Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Twenty
By the time the Old Kingdom’s army was within reach of the Forlorn Castle’s walls, the sun was high in the sky at its zenith. While the army was so much faster than the one that’d been led by the forlorn herald, they were still significantly delayed by the crossing of the Blue Vein, which required an improvised bridge. Adam did all of the work building it with his magic, and he felt sure that without his sculpting powers, it would have taken even longer, since the guard captains had talked about needing to find the materials first.
Before Adam had gotten occupied by the bridge construction, he had dropped off the other three to clear out the artillery that would decimate the army if left unchecked. Given that the soldiers of the Old Kingdom could reach the walls intact, it was safe to say the others had done a good job laying out the welcome mat.
Still, they were immediately set upon by reanimated people and animals as soon as they entered the city, and they lost easily forty soldiers within the opening attack.
Because they had several priests with them under the leadership of Father Adam, all of the dead were blessed after falling, preventing Adam from targeting them with his magic and keeping their bodies out of the Shadow’s reach. The same went for the enemies they fought, since they didn’t want to be stabbed in the back by the fallen rising again once they’d moved deeper into the castle town.
Seeing as the army was competent enough to keep itself safe, Adam linked back up with the others and moved towards the castle entrance. Within was the melody of one of the twin knights, as well as something stronger and denser behind him, which had to belong to the Forlorn King.
“Are you ready?” Adam asked, handing each of them a torch.
He had already explained the twins’ powers to them, but he reiterated them just to make sure everyone was on the same page. They had decided to split the two knights between them, with Adam and Seo-Yoon taking out the invisible assassin, and Chien and Natalia dealing with the spear wielder.
Adam and Seo-Yoon both wore their aspirant’s cowls, since it should allow them to see the dark mana used by the invisible twin.
Out of every relic in the Trials so far, the ‘Mage Aspirant’s Cowl’ has got to be the most consistently-useful one in every stage, with the exception of the Floating Sea, Adam mused.