Chapter 929
The Holy Gryphon Knights
Alistair couldn’t help but get close to Isabel as soon as he returned to the Silver and Tin Hall.
It was April 25th, exactly two months after Isabel became pregnant.
Normally, to be safe, they shouldn’t have been intimate during this period… but Isabel was too clingy.
Alistair had only been intimate with her once before, and as soon as he got a taste of intimacy, he left Avalon. He remained in slumber at the top of the Church’s giant tree until he learned of Isabel’s pregnancy.
During this time, Isabel had gradually grown into a qualified queen. This didn’t mean she had truly become a ruthless “Iron-Blooded Queen” devoid of emotion, but rather she had suppressed her delicate and varied emotions deep inside.
Longing, affection, grievance, loneliness… Initially, she drank late at night just to see Alistair in her dreams. But it later became a habit—because even in dreams, she couldn’t meet Alistair consistently.
Drinking during pregnancy, especially in the early stages, was very risky. To mitigate the adverse effects on the fetus, Isabel needed to take an extra bitter potion to maintain her health. Even so, she couldn’t help but drink.
If she didn’t drink, Alistair or Alain might not be able to find her when they wanted to. Later, drinking truly became her way of relieving her loneliness.
Now, Isabel hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol, but her cheeks, flushed red up to her neck, looked as if she were already drunk.
“Fortunately, Alistair himself is a Fifth Tier healer. He has plenty of ways to eliminate the subsequent adverse effects and truly relieve Isabel’s discomfort.”
Neither Bishop-level Illuminate Spells, nor rituals, potions, or alchemical potions could truly heal Isabel. But for Alistair now, it was a mere trifle.
It was for this reason.
When Lixia, wagging her tail, entered the bedroom, she was so calm to see Alistair and Isabel under the blanket.
“It seems you’re having a good time.”
She even had the leisure to tease, “The young girls standing guard outside are all blushing!”
“When you say ‘young girls’,” Alistair said unhurriedly, “any one of them is older than you.”
“Hey, you can’t say that. Even a dog that’s two or three years old can understand humans better than a puppy of four or five. Short-lived species are characterized by precocious intelligence,” Lixia said, smiling. “And I am that old dog—tuck the queen in, so she doesn’t catch a chill.”
Alistair tucked the blanket in, then put on a shirt before getting up and asking, “Your Excellency, Grand Arbitrator—what brings you here?”
When he adopted this title, it meant he was ready to discuss serious matters.
Lixia was also a shrewd person. She naturally understood what Alistair meant.
“Good boy!”
Lixia exclaimed, “You’ve become much more efficient than before—I just came to ask you, what are those things on your ship for?”
“Consecrated Gryphon Armor,” Alistair said solemnly, “I brought back over a thousand sets.”
“What is that?”
Lixia asked curiously.
She wasn’t playing along—being of commoner origin, she genuinely didn’t know.
“You must know about Consecrated Silk, which is the raw material for the church’s specialty stockings. The full name of Holy Water is also ‘Consecrated Pure Water.’ This is a special processing method unique to the church,” Alistair patiently explained. “This is the key reinforcement I’ve brought for the Gryphon Knights.”
“Against demons?”
Lixia guessed easily.
She was somewhat surprised, “I thought you would dismantle the turrets on the warship and give them to the Gryphons… you’re giving them armor?”
It was clear that Lixia knew about the glorious achievements of the “Cruel Preacher.” Its fully-equipped cannon strike was too astonishing, not only deterring demons but also other human nations that had directly or indirectly witnessed it.
In all honesty, no army in any country could break through the “Cruel Preacher’s” firepower net at present. This meant that, under extreme conditions, this ship could achieve the epic challenge of “single-vehicle nation-level destruction.”
Lixia, naturally, would also be interested in those divine art devices that could shoot scorching lasers over ten kilometers away just by injecting mana.
“I’ve also had people try to replicate that, but it’s not suitable for the Gryphon Legion. That device requires a Bishop-level priest to operate, so it’s not suitable for the Gryphon Legion, which is locked into the Path of Authority,” Alistair explained. “The Gryphon Legion will be the main force against the demons, which is why the entire church’s resources are being concentrated on them.”
“Why the Gryphon Legion?”
Lixia was very surprised, “What about the Daffodil Mage Legion? And Horus’s Sun Chaser Legion? Those are the top combat forces for direct confrontation, aren’t they?”
This was not because she was afraid of fighting. It was because she understood the strengths and weaknesses of the Gryphon Legion too well—
The Gryphons’ strength lay in their divine speed, which could easily break through several times the speed of sound.
They didn’t need to forcibly break the sound barrier; the air resistance could even be used as propulsion for Gryphons, the darlings of the storm. Throughout the Material Realm, the fastest race on average was undoubtedly the Gryphon.
However, Gryphons had no spellcasting ability, nor did they know divine arts. Although they could spew lightning, their power was limited—after all, there was only so much mana they could store, and mana related to lightning was exceptionally draining.
Slow discharges had no killing power. And the speed of lightning was so fast that almost all their mana could be released instantly… This meant the Gryphon Legion severely lacked sustained combat capabilities.
For human enemies, this weakness was not a weakness.
Because they only needed one sortie to break through the enemy’s defenses and pierce their supplies. Although they could only sortie once, that one sortie was enough.
However…
“What role can Gryphons play against endless demons?”
Lixia’s doubt was understandable.
Alistair gave a clear answer: “Because demons are afraid of lightning.”
“…Afraid of lightning? How afraid? Afraid like werewolves are afraid of fire?”
“More afraid than that. It’s like Children of the Moon are afraid of Twilight, Shadow Demons are afraid of Light, and Ghosts are afraid of purification.”
Alistair shook his head and explained.
Moon Children, monsters that could hardly be killed by physical weapons, had quite a few weaknesses.
For example, they couldn’t cross flowing water, nor could they violently enter other people’s houses through the door…
Their most significant weakness was the power of the Twilight Path—such as freezing and petrification, which negated and resolved “undeath” itself.
Secondly, as beings of Hengwo, they were destined to lack resistance to the “burning state” of sustained flames; as products of curses, they could also temporarily negate their undeath because purification could lift the curse of undeath.
But the fear of fire for werewolves, Children of the Moon, beasts… and even humans, trees, and trolls was because fire could leave them with injuries that were hard to heal and impossible to self-heal.
These lives born from the “Origin River of Creation” shared similar underlying structures. For most of the biosphere, fire was almost a guaranteed kill without the use of “drugs” from the Path Adaptation.
But this didn’t mean fire could suppress their other abilities—just as humans’ intelligence, strength, and endurance wouldn’t decrease when dealing with fire.
…Probably not.
However, lightning’s counter mechanism against demons was the type where “once it hits and penetrates the defense, it will inevitably cause maximum damage and an inevitable critical hit.”
Whether lightning fell on a demon’s weapon, sturdy carapace, or armor, it would deal full damage—as long as it didn’t fall on a barrier.
This was because natural lightning damage had the attribute of “punishing sin,” and demons’ underlying power came from the Great Sin system… As the name suggested, “Great Sin” was naturally afraid of “punishing sin.”
“In other words, Gryphons wouldn’t even need to use their full strength to inflict fatal damage on demons of the same level. The only problem is… although the Gryphons’ attacks on demons are guaranteed to pass through, the demons’ attacks on Gryphons can also pass through.”
“Gryphons have no curse resistance, nor do they have holy attributes. This means most of the demons’ methods will be 100% effective against Gryphons… Therefore, even though Gryphons have absolute counter abilities against demons, they can’t get close at all.”
“So I’ve prepared a large number of Consecrated Gryphon Armors—each piece has been consecrated through half a month of devout prayer by clergy of Archbishop rank or higher. Curses below Fourth Tier are completely unable to break through, and curses of higher Tier will also require a considerable portion of their power to be depleted.”
“At the same time, they will increase resistance in the ‘holy’ category. Damage from ghosts, curses, and evil entities will be greatly weakened, and the knights riding the Gryphons will gain permanent ‘Exorcism’ ability.”
“Gryphons and their knights will gain a continuous stream of life force, allowing them to constantly heal themselves and even allies. It’s as if the knights are doubling as Paladins one Tier below them.”
“Although ‘Exorcism’ is not as effective at killing demons as ‘punishing sin,’ it still has some counter effect and a broader range of effectiveness.”
Alistair slowly said, “With this set of Gryphon Armor, this is no longer the ‘Gryphon Legion,’ nor the ‘First Legion’ that could only be used for surprise attacks in the past. It is an ace legion against demons, and it will even fight in coordination with the church’s most elite troops! Avalon’s knightly tradition of the past has been revived today…”
“I name it—the Holy Gryphon Knights.”
(End of Chapter)
