Myths Reawakened

Auston glanced at the two Francan mages coldly. Alnwick stopped in his tracks, while Charlee continued forward and indicated that they meant no harm.

Auston rolled his eyes. Everyone had their flaws, especially Francans and Wayne.

Just as he was thinking, Charlee suddenly deployed her vitality field, the magnificent world enveloping Auston, Silvia, and Filomina.

Filomina sprang to action, about to counter the attack with her own vitality field. Silvia slowly raised her hand to stop her, turning to Auston. “What, are you going to let your daughter-in-law handle this?”

Auston frowned. He didn’t understand where Silvia’s goodwill for Filomina came from. If he made a move now, he would expose himself as the Darkness Knight. Was that really okay?

But he couldn’t ignore his wife’s words. Since Silvia had accepted Filomina, he wouldn’t object. He splayed his fingers and conjured a patch of darkness, washing everything around them white. In the expanse of white, he grasped a wrist precisely.

Charlee.

Her eyes were white. Like Bourne and Bedfrith, her thoughts were now under the mysterious man’s control. When his fight with the Death Knight dragged on and yielded no results, the mysterious man was ready to kidnap Auston for leverage.

Because Auston’s true strength was unknown, however, Charlee’s mission was to kidnap Silvia, and her hand was one second away from reaching Silvia.

Auston gripped Charlee’s wrist, using Darkness’s all-encompassing property to devour her mana. From their point of contact, Charlee’s mana continued to be drained by the Darkness like a flood discharge. Once the mana was drained, her thoughts and vitality would be next.

Filomina took a step back in shock. Then she saw Auston draw Twilight Despair and pierce through Charlee’s chest.

Black light surged, enveloping her entire body before flowing back into Twilight Despair. A legendary mage ended up killed in an instant. It was partly because Charlee had lost her reason, but it also showed how much stronger Auston had grown. In the Frozen Land, he had endured tremendous pain and progressed beyond a chosen knight’s initial stage. He would no longer struggle against a legendary mage as he had in his fight with Alan.

He was also surprised by how easy it had been to dispose of Charlee. Darkness spread from beneath his feet, expanding throughout the entire vitality field, washing the legendary mage’s domain completely white.

“Darkness Knight?!” Filomina murmured, blurting out a question for Silvia. “If he... if Father is the Darkness Knight, how about Wayne? He’s the Nature Knight!”

Wouldn’t they get into a fight? Wait, hold on. So the Darkness Knight also supported the new sovereign. No wonder the Holy Maiden of the Church of Darkness had acted so obediently, and no wonder the Death Knight had been so submissive. The knight must have gotten a good beating earlier.

“Don’t worry. They won’t fight when I’m around.” Silvia patted Filomina on the shoulder, sympathizing with her plight and finding her particularly agreeable.

Auston looked at her speechlessly, reminding her, “Silvia, do you remember you have a daughter named Veronica Lando?”

Silvia froze. Right, she had a daughter. She had been so busy admiring her daughter-in-law’s beauty that she had forgotten about her daughter at home. She awkwardly withdrew her arm, looking at Filomina’s confused gaze with both regret and concern. She shouldn’t have let Filomina know too many secrets.

What to do? Was it too late to silence her now? It shouldn’t be a problem for Wayne to shut her up so that the Darkness Knight wouldn’t be exposed, but... what about Veronica?

If she knew that her mother had picked up a daughter-in-law, would she run away from home in a fit?

Seeing Silvia going through an existential crisis and losing her ability to piece words together, Auston sighed silently and said to Filomina, “Our family is in a complicated situation. I’m Wayne’s father, but Silvia isn’t Wayne’s biological mother. Silvia and I have a daughter together, who’s Wayne’s fiancée.”

“Years ago, I secretly sent Wayne away to be raised elsewhere out of fear for the royal family. To ensure that he could naturally inherit the family when he grew up, I arranged for Veronica to be his fiancée. They both accepted it.”

“Does that make sense to you?”

(゜▽゜;)

Filomina stared blankly. Could you say that again? It’s a bit confusing.

“Wayne didn’t tell you that he has a fiancée who’s also his younger sister. Such is the way of nobility. The entire family has accepted it. Can you?”

...You nobles—no, you royals are too messed up!

***

Outside the vitality field, Alnwick hadn’t stood idle. With Auston’s family gone, the Tulip Families struggled to understand what was happening, shocked.

Would the spies planted by the Queen secure victory, or would the Death Knight bring the Queen back first? The future was murky since both sides kept pulling more tricks from their sleeves, making the members of the Tulip Families feel too inferior to be anything but sitting ducks.

Out of survival instinct and their family interests, everyone was anxious to send intelligence out. Alnwick didn’t want these people causing more chaos and introducing more variables. With a wave, he conjured his vitality field to trap all members of the Tulip Families.

In the pitch-black world, the members of the Tulip Families were losing their wits and close to forgetting who they were, with their perceptions blinded and their thoughts tampered with. Legendary mages might be easy prey to chosen knights, but they weren’t weak. Quite the contrary, they were truly powerful.

They only suffered terrible defeats because the divine artifacts granted by the goddesses were too powerful.

Elemental Mantra, Dawn Doctrine, White Night Creed, Twilight Despair, and Shadow Nightmare were directly connected to Laws. A chosen knight’s starting line was the end goal of legendary mages. Once a chosen knight mastered a Law and was able to use it skillfully, there was no way for legendary mages to resist them.

Alnwick was ruthless. To prevent the Tulip Families from causing trouble, he planned to brainwash all of them and turn them into idiots.

“That won’t do. The country is getting more and more interesting. No matter who becomes the new sovereign, they’ll need the Tulip Families’ service. I want to know how Windsor will develop going forward, and...”

“For my sake, spare them!”

Among the confused members of the Tulip Families, Forest, who had been repeating the same line, stood out like a sore thumb. Appearing in his thirties, the man looked respectable and sophisticated in a suit with a glass of wine in his hand. He seemed completely harmless, yet he was ignoring the vitality field’s disturbance to his senses.

He stared straight at Alnwick, who was visibly confused about what was going on.

“Forget it. You’re just a puppet, so it’s meaningless to say this to you. Since I’m the only one present with an independent will, I’ll naturally have the final say.”

He raised his glass of wine at Alnwick, golden light blazing in his eyes as a six-winged phantom surrounded by Holy Light unfurled behind him. Golden radiance emitting from the winged phantom constructed a golden eye: the Eye of Judgment!

In the past, Mona had mistaken the large eyeball on Wayne’s chest for the Eye of Judgment, firmly believing him to be a reincarnated angel.

In an instant, all light in Alnwick’s vitality field was wiped out. The energy of the four elements, the matter composed of the four elements, and even the knowledge that Alnwick had accumulated from years of studying magic all evaporated, without exception.

White light overflowed from Alnwick’s eyes as sacred flames wreaked havoc across his body, burning his physical form and thoughts until nothing was left.

“Apologies. I haven’t used magic for a long time. I thought you would survive that.”

Forest tossed away the wine glass. The instant the vitality field dissipated, he cried out and collapsed, returning to the banquet hall along with the unconscious members of the Tulip Families.

Meanwhile, Auston had erased Charlee’s vitality field with the Darkness Knight’s power. Returning to the banquet hall with Silvia and Filomina, he didn’t see Alnwick, the legendary mage, only the members of the Tulip Families lying prone across the floor.

“What on earth happened...”

Auston frowned. His intuition told him that Douglas still had allies; tonight’s coup wasn’t as simple as it appeared.

“I’ll find Wayne. Silvia—”

“—Don’t raise your fist just yet. I didn’t tell you to wait here.”

***

In the chaotic space, Juno stumbled about, looking for the demon familiar with difficulty.

On paper, angel evolution and demon evolution were evenly matched, neither much stronger than the other. However, Douglas had a domain advantage. The chaotic space didn’t affect him, and his evolution was ongoing. Therefore, Juno had gone from matching Douglas to treading on thin ice, having to guard against sneak attacks from all directions.

She tried to identify the patterns in the chaotic space, but failed because of Douglas’s constant interruptions. What frustrated her most was that outside the barrier was a mysterious, pretty figure in a black robe, apparently an ally since she had been working on breaking the barrier.

However, her efficiency was so low that she seemed to be slacking off.

Juno wouldn’t hold it against her because of how graceful the beauty was. Still, please do hurry up!

Just then, a violent gust surged behind her. Crisscrossing spatial blades sliced downward at her white wings. The straightforward attacks didn’t escape her, but she didn’t dare to take it head-on. Their power disparity was too great, which had made her suffer a few times. She logically chose to dodge, turning around at the same time to hurl her great spear of Holy Light...

But she didn’t end up throwing it.

Two more faces were added to Douglas’s chest: Princess Elizabeth and Alistair. Juno ground her teeth together hard enough to crush her molars. Her spear disintegrated into Holy Light and rained down on Douglas, leaving magical marks on his skin.

Got you!

The moment she declared her victory, Douglas’s body shattered like a mirror. Massive shadow and oppressive force attacked her from behind. Two large hands closed around her white wings and ripped.

Juno screamed as she lost a wing. Boundless darkness assaulted her as Douglas pulled her into the cage of his body. The demon opened his maw wide, devouring the angel’s wing. Then he tipped his chin and roared at the sky. Bones protruded from his back, growing into pitch-black bat wings.

He had captured all divine bloods. Next, he would activate the mist to awaken the bloodlines...

Then inject all of it into the Book of Hell!!

***

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Invisible Darkness crushed layers after layers of spatial barriers. The Darkness Knight strode forward, accompanied by his defiant backup mount and the High Reverend of the Church of Moonlight, who had come in search of her prince.

Black light flashed, and the Darkness Knight vanished without a trace. When he appeared again, he was flanking the mysterious man with the Death Knight.

“Darkness Knight?”

“You’re...”

“Auston?!”