In the hazy blue of dawn, on the endless meadows, several covered carriages were clustered together, but their owners were formed up in ranks. The farthest people held torches, nervously confronting something.
"Hehehe..."
"Hehehe..."
"Hehehe..."
Disturbing laughter still echoed in their ears. Wandering, grotesque specters floated in the air, crawled through the grass, or hid within the carriage beds.
The hundred-odd mercenaries of the Hawk Company were mostly in a defensive and counter-attack formation. They were grouped together, guarding each other. The torches in their hands were more useful than their swords.
Young Rickert was supposed to act as their commander, telling everyone to stay calm. But everyone, including him, anxiously watched the battlefield ahead.
This was a battle that had lasted all night. The moment night fell, countless vengeful spirits couldn't wait to burst forth from everywhere and pounce on them—or more precisely, on those branded by the Eclipse.
Their brands were located in different places: Guts's on the right side of the back of his head, Casca's on her left chest, Pippin's on his right hand, Judeau's on his left palm, and Corkus's on his forehead.
But without exception, the moment before the specters approached, blood flowed from their brands, as if it were a warning of pain, and as if the scent of blood attracted a pack of hungry beasts.
Among the fighters, only the weapons of Nidhogg, the skeleton knight, Guts, and Puck could effectively destroy the specters. The others could only drive them away with torches.
Naturally, Nidhogg's, the skeleton knight's, and Guts's weapons either possessed special abilities or had been steeped in the blood of so many monsters that they could be considered successfully enchanted.
As for Puck, his goblin's deadly blood needles seemed to be heavily suppressed by the specters. With just a light touch, these specters would be destroyed in an instant.
He also hopped around on everyone's heads with great triumph, promoting his goblin dimension stream and destroying vengeful spirits.
Seeing that his blood needles were so powerful, no one paid attention to his noise.
After treatment with Puck's scale powder, Judeau was in the center. His face was still a little pale, but the bite marks on his arm had vanished.
He insisted on holding a torch and fighting side by side with everyone.
Corkus was exhausted.
He swung the burning torch in his hand to drive away another specter that flew before him. When he saw the specter forced to retreat, he withdrew with a smile and felt a surge of frustration and despair.
"Are we going to do this in the future?" Corkus complained. "Fight these vengeful spirits every night? Spare me..."
"Of course not." Nidhogg's answer gave Corkus a glimmer of hope, until he added, "Your brand will attract even more terrifying monsters—the ones you saw yesterday."
"They are called 'Apostles.' They are usually humans, but they live everywhere in hiding as humans. When they are displeased, they show their fangs to their prey."
"There is nothing more suitable as prey than branded sacrifices. They will smell you and follow you regardless of day or night."
He raised his Lordsworn's Greatsword, struck, and killed a vengeful spirit.
During this past Eclipse, he had also received various power enhancements.
His level had directly increased from 87 to 91, jumping four consecutive levels. At this stage, four levels was quite an exaggeration.
Weapons steeped in the blood of Apostles had also been strengthened accordingly.
Bloodhound's Fang and the Golden Halberd had been enhanced by two levels in a row. The former reached +6, the latter +3. The Lordsworn's Greatsword had increased by one level, also reaching +4.
The Flask of Crimson & Cerulean Tears had been increased by one level to +5. The recovery amount was +5, and the number of uses remained unchanged at 10.
The three medallions—Crimson Amber, Green Amber, and Blue Amber—had also been strengthened to +2.
The spirit ashes had been strengthened according to their achievements.
The Lost Knights Oleg and Ingvall, and Lhutel the Headless Knight, had the best results. They had all been increased by two levels—to +2, +6, and +4 respectively.
The Lone Wolves and Twin Sage Sorcerers had slightly lesser records. They had also been increased by one level, reaching +4 and +3 respectively.
Plus, there was the acquisition of the little doll—Miniature Ranni.
However, considering the Eclipse occurs every 216 years, it was no wonder the harvest was so rich.
After the skeleton knight rode up and impaled a passing specter with his sword, hearing Nidhogg's words, he added:
"This is the most survivors I have ever witnessed from an Eclipse, but it will also be the worst."
"One Eclipse brand is enough to attract a large group of vengeful spirits, let alone five branded sacrifices. Day and night from now on, especially at night, will be a nightmare for you."
Nidhogg's and the skeleton knight's words made everyone feel a sense of terror.
At that moment, rays of sunlight broke through from the sky.
They pierced the azure meadow like sharp swords, piercing these vengeful spirits. The spirits wailed and burrowed into the ground. After a while, they all vanished.
"The sun is rising." The skeleton knight slowly sheathed his sword. "You can rest a while. I'll patrol around to see if any Apostles have caught up."
When he finished speaking, without waiting for everyone's reply, he gently squeezed his horse's flanks, rode his dark horse, and galloped off. After a while, he disappeared into the dawn.
"That skeleton knight is simply a tireless warrior." Corkus watched the skeleton knight's receding back, turned to look at Nidhogg and Guts, and said, "Of course, you and Guts are the same."
Seeing that no evil spirits were nearby, Judeau extinguished his torch and said, "Fortunately, the three of them can maintain combat effectiveness for so long, allowing us to escape in this desperate situation."
He was very interested. He looked at Nidhogg and Guts, and at the moment of settling, finally asked the question he had long wanted to ask: "Now, you should also talk to us. What the hell is going on?"
"To be honest, the only information I have is what I saw with my own eyes: the sudden eclipse, and the evil wind that blew from Griffith's body, carrying us far away. Then we were in that dark space."
"Then, in the dark space, four evil demonic figures appeared. Griffith was lifted to a high place by a giant hand and remained with them."
"After a while, when he appeared again, he had become the Dark Wings known as Femto."
"That's all we know. But you and that skeleton knight should know more, right?"
Casca, Pippin, and Corkus extinguished their torches and looked at Nidhogg and Guts, who more or less knew about Nidhogg's and Guts's abnormality.
The various performances of these two, especially Nidhogg, seemed to have known the Eclipse would happen for a long time and were fully prepared for it.
Nidhogg and Guts exchanged glances. Then Nidhogg put away his Lordsworn's Greatsword and pointed at Rickert and the other surviving Hawks, who were still holding torches nearby.
"It's a long story. I think you not only want to know the truth, but they probably do too. So let's all sit together and talk from the beginning."
Soon after, all the surviving members of the Hawk Company—just over 100 people—sat down together.
Only the goblin Puck, an outsider, hopped on everyone's heads. When he jumped onto Guts's head, Guts grabbed him and tossed him aside.
Naturally, Puck was quite displeased. He stuck his tongue out at Guts and made a face.
Guts kept a cold face, ignoring this mischievous but useful goblin, and listened to Nidhogg's account with everyone else.
Nidhogg demonstrated his golden brand and some magical abilities, causing many to exclaim in wonder, before gradually telling the story of his adventures over the past few years.
In his account, he had accidentally obtained the strange power of the golden brand, so he gradually learned and understood the nature of the world, and also learned of the existence of the God of the Abyss and the circulation of the law of causality.
Most of the people here were hearing the words "God of the Abyss," "Law of Causality," "God Hand," "Astral World," "Apostle," "Beherit," and other terms for the first time. They couldn't help but look at each other.
Also, to avoid trouble, Nidhogg set the time when he learned the information about the "Eclipse" and that "Griffith would become the fifth God Hand" after killing the governor and general of Doldrey Castle.
Therefore, he didn't want to return to the Hawk Company, didn't want to remain under Griffith's command any longer. He preferred to leave quietly, build up his strength, and gain the opportunity to save as many people as possible at the moment of the Eclipse.
And he had done so.
Many frowned, but they no longer knew what had happened during the so-called Eclipse and were still confused.
In truth, Casca, Pippin, Judeau, and Corkus very much wanted to ask Nidhogg why he hadn't told them this before.
But, calming down, they thought about the question again and understood.
Unless they saw the Eclipse with their own eyes, who among them would be willing to believe it? And who would be willing to believe that Griffith would actually make that choice and betray them?
If Nidhogg had actually said this over a year ago, they would have sided with Griffith without hesitation, refuted Nidhogg, and even driven him out of the Hawk Company.
Guts's subsequent addition also confirmed this possibility.
He calmly said that he had met Nidhogg a few months ago and learned about the Eclipse from him, but he hadn't wanted to believe that fate was manipulated by gods.
Then he parted ways with Nidhogg: one returned to the Hawk Company to stabilize the situation and went to rescue Griffith; the other continued to build strength and seek reliable companions.
The fact of this Eclipse showed that Nidhogg's actions were more rational. He hadn't thought to convince everyone in the Hawk Company, but had first prepared everything he could.
It was precisely because of his preparations that his combat power had saved the lives of Guts, Casca, Pippin, Judeau, and Corkus at the moment of the Eclipse. The medicine in his hands and Melina's prayers had healed everyone's wounds.
The companion he found, the skeleton knight, had opened a path to escape the storm of death from the outside. Ranni's magic had directly sent everyone back to the real world from the storm of death. And the goblin Puck's scale powder had become one of the miraculous medicines for later treating Judeau's wounds.
These elements were all very important. Without any one of them, he feared there wouldn't be so many survivors here.
Many could understand this upon careful thought.
Guts was explaining on Nidhogg's behalf, but it made sense.
Everyone had their own scales in their hearts. They recalled all the horrors they had encountered in yesterday's moment of the Eclipse and understood how much Nidhogg had silently paid and how long he had persisted to save some of them.
For a time, Guts, Casca, and the five branded ones were grateful to Nidhogg.
However, the other Hawk mercenaries, who still didn't understand what had happened in the storm of death, exchanged whispers with confusion and anxiety.
They instinctively felt that something terrible had happened, but based only on Nidhogg's and Guts's descriptions, they couldn't imagine the scale of such evil and horror.
Finally, one of them, Rickert, suddenly stood up.
He had figured something out, but still asked with anxiety on his face:
"What the hell are you talking about? What God Hand? What law of causality? What brand?"
"We don't understand at all... If you want to say something, just say it clearly. How can we understand what you mean? What happened in that storm?"
"Casca, Pippin, Judeau, Corkus, tell us what happened? What do Nidhogg and Guts mean?"
"I don't understand. I really don't understand!"
Rickert said this, holding his head with both hands. His face was flushed, as if he was about to explode out of control.
However, this performance also confirmed that he had indeed guessed what was happening. It was simply unbelievable that he had such an aggressive reaction.
Yesterday, Rickert had left the walled city in the valley with the scout team and changed defenses with the previous scouts.
However, soon their unit was attacked by a wave of Apostles nearby.
This group of fierce monsters raised their clawed knives against Rickert's team, easily breaking through their organized defense and surrounding them.
If not for the skeleton knights nearby, who arrived in time, severely wounded and repelled this group of Apostles, and saved them, they would probably have all died here without explanation.
Rickert was wounded at that moment, but Puck's scale powder still healed the pain. Otherwise, he would have died from excessive blood loss.
After the attack by this group of monsters, Rickert and the others thought of Zodd, but in fact, they already had a sinister premonition.
And indeed, a moment later, the eclipse appeared, and the walled city in the valley was swept away by the inverted storm of death.
The skeleton knight left Puck with Rickert and the others, and without hesitation, rushed toward the storm of death.
Rickert and the others were terrified. Soon after, they also ended up at the forefront of the storm of death, joining the mercenaries who had left the valley in time, but they knew nothing of the situation inside.
They stared at the storm of death in a daze and fear. Their hearts pounded wildly. Their worldview, shattered since the appearance of Zodd, completely collapsed at this moment.
Everyone was stunned.
If not for Nidhogg and the others later using Ranni's Dark Moon to leave the storm of death through the passage opened by the skeleton knight, return to the real world, and come to them, they would probably have stood here in a daze, staring blankly into space.
If that wasn't enough, the invasion of specters throughout the night became the most convincing evidence, destroying their last illusions.
Before, they couldn't see these evil spirits, but after they saw the storm of death up close, it seemed they had contracted some kind of disease, and they dimly saw such evil spirits in the darkness.
The world was no longer the same. Or, more precisely, it was finally showing them its true face.
Rickert's questions made Casca, who had been silent, wake up and realize she could no longer be in such a depression.
Everyone present had the right to know what had actually happened.
Casca, the acting commander, looked at the over 100 people and couldn't help but recall the breakthrough a year ago. She had also gathered the survivors like this to assess the current situation of the Hawk Company and jointly determine the future of the company.
At that time, over a thousand members of the Hawk Company had successfully broken through. The rest had either died in the encirclement and suppression, been captured by the kingdom's army, or fled halfway and vanished.
After deciding to continue fleeing and wait for an opportunity to rescue Griffith, the Hawk Company was entrusted to her as acting leader for the next year, but it couldn't stop the gradual loss of personnel.
Later, she also turned away, especially after Guts's return, thinking that even if these people left, the over 500 remaining would be the most loyal to Griffith, and they would be the foundation for the revival of the Hawk Company.
Unexpectedly, the over 500 people who were most loyal to Griffith—over 400 died during the Eclipse. Only just over 100 survived. And those who had left earlier did not experience such horror.
It had to be said, this was truly ironic.
As the acting commander, who had supported the Hawk Company for a year amidst encirclement, suppression, and flight, Casca felt pain in her heart over the end and fate of the Hawk Company, and was also the most self-blaming.
In this atmosphere, she didn't know what to say at all and found it difficult to break out of this depression.
However, Rickert's questions made her realize that she was the acting commander of the Hawk Company. Even if her heart was deeply pained now, she needed to stand up at this moment.
"Pippin, Judeau, and Corkus." Casca's posture as she stood up drew everyone's attention. "Let's tell what we saw. They should know the truth."
The three named were stunned, looked at Casca, and all nodded.
So, Casca, Pippin, Judeau, and Corkus, from their own perspectives, recounted everything that had happened in the Eclipse, with the remaining fear.
Though their perspectives differed, they all mentioned common themes, such as "God Hand," "sacrifice," "demonic feast," "hell," "death," "flesh and blood"...
Of course, the same name was indispensable—"Griffith."
With the last narrator, Corkus, finishing telling everything he had seen, everyone present who had not been in the "Eclipse" could roughly piece together the terrifying scenes from the "Eclipse."
What they said did not calm everyone, but caused fear and anxiety among those present, as if they were in a nightmare and couldn't wake up.
It was difficult for every survivor to believe that Commander Griffith could have done such a thing. But these words were spoken by Casca and the others, who had supported Commander Griffith the most. They were the ones with the least reason to lie and slander their leader.
So, was it really so...
"How can this be...?"
Unable to accept it, Rickert knelt down, propped himself on the ground with his hands, and stared at the ground in confusion, clearly receiving a heavy blow.
He had gotten the answer he wanted, but it wasn't the answer he wanted.
Had the Hawk Company they lived in really vanished? What would happen in the future? Would the same thing happen again?
Countless panicked questions were seen in everyone's hearts.
Puck sensed everyone's emotions. In such a depressing atmosphere, he could no longer be as lively as before. He sat before Nidhogg, also feeling the weight.
This was not what he had wanted to encounter after leaving the Island of Fairies. But as the old fortune-teller had said, this choice was made by him. When he left the troupe that night, it was destined to lead to such a result.
After a long time, it was Rickert who, with slight tears, asked, "Will those who died in the Eclipse rest?"
"I'm afraid not."
Suddenly, a voice sounded. Everyone looked up, and it turned out the skeleton knight, who had been patrolling nearby, had returned on his horse.
He sat mounted, his ghostly fire eyes unquenched. In the coldest tone, he uttered the cruelest statement:
"The original path of the astral world should be that living beings die, the body remains in the real world and becomes part of the real world, and the spiritual body falls into the astral world and becomes part of the astral world. This is the essence of the world and its cycle."
"However, the presence of the Abyss, the God Hand, and the Apostles breaks this cycle."
"Those devoured by Apostles—their physical remains stay in the world, and their spirits are devoured by the Apostles."
"Their spirits will be constantly distorted and merged with the bodies of the Apostles, tormenting each other and turning into the strength and longevity of the Apostles. They will not be freed from the Apostles' bodies until the Apostles are killed."
"However, this is only the beginning of the horror."
"After the death of an Apostle, the spirits of the Apostles themselves, as well as the spirits of those who have died, all fall into the deepest part of the astral world, into the endless vortex of thought in the Abyss."
"They will eternally wail, grieve, and despair in the vortex of thought, constantly sating the hunger of the Abyss, and will never find peace. This is the practice of the Abyss and the God Hand."
"The only things in the world that can avoid this fate are either spirits that have not been devoured by Apostles, or the God Hand above them."
The skeleton knight's blunt revelation made everyone present feel a sense of despair.
Rickert remembered the familiar faces of the Hawk Company and recalled the uncontrollable fear and sorrow they were experiencing at this time, which could never be relieved. This made him cry.
When he cried like this, it seemed to flip some kind of switch.
This group of mercenaries, who might not cry even if stabbed with knives and spears on the battlefield, at this moment couldn't control themselves and all wept.
The people who died at the moment of the Eclipse, those who died along the way while fleeing, the people who died in the Hundred-Year War—the faces of all the deceased appeared in their memories, one after another.
For a time, the weeping became a chorus.
Puck, the most empathetic goblin, was also infected and couldn't help but cry along with them.
The few who didn't cry were Nidhogg, the skeleton knight, and Guts.
None of the three made a sound to stop it. They let everyone vent their emotions in tears and waited until everyone calmed down before discussing what to do next.