Chapter 49 (continued)

The fair-skinned, slender elven priestess was gone, replaced by... a dark elf dressed in Luolan's robes!

A genuine dark elf! The same kind as Anna! His features hadn't changed much, still exquisite and handsome, but his entire body was a deep ebony color, and his eyes were bright red, the kind that clearly shone with an evil and filthy light. His long, pale hair flowed softly down his cheeks...

Lusien pointed at him, his eyes wide open, his expression a jumble of emotions, even more interesting than Reynold's just now.

The dark elf grinned again, twitching his ear tips smugly, and said, "Didn't I tell you? My name is Luolan Blackleaf. I've been very honest about that. I said my surname was Blackleaf from the beginning. I don't hide it from anyone. It's a typical dark elf surname. You're blaming me for your lack of education?"

Hmm... typical?

I tilted my head to look at Mel, Mel couldn't help but chuckle and whispered in my ear, "It's a lie. The Heiye Clan is a very small family among the Dark Elves, almost the smallest. I have to think to remember. I vaguely recall that their entire family only has five priestesses, while the Leaf Blade Clan, the most famous Dark Elf family, has at least fifty priestesses."

Lusien's lips trembled as he said, "So... you're not a woodland elf, you've been lying to me all along!"

"Of course, lying is a virtue of dark elves!" Luolan became even more smug. "But I didn't expect you knights to be so stupid, not realizing it for so long. It's really boring; not seeing the victim's feedback greatly diminishes the pleasure of lying!"

Lusien covered his mouth; I think he's the one who wants to cry now.

I couldn't help but ask out of curiosity, "But are you really a priest of light?"

"Yes!" Luolan nodded.

"Then doesn't your virtue conflict with the honesty required by the God of Light?"

Luolan replied with a smile, "Well, that's no problem. There have been precedents of dark elves serving as priests in the Temple over the past thousands of years. Our predecessors have left behind valuable experience. Of course, we must be honest when we are priests, but in private, we can be ourselves in trivial matters. We can also choose a suitable, fixed target and then fool them as much as possible, especially a single-minded knight. Our predecessors preferred knights! The pleasure of fooling just one person is enough to make us feel better than fooling a hundred ordinary people!"

These words filled Mel and me with awe for Lusien —what a noble thing he had done! He provided a hardworking and sincere priest of light with leisure time, so that the priest could spread so many blessings while he was engaged in his work!

Luolan held up a finger and said to me, "I usually use an alchemically crafted disguise ring to transform myself into a surface elf. The robes of the Light Priests are all of a fixed style, completely white, and the Temple is also blindingly white. Plus, I have white hair, so when I look in the mirror, I feel like I have the face of a flying elf. The believers will think the Temple is haunted..."

Hahaha... That's such a vivid description, but it's true. Conversely, if a surface elf dressed in all black were to wander around the dungeon, it would also look like a flying face.

"Don't worry, I'll lead the way. I can see much better from inside the tunnel than you can. Knights, go behind. Don't get nervous for no reason!"

"No!"

Lusien had regained his composure, but he still firmly rejected the offer, saying, "As a knight, I should stand in front of the spellcaster. To ask me to go to the back of the ranks is an insult to my chivalry!"

"..." Luolan's lips twitched slightly, "Uh..."

The knight's attitude was very firm, not yielding an inch. The dark elf only liked to play pranks, but he didn't like to force his teammates with violence, nor did he like to insult other people's faith. Besides, although Luolan's appearance was fake, he was still the kind and benevolent priest of light at heart. The priest of light was with the Temple Knights every day and knew the knights very well. So Luolan rolled his eyes and did not insist. Lusien still walked ahead of him.

However, Lusien seemed quite uncomfortable with the true nature of the priest Luolan, and would occasionally glance back at him.

We stopped at an intersection again, this time not Lusien was overly nervous.

There were many limbs scattered around the intersection. I don't say there were many corpses lying there because they were all broken into pieces and could only be described as chunks of flesh, rather than whole corpses. The strong smell of blood was mixed with the pungent odor of battery fluid from the magic circuit, and some dark red bloodstains contained metal fragments.

"They are the corpses of cyborgs, all of them, no other races," Lusien said after examining them.

Luolan and Mel both frowned in disgust, careful not to step on the blood, while Reynold, swaying precariously, turned his head and promptly squatted down beside them, vomiting violently.

So I cast a calming spell on him. He vomited for a while, then turned around and weakly thanked me (this again drew Mel's attention, but given that he looked as pale as if he were about to join the ranks of the dead on the ground, with vomit still hanging from the corner of his mouth, Mel didn't say anything). Then he stood behind us with his eyes half-closed and his head tilted to the side, very consciously not causing us any trouble.

After examining it carefully, Lusien used his sword to pick out a black object from the bloodstains—a feather-shaped metal fragment.

"It was Lady Angela!" Lusien's expression turned serious again. "It seems that Angela, who went ahead, discovered the enemy and then engaged them in battle."

Lusien explained to us that Ms. Angela Rhodes was also a high-ranking commander in the Federation with military achievements. She had a nickname, Crow, which Mel and I learned in prison. The origin of her nickname was simple—her armor, that strange mech with a pair of huge wings, made her look like a giant black Crow when she flew in the air. Therefore, when Ms. Angela was carrying out special missions for the military, her code name was "Crow."

Lusien added that the mecha was one of the Federation's top mechas, the work of an internationally renowned mecha master. He also said that only Ms. Angela could perfectly pilot that mecha, making her a famous mecha warrior internationally. However, at this moment, this valuable and powerful mecha was scattered with some fragments, which was probably not a good sign.

"The mechanical wings mimic the appearance of a bird, but they are not real bird feathers after all. Those feather-like metal structures are extremely sharp and are integrated with the mecha. I had the privilege of watching the design and production of this mecha. I remember Her Excellency Angela telling me that the designer's blueprints intended for these feathers to be launched like bullets, but Ms. Angela felt that having to retrieve them one by one after launching them was too troublesome and they were easy to lose. That was about ten years earlier than now, and the cost of nanobots was not as low as it is now, so it was impossible to automatically retrieve all these feathers with nanobots. Therefore, the designer simply made it into a one-piece design—therefore, these feathers should have been very sturdy."

After hearing Lusien's description, Mel and I also began to worry. Our relaxed mood turned tense. Our apprentice was still fine, and Moli Ball seemed to have shrunk a bit, so I didn't have to worry about her stomach anymore.

But Ms. Angela is a respectable warrior and our new friend. Lusien described the mech as so tough, yet her enemies have damaged it. We fear that Ms. Angela may not emerge unscathed either.

Fortunately, there were no dwarf corpses along the way; their evacuation was very timely, so we didn't have to worry about whether the enemy had any hostages.

"Ahead," Luolan suddenly pointed to the dark tunnel ahead, "The bloodstains stretch far into the distance, but we haven't seen any battery fluid. It might be..."

Ms. Angela's blood?

We immediately tracked the blood deeper into the mine.