Chapter 273: The Horned Demon's Vow

  "The last time I saw Knight Lancelot was over ten years ago. The figure of the Paladin left an incomparably deep impression on me, and seeing him again today truly makes me sigh with emotion." After his gaze swept over the seven Temple Knights, High Priest Tima's eyes stopped on Lancelot. His voice, besides the usual deep and resonant quality of a Minotaur, also carried a seemingly non-existent sharpness, always making people feel as if they were listening to several people speaking at once, "The promise that Bishop Inham gave me was indeed not bad. You few indeed have enough strength to fulfill our alliance."

  "Why so much nonsense with these fools? Are you sighing that he didn't kill enough back then?" A voice as fiery as if a fireball was held in the mouth, ready to be spat out and kill someone at any moment. Standing on the stone chair nearby was Loralei. Harpies have no habit of sitting.

  "Indeed not enough, aren't you still here?" Wilskey said coldly, looking at the Harpy. Even while sitting on this stone chair, his right hand still gripped the huge Golden Battle Bow. A faint aura of slaughter and ferocity was on his face. He was one of the two Temple Knights who had walked out of here with Lancelot back then. Like Lancelot, ever since he arrived in this underground world, he had been in a combat-ready state, ready to erupt at any moment.

  "Yes, and you too!" The Harpy chieftain screamed at Wilskey. Her upper body was half-naked, her face, which could be called bewitching and enchanting, and her half-full, voluptuous female body now looked like that of a hysterical shrew. But this couldn't entirely be blamed on her impulsiveness; ten years ago, thousands of her kin had fallen under the Golden Battle Bow of the Temple Knight opposite her.

  "Do you know? For these past ten years, I have never stopped fantasizing about tearing you all apart piece by piece. When I killed those Erathian soldier prisoners, I tried my best to imagine they were you. Let me tell you, watching those bastards groan is my favorite thing to do, much more fun than sex."

  The Temple Knight glared back at her, his eyes equally bloodshot: "The most exhilarating time in my life was when I was killing Harpies in Nighon ten years ago. Lord in heaven, those living targets flying in mid-air were truly too easy to shoot. I didn't even need arrows; I could just use bones or corpses picked up from the ground to turn them into a sky of fragments and feathers."

  Loralei let out a scream that was indistinguishable between a laugh and a roar: "Do you still remember that old man from ten years ago? That mage among you, his skull is still in my nest. I use his head to hold my feces. And that female knight beside you? Her head is air-dried and preserved. I forgot to bring it for you to see..."

  Wilskey let out a great laugh, a laugh that seemed like a lion's roar, causing the entire underground palace to shake. The red in his eyes seemed as if it could spurt blood, and the light of his Battle Qi instantly surged. The Golden Battle Bow was raised toward the Harpy chieftain on the opposite stone chair. He drew the bow, but no arrow was nocked. At such a close distance, the sudden surge of Battle Qi and killing intent, like a raging tide, was enough to serve as the arrow.

  From drawing the bow to releasing the string was no more than half a blink of an eye. The light on the Golden Battle Bow flashed and then extinguished.

  With a loud bang, the huge stone chair opposite, large enough for a Minotaur to sit on, suddenly shattered and exploded. But no flesh, blood, or feathers scattered. Loralei, who had been on it, seemed to have dodged like a phantom the moment the Temple Knight drew and released the bow. She was in mid-air, her over-three-meter-wide wings already spread. With a furious cry, she charged toward Wilskey.

  The Harpy's giant eagle claws on its lower body were already open. The power of this pair of giant claws was in no way inferior to any bird of prey, and she already held two long blades in her hands, from which a green-blue curse-light glinted in the blackness.

  Wilskey was not surprised. As early as ten years ago, he was already very familiar with the agility and combat style of these flying monsters. His left hand, which had drawn the bowstring, had already taken out a small crystal arrow from the armor on his chest the moment he released the string. Just as Loralei charged down, his hand flicked, and this small crystal arrow was already thrown.

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  An arrow doesn't necessarily need a bow to be shot. And although this arrow was small, the Battle Qi attached to it also brought forth the roar of wind and thunder. Let alone the body of a Harpy, even a Minotaur might not be able to withstand this strike.

  But just as Wilskey threw this arrow, the Minotaur High Priest at the front of the table also frowned, tapping the tabletop lightly with his huge fist. The tabletop, carved entirely from a single piece of rock, suddenly shattered.

  It was the piece of the tabletop in front of Wilskey that shattered, and it shattered in a very regular manner. Two square stone slabs broke away from the stone table and flew up, one in front of the other, just in time to block the path of the crystal arrow.

  The first stone slab shattered with a bang, and the Battle Qi on the crystal arrow was also exhausted. Then the shattered slab and the crystal arrow hit the second stone slab, turning into fragments together and falling.

  Wilskey's face was not pleasant. The size and weight of these two stone slabs were just enough to consume all the power of this arrow, and both of these stone slabs were knocked up from the stone table by that Minotaur's single punch. He sensed the fluctuation of earth magic, but he knew it wasn't just earth magic; it also involved eyesight and martial skill no less than that of a Temple Knight.

  The Harpy in mid-air had also disappeared, instead landing on a stone chair not far away. Naturally, she hadn't landed there by herself, but had been pressed down.

  Lancelot released his hand from Loralei's shoulder, said nothing, and just turned and walked back to his position.

  The Harpy chieftain's face was even more unpleasant than Wilskey's. She was confident she could dodge that small crystal arrow, but she just didn't know how she had been pressed down from mid-air by Lancelot.

  A Harpy's agility and speed in the air are in no way inferior to any bird, and Loralei's reaction and combat power are certainly beyond what any bird could compare with. And yet, in front of this person who had neither wings nor used magic, she had no power to resist at all, having been pressed down from mid-air just like that. This was a hundred times more difficult and a hundred times more distressing for her than being cut down by a sword.

  Even as Lancelot turned and walked away, her gaze on his back was like a knife, and she herself did not dare to move. She could only scream at the Minotaur High Priest: "Look at what kind of people you've invited? I told you long ago, humans are the most untrustworthy. And you sought help from the Necromancers of Diya Valley, but they didn't respond to you. Instead, you listened to that whatever Cardinal and connected with Celeste. Have you forgotten they are the mortal enemies of Nighon for hundreds of years?"

  "There are no eternal enemies, just as there are no eternal friends. Chieftain Loralei, you must remember this sentence. Although it was said by a human, I think it is very applicable to any intelligent species." The Minotaur High Priest's phrasing sounded more like that of an elegant and proper gentleman. If one hadn't heard it with their own ears, no one would have thought a Minotaur could speak like this instead of roaring and howling. He didn't even glance at Wilskey, as if nothing had happened at all.

  "Hmm." Lancelot nodded. He knew this sentence was for everyone. This Minotaur was not like a Minotaur; he was like a human.

  "Let's get straight to the point." Lancelot stared faintly at the High Priest's eyes, which were like two bonfires. He really had no patience for pleasantries with these monsters he had once fought to the death with, and he knew there was no need for pleasantries. The Pope and the new Bishop Inham had already explained everything very clearly.

  "Good. I like this too. We are all very busy, no need to waste time." The High Priest showed what was probably a smile, "For His Majesty the Pope to take the initiative to contact me, I was truly a bit surprised. But this also proves His Majesty's sincerity. So I believe you."

  "And your strength, indeed, also makes one feel sincerity and confidence." High Priest Tima's gaze once again swept over the seven Temple Knights present. Including Lancelot, there were four warriors, one archer, and two mages. This was absolutely the Church's most elite force, and he wasn't even confident he could keep this group of people underground by force.

  "Then shouldn't you also show a little sincerity, so that we can believe you?" Lancelot said faintly.

  "Good." The High Priest turned and pointed to the huge shrine behind him, his voice like several Minotaurs shouting at once, "I can swear before the shrine of the Horned Demon that I will abide by my promise."

  On the high platform in the center of the hall was a huge shrine. Even under the dim fluorescent light of the surrounding gems, the shrine still looked a bit glaring, a blinding white. It was a strange structure built from countless accumulated bones, looking chaotic and disorderly, yet it managed to support its ten-meter height with the fragile structure of the bones alone. Several mummified corpses hung from four protruding spikes. Every bone on this shrine had been magically baptized by successive generations of Minotaur High Priests, and at regular intervals, fresh sacrifices were offered, letting the screams and groans of the sacrifices give the shrine fresh vitality.

  The High Priest knelt before the shrine, loudly called out the unique sacrificial language of the Minotaurs, and then said loudly: "Great and evil lord of the abyssal domain, our ancestor, our god, your servant will swear in your name, in the name of honor, and in the name of evil, that I will abide by the alliance with these humans. As long as they can help us complete our great cause and bring the underground world under the shadow of the Horned Demon, I will never again allow a single soldier of Nighon to set foot on the land that believes in the Church of Light. The barbarians' Tatalia will be our new battlefield, and we will also cross the marshlands and together crush that Oufu upon the Barbarian Highlands."