Chapter 420: The Lord That Gives Gifts [End Of - ]

Chapter 420: The Lord That Gives Gifts [End Of Chapter]

Morrighan’s pale ashen face instantly flushed with a deep vibrant crimson blush.

"I... I have repeatedly told you not to shorten my name, Rebecca," Morrighan murmured in her deep echoing contralto voice, though there was zero hostility in her tone.

She stood up from the bench, smoothing down the leather folds of her cloak, and walked methodically across the sand toward Silas.

"Greetings, Lord Graves," Morrighan spoke with dignified solemn grace, placing a slender, claw-tipped hand over her chest and bowing her head.

"Hey, Morrighan," Silas replied gently, stepping closer so their conversation remained private. "How has your life been here in the Blessed Land? Are you settling in comfortably?"

Morrighan’s golden eyes flickered with a mixture of awe and lingering disbelief.

Her long, spade-tipped tail began to sway in a soft involuntary rhythmic tremor behind her cloak.

"It has been... extraordinary, my Lord," Morrighan whispered. "To be candid, it feels deeply surreal. In my past service, soldiers avoided my quarters and feared the demonic corruption in my bloodline but here... the other women are endlessly friendly. They invite me to share meals, they ask for my stabilization enchantments during drills, and none of them flinch when my aura flares."

Her gaze drifted briefly toward the far courtyard where the World-Tree was visible through the high windows.

"Even Lady Eluned... a divine Goddess of pure unblemished life who by all rights should despise a creature of abyssal birth... she smiled at me in the gardens yesterday and offered me a spiritual blossom. It made my heart feel... remarkably warm. I did not believe such a place could exist."

Silas smiled softly, stepping forward and gently placing his warm hand atop her head, right between the curve of her obsidian horns.

"I gave you my word during the war, didn’t I?" Silas murmured, giving her a reassuring headpat. "In the Blessed Land, your bloodline doesn’t define your worth... your loyalty and your actions do. You belong here, Morrighan. Keep working hard, and never feel like you have to hide yourself."

Morrighan froze under his touch with her breath catching in her throat.

Her molten-gold eyes shimmered with a delicate fragile brilliance, her spade-tipped tail curling tightly in pure devotion.

"I will not fail you, Lord Silas," she whispered fiercely. "My life is yours."

Silas gave her one final nod before turning on his heel and walking over toward Gunnhild and Brida.

"Gunnhild, Brida," Silas addressed them with a commanding smile. "How are the overall tactical drills progressing?"

Gunnhild snapped to attention, her wet blonde hair swaying as she offered a crisp, flawless military salute.

"Reporting, Lord Graves!" Gunnhild spoke with rigid professionalism, trying desperately to sound like a hardened veteran rather than a girl who had just spent two hours crying in a tub. "The baseline phalanx formations are fully integrated... The transferred troops have successfully adapted to our shield-locking rhythms. Within forty-eight hours, the vanguard will be ready to execute a full-scale sweep of the eastern basin crags to harvest UP and secure fresh meat."

"Good," Silas nodded thoughtfully. "The scouts reported unusual beast movements near the outer sides. I want to know what new species are migrating into the basin and where they’re originating from. Keep the scouts sharp."

He paused, stepping closer to Gunnhild with a teasing glint in his blue eyes. He leaned down slightly, taking a deliberate exaggerated sniff of the air around her shoulder.

"And for the record, Gunnhild," Silas murmured with a quiet laugh, "you smell very nice right now. The lavender suits you."

Gunnhild’s entire body went completely rigid.

A volcanic blush exploded across her face, turning her cheeks, her ears, and her exposed collarbones a brilliant radiant red.

Her legs wobbled beneath her armor as she took three frantic uncoordinated steps backward, covering her face with both hands.

"T-THANK YOU, MY LORD!" Gunnhild squeaked in a pitch nobody had ever heard her reach before, bowing so frantically she nearly pitched forward into the ground.

Silas laughed out loud, thoroughly enjoying her flustered reaction before turning his attention toward Brida.

"Now then... Brida, assemble the other girls," Silas instructed, his voice shifting into a rich, generous cadence. "I brought back something from the Obsidian Sanhedrin that belongs in your hands."

Brida stepped forward, her tall, heavily muscled frame radiating disciplined curiosity. "A shipment for the front line, Lord Silas?"

"Something like that," Silas smiled.

With a flick of his mental intent, Silas accessed his Lord Inventory and called upon the high-tier equipment.

THUD!

A colossal frost-covered storage container materialized in the center of the sand ring, venting a cloud of frigid crystalline mist that dropped the temperature of the room by twenty degrees in an instant.

Silas reached out, popping the runic latches and heaving the lid open.

Resting inside, bathed in a brilliant, mesmerizing azure luminescence, was the complete 70-Piece Frost-Drake Battalion Armor & Spear Set.

The armory set gleamed with peerless craftsmanship.

Each buckler was forged from the iridescent, lightweight carapace of a high-tier Frost-Drake, carved with intricate kinetic-deflection glyphs that pulsed with elemental mana.

Beside them were rows of matching Runic Short-Spears, their tips forged from frost-hardened alloy that radiated an aura of pure, piercing chill.

Brida looked down into the container, her breath completely catching in her throat.

"M-my Lord..." Brida whispered, her voice trembling with awe as her calloused hands hovered over the glowing frost-plate. "This... this is masterwork Drake-Carapace armor. The kinetic deflection runes alone cost a fortune... This entire set could outfit our entire primary assault phalanx!"

It was a new addition to what they had now.

"It’s for you and the Shieldmaidens, Brida," Silas said warmly. "Distribute the seventy sets among the veteran girls and let the new recruits know that as they prove themselves in the upcoming eastern hunt, more sets will be commissioned for their ranks."

The surrounding recruits erupted into a deafening roar of sheer excitement, their eyes burning with intense motivation.

"Thank you, Lord Silas!" Brida shouted with loyalty. "We will paint these shields in the blood of your enemies!"

"Take one complete set down to the foundry first," Silas added. "I want Thora to reverse-engineer the whole thing so we can mass-produce similar defensive glyphs for our entire secondary garrison."

"Understood!" Brida saluted crisply.

With effortless physical strength, the towering warrior scooped up a complete armor-and-spear set, hoisting it under her arm.

She took two steps toward the exit, then suddenly paused.

’Huu... I can do that.’

Brida turned back around, took a long stride toward Silas, leaned down, and planted a firm affectionate kiss right on the center of his cheek.

SMACK!

The entire barracks went dead silent.

The female recruits, Gunnhild, and Morrighan all froze, their jaws dropping in shock as they stared at the woman.

’Did Brida just kiss the Lord in broad daylight?!’ the recruits screamed internally. ’Is she going to be executed for insubordination?!’

Silas didn’t strike her down.

Instead, he reached out with a lighthearted exasperated chuckle and playfully poked Brida right in the center of her forehead, pushing her back half a step.

"You’re getting pretty cheeky, Brida," Silas teased, shaking his head with an amused grin.

Brida let out a loud ringing laugh, completely unabashed by the scandalized stares of her subordinates.

"A good commander always claims her rewards, my Lord!" Brida grinned boldly, giving him a cheeky wink before turning on her heel and sprinting out of the barracks toward the foundry.

Silas waved goodbye to the remaining recruits, who bowed with enthusiastic sparkling eyes.

"Keep up the drills, everyone. I’ll be coming down to inspect your combat formations much more frequently."

"GOODNIGHT, LORD GRAVES!" the warriors chorused in unison.

Silas exited the barracks compound, stepping back into the cool evening breeze that swept across the central courtyard.

The sun had completely dipped beneath the horizon, bathing the Blessed Land in a magnificent twilight glow punctuated by the soft luminous blue pulses of the palisade’s warding runes.

He walked past the central plaza toward the base of the grand Keep.

On the manicured, stone-lined secondary training grounds adjacent to the Keep’s western wing, a lone figure was vigorously practicing her spellcasting.

"Ha!"

A sharp, determined feminine shout echoed across the empty courtyard.

Kadi... the sandy-haired Second Secretary of the Blessed Land was standing in the center of the training ring, clad in her tailored dark-brown administrative robes.

She swept her hands forward in a fluid, circular motion, channeling her innate earth-affinity mana.

RUMBLE!

A massive wave of fine golden desert sand surged upward from the soil beneath her boots, coalescing into dozens of razor-sharp crystalline spikes that hovered in the air.

With a sharp thrust of her palms, Kadi launched the spikes forward.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The sand-spikes slammed into a series of reinforced stone practice dummies, detonating upon impact with concussive force.

Before the dust could even settle, Kadi flexed her fingers, actively pulling the scattered grains back together and reforming them into a swirling protective barrier that orbited her body.

"Whew..." Kadi exhaled, wiping a drop of sweat from her brow with a satisfied grin. "Sand manipulation really is incredible when the density locks in..."

A sudden shift in mana in the air caught her attention.

Kadi turned her head, her amber eyes widening in pleasant surprise as she spotted Silas approaching the ring with his hands tucked casually into his black pockets.

"Lord Silas!" Kadi greeted, immediately dropping her spell and bowing respectfully with a bright radiant smile. "Welcome back to the training grounds."

"That was impressive control, Kadi," Silas smiled, walking up to the edge of the stone perimeter. "The reformation speed on those sand-spikes was practically instantaneous. You’ve made serious progress since the last time."

Kadi rubbed the back of her neck with an embarrassed flattered laugh.

"Thank you, my Lord," Kadi explained eagerly, her eyes shining with academic excitement. "Ever since you gave me that seed, the earth and sand in this basin feel completely responsive. It feels like the ground is an extension of my own circulatory system. It’s effortless to shape."

"That’s great to hear," Silas said, stepping into the ring. "Because I have something that’s going to take that control to a different dimension."

Kadi tilted her head in curiosity. "A new spell scroll?"

Silas smiled, calling upon his Lord Inventory.

A bright golden spatial circle manifested in his grasp, and with a soft hum of displacement magic, he withdrew a magnificent weapon.

The Scepter of the Dune-Sovereign.

The Tier-3 master staff was an awe-inspiring sight.

Carved from a solid branch of petrified desert gold, the shaft was inscribed with swirling shifting hieroglyphs of tectonic runes.

Resting atop the crown of the staff, suspended within a cage of golden claws, was a swirling, crackling orb of concentrated earth mana that radiated a deep vibration through the ground.

Silas held the scepter out toward her.

"For you, Kadi," Silas said warmly. "A gift from the Obsidian Sanhedrin... Take it and see how it feels in your hands."

Kadi stared at the golden artifact, her jaw parting in breathless disbelief.

Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs.

For a wild, fleeting second, the urge to throw decorum out the window, jump forward, and aggressively plant her lips onto Silas’s mouth nearly overpowered her common sense.

But she held herself back, taking a deep, trembling breath and offering a deep formal bow as she accepted the staff with both hands.

"M-my Lord..." Kadi stammered. "This... this is a huge gift! I... I will cherish this with my entire life! I will polish it every single night and carry it into every battle under your banner!"

"Don’t just polish it," Silas laughed softly. "Channel your mana through the core and let’s see what it can do."

Kadi closed her eyes, steadying her breathing. She tightened her grip on the petrified gold shaft, pouring her own earth mana directly into the swirling golden orb.

VUUUUUUM.

The ambient air in the courtyard instantly turned razor-sharp.

A deep tectonic vibration surged up through the soles of their boots. In a fraction of a second, a miniature violent whirlwind of golden sand erupted around the perimeter of the Keep.

The swirling grains moved with terrifying velocity as the friction left fine micro-scratches across the reinforced stone masonry that slowly knitted themselves shut under the territory’s self-repair arrays.

Kadi opened her eyes, gasping in awe as she willed the sandstorm to dissipate with a simple flick of her wrist.

"The mana conductivity is flawless..." Kadi breathed out, looking at Silas with sparkling eyes. "The casting cost is reduced by nearly sixty percent, and the tectonic range is massive!"

She paused, a sudden, ambitious glint flashing across her face.

"Lord Silas, I have an idea," Kadi said, stepping back slightly. "I want to test a long-range terrestrial transmutation spell using the scepter’s amplified power!"

Silas leaned forward, watching with genuine curiosity. "Show me."

Kadi took a wide, grounded stance, driving the base of the golden scepter firmly into the soil of the training ring.

"By the shifting sands of the deep basin," Kadi chanted with focused intensity, channeling a massive wave of earth mana into the earth, "Mudify!"

Meanwhile, on the northern pathway leading forward, Brida was sprinting toward the Warlord Foundry at high speed.