Chapter 440: I cant believe a single word you say. |
They ran desperately, following the young knight’s instructions not to look back.
Occasionally, they heard buildings collapsing behind them or the knights shouting, but they tried to ignore them.
Kwaaaaang!
A final explosion was heard, and soon a hole was ripped through the wall. A young elf poked his head out from outside the castle.
“Come this way!”
“Hurry up!”
Soldiers also entered the building to help the prisoners.
“Come this way! Evacuate quickly!”
“I survived…!”
The soldiers who had rushed in embraced the wounded, children, and the elderly, and began to run back out of the castle wall.
But the knights’ fight was not over yet.
Clang!
Rita, who had roughly clashed with Arthur, suddenly disappeared.
Just as Arthur was about to check his surroundings in confusion, she suddenly appeared a few steps away.
She used teleport.
“What?”
With Arthur momentarily stunned, Rita surged forward toward the evacuating soldiers.
Arthur, who suddenly came to his senses, quickly chased after her.
“Damn it, seriously!”
Kaaaaang!
Their swords clashed head-on, sending sparks flying. At the same time, a fierce sound brushed past Arthur’s ear.
Crack.
Arthur furrowed his brow at the pain he felt throughout his arm.
He managed to stop Rita, but his bones were dislocated from taking the attack in an unstable position.
Rita also grimaced. Taking advantage of the brief gap Arthur made, the soldiers swarmed in, guiding the people to safety outside.
“Lady Jin!”
Jiklin shouted sharply at Rita.
“Don’t let them live! Kill everything you see!”
“All right.”
The attacks flying at Arthur became more ferocious. Arthur had no time to recover, and was forced to move quickly.
The homunculus also began to move more violently.
The attacks that had been aimed only at Arendt began to fly towards the people and Arthur again.
Kwaaaaang!
Arendt pushed away the black tendril that was flying towards Arthur and kicked off the ground, leaving behind a thick cloud of dust.
The moment the attack aimed at Arendt came flying again, Richt jumped in and blocked it.
Screech!
The homunculus’ attack clashed violently with Richt’s sword. The thorny tendril tore through Richt’s arm, sending a spray of hot blood.
The deflected attack destroyed a building right near the soldiers and prisoners before returning to the main body.
In the meantime, Arendt rushed towards the homunculus.
With a powerful leap, Arendt raised his sword, prompting the homunculus, which had been watching the prisoners, to shift its eyes toward him.
“…!”
Meeting the gaze of those vacant eyes, a sudden twist gripped his stomach.
But Arendt did not stop moving.
At the same moment the white gust swept toward the vacant eyes, a counterstrike came flying at Arendt.
Kwaaaaang!
Taking the hit directly, Arendt was sent flying backward.
The black tendril and Arendt were thrown against the building’s exterior wall together, causing a thick cloud of dust to rise.
Only after a golden gust of wind blew away the dust did Richt find Arendt rolling around among the rubble of the building.
“Arendt!”
“…Cough, cough!”
Arendt coughed a few times and slowly pushed himself up.
Even a cursory glance revealed a less than ideal appearance. Every movement looked creaky, and debris continued to rain down. The sight of blood mingling with his coughs suggested he had suffered considerable internal injuries.
Although he looked like he might faint at any moment, Arendt found his sword again among the debris and struggled to get up.
“Serves you right… you deadfish-eyed bastard.”
His golden eyes held a blatant sneer.
Only then did Richt realize that the homunculus had stopped attacking.
“…!”
The giant homunculus writhed in agony. The ice covering its grotesque form stood out particularly.
Its vacant eyes, deeply wounded, were completely covered in frost.
Though the homunculus neither bled nor could feel pain, it writhed and flailed wildly, clearly startled when its vision was suddenly blocked.
Richt, who had been staring blankly, came to his senses at the voice coming from right next to him.
“What are you doing? Run!”
Only then did Richt suddenly come to his senses.
By now, most of the people had evacuated outside the walls, and those who remained were escaping smoothly under the protection of the soldiers.
Arendt, who had also emerged from the rubble, was also running backwards.
Richt, who had been looking at Jiklin with a fleeting look of regret, soon turned around and started to run away.
Looking at Richt, who had now followed him, Arendt said something jokingly.
“I thought you would say things like, ‘You can’t run away when the enemy is right in front of you.’”
“For someone who’s barely hanging on, you sure have a lot to say.”
Richt, who had been growling irritably, sensed the attack flying towards them and quickly stopped.
Kwaaaaang!
Richt, blocking the black tendril, was pushed back.
“Ugh!”
Richt’s brow furrowed under the pressure.
Despite doing his best to shrug off the impact, his body, already at its limit, found it hard to handle.
After the black tendril receded, Richt staggered briefly, and Arthur, having finally shaken off Rita, approached him.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay. Don’t let your guard down until the very end and guard the rear!”
Richt nodded and gave the order. Meanwhile, Arendt was dealing with Rita, who was rushing in again.
“Wow, you’re persistent.”
Kaaaaang!
The two swords clashed, sending shards of ice flying into the air.
After a few exchanges, Rita, who had furthered the distance and was about to charge at Arendt again, paused. She realized that frost was slowly forming on her sword’s blade.
It was the influence of the Frosty Touch.
Rita remembered her master saying that she had to retrieve the artifact.
“I will never let you go alive.”
Arendt burst into a bitter laugh as a mechanical voice sounded with her expressionless eyes.
“Didn’t you hear what your master said? She said she’d keep me alive for a long time. She said she wanted to see me despair.”
Kaaaaang!
Their swords clashed fiercely again. Rita reflexively stepped back from the biting cold, but a golden gust of wind obscured her vision.
“…!”
A magic power that contrasted the Frosty Touch rushed at Rita’s skin, threatening to scorch it.
Rita swung her sword towards the direction of the blast, but there was nothing there.
That was natural.
Her opponents were Salem’s spirits, so physical attacks were ineffective.
After a while, Rita regained her sight and attempted to attack again. However, she was forced to stop before taking even a few steps.
“…!”
The skin that had been exposed to the spirit’s light was blackening and melting away.
Drip, drop.
The melted flesh turned into a black, sticky liquid and fell to the ground. Rita saw this and her face scrunched up.
Thanks to that, he was able to distance himself from Rita, but Arendt’s expression was not pleasant.
He shouted to the two spirits hovering around him.
“You go back now!”
Although it wasn’t immediately apparent, it was clear that the spirits’ movements had put a considerable strain on Salem.
The spirits seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then nodded and flew outside the walls. Just as Ray and Luna disappeared from sight, someone shouted from outside.
“Captain Laius is coming!”
The moment Jiklin’s face contorted, the priests’ shouts were heard from outside.
“Don’t let them reach Lady Jin!”
“Lady Jin, please evade!”
The priests within the gate, who had been avoiding the homunculus, also began to rush in, one by one. They were trying to evacuate Jin to another location before Laius could reach her.
“These fucking bastards…”
The knights were leisurely walking away, as if teasing her.
Now that Laius had come to provide support, there was no point in wasting any more time.
‘It would be better to retreat and reorganize.’
There was no other way. The castle itself might be taken away.
It was her complete defeat, as she failed to kill Arendt and also lost the prisoners.
But her pride wouldn’t allow her to back down like this.
“How dare that insolent brat…!”
With her anger spreading uncontrollably, the divine power of Lord Chernion within her began to stir.
Right now, there was only one thing Jiklin wanted.
To kill Arendt von Eckhart.
Jiklin’s emotions were passed on to her creation, the homunculus.
The homunculus, who received the strong wish of its master, borrowed the power of the divine and performed a very small miracle.
Beneath the two eyes that had temporarily lost their function due to frost, a third pupil appeared.
“…!”
Jiklin’s eyes widened as she was the first to notice the change.
The homunculus, frozen in place, pinpointed its target: the apprentice knight who had been guarding the rear of the group even as they fled.
“Hah…”
As a cruel smile spread across Jiklin’s lips, a black beam aimed precisely at one person was fired.
Whoosh!
She felt it intuitively.
No matter how fast you were, it would be impossible to avoid that attack.
This was a punishment from God Chernion.
“As expected, Lord Chernion didn’t abandon me!”
As the sound of laughter burst out, Arendt, who had just realized something strange, turned around.
The apprentice knight, who had been indifferent the whole time, was now visibly flustered.
The fact that that expression wasn’t acting or a mask excited Jiklin more than ever.
“Die!”
With a cry of joy, the black tendril pierced the apprentice knight’s head.
No, it would have pierced it. If only an obstacle hadn’t appeared just before it could achieve its goal.
Thud.
Hot blood spurted onto his face, accompanied by the horrible sound of skin being pierced.
Arendt, who failed to grasp the situation, just blinked blankly for a while.
A face, distorted by pain, was right in front of him.
A hand firmly pressing on his shoulder, blood-stained blond hair, and the bluish eyes commonly seen in the Caerleon Empire came into view one after another.
It was Richt.
‘Ah.’
It was Richt who took the blow instead of Arendt, and who had pushed him away with all his might.
“Ugh…”
The black tendril that aimed for Arendt had pierced through Richt’s torso, who had volunteered to be a shield.
“Richt…”
Arendt, belatedly realizing the situation, tried to speak. But before he could, the two lost their balance and fell together, rolling across the dirt.
Thud!
Arthur, who had already reached the castle wall, looked back in surprise at the sudden commotion.
“Senior! Arendt!”
Arendt, frozen stiff, sat there, blankly staring at Richt, who had fallen on top of him.
Despite blood gushing from his wound, Richt stubbornly lifted his torso.
And then he asked urgently, not caring at all about his own wound.
“Are you okay?”
If it were ‘Arendt’, he would surely have spat out at least one sharp remark by now..
But unlike his usual self, Arendt had difficulty delivering his lines.
His mind went completely blank from encountering a situation he had never once imagined before.
“…”
Arendt, frozen in place, just stared blankly at Richt.
“Damn it, damn it! Fucking hell! I was almost done, and you dare, you dare interfere?”
“Captain, this way! Senior! Are you alright?”
Jiklin’s curses and Arthur’s panicked cries sounded like they were coming from another world.
The only things that felt real now were the hot feeling of blood splattered on his face and hands and the pungent smell of blood that stung his nose.