Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

Lyle noticed something peculiar: the number of quadrupedal shadow beasts had decreased, replaced by more ape-like, hunched-over shadow beasts. These beasts were growing larger, and the shadows that writhed on their surfaces like fine hairs were diminishing, becoming more concealed within their dark forms. Lyle didn't quite understand the reason for this change, perhaps because the invisible creatures were constantly monitoring him. The feeling of being watched had become increasingly heavy, the atmosphere oppressive, and even he, accustomed to Andrei, sensed the shift.

Before them stood a tall, upright shadow beast, its back to Lyle and his companion. Just as they had done countless times before, Lyle decided to walk past it.

"Get down!" A deep voice appeared directly in Lyle's mind before he could react. Following Nia's warning, the dark shadow reappeared. It wasn't a blade, but a hand with a strange texture. Four strong hands grabbed the back of Lyle's head, ignoring the spikes that Nia had conjured between her fingers, and forced Lyle and Karen to the ground.

A fleeting perception confirmed to Lyle that the invisible man had a physical form. Soon, Lyle understood his intention.

The towering shadow beast turned around, its blurred features unable to conceal its smile, or the malice and hatred lingering in its eyes. This shadow beast was sentient. The two crouching figures avoided its gaze, listening to its chilling laughter and feeling the furry shadows writhing on their bodies.

Fourth level, or higher. A formidable enemy posing a significant danger.

With a strange laugh, the Great Enemy lowered his head, his gaze meeting Lyle's.

Lyle felt his body screaming alarms, the panic of facing a crisis brewing wildly in his brain under the stimulation of hormones. His smile vanished, his lips turned down, and his mouth became a circular hole, like a deep breath before screaming.

Clang! The shadowy head, which seemed to be screaming, detached from its neck and fell in front of Lyle. Even before the entire head turned to sand, the filth and chaos in its eyes remained unchanged.

The invisible creature severed its head.

After a brief silence, the deep voice rang out again.

"They have been disturbed; you must leave as soon as possible."

It was clearly its own initiative.

"Follow me." The invisible creature spoke again, and just as Lyle was about to complain about following someone he couldn't see, not far away, the head of a shadow beast detached from its neck.

"...Is this the special way of leading the way?" Lyle and Karen followed.

This was a path led by heads. A flash of light, a severed head, two figures running after it. Lyle and Karen had to quicken their pace; as he'd said, they'd been alerted. The shadow tentacles on the stationary shadow beasts had become active, tugging at the surrounding matter. Lyle was nearly caught once, but Nia, clinging to his body, bit off a tentacle and secretly ate it.

After following forty or so moving heads, the invisible creature led the two to a winding hill. At the very top, Lyle saw a familiar altar, the same kind that Veraliz had used.

"That's a device left behind by your people. Maybe you can use it to leave this place. Hurry up and leave."

"Thank you."

There was no reply, like saying goodbye to a gentle breeze.

The two hurriedly ran to the altar, which looked exactly like the one where Lyle had been sacrificed. The shadow pool was still on the ground, suggesting that Veraliz had also made a similar sacrifice in this place.

Without much thought, Lyle reached his hand directly into the Shadow Pool.

I touched a hard stone slab; this wasn't the Shadow Pool used for teleportation.

Shadows began to flow along the patterns on the stone slabs, and a rain of shadows was showered over the entire Shadow Forest. Listening to the howls of shadow beasts rising and falling around him, Lyle understood the altar's purpose.

That altar where one sacrificed oneself was for control, while this was for awakening and recruiting those shadow beasts. Lyle seemed to see pairs of eyes watching him from within the shadows of the trees.

The woodland came alive, and the roaming herd of animals found their target. They surged forward like a torrent toward the hill where the two were.

What an apocalyptic scene this is! The shadow beasts here are countless, like a torrent gushing from the abyss, devouring everything outside the shadows. The black rain and the surging beast tide on the ground form a giant maw, swallowing the two frail young men whole.

Karen was completely flustered, but she still stood in front of Lyle, her holy flame burning and her holy hammer in hand, despite her anxious and even desperate expression.

"Lord Lyle, it is my honor to fight for you."

Lyle ignored Karen's declaration of self-sacrifice, fiddled with the ring in his hand, breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but make a witty remark.

"You will be even more honored next."

"?"

Faced with Karen's doubts, Lyle pressed the ring on his hand, and the gold threads embedded in it became scalding hot.

Lyle roared as he faced the surging darkness.

Praise be to the Holy Light!

Ten chains tore through the shadows, opening a gate of holy light in the void.

Light and heat, radiance and fire, tore apart all darkness. The phantoms of angels sang in the air, scattering points of light as if opening the gates of heaven.

A radiant, glowing figure emerged, its dark gold armor shining brightly once more. Even the slightest contact with the light caused the shadow beasts to turn to ashes amidst screams. The impact ceased, and the herd of beasts remained rooted to the spot, staring in terror at the giant, lightbulb-armored figure that emerged from the light.

Mr. Raymond turned down his light.

"I almost forgot this is Locarrot. It would be troublesome if we attracted that guy here."

At this point, Mr. Raymond withdrew some of the light and heat, and the angelic phantom disappeared.

Seeing Lyle completely unharmed, Mr. Raymond let out a hearty laugh and was about to speak.

A voice interrupted them.

“I…I’ve seen this armor before…” Karen said in surprise. She put down her warhammer and moved toward Mr. Raymond, who was standing next to Lyle, as if possessed. “In the illustrations of the Crusader stories, every single one of them retains this armor style. As a sign of respect for that person, no one in the Crusades would dare to offend him.”

“Your Majesty Raymond, is it really you? Weren’t you already dead? Why are you here? Lord Lyle, who exactly are you?” Karen looked at the two men with suspicion in her eyes.

Mr. Raymond! Have you never changed your armor in all these years?!

The ever-cautious Lyle didn't know how to describe what was happening before him, so he looked to Mr. Raymond for help.

Mr. Raymond tapped his palm, and Lyle imagined his thoughts in his mind. "I've got a great idea."

With a thud, Mr. Raymond knelt down on one knee before Lyle.

"Heroic Paladin Meroc Raymond, summoned to justice, I will proclaim your righteousness and bring you victory!"

"So, are you my master?"

Chapter 265 Celestial Spirit Lovedy

"Summoning of Heroic Spirits? The Pure Ones, through the power of their Holy Light, can summon deceased Crusaders as heroic spirits to assist in battle?"

In the shadows torn open by Mr. Raymond, Lyle and Raymond try to convince Karen that this behavior is a special characteristic of the Pure Ones. After being brainwashed by both the Pure One she trusts and the heroic figures from the stories she's read since childhood, Karen finally manages to reluctantly believe this explanation.

“If the Pure One can summon His Majesty Raymond, that would be incredibly powerful!” Karen’s eyes gleamed with gold as she looked at Lyle as if he were a savior from a story.

“Yes, Karen, the Pure Ones are very powerful, just as you think.” Lyle had lost count of how many times he had deceived Karen, and this time it was Mr. Raymond who had led the way.

"Then His Majesty Raymond must be able to easily deal with those monsters!" Karen pointed to the horde of shadow beasts not far from the group. Their instincts held them back by thirty meters, for Raymond's imposing presence was probably a solid wall in their eyes.

Dealing with these monsters should have been a trivial matter for Mr. Raymond.

“I’m sorry, Karen, I can’t do that right now. Lyle’s Holy Light power is still too weak; he can’t summon my full power, so my actual combat strength may not meet your expectations.” Mr. Raymond wanted to minimize the imprint of his existence; now was not the time for him to face the One of Holy Light again.

"But when His Majesty Raymond first appeared, didn't he already casually kill some Shadow Beasts?"

"That's a special entrance effect!"

"..." Karen was so shocked by this absurd reason that she couldn't speak, while Mr. Raymond drew her attention away.

“While I cannot act personally, I now possess enough power to serve as a supporter, a priest of assistance. Karen, do you wish to punish evil like the legendary crusaders?”

Kallen staggered back half a step. Even a partial blessing from a weakened Crusader leader was enough to strengthen her to a very powerful level. This was a gift, an opportunity to come into contact with a more powerful Holy Light. When she was struck by this unexpected blessing, Kallen maintained a rare humility.

"Your Majesty Raymond, could you help Lord Lyle strengthen himself? He is a Pure One, and his role will certainly be much greater than mine." Although her eyes still held excitement, Karen lowered her head to express her expectations, like a cute child sharing her toy with someone else.

“The Pure One Lyle is not suited for the front lines, Karen. He’s better suited to be a priest, a bishop who purifies the hearts of lambs. He’s not a fighter, but you are!”

"Is that so? Then there's nothing we can do. It's good that Lord Lyle is safe." Karen, already wearing dozens of kilograms of armor, hopped over to Raymond.

"Blessing of Light!"

As Mr. Raymond landed on Kallen's head with his shimmering gauntlet, Kallen's body erupted with even more intense light and heat, like a small sun.

She cried out joyfully, "Praise be to the Holy Light! Praise be to Lord Raymond! My body is filled with the light of justice."

Mr. Raymond laughed, raised his hand and pointed diagonally at the herd of animals down the hillside, his voice full of fervor.

"Crusader Karen! That evil is worth fighting!"

"Whoa whoa whoa! For justice! For His Majesty Raymond! Crusader Karen! Fight!" With unstoppable momentum, Karen charged down the hillside alone, rampaging through the Shadow Beast horde like a war chariot.

Watching the flying corpses ignited by the holy light in the air, the Shadow Beast screamed in agony. Lyle glanced at Mr. Raymond.

"They sent me away," Lyle said, his voice tinged with a mixture of helplessness and self-assurance.

"Yes, it's so easy for me, it's unbelievable. This girl is definitely suited to be a paladin. Even though her aunt is as shrewd as a banshee, this girl truly deserves to be a child of the Holy Light..."

Lyle pondered Raymond's remark, "Mr. Raymond, do you have some kind of prejudice against paladins? You yourself are a paladin..."

“I originally thought those were just prejudices, but it seems to be true.” Raymond swung his arm. “Look, she has ‘evolved’ into phototaxis.” A beam of light appeared not far from Karen’s fighting position. Like a moth, she moved towards the beam of light while smashing the surrounding shadow beasts with her warhammer, completely unaware of Raymond’s situation.

Such beams of light appeared five times in total, each time causing Kallen to move a short distance without her noticing, as she was engrossed in fighting the enemy.

Although he felt that Mr. Raymond's treatment of Karen was somewhat inappropriate, as if he were teasing a moth, Karen's submissive instincts left him speechless.

"Didn't she take a bit too far? By the way, is Kallen alright? There are fourth-tier monsters all around her."

“It’s alright, Lyle. I gave her enough blessing to crush this trash for hours. We have plenty of time and space.”

It feels like sending a troublesome child to a daycare center.

"Your Majesty Raymond, shall we now seek a way to safely transfer Karen?" After all, Mr. Raymond could bring Lyle back to Andre at any time.

"Of course, but let's take out the mastermind behind these activities first, so you'll have enough time to find an exit."

"..." It doesn't seem like a bad idea. Directly addressing the root of the crisis is indeed Mr. Raymond's style.

"This time, Mr. Raymond, you're not going to give me another excuse like my class is wrong and I can't fight, are you?"

"Of course not. Can you defeat your opponent alone? Or are you hoping my holy light will enhance your necromancy?"

"May I?"

"...Holy Light is an idealistic concept. I don't think it's acceptable."

Raymond interrupted Lyle's question and led him toward the source of darkness he sensed. Karen had already been led astray and was completely unaware of the two who had walked away.

"We will address the root cause..."

“But first, let’s deal with the bugs lurking in the shadows.” As soon as Raymond finished speaking, his wings unfurled, and the golden chains wrapped around them bared their fangs like venomous snakes hunting their prey.

Lyle watched as they entwined themselves around a void, a muffled groan rising in his mind.

"No, Mr. Raymond! He's not a bad person! He helped us!"

Under the suppression of Raymond's power, the figure that had been hiding finally revealed his appearance.

Standing about 1.8 meters tall, with a hunched back and grayish-white skin that had a textured surface resembling chitin and shell, his head was a long, narrow, arched ellipsoid, like the body of some large insect, with a prominent groove at the back of his head and naturally wrinkled skin. His facial features were similar to a human's, but he lacked lips, and his light gray eyes held a blue gleam that represented a wise soul.

He wore metal armor with intricate patterns, which contrasted sharply with his thin and frail physique. He had broad arms, legs with reverse joints, and was adorned with exotic metal ornaments.