Chapter 33 : Chapter 33
Chapter 33. Necromancer's Dungeon (1)
"Everyone, prepare for battle!"
The moment Blanc severed the statue's neck, emitting a white thunderbolt with lightning-fast movement.
"Uaaaa…… Aaaagh!"
"Get us out…… Get…… us out!"
The walls the group had walked past collapsed, and the statues trapped within—no, the specters taking the form of statues—burst out.
"Damn it! Maintain formation!"
"It's too narrow!"
"Fight back-to-back if you have to!"
In an instant, tens, hundreds of specters rushed out from the walls and attacked the group.
"Aaaargh! Save me!"
One of the squires was grabbed by the specters and dragged into the crumbled wall.
Soon, amidst terrible screams from the edge of the darkness, the sight of the dragged squire’s arms and legs being torn off was seen.
"Rakshar!"
Rakshar had no time to use his main weapon, the bow.
Instead, he was using the sturdy brute strength unique to Werewolves to throw the specters clinging to him.
'At this rate, we'll be annihilated!'
It was a narrow passage where about three people standing shoulder to shoulder would fill it tight. Since the specters were reaching out from all directions trying to snatch the group in such a narrow passage, continuing the battle here would clearly be unmanageable.
"I will clear a path! Everyone must advance!"
If they stopped, they would die.
Blanc hurriedly opened the mouth of the pouch he wore at his waist and scattered its contents onto his sword.
'In the end, I end up using even this!'
The white powder that was inside the pouch sparkled white in the light of the torches.
"Young Master!"
The sticky blood of the specters on Blanc's sword began to glow red as it absorbed the white powder.
"Rakshar, lend me your shoulder!"
Blanc infused a thunderbolt into his sword glowing red, stepped onto Rakshar's shoulder avoiding the specters' interference, leaped from there over the group, and moved forward.
KIEEEEEEK!
"Blanc!"
Every time Blanc, who arrived at the front of the group in an instant, swung his glowing red sword, the specters screamed in pain and burned.
"Blanc, that is……."
Blanc hurriedly scattered the powder from the pouch onto Noel's sword as well.
"It is salt!"
When Blanc instructed Billy to buy Mint Candy, he had also told him to prepare high-quality salt.
And obeying Blanc’s order, Billy waited in front of the general store all night and prepared the best salt he could find.
Sun-dried salt.
Born from the sea, the mother of life, and having received the essence of the sun, the father of light, intact.
Since light and life stand at the opposite end of darkness and death.
KIEEEEEEK!
Dark and wicked things had no choice but to fear it.
"If we stop, we die! We must clear a path!"
"Good!"
Joining Blanc at the very front of the group, Noel faced the specters flooding in like waves from ahead.
"Here we go!"
At Blanc’s shout, Noel wrapped the Lion’s Heart, the secret technique of the Tolome family, around his body.
"Come! You cursed things!"
As soon as Noel’s lion-like roar ended, the specters filling the passage rushed toward the two with furious momentum.
***
The Lion of Tolome, Bartomyu, and the Knight of Godspeed, Edwin, were famous individually, but usually, their names were praised together by people.
Those who were stronger when facing enemies together than alone.
"We will break through!"
"Do not worry about the rear!"
Edwin’s swordsmanship dealing with enemies with movements as fast as lightning, and Bartomyu’s swordsmanship overwhelming enemies while maintaining solid defense, were a very compatible combination.
"The path is opening! Move!"
"Do not stop moving! The moment you are grabbed, you cannot escape!"
That excellent combination enabled a high-level joint attack between Noel and Blanc, who had never crossed swords before.
Blanc, burning the rushing specters while looking only ahead, disregarding the specters clinging to him.
And Noel supporting him solidly from behind.
Noel calmly cutting down the specters clinging to Blanc, creating a safe space for him. And seeing the sight of Blanc grinding down specters with storm-like momentum, even the mindless specters seemed to hesitate for a moment.
BOOM, BOOM!
"Bastards! Die!"
"Sir Bauer! You must not lose your composure!"
At the very rear, the experienced Hansen and Bauer, boasting outstanding physical strength, were guarding the group’s back solidly.
The knights of Tolome were tough.
Even in a crisis faced suddenly, they did not succumb and calmly did their jobs.
Thus, the group advanced, relentlessly cutting down the rushing specters.
The knights advanced through the endless dark passage, fighting through specters for hours.
Or perhaps it was a shorter time, but at least the perceived time felt by the knights was so.
Even for the knights of Tolome, it was a battle where stamina and mental strength were ruthlessly whittled away. Claw marks left by hundreds of rushing specters were being carved like wounds onto the knights’ armor.
The group grew exhausted.
They stumbled without knowing who was first, and the taste of iron was felt in their mouths.
"Is this where I die today!"
"I’ll take at least one more with me! You bastards!"
"Hold the torches properly! I’ll kill any bastard who gets scared and sits down first!"
The knights holding out with all their might until the very last.
Perhaps the knights’ tearful efforts worked, for finally, a ray of light shining from the end of the passage was seen in the eyes of Blanc, who was leading the furthest ahead.
"It is light!"
It was the moment the end of the long, long passage, which was like a den of evil spirits, came into view.
However, as signs of the group escaping the passage appeared, the specters reached out even more fiercely.
Nothing could be seen due to the hands extended by the specters, to the point where vision turned pitch black.
"Dog…… shit. Seriously!"
Bauer swung his war hammer, clotted with dark red blood, ceaselessly, but the specters showed no sign of decreasing.
Not knowing how many corpses were stored in the walls, this situation could not have happened with just the miners and knights involved in this disappearance incident.
Countless specters were persistently snatching at the group. Because of that, the group's advance speed was slowing down.
Every time the group's speed forward slowed, the number of clinging specters only increased.
"Aaaaaagh!"
"Damn it! I can't hold on anymore!"
Even the knights who were firmly maintaining formation were being dragged away by the hands of specters one by one.
It was a repetition of a vicious cycle. At this rate, it was clear they wouldn't last much longer.
In a situation spiraling towards the worst, Blanc was doing his best. His soul was solid and strong.
However, the vessel containing the warrior's soul was a fourteen-year-old uncompleted body.
Since it was Edwin's swordsmanship that required intense movement, stamina was draining rapidly.
'Kugh!'
Even so, Blanc tried to clear a path through the specters by somehow gathering his mind, but being human, there was a limit.
Gradually, his sword slowed, and his feet stopped. Blanc tried to whip his body to open a way out, but.
Gurgle!
Dark red blood flowed down along his mouth.
"Blanc!"
"Damn it! Blanc, move!"
Aubert stepped in to replace the injured Blanc, but he was insufficient to replace him.
Rather than a problem of skill, it was because the characteristics of his swordsmanship didn't suit a single-man breakthrough.
Bauer might have been able to, but he was guarding the rear of the group.
If he left the rearguard, it was obvious the formation would collapse in an instant.
To make matters worse, the salt Blanc brought had run out.
Even Blanc, with his good preparation, hadn't expected things to spiral into such a worst-case scenario.
The group was coming to a halt, unable to do this or that. And toward them, the specters rushed in pitch blackness.
'Just a little more…….'
Blanc was losing consciousness due to rapid exhaustion and internal injuries.
Through his fading vision, light shone faintly from the end of the passage. If only they could get there, they could live.
Blanc tried to move, holding onto his snapping consciousness. He couldn't give up here.
Recalling the purpose of his regression, Blanc burned what was in his heart once again.
Blanc raised his sword again with his flickering mind upright.
Light shone from the end of the passage into Blanc's fading eyes.
And at the end of that light…….
'Lord Aselheit…….'
Aselheit was standing there.
As he struck down with the wooden stick he was holding.
Once again, the World approached.
Slowly…… very slowly…….
Blanc unknowingly struck his sword down toward the light.
Then, the light approached.
***
"Cough!"
"Young Master!"
"Blanc, are you alright!"
Blanc regained consciousness, coughing up blood.
"Here is…… where am I?"
"We escaped the passage. Drink water first."
Noel personally put a water flask to Blanc's mouth.
"This…… how?"
"That is what I want to ask! Hahaha!"
Noel rarely expressed emotions, but in this situation, he had no choice but to laugh.
Blanc, hurriedly regaining his senses, looked around.
Turning his head, there was the passage where they had fought the specters just moments ago.
No, there had been.
"Did it collapse?"
"What are you saying. You collapsed it."
"I did?"
Blanc couldn't help but be bewildered. What did he do?
Noel squeezed the bewildered Blanc's shoulder and said.
"Congratulations, Blanc. You have gained Enlightenment."
The single strike Blanc struck down while losing consciousness.
Noel and Aubert realized the terrifying power of that single strike more certainly than anyone else here.
"If we had realized a little later, we would be bloody pulp right now. You rascal."
Aubert smirked and joked.
Aubert, who had stepped in to replace Blanc when he vomited blood and lost consciousness.
'How did he endure this!'
It wasn't killing intent and pressure a mere fourteen-year-old boy could endure.
It had been ten years since he followed his father and brother in knight training.
Stefan Tolome had taken Noel and Aubert with him as soon as they finished their coming-of-age ceremonies to experience real battles.
Although he didn't gain as much fame as Jonas, who received full support from Schumacher and the Tolome family, Aubert was confident in the skills he gained through actual combat.
However, the wave of malice Blanc was enduring was at a level difficult for even Aubert, who had undergone ten years of harsh training, to endure for long.
'To think he was not only enduring this but breaking through! A mere fourteen-year-old!'
Aubert had inwardly underestimated him, thinking that whatever Aselheit's sixth knight meant, he was just a child albeit with excellent talent, but now his thoughts had changed.
Blanc was already the strongest among those inheriting Tolome's blood.
He admitted that he had already surpassed the level of the brothers and could threaten the father's generation.
'……!'
"What…… the!"
Aubert, who was revising his evaluation of Blanc in his head while blocking the specters.
From behind such Aubert and Noel, an undeniable, magnificent aura stretched out.
It was an urgent situation, but Noel and Aubert couldn't help but turn around. To be precise, they were compelled to turn by instinct before they could even think.
Where Noel and Aubert turned to look, Blanc was stumbling, holding his sword high.
"Dodge!"
"Uaaagh!"
As the sword Blanc raised stumbling reached its peak, it began to descend slowly.
At the momentum shot out from that sword, the horde of evil spirits standing like a solid wall, seeming impossible to advance even an inch against, began to split in half.
Even the passage.
Filling everything with pure white light.
"It's collapsing! This crazy!"
"Run! Run!"
"Young Master!"
He erased everything into white.
***
"That is what happened."
"But I do not remember."
"Still, what is important is that you did it. I cannot say much since I have never reached a high realm either."
Since he did it once, he would be able to do it again.
Reaching a realm once is difficult, but walking a path one has already walked once wouldn't be that hard.
Blanc stared blankly at his hand, clenching and unclenching it.
'Did I recreate Lord Aselheit's sword?'
Hansen, one of the knights who had watched the duel between Blanc and Aselheit, spoke. He said it was similar to the sword back then.
Though the pressure was different.
"If you have come to your senses, let us move. We cannot delay time in this unknown place forever."
"Since the way we came in collapsed, we might not be able to get out."
Aubert stood up and said.
Indeed, since the path they entered had collapsed, it was understandable for Aubert to think so, but Blanc, who knew the path of Baum Mine in detail, knew there was a way out.
"Though the bastards disguised as Sir Carlo and Sir Asat said the path connects when we first entered……."
"How can we trust the words of those bastards? Well, anyway, right now, rather than worrying about the way out."
Aubert pointed forward with his chin and said.
"It would be right to worry about the path ahead."
Escaping the passage swarming with specters, what they encountered was a large hallway.
A large hallway that could be seen in any grand mansion.
And on that hallway, a red carpet was laid out.
"How far does it connect?"
"Probably to hell."
The carpet of intense color, as if blood were sprinkled, stretched endlessly, endlessly along the dark hallway.
Into the darkness.