-4 Side Story 2: Embracing Power

It was a quiet and dark, rainy night.

The bell had rung twelve times in Sharp Blade Valley of the Tower of Eradication. Hill Crassus still had his eyes shut tightly as he knelt motionlessly in front of a gigantic statue of a knight. His whole body was soaked in rain, but he did not seem to feel anything.

Crassus' hands were placed on a sword with a cross-guard, along with silver and diamond ornaments. The body of the sword was sleek and graceful, while both sides of the blade were engraved with two lines of the Ancient Empire's language. 

[We struggle endlessly.]

[The truth never dies.]

His face pressed firmly against the hilt of the sword. Crassus' eyes squeezed shut even tighter. 

'Why?... Why do we have such a truth lying behind the noble goal of our existence? The enemy we have been fighting with all our might turned out to be...

'Why?'

Sword of Flowing Light Lake, Terry Starvern, led a total of one hundred and fifty Swordsmen of Eradication to speed towards Sharp Blade Valley, while rain poured down on them. 

When the blood-stained messenger uttered his final words in Terry Starvern's arms, he instinctively felt waves of fear surge into his heart.

"Sharp Blade Valley… sword… dead…"

As the Tower of Eradication's largest valley to hold sword trials, Sharp Blade Valley had unparalleled defense. There were more than two hundred ordinary class Swordsmen of Eradication apprentices, more than fifty supra class Swordsmen of Eradication training there, and a few supreme class Swordsmen of Eradication who guarded the place.

It was even guarded for the past few decades by Hill Crassus, the most famous swordsman in the Tower of Eradication who was one of the Temple of Knights's guards, and the supreme class scion who bore the title, Guardian of Truth.

They had such a reliable force, and yet had been attacked to an extent where they had to send messengers to request for reinforcements? 

'Faster. Even faster!'

Terry Starvern could not hide his anxiety as he lashed his whip again and again. The horseshoes made mud splatters fly into the air as the horses ran on the muddy paths. 

Finally, Terry Starvern and his swordsmen charged madly into Sharp Blade Valley. They did not try to preserve any of their horse's stamina.

Terry Starvern's heart sank. Even with the cleansing of rain, he could still smell a very prominent stench of blood. 

A flash of lightning struck the gigantic knight's statue—on the highest point of Sharp Blade Valley. In an instant, all of Sharp Blade Valley was illuminated as if it was daytime.

Every swordsman was stupefied. It was all red around them. Blood red.

The war horses they rode on began to stir. They began to pace back and forth restlessly in the red rain. 

There were countless dead bodies that filled every single corner of the valley, and they were all in different postures; there were apprentices, swordsmen, knights, physicians, and visiting diplomats from other countries along with their attendants.

Terry Starvern punched his saddle violently. 

'Damn! Are we still too late?' Terry Starvern got off his horse.

There were more than a hundred swordsmen behind him. They did not say a word but got off their horses in uniform order before withdrawing their swords and snapping their helmets shut. In pairs, they got into a huge, fan-shaped formation with Terry Starvern as the vanguard, and they started marching forward slowly and cautiously.

Fighting was already second nature to them. 

Terry Starvern was the only man without a helmet, and he did not even draw his sword. He looked grave as he started to move sideways. His right hand was pressed against his sword hilt.

The rain became lighter while the square became quiet, only the marching of a hundred and fifty-one Swordsmen of Eradication, and the sound of their helmets rubbing against their skin could be heard.

Terry Starvern turned his head a little and saw, with the help of the faint rays of moonlight that shone through the clouds, a dead body on the left side in front of him. 

Based on the deceased's attire, he was a heavily-armored Knight of Eradication. He was down on one knee with his head raised towards the sky. His hands were clenched tightly around a heavy blade made of highly perfected steel, and his eyes were filled with disbelief born from terror.

Terry Starvern flipped open the flap over the deceased's helmet, and a Far Easterner's face was revealed. Terry Starvern sighed.

It was Kane; one of the eight supreme class scions, the Town Swordsman, Kane Moern from Mane et Nox. He died after a sword pierced through the spot between his eyebrows.

The knights had gotten closer to the center of the valley where the gigantic knight's statue stood.

Terry Starvern suddenly stopped and made a hand gesture to the men behind him.

All one hundred and fifty swordsmen, from the front row to the back row, stopped simultaneously. The atmosphere grew stranger, and heavier.

Terry Starvern made his second hand gesture, and the swordsmen spread out uniformly. They split into two teams whereby one headed for the left side of the valley, and the other went to the right. With the statue as the center, they began to encircle it.

Terry Starvern grew more nervous... because he saw the figure under the massive statue.

"Crassus!" Terry Starvern yelled. Once he did, the surrounding swordsmen seemed to feel relieved.

At least, the legendary supreme class Tower of Eradication Scion, the lifelong guardian of the Temple of Knights, the Guardian of Truth, Hill Crassus, was still alive!

Terry Starvern was the only one who grew more uneasy. 

'Something must be wrong,' he thought.

The figure below the statue finally snapped out of his senses slowly. His right hand was still clenched tightly around the famous sword whose name shook both the ancient and present worlds—Everlasting Truth.

The faint light from the sword illuminated Crassus' face. Terry Starvern knew something was amiss.

Not a single enemy's body could be seen in Sharp Blade Valley's corpse-filled land, but the edge of the flickering Everlasting Truth was covered in blood.

Terry Starvern gulped. The most terrifying guess surfaced to the bottom of his heart. 'No...'

"Crassus!" Terry Starvern yelled again with slight panic bubbling inside him. 

However, with his right hand, he tightened his grip on the sword at his waist. 

"What happened?"

Crassus finally turned around. Right then, the Guardian of Truth's face was filled with unprecedented despair and desolateness.

"Terry Starvern, Sword of Flowing Light Lake," Crassus said with a dazed smile. "You think that we train our sword skills with all our might because we want to fight the calamities, is that right?"

Terry Starvern frowned and drew his sword. 

He saw it, he saw the dead body next to Crassus. It was Crassus' teacher, Doomsday Mueller Kart.

"What is going on, Crassus?" A cold, dark look settled over Terry Starvern's face. "Sir Mueller Kart should have died three years ago."

Crassus said after a chuckle, "He did not die, he only changed his occupation... And he just lost it because of me."

With a grave expression, Terry Starvern raised his longsword. Even though both of them were supreme class warriors, there was a gap between his and Crassus' skills.

But he could not retreat. Swordsmen never looked back.

The surrounding swordsmen understood Terry Starvern's hand gesture. While they were in disbelief over it, all of them went forward to surround Crassus.

"Terry Starvern. What do you think? If what we fear and fight is actually what we have been pursuing and what we desire the most, what should we do?" Crassus seemed to be a little out of his mind. He laughed loudly and neurotically.

"I do not know what you are talking about, Crassus," Terry Starvern said coldly. "Put your sword down and come back to the House of Scions with us."

"We fear power, so we fight power." Crassus spread his arms and raised his head, allowing the heavy rain to wash away the blood on his body.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and looked at the gigantic knight's statue above him.

"But how can we fight power with power?" Crassus put on a crazed smile and grabbed Everlasting Truth. "We can only embrace power."

He got up slowly and looked at Terry Starvern, who looked as if he was facing his greatest enemy. Crassus smiled and said,

"You... Do you want to embrace power?"