Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 345 Join Us
Then...what is that?
In the darkness, Thales stared in fear at the rock formations above Kerz's head.

He blinked hard, but still couldn't see anything; it was pitch black above Krz's head.

The Sin of the Prison River gave him no response.

"Hey kid!"

The seamstress's discontent almost filled the small cave: "Are you kidding me?"

His voice echoed through the cave, reverberating frequently.

Thales was startled by the angry shout.

"nothing……"

The boy took a deep breath, staring at the top of Krz's head, still shaken: "Come on, I was distracted..."

"Come here."

This time, Thales mustered all his strength, stretched out his arm, and held the ever-burning lamp to the front. He looked around nervously, moved forward little by little, and finally managed to grab Krzyze's hand and climb up.

This naturally attracted a lot of criticism from the female seamstress.

But Thales no longer cared about those things.

As Ketz continued to probe the way forward, Thales, alone with a lamp in hand, passed by the spot where the face had been.

The latter couldn't help but repeatedly look up and hold up the lamp to confirm whether there really had been a strange human face above his head.

But there was still nothing there, only stones quietly embedded in the rock strata.

Did I see it wrong?

Right?
Thales took a deep breath, calmed his trembling hands and feet, and tried to banish the thought that the atmosphere was not right from his mind. Following the light of the light from the kerz ahead, he hugged the ever-burning lamp tightly in his arms and gritted his teeth to continue forward in the pitch-black environment.

They continued forward for another half hour.

During this time, Thales took cautious steps forward, each one filled with trepidation.

“Very good, we’ve covered more than half the distance. Now, above us…” came the seamstress’s voice, sounding quite satisfied: “We’re not far!”

Thales felt a sense of relief.

Krz, supporting himself against the rock wall on his left, turned to the right in front of the cave.

But at that moment, on the empty wall where Krzy's left hand had pressed...

A human face suddenly appeared!
Thales felt a numbness in his chest, couldn't catch his breath, and shuddered all over!
"Snapped!"

His inextinguishable lamp fell to the ground at his feet, its flickering light casting Thales' shadow onto the rock face, but failing to obscure the outline of his face.

He was a man with deep-set features and blue dye on his forehead and cheeks.

Like the first man before him, his muscles were thin and atrophied, his eyes were pale, his lips were pursed and his teeth were exposed, and his skin was so pale that he didn't look like a living person.

"Hey Hey hey!"

Krzy turned around through gritted teeth: "I told you not to drop the non-stop light!"

"Without the lights, are you going to ram your head out?"

The seamstress was a hand's width away from the face on the rock face, but she didn't feel anything was wrong.

【we have to……】

The man inside the rock face stared intently at Thales with pupil-less eyes. His neck twisted slowly like a rusted clock, and his black lips opened and closed, making a harsh sound from between his withered teeth, as if it were right next to Thales's ear.

[Slay all the elves...]

[The orcs...were all killed...]

[Enemy nation... also wiped out...]

Why can't we... kill them all...?

Krzysz was still grumbling about the boy, as if he and the man were in two different worlds, and he didn't hear her.

This is……

A language mixed with the grammar of the ancient empire... the common language of the Western Continent?
Terrified and on the verge of tears, Thales pointed stiffly in the direction Koz was facing: "But..."

"There……"

However, when Thales turned his gaze again, he was horrified to discover:

The man has disappeared.

Kerz turned around in confusion: behind her was only a dark rock wall.

There is no face.

It remained as peaceful as ever, bathed in the alternating light and shadow.

Thales was stunned.

He began to tremble slightly.

Krzys frowned and looked at him: "Hey!"

"What's there?"

The boy shook his head abruptly.

Thales took a deep breath and sprang up like a nimble rabbit!

He grabbed the inextinguishable lamp and, using both hands and feet, practically tumbled and crawled away from the rock face, running ahead of Kez.

The terrified prince rounded the eerie rock face, only to find himself in complete darkness, with a downward slope barely visible.

“No, Krzysz,” Thales swallowed as he ran, his fingers numb and his voice shaky.

"Somewhat something is wrong."

Krz was somewhat taken aback: "What?"

Thales resolutely resisted the urge to turn back and shook his head desperately: "Black Path... this place is very eerie."

"I saw something..."

Krzys looked thoughtfully at Thales's disheveled appearance, then suddenly chuckled.

"Are you really afraid of the dark?"

Terrified, Thales bit his lower lip hard, trying his best not to think about it: "This isn't black..."

He was interrupted.

"Shut up!" The seamstress rushed up to him menacingly and poked him in the chest. "I promised the cripple, so I'm definitely going to send you away..."

"Stay close to them!"

"Don't be afraid of the dark!"

Thales, speechless with grief and utter terror, was left speechless.

Krzy, cursing, jumped down a slope, creating a gust of air and sending a chill through the surroundings.

With a long face, Thales hung the ever-burning lamp around his neck, put one foot forward, braced himself with his hands behind him, and slid down the slope.

Unbeknownst to him, the prince's palms were already slippery and covered in cold sweat.

Even my heartbeat is almost no longer my own.

This time, he opened his eyes wide, and the River of Sin flowed faster and faster.

"I remember that as long as I walked past here..."

Thales listened absentmindedly, but just as he was about to slide to the bottom of the slope...

Looking up at him, three figures suddenly appeared on the rock face at the top!

Old people, women, and men.

Thales, who was falling, shuddered!
He heard a low, eerie whisper in his ear again.

"You are...I am...who are we...?" This was the old man's call, his northern accent filled with confusion.

【You are us...we are you...】This was a man's whisper, full of ancient imperial language, elegant in its wording, yet extremely eerie.

They were pressed against the rock wall, their eyes all white and lifeless, staring intently at him, clearly visible in the darkness!

The woman even reached out her withered hands to him.

【Why……】

Why are you over there...?

It is a common language, but its grammar is complex and it is full of accents that Thales has never heard before.

His words carried a chilling, heart-wrenching intensity and a hysterical pain:

【my sweetheart……】

Why...didn't...they return...from...the battlefield...?

The brown-grey nails brushed across Thales' face, bringing a chilling sensation.

"boom!"

Terrified, Thales landed hard on his backside!

What the hell is this!

"Hold!"

Thales couldn't help but swear; at that moment, he felt goosebumps all over his body!

He got up and took a step forward, wanting only to get as far away from the figure above him as possible.

What the hell is this place?!

Panting heavily, Thales, frantically searching for his way in the darkness, bumped into Krzy, who was trying to remember his route.

"Are you crazy!"

The seamstress stumbled from his impact, turning back angrily: "I swear if you ever..."

But she couldn't continue.

Both of them felt it: the ground beneath their feet trembled slightly.

Krzysz's rant and Thales's breath stopped simultaneously.

At the same time, a frightening sound came from the dark rock formations:
"Kala——"

Both of their faces turned pale.

"Crackling——"

This?
Thales listened intently to the frightening sound.

It seems like...

It sounded like rocks cracking?

A few seconds later, the cracking sound grew louder and louder!
"Swish, swish..."

Under the dim light provided by the two ever-burning lamps, Krzys and Thales stared at each other.

Kuz touched his head, pale-faced: several pieces of gravel the size of fingernails had fallen on them.

"Oh no." That was all she managed to utter.

The ground shook violently again!
In a panic, Thales grabbed onto a nearby rock to avoid falling.

Feeling the ground shaking, Krz finally regained his balance, his face changing drastically: "Damn it!"

"Something must have collapsed again!"

Just finished speaking.

"boom!"

The cracking and shaking sounds turned into a piercing smashing sound.

It's like a giant rock falling behind you.

The seamstress looked displeased. Ignoring Thales's tirade, she hung the ever-burning lamp around her neck and nimbly climbed the path: "Run!"

"Boom!"

A huge rock crashed onto a low slope not far from them and rolled downhill.

Thales felt a jolt in his heart, knowing that now was not the time to be afraid of ghosts.

The prince had no time to conserve his strength. He summoned a familiar yet unfamiliar power and desperately activated the River of Sin within his entire body!
boom!
The sins of the River of Hell surged joyfully to his head, overflowing his entire body.

Feeling the throbbing of his veins and the fullness of his muscles, feeling the clearer vision than daytime and the gentle flow of air inside the cave, Thales stomped on the ground and stood up instantly!

He clung to the rock face, desperately following in Krzy's footsteps.

The ground shook again.

Soon, the surrounding sounds turned into a deafening roar, accompanied by the vibrations of the rock layers and the ground!
"Rumble..."

The prince, terrified, caught up with Krzysz.

"boom!"

The sound of rocks falling grew louder and more frequent, seemingly very close.

"What are you doing..."

Thales leaped desperately over a shallow pit, clung to a rock slab on the uphill slope, and gritted his teeth as he roared amidst the rumbling: "Was this wretched place... always like this?"

The ground shook again, and Thales lost his balance and fell to the ground.

His ever-burning lamp crashed against the rock wall and went out instantly with a shattering sound.

But I can't worry about that now.

It's important to escape!

With a chill running down his spine, Thales straightened up and took a few steps to cover several meters.

As the ground shook violently, he fell face-first into the dirt countless times, but he could only desperately move forward!

"Who knows, the last time I brought people here was six years ago!" A furious voice came from the roar, clearly she was also in a bad mood: "After the Shield Zone was destroyed, Blackpath sometimes collapses!" "So the cripple sealed it off!"

Thales slammed against the walls from side to side amidst the tremors, struggling to maintain his balance and keep moving forward. But even the experienced Krzysz couldn't go fast in such harsh conditions.

"Bang! Boom!"

A loud crash came from behind them—the slope they had just passed had been smashed solid by a rock that had fallen from somewhere!
Debris flew.

When Thales turned around and saw this scene, he was terrified!
Thales took two quick steps to avoid a falling rock on his left.

"boom!"

But this is far from the worst of it.

As the falling rocks smashed open a crack, another person was revealed to be horrified.

A withered figure with white hair.

【Come……】

Join us in our fight against the tyrant...

The empire will perish, but the North will rise...

Its eyes were white, its muscles were rotting, but it had the same dry lips as its companions, sparse white hair and wrinkled scalp, and it reached out a hand that was nothing but bones to Thales.

Thales shuddered, and the Sin of the River of Hell gathered automatically in his left leg without being summoned. With a desperate kick, he rolled to the right, cursing all the while.

What the hell!
During his escape, Thales saw another face in the distance: a charred, withered face in a crater to his lower right.

Its pale eyes stared at him with a horrifying smile, its lips moving in and out.

To protect my family, I will kill all the enemies...

But with my family around, the enemy will find my weakness and defeat me...

I simply cannot kill all the enemies...

For my family's sake, I cannot be defeated...

Family... cannot be my weakness...

Therefore, in order to defeat the enemy and protect my family, I must first...

【must……】

【first……】

Kill my entire family.

As soon as the "person" finished speaking, his withered hands suddenly covered his head, and he let out an endless scream of pain!
What the hell!

With tears streaming down his face, Thales covered his ears, roaring inwardly, and scrambled toward Krz.

What are all these things?!

The car in front of her braked suddenly, and Thales almost hit her.

"boom!"

"God, all the paths I remember are gone..." Kuz roared in a panic, the ever-burning lamp swaying violently against her chest.
"How unlucky! It feels like wherever we go, something collapses!"

A rock came crashing down in their path with a start, and Thales and the seamstress, shocked, immediately turned to the other side.

"Wherever you go..." Thales suppressed his fear and shouted angrily as he ran, "Are you sure you're not named Drake?"

"Shit!"

Krz retorted angrily, "My last name is..."

But at that moment, Thales, who was escaping from the tremors, collapses, and falling rocks, caught his breath.

He was terrified by what he saw.

In the view of the River of Sin, countless faces, figures, and shapes that they had just seen appeared one after another on their escape route.

These "people" share the same characteristics:
It was as withered as a corpse, with eyes but no pupils, and its movements were stiff.

These monsters, whether they peek out from cracked rocks, stretch out limbs from broken craters, or even suddenly rise from the ground, are everywhere, shadowy and indistinct.

Thales felt an endless chill creeping up from the soles of his feet.

This time, they faintly emitted an ominous black mist, and regardless of distance, they all turned towards Thales, staring at him intently, opening their ugly lips and speaking to each other.

The Emperor is calling... The knights are assembled... Triumph, triumph, triumph!

Wherever the sword points, war will surely end... After this battle, the empire will have no enemies, and we can return home...

We're surrounded. No need to save rations. The wounded should leave their horses to the healthy. Those without weapons, search the bodies of others… Cavalry, get dressed. We'll make one last charge. That way, King Anset and his men will have fewer orc hybrids to deal with…

Why are we fighting...? Why didn't the Xitao people attack us? Why are we fighting them?

[Sail, Kruri, Lokatasada... Karalukair... Sail, Sail, Sailrikai!]

A wide variety of languages, from elegant or colloquial ancient imperial languages ​​to retro or modern common languages, and even many languages ​​that Thales seemed to recognize but could not understand.

There were even several beings that were clearly not normal humanoids, screaming in pain in words he couldn't understand at all.

The cave suddenly became extremely noisy.

But as always, Krzysz seemed to have found nothing and just kept running forward.

More and more words, some whispered, some low and menacing, some roaring and shouting, accompanied by layers of abnormal emotions, seeped into Thales' ears.

Terrified, Thales let out a wail and frantically sped up, wanting to escape this hellish place as quickly as possible!
The sound continued:

Regardless of whether they are armed or not, the logic is simple: this is territory designated by the Emperor, our land. If they do not acknowledge themselves as citizens of the Empire… then they are our enemies…

The uprising failed, the entire army was wiped out... The imperial inspectors will be here soon, run!

[The bugle is blowing, it's the Ice Bastards... the Orcs... We must hold them off here... Believe me, humanity will prevail!]

[Deserter, deserter, deserters deserve to die, deserters don't deserve to be human... If you don't have the courage to be beheaded, you deserve to be beheaded!]

[The city has fallen! The city has fallen! Follow me, we'll charge in and leave no one alive! Long live the Empire!]

"Krz!"

Thales covered his ears and groaned, enduring the headache that crept in inch by inch.

"Krz!"

He resisted looking at the gaunt, grotesque woman "human" whose face was contorted and terrifying, just an arm's length away from him, and recklessly swept past the obstacles, only managing to avoid falling in the darkness thanks to the eyesight of the River of Sin:
We need to get out of here as soon as possible!

"Blackpath...something's very wrong with this place!"

Amidst the thunderous roar, Krz's furious voice came from ahead, as if he had just dodged a rock crashing down on his head: "Yeah, I saw that too..."

"Also, thank you for your nonsense!"

"Crack..." The moment Krz turned around, another giant rock above his head split open!

Falling vertically.

"careful!"

Krz instinctively looked up, his face turning deathly pale.

That rock... enveloped them all beneath it.

Thales felt a chill run down his spine. Ignoring the soreness in his legs, he exerted all his strength to catch up!
But after seeing the situation clearly, he felt a chill in his heart as he charged forward: No.

That rock that fell from above—the area was too large.

Even if he pounces on Krzyzee, even if they sprint at full speed...

It's unavoidable.

How to do.

The giant rock was only a few meters away from Kez's head.

How to do?
In that instant, Thales desperately recalled every skill he could use.

Yara, Rolf, Wyman, Black Sword, the Corleone sisters, Ada...

But faced with this crisis, all their skills, techniques, and emergency response methods were rendered useless...

How to do.

At that moment, a figure that Thales hadn't expected suddenly appeared in his mind.

In my memory, the man had a cold expression and a pale face.

The blade slashed out of his hand, then miraculously returned.

Thales was startled.

A rare, decisive force seeped into his bones and joints, unleashing an indescribable power.

In a flash, Thales accelerated and pounced on Kerz in front of him, grabbing her waist tightly.

With a scream from Krzysz, they fell forward together as the giant rock above them drew ever closer.

Thales gritted his teeth.

The sins of the Hell River began to roar within his body, causing his pores to contract.

The rush of blood in my veins gradually drowned out the endless words of those "people".

His bones began to groan.

"Ah—" Thales couldn't help but groan in pain.

The rocks overhead were getting closer and closer, and they even began to reflect the light from the ever-burning lamp.

The next moment, his forward momentum miraculously stopped: Thales' legs were firmly planted on the ground.

They did not fall.

Moreover, Thales's joints emitted a series of unpleasant popping sounds.

Thales' face contorted as the power of the end gathered in his legs.

As if overcoming inertia, the young prince's figure, which had just rushed here, suddenly bent backward!
"boom!"

A giant rock crashed down.

The loud noise echoed in my ears.

Kerz sat down on the ground, staring blankly at the scene before him, at the rocks that were only inches away from him.

Beside her, Thales lay on the ground, breathing heavily in pain.

"Wow..."

The rocks that crashed down in front of them shattered into pieces, and many rolled to their feet.

At the critical moment, Thales lunged forward towards Kerz, then incredibly changed direction in an instant, leaping two meters backward and dragging them both out of the area of ​​falling rocks.

"Wow," Kuz slowly realized, his eyes widening, "How did you do that...?"

"No, don't ask." This was Thales, whose legs were numb and who was struggling to breathe.

damn it……

Thales was panting heavily, but he could feel the ground shaking continuing and the roar in his ears not lessening.

This is... trying to kill me.

At that moment, Thales, who was lying on his back on the ground, suddenly froze in his eyes!
Directly above his head...

A terrifying face appeared on the rock face.

Thales recognized the face: gaunt facial muscles, a stiff, cold smile, and sharp, rusty teeth.

And that brightly colored armor.

It's that man.

Its defeated eyes looked at Thales, and it slowly moved its stiff neck, opening its mouth:
Come on.

You shouldn't be there.

You belong to us.

It remains the standard and classical ancient imperial language, with clear pronunciation.

If you ignore the deep chill hidden within.

As it finished speaking, a thick black mist emanated from its body.

The next second, before Thales could react, the rock beneath them shattered into pieces!

"Boom!"

"Hey--"

In a panic, Kertz only managed to utter one word before she sank down with the collapsing rocks.

"Krz!"

Thales cried out and lunged forward, trying to grab the flustered seamstress: "Grab me!"

But his hand could only futilely brush past Krzy's figure, touching her fingers one last time.

Krzys fell, getting further and further away from him, his face still showing shock.

Thales stared blankly at the woman falling into the darkness.

But nothing can be done.

Until the seamstress's figure was completely swallowed by darkness.

They can no longer be seen.

A hoarse, terrifying voice came from above, speaking in the chilling language of the ancient empire:
Come on, comrade...

Join us!

By the way, the previous section on the day of the hearing has been revised.

Most legitimate channels should be updated in real time.

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(End of this chapter)