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Chapter 1270: Shadowy Figures (3)

“This is...”

Even Erin was at a loss when she witnessed the Horned Behemoth go home pleasingly. As a matter of fact, she felt nervous the moment the Horned Behemoth defeated the golden knight. After all, the Horned Behemoth was just a short distance away from the steel city walls. If it wanted, it could lead its army and attack the city walls directly. But Erin was surprised that it abandoned the idea of continuing its attack and turned away to leave instead.

W-What exactly is...

“As I said, Your Highness Erin, there’s nothing to worry about. This is the nature of Chaos. It is a pity that His Majesty Ion doesn’t seem to understand it.”

Up until that moment, Orchid Heart yawned, opened her eyes, and spoke, sweeping a lazy glance at the Horned Behemoth who disappeared into the fog.

“The nature of Chaos is unreliable and uncontrollable. It isn’t that the Dragon Soul Continent is so powerful, so it didn’t falter to the numerous threats of Chaos all these years. It’s that Chaos is simply a bunch of fools. Their nature predetermines that all Chaos creatures can never accomplish a ‘plan’. To them, a ‘plan’ without accident is intolerable. Even though the Horned Behemoth is an extreme case, such a situation isn’t uncommonly seen with other Chaos Lords. They may be passionate in plotting out a ‘five-year-plan’ to attack and destroy the entire Dragon Soul Continent, but their enthusiasm will never last longer than half a year. They hate methodical progress as much as we hate the presence of Chaos. To a Chaos Lord, nothing is more unacceptable to them than seeing things on the right track.”

Even though Erin was a dragon soul heir, in terms of research on Chaos, many veteran players were at the level of a scholar.

“I see...”

Upon hearing Orchid Heart’s words, Erin gazed ahead pensively. This was the first time she thought about it. But she couldn’t be blamed, since this was a habit of all Order inhabitants. When they discovered that the enemy was about to launch its attack, their first reaction was to determine what the enemy was trying to achieve or destroy. However, such logical inferences were meaningless in the face of Chaos because they couldn’t even adhere to their own plans. They didn’t even know the exact reason they attacked in the first place. The players had the most experience with Chaos because in the later stages of the game, it was basically a war between player territories against Chaos. At the start, the players planned their attack and defense while wondering about the motive of Chaos. In the end, the players discovered that they simply wasted their brain cells. Having no goal was Chaos’s only goal, and the players got used to it gradually. Different situations called for different actions. The players defended whenever they were under attack and retaliated to wipe out the enemies. They had no time to spare for nonsense.

“It is obvious that Ion hasn’t realized that. Or perhaps his habits as an Order inhabitant still linger in him. But it is a pity that when he gathered the Chaos Lords and launched an attack, he already failed. Because this attack doesn’t have any meaning to the Chaos Lords. I suppose you’ve seen it yourself, Your Majesty Erin. They have no coordination and fight on their own. Perhaps they don’t even remember what they are fighting for, just like fish with less than five seconds of memory. I think these Chaos Lords are nowhere better.”

“But aren’t they attacking us? They should at least know that we’re their target, right?”

“That is only their instinct.”

Upon hearing Erin’s question, Orchid Heart responded without twitching her brow.

“No matter how hard you try, you will still be pushed back by a sea of people. It is the same for them. They have never thought of destroying a place; their instincts are the source of their destruction. That is why after stepping into a land of Order, it doesn’t matter whether they have a subjective intent to attack because the result won’t change. For that reason, we need to make targeted arrangements, so Chaos will have a hard time breaking down our defenses no matter how strong it is.

Orchid Heart said, yawning and closing her eyes again.

“Our mission is complete. It is up to Rhode next.”

***

It’s all good.

The moment the Horned Behemoth turned around, Rhode slipped into the Chaos fog during the chaotic battle. At a glance, there was nothing except for massive Chaos creatures. They spit warm, putrid air that was unbearable for one, where even Lapis covered her mouth and nose with her hands, staring at the surroundings. Lapis wasn’t a fool. She clearly knew how dangerous their plight was. At that moment, both of them were surrounded by tens of thousands of Chaos creatures. If they were discovered, their consequences would be imaginable. Of course, that was all based on one premise—if they were discovered.

“Seems like your plan is rather successful.”

It wasn’t Rhode’s ability that allowed him to shuttle past the Chaos creatures without being noticed. Instead, it was credited to that badge hanging on his chest. The cross-shaped badge emanated a faint radiance that shrouded the duo. This was the Camp Reversal Badge designed by Lapis. It was capable of absorbing the power of Order and Chaos and converting it using spiritual powers.

What a genius design.

Gazing at the Chaos creatures who were unresponsive to his presence, Rhode couldn’t help but exclaim in his head. He had engaged in several ‘backstabbing’ strategies. But this time, there was a qualitative difference; the enemies they were facing weren’t inhabitants of Order, but Chaos instead. Moreover, this time, Rhode was heading deep into the land of Chaos. In this situation, it would be extremely challenging for him to sneak his way around. If he were in a land of Order, he would have 1001 ways to reach his destination with his party. But now, the presence of Order in this land of Chaos was like a glaring spotlight in pitch-blackness. Earlier on, when Rhode led his group and opened up the land of Chaos and rescued Erin, he activated the Order halo to isolate Chaos, so as to move through the land of Chaos. But the flaw of this method was that it would attract surrounding Chaos creatures. As a matter of fact, when he entered the land of Chaos twice, each time, Rhode’s group faced insane attacks from Chaos creatures, and this was the reason for that. This time, if they were to rely upon this method again, it was almost certain that they wouldn’t have any chance to enter the land of Chaos and would be encircled immediately.

So in desperation, Rhode had to ask Marlene and Lapis for help.

Even though many of the guild members Rhode summoned were in the production-class, all of them had a common issue. Although they were curious about the continent’s history and understood the various types of monsters and BOSSes like the back of their hands, they were ignorant about the most basic things of this world. That was because their skills weren’t achieved through teachings, but were obtained from leveling up. Just like Canary—even though she was strong enough to defeat the unawakened Marlene, she would fail to answer primary-level questions regarding magic, which were extremely easy for Marlene. Canary gave a wide eyed stare as though she were listening to the content from a celestial script. This was the biggest difference between players and natives. Players wouldn’t and weren’t willing to put in effort in learning these meaningless things because this world was only a game to them. So even if they learned ‘the three methods to observe the flow of magical power’ and a ‘simple guide to using spiritual powers’, they were useless in reality.

The same went for production-class players. Even if they were able to create many ancient artifacts and limited equipment, it didn’t mean that they knew the forging process, history, and how they worked. After all, player equipment could be produced with blueprints and materials.

Judging from this point, players were entirely unprofessional, while Marlene and Lapis were the ones who received proper education.

As a descendant of the Behermes, Lapis was indeed intelligent. Even though she had an innocent personality, she wasn’t naive at all. After receiving Rhode’s request, she quickly saw right through it: no matter inhabitants of Order or Chaos, their strength came from spiritual powers. That was why she designed and built the Camp Reversal Badge using this as a foundation.

In fact, the so-called Camp Reversal Badge was a converting device. As long as the wearer activated it with his spiritual power, the wearer could convert the camps of Order and Chaos. Through this way, their presence would merge with Chaos, while staying as Order on the inside. Not only that, but through the conversion, Rhode could also absorb spiritual powers within Chaos for his own usage. This way, he didn’t need to worry about expending too much spiritual power. Of course, one had to have powerful strength and a huge amount of spiritual powers in order to use the Camp Reversal Badge. If not, the gains wouldn’t make up for the losses if the spiritual powers absorbed weren’t sufficient. But fortunately, this time Rhode led an elite team of level 85 peak players, so he had no pressure in this field.

For that reason, borrowing the effect of the Camp Reversal Badge, Rhode was able to travel freely and secretly with Lapis. Because to Chaos creatures, Rhode and Lapis only had the aura of Chaos and were recognized as ‘their kind’.

But even so, Rhode didn’t let his guard down entirely.

Swish——!

While Rhode carried Lapis in his arms and sprinted ahead, a massive shadow whizzed and jumped out in front of him. The instant he saw it, he picked up speed and dashed through. But just as he was about to leave that area, he heard a loud boom. A huge, towering Chaos creature had stomped its foot on where he was located seconds ago. The Chaos creature didn’t seem to notice him as it turned around and immediately rampaged in another direction.

This was how Chaos creatures behaved. They had no companionship. If one were to obstruct it, it would tear one apart without a care in the world about what one was.

“Phew...”

Gazing at the gigantic Chaos creature in the distance, Lapis extended her arm and held her hand on Rhode’s chest, letting out a sigh of relief. Then, she turned around and looked at his profile. At that moment, Rhode was staring ahead sternly. His beautiful face that left Lapis in low self-esteem had an unexplainable charm. Perhaps to most females, Rhode’s beautiful face wasn’t a good thing because this would shatter their confidence as women. But the innocent Lapis wouldn’t consider such things. She gazed at Rhode in silence.

Come to think of it, this seems to be my first time spending so much time alone with Sir Rhode... In Grandia, I spent most of my time in the research lab, while Sir Rhode was always busy. We’re clearly already, already in that kind of relationship...

At this thought, Lapis blushed and lowered her head hurriedly. But at that moment, the alchemy elf’s wandering eyes betrayed her thoughts.

Despite that, Rhode apparently didn’t expect the young lady to be thinking about such nonsense in this situation. As a matter of fact, he didn’t have the attention to pay heed to Lapis’s thoughts. His entire body tensed up as he flitted past several Chaos creatures, leaping, dodging, and switching directions from time to time. Even though the Chaos creatures had already backed off, it was impossible to expect these creatures with a chaotic nature to retreat in an orderly fashion. Rhode glanced at his surroundings and spotted Chaos creatures who were bumping into one another, with some coming to blows for no apparent reason. But to Chaos creatures, it didn’t mean anything about what they were fighting for. They didn’t care about the past and future. In their perspective, there was only the present.

Over there!

After bypassing the ‘battlefield’ of a group of six Chaos creatures fighting and clashing with one another, Rhode finally spotted an opening in the back. He had to admit that Chaos would always be Chaos; they didn’t prepare anything such as a camp or whatnot. The Chaos creatures simply gathered, followed the Chaos Lords, and got into battle until they were dead. That was their destiny. They didn’t need to rest or consume food, so it went without saying that they didn’t need to build any temporary facilities.

As long as I leave this area, it will be an empty land ahead!

At this thought, Rhode stopped over abruptly, picked up speed, and dashed ahead!

But at that moment...

“———!”

A furious snarl rang in his ears. The fog rose all of a sudden and an enormous hand extended from within the fog, grabbing for Rhode and Lapis! Shortly after, a gorilla that was covered in rotten, bloody flesh shuttled out and pounced on Rhode.

“Tsk, what a bother!”

Gazing at the Chaos creature, Rhode let out a snort. He wrapped one arm around Lapis, while his other unsheathed the magical sword on his waist. He zoomed, brushing past the Chaos creature’s palm and leaping onto its arm in an arc. Then, he leaped forward, the magical sword in his hand erupting in a dazzling spiritual brilliance. This attacking slash dispersed the fog and sent a glaring blade ray onto its throat. At the next moment, the Chaos creature stopped moving as its skull flew up into the air before vanishing in the fog. Meanwhile, its enormous body collapsed to the ground in a loud bang. This battle attracted the attention of several Chaos creatures nearby. But when they turned to the direction Rhode was, they only saw a headless corpse. Rhode and Lapis had already disappeared into the fog and were nowhere in sight.

“Phew... All settled.”

After getting far away from the Chaos army, Rhode heaved a sigh of relief, let go of Lapis, and looked at his surroundings. This land that used to belong to the Country of Darkness had been completely contaminated by Chaos. Everywhere was filled with the color gray. Dense fog proliferated in all directions, making it impossible for one to clearly see dozens of meters away.

“Alright, let’s start from here.”

After ensuring that there weren’t any Chaos creatures nearby, Rhode nodded, reached into his pocket for a prismatic crystal, and threw it onto the ground. Shortly after, a radiance flashed, and the petite Lesa appeared before him. At that moment, the young lady had put on her pure white psychic robe and wide triangular hat. Upon seeing Rhode, she stooped over slightly for a bow.

“Greetings, Master.”

Don’t stand on ceremony.”

Facing Lesa’s greetings, Rhode waved with a casual gesture.

“I’ll leave it to you next. Gather them all.”

To Rhode, there were two very important characters for this trip to the land of Chaos. One of them was Lapis, and the other was Lesa. As the psychic of Astral Temple, Lesa was able to summon heroic spirits from the Astral Temple and communicate with them. For that reason, her existence could be said to be extremely crucial. It was especially so in a land of Chaos, where she was like a signal transmitter. She was able to send out signals in places with no signal connections and contact the surrounding heroic spirits. Relying on her signals, the rest of the group would also be able to head in the right direction with her as the center point and wouldn’t lose their direction in this land of Chaos that was on the verge of collapse. Besides, Lesa could also act as Rhode’s megaphone, passing on his command to others during necessary times.

But compared to Lapis, Lesa was also limited in terms of strength. It was especially so in a land of Chaos, where she acted entirely as a signaling satellite of the Astral Temple.

“Understood, Master. Leave it to me.”

Upon hearing Rhode’s command, Lesa nodded gently, raised her silver staff, and hit the ground.

Clang!

A crisp, melodious sound echoed in the fog. Shortly after, figures appeared from within the fog one after another.