Myths Reawakened

Wayne watched everything happen with an expressionless face. He splayed his fingers and pressed his hand to the skeletal dragonrider’s sternum, drawing on the overflowing life energy in the mana stones in his chest to confront Death with Nature’s vitality. While erasing the greyness, he made sure not to do any damage to the skeleton.

Putting himself in the other Wayne’s shoes, he realized that if he wanted to torment someone like Auston, he would’ve tampered with Silvia’s remains. For example, as soon as Auston came into contact with the skeleton and was able to take it back, the skeleton would detonate itself, turning into ashes right before his eyes.

It was most effective to show someone hope before killing the hope.

Wayne was right. The other Wayne had done that, but it wasn’t his design, but the design of his external brain, Juno. The trap would definitely destroy the Darkness Knight’s sanity. Then they could catch him off guard and gain a skeletal rider of Darkness and Twilight Despair.

Once the Death energy dissipated, the skeleton remained intact thanks to the vitality Wayne had protected it with. With a wave, he conjured a piece of green cloth with his thoughts to wrap the bones.

The bone dragon struggled beneath his feet. Annoyed, Wayne drew Saint George’s Oath Sword and thrust down, instantly quieting the bone dragon. It whined with its tail drooping.

A massive volume of Death energy remained in the bone dragon, which was the power that sustained it. Wayne didn’t want to waste too much energy on it, so he signaled his teammates to gather.

Megan was the quickest to appear. Clothed in a black robe in human form, she landed beside Wayne.

“This is Master’s remains. Take her out. I’ll give Auston the good news.”

“Understood, Young Master.”

Megan took the remains wrapped in green cloth and retreated from the battlefield without a word. Anastasia and Sophelia showed up later. Sophelia looked down at the Oath Sword that had been used to pin down the bone dragon and then at her own Oath Sword, stunned.

While she was still reeling from the revelation, Wayne grabbed the Oath Sword of the inner world from her and thrust it through the bone dragon.

The Book of Greed perked up. After it had its taste, Wayne realized to his surprise that the Oath Sword differed from its surface world’s counterpart, too. It had been modified according to the negativity of the inner world, which meant that the Heavenly Father was another shareholder of the world.

Putting aside his confusion, he extracted his Oath Sword and stored it in his personal storage.

“Knight Wayne, where did you get the sword?” Sophelia asked even though she knew the answer. Treasure should only go to the strong, and since the Lando family had rebelled in the surface world, dividing the Queen and the Princess between them, it wasn’t surprising that Wayne would have the Oath Sword.

“This is a symbol of the Lando family’s loyalty and bravery!” Wayne put a hand on his side. When the Queen gave him an irate look, he huffed and talked down at her, “What? Have you any objections?”

“That isn’t the case. I simply asked out of curiosity.”

“You better be.”

Wayne scoffed. Sophelia had gotten ahead of herself after acquiring Juno’s and Alistair’s divine blood. She once again hoped to change her fate and staged a coup against the new sovereign. Since the Auston of the inner world was the one who would suffer, Wayne couldn’t care less. He drew White Night Creed from the Void and transformed into the Moonlight Knight, nocking an arrow to his bow.

Sophelia observed Wayne and his intricate silver armor with complicated thoughts. Once she had transformed with her divine blood, she would lock Wayne up in her basement and tame him. Ah, she should collect the father and make the father and son comrades in the same ditch.

She fantasized about the future that seemed right within reach. Whatever the Queen of the surface world could do, she would, too, and whatever the Queen of the surface world couldn’t do, she would especially do.

Megan had left with Silvia’s remains, while Sophelia had lost her Oath Sword to keep the bone dragon under control. Anastasia arrived to find nothing to do, huffing when she saw Wayne moving far away on an arrow.

What, was he playing a trick on her?

Anastasia didn’t leave. Seeing the golden sun expanding in the heart of the Great Cemetery from a distance, she blended into the darkness and hid in the gaps in space. Since Sophelia wasn’t as much of a master in magic, she opted to hide in the dragon’s skeleton, allowing its powerful physical form to shield her from the shockwaves.

Gusts of wind howled and lifted earth itself, triggering storms of rolling sand. The bone dragon ended up flung off the ground for hundreds of meters before slamming back down with a boom.

Sunlight wiped out the Death energy imbuing the dragon bones, putting the skeleton in eternal peace.

***

Clang!

Golden light vanished and reappeared in approximation of teleportation. William swung Dawn Doctrine down from the sky, pointing the tip of the spear at Death Knight Wayne’s skull.

The Death Knight raised his sword to parry the attack, but the Sun Knight’s overwhelming power made his arm bones creak, and the unstoppable momentum spread along his gauntlets, vambraces, pauldrons, and chest plate, ending up weighing down his undead warhorse.

Julia’s hooves wavered. Conjuring a portal beneath her feet, she leaped down, bringing the Death Knight above William’s head.

Shadow Nightmare radiated white light as it hit William in the neck to decapitate him. After a flash of golden light, William dispersed into light particles and recombined above the Death Knight... Rinse and repeat a few more times, and the undead horse was reaching her limit.

The Sun Knight had raw power on his side. His physique was incredibly strong, and the speed at which he turned into light and recombined was unusually high. When push came to shove, he would even detonate himself to create a mushroom cloud explosion. He was an all-rounder with almost no weakness.

Under the circumstances, the undead horse’s delicate skeleton seemed even more fragile. Like a foal that had just been born, her legs wobbled, unable to endure the reckless fighting style of relying on raw power.

Darkness encroached, emerging from the shadow cast by the Death Knight’s cape under the sunlight. Eyes crimson, Auston thrust at Wayne’s eye socket with black light radiating from Twilight Despair.

Sparks sputtered at the ringing collision of blades. The Death Knight turned Twilight Despair around to parry the incoming attack. Fighting two enemies at once was more difficult than he had expected. He growled, “Auston, the same trick isn’t going to work on me. Go back and practice more!”

The cape of Death energy lifted. Grey, ghostly hands reached out to grab Auston’s neck and William’s ankles.

Golden light disassembled and reassembled, while Darkness dissipated. The two broke out of Death’s hold.

Riding on his warhorse, the Death Knight created an absolute domain with Death energy, his cape transforming into countless ghostly hands and clattering jawbones, keeping Auston and William at bay. Clearly, the Death Knight was cornered. He stood no chance of winning this fight.

The endless supply of Death energy in Londan made sure that he would never be defeated, but there was a limit to the amount of energy he could gather at once. With his ultimate attack taking too long to cast, he kept getting interrupted by William’s explosions. Meanwhile, his lesser attacks did next to nothing, so there was no point in embarrassing himself like that in front of other chosen knights.

Auston remained calm and collected with his bottomless reserve of Darkness energy, while William was panting heavily. Although he had been keeping Death Knight Wayne suppressed, he was undoubtedly the weakest among the three chosen knights.

His foundation wasn’t as solid.

Whoosh!

Silver arrow disturbed the sky, morphing into tens of thousands of arrows and raining down like a dense, viscous waterfall, sweeping over the armored Death Knight and the undead warhorse. The impossible weight prevented Death Knight Wayne from raising his sword to parry incoming attacks, and his mount had dropped to her knees. Both of them growled.

Not only had the torrent of arrows prevented the Death Knight from moving, but it had also stopped the undead warhorse from calculating and creating portals. A figure of clear moonlight landed before Auston and William, his face covered by a white mask.

Wayne planned to repeat the same strategy he had used to kill Juno. A trick never got old as long as it was useful.

Amid the bombardment of arrows, Wayne said in a modulated, hoarse voice that made him sound like a person with throat cancer, concealing his identity, “The portals of the undead horse can be interrupted, and she can only teleport short distances. Use those shortcomings of the horse, and we may just kill the Death Knight with one hit.”

“Moonlight Knight, how do you know them so well?” William hadn’t exposed Wayne. The moment he saw the mask, he knew that Wayne was going to play a trick.

Auston had stayed silent as well. Between the three of them, there were six hundred schemes brewing in their heads. Wayne had two hundred and fifty, Auston had two hundred, and William had one hundred and fifty. Added to that Death Knight Wayne’s share, there would be five hundred and ninety-nine in total.

In terms of intelligence, Wayne’s side held the absolute upper hand. Besides, he had moonlighted as the Death Knight and thus had first-hand information.

Julia had told him everything from the mechanisms of the portals to the process of calculations and then to the exploitable flaws, as well as the impossibility of interrupting the spellcasting. In addition to her own shortcomings, she had also shared the Headless Knight’s ultimate attacks, their training methods, and even his weaknesses, keeping nothing from Wayne.

“My previous master doesn’t have any weaknesses!” Julia had said.

While the Headless Knight of the surface world was a true all-rounder with no weaknesses, the Death Knight of the inner world clearly wasn’t the same. Wayne could easily put him on his knees with a few tricks. He even had the time to answer William’s questions.

“I once rejected the Shadow Nightmare of the surface world and later joined the other goddesses. That’s why I know.”

As soon as he said that, the dense rain of moonlight stopped.

Death Knight Wayne looked at the Moonlight Knight in confusion, asking tentatively, “Wayne?”

“Who is that?” Wayne questioned, nocking a longsword of moonlight to his bow and aiming at the Death Knight’s head.

The Death Knight raised his sword to defend himself, while the undead warhorse opened a portal below so that they both fell through it.

Wayne didn’t even have to look. Counting to five silently, he made the shot upward at a forty-five degree angle.

Swoosh!

Another portal opened, through which the undead warhorse galloped out. She charged straight into the arrow of moonlight with the arrowhead lodged into the seam of her rib cage. She jumped around in pain.

Wayne faded away, reaching Julia with the arrow acting as his pathway. Before she could open another portal, he made three shots, making her hurt so badly that she couldn’t think.

Moonlight whooshed around the Death Knight. While he was struggling to keep up and find a way to respond, a ray of moonlight pierced through the Death energy, hovering right in front of his skull.

The white light flickered. Wayne swapped places with the arrow with a longsword of moonlight, appearing right in front of the Death Knight.

“We see each other again, Wayne!”

Wayne’s white mask disintegrated to reveal his real face. While the Death Knight was stunned into inaction, he thrust the longsword toward the dancing red light in the Death Knight’s right eye socket.

“This is my gift to you...”