Episode 943
Episode 943
Enraged, Perkuntra fiercely pressed the ambushed Profaner. The massive pillar that had pierced the enemy transformed into countless bolts of lightning, each turning into arrows that assailed the Profaner.
Ki, ssup, eul...
Under a storm of lightning more violent than any tempest, the Profaner groaned and shifted to the defensive. Yet even then, it didn't forget to condemn its opponent's cowardice.
'Not entirely wrong.'
The Beast honestly sympathized with the Profaner's feelings.
A mighty spirit like the Thunder King had been lying in ambush, pretending not to have been summoned in such a petty manner.
From the Profaner's perspective, it was only natural to feel aggrieved.
Of course, both the Beast and the Profaner themselves frequently employed ambushes and traps without a shred of guilt—but they were undead, while their opponent was a lightning spirit.
Unlike undead, who took pride in their treachery and cunning, such acts were shameful for a lightning spirit.
Shut up!
Perkuntra knew this well, so instead of arguing, it drove another bolt of lightning into the Profaner. The limbs of the Profaner, which had been swelling and regenerating, were scorched and severed.
-Magnificent, mage! To command the Thunder King in such a cowardly and despicable act! Truly magnificent!
"..."
"Hey. Keep it to yourself."
Lee Han glanced at Perkuntra, who was pummeling the Profaner from afar.
After much pleading and begging, Perkuntra had reluctantly agreed to help—only for the demon Mahuda to stir up trouble.
'No wonder he's a demon.'
-Why? The Thunder King should be proud. Didn't he break his stubbornness and completely deceive his foe? That Profaner is being toyed with!
"Hmm... Another demon like Anpursas that I should never summon again..."
-...
Come to think of it, the Thunder King might be a little offended!
Mahuda quickly regained his senses.
True to a demon who had long hunted undead, his political instincts and awareness were anything but ordinary.
-Wait! He's escaping! Stop him!
In an instant, all the surrounding undead forces were sucked into the Profaner's body.
It was trying to recover its wounds and stockpile power as quickly as possible.
Crack!
The Profaner's body, having gathered whatever strength it could, shattered into pieces.
Not from an enemy's attack—it was the Profaner itself splitting its own body, intending to confuse its foes and flee.
Indeed, each fragment of its flesh transformed into a smaller version of the Profaner, disorienting the Thunder King's gaze.
-Cheap tricks?
But unfortunately, standing before it now was the Beast, who had fought the Profaner for a long time.
The Beast unleashed a wave of death, scattering the clones before swiftly locating the main body and biting down on its torso. The fleeing Profaner let out a cry of pain and fury.
-Thunder King, now is the end! Lend your strength as promised!
This damn demon won't shut up!
-Aren't you being too emotional... Ugh!
Though Perkuntra hurled insults at the detestable Mahuda without holding back, it ultimately kept its initial promise.
Ambush and strike.
And in the final moment—lending its power to the attack!
As Perkuntra merged with Lee Han's body, it transformed into a colossal avatar of lightning. Normally, possessing an unprepared mage's body would have resulted in mutual destruction—but Perkuntra trusted in Lee Han's unwavering, immovable magic power, unshaken by any threat.
The essence-piercing force of lightning erupted within his grasp, discharging like an explosion. Without hesitation, Mahuda shaped that power into a massive spear.
The Beast felt instinctive fear just from witnessing the spear. It was a spear of Extermination of Evil—no, Annihilation of Evil—the bane of undead.
The Thunder Spear of Demon-Subduing Evil Annihilation!
'I thought he was still an inexperienced mage... How can he wield such high-level magic?!'
Though he had summoned mighty beings, it was ultimately the mage who had orchestrated it all. It was utterly unbelievable.
But there was no more time to hesitate. The Beast decisively performed a reverse summoning on itself back to the Undead Realm.
The moment that spear was completed, the Profaner's fate was as good as sealed. It had to flee as far as possible.
Though it was a shame not to witness the bastard's humiliation, getting caught in the crossfire and injured would mean decades of recovery.
"Throw the spear!"
"Hurry! We need to bring the potions!"
"We'll handle it, so just stay still!"
"What nonsense! As nobles of Granden City, how can we stand idle in such a situation?"
One thing the Einrogard students hadn't anticipated was that people were far less obedient than expected.
In this situation, the best course of action would have been to flee until the palace was out of sight, but the proud citizens of Granden City gathered completed potions and necessary items before rushing back toward the palace.
The students desperately tried to dissuade, coax, and persuade them, barely managing to reach a compromise.
"Fine! Then stop here, in front of the <Three Griffins Bridge>! You absolutely must not cross this! If anything happens, you must retreat immediately!"
"Grr... Very well!"
The citizens who stopped at the bridge helped evacuate nearby people and distributed potions in case of injuries.
Meanwhile, the students anxiously stared at the sky. Regardless of the evacuation, the battle unfolding before their eyes was progressing differently than expected.
"It's growing too large... Can the knights really handle that?"
"The shockwaves haven't reached beyond the palace yet... But we might need to evacuate."
"How do we convince them when they're insisting on helping?"
As the seniors debated, Yoner cautiously raised her hand.
"What if we secretly slip them sleeping potions?"
"..."
"Th-that's a good idea, but... we don't have any sleeping potions right now."
The students had prepared potions useful against undead, but they hadn't bothered making sleeping potions at this moment.
And producing enough to knock out everyone here would be even more difficult...
"I anticipated this and made some separately!"
"Here!"
Ashan and Angrago appeared, carrying a crate filled with sleeping potions.
"Nilia will handle administering them."
"?!"
Nilia, who had been standing quietly, blinked like a startled deer, as if struck by lightning.
But the seniors were impressed.
"These second-years are extraordinary...!"
"To immediately think of knocking them out with sleeping potions... That ruthlessness is so very Einrogard-like."
An ordinary student would have spent minutes considering other methods before arriving at such an idea, but their boldness in immediately resorting to it was particularly admirable.
"..."
"W-well, it's not that ruthless, is it?"
Yoner asked, feeling slightly wronged.
Originally, if Lee Han had been here, he would have been the one to suggest it. Now that she had proposed it and was being labeled as ruthless, she felt unfairly judged—and a little guilty toward her friend.
'Sorry...!'
Yoner silently vowed that if her friends ever said things like, "Does the Wardanaz family only teach such ruthless strategies?" she would get angry on Lee Han's behalf.
"Huh? It is ruthless."
"Bring the sleeping potions quickly. We'll knock them out and move them far away."
BOOM!
But the need for sleeping potions vanished almost instantly.
The tide of battle had shifted in an instant.
"......"
"......"
"Wh-what is that?!"
The seniors, who had never seen Perkuntra before, gaped in shock.
Yoner, sensing the mood, cautiously spoke up.
"Well, you see—"
"Ah. The Death Knights must have summoned it."
—Magnificent, Lord Nago!
"......"
At the Death Knight's shout, the seniors grew even more bewildered.
But compared to the completely clueless citizens of Granden City, their confusion was nothing.
The gathered crowd buzzed with excitement at the sight of the transcendent battle unfolding before them.
"Look, that's Stedal! Stedal is right there!"
"As expected of an extraordinary mage...! He's overwhelming that monster!"
Unable to bear it any longer (and partly out of guilt from earlier), Yoner stepped forward to defend her friend.
No matter how he thought about it, this alias becoming too famous wouldn't do him any good.
"Actually, most of the current fighting is being done by the Death Knights—"
"He's merging! He's merging with the lightning spirit!"
"Can a human really unite with a spirit like that?! That must be putting an enormous strain on him!"
"Didn't the Death Knight say something just now?"
"...It was nothing!"
Yoner quickly gave up and retreated. Nilia sent her a comforting look.
-...
Thud!
Against all expectations, the fight really was over. The citizens of Granden City erupted into thunderous applause, stomping their feet.
"Long live the knights of Einrogard!"
"Stedal! Stedal! Stedal!"
"Wait. Wasn't the vigilante who attacked Uap named Stedal?"
"...W-well, now that you mention it...!"
The Death Knights, who had been searching the area just in case for lingering effects or enemy remnants, recoiled at the sight of people gathering with torches on the other side of the bridge.
-What exactly were the students doing?
Of course, the students who should be held accountable had long since vanished like shadows.
Any Einrogard student knew that staying behind after the enemy was defeated would only mean getting caught again.
-Shall we disperse them?
-No. It's fine. We've already taken them down. We can just explain the situation and send them home.
-What about the heir...?
-What are you talking about? Where do you see an heir here?
At those words, the other Death Knights let out small sighs of admiration.
Instead of admitting they had failed to recognize an Einrogard second-year student and nearly recommended him as a professor—and risk earning the heir's displeasure—they stubbornly insisted that this "Stedal Nago" was a real person.
That might have been true wisdom and cleverness.
'Perhaps we should change their title from "Knights of Death" to "Knights of Wisdom."'
-You're absolutely right! The enemy's malice must have dulled my intellect.
-Haha. Get some proper rest. Maybe you should revert to your spectral form to recover!
The Death Knights quickly reached a consensus. One of them, positioned at the very back, swiftly slipped away to extract Lee Han from the scene.
"Sir Knight! Where is Stedal?"
-Stedal has left. Though the summoned enemies have vanished today, there may still be unknown dangers lurking, so everyone should return home! We will secure this area.
"Was Stedal the vigilante causing all the recent disturbances?"
-We cannot answer that.
"So it's true!"
-We know nothing.
If Lee Han had been present, he would have smacked each of them on the back of the head—but the Death Knights had no choice.
They couldn't tell whether Lee Han wanted them to confirm or deny it.
At this point, all they could do was evade responsibility.
We know nothing!
But sometimes, in certain situations, saying "we know nothing" functioned as confirmation.
And that was exactly how the gathered nobles of Granden City took it.
'So it's true!'
The gossip-loving nobles spread rumors faster than Perkuntra's lightning.
As a result, even before Lee Han could return to the Inn of Ten Thousand Schemes, rumors of the terrifying combat mage named Stedal had already reached the inn.
When a battle cry—the kind only a true warrior with troll blood could unleash—erupted from the upper floor, the terrified innkeeper Mapi trembled in fear.
Just what had provoked the wrath of that kind professor?
"You arrived sooner than expected."
"Of course—our junior went in alone."
The Teleportation Club seniors, having met in a dim alleyway, verified each other's identities.
If any of them had been caught by the Death Knights and were now scheming for leniency, it would become obvious now.
"Then let's move."
"What if our junior hasn't made it into the palace yet?"
"That's impossible."
"Yeah, I thought so too... Wait, what?"
The seniors froze when they saw the Death Knights stationed at the bridge and pathways leading to the palace in the distance.
They weren't blocking access—they were clearly searching the surroundings, an entirely different kind of movement.
Moreover, when they looked beyond, the palace itself seemed... off. Almost half-destroyed.
"......"
"H-he didn't wreck it, did he?"
Sebius couldn't bring himself to argue.