185
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 185
The Loran Plains were far from the frontlines, so there was no reason for Orcs to gather there or for artillery fire to be heard. If artillery fire were to occur, it should have first sounded from the frontline division in the northeast before reaching the Loran Plains area.
"Elijah...! What exactly have you done?"
"That's what I should be asking you. What exactly have you done?"
Yan felt the need to end this tiresome truth battle.
"Mitchell! If you're real, you should know about your sister Rose. When your sister was five years old, she was severely ill, tell me what she was sick with!"
"Pneumonia! It was pneumonia! She nearly died. Want me to say more? At age 7, she spilled hot tea and got burned on her chest. Even though we used a potion, the scar remained. She avoids wearing low-cut dresses, and when she does, she covers it with thick makeup!"
Mitchell's words were all correct. This was Rose's secret that only Yan and Mitchell could know. Yan turned to Elijah and said:
"Lord Elijah! Mitchell is real! Please stop this now!"
"I didn't expect this about Rose. I thought I could handle this without lifting a finger."
"What do you mean...!"
Elijah revealed his true colors and charged at Yan. Yan barely blocked Elijah's greatsword.
CRASH!
Yan's internal organs were shaken by the impact of the Lion Slash. Mitchell thrust his sword toward Elijah.
"You monster...!"
Suddenly, 20 knights in black armor appeared and swung their greatswords at Mitchell. It was Elijah's elite knight order, the Steel Lion Knights.
CLANG!
Mitchell escaped the enclosing attacks of the Steel Lion Knights using ‘Form Shift.’ The Steel Lion Knights' greatswords cut through Mitchell's afterimage. However, they didn't waver at all and found Mitchell. Mitchell was barely catching his breath while clutching his slashed abdomen.
"These bastards...!"
The Steel Lion Knights physically separated the battlefield where Yan and Elijah were fighting.
"You can't go beyond this point."
An ominous blue aura flowed from the Steel Lion Knights' greatswords. Mitchell's internal organs ached. Though treated with a potion, he wasn't fully healed. Moreover, watching the Steel Lion Knights' movements, he understood. These guys weren't much individually, but their coordination was no joke.
"Damn it."
The Steel Lion Knights charged at Mitchell as one body.
CLANG! CLANG!
Mitchell blocked their swords while assessing the situation. The situation was unfavorable for Mitchell. Elijah seemed determined to kill Mitchell and the Red Wing Knights completely, as his personal guards were surrounding the Red Wing Knights. Soldiers were firing mortars and bullets at the gathered Red Wing Knights, who were unable to get their bearings amid the attacks from front and back.
"Cough!"
Mitchell coughed up another mouthful of blood. The Steel Lion Knights had all learned Elijah's Lion Slash. Though not as powerful as Elijah's, their attacks were steadily tearing up Mitchell's insides. At this rate, both Mitchell and the Red Wing Knights would be annihilated.
'Am I going to fall like this...?'
As a knight, Mitchell knew he might die in battle. But he never thought he'd die from being stabbed in the back like this. Mitchell needed to find a way to survive.
'We need wizard support.'
A wizard was needed to break this stalemate. Mitchell judged that if he could somehow escape with the Red Wing Knights and receive wizard support for magical bombardment, they could suppress Elijah's rebellion. Mitchell moved forward to rescue the Red Wing Knights from the Steel Lion Knights' encirclement. But the Steel Lion Knights blocked his path as if they knew exactly what he wanted.
CLANG-!
Mitchell blocked the Steel Lion Knight's greatsword and tried to strike back, but when another greatsword came at him from the side, he had to grit his teeth and use the Form Shift.
Using Form Shift made his internal organs twist, causing him to cough up blood.
Form Shift, Mitchell's specialty and unique technique, is the fastest movement technique in the world.
It's extremely difficult to master.
Form Shift cannot be performed by understanding alone.
To use Form Shift, one needs not only understanding but also quick reflexes, wide magic circuits capable of handling explosive aura flow, and rubber-like tough muscles.
In other words, Form Shift puts tremendous strain on the body, making it dangerous to use while injured.
"...Damn it."
But Mitchell had no choice but to use the Form Shift to break through the Steel Lion Knights' formation.
Each use tore at his internal organs with pain that sometimes made his vision go white, but he couldn't let the Red Wing Knights, which he had devoted his life to building, fall so meaninglessly.
Then, in the distance, he saw a cavalry unit charging straight toward the battlefield.
How could he not recognize that flag with the white horse emblem?
It was Caesar's personal guard, the White Horse Knights.
The White Horse Knights cut through the chaotic battlefield like an organized spear tip.
"Get out of the way!"
When the White Horse Knights suddenly appeared, the soldiers surrounding the Red Wing Knights were thrown into confusion.
The soldiers had been ordered to eliminate the Red Wing Knights but hadn't received any instructions about other knights.
Soldiers can only carry out operations exactly as ordered.
With the sudden appearance of this army, the soldiers didn't know whether to treat them as allies or enemies.
The knights and soldiers moved aside to avoid being trampled by the charging White Horse Knights, and Messio's group seized that opening.
They charged fiercely toward Mitchell.
Mitchell anxiously watched the approaching White Horse Knights.
Though he was their commander, he had only been appointed a day ago.
From Mitchell's suspicious position, he couldn't tell if they were friend or foe.
"Sir Mitchell!"
But when Messio called Mitchell's name, relief flooded into Mitchell's heart like a tide.
Messio swung his spear at a Steel Lion Knight who was swinging his greatsword at Mitchell.
Clang!
Messio was momentarily surprised by the tingling pain in his fingertips, but the Steel Lion Knights were even more surprised.
The Steel Lion Knight was sent flying by Messio's single strike.
Messio extended his hand to Mitchell.
Mitchell grabbed Messio's hand and mounted the horse.
The other White Horse Knights following behind thrust their spears at the Steel Lion Knights.
Regular knights have very limited options against cavalry.
They can only cut the horses' legs or dodge.
But the White Horse Knights' horses were all enhanced by the Cork Magic Tower and wore armor.
There was no way to stop a charging cavalry that had gained sufficient momentum with ordinary impacts.
"We'll return to the main force now!"
"No! I have to save my knights!"
"Don't worry! Gideon will handle that!"
"Gideon?"
Then knights in red cloaks suddenly appeared on the battlefield.
It was large-scale teleportation magic.
'Wizards!'
The White Army quickly regrouped to face the soldiers.
The Blood Shield Knights absorbed the soldiers' mortar fire and gunshots, while the 11 Red Wolf Knights including Gideon and Gloria who weren't carrying shields cut through the path opened by the White Horse Knights. [TL/N: The blood shield knights are not the rose shield knight, I have reconfirmed twice over]
"This way! Escape this way!"
The surviving Red Wing Knights, seeing Mitchell escape on Messio's horse, formed a scrimmage and began escaping according to Gideon's guidance.
Mitchell was incredibly grateful to those saving him but also confused.
Why were they saving him?
Mitchell finally couldn't hold back and spoke up.
"Who ordered you to save me?"
Messio crushed an approaching Steel Lion Knight with White.
"Chief of Operations Jerry said so. He said we must follow Sir Caesar's orders."
"...Caesar?"
"Yes. He said it was right to save Sir Mitchell since Sir Caesar entrusted you to us."
That wasn't it.
Rather, Caesar had entrusted the White Army's safety to Mitchell.
Both Mitchell and everyone here knew this, but they were soldiers and knights.
They weren't the type to stand idly by while their commander was in danger.
Messio pulled out a communication crystal from his chest.
"This crystal connects directly to Chief of Operations Jerry. 299 mages are awaiting your orders, Sir Mitchell. What do you wish?"
Mitchell's gaze turned to the most dangerous part of the battlefield.
It was where Elijah and Yan were locked in fierce combat.
Mitchell held up the crystal and spoke.
"Jerry, can you hear me?"
-Yes, sir.
Mitchell took a deep breath before speaking.
"Elijah has rebelled against the Empire. From now on, we kill the traitor Elijah and save Yan."
***
Yan was an herbalist's son.
Like a true herbalist's son, Yan loved the mountains and greenery.
What he especially loved was running along the fresh mountain paths.
In Yan's small mountain village, no one could run faster than him.
"Brother! Let's go together!"
After finishing the tasks his father assigned, Yan loved going to the mountains with his only younger brother to gather mushrooms, kudzu roots, and eat wild strawberries.
And sometimes when he found pretty flowers, he would shyly give them to Tiana, a girl his age.
Yan thought these idyllic and peaceful days would last forever.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The fragrance of the daylily he had picked for Tiana was violated by the smell of blood and ash.
Yan's village was outside the steel fortress.
To grow expensive, high-quality herbs, they had to cultivate them near the demon realm where magic was abundant.
Demons would appear occasionally, but since Margrave Friedrich's private soldiers patrolled 24 hours nearby, they could quickly enter the steel fortress when demons appeared.
But... That day was different.
Goblins and orcs attacked Yan's village and trampled the fields his father had cultivated.
They burned everything, killed everyone, and ate them all.
Yan's brother too.
Yan's father and mother too.
And Tiana too.
To the brutal Orcs, the people Yan loved were nothing more than pork or chicken.
Yan doesn't remember exactly what he did that day.
He only remembers taking his wooden staff and crushing the heads of goblins eating his brother, then stealing their daggers and slitting the orcs' throats.
Yan had never fought anyone before.
He had never learned to use a sword.
His body just moved on its own, when he slashed, things split; when he stabbed, the blade went in; when he tried to dodge, attacks merely grazed him.
"Impressive."
That was what Elijah said when he first saw Yan, having arrived late with his soldiers after discovering the Orcs' attack.
That day, Yan swore to become Elijah's sword,
Swore to become the eternal enemy of demons,
And swore to become a sword protecting humanity.
...Though that was surely the case, why am I now fighting against Elijah?
Yan found this miserable story hard to bear.
CLANG!
Every time Yan and Elijah's swords clashed, heaven and earth screamed.
Raindrops reversed their fall, and the ground shattered until no flat surface remained.
Yan blocked Elijah's greatsword.
A heavy vibration traveled through Nameless and Yan's feet, trying to pierce into Yan.
That vibration tried to create an explosion by resonating precisely within Yan's internal organs.
But Yan dispersed the force of the explosion throughout his body to offset the impact.
"I learned the Lion Slash under the Margrave. How could I not know how to counter it?"
Yan returned the force evenly distributed throughout his body back to Elijah.
The vibration starting from Yan's Nameless and feet traveled through Elijah's greatsword and feet, trying to wreak havoc in Elijah's internal organs.
Elijah offset that force in exactly the same way as Yan.
"It seems I taught you well indeed."
The core of House Friedrich's Lion Slash lies in distributing the reactive force traveling through the greatsword throughout the entire body to accumulate it, then returning that accumulated force.
When this technique is advanced, it goes beyond just returning force, reaching a level where it creates vibrations that penetrate deep into the opponent's internal organs.
Those vibrations would either tangle a knight's magic circuits or, as just now, create resonance to damage internal organs.
That's why the Lion Slash was also called 'the Knights' Nightmare'.
How does one overcome this?
Just like now, one could use the same principle of the Lion Slash to accumulate Elijah's interfering force within one's body and return it.
Of course, there was a problem that as the exchange continued, the energy accumulated in their bodies would reach levels that Yan and Elijah's bodies couldn't handle, but there was a solution for that too.
They could explode the accumulated force in different directions and points.
BOOM!
Though Yan hadn't rolled on the ground, the earth exploded and mud splashed toward Elijah.
Elijah lightly swung his greatsword to split the mud wall blocking his view.
Yan's sword wedged through that gap.
Elijah deflected Yan's sword by twisting his greatsword, as if he had expected it.
SCREECH!
Yan and Elijah locked together in a test of strength.
"Your Lordship, why did you do this?"
"Rather, I'd like to ask you. When you left House Friedrich and tarnished my honor, did you truly think something like this wouldn't happen?"