Chapter 1057: Lance Continent
Chapter 1057: Lance Continent
Lance Continent was among the most insignificant out of the subcontinents. It was sort of like the Holy Continent, with a diverse population of elves, dwarves, humans, and orcs.
Sitting on a throne inside an extravagant palace was an emperor wearing golden armor and a crown. Straining inside the palace were knights in full armor. Their eyes were fixed on the great Emperor Harvey, who began his legacy as early as 300 years ago.
When he was young, Prince Harvey was returning from the central continent to Lance Continent. He was the only prince at the time, and he trained a bunch of knights himself to unify all the human empires. He chased the dwarves out of the deserts, forced the dwarves (who were supposed to be allies, by the way) into the deeper parts of the mountain, and trapped the peaceful elves inside Shanfu Forest. He did all of this in a few centuries. He overthrew classes just to establish a powerful Holy Light Empire entirely based on chivalry.
No, the high and mighty wizards didn't care about the changes that were taking place. While the balance between the orcs and humans was clearly off, the wizards didn't think that intervening would help them train themselves. Seeing that the Holy Light Empire was actually increasing their tributes to them, they were even starting to embrace what's happening on the Lance Continent. Just like that, in places where no one else was looking, Emperor Harvey would recruit young men and have them train as elite warriors.
Right now, Emperor Harvey could feel the sacred power swarming inside of him. He knew that his objective was about to be achieved in a few days. He could still think back to when he was a bastard child his father king had with a nobleman's daughter. He's never seen his father in his whole life. After confirming that he possessed no wizard skills, he lived like any other nobleman's child.
That's until his mother found faith one day. Following that, he was brought to worship as a child. He learned to treat the divine spirit as the father he never had, so he would often speak his heart whenever he prayed. When he was eighteen, he understood what his faith was about. It was about paying tribute to the biggest enemy to the central continent, the demon from beyond. His faith had grown too strong by that time, however, so he was fine worshipping the most powerful demon there was to know. In his mind, he didn't think that the feelings he was getting could belong to a demon.
No. Definitely not. One day, a messenger from the divine spirit came to him as he was requested to inherit the throne. He was gifted a set of golden armor, which was what was used by the sky demons at the time. The armor possessed a strange power that could grant one hundred knights the power of sacred knights.
Emperor Harvey had his doubts at the time. He agreed to everything the divine spirit asked of him, but he was not going to return to Lance Continent, let alone inherit a throne he felt no connection to. Also, the amount needed to open a super teleportation circle was too much for him to afford, and the empire was not going to pay it for him when five official princes were still alive and well. That was until two months went by. His old father actually spent a huge fortune contacting him to order him to be picked up back to the empire.
After the unforgettable experiences he had, he went to Lance Continent. That's when he realized that the five princes had all died in an accident. The old emperor was already sterile, too. He realized that it was the work of the Nation of God. Otherwise, things just wouldn't work so well for him. It's like the Nation of God prepared this for him from the very start. He's been careful not to reveal all the powers of the sacred knights, but it wasn't like the ordinary knights could stop him and his troops. Since the wizards never intervened, he managed to sweep through the whole continent fairly efficiently.
After using up the final spot for recruiting, he's already gained enough worship power to gain even more spaces for recruiting. He became even better at it after he became emperor of the state. The number of sacred knights around him never stopped growing. Since the knights would only have 150 years of lifespan, and the lifespan of the sacred knights was identical to that of the wizards, it was not hard at the time to bestow faith to knights. Of course, out of fear that the wizards would discover what was happening, everything was sacred.
Not only did the sacred knights boost Emperor Harvey's confidence, but it also made him wait for a chance to actually fight the wizards. For the past 300 years, he and his men had been busy promoting themselves. He managed to become a rank twenty advanced sacred knight while all the other men were rank nineteen. If Abel knew about this, he would've known that this resulted from a divine blessing from the demon of beyond. Talent could not be replicated to this extent, not on a subcontinent like the Lance Continent.
Basically, for Harvey to grow, the Nation of God used an endless amount of supply and underhanded methods to help shape his career. The Nation of God sealed the souls of the sacred knights into divine armor. The investment went beyond what they could imagine, but the reward was just as plentiful, if not more. The worship power was never well transferred due to the proximity between Lance Continent and the central continent, but since the worshippers were just so many, the proximity just less and less relevant, by the way.
If the Lance Continent was actually a subordinate state to the Nation of God, the number of sacred knights would even be more terrifying. The Nation of God could never boost their numbers even if they did something drastic to their demographic, but when the Lance Continent showed an influx of worshippers, there would be a sacred knight influx in the Nation of God as well. That was a recipe for a massive army, and it was why the Emperor had become much more cautious in recent years. Since he didn't want to be underequipped when facing the wizards, he had been careful picking them and reducing the numbers.
Still, their number was about to reach 5000. The time was finally coming. The strength of the sacred knights was enough to overwhelm all the wizards on Lance Continent. He was confident enough to win even before the wizards reached for reinforcement.
"Apologies for intruding, your Majesty!"
While Emperor Harvey was still thinking back, an advanced wizard appeared in the hall and made a light bow. It was a rude gesture that infuriated all the knights that witnessed this. There were nine rank 19 sacred knights. They all looked towards Emperor Harvey to wait for an order.
Emperor Harvey smiled instead of frowned, "Sir Wizard Alpert! What business would you have here?"
Wizard Alpert responded by throwing a condescending stare at all the knights around him. He never thought that any of these knights could match him since head knight commanders were pretty much the same as beginner wizards in terms of fighting capability here.
Wizard Alpert laughed coldly, "Your Majesty, I'm not welcomed here, apparently?"
Emperor Harvey kept his composure, "Forgive me, sir Wizard Alpert."
In his eyes, the wizard was as good as dead. The plan was about to commence, and he just wanted to listen to the reason this wizard was here.
Wizard Alpert threw a greedy look, "I'm here for the longevity potion you have, I suppose."
Emperor Harvey was actually surprised, "What about the potion, may I ask?"
Wizard Alpert chuckled, "What' this playing dumb, your Majesty? You are 300 years old, and although you've reached the rank of a head knight's commander, you have as little as 200 years in terms of your life expectancy. You've become a real target of the wizards in that regard."
Emperor Harvey was dropping his smile, "I don't have any of this longevity potion you speak of."
Wizard Alpert pointed towards a sacred knight in the room, "I don't know what you did, your Majesty, but not only did you drink a potion, you also gave a spare to one of your close associates!"
The sacred knight Wizard Alpert was pointing at was Knight Kirk, one of the founding members of the Holy Light Empire. He was a very well-known figure and a top suspect for supposedly drinking the longevity potion his Majesty had in supply. Of course, there was no way of confirming if the portions were actually in storage. As far as Wizard Alpert was concerned, he didn't have many years ahead of him. His life was about to end, and he didn't feel like giving up at any point.
As for why Wizard Alpert would be so daring as to come here to intimidate an emperor, it had to do with what happened after the empire was founded. When the Holy Light Empire was established, all the tribute wizards were invited to not have anything to do with the empire. This was very suspicious in Wizard Alpert's eyes. He even guessed the origins of the longevity potion. Either it was brought back from the central continent. Or, it was found in some ancient ruin somewhere on the Lance Continent.
The other wizards knew that something was up for the 300-year-old kind, of course. However, they had doubts that the potion would be used very quickly, given how rare it was. This was what Wizard Alpert believed initially, also, but he was willing to bet his chances to see if there was any that was spared.
Emperor Davey said coldly, "Do you know this, Wizard Alpert? You should've never come here. You should've never threatened me, too, or I would have spared you some more days."
Wizard Alpert was shouting, "How dare you talk to me like that?"
A fireball rune appeared at the tip of Wizard Alpert's staff. At the same time, Knight Kird unleashed a spell rune that froze the ground below. The sacred freezing spiritual qi light ring was very subtle in its attacking ability. In addition to that, Wizard Alpert would never see it if someone with a higher spell level were to attack him here.
In an instance, Wizard Alpert's body had frost all over him that slowed all his movements. Followed by that, with a flash of a shadow, his skull just went up to the sky.