[V6C166 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
The impatient arachne duke cut the old marquis short. “I don’t care what difficulties you have. Right now, I only want to know how long it'll take before you can go through.”
“At least a day.”
“One day?!” Ardak’s thunderous roar covered an area of ten kilometers. Several of the weakest vampire experts simply couldn’t withstand the pressure of the duke’s wrath. They were immediately knocked unconscious and fell from the sky.
Ardak didn’t even spare those falling vampires a glance. “One day is enough for those human bugs to crawl into another warzone! You have one hour! You must open a passage within one hour!”
“But, we need the city intact.”
“Intact? Whose stupid order is that?”
The old marquis replied, “It’s Her Majesty’s will.”
Ardak suddenly fell silent. Without any prefixes, this “Her Majesty” spoken of by the vampires could mean only one person—the Queen of the Night, Lilith.
Moments later, Ardak said coldly, “I heard your queen has encountered an accident and is soon going into a deep slumber. Do you think her orders can control me at such a time?”
The old marquis was extremely unyielding in this matter. “Her Majesty has not yet gone into a deep slumber. Additionally, no matter what state she’s in, the Queen of the Night is not someone you can comment on so casually.”
The arachne duke snorted but didn’t continue making things difficult for the old man. He might perhaps be able to criticize Lilith a bit if he could step into the monarch realm—but that was the extent of it. After all, the arachne weren’t demonkin. Even that person on the sacred mountain of the Evernight Council wouldn’t easily get into a conflict with the Queen of the Night.
Seeing the situation at hand, Ardak realized that he couldn’t easily command this hundred-thousand-strong army led mostly by vampires. Going back to the main camp for a transfer of authority would also take the greater part of the day—the enemy would’ve escaped by that time.
“Who’s in charge of the imperial forces?” Ardak inquired.
The old marquis explained without hiding anything, “The commander is the General of Ambitious Might, Zhang Junshu, and the overseer should be Duke Wei.”
There was suddenly a fluctuation in Ardak’s voice. “Duke Wei? He’s also here?”
The old marquis replied, “Yes, Duke Wei intercepted us personally during our last assault. That was how the imperial army managed to immolate the entire city. I’ve fought him before, so I can’t be mistaken.”
Ardak remained silent for a while. Then, he broke into a laugh which shook several more vampires out of the air. “Good, very good! I’ll have to see how much that brat has grown in these years!”
A person appeared in front of the vampire marquis amidst the laughter. Three meters tall and clad in iron-grey robes, the duke looked down on all the vampires like a giant.
There were several rings on the three fingers of his left hand, and the egg-sized gems on them were extremely dazzling. The gazes of several vampires fell uncontrollably onto the rings, soon falling deeper and deeper—it was almost as though their souls were being drawn in.
The old marquis quickly expanded his blood energy and engulfed the dazed subordinates. “Do not look at the grand duke’s hand!”
Ardak finally looked straight at the old marquis. “You’re old but still quite good.”
The creases on the latter’s face grew deeper as he said with a wry smile, “Thank you for the praise.”
Ardak gazed in the direction where the imperial forces had escaped. He let out a sudden howl and flew into the distance in due haste, all the while accompanied by thunderous rumbles.
In the blink of an eye, Ardak’s body expanded to become a giant ten-meter spider with a metallic glow flickering around his body.
The tips of his eight limbs shot out countless threads which weaved together to form a silk road over the burning Dusk City. Ardak’s massive spider body flickered continuously, each flash taking him a thousand meters away. In mere moments, he had disappeared at the extremes of one’s vision.
Only at this point did the silk road gradually disperse.
A shrill voice suddenly rang out from the warship, “Grand Duke, how about the warship?!”
Ardak’s response floated over from the horizon. “Too slow. Just follow me at your own pace!”
The massive warship climbed slowly and merged into the clouds. Then, it traversed the surging flames and chased after Ardak’s last known direction.
A count nearby spoke after the arachne grand duke’s airship had vanished from their view. “A single ship chasing after them? The humans are probably well-prepared for this. Their airship fleet isn’t that weak.”
The marquis’ expression remained unchanged. “His Excellency Ardak has great accumulations, how can we compare to him? He can build another after losing his ride, but it’ll take us a couple of decades to recover from the loss of our fleet.”
That count revealed a sinister smile. The arachne duke’s ship naturally wasn’t on the same level as ordinary warships, especially since it was much larger than standard vessels. The cost of that single ship was equal to half a vampire fleet.
Duke Wei finally played the chess piece he had been mulling over and ended the game. Then, he said calmly, “An old friend is coming. I’ll go meet him.”
Zhang Junshu gazed into the distance. Although he couldn’t see anything, he could feel a tremendous power rising over the horizon—it was as though a tempest was brewing therein.
“Duke, your status is of great importance. You should be careful about everything. Why not just stay in the army?” Zhang Junshu made no effort to hide the worry in his heart. As an expert only one step away from the divine champion rank, he could tell that the rapidly approaching aura was even stronger than Duke Wei himself.
The latter stroked his beard and said, “Junshu, none of us dukes got our titles through inheritance. You have to remember that killing on the battlefield is the role of our generation.”
“Duke…” Zhang Junshu wanted to dissuade further.
Duke Wei raised his hand and said, “Speak no more. Besides, it’s not as if I’ll die without a doubt. Don’t diminish the might of an imperial soldier in front of all our troops.”
With that, Duke Wei brushed his sleeves and rose into the air, soon appearing in the sky outside of the airship. His elegant figure seemed to be walking calmly through the air, but soon he had disappeared over the horizon.
The dense clouds in the sky hung lower and lower until it was almost pressing onto the airship. Zhang Junshu remained silent, seemingly lost in contemplation.
Moments later, a clap of thunder resounded over the horizon. The distant explosion arrived in the blink of an eye, flooding the atmosphere with the rumble of rolling thunder. No other sound could prevail! Many of the weaker soldiers began seeing stars. Their limbs went limb, and some of them almost fell off the military transports.
Fortunately, there were old veterans assigned to each truck who were still able to move despite the sudden thunder. These men quickly grabbed those who were about to fall and pulled them back into the car at the nick of time.
After the thunder had passed, even the earth began to tremble and wind speeds increased several-fold. The airstream kicked up sand and gravel which struck vehicles and passengers alike. The small stones would even leave red spots after striking one’s skin.
The airship fleet swayed wildly in the turbulence. Some of the smaller ones were tossed about like a raft in the raging sea, looking as if they would capsize at any moment. Even the largest cargo ships could hardly stabilize themselves amidst the constant rocking.
Fortunately, the Zhang clan forces were all elites, and the captains were all true experts in their trade. They didn’t panic even under such disastrous conditions and did their all to control the airship’s balance.
Zhang Junshu issued an immediate order after seeing that the situation wasn’t quite right. The smaller airships broke away from the fleet and rose rapidly into the air, allowing them greater space to maneuver.
The gale in the skies never stopped, and the tremors in the earth came wave after wave, flipping numerous trucks into the air.
At such a time, even the old rank four veterans could only grab onto the carriage to avoid being thrown out of the car. Once outside, they would be swept up by the hurricane-like airflow and flung away.
A yellowish glow began flickering from the central airship at this point. Numerous runes appeared to form the faint outline of a barrier which quickly enveloped the entire warship, isolating it from the devastating winds.
Zhang Junshu gazed at the distant skies, his expression as dark as the gloomy skies.
Those at the bridge had gone through hundreds of battle, but even so, they couldn’t help but become apprehensive after seeing the earth-shattering developments. A major general asked, “General, this… could it be…”
Zhang Junshu sighed deeply. “You’re right, the duke is already fighting the enemy.”
Everyone’s expression changed.
Those who could stand beside Zhang Junshu at this moment were all important generals of the Zhang clan and the empire. All of them had experienced fighting in great wars, and most of them had seen battles between divine champions. They were even more astonished because Duke Wei had only taken action a couple of times despite overseeing the army for so long. One had to know that even the duke’s all-out attack probably wouldn’t produce such power.
If this world-shaking change wasn’t caused by Duke Wei, it was naturally due to the enemy. From this, one could guess that Duke Wei wasn’t just at a disadvantage—he was very likely in a precarious situation.
Zhang Junshu’s clenched fist relaxed and then tightened once more with crackling sounds.
Ordinary soldiers were useless in a battle between divine champions. Just the shockwave from the impact was enough to kill an entire squad, not to mention those below the champion rank couldn't even approach once an expert’s domain had been deployed.
Even if the entire army were to go forth and provide assistance, the result would be a close victory at best. The duke might be able to escape, but it would be game over once all the experts in the Zhang clan private army had fallen. This elite private army of a hundred thousand elites was half under Zhang Junshu’s command. At present, there was less than twenty thousand of them remaining.
These people were the final batch. If they could be brought back and new soldiers were added to the framework, another elite army could be built in half a year. But there would be nothing left if they were all used up here.
Duke Wei would rather fight Ardak alone without Zhang Junshu’s assistance because he knew that this squad and its experts were the foundation of the Zhang clan. Once lost, the damage would be significant. Moreover, if the duke were to fall here while protecting the Zhang clan’s lifeline, the entire Greensun Zhang Clan and perhaps even Prince Greensun himself would do their utmost to protect Duke Wei’s descendants.
This was a difficult decision to make, but that was exactly Duke Wei’s choice.
Zhang Junshu banged his fist hard on the table and roared, “Go and help the brothers on the ground. We must make haste! The faster we leave, the sooner the duke can escape the battlefield!”
All the generals responded and charged out. It was just that the phenomena in the distance pressured heavily upon everyone’s hearts. This was a clash between two absolute powers, and Duke Wei was the one to intercept proactively. The chances of his escape were slim at best.
It was at this time that a colonel charged into the bridge. “The peripheral airships have discovered an unidentified vessel approaching. It’s suspected to be the warship of the Arachne Grand Duke Ardak!”