Chapter 266

Upon using the Thunder God Enlightenment Spell on the knights of the Avalon Order, Mu-Gun retreated to his lodgings for some rest. Yet, even before he could settle down, the Wind Spirit King Nervatum reached out to him.

-The Demon God has made a move.

“Are there signs of the Hellgates?”

-It’s not that. Death Knights have appeared.

“Death Knights?”

-They are immortal knights born by the Demon God’s authority. In exchange for offering their soul to the Demon God, they gain great power and an immortal body.

“If they have an immortal body, does that mean there is no way to kill them?”

-That’s the case with a human’s power. However, you can defeat them if you have the power contained in your divinity. Yet, possessing divinity doesn't guarantee effortless defeat.

“How strong are the Death Knights?”

-By human standards, they’re as strong as Grand Masters.

“They will definitely not be easy opponents if they are knights with the power of a Grand Master and an immortal body.” Mu-Gun grimaced.

-Like I said, they are opponents you cannot easily kill even with the power of divinity.

“How many Death Knights are there?”

-There’s a hundred.

“That’s not a small number.”

Having a hundred knights equipped with the might of a Grand Master and bestowed with immortal bodies was undoubtedly a formidable force. Truth be told, in the absence of Mu-Gun or the Dragons, the Death Knights alone possessed the potential to wreak havoc and devastate the entire Avalon Continent.

-It is going to be hard with you alone. You’re going to need the Dragons’ help.

“No. I am not alone, am I? I have the four Spirit Kings with me, so it’s good enough.”

-Still, wouldn’t it be better to call the Dragons?

“There’s a saying—look one way and row another. It means to create a commotion in the east, attracting the enemy’s attention there, and then aim to attack the west instead.”

-You mean they are trying to grab our attention with the Death Knights and open the Hellgates, huh?

“That’s right. So, we shouldn’t call the Dragons.”

-

I understand what you mean.

“So, where did the Death Knights appear?”

-They appeared at the Baster fief.

“The Baster fief isn’t too far from here. Let’s go right away. The later we go, the more damage there will be.”

Mu-Gun dismissed Nervatum and immediately activated the Thunder God's Shadow, swiftly making his way towards the Baster fief. Given the situation's urgency, there was no time to alert the Imperial Palace of the Pamar Empire. The best decision was to reach the Baster fief quickly, aiming to confront and defeat the Death Knights at the earliest opportunity.

The Baster fief, a mid-sized territory with a population slightly exceeding one hundred thousand, faced indiscriminate devastation at the hands of Death Knights adorned in the ominous Demonic Armor of Darkness. Amidst the chaos, over half of the citizens met their untimely demise. The Death Knights, devoid of mercy, took lives at random, regardless of age.

The Baster fief found itself defenseless against the onslaught of the Death Knights, donned in colossal Demonic Armor exceeding ten meters in height. Moreover, the absence of any Knight Order in the county further compounded the vulnerability. The Knight Order of Baster County had been assimilated into the Avalon Order, their forces relocated to the Imperial City.

Even if the Knight Order had remained intact, their survival against the Death Knights would have been fleeting. Fleeing from the Death Knights, the citizens of Baster County sought refuge and desperately prayed for God's blessing. Although their prayers failed to reach God, they did reach God's representative.

Mu-Gun, embodying the role of God's representative, reached Baster County in the throes of destruction. Identifying the Death Knights responsible for reducing the county to ruins, Mu-Gun immediately adorned the Dragon Scale Divine Armor and summoned both the Fire Spirit King and the Wind Spirit King, seamlessly merging with their powers.

Cloaked in the towering Dragon Scale Divine Armor, exceeding twenty meters in height, Mu-Gun melded with the wind, swiftly propelling himself toward the Death Knights. From his right hand emerged the Blazing Thunder Sword, a manifestation of the merging forces of thunder and fire. In a matter of moments, the Blazing Thunder Sword expanded to over a hundred feet in length, sweeping through the Death Knights in its path.

The Blazing Thunder Sword cleaved through the midsection of the Demonic Armor adorning the Death Knights, rending the armors of three of them into two pieces. This violent severance resulted in their crashing descent to the ground below.

Having shed the torn Demonic Armor, the knights of the Demon Church revealed unharmed bodies beneath. Mu-Gun donned in the Dragon Scale Divine Armor, stepped onto the now unprotected Demon Church knights who had abandoned their Demonic Armors.

The colossal feet of the Dragon Scale Divine Armor traced a path of blazing thunder flames, enveloping the Demon Church's knights. Swiftly, the knights skillfully dodged to the side, evading the looming threat of the Dragon Scale Divine Armor's feet. Simultaneously, the remaining Death Knights surged toward Mu-Gun, unleashing a barrage of diverse attacks.

Reacting swiftly, Mu-Gun harnessed the power of the Wind Spirit King Nervatum to generate a ferocious windstorm encompassing all directions. The Death Knights, in their hastened charge towards Mu-Gun, found themselves ensnared in the violent storm, hurtling skyward before plummeting back to the ground. Ten Death Knights propelled more than thirty meters into the air, and crashed mercilessly upon the ground, resulting in a detonation and a shroud of dust.

Then, Mu-Gun summoned the Earth Spirit King Nordic and attacked the ten Death Knights, who crashed to the ground. The ground where the ten Death Knights fell split in half, and the Death Knights were swallowed into a bottomless pit. The bottomless pit that swallowed them whole closed up in an instant. Ten Death Knights were buried alive deep in the ground, still wearing their Demonic Armor.

Following the Earth Spirit King Nordic, Mu-Gun summoned the Ice Spirit King Eladium. The Ice Spirit King Eladium froze the Death Knights in front of her as soon as she was summoned. Nordic once again split the ground in half, creating a bottom pit, and dropped the Death Knights frozen by Eladium before closing the entrance of the pit.

Mu-Gun was baffled when he saw Nordic bury the Death Knights alive. Burying the Death Knights deep in the ground did not mean they were defeated. However, it would not be easy for the Death Knights to dig their way up to the surface.

Fueled by an intense competitive spirit, Mu-Gun initiated an assault against the Death Knights. Despite being encased in the towering twenty-meter Dragon Scale Divine Armor, Mu-Gun exhibited an agility reminiscent of the wind as he wielded the Blazing Thunder Sword. His prowess was genuinely unparalleled. With every pass by a Death Knight, their Demonic Armor was effortlessly cleaved into two. While it would have been ideal to sever the Death Knights at the chest area beneath the Demonic Armor, a formidable outer casing surrounded this region, proving resistant even to the formidable Blazing Thunder Sword.

That was why he aimed for the weakest part of the Demonic Armor—the waist area, splitting the Demonic Armor in two and forcing the Death Knights to strip away the Demonic Armors. The Death Knights did not just sit back and be attacked by Mu-Gun. They launched an attack with all their might to stop Mu-Gun in one way or another.

Nevertheless, Mu-Gun, and the Wind Spirit King Nervatum, moved with such extraordinary speed and agility that he could alter directions at will. The Death Knights found it utterly impossible to match the fluidity and rapidity of his movements.

Unable to match Mu-Gun's unparalleled agility, the Death Knights struggled to land a single blow on him. Mu-Gun adeptly dismantled the Demonic Armors of the Death Knights, effortlessly evading their attacks. In a matter of moments, half of the Death Knights found their protective armors severed. Simultaneously, the remaining half were subjected to a combined assault from Eladium and Nordic, resulting in their being buried deep within the ground.

Deprived of their Demonic Armors, the Death Knights were left with no alternative but to engage in combat with their exposed bodies. Despite the loss of their protective armors, their status as Grand Master Knights remained intact, signifying that they were formidable opponents even without their previous defenses.

Their enhanced Aura Blades, empowered by the authority of the Demon God, held the strength to dismantle Chevalier Armors. However, this potency was effective primarily against conventional knights outfitted in standard Chevalier Armors. The S-Class Dragon Scale Divine Armor, surpassing the capabilities of other existing Chevalier Armors, posed an even more formidable challenge. Compounding this issue was the fact that Mu-Gun himself wore the Dragon Scale Divine Armor.

Irrespective of the formidable might possessed by the Death Knights, their strength proved insufficient to breach the formidable combination of Mu-Gun, who not only acquired the divinities of the Three Holy Gods but also harmonized them, along with the impervious S-Class Chevalier Armor.

Mu-Gun effortlessly dispelled the onslaught of Aura Blades launched from all directions with a sweeping windstorm. Subsequently, wielding the Blazing Thunder Sword, he unleashed the formidable Supreme Moonlight technique of the Celestial Moonlight Sword Art. The Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qi emanating from the sword blanketed the entire area, delivering a powerful assault upon the Death Knights.

The Death Knights, taken aback, wielded their swords in an attempt to intercept the Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qi. The jet-black Aura Blades emanating from their swords formed a barrier against the celestial assault. Yet, at the moment of collision between the two distinct auras, the Death Knights' Aura Blades disintegrated. Subsequently, the Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qi descended upon the Death Knights like rain.

The initial onslaught of Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qi brought the Death Knights to the ground, and a relentless series of explosions ensued as the celestial rain persisted. Despite the robust constitution of the Death Knights' bodies, impervious even to a Grand Master's Aura Blade, they found themselves unable to withstand the relentless barrage of the Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qi.

However resilient the bodies of the Death Knights might be, the Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qi was no ordinary Aura Blade. It was a Mind Sword—an ego sword infused with the will of a divine being. In the face of an ego sword imbued with divinity, the sturdiness of the Death Knights' bodies proved inadequate to endure the onslaught.

The countless Blazing Thunder Moonlight Qis did not tear apart the bodies of the Death Knights, but rather, reduced them to a pulpy mass resembling ground meat. Limbs were squashed, heads and chests were crushed, and finally, they were interred beneath heaps of dirt and stone, having been flattened like jerky at the culmination of the relentless onslaught.

Though the Death Knights were immortal beings capable of resurrection in any condition, the overpowering might of divinity rendering them akin to ground meat left no room for their usual immortality. Nevertheless, Mu-Gun, exercising caution, observed the Death Knights for any signs of revival. Yet, to his scrutiny, the Death Knights remained motionless, devoid of any hint of reanimation.

Only after Mu-Gun ensured the demise of the Death Knights, or more accurately, their obliteration, did he instruct the Earth Spirit King Nordic to unearth them from their subterranean resting place. Nordic, compliant, and without objection, manipulated the earth to reveal the Death Knights buried beneath its surface.

Mu-Gun unleashed the Heavenly Thunder Storm Burst upon the incapacitated Death Knights, their Demonic Armors marred by dirt. This powerful assault, infused with the might of the Fire Spirit King, showered down upon the collected Demonic Armors of the Death Knights, meticulously gathered by Nordic in a single location.

The Demonic Armors of the Death Knights succumbed to the relentless barrage of Blazing Thunder Swords, shattering under the assault. Subsequently, the Blazing Thunder Swords descended upon the now-exposed Death Knights emerging from the shattered armors. Bewildered, the Death Knights endeavored to fend off the onslaught with a sense of urgency.

Despite the Death Knights' initial attempts to ward off the onslaught, the sheer potency and overwhelming quantity of the descending Blazing Thunder Swords proved insurmountable. What initially appeared as a potential defense quickly crumbled, and the Death Knights found themselves unable to withstand the relentless barrage, as the Blazing Thunder Swords continuously rained down upon their bodies.

The Blazing Thunder Swords pierced through their bodies, enshrouding them in a torrent of thunder and flames. Simultaneously, an unceasing downpour of Blazing Thunder Swords continued to cascade upon their forms, intensifying the engulfing thunder and flames. As the Heavenly Thunder Storm Burst concluded, the bodies of the Death Knights were left ablaze in a conflagration of lightning flames, each body adorned with embedded Blazing Thunder Swords.

Had they been mere mortals, even Grand Master Knights, the relentless onslaught would have undoubtedly proven fatal. Yet, the Death Knights, undeterred, persisted in their attempts to rise, their bodies grotesquely marred by the embedded Blazing Thunder Swords. The sheer tenacity with which they clung to life, despite their mutilated state, presented a truly macabre spectacle.

Despite their persistent attempts to rise, the Death Knights found themselves immobilized by the numerous Blazing Thunder Swords embedded throughout their bodies. Mu-Gun, his gaze filled with a mixture of revulsion and determination, observed their futile struggles. In response, he raised a colossal Blazing Thunder Sword with both hands—a manifestation of the Infinite Thunder Sword, pulsating with the energy of thousands of lightning strikes.

Mu-Gun's Blazing Thunder Sword, infused with the unadulterated fire of the Fire Spirit King Sarman, descended upon the Death Knights with unrelenting force. The colossal Blazing Thunder Sword, now extending to a length of thirty meters, plummeted into the midst of the clustered Death Knights. Its impact not only crushed the Death Knights but also cleaved through the ground, leaving a deep chasm in its wake.

The force of the Blazing Thunder Sword left the Death Knights crushed and embedded deep within the fractured ground. Even those Death Knights who managed to avoid a direct hit from the Blazing Thunder Swords found themselves inexorably drawn into the gaping crevasse that had split the earth beneath them.

Having consigned all the Death Knights to the fractured earth, Mu-Gun once again raised a Blazing Thunder Sword above his head. With unyielding determination, he swung the colossal blade with formidable force, targeting the Death Knights ensnared in the ground.

The Death Knights, already crushed by the initial impact of the Blazing Thunder Sword, were subjected to its force once more. This relentless assault not only obliterated them completely but also drove their shattered remnants even deeper into the fractured ground. The earth, unable to withstand the overwhelming shock, succumbed and collapsed, burying the Death Knights in a state beyond any semblance of recognition.

While the earlier measures would have sufficed, the Earth Spirit King Nordic took an additional step, solidifying the ground where the Death Knights were interred. The entire burial site became as impenetrable as rocks, ensuring the complete containment of the Death Knights beneath the hardened surface.