Chapter 1041: The Last Stand
"I am going to unleash everything I have on him... In the meantime, I want you to run."
Lights blazed in Ayu’s focused eyes.
"Oh, great—we’ll be running together."
For a moment, Gilbert’s eyes turned somber. It was becoming difficult to convey his plan to the girls. He knew how attached they were to him—he had found them and raised them since they were children.
Which was precisely why he needed them to live. He wanted them to live for themselves, at least for once. And if this meant this would be his last stand, then so be it.
He had no regrets.
"No. You two will be going alone."
Myu’s face darkened immediately.
"Don’t you even dare..."
While Ayu whispered:
"Gilbert!"
Meanwhile, Gilbert sighed. He paused for a moment and explained.
"Listen, girls. First of all, you have to trust me. I won’t die from this bastard... come on, I am strong. Secondly, I believe this goes beyond what’s happening here. I want to give both of you a crucial assignment."
Gilbert’s gaze swept over the two of them.
"In Verulania, at the bunker beneath our citadel... there’s a safe. In that safe, there’s detailed documentation of everything Rughsbourgh has been doing—information that might lead us to his ultimate goal... which I believe he has no idea of because he himself is being manipulated.
"If you uncover this truth and take it to Annette, I’m certain it will be invaluable to her. Trust me enough to come meet you girls."
Myu’s expression turned murderous.
"Do you think I’m a..."
"Myu."
The steel and finality in Gilbert’s voice made her freeze.
Ayu glanced between them, then looked at Myu.
"Let’s trust Gilbert, alright, Myu?"
Gilbert looked at her and smiled. The smile was... heartbreaking, but he masked it.
Koll’s voice sliced through the cold night.
"If you’re done with your farewells, please—I beg you—come at me. Let’s wrap this up. I have somewhere to be."
Gilbert looked at his two girls for the last time and turned forward, both swords gleaming in his hands.
His powerful voice thundered:
"Protectors!"
Instantly, everyone around turned to him—both the wounded and those cowering behind with terror.
Gilbert was the only Sage at the Wall. Over the past few months, he had snatched countless protectors from death’s jaws, and many subjugation missions had succeeded because he came to the wall.
His importance was so immense that many protectors believed they wouldn’t have survived the intensified monster invasion without Gilbert’s presence alone—which proved just how devastating a Sage could be.
His voice, alongside the Wall commander’s, was pure hope to the soldiers.
"We are the last line. We are the blade that does not bend, the shield that does not break."
The Protectors’ expressions transformed. Danzo was the first to rise, clutching his sword with iron resolve burning in his eyes as he carried the next words.
"We do not turn. We do not flee. We are the ones who remain."
The Wall commander himself groaned and stood. His voice rode the winds and echoed across the battlefield.
"If the stars fall and the heavens weep, If the land trembles and all others fade— Still, we hold."
Next, soldiers who were on their knees, sprawled on the ground, began to rise—groaning, many drenched in blood, but they stood, resolve blazing in their eyes.
They carried the pledge in unison.
"For the blood that runs behind us,
For the homes that lie untouched,
For the breath of children yet unborn—
We give our flesh, our fire, our final breath."
Myu scowled as she muttered the words with the others. Tears glistened in her eyes and threatened to spill, but she crushed them down, still muttering as the thunderous voices of the mass carried the pledge like a monolith of tremendous power.
"Should this be the end, let it be said—
We stood.
We fought.
We did not yield.
Here, at the edge,
Let death come.
We are already eternal."
Then Gilbert’s voice erupted with devastating power.
"Who stands at the end?!!"
The Protectors roared:
"We stand!!!"
Gilbert bellowed again:
"What do we hold?!!"
The Protectors responded:
"The line!!!"
Gilbert stepped forward, fixing Koll with a fierce and defiant glare—one that declared: Even though we die, we will never die. Then he thundered again.
"What do we give?!!"
The soldiers screamed at the top of their lungs.
"EVERYTHING!!!"
With battle cries and savage screams, they surged forward—all of them charging toward a single man who stood in the cold night with a blank and indifferent expression.
Koll spat on the ground.
"Tsk. Pathetic."
He merely snapped his fingers.
And obsidian swords erupted from the earth, cleaving through men as they charged forward. The blades blurred as they soared through the air of their own accord.
Amidst the chaos, Myu seized Ayu and the two of them shot backward, escaping through the carnage. Both were incredibly nimble, their movements, speed, and timing perfectly synchronized without needing to look at each other.
They weaved between the flying swords—dodging, twisting—until they fled the massacre and plunged into the frigid forest of the western border.
They paused one last time, Myu glancing back with a scowl.
Ayu looked at her and smiled.
"Gilbert will be alright."
Myu exhaled sharply and turned forward. The two of them resumed their escape.
Ayu was a gentle soul—naive, too. Myu was the one who had allowed the world’s harshness and brutality to harden her. That’s why she could see the cold truth behind Gilbert’s decision.
She believed that perhaps Ayu sometimes deluded herself so she could remain free from the agony of how vicious the world truly was. It tormented her that her sister was so kind and innocent.
Whoever that bastard who had attacked them was, he had slaughtered over six hundred Drifters effortlessly—that was not a feat achievable by any Sage. He had butchered so many of them without breaking a sweat.
Myu was certain that man could easily crush a Sage. And she knew Gilbert understood that too. Which was why he had sent them both away.
Today, Gilbert and the Protectors of the Wall would die.
And she wasn’t even sure she could call it a glorious death—because the very person who had placed them there might be the reason they were all dying.
She wiped her eyes as both of them sprinted forward with blazing speed. Still, a tear escaped from the corner of her eye, glistening in the cold night wind as it flew away.