Episode 304: Memories (2)
”…You opened a dimensional gate?”
Dorgo muttered in disbelief at the sudden appearance of Damian Haxen.
“How did a knight manage to open a dimensional gate? Did he have help? Or perhaps he used some kind of artifact? Either way, it’s astonishing.”
Damian Haxen’s pursuit to this place was unexpected.
Yet, it wasn’t a significant problem. Even the Empire’s greatest swordsman had been neutralized; Damian Haxen alone couldn’t change the tide.
“You should have stayed buried and died quietly. Chasing after me will only lead to regret…”
Suddenly, a searing headache struck Dorgo, the worst he had ever experienced.
“Ugh, argh… Aaaagh!”
Clutching his head, Dorgo desperately wished for the pain to pass.
Along with the headache, strange memories began to surface. Dorgo, dazed, started to sift through them.
“What… what are these memories?”
The memories kept flooding in. Eventually, Dorgo recalled everything from his past life.
“Damian Haxen… Death Knight… the Seven Powers… I remember now. Why on earth did I forget such crucial things until now?”
Dorgo slowly turned his gaze to Damian Haxen.
“Damian Haxen, my loyal knight. I never imagined we’d meet again like this.”
”…Have you regained your memories?”
Damian Haxen asked, his voice filled with suspicion. Dorgo nodded.
“Yes, I remember everything now. The bond between us, the things we did together.”
Dorgo’s eyes, once calm, began to flicker, like flames meeting the wind.
“How dare an undead try to kill its master?”
Dorgo shouted, his voice brimming with rage.
“Do you realize what you’ve done? The grand plan, prepared for over a thousand years, ruined because of you!”
Dorgo’s eyes glowed red as he raged.
“That spell! The time regression wasn’t meant to be used now! It wasn’t for the likes of you! Aaaagh!”
After a while, Dorgo forced himself to calm down.
”…No, the spell can be prepared again. As long as this world is in my grasp, preparing the spell anew will be easy!”
Dorgo glared at Damian Haxen once more.
“Damian Haxen, this time I’ll make you a perfect slave. I’ll break you so thoroughly you’ll never think of defying me again…”
“Hah.”
A sudden laugh interrupted Dorgo’s words.
Dorgo looked at Damian, puzzled.
“Did you just laugh…”
“Haha, hahahaha!”
Damian Haxen threw his head back, laughing heartily.
“Dorgo… Dorgo has memories! He came back from the future, just like me!”
Dorgo couldn’t understand why Damian was laughing so joyfully.
“Ha… haha…”
As Damian’s laughter slowly subsided, he lowered his head and fixed his gaze on Dorgo. His eyes were filled with both joy and murderous intent.
“I’ve been regretting it all along. That I killed you too easily.”
A chilling aura emanated from Damian, sending shivers down Dorgo’s spine.
“Epsilon!”
Unable to bear the fear, Dorgo shouted instinctively.
“Stop Damian Haxen! Don’t let him get near me!”
The Four Demon Lords immediately positioned themselves in front of Dorgo, forming a barrier to protect him.
Damian Haxen twisted his lips at their actions.
“Do you think you can stop me, you crude imitations? Perfect. I’ve been wanting to crush you all.”
Damian Haxen assumed a stance as if ready to leap forward, muttering softly.
“Trinity.”
In an instant, Damian Haxen vanished.
A blue flash engulfed the Four Demon Lords.
“Damian Haxen!”
The first to act was Iota.
Iota, fueled by dragon magic, blocked Damian’s path.
“This time, I’ll avenge my grudge!”
A fist covered in dragon scales tore through the air.
Damian didn’t dodge. Instead, he threw a punch of his own.
The two fists collided.
If Iota’s fist was a boulder, Damian’s seemed as small as an egg.
But the result was different. The egg shattered the boulder.
Iota’s fist crumbled. Muscles in his forearm burst. Black blood splattered.
“Argh!”
Iota screamed in agony. Damian showed no mercy.
He lightly kicked off the ground, soaring into the air, and stomped on Iota’s head.
Iota’s head smashed into the ground, shattering it with the impact.
“Damian Haxen!”
Next, Epsilon charged forward, swinging a massive iron ball.
Damian swung his sword upward. The rising blade met the descending iron ball.
With a deafening crash, the iron ball shattered. Metal shards embedded themselves in Epsilon’s skin.
“Impossible…”
Damian swung his sword again, severing Epsilon’s neck, blood gushing forth.
Damian moved to charge at Dorgo again. At that moment, a massive magic circle unfolded in the sky.
“Threat. Damian Haxen. Must be killed here.”
A rotund man.
Lambda unleashed dark magic. Red lightning poured down like a torrential rain from the magic circle.
Damian read the flow of lightning. He dodged the downpour by a hair’s breadth, breaking through.
“Is he… really human?”
And then he cut down the bewildered Lambda. Lambda’s body split in a straight line from head to groin.
With three down, only one Demon Lord remained.
“No matter who you are, I can’t stand by and watch you harm Mother.”
Sita swung a vibrating sword wide. The sound waves expanded, enveloping Damian.
Damian stomped the ground with all his might.
Magic and shockwaves spread wide, dispersing the sound.
“He blocked it so easily…?”
Sita was taken aback. Damian seized the opportunity and charged.
Damian’s body accelerated, brushing past Sita. Sita’s abdomen split open, blood gushing out.
In the blink of an eye, the Four Demon Lords were defeated. Dorgo, witnessing this, muttered in disbelief.
“Defeated? They’re stronger than in the past life. I invested all the materials meant for Damian Haxen into them…”
Damian began walking towards Dorgo. Dorgo snapped back to reality.
“How dare you… raise your sword against me again?”
Fury flared on Dorgo’s face. He ground his teeth, shouting.
“You’re an undead I created! Without me, you wouldn’t have become this strong! And yet, you show no gratitude…”
Damian kicked off the ground, closing the distance in an instant, and slashed Dorgo’s shoulder with his sword, Dawn.
The shoulder, reduced to bone, was severed effortlessly. The cross-section revealed marrow.
”…What?”
Dorgo didn’t immediately realize his shoulder had been cut off.
“Aaaagh!”
Clutching the severed area, Dorgo screamed.
“Why… why does it hurt? This body shouldn’t feel pain!”
A body reduced to bones shouldn’t have nerves. Dorgo shouldn’t have been able to feel pain.
But Damian’s swordsmanship was special.
As a Death Knight, Damian had created a new sword technique to kill Dorgo.
A technique that could cut through souls.
The reason Dorgo felt pain was because his soul had been severed.
“It seems you’re in a lot of pain.”
Damian spoke in a calm tone.
Standing before Dorgo, his mind was cold and clear.
“You’d better get used to it quickly. You’re going to die in agony.”
Damian raised his sword again. Seeing this, Dorgo screamed desperately.
“Do you think you’ll get away with this? You’ll eventually submit to me! When that time comes, you and your family will all be…”
Rage exploded in Damian’s eyes.
The plan to kill him slowly and painfully vanished from his mind.
Damian swung Dawn at Dorgo’s neck. But Dawn didn’t sever Dorgo’s neck.
A suddenly appearing longsword blocked Dawn.
Damian followed the sword with his gaze. There stood Hela Fallen.
“Child, I’m sorry. I don’t particularly like this one either, but I can’t let him die.”
“I should have killed you when I had the chance last time.”
Damian’s voice rumbled low, like an angry beast.
Hela Fallen smiled as she spoke.
“Child, it seems you want to kill me. But there’s something I need to finish first. Those children aren’t dead yet.”
No sooner had Hela Fallen finished speaking than a massive energy erupted.
The Four Demon Lords were rising.
Their bodies began to grow larger. Limbs transformed.
In an instant, the human forms vanished, replaced by monstrous figures. At last, the true adversaries had revealed themselves.
Behind him stood the Four Demon Lords.
In front, the leader of Pandemonium.
Despite being surrounded by such formidable foes, like the filling in a deadly sandwich, Damian let out a chuckle.
“So, I can’t kill Dolgo until I’ve dealt with all of you, is that it?”
“Smart boy, you’ve got it right. But I wonder if you can handle us in your current state,” Hela Forn taunted.
As she pointed out, Damian was nearly drained of both stamina and magic, having pushed his powers to their limits. The little magic he had left had been completely exhausted moments ago when he used the Tri-Wheel technique.
“How humiliating, to be pitied by trash like you,” Damian retorted, his words sharp as thorns.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got plenty of ways to deal with garbage like you.”
With that, Damian unclasped the bracelet on his wrist.
The dark energy contained within it was unleashed.
“Dark magic…?” Hela Forn murmured, bewildered.
“Why would a knight have dark magic? It’s useless, isn’t it?”
“Stop him!” Dolgo shouted urgently. Hela Forn tilted her head, confused by his panic.
“Stop him? Stop what, exactly…?”
“Stop Damian Haxen from absorbing the dark magic!” Dolgo yelled desperately. But it was already too late.
Damian had already gathered and absorbed all the dark energy that had spread into the air.
He ceased the operation of the Five-Wheel Harmony Technique.
Dark magic and regular magic were fundamentally different forces. To wield dark magic, a different mana technique was required.
He employed a technique he hadn’t used in a long time, yet one that was all too familiar.
The dark magic he absorbed began to rampage within him like a wild beast, filling his entire being with its ferocious power.
This technique had no name.
It wasn’t something Damian had created out of desire.
It was forged in the days when he was Dolgo’s slave, forced to kill.
The Nameless Qi Technique.
The power of the Death Knight had awakened.