r18novel Page 57
Page 57
Of course, all of this is thanks to the formidable border defenses of Crescent Moon Territory.
Neo, stationed on the flank of the defensive line, believed this to be true.
He is the border commander appointed by the Crescent Moon Lord, and a powerful knight with late-stage Black Iron rank strength.
Under Neo's command, there is also an elite squadron of thirty knights, each of whom possesses the strength of the early stage of the Black Iron rank.
The border knight squadron led by Neo is the first line of defense for Crescent Territory against the invasion of bandit gangs from the Red Leaf Mountains.
Neo has been stationed in this position for almost five years, leading the border knight squadron and annihilating no fewer than a dozen bandit gangs that attempted to invade Crescent Territory.
Their fame had long since resounded throughout the Red Leaf Mountains.
However, Neo was well aware that the Crescent Territory's border defenses had achieved such remarkable success not primarily because of him and the knight squadron he commanded.
Rather, it was under the protection of the Church of the Bright Moon.
With that in mind, Neo glanced at a Gothic-style house behind the border.
This house is a small church.
But the presence of a church on the border line seems incongruous to outsiders.
Especially since it was on a major trade route that ran through the Red Leaf Mountain Range.
But only Neo and others from Crescent Territory knew that it was the existence of this small church that made Crescent Territory so heavily fortified with its borders.
As Neo glanced at the church.
The church doors opened, and two young women dressed in white robes walked out.
They are believers from the Church of the Bright Moon, who worship the moon and the God of purity.
After they left the house, a beautiful little girl with a face like a porcelain doll peeked out from behind the half-open door.
She seemed to be confined inside the church, clinging to the door frame, curiously observing the scene outside.
The little girl noticed Neo's gaze and returned him an innocent smile.
But Neo quickly looked away and didn't notice the little girl's smile.
Because the two female believers from the Church of the Moon were walking briskly toward Neo.
"Madame Ange, Madame Louise, is there anything I can help you with?"
Upon seeing the two, Neo felt a surge of nervousness. Only after straightening his back and projecting a commanding presence did he dare to inquire about their purpose.
“Mr. Neo, a powerful band of bandits is heading towards our border.”
Louise, a follower of the Moon, calmly recounted a major event that was about to occur.
Upon hearing this, Neo's heart skipped a beat with nervousness.
Could they be described by Madame Louise as a powerful bandit gang?
Thinking of this, a look of panic involuntarily appeared on his face:
"So what do we do now?"
Upon hearing that bandits were approaching, the border commander did not immediately inform his well-equipped cavalry squadron, but instead sought help from two thin, lightly dressed women in front of him.
To onlookers, this scene was utterly absurd!
Ange, a follower of the Moon Goddess, looked up and gazed in the direction of a dense forest in the Red Leaf Mountains:
"Prepare for battle! We must not allow them to pass through this side path and enter Crescent Territory!"
Chapter 67 Eclipse Knight Wood
The voice just fell.
The dense forest that Ange, a follower of the Moon Goddess, was looking towards instantly stirred into a commotion.
"Sounds so fine and rustling!"
Accompanied by the sound of dense footsteps coming from the forest, a group of more than thirty dark figures surged out of the bushes like a dark tide.
The burly man leading the group held a broadsword, and the iron chain at his waist jingled.
The men following him all had ferocious faces, and the tattered leather armor they wore appeared rusty, yet it was worn shiny.
Others wore animal skin cloaks and carried horn quivers on their backs. With each large movement of their bodies, they tapped the small knives at their waists, making a rapid "clanging" sound.
Unlike trained troops, this group did not have a neat formation, but they exuded a tacit understanding like wild beasts, as if a pack of hungry wolves had caught the scent of their prey.
Each of them exuded a strong aura of ferocity, and their grins revealed a savage and cruel nature.
"All knights, prepare for battle!"
Upon witnessing the appearance of this group of vicious bandits, border commander Neo immediately raised his voice and issued an urgent shout:
"We are the border knights of Crescent Moon Territory, and we must not allow them to set foot on the land behind us even an inch!"
Having said that, Neo pressed his hand against the scabbard at his waist, and then drew his sword as he moved away from the spot.
Next, border commander Neo began to organize a squadron of thirty knights under his command.
But at this moment, look at the Moon Believers Ange and Louise.
They had foreseen this bandit crisis.
Even after being confronted by ruthless bandits, they remained calm.
Ange, a follower of the Moon Goddess, did not shift her gaze, which remained fixed on the dense forest.
After a while.
Just as Neo had already organized his knight squadrons and was preparing to fight the approaching bandit gang.
"Sister, he's here."
Ange, a follower of the Moon, raised an eyebrow and then whispered to Louise beside her.
next moment.
"Ow!!!"
With a deafening wolf howl, a knight in silver armor, wielding a black lance, charged out of the dense forest on a ferocious silver wolf.
From the moment this silver-armored knight appeared, he set his sights on the Moon Cult sisters, Ange and Louise, on the border.
Immediately, he urged the giant silver wolf beneath him to rush towards the border.
"A silver-tier knight! And a third-tier magical beast mount?"
Neo, the border commander guarding the frontier, possessed late-stage Black Iron rank vitality perception, which helped him sense the powerful aura of the Silver Wolf Knight appearing in his field of vision.
If it were just a third-tier magical beast attacking, Neo wouldn't be too afraid.
However, Silver-ranked knights are completely different.
Neo has been stuck at the final minor stage of advancing to the Silver rank for almost three years.
He knew that the difference between the Iron Rank and the Silver Rank was not a quantitative difference in the accumulation of life force, but a qualitative difference at the soul level that he had not yet comprehended.
Upon realizing that a Silver Knight was about to attack, Neo's nerves tightened and his body trembled uncontrollably.
The silver wolf mounted by the silver-armored knight was extremely fast, and soon overtook the bandit gang that had rushed out of the forest first.
He stopped when he was about 20 meters from the border line.
The band of thieves behind him seemed to obey the silver-armored knight's commands, gathering behind him and suppressing their violent expressions.
After stopping, the silver-armored knight raised his hand and removed the mask from his head, revealing half of his face.
Then, he looked at the two Moon Cultists behind the border line and called them by their names:
"Long time no see, Ms. Ange and Ms. Louise!"
"Traitor Wood!"
Louise, a follower of the Moon, stepped forward, addressing the silver-armored knight by name in a fit of rage, and questioned him:
"Back then, out of consideration for our shared worship of the moon goddess, I gave you a second chance. Instead of being grateful and repenting, you joined forces with bandits and thieves?"
"Tsk tsk tsk! Please call me Eclipse Knight Wood."
Wood was not intimidated by the vengeful attitude of the Moon worshipper; instead, a meaningful smile curved his lips.
"Indeed, I am grateful to you hypocritical 'devout' believers."
"It was you who expelled me from the Moonlit Church, freeing me from an eternal prison and giving me the opportunity for a complete transformation."
"Is embracing the 'shadow' considered a complete transformation?"
Ange, a follower of the Moon, joined the conversation, her brows furrowed as she stared at the black spear held by Wood, the Knight of the Moon Eclipse.
The black spear exuded a dark aura that made her feel uneasy.
"Hmph! You are nothing but lackeys of the Holy Church."
Seeing the contemptuous expression on Ange's face, Wood, the Moon Eclipse Knight, felt a surge of irritation.
"What gives you the right to be so arrogant?"
"We have no time to argue with you. Let's call out your two companions who are hiding in the shadows first."
Louise, a follower of the Moon, lowered her eyelids, suppressing her previous fury, and directly pointed out that there were still people present who had not yet shown themselves.
"As expected of the two priests of the third realm of the Moon Church, they saw through our illusion so easily."
The voice just fell.
A young man and woman dressed in black priestly robes suddenly emerged from the shadows of the two bandits.
"So they really are remnants of the Shadow Church?"
After the two appeared, Ange, a follower of the Moon Goddess, revealed their identities in a very sarcastic manner.
"Sigh, it's not so bad to live as a remnant."
The male shadow follower, named Karl, was not angered by Ange's words; instead, he revealed a very carefree smile.
The female shadow follower beside him, named Beth, announced in a calm tone what was about to happen:
"It's better than dying on this border line."
Finished.
The Shadow Followers, Karl and Beth, simultaneously drew a short staff, half a meter long, from their wide black robes.
The top of the staff is unique; it is a section of a stark white hand bone.
Immediately, they began chanting obscure and difficult-to-understand language, then pointed their staffs at the two Moon Cultists behind the border.
Instantly, two jet-black beams of light burst forth from the pale white hand bones at the tip of the staff, rushing toward the Moon Cultists Ange and Louise.
She looked at Ange, a follower of the Moon Goddess.
She smiled knowingly, clasped her hands together, and made a devout gesture:
"Praise be to my Lord, pure and immaculate moon and goddess of purity Elune, grant me the power to dispel darkness."
next moment.
A bright white full moon appeared behind Anjie's head.
The full moon emitted a soft white light, forming ethereal ribbons that fluttered in the air.
Ange used her mental power to drive the fluttering ribbons, quickly weaving them together to form a seemingly thin barrier in front of her and Louise.
Karl and Beth, along with Ange, come from the Shadow Church and the Moon Church respectively, and their power naturally comes from the gods they worship.
Generally speaking, believers' power manifests in two main ways: "prayer and blessing" and "magical chanting".
The shadow beams unleashed by Shadow Believers Karl and Beth were "chanted spells" released using the Hand Bone Staff as a catalyst.
For Ange, a believer of the Moon Goddess, the image of a full moon appearing behind her mind is a "prayer blessing" that blesses her.
The intensity of these two forms of force is related to two aspects:
First, it depends on the believer's own level of faith in the deity;
Secondly, it depends on the strength of the deity worshipped.
Back to the present.