Chapter 63 – Behind the Cloak (3)

“It looks like we don’t have much time to chat from the way things are looking. Did they get Ras?”

Anya nodded her head with a sorrowful look on her face.

Juan bit his lips as he regretted leaving his child alone on the battlefield.

‘Ethan, your loyalty and faith has at last killed one of your emperor's beloved children and brought the god of death to the ground.’

Juan felt like throwing up. Looking back, Juan had no choice but to leave Ras to stop Bishop Rietto. The result would have been the same even if he had warned Ras even more firmly. Juan didn’t want to resent Ras for such a reason, nor did he have the time to.

The wind that carried the scent of death was blowing toward them, which meant that Nigrato would soon arrive. When that time came, everything that Ras had tried to protect would die and crumble down. Juan couldn’t just sit and watch that happen.

‘

I wonder if I have a chance against him.

’

Nigrato was establishing himself in reality at a fast rate even in this moment. Nigrato was different from Talter, whom Juan had encountered back in Tantil; if Talter was a seed that had potential for growth, Nigrato was a tree which had already completely germinated from the seed and continued to grow exponentially.

To make matters worse, Juan had never fought Nigrato before. Back when Juan was actively conquering gods and establishing the empire, Nigrato had already committed suicide; he gained more power every time he was resurrected. However, he failed to resurrect when the necromancers of the south were wiped out completely—until Ras, who led the annihilation of all the necromancers, absorbed his essence.

Juan clutched his short sword and stood up.

“Are you going to slay the god of death? Perfect, I’ll lead the way,” Anya said as she nodded.

“At least question my ability for once or say that this might be too much for me to handle for the sake of courtesy.”

“How could I ever question your ability? We can not count on anyone other than you anymore,” Anya said with a sad smile on her face.

Dilmond grabbed his hammer and approached Juan.

“We were all already on our way to get to Nigrato. We will try our best not to be a burden to you even if we end up dying.”

All of the knights held their weapons with a determined look.

Juan examined their faces one by one, and realized that they wouldn’t back down even if Juan persuaded them to stay out. Nevertheless, Juan shook his head.

“No.”

“But Juan, we…”

“My answer won’t change no matter what you say. You all are the legacy that Ras left. If you die, there would be nothing left by Ras in this world. I’m sure that Ras didn’t create the Order of Huginn to kill everyone with his own hands,” Juan said coldly.

Dilmond glared at Juan as he was annoyed that Juan was wasting time in such an urgent situation due to an unnecessary argument. Nigrato’s appearance meant that everyone’s life including Juan’s couldn’t be guaranteed. Now was not the time to be arguing.

“If sir Ras was still alive and here with us, do you think he would have told us to run away, or fight and die together? It’s an insult to say we are nothing but sir Ras’ legacy. We were his sword, and we don’t care even if we break with our master on the battlefield.”

Juan silently stared at Dilmond, then soon nodded his head.

“Fine.”

“Even if you resist until the end, we are still going to… wait, what did you say?” Dilmond asked in confusion.

“I said fine, you can join. I suppose I’ll need a hand. But…”

Juan quickly approached Anya and punched her in the stomach. Anya’s eyes rolled over and she lost consciousness from the sudden attack. Juan carefully held her before she fell and passed her to the nearest knight.

“Let’s leave her out of this. Necromancers won’t be of any help in Nigrato’s domain anyway. She might even be taken over again.”

“...Sounds good,” Dilmond replied.

Dilmond didn’t think that this was the only reason why Juan wanted to leave Anya out, but it was good enough for him.

The knight who had been commanded by Juan to keep Anya safe received a more detailed order from Dilmond, then headed toward the outskirts of Hiveden with a few more knights to guard Anya.

Juan stared at Anya as she drifted away and turned his head.

“We are running from this moment onwards. I can’t afford to take care of those who can’t keep up with me.”

Without waiting for an answer, Juan started to run immediately.

***

“What in the world is that…”

Sina stared blankly at the huge area of darkness covering the center of Hiveden. The darkness that seemed to only swell endlessly was now beginning to take a form while it palpitated like a heart. Unbelievably, the shape of the darkness seemed to resemble a human form.

At that moment, something began to creep out from the area which could be considered to be the head; it was an incredibly huge skull.

It was hard for Sina to even guess the identity of the being. However, one thing came clear to her—that the being was frighteningly ominous and disgusting. Sina couldn’t just sit and blankly watch the appearance of such a being.

“Keuk…!”

The rope that restrained Sina’s hands and feet was tied tightly. Although it didn’t look like it would loosen anytime soon, Sina put strength into her hands almost as if she didn’t care if her wrists broke.

After putting in some time and effort, Sina felt her hands become free with a snapping sound. When she looked at the condition of her wrists, they were surprisingly fine except for a slight scratch. However, she didn’t have time to wonder how her wrists were still intact. Sina immediately ran toward Kamil who was still in a daze.

“Kamil!”

“The darkness, the death is rising. The wind blowing from hell is…”

Sina didn’t hesitate to slap Kamil’s cheek. Thinking that Kamil wouldn’t come to her senses with just one slap, Sina pulled Kamil by the collar and slapped her one more time. Just before Sina was about to slap her for the third time, Kamil grabbed Sina’s wrist.

“...That’s enough,” Kamil said.

“That’s for keeping my wrists restrained. What are you going to do now? Isn’t that being the true enemy of all the Templars?”

Kamil looked speechless. There was nothing wrong about what Sina had just said, but strictly speaking, the Templars had never fought against such mythological beings before. From the beginning, the Templars were only created after His Majesty’s passing.

All of a sudden, Kamil felt ashamed that the Templars proclaimed themselves to be His Majesty’s fist and spear. Kamil hated to admit it, but it was true that the Templars had never fought against the true enemies that His Majesty had fought in the past.

“Kamil! Answer me!”

“I don’t know. What do you want me to do? That bastard is at the place where the Templars and the Order of Huginn were supposed to be at. That means that even the Templars and Captain Ethan couldn’t handle him all together! Why are you asking me for the answer to this situation?” Kamil answered as if it was unfair that Sina was asking her to take responsibility. “I will gladly die if you tell me to go out there and die. But… to me, it seems like such death will be pointless and without any meaning. If you say that is my duty and I must take responsibility, then I will. But I don’t have any solutions either.”

“You don’t even know the identity of that being?” Sina asked.

“...Maybe it’s Ras. I can’t think of anyone else other than Ras Raud who is capable of summoning something like that… or transforming into something like that. I did hear a rumor that he made a deal with the god of death in order to kill His Majesty.”

Sina observed the huge mass of darkness once again. The darkness continued to take the shape of a human. It had a cloud-like body, an exposed head with a white skull, and sharp bones creating limbs that looked like sloppy branches.

Sina had never seen Ras in real life, but she had heard of countless ominous rumors about him, as well as the fact that he was one of His Majesty’s children.

‘

Juan.

’

Sina recalled Juan turning pale and immediately leaving as he saw the appearance of the being after he disabled Rietto. At that moment, he could have easily finished off Rietto and Kamil. Considering Juan’s personality. the fact that he left without killing them on the spot meant the appearance of the being was a huge shock to Juan. Sina expected that Juan must be somewhere within the darkness.

The shifting darkness flowed out through the alleys like a fog. From the end of the darkness, the undead began to walk out. At the sight of people running away with a sharp scream, Sina immediately grabbed Kamil’s sword from the floor and threw it at her.

“What are you doing?” Kamil asked.

“I won’t ask you to die while fighting against that monster. So how about we go and save people that are about to die instead?”

Kamil hesitated at Sina’s word. The last orders she received were to protect Bishop Rietto, and to slaughter the people of Hiveden—accepting Sina’s suggestion would be ignoring both.

However, after some thought, Kamil felt that the orders she was given were already meaningless now that the god of death had been resurrected. Kamil drew her sword and stepped forward.

“You stay here and protect Bishop Rietto as you haven’t fully recovered from your injuries. As a Templar, I will fight on your behalf and take care of the undead—they are right up my alley.”

***

“It’s going to get even darker as you approach him! Always remember to stay shoulder to shoulder and stay together!”

The knights of the Order of Huginn kept their shoulders close to each other at Dilmond’s stern warning.

Juan wanted to pick up the pace, but the gusts of wind blowing toward them were too fierce. Since Juan’s body was too light in weight, the gust of wind was much more tricky to get through than the undead.

Thus, Dilmond leading the way with his heavy body was more reliable against this gust of wind.

“Enemy on the right!”

“We’ve also got some on the left!”

Although Juan found it difficult to move within the wind, he was helpful in his own way. The fire he made by smearing his blood onto his short sword was small, but it still managed to drive out the unholy darkness and secured a field of view.

When the enemies appeared to block their way, the knights moved in perfect order to attack them and crushed them in an instant.

“You guys are pretty good at this,” Juan said.

“I’m sure we know the undead better than anyone. We used to sleep by them, you know. We aren’t afraid of them, and we also know their weaknesses,” Dilmond took a glance at Juan who had been following behind while grabbing onto his belt for support. “The fact that there aren’t too many of them also helps the situation. It seems like they aren’t approaching us due to that fire of yours. His Majesty’s Flames are basically poison to the undead.”

“I appreciate you not thinking of me as a loser, but you don’t have to be so considerate. I’m not a damn kid, you know.”

“Well isn’t that very… trustworthy of you. Alright. Do you even know where you’re going? I don’t think we were this far from where Sir Ras died.”

“Where the wind is blowing from. Where the unholy energy surges from. Where the darkness has settled.”

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

“Are you a poet or something?”

“I mean to say, keep moving forward, since we are on the right path. We are already in the realm of hell—one foot on the land of Hiveden and the other foot in the other world. It’s normal for your sense of distance to feel off,” Juan explained.

“What’s on the end of this path?”

“Undead, undead, and even more undead. And there will also be the essence of Nigrato. If we get rid of his essence before his form becomes complete, we can keep him restrained while he remains incomplete.”

“Restrain him while he is incomplete? Can’t we kill him?”

“It would be nice if things were that simple, but… those who have become gods don’t die so easily. I mean, if we manage to keep him incomplete, we can kill him later on. What’s important is that we can’t let him regain his complete form. If he does… I doubt even Barth Baltic would be able to handle him.”

“Making that bastard Barth Baltic fight this guy sounds appealing to me,” Dilmond said.

“Let me rephrase that. Barth Baltic and around a third of the empire’s population,” Juan said, then he suddenly stopped and pulled Dilmond’s belt.

Dilmond looked back at Juan with a puzzled look. Soon, he realized why Juan had come to a stop.

“...So it wasn’t because of your fire that they refused to approach us,” Dilmond muttered.

“It seems like they were trying to protect their master.”

Countless undead stood in front of them to block their way. There were not only zombies and skeleton soldiers, but also the knight of the dead and even bones of unknown monsters were clattering and crawling like a single creature. The unholy energy spouting from them felt as if there were bugs crawling everywhere on the body.

“The good news is that we are going the right way. The bad news is that we don’t have much time,” Juan said.

Dilmond scoffed at Juan’s words.

“No! The real bad news is that we are going to continue going down this path!”

Dilmond shouted as he charged forward.