Silent Crown

In the ominous melody, the strange petrified musician waved his hand. The earth shook, and cracks formed striations on stone and iron, making them seem as if they were covered in frost. Ruptures sounded one after another.

As the paving bricks on the ground cracked, iron fences rose from the rotting soil, layer by layer. Decaying metal wound around the fences, turning into a forbidding barrier, like creeper plants which were spreading their vines and leaves meticulously.

On the dark green metal leaves covered with rust, layers of notes emerged, forming a huge and complex movement. In the blink of an eye, access from all directions had been blocked, turning the place into a cage that would allow no one to leave or enter. It was a shackle that sufficed to hold even a gigantic Phantom Beast in it.

The musician had clearly been dead for a long time. No one from the first generation of the Royal Musician Division could survive until the present day. But at the moment, with dust as the medium, the body that had turned into stone and iron returned to the world once more.

His Symphony of Predestination, which had been silent for a long time, was activated once more. Fueled by the obsession that had lingered on despite his death, the spirituality of the movement replaced the soul that had dissipated a long time ago.

With a few simple gestures, he laid an inescapable trap.

Judging from his terrifying attainments in terms of modifications, he must have been an exceptional musician when he was alive. Other than being a musician of the School of Modifications, he might even have held a concurrent post as an alchemist.

He constructed countless formulas skillfully with his hands, forming complex and almost unsolvable music theory equations in the end. Controlling the modified aether, he built a vast array from scratch. He mastered both the creation and destruction aspects within the School of Modifications. He was clearly familiar with them and used them skillfully as if they were part of him.

On his forehead, a complex, circular alchemy array emerged slowly—The Ring of Dragon Scales!

It was an alchemy array that could make any movement of the School of Modifications multiple times as destructive. The array that was originally engraved on instruments made of gold and iron was instead imprinted on the fragile skull, despite the fact that should the operation of the array get out of control, the large amount of heat generated would be enough to turn the skull into ashes. Such characteristics were unique to one person even in the entire history of the Royal Musician Division.

His identity was as clear as day.

“That explains it…” In her armor, Christine spoke coldly, “Master Nigel, the Iron River Musician, a member of the first generation of the Royal Musician Division, the conductor of the Birmingham Orchestra, one of the thirteen principal conductors, pardon my lack of manners.”

Nigel’s corpse did not move. It seemed to observe etiquette and did not attack with brute force, still maintaining the arrogant habit he had back when he was alive.

Christine took a few steps backward and carefully placed Mary, whom she was carrying on her back, on the ground. She pulled out the sword of Galahad at her waist, twisted the hilt with both hands, and stabbed it into the ground beside Mary.

The metal hoop nested on the hilt began to rotate immediately. The armature hidden beneath was activated, causing the blade to become hot, as it was burned red by the aether circuit within. Innumerable notes emerged, the blade trembled, and a low whistling sound burst forth.

The air suddenly warped for a moment, the faint shadows of countless swords and knives appeared, forming a barrier of protection around Mary.

Christine could finally fight without having to worry about her.

“Your Royal Highness, I will be back in a while,” Christine whispered softly and turned back. The hidden compartments on the greaves of Galahad’s armor opened, and two slender hilts popped out. As Christine pulled them out with both of her hands, the sharp blades were unsheathed, and the clanking of metal reverberated in the air for a good while.

The two weapons were rapiers. The rapiers resembled lances when extended fully. They were slender, but their length seemed exaggerated and unpractical. The blades were too thin and narrow. It was as if they would break at the slightest touch. But despite their exaggerated length, they still stood straight. The rapiers would suffice to penetrate the iron walls Nigel conjured up and leave a lethal hole in his heart, which was hidden deep in the iron fortress.

Christine took a step forward, aiming the two rapiers at Nigel from a distance, and remained motionless from then on, maintaining a perfect set up. But meanwhile, a vast amount of power flowed through the armor, burning the hilts red.

Nigel stood with his hands behind him. On his petrified face, the knight’s posture was reflected in his empty eyes. He showed no signs of resistance, as if he was calmly awaiting death. However, in the dim light, countless fine fluorescent particles fluttered outwards. Orbs of light the size of dust particles danced. The dust-like particles contained terrifying power due to formulas of explosion smelted into them via alchemical processes. Once a particle burst, it would become a terrifying sun that would emit enough energy to demolish a whole building completely.

At that very moment, a roar suddenly burst forth in the air. As the earth shattered, a hurricane surged suddenly and swept forward.

Christine’s voice couldn’t be heard anymore. One could only hear the bangs of iron boots stepping forcefully on iron and stone. The time between two consecutive bangs was too short, making them sound continuous, like the furious roar of a behemoth.

In the blink of an eye, dozens of invisible walls made of air were broken purely through brute force, as the owner of the iron boots passed through the hell consisting of alternating regions of vacuum and high pressure.

Innumerable dust-like light orbs were detonated constantly, but the horrible airwaves were chopped up before they could spread. The two slender rapiers pierced the air innumerable times in an instant, tearing the orb of light completely apart each time. The slender blades tremored within a minute distance in a dance-like fashion, opening up gaps in matter.

Pierce, pierce, pierce.

How was that a proper way to use swords and lances? The blades were like deadly stingers!

In the sharp noise of metals scraping against each other, the rapiers pierced through layers and layers of obstacles, penetrating all barriers, and were right in front of Nigel in a flash. But in response, two slender fingers quietly gripped the thin blades, letting it tremble at the fingertips. Then, the situation reversed.

Bang! The instantaneous elemental replacement completely destroyed the completeness of the entire blades. The two rapiers broke off inch by inch. Countless pieces of iron reversed their directions and flew backward towards Galahad’s armor.

At that moment, Christine abandoned her weapon and moved forward. The rapier was a sword designed for assassination. Once it was used in the open, it would lose more than half of its effectiveness. Right from the start, she hadn’t been trying to kill the powerful musician who had been famous since a few hundred years ago with the two spare weapons.

Their purpose was just to attract attention.

She didn’t need any weapon.

A knight herself was the strongest weapon!

As for Galahad’s armor, since its creation, the power within it had been stronger than most other armors in the world. Arthur sealed a Phantom Beast he once controlled in it as a source of power, bringing incredible powers to its wearer.

The power represented by Galahad’s armor was the barrier of iron and wind. Setting up the limiting barrier with iron, it could control the strong wind to completely tear everything that dared to enter the attack range apart. Even though it was not particularly good at attacking, once Nigel entered the attack range of Galahad, the wrath of the hurricane controlled by metals would be awaiting him.

A loud bang rang out. The fiery flow of aether spewed out of the gaps in Galahad’s armor and wrapped itself around the huge armor. Turning into a terrifying barrier of gas, it rushed toward Nigel.

Countless pieces of iron in reverse were swallowed by it and were instantly ground into iron sand. The iron sand then blended into the barrier, faintly lending an iron blue color to the ghastly white tornado, and the destructive power multiplied.

It was already close at hand. But Nigel withdrew his palm, as if he had given up on resisting.

Boom! At that moment, a loud bang sounded from inside the armor. It was as if gears that were rotating at a rapid speed stopped abruptly. The circuit of the alchemy array was blocked. The heavy pressure within could not be relieved and broke the tracts of the array, flowing out in all directions.

Christine’s movements came to an abrupt end.

The storm dissipated.

“Oh no…”

Although the hurricane had stopped, the iron sand in the wind was still moving. They attached themselves to the armor like mistletoe. Layers of rust spread below the iron sand. In a flash, it was as if decades had passed. The steel grew dull, and the armor was mottled. It was because of the formulas attached to the broken pieces of the rapiers.

In just an instant, the entire of the rapiers had undergone a qualitative change as music theory flowed into them. Every inch of the steel became a source of pollution that was strong enough to turn a large ship of steel into scrap iron.

Upon coming into contact with the armor, the music theory unfolded itself. Like a long needle, it corroded the outer layer and entered the alchemy array of Galahad. With high precision, it cut off the aether circulation between the outflowing layer and the forming layer, causing a huge amount of ether to descend into chaos.

It was a very weak force that was only maintained for a moment, but it caused tragic consequences.

Galahad’s greaves exploded, and the force of recoil tore Christine’s right leg. Pieces of steel pierced into the flesh, and the deadly rust came into contact with her blood.

She had miscalculated.

The being that resurrected and descended here not only possessed the body of the principal conductor but also inherited the operational wisdom he had in life… Even though the armors of the Knights of the Round Table could repair itself, such immense damage would need to be repaired by engineers, and the restoration would probably take more than half a month to complete.

Nigel advanced indifferently. Christine coughed violently and vomited blood, but he showed no mercy. After Christine’s defeat, he reached out, expressionless, and destroyed every component of Galahad’s armor completely.

Eliminating all possibilities of future troubles! The moment he approached, Galahad’s armor suddenly fell apart, and Christine’s body popped out from it with the last of its remaining power.

In the instant it freed itself from the armor, her right hand, which was still somewhat intact, pulled out a piece of blood-stained iron from the leg and stabbed at Nigel, who was close by. The blow exhausted all her energy!

Nigel looked at her dying kicks indifferently, but at that moment, a shocked expression seemed to flash across his empty eyes. He ignored the close attack and turned back suddenly.

[Nature interference begins.]

[Gospel armor has loaded completely.]

[Power source — Vacuum Sun activated.]

At the moment, from afar, terrifying aether waves burst forth in a sudden. Countless music theories were in turmoil. Nature interference occurred at the same spot for tens of thousands of times, each attempt connecting with another and converging into one. It formed a gigantic cycle. In the sea of aether, a huge hollow space appeared suddenly.

It was a well-defined circle.

Nature interference had affected it for countless times, and music theories interwove within, forming a vast and complex structure. As the music theories operated, a strong force was produced.

It acted inwards.

A massive amount of aether was attracted by the gravitational force coming from the center of the circle, converging, collapsing, and condensing into an almost imperceptible point.

Outside of the circle, any aether that dared to approach was pushed away by the terrifying repulsive force. The repulsion stirred up huge waves in the sea of aether. In the silence, a loud, thunderous bang reverberated, tearing apart any aether waves brewing up as easily as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood!

Between the points of origin of the repulsive force and that of the gravitational force, a pure vacuum existed.

It was like a hot sun! It was a sun made out of vacuum!

The hot sun that only existed for a moment completely destroyed itself in the next. In the instant during its destruction, a terrifying amount of energy erupted from the collapsing sun. Under the guidance of music theory, the violent torrents broke through the binding of the sea of aether and descended upon the Physical World in a flash.

The energy that was enough to cause an earthquake converged into one point and moved forward. Everywhere it passed, all matter was crushed into dust, and all music theories were torn into pieces by the violent vacuum sun. Thousands of meters were forcibly crossed, and the distance that seemed beyond reach was instantly shortened. The target was within arm’s reach.

When Nigel turned back, he only saw two hands covered in dark armor.

In the seemingly paused time, the hands appeared to move forward gently, passing through layers of defense easily as if they were popping soap bubbles. Before the soap bubbles even had time to burst, the two hands cupped Nigel’s face. They deftly twisted his head.

Crack! After the moment passed, the first few things one could perceive was a deafening bang, countless screams of bricks being shattered, and a flood-like hurricane whistling as it swept across the scene.

A figure wearing huge armor had suddenly appeared in the scene. In front of him was a headless corpse broken into pieces. Nigel’s head was removed, and it fell apart as the figure closed his hands. The pieces of stone became powder and slipped through his fingers, turning back into dust.

Just as Kristen was about to be blown away by the hurricane, the figure in the dark armor lifted his palm. A barrier was constructed with the music theory of the School of Abstinence in the blink of an eye, blocking her from the appalling hurricane and the deadly wind pressure following it closely.

“Who are you?” Christine looked at him and almost lost her footing.

The dark armor suddenly softened, like an illusion, and collapsed slowly. In the end, it turned into a long, black robe draped over the figure, and Ye Qingxuan removed his hood to reveal his face.

“Christine, it’s been a while since we last saw each other.” He smiled.

Christine stared at him with wide eyes. After a good while, she fell to the ground, her whole posture slackened in relief. “When did you come back?”

“The day before yesterday.” Ye Qingxuan reached out and tended to her bleeding wounds. He pulled out the piece of iron that had pierced her blood vessel and bandaged the wound. “You and the princess have been here all this time?”

“When Leviathan broke through the second seal, Her Royal Highness and I were in the refuge.” Christine panted, struggling to keep her mind clear. “When the uptown fell, the princess brought me here. We only realized that the situation was even worse after coming here. She could hardly take it anymore.”

“The curse of the dragon blood?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

Christine nodded. “No need to bother about my injuries, I can still walk. Protect the princess first. We must leave this place. Our medicine has run out. Her Royal Highness is a dangerous threat now…”

“I’m afraid it would be quite troublesome to leave.” Ye Qingxuan scratched his head and sighed. “In my hurry just now, I rushed into the encirclement. The time was really too tight, I couldn’t think of any other way.”

Christine was stunned. Encirclement?

In the dark night, the dissipated melody of Requiem VI seemed to flow towards them once more. Innumerable dust particles descended from the sky. A dozen figures in white, wearing a crystal crown each, slowly rose from the dust. The aether waves coming from each one of them were no less powerful as compared to that from Nigel, even…stronger!

Despite having died for so many years, their strength had not been weakened. On the contrary, with the help of the strange music theories in the shadow of Avalon, their strength had continued escalating to new heights. Furthermore, they still carried the precious treasures they had obtained while they were alive on them.

Ye Qingxuan’s gaze swept over them and his pupils couldn’t help but contract.

A solemn and quaint sword, ancient scrolls exuding the aura of the oddities of the realm of aether, a strange crystal eyeball, and the familiar black hat…

The first generation of the Royal Musician Division, the 13 principal conductors, had all arrived…