v4c11

Crystallization

Brendel’s sword broke through the door, and the solid oak door was smashed to bits. His black coat was like a blooming rose among the flying wood scraps. The rose petals opened, from which came an icy sword. The blade of the sword pointed directly at the noble boy on the bed with one hand on the Countess’ neck.

Akel probably never thought that someone would suddenly break the door. Startled, he shrieked in a rush of rage, “Damn you Anurek, where are you!”

The next moment, Brendel saw a shadow coming at him, but he had guessed that there was someone else in the house even before the boy shouted. He reflexively retracted his sword, and with a sharp ‘clank,’ Brendel felt the Halran Gaia blocking something. He narrowed his eyes and saw a transparent sword that shone like an icy crystal.

“Get out of here!”

With that roar, the sharp crystal blade pressed harder against the Halran Gaia, trying to slash Brendel’s wrist. But the Halran Gaia projected forward, and its majestic power was like a tsunami that sent the thin crystal blade flying.

Brendel felt the gray shadow retreat and then saw the gray cloak of the sword-wielding man slip down to the floor. The person underneath the hood was like a monster from a nightmare, covered in dark smoke, its face could not be clearly seen.

The ghostly figure hissed, there was both shock and anger in his voice. He did not think that this young man would have such terrifying power, unaware that it was because of Brendel’s Spectral Knight Crystal. His strength was naturally much higher than others in the same realm, not to mention, achieving the Golden Peak at twenty years old was a miracle in itself.

And Brendel was the creator of this miracle. He was not going to give the other party any chance to recover. His long black coat closed in as wood shards continued to fall and another black light struck at the strange man.

historical

“Flash......Sword!”

The ghost hissed eerily as if it recognized Brendel’s swordplay. It had already been swept back towards the bed by Brendel’s sword. It had no choice but to raise its crystal longsword in defense. However, as the two swords met, only a shattering sound was heard, and waves emitted from the crystal.

Without saying a word, Brendel continued to move forward with the Halran Gaia in his hand, and in the next moment, the shining blade in the gray-robed monster’s hand exploded into countless pieces.

The creature let out a scream, realizing the insurmountable gap in capability between him and the young man. At the last moment, it raised its head and sent a Debilitating Wave straight to Brendel’s head.

Debilitating Shock.

The Debilitating Wave was moved extremely quickly, and with a very short distance between the two of them. It left no time or space for Brendel to dodge. The Debilitating Shock had pierced straight into his head before he could even react.

Unfortunately, this time, the ghostly figure had clearly chosen the wrong target.

Brendel’s Willpower attribute’s value had reached an outrageous number after being strengthened by the Blood of God and had become more invincible after receiving the Lightning Core implant, resulting in a Willpower Barrier that was immune to most spells, including the Debilitating Shock.

The ghostly figure’s Debilitating Shock hit Brendel’s Willpower Barrier: it was like a snowball smashing into a 1000 millimeter thick steel plate. Brendel felt someone spying on him in his Willpower field. He smirked in his head as he coldly watched the Debilitating Wave scatter as if it had hit an invisible wall. Then, resulting backlash swept back at ten times the speed.

Brendel stared at the other party coldly.

The ghost shrieked wretchedly; it hugged its head and started shaking wildly, but it was to no avail. Everyone present heard a cracking sound, and then they saw the monster’s head exploded like how a glass ball would.

Brendel panicked a little. He thought he would see the brains exploding and blood splattering everywhere. Of course, he did not mind, but there were a few ladies present here, and he didn’t fancy being known as the head-busting maniac in Ampere Seale.

To his surprise, the monster’s head exploded as if it was a crystal ball. Pieces of crystals flew all over the place, and they pierced the house like sharp blades.l

Brendel hurriedly activated the Colliding Halo. The crystal fragments only collided against the magic shield so he did not end up getting impaled by those crystals.

On the other hand, the young nobleman named Akel was not so lucky. As he was watching the fight going on in the room, he did not expect the shadow’s attack to be a suicidal attack. He was astonished, standing in front of Dilferi and blocking her from the exploding crystal shards.

And so the result of it was obvious.

The instant the crystal exploded, hundreds of shards as sharp as needles pierced into half of his body, slicing up that handsome face and even piercing through an eyeball, causing his eyeball to fall out of the socket like a chuck of rotten flesh.

Akel, who had turned into a bloody lump, froze for a moment before he could react. He held his face and started screaming on the bed; his miserable scream was like that of a dying animal.

Dilfer, who was still held down on the bed, used all her strength to push him away and struggled to jump off the bed. But she had forgotten that she was unable to walk, and fell off the edge of the bed and landed on the floor with a loud thud. The thud was followed by the Countess’ cry in pain.

Brendel felt a twist in his heart and he hurried over to Dilferi, pulling her up onto his back. The Countess was shivering and pale, she didn’t even notice that her corset buttons were all opened. She did not even have the strength to hold onto Brendel’s sleeve; the girl would have fallen to the floor if Brendel had not been holding her up.

“Are you okay?”

“Mr. Brendel, I......” It was as if Dilferi had been through a nightmare, the tears stains on her cheeks were still wet, and she could not say anything.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here for you.” Brendel said comfortingly.

He looked at the bloody man wailing on the bed. Akel had completely stained the sheets red, cloth was sticking to his wounds and his actions ripped open new wounds causing more blood loss. Soon, he lost the strength to scream, and started shivering on his bed as if he was afraid of ripping open any more wounds.

The wails gradually turned into whimpers of pain.

It was obvious that this man was not going to survive. But Brendel had no sympathy for him, especially when he had seen Dilferi in her current state. Brendel was furious; he wanted to go up to this man and cast more spells at him, so the man could get a taste of pain again before he died.

At this time, Princess Gryphine came up to the second floor. Her face changed as she saw the situation in the room. She glanced at Dilferi; She instantly understood what had happened. “Monster.” The princess spat out the word coldly.

“Who is he?” Brendel asked.

“I don’t even want to say this guy’s name, he’s nothing more than a monster. He’s the only heir to Baron Dahl, he’s not Dilferi’s biological brother. You should know who he is.”

Princess Gryphine looked coldly at the bloody man who was sobbing on the bed, then she spoke to DIlferi comfortingly, “Are you alright, Dilferi?”

The Countess was able to present her strong side in front of Brendel, but she could not help but burst out in tears when she saw her playmate since childhood. The princess hastily helped her up and comforted her warmly as she shot a glare at Brendel.

“How long do you want to hold her in your arms?”

That look meant......

Brendel was startled.

“Let me take her to change, you made too much of a scene here. The Coast Guards will be here soon, do you want other people to see Dilferi like this?” The princess whispered.

Only then did Brendel come back to his senses and rush to help the crying Countess into the princess’ arms. He then took a look at the nobleman on the bed, who was almost out of energy. Previously he had struck out of anger without much consideration, but now he realized that this situation was a little difficult to deal with. But it was this guy himself who had it coming, otherwise, Brendel would have given him a chance to explain.

Great, I somehow killed a noble without even knowing what he is here for.

But what really puzzled Brendel was something else. He could not help but take one more look around the room. “What are you looking at?” Noticing his gaze, the Princess asked sharply.

But Brendel shook his head: he had a vague suspicion but he was not entirely sure yet. He pointed to the bloody man on the bed and asked, “Nothing. What should we do with this guy?”

“Please leave it to me, Count, Your Highness.”

A cold voice was heard. Brendel and the princess looked back, startled, only to see Niya and the female knight looking at them with pleading gazes. Startled by the sight of those hate-filled eyes, Brendel hesitated, but eventually nodded.

Five minutes later, a final wail came from Dilferi’s room, then it was quiet.

The Coast Guards came slower than the princess had expected, and the Countess had already changed her clothes when they arrived. Brendel saw Dilferi appear in a wheelchair along with Princess Gryphine. the Countess was clearly still traumatized, clutching her shawl with both of her hands as if she could get some comfort from it.

But at least she was able to speak normally, the pale Countless looked up and saw Brendel. “Mr.Brendel, thank you.” She said gratefully.

“It’s nothing. So what is going on here?” Brendel asked. He did not believe the bastard had come from Yanbao Castle just to rape his sister. Besides, he had heard Akel asking Dilferi for something. He had a suspicion but wasn’t sure of it yet.

“You heard it too.” The Countess’ face was a little red, she never thought that Brendel would see such a humiliating scene, it was simply a disgrace to the family. “My brother......he came to ask me for the Ring of the Sword Guardian.

“That’s not your brother, he’s just a monster.” Princess Gryphine was still angry. “The Ring of the Sword Guardian was an honor bestowed upon the Sword Guardian’s family by the royal family, and that guy wanted to obtain it in such a shameless way. Simply outrageous.”

Brendel nodded. He was not surprised that this kind of bullshit was all there was left among the nobles of Aouine. The tactic’s Dilferi’s brother used was absolutely disgraceful. People who do such things towards a woman, especially one’s own sister, do not deserve to be alive in this world.

“How is Yanbao so messed up?” He asked.

This time it was Princess Gryphine who answered on her behalf, “This is normal. With the Sword Throne shattered, some demons and monsters that were hiding will definitely seize the opportunity to create chaos. It would be rather suspicious if they did not.”

The half-elf girl replied coldly as if she was used to seeing such things. Not only was she used to seeing it, she had experienced it herself once before. In front of absolute power, kinship was merely a thin veil that could easily be torn apart.

“No,” Brendel shook his head. “I mean, did Count Yanbao, Miss Dilferi’s father lost the ability to be in control? If I remember correctly, Dilferi, you took the three strongest swordsmen from Yanbao, but your father should still have a private army, right?”

“If Count Yanbao still had the slightest bit of control over his territory and subordinates, that guy wouldn’t have been so arrogant.” Brandel did not finish the rest of his words, but his meaning was clear to both the princess and Dilferi. If Count Yanbao still had power, Akel would not have dared to openly come to Ampere Seale and take a shot at Dilferi.

Although both Dilferi and Princess Gryphine were girls, they were both born into noble families, and hence were deeply aware of the rules and struggles of nobility. The Countess was the first to react: her expression changed as she asked urgently, “Mr.Brendel, do you mean something might have happened to my father?”

“You don’t have to be so uptight, Dilferi. Those guys are probably incapable of doing anything.” The princess shook her head while comforting her, “The Holy Cathedral is making a big deal out of the fact that you can carry out demonic spells, and I actually knew about this. I originally thought that they couldn’t do anything about it, but in my oversight...”

“The Holy Cathedral is condemning Dilferi for her ability to cast demonic spells?” It was the first time Brendel had heard this news and he was furious. The Holy Cathedral was the one that summoned the Devils, he was the one who gave the Devil Armlet to Dilferi, and Dilferi, daughter of a count, could not even walk on her own anymore because she cast demonic spells, sacrificing herself to save the entire port.

And now the Holy Cathedral wants to bother her?

Brendel took a deep breath and frowned, he held himself back with great difficulty from immediately going to the Holy Cathedral. He believed that Princess Gryphine was not the kind of person who would sacrifice others just to ensure the greater good.

He looked at the princess.

The half-elf princess sighed, “This was not the intention of Archbishop Wood, it’s the traitors who are allied with the Northern noblemen that did this. Besides, it’s the Kirrlutz’s fault for what has happened. I thought it was just a little trick they pulled to disgust us, I didn’t think it would be misinterpreted by certain people.”

The ‘certain people’ she was talking about were obviously Akel and Baron Dahl. But Brendel frowned.

Is that so?

“Dilferi,” Brendel asked suddenly, “Are you familiar with that uncle of yours?”

“Well, kind of. He’s......not very well regarded, but he’s said to be a very capable man. He’s always been at odds with my father, but according to the family traditions of Yanbao, extended families were not allowed to own private armies, only the Count could do that. So the conflict between him and my father was just a matter of not wanting to see each other.” Dilferi replied with a frown, she was obviously thinking about certain things as well.

“Do you know what kind of retainers he had before?”

Brendel asked.

“I don’t know.” Dilfer shook her head, “I’ve never seen the one Akel brought either. Niya might know something; she knows more about the people in the territory than I do.”

“I’ve asked her.”

Brendel replied. But this time he put on a serious look, “Let me ask you one last question, Dilferi.”

“What?”

“Did anything strange happen in the Yanbao region recently, or did anything like the Crystal Forest appear? “