Chapter 176
The Grand Guardian, Saint George
Under the escort of the Grand Guardian, Lily soon found Eivass pushing the wheelchair. After greetings, he readily accepted the Grand Guardian’s invitation.
“I just so happen to have a few words to say to you,” Eivass said.
The Grand Guardian glanced at the Flame Butterfly resting quietly on Eivass’s shoulder and nodded slightly. He observed Eivass carefully. Although Eivass seemed a bit unwell, he was clearly in good health and spirits. This indicated that Alistair had not neglected Eivass in terms of food. If this was the case, perhaps his guess was correct…
Unlike Lily, Eivass immediately recognized this Grand Guardian of Avalon, “Saint George.” It wasn’t because he later entered the game as a BOSS. It was because he appeared in the game’s introductory CG. If one waited a bit longer on the game’s waiting page, the video would start automatically, perhaps while you were AFK, updating, or verifying files. The video content was intelligent, correlating with the main quest progress of the player’s last logged-in character. It would briefly summarize all the major events experienced up to that point, leading to the current main quest. If the update wasn’t finished, it would loop back and play again.
From Version 0, the first part of the CG featured him. As the conclusion to the “Cruel Autumn” event, which marked the downfall of Avalon, its iconic CG depicted the Grand Guardian riding his Gryphon, facing swarms of Armed Gargoyles under a sky full of dark clouds.
Star Antinomy’s Armed Gargoyles were fearsome aerial units and a symbol of their technology. Unlike elite Sky Knights, Armed Gargoyles were characterized by their mass production. Gargoyles were essentially Familiars, animated by curses projected onto stone, similar in principle to Demonic Hounds but more advanced. They could at least fly. Gargoyles possessed strong magic resistance, capable of deflecting low-level spells and effectively countering entry-level Law Master spells. With the enhancement of Alchemists, these mass-produced Gargoyles had their arms modified into machine guns, carrying two belts of ammunition on their bodies. Their surfaces were covered with flesh armor to resist dispelling curses, further protected by an iron shell.
A few individual Armed Gargoyles could be easily dealt with by Sky Knights. The problem was their sheer numbers. Once they massed, Gryphon Knights couldn’t mount an effective charge, and Supervisors lacked agile anti-air capabilities. Priests could originally dispel them in large numbers with ease, but their dispelling light was blocked and absorbed by specially made flesh casings, as those casings were alive. The materials came from sinners and captives, processed by Necromancers to retain minimal brain and organ function, allowing the flesh to remain viable for a short period. Only powerful Law Masters could effectively immobilize them and shatter them from the sky. But under the relentless assault of the Gargoyles, it was difficult to protect these fragile backline units.
However, Avalon did have means of resistance at the time. If Sky Knights summoned lightning, it could penetrate the iron shell and kill the flesh inside through lightning strikes. This would allow the Priests’ dispelling to take effect. Similarly, the colossal golems, which continuously regenerated by absorbing Earth’s power whenever they were destroyed, could also be dealt with. The secret to the golems’ regeneration lay in the rune on their heads. If a stroke was added before the rune, the golem would instantly collapse and die.
But these secrets were only deciphered much later. Star Antinomy’s attack at the time, combined with the seemingly unstoppable Gargoyles and indestructible golems, instilled immense fear, leading to the army’s direct collapse. The Queen was already dead, and the Round Table Hall was in chaos. The soldiers didn’t know who they were fighting for. Their morale was already low, and facing such a direct and powerful enemy, they crumbled almost instantly. After the army’s rout, the Grand Guardian, as the highest-ranking surviving commander, ordered the soldiers to surrender. But he did not surrender himself. He instructed the other Sky Knights to do their best to survive and to take good care of their Gryphon partners. Then, he and his Gryphon launched their final charge. That was the last charge of the war.
In the CG, after the Grand Guardian charged forward, the camera pulled back to reveal several colossal golems towering into the clouds on the ground. The Star Antinomy army advanced in orderly fashion, while the Avalon army retreated in a swarm like ants. As the golems moved, their single eye emitted thick laser beams, carving huge ravines on the ground as forests burned fiercely. As the Grand Guardian engaged, the golems simultaneously fired massive red beams towards a barely visible speck in the sky. These beams converged, erupting in a blinding flash of light. After a few seconds, a roaring tornado exploded, followed by a storm that spread wildly, engulfing the Gargoyles and causing the ground formations to briefly scatter. It even momentarily broke through the dark clouds, creating a hole.
But that was all. The Grand Guardian could not turn the tide; he could only choose a glorious death. Eivass barely knew any of the other “Grand” titled powerful individuals, such as the Grand Arbiter—he didn’t even know what they looked like or their gender. But he was intimately familiar with the Grand Guardian. After all, pouring a cup of tea when entering the game would reveal his desperate charge amidst mournful and grand background music. Then, a slow Chinese narration, reminiscent of Mr. Zhao Zhongxiang, would announce: “In 1899, the Cruel Autumn event heralded the downfall of the Avalon Kingdom…”
Or, when updating or verifying files upon entering the game, one would typically see the tornado engulfing the Gargoyles—this scene lasted about ten seconds. As for CGs after Version 0, they were rarely seen, as Eivass’s internet connection was quite good. If he logged in daily, he would generally only see longer clips during major version updates. This led to the Grand Guardian being extremely well-known among players, to the point of a running gag: “Good thing my internet speed was fast enough, the Grand Guardian didn’t die,” or “My internet is bad today, keeps disconnecting, and the Grand Guardian has already charged back and forth eight times.” Some even created humorous videos or other voice-overs of the Grand Guardian.
Therefore, although Eivass had never actually played through this main questline—he had skipped directly to the Version 0 opening after clearing the Flame Butterfly—he held a favorable impression of the Grand Guardian. It was a sense of familiarity upon encountering an acquaintance in a foreign land.
However, at the same time, this also served as a stark reminder to Eivass of the future crisis. After all, so much time had passed. Eivass had almost forgotten about the threat of Star Antinomy. He had lived as Eivass for another eighteen years. Although his past life memories had only recently returned, he could still recall them fairly clearly, but there was still a sliver of complacency, thinking, “That’s a long way off, at least another year.” Seeing the Grand Guardian again, Eivass suddenly realized that the future was not so distant after all. He truly felt the sense of impending crisis. This made him stiffen and his expression turn slightly solemn.
Eivass knew this was a good person. Loyal to the Queen, loyal to the country, upright, brave, devout, humble… He was almost the epitome of a Knight and the most “knight-like” Knight in modern Avalon. And precisely because of this, he died. He could not tolerate betrayal despite his principles. “I must find a way to save him. Good people should live longer,” Eivass thought.
The Grand Guardian, for some reason, could clearly sense that Eivass held a favorable impression of him. This made him happy as well. The Grand Guardian had not properly met Eivass before. This was their first meeting. Although, as founding families, they should have been part of the same social circle, the Moriarty Family rarely hosted banquets. Only one person could inherit the Moriarty surname, and upon the succession of the new family head, the other brothers and sisters would lose their surname and inheritance rights. Because of this, the Moriarty Family’s social interactions differed from other families. Until the next Moriarty was determined, interactions were essentially ineffective. Therefore, they usually chose to observe. Unless the previous generation Moriarty had already made a designation, most would maintain polite distance. This was also to avoid accusations of “influencing or manipulating the inheritance of other families.” Another reason was that many other founding families did not truly recognize the Moriarty Family. After all, the Moriarty family had adopted sons for generations and no longer carried the original Modred bloodline. Furthermore, Modred’s son had long ago betrayed Avalon. Without the Moriartys, the lineage of that surname should have been struck from the records. Barton, of course, was not among them, but such was the general sentiment, and he could only remain silent.
Among the Professor’s adopted sons and daughters, Eivass, with his reputation for romantic involvements, was perhaps the most famous. Before their meeting, he had also assumed Eivass to be a playboy. However, after just a glance, the Grand Guardian’s intuition told him that Eivass was a good child. “Perfect, I’ll have him talk to David. That way, David won’t constantly go on about his ‘Mr. Alistair’—Eivass is the role model he should learn from,” the Grand Guardian thought.
