Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: The Black Crusade
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Sachsen Castle.
Night deepened, and in the darkness, they moved. The hardline elders of the Black Magic Tower, who did not hesitate to become monsters of truth, were here to carry out their black crusade.
“For the Black Magic Tower.”
“And for the Master of the Black Magic Tower.”
They had only one mission to fulfill.
When he built a family with the woman he loved and Dale was born, the ‘Master of the Black Magic Tower’ they knew had died in the warmth of his family. And with his death, the ideology of the Black Magic Tower had died as well.
Therefore, they would eliminate the warmth of the family that made the Master weak and resurrect the monster of those bygone days.
“Elena of Sachsen, Lije of Sachsen, and…”
“The Black Prince can be no exception.”
Even if Dale possessed the greatest talent in the empire and was fit to be the Master's successor, the boy was the most potent influence on the ‘Lord Black’s weakness’.
Having solidified their resolve, the hardline elders of the Black Magic Tower spoke in unison.
“The truth will set you free (Veritas vos liberabit).”
Behind them, the endless ranks of ‘Death Knights’ readjusted their grips on their hilts. The black swords of House Sachsen, held in the hands of the Death Knights, emanated a dark, pale killing intent toward the ducal house they were supposed to serve with loyalty.
Jet-black aura blades.
The black crusade had begun.
***
The assault began under the cover of pre-dawn darkness.
***
Dong, dong, dong.
The bells of Sachsen Castle, which rarely ever rang, were now tolling. It was the alarm signaling a surprise attack.
“Enemy attack! It’s an enemy attack!”
“All hands, arm yourselves and prepare for the assault!”
“Assume combat positions and draw your swords now!”
An enemy attack. Not just in Sachsen City, but right in the heart of it, at Sachsen Castle, the alarm was suddenly blaring. It could only mean one thing: the attackers were people who could enter the castle without suspicion.
The elders of the Black Magic Tower.
And the Death Knights they commanded.
The Night Raven Knights, the pride of House Sachsen, tightened their grips on their swords against their foes—undying knights who, like them, were clad in the black armor of House Sachsen and would never rest or stop.
Toward their former comrades-in-arms, who now wielded jet-black aura blades.
***
There was a girl who had been dedicating herself to solitary sword training deep into the dawn.
She was clad head to toe in black armor—a custom-made suit of a Night Raven Knight's armor—and held a Sachsen greatsword in both hands.
“…”
When the castle bells rang out, signaling the attack, Charlotte felt no hesitation.
To think and deliberate is not the role of a knight. A knight's virtue lies solely in execution. Thus, it was time for her to tighten her grip on her heavy sword and execute her duty as a knight.
The girl with the greatest talent for the sword in the empire was about to test her progress.
“Wait for me, Dale.”
The daughter of the Divine Sword, Charlotte Orharhart, whispered softly.
***
Why were the elders of the Black Magic Tower attacking Sachsen Castle, taking advantage of the Master's absence?
Why were the Death Knights, who should be the most trustworthy, swinging their greatswords at the Night Raven Knights of House Sachsen?
It must be a coup of some sort, instigated by the hardliners of the Black Magic Tower who reject Lord Black's regime.
But to Lord Helmut Blackbear, the Mad Sword, one of the Seven Swords of the Continent who stood at the pinnacle of the Night Raven Knights, that was not a particularly important fact.
Just as with Charlotte Orharhart, to think and deliberate is not the role of a knight.
To wield one's sword for one's lord. To eliminate enemies and protect the lord and his bloodline, even at the cost of one's own life.
It is execution.
Therefore, Lord Helmut the Mad Sword tightened his grip on his beloved sword, ‘Madness.’ He faced the Death Knights who dared to hold Sachsen’s black swords as they poured into the castle corridors, and beyond them, the elders of the Black Magic Tower who advanced under their protection.
“Helmut the Mad Sword…!”
“How dare you.”
Lord Helmut, the strongest knight in the North, spoke.
“To fearlessly point Sachsen’s swords at my lord and sully the honor of our proud Night Raven Knights.”
Lord Helmut Blackbear muttered, accelerating the black aura within his body to an explosive degree.
“How dare you vermin, dare, dare…!”
With a mad roar that seemed to tear the heavens and earth apart.
“I’ll rip your flesh and bones to shreds!”
Crack, crack! Crunch!
At the same time, something began to twist.
Lord Helmut’s black armor buckled, its steel plates unable to withstand the explosive growth of his berserk body. No, it wasn't just buckling.
The black heavy armor twisted and contorted along with the shape of his body…
—Lord Helmut Blackbear’s rampaging body and his black armor were fusing.
There is a saying: magic is the power to turn imagination into reality, and furthermore, ‘a sword that has reached a high level of mastery is indistinguishable from magic.’ Therefore, the power to turn imagination into reality is by no means the exclusive domain of mages.
In the case of swordsmen who have reached the pinnacle of sword and aura as knights, they can imbue their swords with their ideology to manifest supernatural powers akin to those of a mage.
Just as mages who have reached a high level of mastery each possess a world of ideology.
A knight can project that ideology solely onto his ‘sword and armor’ and ‘body,’ thereby achieving an ultimate combat form.
Ideological Armor.
Avatar.
Like a man reborn as a ‘monster in black heavy armor,’ his jet-black steel armor, berserk body, and the greatsword in his hand fused into one.
A heavily armored tank in the shape of a man stood there. It scattered jet-black aura, its arm and the hilt of its black greatsword, ‘Madness,’ fused as one.
“Not even death will forgive your foolishness…!”
The monster in black armor shouted as it kicked off the ground. The ‘black greatsword,’ now a part of its body, was swung.
Whooosh!
“I’ll kill you! I’ll tear apart every bone in your bodies!”
The jet-black berserker roared.
Thoom! Thoom!
An absurd sense of pressure emanated from it, as if a large tank had taken human form. It was the overwhelming intimidation of an armored vehicle charging through a squad of infantry.
It wasn't a metaphor. Lord Helmut’s body was literally an armored vehicle made of black plate.
The Death Knights, the pride of the Black Magic Tower's elders, were being slaughtered like common soldiers.
Each time Lord Helmut's greatsword, ‘Madness,’ swung, the bones of a Death Knight were torn to pieces, scattered beyond recognition even by their own brothers.
“The Mad Dog of Duke Sachsen…!”
Witnessing this, the elders of the Black Magic Tower clicked their tongues.
Even the endless onslaught of Death Knights couldn't stop him, and the dark magic poured out by the elders of the Black Magic Tower failed to pierce his black heavy armor.
A body of black armor that even the magic of a 6th-circle elder could not easily penetrate. Before a knight using an Avatar, even mages who have reached the pinnacle of magic are nothing more than ‘mere mages.’
Furthermore, the fate of a mere mage who allows a knight to close the distance needs no explanation.
Blood splattered.
Drenched in the splattering blood, the berserker in bloodstained black armor roared.
Even the 6th-circle elders of the Black Magic Tower could not help but feel terror before that overwhelming presence.
The monster in black armor charged, crushing everything in its path.
Before it, the elders of the Black Magic Tower simultaneously unfolded their ‘worlds of ideology.’
The greatest monster in the North, protector of Sachsen Castle.
From the beginning, the role of the elders here was to tie down that very monster; they held no expectation of winning and surviving.
They would simply pour all their strength into holding this monster back until their comrades completed their mission inside the castle, steeling their resolve to become martyrs for the black crusade.
***
Dale was running through the castle corridors. For the sake of those he had to protect with his own hands.
It was at that moment.
In the castle hallway, a familiar figure blocked his path. The adopted son of Lord Crimson, the heir to the Red Magic Tower, was there.
‘Ray Yuriseu…!’
Of all times. Clicking his tongue inwardly, Dale asked coldly.
“Have you come to block my path?”
“Why would you think that? Are we not friends?”
Ray Yuriseu asked back as if he couldn't understand.
“It seems the elders of the Black Magic Tower split into several infiltration teams to enter the castle.”
“…”
“From the looks of it, stopping the main force will be Lord Helmut Blackbear's role… In the meantime, three or four of them must be attempting to infiltrate the upper floors.”
He calmly assessed the situation.
“And I am quite prepared to fight for my friend.”
He revealed his bio-fusion artifact, the ‘Dragon’s Jawbone,’ along with two circles rotating around his heart.
‘A mere 2nd-circle mage thinks he can stop an elder of the Black Magic Tower?’
It wouldn't even be a contest. But he wouldn't have earned the name ‘son of Lord Crimson’ for nothing.
‘He must have something else up his sleeve.’
In any case, that wasn't something to dwell on right now.
“…Thanks.”
There was no reason to hesitate any longer. He simply left Ray Yuriseu behind and dashed down the corridor, generating black and blue mana from his heart.
For those Dale had to protect. For his mother and his little sister.
***
At that same time, in the Red Magic Tower of the imperial capital.
At the very top of the tower stood that man. The one who reigned at the pinnacle of the Red Magic Tower, known as the greatest red mage in the empire, Lord Crimson.
“Do you think Ray is doing well?”
A woman beside Lord Crimson spoke as she sipped the crimson liquid swirling in her glass. She was a beauty with red hair.
“We shall have to wait and see, Lady Scarlet. My dear sister.”
“Oh, my. I sometimes worry that your expectations for Ray are a bit too high, brother.”
At Lady Scarlet’s words, Lord Crimson silently sipped the crimson liquid in his hand. It was not wine.
“Mm, the taste isn’t half bad.”
The top floor of the Red Magic Tower. When Lady Scarlet turned her head, she saw chunks of flesh hanging upside down, like in a pig slaughterhouse.
Their blood dripped from the flesh hanging on hooks, and beneath them were wine bottles collecting the blood.
At a glance, it might seem like the morbid hobby of a noble who partakes of animal blood.
But the beings hanging from the metal hooks on the ceiling were by no means pigs. Moreover, they were not even dead.
It was just that in the eyes of the two siblings here, those beings were no different from the pigs that humans butcher.
Just as it is not strange for humans to slaughter and eat cows or pigs… it was simply the law of the food chain for a predator above humans to prey on them.