Chapter 209

“What a dark night, even the starlight seems dim.”

With the moonlight shining through the clouds behind her, a girl floated in the sky.

Her face, adorned with deep black hair, was as beautiful as an angel’s, but her dark eyes held an eerie light that was hard to describe.

Watching the bloodshed and death unfold on the ground, the girl’s expression was filled with an innocent joy, as if she were merely enjoying a theatrical performance.

“Ah, I did say not to forget your wish.”

The girl shook her head.

She looked like a member of the audience advising a character in a play, full of anticipation for what might come next, lamenting the failures of the actors.

《──■■■■■■■!!》

With a wail filled with vengeful spirits, the Death Knight Friedel fought against the enemies.

Having gathered skilled knights together, as well as the powerful seed gifted by the girl, his strength was indeed formidable.

Yet, the girl was critical of his performance.

“At this rate, he won’t last long. If the opponent had been just a tad more clumsy, things might have worked out.”

Among the higher undead, there were those who fed off the deaths of others to grow stronger.

Friedel was no exception, and if he finished growing safely, he might become a disaster for a nation.

But that was ‘if’ he finished growing safely.

The problem was that his opponent was anything but easygoing.

The Tower of Control, by any moral measure, was certainly villainous, and while they were greedy, they were by no means incompetent.

If they had truly been incompetent, maintaining their seat of power would have been impossible.

As soon as they grasped the situation, they restricted human access to prevent the Death Knight from gaining new power, summoning their elite forces instead of needlessly pouring in reinforcements.

Without the supply of ‘offerings,’ the Death Knight had to survive by slaughtering insignificant creatures, and during that time, the Tower completed its encirclement.

Only one magician was caught off guard and fell during the initial encounter with the Death Knight, while the others, without a second thought, distanced themselves from their dying ally, leading to a situation that was strictly the Tower’s advantage.

Relentless binding of movements and meticulous long-range attacks ensued.

Even if the summoned creatures could not absorb souls upon defeat, they collided with the Death Knight and restricted his movements while unleashing spells of all kinds.

It was a scene much closer to hunting than to battle.

Much like when the Friedel army had been decimated long ago.

The Death Knight was writhing in anguish and hate, but his body was steadily wearing down with time.

If things continued this way, he was doomed to yet another demise.

Accomplishing nothing. Once again, in vain.

If no other variables were introduced, that would undoubtedly be the outcome.

And that ‘variable’ was rapidly approaching the Death Knight with a blazing momentum.

As it cleared all the mages obstructing its path.

Anticipating the reunion to come soon, the girl chuckled softly.

Her pitch-black eyes fixed on a similarly black-haired girl who was fundamentally different yet eerily similar.

“Now, will your interference bring blessings or curses? ─Dorothea. My dear friend. I sincerely hope the outcome brings you joy.”

***

“…Hmm?”

Feeling a strange gaze upon her, Dorothea unconsciously looked up at the sky.

However, it was only for a brief second.

Finding anything in the vast, dark night sky was no simple task.

Moreover, she had no time to leisurely stargaze at this moment.

-□▲▽◆!

With a bizarre cry, a spirit in the shape of a snake made of water swelled up like a balloon.

A clear sign of an incoming attack.

As Dorothea rolled sideways, the spirit rapidly thinned out and unleashed a massive stream of water.

Perrrgh!

The tree struck directly by the water cannon couldn’t withstand the force and was nearly uprooted.

As the spirit aimed to launch another attack at Dorothea, Adelheid swung her sword at it, but the snake spirit merely distorted its form momentarily before returning to its original shape and retreating unharmed.

Attempting to chase after it, Adelheid suddenly found the ground beneath her giving way.

And as her balance was disrupted, an onslaught of magic attacks came crashing towards her.

Kwaaaang!

Before confirming Adelheid’s wellbeing amidst the explosion, Dorothea quickly reached for various catalysts from Hyden’s gloves.

Blood-soaked soil. A dead person’s hair and nails. Finally, enough magical power to skip several other processes.

The intermediate ritual was completed, and dozens of black hands, scattering vengeful spirits and curses, sprouted from the ground, reaching out with long arms.

The snake spirit tried desperately to evade, but the cursed black hands grabbed onto its body first.

-□□□□!

A pitiful cry echoed.

Though the spirit suffered no significant damage from physical attacks, the hands summoned by Dorothea were essence based on poison and curses.

For an ordinary person, merely grazing their fingertips would render them bedridden for days, and if caught properly, their body would rot away from the horrid magic.

Being caught by not just one but in bundles, there was no way the spirit would remain unharmed.

“You bastards!!”

As a wizard attempted to quickly cast supplementary magic to save his summoned creature, revealing his position whether in anger or panic was a mistake.

The Tin Knight, who had been enduring the joint assault of three summoned creatures and their master, flicked a stone that had been sent flying in his direction.

With a snap, the wizard’s head exploded, and simultaneously, the cursed spirit disintegrated into murky water, splattering across the ground.

The black hands obeyed Dorothea’s orders as they swept through the surroundings, while the wizards attempted to fend her off with attack spells, only for those spells to be wholly intercepted by a golden shadow that had emerged from somewhere.

“You, how are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.”

At first, Dorothea thought Adelheid might be putting on a show but looking quickly, she saw no serious wounds on Adelheid’s body.

This implied that even in a position of losing her balance while enduring consecutive area attacks, she had managed to preserve herself perfectly.

Looking back, Adelheid had been like this throughout the battle.

She had sustained minor injuries from the widespread winds and poisons, which Sophia healed, but she had never taken a truly solid blow.

In the chaotic darkness where distinguishing forward from backward was a challenge, it was curious that she had fended off damage like Dorothea, who had a barrier to block such attacks.

‘…I thought the training from the storybook world would help, but the result is unreasonably drastic?’

While she was curious about what had transpired inside, questioning it could wait for later.

[‘Tin Knight’ requests a brief rest!]

After overwhelmingly obliterating the persistent throng of summoned creatures, the Tin Knight retreated towards the rear, filling the gap left by him, with Adelheid charging forwards once more.

Dorothea unleashed area-of-effect magic indiscriminately, and in the fallout, Sophia shielded Adel with Divine Power.

The Tin Knight, after replenishing himself, bravely advanced again to confront the barrage of magic.

After a while, the seemingly impenetrable encirclement began to crumble.

Although there were still a few wizards lurking in the shadows, the majority of the summoned creatures that would have protected them had been uprooted.

Towards another battlefield where fierce magical energy and explosions roared, the group pressed on.

More precisely, they attempted to advance.

Kaaang!

An ice spear flew in with a terrifying speed, blocking the Tin Knight’s shield.

The spear erupted in a blizzard upon impact, aiming to freeze the group, but the Tin Knight unleashed the magic stored in his shield and struck the air, pushing back the chilling winds in a whirlwind that failed to achieve its goal.

As the thick clouds somewhat cleared, the hazy moonlight thickened and illuminated the ground.

Under that light, Giras Lognir glared at the group with a face twisted in anger unlike before.

“Who are you… and what is your purpose?!”

Thanks to the camouflage spell Dorothea had cast beforehand, the young man couldn’t easily discern the group’s identity.

‘Should I test the waters?’

However, Dorothea quickly dismissed the idea in her mind.

This was the domain ruled by the Tower of Control.

It wouldn’t be strange for reinforcements to pour in from anywhere at any moment.

Rather than wasting time on conversation, it was better to first take down all who blocked their path and then ascertain the situation.

As if understanding this through their demeanor, Giras spoke with a gruesome aura in his eyes.

“If you have no intention of talking, fine. I’ll kill you first, and then I’ll ask your soul!!”

In response to Giras’s resolve, a fox dressed in white fur appeared beside him.

─▽▽▽▽▽!

As the five tails the fox possessed rose toward the sky, a gigantic wave of magical energy began to writhe in the heavens.

The Tin Knight and Adelheid charged forward, but a massive ice wall, thick as three meters, rose to block them from Giras.

As the clouds above emitted a pale light, the dark night was painted white.

The sight of the white snowflakes swirling in the wind was stunningly beautiful and picturesque, but the reality of what followed was far from beauty.

Swish!

Nearby leaves were sliced apart. Branches were severed. Small insects and bugs were crushed.

Everything that touched the snowflakes began to shatter as if cut by a knife.

And those shattered pieces returned to the snowstorm, freezing everything around once more.

The barrier that Dorothea deployed resonated with the snowstorm, creating an unsettling sound.

It was a noise that could instinctively evoke discomfort in anyone, like scraping a wide iron plate with a thin blade.

Fueled by Dorothea’s vast magical energy, the barrier withstood the onslaught from all directions, but the issue was that only Dorothea and Sophia were capable of enduring such punishment.

As she felt her undead army being decimated in an instant, Dorothea shouted,

“Return!”

Realizing the voice calling out was directed at her, Adel chose not to look back.

She instinctively felt that doing so to welcome someone would create a fatal opening.

More than anything, she had no intention of dragging her feet.

Dorothea had enough magical power to endure this snowstorm assault until it ended, but that would delay her further into another battlefield.

Though the Little Lion didn’t possess extensive knowledge of magic, she quickly grasped the essence of the spell.

‘A skin frozen by the cold bruises and bleeds even from light collisions or friction, much like a delicate injury.’

She instinctively sensed that the ‘cutting force’ in each snowflake was not particularly large.

So, as long as she didn’t freeze entirely, any cuts would amount to nothing more than small scratches.

Thus, the solution was simple.

She just had to smash through before her body cooled down.

Adel’s posture lowered.

The snowstorm contacted her skin, causing pain, but she paid it no mind.

‘A single strike.’

With a will driven by instinct rather than reason, almost unconsciously, Adel solidified her strategy.

It wasn’t essential for the opponent to be strong.

Hell, just reaching this far without enduring major damage against elite warriors was commendable enough to her.

She had to press forward.

She needed to see with her own eyes.

And thus, they were obstructing her.

Purple lightning surged forth. The belt governing strength roared.

Stepping into territory beyond common sense as if that was the proper way, the path walked by transcendent beings guided the still-immature seed of a hero.

One step (一步). The belt’s enhancement power surged to an unprecedented level.

Two steps (二步). The purple lightning radiated over the whitened surroundings.

Three steps (三步). The strike was swung.

In the next moment.

The terrain was upturned.

─Tuquaaan!!!!

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