The ethereal abdominal armor appeared beside Silvis, and with the return of the final piece of the puzzle, the old knight entered a wondrous state.
All the armor on his body seemed to briefly come alive, wriggling and repairing the damaged areas, reinforcing his armpits, ribs, and other areas.
Although his body was still thin, after being fully encased in armor, he was no longer hunched over; instead, his back was straight, as if he had become decades younger.
The old knight's helmet also changed at this moment; not only did the wear marks on it gradually disappear, but even the observation window on the front was replaced.
After the light subsided, a tall and valiant plate-armored knight appeared before everyone.
Unlike Xilǐ'er, whose visor has a "Y"-shaped viewing window, Silvis's visor has four vertical slits on the front. These four long openings are arranged from left to right, providing him with excellent visibility.
Taking a deep breath, Silvis removed his helmet and tucked it under his arm, while drawing his knight's sword with his other hand.
He turned to look at the players who were recording his transformation, and raised his longsword to cover half of his face.
"Warriors of the Tree Worship Church, we have never met before, but you have all helped this old man find his complete armor and never abandoned me when facing such an enemy."
" The Demonic Tide turned people into ghosts. Before this, I never imagined that there would be such people who valued integrity so much outside the Eternal Domain."
"Upon returning to the Eternal Domain, I will report this matter to the two emperors and request that they send an envoy to the Second Holy See."
"However, at this moment, please accept my greetings; please do not refuse."
Silvis's longsword gleamed as he performed a standard noble salute before the Demonic Tide, all under the watchful eyes of the crowd.
Seeing the surprised players, he continued:
"The weight of this favor will not diminish even though you have all been resurrected. Without further ado, I will fulfill my promise and lead you to the sealed land of Grand Duke Antos!"
"Yay!"
"Well said!"
"We love you, you old man!"
The players expressed their joy in their own ways. The dim golden light receded, and Silvis slung the longsword over his shoulder, taking the lead as he headed deeper into Klaf City.
Before this, he always dragged the longsword when not in combat, but now he adopted a posture full of energy, which showed how important it was to him to find the armor.
As the group explored deeper into the area, the chill in the air grew stronger.
After traveling for several more hours along the cave, which was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, the players were already breathing out white mist.
Silvis ' pace quickened, as if he too was curious about Antos's current state.
Sensing the old knight's footsteps, Ed frowned almost imperceptibly, then quickly stepped forward to strike up a conversation:
"Mr. Silvis, you're quite fast... Aren't you worried about some powerful enemy lurking in the shadows, waiting to ambush you?"
"Yes, I was just about to tell you that I'm very familiar with this path, since it used to be teeming with Blood Corpse..."
Silvis's tone carried a hint of pride:
"Back then, I fought here tirelessly for a month before finally carving out a bloody path to escape. I killed not only earls, but even three marquises who had just recovered and were in slightly weaker condition."
Ed looked around, his brow furrowing with deeper confusion:
"Really? Then why haven't I seen a single corpse?"
Silvis looked ahead:
"I was also afraid that there might be creatures like Muller who can eat their own kind, so I collected those corpses and threw them away."
"Thrown it away? Where did you throw it?"
"That's it."
Silvis pointed forward:
"Did you see that?"
Ed looked in the direction he was pointing and quickly noticed a building that could only be seen from the outside.
"A bridge?"
"Good eye."
Silvis expressed his approval:
" The Eternal Domain has a detailed map of Klaf City before the Demonic Tide. According to that map, Klaf City once had a river running from east to west through the entire city before the Demonic Tide."
"The river splits in two in the center of the city, then merges back into one a few miles later, thus forming a long, narrow sandbar several miles long in the middle."
By this point in Silvis's statement, Ed already had some guesses.
The old knight continued unhurriedly:
"And that easily defensible sandbar is where the Lord's Mansion of Klaf City is located."
Just as I thought... Ed thought for a moment and asked:
Can a castle really be built on a sandbar?
Ed realized he was being somewhat stuck in his own way of thinking as soon as he asked the question.
He subconsciously felt that such a project would be difficult to complete, but he forgot that even before the Demonic Tide, mages existed in this world.
Even in that previous world, which lacked extraordinary powers, there were buildings like Mont Saint-Michel.
Thinking about it this way, as long as you're willing to spend the money, building a decent castle on a sandbar in this world shouldn't be a problem.
As the two talked, they realized that the players who had been drawn by the new conversation had gathered around, listening to this potentially useful world setting.
As Ed had predicted, Silvis's solution was for the mages to harden the sandbar and build a solid foundation before completing the castle construction.
After recounting this history, the old knight continued:
"The natural disasters following the Demonic Tide caused the rivers to change course, the land to become barren, and the Klaf City never regained its former prosperity."
"The subsequent rampage by Blood Corpse and the battles between High Tier ultimately sank the city underground."
Silvis recounted the story slowly and deliberately, having already reached the stone bridge, where she paused:
" The Blood Corpse here had already been killed by the Eternal Domain Expeditionary Force, and then the Blood Corpse summoned by Antos after his awakening were also wiped out by me. I was worried that other lineages might take advantage of the situation, so I threw them here."
"There are no more Blood Corpse in this large area, which can minimize the possibility of cannibalism."
As he spoke, Silvis pointed to the dried-up riverbed below the stone bridge. Everyone looked over and saw that both sides of the stone bridge were littered with corpses. The body parts of the Blood Corpse were piled up like mountains, almost level with the bridge surface. The filthy blood had gathered in the pitted areas and had not completely dried up even after several months.
The only words that can describe this scene are: mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Ten thousand? One hundred thousand? More than ten thousand or several hundred thousand?
When the quantity becomes too large, the numbers lose their meaning.
"Gurgle."
Someone twitched their itchy throat at that moment, and the psychological agitation that comes from witnessing mountains of corpses and seas of blood suddenly spread like a plague.