Chapter 74 Tears of the King [Part 2] A Silent Coronation.
Snakes, chimeras, minotaurs, spiky birds, even unicorns ("Unicorns are evil?!" Lucas gasped), and countless other strange creatures that even Lucas had never seen in books, rushed into the cramped room.
The word "dragon training" seemed to finally bring King Nicholas back to his senses. He struggled to his feet, and Cassandra threw him a sword.
This former warrior finally remembered the days of fighting monsters, raised his sword and rushed in front of everyone, leading the way to cut off the first monster's head.
"Don't even think about hurting my children," he said through gritted teeth.
Nicholas's swordsmanship was very skilled. However, he hadn't wielded his sword for a long time and was somewhat rusty. He couldn't hit some of the agile little monsters and had to choose to fight the big guys instead.
The dwarf Nova closed his eyes and opened three new tunnels with all his might: one to the south, one to the north, and one to the east.
“I’ll go to the northern anchor point.” She gestured to Lucas and ran toward the tunnel.
Lucas jumped onto Ashlin's shoulder and told her about the plan involving eight lives.
“In short, it’s about contacting everyone,” he said quickly.
Ashlin was incredibly quick. While directing all the plants to attack the monster, she simultaneously contacted Aisuza via magic and conjured a rainbow to inform Melia. Lucas was utterly impressed by her.
The monster couldn't resist the temptation, took a bite, and died.
"Brilliant!" Aidan exclaimed.
The elven musician plucked two strings, disturbing the thoughts of several yellow poisonous spiders.
The spiders started attacking each other, but their peace was short-lived.
When they realized they had been tricked, they were furious and summoned all the other spiders to take revenge. The spiders crawled to Aidan's feet.
Before Lucas even noticed, Ashlyn had already raised her hand, letting the branch roll up Aidan, who was standing there dumbfounded, and throw him to a relatively safe place.
Aidan knelt on the ground, his eyes wide open.
"You... saved me," he said incredulously. "Why?"
Ashlin rolled her eyes at him. "Obviously it's because I'm mentally unstable."
“Because you are still useful,” Lucas added kindly.
Aidan stared at him as if he wanted to say something, but instead just sneezed.
"The anchor point under the oak tree? Yes, I know it." Aidan was about to turn around, eager to leave this chaotic place filled with cat hair.
“No, don’t go alone.” Ashlin’s vines stopped him. “Cassandra, watch him.”
"What? I was having a blast killing them." Cassandra pulled her sword from the head of a one-eyed crocodile, black blood dripping down her feet.
Lucas wanted to cover his eyes with his paws. But he was a strong and brave big cat, and he couldn't do that.
For the sake of the sun god, this is truly a childhood-ruining tragedy.
“Even if you’re the best witcher, you can’t kill this many monsters. We have to close the anchor point!” the sister shouted, as she killed a minotaur with her unicorn horn.
“Oh my god, this is not suitable for children,” Ashlin said in shock.
Unlike Lucas, she actually covered her eyes, peeking through her fingers at the unicorn's rampage.
Cassandra kicked the crocodile. "Okay, I'll go over after I confirm these guys are dead!"
“The anchor point for Helian City should be around here,” Lucas said. “Elaine, Ashlin and I will go up there. You need to find the corresponding anchor point for the tavern in the maze from yesterday. Is that alright?”
Elaine was busy playing with her new mount. "Okay, okay."
“Hey, watch out,” Lucas warned. “There are two princess birds watching you from behind. You know what kind of birds they are? They only kill princesses!”
Elaine quickly ordered the unicorn to kill the spiky bird. "Where's the other one?"
Lucas didn't have time to reply to her because a chimera was attacking Nova. He quickly jumped onto the back of a chimera, his claws digging deep into its fur, and hissed at its ears.
The giant beast shook its head in pain, accidentally knocking over another monster. It swayed and half-knelt on the ground, but stepped on a loose paving stone with a crescent moon pattern on it.
Lucas knew something was wrong.
An arrow shot out from a hole in the wall beside him. He closed his eyes, but pain and death did not come.
Ashlin blasted the wooden arrow into pieces.
This only alarmed the chimera beneath Lucas. It violently twisted its three different heads and flung Lucas away.
"Lucas!" Ashlin exclaimed in surprise amidst the chaos.
Perhaps cats really do have nine lives. In any case, he found himself still alive because a pair of hands caught him, but then immediately let go in disgust.
He fell to the ground, landing on all fours, only to realize that the owner of his hands was pinching his nose.
“This is to thank Ashlin,” Aidan said, sniffing, before turning and stepping into the eastern tunnel with Cassandra.
Meanwhile, beside the tunnel to the north, Ashlin wanted to talk to Zack, but the monsters in front of her overwhelmed her.
She waved her hand, and the ground cracked open, causing a serpent lizard to fall; her vines entangled the legs of a minotaur seeking revenge for his mate, causing him to crash to the ground; a giant carnivorous plant hung from the ceiling and swallowed a vampire bat whole.
Everything happened too fast.
Just then, another princess bird covered in thorns lunged at Elaine from behind.
Lucas immediately turned around and warned Elaine that Ashlin had let the vines catch the bird, but the sharp thorns on the bird's wings cut the vines.
Elaine tried to turn the unicorn around, but it was too late.
The bird dashed over at top speed.
Yu Guangzhong, and another person also rushed over.
It ended before Lucas could see anything clearly.
Nicholas II released Elaine, revealing a patch of bright red blood behind him.
Elaine raised her dagger and killed the spiked bird, then helped her father up. He collapsed against her. They both fell together before Cynthia's crystal, beside three riddle-like objects.
"No, oh no." She looked at her blood-stained hands. "Don't..."
Lucas felt ice-cold all over.
For a moment, he could hear nothing but a buzzing sound in his ears.
The person before me… this person… the one who caused all of this, the one I once hated to the core… he hated my father just as much as Elaine did. But…
So many times, he wished his father would experience what he felt: imprisoned, suppressed, compared, and belittled.
But he never thought about that, no.
His father was one of the strongest and bravest men Lucas had ever met.
He defeated the dragons and led the humans of Dias to reclaim their homeland. He was once so strong that no matter how hard Lucas tried, he could never learn his father's swordsmanship and strength; he once knew everything about heaven and earth, and no matter how much Lucas memorized, he could only find loopholes, loopholes, and more loopholes.
He shouldn't have fallen.
Lucas felt some strange magic coursing through his body again. He quickly jumped off Ashlin's shoulder and transformed back into a human, retaining his cat ears and tail, as well as the wound his uncle had given him.
He staggered over to Elaine and patted her shoulder.
Ashlin slammed her staff into the ground, and golden-green light spread outward from her, temporarily repelling all the monsters, but it wouldn't last long.
Why didn't she come up with this idea sooner? No, it's not her fault at all. It has nothing to do with Ashlind.
Lanrit struggled through Ashlin's thorns. "Nicholas?"
“It’s all my fault,” the king said in Elaine’s arms, “but I did it for your own good. I…I love you.”
“Oh, I love you too… Father. But please don’t speak.” Elaine said in alarm, Lucas seeing this expression on her face for the first time. “Ashlin, you can heal him, right?”
However, the bloodstains on the king's body said otherwise.
Ashlin chanted a healing spell, and the blood disappeared, but the wound remained.
The labyrinth monster's wounds are fatal; perhaps even her magic will be of no use.
Lucas felt his stomach twisting strangely, sometimes surging up, sometimes sinking into an unfathomable depth.
This can't be true; his father wouldn't leave him over such a minor injury.
"Promise me one thing, Lucas." The king weakly opened his arms to him, and Lucas quickly supported him. He and Elaine stood guard on either side of the king.
“No, not anymore,” Nicholas interrupted him. “Promise me one thing, just one thing.”
Lucas looked at him. His hair was stained with the blood of monsters, his face looked older than he should, and there were familiar fine lines at the corners of his eyes.
This was the person he had looked up to since childhood, but now, she lay in his arms like a child who needed comforting.
“I promise.” Lucas nodded, tears already falling to the ground.
"You swear?"
Lucas put his hands behind his back, his index and middle fingers crossed.
This was an action from another religion, which he hoped would also work in Dias.
"...I swear."
The king took a difficult breath, his chest heaving violently.
Lucas desperately wanted to look away, but forced himself to look at him. This was the last time he would have the chance to see his father speak.
Suddenly, he could no longer see the person he had once admired so much, or perhaps hated so deeply. In their place were the smallest of things. One sunny afternoon when he was thirteen, he finally won a game of chess, and his father laughed heartily, telling all his friends that Lucas was his favorite child. On Sunday when he was fourteen, when the invited nobles left the palace and only the four of them remained in the banquet hall, they sat around the fireplace listening to their father recount how he had led the dragon riders to tame the dragon.
But at this moment, his grand ideal of reclaiming Dias from the dragon's claws and his illustrious deeds of fighting the beast to the death seemed more insignificant than ever before.
“Inherit…my throne, Lucas,” he said in a whisper. “Only then will those ministers stop gossiping. Only then will the country be stable. Only you can do it.”
Elaine shuddered, and Lucas heard a buzzing sound in his ear.
“I…” he choked up, “but, Elaine…”
The king shook his head with all his might.
“No… Elaine,” he said in a clearer voice, “it’s you. My… son.”
Lucas wiped away his tears, but they wouldn't stop. He looked at Elaine and saw that she was the same.
The older sister looked pained, her eyes brimming with tears. Lucas's heart shattered into pieces; he wept for his sister's tears.
Even in the end, her father refused to acknowledge her.
Nicholas II closed his eyes and remained motionless.
Lucas stared at him in disbelief, feeling as if the world were a complete illusion. Were these his father's last words?
His last words were the very phrase that Lucas and Elaine hated most.
Lucas held Elaine tightly, unable to believe what was happening.
If they were in an illusion, everything would be resolved.
Elaine finally lost control of her expression. She sobbed and blinked.
It dripped into the dragon fire beside her.
Instantly, the dragon fire blazed high, bursting forth with blinding white light.
Elaine finally put Nicholas II down, stood up again, and there were no tears on her face. She barely looked, and the blade severed a series of monstrous tentacles.
“I will meet you at the western anchorage,” she said emotionlessly, stabbing her wrist behind her back.
That disgusting creature with long arms and legs, which had intended to launch a sneak attack, instantly lost an eye.
"Follow me, you freaks!" she roared, leading all the other monsters in another direction to buy them time.
Behind Lucas and Ashlin, Lanrit laughed out loud.
“Tears of a King,” he stroked the thorns on his body as if scratching an itch, “how ironic. Who would have thought that in the end it would be Elaine?”
Lucas's hatred for his uncle suddenly intensified several times over. None of this would have happened if it weren't for him. His own brother was dead—was this how he was behaving?
Lanritt's laughter continued. "It was a silent coronation, too bad Nicholas couldn't see it!"
Even in his mental turmoil, Lucas realized that now was the time.
The tears in the fire can only take effect for a moment; if you don't act now, it will be too late.
They must use the spell before Lanrit breaks free.
He grabbed the magic flute, about to play, but Ashlind grabbed his wrist.
“No more than a second will pass in reality after you see the truth,” Ashlin interrupted him. “I…I know you might not like this, but…do you believe me?”
This is not a problem at all.
“I believe you,” Lucas said without hesitation.
Before he could ask another question, two things happened at the same time.
First: A green leaf fell from one of Ashlin's vines.
The second thing: She kissed him.
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