Chapter 2655: The Chocobo Knight

In the real world, Vesta Forest, the old cemetery of the Bronte family.

As the divine ritual was activated once more, a golden net descended from the sky, enveloping the flesh-and-blood giant. At this moment, its bodily injuries appeared to have healed, yet ash still drifted from its body, and its size had shrunk to one-third of what it was when it teetered on the brink of life and death.

The net constructed by the Sun Church's divine ritual produced immediate results; the giant, whose flesh was scorched by sunlight and whose agonized wails echoed, seemed ignited by that net, but instantly, a vast soul power violently burst the net apart.

Scorching golden sparks flew toward the forest but were dispersed by the ritual before igniting a fire. The giant then pressed its hand against the ground, causing the people surrounding it to flee rapidly into the distance.

Endless vitality was drawn from the surrounding creatures through the ground by that black giant; the forest, already sparse due to the loss of vitality, saw its few remaining trees topple one after another, and even the soil showed signs of turning to sand.

"Moon Slash!"

It was not Xia De, but the twelve-ring red-haired girl who, from the air, raised 【Night Watchman】 and struck out a sword scar.

Bloodlight fell; the giant hastily raised its arm, forcing that hundred-meter-long sword scar to make it kneel on one knee, pushing it backward dozens of meters through the forest before finally severing its arm, but as the whispering element spread from the giant's heart, the wound that had nearly struck its heart rapidly healed.

Xia De was right; after living so many years, the Brontes certainly possessed relics. However, they were not attack or trap-type relics as Xia De had imagined, but precious recovery-type relics.

Seeing that this strike still failed to achieve a fatal effect, the red-haired girl in the air was not disappointed, after all, she was only here to buy time. And although she had hardly ever used sword-type weapons, 【Night Watchman】 still granted her sword skills according to its properties.

This was not cold-weapon combat skill, but rather the "Moon Slash" technique Xia De used with 【Night Watchman】. With a twelve-ring level plus this Angel-class relic, if the opponent were not a true "undead," this battle would have ended long ago.

The new round of vitality absorption ended; the giant's injuries fully healed, and it stood up again, while the ring mages who had fled earlier returned to the battlefield's edge.

At this moment, including the Witch's followers, the number of ring mages present approached fifty; everyone cast spells in tacit understanding again, the light of divine arts and arcane arts illuminating the gloomy sky, countless attack-type arcane arts coordinating to strike the giant's massive body, while a rear team of dozens replenished the buff effects interrupted in the previous round.

"Summon Undead!"

Hundreds of skeletons and ghouls immediately crawled from the ground, but unknown which high-ring mage threw out "Sunshine," blocking the undead's advance.

Several chunks of flesh flew from the giant's body, transforming into its clones, but these relatively weak clones were turned to ash beneath a few sword strikes from the red-haired girl.

Just then, the forest far to the east trembled slightly, followed by a golden figure bursting out with lightning. That figure moved extremely fast, and because there was little sound, only the red-haired girl in the air noticed.

But it was not Xia De, nor was it the "Construct Master," a thirteen-ring mage of the Creation Church resisting the main force of the undead army east of Resistance City; it was Yi Lu Na riding a yellow chocobo charging out from the forest.

Even Miss Danistest could not discern what arcane art she used; that very excitedly running chocobo truly transformed into lightning, and in the blink of an eye, it had reached the battlefield's edge.

"Jump!"

The chocobo leaped suddenly, carrying lightning to a height of a hundred feet, while Yi Lu Na, holding the chocobo's neck with one hand, raised her empty right hand; a yellow orb of light condensed in her palm, and in the next breath, directly transformed into a sun-like scorching orb of light:

"Earth Power · Solar Energy Cannon!"

The falling "sun" engulfed that black giant and once again altered the terrain of the surrounding forest. The scorching sun combined with the talent of the Chosen One; Miss Danistest even felt that Yi Lu Na's strike was more effective than all the previous attacks combined.

The boom~ of the roar triggered by this strike could probably be heard even within the city. The normal forest around, already piled with withered leaves, was now burning under the sun's heat; a minor earthquake truly and permanently changed the surrounding environment.

The golden chocobo, very excited, landed carrying Yi Lu Na from the air; before Miss Danistest could greet her, a pitch-black beam shot from the exploding light cluster toward Yi Lu Na and the chocobo, but instantly that "Death Finger" was blocked by the dark golden light erupting around Yi Lu Na.

The Chosen One is similarly unaffected by instant-death type attacks.

The people on the battlefield also realized that someone extraordinary had come to help; some even guessed who it was from that strike, though they could not prove it temporarily. But they had no time to consider this for now, because in the deep crater of the explosion, the giant's figure appeared and disappeared again; this thing, though it could be injured, was truly immortal.

"Roar!"

Raising both arms high, the giant activated its innate talent of vitality absorption once more; this time, the covered range truly expanded to the entire forest.

Centered at its feet, the black soil rapidly turned to ash and spread outward; the vitality diffusing from the trees even formed green light streams in the air, which then converged into a green sea of light flowing toward it.

Ground-based arcane bombardment attempted to interrupt its absorption, but the injuries they caused were far less than the death knight's recovery speed. Miss Danistest did not attack this time; instead, she raised her hand and threw 【Night Watchman】 toward Yi Lu Na on the chocobo.

That eighteen-year-old girl reached out to catch the long sword, its tip pointing upward, just touching the dark golden balance scale floating above her head. The silver long sword and the dark golden balance scale formed a nearly perfect left-right symmetrical pattern; their powers mutually superimposed, and then reality changed according to Yi Lu Na's will:

"Edict · Prohibit!"

As if a distant bell rang from the horizon, the giant's action of absorbing vitality was abruptly interrupted, and even its body stiffened at that moment. Just then, with the rumbling sound coming from the northern forest, hundreds of ancient treants summoned by the hermits, under the hermits' control, joined the battlefield.

They rushed toward the giant in the deep crater; roots firmly pierced beneath the ash-covered ground, and branches grew, piercing that black flesh to lock it firmly to the ground.

The roaring giant tore the treants from its body, but at the same time peeled off chunks of its own flesh. And Yi Lu Na had already ridden that "golden lightning chocobo" back into the air; her silver sword danced with sword flowers, then swept horizontally forward:

"Great Sun Sword!"

The new power gained after the Moon Bay battle, combined with 【Night Watchman】 which was even more suited to "Sun" power, caused a hundred-meter-long golden light sword to slice the giant in half while the chocobo glided through the air—although the chocobo could not fly long distances, it possessed gliding ability.

The giant, broken in two, was then surrounded and divided by more treants; it still tried to struggle to heal itself, but it no longer had the chance.

Flurries of snowflakes scattered at this moment into the forest, which had become hot due to Yi Lu Na's spellcasting; the girl on the chocobo immediately looked up at the sky, and only after confirming the phantom of the moon appeared in the air did she relax and smile.

The red-haired girl, who had quietly retracted her life ring but was actually restored to thirteen rings, looked down at the river in the forest not far away.

Because of the giant's terrain-altering strike and Yi Lu Na's "Solar Energy Cannon," the river's flow had now changed to accumulate water in the Great Lake formed at the ruins of the old cemetery. At this moment, a small boat drifted rapidly from the thick fog far up the river. And as the small boat approached the battlefield's center, a bone-chilling cold wind, as if blowing from midwinter, already ran through the forest.

The temperature changed from autumn to summer in just a few minutes, and now changed to winter. White frost spread along the river, soil, and trees with the small boat's advance; and as the boat drew closer, the red-haired girl also saw Xia De at the bow, his mouth tightly shut for some reason.

Xia De, having changed clothes, of course also saw the appearance of the hermits and Yi Lu Na's arrival; of course, he was even more curious about what special effect had been applied to that strange chocobo.

"Woo woo woo~"

He raised his hand, pointed at Yi Lu Na and Miss Danistest, and waved wildly; then the two eighteen-year-old girls both understood.

"Prepare for the final strike; control it, do not let it move!"

Yi Lu Na shouted loudly; thus the hermits communicated with the forest, causing the trees to become treants that drove their roots deeper, while the Church ring mages cast spells to drain the life force from the severed flesh.

After the chocobo landed, it bounced excitedly once more, carrying Yi Lu Na back into the air:

"Earth Power · Solar Energy Cannon!"

As she held the orb of light high and descended from the highest point, the red-haired girl appearing behind her had her hair fluttering in the wind; she did not use her signature arcane art:

"Arcane Art - Moon Slash!"

The golden and red arcane arts descended sequentially, falling into the deep crater still accumulating river water; in the final explosion, the small boat carrying Xia De had already reached the crater's edge. When the small boat reached the end of the "waterfall," he leaped lightly from the bow into the air, which was now filled with heavy snow.

Large swarms of red butterflies flew toward higher altitudes in the snow, but if one looked closely, the edges of every red butterfly's wings now bore a line of ice-blue pattern.

The chocobo had glided toward the ground, so the red-haired girl caught Xia De emerging from the swarm of butterflies.

She embraced him from behind in the snow, bringing them to the center above the deep crater; both saw fragmented black flesh floating everywhere in the shallow river water, while York Bronte, trembling all over, was trying to stand on the water's surface.