13 (72)

Every time Ian swung his sword, cavalrymen were torn apart. He walked all the way to the very front. The situation was tense, and the numbers of Demon Soldiers and cavalrymen killed were similar. The horses had died like rags, and among the corpses, almost none had intact bodies. Plenty of them had even melted and stuck to the ground.

Among the mutations that had occurred in the Demon Soldiers, some corroded whatever part touched their blades. Most of the cavalry trembled in fear at the sight.

The only one detached from it was Louis. Rather, he felt a sense of excitement he might have tasted only in childhood. Ian, standing before him, was… someone worth fighting. Recently, Louis had been without a proper opponent.

Ian walked all the way to the front, climbed atop the corpse of a horse, and spoke toward Louis.

“I am the commander of these fellows. You seem to be the commander of these cavalrymen.”

“……….”

“Not only these cavalrymen, but also the master of a country, I suppose. Am I right?”

“……….”

Even as Ian spoke, the cavalrymen and Demon Soldiers were tangled together, aiming for each other’s throats.

“This battle is extremely advantageous for my side. If it continues like this, it will certainly be an easy victory. Let me tell you one thing. Demon Soldiers do not stop simply because they reach the center. There is only one way to stop them…….”

“………”

Ian grinned.

“That is to kill me.”

“……….”

“Black magic belongs to me. The Demon Soldiers are like my limbs. Even if you go to the middle, all you will get is one useless old man. So……. The simplest method is killing me. You can believe me. I may be good at lying, but this is the truth. Hmm……. In fact, it is not simply a loss for me either. To put it another way, time is precious. There is something I have long desired, you see. My body is itching to do it even right now.”

Louis finally opened his mouth.

“You talk too much. So, what do you want?”

“I want to contest a match. The winner will take what he wants. I want your life and time, while you want to occupy this place. If you kill me, you will be able to occupy it. Though the chance is slim.”

Chiliarch Derek rode his horse toward Louis.

“There is no need to even listen to the proposal. Please trust us.”

Another chiliarch, Lemun, followed after him. He came before Louis, lowered his helmet, and spoke toward Ian.

“How dare you make such a proposal before him! I, Paul Lemun, will take your head! Please grant me permission! I will bring back his head!”

He looked ready to shoot forward like an arrow, but Louis simply stopped him.

“Stop.”

“Grand Duke. Please grant me permission!!”

“I will not say it twice.”

Because Louis vaguely knew Ian’s skill, he knew that a single chiliarch alone would not be able to do anything interesting. If he sent in every chiliarch he had, they might be able to wound him. The position of chiliarch was too valuable a card to lose over childish emotion. Louis had already foreseen victory. It was intuition.

“Fine. I accept. All troops on the front line, withdraw.”

It was when Louis gave the order. Ian must have also given some sort of instruction, because the Demon Soldiers suddenly stopped. They were like living statues. Their forearms, with tendons exposed, trembled, and one cavalryman beneath one of them had his eyes squeezed shut. The Demon Soldier slowly lowered its hand. Then it gradually stepped back and fully turned around. It turned as if being suppressed.

Louis rode his horse forward. Louis passed through the crude corpses and received salutes from the cavalrymen coming toward him. Before long, he reached Ian. Louis looked down at him, then swiftly dismounted. The blood-soaked ground welcomed Louis. Louis drew his sword and slowly aimed it at him. Without anyone saying anything, the two began circling each other little by little.

They were measuring the distance. Mana seeped into the murky mana as if entangling with it. Ian’s eyes widened in haste, as if startled by that. Their attacks came simultaneously. It was a seizure-like movement. Louis thought that his speed was certainly above Lord Ferdinand’s. Louis dodged the incoming attack to the side. The sword was clearly only a broken half, yet the ground cracked and shattered. Corpses burst up behind Louis as if exploding. A blood mist was drawn beautifully.

Ian’s follow-up attacks were merciless. For a moment, Louis nearly lost sight of him. Silence followed. Before the fragments of blood had even settled, Ian was satisfied with his own skill. Ian believed the first attack would wound Louis, but Louis had easily avoided it, and that startled him. Since Ian had attacked with above-average strength, he had provisionally concluded that he had killed Louis. He gathered his boiling mana. Until the blade was reflected in his pupils.

He hurriedly inhaled and immediately leaped backward to avoid the sword. Because he had gathered his mana, it did not return right away. The sword sliced across his face. His skin froze over and burned. He was flung backward and rolled about two more times before crashing into a heap of corpses where Demon Soldiers and horses were tangled together. From within the corpse pile, he thought.

‘What on earth just happened?’

Ian could not understand the current situation. He tried to think, but his thoughts cut off, and the burning sensation on his face reconnected his senses. Since fusing with Nemesis, he had never once suffered such a thing. Rather than feeling surprise, he felt extremely displeased. A voice rang out from above Ian.

“If you just lie still, I have no choice but to kill you.”

Louis drove his sword down vertically. It was a movement with no hesitation whatsoever. Louis stabbed the innocent ground, then immediately narrowed his eyes. Ian was in the middle of burrowing in. His speed was even faster. It seemed he was aiming for the arm. Louis moved one step faster and struck his head. Ian lost his balance and slammed into the ground with the very speed he had used to approach.

‘Im… impossible….’

Ian gasped. Perhaps his neck had broken, because he could not breathe. A human would normally be as good as dead at this point. He was half not human, and there were still ways left for him to resist. His mind was a mess. Ian released his mana all at once. Crunch. Mana newly seeped out from his tattoos and crushed his body. His flesh was collapsing and reconstructing itself. He became round, like a lump. It looked unstable, and instead of attacking, Louis stepped back a few paces.

‘Come to think of it, he was not human.’

Louis looked over the thing before his eyes and recalled what he had read in the information window. ‘So……. That is Nemesis.’ The round form had already materialized into a giant body. It was three meters tall, with two gargoyle-like wings. Its arms and two legs were human, but their thickness and shape belonged to a demonic beast. Shock swept through the surroundings.

“It’s a demon!!!”

Someone shouted that, and most understood it that way. Even Louis thought that if a demon were summoned, it might look like that.

Ian had fully drawn out his original power and was looking down at Louis. Power swirled through his body as if overflowing, and unable to suppress his desire to crush Louis, he brought it down just like that. It was a force powerful enough to make the ground shake for an instant. Even for Louis, taking such power head-on would be dangerous. A chase of attacking and being pursued naturally began. Ian’s brute strength had already left the human body behind, and he was faster and stronger than before.

But even as time passed, there was no sign of Ian catching Louis. Louis had already begun counterattacking, leaving scratches on Ian’s body and wings. Ian could not help but sincerely admire him. He was gradually coming to understand why Nestor had wanted Louis so badly. The endpoint that a human could reach through extreme talent and effort. Ian also realized that Louis’s vessel was great enough to summon a Demon God. That was his last thought.

‘Even after drawing out all my strength, I cannot win. If a mere human could reach this far, then what on earth was I…….’

When his head flew off, Ian’s thoughts were completely severed as well. The massive body lost its master and stood frozen like ice, then slowly tilted over.

Cheers burst out from the cavalrymen. Trumpets announcing victory began to sound one after another. The cavalrymen who had been fighting bloody battles on bridges other than the center seemed to have no idea what was going on. As many as seven bridges had lost the initiative. The color of defeat had been thick. They had been in a situation where all they could do was desperately hope for a breakthrough from the center. Everyone was able to understand the meaning of victory only after they saw the Demon Soldiers attacking each other.

The Demon Soldiers recognized each other as enemies. Since they would never have stopped in the first place if not for Ian, this was only the natural next step. When the enemy fell into internal conflict, battle became easier. Even the cavalrymen who had been losing strength recovered the tide, so the center needed no explanation.

A ridiculous thing was happening. Every time Louis drew close, the Demon Soldiers that had been fiercely cutting each other trembled in fear and moved aside. Some of the Demon Soldiers did not stop at moving aside and leaped down below. Since Ian, a superior being, had been killed by Louis, Louis had naturally taken that position. The only regret was that he could not command them. The center advanced with irresistible momentum.

Meanwhile, Nestor barely managed to lay his body against a pillar. He wanted to see what was happening, but because he had been tied with rope and thrown aside, his face had only been planted against the floor. Wherever the rope had come from, it was incompatible with his magical power. Not only did it burn his skin, it bound him like a spiderweb.

He kept struggling and finally managed to settle into position. The wounds he had received from Ian had rapidly recovered. His broken nose had been set straight, and his lips, which had been torn all the way to his ears, were intact except for a red thread connecting them. That red thread was gradually shrinking as well. The parts being burned melted and healed repeatedly. He clenched his teeth.

‘Louis…. No. Ian, that bastard. That ignorant……. stupid bastard who does not even know what value he has.’

No matter how much he cursed, his anger did not subside. Now that it was certain Ian was half-human and half-beast, it was difficult for Nestor to hold even the slightest hope. Louis would die. He found himself so pathetic that he almost sighed. He had never imagined that the thing he had waited eighty years for would become this ruined because he was bound by a petty past.

His grumbling would have continued if the Demon Soldiers had not begun attacking each other, but it happened. The path in the middle was splitting apart as if the sea were being parted. He could only open his mouth and stare at the sight. The one at the head stood out especially clearly.

“Lou…. Louis!”

‘My…. my God. Ian lost? Is that possible?’

If Ian had become half-human and half-beast, that meant he had enough skill to aim for a position even higher than leader within the cult. The fact that Louis had won thoroughly shattered his fixed ideas. Louis approached faster than the shock could settle.