Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Consuming a Knight
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* * *
The first stage of using aura is to circulate it within the body to strengthen it—the Aura Beginner.
Next is the Aura Knight, who can discharge aura outside the body to coat a sword or use it as a shield.
And the final stage is the Aura Master, who can overlay their sword, armor, and body with aura to manifest an ‘Avatar.’
From a mage’s perspective, this would be comparable to the 6th Circle, the level required to become an elder of a magic tower.
Once one reaches the level of Aura Master, there is no specific term for the stage beyond it. All that remains is to accumulate the power of one’s ideology and aura within the Avatar, honing and strengthening it further.
──With the exception of only seven people.
The pinnacles of swordsmanship, the strongest knights, said to be capable of wielding the very essence of aura. The Seven Swords of the Continent.
They are the inspiration for the ‘Sword Masters’ who typically appear in tales of chivalry.
Strictly speaking, the concept of a Sword Master is not a term used among knights themselves.
It was a neologism coined by enthusiasts to help the public easily comprehend the martial prowess of the Seven Swords.
The term spread far and wide, eventually establishing itself as another level of mastery to praise the strength of the Seven Swords.
And when a knight and a mage of roughly the ‘same level’ fight—with extremely rare exceptions like the masters of the Five-Colored Magic Towers—the battle usually ends in the knight’s victory, unless the opponent is a battle mage who has spent a lifetime training on the battlefield.
The fundamental ideologies of a scholar confined to a stuffy room in a magic tower and a butcher of the battlefield are inherently different.
And…
A battle mage who had experienced countless battlefields over a lifetime was there.
A War Mage.
A different world, one of a white, dark winter’s night.
For a mage to unfold their ‘World of Ideation’ meant one of only two things.
It was either for an absolutely trusted companion, or it was a colosseum of slaughter, meant to eliminate an opponent with all their might.
“You…”
A pure white knight was also there.
His flesh and skin had hardened into mithril, making him appear like a creature made of white metal.
“Do you remember this scenery?”
Dale asked, amidst the horizon of a winter’s night where a light mix of rain and snow drifted down.
“Your trivial castle in the sky is of no concern to me.”
The pure white knight answered coldly, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword as if ready to charge at any moment.
“Yes, that’s a shame.”
“What’s a shame?”
“I had hoped you would at least know where your grave would be.”
“I never intended to return alive in the first place.”
The knight of Saint Magdalena replied.
“I will offer this life to eliminate the seed of evil that will become my lord’s enemy.”
“Don’t you find it amusing, your loyalty to that pig?”
“What do you know that gives you the right to insult my lord…!”
The conversation was over. The pure white knight charged.
Not only was his armor mithril, but his very body had hardened into a pure white metal, like a silicon-based life form.
A white flash descended, but it was not Dale’s place to block it.
*Clang!*
The Death Knight’s black sword met the blow.
But its opponent was an Aura Master, fighting at full strength through his Avatar. As their swords clashed, the evenly matched momentum the Death Knight had shown before was gone.
Dale’s Death Knight was being pushed back one-sidedly.
‘It’s not yet time to borrow Shub’s or Orelia’s power.’
A battle against the strong, a tightrope walk on the edge of life and death.
Each one was an irreplaceable experience for Dale, a foundation for his strength.
His shadow cloak fluttered, and from the darkness at his feet, Shadow Lurkers began to emerge.
“By the light of Saint Magdalena!”
At the same time, the knight of Saint Magdalena cried out the name of his patron saint.
“The love and mercy of the sister goddess shall be with me!”
It was a thunderous roar, like that of a crusader filled with fanatical faith. In response to his cry, light swirled around him.
The light of dawn, driving away the darkness of twilight.
“Kieeeeek!”
Before that light, Dale’s Shadow Lurkers shrieked in unison.
A brilliant radiance raged, as if intending to banish the darkness of Dale’s world.
“Arise.”
Dale spoke once more.
Along the horizon of the white, dark winter’s night, ‘they’ rose at Dale’s command.
In a World of Ideation, a mage can wield power like a god, depending on their ability. And a high-level battle mage can use the ‘world itself’ as a weapon to eliminate an enemy.
“《The Order of Dead Knights》.”
Dale uttered the incantation, recalling the army of the Death Order from that day.
In the domain of death, their lord was issuing a command to the corpses buried beneath the pure white ground.
One by one, an army of Death Knights, each holding a black sword of Sachsen, began to rise.
“...!”
The culmination of his endless training, honing his swordsmanship and necromancy, and building upon that foundation.
An immortal legion, projected with an ‘Automatic’ formula, each imbued with a fragment of a hero. Undead knights built with the power of ideation.
Dale’s world was moving with all its might to eliminate his enemy.
A world filled with malice.
The overwhelming numbers that a high-level black mage could command.
“What in the world is this…”
Could this truly be the work of a mere 4th Circle mage?
The knight of Saint Magdalena, clad in his Avatar, gasped in astonishment.
Undeterred by the swirling light, the undead knights charged. Dodging the flashes of light exploding before them, the Shadow Lurkers submerged themselves beneath a lake of darkness.
From the dark lake, the thorny tendrils of the Shadow Lurkers shot up, and the legion of Death Knights began to charge.
Before them stood a knight wreathed in holy light.
A knight of Saint Magdalena.
“Grant me the courage to never yield!”
Facing the approaching army of death, the unyielding hero tightened his grip on his sword of light.
With a nobility that would never surrender.
* * *
*Stab!*
The sword of light struck down.
Aimed at the archenemy of the Holy Sword Master, the ‘Black Prince’ of Sachsen himself. It pierced through his chest, the blade of dawn protruding from Dale’s back.
Blood gushed from the wound.
“Victory is mine…!”
In a state of euphoria, the pure white knight roared.
A victory seized from the depths of despair, after breaking through the army of death when it seemed impossible to win.
The mithril knight burst into triumphant laughter.
* * *
“Victory… victory is mine…!”
The pure white knight burst into laughter.
Blood streamed from his ruptured retinas like tears. He was oblivious to the fact that Shub’s slender tendrils had pierced through his facial orifices and were violating his brain.
Dale watched him with a completely emotionless expression.
He was not the only one who had grown since reaching the 4th Circle.
His prized possession, the ‘Shadow Cloak,’ and… the grimoire, 『The Book of the Black Goat』, were no exception.
Separate from the tendrils ravaging the pure white knight, another tendril slid into Dale’s ear. It passed through the ear canal, past the eardrum, and across the auditory nerve to the brain.
A new ability of ‘Shub’s’ that he had acquired upon reaching the 4th Circle.
Right now, Dale was absorbing the brain of the knight of Saint Magdalena.
The central processing unit of information, composed of 86 billion neurons and 150 trillion synapses.
The entire life of an ‘Aura Master’ who had spent his existence honing his sword flowed into Dale’s consciousness.
Swallowing an enemy’s brain.
This was not an act Dale could undertake with ordinary resolve.
To maintain his own ego amidst the flood of information pouring in.
He was devouring the ideology the knight of Saint Magdalena had built over a lifetime and making it his own.
──He saw a vision of the Holy Sword Master praising the boy’s talent for the sword.
──He felt the blood and sweat of the boy’s training, day and night, to achieve enlightenment in aura.
“I have finally obtained the Avatar, my lord!”
The knight of Saint Magdalena began to laugh as if talking in his sleep.
──The feeling of childlike joy at becoming an Aura Master and obtaining an Avatar flowed into him.
He turned his head, without a hint of agitation.
All the memories the man had accumulated as a knight of Saint Magdalena.
From the details of their aura cultivation method to all sorts of information he remembered, it all flowed in. He swam through the flood of information, taking what he needed.
“Then, as a test.”
Having collected what he wanted, Dale turned his head toward the Death Knight holding the black sword of Sachsen.
He intended to project the secret techniques of the Saint Magdalena knight, who had reached the level of an Aura Master, onto the jet-black aura blade.
The Death Knight, built from ideation in Dale’s world, tightened its grip on its hilt.
It forcibly twisted the aura within its body, overlaying it with the ideology of the Saint Magdalena knight and reversing its color.
*Vwoosh!*
The black sword of Sachsen began to glow, transforming into a brilliantly shining, pure white aura blade.
The white sword, a symbol of the nobility of the knights of Saint Magdalena. But it lasted only for an instant.
*Crack!*
Unable to withstand the distortion of aura, the Death Knight’s body exploded into pieces.
It couldn’t even maintain the aura blade, let alone manifest an Avatar. Perhaps it was the consequence of forcibly imposing the aura of a white knight onto a knight who pursued the conflicting aura of black.
“…”
He hadn’t held high expectations in the first place. Swallowing a brain didn’t mean he could instantly understand it 100%.
Even so, there was likely no other method in this world to achieve this level of progress in such a short time.
“So this is Shub’s power…”
—Heehee, do you like it?
Shub smiled with childlike innocence.
She paid no mind to the knight she was ruthlessly violating with the tendrils beneath her dress. She lovingly wrapped her arms and tendrils around Dale’s neck.
He was only 4th Circle.
He was still four circles away from the 8th Circle, the level of the greatest mage on the continent.
Moreover, the powers of Shub that were just beginning to be unlocked at the 4th Circle were surely not all there was.
The ancient Mother of Darkness.
If a grimoire was a mage’s sword, then this was, without a doubt, a masterpiece worthy of being called the greatest sword under heaven.
‘A shame about the mages I couldn't absorb back when I was 3rd Circle.’
After a moment of thought, he shook his head. He had just reached the 4th Circle, and there would be no end to the powerful opponents he would have to face. Just like the knight of Saint Magdalena before him.
* * *
When the World of Ideation was dispelled, they were back on the stage of the Fight Club. Murmurs echoed from all around, along with the bewildered muttering of the commentators.
Men in beak-like masks had already aimed their blades at Dale’s vitals.
The ‘high-level assassins’ of the Shadow Court, led by the Killing Sword.
“You have chosen the wrong target to point your blades at.”
Dale replied, unconcerned.
“Fortunately, the one who broke the Fight Club’s rules has received a fitting punishment.”
He said, looking at the knight collapsed before him.
There lay the knight of Saint Magdalena, limp and empty.
He had become a hollow shell, the brain within his skull completely gone.