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Chapter 301 - The Great Expedition (3)

‘That would be the best-case scenario.’

Henry had actually been worried by the time Arthus’ one-month period had run out. Of course, Herarion had become stronger by becoming a martial god just like his father, and he had also managed to gain more divine power.

Moreover, Henry had given the other knights the divine rings from Herabola, so they also possessed some divine power.

However, Henry, the Seven Sages, and the vice school heads had not yet come up with a suitable plan. They had evolved their Circles, but mana was still ineffective against divine power.

Thus, Henry had feared that the Seven Sages would not be particularly helpful in this journey. But nonetheless, he had still brought them along because even if they wouldn’t manage to land a single attack on their enemies, they could still be very useful to the expedition team overall.

‘Anyway, where did that thing go?’

Henry was now thinking about the item he had lost earlier, the egg Hedajaon had given him.

He had lost the egg, or rather, the pearl, and he had no idea where he had lost it because it had literally disappeared at some point.

Henry searched for the pearl as best as he could by using magic, even getting help from Skall, but he didn’t manage to find it, so he was forced to give up.

If not even Skall could track it down, there was no way he would find it himself.

Henry made a mental note to apologize to Herarion in advance. Even though Herarion hadn’t told him to return it or anything, he had still lost a precious gift from a king.

“Commander, there’s a suspicious figure up ahead.”

‘Suspicious figure?’

While Henry was distracted on his horse, submerged in his thoughts, Von, who was riding right behind him, spotted a suspicious-looking figure.

Henry raised his hand and stopped the expedition team.

‘This is...’

The area they found themselves in wasn’t anything special, just another average valley. They had been traveling along the valley, and according to their original plan, they should’ve been able to see Harn Castle, their next checkpoint.

After stopping his allies, Henry took a few steps forward on Jade. Then, with his enhanced vision, he scanned the figure that was blocking the path up ahead.

‘A tail?’

The figure didn’t look human. Indeed, the silhouette itself definitely looked like that of a woman, but as Henry took a closer look with his mana-enhanced vision, he could clearly see a long, thick tail coming from between her legs, similar to that of a reptile.

Just when Henry made eye contact with the strange woman, she returned his gaze with a wink.

Feeling repulsed, Henry murmured, “It’s an apostle...”

“An apostle?”

“Yes, I’m sure of it. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a tail attached to her human-looking body.”

The woman had been standing there with her arms crossed, and after Henry warned his team, she lowered her arms and slowly walked up to them.

When she got close enough to make her voice heard, she said, “Nice to meet you. My name is Ayla.”

Ayla was the one responsible for destroying Amaris and Hela.

Her tone was subdued and rather formal, and she wasn’t raising her voice at all, but even so, everyone had heard her introduction loud and clear.

“That’s three already. Grumpy, Lydkan, and Cann. I guess that makes me fourth, right?”

Ayla counted the dead apostles one by one on her fingers, and her expression was eerily calm. She counted mechanically as if she were a merchant doing the math for a transaction.

“That’s right,” said Von.

Ayla smirked and replied, “Just letting you know, if you think I’m fourth in line because I’m the weakest after them, you’re greatly mistaken.”

“Well, we’ll have to see that for ourselves.”

“You have great spirits. I’m glad I asked Sir Arthus to change the order. I was afraid that you would bite the dust before my turn came.”

“You’re too cocky.”

“We’ll also see about that. Now, without further ado, let’s get to it. I’ve heard from Sir Arthus that you guys use rings or something to gauge the amount of divine power we have, right? As a heads up, you’ll need at least ten rings to match my divine power.”

‘As expected, he was watching us.’

Ayla let them know that her master had been watching them closely while also boasting about her divine power.

“I’ll take your advice into consideration.”

Ayla was being candid with them.

She was among the three most powerful apostles. She was also more belligerent than the others, which made her especially ferocious. That was why she had pleaded with Arthus to change the order and allow her to face Henry and his allies right away.

“You all should be glad. I haven’t set any traps for you like that other guy did. So when you face me, you can relax and just focus on the fight itself,” Ayla reassured them.

She had faith and pride in her power, but that was just arrogance at the end of the day, just different than Cann’s.

“Quite the polite warrior you are. I like that,” commented Allen, giving his honest impression of Ayla. He then turned to everyone else and continued, “But that just sounds like she’s telling us to attack her all at once because she’s got ten rings worth of divine power... However, that would just hurt our pride too much.”

“Allen, what are you getting at?”

“In order to preserve my pride, I’d like to take her down on behalf of everyone. So, if you all agree with it, will you lend me your rings just for a moment?”

“You want to have all the divine power?”

“That’s right.”

The nine knights exchanged skeptical looks at Allen’s proposal.

“I’m against it. Why make the fight so much riskier by falling for such a shallow provocation?” argued Kington.

As expected of Kington, who always liked to play it safe.

However, McDowell had a different opinion. With a pleased expression, he exclaimed, “I’m in favor! We do have a big fight ahead of us, since we have to deal with Arthus later, but what’s the point of this entire journey if we’re scared of facing that little apostle, and...”

McDowell glanced at Ayla with a murderous look in his eyes and continued, “...The humiliation of losing once to these pests was enough! Allen, I support you! Represent all of us and behead that lizard bitch!”

“Thank you, Sir McDowell.”

“Okay then, I’m in favor, but what about everyone else? Let’s all be honest here.”

Kington’s reticence was certainly reasonable, but McDowell managed to fire everyone up with his ardor. And since Kington wasn’t very influential to begin with, the expedition team quickly leaned toward McDowell’s stance.

McDowell asked Henry, “What do you think, Commander?”

“I also agree, and... If anything happens, we can just intervene.”

“I guess, since chivalry is only applied when dealing with other knights.”

McDowell nodded, interpreting Henry’s comment as he pleased.

They had quickly decided on the course of action.

Allen received nine rings from his peers, having ten in total. Henry put the ten rings together on a thread and made a powerful necklace.

As Allen put the necklace of rings around his neck, he said firmly, “Thank you all for trusting me. I’ll be right back after defeating her.”

Along with those words, Allen bowed slightly to everyone and took a few steps forward.

Seeing this, Ayla said, “I thought you’d all make the sensible choice of charging all at once, but... I guess you guys have pride after all.”

“Of course! A knight without honor is no better than a corpse! My name is Allen, but first, let me ask you a question. Which region did you destroy a month ago, Ayla?”

“A month ago? Ah, you must be referring to the conversion. I think that place was called... Amaris?”

“Amaris... I see. So it was you who killed the Iron and Blood Empress.”

“The Iron and Blood Empress? Ah, that woman with the strong life force? She was very useful indeed. If it weren’t for her, I would’ve gotten into trouble with Sir Arthus.”

“Trouble?”

“So... I accidentally killed everyone in Amaris, so I told that woman that if she truly was an empress, she ought to save everyone with her life force. And my god, she actually saved a good three thousand of them! Can you believe that?”

Hela had saved three thousand people in Amaris by sacrificing her own life force. Of course, Ayla had forced her to do it, but still, bringing back three thousand people was nothing short of amazing.

But even so, what Ayla had done to Hela was cruel and sadistic. She had slowly killed her while three thousand of her sisters had come back to life as Arthus’ mindless followers.

Allen’s expression darkened as Ayla vividly described Hela\'s final moments.

“... I see,” murmured Allen.

They had fought on the same battlefield, even if for a short time. They had also become quite close during that time. And most importantly, Hela was his type.

Thus, when he had miraculously come back from the brink of death in that hospital in Monsieur, he had hoped deep down that she would also survive.

“So that’s what happened...?”

Allen didn’t manage to finish his sentence. Being quick-witted, Ayla covered her mouth and giggled, interrupting him.

“Don’t tell me you had feelings for her? Oh no... I ended up killing some knight’s love without realizing it. But don’t despair... I’ll make sure you get to meet her again.”

“What?”

“I’m serious. Watch carefully.”

Ayla had covered her mouth with both hands, pretending to be sorry. Then, with a confident expression, she moved her tail, which was almost as long as she was tall.

Ayla’s tail swayed forward over her head, its tip swelling like a pasque flower blooming.

“What the...”

“Shhh...”

Allen frowned in disgust at the grotesque sight, but Ayla put her index finger against her lips and shushed him.

Her tail continued to grow larger, reaching the size of a normal human adult. Then, it started spitting out something along with a sticky substance. It looked like a snake was spitting out the prey it had swallowed.

Squirm, squirm... Gush!

What came out of the tail along with the viscous substance was Hela’s corpse.

“...!”

“...!”

Hela’s corpse, which was covered in bodily fluids, fell on the ground and got covered in dirt. It was a most shocking sight, everyone’s jaws hitting the ground.

However, Ayla ignored their reactions. She merely lowered her hand from her mouth and snapped her fingers.

Snap!

Right after that, Hela, who had been lying lifelessly on the ground, suddenly opened her eyes wide and let out a beastly howl.

-Rhoaaa!

The Iron and Blood Empress, who had given her life for her people, was brought back to life as a blind believer.