Chapter 18 Chapter 16 The Power to Destroy the World
When Jarod was very young, he had an experience of being overwhelmed.It was in a field, when two groups of Sihana were fighting against the weather, and suddenly, a lightning bolt exploded beside Jarod, so close that he could smell it in the air. Hiss.He still clearly remembered that the dizzying, numb scream pierced through him, and the thunder that followed hit him, almost knocking him out of breath.
"The prophecy will not come true! I'm back to stop it!" The impact of these words on Jarod was no less than that of a thunderbolt.The sonorous voice—so familiar, yet so unfamiliar—caused a jolt that made his blood boil, but there was something frightening and powerful about the man.
"Joram!" he cried, turning quickly.
The voice was so familiar—yet not quite familiar—that Jarod recognized the man standing before him.Yet it seemed like he didn't know him.
His thick black hair glistened in the sun.Jarod still remembered that black hair, always so long, curled over the face of an eighteen-year-old youth full of youthful enthusiasm.But now, the black curly hair was cut short, draped over his shoulders, and combed smoothly, and a small lock of pale hair hung down on his forehead, framing the left side of his face.
This face is still so familiar, the dark outline is clear and handsome.However, the chisel wielded by Master Suiyue has carved traces of sadness and years everywhere on this face, as well as an inexplicable and indescribable sorrow.In fact, his face had changed so much that if it weren't for those eyes, Jarod couldn't believe his first impression at all.But these were Joram's eyes, for in them Jarod could still see the leaping fire of the furnace--gleaming with pride and pain and rage.
At the same time, he also saw another thing - the scabbard around the man's waist.The scabbard had been a gift once, and it was his present to Joram.Jarod knew that what was inside was the Dark Sword.
"Joran?" the prince asked softly, his eyes fixed on the man in plain white robes standing in the center of the castle.
Cardinal Radisovik fell to his knees.
"Yes, Cardinal!" said Xavier contemptuously. "Pray for Emin's forgiveness! The prophecy is fulfilled, the end of the world is here!" Then, he waved his hand, lifted the ice wall surrounding him, and then took a big step forward, pointing at the man and shouting loudly: " It was brought by this demon! Kill him, kill..."
At this time, a blinding light flashed, and the emperor's words stopped in a terrible rattling sound. Through the afterimage of a red light in the vision, Garrod found that this Dikonduke fell forward face to the ground. , fell to the ground like a tree struck by lightning.
Everyone was stunned on the spot in horror, no one dared to move, and no one dared to speak.
A Duke Xisi came to his senses first. She quickly squatted beside the emperor, turned over the emperor's body, and was about to call Zelda to come over, but she didn't speak out.
A blackened hole—and it had just been a human mouth—went through the head, burning through it all.She quickly pulled the hood of Xavier's robe over the horrific wound and what was left of her face.
However, it was too late.Some people still saw this horrible appearance.They screamed frantically, fell to the ground, leaped into the air, and even shouted to open the teleportation corridor.People helplessly and desperately shouted the emperor's last words: "The end of the world is here!" Xavier's guards immediately rushed to the man in the white robe.He stretched out his hand and pulled out the dark sword from behind, laying it across his chest.The sword glowed azure blue in his hand.
"Stop!" Jarod yelled.The wizards barely stopped their forward pace.The prince glanced at the corpse, and then at the man holding the blue-lit sword.
"Listen!" the man spoke again, staring at Duke Xisi who was approaching again. "You will die like my uncle, unless you act immediately." He said, putting the dark sword between himself and the Dukes, and slowly approaching Jarod.
"No, don't come near me!" Jarod yelled.He kept waving his hands, as if trying to sweep away a ghost crawling out of the grave. "Is it true what Xavier said, that you are really a demon? You brought the destruction to us?"
"You brought it on yourself!" said the man sharply.
Suddenly, he reached out with his left hand and grabbed Jarod's arm tightly.Jarod immediately gasped, struggling desperately to break free.So, those Duke Xisi pushed forward again, but they stopped involuntarily when the sword of darkness flicked.They can feel that the sword with the ability to absorb other people's magic is absorbing their magic power, and their life force is quietly leaking out.
The man squeezed Jarod's hand so hard it hurt. "I'm alive, flesh and blood! I did go to the afterlife, but I'm back! I know the enemies, and I know how to deal with them! You have to do what I tell you, or it will all be true. It's like my uncle said, it's going to be destroyed!"
Garald looked at the hand that was gripping him tightly, still half-believing, although he already knew in his heart that this must be a living person. "Where are you from?" His voice was hollow. "Who are these enemies? And who are you?"
"There's no time for such matters now!" the man exclaimed impatiently. "The giant did hold those tanks back for a while, and the poor man is dead now! The enemy is approaching us fast again! In a few minutes, no one in this fortress will be able to get out alive!" Suddenly, he turned the dark The Black Sword was back in its sheath, and spreading out his hands, he said, "Look, now I'm weaponless—you can take me up if you want!"
Just when those Dukes were about to rush up and grab him, there was a loud noise, and the ground shook again.
"The city wall has been broken!" Someone shouted. "We can see them, they're coming!"
"Oh, death has come..." Jarod murmured.
Tears of frustration, anger, and fear blurred his eyes, preventing him from seeing the body at his feet.His whole mind was in confusion, wavering, fear, terror.He reached out to cover his eyes, cursing himself for being weak, but also knowing that there was nothing he could do.At this time, another explosion hit the castle.People cried and begged him to save them.But what can he do?He was just as bewildered and desperate as they were!At this time, he heard the cardinal beside him begging for Emin's salvation.And what about Joram?Is he the savior or the destroyer?
But what's the point...
"Let him go!" he finally ordered the wizards.He took a deep breath, turned around, and faced the man in the white robe. "Okay, I'll listen to you, no matter who you are." Then, he asked a little bluntly, "Say, what should we do now?"
"Call together all the witches and their catalyst saints. Oh no, Bishop, there's no time for this now!" he said to the cardinal, who was kneeling beside the dead body in prayer. "Now the living need you more than the dead. We need you and all the catalyst saints to work together to provide the wizards with enough life force to cast this spell. We must build an ice Wall, enclosing the entire castle, no more mana can be wasted!"
"Ice?" Jarod looked at him in disbelief. "I've seen with my own eyes the light from those monsters that can pulverize stone! This ice..."
"Do as I say!" The man clenched his hands into fists and ordered loudly. His stern and tyrannical voice sounded like the sound of a hammer, powerful and piercing through all the chaos.Then, suddenly, his tense face eased. "Do as I say, Your Highness!" He added, with a half-smile on the corner of his mouth.
Upon hearing the word, Jarod's mind immediately flew far, far away, where he was, and a proud, curmudgeon young man...
"Well said!" Joram retorted angrily. "You climbed fast enough from 'my lord' to 'your lord'! I don't see you wearing peasant clothes yourself. I don't see you rising at dawn and working in the fields all day, with your soul Shriveled like a seed in your hand!" He pointed at the prince. "You can talk sweetly! You are dressed in beautiful clothes and full of beautiful words, and live in a silk tent with bodyguards! That's all I have to say about you!" Joran made an obscene gesture, laughed loudly, and turned to leave. Jarod reached out and grabbed his shoulders, turning him hard.Joram shook his hand away.His face contorted with anger, and he punched Jarod hard. The prince dodged it easily, and seized Joram's arm, and with a deft twist of his wrist he forced the young man to his knees.Joram couldn't cry out in pain, struggling to stand up. "Stop! It's useless to fight me. I can dislocate you with one word!" Jarod shouted rudely, and immediately restrained him. "Damn you, you—!" Joram cursed. "You and your spells! If I had a sword, I'd—" He hurried back for the sword. "I will give you the cursed sword." The prince scowled. "You can do what you want. But first you have to listen to me. In order to do my life's work, I must dress and act accordingly. Yes, I wear beautiful clothes, I shower and comb my hair, and I watch you Before going to Merilon, I would do the same thing. Why? Because it shows that you care about other people's opinions. Since I have a title, people call me 'My Lord' and 'Your Excellency' to show respect for my status. But I hope this also shows that Respect me personally, too. Why do you think I didn't force you to call me 'Sir'? Because the word means nothing to you, and you have no respect for anyone, Joram. You care about no one but yourself!"
"Oh my God!" Jarod exclaimed in a low voice. "No, it's impossible! It's impossible..." "You are really Joran!" Mosiah pushed aside the crowd and squeezed in.He widened his eyes and stared at the man in white robe in front of him in disbelief. "So Simkin's telling the truth this time! It must be the end of the world!" he muttered. "Trust me, 'Your Highness,' and order!" Joram urged. Jarod wanted to take a closer look at the man's face, but it was too difficult!Looking at this face for a long time will make people feel painful and frightened.So he looked away, glanced at the pale and slightly trembling Mosiah, and then looked at the cardinal with a questioning look, but the latter shrugged and turned to look up at the sky. Believe in Emin?That's fine too!But what he needs more is: Believe in yourself, believe in your ability! "Okay!" Jarod suddenly sighed, and said, "Mosiah, pass on the order! We are going to form an ice wall to surround this castle." Mosiah hesitated for a while, but saw Jarod give him a sad and regretful expression.So, he stumbled to carry out the order. However, this seems a bit too late.The wizards - even the disciplined Dukes and Dikondukes - were too scattered at this point to gather together.Those who were not frightened went their separate ways, fighting with what they had learned, flying up walls and firing balls of their magic at the monsters.However, the fire has no effect on these monsters with iron scales at all. Instead, it has attracted the attention of the monsters. The blind eyes turned to face them, and then there were beams of light, and the warlocks were like dead leaves. Float to the ground. Others are desperately rushing to repair and strengthen the stone walls.They chanted mantras to awaken the stones on the ground, and after a little repair, they were used to plug the holes.But the monsters were destroying the castle walls faster than the mages could mend them, and soon they too had to flee before the buzzing, stinking monsters came upon them. However, there was still one person who followed Garald's order, and she was the sorcerer who captured Mosiah in the Merlin Sacred Grove: the leader of the Duke's Order.In fact, she had already recognized Qiao Lang, and she also used mind reading skills to pry into Qiao Lang's inner thoughts while he was putting away the Dark Sword.So, although it was still difficult for her to understand what she was seeing, she could already understand Joram's plan to deal with those monsters. She made her way through the crowd, calling her dukes, and anyone who stood by, calmly and forcefully.These people also obey her without hesitation, some of them because they are used to obeying her orders, and many of them because she is the authority and the focus of this nightmare reality. The Witch Warlocks organized all the Catalyst Saints, and these Priests began to mutter incantations, they sucked life force from the world around them, and then channeled these life force arcs into the witchcraft they assisted The body of the warriors—including male and female wizards, and even those craftsmen who lost their way here because the combat units were disbanded or destroyed like Mosiah.Then, the wizards concentrated on casting the same spell, and a wall of ice slowly rose in the air, enclosing the entire castle, shining in the sun. Almost at the same time, the deadly light of death disappeared, and the god of death stopped!All the sorcerers were dumbfounded. The ice wall was chilling in the warm air, and it circled around the mage's feet, just cooling their boiling blood just now.It was panic and chaos before, but now it has returned to calm and orderly.The whole castle was quiet, and people squinted their eyes half-closed, staring in a daze at the crystal-clear ice wall under the sun. A beam of light shot through the ice wall, but there was no target, no sight.Obviously, the monsters couldn't find a target to attack.They continued to fire at the ice wall, but most of the beams scattered harmlessly into the air. "It really works!" Jarod was puzzled. "But...how?...why?" "Those tanks, what you call steel monsters, kill by focusing their laser weapons, their eyes, on anything that moves or emits heat," Joram replied. "Through that ray, they can lock the attack target. Now, it is difficult for them to sense the heat of the human body in the castle." Jarod raised a hand to block the reflected sunlight, and observed the monsters carefully through the ice wall. "Then we're safe now." He finally breathed a sigh of relief. "It can only be for a short period of time." Joram said sternly, still with a sullen face. "This will not stop them, Your Highness. It will only slow down their attack." "But it's enough for us to contact Songli and let them open the teleportation corridor!" Garald said briskly. "You've saved us! We can start retreating..." "No, Your Highness!" Seeing Jarod turn to go, Joram grabbed his torn and bloodstained clothes. "You cannot retreat, at least not yet! You must fight! They must be defeated! At least, my uncle is right about one thing: there is no escape, no retreat! If you are here today them, then they will control the whole world!" "Fight them? How? It's impossible!" Jarod looked at the monsters again.Obviously, they didn't know how to deal with this new and unexpected situation, so several steel monsters combined together and concentrated their firepower to attack in an attempt to melt the ice.But it didn't help much - because the wizards quickly patched it up with spells.In addition, the other monsters were still shooting aimlessly, but even so, occasionally some beams would penetrate and knock someone down, but overall it did not cause any damage.At this time, even the monsters with shiny skin limbs can be seen, they are close to the monsters, walking among them, hoping to be protected. However, Jarod knew in his heart that the magic power to maintain this huge ice wall was slowly draining.His men won't last long; the sorcerers are starting to feel weak, and when their strength runs out, it's the iron monsters and iron monstrosities again! "There is no way our magic can beat them!" Jarod insisted. "You saw it too, then..." "That's because you don't understand them, Your Highness!" Joram interrupted impatiently. "You don't know how to fight them!" "Then you have to tell me what's going on now! I have to know the situation before I can make a decision!" Joram clenched his fists in frustration, and Jarod immediately remembered the impatient, proud young man he had been.However, he has learned to force himself to swallow the fierce words.After a fierce inner battle, he stroked the intertwined leather cords on his chest neckline with his fingers.Perhaps, he can find a kind of spiritual comfort in the caress.When he spoke again, his voice had returned to calm. "Look at my face." Reluctantly, Jarod complied.Looking at this familiar but unfamiliar face, he found that he had been avoiding facing it, avoiding facing this incredible and frightening change. "Who am I? Say my name." Jarod tried to look away, but the brown eyes caught him instantly.He had to say, "Joram!" and he repeated: "You are Joram." "How long have I been away from this world?" Joram asked softly. "One year!" Jarod stammered. This fact is like a slap in the face!He was finally forced to face this reality directly.Only a few hundred days have passed since he walked in the wilderness with that young man, but now, standing in front of him is a person who is as old as him, or even older than him! "I don't understand!" he yelled, filled with fear. "Ten years have passed for me!" replied Joram. "There is not enough time for me to explain everything. If I do not survive this war, I will go to Father Saryon. He is in Merilon, and I have left a record of my experience with him. Now, you must fully trust and accept what I have to say, if you don't believe that young man you know and help, but don't know how to repay, then please believe what I think, our only ending , is death, only death! If I come to this point, then I will also throw away the sword I forged, and voluntarily go to death." When he said this, Joram's face was full of pain.He grabbed the strings and pressed his heart. Then Jarod remembered what he had heard about Joram's last miserable days in this world, and his strange disappearance.He tried to say something, but couldn't find the words.Seeing this, Qiao Lang understood what he was thinking, and didn't speak any more, but just stretched out his hand to hold him silently. "I entered a world that I thought was death, but there was no death—the realm of the afterlife." Joram continued calmly. "There's life force there! In our minds, we think we're safe, we're separated from the rest of the universe by virtue of the magical boundaries. When we left the old world and came here, we thought , or so we hope, the old world will forget us as we have forgotten them." Qiao Ran looked beyond the ice wall, looking at the unknown area in the distance that had only been presented in his eyes. "However, they haven't forgotten." He said softly. "Now they lost their magic. So, they began to look for it, believing that it must still exist somewhere in the universe." Joran smiled, but the deep and sad smile made Jarod unable to help shaking I shivered. "I said before that there is no death in the realm of the afterlife. I was wrong. In fact, there is nothing but death there. Those worlds on the other side are full of undead. In fact, there are some life forces there too. , and some magic exists. Only, they are scattered throughout the world, like atomic particles in the vastness of space." "Atoms... space..." The words sound strange and meaningless.Garald, like Joram, looked skyward, but the confusion in his head didn't go away, it only increased, just like their fears.Old world?The world they fled in such a panic is looking for them?He can even imagine that there are countless pairs of eyes looking at him through the clear sky! "I'm sorry, I know it's hard for you to understand." Joram turned his eyes back to Jarod, his eyes full of sincere pleading. "How should I say it?" He squeezed Jarod's hands, as if he could convey to him what could not be expressed in words. "They—the ones who died, if you want to call it that—" There was such a sarcasm in his voice that Jarod could hardly help pulling back. "Call this an 'crusade.' They're sent to scout the world, then conquer, control, and take it all!" "What?" Jarod repeated in shock. "Conquer, control, possess!" He knew and understood these words.He forced himself to focus, trying to make his brain digest what he had recognized in the morning: the so-called reality. "You say, they—the undead—" he stammered, subconsciously still stubbornly repelling, even if all he had to do was look through the ice wall and see the evidence of all his senses . "Conquer us? Why? And then?" Joram drew his hand back and tucked it into the sleeve of his robe.The temperature in the frozen castle is getting lower and lower, and the inside of the castle is getting colder and colder. "They intend to break that magical boundary and release all life force into the entire universe again," he replied. "Then, they will capture you and bring you back to their world." "But if that's their goal, why would they kill everyone they come across, including civilians?" Jarod retorted, feeling as if he was arguing for a dream that didn't make sense.He made a gesture and said, "They're not taking prisoners! Or, they're..." He thought of what Radisovik had observed. "They just want to catch the Catalyst Saints!" "What?" Joram was obviously shocked too, and he looked quickly at Jarod. "Yes, I saw it too!—The nobles, with their wives and children, came to watch the game in a glittering carriage. And the monsters killed them all!" Again, Jarod Turning the corpse over again appeared in his vision, and saw the grinning face on the skull.Then he asked angrily: "Did they fight like this in the realm of the afterlife? Did they slaughter unarmed people like this?" "No!" said Joram, depressed and anxious. "They're not as cruel as those centaurs. They don't like to kill. They're soldiers and have their own rules of war! That's a tradition that's been passed down for centuries! I don't understand! They just want captives." !” He stopped, his face getting more and more gloomy. "Unless..." He didn't say any more. Jarod shook his head and said, "Joran, you should explain it to me." "I wish I could!" he murmured, almost to himself. "I used to think I knew them. But now I can only say that my self-righteousness betrayed me. Or something else..." Jarod stared intently at Joram, listening to his old familiar sarcasm The pain in the tone, and now there seems to be something more - it is the echo of pain and loss. "We have even more reason to defeat them now, we must defeat them!" Joram said suddenly, his voice as cold as the chill from an ice wall. "We must let them know that obtaining this world is not as easy as they imagined! We must make them afraid, so that they will never dare to invade again!" "But what about our weapons?" Jarod asked helplessly. "ice?" "Ice, fire, air. And of course magic, my friend," said Joram. "Magic—magic is our weapon...and death." He drew the dark sword from the scabbard on his back. "It's been a long time since I forged it! But I still dream of that night. That night, in the furnace, I hammered the metal, and Saryon enchanted it." Joram turned the sword over. Studying it carefully, his hand is already a man's hand, which is naturally much stronger than a boy's hand, but it still feels very bulky, difficult to grasp the balance, and difficult to use it with ease. "Do you remember?" he asked Jarod, half-smile. "The day we met? I was fighting you in that glade, and you said it was the ugliest sword you'd ever seen!" Joram looked at the sword that Jarod was carrying on his waist. The sun was shining on the finely carved and shining hilt, but in comparison, the sword did not have the slightest metallic luster. .He sighed. "Although I don't know much about prophecy, I know that with this sword I will bring disaster to this world. Saryon knew it long ago, and he warned me to destroy it before it destroys me. I have been thinking about it ever since, and now I finally understand that I did not bring disaster on this world." He looked down at his weapon, turning the rough, misshapen hilt. "This sword is what brings disaster to this world!" "Then why do you still keep it?" Jarod glanced at the sword, trembling slightly. "Because, like all swords, it is double-edged," answered Joram. "Now, as Emin wishes! I can use it to save us! Are you willing to fight, Your Highness?" Jarod still hesitated. "Why are you helping us, Joram? If, as you say, we have caused this ourselves, why should you bother with us? Especially after what we have done to you..." "You call me the living dead!" murmured Joram, repeating in a low voice what he had said before he entered the afterlife. "But it was you who died. It was the world." He stared at the sword, which lay dark and ugly in his hand. "I've been away for ten years. Now I'm back, hoping to see the world changed, thinking about..." He paused, frowning. "Don't bring that up, though. It doesn't matter anymore! I'm back, seeing you, seeing that nothing has changed in the world, and that's enough! You made a helpless man suffer like that in order to gain power. Pain and torture! I gave up my plans, my hopes, and went to that wretched place only to find brutality and injustice everywhere." "In a fit of anger, I planned to return to the realm of the afterlife, only to find that it had also betrayed me." He smiled wryly. "It seems that I have no place to go! So, I am going to leave you and everyone." His pained eyes caught the monsters attacking the ice wall again. "Let it be fate, whoever wins among you has nothing to do with me!" "However, there was one man, a wise man who reminded me of something I had forgotten, 'Love is harder than hate!'" Joram fell silent for a moment.He looked through the shimmering wall of ice to the trees, to the surrounding mountains, to the blue sky, and to the fiery sun. "I realized then that this world was my home, and the people here were my people. I could no longer speak from the sidelines. When I said 'you' were torturing Saryon, I should have said 'I' was torturing the good man. If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have to suffer." Joram sorted out his tangled black hair absently. "Besides, there is another reason." He said, with an indescribable sadness covering his face. "During those ten years in the afterlife, not a single day passed without my dreaming of Merilon's beauty!" He looked at Jarod strangely. "'Love is harder than hate'! I never like to do things that are too easy. Let us fight to the end for this world, how about... Your Highness?" "We fight side by side!" Jarod said loudly. "Also, call me 'Garrod'!" He laughed jokingly again, and added: "I can still hear the 'Your Highness' being 'sticky' in your throat, don't want to say exit!"
"Well said!" Joram retorted angrily. "You climbed fast enough from 'my lord' to 'your lord'! I don't see you wearing peasant clothes yourself. I don't see you rising at dawn and working in the fields all day, with your soul Shriveled like a seed in your hand!" He pointed at the prince. "You can talk sweetly! You are dressed in beautiful clothes and full of beautiful words, and live in a silk tent with bodyguards! That's all I have to say about you!" Joran made an obscene gesture, laughed loudly, and turned to leave. Jarod reached out and grabbed his shoulders, turning him hard.Joram shook his hand away.His face contorted with anger, and he punched Jarod hard. The prince dodged it easily, and seized Joram's arm, and with a deft twist of his wrist he forced the young man to his knees.Joram couldn't cry out in pain, struggling to stand up. "Stop! It's useless to fight me. I can dislocate you with one word!" Jarod shouted rudely, and immediately restrained him. "Damn you, you—!" Joram cursed. "You and your spells! If I had a sword, I'd—" He hurried back for the sword. "I will give you the cursed sword." The prince scowled. "You can do what you want. But first you have to listen to me. In order to do my life's work, I must dress and act accordingly. Yes, I wear beautiful clothes, I shower and comb my hair, and I watch you Before going to Merilon, I would do the same thing. Why? Because it shows that you care about other people's opinions. Since I have a title, people call me 'My Lord' and 'Your Excellency' to show respect for my status. But I hope this also shows that Respect me personally, too. Why do you think I didn't force you to call me 'Sir'? Because the word means nothing to you, and you have no respect for anyone, Joram. You care about no one but yourself!"
"Oh my God!" Jarod exclaimed in a low voice. "No, it's impossible! It's impossible..." "You are really Joran!" Mosiah pushed aside the crowd and squeezed in.He widened his eyes and stared at the man in white robe in front of him in disbelief. "So Simkin's telling the truth this time! It must be the end of the world!" he muttered. "Trust me, 'Your Highness,' and order!" Joram urged. Jarod wanted to take a closer look at the man's face, but it was too difficult!Looking at this face for a long time will make people feel painful and frightened.So he looked away, glanced at the pale and slightly trembling Mosiah, and then looked at the cardinal with a questioning look, but the latter shrugged and turned to look up at the sky. Believe in Emin?That's fine too!But what he needs more is: Believe in yourself, believe in your ability! "Okay!" Jarod suddenly sighed, and said, "Mosiah, pass on the order! We are going to form an ice wall to surround this castle." Mosiah hesitated for a while, but saw Jarod give him a sad and regretful expression.So, he stumbled to carry out the order. However, this seems a bit too late.The wizards - even the disciplined Dukes and Dikondukes - were too scattered at this point to gather together.Those who were not frightened went their separate ways, fighting with what they had learned, flying up walls and firing balls of their magic at the monsters.However, the fire has no effect on these monsters with iron scales at all. Instead, it has attracted the attention of the monsters. The blind eyes turned to face them, and then there were beams of light, and the warlocks were like dead leaves. Float to the ground. Others are desperately rushing to repair and strengthen the stone walls.They chanted mantras to awaken the stones on the ground, and after a little repair, they were used to plug the holes.But the monsters were destroying the castle walls faster than the mages could mend them, and soon they too had to flee before the buzzing, stinking monsters came upon them. However, there was still one person who followed Garald's order, and she was the sorcerer who captured Mosiah in the Merlin Sacred Grove: the leader of the Duke's Order.In fact, she had already recognized Qiao Lang, and she also used mind reading skills to pry into Qiao Lang's inner thoughts while he was putting away the Dark Sword.So, although it was still difficult for her to understand what she was seeing, she could already understand Joram's plan to deal with those monsters. She made her way through the crowd, calling her dukes, and anyone who stood by, calmly and forcefully.These people also obey her without hesitation, some of them because they are used to obeying her orders, and many of them because she is the authority and the focus of this nightmare reality. The Witch Warlocks organized all the Catalyst Saints, and these Priests began to mutter incantations, they sucked life force from the world around them, and then channeled these life force arcs into the witchcraft they assisted The body of the warriors—including male and female wizards, and even those craftsmen who lost their way here because the combat units were disbanded or destroyed like Mosiah.Then, the wizards concentrated on casting the same spell, and a wall of ice slowly rose in the air, enclosing the entire castle, shining in the sun. Almost at the same time, the deadly light of death disappeared, and the god of death stopped!All the sorcerers were dumbfounded. The ice wall was chilling in the warm air, and it circled around the mage's feet, just cooling their boiling blood just now.It was panic and chaos before, but now it has returned to calm and orderly.The whole castle was quiet, and people squinted their eyes half-closed, staring in a daze at the crystal-clear ice wall under the sun. A beam of light shot through the ice wall, but there was no target, no sight.Obviously, the monsters couldn't find a target to attack.They continued to fire at the ice wall, but most of the beams scattered harmlessly into the air. "It really works!" Jarod was puzzled. "But...how?...why?" "Those tanks, what you call steel monsters, kill by focusing their laser weapons, their eyes, on anything that moves or emits heat," Joram replied. "Through that ray, they can lock the attack target. Now, it is difficult for them to sense the heat of the human body in the castle." Jarod raised a hand to block the reflected sunlight, and observed the monsters carefully through the ice wall. "Then we're safe now." He finally breathed a sigh of relief. "It can only be for a short period of time." Joram said sternly, still with a sullen face. "This will not stop them, Your Highness. It will only slow down their attack." "But it's enough for us to contact Songli and let them open the teleportation corridor!" Garald said briskly. "You've saved us! We can start retreating..." "No, Your Highness!" Seeing Jarod turn to go, Joram grabbed his torn and bloodstained clothes. "You cannot retreat, at least not yet! You must fight! They must be defeated! At least, my uncle is right about one thing: there is no escape, no retreat! If you are here today them, then they will control the whole world!" "Fight them? How? It's impossible!" Jarod looked at the monsters again.Obviously, they didn't know how to deal with this new and unexpected situation, so several steel monsters combined together and concentrated their firepower to attack in an attempt to melt the ice.But it didn't help much - because the wizards quickly patched it up with spells.In addition, the other monsters were still shooting aimlessly, but even so, occasionally some beams would penetrate and knock someone down, but overall it did not cause any damage.At this time, even the monsters with shiny skin limbs can be seen, they are close to the monsters, walking among them, hoping to be protected. However, Jarod knew in his heart that the magic power to maintain this huge ice wall was slowly draining.His men won't last long; the sorcerers are starting to feel weak, and when their strength runs out, it's the iron monsters and iron monstrosities again! "There is no way our magic can beat them!" Jarod insisted. "You saw it too, then..." "That's because you don't understand them, Your Highness!" Joram interrupted impatiently. "You don't know how to fight them!" "Then you have to tell me what's going on now! I have to know the situation before I can make a decision!" Joram clenched his fists in frustration, and Jarod immediately remembered the impatient, proud young man he had been.However, he has learned to force himself to swallow the fierce words.After a fierce inner battle, he stroked the intertwined leather cords on his chest neckline with his fingers.Perhaps, he can find a kind of spiritual comfort in the caress.When he spoke again, his voice had returned to calm. "Look at my face." Reluctantly, Jarod complied.Looking at this familiar but unfamiliar face, he found that he had been avoiding facing it, avoiding facing this incredible and frightening change. "Who am I? Say my name." Jarod tried to look away, but the brown eyes caught him instantly.He had to say, "Joram!" and he repeated: "You are Joram." "How long have I been away from this world?" Joram asked softly. "One year!" Jarod stammered. This fact is like a slap in the face!He was finally forced to face this reality directly.Only a few hundred days have passed since he walked in the wilderness with that young man, but now, standing in front of him is a person who is as old as him, or even older than him! "I don't understand!" he yelled, filled with fear. "Ten years have passed for me!" replied Joram. "There is not enough time for me to explain everything. If I do not survive this war, I will go to Father Saryon. He is in Merilon, and I have left a record of my experience with him. Now, you must fully trust and accept what I have to say, if you don't believe that young man you know and help, but don't know how to repay, then please believe what I think, our only ending , is death, only death! If I come to this point, then I will also throw away the sword I forged, and voluntarily go to death." When he said this, Joram's face was full of pain.He grabbed the strings and pressed his heart. Then Jarod remembered what he had heard about Joram's last miserable days in this world, and his strange disappearance.He tried to say something, but couldn't find the words.Seeing this, Qiao Lang understood what he was thinking, and didn't speak any more, but just stretched out his hand to hold him silently. "I entered a world that I thought was death, but there was no death—the realm of the afterlife." Joram continued calmly. "There's life force there! In our minds, we think we're safe, we're separated from the rest of the universe by virtue of the magical boundaries. When we left the old world and came here, we thought , or so we hope, the old world will forget us as we have forgotten them." Qiao Ran looked beyond the ice wall, looking at the unknown area in the distance that had only been presented in his eyes. "However, they haven't forgotten." He said softly. "Now they lost their magic. So, they began to look for it, believing that it must still exist somewhere in the universe." Joran smiled, but the deep and sad smile made Jarod unable to help shaking I shivered. "I said before that there is no death in the realm of the afterlife. I was wrong. In fact, there is nothing but death there. Those worlds on the other side are full of undead. In fact, there are some life forces there too. , and some magic exists. Only, they are scattered throughout the world, like atomic particles in the vastness of space." "Atoms... space..." The words sound strange and meaningless.Garald, like Joram, looked skyward, but the confusion in his head didn't go away, it only increased, just like their fears.Old world?The world they fled in such a panic is looking for them?He can even imagine that there are countless pairs of eyes looking at him through the clear sky! "I'm sorry, I know it's hard for you to understand." Joram turned his eyes back to Jarod, his eyes full of sincere pleading. "How should I say it?" He squeezed Jarod's hands, as if he could convey to him what could not be expressed in words. "They—the ones who died, if you want to call it that—" There was such a sarcasm in his voice that Jarod could hardly help pulling back. "Call this an 'crusade.' They're sent to scout the world, then conquer, control, and take it all!" "What?" Jarod repeated in shock. "Conquer, control, possess!" He knew and understood these words.He forced himself to focus, trying to make his brain digest what he had recognized in the morning: the so-called reality. "You say, they—the undead—" he stammered, subconsciously still stubbornly repelling, even if all he had to do was look through the ice wall and see the evidence of all his senses . "Conquer us? Why? And then?" Joram drew his hand back and tucked it into the sleeve of his robe.The temperature in the frozen castle is getting lower and lower, and the inside of the castle is getting colder and colder. "They intend to break that magical boundary and release all life force into the entire universe again," he replied. "Then, they will capture you and bring you back to their world." "But if that's their goal, why would they kill everyone they come across, including civilians?" Jarod retorted, feeling as if he was arguing for a dream that didn't make sense.He made a gesture and said, "They're not taking prisoners! Or, they're..." He thought of what Radisovik had observed. "They just want to catch the Catalyst Saints!" "What?" Joram was obviously shocked too, and he looked quickly at Jarod. "Yes, I saw it too!—The nobles, with their wives and children, came to watch the game in a glittering carriage. And the monsters killed them all!" Again, Jarod Turning the corpse over again appeared in his vision, and saw the grinning face on the skull.Then he asked angrily: "Did they fight like this in the realm of the afterlife? Did they slaughter unarmed people like this?" "No!" said Joram, depressed and anxious. "They're not as cruel as those centaurs. They don't like to kill. They're soldiers and have their own rules of war! That's a tradition that's been passed down for centuries! I don't understand! They just want captives." !” He stopped, his face getting more and more gloomy. "Unless..." He didn't say any more. Jarod shook his head and said, "Joran, you should explain it to me." "I wish I could!" he murmured, almost to himself. "I used to think I knew them. But now I can only say that my self-righteousness betrayed me. Or something else..." Jarod stared intently at Joram, listening to his old familiar sarcasm The pain in the tone, and now there seems to be something more - it is the echo of pain and loss. "We have even more reason to defeat them now, we must defeat them!" Joram said suddenly, his voice as cold as the chill from an ice wall. "We must let them know that obtaining this world is not as easy as they imagined! We must make them afraid, so that they will never dare to invade again!" "But what about our weapons?" Jarod asked helplessly. "ice?" "Ice, fire, air. And of course magic, my friend," said Joram. "Magic—magic is our weapon...and death." He drew the dark sword from the scabbard on his back. "It's been a long time since I forged it! But I still dream of that night. That night, in the furnace, I hammered the metal, and Saryon enchanted it." Joram turned the sword over. Studying it carefully, his hand is already a man's hand, which is naturally much stronger than a boy's hand, but it still feels very bulky, difficult to grasp the balance, and difficult to use it with ease. "Do you remember?" he asked Jarod, half-smile. "The day we met? I was fighting you in that glade, and you said it was the ugliest sword you'd ever seen!" Joram looked at the sword that Jarod was carrying on his waist. The sun was shining on the finely carved and shining hilt, but in comparison, the sword did not have the slightest metallic luster. .He sighed. "Although I don't know much about prophecy, I know that with this sword I will bring disaster to this world. Saryon knew it long ago, and he warned me to destroy it before it destroys me. I have been thinking about it ever since, and now I finally understand that I did not bring disaster on this world." He looked down at his weapon, turning the rough, misshapen hilt. "This sword is what brings disaster to this world!" "Then why do you still keep it?" Jarod glanced at the sword, trembling slightly. "Because, like all swords, it is double-edged," answered Joram. "Now, as Emin wishes! I can use it to save us! Are you willing to fight, Your Highness?" Jarod still hesitated. "Why are you helping us, Joram? If, as you say, we have caused this ourselves, why should you bother with us? Especially after what we have done to you..." "You call me the living dead!" murmured Joram, repeating in a low voice what he had said before he entered the afterlife. "But it was you who died. It was the world." He stared at the sword, which lay dark and ugly in his hand. "I've been away for ten years. Now I'm back, hoping to see the world changed, thinking about..." He paused, frowning. "Don't bring that up, though. It doesn't matter anymore! I'm back, seeing you, seeing that nothing has changed in the world, and that's enough! You made a helpless man suffer like that in order to gain power. Pain and torture! I gave up my plans, my hopes, and went to that wretched place only to find brutality and injustice everywhere." "In a fit of anger, I planned to return to the realm of the afterlife, only to find that it had also betrayed me." He smiled wryly. "It seems that I have no place to go! So, I am going to leave you and everyone." His pained eyes caught the monsters attacking the ice wall again. "Let it be fate, whoever wins among you has nothing to do with me!" "However, there was one man, a wise man who reminded me of something I had forgotten, 'Love is harder than hate!'" Joram fell silent for a moment.He looked through the shimmering wall of ice to the trees, to the surrounding mountains, to the blue sky, and to the fiery sun. "I realized then that this world was my home, and the people here were my people. I could no longer speak from the sidelines. When I said 'you' were torturing Saryon, I should have said 'I' was torturing the good man. If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have to suffer." Joram sorted out his tangled black hair absently. "Besides, there is another reason." He said, with an indescribable sadness covering his face. "During those ten years in the afterlife, not a single day passed without my dreaming of Merilon's beauty!" He looked at Jarod strangely. "'Love is harder than hate'! I never like to do things that are too easy. Let us fight to the end for this world, how about... Your Highness?" "We fight side by side!" Jarod said loudly. "Also, call me 'Garrod'!" He laughed jokingly again, and added: "I can still hear the 'Your Highness' being 'sticky' in your throat, don't want to say exit!"