Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Oh King, Oh King. (2)
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*
-Shoooo...
Rain poured down like a waterfall. Fernandez gazed at the flickering eyes of King Dane amid the darkness. An immense pressure bore down on him.
[Belawin?]
‘...What?’
King Dane suddenly spoke. He looked down at Fernandez with a cold gaze that pierced straight through the soul.
[Belawin. Why did you attack Us?]
‘It can communicate?’
-It’s not devoid of reason. Not in its right mind, but it’s the first properly made death knight in ages.
King Dane took another step forward. Just a bit closer, and he’d be within sword range. Fernandez tensed his stance, carefully observing the situation. King Dane stepped into the area where raindrops cascaded down.
-Clack.
[So dark.]
-Whoosh.
With those words, torches lining the walls burst into blue flames. Only then could Fernandez clearly see King Dane’s form. A massive skeleton, thick armor, a crown. And a gigantic two-handed greatsword.
King Dane clenched and unclenched his gauntlet, pausing for a moment. He stared at Fernandez as if pondering something.
[Belawin. You betrayed Us. We sense your presence.]
-Fwoosh!
King Dane’s eyes blazed fiercely. Was it the lich’s innate life detection, or the knightly instincts honed to their peak? Or perhaps the fruit of long years battling the burial cults.
The creature stared precisely at where Feizashi hovered.
[One of the dead clings to you. Belawin. Our old comrade-in-arms. Our vassal.]
-Shing.
King Dane pulled up the greatsword that had been planted in the ground. He slowly aimed it and spoke.
[We grant you a chance at honor. Belawin, knight of the lion. Take your own life.]
Fernandez clicked his tongue at King Dane’s words. There was no time to resolve this with words or try some other method. Until the spell sustaining him ran dry, or until his head was destroyed. King Dane would not stop.
-Can you kill that thing with a sword?
‘It’s no weaker than Dairan Shrike, that’s for sure.’
-Doesn’t look any weaker than that bastard.
Fernandez bit his lip, glaring at King Dane. King Dane lightly shook his head once, raised his greatsword—and
In that instant, the raindrops halted. Amid the enveloped silence, the sword swung down.
[We shall aid you.]
Space tore.
-KABOOM!!
Dodging that strike was next to a miracle. The greatsword moved at impossible speed, slashing through the space where Fernandez had stood. Immense power? No, it wasn’t about power.
Slicing space with a sword?
Fernandez barely steadied his body from the shockwave and charged at King Dane’s exposed midsection. Either way, he couldn’t win without attacking!
-KABOOM!
[Fierce strike. Belawin. A name that resounds for a knight of the lion.]
King Dane twisted his waist to evade the sword, then smashed his thick gauntlet into Fernandez’s face. For a moment, the world seemed shrouded in darkness, and before he knew it, he’d tumbled five times across the floor.
-Fernandez, snap out of it!
‘Huh?’
Fernandez sprang up, touching the struck area. Despite the blow, there was no shock, no pain. His perception had flickered for a second. No wound!
-You just died once.
‘...Damn it.’
He felt the stigmata flicker. Immortality wasn’t perfect. True immortality didn’t exist. Even the gods of the pantheon would die someday.
Relying on immortality was foolish. Fernandez bit his lip. He couldn’t depend on a power that might vanish at any moment.
[Necromancy revived you. Now We understand why you couldn’t take your own life. Shiled, grant Thy blessing. We shall restore your peace.]
King Dane raised his sword while gazing at Fernandez. His boots pressed against the floor for an instant, then he charged right up to him in a blink. The undead had replicated a master knight’s lance charge—barehanded!
-KABOOM!!
Fernandez rolled across the floor a half-beat ahead, evading and springing up. His sword struck King Dane’s lower back—and stopped.
-CRUNCH!!
“Guh!!”
It felt like striking a boulder. Fernandez quickly ducked. A pillar whistled past his head. King Dane wildly tore through space, swinging his sword relentlessly.
-KABOOM! BOOM!
No time to stand still. Fernandez kept rolling across the floor. Fortunately, like any death knight, it had gaps between actions.
The problem was that even striking those gaps precisely did no damage!
-Aim for the head!
‘I know. You try it!’
-I’d have killed it already. Fool.
‘...’
Fernandez vowed that if Feizashi ever materialized, he’d smack him once. But first, deal with this thing!
-KABOOM!!
Once more, space tore. King Dane’s sword traced a savage arc, closing the distance. The shock shattered his balance completely! No way to block the next attack...
-Rustle.
‘Huh?’
For a split second, he spotted the crumbling chain on his left arm. No time to look, but Fernandez’s hyper-heightened mind perceived the chain as if time had slowed!
‘Feizashi, it didn’t see you!’
-What?
‘King Dane didn’t see you! Damn it. Fragments of Papftet mixed in!!’
During the space leap, as his body crumbled and merged in the process, part of Papftet’s spirit—the one linked by the domination spell—had blended into his soul!
Divinity flowed through his flesh and spirit. That’s why Papftet was nearly extinguished now, but the spell reviving King Dane was the creature’s own and the necropolis’s. The trace of necromancy the king sensed must have been that.
-So what. Does it change anything?
‘It’s a gamble now. Die fewer than ten times.’
Fernandez gripped his sword in his left hand, manipulating the chain of domination. The crumbling chain coiled around the blade.
-KABOOM!!
Space split as King Dane’s greatsword plunged down. Fernandez’s sword slipped between the rending space—
-CRUNCHHH!!!
Riding the sword’s blood channel, the greatsword savagely ground against Fernandez’s blade. Sparks flew wildly. He barely deflected King Dane’s sword, linking the chain to his gauntlet.
Not enough yet!
-CRACK!
The king’s greatsword slashed his waist. Died once! Through flickering vision of death, revival, slaughter, and recovery, Fernandez stared at King Dane’s blue eyes.
*
In that moment, he saw a burning village. Against that backdrop, a boy fleeing from a monster.
*
The chain of domination twisted around King Dane’s gauntlet, on the verge of snapping. Fernandez felt King Dane’s soul. Vast, overwhelming, and fiercely burning.
-...Just now?
‘Yeah. The soul coefficients are aligning.’
-Dangerous method. Can you keep your sanity?
‘No choice.’
Papftet’s case proved the chain held even as the body died. And that souls could blend in the process.
Then force the chain onto King Dane’s body, dying each time to mix their souls! Force the coefficients to match, share the corruption bound to him.
The accumulated grime of corruption in King Dane’s soul over fifteen hundred years, those endless ages. He would take it upon himself!
-KABOOM!!
Again, the sword crushed raindrops, closing in. Fernandez threw himself into it instead, stabbing the chained sword into King Dane’s chest. An attack ignoring all defense!
-CRUNCH!!
Roughly scraping King Dane’s breastplate, a strand of chain burrowed into his armor.
*
A massive red dragon slumbered by a lake, a young man training his swordsmanship before it. Clear skies, forest, lake.
*
“Grgh... Aaaah!!”
The brief soul resonance shook Fernandez’s mind to the brink of destruction. King Dane’s memories flooded into him. An ordinary person’s ego would have collapsed dozens more times, plus the body’s agony!
But once more. He couldn’t stop here. Once more!
-KABOOM!!
*
The world was always hostile, corruption rampant. The youth beheaded a frenzied madman charging with eyes rolled back and thought. Corpses littered around him. If slaying a hundred evildoers saved one good soul.
He had sworn that day.
*
The intense unity made him share even emotions for a brief moment. Staring into King Dane’s icy blue eyes, Fernandez forced his drooping lids open.
Can’t lose his mind here. The chain of domination burrowed into King Dane’s body again. At the same time, the greatsword cleaved vertically into his body.
*
That day, his brother died. Like yesterday. And probably tomorrow. Corrupted masses, knights steeped in evil. Enemy soldiers. A steward poisoning food. Anyone at all.
The youth embraced his brother’s cold corpse, closing his eyes. I’ll carry your deeds. Rest easy.
He gripped his sword again and marched to the battlefield.
*
-Snap out of it, Fernandez!!
‘...How many times have I died?’
-Five.
‘Still good.’
During the space leap, he’d maintained reason for ten times. Fernandez swung his sword with a dazed mind.
-Clang!
-Blocked it, blocked it?!
Fernandez’s sword intercepted King Dane’s in midair! The chain extended from his sword to King Dane’s.
Between life and death, with mingled souls. Not just memories and emotions, but experience too. It seeped into Fernandez’s flesh and spirit!
Fernandez moved almost instinctively. His swordsmanship drew ever closer to King Dane’s. Blocking, deflecting, repelling.
-Clang! Clang! Grind!
King Dane’s sword thrashed like a writhing lion, batting Fernandez’s aside. Slipping through, it thrust at his chest.
The chain linked once more.
*
The swamp monster was too mighty a foe. His dead subordinates, knights collapsed and gasping. The youth knelt on the ground, gazing at the approaching beast.
It laughed arrogantly, mockingly lifting a soldier who’d face-planted into the swamp.
Its sharp fangs gleamed. The soldier’s helmet clattered to the ground. A young face. A boy soldier. The fangs neared the boy’s head.
Poor thing. I’m sorry. I swore to protect you all. No strength left in his body. This might be the journey’s end.
His mother, the red dragon’s kindly eyes surfaced in the youth’s mind.
[What do you feel seeing your dead kin?]
‘That my power couldn’t save them fills me with rage.’
[Wrong, child.]
The dragon’s eyes curved softly. Its thick claw ruffled his hair.
[Dain. My child. Your name means ‘compassion’ in our tongue. Pity them, that’s all.]
The youth—Dain—gripped the steel greatsword fallen to the ground. His name was crookedly etched on the blade. Dain, compassion.
He slowly rose, aiming at the swamp monster. It dropped the boy soldier’s corpse and sneered.
*
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
Frenzied sword strikes traded blows at incredible speed. Fernandez’s sword now nearly matched King Dane’s.
Blades tangled, sparks scattering wildly.
‘Its sword’s dulled.’
-...You’ve gotten faster, Fernandez.
‘How many times?’
-Seven.
-Clang!
The weight of karma and corruption bound to King Dane’s soul was palpable. Fernandez wavered amid the tangling minds and memories. Yet with dazed head and dulled senses, he swung relentlessly.
-Clang!
‘End it in the next two.’
The stigmata embedded in his back glowed faintly. The blessing of indomitability. The blessing that overcame even hellish mana’s corruption sustained his soul.