Chapter 224 : Kai's Growth (2)
Blood filled his mouth.
“Damn it,” Lancelot muttered, wiping a crimson smear from his lips. “She’s actually going to kill me.”
He had mistaken her for a knight who favored a warhammer. But in the chaos of close quarters, a dagger had appeared in her hand as if from nowhere.
A dagger curved like a serpent’s fang.
Lancelot’s lips twisted into a grim smirk. “An assassin, then?”
“I have nothing to say to an unbeliever like you.”
Her voice was clipped, her eyes blazing as she charged. He hastily raised his spear to block.
CRACK!
The dagger slammed into the shaft of his spear with deafening force.
Eyes flashing with menacing light, the paladin reached out.
Whoosh!
The warhammer that had just crushed one of her own allies flew to her waiting grasp. In the same motion, she swung the hammer down on Lancelot with all her might.
The strength behind the one-handed blow was staggering.
Lancelot groaned, bones rattling as he barely parried the attack.
Just then.
Slice!
A crimson-black Aura flared to life before him. It coiled around a second dagger, lashing out to carve a shallow line across the paladin’s cheek.
“Move, old lady.”
“…Call me young.”
The frenzy in her eyes subsided, replaced by a chilling clarity. She took a deep breath and stepped back.
“Hah… So you’re an unbeliever too, little one? Running with his kind.”
Kai said nothing.
“No answer? It doesn’t matter. With killing intent like that, you’d make a fine Demonkin.”
Srrk.
The paladin drew her dagger across her own palm. Blood welled, dripping to the consecrated earth.
“Here,” she said, clenching her fist and offering the dripping blood to Kai. “Drink.”
She smiled. “Drink this, and you can gain the power of the Demonkin. Of course, I’d be grateful if you came to believe in our Demon God… but you don’t seem the type.”
“Choose well,” she purred. “Drink, and you can walk away from here alive. Refuse… well, I don’t see any reason to keep you alive.”
A chilling light began to gleam in her eyes.
Just then.
“Trying to feed a kid your tainted blood?” Lancelot stepped between them, pressing a hand to the gash on his chest. “Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?”
He didn’t know if the dagger was poisoned or cursed, but the wound wasn’t closing. At this rate, he’d bleed out. To be brought this low when she hadn’t even used that strange red jewel…
Have I always been this weak?I shouldn’t have gotten so excited about becoming a Grand Master…
He tightened his grip on his spear.
In that same moment…
<Mindscape: Valhalla of the Self-Enlightened>
A tempest howled into existence, swirling around the tip of his spear.
It was the Mindscape he had used against the Marquis of Envy. The technique left him utterly spent, requiring days of recovery, but the woman before him was not an opponent he could afford to hold back against.
“Hey, kid! You’ve gotten stronger, but so have I!”
CRACKLE!
Gale-force winds raged around him. From within the storm, Lancelot smiled faintly. “So don’t try to do everything yourself. I’m not someone you need to protect.”
With a final breath, he lunged.
The spear art that had defeated the Marquis of Envy. This would be enough to finish her.
Whether I make it off this battlefield alive is another question.
Still smiling, Lancelot thrust his spear with all his might.
<Storm’s Crusade>
The air shrieked as a torrent of wind and force erupted from his spear, a maelstrom surging toward the paladin.
“Hah,” the paladin sighed, watching the attack rush toward her.
And then—SHUNK!—the spear plunged deep into her abdomen.
“For fuck’s sake,” Lancelot gasped, hands still gripping the spear. “Just die already.”
He thought, for a fleeting moment, that victory was his.
“You people are so damn annoying.”
Impaled through the stomach, the paladin began to push the spear away with an irritated scowl.
Lancelot’s blood ran cold.
The Twelve Nobles… This was the art that killed a Marquis. And it can’t stop a single woman?
It was absurd. Impossible.
And yet, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, the paladin continued to pull the spear free. With a sickening tear of flesh, she ripped the weapon from her body.
“Tsk. That actually hurt, you know,” she muttered.
Watching this, Kai’s brow furrowed. “A monster.”
“Such a harsh word. I’m not a monster. I’m just… like you.”
The paladin raised her dagger and idly scratched her head with the tip. “I told you, didn’t I? I asked if you were a half-blood. I’m the same: a being born with the grace of the Demon God and the prodigal daughter of one of the Twelve Nobles.”
She spoke with a bright, terrifying smile. She glanced at the chaos of Lancelot’s lingering storm and sneered. “But this is all a bit of a mess, isn’t it? Let’s clean up first.”
She chuckled and gripped her warhammer. She spun it once, twice, then swung it at Lancelot.
“Damn it…!” Cursing, Lancelot scrambled back.
The strain of his Mindscape was crushing him, but he had no choice. If he stopped, that hammer would pulp him, and any hope of victory would vanish.
Can Kai and I even take her together?
His eyes darted to Kai. A Grand Master assassin. He knew Kai had reached that rank, had even been told the boy was stronger than him.
But strength and victory on the battlefield were measured by different standards. The key to victory was a Mindscape.
“Kai! Do you know how to use a Mindscape?!”
“Assassins don’t know things like that. We just kill.”
“Lucky you! Well, start learning to be a knight, right now! At this rate, we’re both going to die!”
“Not a knight, a Demonkin,” the woman interjected cheerfully. “Once you’re dead, I’ll be taking the little one with me.”
“Shut up! Who said I’d lose to you?” Even as he fled, Lancelot swung his spear in wide, desperate arcs.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Spear and hammer clashed, their ringing cry echoing across the field. The wider battle had long since ground to a halt; ducal and imperial soldiers alike could only stare, dumbfounded, at the titanic clash.
“Damn it! If you can’t, then just run! Go get the captain!” Lancelot yelled.
“No. I don’t want our captain to get hurt.”
“You little brat! So it’s fine if I die?!”
“Yes. I’ll visit your grave.”
“You’re insane! You know that?!” Lancelot shouted, his tone as light as he could manage while gasping for air.
An hour. That was all the time he had before his Mindscape collapsed. After that, no one could stop this monster.
Kai was their only hope, but without Lancelot’s support, it was a fool’s errand.
This woman… she was far stronger than the Marquis of Envy. Her fundamental abilities were on another level.
Unlike the Marquis, who had relied on his Aspect, this paladin was a pure physical combatant, augmented by terrifying regeneration. She was powerful enough to be one of the Twelve Nobles herself… and she’d claimed as much.
She was a Demonkin unlike any other.
He had to treat her as a threat on par with a Marquis.
He had no idea why someone of her caliber was serving in the ducal army, but he could figure that out later. Right now, survival was all that mattered.
Damn it, think!
Just as he dodged another hammer blow, a flash of movement caught his eye.
“You really are a lot of trouble, big man,” Kai said, his dagger raised to block the paladin’s own.
CLANG!
The impact came from just behind Lancelot’s back.
A cold chill ran down his spine; she had been waiting for an opening to kill him.
“Ah, what a shame.”
Her dagger blocked, the paladin stepped back, stretching languidly. The hole in her abdomen had vanished without a trace.
“By the way, it looks like you’ve made up your mind. So? Will you join us?”
“What do I get if I do?” Kai asked.
“Oh, for starters, you get to keep your life. Hmm… and with the Veilwarden gone, all the assassins on the continent could be your pawns. I can also grant you the power of the Demonkin, even an Aspect from the Twelve Nobles. How about it?”
A smirk played on her lips as she licked her dagger.
“Are you tempted? Just so we’re clear, this is a one-time offer. I’m done asking after this.”
“You’re right,” Kai said.
“Glad we understand each other. So, what will it be?”
In that instant, Kai raised his dagger. “The young master wouldn’t like it if I followed you. I refuse. And Lancelot.”
“What now, you brat?”
“Assassins don’t have Mindscapes.”
“Are you messing with me? You said that a minute ago,” Lancelot grumbled, clutching his wound.
A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Kai’s lips. “But the young master told me I’m not just an assassin.”
“What?”
“So, I think I can use one, too.”
Kai’s crimson pupils flashed. His gaze swept over Lancelot’s raging Mindscape, analyzing it, deconstructing it.
A moment later, he nodded to himself. “Ah. So that’s how it works,” he whispered.
<Doomstar>
The world fell silent.
Light and sound fled, swallowed by a deep and profound darkness. It was an absolute void, a sinister emptiness that thrummed with pure, unadulterated killing intent.
“Am I doing this right?” Kai asked.