Chapter 147: The Advance

  The moment the man calling himself Lancelot finished speaking, Hilton collapsed straight to the ground.

  Seeing Ethan climb the tree to gaze toward the distance with a strange expression, Hilton and Jessica also scrambled up. But one look left them equally stunned. When Lancelot glanced their way and spoke, Hilton's body jolted, and he fell hard. Still on the ground, he began yelling frantically, "It's Lancelot. Damn, that's the legendary Lancelot. Damn, why would a legendary Paladin come here? And with so many people? Damn, are they going to flatten this place?" As if suddenly remembering something, he jumped up and shouted at Ethan, "Boss, your face, your face! Run!"

  Ethan also jolted awake from his excessive shock. The appearance of this group, especially the man named Lancelot leading them, had shaken him profoundly. He had expected two or three Necromancers to arrive, never anticipating a Cardinal, the renowned Temple Knight Commander of the continent, four Temple Knights, and ten Templars. This immediately threw all his carefully prepared plans into chaos. Fortunately, Hilton's shout snapped him back to reality—the Necromancers' primary target was the Leaves of the World Tree, while the Temple Knights' target was undoubtedly him, the continent's most wanted man who had revealed his true face.

  The Druid and Old Bill had already turned and run toward the elven settlement the moment they heard Lancelot's voice. In the eyes of the church, they were irredeemable heretics and blasphemers; capture meant certain death.

  Lancelot's words undoubtedly prompted a reaction from the elven elders deep in the forest. The mutations caused by natural magic around the Temple Knights ceased. But their pace didn't quicken with the obstacles' removal—or rather, their pace, bearing, and momentum had never been affected by external changes. They remained unhurried, majestic, and composed, yet in the blink of an eye, they had drawn much nearer.

  Ethan turned and leaped to another large tree nearby. In his final glance at the group, he saw two others besides Lancelot also turn their gazes toward him. One was Cardinal Adela, the other was surprisingly one of the last ten Templars, who even smiled at Ethan. The smile was warm, kind, and friendly.

  For some reason, this Templar's appearance and smile affected Ethan no less than Lancelot's gaze, but Ethan felt not shock but a strange trance.

  "Divine might like a prison, by the Lord's majesty, be still." Cardinal Adela's voice came through, clear and melodious, carrying no trace of worldly air. But Ethan, mid-air, froze instantly at the sound. Unable to control his body, he tripped on a branch and fell straight down like a log.

  Jessica had been stunned since climbing the tree and seeing the Temple Knights. Only when she saw Ethan fall did she jump down. Together with Hilton, she dragged the puppet-like Ethan and ran in the opposite direction from the Temple Knights.

  The Temple Knight Commander's resonant words reached every elf's ear in the Tulalion Forest, naturally including the fleeing thieves, the pursuing Luya, and the elves maintaining a semi-encirclement around the moving black domain.

  Sylka had already freed himself from the thorns with other thieves' help and was carrying Axsis as they ran outward. Unfortunately, their direction of escape was precisely the direction from which the Temple Knights were coming.

  Lancelot's words brought expressions of extreme terror to all the thieves' faces. Even more fearful than when they saw the scorpions larger than oxen—Sylka included. Though he still held a sliver of hope for breaking through the elves' encirclement, he never believed he could escape from so many Temple Knights and Templars.

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  Elven Patrol Kaelin finally gathered her battle aura again and drew the black longbow in her hand. Still, there was no arrow on the bow. Like the arrow that had shot down Ethan earlier, this bow launched the user's battle aura and strength.

  There were over ten thousand elves in the Tulalion Forest. Only Kaelin could cultivate battle aura—not only because elves' nature disliked conflict, but also because her martial talent was exceptionally high. But earlier, even at full strength, she had only managed to draw the pitch-black longbow halfway. After firing one arrow, her battle aura and body had been depleted to their lowest point, unable to continue.

  The target of this arrow, now infused with all her battle aura and strength, would naturally not miss. She had learned from the elves around her that the muscular brute in the field was the true culprit. She drew the bow, aimed, and released.

  Unfortunately, it missed again. The instant Kaelin released, Sylka twisted his body. His massive, muscle-bound frame displayed feline flexibility and agility. The green light silently brushed past him.

  Though Sylka had heard Lancelot's voice and was panicking and furious, his spirit nearly hysterical, the intuition honed over decades of killing and battle remained. It had become part of this monstrous thug's soul. No matter how enraged or out of control his reason, relying almost on instinct for combat and crisis avoidance, he had kept watch on the female elf who had, with a single arrow, helped him shoot down an opponent he couldn't handle. Just before the elf released, he began to dodge, finally avoiding the green light too fast for the naked eye to capture.

  But it silently brushed past him. Sylka's muscles, difficult to harm even with sword chops, were immediately ripped open like soft mud, flesh and blood flying. Then, behind him, the bodies of five thieves each had a bowl-sized cavity appear in a straight line. One shorter head was completely gone; two were half-missing; one was hit squarely in the chest; another's head, neck, and shoulder were almost entirely gone, leaving only a layer of skin and clothing connecting them.

  A thief fell silently, followed by a spray of blood—clean, swift, silent, as if those pierced were intangible illusions.

  "Clang!" A deafening crash came from the Temple Knights' side. The green light, after passing through several thieves, showed no sign of diminishing, actually shooting straight toward Cardinal Adela in that direction. Fortunately, at the critical moment, Lancelot deflected it with his still-sheathed sword, sparing the Cardinal the fate of a hole in his chest.

  Metal fragments flew everywhere; the scabbard shattered under the arrow. Lancelot's body also jolted slightly as he looked at the elven patrolwoman with considerable surprise.

  Cardinal Adela only then reacted. His face, which had always worn a gentle, kind smile, turned pale, then flushed crimson as he glared fiercely at the elf who had fired the arrow.

  "Those thieves actually created a necromantic domain... It seems there's more to these thieves than meets the eye..." Lancelot frowned, looking at the black domain ahead, then turned to Adela. "Your Eminence, please disperse these evil things."

  Adela closed his eyes, focused his mind, and began to chant a prayer. The ten Templars and four Temple Knights all pointed their weapons toward the Cardinal from afar. White magic light flickered on them, simultaneously converging on Adela. Gradually, the white magic light on the Cardinal grew blindingly bright, even his own form submerged in the radiance.

  "...By the Lord's radiance, cleanse all things in the world, restore their original purity..." Adela chanted the simplest white magic, the Purification prayer. This low-level spell could be instantly cast by any bishop-level figure, but Adela now recited it line by line, as seriously as an apprentice priest just learning white magic. When the prayer ended, he pointed one hand to the sky. A surging yet gentle magic fluctuation and white light erupted from him as the center.

  Under this white light's illumination, the black domain dispersed like black smoke in a strong wind, vanishing without a trace. The scroll in Axsis's hand melted like ice in a furnace under the light, finally disappearing along with the surrounding black domain.

  This white purification light did more than disperse the black domain; it radiated outward with a hundredfold majesty and momentum over a vaster, broader area. The viscous factors in the air returned to normal. The mutated venomous insects summoned by the elven mages immediately reverted to their original forms under the purification wave. Even the The Withered Wood Wardens froze motionless under the light. Even the entire elven magic barrier seemed to tremble under this ultra-large-range, ultra-powerful purification magic.

  After the light faded, Adela returned to his original form. All elves watched him; even the thieves looked with reverence at the Cardinal, who had resembled an idol cast of light moments earlier. But Adela paid no mind to these gazes; he was looking at one spot. Only there, a few The Withered Wood Wardens still moved slightly, and the venomous insects remained unchanged, surrounding the elf maiden holding a green leaf.

  The Cardinal's expression returned to that gentle, kind smile, even warmer and more handsome. And his eyes gleamed.

  "They seem to want to escape." Lancelot's brown eyes noticed nothing here, locking only on the few figures fleeing hastily behind the elves. "Aldric, Christine, with me. The rest, help Cardinal Adela deal with these thieves."

  Lancelot and the two Temple Knights he named suddenly accelerated. The light from their Radiant Battleplates left three white trails in the air as they shot into the distance.

  Among the two Temple Knights remaining here was Talise. Her gaze toward Sylka already burned with fury. The moment Lancelot left, before Adela could speak, she drew her longsword, shouted angrily, and charged toward Sylka.