Chapter 208

#208 Chapter: Tin Knight and the Forest of Deception (2)

“Go back.”

That was what the Lord had left for the knights as his final words.

In a life-or-death crisis, it was an order given while fighting against an endless wave of enemies.

For the first time in their lives, the knights protested to their lord.

“My lord. Our great lord.”

“You are a lord to whom we would gladly give our swords, loyalty, and lives.”

“You embody the noble blood of heroes, the most revered and renowned lord of the kingdom.”

“How can you say such things?”

“How can you issue such an unjust order?”

If anyone here has a life that must return, it is our lord! How can you command us to abandon you and leave?

“If I try to flee, the enemies will never let me go. But if I stay, they will focus on me.”

“So, you go. You must return and tell of what happened here. That is my last order to you.”

The knights swallowed their rising emotions and tears.

Their lord, and the comrades who chose to stay and fight with him, comforted the knights.

They too wanted to stay, but regrettably, there was no time for a dispute.

Leaving behind the bravely roaring wounded lion, the chosen knights fled.

Breathless and burdened by fatigue, the knights did not stop.

The humiliation of having to flee while abandoning their lord who had pledged his loyalty was unbearable.

Compared to the misery of leaving the lord as bait while they went to fight, the physical pain was trivial.

With a blade as sharp as a guillotine, one knight’s head was severed.

A spear of rock that erupted from the ground pierced another knight’s abdomen.

Skin was scorched by flames, and swept by the cold, turned into a statue alive.

Yet, they did not stop.

They had to return.

They must return.

To fulfill their lord’s command, to grant peace to the souls of their fallen comrades, to uncover the source of this nightmare.

If just one of them could survive to make that wish come true, they truly gave it their all.

And they failed.

It was a horrific failure.

It was a brutal death.

The resolve of their lord, the dedication of their comrades, their desperate struggles—all silently faded into worthlessness.

The enemies seemed to erase the scars of battle as if leaving no trace, and they could not leave behind even remnants or last words, let alone bodies.

They even tore apart their souls left in the earth using necromancy.

Thus, it seemed everything was coming to an end.

“—Need help?”

A voice awakened the knights.

It gathered the knights, who had lost their sanity and sense of self, into one.

“I can help you, if you want.”

She was a beautiful girl.

A girl as dark as the night.

She was a girl adorned with a red flower pinned in her hair.

With a childlike innocence and a pure expression, she extended her hand to them.

“Now, tell me what you wish. What do you want?”

A smaller yet quick-witted knight approached the girl.

The knight, recognized as the strongest of the territory through immense power, took her hand.

With his outstanding charm used to chat with the soldiers, the knight spoke.

Once many, but now a single entity, the knights responded to the girl.

“Please let us go back.”

It was a plea.

A desperate, heartfelt wish.

To this wish, the girl replied with an angelic face.

“Alright, I’ll help. But, whether it succeeds or not is fifty-fifty.”

Saying that, the girl handed them a small seed.

And just like that, life blossomed in their once insubstantial forms.

However, it was a feeble level of vitality.

“Now, let’s fulfill your wish. But be careful. If you forget it, it’ll be hard to recall.”

With those parting words, the girl vanished.

Though she didn’t tell them how to create bodies, they instinctively understood how to.

Scrape!

Like disposing of garbage, the necromancer, who had been processing the souls of the victims left in the forest, was the first sacrifice.

Scrape!

The next was the sorcerer, who grew frustrated from not having the cleaner come back.

Scrape!

The subordinates sent by the magician from the tower to assess the situation joined the list of sacrifices.

Scrape!

Even the magician, who had belatedly realized something was wrong and tried to contact the tower, became their prey in the midst of contact.

The seed embedded in the knight’s heart transformed all of that into their power.

The sense of presence, which had once felt like an illusion, grew stronger, and their bodies filled with strength.

Even so, they did not stop.

Far from stopping, they craved even more blood and slaughter.

To go back, they could not be hindered.

To avoid interference, they had to kill all the obstructors.

To kill the obstructors, they needed to consume more lives.

As a result, even more obstacles came rushing in, and they didn’t care if that made the road back even tougher.

They no longer had the sanity to judge such matters.

Why they had to go back, what they had to do once they returned—the knights remained in the dark.

They may have once known, but now their souls were far too chaotic to recall it.

The girl’s warning to not forget their wish was long forgotten amidst the burning thirst for vengeance and slaughter.

Souls lost to their purpose. Corrupted spirits. The remnants of once-honorable knights scattering death.

Having merged into one entity, forgetful of individual names, now nothing remained but the collective name referring to them.

Death Knight, ‘Friedel,’ discovered another obstructer and pounced.

“Gah!”

“It’s a Death Knight! How, why didn’t we detect it until this close!?”

“Report to Lord Lognir! Quickly!”

***

The fact that a battle had broken out soon became clear.

A strong wave of magical energy and loud explosions could be felt even from a distance.

Evidence that all sorts of attack magic were being thrown about could be tangibly felt through their skin.

Inside the running wagon, Sophia asked Dorothea.

“Was it alright to leave the White Knight behind?”

“It couldn’t be helped.”

The White Knight, who had received orders from Gale to ‘protect the party,’ tried to follow along, but Dorothea went so far as to half-threaten him that coming along would put his master in trouble, and separated him.

And that threat wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

“We don’t have any solid foundation or position in the Magical Kingdom, so if anything goes wrong, we can just escape elsewhere. But Gale is different. If someone as noticeable as that isn’t concealed, it’ll be a dead giveaway.”

If the North Witch’s apprentice and 4th Grade Wizard of the Tower of Guardian clashed with the elite forces of the Tower of Control, the aftermath would be a headache that no one wanted to deal with.

Of course, there would be those who would scrutinize their actions nonetheless, but as long as they weren’t directly participating in the battle, there would be room for excuses.

[‘Tin Knight’ says you’re worrying too much since the parties in question probably don’t really care!]

“It doesn’t matter whether he cares or not. What’s important is whether I owe him a debt or not.”

Dorothea said bluntly, but no one here took it seriously.

The Tin Knight would’ve loved to tease her a bit more and see her reaction, but sadly he couldn’t.

Up ahead of the wagon.

A gigantic fireball flew through the night’s darkness.

“Taah!”

As the Tin Knight jumped forward and swung his shield, the fireball exploded in a shower of sparks.

[‘Tin Knight’ points out that while the power isn’t bad, using a bright fireball in the middle of the night is a bit much!]

Naturally, no one responded to the Tin Knight’s words.

Instead, various magics flew his way.

Dorothea, donned in navy gloves, unleashed her power, summoning the horses and wagon into containment.

With her grey staff screaming, she blocked all incoming spells.

The deadly might of the attacks sharpened her focus.

The wizards’ attacks lacked any sense of power regulation.

If they knew their target was Gale, they still attacked; if they didn’t, it meant they were prepared to kill anyone who approached.

Thus, there was no need to hold back now, and Dorothea called upon her magic.

The summoned spirits, gathered during the reconnaissance mission, wrapped around their bodies like fluttering curtains.

While they had no defensive capabilities, they were highly effective at concealing their visible forms.

“Go!”

As soon as the camouflage spell was finished, Dorothea released the barrier of her staff.

And just as if waiting for that moment, two shadows of gold and grey shot forward.

Of course, the enemy wouldn’t go down easily.

They hid in the darkness while dispatching their minions to fend off the Tin Knight and Adel.

The minions came in various forms.

There were golems, spirits, and even magical automatons, although small in number.

They blocked the Tin Knight and Adel with various threatening abilities, buying their masters time to cast new spells.

A battle typical of wizards.

However.

Scrape!

Boom!

A fish spirit was reduced to dozens of pieces.

A stone golem over two meters tall flew away like a kicked ball.

In the pitch-black darkness, their silent astonishment could be felt.

Unless there was a truly extraordinary exception, the abilities of minions usually scaled with the wizard’s level, and those handled by the elite of the tower could single-handedly slaughter dozens of soldiers.

Incredibly, those beings crumbled like small fry in one blow, leaving their foes in disbelief.

If Dorothea, watching from the rear, thought, ‘This guy may be cutting down multiple enemies at once, but handling them individually shows his true level,’ they’d likely be struck speechless by shock and rage.

Of course, Dorothea wasn’t just watching.

The summoned spirits, imbued with her magical power, cursed the wizards as they pounced upon them while the poisonous mist dispersed around her body aimed to infect the enemies.

Though it was a risky tactic, as the Tin Knight was a non-living entity and could endanger even Adel, Sophia’s holy power protected Adel, allowing Dorothea to unleash her widespread attacks without restraint.

Although it appeared the enemies were highly skilled since they attempted to resist through their own magic, the actual effects were minimal, but that was sufficient.

While the wizards found themselves immobilized by Dorothea’s necromancy, the two priests crushed all their minions.

And, unless they encountered a peculiar type like Gale, the fate of the wizards who lost their positioning was all too predictable.

“Gah!”

Having cleaved through the blocking wizards with ease, the group advanced into the woods.

To a place where the fierce traces of battle could be felt.

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