In the Name of a Knight (4)
Mana reinforcement of the body was the most basic technique for warriors.
In combat, the importance of the physical body was obvious to those who fought by throwing themselves into the fray.
As such, while the medievals' body training methods were barbaric, they far surpassed anything from the modern era.
But Julian was a modern man, wasn't he?
It was difficult for a modern person to properly follow their ridiculously brutish training regimen.
So he used his head.
He decided to take advantage of the fact that he was a modern man.
In battle, not just the body but the brain was important too. As someone with modern medical knowledge, Julian knew that all too well.
Warriors would pour mana into every single toe and control it.
But they had never once considered injecting it into the brain.
To them, the brain was nothing more than a troublesome and sensitive vital point.
Moreover, cramming their lively, vigorous mana into it was practically considered suicidal.
Yet Julian had no choice but to do it.
If he couldn't kill the Demon King, the hero would die.
In a fight where it was kill or be killed, it was the only advantage a frail modern man could try to seize.
"Hey! I told you your already shitty brain is gonna get wrecked!"
Meyrin had been consistently trying to stop and interfere with this act.
But Julian, as if blessed by heaven, had met some insane mage and learned the method from him.
"What? Hehehe... You want to reinforce your brain too...? You're completely crazy. Just like me."
The mage had warned Julian multiple times.
It was dangerous and probably useless. Especially for a warrior like Julian.
He had been wrong.
It was the same technique, but the application was completely different.
The mage had viewed the brain solely as an organ for thought, trying only to boost learning ability or cognitive power.
That was an extremely narrow interpretation of the brain's functions.
"H-huh...? H-how is this possible...?"
First of all, the brain's key feature was its direct connection to the optic nerve.
In other words, recognizing and interpreting what the eyes followed was ultimately the brain's job.
What if that brain's processing speed became faster?
It would be like a camera.
If a camera increased its frames to ultra-high speed and recorded video, you could play that footage back as slowly as you wanted.
What if the brain's perception speed was raised to ultra-high speed as well?
Mana Acceleration.
Mana Acceleration
The optic nerve accelerated, and his pupils contracted.
Only then could he see it.
The black wind that Dross was generating.
This wasn't wind at all.
It was a tangled skein of dozens, hundreds of sword strikes.
Here.
In the gaps of that dense tangle.
Junil's sword strike slipped through.
It severed the knotted threads.
Tap. Tap...
With composure. With care.
As if handling an extremely delicate sculpture.
Thud...
Finally, the skein unraveled.
Done.
The blue blade tore through the black magi in a diagonal slash.
Only then did the blade finally reach the tip of Dross's throat.
It touched by the barest margin.
It couldn't inflict a deep wound.
Just one very shallow scratch.
Hiss—
Doesn't matter.
Vwoong!
A blue gleam surged in Junil's eyes.
He had activated another technique.
He moved mana atop mana.
It was a feat on the level of walking on water atop water.
The pinnacle of mana control.
"Mana..."
He could see it.
Dross's face slowly twisting.
He knew what had been done to him.
But it was too late.
Junil murmured as he released the acceleration.
"...Boom."
In that instant, the world flipped over in the blink of an eye.
It looked as if Junil had barely dodged Dross's sword and rolled across the floor.
Crash!
Even the Constellations watching couldn't guess what had just happened.
What happened in the very next moment was something no one could understand the reason for.
"Guh...!?"
Clutch!
Suddenly Dross grabbed his own throat.
On that throat was a very small wound.
Not even blood—just a tiny wisp of black smoke leaking out.
But Dross instinctively knew.
"You... you... what the hell did you..."
Clang...!
He dropped the sword he'd been holding in both hands with a loud clatter and collapsed to his knees.
His blood vessels were slowly swelling up.
It was only because Dross was superhumanly strong that he could endure this much. A normal knight would have died instantly here.
But he held on.
Even as he writhed across the floor.
"Dross."
Junil, who had fallen over, steadied his breathing and stood up.
"Say you want to live."
"What...?"
Dross's eyes met Junil's.
Junil's eyes, which should have been filled with the triumph of victory, were instead strangely full of sorrow.
Snort.
"To think there's another bastard who says something like that. As expected, I was right about you."
The moment Dross let out a mocking laugh, blue flames leaked from his mouth.
He could no longer endure the internal injuries that were spreading.
"Unfortunately, I'm already dead. Sir Knight."
Whoosh!
Blue flames ignited in Junil's eyes.
Junil hadn't used any mana.
It was simply the reflection of what had just happened in front of him.
"You should live a long life, Sir Knight."
KWAAAAAANG!
Dross was incinerated by the flames.
It was a flame of mana fiercer than anything seen before—perhaps even stronger than Kang Hae-il's flames.
Had he already died once and become indifferent to death?
Or was it the true spirit of a knight?
He had died with considerable dignity.
Even though he's just Kim the Thief.
Junil picked up one of Kim the Thief's long swords and stuck it into the ground beside the corpse.
He had finally become the knight he so desperately wanted to be. So he would let him die as a knight.
Kim the Knight... sounds kinda lame.
At that moment, strength left Junil's entire body and he staggered.
Sway—
Huh...?
His head spun, consciousness flickering on and off for a moment.
A feeling like he might faint any second.
It was the aftermath of Mana Acceleration.
After all, even back in Julian's time, this was a skill that couldn't be used whenever he felt like it.
This is bad.
Even as his fading consciousness slipped away, the thought that he couldn't collapse here flashed through Junil's mind.
There were still people on the rooftop.
That old man was still there too.
Junil couldn't predict what the bastard would do now.
Whatever it was, the members upstairs couldn't handle him.
I have to get up...
Thud.
Junil's eyes closed and he collapsed right where he stood.
His consciousness flew away.
But—
The level-up came late.
Some of his stamina and mana had clearly recovered.
Yet Junil still couldn't open his eyes.
All the Constellations fell into despair.
Many of them already knew the situation upstairs was bad.
What was happening upstairs right now was, even to the Constellations, on an unmanageable level.
Yet Junil showed no sign of waking up.
"Ki... Kim... Kim the Thief..."
He was dreaming.
It wasn't his own dream.
Someone else's consciousness was flowing into him.
Beeeeeeeeep!
[WARNING!]
[Powerful Reminiscence Energy Detected!]
Someone's death filled with resentment had caused a crack in this stage.
[The Reminiscence of the Dead Begins.]
Junil's consciousness was helplessly sucked into it.
* * *
Jet-black shadows rose like distant mountain ranges.
The old man standing among them asked,
"What is your name?"
That old man with white hair and a face that looked like it was collapsing in on itself, who seemed to have no strength at all—he was the mastermind who had single-handedly destroyed this country.
Dross couldn't believe it.
He couldn't accept it.
After all the effort he'd put into protecting this place.
Dross approached the old man, dragging his long sword along the ground with an arm that hung limply from his collapsed shoulder.
"I ask because you are worthy of being taken as a subordinate. What is your name?"
"......"
A subordinate, huh.
Snort.
Dross let out a mocking laugh.
"Sorry. Julian... It looks like I won't be able to protect this land you guarded..."
"Julian...?"
Even though his question had been ignored multiple times, the old man paused for a moment to savor the resonance of the name Julian.
"Are you also connected to Julian? I don't recall any of his comrades looking like you."
"We were comrades once. I left his side because of my own greed."
"Is that so? I like you even more now. So, what is your name?"
"It's Kim the Thief, you son of a—"
His eyes widened as he swung the massive sword.
That was the last memory of the knight Dross in his lifetime.
He reached death in an instant and was turned into a subordinate on the spot.
"What. So it was Dross."
Chuckle.
In any case, he had never been a match for the old man.
Asking his name slowly had simply been for the old man's own amusement.
He always asked for a name before killing someone important.
Perhaps this was his way of venting resentment toward himself—for not even leaving behind a name as one of the Demon King's generals during the great hero's journey.
* * *
Hmm...
The old man, recalling events from the distant past.
He slightly opened the eyes he had closed for recovery and murmured.
Dross... is dead?
The connection had been severed.
It was an unexpected loss.
Even when all the other Death Knights had died, he had never thought Dross would fall.
He had been a capable subordinate.
Still, he bought me plenty of time.
Inside the massive black hand, the old man was recovering everything.
The insufficient sacrifice had left him short on magi and bodily sensation, but all of it had been restored to its original state.
The atmospheric mana in this place, where mana had only just begun to spread, had high purity—perfect for him to convert into magi.
Of course, there had been painful losses in the process, but subordinates existed solely for their master's sake anyway.
Still, I won't let your deaths be in vain.
Though his subordinates had died, the entire world would become their grave and mourn them.
Slither—
The massive black hands that had been enveloping the old man unclasped and spread out to both sides.
It looked like a grotesque black flower blooming.
The blooming of a flower was like a young effort finally stretching its limbs—truly the peak of youthful energy.
Perhaps that was why.
The one who walked out from within was no longer an old man.
Ding.
[Suspicious Young Man Lv.???]
Smooth white skin and refined lips sneered at the world.
Grin.
He was ready to dye this entire world with death.