Chapter 321: The Tin Knight and the Reviving Myth (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 321: The Tin Knight and the Reviving Myth (3)
While the doppelgängers appeared and attacked in silence, there was another who made their presence known with a clamor that no one could miss.
《■■■■■──!!》
BOOM! CRASH! BOOM! CRASH!
A giant of monstrous size—so large that an adult man’s head would barely reach its ankle—was charging across the land.
Each time its feet struck the earth, a thunderous impact reverberated, as if an earthquake had struck.
A veritable walking natural disaster, a being that humans had no way of stopping.
But there were those who stood against it.
“Change its direction, whatever it takes! We can't let it keep going straight!”
“Damn it, my blade can't even pierce its skin!”
“Watch out for its feet! One kick means instant death!”
They were warriors with golden hair, violet eyes, and refined features.
They were the Lennart bloodline—warriors who had once symbolized the Empire's military might, but had since left to write a new legend alongside Adelaide.
Busy carving out a vast domain for themselves between the Empire and the Kingdom, they had received a report in the dead of night about a giant charging into their territory. Instead of berating the guard and asking if he’d been drinking, they had mobilized their noble ranks and deployed at once.
There were two reasons for this: one logical, and one not so logical.
The illogical reason was intuition.
It was because nearly every member of the bloodline had been unable to sleep, their hearts pounding with a strange premonition. This included Maris, who was acting as the de facto second-in-command of the new Lennart; Hilda, who had been unintentionally improving public safety by using local bandits as punching bags; and Giselle, who had become a paperwork machine, as if to demonstrate the true dignity of a lord.
That was why, the moment the report of the giant came in, they were able to deploy without an official summons.
The blood in their veins was telling them.
Your kin is coming. Your sworn enemy is coming.
It was a contradiction. Yet, in a way, it was only natural.
For their ancestors were beings rooted in the underground who had also accepted the power of the heavens.
The logical reason was simpler.
The giant's path of advance. Directly in its path lay none other than Friedel.
It was painfully obvious what would happen to the domain if that colossal body were to trample through it.
To protect the homeland of their new Duke, the Lion Duke’s bloodline had to stop the giant's advance at all costs.
The problem was the giant's overwhelming strength.
“This thing's a total monster!” Hilda shouted in annoyance.
The giant didn't possess any special abilities or bizarre tactics.
Spatial jumps, subspace manipulation, creating parasitic legions, copying abilities—it had none of the special abilities possessed by the other generals of the underground.
In other words, its physical prowess was so overwhelming that it could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them even without such tricks.
The power radiating from its colossal frame could crush man-made buildings like toys. Despite its size, it was unnaturally agile, and its skin was so thick and tough that even swords imbued with sword energy would chip or break against it.
If anything, the fact that the Lennart bloodline could clash with such a creature and at least slow its advance—even if they couldn't change its course—was a testament to their true power.
Maris felt a surge of anxiety.
‘It's almost at Friedel. At this rate, the domain will be caught in the crossfire!’
She—no, the entire Lennart bloodline—had a duty to govern and protect their new territory until their lord returned.
To let such a monster run rampant in Friedel—their lord’s homeland, a place that had already been devastated once before—was an offense their pride simply could not stomach.
But the giant's power was immense, and their attacks failed to inflict any real damage.
Only Hilda was managing to land some effective hits, but even those were far from fatal due to the giant's sheer size.
The moment Maris gritted her teeth in rising despair, a golden light pierced through the deep night sky.
On the back of a massive, unidentifiable bird, a girl radiating mana like golden flames looked down upon the earth.
The moment the Lennart clan members saw her, their eyes widening, the girl—Adelaide von Lennart—leapt towards the giant's head without a moment's hesitation.
CRACKLE!
Violet lightning crackled amidst the golden flames.
The greatsword once wielded by the Lion Duke sang in the hands of his successor.
Flinch.
The giant, which until now had merely swatted at them like annoying gnats, recognized an ‘enemy’ for the first time.
But Adelaide was faster.
She unleashed a single, severing flash.
The sword strike, imbued with flame and lightning, slammed into the giant's face.
With a thunderous crack, the giant’s head snapped back, and it staggered backward.
The Lennart bloodline’s eyes widened.
To see a tiny girl not only stop the giant with a single slash but actually force it to retreat was a sight they could hardly believe, even seeing it with their own eyes.
However, Hilda, the most skilled among them, sensed something was off.
‘That just now... it feels like she held back on purpose.’
It didn't mean she held back on the attack itself.
But to deliberately strike the mask when she could have aimed for its head was a move that clearly hinted at a hidden motive.
Sure enough, the mask covering the giant's face split in two, and half of it fell to the ground.
Half of its face was revealed. A faint glimmer of reason returned to the eye that had been steeped in murky madness.
The giant opened its mouth.
《…Child who has fought borrowing my strength. Do you intend to stop me without the belt?》
The lion answered.
“Yes. That will be my way of repaying you for all your help.”
As if pleased by that answer, a ferocious smile formed on the giant's lips.
《Is that so! Is that so! Then you are not a child, but a warrior! This battle is no honorless slaughter, but a proper duel! Am I wrong!?》
“You are correct. You fight for your people. I fight for what is precious to me.”
Adelaide twirled her greatsword, slammed it into the ground, and declared, “Adelaide von Lennart, representative of the Lennart family and disciple of the Tin Knight. I shall face you in this duel.”
《Amaryllis, the Giant King, one of the eight brave generals of the great king! I accept this duel!》
In the region near the Friedel domain.
Giant Amaryllis VS Adelaide von Lennart.
*
Flying through the sky as a swarm of countless bats, the woman was plagued by a profound lethargy.
No, on second thought, her entire life had been one of lethargy and ennui.
To read the future was a truly tedious affair, and to experience a foregone conclusion was unbearably dull.
The heavens and the underground. Oz and that man. An endless game of black and white on a chessboard.
The woman was but a piece in that game, and she despaired at her fate.
She had joined hands with the angel—a being in a similar predicament—in an attempt to escape that very fate.
But the plan had failed, and now she was being recycled once more, a piece on the board.
It was an ending that truly made one sigh.
So much so that the degradation of her powers, the fact that her foresight no longer worked properly, felt like a small mercy.
It was then that she suddenly sensed a presence drawing near.
A green-haired woman with pale skin, riding on the back of a giant bird.
The scarecrow she had once intended to use as a vessel for her resurrection greeted her with a bright smile.
“Hello. This is the first time we've properly talked face-to-face like this, isn't it?”
She did not answer.
She couldn't speak, partly because her body was divided into a swarm of bats, but also because the heavenly power absorbed within her forbade it.
It’s a pity, she thought.
She had spent hundreds of years with the scarecrow before her.
Her memories from her time as a sacred treasure were not entirely intact, but they were enough for her to know that the scarecrow’s specialty was the art of persuasion.
But persuasion was a skill meaningful only to those willing to converse.
Even with an immortal body, the scarecrow possessed no real martial power; it had no way of stopping her.
She would commit a massacre as the mask willed, and it would become the spark that ignited a war between the underground and the surface world.
And because of that, she—Tuberose, the queen of vampires—was slow to realize…
…that she was not the only one the scarecrow could speak to.
“O wing that serves as the agent of heaven's will. No, O being who once served as its agent.”
“I know you despaired at your fate. I know you screamed behind a smiling face.”
“I know that despair, that resignation, the empathy and hope you felt upon seeing one of your own. I cannot help but know, for I am the vessel you prepared.”
“Therefore, I make a proposition. Therefore, I make a plea. Please, lend me your strength. Let me help you prove—to the heavens and the underground—that you are not mere pieces on a chessboard. That you are not small boats to be swept away by the currents of fate.”
At first glance, it seemed like a meaningless monologue.
But the vampire could tell.
That there was a being who had heard those words.
The vampire had now separated from her, but someone else still remained within Sophia.
From near Sophia’s heart, a light seeped out and took form.
The shape was a flute, as if carved from a jewel.
Sophia quietly grasped the flute.
The next moment, Sophia's appearance changed.
Giant wings unfurled from her back, and her bound hair fell loose.
Emerald holy power radiated from her body, but soon the color faded to a pure white.
With a crack, a fissure appeared on the flute, as if to prove the instrument was straining itself to make this situation possible.
Sophia’s half-lidded eyes opened fully, staring directly at the swarm of bats—no, at Tuberose.
“—Do you still lack the courage to try?”
Those were Sophia's words.
And at the same time, they were the words of the angel.
The woman, the prophetess, the queen of vampires—Tuberose—felt something surge from the depths of her heart.
For her, who had lived most of her life in a world of gray, it was a truly rare and violent emotion.
It was like fury, yet also like elation, and perhaps even a desire to compete.
As Tuberose changed from the form of bats to the form of a beautiful woman, the mask on her face creaked.
At this rebellion from a host who had until now been so obedient, the heavenly chains tightened their hold.
Kill the humans. Scatter their blood.
Don't waste time on this thing that isn't even human, that you can't even kill.
Tuberose responded to the chains and to the Sophia before her, all at once.
“You talk too much, human.”
The mask shrieked, How can you call that thing human?
You flatter me, Sophia laughed.
The two women landed on the ground.
Strangely enough, they landed atop the very ruins where she had once been sealed.
Taros Labyrinth.
Vampire Tuberose VS Sophia Hubris (IN Angel of Divine Calculation)