Chapter 770: Echo and Drow Silvermoon
“What is — a chief?”
“Sounds like the head of all the clans, maybe?”
“Isn’t that the same as the Three Gods Emissary?”
The discussion spread through the crowd in waves, overlapping and uncertain. Then the head of the Black River clan — knocked back to fourth place by Osha’s rise — stepped onto the platform and raised his voice over all of it. “The king of the northern kingdom you mentioned, Roland Wimbledon — he is not a Mojin. How could he rule the entire desert?”
Here it is, Ashes thought. This was always going to be the hinge. She watched Echo from below the platform’s edge. Let’s see how she handles it.
Echo turned toward him with a quality of stillness that was not nervousness. “Were the Three Gods Emissaries who ruled the desert in the old age — were they Mojins?”
Her voice did not rise. It simply arrived at every ear, exactly as she intended.
The head of Black River opened his mouth and found the question ahead of him. “Um — well—”
“We all know the answer is no.” Echo looked past him to the crowd below. “The Three Gods Emissaries were giants. Their appearance was not uniform — one had four feet and three hands, another had more than one head. They were not Mojins by any measure.”
She let that settle for a moment.
“The words left behind by the Emissaries have become the foundational laws of all Ironsand people. The laws carved onto the slate describe two conditions for a ruler of the desert: one is to receive the blessing of the Three Gods. The other is to open up boundless oases and keep all clans free from hunger, thirst, and death. Anyone who fulfills either condition can become the ruler of the Southernmost Region.”
The crowd’s sound diminished. Nobody wanted to argue with the laws of the Three Gods Emissaries — especially not standing at the Land of Fire, where those laws had their beginning.
The head of Black River was not finished. He pointed at Echo and raised his voice again. “But the Three Gods Emissaries actually did bring green land to the desert. It’s said that a thousand years ago, this entire area was an oasis. Is the king of Graycastle capable of that? Don’t let yourselves be deceived by hollow promises. Anyone with that kind of power is no different from a deity.”
Echo nodded at him. “So if he could bring new oases to the Sand Nation — you would acknowledge His Majesty as qualified to rule the Southernmost Region and consider him worthy of the chieftaincy?”
“That’s right.” He spread his hands toward the crowd. “And I don’t speak only for myself. I believe every clan here would agree.”
He had, Ashes noted, walked directly into the space Echo had prepared for him. He had articulated the condition. He had spoken for everyone.
“His Majesty cannot transform the Southernmost Region into a green land,” Echo said. She returned to the center of the platform and spoke each word with the weight of something she had considered for a long time. “But he is willing to take our people into the territory of Graycastle and offer us homes near lakes and forests — to keep us from the threat of thirst and sandstorm forever. This is His Majesty’s promise: he will bring you a new oasis. The vast and fertile northern land is exactly the boundless oasis whose color will never fade.”
The crowd’s silence had a quality to it now that the previous silence had not. This was not the silence of people waiting to object. It was the silence of people whose comprehension was still catching up to what they had heard.
Thuram, leaning against a post at the crowd’s edge, said nothing.
This is the real purpose, he thought. This is what they came here to do.
Not just a clan takeover. Not merely reclaiming a position in Iron Sand City’s hierarchy. Everything — the duels, the legend they built around themselves, the deliberate restraint that spared opponents who should by rights have died, the reputation that had drawn every clan’s eyes and ears to this moment — all of it had been constructed to create an audience large enough to hear this speech clearly enough to carry it home to every corner of the Silver Stream Oasis.
“I agree that this place is really beautiful,” Echo said, her voice shifting into something lighter. The formal register stepped aside. She looked out at the burning landscape around the Burning Stage — the fire-trees, the underground vents, the heat rising in transparent columns. “But it would be even better without the fighting and the bloodshed. His Highness Roland said that — if it could simply remain as it is, as a place of natural wonder, it would be a famous…”
“National natural park?” Hummingbird offered, from nearby.
“Yes. That’s exactly what he said, after he saw Devil’s Town behind the snow mountain.”
“It’s fitting of a king to think exactly as I do,” Andrea said, tipping her chin up.
“Have you ever actually been to the place he was describing?” Ashes gave her a flat look.
“Whether or not I’ve been there is irrelevant. I have an excellent imagination. From his description alone, I’m certain it’s spectacular. Of course, a person of limited experience wouldn’t understand that.”
“Heyy.”
Thuram watched them. Whenever any of the Iron Axe group or the Divine Ladies spoke for long enough, the King of Graycastle’s name found its way into the conversation — not ostentatiously, but as a natural point of reference, the way you named a landmark to give someone else’s directions. He had been curious about Roland Wimbledon for some time. Not the king he had heard about from traveling merchants — the merchants’ version was a figure hunted by the church, associated with evil practices and dangerous women. That version did not match the man these people spoke of. Not even a little.
He turned back toward the platform.
The crowd was still processing. Some faces held skepticism; some held an almost-concealed eagerness; some held the careful neutral expression of people who would not commit until they had discussed it privately with their own people, in the dark, where it was safe to believe things.
That was enough. It did not need to be unanimity. It only needed to travel.
And below the sound of the crowd’s collective murmur, below the continuing chant of Osha, Osha that had never fully stopped since the battle ended, Thuram understood what he was standing at the edge of: something that had not happened in the Southernmost Region in living memory. Perhaps longer. A single voice, carried by the right set of ears, reaching all the way across the desert.
The Silver Stream Oasis would know about this speech before the week was out.
What they did with it after that — that was the part none of them could control yet. But the first thing had been done, and done in front of everyone who mattered, and there was no undoing it now.
He raised his empty cup toward no one in particular and drank what remained of the air.
To Osha.
Chapter 770: Echo and Drow Silvermoon
Translator: Transn Editor: Meh
“Siyaaaaa!”
The Four-winged Eagle let out a peculiar high-pitched sound as it probably did not expect the other party to take the initiative in attacking it.
It opened its beak and without a moment to spare, immediately attacked Lorgar without bothering to dodge.
What happened next shook the hearts of the onlookers.
Lorgar instantly transformed into a massive Desert Wolf and smacked the strange bird’s face with thunderous strength! The eagle’s head bent to one side and its beak that was originally able to pick up an adult with ease suddenly broke away.
It was then already too late for the demonic hybrid to adjust its balance, so the two beasts just fiercely collided with each other.
Lorgar once again spits out fresh blood, but she still tightly grabbed on to the demonic beast, and her teeth sank deeply into its flesh.
The demonic beast sensed danger from the Desert Wolf clinging on to her and desperately flapped its wings trying to fly up. However, no matter how hard it moved its wings, it was unable to gain altitude due to the Wolf Girl who weighed as heavy as itself.
“Andrea!” Ashes shouted at her companion.
“I knew that you would have to depend on me eventually,” said Andrea. She threw her rifle back to Echo and leaped up the platform while summoning the Magical Longbow.
At the same time, the two beasts smashed down heavily onto the platform.
With a flash of white light, the Desert Wolf which was sitting on top of the Four-winged Eagle suddenly disappeared. Ashes knew then that Lorgar had already reached her limit. But fortunately, the outcome of this battle had already been decided. She took a dead Sand Nation warrior’s robe and rushed toward the demonic beast.
Upon closer inspection, she could see that the demonic beast’s back and the abdominal shell was pockmarked with several wounds. Some were scratches, while others were small holes that oozed green slime and blue blood. These wounds were probably left by the First Army, but none of them had inflicted fatal damage to the demonic beast.
She quickly found the motionless Princess Lorgar in the gap between the wings and carried her down the platform.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the longbow in Andrea’s hands shining with golden light.
The hybrid demonic beast that had been wounded quite severely had its head swaying and was staggering on the ground when it suddenly found something resembling a golden sun next to it.
“Hey, what are you looking at?” Andrea laughed mockingly. “Fly away if you can.”
“Shriek—!” It finally recovered its senses and tried spreading its wings in a panic to escape. But it was too late.
A blinding ray of light shot out from the Magical Longbow, and with a thundering whistle, it pierced through the demonic beast’s body. In a flash, its body suddenly started emitting countless beams of golden light, as if a sun was trying to break out of its body and began engulfing it in its glow!
As it quieted down, a circular crater a few meters wide appeared in the middle of the platform. All that was left of the Four-winged eagle was a piece of its body lying on the edge of the gap, and its remaining body parts were splattered all over the place like tiny droplets of rain.
Andrea stood proudly in this torrential rain of flesh and gore, with her golden bow giving her long hair and alluring figure an eye-catching silhouette.
“Why are you still materializing your longbow? Are you wasting your magical power?” Ashes who was under the platform got grumpy and stood up.
“Of course, it’s for the people here to remember my heroic appearance… ah, sh*t.” She suddenly covered her mouth halfway through her sentence. “It’s all your fault for making me talk. What if some bird meat fell into my mouth?”
Ashes could only roll her eyes at that.
…
The Wildflame chief Guelz had an ashen face as he gently received his daughter from Ashes. With his shoulders slightly quivering, he said, “Is Lorgar… ”
“She’s still alive, but it doesn’t look good. Even the best herbal remedies can only delay her death.” Ashes shrugged and said, “Unless we treat her immediately.”
“You… have a way to cure her?”
“That’s right, and she can be as healthy as she was before the duel.”
Guelz stared with his eyes wide open and gazed at the Extraordinary witch for a while before finally slowly opening his mouth. “Then… what’s the price?”
“You’ll know soon enough,” Ashes tugged her hand and said, “But what I want to know is… Will you acknowledge the result of the holy duel?”
“Wildflame isn’t Ironwhip, and we won’t deny a victory that was won through blood and honor. Furthermore…” Guelz sighed and said, “no one can deny that you are currently the strongest clan. If you don’t believe, you can listen for yourself…”
Ashes have certainly heard it.
Be it on the platform or the Burning Road, every single person present was shouting a single name in unison.
“Osha! Osha! Osha!”
It was among this cheer, that Echo climbed up to the platform.
“I am the chief of the Osha clan, Drow Silvermoon, but I also have another name, Echo of Graycastle’s Witch Union!” Her voice sounded clearly above the noise of the crowd and reached everyone’s ears. “I have lost everything since the betrayal of the Iron Whip clan. Not only was my clan exiled, but I was also sold into slavery, from the Port of Clearwater, all the way to the King’s City in Graycastle. I was fortunate enough to be rescued by a witch organization. After that, I was transferred to a small town in the Western Region, where my name has been changed to Echo.”
She paused momentarily, then said, “I prefer the name Echo more than Drow Silvermoon—though I have been through some painful experiences, I am so much happier than I ever was in the desert. That town, which was once a desolate town on the border, has now become a bustling city. Most of the growth during this period was brought by a Lord, His Majesty Roland Wimbledon of Graycastle, and he was also the one who changed my destiny!”
Ashes were stunned. “This… doesn’t sound like the rehearsed speech.”
“Well,” said Andrea, with a light chuckle, “it’s what she’s been wanting to say the most. And besides, all we can do now is applaud her.”
In the beginning, Echo seemed a bit nervous, but once she started talking about Neverwinter’s interesting lifestyle, she began to talk with increasing
confidence. “I know you are curious as to why I’m saying all these things, after all, it’s just someplace in the North. No matter how beautiful it is, it has nothing to do with our people in the Sand Nation. That’s right… Maybe this was the way it used to be, but now things are not the same!”
“His Majesty’s catchphrase is that Neverwinter will never discriminate based on origin. His city has people from all kinds of backgrounds: ordinary people from Graycastle, witches, and even people from foreign clans! This is enough to prove his kindness and benevolence. Now he intends to save the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan from this blood-soaked, barren desert and grant you all a better life, just like he did when he helped the witches—and I’m carrying out the will of His Majesty, Roland Wimbledon, to deliver this news to all of you in the name of the strongest clan: he has decided to become the chief of the Mojin Clan to unify the entire desert and treat us all as his people!”