowed to Leiya: ”Miss Leiya, if we join forces, these troubles are purely–”

But before he could finish his words, a heavy ’bang’ sounded as the Knight Commander’s Great Shield was already deeply embedded into the ground. With one hand, she drew out a Longsword from behind the shield and solemnly looked toward the direction behind the door—there, beneath the steps outside the Summer’s End Tower, the Messenger had stopped together with the young Alchemist.

A vast army of the Undead also halted behind the two, an indeterminable number of Skeletons, Ghosts, and Ghost Wolves at a glance.

The former raised his head, scrutinizing the somewhat antiquated building. But beside him, the young man was looking at a Black Knight in the grey courtyard—the latter stood like a Knight Armor statue, both hands holding a sword without moving. The young Alchemist stepped back cautiously, ”Mr. Messenger, the, that Sorcerer-Ghoul is also here.”

The Messenger glanced back at him with a hint of contempt: ”Afraid?”

”Not really, it’s just...” The young man said, trembling as he glanced nervously around. On the outermost edge, the Skeletons began to stir, seemingly wanting to stagger forward.

Yet the Messenger raised the Undead Staff in his hand—compared to the one lost during the battle at Aimumu Fortress, this Undead Staff was evidently much more luxurious, its tip had a skeletal claw tightly gripping a Black Crystal. In that instant, the Black Crystal emitted a glow, and the Undead immediately quieted down.

He sneered: ”Sir Tang De, we’ve been pursuing you for so long, you wouldn’t think we couldn’t anticipate such measly tricks of yours, would you?”

”Shadow Staff,” the Sorcerer-Ghoul Tang De’s voice echoed from within the High Tower: ”It seems you lizard worshippers have acquired something from the King’s Mausoleum...”

The Messenger’s face turned cold: ”Tang De, do you think hiding in this place ensures your safety? Hand over the boy and the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword in your possession, and I might spare your life for Lord Nikopolas’s sake.”

”Spare my life?” Tang De chuckled twice, not bothering to correct the misunderstanding. Just as his laughter subsided, the door of the Summer’s End Tower opened with a rumbling crack, slowly parting to both sides.

Yet, atop the layered steps, it was not the silhouette of the Sorcerer-Ghoul Tang De that appeared first, but rather a short little lady with her Great Shield.

Leiya stood motionless, within the doorway, looking down at the ocean of Undead outside without a hint of fear.

The Messenger immediately recognized her as a Holy Chosen because the Papalar people would not typically gravitate towards the Knight profession. Knowing a battle was unavoidable, he wasted no words, planting the ’Shadow Staff’ in his hand heavily on the ground.

Around the two, the Undead army surged forward as if receiving command.

Pushing past the two of them.

Leading in the front was the swaying Skeleton army, but they had just crossed the courtyard when under the Knight Armor in the courtyard, a red light flickered, and it seemed to revive suddenly, lifting its head, grasping the sword with both hands, and swinging it forward.

A pitch-black crescent-shaped wave slashed through the Skeleton sea, leaving the front ranks of bone structures sheared away neatly.

Seeing this, the Messenger felt no loss, merely urging the Undead army to press onward—

The ghostly green Ghost army phased through the Skeletons, overtaking them, and the physically focused Black Knight was powerless against these spirit creatures, letting them shriek past—if they were corporeal beings, they would have likely perished the moment the Ghosts phased through them.

Nevertheless, both sides were of the Undead, entirely indifferent to each other.

And at this moment, Tang De’s figure finally emerged from another direction.

He descended like a stream of black smoke, immediately forming a skeleton—a Sorcerer-Ghoul needing no use of an Undead Staff, merely pointing at the ground to summon a massive three-headed hound, overwhelmingly larger than the Ghosts controlled by the Messenger, springing up from the earth.

It, too, was fully ghostly and transparent, spirit-like in form, its three giant heads snapping up any shrieking Succubi that reached its side, annihilating them instantly.

While both sides were locked in fierce combat, in the shadows of the ruins, more than ten Ghost Wolves stealthily advanced along the edges of broken walls. Their target was not the Sorcerer-Ghoul Tang De commanding the three-headed hound, but the direction of the Summer’s End Tower’s doors.

Ghost Wolves were naturally stealthy and belonged to the Shadow Realm—rumored to be progeny of the hound king under the Shadow Throne, Achilles, they seemed ordinary but were, in truth, a considerably High Rank Undead creature.