Chapter 493: Bad News
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Long-awaited, Anfey finally came back to the station the second day after the battle broke out. His appearance made Christian and the others feel a little less tense. They did not have smiles on their faces for long before the soldiers who came back to the station after Anfey shared the shocking and sensational news. Scarlet did not die and Baery lost his battle at One-Line-Sky.
The Shansa Empire's military had been fleeing towards the northwest. They looked like they wanted to retreat from the main street on the Wild Plain to the Ellisen Empire. The Ellisen Empire had sent out their military to help them. Baery could not sit there and do nothing about it. He chased after the Ellisen Empire's military, but was ambushed at a valley called One-Line-Sky.
Those few estafettes did not look too good. Estafettes were not high positions, so they did not understand Baery's whole plan. Anfey and Alice had to ask them for a quite long time but only got a draft of Baery's plan.
The two Griffin Aerial Units lead by Scarlet were very tough at the battle. They had been covering for the main force since they decided to flee. They constantly harassed the Death Roaring Legion and attacked their scouts. Baery was the person who would definitely fight back if he was attacked. He camouflaged mages and senior swordsmen on the scouting team and turned Scarlet's trick against her to hunt for griffin riders.
There was no other legion as flexible as the griffin riders. After they lost few battles, they changed their strategies. They reduced the number of attacks but make each attack at a large scale. Hundreds of griffin riders attacked a scouting team with less than ten people in it. Even mages and senior swordsmen hidden in the scouting team could not change the situation. They did not even have the hope to escape.
After dozens of deaths on each side, Baery finally could not take any more loss. The number of elite scouts was reduced to half, over forty mages died in the battles, and two generals died as well. The griffin riders were quite tough in the battles. They tried to keep their advantageous position in the sky no matter what it would have costed them. In the end, Baery had to ask the scouting team to retreat and handed the scouting job to the mages. He asked the mages to constantly release the Sky of Eyes to keep an eye on their opponents.
One-Line-Sky had very weird terrain. It looked like an array of pointy tents on both sides of the valley. The valley was wide at the bottom but narrow on the top. The mountains on both sides were about 600 meters high, slanted upwards. The higher they went, the closer the mountains got. The top of the mountains almost touched each other. Looking from the bottom, only a line of sky was seen. This was the origin of its name: One-Line-Sky.
There were nearly thousands of springs and hot springs in the valley within a thirty mile radius. The valley had been submerged in fog and created many challenges for the Sky of Eyes.
Dean Steger released the Sky of Eyes and saw countless Shansa Empire soldiers crossing the valley and continuing to flee away from them. However, he could not see what happened in the valley well because of the fog. Steger and Arch Alchemist Jacob decided to pay a trip to the valley, but they did not notice anything unusual there.
Officials and soldiers in the Death Roaring Legion kept asking to chase after Scarlet's military. It was strange to see Baery taking out a letter to read at such a critical moment. He finally gave the order to chase after Scarlet's military after reading it for a long time.
After about a quarter of the soldiers walked into the valley, a hidden gigantic magic array was triggered. All of the soldiers died in the valley.
Many magics were only effective for a short period of time. For instance, Marshal magic and Firewall Magic. After the elements dispersed, the scene should have gone back to its original look. However, the damages caused by magic were permanent. For example, a big fireball could create a large hole in the ground. The gigantic magic array set by Scarlet released strong earthquake waves. As the earth shook stronger and stronger, more than half of the mountains in the One-Line-Sky's valley collapsed. The famous One-Line-Sky wonder completely disappeared from this world forever. It was replaced by countless rock tombs of different sizes. Over ten thousand soldiers of the Death Roaring Legion were buried in those rock tombs.
Baery immediately made the decision to ask the Death Roaring Legion to retreat. His decisiveness kept some of the Death Roaring Legion alive. It was not time for them to attack Scarlet's military. No matter how tough the soldiers were, they were still human, not men of steel. They each had their own emotions, principles and fears. When they watched their peers walk into the valley and disappear forever, it crushed them.
The appearance of Scarlet was a miracle. Her flag rose up again. Unfortunately, the only path of escape was destructed by her earthquakes. Their destination was thirty miles away with a direct path. If she wanted to travel around the mountains, she had to walk a hundred miles more, which gave Baery time to regroup.
The chasers became the escapers in the blink of an eye while the escapers became the chasers. The situation changed as fast as a game of checkers.
Baery definitely would not have dared to fight Scarlet. He led the Death Roaring Legion to chase after her and took advantage of not having a leader in the Shansa Empire's military. Without a leader, their military did not know what to do without any orders. If Scarlet hadn't died yet, Baery needed to meet up with the Shield of Light Legion as soon as possible.
Those few estafetes brought Baery shocking news. To the east of the Country of Mercenaries, in Stormenburg, mercenaries found thousands of knights from the Shansa Empire running towards Stormenburg. They were the Guardian Knights of Edward VIII of the Shansa Empire. Countless griffin riders flew over the sky. Roughly estimating, there were at least six Griffin Aerial Squadrons.
The Griffin Aerial team was composed of three fighting battalions and one training battalion. Each battalion had three flying squadrons. Anfey had wiped out one of their squadron with his peers. Two of the squadrons were with Scarlet. Now they had six flying squadrons with Guardian Knights, which meant Edward VIII of the Shansa Empire played his last card. He was fighting for his life with Yolanther.
The Shansa Empire military attacked neither Stormenburg, nor White Mountain City even though they were easy targets. They travelled directly towards the southwest. Their goal was to take control of Cross Valley to cut off the bridge for both the Death Roaring Legion and the Shield of Light Legion in order to wipe out both legions before Yolanther could send a renforcement team to help.
The atmosphere deteriorated and became deathly quiet after they heard the news. Everyone fixed their eyes on Anfey. They wondered what happened. Hadn't Anfey killed Scarlet? If Anfey did not earn his supreme reputation through danger, there might have been someone standing out to doubt him. Alice seemed to be the most upset. When Anfey told her that he killed Scarlet, she felt relieved despite her regrets. When she learned that Scarlet came back to life, she was really upset.
"Don't look at me. I definitely killed Scarlet," Anfey said calmly. In fact, Anfey was not in a good mood either. "I am pretty sure I killed her."
"Then why is she still alive?" Blavi asked timidly.
"There must be someone who saved her with some miracle." Anfey said assertively. He was confident about his abilities. Scarlet definitely died.
"Did…" Hui Wei's face turned pale. He jumped up suddenly.
"What is it?" Anfey immediately looked at Hui Wei.
"Nothing, it is impossible." Hui Wei forced a smile.
"Hui Wei, aren't we friends?" Anfey asked in a low pitch.
Anfey sounded very nice, but Hui Wei definitely sensed the seriousness in Anfey's words. His lips trembled slightly. Hui Wei did not respond for a while then answered with the same serious and assertive tone as Anfey. "Yes!"
"Great! Can you stay after everyone leaves?" Anfey asked.
"Yes, sir." Hui Wei was a smart guy. He knew he was able to keep secrets from Anfey before, but not anymore. He had to give Anfey an explanation on why Scarlet came back to life. He needed to help Anfey explain to everyone that he did kill Scarlet.
"Hui Wei, can you tell us? We want to know too," Blavi asked.
"Well… sure." Hui Wei had a bitter smile on his face. "My guess is that Scarlet has the Ring of Immortality."
"Ring of Immortality?" Many people asked together in surprise. They had never heard of such a thing.
"The Ring of Immortality and Anfey's Heart of Nature are Holy Artifacts. The Wheel of Fortune is the last artifact of the Three Holy Artifacts. I don't really know what the Ring of Immortality can do, just as we do not know what the Heart of Nature can do. Only the owners of the Holy Artifacts know their secrets. Judging from its name, we could guess what it can do," Hui Wei said slowly.
"Can Scarlet never be killed?" Sante yelled out of surprise.
"I do not think the Holy Artifacts could be that powerful. If Scarlet's body was crushed into a pulp, I don't think anyone could save her," Hui Wei said.
"Let's not talk about this for right now. The problem is what we should do now. The Shansa Empire military attacked neither Stormenburg nor White Mountain City, but Scarlet would definitely fight us since we did cause her a lot of trouble. We have two days to either get ready for the fight or retreat. Anfey, can you give us any orders on that?" Christian asked in a low pitch.
"If Scarlet could communicate with Edward VIII, she definitely could pass the news that she has won the battle in Blackwater City to him. What do you guys think Manstuly is thinking right now?" Anfey asked.