Chapter 274 (1): How Could the Family Not Fall Apart

“You disappointed me...”

Holding Shadow Nightmare, Wayne strode toward Auston. A portal opened, and an undead warhorse with cold light wrapping around its white bones stepped through. It was tall and muscular, its skull enveloped in black smoke and its mouth filled with interlocking fangs. It breathed out purple flames through its nostrils and mouth.

Julia.

Her appearance shattered any remaining hopes of those present, confirming Wayne to be the Death Knight.

He had arrived in time thanks to Juno’s call. After receiving the warning, Veryl, unable to reach Wayne directly, had contacted Mona. Realizing the urgency, she used the master-servant contract to alert Wayne of the situation.

He had just arrived at suburban Londan, planning to strike while the iron was hot and invite Vera’s family for a meal, showing off his substantial wealth to his future in-laws. As soon as he received the telepathic message, he jumped out of the car and summoned Julia to reach the battlefield as soon as he could.

Meanwhile, Mona was outside the spatial barrier. The yellow-robed Pale Nest, Do, Bo, Ottilia, and the other vengeful spirits in the library were rushing their way here.

With such powerful forces forming an encirclement, no one was going to leave without his permission, not even an ant.

Auston closed his eyes, slumping down to the ground with the silver coin in his tight clutch. Because of their resemblance, he didn’t like Wayne, not at all. Today was an exception. The little trash can was particularly tolerable at this moment.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Decaying Death energy swirled upward, grey vortexes surging violently. A menacing black armor took shape to complete the picture of the Death Knight shrouded in black smoke.

Juno and Celeste stared blankly at the tattered cloak fluttering past them. They couldn’t fathom how Wayne, suspected to be a reincarnated angel, would turn out to be the Death Knight. It was far more absurd than Auston being the Darkness Knight.

Moreover, two chosen knights in one family? How did the Lando family handle it? Did they fight every day?

“Ma-master?!” Juno murmured, going from feeling bewildered to incredulous and back to bewildered. She looked to Celeste for an explanation.

Celeste had confidently said that he had paid a fortune for crucial intelligence from the envoy sent by the Papal State, who was a friend of his. Following various clues, he had deduced that Wayne was a reincarnated angel.

But now? Where was the reincarnated angel? There was only the Death Knight.

Celeste was even more lost, mumbling that it shouldn’t be the case. Based on rumors and Mona’s behavior, all clues pointed to Wayne. He had to be a reincarnated angel; that was for sure. Therefore...

Could it be that being the Death Knight and a reincarnated angel weren’t mutually exclusive? Had he taken on two jobs, making him an Angel of Death?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

How could the Death Knight be a reincarnated angel? Even if the Goddess of Death permitted it, the Heavenly Father wouldn’t!

The entire Ministry of Magic being traitors didn’t mean the same could be true of Heaven and the underworld. Those places had singular faith and no religious freedom!

Juno refused to buy into such an absurd theory. Celeste had made illogical arguments against the facts clearly because he didn’t want to take responsibility for his inaccurate information.

Celeste shuddered. If Wayne wasn’t a reincarnated angel, the two of them being from the Church of Heavenly Father would mean nothing to him, and their royal statuses would be even more worthless.

The Death Knight and the Darkness Knight? The Lando family would surely kill all witnesses to protect those secrets.

He and Juno were outsiders!

Celeste desperately gave Juno pointed looks. The messenger of Darkness also seemed like a ruthless one who would kill without batting an eye. While the two sides were clashing, this was their best chance to escape. It was now or never!

Juno pondered and shook her head. Running away wouldn’t change anything. If the divine messenger won, she would face the Darkness Knight’s pursuit. If the Lando family won, the Death Knight would be hunting her down. She could escape now, but she couldn’t run away forever. As the Princess, she couldn’t flee from Windsor, could she?

Instead, her call to tip off the Lando family meant that they owed her a debt. If she stayed, perhaps she could become an ally to the Death Knight.

Celeste was sweating profusely, while Juno showed impressive composure. There was no point in running, so she might as well wait and see. An epic battle between the Death Knight and the Darkness Knight wasn’t something everyone had the privilege to witness.

Due to their lack of prior history with Wayne, Celeste and Juno quickly accepted that he was the Death Knight. Things were different for Veronica and Silvia. The shock of Wayne being the Death Knight was greater than Auston being the Darkness Knight.

The main reason was that Auston had dropped his disguise first, and the two Dragonbloods were still reeling from the shock of having their worldview reconstructed. No matter what else happened tonight, they thought, nothing could surprise them more.

Ha, my husband/father is the Darkness Knight. What could be more absurd than that?

Actually, there was something!

My son/fiancé is the Death Knight!

Veronica’s chest ached, and the world seemed to spin around her. She racked her brain for a reasonable explanation to absolve Wayne and to convince herself. It was all an illusion. Her fiancé wasn’t the Death Knight. Everything could be explained.

Silvia’s thoughts mirrored Veronica’s. Her husband was the Darkness Knight, which was a great enough misfortune. Now, her beloved son-in-law exposed himself as the Death Knight. She was surrounded by rebels and enemies. How could the family not fall apart?

She wrapped her arms around Veronica.

Sweetie, tell Mom. You’re not some knight as well, are you?

She turned around and saw her bastard husband smiling with thirty percent ease, thirty percent joy, and forty percent relief, as if Wayne’s arrival meant the end of the enemy.

What, do you two know about each other all along?

Her head felt heavy. It was as if donkey blood flowed in her body instead of dragon blood, and apparently, her daughter had inherited her donkey blood. The mother and daughter were fooled by the bastard father and son, kept completely in the dark.

Just wait until we’re home!

x2

Veronica glared at Wayne. The diary never mentioned this!

Wayne rubbed his smooth skull and cleared his throat. “Master, Veronica, I’m sure everything can be explained. I trust Auston. Let’s make him kneel when we go home. There are too many people here.”

What about you?

x2

Wayne patted Veronica on the head, giving Silvia a look. That didn’t work very well when he had no face, skin, or even eyeballs. Silvia couldn’t understand what he was trying to get across.

“Julia, take them away.”

He looked past the mother and daughter at Auston, shaking his head in derision. Then he went up to Megan, who was now half white and half black. Pinned to the ground by a lightning bolt of Darkness, she whined lowly in pain.

Wayne felt a pang in his heart. He raised his hand to touch the black lightning, wanting to relieve her torment. Upon contact, though, he realized something was wrong. Darkness crackled across the white dragon’s body like a venomous snake flicking its tongue. Submerged in dense energy of Darkness, the white dragon had mutated from the inside out; it could no longer be called a white dragon.

A black dragon!

The divine messenger’s attack looked horrific, severely wounding Megan in an instant. While the messenger seemed to have slain the dragon, though, he had actually granted Megan rebirth and unlocked the second stage of dragon blood evolution.

Because of the Darkness, Megan had no choice but to evolve into a black dragon.

Frowning, Wayne looked at Auston, who remained silent with his head bowed. Wayne hadn’t relieved Megan’s pain. She was destined to become the Darkness Knight’s mount, just like Julia was the Death Knight’s mount.

The difference was that the Goddess of Death had created Julia to reward the Death Knight for his outstanding achievements, while Megan had been chosen by the Goddess of Darkness to serve and strengthen the Darkness Knight.

He raised his sword at the black-robed figure, shielding his family. “Who are you?”

Silvia and Veronica refused to leave through the portal. The most important people in their lives were here. They weren’t going to abandon them. One looked at her husband and son, and the other looked at her fiancé and father, both with complicated emotions and lingering shock.

Londan was so big, yet the Lando family had gathered two chosen knights. How unlucky did they have to be?

The divine messenger waved a hand to grasp Twilight Despair, confronting the fully armed Death Knight silently. After a moment, he said, “The Death Knight is Auston’s son? That’s unexpected. From what I know, though, the true Death Knight is in the underground catacombs in Palis. You’re not the Death Knight, but the next chosen knight of the Goddess of Death.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the goddess’s chosen Darkness Knight.”

“Ha, then transform!” Wayne scoffed, patting his armor. “See this? This is a chosen knight. You can’t transform even while holding Twilight Despair. What right do you have to call yourself the Darkness Knight?”

Better hand Twilight Despair over so that I can show you what the real Darkness Knight looks like!

The divine messenger remained silent and didn’t transform to prove himself.

Wayne had an idea about what his opponent was, but didn’t spell it out. He said bluntly, “I don’t care who you are and what your goal is. You shouldn’t have swung your blade at those I love. You’re dead!”

The white light in his eye sockets blazed. If he hadn’t arrived in time, Silvia and Veronica would’ve died.

Perhaps their enemy wouldn’t have gone that far; perhaps the messenger would’ve spared their lives and put them in eternal slumber instead, using them as leverage against Auston. The glimmer of hope in infinite despair would’ve compelled him to serve the Goddess of Darkness faithfully in exchange for a chance to revive his wife and daughter.

Regardless, Wayne rejected it. The black-robed figure had gone after the wrong person. He had to die tonight.

Whoosh!

Death energy wrapped around the glinting blade, its aura surging wildly. The chilling grey it unleashed clashed and ground against the black light.

Red light blazed from the messenger’s face, obscured by black mist. Two crimson phantoms leaped out of his eyes, tearing through the grey mist of Death in streaks of red light. The red snakes opened their maws to bite the Death Knight’s neck with their venomous fangs, injecting a great volume of Darkness.

“Kekekeke—”

Wayne laughed heartily, crushing the two rays of red light with a slap before charging forward. The grey tentacles swirling chaotically around him left afterimages in his wake. Wherever they passed, all life disintegrated and returned to eternal peace.

In the rolling darkness, the robed figure was hazy and unseeable. Only the pair of red eyes remained visible, flickering as they fixed on the two women behind the Death Knight, Silvia and Veroncia.

Boom!

The Death Knight charged into the darkness with his sword. His infinite Death energy spread, and his surging grey tentacles exploded, the resulting afterimages mincing the darkness. The power reached everywhere and annihilated everything.

If Darkness devoured, Death erased. The two starkly different manifestations appeared remarkably similar to the naked eye.

Having gotten close to the messenger, Wayne made a wide, powerful downward swing with both hands, employing the dragonslaying technique. The sword aura was fierce, and the Death energy menacing. Amid the swinging tentacles, distorted faces of grey mist could be made out.

The messenger raised Twilight Despair, meeting the heavy swing with roaring Darkness.

Clang!!!