Episode 59
Duke Sachsen’s Castle.
The night was deep, and in the shadows, they moved. The hardline elders of the Black Tower, unhesitant to become monsters of truth, were on a mission for their dark crusade.
“For the Black Tower.”
“And for the Black Tower Master.”
Their mission was singular.
When he had built a family with the woman he loved and when Dale was born, the warmth of family had killed the Black Tower Master they once knew. With his death, the ideology of the Black Tower had also perished.
Thus, they aimed to erase the warmth that weakened the Black Tower Master and resurrect the monster of old.
“Elena of Sachsen, Lise of Sachsen, and…”
“The Black Prince is no exception.”
Even if Dale was the most talented in the empire and a potential successor to the Black Tower Master, he was the greatest influence on the ‘weakness of the Black Duke.’
The hardline elders of the Black Tower, having resolved themselves, spoke in unison.
“The truth shall set you free (Veritas vos liberabit).”
Behind them, the endless ranks of ‘Death Knights’ tightened their grips on their swords. The black blade of the Sachsen family, held by the Death Knights, emitted a dark and pale aura towards the duke’s house they were sworn to serve.
A pitch-black aura blade.
The dark crusade had begun.
The attack commenced under the cover of dawn’s darkness.
Ding, ding, ding.
The rarely heard bell of Duke Sachsen’s castle rang out. It was an alarm signaling an enemy attack.
“Enemy attack! We’re under attack!”
“Arm yourselves and prepare for battle!”
“Get into combat positions and draw your swords!”
An enemy attack. Not in the city of Sachsen, but right in the heart of Duke Sachsen’s castle. The alarm meant only one thing. Those who could enter the castle without suspicion.
The elders of the Black Tower.
And the Death Knights they commanded.
The Night Raven Knights, the pride of the Sachsen family, readied their swords against their foes. Clad in the same black armor of the Sachsen family, they faced the tireless, relentless undead knights.
Against their former comrades wielding the pitch-black aura blade.
A girl was practicing her swordsmanship alone, deep into the night.
Clad in black armor, she was armed with a custom-made Night Raven Knight’s armor and wielded a Sachsen two-handed sword.
”…”
When the alarm bell rang, Charlotte hesitated not for a moment.
Thinking and pondering were not a knight’s duties. A knight’s virtue lay solely in execution. Thus, she adjusted her grip on her sword, ready to fulfill her duty as a knight.
To test her skills, the girl with the empire’s greatest talent in swordsmanship.
“Wait for me, Dale.”
Charlotte Orhart, the daughter of the Divine Sword, whispered softly.
Why were the elders of the Black Tower attacking Duke Sachsen’s castle in the absence of the Black Tower Master?
Why were the Death Knights, who should be the most trustworthy, swinging their swords at the Night Raven Knights of the Sachsen family?
Surely, the hardliners of the Black Tower, rejecting the Black Duke’s regime, were staging some kind of coup.
But to Sir Helmut Blackbear, the Mad Sword, the pinnacle of the Night Raven Knights, it was not a matter of great importance.
Like Charlotte Orhart, thinking and pondering were not a knight’s duties.
To wield his sword for his lord. To eliminate enemies and protect his lord and his lord’s kin, even at the cost of his life.
Execution.
Thus, Sir Helmut gripped his beloved sword, ‘Madness,’ once more. He charged towards the Death Knights, who dared to wield the Sachsen black blade and flood the castle corridors, and the elders of the Black Tower who moved under their protection.
“Mad Sword Helmut…!”
“How dare you.”
The strongest knight of the north, Sir Helmut, spoke.
“To brazenly point Sachsen’s sword at my lord and tarnish the honor of our proud Night Raven Knights.”
With a burst of black aura from within, Sir Helmut Blackbear muttered.
“You wretched vermin, how dare you, how dare you…!”
With a roar that seemed to tear the heavens and earth.
“I’ll tear your flesh and bones to shreds!”
Crack, crack! Crunch!
At that moment, something began to twist.
Sir Helmut’s black armor, unable to withstand the explosive growth of his body, began to warp. No, it wasn’t just warping.
The black heavy armor was twisting and distorting along with the form of his body…
Sir Helmut Blackbear’s rampaging body and black armor were merging.
There’s a saying: magic is the power to turn imagination into reality, and ‘a sword at the highest level is indistinguishable from magic.’ Thus, the power to turn imagination into reality is not the exclusive domain of wizards.
For swordsmen who have reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship and aura, they can imbue their swords with their ideology, wielding a transcendent power akin to that of wizards.
Just as wizards at the highest level have their own worlds of ideology.
A knight can project that ideology onto his ‘sword and armor’ and ‘body,’ transforming into the ultimate combat form.
The armor of ideology.
Avatar.
Like the man who had become a ‘black heavy armor beast,’ merging his rampaging body, black steel armor, and the greatsword in his hand into one.
A humanoid armored tank stood there. Scattering pitch-black aura, his black greatsword ‘Madness’ fused with his arm.
“Even death will not forgive your foolishness…!”
The black-armored beast roared as it leaped forward. The ‘black greatsword,’ now part of his body, swung.
Whoosh!
“I’ll kill you, tear your flesh and bones to shreds!”
The pitch-black berserker shouted.
Boom! Boom!
It felt as if a massive tank had taken human form, exuding an overwhelming sense of intimidation. It was like an armored vehicle crushing an infantry unit, an overwhelming pressure.
It was no exaggeration. Sir Helmut’s body was an armored vehicle made of black armor.
The Death Knights, the pride of the Black Tower elders, were being slaughtered like mere foot soldiers.
Sir Helmut’s greatsword ‘Madness’ swung, and each time, the Death Knights’ bodies were torn to unrecognizable shreds.
“The mad dog of Duke Sachsen…!”
The Black Tower elders clicked their tongues at the sight.
Even the endless onslaught of Death Knights couldn’t stop him, and the dark magic unleashed by the Black Tower elders couldn’t penetrate his black heavy armor.
A body clad in black armor that even the magic of a 6th-circle elder couldn’t easily affect. Even wizards at the pinnacle of magic were just ‘mere wizards’ before a knight using an avatar.
Moreover, the outcome of a mere wizard giving ground to a knight was self-evident.
Blood splattered.
Covered in the splattered blood, the black-armored berserker roared.
Even the 6th-circle Black Tower elders couldn’t help but feel fear before that overwhelming presence.
The black-armored beast charged, crushing everything in its path.
In front of it, the Black Tower elders simultaneously unfolded their ‘worlds of ideology.’
The greatest beast of the north, guarding Duke Sachsen’s castle.
The role of the elders here was to bind that beast’s feet, and they had no expectation of winning alive.
They poured all their strength to bind this monster’s feet until their comrades completed their mission within the castle. Resolute in their willingness to become martyrs for the dark crusade.
Dale was running through the castle corridors. For the things he must protect with his own hands.
It was then.
A familiar shadow blocked his path in the castle corridor. The adopted son of the Crimson Duke, the heir to the Red Tower, stood there.
‘Ray Uris…!’
Of all times. Clicking his tongue inwardly, Dale coldly asked.
“Are you here to block my way?”
“Why would you think that? Aren’t we friends?”
Ray Uris asked, as if genuinely puzzled.
“It seems the Black Tower elders have split into several groups to infiltrate the castle.”
”…”
“Sir Helmut Blackbear is likely handling the main force… Meanwhile, three or four might be attempting to infiltrate the upper floors of the castle.”
Calmly assessing the situation.
“And I’m ready to fight for my friend.”
Revealing his bio-fusion artifact, ‘Dragon’s Jawbone,’ along with the two circles revolving around his heart.
‘A mere 2nd-circle wizard thinks he can stop a Black Tower elder?’
It was a mismatch. But the title of the Crimson Duke’s son wasn’t earned for nothing.
‘He must have something up his sleeve.’
In any case, it wasn’t something to ponder right now.
”…Thank you.”
There was no reason to hesitate any longer. Dale turned his back on Ray Eurys, channeling the dark energy through his heart as he strode down the corridor.
For the things Dale had to protect. For his mother and little sister.
Meanwhile, in the Red Tower of the Imperial City.
At the very top of the tower stood a man, the one who reigned supreme over the Red Tower, known as the Empire’s foremost red sorcerer, the Crimson Duke.
“Do you think Ray is doing well?”
A woman with striking red hair, a beauty in her own right, sipped from a glass filled with a crimson liquid as she spoke to the Crimson Duke beside her.
“We’ll have to wait and see, Lady Scarlet. My dear sister.”
“Oh my. Sometimes I worry that your expectations for Ray might be too high, brother.”
In response to Lady Scarlet’s concern, the Crimson Duke silently took another sip of the crimson liquid in his hand. It was not wine.
“Hmm, the taste isn’t half bad.”
At the top of the Red Tower, Lady Scarlet turned her head to see slabs of meat hanging upside down, reminiscent of a slaughterhouse.
Blood dripped from the bodies suspended on hooks, collecting in wine bottles placed below.
To the untrained eye, it might seem like the grotesque hobby of a noble indulging in the blood of beasts.
But the beings hanging from the metal hooks in the ceiling were far from pigs. Nor were they dead.
To the siblings present, these beings were no different from pigs being slaughtered by humans.
Just as it isn’t strange for humans to consume cattle or pigs… it was simply the natural order of the food chain for predators above humans to consume them.