Chapter 209: The Tin Knight and The Forest of Deception (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 209: The Tin Knight and The Forest of Deception (3)
On a dark night, where even the starlight was faint.
A girl floated in the sky, bathed in the moonlight that shone through a break in the clouds.
Though the girl with jet-black hair was as beautiful as an angel, her dark eyes held an indescribable, ominous light.
As she gazed down at the bloodshed and death unfolding on the ground, her face was filled with the innocent delight of one watching a play on stage.
“Ahh, and to think I warned them not to forget their wish.”
The girl shook her head.
She looked like a spectator offering unsolicited advice to the actors in a play.
This was especially true in the way she lamented their failures and mistakes, all while eagerly anticipating what would happen next.
《──■■■■■■■!!》
Letting out a wail filled with vengeful resentment, the death knight Friedel fought against its enemies.
It had been formed from a collection of exceptionally skilled knights, and with the seed the girl had given it, its power was truly formidable.
However, the girl’s assessment was cold.
“At this rate, it won’t last long. Things might have gone well if its opponents were a little duller.”
Among high-ranking undead, there were those who grew stronger by feeding on the deaths of others.
The death knight was one such being, and had it been allowed to mature safely, it held the potential to become a calamity for the entire nation.
If it matured safely, that is.
The problem was that its opponents were not so lenient as to let that happen.
The Tower of Control was undoubtedly evil and greedy, but they were not incompetent.
If they were, they would never have been able to maintain their seat of power in the first place.
As soon as they grasped the situation, they restricted human access to the area to prevent the death knight from gaining new strength. Instead of needlessly committing their forces piecemeal, they gathered their elites at once.
Its supply of ‘sacrifices’ cut off, the death knight had to sustain itself by killing worthless animals. In that time, the Tower of Control completed its encirclement.
The only casualty the Tower had suffered was a single mage, caught in a surprise attack during their first encounter with the death knight.
The other mages, who had abandoned their dying comrade without a moment's hesitation, immediately created distance, and from then on, the battle proceeded at the Tower's pace.
They employed relentless tactics to pin it down and thorough, long-range attacks.
Familiars that couldn't be absorbed as souls upon defeat threw themselves at the death knight, restricting its movements while a barrage of attack spells rained down upon it.
It was less a battle and more a hunt.
Just as the Friedel domain’s army had once been annihilated.
The death knight struggled, spewing forth desperate resentment and hatred, but its body was steadily being chipped away with each passing moment.
At this rate, all that awaited it was another final end.
Having achieved nothing. Meaninglessly, once again.
If no other variables came into play, that would undoubtedly be the outcome.
And that ‘variable’ was now approaching the death knight with the force of a wildfire.
By crushing every mage from the Tower that stood in its way.
Anticipating the imminent reunion, the girl giggled.
Her jet-black eyes stared at another girl in black—one who resembled her, yet was decisively different.
“Now, will your interference be a blessing or a curse? —Dorothy. My dear friend. I pray this ending is one you will enjoy.”
*
“…Hm?”
Feeling a strange gaze upon her, Dorothea found herself glancing up at the sky.
But it was only for a fleeting moment, not even a full second.
It wasn't easy to spot anything in the vast, dimly lit night sky.
Besides, she had no time for leisurely stargazing.
-□▲▽◆!
With a bizarre cry, a snake-like spirit made entirely of water inflated its body like a balloon.
It was the clear prelude to an attack.
The instant Dorothea rolled to the side, the spirit’s swollen body rapidly deflated as it unleashed a tremendous torrent of water.
CRACK!
A tree struck by the water cannon couldn't withstand the force and was nearly uprooted, flying backward.
Adelaide swung her sword at the spirit as it prepared to launch another attack at Dorothea, but the water serpent merely lost its form for a moment before casually reforming and retreating.
Adelaide tried to give chase, but the ground beneath her feet suddenly gave way, collapsing inward.
And as she lost her balance, a volley of attack spells rained down on her.
BOOOOM!
Before she could even check on Adelaide, who had vanished into the smoke and fire, Dorothea pulled out several catalysts through the Gloves of Haider.
Blood-soaked earth. The hair and fingernails of the dead. And finally, enough mana to bypass several other steps in the process.
The simple ritual was complete. Dozens of black hands, scattering resentment and curses, sprouted from the ground and extended their long arms.
The water serpent tried to evade, but the cursed black hands seized its body first.
-□□□□!
A wretched scream echoed.
While physical attacks did little damage to the spirit, the hands Dorothea had summoned were beings whose essence was their venom and curses, not physical force.
It was a vicious magic that would make an ordinary person sick for days with a mere touch, and whose full grasp would cause the body to rot away.
Caught not by one, but by a whole cluster of them, even a spirit had no chance of emerging unscathed.
“You bastards!!”
As if to save his familiar, a mage hastily tried to cast a support spell, but revealing his position by shouting—whether in anger or panic—was a mistake.
The Tin Knight, who had been single-handedly holding off three familiars and their masters, flicked a stray stone from the battlefield in the direction of the sound.
With a sickening crunch, the mage's head burst open. At the same time, the curse-riddled spirit dissolved into a black, murky puddle on the ground.
The black hands, following Dorothea’s command, swept through the surroundings. The mages fired attack spells to stop Dorothea, but their attacks were all blocked by a golden shadow that appeared from nowhere.
“You, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
For a moment, Dorothea wondered if she was just putting on a brave face and quickly scanned Adelaide’s condition, but contrary to her worries, there were no significant injuries on her body.
It meant that even after losing her balance completely and being hit by a series of wide-area attack spells, she had managed to protect herself perfectly.
Come to think of it, Adelaide had been like this for the entire battle.
She had sustained minor wounds from attacks that were physically impossible to evade, like spreading heatwaves or poison gas, and had been healed by Sophia, but she had never once taken a direct, solid hit.
And this was in the chaos of a battle in the dark, where it was hard to tell front from back, without the aid of a barrier like Dorothea’s that could block attacks from all directions.
…I thought the training in the world inside the book would be helpful, but this is far too dramatic an improvement.
She was curious about what on earth Adelaide had gone through in there, but that was a question for later.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ requests a temporary break!]
Having finally annihilated the swarm of familiars that had persistently blocked their path, the Tin Knight leaped backward. As if to fill the void, Adelaide charged forward once more.
Dorothea unleashed a wide-area spell that didn't distinguish between friend or foe, and Sophia protected Adelaide from its effects with her holy power.
The Tin Knight, its supplies replenished, also charged forward again, displaying its valor against the onslaught of magic.
After some time, the seemingly impenetrable encirclement finally collapsed.
Though a fair number of mages still seemed to be hiding in the darkness, most of the familiars that had served as their front line had been uprooted.
The party continued to press forward, toward another battlefield where intense mana and explosions roared.
Or rather, they tried to.
CLAAAANG!
An ice spear, flying at a terrifying speed, was blocked by the Tin Knight’s shield.
Upon impact, the ice spear erupted into a blizzard, attempting to freeze the party, but the Tin Knight unleashed the mana stored in its shield and slammed it into the air. The chilling cold was pushed back with a gust of wind, its purpose unfulfilled.
Perhaps the dense clouds had thinned somewhat, as the faint moonlight grew stronger, illuminating the ground.
Bathed in that light, Jeras Rognir glared at the party, his face contorted with a rage they hadn't seen before.
“Who… are you people? What is your objective!?”
The deceptive magic Dorothea had cast beforehand seemed to be working, as the young man couldn't easily discern their identities.
Should I try to bluff?
The idea surfaced in her mind, but Dorothea immediately dismissed it.
This was the domain of the Tower of Control.
It wouldn't be strange for enemy reinforcements to pour in from anywhere at any time.
It was better in every way to defeat whatever stood in their way and assess the situation, rather than waste time with conversation.
Sensing the party’s lack of intent to talk, Jeras’s eyes filled with a menacing killing intent as he spoke.
“If you have no intention of speaking, fine. I'll just kill you first and ask your souls!!”
As if responding to Jeras’s fighting spirit, a fox with pure white fur appeared at his side.
─▽▽▽▽▽!
The fox’s five tails all pointed toward the sky, and a moment later, a massive wave of mana stirred in the heavens.
The Tin Knight and Adelaide charged forward, but a ridiculously thick wall of ice, at least three meters thick, shot up, blocking the path between them and Jeras.
The clouds above began to emit a whitish glow, dyeing the dark night a stark white.
The sight of white snowflakes scattering in the wind was exquisitely beautiful and fantastical, but the actual result was anything but.
Slice!
A nearby leaf was cut. A twig was severed. Small insects were pulverized.
Everything the snowflakes touched began to shred as if cut by a knife.
And the shredded fragments became part of the blizzard themselves, freezing and slicing everything around them.
Dorothea’s barrier met the blizzard, producing a bizarre sound.
It was like the screech of a thin blade scraping furiously against a wide iron plate, a sound that induced a primal sense of unease.
The barrier, fed by Dorothea’s vast mana, held firm against the relentless, omnidirectional assault, but the problem was that only Dorothea and Sophia, who was beside her, could withstand it.
Feeling her undead legion being shredded in an instant, Dorothea shouted.
“Get back!”
Though she knew the shout from behind was for her, Adelaide didn't look back.
She knew instinctively that if Dorothea lowered the barrier to let her in, it would create a fatal opening.
Besides, she had no intention of dragging this out.
With Dorothea’s mana reserves, she could probably hold out until this blizzard ended, but that would make them late for the other battle.
The little lion wasn't particularly knowledgeable about magic, but it wasn't hard to understand what this spell was.
It's just like how frozen skin bruises and bleeds from the slightest impact or friction.
She sensed that the ‘cutting power’ in each snowflake wasn't that great.
As long as her body didn't freeze, the cuts would be nothing more than minor scratches.
If so, the solution was simple.
All she had to do was crush him before her body grew cold.
Adelaide lowered her stance.
The blizzard stung her skin, but she paid it no mind.
A single strike.
Not with reason, but with instinct, Adelaide decided on her tactic in a half-conscious state.
It didn't matter that her opponent was strong.
The fact that they had made it this far against an elite combat unit with minimal losses was commendable, but that didn't matter either.
She had to move forward.
She had to see with her own eyes.
Therefore, they were in her way.
Violet lightning surged. The belt that governed strength roared.
As if it were the only way to step into a realm beyond common sense, the footsteps left by two transcendent beings guided the still-immature seed of a hero.
One step. The belt’s enhancement ability soared to an unprecedented level.
Two steps. Violet lightning painted over the white landscape.
Three steps. She unleashed Severing Flash.
In the next moment.
The terrain was torn asunder.
—BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!