Chapter 357: 356. Battle of River Pass - Murphy's First Law

"How did I never see her species in the books at the School of Dawn or even the higher clergy's special library?" Sylvester asked, as he had already read nearly all books about animals and plants in the world because he wanted to know about everything that could help him in his various inventions.

"Because it isss omitted from those placesss. Eonsss ago, they were relentlessly pursued because of the coveted scalesss that adorned their bodiesss, thusss leading to their near extinction. Only certain special booksss contain knowledge about them~"

"Did you find her in the mountains here? Is that why you live here?"

Winter Ghost nodded. "A mere foot-long baby she wasss… Alone, miserable in a cave. She's my child, now more than a century old."

Sylvester glanced at the snake underneath his feet. All the ornaments on her clearly showed she was showered with fatherly love. It was strange to him how a snake could be someone's family, but again when he thought about an invisible magic cat adopting a baby, it wasn't that absurd.

"She looks very… pretty." Sylvester praised Ashra.

"I know, bard of Solisss~"

'What the!' Sylvester finally got a clue about the new smell. The compliment he gave was a means to see if the new scent of durians was something negative.

'I couldn't smell it for a few seconds!'

Crunch!

Boom!

Sylvester didn't speak anymore and focused on the mission ahead. Ashra crushed the bodies of the skeletons and the zombies effortlessly and ignored the attacks of the normal Liches, as they were useless against her. Even the giant skeletons were nothing, so it was an easy ride.

"The sky!!" Winter Ghost exclaimed.

Sylvester gazed up, his face marred by a furrowed brow. The heavens had taken a sudden, ominous turn as the clouds darkened with an unnatural speed. It was the afternoon peak, yet the sky had transformed from serene to stormy in mere minutes.

'Is this the doing of Emperor Lich?'

It was sadly a question that no one could answer. So, he just watched the sky turn darker as he approached the palanquin. The distance between the castle and the palanquin was not a lot, but with the increasing horde of undead, even Ashra had to take some time to plough them over.

He glanced to the right and saw the state of battle. Lady Aurora and Gideon Gracia were masterfully fooling the Borzol brothers, swiftly destroying the heaps of undead and saving themselves while also making their way towards the palanquin, though slowly.

The Borzol brothers failed to notice a silent change happening on the battlefield. The Winter Army was slowly encircling the Borzol barbarians without anyone even knowing. Now, the massacre of an entire part of a civilisation was just a single roar away.

'If this does not go well, I will have to think about contingencies an—'

He swallowed his words back as he noticed something far away on the opposite shore of the White River. A faint form of an ominous black-robed being, eyes shining with white, and the body seemed floating in the air.

'Why now?! If it attacks me in the middle of the battle, my death is guaranteed. Why has it been following me for so long now?'

He was already nervous about the fight against Emperor Lich, and now he was doubting himself. But he had already come this far, so he had to keep going. Nothing ever came without losing blood and sweat, something he had learnt the hard way.

"Ashra, it seems it's getting harder to move through them now." Sylvester walked closer to the edge of the snake's face. The situation was currently akin to trying to scoop mud with a shovel but never letting the mud fall to the side. So, slowly the mud accumulates and makes it hard to push more.

Similarly, a massive pile of undead was now in front of Ashra, so he decided to help and simultaneously see if his powers were useful.

Sylvester calmed himself down to stay in focus. He ignored the sky. He ignored the looming presence of the Shadow Knight watching him and only focused on the front.

He raised his right palm towards the undead horde at the front and kept his other palm on the chest. There were at least a few hundred thousand undead in a straight line, all the way until the palanquin.

A moment later, he started singing a hymn and brought forth a halo of bright light behind his head. Following that, the Wrath of Heaven's beam shot through his palm towards the horde. The beam was tens of metres in diameter and incinerated the existence out of everything in its way.

♫O' Solis, Lord of the Light,

Empower me in this fight!

Let me burn these heathens away,

And vanquish this filthy heresy!♫

Boom!

The explosive beam of light in plasma form shined so bright that it acted like the sun in the stormy sky. It illuminated everything, attracting the attention of every undead and fighter, snatching their focus away.

Woosh!

The undead, the snow, the ground underneath, everything the light touched melted away as if nothing but air. This was the full power of his move, and the greatest part was that he did not feel tired. Having levelled up previously after being healed had increased his solarium reserves.

"Ashra! Move fast!" He told the snake a second later, not caring whether she understood him or not.

"Get ready!" Sylvester advised the Guardian he didn't trust.

Hisss…!

Ashra knocked everything that came her way with her slithering movement and soon reached close enough to the palanquin that they could see it easily. It was big and regal from the looks, and the magic crystals on it proved it belonged to the main creature behind the undead mess.

Boom!

Thunder started to fall just then, and as it fell in Aurora's direction, too, it was clear that this wasn't her doing. The Emperor Undead was behind the sudden gloom.

"Hisss!"

Ashra slowed down abruptly and hissed loudly as if speaking in rage.

"Stop then!" Winter Ghost ordered. "If you feel the invisible pressure is too much, just go away~"

Sylvester noticed that too. Ashra's snake eyes appeared distraught, and the hisses seemed more like grunts.

"Of course, if not a Supreme Wizard, then who else can do such a thing?" Sylvester commented aloud. This was his first time going fully against a Supreme Wizard, and he had prepared himself to expect the unexpected.

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Sylvester faced Winter Ghost and reminded him what the task was. He didn't trust the man, but he was the strongest member of their army, and he needed his prowess. "Guardian, all you need to do is ensure that I reach that filth safely and touch it with my bare hands."

Winter Ghost nodded and created a lotus made of ice on his palm. "Worry not, Lord Bard. You will reach it, I promisss~"

'Alive, I hope.'

Sylvester took out a small glass bottle from his pocket with a transparent liquid. He quickly spread its contents on his two palms while looking at the palanquin. 'From the size of that thing, the Emperor Lich must be at least as big as Lord Inquisitor.'

"When you're ready, tell me, Sixth Guardian."

Winter Ghost spoke with Ashra in whispers before jumping down from her head. Sylvester followed him and stayed behind the man. Meanwhile, Miraj sat on Sylvester's shoulder while staring at the back with his jaws open. His job was to devour anything that came from behind.

Crack!

As Winter Ghost made his way forward, all the undead around them turned into ice and shattered into pieces. But as they got closer to the palanquin, they felt the air getting thicker, and walking required more exertion. With each step, it only increased.

'If this only increases, then how am I supposed to even touch it?'

"Graaa!"

Undead kept coming towards them, and eventually, they got surrounded by the undead as they crowded around the protective ice circle of Winter Ghost. There were hundreds of thousands of vile undead. From skeletons to rotten flesh zombies, some even held swords and bows.

'The Emperor Lich must be able to see and hear everything from these undead.'

"Lord Bard, what isss your strategy?" Winter Ghost asked as he appeared to be struggling too.

Sylvester didn't want to tell him, however. "Trust me, I only have to touch that thing once, and it will be dealt with. Just get me close to it."

Winter Ghost's mouth was covered under a veil, so his gritting teeth were not visible. He was also unsure of fighting the beast that had not yet shown itself and was already winning.

"If that isss the will of the lord."

Shhh…!

The white ice lotus on Winter Ghost's palm started to bloom and spread its petals. With that, a sudden cold air started resonating around them. Eventually, it took the form of a white stormy wind. It circled around Sylvester and Winter Ghost, cutting apart any undead that came close.

Sylvester knew that the man was trying to reduce the air resistance while moving towards the palanquin.

'Ugh… Even reaching it is so hard.' Sylvester gritted his teeth when his whole body ached, telling him to stop. His muscles were under tremendous stress to keep standing, but he continued. He wasn't as strong as Winter Ghost, but his body had self-healing better than any.

Thud!

"Guardian!" Sylvester exclaimed and rushed forward as Winter Ghost fell to one knee.

"H-How do you stay on foot, Lord Bard?" Winter Ghost questioned in confusion.

'He's unable to withstand the pressure? But… He's stronger than me.'

The future appeared dark at that instant. Sylvester had no idea how he was going to proceed now. Winter Ghost, the strongest Grand Wizard among them, was on the ground. This likely meant that Emperor Lich was a Supreme Wizard of a higher order, perhaps level five or six.

'Should I retreat? The Emperor Lich can destroy kingdoms if it so wishes.'

But he didn't want to do that either. Some men of the Winter Army had already died, and to go back was akin to saying their deaths were meaningless.

Out of options and desperate, he looked towards Borzol Brothers.

"You traitors! Backstabbers! You came to kill me?!"

Just as Sylvester looked to the right, the voice of Zelfim Borzol echoed as a loud, raging roar.

"You killed my brother!"

Sylvester's heart sank as the scene told the story itself. Instead of Zelfim, Fralan Borzol's lifeless form dangled from the sword of Lady Aurora, his heart pierced with a savage ferocity, evident by the expression of shock and disbelief fixed upon Fralan's face.

Clank!

Clank!

Clank!

As if that was not enough, a dreadful, unnatural sound also came from Sylvester's front.

With a dangerously fast beating heart, Sylvester glanced and prayed instantly. "Oh lord… Have mercy on me."

The horror that befell was beyond measure, nay, beyond reckoning. Under the ominous dark sky, the door of the ornate palanquin was thrust open, revealing a ghastly spectacle. A dozen skeletons arranged themselves in a grotesque staircase. And then emerged a fiendish entity, towering at an inconceivable height of fifteen feet, draped in ominous black robes.

Its face was akin to that of a demon with no eyes and ice-white skin, as blank as a slate, save for the gruesome grin that stretched from ear to ear, revealing a mouth filled with razor-sharp fangs. And in its hand, it held a burning blue flame, and behind its shoulder was a hooded ghostly figure of a child with a stone head.

"So we meet, child of Solis!"

[A/N: See the Emperor Lich here]

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