"They are enemies in disguise, guards, attack them!" very resolutely, the Duke gave the order to attack, and several men in black robes emerged from the group, revealing their hidden knight swords.
This was the result of confronting the Salvation Church at a gathering of the majority of its members. If they had reached out to the Duke at earlier points in time, the Duke's guards would have been the least of their problems.
"[School of Wind]" Grandmaster's body shifted very slightly, mobilizing his Metal Qi to knock the approaching attacker away, then continued: "That statue is called Alkors. Those who are familiar with Her Highness Nala's legends should know about a servant of hers called Alkors Louis, the successor of the [School of Steel]"
"Some of you must have heard of him before!"
Right as Grandmaster was about to continue, his expression changed and twisted his body in an unnatural manner to avoid a thrust from a rapier: "[School of Spirit]"
The rapier's attacks didn't cease and instead sped up, attacking Grandmaster like a rain shower to ensure that he didn't get a chance to speak.
Many people were also attacking Big Qiang in an attempt to take the statue away.
While the Duke didn't know what these people were planning, he knew that his plan didn't need these interferences, and since they were unnecessary, the only thing he needed to do was remove them.
"Claiming a random statue to be Sir Alkors and using that to attack our gathering, this is blasphemy! Blasphemy to both the late Sir Alkors and Her Highness! Even if the statue was real, your actions have clearly disturbed their peace, and you should be eliminated!" the Duke slowly but firmly addressed them, looking to settle this matter right away.
Unfortunately, these people acted beyond his expectations and another voice had continued the explanation in place of Grandmaster.
Xu Yao descended from the sky, using his aura to keep himself hovering in the sky while his voice echoed throughout the entire venue without any trouble: "When Her Highness Nala decided to sacrifice herself to save the world, the heavily-wounded knight Sir Alkors had chosen to turn into a statue together with her. This was something that had been documented, so it couldn't be fake"
A sound-based ability?
The Duke frowned.
The other party seems to have brought quite a few Combatants with them, while some Combatants of the Salvation Church seem to have decided not to attack right away thanks to Grandmaster's and Alkors' reputation.
This is going to be troublesome.
"And we have found a way for the statues to return to normal" as soon as Xu Yao said this, a small flask appeared above the statue and fell onto it, pouring a golden liquid onto the statue. Some scorching smoke could be seen emanating from the statue, which drew everyone's attention.
The Duke's expression changed and rapidly thought everything through, he was easily able to discern the other party's intentions. At this point, it was already too late to stop the other party while discreetly mobilizing his forces, so his only choice was to ensure that the situation didn't escalate any further.
As the dragon blood dripped down the statue, it started to visibly crack with loud crackling noises, followed by numerous burning gazes that closely observed it.
While the leaders and upper brass of the Salvation Church all had their own ambitions, the majority of their members were actual worshippers of Nala. They might be obsessively blind and were susceptible to being led by the nose, but when it came to their idol of worship, they were sharper than anyone else could ever be.
If Alkors can be revived from his state as a statue, then could Her Highness Laura also be revived the same way?
That would mean our Saintess would still be alive!
The surrounding guards had no choice but to slow down their attacks. Quite a few of them were part of the Duke's personal force, but this was the Saintess they were talking about!
As the cracks on the statue grew increasingly larger, the outermost layer finally broke open from the front, releasing Alkors' body which was caught by Big Qiang. He looked around with a confused expression and muttered: "Where… am I?"
"A pure Interkam accent!" some people who had done extensive historical research on the Age of Flame excitedly exclaimed.
Whenever a person hopes for something to succeed, they will subconsciously search for various clues to prove themselves correct, sometimes, they would even make up proofs in their minds even when there weren't actually any.
This was also the reason why so many frauds and scams can successfully deceive so many people. Those who take the bait would naturally hope the bait would be the real deal, selectively ignore the minor details that would suggest that the bait was fake, then make up all sorts of reasons for the unnatural appearance of the bait.
Of course, Alkors' revival was very real, so various 'clues' were naturally discovered.
"His sword is the same style made in that era, I have one in my collection"
"The patterns on his armor is indeed the same kind from Her Highness Nala's army"
Alkors clutched his head that had just barely regained its clarity and listened to the various chaotic and unfamiliar statements around him. Some of them he could understand, but others he could only recognize that it was still the same language; over a thousand years of development had naturally distorted the language to make it not fully comprehensible to him.
However, since he could still understand some of the language, he recognized that the most commonly uttered term was 'Her Highness Nala', at which point his eyes finally reached the statue by the campfire.
"Your Highness!"
"Sir Alkors, you've been in slumber as a statue for over a thousand years, it's about time that you woke up" a statement containing some strange Interkam dialect sounded by his ears, causing Alkors to turn towards the speaker, a young man with a pair of eyes filled with vicissitudes.
"We plan on awakening Her Highness Nala, and all of this still requires your aid"
The battle had ended, so the Duke's expression had also turned to one of uncertainty and questioning, a perfect mix of excitement and doubt that was not unlike the other Nala worshippers at the venue.
"Your Highness, Nala!" Alkors' thoughts were still at the final moments when the pillar of light shot through the clouds, so hearing such a thing just as he had woken up carried quite the intense impact.
…
In the Duke's underground vault, a jet-black entity was rapidly moving until it found what it was looking for, the dragon skull that naturally carried [Dragon Pressure].
But when it prepared to lunge forward, a sword had already stabbed the ground right in front of it.
"As expected, as soon as you discover that dragon's blood can awaken the statue, you'd definitely attempt to destroy the dragon skull" Blondie leapt forward and landed right next to his sword, revealing various wounds all over his body, from which some faint glowing light could be seen.
Ying as well as natives like the Ghost Knight also landed on the other side, it took them a lot of effort to go through all the barriers in order to enter this vault.
Seeing that its intentions were now impossible, the black entity simply vanished, but Blondie didn't let his guard down for even a moment. Bai Zi Xi's death had reminded him of the nature of this mission, and since he definitely can't die here, he had gotten 100% serious.
Very few people among the Apostles know for sure what Blondie's [Origin] ability was, but his main form of combat was tool-based. By nurturing various tools inside his body, he managed to bypass the inherent pickiness of tools with their users.
Of course, some people had also suspected that Blondie's ability was something similar to [Sexual Tension] inhibiting his sense of pain. Otherwise, just the pain of putting so many tools into one's body alone should already be enough to kill, let alone some special tools that would even occasionally erupt to ask for blood to 'strengthen the bonds'.
It was unimaginable that a skirt-chaser like him wouldn't have an ability of this nature.
As the chaos of the meeting gradually subsided, the Duke apologized to Xu Yao and Grandmaster's group with an excited expression, saying that it was a misunderstanding and that he didn't expect that they would have a method to revive the statues.
Alkors was also slowly digesting all of this new information, turning his gaze towards Nala's statue with a complicated expression.
In the past, he had decided to harmonize with Nala through [Respiratory Art] with the last of his strength, thus turning into a statue like she had. He didn't expect to be able to wake up again, let alone waking up a thousand years later when the Interkam Kingdom was already long gone and the era had already changed twice.
Grandmaster was explaining what he knew about that part of history. Because the first requirement for researching various styles of [Bone Forge Arts] was to research the various [Respiratory Arts] of the Age of Flame, Grandmaster had taught himself the language of the Age of Flame.
After learning of this, Alkors also wanted to prove his identity. Fortunately, his descendants were among the crowd at the venue, so it was very easy to confirm who he was through bloodline connection and family tree.
"We've brought the necessary material for the revival. I believe that if Her Highness Nala could be revived, the Duke wouldn't be stingy with this piece of dragon skull, yes?" the Ghost Knight emerged from inside the Duke's manor while carrying a large dragon skull, further validating many people's beliefs in this matter.
The Ghost Knight also had quite the reputation, but the reason why he didn't show up together with Grandmaster earlier was that his reputation wasn't completely clean. The Ghostmen used to be part of the King of Evil Spirits' army, so the Ghost Knight's appearance at that time would have only backfired.
It would only be now when the majority of the people had been convinced of this truth, that his reputation would provide the expected validation.
"Of course not, however, I would like to ask that you allow all of us to observe how you create the serum, this is to ensure the safety of Her Highness Nala's revival, I'm sure that isn't asking for too much either!" the Duke smiled and said in a completely fair manner.
Xu Yao accepted the dragon skull, then began to mobilize the light in his hand to extract what remained inside the dragon skull.
Xu Yao's [Origin] ability was called [Devour], allowing him to devour and consume anything and everything, while this extraction was actually a form of fine control of his ability, halting the devouring process before the 'digestion'.
As the golden blood filled with overwhelming [Dragon Pressure] was extracted from inside the dragon skull, the majority of the people here only had a single thought left:
"Revive, Saintess Nala, you've remained in slumber for far too long!"
