Chapter 143
Chapter 143 — Black Droplets
Hundreds of the suicide squad came charging toward a single point.
Some felt shame that mercenaries had led the way, while others stepped forward believing this was a fight worth taking on.
But whatever the reason, hesitation no longer existed.
"Charge!"
"For the glory of Niboria!!"
The moment the cry rang out, swords and spears flashed simultaneously. Waves of magical energy shook the ground violently, and footsteps swift as a gale converged upon a single enemy.
Crash!
The first wave collided with the barrier that was Kohtan. The front lines sank as though swallowed by pitch-black darkness. Sharp screams erupted with every strike of a blade, and even upper-rank knights were caught in the recoil and sent flying. Blood, flesh, and fragments of steel scattered like fireworks.
And yet, not one person stopped. The second and third waves surged forward in succession.
"Don't fall back! Keep pushing!"
Light and darkness, flame and cold crossed each other as they converged on the center of the battlefield. A massive longsword drove into Kohtan's flank, while spear tips from the rear aimed for his knees. Falling Fire and Geomhwa rained down without pause, painting the space brilliantly bright.
But.
Shhhhhhhh!!
Kohtan allowed not even a single scratch upon his breastplate. The squad's magical energy lost its force before it could reach his body, or instead reversed and returned to its casters, wounding them. In multiple places, people began coughing up blood from the energy backlash.
"Ughhk—"
A one-sided disaster. Those who advanced were cut down, those who made contact crumbled, and they were helplessly suffering against a force that struck at existence itself.
Then, suddenly, the dwarf Basim's eyes narrowed.
He saw an opening.
The moment Kohtan's jet-black sword swung wide to target Imran's upper body, the lower half shifted ever so slightly.
"Now!"
Basim charged faster than anyone. Tearing through the split clouds of dust, he poured energy into his twin axes and swung with fierce force.
An upward slash from below.
Astonishingly, Kohtan failed to react immediately. Was it the limitation of having taken human form? The armor at his thigh split faintly, and smoke rose from the gap. It was impossible to tell whether it was blood or vaporized energy, but a clear 'wound' had been inflicted.
"Got him!"
The entire suicide squad let out a battle cry at this, though the joy was short-lived.
Bang—!
The moment Kohtan's head turned, Basim's stocky body was sent flying through the air. As the force of darkness discharged in a circular blast, the knights caught in it halted their steps and fell to their knees.
[Insignificant things…….]
The sinister whisper sounded less like anger and more like chilling mockery. Yet at the same time, it was more than enough to deliver a single ray of hope.
After pressing forward through countless sacrifices, a small crack was forming in the domain of the Legion Commander.
***
Calix kept analyzing his opponent without pause. Not wasting the time his allies had bought, he calmly read Kohtan's swordsmanship and movements.
[Bloodline Ability Change Detected]
[Northern Continental Style, Ancient Swordsmanship has been witnessed.]
[Ashapel's Instinct/Avatar of the Battlefield '3%' increase, currently '69%']
In the midst of all this, the neural accelerator signals growth in ability. The swordsmanship stats that had barely grown until now were rising rapidly.
'The opponent's acceleration is above 4. He falls just short of Master, but his speed is comparable.'
The pattern of combat had already taken shape.
Imran Akran clashed blades directly, Calix provided support, and the suicide squad members aimed for openings. While delivering continuous attacks like interlocking gears, his gaze remained fixed near Kohtan's solar plexus.
In the end, the core had to be destroyed.
Calix felt the coiled energy within him. An energy that was deep and merciless like the primordial sea, one that shattered even order and boundaries, existed within his core.
'There will be only one chance.'
Whether by misfortune or fortune, that chance arrived sooner than expected. At the precise moment Ella's prayer was completed, Vice-captain Marik rushed all the way to right in front of the enemy.
"Here!!"
Fierce sparks flew wildly, but in an instant the space inverted and the trajectory twisted. Falling Fire veered off and overturned the ground, the black torrent evaporated, and within a radius of several meters everything turned hazy white.
Through that gap, Imran thrust the tip of his blade forward. Once again, with a thunderous boom, the force's shockwave spread to the surroundings.
This time, however, an ally had grabbed hold of the enemy's weapon. He pushed his body in until the guards of their swords collided, and matched the dark authority's strength with pure, refined energy.
That was precisely the moment.
That Calix pushed through.
Crash!
He planted his foot forward and breathed in deeply. The muscles throughout his entire body swelled taut, and as speed built instantly, his body stretched long.
[Combat Acceleration 4.0x]
[Warning! Core Instability, Irregular Pattern Detected.]
Within him, darkness and chaos whirled in a vortex. The stage just before a runaway. But in that moment, Calix's blade pointed in only one direction.
The presence of the core, faintly perceptible deep inside Kohtan's chest.
'His reaction is slow.'
Their gazes met, but properly caught by Imran, he could not pull away. Imran was also a Master, and the pure white radiance at the tip of the sword constrained his movements.
Of course, Calix was not careless either.
Kohtan was powerful.
Setting aside his unique authority, his skill with weapons, his concise movements, his minimal motion, the way he tilted his body to absorb impact — even his primordial defensive capability. Not one thing could be dismissed.
'Like cutting through a flowing river — it has to end in a single stroke!'
But those strengths were now known.
Shweeeeee—
A sword strike condensed with Falling Fire carves a straight line. Space tore, splitting lengthwise along a diagonal. Kohtan pulled his upper body back, but drew away only half a step. In the end, he could not ignore the presence of Imran.
And into that center, Calix's strike drove down.
Crash-crash-crash-craaack!
To those watching from around them, it looked as though a single meteor had been driven into the ground. The tip of the blade scraped across the surface of the armor, then wedged its way inside.
"It reached……!"
Helmut Barben muttered without thinking.
It truly seemed to have reached.
Pfft.
In that moment, the blade pierced through the armor's surface. With a screeeech — the sound of metal grinding — from within the dark red shell, black particles began to seep out.
"We did it! The attack got through!"
Dwarf Basim bellowed. The suicide squad members also looked at each other and broke into small smiles. The mere fact that a human weapon had reached a being they had believed unkillable was enough to see hope.
However, this soon turned to bewilderment.
"Cough……"
A trickle of blood ran from the corner of Calix's mouth. It was not that he had suffered from energy backlash like the others. Just as his own core was an energy aggregate, so too was Kohtan's 'nucleus'. The price for glimpsing that vast darkness was internal injury.
'Something went wrong.'
He pressed the sword handle all the way to the end and examined Kohtan's heart. He had finally created a crack, and through that minute gap, the nucleus became visible.
The dark sphere was the size of two fists put together. Its surface was as smooth as black glass, yet it absorbed even light. Its interior appeared hollow, yet intermittently, ink-black liquid rotated within it and spread like a heartbeat.
An ancient pulse that defied the order of the world.
Naturally, Kohtan too realized that his true nature had been exposed. The red thread of light inside the helmet shook violently, and a furious metallic sound rang out resoundingly.
[You dare—to shatter my shell!]
"……Fall back!"
Imran was the first to sense something wrong and shouted. Immediately after, an unprecedented pressure erupted from around Kohtan.
As dark red ripples swept across the battlefield, the earth twisted once again. Black liquid surged up through the cracks, boulders and stone fragments melted like ice in midsummer. A living, moving sea of the abyss. Soon, a muddy viscous tide like sludge rose up to waist level across the entire plain.
"What — I can't move……!"
The knight commanders cried out, but it was already too late. In the air, black droplets arranged themselves at regular intervals. It was not that they had been swept along by the force's shockwave. According to Kohtan's will, they moved along precise orbits.
"Neural Accelerator activation warning! Energy is fluctuating!"
The moment the droplets grazed or touched a body, they either absorbed its force or conversely disrupted its flow.
Splash, splash.
The feet of heavily armored knights became bound, and the will channeled into their swords wavered. Even divine power could not manifest its full force within the murky air. Ella's sacred magic, as though blocked by a muffling curtain, dissipated before it could advance even ten steps.
And within that chaos, the demon raised its head.
***
The wound on the Red Knight slowly began to recover. The moment the core that had briefly appeared vanished, Kohtan fixed his maddened gaze upon the humans.
[The amusement ends here.]
Tststststt!
Without warning, the droplets vibrated in fine tremors before all simultaneously changing direction. At first it seemed they were being pushed outward beyond the battlefield, but before long it became clear this was an attack.
Pft.
"Ugh!"
"……Everyone get down below!"
The accelerated droplets pierced through human forearms, shoulders, and the napes of necks. The Mountain Rabbits quickly submerged into the mud to avoid catastrophe, but the knights thrashed about and drew their last breaths. Someone had their collarbone pierced through and dropped their sword; someone else had their abdomen run through and collapsed face-down into the mire.
Shhhhhraaaak—!
Simultaneously, Kohtan's jet-black sword carved a circle. Knights pinned to the ground were sliced apart by a single flash of light. Before their screams could even finish, a red mist rose.
Imran and Calix gave chase, but could not build up speed in the soft ground. They tried to pour out energy to aid their allies, but the droplets in the air once again corrected their trajectory. They struck weapons and shields to shatter them, seeped through the gaps in helmets, and bored into eyes and brains.
"Hold the line! Regroup the vanguard—"
Even the shout of Nuvel Groxat, knight commander of Silver Falcon, could not continue. Before the sound could carry, Kohtan launched himself forward once again.
Crackle-crunch!
Bloody steam erupted among the clustered knights. What they had once believed was an encirclement was now dozens of people being severed all at once, floating atop the muddy water. Comrades who had been breathing just moments before had turned into lumps of flesh, and the black droplets absorbed even that blood, radiating an even darker light.
"This can't be……"
Someone muttered in a tone mixed with despair, but Helmut Barben added nothing more. This was what this being had always been.
The one who had handed Master, Imran Akran, defeat.
As the demon opened its maw wide and plunged into the flock, Legion Commander Kohtan continued his slaughter within an expressionless fury.
***
Within the mud that had risen to his waist, Calix felt a dragging resistance as though something were pulling at his feet. Even when he deployed a pressure field to push the droplets back, that freedom lasted only a fleeting instant. Completely repelling Kohtan's authority was impossible.
He could not build up sufficient speed.
But the signs of confusion lasted only a moment.
At some point, his eyes grew calm.
'……This feeling.'
Without warning, a corner of his mind recalled the days when he had worked as a mine diver. The days when he would plunge into mud pits to extract mana stones. In those depths, even breathing was blocked, and an immense pressure bore down with every level descended.
And yet that resistance…… Gradually became familiar.
He had learned to read the direction of the density created by earth and water, to use his equipment correctly, and to advance by working with the current.
Looking back on it now, he had completely forgotten that fact.
[Environmental Synchronization Initiated]
[Nature Attunement Applying]
'It's possible. Even within this, I can move.'
The mud and droplets, the materialized domain that Kohtan had created, sought to bind everyone. But for Calix, it was not a perfect prison. Pressure was heavy and fearsome, yet there was always room to be turned to use.
Soon, his feet began to move forward — slowly, but with certainty.
Rather than pursuing the enemy from behind, he moved his feet in the direction his instincts pointed. He sharpened the edge of his senses and looked ahead — into where the monster was aiming, its movements before they happened.
'Swiftness of movement isn't what matters. I need to hold my center.'
Diving. Battle. Even his own heart.
All of it was the same.