Battle at the Quarry (Part 2)

"Rumble—!"

The azure sword aura spread its wings like an eagle and surged forward, sweeping everything in its path into a violent storm. Before the Skeleton Soldiers could even raise their swords, they saw the blue-green eagle soar over their heads. The howling gale behind it swallowed them whole, flinging the piles of bones backward like driftwood before smashing them against the nearby stalactite walls, scattering them to pieces.

"Let's go!"

"Yes..."

Watching Stone's high-spirited figure, Fang Zheng sighed helplessly and followed him deeper into the tunnel. To be honest, he envied Stone's swordsmanship. This Grand Knight was indeed formidable, especially when it came to wide-range attacks. Although Fang Zheng possessed Royal Cross Swordsmanship passed down from Arthas, and its power was not much weaker than Stone's Storm Sword, it always felt awkward to use. He did not know why, but that feeling had only grown stronger after his training in the free Dungeon, Dark Souls. At first, Fang Zheng had assumed his discomfort with the swordsmanship came from his unfamiliarity with swords themselves. Yet after Dark Souls' brutal, soul-crushing training, he found that the sensation had not faded at all. It had only become more pronounced.

It was especially obvious now as he watched Stone fight. In Stone's hands, Storm Swordsmanship flowed as naturally as running water, almost like a dance that delighted the eye. But whenever Fang Zheng used Royal Cross Swordsmanship, he always felt something was... off. He could not say exactly what was wrong, but it simply felt wrong. The contrast made it even more apparent. If Stone's swordsmanship was like well-oiled gears turning without pause, then Fang Zheng's was more like gears without oil—sure, they could still turn, but how well they turned was another matter entirely.

After this battle, he needed to have a proper talk with Stone about it.

Fang Zheng knew this was not the time to discuss it, so he said nothing and merely stayed close behind Stone. Miss M had not come down with them. For Stone and Fang Zheng, she was safer remaining above, and Connie also needed someone to look after her. Fang Zheng had no goodwill toward that crazy woman, so he left her to the gentle girl.

What gave Fang Zheng an even bigger headache now was Stone. Just as Fang Zheng had expected, the Grand Knight's method was simple and brutal: charge straight in, then hack apart anything that moved. Fang Zheng had not even had a chance to act before the Skeleton Soldiers drawn by the commotion had been reduced to fragments of bone by Stone.

Fang Zheng could only shrug helplessly and found it difficult to say anything. Having lived two lives, he was no fool. He could clearly see that Stone was venting his frustrations. Stone obviously understood that Malte and the others had most likely gone never to return. Fang Zheng did not know what kind of relationship Stone had with Malte, but they must have been close. Otherwise, Stone would not have come here to search for them. And now, being forced to watch his comrades walk to their deaths, Stone could not possibly feel good about it.

But as a mature Grand Knight, Stone naturally would not act like some inexperienced hothead and declare, "If they die, we die together." He could only vent the gloom and resentment in his heart this way.

That was precisely why Fang Zheng wisely chose not to bring up his swordsmanship problem at this moment. No matter how good Stone's temper was, he probably had no mood to answer Fang Zheng's questions right now. Besides, after spending so much time with him, Fang Zheng had long realized that this Grand Knight's temper was not particularly good to begin with.

The Undead's resistance had no effect whatsoever against Stone. The Undead soldiers who rushed over did not even have time to display their power before Stone smashed them into pieces. After several such attempts, they stopped appearing. Perhaps they had been frightened off by Stone, or perhaps that Lich no longer had the mood to care about these uninvited guests.

If it was the latter, that was not good news.

Stone and Fang Zheng quickened their pace. Although the Quarry had long been abandoned, fortunately, the tunnels still seemed sturdy enough that they did not need to worry about the ceiling suddenly collapsing. Yet the deeper they went, the darker their expressions became. It was not merely because the stench of death grew thicker with every step, but because the Lich had shown no reaction at all so far.

Clearly, this plan did not seem to be going very smoothly.

"Over there!"

As the two rounded a bend in the tunnel, they immediately saw the Great Cavern not far ahead. The instant Stone saw what was inside, his face darkened. Even Fang Zheng frowned.

At the center of the Great Cavern, more than a dozen corpses lay scattered across the ground. They wore the armor of Holy Knights, but their appearances were too horrifying to look at—every bit of their flesh seemed to have completely melted away, leaving only skin wrapped around bone. It was a ghastly sight. Beneath them, slowly flowing blood stood out with startling clarity, almost painfully so.

Fang Zheng did not know what they had gone through, but the expressions frozen on their faces after death made one thing clear: it must have been unimaginably painful.

"You bastard!!"

Staring at the Lich floating in the center of the cavern, Stone roared and raised his Greatsword, slashing down with all his strength. The azure eagle appeared again, but this time it was nearly twice as large as before. With a piercing cry, the enormous bird formed from compressed air beat its wings and lunged at the Lich in midair, trailing afterimages behind it. Faced with Stone's full-force strike, the floating figure merely tilted its head and raised a staff that looked like it had been made from a withered tree branch, lightly pointing it in their direction.

The next moment, Fang Zheng saw a black beam shoot from the staff and strike the storm eagle. Then something unimaginable happened—the eagle formed from Star Spirit Energy and composed entirely of wind elements began to struggle and scream as though it were truly a living creature. It weakly flapped its wings twice, then plunged headfirst to the ground and silently crumbled into dust. Stone was not doing much better. The instant that beam struck the eagle, his expression changed sharply. In that moment, he felt as though an icy hand had reached into his body and gripped his heart.

Fortunately, his sturdy physique endured the attack. Otherwise, it would not have been only his eagle that fell. Even so, Stone's expression shifted several times. He clenched his teeth tightly and only then managed to resist the Death Force that had penetrated deep into his body, barely holding on.

But for Stone, there was something else far more terrifying than that. The enemy had actually seized his Storm Swordsmanship and killed it outright. Such a thing could only happen when the opponent wielded a far higher level of power than Stone himself. In a clash between powers, the one who had mastered the higher level could display overwhelming superiority, manifesting the laws of the power they wielded. This Lich had actually been able to "kill" the power of his swordsmanship. In Stone's memory, only one person could do that!

"This is the power of the Death Domain... You're Duke Frank the Bone of the Council of the Undying? How could it be you?!"

Holy shit!

Hearing Stone's question, Fang Zheng was startled as well. During his time at the Holy Temple with Stone, he had not only trained in swordsmanship. Naturally, he had also learned something about the enemies of the Order Holy Temple. The Holy Temple currently had three major enemies. One was the Church of the Day of Destruction, to which Fang Zheng's original body had belonged. The other two were the Council of the Undying and the Twilight Legion. The Twilight Legion dwelled at the edge of civilization, and its goal was to completely shatter every symbol of order and civilization. The Council of the Undying pursued something even more "lofty." They believed that the meaning of all life in this world lay in death, that death was the eternal theme of the world, and that both chaos and order would ultimately return to the silence of death.

Frankly speaking, if the Twilight Legion and the Church of the Day of Destruction still had a shared goal that allowed them to cooperate, then the Council of the Undying was practically the enemy of everyone on both the chaos and order sides. After all, they did not care whether someone belonged to order or chaos. They only wanted to drag everyone away to experience "the true meaning of death." Neither Paladins nor Cultists would be interested in that.

What was more, the Council of the Undying's doctrine was deeply hated. On one hand, they preached that "the Goddess of Order will eventually fall," then turned around and declared that "the end of twilight chaos is drawing near"... They had managed to offend both sides completely.

More troubling still, this organization was made entirely of Undead creatures. All the Undead creatures across the continent were gathered here. Forget Liches—even things like Bone Dragons and Deathbringers were among them. This was why both order and chaos hated the Council of the Undying to the bone, yet did not dare attack it lightly—their strength was simply too great. One wrong move, and they could drag themselves down with it.

Not only that, the Council of the Undying was most feared for being exceptionally skilled at "persuasion and education." Throughout history, many renowned heroes had tried to destroy these Undead fanatics living in the shadows, but unfortunately, their endings were all much the same—they set off in high spirits, vanished without a trace, and when they finally appeared before the public again, they had become Undead servants.

Duke Frank the Bone was one of the Council of the Undying's five Undying Councilors. He wielded the Death Domain and held a position second only to the Undying Council Chair, truly one man beneath and countless others above. Stone had guessed that this Lich would be difficult to deal with, but he had never expected such a thorny opponent.

This was bad!

Fang Zheng frowned at the floating Lich before them.

He was certain that Stone's previous plan was no longer going to work.