Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Death Knight (2)
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Death Knights closed in, narrowing the distance.
Federback gradually widened the gap, tracking the enemies' movements with his eyes.
"They're getting too close?"
Perhaps because they were corpses, they showed no sense of distance despite being strangers.
Federback took a step back.
Thud―
His back hit the wall, and he felt the cold, damp texture unique to ancient moss.
Along with an unpleasant sponginess, vines trailing down the cold stone pillar seemed to grab at Federback's body.
...Snap!
Federback swung his sword, slicing through the vines.
Splash splash splash―
Clear sap poured from the severed vines, forming streams of water.
"No matter how glad they are to see a descendant after so long, this kind of welcome is a bit embarrassing."
As Federback retreated behind the streams, the approaching corpses hesitated.
The undead inherently feared crossing flowing water.
It was the river that flowed at the boundary between the living world and the afterlife, the place the dead went after death.
They were beings who had fled without crossing that river.
......But.
Clank!
The Death Knights, drawn from their concealment, soon began crossing over the water streams.
The deep-seated fighting spirit within them overcame their instinctive fear.
'As expected of the Meursault spirit? Even in death, their edge is sharp.'
Federback gripped his sword at an angle.
Normally, Death Knights of that level required a 5th Circle knight, a 5th Class mage, or at least a vice-priest of the church to exorcise them.
But.
'It just takes time. I can handle them alone.'
Federback faced the encirclement of Death Knights head-on.
Stab―
Federback's blade sliced through flesh.
His own flesh.
Drip...
Blood droplets trailed down the white blade.
The Death Knights flinched at the spreading metallic blood scent.
'As expected.'
Federback held his blood-smeared sword forward.
Meursault blood was inherently the blood of demon slayers.
To all flesh and blood born of demonic essence, it was like a natural predator.
In short, Federback's blood was poison to the Death Knights.
Federback tore through the encirclement with his envenomed blade.
Clang―!
One Death Knight exchanged a blow with Federback.
Oooooh!
The wraiths trapped in their armor wailed.
Each ripple of otherworldly mana turned the torchlight's edges black.
Soon, the natural order of this world twisted even more grotesquely.
The dead overwhelmed the living.
Numerous Death Knights swung their pitch-black strikes at Federback.
Federback blocked them all with his shield and sword.
Thud―Thump! Crack!
His flashing blade tips perfectly slipped through gaps in the rusted armor, severing the flows of black energy surging within.
Whoosh―!
An empty helmet soared into the air.
Atop the Death Knight's shoulders burned crimson will-o'-wisps.
At their center burned a skull like a candle wick.
Federback pushed the undead back a few steps.
The Death Knights retreated into the rear shadows, fleeing the pale light on Federback's blade tip.
It was ironic—the dead fearing the living.
Federback charged immediately.
The helmetless Death Knight swung its greatsword to cleave Federback.
But.
Federback rolled across the ground, dodging the strike.
Then he slashed from its groin to chest with his sword.
Craaack!
It landed perfectly.
The rusted armor split, spewing black aura.
The dark red blood on Federback's sword oxidized into blue flames.
'Good thing I ate the Centipede Queen's inner core.'
Supporting Federback's sword strikes now was the massive mana seized from the Centipede Queen.
It burned like firewood, spewing a pillar of mana that Federback unleashed fully through his blade tip.
Of course, it brought unimaginable agony.
'It's tolerable enough.'
Federback's endurance, forged as one of humanity's last survivors in the long Demon World War, had long transcended human limits.
...Crack!
Federback crushed the Death Knight's skull underfoot.
"Next."
The Death Knights counterattacked immediately.
Their swordsmanship was quite familiar to Federback.
Meursault Swordsmanship, 1st Form: Bloodletting.
Stab the opponent's vital points to drain their strength.
A simple, straightforward technique aiming to kill swiftly with minimal force at the softest, weakest spots.
But its results were never light.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The Death Knights' blade tips pierced Federback's body.
Two-handed greatswords, one-handed swords, deformed blades, flamberges to curved sabers—various weapons burrowed into him.
But.
"I can do that too."
It was swordsmanship Federback handled adeptly as well.
He dodged swiftly or blocked with his shield, then pressed the Death Knights with the same technique.
He had practiced countless times hunting orcs in the snowy mountains.
The Meursault swordsmanship adapted to this small body.
'This body feels more natural now.'
A fifteen-year-old boy's physique was supreme.
Fast, light, and full of energy.
Worlds apart from his worn, battered body after countless wars.
Splaaat!
Federback's sword cleaved through one Death Knight's skull.
As they began falling one by one, the Death Knights' swordplay grew erratic.
That was swordplay not to kill, but to flee from the opponent.
Thus, Federback closed the distance even more.
Predator and prey had swapped.
The dead, who had hunted the living, were now pushed back by the living's momentum.
Splat!
Federback pierced a hole in one Death Knight's chest with his mana-concentrated blade tip.
Oooooh!
A rear Death Knight swung its greatsword down, but.
Flash!
Federback twisted, severing both its wrists at once.
The greatsword embedded in the wall.
Bony wrists dangled from the hilt.
"Heavy, big weapons are troublesome. My body's not fully grown yet."
Federback shoved the Death Knight's body up with his shield.
The wristless Death Knight flailed.
Federback thrust deep into its lower abdomen.
Crunch―
The faint orb inside the black armor shattered against the blade.
That was the undead's core—the nucleus.
'Undead can't revive if you shatter the core.'
Federback stabbed all the spherical cores inside the Death Knights' armor.
Root and Pillar Severing.
Uproot them completely.
That was how to handle undead.
Groooaaan...
The Death Knights, sensing defeat, retreated.
Federback filled the void left by the departing wraiths.
Step―Step―Step―
The pursuer's footsteps echoed in the empty cavern.
A dim, pale light flowed from Federback's blade tip.
Like an anglerfish swimming the deep sea, Federback lured the Death Knights with his glow.
Swoosh―
He swung his sword once more.
The high ground was near.
All the wraiths had returned to dust.
Scattered across the ruin's floor were rusted helmets and armor, and shattered sword fragments.
"It's over."
Federback had passed all of Meursault's trials.
His heart pounded fiercely, glowing red-hot like a furnace.
His breaths came hot, like bellows.
Thud―
Federback sat on the head of a half-destroyed statue.
Just a brief rest stanched the blood and sweat.
"Next..."
After a short break, Federback rose.
First, he rummaged through the centipede corpses he had killed earlier.
Crack―
Splitting the Centipede Queen's skull revealed the poison sac connected to its jaw.
Federback cut it out with his sword and tied it to his waist.
He also shaved off the venom claws protruding from her lower jaw and placed them in the poison sac.
'Useful for eliminating political enemies later.'
His foes weren't just the Demon King.
The traitors trying to divide humanity had to be removed too.
'Trash who sided with the Demon King for personal gain despite being human. Without them, the war might have been easier.'
Federback clicked his tongue, recalling the many power-hungry schemers who had hindered the hero party in his past life.
In this life, he planned to eliminate them early, silencing them forever.
Soon, Federback searched the Death Knights' fragments.
'Hm. Still some left.'
Shattered cores.
Mana nuclei filled with otherworldly mana.
Federback absorbed all the leaking black mana.
A normal person would go mad absorbing black mana, but those with Meursault blood were different.
Meursault was inherently the bloodline of demon exterminators.
The flesh and blood of demonic lineages nourished Meursaults.
Federback began cultivating, using the Centipede Queen's inner core and the absorbed black mana from the Death Knights.
Roooar...
The black currents swirling around Federback's body gradually turned gray-white vortexes.
Eventually, they purified into pure white aura.
Tssstsss―
Federback's white hair and skin grew even paler.
His eyes, however, gleamed with eerie crimson.
"Breaking into 3rd Circle... still too much."
He had aimed high, but the result was disappointing.
His mana had deepened from early 2nd Circle to its limit, but he couldn't breach the 3rd Circle wall.
"Well, opportunities will come. Plenty of time."
Federback smacked his lips regretfully.
Of course, reaching the peak of 2nd Circle—on the cusp of 3rd—at fifteen would shock the world, but it didn't excite him much.
Praise and recognition from others wouldn't stop the apocalypse.
"Time to open the Secret Vault."
Federback moved.
Having conquered all the dungeon's trials, it was time for rewards.