Ultimately, the commander of the Ronal Knight Order fell silent. It was not just because he coveted House Callis's cultivation knowledge, but also because they no longer had any way out.
Furthermore, when the time came, it would not just be the Ronal Count's estate that suffered; the lives of vassals like them would not be easy either.
Just as the Count's eldest son had said, they did not have many choices left.
Unless Seventh Circle or even higher cultivation knowledge suddenly fell from the sky, the destruction of the Ronal Count's estate was practically a foregone conclusion.
In truth, when the Count and the Count's eldest son were implementing their plan, he had already foreseen that such a day would come.
Yet, anticipating such a day and actually facing it were two completely different feelings.
At this moment, the commander's mind raced as he tried to think of a way to avert this disaster.
However, Luna clearly had no intention of wasting her breath on them.
Sharp magic power erupted from Luna's body as she raised the dark red longsword in her hand. A terrifying magic sword storm swept out in all directions.
“Not good! Get out of the way!”
The moment magic power surged from Luna, the commander sensed that things were going south. He bellowed at the surrounding knights while charging forward with his medium shield raised.
The combat styles of noble transcendents throughout the Kester Empire were often influenced by their liege lords.
Ruling the northern part of the empire was the Orlando Grand Duke family, known as the warrior family. It was said that the blood of the legendary Titan race flowed through their veins, making them natural-born warriors from birth.
Influenced by the Orlando family, the combat styles of the northern nobles leaned heavily toward warrior types.
For example, the transcendents in the Ronal Count's domain were basically all heavy knights.
The commander bent his knees and leaped directly in front of Luna. He slammed his man-sized shield heavily onto the ground, causing an earthy-yellow magic power to ripple outward and form a massive earthen shield before him.
However, his shield could only protect one direction after all. Although the other knights retreated at top speed upon hearing the commander's order, how could their speed possibly compare to Luna's?
In just an instant, more than ten knights had their lives snuffed out and collapsed to the ground.
Blood splattered in all directions, dyeing the front courtyard of the Count's estate crimson.
Seeing this, the commander's eyes nearly split from rage. Those men were the absolute elites of the Ronal Count's estate.
All of them were above the Third Circle. Heaven only knew how many resources the Ronal Count's estate had expended to train these knights.
Yet, in that single moment, all of it went down the drain.
If you threw money into the water, you would at least see a splash, but they had been annihilated by a single strike from Luna before they could even play the slightest role.
The commander felt a chill in his heart. It was not just because Luna had wiped out more than ten elite knights of the Count's estate with one blow, but also because that strike had shown him the vast gap between them. Although both of them were at the Sixth Circle, her strength was absolutely far superior to his.
Even though he, as a Sixth Circle Transcendent, could also kill those knights on his own, he could never do it as swiftly and cleanly as Luna.
But since things had not reached the absolute end yet, the commander still wanted to salvage the situation.
He began to play dumb, acting as though he knew absolutely nothing about the estate's plan to steal House Callis's cultivation knowledge.
“Lady Luna, please tell us how exactly we have offended House Callis to warrant our deaths. Even if we must die, at least let us die with understanding.”
As one of the candidates of this generation in House Callis, Luna's name had long since risen to prominence within the Kester Empire.
“You do not know? Has the administrative system of the Ronal Count's estate rotted to such an extent?”
Hearing the commander's words, Luna finally spoke her first sentence since arriving at the Count's estate.
Her voice was as cold as the edge of her sword, causing the commander's heart to tremble.
Laciel was foolish enough to believe his actions could be hidden from the Ronal Count's estate, but Luna would never think so.
Laciel had traveled to the Grand Duchy of Callis with a guardian knight. As the ruler of the Ronal Count's estate, it was impossible for Count Ronal to be unaware of this.
Unless Laciel had been able to subdue that guardian knight, making him completely loyal to him and ensuring he would not reveal any of his movements to Count Ronal.
However, during their interrogation of Laciel, they had fully confirmed that he was nothing more than an overconfident fool.
He had neither the strength to forcibly control that guardian knight nor the personal charisma to make the knight willingly follow him.
Thus, there was only one possibility: all of Laciel's activities had been carried out with the tacit approval of the Ronal Count's estate.
Considering that the Ronal Count's estate was in decline and even their last pillar was nearing his end, it was not difficult to guess their motives.
“Lady Luna, I do not know what you are talking about. There must be some misunderstanding. Lord Count is currently in the estate. Why don't we sit down and talk?” the commander said, steeling himself.
But Luna had no intention of wasting time with him. Swinging her longsword, countless streaks of sword qi poured forth.
The earthen shield the commander had conjured vanished, and the sharp sword qi continued its relentless slash toward him.
A sky full of sword qi rained down upon the commander's shield—no excessive techniques, just pure, brute-force output.
The commander's pupils constricted slightly. He saw cracks appearing on his sturdy shield.
No one understood better than a heavy knight what it meant when their shield began to crack.
It meant that once the shield shattered completely, the opponent possessed the absolute force to easily crush him.
“Bang!”
After cracking under the barrage of Luna's sword qi, the shield in the commander's hand could no longer hold out and exploded into pieces amidst the dense storm of sword qi.
Suffering a severe backlash, the commander's body flew backward as blood repeatedly welled up from his mouth.
“Block it for me!”
The commander roared. A vast amount of magic power erupted from his body, conjuring another massive, earthy-yellow shield to protect himself and the knights behind him.
“Futile.”
Luna's voice was frigid, like that of a judge passing sentence on the fate of the commander and the knights of the Ronal Count's estate behind him.
Luna's sword qi began to grow extremely thin. The tiny strands of sword qi, as fine as hair, pierced into the various magic power nodes of the commander's earthen shield, directly unraveling its magical patterns from within.
【Annihilation of All Creation】
One of House Callis's secret swordsmanship techniques. By using the fluctuations of sword qi, it quickly located the weaknesses in the opponent's magic circuits, then drove hair-thin sword qi to dismantle those nodes.
The application of 【Annihilation of All Creation】 was extremely delicate. To master this secret swordsmanship technique required immense mental energy.
“Crack.”
Before the commander's terrified eyes, the earthen shield he had spent his last ounce of strength to maintain shattered with a loud crash.
Rate on N.U.
