Chapter 316
Chapter 316: My Own Mother Hit Me—I'm Going to Kill Every Last One of You!
The diplomatic ministers huddled together, trembling like wheat stalks buffeted by the wind.
They seemed desperately to wish they could grow a hard tortoise shell on their backs so they could curl up inside it at once.
The Demi-human guards urgently took up positions near each window, going on full alert.
They too had caught the scent of danger.
They drew their longswords, their gazes sharp as arrows poised on a drawn bowstring, ready to release at any moment.
What on earth was happening?
Why had these guards suddenly gone on alert?
They found it strange, yet none of them dared open their mouths to ask.
Whether from terror of the bottomless abyss outside the carriage or fear of Gwen standing at the center of it, they kept their silence.
Gwen's expression remained as unmoved as ever, as though she were completely indifferent to the crisis at hand.
Her silver armor, like a storm from the Northern Frontier, swept its frost-like authority across every minister whose gaze fell upon her, an indescribable chill seeping into their bodies and souls.
The ministers dared only steal a glance at Gwen. The overwhelming pressure radiating from her made it impossible to focus their thoughts.
They might not even survive long enough to see the train fall or reach the Kant Kingdom—this aura alone might crush them first.
Had Grand Knight Gwen always been like this?
They had no idea how Viktor endured her.
At the very thought, waves of admiration for Viktor washed over the ministers.
The Knights, too, sensed the train's abnormality. They rushed back and forth past one another, the metal of their armor producing heavy clanging sounds as it collided.
They filed through the carriages, trying to rush toward where the Princess was located.
They had never encountered a situation like this before.
The Magic Train suddenly shuddering?
An earthquake? Impossible.
The Magic Train traveled suspended in midair—how could an earthquake make it shake?
Yet the train's violent lurching truly had sent fear flooding through them.
From its invention to its deployment, the Magic Train had never once malfunctioned.
If there were a hidden fault lurking within it, that Dwarf Council Member who invented the Magic Train would surely be unable to stay calm.
Clang!
From above the carriage came another tremendous crashing sound.
The powerful impact sent everyone swaying unsteadily; one by one they instinctively grabbed for any solid part they could find to support themselves and clung on for dear life.
Countless Knights nearly lost their grip under the impact, and feeling the carriage tilt, they experienced for one brief instant the sensation that death was drawing desperately close.
Their hearts hammered in their chests, and they could only feel blood surging rapidly toward their heads.
The Demi-human guards, relying on their innate sense of balance, stood steady on the backrests near their seats.
Then suddenly the train stopped shaking.
As though something had forced it to a halt, once the shuddering ceased, the train came to a stop along with it.
Everyone froze. They watched the clouds rolling slowly forward all around them, while they themselves remained suspended there in midair along with the train, able only to stare with wide, helpless eyes.
How had the train come to a sudden stop in the middle of the sky?
The ministers fell into confusion, looking out through the tilting carriage windows. The gut-wrenching abyss lay before their eyes.
After 2 impacts, the train had inevitably lost its stability.
The entire carriage tilted slightly in midair and found a strange equilibrium on the magical tracks, stubbornly hanging in the sky like a leaning tower.
They were high in the air. What could possibly have struck them and brought the train to a halt?
At that moment, Gwen spoke in a calm, unruffled tone, as though she had anticipated this all along:
"Viktor said that this was something we would certainly encounter leaving the Empire on this trip."
What did she mean?
Her words left everyone present stunned.
The diplomatic ministers had had no advance knowledge whatsoever that the journey would face this kind of danger.
Hearing this news so abruptly, the ministers' feelings reached a level of complexity beyond description.
So Viktor and the others had known all along that something dangerous would happen on this train.
Yet they had not informed them, and instead allowed them to be dragged along to face the danger together?
No wonder there were so many guards on this train.
And Viktor himself had even boarded along with them.
Right—Viktor. Where was Viktor!
The moment they thought of Viktor, these ministers felt a sliver of security flicker back to life in their hearts.
But the train had already come to a halt midway through the sky.
In a situation this dire, what was Viktor doing? Why hadn't he shown himself yet?
Suddenly, Gwen drew the blazing longsword from her waist.
In an instant, sword intent overflowed in every direction, and the surrounding air began to turn scorching hot.
The dry air began to warp and distort, the sword's flames coiling upward like a fiery dragon.
The blazing radiance bathed her frost-cold face in crimson, as though 2 opposing forces had merged and were on the verge of erupting into something far more immense.
Her cold voice reached every set of ears:
"Now, please sit quietly in your seats."
"Whatever happens next—do not be surprised."
The Demi-human guards tightened their grips on their sword hilts as well, standing at full readiness.
At that moment, a soul-shaking roar came from the front of the train, like a colossal beast bellowing. The vibrations from it sent even the clouds outside the carriage trembling.
The ear-splitting roar made the ministers' ears ache. They clapped their hands over their ears, faces twisting in pain.
What was going on?
The source of the sound…was the first-class carriage.
Pressing their hands against their ears and struggling to endure the sound, the Knights snapped to attention all at once.
That was where Her Highness Auréliane was!
Could Her Highness be in danger!?
At the thought, the Knights couldn't help swallowing hard, uncertain of what to do.
And the ministers had no time left to think at all.
Would Auréliane be all right!? What did that have to do with them!?
Their own necks were barely safe right now—would they really spare any thought for whether they'd lose their heads if something happened to Auréliane?
Then, accompanying the roar, the carriage windows and doors erupted with a tremendous BOOM.
Black tentacles extending from outside, like enormous serpents, rapidly coiled around the entire carriage and began to squeeze down hard.
Under that pressure, the carriage warped and buckled; the sides of the compartment were forced apart, splitting open 2 gaping fissures.
The ministers stared at those horrifying tentacles and had gone so numb they had even forgotten to cry out.
They could only watch blankly as the tentacles wound tighter and tighter, causing the distorted carriage to emit a sharp, piercing shriek of metal.
Yet Gwen remained just as composed as ever.
She planted one foot on a warped carriage seat, the crimson longsword in her hand like a beam of light cutting through darkness, the flames still illuminating her ice-cold face.
At last, some of the ministers, fighting through their terror, forced themselves to look toward the black shape that had revealed itself.
In that instant.
Fear flooded every corner of their hearts.
That formless, rule-less body writhed ceaselessly, its tentacles spreading out from its filthy form.
Within that chaotic, mud-black shell, a single yellow eyeball was faintly embedded, like a lump of flesh.
It opened its eye, carefully surveying the panicked crowd inside the carriage.
Until that eye of disgust gradually fixed its attention on one figure in the compartment.
The ministers followed the gaze of that blasphemous thing and found their own eyes landing on Gwen as well.
"God……dess……God……dess……"
A tangled chanting, like some ancient tongue, came from all directions at once—mixed, indecipherable, filling all who heard it with dread.
Yet Gwen showed not a shred of mercy. She stamped down hard with one foot, and the entire carriage seemed to shudder for a moment.
Then the blazing longsword split through the air, and she was before the creature in an instant, wrapped in crimson flame.
She brought the blade down in a single slash; the scarlet radiance seemed to cleave through the scorching space itself. The flames billowed and surged, and a terrifying explosive sound erupted suddenly from midair, blasting apart a large section of the entire carriage.
The violent gale produced by the explosion compressed and compressed, then burst open entirely.
Air shrieked and howled, filling the brilliant azure sky above its billowing white clouds, pouring into the narrow and twisted carriage, whipping up a violent, crushing pressure.
The ministers grabbed onto the nearest handrails as fast as they could, terrified of being swept away by the raging storm.
The towering black tentacles, after enduring that fearsome flame slash, exploded apart—dissolving into dense splatters of filthy ink that rained down across the carriage.
The black liquid seeped in through the narrow cracks that had split open.
Soon, dark droplets oozed up from the floor, beads of liquid converging into a host of filthy little monsters.
Their slender tentacles dragged their nauseating bodies forward, slowly surging toward the ministers.
The moment the ministers caught a glimpse of these creatures, it was as though they had plunged to the frozen bottom of an icy valley.
The tentacles Gwen had just severed had transformed into countless filthy monsters.
But the Demi-humans had prepared for everything long in advance. At the sight of these creatures, the fur on their tails and their ears stood straight up simultaneously, as though their bestial instincts had fully awakened. They launched themselves ferociously at the horde of monsters.
These filthy tentacle-things were shockingly weak. Within mere moments, the Demi-humans had swiftly eliminated them all.
Gwen stood in the carriage like a snow pine tree standing firm against howling wind, her gaze fixed on the writhing monster.
Fierce, frigid wind swept her long hair, the blazing longsword in her hand—her heart cold as ice, her blade hot as fire—she faced the terror without flinching.
The tentacle-covered monster burned all over with flame, as though it could not be extinguished.
Even that yellow eyeball of its looked as though it had caught ghostfire.
That eye—a fusion of flesh and blood—stared fixedly at Gwen, its mouth moving in slurred, incomprehensible ancient speech:
"God……dess?"
"Why……"
In that instant, it seemed to plunge into unbounded fury. Its tentacles seized the train and gripped it tight.
After tracing an arc through the air, it hurled the train downward toward the vast and terrifying abyss below with all its force.
Whoooosh—!
The carriage could no longer bear the force. It tore through the howling cold wind and plummeted toward the chasm.
In that instant, everyone inside the carriage felt the horrifying sensation of freefall.
Even the Demi-humans lost their footing and slammed against the walls.
The terrifying weightlessness left the ministers unable to speak a single word, and even their minds had stopped functioning.
Only the shrieking of the wind all around them poured ceaselessly into their ears, without pause.
Hmmmm—
Then suddenly, a vast sea of Magic Power completely enveloped the entire carriage.
The swirling Magic Power seemed to cradle the train carriages, forcibly suspending them in the air.
The Knights and ministers were lifted along with it, floating inside the compartment.
Like people who had somehow survived a catastrophe, they stared out of the carriage with completely blank faces.
And then every one of them saw the black figure outside.
Beyond the carriage wall, Viktor stood with both hands in his pockets, his black Coat swirling in the wind.
His legs were straight, floating in midair.
Behind his Coat, it was as though 5 differently-striped lights had blazed into being, forming 5 enormous elemental hands.
Magic Power extended from his 5 palms, all 5 hands gripping firm—seemingly holding nothing but empty air—and yet they held the suspended train in place.
He raised his head, looking at the Devotee of the Goddess that had revealed its true form—burning all over in flame—his expression ice-cold.
"As I expected. You, who didn't dare show your faces within the Empire,"
"—how could you possibly let this opportunity pass?"