At that moment.
‘Is this really happening…?’
Eldora felt as if she were trapped in a dream. She could hear someone shouting loudly somewhere, but she didn’t respond. Her wide-open eyes stared blankly at the chaotic battlefield before her.
The Black Knights were rampaging across the field. Though their numbers barely reached a few hundred, wherever they went, they crushed and trampled the allied forces mercilessly. The enemy who had broken through the gates seized the gap and surged forward, turning the fight into a chaotic melee that shattered the formation.
It was a simple equation, but the problem was that there was no way to counter it. Ever since the Black Knights had suddenly appeared, everything had gone terribly wrong.
And that wasn’t all.
The enemies on the walls kept firing magic and arrows at the rear, making any retreat impossible.
They were trapped—unable to move forward or back. It was painfully clear that the entire formation would collapse any moment now.
‘If only Melinus were here…’
How had things come to this?
Amid the chaos, Eldora bowed her head, overwhelmed by a rising tide of regret.
A helplessness she had never felt before. The confident sparkle in her eyes dimmed, and a long sigh escaped her clenched lips. She even found herself thinking it was foolish to have charged ahead and provoked the fight.
She should have just waited for Melinus and Thanatos to arrive today.
Or at least, if they had faced the enemy head-on from the start and lost, she could have accepted it. But the battle had turned in an instant, and she felt a sting of unfairness.
But there was no time to dwell on that now. If this were a dream, she could dismiss it as a bad nightmare, but no matter how many times she pinched her cheek, the scene before her didn’t change.
What Eldora was witnessing was harsh reality.
“Ahhhhh!”
A piercing scream cut through the battlefield and stabbed into Eldora’s ears. The sound was loud, but the voice was familiar enough to snap her eyes open.
Looking up, she saw a woman being dragged into the air by a shadowy figure, her hair gripped tightly. Her limbs were wrapped in a dark haze.
Eldora’s mouth fell open in shock as she recognized the woman hanging in midair.
“N-Natalie?”
Natalie, the ‘Knight of the Search’—one of the Round Table knights and Eldora’s dear friend, known for her bright, smiling face. But today, for some reason, her face was twisted in pain. She had fought back fiercely but seemed to have been overwhelmed by the Shadow Queen and captured.
After a moment, Natalie’s limbs, which had been flailing like a broken puppet, suddenly stretched out wide. The shadowy grip tightened further, making her neck and limbs tremble and elongate like taffy.
Had she somehow sensed the torture to come?
“Ah…! Ah…!”
Natalie’s eyes, wide with terror as if facing death itself, shook uncontrollably. She frantically shook her head, pleading with her watery gaze.
“No… please… no…”
Eldora, who had never even considered defeat, let alone the death of a comrade, could only stare blankly at the horrific scene unfolding before her.
“Natalie!”
A sudden alarm rang in her mind, and a wave of intense anxiety washed over her.
She dashed toward where Natalie had been taken, but it was far too late.
Natalie’s eyes suddenly grew as wide as lanterns.
Crackling sounds filled the air—
Snap! Snap!
Her stretched flesh tore apart with a sickening sound, ripped away piece by piece.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
A heart-wrenching scream echoed across the battlefield.
Her body was torn apart all at once, blood exploded outward, and her crimson organs spilled down in thick streams. Before long, only her head remained, hanging grotesquely in midair, twisted in agony. An eerie silence settled over the area.
The shock was even greater among the users from the Southern Continent, and Eldora was no exception. After witnessing such a grotesque scene, her face was utterly blank.
Because she couldn’t believe it.
Her friend—who had always been by her side, always smiling—was brutally killed. Eldora, who had only ever known success and victory, was facing something she had never experienced before. It was no wonder her vision went white.
How much time passed, she didn’t know.
“Natalie… Natalie…”
Her shoulders trembling faintly, Eldora repeated the name over and over until, suddenly, she snapped her head up.
“NATALIEEEEEE!”
Her furious scream echoed far and wide. At the same time, the magic boiling inside her erupted like a volcano. The ground beneath her trembled and cracked, and dozens of glowing orbs the size of fists appeared, swirling around her.
“AAAAAAAH!”
A scream bordering on a howl.
The golden lights shot out in all directions like bullets, exploding in blinding flashes. The earth, bathed in golden light, shook violently—but it wasn’t over yet.
No, this was just the beginning.
The back of Excalibur, charged with Eldora’s unleashed magic, hummed ominously. With a powerful swing, the air was forced into a blade-like gale that swept through the enemies ahead, wiping them out completely. Even the debris scattered by the storm vanished without a trace.
Truly worthy of the title ‘War God.’
But still, it wasn’t enough.
Though dozens had fallen without Eldora even realizing it, her heart burned hotter than ever. She felt she wouldn’t quench this raging thirst until she ground every enemy on this battlefield into dust—especially the ones who had killed Natalie.
“Die! All of you—!”
Eldora shouted at the top of her lungs and charged forward alone.
“Form a circle!”
A nearby man shouted urgently. The Northern Continent users around them spread out in a ring, trying to encircle Eldora’s onslaught. But they hesitated, startled by the terrifying force she radiated as she charged without hesitation.
“Haaah!”
Eldora didn’t dodge; she leapt straight into the encirclement. Landing with a fierce shout, she spun once. Excalibur, glowing with a brilliant white heat, extended and twirled. Wherever the blade swept, something was sliced cleanly.
When the spin ended, more than a dozen enemies lay severed, their necks and bodies split, blood spurting everywhere. Those who had stepped back were frozen in shock at the divine display.
But Eldora didn’t stop. As someone shouted, she dashed forward, piercing a chest, then ruthlessly cutting down two more nearby before stepping over the fallen bodies.
Her fury consumed her entirely. It didn’t matter who—she just ran and ran, killing everything in sight.
Then—
Suddenly, a flash of black and red appeared before her like a storm. A sharp wind sliced past her side, stinging sharply. Without hesitation, Eldora thrust her sword forward with all her momentum.
In the next instant—
Klang!
“Ugh!”
A sharp, wrenching pain gripped her abdomen, and a gasp escaped her lips. Though she had stabbed with all her might, a dizzying shock shook her body. She slammed her sword into the ground and slid to a stop.
Quickly regaining her balance, Eldora realized what had just appeared in her vision.
A man clad entirely in jet-black armor, a crimson cape fluttering softly, wielding a strange sword with no visible blade.
It was Kim Soo-hyun.
“Ouch, ouch…”
He waved his left hand slightly, as if feeling the impact too, but his expression was utterly calm. Eldora instinctively tightened her grip on her sword’s hilt, shivering.
Excalibur, which had been raging wildly with her energy moments before, suddenly faltered. The entire blade trembled violently, radiating an unsettling unease.
It was, in fact, the effect of ‘King of Blades’ ability, Baekbyeongjiwang (King of All Weapons), but Eldora had no way of knowing that. She simply took a deep breath and hurried to regain her strength.
If there was any silver lining, it was that the shock had somewhat calmed her rage, and a sliver of reason had sparked caution.
Soon, Excalibur, recharged with new magic, glowed again with its usual platinum light and regained its majestic presence.
Kim Soo-hyun smirked lightly and flicked his hand. Three swords suddenly shot up, circling him like guards.
“Come forth, Blades of Annihilation.”
Whirrrrr! Whirrrrr! Whirrrrr!
The once-transparent blade suddenly blazed with dazzling light as immense magical energy began to coalesce within it. Though the edge itself remained faint and indistinct, the surrounding space warped under the overwhelming force.
Yet Eldora showed no sign of wavering. She fixed Kim Suhyun with an unwavering, piercing gaze.
Of course, Kim Suhyun met her eyes with equal calm.
The woman known as the Odin Clan Lord, revered as a living legend.
“Natalie…”
Eldora Cornelius, the ‘Golden Knight.’
The man who inherited the legacy of the God of War, mercenary clan lord.
“Hmm.”
Kim Suhyun, the ‘Lord of Blades.’
Two of the continent’s greatest wielders, representing the North and South, finally collided on this tangled battlefield.
Without breaking their intense eye contact, they simultaneously stomped the ground as if on cue. In the blink of an eye, they closed the distance, their blades crossing in a deadly dance.
A razor-thin clash of golden and crimson light.
A moment so fleeting it could only be called an instant.
KRAAAASH!
Then, an explosion of sound erupted—too fierce to believe two swords had merely struck each other.
“!”
One pair of eyes snapped wide open in shock.
A second later, Eldora sensed it—her vision had subtly tilted to one side, unnoticed.
By the time she regained full awareness, her body was already hurtling toward the ground like a slide.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
Looks like my updates are starting to run late again.
I’ll be taking a day off on Monday, June 8th.
Nothing serious—my father sighed again early this morning… haha.
We’ve ended the cold war and made peace, but he keeps acting the same way, so I apologize.
He asked if I could spare some time today, and I said yes.
If I go today, I think I’ll earn some forgiveness for the week. :)
See you all on Tuesday, June 9th. (__)
Thank you for your understanding.
Oh, and readers—
I’ve got a funny joke for you.
Do you know what the opposite of “download” is?
Upload?
Nope.
It’s “dawn’t load.”
Or maybe “don’t load.”
Hahaha!
(I’m out!)