- Ruuuumble...
I had only been standing still, yet the surface of the earth cracked and split.
At that moment, I looked like an active volcano on the verge of eruption.
- Fwoosh!
At some point, the sword that had been embedded in the ground began to be wreathed in flames from its tip, turning black as it returned to the form I had first seen: a black blade engraved with crimson fire.
And at the same time, two forms capable of saving Veronica were drawn in my mind.
- Rumble!
A low tremor sounded from the ground, like the precursor to volcanic activity.
Then,
- Pat!!
My body vanished from that place, leaving a massive crater where I had stood.
- Whirrr!!
When I raised my arm and assumed an upper stance, the sword spun in my hand and settled into the proper grip.
- Boom!!
I took only a single step, yet as if I had folded space itself, my body arrived before Veronica in an instant,
casting an enormous shadow over the women with its intense flames.
- Fwoooooosh!!
Behind the footprints I had left, flames belatedly rose.
If something rises, then something else must fall.
“Heaven-Guarding Sacred Flame Sword (守天聖火劒), Second Form: Flame Reincarnation (炎火輪廻).”
The Fire Wheel (火輪), a term that had symbolized the sun since ancient times.
Reincarnation (輪廻), meaning to circle the world in an unbroken cycle.
- Craaaackle!!!
My aura was thrust endlessly toward the breath.
Sinjo Gaehwa (申朝開火), symbolizing sunlight drawn and spread horizontally, and Flame Reincarnation (炎火輪廻), drawn vertically, overlapped countless times.
And as time passed, at last it formed a circle like the sun.
“Heaven-Guarding Sacred Flame Sword (守天聖火劒), Third Form: Rising Fire, Shadowed Darkness (揚火影暗)!”
Behind the undead, wavering shadows were cast precariously, and their forms were dyed in rough, scrawled lines of black and white.
The gazes of the dead fixed on me and no longer moved.
- Crumble...
The wide clearing.
There,
the sea of death no longer existed.
- Thud.
Veronica was supporting herself with her sword so she would not collapse,
but it seemed she could not withstand sinking down to the ground the moment the tension left her.
“Evan...?”
Veronica looked up at me, asking if I was truly Evan.
I looked down at my own body.
“Ah...”
Indeed... it seemed unreasonable to expect her to recognize me at a glance.
My body was still wrapped in black-red flames, and for some reason, my hair had turned white.
I casually stroked Veronica’s head and answered.
“That’s right. Sorry I’m late.”
Without realizing it, I was not speaking to her politely, but simply answering Veronica in a relaxed tone.
But she did not care about that at all.
“I’m glad... I’m glad you’re alive...”
She merely said she was grateful I was alive,
“When you didn’t come out no matter how long we waited, I thought maybe something bad had happened... I even hoped you hadn’t gone in at all, but then they said they’d confirmed that El had entered.”
that she had been so worried,
that was all she said.
- Drip.
Tears flowed from Veronica’s eyes.
“Sorry...”
I wiped away the tears running down her slightly reddened cheeks.
However,
even in that situation, my brain remained cold.
It seemed that I was in a state where I was being greatly swayed by emotion.
Of course I was.
I had almost lost someone precious again, helplessly, and in the end, there had been mages I could not protect.
On top of that, it was obvious that if we did not act quickly, Ariel and Signika, who had collapsed with fatal wounds, would not last long.
- Grit.
I was incredibly enraged right now.
Just as my thoughts deepened over what I should do,
“Ugh.”
Fortunately, it seemed Ariel had regained consciousness.
I did not know what effect it was, but blood was no longer flowing from her side where she had been struck by the arrow.
“Ariel!!”
When Elladrien confirmed that she had awakened, she clutched the arm that had been bitten by the ghoul and struggled over to her.
From the outside, it seemed Ariel’s wound had been staunched and she would be all right, but apparently she had not been fully healed.
Even so, she tried to rise and cast a healing holy art again.
The reason she was going this far was very clear.
If she, the only healer in the party, did not do it, they could not save Signika, who was dying while impaled by a spear.
Before the spark of life was completely extinguished, even if she could not save her, she had to at least keep it from going out.
“El... help me up.”
With Elladrien’s help, Ariel barely managed to kneel and began reciting a prayer.
“Holy Art—Daydream (白日夢).”
Whether it was because her divine power was insufficient or because the holy art was originally like that, unlike the holy arts that had unfolded as domains until now, a golden energy gently covered only Signika.
That sight was as if it were telling her that once she woke from the dream, everything would be all right.
“Haa... haa...”
Ariel exhaled with ragged, labored breaths.
“I won’t be able to hold out that long either. So in the meantime...”
“...Understood.”
With the sight of Veronica handing Fiat Lux to Signika as the last thing I saw, I no longer looked back.
Because there was still a surviving monster there.
- Clank. Clank.
Keeping a good distance from us, the Death Knight approached the Elder Lich, knelt on one knee before him, and paid his respects.
“Death Knight... What is the meaning of this? I clearly told you not to let a single one of them pass that place.”
The Death Knight lowered his head and answered.
“I have no excuse. Please grant me the opportunity to make amends with my own hands as my lord’s knight.”
“Damn it... Fine. Remove that detestable hero and his companions from before my eyes!”
“As you command.”
He rose, drew his sword, and joined the battlefield together with the Bone Dragon.
“....”
“......”
A brief silence passed between us.
It was not a meaningless standoff, but rather a quiet born from respect for one’s opponent.
We were fiercely probing one another, engaging in a battle of wits before the fight had even begun.
In truth,
- Flinch.
the positions of our feet and the directions of our swords
- Flinch.
were shifting little by little in response to each other’s movements.
Countless afterimages sent out, and countless answers returned.
He spoke to me in a tone that suggested he was sick of it.
“It seems there is no meaning in continuing this any further.”
I nodded as if agreeing with his words.
“First, forgive my discourtesy. The fact that I cannot face a knight like you one-on-one may well be the final regret of my wretched life.”
He glanced up slightly at the Bone Dragon standing beside him.
It was waiting for its master’s orders, but it continued to paw at the ground, as if wanting to slaughter every living thing before its eyes.
“I am coming.”
- Tap.
After announcing his opening attack, he vanished first.
- Tap!
In response, I moved my feet and drew a black-red afterimage.
When we appeared again,
we were both in position at the midpoint between where each of us had been standing.
The Death Knight held an upper stance to strike down,
and I lowered my posture, letting the tip of my sword trail behind me from below in order to counter it.
- Clang!
A single exchange.
- Clangclangclangclang!!!
And then, as if preordained, several more exchanges followed.
A feast of demonic energy shaped like sword aura and black-red flames.
As our swords clashed, sparks flew violently,
and in the end, as the exchanges continued without an end in sight,
“Kraaaaaagh!!!!!”
the dragon preparing its breath behind us released it toward us.
It was a move that took advantage of the fact that, being undead as well, the Death Knight would not be affected by an attack made of death energy.
- Tap!
Rather than receive it, I accelerated my body and rushed at the Bone Dragon.
More precisely, I aimed my sword at the Elder Lich, who had at some point begun chanting behind it.
“My, will that be all right?”
As if forgetting his claim that he wished to be a knight, the Death Knight likewise charged toward Veronica.
However,
“!!!!”
he soon understood without difficulty why I had made such a choice.
“Sixth Circle Necromancy—Summon Undead!”
The moment the Elder Lich’s spell ended and undead rose from beneath the earth,
- Thunk!!
I did not head for the Elder Lich. Instead, I drove my sword into the center of them, closed my eyes, and brought it to mind.
At each realm, there exist several techniques that represent that realm.
For example, upon becoming an Expert, one becomes able to use aura.
However,
that was not the level of technique I wanted to speak of now.
It was higher than that.
There was one technique even more widely known to the world.
A praise of that realm.
The unique technique of Masters.
A divine skill that manifests one’s inner world into reality, possible only because one possesses an image strong enough to reach that realm.
Of course, even with the buff from the oath, my realm had not completely reached that place,
but since I had reached somewhere from mid-level Expert to peak Expert,
though I had only arrived at this realm temporarily and by a shortcut,
even so, I had a rough idea of how to unfold that technique.
Was it because the oath had originated from a powerful will to protect her?
Or was it proof that I possessed brilliant talent?
I did not know for sure,
‘What matters right now is that I think I can use this technique!!!’
A circle was drawn around me.
It grew in size and soon formed a single barrier,
and within it,
my world began to unfold.
Flames like lava split the earth and began to surge upward.
The undead summoned by the lich, mere insignificant creatures, were already extinguished at this stage, scattering black ash.
I did not know why, but at that moment, I thought of the summit of Mount Tusnis, where my sword had been embedded.
At the same time, the pure white altar that had been at the summit revealed itself beneath my feet.
The lake around the altar was replaced by the sacred fire I emitted, forming a lake of flame,
and so, my inner image took shape there, however clumsily.
“Temporary Image Manifestation (心象具現)—Altar of the Eternally Burning Sacred Flame.”
The very moment it fully revealed itself,
“Kraaaaaagh!!!!!”
the Bone Dragon thrashed within the sacred fire and eventually vanished,
“This cannot be!! My plan had nearly reached its final stage!!”
and the Elder Lich also met the same end.
That was how Image Manifestation was: even incomplete, it was a technique of a level far above theirs.
“You’re holding out quite well.”
My indifferent gaze turned to the Death Knight.
He was enduring the burning agony, supporting his body with his sword.
“.......”
- Ssss...
Sensing that he had something to say to me, I released the Image Manifestation.
It was also difficult for me, having manifested my image for the first time, to maintain it for long,
and I too was nearing my limit.
“My thanks.”
The Death Knight expressed his gratitude to me.
“I knew that my lord was engaged in something unsavory. At some point, he became a subordinate of the Demon King and began researching something.”
He told me many things.
From the fact that the Elder Lich, by the Demon King’s command, had been trying to develop a more advanced method of nullification beyond the existing nullification based on a monster’s grade,
to the fact that he had researched methods to trigger a Dungeon Break regardless of the demonic energy within, intending to deliver them to the Demon King.
“And one last thing, knight.”
His form was gradually disappearing from the bottom up.
“The world... would not have granted you such power for no reason. Surely, trials even more difficult await you, difficult enough that you had to receive this power. Keep in mind that something like today can always happen, and always remain vigilant.”
- Clatter.
As his hand vanished, he could no longer support his own body.
“For a knight who had fallen into a mere monster, it was truly an honor to witness the birth of a new knight.”
With those words as his last, he disappeared from this world.
“Whew...”
After confirming that everything was over, I let out a deep sigh.
My body felt like it might collapse at any moment.
The tension had drained away.
However,
- Ruuuumble.
I could not collapse here.
Because with the boss dead, the dungeon was collapsing.
- Step... Step...
I dragged my body with difficulty and returned to the women, preparing for any possible emergency.
Countless mages would be waiting at the dungeon entrance for any possible survivors, but we might be flung somewhere else, or contrary to expectations, different people might be waiting outside.
- Squeeze...
And so, with my trembling arms gripping my sword tightly, I was flung outside together with them as the dungeon collapsed.