Necromancer Of The Black Bible (143)

Kael gripped his spear tightly.

The opponent stood on the ground, but he was not someone to be underestimated.

After all, two comrades had lost their lives in just three exchanges.

“Ka… Kael! Finish… him!”

Orion, the vanguard captain, coughed out the words weakly from the ground and lowered his head.

Blood flowing from his split body formed a large pool.

Kael passed by him without a glance and charged forward.

Then he thrust his spear toward the ghost knight.

Whoosh-

With a tearing sound, the spear seemed to have pierced the ghost knight.

To be precise, it only appeared to have pierced him.

However, the ghost knight had somehow slipped away from the spear strike and turned to look at Kael.

‘Incredible movement.’

Kael had never seen such movement before.

No matter that he was undead or a specter, Kael hadn’t expected someone to move like that.

And with movements like that, Kael didn’t think he would get an opening.

‘Damn it!’

A cold sweat ran down his back.

He had volunteered for the vanguard to make a name for himself, but he hadn’t expected things to go like this.

Kael turned the reins and looked ahead.

Three thousand vanguard soldiers were all watching him. Garik, who had retreated earlier, stood expressionless among the troops, and on the hill Commander-in-Chief Aegis looked down at them.

‘Is it unreasonable to hope for support?’

Aegis’s attitude treated the knights’ deaths as if they meant nothing.

That attitude spoke clearly.

“Kill the enemy here. If you can’t, then die,” it said.

Having endured life-and-death training at the Imperial Knight Academy and plenty of real combat, Kael was familiar with Aegis’s stance.

That was the Imperial chivalry.

‘Only by passing beyond death can one truly live.’

Muttering the adage taught at the Imperial Knight Academy to himself, Kael refocused on his opponent.

The ghost knight.

He wore light armor and had no head.

He wasn’t even wearing a helmet, which made his appearance grotesque.

The sword gripped in his worn leather glove looked ordinary.

It was hard to believe that such a sword could have cut down Kael’s fellow knights so quickly.

‘How on earth can he do that?’

Was he some legendary Sword Saint?

No matter how skilled with a blade, defeating a mounted spearman on the battlefield is difficult.

That much shows how threatening a spear can be.

Knowing that since his academy days, Kael had trained with the spear.

Whooong-

Kael once again breathed a flame aura into his spear.

The ‘Single-Point Concentration’ he had learned through life-and-death experiences.

No enemy had withstood this attack so far.

‘If I can just reach him, I win.’

Kael spurred his horse and began running again.

Thanks to the heavy plate, the horse’s hooves struck the ground with a heavy thud as they advanced.

Clop clop clop clop-

The ghost knight, however, remained unchanged.

Though he had no face, he clearly seemed to be looking their way.

But it was a strange sensation.

You could feel the gaze but not the intent to kill.

A peculiar unease washed over him, but Kael shook it off and rode on.

“Hiyah!!”

Kael synchronized his breath with the horse and became one with it.

A concentrated flame aura shimmered on his spear, leaving afterimages with each stride of the horse.

Kael stared intently at the ghost knight before him.

‘There’s only one chance.’

It would never miss like before.

Vowing that, Kael threw his spear with all his strength.

A fierce flame aura drove into Verdin for a moment.

It was truly a perfect move.

But Verdin bent at the waist for an instant and stepped forward.

Then he raised his sword.

Then.

-Saak.

With a light sound, the sword shoved the spear shaft into the air and, at the same time, struck Kael’s right arm.

Sensing it, Kael launched his body into the air.

Shuwhak-

Thud.

He momentarily avoided the blow, but one of his shoulder guards was completely sheared off.

Kael lost his balance and fell to the ground.

He quickly rolled once and got back to his feet.

The spear he had been holding a moment ago had flown far away.

He had no weapon, but it didn’t matter—there were allies behind him.

When Kael opened a hand, Garik, watching him, threw him a sword and shouted.

“Win!”

A sneer formed at Kael’s mouth.

“Win,” he thought.

The opponent was a monster.

Even at full strength, he couldn’t win.

‘Could I maybe hold out for one more exchange?’

Even that wasn’t certain.

Yet even in this situation, he didn’t feel despair.

Death seemed almost certain, but his heart felt light.

‘This tension. This feeling. It’s exhilarating.’

His heart pounded wildly.

At the same time, he felt the ring of his heart spinning at tremendous speed.

The Mana Ring that every awakened Swordmaster possessed.

This Ring was the source of aura.

As the Mana Ring spun faster, heat seeped from Kael’s body.

‘I mustn’t get excited. Then I won’t be able to do anything.’

Kael focused his mind to maintain consciousness.

At the same time, he took hold of the sword.

Focusing the flame energy surging from his heart into the blade, a crimson glow began to swirl around the sword.

Then a voice sounded in his mind.

-You are strong.

It was clearly the voice of the enemy.

The timbre was calm and deep.

Kael liked that resonance.

Though an enemy, he was curious about such a powerful presence.

How on earth could this be?

Assuming a stance, Kael stepped closer and spoke.

“May I hear your name?”

The ghost knight answered with his sword hanging down.

-Verdin…. Lucas van Theodore.

‘Theodore, then…’

He had studied that during his time at the Imperial Knight Academy.

In basic etiquette lessons they had studied the knightly orders of various countries, and the Theodore family was a famous martial house of the Kingdom of Altera.

“Blood will out, it seems.”

Kael laughed bitterly.

It was because of the comparison to his own origin.

His house was Drakenblud.

A cadet line of the Eckhart family.

Because of that, he had been teased a lot since childhood.

Fake Eckhart.

Fake flame.

No matter how hard he tried, that nickname didn’t go away.

It made sense, because the ‘real’ Eckharts were different.

Their magic, unleashed with a short draconic-word, surpassed everything.

That’s why Kael trained even harder.

That long training was why he became a Swordmaster at a young age.

Then the phantom knight’s reply came.

-A name is merely a façade. Only skill defines me.

He agreed.

Kael nodded.

An enemy who felt a kinship.

Sensing death close at hand, he couldn’t suppress a laugh.

But it seemed the opponent felt the same.

There was no fighting spirit in the voice and tone that echoed in his mind.

Instead, there was a subtle warmth one might feel from a friend.

Kael adopted a sword stance and approached him.

The closer the distance, the more puzzling it became.

It was because the ferocity that should have been there was absent.

‘Is it a mastery of handling killing intent?’

He hadn’t known while on horseback.

Back then, he had only thought about killing the enemy.

But opening his mind like this, new things began to appear.

He didn’t know what lay at the end of it.

Before he knew it, Kael had closed to the ghost knight’s distance.

Only then did the ghost knight take a stance.

A simple stance, yet it showed no weakness.

But Kael advanced without hesitation.

‘Strike first and win!’

The mindset learned at the academy.

The more perfect the first strike, the more advantageous the battle.

Kael emitted aura and swung his sword.

But the blade did not reach the phantom knight.

He moved lightly, dodged the blade, and slipped into Kael’s range.

Swoosh-

Kael stepped back quickly, but he followed immediately.

Sssk, sssk, sssk-

If he fully drew his sword, it would be a situation where he could suffer a fatal wound.

But the ghost knight neither swung his sword nor closed the distance further.

This demonstrated the difference in skill.

Realizing this, Kael gritted his teeth and swung his sword.

Chaaeng-

A sharp metallic sound echoed across the battlefield.

It was the first time such a sound had been heard while facing the ghost knight.

The soldiers watched the fight with sweaty palms.

To them it looked like Kael was fighting the ghost knight on equal terms, but in reality he wasn’t.

Even though Kael appeared to be attacking unilaterally, his strikes hadn’t landed at all.

The ghost knight dodged most attacks and parried several of them.

As time passed, Kael’s expression twisted.

He had expected the opponent to be strong, but not to this extent.

‘I’m not even grazing him.’

Right now, it looked like he was being toyed with by the ghost knight.

Suddenly enraged, Kael raised his aura and fired a blade of energy.

But that blade only brushed past the ghost knight.

Meanwhile, the mood among the soldiers soared.

They thought that since Kael, who might have died in one exchange, was holding out like this, there might be a chance of victory.

Kael readjusted his grip and spoke quietly.

“If you’re toying with me, do it in moderation.”

-Then shall I kill you right away?

Kael couldn’t answer.

Then the voice spoke again.

-Do you wish to learn the sword?

“…!!!”

Again, Kael couldn’t reply.

Because it struck him to the core.

‘Damn it…’

Kael quietly bit down, and the voice continued.

-To them you are merely a pawn. They don’t care what becomes of you. If you win this fight, great; if you lose, they’ll charge straight on. They trust their numbers.

“Isn’t that… the same for you?”

A low laugh answered Kael’s question.

-You and we are different. We are all connected.

The ghost knight, sword in hand, circled to Kael’s left and continued speaking.

-My comrades know what I think and what I feel. So when I ask, they’ll provide support instantly. That is precisely how we differ from you.

The ghost knight’s words were astonishingly accurate.

Kael’s situation was exactly like that.

A pawn whose death doesn’t matter.

The three thousand soldiers before him were more like spectators; it was as if they were waiting for his death.

No one was willing to take his place in this fight.

The phantom knight then turned his back exactly to the soldiers and spoke.

-Join me. Then I’ll pass on my techniques to you.

Mulling over the words for a moment, Kael snorted and replied.

“Was that the trick? To kill me?”

-I can kill you at any time. If it were merely to kill you, there would be no need for words. You felt it too, didn’t you?

The ghost knight was right.

If he had intended to kill him, he would have done so long ago.

‘Yet he didn’t kill me, which means…’

The “man’s” words might be true.

He might want Kael to join his side.

“But I don’t want to die.”

-Why not?

“Isn’t it obvious? If I die, it’s all over; I won’t be me anymore….”

-You are quite mistaken about something.

The ghost knight stepped closer and continued.

-Death is not annihilation. It is merely the beginning.