Chapter 123
All eyes of the Holy Knights gathered on the two men who stood facing each other, swords drawn.
One man was the architect of the Holy Knights' current golden age, and the other was a living legend writing a new saga.
Although he wasn't currently a member of the Holy Knights, Karl could also be considered to have been with the Knights in the East Continent in the past.
The two men controlled their breathing, focusing their concentration to the maximum as they faced each other.
Ricardo Baldini was also a man who had reached the Master realm a long time ago.
“It’s regrettable to meet you again like this. Had it not been for this situation, I would have offered you alcohol instead of a sword.”
“Well, perhaps in the old days, I would have accepted. But from the current you, I don't want to receive it.”
“….”
After the brief exchange between the two, Ricardo was the first to move.
His swordsmanship, which unusually employed a single-edged sword more common in the East Continent, was closer to blade techniques than traditional swordsmanship.
The core of Ricardo's blade techniques, primarily composed of cuts, lay in continuity.
Opponents who tried to block his relentlessly flowing blade techniques, like a fierce wind, would inevitably miss one strike and fall.
Even now, Ricardo chose to attack first, beginning to seize the initiative through continuous cuts.
There were no gaps in the slashes that flowed like water—from top to bottom, then left to right, right to left.
Each strike held enough power to cleave an opponent in two, and the red aura made his cuts even stronger.
“Has the only skill you’ve gained been dodging!”
Karl blocked his slashes, trying to find an opening.
As he repeated the cycle of dodging and blocking, dodging and blocking, the cuts on Karl's body gradually increased.
The numerous pre-existing wounds worsened with the continuous exchange.
Just when it seemed Ricardo’s continuous slashes would endlessly continue until Karl's head fell, a golden aura exploded in front of Ricardo.
Kwaaaaang!
“Cough!”
With a single blow, Ricardo, who had perfectly seized the momentum, was sent flying backward.
After rolling on the ground for a while, Ricardo pushed himself up and spat out black blood.
‘What cheap trick was that….’
Ricardo had seen Karl’s fist momentarily shoot forward during the exchange.
And a very short time later, the aura had struck his torso.
He once again launched himself towards Karl, continuing his storm-like continuous slashes.
Not just fast, the gracefully linked continuous cuts still flowed without interruption.
However,
Kuuuung!
At some point, a loud sound of stomping on the ground was heard, and once again, Ricardo’s body tumbled several times before stopping.
‘What on earth…!’
Ricardo thought he had clearly seen Karl’s fist movement this time, but he felt his vision turn white from the sudden impact of the aura.
Ricardo, who had coughed up blood, had his eyes momentarily flash red before returning to normal.
And Karl did not miss that momentary change.
Ricardo, having suffered losses in the several exchanges, failed to notice the expression on Karl’s face.
He simply focused on the single thought of cutting down Karl standing before him, raising his aura to its maximum.
The red aura on the blade in his hand carried condensed energy, making the sword tremble.
And at a moment when all time seemed to stop, Ricardo’s body cut through space and flew towards Karl.
His blade technique was characterized by relentless assaults like a storm, but paradoxically, the ultimate form his technique reached was a single cut that could slice through even that storm.
And that line of red aura, which looked like a single strike, was actually a concentration of countless invisible continuous slashes.
The moment that single, perfect cut flew towards Karl, Karl’s sword rose towards the sky.
[Karl Meyer Style. 6th Form. Ascension]
The aura imbued in Karl's sword scattered upwards towards the sky as if sprinkled, and just as the light of the golden aura dyed the surroundings, Ricardo’s body was caught in Karl’s aura and floated up into the sky with it.
When he, who had ascended as if rising to the heavens, crashed back down to the ground, blood spurted from Ricardo’s entire body.
“Commander…!”
A significant number of the Holy Knights shouted towards the fallen Ricardo.
At that moment, Karl slowly approached him, took out the stone from his bosom, and stained it with his blood.
Fwoooosh!
The stone in Karl's hand emitted a blue light, and mystical powder of light enveloped Ricardo.
“…!”
And gasps of astonishment erupted from everyone present.
Ricardo’s ears, enveloped in light, protruded sharply, and one of his eyes turned red.
However, his hair remained brown, unlike the blonde hair of other elves.
“Why did you do it?”
“I was… a half-breed who belonged nowhere….”
Ricardo, born as a hybrid of human and elf, was raised in the human world as a spy for the elves and had lived that way.
He lived for the elves and sought their recognition, but the elves, in fact, did not acknowledge him.
Ironically, the humans, from whom he had no desire for recognition, began to trust and follow him more than anyone else at some point.
As their trust grew, Ricardo began living his life in confusion.
Whether to live as the Commander of the Holy Knights or as an elf threw him into turmoil.
And his daily life turned into penance.
“They trusted and followed you more than anyone. It wouldn’t have mattered whether you were an elf or not.”
“…You speak easily.”
“Because I am not you. However, if it were me, I would have stayed with them.”
When Karl turned his head sideways, Ricardo saw the faces of the members looking at him.
They were momentarily surprised, but none showed contempt just because Ricardo was an elf.
“Why….”
“What does it matter if one is an elf? What does it matter if one is human? Aren’t they comrades, family, who have crossed the line between life and death together anyway?”
“Was that so… I failed to see it….”
Ricardo spoke self-deprecatingly.
And at that moment, Ricardo’s eyes flashed.
“Karl Meyer, I am bait.”
“…?”
“I am merely bait… Bairot… the girl… Keuk! Retreat! Quickly!”
As he continued speaking, his eyes became bloodshot red, and his body turned a dark, purplish-red.
Sensing something was terribly wrong, Karl pushed everyone present back outside.
Leaping backward quickly, Karl gathered all the energy in his body to create a massive wall of golden light.
And at that moment, with an explosion loud enough to overturn the world, Ricardo’s body exploded.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!
Although the golden iron wall Karl had erected offset the explosive force, the scale of the explosion was immense, engulfing the retreating Holy Knights.
And then, silence fell upon the surroundings.
[Quest: Rescue the Fallen Light Completed.]
[Lotni's Grimoire is given as a reward.]
***
“It’s impossible with that body! I told you I’ll go! Don’t you trust me?”
“We both need to move. Sir Karim, please take the knights and attack that village from last time. I think I need to go to Bairot with the remaining 100 knights. What Ricardo said before he died bothers me too much.”
Throughout the journey here, the thought of why they had practically let that one girl go kept circling in my head.
Sure enough, the elves encountered on the way here turned out to be nothing but chaff.
Proper elves were by no means as weak as those encountered in the forest.
The female elf who collected the Death Knight back then, or individuals like Mikhail, possessed truly terrifying auras.
“We need to move quickly. There’s no time to dawdle here.”
“I understand how you feel, but rushing won’t solve anything.”
“Of course not, but. Ultimately, if we’re too late, we can’t do anything.”
“That’s why I said I’ll go!”
“I must go too.”
Reading the steel-like will in Karl’s deep eyes, Karim shook his head resignedly.
He knew better than anyone that Karl couldn't be stopped when he was like this.
“Then let’s go together.”
Since Karim was just as stubborn as himself, Karl silently nodded, permitting his accompaniment.
[Quest: To the Hell of the Mortal World]
Looking at the quest window that appeared before his eyes, Karl did his best to suppress the urge to rush.
The Lighthouse Knights were also heading to Bairot, and numerous skilled knights secured through Sancho were also available.
They should be able to buy enough time until Karl arrived.
Replacing the rising anxiety with faith as much as possible, he departed for Bairot with some of the Holy Knights, Karim, and Godfrey.
***
In front of the quiet mansion in Bairot where Karl had stayed until recently, stood two individuals dressed in peculiar attire.
“This seems to be the place….”
“Then just open the door and go right in. Why are you pacing in front of the door like a stray cat?”
Paaak!
“Aargh! Seriously, if you keep hitting me like this, I won’t stand still either- Aack!”
Paaaaak!
Emilio was looking down with a pathetic gaze at Oliger, who had collapsed to the ground clutching his head, and was lost in thought, holding his staff.
“So, Sis. You need to eat proper meals, not just candy, okay?”
“Don’t like meals, candy.”
“Ha… She really suddenly became a baby!”
The voices of a child who looked about 7-8 years old and a girl who appeared to be 13-14 years old reached the ears of the two men who had been standing in front of the mansion gate for a while.
Next to the two children stood quite a number of knights, and beside them was a dark-skinned man with curly hair that looked like it had been hit by a bomb.
“Hey, who are you, loitering in front of someone else’s house?”
The dark-skinned man spoke to Emilio and Oliger in a rough tone.
“We came because we felt an energy that shouldn’t be felt from this house. Could we possibly have a brief word?”
“Ha, for crying out loud. Another peddler rambling about mages. This isn’t that kind of place, so scram. You’ll face big trouble if you don’t.”
“Isn’t there something wrong with the young girl standing there?”
Despite the dark-skinned man, Sancho, treating him like a peddler, Emilio spoke calmly and composedly.
Seeing Emilio pinpoint Sandra accurately, Sancho’s eyes changed from before.
“Who are you, Sir?”
“Have you heard of Emilio?”
“Emilio the Wandering Sage…!”
Sancho’s eyes, which had maintained composure until now, widened considerably.
Even for him, who dealt with information, a real mage was an unknown entity.
However, Emilio was one of the most famous mages among those unknown entities.
“Why are you here?”
“Because I heard a terrible catastrophe is about to occur.”
“…Please come inside.”
Sancho’s attitude, which had been somewhat flippant until moments ago, became considerably cautious as he moved into the mansion with the two men.
“A cup of warm tea?”
“No tea, but if you have alcohol, that would be good.”
“Alcohol, you say.”
Sancho brought out an expensive, high-quality whiskey for the man who was asking for alcohol in broad daylight.
“Your hospitality is excellent.”
“I hear that often.”
The white-haired old man with a large build and rippling muscles downed the strong liquor in one gulp.
“Kuh, good.”
“Would you mind continuing the story from earlier?”
“A demon’s seed has been conceived within that girl’s body.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It means someone planted a demon’s seed in the young girl’s body.”
“…What exactly is a demon’s seed? Is it literally what it sounds like?”
“It’s a seed that manifests a demon in this world. It’s an imperfect object. The probability of summoning a true-named demon is almost nil, but. Even if it fails to summon, that child will become an incomplete, half-demon.”
“….”
Demons, of all things.
He had recently seen elves and experienced various things, but this was getting progressively worse.
‘Then again, seeing a mage right before my eyes is probably the same.’
Mages were beings one could live a lifetime without seeing.
Sancho knew because he belonged to an organization that handled information across the entire continent, and Emilio was a particularly famous Wandering Sage among mages.
Others probably wouldn't have known.
“So you’re saying Sandra will become a demon one day?”
“That’s about right.”
“…Then what should be done? Are you saying Sandra must be killed?”
“Killing the child won’t solve the problem. If killed, it will burst out of the corpse, merely hastening the resurrection.”
“….”
It was a total mess.
The return of a demon.
“I sense that she isn’t the only child in this city with a demon’s seed planted in her.”
“…Don’t tell me!”
Sancho thought of the many missing girls.
“The cruelty and unimaginable actions of the elves have been notorious since ancient times.”
“….”
Sancho’s mind went blank.
It was a situation where he couldn't know how many children carrying demon seeds existed throughout this city.
That situation made Sancho’s body tremble.
“Sir Sancho…!”
Just then, an agent burst into the mansion, urgently calling Sancho’s name.
“Monsters…! Monsters all over the city…!”
Sancho felt that the demon seed Emilio spoke of had sprouted.
“Mobilize all the mansion’s defenses. Defense is the priority for now.”
Sensing the darkness spreading throughout the city, Emilio once again downed the liquor filling his glass.
‘It’s going to be a tough time after a long while.’
The sage, who had secluded himself from the world for quite a long time while raising his disciple, felt the thick scent of blood and the air of the battlefield after a long absence.