The Stonehearted Knight
Chapter 327: The Dark Crystal (1)

Chapter 327: The Dark Crystal (1)

"This...is blasphemy!"

The woman on the platform screamed, her face contorted in fear and panic.

"Stop. Don’t do this."

Jade wrestled against the pole she was tied to, struggling to break free from her bindings. But no matter how much she cried or pulled against the ropes, she couldn’t pry herself free.

None of the women and girls present paid her attention though. The vibrating crystal buzzed louder and louder as it released a huge amount of dark wisps. The wisps snaked toward Cyantha. All this instilled fear and shock in the group.

The members of the group reacted in several ways. Some fell to their knees, pleading to be freed. Others pleaded for forgiveness. And there were a few who tried to escape.

The latter discovered in just a few steps that the darkness gathered and shot at them. They screamed. One fainted. But to no avail. The darkness devoured them. Nothing was left behind when the dark receded back to the fringes of the core region.

Cyantha’s mother watched in silence as the darkness snaked toward her daughter. Her empty gaze never left her daughter’s face.

"Don’t worry, Mother. Just promise to give Jade the same love you have given me."

Cyantha’s words, words that sounded like a final greeting, jolted her aware of her daughter’s future.

"No! What have I done? I’d rather die than lose you..."

She shrieked, seeing the dark wisp about to touch the mark on her daughter’s arm.

She tried to reach out to her daughter but her frail body betrayed her. She stumbled at her first step, falling onto the platform. Her eyes, even when she lost her balance, refused to leave her daughter’s face.

Hex saw everything while moving toward Cyantha. No one, not even those with their gaze fixed on the girl, registered his sudden appearance behind her. They only reacted when he pulled her in his arms and blurred before their eyes.

The wisps that had been descending lazily, froze in the air when their target disappeared. But only for a second. The next instance, the entire darkness hissed as if countless serpents awakened and threatened a common foe.

"Get him," the woman leading the ritual shouted. "If the ritual is concluded, we will lose all the Blessings we have been granted so far."

Her shouts brought the others to their senses. They turned their heads everywhere, trying to find Hex’s traces.

"There!"

One girl, or perhaps a young woman, noticed Cyantha toward the entrance. Hex, hearing the shout, sighed. He knew the darkness hid him due to his inheritance but didn’t include others.

While the group ran up to Cyantha, Hex reached his target.

"You...," the leader turned in shock as soon as Hex stepped out of the darkness. He had left Cyantha at the entrance. She would distract everyone while he hoped to get the crystal from under the nose of this woman.

Alas, it didn’t matter how shocked, afraid or panicked she felt, she remained a Transformed Knight. She sensed the shift in darkness and turned to face him.

Blink Step

Her shadow lunged at him but as fast as shadows were, it still failed to reach Hex before he blinked to the crystal.

The Transformed Knight screamed. Hex ignored her. The crystal was within reach. He stretched his hand and clasped his fingers around it.

’Got it.’

A smirk appeared but disappeared just as quickly. The darkness that had been buzzing in anger when it missed its target, hummed as soon as Hex touched it.

The air shuddered and the darkness around them rumbled. The darkness shot toward Hex, as if it belonged with him.

’This is bad.’

Darkness covered him and tried to fuse with him. It tried to enter through each pore and meld with each cell. His thoughts turned a little fuzzy.

A voice urging him to unleash the darkness inside him, whispered in his head. He forced it back to his mind. He barely managed to do so when a force sent him flying off the platform.

Hex groaned in pain. He felt like his flesh had melted. But he welcomed it. His opponent might not know but the pain she inflicted upon him, helped to suppress the voice.

He jumped back on to his feet, seeing the woman fly right toward him. Her tendril-like shadows lashed out at him.

Frost Dragon – Armor

A layer of fine Ice crystals covered his body. The element sizzled and melted as the shadows slammed into them. But Hex didn’t lack Ice elements. With each crystal melting away, another appeared and closed the damage into his armor.

It took a great deal of Will to withstand the irritating voice inside his head. Even then, his head hurt like hell. The pain surpassed the times he slipped and fell in the mountains, injuring his head to the point he required assistance from the Priestess to heal.

Luckily, his body was stronger and had absorbed plenty of nature elements, storing it inside the inner space. He used it immediately.

At the same time he used the Ice elements to cool his head and freeze whatever pain he felt. It didn’t help a lot. The darkness still continued to enter his body. The dense wisps of the crystal were already coiling around his upper body. But it was enough. He could see the Transformed Knight unleashing her relentless attacks on him.

His Frost Armor healed by itself. It didn’t mean though that he would allow her to continue.

Flex Step

He set off and took to the air. The woman shot her tendrils at him. Her shadow on the ground had transformed into a multi-headed serpent. It hissed and tried to bite him. It failed. Time and again.

’She is weak.’

The thought stunned even him. A weak Transformed Knight didn’t make sense. But she was. Or seemed to be.

He covered the distance between them in a second and hit her with an energy blast. The woman flew back, hitting her back against the platform.

On top of the platform Hex saw Jade freed from her binding and rushing to help Cyantha fight off some of the women. The group seemed to be split. Some took a neutral stance while others seemed hellbent on sacrificing the young girl.

The mother, who freed Jade, remained seated on the platform. She seemed too weak to move. But she didn’t seem to care about herself. Her eyes remained fixed on her daughter.

Hex observed all these with a glance. After that, he focussed on the woman. The darkness still flowed toward him.

The process felt natural yet painful at the same time. It wasn’t just his body. All the element circles on the back of his hand had started to itch. And not a little. It was the kind of itch even Ice couldn’t remove.

Suddenly, he looked above, peering through the leaves and sub branches overhead. The trembling of the air indicated that the fight had started. Elize, perhaps with the assistance of the Guardian’s leader, was battling Marcia. He had to hold on. They would make their way to them as soon as they were done.

"Why is the crystal treating you like its owner?"

The woman groaned as she stood before him. Her eyes seemed wary yet curious. Her shadows had decreased in size.

Wait.

Hex glanced at the crystal in its hand. All the excess darkness around them was being sucked into it. That included the tendrils of hers.

It made sense. The Transformed Knight wasn’t weaker. Just her weakness was the crystal. And the crystal treated him as its own.

Bam.

They all turned their gaze at the source of the noise. A body lay on the corroded ground. The nude figure of a woman shocked the crowd. Only two people recognized her, the woman leading the ritual and Hex.

Hex sensed a little life remaining inside her. He didn’t fret too much about her. If she was here...

Sure enough, he sensed Elize descending with the Guardian’s leader at the front.

The woman stared blankly at her boss who lay unconscious.

"We will take care of them," the petite man spoke. "My men are descending. Leave everything up to us."

Elize on the other hand, remained silent. Shs approached Hex and met his curious eyes.

"You used me."

Hex wasn’t ungrateful. He just disdained not being considered their equal.

"I did not," she replied. "You wished to learn more about the Witch. I think you did. And that’s without the memories inside the crystal."

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