Chapter 446 - 413: A Small Gift (Part 3)

Chapter 446: Chapter 413: A Small Gift (Part 3)

A column of smoke and dust shot into the sky, obscuring the sun.

Immediately after, a heart-stopping sensation of weightlessness washed over him.

CRACK—BOOM!

The ground beneath Hector’s feet disintegrated without warning.

As a Level 4 Ranger, Hector’s reaction was incredibly fast. The moment he lost his balance, an aura erupted from his body as he tried to leap backward, using the falling rubble as footholds. But he was not a Caster who could fly. Before this cataclysmic force of nature, the Ranger’s vaunted agility seemed insignificant.

The last foothold beneath him shattered, and he began to slide uncontrollably into the bottomless, dust-filled hell below.

"Sir!!"

A piercing cry rang out from within the smoke and dust.

Several fiercely loyal Personal Guards, their eyes bloodshot, charged forward. Even knowing they were rushing to their certain deaths, they did not hesitate for a moment.

"Hold on! Get him up!"

A heavily armored guard slammed his body into a rolling boulder. Half his torso was instantly crushed to a pulp with the dull sound of cracking bone, but his remaining hand gripped Hector’s cloak. With his last ounce of strength, he flung him upward.

"Grab him! Quick! Griffin Squad!!"

The Captain of the Guard roared, half his body dangling over the cliff’s edge, his legs pinned by rubble. He had a death grip on Hector’s wrist, his fingernails digging deep into Hector’s flesh.

This momentary halt bought the Knight in the air a final opportunity.

A sharp shriek echoed from the sky. A Griffin Knight, braving the risk of being struck by falling rocks, steered his mount into a dive.

The long whip in the Knight’s hand shot out like a nimble snake, coiling around Hector’s waist.

"Up!"

The Griffin flapped its wings powerfully, the tremendous force yanking Hector from the clutches of death and into midair.

This brief moment in the air finally gave the wyvern, which had been circling and screeching anxiously, its opportunity. It swooped down, catching its master in midair. Still shaken, Hector grabbed the saddle, swung himself onto his mount, and was swiftly carried away from the collapse zone, landing on a patch of grass in a safe area.

However, some of the men who had just been desperately holding him up would never get that chance.

With a second, larger collapse, that entire section of land broke away and disappeared.

"Aaargh—"

Amid desperate screams, the Captain of the Guard and more than a dozen Personal Guards, along with countless tons of rock, plunged into the darkness like ants, swallowed by the billowing dust.

"No... No!!!"

Hector fell to his knees on the grass, watching the mountain crumble, watching his men disappear into the abyss to save him. He let out a despairing roar.

Only dust, filling the sky, drifted slowly down.

Hector was slumped dazedly in his saddle. His once-immaculate formal wear was torn to shreds, his cane was long gone, and his face was caked with dust and blood.

Gone.

The Black Steel Squad was gone.

The workshop was gone.

His loyal guards were gone.

But that wasn’t what terrified him the most.

The most terrifying thing was that, even now, he had no idea who had done this.

’A purge by the Church? A secret plot by a business rival? Or was it Velin, who has always been against me?’

’No, if it was Velin, where would he get the power to destroy the Black Steel Squad? How could he possibly have the means to make an entire mountain collapse?’

Fear of the unknown gripped Hector’s heart like an icy hand. He had no idea what had happened down below; he only knew that after a bizarre, insect-like buzzing, everything had been destroyed.

"Dig... Dig for me..."

Hector pointed a trembling hand at the massive, smoldering ruins, his eyes bloodshot like a gambler who had just lost everything.

"Gather everyone... I want these ruins dug up!"

’Even if it’s just bodies, even if it’s just fragments, I have to see for myself.’

’Especially the core of the Array, the one that’s worth a fortune.’

’Is it still there or not!?!?’

’That’s my only hope for a comeback. As long as the core is intact, as long as that prototype hub I got from the Imperial Capital isn’t destroyed, I still have a chance to rise again.’

"I want to see them if they’re alive, and their bodies if they’re dead..."

Hector muttered, his lips trembling.

"PFFT!"

Overcome by a rush of fury and grief, he spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the crushed red rose on his chest.

His body went limp and he collapsed.

The setting sun was the color of blood.

It bathed the massive, newly formed graveyard and the unconscious, bewildered lord in a glaring crimson light.