Chapter 29: Marching Together Once More!

As the black mist dissipated, a thousand Undead Dragon Knights stood in neat formation.

John’s eyes lit up.

Not only did they possess three skills, but the damage multipliers on each skill were also far superior to those of ordinary units.

However, Ophelia’s reaction was rather unusual.

She suddenly froze in place. Her fingers unconsciously tightened around the hilt of the sword in her hand, and even her breathing came to a complete stop.

"Elk...?"

Ophelia’s throat felt dry as she whispered the name.

She hurried forward, her silver-white hair whipping wildly in the wind. Reaching out, she placed a hand on the dragon-scale pauldron of the Dragon Knight at the front of the formation.

Her voice trembled with hope.

"It’s me, Ophelia. Can you hear me?"

There was no response.

Growing increasingly anxious, Ophelia slowly scanned the faces of the Dragon Knights in the first row, calling out their names one by one.

"Turuk..."

"Selina..."

Her steps quickened.

She passed through the gaps between the ranks, moving back and forth among the Dragon Knights as she called out more names.

Only then did John finally notice something was wrong.

He stood behind her, watching thoughtfully.

Although these Dragon Knights had retained their physical forms and appearances from life, their souls had been completely reshaped through death and rebirth.

They obeyed John’s will and carried out his commands, but they no longer possessed any of their former memories or emotions.

Ophelia finally understood.

They would never come back.

She withdrew her hand and stood among the silent legion. Her silver-white hair fell over her shoulders, and for a brief moment, her shoulders slumped.

"They don’t recognize me anymore..."

She whispered the words, her disappointment almost palpable.

John said nothing.

From Ophelia’s reaction, he had already figured it out.

These Dragon Knights were most likely members of Ophelia’s own race before her death.

Judging by her reaction, she had personally known quite a few of them.

As he watched her, an unexpected question came to mind.

He turned to look at the altar, then glanced at the other units in the distance.

He had originally assumed that the units recruited through the system’s altars were nothing more than disposable creations generated from data.

Now, however, that no longer seemed to be the case.

The Undead Conversion ability of his Undead Sovereign class seemed to select its targets from the remains of beings scattered throughout the myriad worlds.

In other words, every undead soldier under his command might once have been a living person with a name of their own.

John’s eyes flickered slightly as he pushed the thought aside.

He walked over the scattered rubble and stopped behind Ophelia.

"Do you hate me?"

Ophelia paused.

She immediately understood what he meant and turned around, shaking her head.

"They, myself included, were already dead."

Her voice was quiet, but John heard every word clearly.

"We should have rotted away beneath the earth long ago, trapped in eternal darkness with no hope of revenge."

"If it weren’t for you, no one could have brought us back."

Ophelia dropped to one knee, holding Dragonfang’s hilt with both hands as she looked up at John.

"My Lord, I have one request."

"Go ahead."

"Please assign them to my legion."

Ophelia met John’s gaze, her expression solemn.

"In my previous life and in this one, marching into battle alongside them has always been my greatest honor."

"Now, I wish to march alongside them once more!"

John glanced at the 100% loyalty displayed above her head.

He didn’t refuse.

Instead, he raised his hand and tapped the legion management interface.

[Ding!]

[Assign 1,000 Undead Dragon Knights to the legion commanded by Hero ’Ophelia’?]

"Confirm."

[Assignment successful!]

[Current Command Capacity: 1,150/4,000.]

[Hero ’Ophelia’ has grown in level. Her legion command capacity has increased to 4,000 units!]

[Legion Bonus Activated: Primordial Ancient Dragon Command Aura is now active!]

[All dragon-type and draconic units in the legion receive a 4x multiplier to all base attributes!]

Buzz!

A deep rumble echoed through the air.

The dark-purple heavy armor of the thousand previously lifeless Dragon Knights suddenly blazed with dazzling violet light.

Their already massive, two-and-a-half-meter-tall bodies grew another half a foot in an instant. Substantial-looking purple flames even flickered between the gaps in their dragon scales.

A new status panel appeared.

[Unit: Undead Dragon Knight]

[Tier: Six-Star (Mid-Tier)]

[Level: Lv1 (0/50,000)]

[HP: 1,500 → 6,000 (Primordial Blessing ×4)]

[Attack: 1,000 → 4,000 (Primordial Blessing ×4)]

[Defense: 300 → 1,200 (Primordial Blessing ×4)]

[Trait: Undead Body (Immune to mind-affecting magic, feels no pain, and never tires)]

[Skill 1: Dragonflame (Lv1 · Active)]

[Skill 2: Unstoppable Throw (Lv1 · Active)]

[Skill 3: Dragonbreath Sword Intent (Lv1 · Active)]

Ophelia rose to her feet and struck her chest in a solemn salute to John.

"I swear my life to you, my Lord!"

John waved his hand, about to say something, when a violent tremor suddenly erupted from the center of the territory behind him.

BOOM!

He turned around.

In the open ground at the center of the territory, a magnificent structure was rising from the earth at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The Initial Castle.

Gru and several villagers stood around the edge of the clearing, staring at the colossal structure emerging from the ground. Their mouths hung open, and they had seemingly forgotten how to breathe.

The black walls were assembled from massive blocks of granite, their surfaces smooth as mirrors and shimmering with a faint metallic sheen.

Along the tops of the fifteen-meter-high walls, arrow towers stood at regular intervals. Blue magical crystals at their peaks emitted a faint, ethereal glow.

The castle’s main gate was a massive ironwood portcullis reinforced with copper rivets and magical runes. A three-meter-tall stone gargoyle wielding a sword stood on either side.

The main structure was a square stone keep, with a pointed tower at each corner. Warm yellow light shone through the windows of the central lord’s hall.

Under the effect of 10,000× Acceleration, the castle, which would normally have taken seven days to complete, had been constructed in less than half an hour once all the materials were prepared.

John gazed at the familiar structure before him, and a profound sense of nostalgia welled up from the depths of his heart.

He had owned a castle in his previous life, too.

Unfortunately, back then, he had been nothing more than a production-focused lord. Between gathering the necessary materials and completing the construction, it had taken him until the third year to finish his castle.

Now, on the second day after the game’s launch, he already had a castle of his own.

"My Lord."

Ophelia walked up beside John, the outline of the castle reflected in her dark golden eyes.

"A structure of this scale would have required hundreds of craftsmen working for months, even in my era."

Her voice carried a trace of astonishment.

"Your power far exceeds anything I imagined."

John didn’t respond. He simply started walking toward the castle gates.

Gru and the villagers hurried forward to meet him, dropping to their knees one after another.

"Congratulations, my Lord! Congratulations!"

Gru’s voice trembled violently. None of them had ever imagined that they would live to see a castle with their own eyes.

"Take some people and move everything from the warehouse inside."

Gru immediately nodded in agreement, then turned and hurried away with the villagers.