CHAPTER 264: MELODIES OF STEEL [PART 4]

The clangor of battle grew louder, sharper, until it became a deafening chorus of ringing metal and dying screams.

Alex—no, Kael—breathed heavily, blood dripping from the corner of his lips.

There were some blows he was forced to take, as he was saving the cracked Everguard for a crucial blow. After all, it was severely damaged and could only block one attack.

The Reavers beside him fought like beasts, hammering Barbarians into the ground with every blow. But even with the surge of newfound strength and memories, he could feel it.

Something was wrong.

Something was missing.

Latifa.

He turned his gaze toward the upper halls, where faint traces of green light flickered behind the layers of smoke and ash.

A strange scent wafted toward him. It was not the stench of burning wood or scorched metal, but the scent of living things.

Moss. Flowers. Something impossibly out of place on a mountain under siege.

———

Synchronization Rate increased by 4%

Current Synchronization Rate: 24%

———

Alex stumbled back, clutching his head as more memories abruptly surged into his head. This time, not of Kael forging weapons or standing beside dwarves—

But of standing watch outside the royal Grove Chamber, where the princess would disappear for hours to sing to the blooming stone.

"The Verdant Stone is not just our legacy, Kael," she had once said. "It’s our future. Even in ruin... it grows."

Alex gasped.

"Latifa..."

He turned to Fokar, who was smashing a barbarian’s kneecap in with a two-handed maul, making the enemy cry out in pain as he collapsed to the floor.

But he didn’t shout for long because Fokar ended his suffering with his next strike, bringing down his maul on the barbarian’s head without mercy.

Alex could feel the workings of magic in the air, and it belonged to none other than the Princess, whose whereabouts were currently unknown.

’Maybe she saw me and is helping me in this fight,’ Alex thought.

While he didn’t have proof, he believed that this power, which felt familiar to Kael’s memories, was indeed from the princess, who was very dear in his heart.

"Snap out of it, Kael!" Fokar shouted as he blocked one of the barbarians who had lunged at Alex, while he was in a daze. "Get your sh*t together! We are at war! This is no place for head in the clouds!"

Suddenly, the sounds of horns spread across the battlefield, making Fokar’s face brighten.

"They’re here!" Fokar laughed as the sound of countless hooves reached his ears.

Something jumped from the destroyed wall of the fortress, entering the battlefield and charging at one of the minotaurs fighting against the dwarves in the distance.

"For Stone and Steel!" a dwarf wearing full armor, riding on the back of a Mountain War Goat, raised his hammer in defiance.

""For Stone and Steel!""

More dwarves equipped with heavy armor and mounted on Mountain War Goats appeared, reinforcing the dwarven defenders in protecting their home.

"For Stone and Steel!" Fokar roared as he and the other Reavers felt emboldened by the appearance of the Dwarven Chosens.

They were the mounted defenders of their kingdom and were usually at the front lines of any war that was being waged against their race!

All Reavers wished to become ‌a Chosen, but the trial to become one was extremely hard to pass.

This meant that all these newcomers possessed a strength that would even make the Minotaurs weary of them!

The Minotaur’s War Axe collided with the Dwarven Champion’s hammer, sending sparks flying at the point of contact.

But instead of being pushed back, the Dwarf properly blocked the attack, allowing the War Goat to ram its horns at the Minotaur’s... ahem.

That place that must not be named.

As men, Alex and Fokar could feel the Minotaur’s pain, perfectly understanding its soundless scream. Its body bent forward as it succumbed to the otherworldly pain it just experienced.

But that was a mistake.

As its head lowered, the Dwarven Chosen swung its hammer upward, hitting the Minotaur’s jaw, thus dealing serious damage to his enemy.

"Die!" Another Dwarven Chosen commanded its Wargoat to jump over his comrade and delivered the final blow towards the monster who dared to attack their home.

The charge of the Chosens were like a wave that crashed to the Barbarian and Minotaur ranks like a train that couldn’t be stopped.

And just as Alex thought that this scene couldn’t become any cooler, a giant bear decked in full armor appeared.

On its back was a dwarf wearing golden armor, which made Fokar and the other Dwarven Reavers cheer.

"For Stone and Steel!" The Dwarven Champion, who was stronger than the Chosens, arrived and started a one-sided massacre.

Five minutes later, the sounds of horns reached everyone’s ears.

These horns didn’t belong to the dwarves, but the Barbarians.

"They’re finally retreating." Fokar sighed as he used his maul to support his body.

Before meeting Alex—currently Kael, he and his men had fought their way toward the courtyard of the fortress, resulting to many of his comrades being killed in battle.

He wished he could have saved more, but the Minotaurs were truly strong.

At least six dwarves were needed to fight against one of them, and among those six, the chances of two or more dying against it was quite high.

Alex watched with awe as the Dwarven Chosens and the Champion charged at the retreating Barbarians, not showing them any mercy.

His heart was beating so fast, and aside from awe, he could also feel other emotions.

Pride, longing, envy were just among the emotions he felt as he looked at these powerful warriors, who represented their race.

Alex wiped the sweat and blood from his brow, his fingers still wrapped tightly around the haft of his dwarven hammer.

The ground trembled with the rhythmic stomps of hooves and war cries, as the last of the barbarian war bands broke formation and retreated through the breach in the western wall.

"Stone be praised..." one of the younger Reavers muttered, falling to his knees in exhaustion. His armor was dented, his face smeared with soot and blood.

Fokar patted Alex on the shoulder. "We live another day, Kael. That counts for something."

Alex nodded, though his thoughts were elsewhere. The green light he’d seen earlier still glowed faintly through the smoke curling from the upper halls.

And it hadn’t disappeared.

It pulsed.

Like a heartbeat.

———

Synchronization Rate increased by 5%

Current Synchronization Rate: 29%

———

"Fokar," Alex said quietly. "The Princess... I think she’s still inside the Grove Chamber."

Fokar’s tired expression hardened. "Then what in the molten pits are we standing around for?"

"I’ll go alone. You’re wounded."

"Don’t be thick," Fokar growled. "You may be swinging that hammer like a Reaver, but you’re still green. If something’s wrong up there, and it ain’t just some glowing mushrooms, you’ll need someone watching your back."

Alex nodded, thankful but tense. Something about that light made him feel unsettled.

The two dwarves made their way through a side passage that curved behind the main forge halls.

The air grew cooler, and that strange floral scent intensified. Where the smoke of battle had earlier choked the air, now it was filled with the scent of blooming moss, damp soil, and something older and wilder.

When they reached the arched stone doorway of the Grove Chamber, they froze.

Vines.

Thick, glowing green vines pulsed along the carved stone, moving slowly like serpents asleep in their coils. The great doors had been split open.

And inside, they saw her.

Latifa.

No—Yvraine.

She stood barefoot at the center of the chamber, surrounded by the roots of the Verdant Stone.

Her hair drifted as if caught in an unseen breeze, and from her palms flowed tendrils of emerald light that weaved through the roots and into the walls themselves.

Around her, three barbarians lay unconscious, cocooned in vines that had erupted from the very ground.

One of them was still twitching, a faint groan escaping his lips before a vine wrapped tightly around his throat and silenced him. "Latifa!"

Alex took a step forward.

She didn’t turn.

But her voice came, soft and ethereal, layered with a presence that didn’t fully belong to her.

"Kael..."

His breath hitched.

It wasn’t just her voice—it was the Princess’ too.

Alex knew that just like him, Latifa was currently under the effects of synchronization.

He didn’t know if the heart beating inside his chest was still his own or Kael’s.

But the mere sight of the lady made his body move automatically.

———

Synchronization Rate increased by 2%

Current Synchronization Rate: 31%

———

A moment later, Alex was holding one of his Queens, and the latter simply rested her head on his shoulders and hugged him in return.