Episode 350: Death Knight (2)
“Settle this?”
Dorgo accelerated time using the power of sloth.
The parts of his body that had been obliterated by the explosion regenerated in an instant.
“An undead I created dares to speak to me with such arrogance?”
Dorgo’s face twisted with rage.
“Before you met me, you were nothing but a third-rate mercenary!”
Dorgo’s words were true.
When he was kidnapped by Dorgo, Damian had been part of an obscure mercenary group.
“I was the one who nurtured your talent! I was the one who crafted that body for you! It was practically me who raised you! And yet, you dare… dare repay my kindness like this?”
-Are you done talking?
Damian Haxen’s murderous intent intensified, carried through the air.
He was ready to move.
Within that murderous aura, Dorgo could read Damian Haxen’s intentions.
Dorgo wrapped himself in space, forming an invisible yet impenetrable armor.
At the same time, he activated the power of sloth, accelerating his own time.
How do you plan to attack?
In this accelerated world, Dorgo focused on Damian Haxen’s movements.
Then, suddenly, Damian Haxen appeared right in front of him.
What?
Despite his vigilance, he had missed the movement. He hadn’t realized until Damian was this close.
Damian Haxen swung Erebus down. Dorgo blocked it with his forearms, having no time to dodge.
The space around his forearms clashed with Erebus. With a heavy impact, Dorgo was pushed back.
“An undead, of all things!”
Humiliation flashed across Dorgo’s face.
He tried to push forward and counterattack as his body was forced back.
But before he could move, Erebus came flying at his face.
Dorgo blocked it again with his forearms. The intense shock shook his entire body, but he managed to withstand it.
However, there was no opportunity for a counterattack. As soon as he blocked, a third strike came.
“Ugh!”
The third attack was too much to fully withstand. His body was pushed back slightly.
A barrage of slashes followed. Dorgo frantically defended against the onslaught.
A counterattack was out of the question. He had to focus all his energy on defense.
The humiliation on Dorgo’s face deepened.
Then, Damian Haxen spoke softly.
-You’re tougher than I thought. I need to be sharper.
Before the words were even finished, Dorgo felt a lightness in his shoulder. He looked at it in a daze.
His arm had been severed without him realizing.
”…!”
A searing pain followed. Dorgo suppressed the pain and activated the power of sloth.
He accelerated his body and retreated, buying time to regenerate his wound.
-Where do you think you’re going?
Damian Haxen’s voice came from right in front of him. Astonishingly, he had kept up with Dorgo, even with his accelerated time.
-Leave the other one behind, too.
Damian Haxen swung Erebus. But this time, the attack sliced through empty air.
Dorgo had used the power of arrogance to relocate himself.
Appearing at a distance, Dorgo panted heavily.
“This… this madman…!”
From the start, Damian Haxen had effortlessly matched Dorgo’s speed.
“I have… the power to manipulate time!”
It was something Dorgo couldn’t comprehend.
Yet Damian Haxen showed no reaction to Dorgo’s outcry.
-I need to move a bit faster.
He merely adjusted his actions with an emotionless voice. That mechanical demeanor sent chills down Dorgo’s spine.
“Stop… being so insolent!”
Dorgo thrust his regenerated arm forward.
He spread his palm and activated the power of arrogance.
The space around Damian sharpened. Invisible blades surrounded him.
“I’ll tear you apart so you can never defy me again!”
Dorgo clenched his outstretched hand.
Like a beast closing its jaws, the space crushed Damian. The sharp blades aimed to destroy his body.
“Be crushed by the weight of the world!”
Dorgo’s excited shout was abruptly cut off.
Damian Haxen stood unscathed.
Crimson flames enveloped him, blocking all of Dorgo’s attacks.
The blades Dorgo had crafted from space halted, unable to penetrate the flames.
Damian Haxen took a step forward.
He shattered the space that was pressing down on him as he advanced. The sheer force of it left Dorgo in shock.
“You’re breaking through this?”
Dorgo hastily summoned more of the power of arrogance. He grasped the space surrounding Damian Haxen with both hands.
As Dorgo twisted his hands, the space around Damian began to grind like millstones.
No matter how strong he was, he couldn’t escape the crushing space. Dorgo intended to sever Damian’s upper and lower body.
Then, Dorgo’s hands suddenly stopped. As if caught on something, they wouldn’t move.
Dorgo looked at Damian Haxen with a bewildered expression. It was then he realized.
Damian Haxen was resisting the twisting space with his own power.
“You… monster!”
Dorgo couldn’t help but shout. The situation defied all logic.
-A bit heavy.
With those words, Damian Haxen lifted his foot. The crimson flames gathered beneath it.
He stomped down with force.
The explosion of crimson flames obliterated the power of arrogance. The space that had been crushing Damian was completely shattered.
Freed from the power, Damian Haxen raised Erebus.
The flames began to gather around Erebus.
In that moment, Dorgo knew. This attack was unavoidable.
But he couldn’t just accept it. Dorgo activated the power of arrogance once more.
Suddenly, Dorgo’s body multiplied into hundreds, thousands.
It was a distortion of space. Each of the thousands of Dorgos was both an illusion and real.
Despite the sudden increase in numbers, Damian Haxen remained unfazed.
-Quite a lot.
He simply swung Erebus through the air. It was a dismissive gesture, as if swatting away a fly.
In the next instant, Dorgo’s neck was slashed.
Not just his neck—his entire body was covered in cuts.
“Ugh!”
Thousands of Dorgos bled and writhed in pain simultaneously.
With a single swing, thousands of Dorgos were cut down at once.
The power of arrogance dissipated, and Dorgo returned to being one. He coughed up blood and shouted.
“The realm… it was the realm!”
A master class can exhibit supernatural abilities without learning magic.
They can cut distant objects or transform their bodies into smoke.
What Damian Haxen did was no different.
With one swing, he cut through thousands of Dorgos simultaneously.
Matching his speed was the same. He had surpassed the power of arrogance using the realm.
“I need to… regenerate… quickly…!”
Dorgo accelerated time with the power of sloth. But the wounds etched across his body refused to heal.
“What have you done… to my body?”
Dorgo shouted at Damian.
Damian Haxen didn’t answer. He simply approached with Erebus lowered.
A knight in black armor, wreathed in flames, walked toward him.
The sight was like that of a grim reaper, and Dorgo felt his hair stand on end.
If he stayed like this, he would die. Just like in his past life, he would lose his life to Damian Haxen and never meet Ruin.
“That… can never… never happen…!”
At that moment, two figures appeared behind Damian Haxen.
“Mother! Run away!”
“We’ll hold him off!”
It was Epsilon and Lambda.
The two charged at Damian Haxen, ready to face death.
Seeing them, Dorgo thought of a way to survive.
“Epsilon! Lambda!”
“Mother! Don’t worry about us!”
“Both of you, self-destruct!”
At those words, Epsilon and Lambda’s eyes wavered.
But they had no time to question the harsh command.
Suddenly, their hearts began to burn intensely.
“Mother…!”
Epsilon cried out desperately as their bodies exploded. The massive explosion engulfed Damian Haxen.
“Everything… has its use!”
Dorgo hadn’t expected the function he implanted to counter the Four Demon Lords’ rebellion to be used like this.
He used the power of arrogance to hide in the cracks of space.
He knew it wouldn’t kill Damian Haxen. It was merely a distraction.
“Damn… it hurts like hell.”
Dorgo focused his energy on his wounds. Yet the healing was slow.
“What did you do to my body?”
Fortunately, this was a place no one could find.
No matter how long it took, it didn’t matter. Once he recovered here, he would face Damian Haxen again…
A chill ran down his spine.
Dorgo looked around with a trembling face.
“Could it be…?”
Before he could finish, the space tore open.
Erebus emerged from the rift and pierced Dorgo’s heart.
”…!”
As Erebus was pulled back, Dorgo was dragged out with it.
Dorgo tumbled helplessly to the ground.
“Cough, cough.”
As Dorgo coughed up blood, Demian Haxen approached him.
“Did you really think you could escape me?”
Demian’s voice was cold as he looked down at Dorgo.
Dorgo glanced at his chest, where blood was gushing from a large wound. Yet, he made no attempt to stop the bleeding. He knew it was futile.
His heart had been pierced, and his very soul had been shattered. Life was draining from him, and this was a wound that could never heal.
“You… bastard…”
Blood dripped from Dorgo’s mouth as he cursed.
“To think… someone like you… could do this to me…”
He couldn’t contain his frustration. Tears streamed down his face.
“I just wanted to see Luin again… and you ruined everything!”
Demian remained silent in the face of Dorgo’s anguished cries, which only fueled Dorgo’s rage further.
“You ungrateful… wretch!”
Just as Dorgo was about to shout, the last of his life force slipped away. With his soul emptied, death claimed him.
In the moment of death, darkness enveloped Dorgo’s vision. There was no light, no sense of direction—left or right, up or down.
Is this what death is like?
Though he had taken many lives as a dark sorcerer, this was Dorgo’s first encounter with his own death. It was surprisingly calm and uneventful.
Am I just going to stay like this?
As that thought crossed his mind, a voice called out.
“Lily.”
It was a familiar voice, one he hadn’t heard in a long time. And who else would call him Lily?
There was only one person in the world who could call him that—his beloved, whom he missed every single day.
“What are you looking at? I’m right here.”
Dorgo spun around hastily.
Under a cascade of light from the heavens, there stood Luin.
“I’ve missed you so much,” Luin said with a gentle smile. Dorgo’s voice trembled as he spoke.
“This… this must be a dream, right? But… you never even appeared in my dreams…”
“How disappointing. Can’t you tell if I’m real or not?” Luin teased playfully. It was then that Dorgo realized the truth—Luin was real.
“Luin…!”
Dorgo ran towards Luin, arms outstretched to embrace him.
-But that won’t do.
A chilling voice interrupted, and a blade emerged from behind, piercing through Dorgo’s body.