Chapter 2

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

“Kill him!”

The silver-white knight moved forward with one broad step, the blade in his hand flashing like moonlight as it cut down with absolute certainty toward the young man. An instant was all it would take to remove his head.

Yet, the clanging of swords was what followed.

The crisp sound of metal on metal and the silver-white knight’s sword hovered in mid-air as he stared at the young man’s right arm, stunned. Within that hand, surrounded by mists of cold air as it condensed, was a beautiful and horrifying weapon.

On the pitch-black handle, a ghostly skull stared it him, and the cold that seemed to emanate from the white blade of ice itself was especially chilling to the soul. A ghastly blue radiance came from the weapon, and just one simple look made it clear that this was no ordinary blade.

“What is that?”

“That must be the treasure!!”

Seeing this longsword that had appeared out of nowhere, the white knights beside him called out. Only the black-clothed one kept silent as he witnessed this scene, suddenly feeling a sense of unease…

“Wait! Something’s wrong, careful-!”

Before the man in black finished his sentence, Fang Zheng, who’d been half kneeling on the ground, stood up abruptly, both his hands tightly gripping the sword as he raised it high. With one forward swing, the flawless blade pierced into the knight’s body.

“Aaaah-!!!”

His agonizing cries pierced their ears as the knight started trembling, his body drying up and giving way to the radiant shine of a soul as a blurred image of a figure formed, as if being pulled right out of the knight’s body. With a swirl, the sword absorbed the figure into its blade.

In the next instant, a burst of explosions followed and a blizzard wind pushed all the other knights into the sky, stopping any who tried to charge forward with a counterattack. The black-clothed man himself frantically stepped a couple meters backward, barely holding against the sudden explosive frost. When the blizzard subsided, he looked forward again, totally stunned and his jaw was gaping open.

“This… This is…”

Standing before them, Fang Zheng was no longer the pathetic, run-down man he had been earlier. Frost and cold came from around his body, forming a suit of silver-white armor. Above his head, a large illusion came into being, one with a crown that covered his features in dark shadows. He sat in his eternal throne of winter, a throne made of ice as he eyed the enemies before him coldly. It felt as if that gaze alone was turning their souls to ice.

Perhaps, that was actually happening.

At that moment, with Fang Zheng in the middle, the land around him became crusted with enveloping frost, drying and withering the flora as all life immediately ended. 

“What terrifying power of death!!”

The scene changed the black-robed man’s expressions immediately as he backed off, hurriedly pulling out a rune and holding it in his hand. Before he could do anything else, though, Fang Zheng glanced over, as if already sensing his intentions. He raised his sword and aimed it at the man.

A flash of ice encased the black-robed man that instant, his movements frozen on the spot as he still held the rune. It was as if time had stopped, but shortly after, a blurry figure was pulled from within him as it groaned and shrieked, swirling into the blade of the sword.

“Vile undead, how dare you defile our souls!!”

The knights were both infuriated and terrified of what they were seeing. After giving each other a glance, they pulled out their weapons and armed themselves.

“God’s Blessing!”

With the battle cry, rays of warm light appeared from their bodies, illuminating the initially dark wilderness. However, this didn’t seem of any use to Fang Zheng.

“The icy winds of Northrend will consume your souls!” 

TLN: related to WoW – https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Sindragosa

He turned his head over and looked at the frontmost knight as he mumbled to himself. Following his utterances, the winds around him intensified once more, enveloping the knights within an unseeable wall. At the same time, the ground split apart, and undead skeletons came crawling out. They seemed to have been the warriors of this land once, though it was possible that they might’ve just been peasants buried out in the wilderness. For now, all that identified them was the swirling blue light of ice within their sockets.

“Fight to the death, charge!! The goddess is with us!!”

Seeing the number of undead increasing, the silver-white knights felt firsthand that they were no match against this wave of death. Yet, this wasn’t a battle they could just leave and run away from at this point. What was left was a final fight to the death.

“He won’t be able to wield the treasure forever! Charge!!”

With their battle roars, the remaining knights raised their swords and surged forward, raging with their weapons as the radiant light on the blades exploded, forming long rays of light that followed with even more battle cries. They lurched and swung down at Fang Zheng with all their might!

The pure white light condensed at that moment, forming a unique and mysterious type of rune. The light then dissipated, leaving a massive, almost ten meter long sword coming down from the skies, aimed right at Fang Zheng.

At that moment, the large figure above Fang Zheng’s head moved!

“Is that all?”

The figure uttered a sentence, and stood up wrathfully, pulling a longsword from his hip and slashing toward the falling sword of light! Following this was a clash between the weapons!

A light clatter and the sword of light snapped like a matchstick, breaking into remnants of light that disappeared in the sky. At the same time, the knights who held their radiant blades all vomited blood as their weapons broke. They flew backward from the impact and fell.

“No… This isn’t possible…”

The sword in the sky vanished and the only thing the knights could do was watch as their strongest ability, their final move, turn out to be such an insignificance before their enemy!

What in the world was that!!

Their questions were never answered, for a boundless frost had already covered their bodies. They felt their blood stop running, their hearts stop pumping… And they watched as the shadow of death descended before them, silently absorbing their souls.

After the last soul had been consumed, Fang Zheng fell to the floor, the armor disappearing as the eerie blade he wielded vanished into a frosty mist. Above him, the giant figure watched him silently before becoming one with the darkness, vanishing.

“Hah… Ahh…”

On the cold floor, Fang Zheng took deep breaths as he stared at the night sky, his brain a mess.

To tell the truth, Fang Zheng still didn’t know just what in the world happened, or how things had happened. All he knew was that he had survived!

He didn’t know what was going on, but he survived!

He needed to leave this place as soon as possible…

A while later, he stood up after catching his breath and looked around, seeing nothing but corpses. Those of the ones that had protected him, and those of the knights that had chased after him. The cold air still hung over the place, and some distance away, he could hear some blurred wolf howls.

Feeling all of this, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but shiver. He didn’t know where these people came from, but their companions would be coming here soon if the knights didn’t return. He wouldn’t be able to leave if he didn’t leave now!

He needed to run!

With that thought, he put aside all fatigue and pain in his body, gritted his teeth, and stumbled his way into the depths of the wilderness.