Chapter 186

"Your Grace!"

Leandros, who had descended from the ice, tried to grab Arenheit, but Arenheit's disappearance beneath the floor was slightly faster.

Leandros looked at his hand that had swept through empty air and clenched his fist.

Yurik, who had been quietly watching Leandros standing still, kindly offered a greeting.

"Sir Leandros. It's been a while. Though it's rather violent for a greeting, I'll forgive you."

"Where has His Grace gone?"

"Wouldn't he be beneath here? Ah, don't misunderstand. I don't mean beneath the tower. He'd be beneath us anywhere. I don't know well how those who disappear down there are decomposed."

"What have you done to him?"

"I confined him, took a walk together, frightened him a bit, then made him sink. To use as nutrients to sprinkle on fertile soil. He's high-grade fertilizer."

Yurik answered each question thoroughly.

Instead of exchanging more words with Yurik, Leandros drew his sword and struck like lightning.

Yurik finally smiled broadly.

* * *

Black night mixed through the red sky.

The star looking down through the gaps of night, Arcturus, which had declined long ago, gained power again and shone.

His apostle was resonating with the deity's wrath.

Countless ice spears poured down like meteors descending to earth. The spears falling indiscriminately throughout the royal palace and capital began destroying demonic beasts and buildings alike.

At the same time, the demonic beasts all moved in unison.

Whether they were so far away the capital couldn't be seen, or whether they were tearing people apart in the capital, the demonic beasts began slowly gathering with the royal palace as their focal point.

They had no ego.

They had no consciousness either.

It was a call engraved in their instincts from their distant ancestors, from times so ancient they couldn't remember.

When they wanted to live in the world, the deity had permitted their existence.

When they faced death for any reason, the deity had offered them merciful eternal sleep.

The deity was everywhere and nowhere.

The deity was the source of life and death, the mother and father of all things. It was everything that ruled them and an existence beyond their comprehension.

The deity's degraded avatars, the deity's children, marched in massive hordes.

Two shadows chaotically clashed and separated atop the crumbling white castle.

Each time the pure white sword and dull gray sword collided, sparks flew and the sound of tearing steel rang out.

Though each had different reasons for wielding their swords,

Both understood painfully well that this arduous battle would only end when their opponent fell.

One of them shouted.

"Sir, you're too late. Do you oppose me knowing that it's now irreversible?"

"Your Highness would not understand. I will not bother explaining to Your Highness either."

"The Duke said the same thing before disappearing. Why does everyone try to make me understand? It's so trivial compared to what's about to happen."

His frost-like gaze remained unchanged.

Leandros maintained his composure despite Yurik's provocation.

It might have been his personality specialized for combat, or perhaps an effort not to lose his reason before confirming the life or death of the already vanished Duke.

But whichever it was, Yurik didn't care.

When their swords clashed again, the two looked into each other's eyes for the first time.

Leandros read the swirling madness and desire in Yurik's eyes, while Yurik read the sinking hatred and longing in Leandros's eyes.

-Kiiiii...

"Sir, I always wished you would become my ally."

"Your dreams are grand."

Even amid the chilling sound of swords scraping as they competed in strength, brief exchanges took place.

Leandros, who had bounced away from Yurik, lowered his stance to absorb the impact of being pushed back. With long skid marks before him, he drew a semicircle in the air with his sword.

Following the sword's path, dozens of cool ice swords appeared behind Leandros.

Though their flower-like formation was quite beautiful, Yurik asked jokingly.

"You won't be able to kill me forever with close combat. Or are you going easy on me?"

"......"

When Leandros silently swung his sword pointing at Yurik, the tips of the ice swords all shot toward Yurik at once.

Though Yurik retreated and shattered several ice swords, the swords flying through the ominous air persistently targeted their prey.

Swords that obeyed Leandros's will.

At the same time, Leandros also joined in and began pressing Yurik.

The collapsed main castle gradually began turning into mushy black mud.

On the remaining white debris, Yurik was gradually pushed into a corner. The swords continued to appear as much as Yurik destroyed them, persistently clinging to him.

Small scratches began appearing on Yurik's cheeks, shoulders, and legs.

In the end, it was still a fight between a human and an apostle.

Who would win was an obvious fact.

Five or six swords pouring toward Yurik shattered before him, scattering ice powder. When Yurik reached out a hand to clear his obscured vision,

A white sword harboring killing intent penetrated Yurik's opening and aimed for his defenseless neck.

A vital spot that could kill a person in one blow.

For a moment, Leandros thought he could kill Yurik. But that was a mistake.

Vormi teeth.

A large Vormi wearing dirty fur placed Yurik under its protection and was biting Leandros's sword.

The sword trembled thinly in Leandros's hand. Yurik tilted his head and said.

"It was an unfavorable fight for me. This makes it a bit more fair."

"You speak of fairness now?"

"What else? You received power from a strange heretical force, while I'm merely human."

Behind Yurik, who called himself human, demonic beasts slowly gathered.

It wasn't just behind Yurik. Demonic beasts that had appeared from somewhere were surrounding the two men.

It looked as if all the demonic beasts in the kingdom had gathered here.

Veins bulged up to Leandros's jaw. He wanted to sweep them all away at once if he could.

But that would be difficult.

Here, there was no avatar of Aphoom-Zhah to provide cover or Arenheit to supply magical power.

Moreover, an apostle's power was neither omnipotent nor infinite.

The power he used was strictly borrowed from Arcturus.

In a situation where he didn't know when he could defeat Yurik, if he squandered his power, he might fall first.

Conversely, all the demonic beasts present here could be considered Yurik's limbs.

It would take time to crush them one by one, and he lacked the power to sweep them all away together.

In this situation, there was only one method he could think of.

A way to achieve the revenge Arenheit had wanted and he had desperately desired, while simultaneously solving all these problems.

Though it bothered him that he could no longer search for His Grace whose life or death was unclear, he couldn't die here torn to pieces.

He was the Duke's sword and a tool to fulfill the Duke's cherished wish.

Leandros took a small breath. Yurik realized that the wind's direction was subtly changing.

The suddenly changed wind, the subtle chill the air contained. It wasn't a natural phenomenon.

Yurik clicked his tongue regretfully.

"You want to end it already? Aren't you disappointed?"

Demonic beasts gathered in front of Yurik. They built up walls while endlessly sinking into the squelching mud. Squeaking sounds, growling moans, chattering claws, and bubbling boiling sounds mixed together to create a bizarre symphony.

Leandros's eyes gleamed blackly at the wall of living demonic beasts rising as if to overwhelm him at any moment.

When he gripped his sword with both hands and held it upright, the sword began glowing white and heating up.

"My-"

"Get out of the waaaaaay!"

The moment Leandros uttered his first word, a fierce scream poured out.

What was this? All creatures with ears, including Yurik and Leandros, reflexively looked toward where the sound came from.

And they faced the second chunk of ice flying toward them today.

-CRASH!

With an eardrum-bursting roar, more than half the wall of demonic beasts collapsed.

Yurik and Leandros, speechless at the suddenly appearing catastrophic ice, heard familiar voices through the rising smoke.

"Are you really insane, my lady? I told you this was suicidal!"

"B-but if we c-come quickly, that's enough!"

"Coming quickly isn't the solution!"

"C-c-coward."

"I'm not a coward, I'm being reasonable!"

The woman and man who emerged through the smoke stopped momentarily upon seeing the situation spread before them.

The two took in the collapsed wall of demonic beasts and completely crushed demonic beast corpses.

Then their gazes turned to Leandros with bloodshot eyes and the horde of demonic beasts still swelling in numbers.

Finally, they discovered Yurik.

Amelia was the first to react. She screamed with a voice full of shock and resentment.

The starting point of the transgression she had once committed was standing there shamelessly.

She had never thought she would encounter him again. Guilt she hadn't forgotten and murderous intent swept over her.

"You!"

"Does the young lady of a baronial family have business with me, a Crown Prince?"

At Yurik's innocent question, Amelia charged without hesitation. Between her fingers was a dagger made of ice.

"Provide cover."

"Are you serious, senior?"

Leandros spoke briefly and immediately joined Amelia.

Russel drew his Holy Knight Order sword with a face that said he was going crazy and cut down the demonic beasts rushing behind Leandros. Sticky bodily fluids splattered on his face, but it was already familiar work and didn't bother him much.

Three apostles and the master of thousands of demonic beasts.

Taking advantage of a careless moment, ice daggers and awls ran rampant. The swords that cut and pierced leaping demonic beasts showed no mercy. The pure white sword that found another path harbored the extreme cold of the polar realm.

The cries of beast-like creatures cut through the gloomy air and spread in all directions. The scattering ice fragments turned the scenery the royal palace had treasured into ruins.

There was only destruction and downfall. Meanwhile, the black mud spread widely, threatening the ground beneath their feet.

The smell of metal, blood, mud, dust, cold air.

Suffocating, terrible resentment.

Behind Leandros, who blocked Yurik charging while deflecting Amelia's dagger, she gasped for breath.

"Th-this won't work... There's n-no opening."

Just once.

What Amelia wanted was just one opening.

An opening to directly slash that white neck, or at least create an opportunity for Leandros.

But the longer the fight went on, the more she felt that even with the three of them working together, they couldn't even reach Yurik's feet.

What should she do?

How could she create that moment?

When Yurik was momentarily far away, Leandros said without looking back.

"Though I didn't say it aloud, I thought my lady and Sir Nabilov made quite a good combination."

"P-pardon?"

"You supplement Sir Nabilov's... intelligence. Sir Nabilov supports your military strength."

"Ah."

"If it's two people instead of one, would it be possible?"

The tangled thoughts in Amelia's mind suddenly became clear.

She nodded.

"Yes!"

Yurik charged again. While weapons clashed and Leandros blocked Yurik, Amelia called to Russel, who was slaughtering demonic beasts.

"S-sir!"

"I'm busy right now, my lady!"

"End it, end it! From n-now on, absolutely forward!"

"What?"

Russel, who looked at Amelia as if asking what she meant, was flustered when he saw the resolute will that had risen in her.

Forward? He just had to go forward?

Without thinking deeply, Russel followed Amelia's command and charged forward.

Cutting, stabbing, and overcoming whatever blocked his way.

Watching Russel disappear beyond the demonic beasts and Amelia following behind him, Leandros deflected Yurik's sword once more. Sparks flew between the swords.

"No matter how much you struggle, the moment to take my neck is far off."

"Please think so."

Without even looking, Yurik slightly twisted his body to avoid a dagger flying from behind.

Amelia, that pitiful human, seemed not to know that anything flying at this speed would inevitably make noise.

But immediately after, there was a heavy shadow leaping out from among the demonic beasts with a time delay.

The shadow that had leaped into the air aimed at Yurik and struck down. Yurik barely dodged to the side while confirming who had completely smashed the castle debris he had been standing on until just moments ago.

As the debris sank into the mud, the shadow leaped forward and disappeared among the demonic beasts.

How should he put it, it was both bewildering and quite witty, but that appearance was like...

"...A human wild boar?"

Someone laughed at that derogatory term.

A person who could rampage through a forest made of demonic beasts, excluding Leandros.

The Holy Knight Order. A place only the faithful with lion hearts could join.

At the same time, a group of humans who became more familiar with demonic beasts than anyone through pilgrimage hardships.

It truly couldn't help but be an interesting strategy.