The Death Knights of Archidia
Thud······!
Julian rolled across the frozen ground.
A white-haired knight gazed coldly down at him.
Those piercing blue eyes held no emotion whatsoever.
Yet Julian interpreted it as mockery.
The enemy was laughing at him.
“Damn it······!”
The gap in skill was so absurd it made him think that.
The white-haired knight had no intention of properly engaging him. He slowly moved his hand and reattached his severed arm.
Creak. Creak······
The leisurely sound of corpse joints grinding carried the confidence that he could cut down someone like Julian anytime.
Meanwhile, Julian lay sprawled on the ground, clutching his broken arm in frustration.
“These damn corpse bastards······ How can they still be alive after losing an arm or a head!?”
He was in excruciating pain.
Yet the knight who had returned from death casually reattached his arm as if it were nothing.
Creak······!
With that grotesque sound of dead joints scraping, the knight turned his back.
He was simply leaving him behind.
Crunch.
Julian gritted his teeth and forced himself up.
“D-don’t get up!”
The priestess Sei cried out.
“He turned away because the knight’s pride still remains in that body. He spared you because you can no longer fight. If you stand now······ you will surely die.”
She too lay on the ground, bleeding from her abdomen. The cold was so intense that her blood had frozen into icicles.
“Julian······ You’ve done enough.”
Tou, collapsed behind him, muttered.
Even the once-mighty warrior sat powerless.
No, he wanted to stand but simply could not. His lower body was already soaked in blood.
“That knight is no ordinary subordinate······ He is······”
A knight who had once been called the strongest in an era, whose name had resounded with honor.
Resurrected from death.
Even Julian would recognize that name.
The Desert Ruler.
“Sahak.”
Tou spoke the name to urge him to give up.
Yet—
“I don’t care to know a corpse’s name.”
“······What?”
Julian kept trying to rise.
“Reckless courage is no different from irresponsibility, Hero. As you said, they are corpses. You cannot win. Cut off both arms, behead them, and they still rise!”
Julian knew it too.
They were no ordinary beings.
They were half-immortal.
How on earth could they be killed?
He had no idea.
“We just need to hold out until Meyrin arrives. She should be almost here.”
“Hey, Julian. The fact she hasn’t arrived yet means······! You know it too! She······ she······”
Tou hesitated, coughed up blood, then shouted.
“······She’s directionally challenged!”
“······”
That was right.
They never should have sent that girl on a solo mission······
He felt regret, yet he stood anyway.
He had to face it.
That was······
“Win.”
“······How!?”
“Because you’re the Hero.”
Pirin’s eyes trembled at those words.
It was clearly baseless nonsense.
The Hero had come alone when five were supposed to arrive.
Just win because you’re the Hero?
No matter how you looked at it, the fight was impossible.
One Hero. Two Death Knights.
Those Death Knights might have been as strong as Heroes in life.
Sirvelis’s subordinates were infamous, after all.
‘This won’t work.’
Pirin clenched her teeth and shouted.
“Hero! I understand you can win, so I’ll just draw their attention—”
——Thwack!
Suddenly, a blue light flew and embedded itself in the left Death Knight’s head.
The Death Knight staggered.
A dagger throw.
‘Huh!?’
It had been so fast she only realized it was a dagger after seeing the embedded blade.
Yet physical attacks meant little to a Death Knight.
At that force, a dagger through the forehead should have pierced the brain and caused instant death.
But not a Death Knight.
Creak······!
‘He knows.’
Junil knew it too.
This was merely buying time.
He could not afford to be flanked.
“W-watch the right!”
Meanwhile, the other Death Knight approached rapidly from the right.
Crackle!
His sword swung, and black magi came crashing down.
Incredible speed.
Yet—
“!”
Whoosh!
It only cut through empty air.
Junil was no longer on the horse.
Because he had hung from the left side of the horse using only his legs.
‘What kind of······?’
Pirin had never seen such near-supernatural horsemanship.
The Hero did not stop there. Still hanging, he suddenly drew his sword in midair and swung.
The left Death Knight, already staggering from the dagger, was properly slashed by that strike.
Shraaaaa—
‘A magnificent slash! But······
Such attacks were useless against Death Knights.
That should have been the case.
‘What!?’
The Death Knight and his horse were sliced clean in two.
No, it was not a simple bisection.
Whirr—
A blue dot ignited at the tip of the sword.
‘Mana Pop.’
——Boom!
The Death Knight scattered into several pieces.
“I-impossible.”
Pirin’s mouth fell open.
The cold wind kept rushing in, but she paid it no mind.
To the knight’s squire, the mana manipulation was so advanced it nearly made her lose consciousness.
‘He detonated it from the inside?’
It was hard to believe even after seeing it.
Infusing one’s own sword with mana was something one might master after a lifetime of training.
Yet expanding it inside an enemy’s body to that degree?
How?
「Because you’re the Hero.」
She remembered what he had said earlier.
Because you’re the Hero.
Did it simply work because he was the Hero?
‘Is this what a Hero is?’
According to the Prophet, the first Heroes who crossed over possessed special abilities but were not particularly skilled with weapons.
They could not even ride horses and lacked all basic skills.
‘But he’s too good at it.’
His horsemanship was at a supernatural level, his swordsmanship at the realm of art, and his judgment at the speed of light.
Before her admiration could even finish, Julian’s sword flashed like lightning and thrust toward the right.
Shhhk!
With the sound of wind being sliced, the blade tip instantly aimed for the neck.
The Death Knight reacted.
He swung his sword to deflect the thrust.
‘The angle changed?’
Clang······!
As if he had anticipated it, Julian’s sword slid along the enemy blade with uncanny precision, coiling like a snake before sinking its fangs into the nape.
Thud!
Mana vibrated blue as deadly poison was injected to kill the enemy.
Blue light flashed in Junil’s eyes.
‘Mana Pop.’
Blue energy spread throughout the enemy’s body.
It seized every vein carrying the enemy’s cold blood, expanded in volume, and—
KABOOM!
The Death Knight shattered into pieces.
[Quest ‘Evade the Enemy Scouts’ Complete!]
It had all happened in an instant.
Especially from the Constellations’ perspective, the time it took for the Death Knights to approach and coordinate was only about thirty to forty seconds.
Far too short for two Level 47 Death Knights to die.
······
······
······
They could not help but cheer.
They had witnessed it with their own eyes.
The overwhelming gap in power.
Pirin followed with a dazed, soul-drained expression.
“H-Hero. What in the······”
He stared at the Death Knights’ corpses in disbelief.
“What is this mystical technique?”
“Kids don’t need to know.”
“······Ah, yes.”
Junil’s eyes had returned to their usual relaxed look.
[Skill Acquired!]
Along with the inherited memories, a skill had been acquired.
[Mana Pop]
Mana Pop
Rank: S
Proficiency: ★★
Effect: A crude technique that forces an enormous amount of mana into an enemy’s body to cause an internal explosion. Mana consumption is extreme, so use only when necessary.
The Constellations believed this was a gate reward.
In truth, that assumption was not wrong.
‘If I hadn’t entered this gate, I wouldn’t have gathered this many Constellations alone.’
Next to Kang Hae-il, he had barely reached 1,800.
Now he had surpassed 2,000 alone.
Currently heading toward 2,300.
This was because the difficulty of the gate Junil had entered was overwhelmingly high.
Any content with the title of strongest in the world always attracted great attention.
Whether villain or ally, it did not matter.
Even if they were not human.
Just like this gate, having the title of strongest among all gates that had appeared so far was enough to draw this level of interest.
‘But why isn’t my experience moving at all?’
He was satisfied with the increase in Constellations.
Yet the experience bar remained unchanged.
Could it be because it was F-rank?
‘No way.’
Considering the Death Knights’ levels, that made no sense.
While he was confused, he saw a chat message and understood.
It seemed rewards were given all at once after clearing the gate.
‘So levels don’t go up inside the gate.’
He had to fight at the level he entered with.
It was a shame, but it did not matter.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve looked forward to rewards.’
How long had it been since he anticipated rewards?
Moreover, the hidden condition had increased the reward.
It felt like he would finally be compensated for all the misfortune he had suffered.
Junil successfully entered the castle’s rear gate with Pirin.
Waiting soldiers greeted them warmly.
“P-Pirin!”
“You’ve arrived!”
They had been waiting with bated breath.
“That person······”
“Yes. The Hero.”
“Ah, we will escort him immediately. This way, please.”
Every soldier they passed seemed delighted by the Hero’s arrival.
“Finally······”
“We’re saved.”
“Now we can breathe a little.”
Junil could not guess what they had been told.
‘I don’t think I can do anything that amazing.’
Yet Junil understood the situation well.
He had entered through the gate.
He could not play the Hero here for long.
They had surely summoned him to carry out one critical mission.
After passing through countless corridors, they finally stood before a grand door.
Fully armed knights stood in formation on either side.
“Good work, Pirin.”
“Thank you, Sir Knight.”
One of them appeared to be the knight Pirin served.
They scrutinized Junil from head to toe as if evaluating him.
It was not unpleasant.
Anyone would do the same upon hearing the Hero had arrived.
“Please enter.”
The lead knight gestured for him to go first.
Thud—
The door opened on its own, and Junil walked inside.
‘Just as I remembered.’
The castle’s structure had not changed at all.
Not much time had passed.
‘Then why were they resurrected?’
It was strange.
Then why was Sirvelis still alive?
‘And why am I the traitor?’
Why had Julian’s name been tarnished?
Perhaps that girl knew the answer.
“Are you the Hero?”
A blindfolded girl stood at the highest seat, welcoming him.
“Are you the Prophet?”
“······?”
She seemed surprised that he recognized her immediately.
“The child I brought mentioned something about a Prophet.”
“Ah, yes. I am indeed the Prophet······”
She tilted her head and asked.
“Why have you come alone, Hero? Three were supposed to arrive.”
Three?
Pirin had said five.
Junil answered smoothly for now.
“Perhaps because I can do the work of more than three people?”
“Alone is insufficient.”
The Prophet spoke firmly.
The elders seated around her nodded in agreement.
“Three were supposed to come, yet alone······”
“Something must have gone wrong.”
“Did that squire make a mistake on the way? I told you to send a knight.”
“How can we send a knight? We must defend this place! We’re short on manpower as it is!”
“That’s exactly why you’re short-handed—because you keep saving people like that! That’s why only one arrived!”
Then—
Thud!
Something fell to the floor.
“Insufficient?”
Junil had thrown it.
“Though scattered in pieces, there are still two of them here.”
In that moment, the entire hall fell silent.
“W-what is this?”
Junil hesitated for a moment.
‘I have to do what needs to be done.’
Even inside the gate, he was still on a request.
In the end, he could not hold back.
“If I say these are Death Knight corpses······ does that explain it?”
“!”
Thud!
He struck the pose.