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Chapter 39
Locust.
All the knight-level forces within the baron’s territory had gathered to hunt him down.
Philip Count and nine knights under his command, including Jimmy, Matthew, and Saria—thirteen superhumans capable of cleaving rocks with their swords—ascended the mountain range with quiet confidence.
However, upon encountering over a hundred dark spirits, they realized this was a battle where victory could not be guaranteed even at the cost of their lives.
Mohamed looked at the count.
The count, adhering to military doctrines passed down through generations, wore a faceless helmet and mimicked an ordinary knight.
The count did not retreat. He stared ahead with resolute eyes.
Having confirmed the count’s intent, Mohamed pointed his sword at Locust.
“Destroy the enemy of the empire!!!”
Knights surged forward, unleashing streams of sword auras toward the surging spirits.
The spirits also reacted, widening their grins before charging at the knights.
PASHHH!!!
Flashes erupted in all directions.
The knights easily bisected the spirits with their sharp sword auras.
But the moment one spirit was cut down, five others lunged with gaping mouths.
Even spirits whose limbs were severed soon reattached themselves and continued attacking, forcing the knights to steadily fall back.
“HOLY SHIT!”
As Jimmy swung his sword back-to-back with Matthew, he panicked at the flames spewed by the spirits and unleashed a sword aura.
The blade of energy cut through the flames, severing two tentacles that extended from the spirit.
The spirit, having lost its tentacles, stretched its mouth wide as if to mock them before regenerating new ones.
“SHIT! Why do we have to deal with spirits?!”
They couldn’t kill them, and neutralizing them wasn’t easy either.
During his mercenary days, the hardest foes he’d faced were spirit summoners.
“We need to take out the spirit summoner quickly!”
“Captain, shut up and conserve your strength. It looks like it’ll take some time on their side too.”
ROAR!!
The highest-ranking dark spirit, Tantalos, shaped like a black giant, tore its mouth wide open.
Viscous darkness coalesced in Tantalos’ throat, transforming into black flames that shot out like a laser.
SHAARK!!
An attack that an expert-level warrior couldn’t block.
Saria immediately activated her defensive artefact, Charle’s Veil, forming an octahedral barrier in front of her.
CRUNCH!
A blue barrier appeared in mid-air, deflecting the black flames.
Saria instantly fired a sword energy beam towards Tantalos’ mouth.
Tantalos reached out and caught the streaking beam of light with its massive hand.
KRAAAACK!!
The giant hand exploded.
Unperturbed, Tantalos swung its opposite arm.
Its arm, which had appeared metallic, rippled like a wave and transformed into a colossal flame that detached and fell.
The sky-covered flames split into hundreds of streams, bombarding the ground.
Saria countered Tantalos’ firepower narrowly with her activated Halo.
KABOOOOM!!!
Meanwhile, while his allies fought the spirits, Mohamed charged straight at Locust.
As Locust casually extended his hand, the space around Mohamed turned pitch black, spewing sharp thorns.
But Mohamed was no ordinary knight—he had surpassed the expert level.
A destructive sword energy surged from his blade, instantly shattering the encroaching darkness.
PAH-PASH!!
Failing the attack, Locust frowned and began conjuring magic.
Because everything magical was tainted black, it was impossible to discern its nature with the naked eye.
Mohamed absorbed the attacks he could and relentlessly charged forward.
Locust’s mana was imbued with the power of a contracted demon.
Armor that had blocked black flames soon rusted and creaked, and any wound allowed corruption to spread rapidly.
Yet Mohamed paid no heed. Hesitation here meant certain defeat.
Locust, looking quite flustered, moved to evade Mohamed’s pursuit.
‘Is this what the knight order from the remote corner of the empire is like?’
Excluding Saria and Mohamed, the overall skill level of the knights was incredibly high.
Every knight could wield sword auras, their coordination was excellent, and most importantly, they were prepared to face death.
Knights of such caliber were rarely seen even in noble families with great influence.
But does that matter?
Locust was a high-ranked mage who had reached the 7th Circle and was known as the strongest dark spirit summoner feared by the empire.
“I will share my power with you.”
Locust deeply carved his palm.
The blood, filled with immense mana, disappeared into the air before floating above the heads of all the spirits summoned by Locust, forming crimson pentagrams.
The demonic power temporarily transferred to the spirits.
“What…?!”
The knights were astonished.
Armor that had blocked spirit attacks corroded, and wounds they had taken lightly began to rot black.
Though terrifying, the knights did not retreat and continued swinging their swords.
Even Jimmy and Matthew shouted as they kept cutting down the spirits.
But there was no way they could compensate for their rapidly depleting stamina with willpower alone.
The knights began to gradually fall back.
Saria also frowned as the demonic power started to invade her artefact.
With the allies unable to hold out, more and more spirits converged on Mohamed.
The distance he had narrowed with Locust widened again.
This way, they would surely lose.
Looking at Mohamed’s increasingly distorted face, Locust sneered.
“I am the undead legion that the empire fears…?”
KKIIIEEEE!!!
A scream.
Rang out.
The battlefield, after all, is a place where screams rain down.
Everyone standing here was familiar with the sound of screams.
However.
Something was different.
It was hard to pinpoint exactly,
but the scream echoing now was stranger and more chilling than any they had heard before.
The battlefield froze.
Even the spirits stopped their attacks and turned their heads toward the direction the scream came from.
Where everyone’s gaze was focused,
Ray was smiling.
“Hey, Locust. Have you ever heard of the term ‘morale bread’?”
Ray was finding the weakest-looking spirit and stabbing it with his knife.
But whether the spirit was high or low rank didn’t matter. After all, everyone’s mouths were already torn open for screaming.
“There’s something I’ve been curious about.”
As Ray twisted his sword, the dark spirit trembled violently and screamed in agony.
“In the first instance of death within an army that believes in immortality without doubt…”
The sword rose, bisecting the spirit.
“At that moment, can the army maintain its discipline and fighting spirit?”
Black liquid poured out from the bisected spirit.
The silence was brief.
Upon witnessing another spirit’s death, the spirits began shrieking wildly.
KKIIIIIEEEEE-!!!
Locust was no Simone, a random nobody.
He didn’t collapse helplessly due to the emotional backlash from the spirits.
But he couldn’t control the spirits anymore.
Fear of death spread among the spirits like wildfire.
Terrified screams echoed as the dark spirits, paying a tremendous price, began breaking their contracts with Locust.
Those bound too strongly to the powerful contract failed to break free and mindlessly rampaged around.
Ray chuckled.
To the spirits, this place wasn’t a battlefield but a playground.
They hadn’t come here to wage war but to enjoy playtime.
But not anymore.
Now, for the spirits, this place was also a battlefield.
When the illusion of immortality was stripped away and the moment of risking their lives approached, they began to self-destruct, unable to overcome the fear.
Ray pointed his sword at Locust and shouted.
“Kill him right now!!”
Knights who regained their senses flashed their eyes and drew out their sword auras.
Losing their fighting spirit, the spirits were no longer a match for the knights.
In the blink of an eye, the knights broke through the spirits and surged toward Locust.
Locust spat out a clot of black blood.
With the termination of contracts with over dozens of spirits, an overwhelming backlash hit him.
“This, this, is ridiculous…!!”
While Locust wavered on the spot,
Tantalos let out a scream mixed with fear and anger.
ROARRR!!
Tantalos realized.
The legendary spirit slayer who once drove all spirits into terrible fear had returned after 600 years.
ROARRRR!!
He must die here. He absolutely must die here.
Tantalos’ will resonated with Locust.
If this incomprehensible entity who killed spirits could be eliminated, perhaps the terrified spirits could be calmed.
“TANTALOS!! Kill him!!”
Locust, enduring permanent damage to his circle, transferred most of his mana to Tantalos.
Tantalos, sacrificing his own rank as a spirit, forcibly condensed the overflowing mana to prepare to fire at Ray.
Detecting the massive energy fluctuation, Saria halted her charge and blocked Ray’s path.
Tantalos didn’t care.
He would erase everything on the frontline.
Tantalos, whose jaw seemed to have fallen off from concentrating mana, fired a black ray mixing demonic power, magic, and spirit force toward Ray.
Just before the ray was fired, Saria commanded.
“Light of Millie, transform to final form.”
The outer casing surrounding the Light of Millie peeled off, revealing the power unit.
The Light of Millie was one of the most powerful artefacts left by Valerius.
Its power source was a fragment of a Dragon Heart.
“Hercules, Halo, Charle’s Veil, Lavela Arrow, Procyon, auxiliary start.”
All artefacts possessed by Saria rotated around the Light of Millie, controlling and amplifying the rampant mana of the Dragon Heart.
What the dragon artefact recreated was
the dragon’s most powerful attack technique.
“BREATH.”
A golden ray clashed head-on with the black ray.
An energy beam far beyond what a human could handle collided in the air.
KABOOOMMMM!!!
The aftershock alone triggered landslides in five places of the Sigini Mountain Range.
Intense beams of light engulfed the battlefield for a while, making it impossible to open one’s eyes.
The result of the clash, where both parties expended their full strength, was mutual cancellation.
Both sides failed to inflict effective damage.
SSHIICK!
The Light of Millie emitted black smoke and ceased functioning.
Other artefacts were the same.
Saria’s power had dropped to less than half,
but Locust’s last gamble had failed.
Knights seized the opportunity and charged in.
Locust continued shouting while spitting blood.
“It can’t be!! It can’t be!! In the remote border of the empire, something so absurd…!!!”
Sword auras rained down from all sides.
With one arm severed, Locust screamed and fled.
Tantalos stepped forward to briefly halt the knights’ pursuit.
However.
PUUUK!
Tantalos felt an unexpected pain and looked down at his legs.
Ray was testingly poking Tantalos’ legs with a sword imbued with sword energy.
“Hey, high-ranking spirit. Do you know? I originally didn’t plan to get involved. The rumors will spread among the spirits anyway.”
Today, over a hundred spirits fled.
If there’s a way for the spirits who successfully hid to communicate, they’ll definitely spread this: A human who can kill spirits has appeared.
“What good would it do me if my information leaks? So, despite getting scolded a bit, I just wanted to quietly protect Luna, but things didn’t go as planned.”
Ray warned by shaking his sword imbued with sword energy.
“Stay still before I call all the knights and finish you off. It’s tiring for both sides, isn’t it?”
Tantalos’ movements noticeably slowed.
It seemed he had compromised as much as possible without completely breaking the contract.
The last shield lost, Locust didn’t last long before Mohamed severed both his legs.
Other knights rushed in and began stabbing Locust’s body.
“GAH!! No!! No- gurgle!”
Even as he spilled his entrails, Locust tried to crawl away.
The emotional backlash from the spirits infiltrated Locust’s mind late.
He was no longer a calm mage but a madman driven by terror.
CHUNK!
The count, having removed his helmet, swung his sword.
Locust’s cleanly severed head rolled on the ground.
The high-ranking spirit Tantalos disappeared in an instant when the contract was broken.
In the midst of the battlefield enveloped by silence,
the count raised his sword high into the sky.
Cheers erupted from the knights.
“UUURRAAAAAAAA!!!”
They had slain the strongest dark spirit summoner who had plunged the empire into fear.
The knights released their overwhelming joy and the lingering heat of the battlefield with their cheers.
Ray slowly wiped his face.
Putting down his sword, Ray approached the count with Luna in tow.
The count grabbed Ray’s shoulder with trembling hands.
“Thank you. It’s all thanks to you.”
“Are everyone unharmed?”
“Don’t worry. No one has suffered irreparable injuries.”
“I heard David perished. What a tragic event.”
“…?”
The count paused for a moment, wondering if he had mispronounced something, then clearly repeated.
“Ray, everyone is safe. David didn’t even participate in this battle.”
“What a truly sorrowful event. For David to perish. But it’s not strange, considering our opponent was an extremely powerful dark wizard.”
“…”
The count gradually caught on.
This brat was laying groundwork for some mischief again.
Meanwhile, Saria stealthily circled behind Ray, holding a potion bottle.
