Chapter 60

Taking the lead to command the unit, Hopes drew his sword.

Then, in one fluid motion, he swung his arm to the side.

At that signal, the knights behind him began their incantations. Looking closely, every member of the group was lightly armored and carried a staff adorned with gemstones. I could guess that this was a knight order specializing in magic.

I ignored everything and tried to blow past them, pulling a sword from my “Inventory” and increasing my running speed.

Hopes stood in my way as if to block my path, but—

I didn’t slow down.

I was confident I could cut Hopes down the moment we crossed paths.

I lunged in with all my momentum and swung my blade.

Hopes attempted to parry the blow while retreating.

His movements weren’t those of someone trying to win. At the end of that retreat lay my high-momentum slash. While it certainly extended the duration of the exchange, in terms of a board game, it was a “dead move”.

However, that only applied if this were a one-on-one fight.

Just as my slash was about to strike Hopes, who had lost his posture from repeated retreats—the magic from the knights behind him was unleashed.

First, all the water from the fountain rose into the air and came crashing down toward me.

I dodged it by leaping far to the side. Of course, Hopes used that opening to recover his stance and ready his sword again.

It was a clear stalling tactic.

I considered my options. With my current power, I could freeze all the manipulated water. The groundwork for that was already laid. The chill from the “Freeze” spell stored within my magic, “Dimension: Gladiator,” possessed that much power.

If I wanted the fastest route, I could choose that.

However, I wanted to save it for the “Celestial Knights” I hadn’t encountered yet who were likely waiting further ahead. Besides, there was no guarantee the magic from the rear knights was limited to water.

“In that case—!”

I switched my sword to my left hand, pulled a suitably hard rock that I could throw from my “Inventory,” and hurled it with all my might at the head of one of the knights in the back.

Hopes, who I was facing off against, was startled by the projectile appearing out of nowhere. He tried to swat it away with his sword to protect them. However, I used the sword in my left hand to seal Hopes’s movements.

Several knights were struck in the head by the projectiles and lost consciousness.

Given my current Strength and Dex, a thrown stone was effectively a lethal weapon. However, some knights didn’t faint even after a direct hit. Part of it was that the knights themselves were high-level, but in the end, it was just a pebble.

“All units! Double formation!!”

Hopes barked orders to the knights behind him.

The knights quickly formed into a two-line rank; those in the front took defensive stances while those in the back divided the labor by chanting.

It was a fluid movement, like a well-trained army.

While I was impressed, I understood that breaking through this formation wouldn’t be easy.

I threw stones again, but they were deflected by the front row of knights and didn’t reach the casters in the back.

A cold sweat broke out.

I wasn’t anxious about the enemy’s strength.

The sweat was because I had reached a point where I could no longer hold back.

If I just wanted to break through, I could simply throw the spare swords in my “Inventory” with all my strength. That alone would be enough to skewer not just the front knights, but the ones in the back as well. However, doing that would almost certainly result in kills.

After a moment’s hesitation, I executed a compromise.

I pulled a spare sword from my “Inventory” and prepared to hurl it with full force at a non-lethal spot. Even if I avoided vital organs, there was a high possibility of casualties. But since I had made up my mind to save Lastiara, I couldn’t afford to waver.

“—!!”

The moment Hopes saw me pull a blade from my “Inventory,” he abandoned his defensive retreat and went on the offensive.

In an instant, I slashed the back of Hopes’s hand, making him drop his sword. It was easy to defeat him once he switched from defense to attack.

Having dropped his sword, Hopes immediately raised his voice.

“I-I surrender!! This is impossible! Once you’ve steeled your resolve, I’ve already lost!”

Raising both hands, which must have been in pain, Hopes signaled that he had no intention of resisting further.

The knights in the back found it strange that their captain had surrendered. A commotion broke out, eventually turning into cries to keep fighting.

“We’re just getting started, Captain!! Our true strength begins from—”

“No, no, we’re not even in the same league! He’s been holding back like crazy just to keep us from getting hurt, and we still ended up like this. Even if there were ten units of us, it wouldn’t be enough. Just drop your weapons. If we persist any longer, people are going to start dying left and right. Honestly, how ridiculous.”

Hopes ordered the knights to drop their weapons with harsh words.

The knights, looking like they had chewed on bitter insects, reluctantly placed their respective weapons on the ground.

Seeing this, I muttered a small thanks to Hopes and immediately started running.

“Thank you.”

I brushed past Hopes’s side.

I was truly grateful that they hadn’t fought to the bitter end.

“Sorry about that. I basically took advantage of your conscience. Still, you let someone like me stall you for nearly twenty seconds. You’d better hurry.”

I heard Hopes’s voice behind me.

His tone almost sounded like he was cheering me on.

I felt like I had caught a glimpse of Hopes’s character and his position within Huzya.

I ran past the disarmed knights and hurried further down the path.

I couldn’t waste a single second, if only to answer Hopes’s encouragement.

I finished passing through the central Great Garden.

With this, I had covered more than half the distance to the Great Cathedral. If I kept going, I should be able to see the grand staircase in front of the cathedral.

The Great Cathedral sat atop a hill, and Dia had told me that the slope featured a magnificent T-shaped staircase and an inverted T-shaped staircase.

I ran through the long path decorated with jewels and flowers, finally arriving in front of the grand staircase.

A battalion of dozens of knights was waiting there.

And at their head stood a single knight who possessed the unmistakable aura of the truly powerful.

His attire was light, similar to the magic knights from moments ago.

The fact that he carried a gemstone-encrusted staff in addition to the sword at his waist was the deciding factor.

He was likely one of the Celestial Knights. He was the first of the magic-specialist types I had encountered—

His long hair was styled in numerous braids. He was a man roughly the same height as me.

He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties.

I started to use “Focus,” but then I stopped.

Analyzing an enemy’s strength upon first encounter was the standard tactic.

However, I chose not to do that.

Fortunately, the conditions were perfect.

I had already decided that if I encountered a new Celestial Knight who seemed to lean toward magic, I would use a new spell.

Therefore, I skipped the effort of using “Focus” and began constructing the magic.

I was confident that with this, my greatest spell, I could completely shut down my opponent.

I chanted the spell.

“Magic: Dimension. Magic: Freeze—”

The area of my sensory magic expanded to envelop the entire battalion.

At the same time, the chill of my freezing magic also shrouded them all.

The concept behind this new spell was exactly the same as “Dimension: Ice Snow.”

The only difference was the scale.

With “Dimension: Ice Snow,” I had infused cold air into a bubble-shaped dimension. This time, I infused that cold into a dimension shaped as an entire territory.

“—Magic: Dimension: Winter.”

The spherical area with a diameter of about fifty meters centered on me turned into winter.

Within this wintry world, the performance of my freezing magic increased significantly.

However, the drop in temperature wasn’t the true value of this spell.

Its true value lay in the interference with matter within the range.

As usual, it was a composite spell born from the idea of replicating existing magic. This time, I imitated the “soft wind” magic that Hein had used.

Hein had filled the surroundings with wind to interfere with my “Dimension” magic. This was a recreation of that, adding the interference unique to freezing magic.

Through “Dimension,” I sensed the knight in front—the one I assumed to be a Celestial Knight—attempting to activate a spell.

I manipulated the cold air composed of my mana to interfere with it.

The image was simple.

Coming from a world of advanced science, I interpreted freezing magic as the manipulation of molecular kinetic energy.

If molecular kinetic energy reaches zero, you get absolute zero. Based on that bit of trivia, I had performed freezing magic with the image of using mana to control the vibration of molecules that make up matter.

In other words, I extended the magic of suppressing molecular motion into magic that suppressed the enemy’s mana. Fortunately, since I could grasp the enemy’s mana in detail with Dimension magic, the mental image was easy.

I suppressed the mana of the knights within the territory.

To prevent them from forming their spells, I gradually—shifted (misaligned)—their formulas.

Despite feeling a slight chill and a sense of discomfort, the knights unleashed their magic.

However, everyone’s face turned to one of shock upon seeing the results.

The spells they fired were all visibly withered. Some even failed to trigger entirely.

Flames no bigger than a matchstick.

Water bullets that lacked any range.

Shockwaves that were mere tremors.

They were nothing but magical wreckage, the mere undulations of mana.

None of it reached me.

The same went for the captain who I presumed was a Celestial Knight.

He had been constructing an exceptionally heavy spell, but by focusing my consciousness, I succeeded in attenuating it.

“Perfect…!!”

I smiled at the effect, which exceeded my expectations.

With sword in hand, I swatted away the feeble spells and slashed at the captain in the lead.

The captain hurriedly tried to draw the sword at his waist.

I concentrated the cold air on his hands.

As a result, the captain fumbled with his draw.

This was another effect of “Magic: Dimension: Winter.”

While deploying a field that rejected magical combat, it also restricted the enemy’s physical movements.

Since I was suppressing their mana, it was possible to suppress their physical bodies as well. However, unlike suppressing something as delicate as mana, there was a limit to suppressing a physical body. From the opponent’s perspective, I could only interfere enough to cause a slight sense of “offness.”

—A slight sense of offness.

To someone who handles blades, that sensation is incredibly unsettling.

Even a tiny misalignment occurred in the drawing motion he must have practiced thousands of times. This magic displayed its greatest power against those who had carved their techniques into their bodies through relentless effort.

It probably took the captain twice as long as usual to draw his sword.

In the face of my speed, that was fatal.

The moment the captain readied his sword, my blade had already swung through without mercy.

His gemstone staff was cleaved in two from the side, and I slashed his chest as well—though the wound was shallow.

With a backhanded strike, I slashed the back of his sword-hand, lightly knocking the blade away.

Just as he looked, this captain seemed to be a magic-specialist type who was weak in close-quarters combat. I struck him in the solar plexus with the pommel of my sword and swept his legs to knock him down.

A strike delivered with my Strength carried enough impact to make his stomach contents surge upward.

The captain collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony.

It was over.

Given that they had attempted a magic-centered battle, this unit was likely the same type as Hopes’s.

As expected, the knights who had lost their captain fell into confusion and couldn’t stop me as I tried to run past.

I was targeted by a few spells and sword strikes, but scattered attacks from a broken formation were no threat. I neutralized the knights closest to me as I sprinted up the stairs.

I climbed the T-shaped staircase, hit the landing—and continued up the inverted T-shaped staircase.

Now, only a single, straight flight of stairs remained.

However, this final staircase was long.

There were nearly a hundred steps visible to the eye.

And halfway up those stairs stood a single knight.

It was a massive knight clad in thick, pitch-black armor.

Because they wore a full-face helmet, I couldn’t tell their gender or age. They had already finished drawing a massive black sword and were staring at me through the slit in their visor.

I knew instinctively that this knight was one of the Celestial Knights.

Through repeated battles with the knights, my intuition for sniffing out enemies had been sharpened.

Above all else, they stood alone on the stairs before the Great Cathedral.

That was the greatest proof of all.

The heavy responsibility of guarding the final bastion all by themselves.

That meant—

This black knight, Perciona Quagar, was the strongest of the Celestial Knights.