Chapter 176
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Translator: Prime Works
Chapter: 176
Chapter Title: Shoulder to Shoulder (2)
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Stab!
The silver longsword infused with aura flashed.
It plunged into the Hell Knight's skull with lightning speed.
That was the moment.
- ……!
The Hell Knight, leaping into the air.
The hell knight's greatsword moved.
Kwaaa-!
It swept through the space above him.
The direction Haviel's sword was thrusting down toward.
However, the Hell Knight's greatsword trajectory did not overlap with the longsword's path.
A miss?
No.
'It's aiming for Haviel.'
Lloyd unwittingly widened his eyes.
He was clinging to the Hell Knight's leg with his entire body. By just lifting his head, he could watch everything happening above.
Thanks to that, he saw it.
He realized it.
The Hell Knight's intent.
'This bastard's trying to die with Haviel.'
It showed no intention of defending against the stab to its skull.
Instead, it was using that as an opportunity to cleave Haviel's torso in half.
In that short time.
Lloyd's mind raced.
He measured the direction the fight would take from here.
'This feels tough.'
Hell Knight and Haviel.
If they both landed fatal blows on each other?
Only Haviel would fall.
The Hell Knight would be relatively fine.
Then, he, left alone, would naturally become dessert for the Hell Knight.
'I have to block it!'
Haviel's longsword and the Hell Knight's greatsword.
They had already crossed paths, passing each other.
Rushing toward their respective targets.
Haviel toward the Hell Knight's skull.
The Hell Knight toward Haviel's torso.
The moment they stabbed and slashed.
Lloyd thrust both hands upward.
He gripped the Hell Knight's exposed ribs beneath its breastplate like grabbing a pull-up bar.
Asrahan Heart Method and Mana Heart, forearm and back muscles.
Mobilizing every ounce of strength he had, he pulled vigorously like doing chin-ups.
'Graaah!'
Crack!
The Hell Knight's upper body jerked slightly.
The hell knight's movement wavered minutely.
A momentary imbalance.
A mere millimeter of hesitation.
That tiny difference twisted the greatsword's trajectory.
Whooosh!
The greatsword narrowly sliced through empty air.
Through that gap, Haviel twisted his body.
He thrust out his longsword.
All the way.
Stab!
- ……!
Skull pierced by the longsword.
The Hell Knight's entire body shuddered violently.
But as if it wasn't over yet, like a frenzy, it rotated its whole body with even more ferocious momentum. It swung the greatsword. Up, down, side to side. Rampaging with the intent to destroy everything in range.
Haviel didn't back down either.
Instead, he countered.
His longsword displayed dazzling movements, steadily stabbing and slashing the Hell Knight's openings.
Each time, the Hell Knight's body shook greatly.
Lloyd, embracing the bastard's pelvis and legs, didn't stay idle.
With both arms and legs sealing the Hell Knight's movements like a cicada, he made full use of the weapon he could still freely wield in that position.
His mouth.
"Peace like a river to me! Peace like a riveeerr! To me mighty mighty river! River-like! Peeeaace! Overflowing yeeees!"
Lloyd sang with all his might.
Reviving memories from his army days.
Or recalling childhood trips to the temple with his mom.
He mobilized every church song and sutra he knew.
His vocal cords, firing exorcism chants, thrummed with full force.
A torrent of dissonant notes washed over his tongue.
"Form is emptiness! Emptiness is form! Poetic acrostic! Reverse it, Sarira! All dharmas are thussss!"
He poured his all into shouting and singing.
Pitch slips and cracks happened constantly.
Of course, not on purpose.
He was genuinely trying his best to sing properly.
But the cruel heavens had given him talent for studies, yet not a gram for music.
That's right.
He was tone-deaf.
Severely so.
'Damn it. I…… I'm not doing this because I want to!'
Singing with utter devotion.
Lloyd suddenly recalled an old memory.
Was it during his private days in the army?
Even then, he'd suffered greatly because of singing.
During morning roll call runs, every time he sang army songs, he got chewed out by seniors.
His transcendent sense of pitch turned even pitch-unimportant military songs into otherworldly cacophonies.
It wasn't just then.
Every Sunday morning in the army.
It was the first and only time in his life he'd attended church diligently.
Because they gave out Choco Pies.
But even there, he wasn't welcome.
The day he first went to church and sang hymns.
He got glares again because of his damn singing.
He thought he'd followed along earnestly.
The military chaplain was so horrified.
'He looked at me like a demon spawn incarnate on earth. I still can't forget that gaze!'
Was that all?
There was more misery after.
Right after returning to school.
He'd had a crush once, the only time at school.
One day, he went to a coin karaoke with her.
And that day, the crush ended.
'…….'
Getting melancholic, better not think more.
Instead, accept it.
Yeah, I'm tone-deaf.
But I'm not ashamed.
Sometimes, I can use it as a weapon.
'Like now! This time, Heavenly Sutra!'
He recalled Buddha's Birthday.
The temple he'd gone to holding his mom's hand.
The monk's chanting voice came back too.
Determination hardened in Lloyd's eyes.
That's when it started.
"True Merit Dharani! Quickly quickly great quickly swiftly swiftly svaha!"
Infusing a vibe full of Buddhist piety, Lloyd's voice grew even more resolute.
With that, the Hell Knight's mind grew more scattered.
- ……Stop!
Please stop, you madman!
The Hell Knight sincerely wanted to beg.
The silver-haired knight in front was already overwhelming.
And the weird guy stuck to his leg like a cicada was belting out bizarre songs that would make hell demons recoil.
That voice was brazenly booming too.
The crack in his skull from the earlier sword stab felt like it would split open.
No, actually, the Hell Knight's skull was splitting in two.
From the blow Haviel had landed earlier.
He hadn't had time to recover it.
And subsequent blows kept coming.
The Hell Knight's entire body crumbled, fragmented, and collapsed in real time.
And finally.
"Lord Lloyd, now!"
Haviel shouted.
At his shout, a blasting infused with aura exploded.
At that instant, Lloyd stopped singing.
He released the Hell Knight's pelvis and legs.
He threw himself sideways.
The blast came crashing in an instant.
It swept over the Hell Knight's upper body.
- ……!
Boom-!
The Hell Knight's armor melted.
The greatsword it had thrust forward for defense, the bones holding it, its entire upper body, all swept by the aura-infused blast. It melted. Snapped, crumbled, powdered, scattered, and flew away.
Clatter!
The Hell Knight's barely remaining lower body shook.
Its single leg buckled at the knee.
Then it tilted sideways.
Soon, all the joints snapped, and it collapsed.
Clack……
Powdered upper body scattered.
Collapsed lower body piled up.
A bizarre silence gripped the town hall interior.
Lloyd, who had thrown himself sideways, panted as he raised his upper body.
'Got it.'
He'd gotten the Hell Knight.
Him and Haviel.
The two of them had finished off that monster.
But then.
"Don't let your guard down yet. That thing will revive."
Haviel said with a still stern expression.
He was even keeping his sword aimed at the pile of crumbled Hell Knight bones.
"Revive? You mean resurrection?"
"I don't know about that. But—"
Replying quickly toward this side.
"It was like this earlier too. Before you arrived, Lord Lloyd, I had already subdued it once. Yet it revived. As if unscathed."
"Wait. So that means……."
"Yes, its mana hasn't dispersed."
"……."
Hearing it, it was true.
He faintly sensed it through the Asrahan Heart Method.
A massive amount of mana remained intact in the piled-up lower body bones of the Hell Knight.
Not dispersed in the slightest.
That wasn't all.
'There's mana clumped everywhere in the air too.'
The upper body that had taken Haviel's blast head-on and turned to powder.
That powder floated in the air.
And tremendous mana emanated from it too.
'What the hell.'
Chills rose like porcupine quills.
Mana not dispersing.
That meant the bastard hadn't been annihilated.
'This is like Eren. Right. Come to think of it, Iron-Blooded Knight mentioned something similar.'
Lloyd suddenly recalled content from the novel Iron-Blooded Knight.
Right before the Namaran barrier incident in the novel.
Was it Cannavaro's line?
'Cannavaro was confident that summoning just the Hell Knight would achieve everything. Yeah. Incredibly strong, and even if killed, it revives endlessly. Because it's a hell being. Even if its entire skeleton turns to powder, it can revive, probably.'
That's how tenacious the Hell Knight was.
At the same time, the one way to annihilate the Hell Knight had been briefly mentioned.
'Completely depleting the Hell Knight's mana is the only method. That's why Cannavaro was cocky. Makes sense. To deplete mana, you'd have to grind it down exhaustively, beat it mercilessly, overwork it to exhaustion, or absorb mana with special magic or tools.'
But who in the world could beat a Hell Knight to a pulp?
Or what tool or magic could absorb the Hell Knight's vast mana.
Both were theoretically possible at best.
No person, tool, or magic could actually execute it.
So in the novel, Cannavaro was convinced the Hell Knight was nearly invincible.
'Probably the same now.'
The terrifying revival ability of the Hell Knight that Cannavaro was convinced of in the novel.
From what Haviel said earlier, it seemed real.
Which meant……
"Then I'll handle it."
"Yes?"
Haviel turning this way.
His eyes were round.
Seeing that, a smile came naturally.
Because he could feel the guy's heart—always grumbling but worrying about and protecting him in crucial moments.
"I'll do it. You know what I can do."
"You mean that indiscriminate mana absorption."
"Yeah."
Rapid charge.
Now was the time for it.
To deplete the Hell Knight's mana.
If not, they'd have to deal with the endlessly reviving bastard.
Nothing beat rapid charge to break that revival cycle.
"So step back. Keep everyone away."
"Lord Lloyd."
"I know. I'm worried too. Scared even."
True.
The guy's expression full of concern.
Facing him, Lloyd smirked.
"You know me. I'm not the type who enjoys gorging."
"Will you be alright?"
"Have to be. Truth is, I don't like it either. But no other way seems to work. A bit worried about indigestion, but I'll do as much as I can."
He shrugged casually.
Honestly, he was worried.
It was the Hell Knight's mana, after all.
Could he absorb it indiscriminately and come out fine?
Such thoughts brought doubts if this was insane.
Really honestly, he didn't want to, and he was scared.
'But if I don't, we'll die anyway. Even Haviel can't handle an endlessly reviving Hell Knight forever. Same for me. Everyone in this city too.'
So now, having subdued the Hell Knight even briefly, was the chance.
He had to do this now.
Who knew when another opportunity would come.
Fail to seize it, and everyone dies.
Him too.
'So it's all or nothing.'
Don't do it: death.
Fail: death.
Succeed: survival.
No choice.
He had to try.
Biting his lip, he approached the Hell Knight's crumbled lower body.
Deep breath, steeling himself.
"Step back."
He pushed Haviel back.
No more hesitation.
He picked up the steel shovel.
Thwish-boom-!
Triple blast fired with full power blew off the town hall ceiling.
Mana depleted rapidly, dizziness surged.
Suppressing slight nausea, he opened the skill window.
Selected option activation.
[Asrahan Heart Method Skill Option ⑤: Rapid Charge activates.]
[Absorbs a massive amount of mana from random targets around you.]
That's when it began.
The three mana circles roared.
They began sucking in all mana within the option range.
Leaving nothing behind.
The marble floor.
Scattered debris.
The Hell Knight's crumbled lower body.
Bone dust and mana dispersed in the air.
All greedily absorbed. Devoured.
Easy to absorb or burdensome.
Pure or turbid.
No discrimination.
Seized, extorted, plundered, made his own.
If the Hell Knight had been summoned at full strength.
Or not subdued and crumbled like now.
It wouldn't have suffered this.
It could have resisted the rapid charge.
But not now.
Summoned in an incomplete form.
Subdued, crumbled, vulnerabilities exposed.
- ……!
Amid the echoes of violent absorption, the scream of hell's legion commander, Sir Hell Knight Geo Rexius, faintly resounded.
Death cry.
That was the end.
And shortly after.
[Asrahan Heart Method Skill Option ⑤: Rapid Charge activation time has ended.]
The frenzied mana absorption ceased.
The rampaging mana circles quieted.
Lloyd slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze fell there.
In that empty air, numerous messages were already floating.
[You have annihilated Sir Hell Knight Geo Rexius, legion commander under the Hell King.]
[Amazed by this tremendous feat you demonstrated, the Hell King admires you. The ruler of hell, having lost a subordinate legion commander, begins to covet your talent, ingenuity, and potential.]
[Additionally, you have absorbed a massive amount of Hell Knight's mana and made some of it your own.]
[This rare experience has greatly influenced your possessed skills and options.]
[Mana Heart skill option '④ Undead Domination' has been promoted from sub-option to independent skill.]
[Undead Domination skill has blossomed.]
[Undead Domination skill has been strengthened.]
[Various restrictions and conditions for using Undead Domination skill have been greatly relaxed or removed.]