Chapter 75: Dungeon (3)
Chapter 75: Dungeon (3)
The pirates clung to their loot until the very end, unable to abandon their greed. It left them even less room, and they died all the sooner.
"Ugh... S-save me..."
STAB!
Eugene's men walked among the dead pirates, finishing off any survivors.
At the gruesome sight, the priests of Lasta Monastery made the sign of the cross and prayed.
"May You watch over these warriors until the smell of blood fades from their souls."
They prayed for the souls of the relief force who had bloodied their hands in the monks' stead.
They had annihilated the besieging force, but the monastery was still in danger.
"You can feel the sinister energy within, can you not?"
"Yes. Before the battle began, it was not this severe..."
Marbas and Eugene sensed the evil aura seeping from the monastery.
"We'll collect the spoils later."
Eugene hurried through the wide-open gate.
"The pirates are all dead. Can't we take our time going in? There's a mountain of loot to collect."
"Shut up and move."
Only a handful within Eugene's army knew about the monastery's dungeon. The others were puzzled but quietly obeyed the order.
"Surely the priests wouldn't touch our spoils?"
"That's true."
Knowing the spoils would still be there when they returned put a spring in the mercenaries' steps.
Befitting a place built to seal a dungeon, the interior of Lasta Monastery felt more like a barracks. Every priest had the body of a trained warrior.
Weapon racks along the walls and corridors held silver weapons.
Everything in the monastery was designed for battle against evil—not an enemy outside, but the danger sealed within.
Tap, tap.
Rex tapped a silver sword twice with his finger, then lifted it slightly to gauge its weight before returning it to its place.
"It's silver-plated. The silver content is high too."
"Can you tell that so easily?"
"Of course, Sir Knight. When you're looting, you need to judge value on the spot if you want the most money for the least bulk."
A real looter clearly knew his craft.
"Now I understand why they keep the place so closed off."
Apart from the weapons, Rex marveled at the silver ornaments everywhere. Every one of them was a symbol with religious significance.
"Silver inherently repels evil spiritual energy. Simply placing it around can create an effect comparable to a barrier."
A large square stone slab stood in one part of the monastery. The dense rows of carved names made it look like a memorial.
'Remembered until the end of the world.'
That was the phrase inscribed above the memorial.
"It seems they are those who died fighting monsters from the dungeon."
"No. If that were how they died, at least their deaths would have been noble."
At Eugene's question, Marbas's expression turned troubled.
"Long ago, the warriors of the faith gathered and formed a great expeditionary force."
"Did they go on a crusade to a holy land?"
Today's priests considered shedding blood over holy sites the height of folly.
But in the past, when doctrine was rigid and fanaticism fierce, several great religious wars had erupted.
"The target they set out to conquer was something far more terrible—and far more pointless."
"Surely not."
Anyone with sense could guess from the atmosphere where that expedition had gone.
"People understood far less about the world's mysteries in those days. Pits descending deep underground, evil beings crawling out of them—what do you think the religious orders made of that?"
"They must have sought to purify them in God's name."
"The summoners of the time unanimously tried to stop them. They said those pits were like natural disasters and that sealing them was the best course."
Marbas let out a sigh.
"Their advice was ignored. A huge expedition set out in the name of holy war, and knightly orders and priests descended into the deep pits."
"I can guess how that ended."
"Most went missing, and the few who lived to return all went mad."
Pits descending endlessly into the abyss. There was no glory or treasure to be found there, only evil beings and darkness stretching on without end.
That was why dungeons alone never appeared in knightly epics, no matter how many other monsters filled their pages.
"Welcome, warriors. I am Benedict, abbot of this monastery."
THUD!
No sooner had the greeting ended than a heavy noise rang out. Despite the great victory outside, the abbot's face remained tense.
"Forgive me for not coming out to meet you. Something is terribly wrong beyond the sealing door."
The sealing door, blessed by a saint long ago, was bound in chains. The sacred power radiating from it had grown weak.
THUD!
The door shook as if about to shatter.
RATTLE-RATTLE.
The chains trembled as though they could no longer contain the horror sealed inside.
"..."
Even without an explanation, Eugene's men understood that the danger was not over. Their chatter stopped, and everyone steadied their breathing.
"This has never happened before. Then, just a short while ago, suddenly..."
"Evil is drawn to greater evil. The resentment of hundreds of pirates as they died was pulled here. It must have weakened the seal and called up the evil lurking in the depths."
'Was this because of me?'
Eugene's face stiffened as he listened to the conversation between the abbot and Marbas.
"It is not your fault, Sir Eugene! If we had not killed the pirates, they would have broken into the monastery and smashed the sealing door themselves, convinced there was treasure behind it."
Andrew hurriedly came to Eugene's defense.
"Sir Andrew is right. The seal was already old. It was only a matter of time before something like this—"
THUD!
CRACK!
Marbas's words were drowned out by the sound of the sealing door breaking. Everyone felt a deathly chill seep through the widening gap.
BANG!
At last, the door burst wide open.
Dozens of writhing figures emerged from the darkness into the monastery. They were wights, the lowest rank of undead.
"Oh, God!"
"No!"
The monks, who had been poised to fight with steadfast expressions, were horrified.
The wights wore the same robes as the monastics. Even their weapons and the religious symbols around their necks matched.
"That is the expeditionary force that set out in the name of holy war long ago."
Had he expected this? Marbas spoke calmly.
Though they had been dead for centuries, the wights had barely decayed. The underworld chill filling the depths below had likely preserved them.
"Ghhhh—."
"Grrrkk—."
Growls resonated from lifeless throats. The priests, who had bravely faced battles even more dangerous than this, grimaced.
The true fate of their predecessors in faith, remembered as noble sacrifices, was nothing like what they had been taught. They had become nothing more than wretched undead.
"Fire!"
At Eugene's command, bolts and arrows swept forward in a storm of steel.
Caught by point-blank fire in the narrow space, the wights could not withstand it and toppled one after another.
Guuuuuh—.
But wights continued to pour forth from the pit.
Most ominous of all was a pair of red eyes burning in the darkness. They radiated pressure on an entirely different level.
"Damn it! A Death Knight!"
Even the mercenaries, who had been composed before the wights, screamed.
The surcoat, religious symbols painted over a black field, was torn and frayed until it was little more than rags.
The iron armor was rusted and damaged, yet the mercenaries instinctively knew that no matter how they attacked, they could not pierce it.
Even those who knew nothing of Mystery could feel the hellish magic radiating from the armor.
"This cannot be."
Andrew murmured, his face twisted in horror.
A Relief Knight wearing the same colors as Andrew had fallen into the worst kind of monster and now stared at a successor centuries removed.
Knights lived closer to death than anyone. Some who were spiritually sensitive glimpsed mysteries of life and death in the midst of mortal combat.
When such a knight died harboring a powerful grudge, they could sometimes refuse death and rise again, drawing on the insight they had gained in life.
A Death Knight born in that way became a calamity to all living things.
"Damn. I didn't bring silver arrows."
Rex and the tribal warriors had expected nothing more than routine pirate suppression, so most of the arrows they brought were ordinary.
"They're coming! Shields up!"
"Grab every silver weapon you can!"
While the mercenaries in the front ranks fought the wights, those in the rear swept up the silver weapons hanging throughout the monastery.
"J-just a moment!"
The priests snapped out of their shock when they saw outsiders stripping their monastery's treasures.
"Now see here! That is our monastery's..."
"Would we have to step in if you lot weren't standing around in a daze?!"
The priests bit their lips, at a loss for words.
"Do not engage the Death Knight. I'll handle that one myself."
The aura it radiated surpassed even that of the Guardian Knight Eugene had fought before. He knew that if the mercenaries rushed it, they would be slaughtered.
THUD!
"Wh-what monstrous strength is this...?!"
A mercenary who caught a wight's mace on his shield staggered. Had the man beside him not immediately covered him, he would have been in serious danger.
"These aren't ordinary wights!"
"Anyone without a silver weapon, fall back!"
Even with covering fire from the tribal warriors, the battle priests and mercenaries fought desperately.
"Look at the forearms on those things! They're thicker than ours!"
Ordinary wights were usually made from rank-and-file soldiers or refugees.
But the creatures attacking them now had been warriors who joined the crusade. Their bodies were powerful, and every one of them was heavily armored.
Without Marbas's support, several men would already have died.
"O pitiful dead. Follow my guidance. Seek out the last fragment of memory within your souls!"
As Marbas completed the spell, the wights fighting at the front faltered.
Their eyes, which had blazed with hatred for the living, now looked down over their own bodies.
CLANG!
CLATTER!
The weapons clutched in their twisted hands clattered to the ground.
"Uuuuuuh-."
"Uoooo-."
The wights clutched their heads and howled in anguish. Some dropped to their knees and pressed trembling fingers together in prayer.
THUD.
THUMP.
A great many of the Wights struck by Marbas's magic collapsed as if they were puppets with their strings cut.
"I briefly restored their memories of living as men of faith. Sometimes the most dangerous enemy lies within."
Turn Undead.
There were two main kinds of magic used to destroy undead.
One was used by high-ranking priests: a straightforward method that annihilated evil with holy power.
Summoners, by contrast, turned the undead's own souls against them. By appealing to the conscience and faith they had possessed in life, summoners could make them collapse and pass on of their own accord.
It was less reliable than a high priest's method, but in a situation like this it worked exceptionally well.
"Magnificent, Summoner!"
The abbot nodded at the wights, now reduced by half. Unlike blasphemous mages, summoners had always been reliable allies of the religious orders.
It did not, however, work on the Death Knight.
SWISH!
The creature swung its sword and cleaved apart the spell descending on it.
"It's moving!"
"I see it."
Eugene had not joined the fray, keeping his attention fixed on the Death Knight the entire time.
The creature looked over the wights falling around it, then slowly made the sign of the cross. The motion was familiar, but it contained nothing except praise for evil.
"Why does a wicked creature make the sign of the cross? Your duty is already over. Stop defiling God."
The Death Knight ignored the abbot's shout and continued the gesture. Sinister energy rapidly gathered around it.
RUMBLE...
The silver ornaments all around began shaking as though an earthquake had struck.
CLINK.
Twitch, twitch.
Seeing the fallen wights beginning to rise again, Eugene charged without hesitation.
The silver blade of Last Autumn flashed like a stroke of lightning.
BANG!
The Etherje sword, driven by Eugene's prodigious strength, carried enough power that even the Death Knight could not ignore it.
THUD!
THUMP!
The profane sign of the cross broke off, and the wights that had been reviving collapsed one after another.
The mightiest knight among the living and the mightiest knight among the dead.
Both wielded swords, but the sounds that rang out when their weapons collided were beyond anything mere blades should make.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Any ordinary man struck by either blow would have been split apart in a single hit.
"Nobody come closer! You'll only get in the way!"
Eugene shouted at Haind, Andrew, and the tribal knights who were poised to rush in with silver blades.
The space was narrow, and Wight corpses littered the floor, hampering movement.
Surrounding the foe would be difficult, meaning one-on-one situations would arise constantly. The risk of the knights falling in battle was too high.
Kwang!
The Death Knight's sword hammered into Eugene's steel shield.
The black evil energy the rusted blade left on the shield was washed away at once.
'The holy water and blessing are taking effect.'
The shield, soaked in holy water blessed by the abbot, displayed formidable protective power.
The Death Knight attacked several times as often as Eugene. Unlike a living man with finite stamina, it never tired.
But once the wights had been cleared away, the tide of battle turned.
"Aim for the joints!"
The moment Rex shouted, Eugene caught his meaning and leapt back. Arrows drenched in hastily prepared holy water immediately rained down.
The Death Knight was peppered from head to toe, blue sparks bursting in countless flashes.
Eugene rushed into the opening with a furious assault. Each sweep of the Etherje blade shattered the hellish magic, reducing the armor to tatters.
[Grrrraaa—.]
The Death Knight sprang back to widen the distance and raised its sword high, detonating a burst of evil energy.
It had no chance of winning alone, so it intended to force the wights back to their feet as quickly as possible, whatever the cost.
"Damn it all!"
The mercenaries felt their blood run cold as the heavily armored wights they had barely defeated began rising all at once.
"Grant us mercy. Bestow the warmth of the Lord upon those who cannot repent of their own accord!"
But the united prayers of the monastics scattered the wicked force that had been coalescing within the undead.
THUD.
The Wights that had been rising collapsed once more.
The Death Knight left itself open by exerting too much power, and Eugene landed a decisive blow.
SLASH!
The Etherje blade severed the Death Knight's right arm.
But the enemy was a top-tier monster that combined the relentlessness of the undead with a knight's combat skill.
Instead of retreating, it kicked off the ground and body-checked Eugene.
"Ugh!"
The two tangled together and rolled across the floor. Fortunately, Eugene ended up on top in the mounted position.
He immediately tried to drive the sword in his right hand into the Death Knight's throat.
CLAMP.
The Death Knight seized the gauntlet of Eugene's sword hand with its one remaining hand.
It did not seem to know that its opponent had killed plenty of men with a shield too.
BANG!
The rim of Eugene's shield smashed into the Death Knight's face. A thunderous crash rang out and blue sparks flew.
The blessing on the shield converted part of Eugene's prodigious strength into spiritual force and delivered it with the blow.
[SKREEE—!]
The Death Knight still refused to release Eugene's sword hand, apparently more afraid of the Etherje blade than anything else.
"Fine. Let's see how long you can hold out."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Eugene enthusiastically bludgeoned it with his shield. The profane breastplate and helmet began caving in horribly.
CRUNCH!
At last the helmet was completely crushed, and the Death Knight went limp.
Eugene felt the corrupted soul inhabiting the armor shatter and disperse.
"A truly magnificent victory!"
As Eugene slowly rose to his feet, the monastics' eyes glistened with tears.
It had been more than a simple fight between a knight and a monster.
Life and death.
Good and evil.
They had witnessed representatives of two opposing extremes clash, and light emerge victorious.
When the priests made the sign of the cross, many of the warriors joined them. It was hard to deny the feeling that God loved them and stood at their side.
"The rumors I heard about you at Order headquarters were not exaggerated, Sir Eugene. If anything, they were understated. Thank you for saving the soul of my tormented predecessor."
Andrew also approached and expressed his deep gratitude.
"It is not yet over."
Even as he accepted their thanks, Eugene pointed toward the collapsed entrance.
They had won a great victory, but a more important task remained. The destroyed entrance had to be sealed again.
"From here on, leave it to me."
Marbas patted Eugene on the shoulder and stepped forward.
He glared into the black passageway. The others seemed to feel a chill from that hole, but to Marbas it radiated a nauseating heat.
"I shall sever it from the world for all eternity."
His debt to Eugene, his goodwill toward the monastics, his contribution to the world.
Even setting all that aside, his personal grudge alone made him want to seal that hole shut.