Chapter 19 : Chapter 19
Chapter 19: Ashes and the Lion
Caesar's figure disappeared into the mountain rocks' shadow. Less than a minute later—
The dead-silent valley was shattered by hoofbeats like muffled thunder.
A dozen black-clad riders, like ink spilling and rolling across the ground's surface, surged silently into the valley entrance.
The Northland Iron-Hoof warhorses beneath them had knotted muscles yet landed without sound—clearly specially trained magical mounts.
The riders were wrapped head to toe in matte black armor bearing no emblems whatsoever, like a pack of professional butchers crawling from an abyss that never saw daylight.
“Stop.”
The lead rider raised one hand. The entire formation froze instantly, as if someone had pressed pause.
He dismounted, landing light as a feather.
Steel-wrapped war boots stepped onto congealed bloody mud with a soft squelch.
He raised his head. The menacing full-coverage helmet turned toward this slaughter field, the eyepieces' gaze cold as blades, examining his own “work.”
A deputy rode close, dismounted cleanly, and knelt on one knee. His voice came from inside the helmet, carrying a metallic hum.
“Lord Ashes, the first Iron Cage runic array was forcibly breached.”
“That old dog Gregory—tougher than our intelligence suggested.”
The leader called Ashes said nothing.
He merely slowly clenched his steel-gauntleted right hand. A teeth-grinding creak echoed particularly sharp in the deathly silence.
The surrounding riders even stopped breathing.
No one dared make any sound while Ashes was analyzing.
In their organization, accidents were synonymous with incompetence, and incompetence had only one outcome—death.
“What about the second Silence Trap?”
After a long pause, Ashes spoke, his voice like two sheets of rusted iron scraping together.
“Already activated. According to the energy feedback, the trap's annihilation effect is continuously draining his Battle Energy.”
“At most… it can hold him for ten more minutes.”
The deputy's answer was precise and cold.
“We must retrieve the target before the old lion breaks free.”
“Five minutes. Recovery operation.”
Ashes spat out a few words, wasted no more breath, and walked straight toward that overturned ornate carriage.
That was his target—the beloved daughter of Grand Duke Sebastian, Miss Anneliya.
He extended his gauntleted right hand, five fingers pressed together like a blade. In the gaps of his arm's black armor, gray energy streams swirled and coalesced.
SSSHHHRIP—!
No great boom—only the eerie sound of cloth being torn.
The oak carriage wall, sturdy enough to resist blades and swords, was fragile as paper under his hand, forcibly ripped open with a gaping hole.
Ashes looked into the carriage interior.
Empty.
The trembling golden-haired girl he'd anticipated was nowhere to be seen.
Only a blood-stained white fox fur cloak lay quietly in the corner, like a butterfly with broken wings, silently mocking his so-called “perfect plan.”
Ashes's body stiffened for an instant.
Beneath the helmet, in eyes no one could see, his pupils narrowed sharply.
The surrounding air's temperature seemed to plummet.
“Sir!”
The deputy immediately stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and carefully dabbed a fingertip in the blood.
A trace of extremely faint gray Battle Energy coiled upward. His breathing beneath the helmet clearly hitched.
“The blood is fresh, but… not the target's.”
His voice turned heavy.
“This blood lacks the searing sensation of the Sebastian family's lion bloodline.”
“A third party.”
Ashes's voice remained steady, yet the clenched fist, the creaking of gauntlet friction, betrayed the turmoil within.
He crouched down, his gaze hawklike, sweeping every inch of the carriage.
On the carriage floor's wooden splinters hung several strands of black wolf bristles.
On the door's inner side, an almost invisible blurred handprint.
And… a trail leading toward the mountain forest, deliberately concealed.
Two sets of footprints—one deep and sunken with heavy strides; the other extremely shallow, almost weightless, the condition of being “carried.”
The trail bore blood, intermittent yet unhesitating, extending toward the Blackspine Mountains' boundless darkness.
“A mouse took advantage of us toying with the old lion and snatched the canary from the cage.”
Ashes slowly stood, twisted his neck, producing a crisp crack.
He showed no anger—only the icy viciousness of prey slipping the hook.
“Split off half the men. Go fetch my little bird back.”
His voice carried not a trace of warmth.
“Remember—I want her alive.”
He paused, the narrow eyepieces sweeping across the remaining riders.
“As for that meddling mouse… find him, twist off his head. I want to see who has the guts to steal from my trap.”
“Yes!”
Half the black-clad riders instantly mounted, murderous intent rolling off them, preparing to pursue into the mountain forest.
However, just as they were about to spur their horses forward, sudden change erupted!
The warhorse beneath one rider suddenly pawed the ground uneasily, snorting loudly, releasing a fearful whinny.
“Boss! That… that old man's Battle Energy…”
A very young-sounding rider's voice trembled. This was his first time participating in an operation of this caliber. Facing a legendary existence, the coldness trained through long discipline was being eroded by instinctive fear.
Ashes whipped around, looking toward the valley entrance they'd come through—the place sealed by the runic array.
No reminder needed. He felt it too.
That in the air, originally suppressed to barely perceptible levels, was now explosively surging in geometric progression!
The ground beneath their feet began jumping. Gravel rattled as if some primordial beast in the earth's core was awakening!
“What are you panicking about!”
Ashes barked harshly.
“He was drained by two runic arrays—already at his rope's end! Even if he breaks free…”
Before the words finished—
A rider responsible for monitoring the runic arrays, face beneath the helmet already drained of color, shrieked in an almost hysterical wail.
“Sir! The Silence Trap's energy response… vanished! It was… torn apart from the inside! He's out!”
This shriek struck like a heavy hammer, shattering everyone's last hope.
What they faced was no common rabble, but the legend who once on the Southern Border battlefield single-handedly smashed through siege behemoths head-on—“The Immovable Lion” Gregory!
Massive fear caused another rider whose psychological defenses collapsed to commit the most foolish action.
He violently wheeled his horse around, voice shrill and twisted in a howl.
“That girl's already been taken away! The mission failed! Why should we still wait here to die! That's Earth Knight Gregory Sebastian!”
He wanted to flee.
But those words, like a precision voice transmission spell, traveled word-for-word to the other end of the valley, reaching the ears of that towering figure who had just used his last strength to tear through the array, drenched in blood, stepping into this slaughter field.
In an instant, Gregory's body—already somewhat hunched from exhaustion—went rigid.
BOOOOM—!!!
The next second, a wildly violent terrifying energy erupted from the valley entrance!
The entire valley trembled violently under this pure force. On both cliff walls, countless massive stones tumbled like raindrops, producing apocalyptic roars!
A brilliant earth-gold pillar of light too dazzling to look at directly, like the sword of divine punishment, instantly tore through the gloom and savagely shot skyward!
Dyeing the sky for several miles around into thick, majestic molten gold.
Within the light pillar, a tall and imposing figure walked forward step by step.
Earth Knight, Gregory Sebastian.
He had arrived.