Chapter 1423 - 1388: Escape Route!

If necessary, with Lann’s battlefield psychological mastery, he could use certain actions and arrangements to cause the people in this tower hall to crumble under pressure.

But now, he doesn’t need to exert such an effort.

The door was only struck twice, the first tremor causing most of the connection between the door and the wall to crack.

On the stone wall, the wall sections connecting the door hinges were squeezed and crumbled out a large amount of lime.

And after the second hit, the entire door was knocked flat from the wall!

"Bang!"

The iron-bound solid wood door was heavy and thick, its fall to the ground sounded capable of breaking bones!

A cloaked figure taller than usual entered from outside, casually discarding a wooden pillar as thick as Lann himself.

To ordinary people, carrying a wooden pillar matching one’s own size already presents a wild impact.

Even more so for Lann whose mere entrance imposed a pressure upon everyone’s hearts.

With a clatter, he threw aside the wooden pillar dismantled from the tower.

Lann shook his hand.

In fact, if he had just punched this door, it would have been done in one blow.

His hard fists and armor could easily punch a hole, breaking the latch.

But it wasn’t a "bandit invasion," was it?

Where would bandits get such heavy, hard fists?

Thus, Lann found a pillar to mimic the effect.

Just like before, he had to at least leave traces for "normal people to imagine."

And just as Lann entered, the people in the hall were momentarily stunned...

"For the Eternal Fire! To burn this unclean world!"

Suddenly, the captain, despite appearing comical in pajamas under armor, cried out loud!

With devout fearlessness, he faced the giant emerging from the cement dust without hesitation!

"Advance, knights! Attack! In the name of glory!"

His act of drawing the longsword inspired quite a few.

Though most of the attendants fled chaotically, three to five knights rallied and charged at the invading giant.

Lann tilted his head and looked at the few remaining in this upper hall of the tower.

Due to the White Rose Knight Order’s recent practice of accepting money, membership expanded rapidly.

But even if the influx of money bloated their wallets, their capacity remained unchanged.

A Knight Order accommodating a thousand can barely be justified, but exceeding two thousand or more, what are they thinking?

Could Temeria’s liege lords and rulers not suppress you?

The Holy Hall Council wouldn’t agree either; joining a Knight Order requires registration with them.

A knight’s noble identity, coat of arms, and noble records need sharing with various countries.

Such exchanges ultimately formed "heraldry," a study dedicated to noble lineages and family connections.

Thus, the five hundred at High Hill Castle indeed comprised the major combat force of the White Rose Knight Order.

Normally, these five hundred alone eclipse several small regular knight orders.

For example, the Embers Knight Order barely reaches sixty.

The remaining knights place local offices alongside important cities and nobles, serving as communication hubs.

In Novigrad and Vizima, the White Rose Knight Order maintains contact with the Eternal Fire Church and interacts with Temerian Capital’s power figures.

In Redanian capital Crito, they have offices as well.

Thus, the Knight Order’s fortress barely houses two hundred armed knights.

However, a mere two hundred in scattered tower halls...

Facing Lann... it can simply be said as too feeble.

As Rudolph envisioned, they represent the entirety of what remains.

Once inside, Lann surveyed the chaotic crowd.

Underneath his hood, his quick eyes completed a situation assessment in an instant.

The remaining were mostly servants, just like previous recruits, he didn’t intend to involve them.

Though he avoided dragging others in, someone aimed to stop him.

"Evil one! For the glory of the Eternal Fire! Halt!"

Three to five youthful voices resonated with the rattling armor as they nervously confronted Lann.

Lann tilted his head down towards the charging knights, brandishing a warhammer obtained from somewhere.

A mere flick of his wrist.

The heavy hammer head swiftly and agilely collided with an incoming blade from the side, outpacing the agile sword edge.

A rather good hand-and-a-half sword bent sideways under the hammer’s blow, its bearer unaware.

Lann’s wrist flexed, and his fist struck the helmet.

’Clang’ ceased the earlier momentum, the figure staggering uncontrollably back, teetering to fall onto the ground.

Lann followed his retreating steps, his fist slammed once more with a ’clang’.

For Lann, this force compared weaker than a forehead flick.

Yet the knight instantly fainted.

"Knights, glory, blah blah blah..."

Punching him out and intimidating the remaining knights into helplessness, the Demon Hunter muttered.

"While I’m not particularly averse to that sentiment, gentlemen, why not first turn around?"

The young knights beneath the helmets turned.

Then they saw their previously fervent Captain Rudolph, with an Eternal Fire Missionary, and an older Knight Order knight beside.

The group sprinting towards the upper reaches.

The faces of the young knights, initially flushed due to an adrenaline rush, began to fade, and the bulging veins subsided.

They stood there in a daze, some even let go of the sword hilts they were gripping tightly within their hand armor, letting them drop to the ground.

The impact of steel against the ground created a crisp sound.

The attendants were moving back and forth chaotically, like headless flies.

And Lann just stood there, tilting his head to observe the young knights.

In truth, they were about the same age as Lann, but maturity isn’t determined by age alone, but by experience and insight.

"Are you new recruits to the Knight Order?"

Lann asked with a tone of amusement.

Though it was posed as a question, it already carried the answer within it.

The young knights pressed their hands against their helmets, appearing unable to accept, or perhaps, completely stupefied.

Lann walked straight through them.

"You all should go home; do you really believe the Eternal Fire blesses you, drives you to kill heretics, kill Wizards, kill Non-human Races?"

"If it truly blesses, why doesn’t it burn me?"

Passing by a young knight he had knocked unconscious, Lann nudged the knight’s body with the tip of his boot, "Take this one away too... A Knight Order you can join just by paying."

"A bunch of idiots who truly think they’re executing divine intent as religious models?"

Lann didn’t care about these young knights.

He hadn’t set any fires nor thrown any Demon Dust Alchemy Bombs on a large scale, so there wasn’t any real danger to life.

Even though he had dismantled the stairs, these young knights could simply remove their armor to lighten their weight, and then slowly find something to build a ladder and get down.

The most dangerous element within this tower had always been Lann.

Leaving the chaotic hall behind, Lann continued his way upward.

Before entering the tower, he had checked; the main tower was actually a solitary tower, with no above ground walkways connecting it to other castle towers. The only options were to fly or take the stairs.

So he now felt a bit curious about why this group was running upward.

But immediately after taking a few steps upward, Lann understood right away.

Scanning left and right, the Demon-Blocking Gold originally scattered throughout the castle was completely absent from the top few floors!

Moreover, beneath the hooded cloak, the silver Roaring Bear Head Pendant began to tremble!

"Damn the Eternal Fire and the White Rose!"

Lann cursed out loud abruptly, then transformed into a gigantic, fierce shadow and leapt upward!

"Yelling ’evil Witchcraft,’ yet opening teleportation portals at home!!!"

Indeed, religious fanatics are few wherever you go! Even within a cult’s lair!

The most common are the things they say and do being entirely different!

Now cornered in the high tower, the evilness of teleportation portals can be debated again!

"A stop-gap measure!" the Eternal Fire missionary said breathlessly in the captain’s secret room, as he watched the teleportation portal gradually open mid-air.

"We are servants spreading the glory of the Eternal Fire; we don’t have the right to seek our doom! It’s all arranged by holy will!"

As he spoke, he took off his fiery red felt hat, revealing a bald, oily scalp.

Clutching a doctrine tome to his chest, he recited prayers devoutly.

"Exactly, this is a stop-gap measure."

Rudolph agreed, sweat dripping from his forehead, yet not stopping his hands from sweeping away the layer of dust on the ground concealing the teleportation array.

As the teleportation location array on the ground became clearer, the once basketball-sized portal suspended mid-air began to steadily enlarge.

Several veteran knights of the White Rose Knight Order also commended the captain and missionary’s adaptability, even calling it a ’great act of tolerance.’

But within this Knight Order that discriminates against Non-human Races, among those last to escape was a dwarf, coldly watching the absurd play performed by the knights.

It appeared he was even somewhat respected.

The portal steadily widened, soon enough for a dwarf to fit through it.

The dwarf sighed as he rolled his eyes at the knights, yet still stepped forward, intending to enter the portal first.

However, as the portal widened, a series of heavy, ferocious footsteps rapidly approached from downstairs!

’Boom boom boom’ just three footsteps, but the crushing, explosive sound got audibly closer with each step!

The approaching was noticeable even to ordinary people!

These footsteps were like a war drum heralding doom!

The missionary with almost no hair left found his eyes turning red amid the urge of those war drums. He seized the dwarf about to enter, then dashed into the still too narrow portal!

The dive greatly reduced the standard of escape, inspiring the knights.

Immediately, knights began diving into the portal, leaving the drawn-back dwarf without time to regain his footing.

"Bang!"

A loud bang erupted as a hidden chamber behind stone walls suddenly got punched through!

An entire narrow stone wall, layered brick by brick, collapsed extensively!

Lann’s upper body thrust in monstrously.

He glanced speechlessly at the portal suspended mid-air and the unidentified dwarf, lying there like he had seen a ghost, scrambling backward on hands and feet.

The Demon Hunter sighed.

"I originally wanted to let you die quickly..."

He gazed at the portal mid-air, not as if watching enemies successfully escape.

Rather, as though staring at a cruel execution stage too harsh to witness.

In the Demon Hunter’s left hand, a Magic Seal was conjured, released.

[Yarden Rune]!

"Now this method of dying is something you brought upon yourselves."