Chapter Seventy-One: Divine Source Elixir

In the luxurious suite of the Emerald Hotel, a burly Darkling staggered forward, sheltered by four companions, making their way through the secret passage reserved for the hotel’s distinguished guests. All five men were as robust as lions, yet tears streamed down their rugged faces, their expressions steeped in grief.

Arthur stood outside a floor-to-ceiling window, his brow furrowed as he gazed toward the harbor district. The sky in that direction was ablaze with light, and though the distance was considerable, the chaos unfolding there was easy to imagine. The recent tremendous explosion had shaken all of Dunkirk, and in its state of readiness, every armed force must have been mobilized in response.

The blast had been so powerful that even the Emerald Hotel, several miles away, had trembled from the shockwave. For the people of Dunkirk, such a devastating explosion was a rarity, experienced only a handful of times during a century of war between the land and the islands—each occasion marked by a surprise assault from the alien armies of the Five United Islands, when their high-ranking mages unleashed battle-grade spells of catastrophic magnitude.

“What exactly did Lady Yara and Lady Lin do?” Arthur asked with a trace of displeasure, his brow knitted.

“Don’t worry,” Elham replied carelessly, leafing through a hefty tome. “Yara and Lin are both formidable and shrewd. Even if something went wrong, they’d find a way to get out unharmed. Besides, Adu is with them—he’s only a step away from becoming a Celestial Knight. How many in Dunkirk could threaten him?”

Arthur quickly reviewed the roster of formidable individuals in Dunkirk. Aside from the enigmatic Blackbeard, no one seemed capable of posing a real threat to Adu. Even Blackbeard’s most trusted enforcers—Hammer, Cleaver, Baal, and the rest—only displayed the prowess of high-ranking knights, and might not be Adu’s equals.

As for Dunkirk’s garrison, the strongest commander, Lieutenant Colonel Wotu, was but a mid-ranked knight, and age had already started to sap his strength and vigor. He was no match for Adu.

“But that explosion just now!” Arthur reminded Elham, his tone gentle yet insistent.

Elham closed his book, took a sip of wine, and smiled with calm composure. “All right, all right. Perhaps Yara and Lin were venting their fury. They’d never been so insulted before—they were so enraged they destroyed the tracking array rather than let us witness them being cursed. If someone had dared speak to them like that in the Holy Sanctuary, they’d have been reduced to ashes. But here, I warned them to keep a low profile, to act with caution. I suppose they found an outlet for their anger—it should be nothing serious.”

No sooner had his words faded than a frantic bell rang out from a corner of the hall. A hidden door was flung open. Five Darkling men entered silently, tears streaming down their faces, escorting two bloodied, disheveled women into the room.

“Heavens!” Elham, so composed moments before, hurled his tome away and sprang to his feet. The three young men seated beside him were equally stunned; they leapt up and rushed forward.

Like a tempest, Elham swept over to the Darkling who was carrying Yara and Lin. With a furious slap, he struck the man, then roughly seized the two women into his arms. He cursed in a low voice, “Wretched beings, stained with the marks of sin—how dare you defile them with your filthy hands? Damn you, you should all die! Kill them!”

Two of the young men drew their swords and lunged at the five Darklings, while the third began to chant in a low voice. A dense, deep blue mist rose around him, swirling and writhing as twisted runes flickered at his fingertips. A chilling aura spread from his feet, coalescing into a strange triangular glyph upon the floor.

“Sinners, face the wrath of the God of Ice and Snow! Let the pure and unsullied frost cleanse your souls and erase your sins!” As he spoke, twenty-five ice lances, each three feet long, materialized around him, exuding a freezing cold that quickly frosted all the room’s furnishings.

Arthur cried out in alarm, fear and shock in his voice. “Lord Elham, wait—let me find out what happened first!”

Elham snapped back to his senses, and with irritation barked, “Enough—stop!”

The ice lances, poised for release, dissipated into tendrils of cold as the robed youth, hearing Elham’s command, hesitated, the runes at his fingertips fading away. The two with swords, however, pretended not to hear; their blades plunged deep into the chests of two Darklings.

The two mighty Darklings did not flinch. They watched as the blades pierced their chests, blood gushing along the grooves of the swords. They stood tall and unmoving, like two black mountains, impervious to all.

The two young swordsmen faltered, glancing at the five Darklings whose faces remained unchanged apart from the silent tears streaming down. A shiver crept into their hearts. They carefully withdrew their swords and retreated to stand guard by the robed youth.

Elham paid no mind to the fate of the Darklings; their lives were beneath his concern. With care, he placed the disheveled, half-exposed Yara and Lin onto the sofa, his face twisting at the sight of their ghastly wounds.

A gash across their backs had nearly cleaved them in two. Both had been struck by heavy bolts, and Yara’s abdomen had been pierced, blood still welling from the wound. Yet a powerful aura of battle energy lingered near their injuries, staunching most of the bleeding and keeping them alive.

Elham spared not a single glance for the five Darklings, even though he knew it was their sacrifice of energy that had preserved the women’s lives.

Instead, he drew from an inside pocket a vial no thicker than a bean and only as long as a pinky finger. Smiling at Arthur, he said, “It’s fortunate—they’re still alive, so there is hope. This is Divine Essence, a treasure granted to us by the gods.”

With great care, Elham uncorked the vial and let fall a single drop of the crystal-clear, viscous liquid—like molten crystal—onto each woman’s brow. A faint, refreshing fragrance wafted through the air, and a gentle life force radiated from the liquid, so potent it seemed to take on substance, leaving Arthur nearly unable to keep his footing.

A warm light enveloped Yara and Lin.