Masked Knight

No matter what Rody asked, Muse was no longer willing to answer. The Mythical War during the Mythical Era was something Rody had never heard of. He never knew this legend was a secret and only a few people from both continents had knowledge about it. It could not be disseminated to common folk either.

Muse had accidentally let it slip when she was agitated. She then regretted it.

Rody realized that Muse was no longer willing to talk so he stopped asking.

If you don’t want to talk, I can always ask someone else. Skeleton Andy and Old Mark have lived for over 200 years. They should know something.

Muse looked calm for a moment before she started to speak, “I... I am now your prisoner and I do not expect you to let me go. I just hope that you can promise me something.”

“What?”

Muse took a deep breath and coldly said, “I hope you can let me send news of what happened here back to the Temple. I want to let His Excellency the Bishop know about the king’s attempt to overturn the Temple and assassinate the saint.”

Rody gave a wry smile and said, “I will decide later. Let me ask you first, what kind of position does the saint have in the Temple? Why did you pretend to be a man? Are all the saints in the Temple women? Are they... all as powerful as you?”

Muse’s face turned red and she gritted her teeth. “Of course not! The Saint of the Temple can be a man or a woman. Only those who truly believe in God can enter the Temple to train and become a saint! As for me... hehe... I never expected the legendary Duke of the Tulip Family to be weaker than me.”

Rody waved his hand and laughed. “Why are you getting angry again? You are always so arrogant.” After that, his face sank as he asked, “That day when you fought me, you said something about ‘Holy Light’ energy and ‘Domain Force’. What are those?”

Muse frowned. “Your fighting energy has already turned gold which means that you have already reached the stage of ‘Holy Light’ energy. If you can further improve it, you will be able to comprehend ‘Domain Force’. Do you not know this? Although we are from different continents, a sorcerer and a magician both have the same ultimate goal which is to achieve ‘Domain Force’. It has been this way since a thousand years ago...” Muse suddenly stopped and took a deep breath before continuing, “They are all the same.”

Rody pretended not to hear her previous sentence and lightly asked. “Have you understood ‘Domain Force’?”

“Hmph!” Muse’s face turned red and she whispered, “If I had, you would have died that day! The moment you understand ‘Domain Force’ is when you are nearing the existence of God! Do you think it is so easy? I am only a senior practitioner.”

Rody was not too concerned about the situation of the two continents but he was very interested in their practices. He could not help but ask, “You said I was a low-level practitioner. What did you mean? I am a warrior. A warrior’s final goal is to reach the rank of a Sacred Warrior. I have never heard of practitioners.”

Muse sighed and replied, "That is the limit set by the Divines. Each rank has already been regulated. Your so-called Sacred Warrior is commonly known on the Roland Continent as a major practitioner. If you have reached the rank of a Sacred Warrior, you would not have lost to me that day. At least, we would be comparably matched. This is still far from ‘Domain Force’. However, it seems that you have not reached the rank of Sacred Sword either. Otherwise, you would have had enough power to strike back that day. When your training of ‘Holy Light’ energy makes your fighting energy turn completely gold, you will reach the highest limit for a warrior. You would probably be at the level of Sacred Warrior according to the ranking of the Radiant Empire. In the Radiant Empire, there are ‘warriors’ but the Roland Continent is a continent of ‘knights’. Our knights have our own way of cultivation! Even if you do not encounter me but encounter one of the high leveled Holy Knights, you will still be defeated! Our Holy Knights are probably as powerful as your Sacred Warriors!"

Muse continued to speak until the very end.

Rody was fascinated when he heard it all. He never had an interest in status and power. He already felt oppressed when he became a noble in the Imperial Capital. To him, it was not a happy thing. When he saw the behavior of the powerful nobles at Watt Fortress, he completely lost any little bit of interest he had left. His only hope was to pursue the pinnacle of swordsmanship.

Muse felt depressed. She closed her eyes and ignored Rody. Her long black hair blew in the evening breeze. Rody looked at her and thought to himself.

She is almost the same age as me. If she can train herself to become so powerful, I can do the same too!

In the middle of the night, Muse was sleeping when she suddenly felt someone cover her mouth. She woke up and saw a dark shadow beside her. The shadow gave off a familiar odor and she knew it was Rody. She felt ashamed and angry as she thought that he had a licentious intent. She quickly bit the hand covering her mouth and at the same time, she covered her chest with her hands. She made up her mind to resist until the end if he tried to violate her.

Rody’s hand was in pain but he resisted the urge to cry out. He leaned forward and whispered to Muse, “Don’t move. Someone is coming here. From their footsteps, I do not think they are herders!”

As his words gently rang in her ears, she felt his breath on her ear and her cheek. Her face turned red and her heart pounded for a while before she calmed down. She then heard some rustling sounds and saw a few shadows surrounding them. Based on the sound of their light footsteps, it was probable that they had malicious intentions.

Muse panicked. In the past, she would have just used her sorcery but right then she was an ordinary powerless woman. Without anything to rely on, she felt afraid. Without realizing, she leaned on Rody. She saw his firm expression and a thought she never expected to have flashed through her mind.

He is here. He can protect me!

There seemed to be six people surrounding them. Rody listened to their footsteps and his heart sank. He could tell all six of them were skillful warriors. It was possible that they were all high ranking knights from Roland.

Rody waited patiently and stayed still so that they would think that he was still asleep. However, his muscles tensed up as he continued to wait.

When one of them approached from the left, Rody suddenly jumped. He was already prepared. In the darkness, he leaped up like a leopard. The person he crashed into was wearing heavy armor, but he managed to dodge in time. Rody used his scimitar and slashed the man’s throat. When the other four people saw what happened, they stopped treading softly. They shouted and rushed forward.

In the dim light of the night, a few Roland knights in silver armor could be seen wielding cross-shaped swords. They surrounded Rody.

After Rody killed one of them with a surprise attack, he looked at the other five knights and asked, “Are you the knights of the Sauron Kingdom?”

One of them who seemed like the leader of the group did not expect Rody to ask that question. He loudly replied, “I am a Royal Knight of the Third Regiment...” Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Rody rushed towards him.

His sudden movement was unexpected. Rody and Muse had spent so many days together so he had already learned some things about the Roland knights. From their conversations together, if an opponent spoke in a respectful tone before a fight, the Roland Knights had to reply respectfully as well.It was how they showed respect to their opponents.

The knights were not weak. They were the Royal Knights of the Third Regiment. They felt ashamed for having to attack their opponents at night. However, they had no choice if they wanted to complete their task. When Rody spoke to them, they immediately answered politely and believed that they could fight honorably after that. They did not expect Rody to take advantage of that opportunity to attack.

Rody had suddenly rushed in front of the knight and the knight was not skillful enough. He drew his cross-shaped sword at his waist to counter the attack and stepped back at the same time. But his sword did hit anything. It simply hit an empty space. He then thought to himself.

Not good!

Rody rushed forward and immediately rolled on the ground. His opponent’s sword flew right above his head. Without hesitating, he slashed his opponent from the ground.

There was an agonizing scream as one of the knight’s legs was severed Rody took advantage of the situation and slashed again but was hastily blocked by the knight with his sword. Just as Rody slowed down, the remaining four knights charged forward.

Muse was on the ground clenching her fists so hard that her fingernails almost dug into her palms. After losing her magic, her physical abilities were that of a normal person. In the dark, she could only see a few people fighting but she could not tell who was who.

She could only hear the sounds of swords clashing endlessly, followed by an occasional scream. Although a knight had fallen, the screams did not stop. She also heard a faint groan coming from the duke.

Suddenly, she heard Rody’s voice in the dark. “Idiot, run quickly and get to the horse!” His voice quavered so he was possibly injured. One of the knights overheard him and immediately ran towards Muse.

Rody felt anxious. He abandoned his immediate opponent to chase after the knight who was attacking Muse. In the darkness, the knight’s agonizing scream could be heard as he fell. However, Rody also groaned in pain as his opponent managed to slash him as well. If he had not moved away quicker, he would have been killed.

“Run! Do you want to die!?” Seeing that Muse had not moved, Rody shouted loudly again. Rody then turned around to block another attack from a knight behind him.

Muse’s heart was racing and her eyes were tearing up. She looked at Rody resolutely for a moment before she got up from the ground and quickly ran to the horse a few meters away. Two of the knights saw her silhouette and they yelled for her to stop. They were however intercepted by Rody. They continued to shout. By then, Rody had sustained even more wounds.

Muse quickly mounted the horse. She mercilessly kicked the horse and it ran off in pain. The fighting and screaming continued behind her. Muse trembled. With each clash of the sword and each pain, she felt like her heart was being hammered. She suddenly used all of her strength to rein in the horse. The horse neighed as Muse swung its head around and urged the horse to go back.

Rody had three slash wounds on his body and they were not light injuries. His three remaining opponents were skilled. They had the strength of Grade 3 swordsmen according to the Radiant Empire’s ranking. Rody became more depressed as time passed. He did not expect a small group of Chivalric Knights to be so powerful. He was not aware, that the Sauron king had in fact specially selected his most skillful knights to go to the Radiant Empire because the task at hand was very important.

Both sides continued to clash. The knight in the middle was slashed by Rody and he moved back several steps. Blood flowed from his mouth and his body felt weak. He had to use his sword to support himself from falling. Rody was also vulnerable and his right arm was already badly injured by his opponent. He had to use his left hand to hold his scimitar. All four of them were covered in blood but they could no longer differentiate whose blood it was. They breathed heavily and looked at each other for any signs of weakness. Suddenly, the knight from the left shouted and rushed forward while holding his sword with both hands. The knight on the right also rushed forward and tried to slash Rody’s waist.

Rody was using a stolen scimitar which was not very good. When his right arm was injured earlier, he was forced to use his left hand to fight. Hence, there was a big difference in his arm strength. After blocking the next few attacks, he started to gradually lose control.

Rody then heard the horse returning and gradually approaching him. He suddenly shouted And brandished his sword to push back the two knights. He then stepped back. As soon as the horse arrived right in front of him, he looked at Muse and seized the saddle. He skillfully jumped onto the horse and sat right behind Muse. Taking aim at a knight, Rody tried to spear him with his sword. As the knight tried to block it, Rody used his free hand to turn the horse around and prompted it to gallop away.

A few of the knights wanted to give chase and they ran to their own horses. However, they had earlier left their horses more than 10 meters away because they did not want to alert their enemies when they attacked. When they finally reached their horses, Rody had already disappeared.

Muse felt Rody’s breathing becoming weaker. She could smell the pungent blood coming from Rody’s bloodstained clothes. Suddenly, Rody’s body turned limp. He lost hold of the reins and fell slowly from Muse’s shoulder. If Muse had not held onto Rody in a timely manner, Rody would have fallen from the horse.

Muse’s sweat and tears blurred her vision. She held Rody with one hand and controlled the reins in the other. “Why did you stop them?! They were trying to catch me! You... You could have escaped!”

Rody replied weakly, “I had to abandon my companions once... I swore that I wouldn’t let the same thing happen again...”

As the horse sped up, Muse’s tears fell into the dust...

“Do not stop! Go south, you... idiotic... woman...” Rody’s weak voice entered her ears and then there was silence.