Chapter 224: Devil’s Companion - Three(IV)
"I'll say it again!"
Watson's tone had already taken on a hint of hysterical brutality: "If you don't die in the hands of that monster, you'll die in a more tragic way, in my hands!"
As he spoke, he used Nidhoggur to kill several extraordinary beings. The separation of flesh and blood, the collapse of the body, and the transformation into a pool of blood made the extraordinary beings on Watson's side have no choice.
They didn't know where Watson got this sinister power from, but no one was not afraid of this end.
So... the most ridiculous and cruel scene in this war happened.
More than two hundred extraordinary beings under Watson's command, whether firm, crazy, or desperate, rushed towards the steel knight. The black knight just stood there, not making any move, and easily killed one extraordinary being after another with the flickering light on his shield.
These "strong ones" who were high above and treated with courtesy wherever they went, are now dying without any meaning or value, falling down like harvested wheat.
Hendrik sighed and stopped looking at the scene on the battlefield, while Ravenna emotionlessly took everything into her eyes, with streaks of light passing through her lenses.
"Nidhoggur integrity ninety-six percent, ninety-three percent, ninety-two percent…"
As she murmured these inexplicable words, on the extremely cruel battlefield, the tiny black dots that were invisible to the naked eye slowly rose from the bodies of the fallen extraordinary beings, then quickly melted into the next body, then rose again, and quickly flew towards the body closer to the black knight.
Originally, Ravenna was confident of winning this war.
If this war involved the entire territory of both sides, then the hidden advantage of Nidhoggur would be perfectly utilized. As long as someone wore the controller and completed the connection with Nidhoggur, infiltrated the Spirity Lake territory, he could slaughter the key forces overnight.
Moreover, she knew the Etheric Academy and the empress too well. Those despicable flatterers who wanted to please the empress would definitely not let the black knight directly descend to Watson's territory at the first time. They would choose to make this "drama" interesting enough to win the Elder Princess's favor, just like the current pretense.
That is to say, the black knight is likely to be in standby mode in the early stage of the war, which gives her a great opportunity. As long as Nidhoggur invades the black knight, she can directly scrap this seemingly invincible, but actually full of defects and limitations, and quickly eliminated by Ansel as the first generation of mechanical armor.
But for some reason, the other party actually proposed a head-on confrontation to determine the win or loss, and the Count of Watson agreed to it, which made the winning rate of this war plummet. But even so, Ravenna found the best choice at the first time.
That is sacrifice.
She couldn't bet on how many spells the activated black knight was equipped with, couldn't bet whether this mechanical armor could detect Nidhoggur, so it was reckless to attack the black knight directly without cover, and it was impossible to disperse the Nidhoggur cluster and control each bug individually, because the Count of Watson didn't have that ability.
So, let the Nidhoggur cluster split to the limit of Watson's control, let them hide in the bodies of the extraordinary beings in batches, use the bodies of the extraordinary beings as stepping stones, step by step closer to the black knight, and when close to the black knight... complete the desperate counterattack!
This is actually gambling. If the black knight's attack will completely destroy the extraordinary beings, if the black knight doesn't pretend to be like this for dramatic effect, Watson will have no chance to resist, but now Ravenna and Watson have no other choice.
The only choice is to let these extraordinary beings die one by one.
Ravenna gazed upon the ghastly demise of them, pierced by beams of light, their heads ruptured, bodies half-evaporated, cleaved at the waist... Such horrific scenes initially stirred her heart, but as time passed, her emotions dulled to indifference.
This was a necessary sacrifice, one imbued with value, edging them ever closer to ultimate victory.
"... Eighty-four percent, still within acceptable range, the final fifteen meters."
The Black Knight continued its macabre performance, no longer relying on beams of light but employing various spells to slay those ants daring to challenge the mountain—a splendid opportunity for it and the Etheric Academy to demonstrate their might. To annihilate Count Watson's army with a single sword strike? To exterminate all extraordinary beings with a high-level spell?
Such actions would be tediously uninteresting, a squandering of resources. After all, the empress had invested so much, and they had expended considerable manpower to create this alchemical milestone. It deserved a proper showcase.
And it was this hubris that provided Ravenna with the key to her path to final victory.
"Eighty-two percent, the last eight meters... six meters..."
Ravenna's breathing grew rapid as she tracked the movements of Nidhoggur, her usually cold, violet eyes now flickering with intense flames.
The Tower of Babel must not disband, and I... I must not succumb to the Etheric Academy, those mediocre, vile, and shamelessly despicable beings who enslave this world!
As the last extraordinary being fell at the feet of the Black Knight, Ravenna nearly roared:
"Destroy it!"
In an instant, countless black particles, no longer concealed, surfaced on the back of the corpses' hand. Fine black lines snaked along the fingers towards the steel knight's armor, then vanished within it in the blink of an eye.
"... It's over."
The Black Knight's armor was inconsequential before Nidhoggur — it wasn't forcibly breached but silently permeated the iron shell. No matter the thickness of the armor or the protective spells it bore, nothing could halt the infiltration of Nidhoggur.
"Now, to simply devour and disrupt the Black Knight's etheric circuitry, and then—"
Crack—
The Black Knight, standing tall upon the earth, suddenly revealed a fissure.
Then, with increasingly sharp and clear fracturing sounds, the crack swiftly spread across the colossal form.
Count Watson, his eyes and nostrils bleeding, his skin cracked and broken, looked up at the shattering Black Knight and laughed maniacally:
"I've won! It is I who have triumphed! I—"
Crack—
As the fissured black armor shattered completely, his laughter abruptly ceased.
For... he saw the light.
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