Chapter 113
"If I had known the situation was this serious, I would have departed a little sooner."
"The Saintess departed quickly enough."
"...Could you please not use that word, Saintess? Sir Isabel is much more comfortable."
"Quite some time has passed since you became the Saintess, what will you do if you still haven't adapted to the title?"
A playful look appeared on the face of the 1st Holy Knight Commander Walter as he looked at Isabel with a gentle smile.
"Hoo... It's difficult when even my master acts like this."
Walter's expression remained full of mischief as he looked at Isabel, who spoke in a blunt, mannish tone.
Walter, now nearing 60, looked upon Isabel as if she were his granddaughter.
"Anyway, it must have been a while since you last saw Sir Karl."
"That's right. This is the first time meeting him since the Order's work finished. Though I've heard the rumors in the meantime."
"Perhaps he might be the first friend the Saintess ever made a connection with."
"A friend... perhaps that's so. I came to the Order since childhood and trained as an Inquisitor. He is someone who made me realize that even I could get along comfortably with someone. I suppose he could be seen as an extraordinary friend."
Walter nodded his head.
He, who had watched over Isabel for a long time, knew well how much she must have suffered working as an Inquisitor from a young age.
‘Now she has become the Saintess, ultimately walking a difficult path again.’
Furthermore, she now bore the heavy responsibility of being the Saintess of the Order.
Isabel's life, perhaps, might have always been marked by sacrifice.
Come to think of it, the rumored Karl Meyer also had many similarities to her.
Considering how he gained his current epithet, Karl hadn't gained much besides fame.
Although he was said to have formed a knight order, the work his order did was solely confined to benefiting the world.
"He truly is a peculiar person."
He recalled the moment he met him at the Vatican in the past.
He was a man who wielded a sword that felt righteous.
Back then, he hadn't thought Karl would reach such a high level as he had now.
The rumored Karl might have perhaps reached a level similar to or even higher than Walter's.
‘I’d like to have a bout with him.’
Though his desire for victory should have diminished with age, no matter how much he read the scriptures and cultivated his mind, the fundamental nature of being a knight didn't change.
"Your expression is strange."
"Oh dear, it seems my cultivation is still lacking. My expression must have shown everything."
"Isn't it a fact known not just by me but by everyone in the Order that your expression changes when you meet an opponent you want to fight?"
"Such rumors..."
"Have been around for quite a while."
Walter, scratching the back of his head as if embarrassed, gave an awkward smile before his expression suddenly hardened.
"Prepare for battle!"
At the lion's roar that burst from Walter's mouth, the moving Holy Knights and priests quickly formed ranks and guarded all directions.
"It's the undead."
They were beings rarely seen even during his time as an Inquisitor.
It was unknown where such things had emerged from.
"It's a time when Inhumans and Evil Gods have reappeared on the continent."
As Walter said, such occurrences were hardly surprising in the world these days.
"Stick close behind me... Of course, you wouldn't."
Before he could finish speaking, Walter saw Isabel standing at the head of the group, holding a Mace in one hand and a shield in the other, and raised his Greatsword beside her.
"I won't tell you to go to the back, but please don't charge ahead alone like last time."
"I'll be mindful."
Though she had become the Saintess, Isabel hadn't changed at all.
The moment a bright light flowed from her mace and shield, zombies that had somehow filled the surroundings began rushing towards the group.
Thwack!
The mace swung by Isabel literally ripped apart and blew away the heads of three zombies at once.
"Essus, gather these wandering souls!"
Each time a prayer was murmured from her lips, zombie heads flew into the sky.
Beside her was a single Greatsword emitting a white light, seemingly combined Aura and Divine Power, literally melting the zombies.
The muscles rippling beneath his white hair belied Walter's age.
Kuuuung!
When the huge greatsword struck the ground, the floor burst open, and light engulfed the zombies.
Thus, the Order also began its battle in earnest against the undead of the north.
***
At the place where the Knight of the Lighthouse had formed their camp, Karl was tapping the table with his fingers.
"It's past the time for those who departed from the Order to arrive? It seems contact has been lost with the Mercenary Guild side too."
"Shall we send out scouts?"
"Let's wait just a little longer, it's unlikely that all the intermediate contact lines with the Mercenary Guild side have been cut."
"Yes."
Karl, looking at the map on the table, examined the formations arranged around the Marquis Baltimo's domain.
Karl and the Knight of the Lighthouse were moving from south to north, Duke Ellenhower from the northernmost part of the north downwards.
The Alcantara Knights and the Mercenary Guild were moving from the west.
It was an arrangement made out of concern that the range of the undead appearance area was too wide, and they might slip past sideways to target another area.
He had planned to push in earnest once the Order joined Karl from the south, but with contact with the Order cut off, Karl was unable to move.
Dudududu.
"Commander, it's a mercenary who was moving as a scout."
The mercenary on horseback was in a sorry state.
It seemed he had been attacked somewhere, but despite his injuries, he managed to dismount and approach Karl.
"The Order was attacked by undead. They are Holy Knights, so they were fighting them off well but... the number of undead kept increasing. And then he appeared."
"He?"
"It was a knight clad in black armor. His movements were not like ordinary undead..."
"Not like ordinary undead?"
"Blue light came from his eyes... He was on a completely different level from the zombies we've seen so far."
"Something like a Death Knight."
"...!"
Karl casually murmured something he had heard somewhere, but the faces of those present who heard the name turned deathly pale.
"What's wrong with everyone?"
"Didn't you just say Death Knight?"
"So?"
"Has a real Death Knight appeared?"
"We'll have to find out."
Unlike the calm Karl, the members looked at Karl with eyes full of fear.
‘Is the Death Knight such an object of fear?’
He thought about it, but nothing particular came to mind.
"Aren't you scared, Commander? Isn't there a saying that when a Death Knight appears, the end of the world is near?"
"Who says such things?"
"Isn't it a story everyone hears from childhood?"
Was it like the Hong Kong Grandma Ghost or the Sack Grandpa?
It seemed the ghost passed down in oral tradition here, used to scare children about being taken away, was something like the Death Knight.
"It's just an undead. What end of the world."
"The world is changing, isn't it? Inhumans appearing, Evil Gods, undead... If the end really comes like this..."
"What will you do if it comes?"
"..."
Karl looked directly at the member.
"Even if the world ends tomorrow, what we have to do doesn't change. We just do our best today. Whether it's a Death Knight or an Evil God, if necessary, we destroy it. If we must defend, we defend. Now is simply the moment to save the north that those things have ruined."
Karl's steady, emotionless calm put the members at ease.
"I see..."
"Well, true. It's not like we're going to run away."
"Prepare to depart. We're going to rescue the Order's party."
"Yes!"
The knight order's departure preparations were made quickly.
Led by Karl, the knight order began moving at high speed towards the location guided by the mercenary.
***
"Hoo... Hoo... Hoo..."
Isabel, barely steadying her breath, blew away the head of another zombie that charged at her.
"There's no end in sight. Where are all these things flocking from?"
Walter's eyes scanned the surroundings sharply.
There was no way to know where this vast number of zombies was crawling out from.
It felt somewhat like they were specifically targeting only them, coming from afar.
‘It feels as if they are being controlled.’
Even if he sensed something strange, he was too busy cutting down the endlessly swarming zombies to find who might be controlling them.
Kwaaaaang!
Walter's greatsword burst forth once more, clearing a path.
"We must move for now. We need to somehow get near Sir Karl's location and join up. It's been a long time since the messenger left, so we should be able to join them soon."
Isabel nodded at Walter's words.
She too moved forward along the path Walter had created, putting full power into her mace.
From the rear, the priests' prayers were heard, and a bright mass of light burned the zombies, opening a path once again.
Since the Order's Holy Knights and priests wielded power that was antithetical to the undead, opening a path wasn't too difficult.
"Keep advancing!"
Isabel's firm voice was heard, and the Holy Knights naturally broke through the path ahead.
"Master! Careful!"
Towards Walter, who was advancing while swinging his greatsword, an aura of pure black instantly flew.
Thinking Walter was too late to block it, Isabel drove all her body's Divine Power into her shield and collided directly with the black aura.
Kwaaaaaang!
"Cough...!"
Despite blocking with fully concentrated Divine Power, Isabel felt her insides twist upon colliding with the black aura and vomited blood.
If it hadn't been for the increased Divine Power she gained after becoming the Saintess, she might have shattered along with her shield.
"Saintess!"
Walter rushed to Isabel's side.
At that moment, from afar, the black aura flew precisely towards Isabel's direction once again.
"How dare you!"
Enraged at seeing his injured disciple, white aura surged from Walter's greatsword and split the black aura in half.
His power was both Aura and Divine Power simultaneously.
[Body Fortification]
A black object instantly rushed towards Walter, who had clad his body in the energy he named Holy Aura.
Kwaaang!
The sword held in the black object's hand collided with Walter's greatsword, and the resulting shockwave destroyed the surroundings.
-Indeed, you are Sir Walter Demer, the First Sword of the Order.
A voice, not sounding human, flowed from beneath the helmet, which was solid black like the armor.
"Who are you. Seeing you, you seem to have become a Death Knight. How did one who was a Master in life become a knight of death?"
-I was subjected to it...
"Meaning it wasn't by your own will. How about finding your proper place now?"
-Meaning I should die?
"...Dust to dust."
The Death Knight fell silent.
-My revenge is not yet complete.
"Who is the target of your revenge?"
Although his face was not visible, the slight movement of the helmet-covered head suggested he was smiling.
-Ellenhower, Karl Meyer.
The moment those two names were spoken, Walter guessed who he was.
"Could you be...!?"
And the Death Knight's sword moved.
-Yes, I am Baltimo Daniel Andersen.
Walter made the sign of the cross with the hand not holding the greatsword.
Simultaneously, the swords of the two clashed once more.
The Marquis, having become a Death Knight, was much stronger than in life.
‘So this is why the Death Knight became an object of terror.’
Even for him, called the First Sword of the Order, facing him with Holy Aura was proving difficult.
Moreover, the Death Knight had no limit to its stamina.
It meant it could move indefinitely like this.
It didn't deplete its energy like ordinary knights.
Exchanging blows for a long time, Walter gradually felt his body grow heavy.
In contrast, the Marquis still moved exactly as he had at the beginning.
‘This is getting difficult.’
His mind, moving his sword rapidly, began to rotate even faster than the blade.