Chapter 1113: Powerful Guardian

The towering building stood quietly in the frozen dusk. There wasn't any

sound in the area, as though it was just an oil painting.

After passing through such an environment, Derrick Berg became even more

high-strung than when he had explored the depths of the darkness. The

hair on his back stood on end.

After entering a place shrouded in dusk, the entire exploration team,

including Chief Colin Iliad and Shepherd Elder Lovia, couldn't help but

show signs of exhaustion and looking worn out. It was as if they had

reached the end of their lives. And as they proceeded forward, rotting

giants ran out of different buildings in increasing numbers and

increasing strength.

With one side weakened and the other side strengthened, it became

difficult for them to advance. After several intense battles, the City

of Silver's expedition team finally broke through the "lockdown" and

"barricades" of the monsters and came to an extremely quiet area. There

wasn't any sound at all, and that only served to leave their scalps

tingling.

With regards to this, Demon Hunter Colin Iliad had no choice but to

break the silence and remind everyone, "This means that we have truly

entered the Giant King's Court and are about to approach the core

region. The danger level will only increase and not decrease."

Upon hearing this, a few members of the expedition team began to waver

due to the influence of the "twilight." From their point of view,

although they didn't dare to stay in one place in the earlier stages

most of the time, afraid that they would be surrounded by the rotting

giants, they had ultimately eliminated all the monsters in a tiny area.

They felt that they could rest for a while and obtain many Beyonder

characteristics, mystical ingredients, and potion formulas. This

expedition could be said to have been very fruitful, leaving them no

reason to continue delving deeper. What they should do was seek out a

suitable building and set up an advance camp to make preparations for a

second expedition.

Faced with such a suggestion, Colin Iliad didn't say much. He only

emphasized that the objective of this exploration was to figure out the

general situation of the Giant King's Court as much as possible, so as

to accumulate sufficient information for the subsequent operations.

Then, he let one of the members named Antiona to "Placate" those who had

wavering wills.

As the Shepherd Elder Lovia also supported the Chief, a small number of

the members of the expedition team quickly adjusted their mindset and

quietly followed the Chief forward.

After a while, they saw a huge stone staircase. It was entirely

grayish-white, but it was dyed with an orange-yellow glow. It was

gorgeous and silent.

Every step of the staircase was relatively high. If it were any ordinary

human, they would definitely find it very difficult to walk.

Fortunately, the shortest member of the expedition team, Elder Lovia,

was nearly 1.9 meters tall, and she could muster strong winds.

On the huge staircase, it was so majestic that one had to look up to see

the city walls at the top. There were many signs of burn marks and

damage on the walls, and some places were impaled with arrows that were

as thick as ordinary trees. The several-meter-long arrows had even

caused some rocks to crumble.

In the middle of the city wall was a door that was tens of meters tall.

Its color was closer to grayish-blue, and there were golden nails

embedded in it. There were two guards standing outside that exuded an

extremely oppressive stance simply by looking at them.

They were five to six meters tall, wearing exquisite, sturdy silver

full-body armor. One of them held a great sword, while the other held a

greataxe towards the ground. Behind the armored visor, there was a ball

of orange light that looked like a single eye.

"Silver Knight..." Demon Hunter Colin raised his right hand and swung

his sword horizontally to stop the members of the expedition team behind

him.

He had long removed the two swords on his back and applied different

concoctions on them.

Silver Knight... Derrick Berg's eyelids twitched as he felt

his heart palpitate.

He had recently come into contact with information that only the upper

echelons of the City of Silver knew about. He knew that the Giant

pathway's Sequence 3 was called Silver Knight. He also knew that the

City of Silver lacked the correct potion formula, but it had the

corresponding Beyonder characteristic.

What horrified Derrick was that the guards of the Giant King's Court

core were actually two Sequence 3 demigods. This was a level higher than

the City of Silver's strongest combat force!

This was only the area of the royal court's entrance. So it was

questionable what they would encounter if they ventured deeper.

After the initial shock, Derrick couldn't help but feel a sense of

anticipation.

Perhaps, he could find the potion formulas after the Giant pathway's

Sequence 4 in the Giant King's Court.

That way, the Chief could become a Silver Knight and greatly increase

the strength of the City of Silver. When the time came, they could

explore the Giant King's Court at a deeper level, find more potion

formulas, hunt more monsters, and obtain even higher level Beyonder

characteristics and magical materials.

Subconsciously, Derrick looked around and discovered that the reactions

of the other members of the expedition team, such as Joshua, Haim, and

Antiona, were basically identical to his. They were both nervous and

fearful, but also somewhat hopeful.

At this moment, Shepherd Elder Lovia took two steps forward and stood

beside Colin Iliad. She looked up at the gray-blue door and the two

Silver Knights who were in an unknown state and said, "If there was only

one, then we would have a chance of finishing it off."

What she really meant was that, now that there were two Silver Knights,

even if they were willing to suffer heavy casualties, they were unable

to clear the enemies. After all, even if the Chief could control his

Mythical Creature form and normally battle a Sequence 3, the environment

here didn't permit him to make similar attempts---the decadence that the

twilight had brought might make something that could previously be

resisted into something impossible to withstand.

Colin Iliad nodded and glanced at both Lovia and Derrick Berg before

observing the area ahead.

"From the looks of it, as long as we don't get close to that door, the

two guards won't attack us."

"Perhaps we can try to lure one of the Silver Knights away to finish it

off?" The female warrior named Antiona suggested after some

deliberation.

She had long, wine-red hair, and her facial features weren't considered

exquisite. However, when combined together, she looked extremely elegant

and beautiful.

In this expedition, her main mission was to rely on a Sealed Artifact

she wielded to treat her teammates' psychological problems and fight

against enemies of the psyche domain.

Her exact thoughts were to wait for the members to lure one of the

Silver Knights away before using the terrain and their combined efforts.

As for the Chief and Elder Lovia, they could work together to deal with

the remaining one as soon as possible.

This was a textbook solution that the City of Silver had used in

situations they had encountered.

"Even if there's only one Silver Knight, it will be very difficult.

Furthermore, there's no guarantee that the Silver Knight you lure away

won't directly reveal its Mythical Creature form." Demon Hunter Colin

firmly rejected her suggestion.

Ignoring the fact that the Silver Knight had powerful Beyonder powers,

as long as it revealed its Mythical Creature form, most of the members

of the City of Silver's expedition team wouldn't be able to look at it

directly and would be affected. There was no way they could run circles

with it.

Without waiting for the rest of the team members to speak, Colin Iliad

looked back and said, "Let's take another path.

"Derrick found some information in the world of reflections in Afternoon

Town. It recorded a tunnel behind the Giant King's Court."

Shepherd Elder Lovia cast her gaze on Derrick Berg. She was indifferent,

calm, and without any emotions.

Derrick subconsciously raised the "Unshadowed Crucifix" higher,

restraining his indescribable shivers.

"Alright." Lovia agreed with Colin Iliad's suggestion.

Hence, the expedition team retreated from the huge stone staircase and

headed left.

Before long, they saw a rugged trail. On the right was a towering cliff,

and on the left was a bottomless chasm that was tainted with the glow of

the sunset.

Of course, it was only a trail for giants. To the members of the City of

Silver's expedition team, it was still relatively spacious.

As they proceeded forward, Derrick and company's spiritual perception

were triggered as they subconsciously looked to the side.

At the edge of the cliff, grayish-blue swollen palms stretched out from

the orange clouds and grabbed onto the ground. They were densely packed

and difficult to count.

If they were all giants---even if they were Sequence 7 or 6

giants---they were able to destroy the City of Silver's expedition team

here relying on sheer numbers.

Just as Colin Iliad was about to swing his sword, Derrick suddenly had a

strange, subtle feeling. He quickly raised the Unshadowed Crucifix

higher and pressed one of his fingers onto a particular thorn, causing

bright red blood to seep out.

The pure cross emitted a bright twilight glow as though it had returned

to the state of "noon." They surged towards the edge of the cliff,

enveloping the gray-blue giants that attempted to climb up.

The giants froze at the same time as their bodies began to fade, quickly

melting away.

They weren't real giants, but that of wraith and shadows left behind

after the tragic deaths of those giants. Therefore, the Unshadowed

Crucifix had sensed them.

It was a saint-level Sealed Artifact of the Sun domain, the nemesis of

wraiths, shadows, and evil spirits.

After easily killing these monsters, the City of Silver's expedition

team warily continued proceeding forward. After a while, they finally

circled around the mountain wall and cliff and saw a dark forest.

In the forest, the trees were tens of meters tall and were extremely

thick. However, their barks were peeling off, and the trunks rotting.

The leaves were withered, giving the feeling that they were waning.

The leaves were supposed to be entangled together, but they formed a

barricade in midair, blocking the light of dusk, darkening its interior.

But at that moment, due to the large number of collapsed and fallen

trees, the orange-red glow had already scattered across most of the

areas within the forest that were visible with the naked eye.

Derrick looked ahead and silently calculated how much longer he could

use the Unshadowed Crucifix. He said to the Chief and his teammates,

"This is the Waning Forest where the ancestors of the giants are buried.

In other words, the Giant King's parents."

Colin Iliad stared at the forest and said, "It has already been

destroyed. Even if there are still remnants of danger, it won't be too

powerful. We can try exploring it."

"Yes, Your Excellency," Derrick replied without hesitation. "My cross

can deal with the environment here. I'll walk in front."

He remembered that Mr. World had reminded him that there might be some

kind of corruption lurking in the forest, and that the Unshadowed

Crucifix could provide him with an effective warning.

The grizzled Colin nodded gently and said, "Be careful of your

surroundings."

Derrick took a silent breath and took a large stride forward and walked

towards the Waning Forest.

At the same time, he used the convenience of walking ahead to softly

recite Mr. Fool's honorific name.

Then, Klein, whose gaze that had been blocked by the dusk and had been

disconnected for some time, could finally see the actual situation.

However, he was unable to significantly expand his range of sight.