Chapter 991: Arrival Of The Eighth

‘What the…?’ Prikrip sensed something foul happening, but despite this, he immediately took action.

Sensing nothing for Gravelord Dracula, he simply went along with the flow in spit of the fact that he felt very much robbed, his descent did not end up with piercing the priestess through the chest as he had envisioned, instead moving past her and making a movement that allowed him to instead cut off the path of her fall, catching the barely conscious lioness before she could hit the ground and presumably turned into a pile of ground meat, or alternatively, before she landed and shattered the ground, in any case, the undead simply caught her and landed upon the ground.

Prikrip was not crazy, and he had been paying attention too, the sun should not have set so early, he should have about a dozen more seconds to thoroughly make sure that Artazun was dead, but instead, the sun suddenly set without explanation, forcing him to put on a gallant act of honour and carry the feral beast of a priestess like she was a princess.

The crow was a little miffed about having his kill stolen like that, but he didn’t show that, nor his suspicions, instead setting Artazun down on the ground, recalling the bits of dust that had managed to get caught on her during their struggle in the air, and led his soldiers away, the pair of wings upon his back faded away as the undeads soon disappeared into the dark keep, prompting the livings to go and fetch the lioness.

Who turned out to be the only survivor of this battle, Prikrip’s soldiers showed no mercy and were able to kill every single one of the living warriors in the end, and indeed, the fact that the Divine Dancing Priestess was alive was not due to an incredible stroke of luck or Prikrip making a mistake in his calculations.

“Are you sure this will not provoke the vampire’s ire?” asked Hirzartanli, looking across the horizon under which the emerald sun had disappeared moments ago.

“We are allowed to provide some assistance, that’s in the agreement, making the sun set just a little earlier than normal is nothing much” replied Solzmimi, it was a rather draining action when she wasn’t directly within it, but the sun ancestor could still control the emerald sun to an extent, and as far as she was aware, that action should count as providing assistance.

The rule was simple, the two ancestors could only provide one bit of assistance per living warrior on the battlefield, normally, such an action would have not been within the bounds of the contract as she would have helped all of the warriors with this one action, and both her and the beast ancestor had provided blessings of light or bestial boosts to each of the warriors before sending them out.

But because they unfortunately all met their ends at the hands of the undead soldiers, she was able to provide one bit of assistance to Artazun, whomst had not been given any augmentation before the fight.

So in essence, Prikrip’s order for his men to kill all of their opponents had backfired on him and prevented him from dealing the final blow to the priestess…

“Do not worry too much, if it had been a problem, we would have sensed that we broke the contract, nothing happened so we are in the clear… Let’s just check up on Artazun, that girl fought fiercely” spoke Solzmimi.

“She should have just kept her distance and gone all-out instead of turning the fight into a death struggle, that malformed bird wasn’t even fazed when its head was torn open and destroyed” commented Hirzartanli.

“Now, don’t be so negative, she preferred to put everything into using bestial energy to heal and recover into a fight in close quarters so that she could avoid pushing him to also go all-out, it was a little gamble that bet on her vitality”

The two ancestors discussed back and forth for a few moments as they used their powers to alleviate Artazun’s injuries.

“It came at a heavy cost, but that battle is also one we were able to win… There should only be one minor lord left for Dracula to send at us, I suspect that whoever it is, that they’ll be far worse than what we’ve seen before…” the sun ancestor scratched her face, they had been able to hold on so far by playing the long game every single time, truthfully, if not for Dracula offering such a great deal, the Emerald Realm certainly would have fallen already, if all of those minor lords had showed up at the same time alongside their armies, everything would have been turned upside down.

For this final threat before earning a century of peace, the emerald folks prepared thoroughly, before, they would only send a single herald or priestess out, this time, they would have everyone be ready to join the fight if necessary.

Solzmimi thought about simply doing the same thing she had done today, and just make the sun set immediately as the battle started, but doing such a thing was not so simple, if she wanted to have a good chance at doing that, she would have to go back into the sun to do it from within, but Dracula either got lucky or had known in advance, but he the contract entailed that the leaders from both side needed to be personally present and overlook the battles.

That little trick she had used to help Artazun would not be so useful again…

A week passed until the final minor lord showed themselves, unknowing to the livings, the six minor lords who had already participated didn’t actually know what to expect either since Yuolrt was supposed to be unavailable, stuck dealing with Verdoyante, which was a job that was arguably just as important, and perhaps even more-so than the Emerald Realm.

The contract specified that the assault had to be led by a minor lord, so they wondered if another undead had actually achieved that rank officially, as there were certainly a few undeads who were on the level of strength required, but the language used in a contract was important.

A minor lord meant a minor lord, not someone who could be one.

“You have been quite busy with your own missions and responsibilities, so I assume that you have not heard about it, I’ll admit, I did not know of that myself for quite a long time- But Loimos promoted someone to the rank of minor lord a while back… He should be here soon” spoke Dracula, watching the open field where the battle was to take place from the shadows of the dark keep.

Suddenly, the very air seemed to crack as a dark portal manifested out of thin air, manifesting a collection of undeads that had rather unusual appearances.

“Stand ready, livings- Irlanx Xacobus has come to save you”