1005. Can it be chased?
“Imitation? Just how on earth did you do that?”
Trimache’s eyes were filled with doubt. She could not recognize Encred’s movements. Her eyesight was lacking, and her level was too low, for that to happen.
Oho.
Temares pursed his lips and nodded. It is a commendable feat.
“Anyway, you really like doing strange things.”
Rem shrugged his shoulders and spoke. Sinar tucked his sword into his side and clapped his hands.
“Excellent. Bravo, Enki.”
He was just giving compliments as best he could. Esther remained silent.
It was while Trimache blinked once more. Temares approached and briefly explained the situation.
“If it’s fast enough to be invisible, what else could it be but teleportation?”
If you don’t understand after I’ve said all this, it’s not a news article.
“Purely by speed?”
Countering supernatural abilities simply by swinging a sword fast? Come to think of it, it’s not impossible, but is it easy?
Trimache’s pupils wavered. It wasn’t that he couldn’t believe it. There were plenty of such monsters within the Imperial Knights. He
just hadn’t expected to see such a feat right here.
Flicker, the monster that had devoured two knights, was a tricky opponent. His greatest strength was close-range teleportation, swinging his weapon from an unexpected direction.
“Since it is a place where the sword and hand reach anyway, all I have to do is react the moment I feel it.”
Rem received the words Temares muttered.
Just keep going fast, and that’s it.
The answer was simple. However, implementing it was just another matter.
* * *
Optimal movement path.
He maximized his judgment in a fleeting moment. The resulting sword strikes were flashes of light and lightning.
It was a fast sword, and then some. A sword focused solely on speed.
It was the optimization of thought that must take precedence in the process of increasing speed. Only when decisions are quick can actions be quick.
Thoughtless action is not fast; it is futile.
In that brief moment, Encreed transformed the Will swirling within him and responded. It was Will who had become a ball of feathers that would fly away with a single breath. The axe-swinging technique,
based on Rem’s instinct—which he had learned through countless defeats, experiences, and ultimately by stealing—was a skill that seemed to have transferred the optimization of thought directly into reality.
Everything he had seen, learned, and trained through death there had led him to where he is today. Furthermore
, Encreed did not merely move quickly; he also read the trajectory his enemy was aiming for.
The club is disappearing.
It wasn’t that hostility and malice were disappearing. He was a much easier opponent than Saxon’s blunt thrust. Moreover, his mindset was predictable.
Would he interfere with the weapon trajectories of the other two monsters when he made his club reappear?
Of course not.
Therefore, the only place the vertically falling club could attack was beneath him.
Thanks to the two of them attacking together, it was easier to read their attacks. That was how he beheaded both of them.
Looking at it this way, he certainly wasn’t a clever fellow.
Of course, all of this would have been futile without the technique of “Flash”—fast sword strikes resulting from optimized thinking.
Encred was certainly faster than the monster in front of him, and he utilized that. With just two sword strikes, he killed the two one-eyed monsters and kicked the man’s club away.
That was how the two faced each other again. Encred dropped the tip of his sword to the ground with a thud, as if a tendon in his arm had snapped.
He was feigning injury while dodging. It was a deception that didn’t matter whether they were fooled or not.
The moment the monster Flicker’s gaze briefly fell upon the tip of the sword that had dropped, Encred’s remaining hand moved.
It was a dagger he had concealed inside his sleeve, which he had pulled out at some point. He was using a technique called the Hide Knife, which Torres had taught him long ago.
The horn dagger marked a dot in the air. Manipulating space? So what? What are you going to do if I exploit a rift in perception? Through
countless deaths and battles, Encred’s eye for identifying his enemies’ weaknesses had grown exponentially.
Since he himself was a bundle of such weaknesses, exploiting an opponent’s vulnerabilities was an easy task.
Bang-
After the sound of air popping, the sound of a bone breaking rang out.
“Kwoooo!”
The monster howled. Black blood streamed from its single remaining eyeball.
“Now it’s a blind monster.”
Encred spoke. The monster could not understand human speech, but it sensed its danger.
So, using the power imprinted within it, it attempted to leap across space. It was an instinctive escape.
three.
The sound of a blade passing over it echoed. It was the sound made by Encred’s Today. It was a blade imbued with a yellow light. It was a sword radiating heat like a heated iron rod.
Encred reads the flow of spells and cuts. He did so just now.
Then, he struck again with a swift sword strike—whether called a flash, a bolt of lightning, or whatever. If sunrise was a blazing flame, then this yellow-hued Today was the twilight ending the day. Before he knew it, the light emanating from Encred’s sword had turned orange.
Bang!
Flicker, the monster who had gone blind from having one eye, sensed the presence and swung his weapon again, mixing in spatial teleportation, but it was in vain.
It had been easy to read their intentions and direction since two monsters had attacked together earlier. Attacking alone increases the number of factors to consider, but that didn’t mean it was impossible to predict.
The malice remains.
That is why it is obvious where they are aiming for.
Your way of thinking isn’t creative.
He swung it diagonally from right to bottom left, but that was a trick. Should I say he was devious to the very end?
The guy’s club flew in from behind in the reverse direction, from bottom to top.
Normally, even a knight might be terrified by an attack from behind, but as soon as the guy’s club disappeared, Encred turned around and swung his sword.
Bang!
The club that had appeared behind Encred’s back was blocked by the sword and vanished.
The tip of the club in his hand sizzled. It was the mark left by a heated blade.
If the Grim Reaper kills the night the moment the sun rises, then twilight possesses the tenacity to fight the light until the very end.
Encred walked, speaking whatever came to mind.
“There is no way a monster would understand, though.”
With every step he took, Flicker pulled all sorts of tricks. On the first step, he attacked; on the second, he fled; and on the third, he attempted both simultaneously.
Encred parried the obvious attacks and deflected them with brute force.
The creature’s club finally snapped cleanly in the middle. The broken spot sizzled again.
From a distance, the club, emitting black smoke, looked like a torch made of pine resin. And not just any torch, but one made of very low-grade resin that stung the eyes and emitted a foul odor.
The escape attempt was, as expected, thwarted. Supernatural abilities only manifest when the flow of magical energy is maintained. The source of the monster’s supernatural abilities was spells. To be precise, the magic circles engraved in its bones and skin were the key.
Gwoa!
There was nothing to stop the third attempt. The club, now only half-remaining, couldn’t even reach Encred, and its body moved by just a single ankle.
It was a backlash caused by the excessive use of a spell.
Finally, he closed the distance once again. Encred raised Onul, swung it, and severed its neck. The monster thrashed its hands, bleeding profusely, but Onul dodged them all and severed only the nape. As he did so, he spoke.
“You, peeking from behind, must understand human speech, right?”
He held an orange-burning sword in front of his face. Beside the sword, two blue eyes pushed away the light emanating from it. The intensely shining eyes gazed at the one who had moved the monster with such will.
* * *
“What are you?”
It was an answer that naturally flowed in response to a question that had traveled across space.
The one who answered was a woman with long white hair. Her flowing clothes were see-through, and her hips and chest were exceptionally well-developed, possessing a figure that drew the eyes of everyone, regardless of gender. She was the very person who had bestowed supernatural abilities upon the monsters and
unleashed them, as well as another Master of Astrail. She had spent a long time within the Empire summoning, creating, and releasing monsters. That task alone kept her so busy that she couldn’t even hear news from the outside world. Consequently, she didn’t even know who Encred was. Had she known, she would have prepared, and if she had also learned that one of Astrail’s Masters had died, she might have fled. The unfortunate part here is that she simply didn’t have the time to do so.
“Did the Empire raise another sword? I guess four wasn’t enough?”
Isn’t one of those four swords hot on my heels?
The moment I step outside to make a call, the Imperial sword that has caught me will attack. I couldn’t risk that danger.
They dispatched another unit like this here? Emperor, Emperor, you still have plenty of time.
She muttered and whispered.
Then wouldn’t I have prepared anything?
It was a cabin in the woods. She half-closed her eyes and waved her hand. In response to her gesture, a swarm of black ants appeared on the ground and moved in a regular pattern to form a design.
Come out, your struggle is not over.
She decided that it was right to decisively cut off everything pursuing her right here, even if it meant pushing herself a bit.
And so, she summoned a swordsman with a black blade.
“Go, Black Knight.”
A Death Knight is a Death Knight who has modified a necromancy spell to his own style.
To put it simply, you could call it a handcrafted creation with his own unique flair added to the Death Knight.
Aside from his deep blue skin and patched-up parts here and there, he looked like a perfectly normal fairy. With his pointed ears, his appearance was likely the most beautiful of all dead things.
“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Miles Alpicus, guardian of the forest.”
Miles Alpicus is the Elven word for Elven knight. It is a title given only to exceptionally outstanding knights.
“Terrible witch, you and I are still exactly the same.”
The Black Knight, having retained his ego, outwardly acts like a comrade and ally of the living, but in reality, he is not. That was the most attractive aspect of the summoned creature.
“Go, go and tear apart the other child your mother sent. Do as you did before.”
At the witch’s words, the fairy knight left the hut.
“Ah, I want to die. Kill me.”
He was already dead, yet he desired death again. This contradiction was his greatest strength. It was the most powerful move the witch had ever crafted.
Having pulled that trick, the witch quietly withdrew. Her hut crumpled and transformed into a small fox, running through the forest. A moving fox hut—that was the reason she had remained out of the Empire’s grasp until now.
Because she had severed all ties with the outside world, even the wizards raised by the Empire were unable to find her.
* * *
“What are the Three Evils?”
Krang asked the Emperor. The two were in the middle of a continuous conversation. The Emperor clearly revealed the Empire’s problems. That was when the remark came up. “The Three Evils”—it meant that the problems facing the Empire were divided into a total of three evils.
“The first is the Heritage Society. They are those who seek to restore the past, a disgrace longing for the days when they lived in harmony with the Demon Realm.”
“I heard about this before. It is hard to believe that their true identity has not been revealed until now, so why are you letting them get away with it?”
“The mastermind behind the Heritage Society does not exist on this earth.”
The Emperor spoke firmly, showing his determination not to take any more questions. Then, she opened her mouth again.
“The second scar is the shapeshifter Voloda.”
“So you know his name and his identity.”
“He is a dragonkin who uses the Epimorph spell to change his appearance. Do you think he will be easy to kill?”
Dragonkin also live in the Empire. These dragonkin usually go about their lives without knowing their true identities, but when they go berserk, they kill everyone around them and vanish.
Including those with minor damage, this has already happened sixteen times. As a result, a group called the Shapeshifter Bolo Execution Squad was formed within the Empire.
Death to Bolo!
It is a group centered around those whose family, friends, and acquaintances died at his hands.
It is similar to the Cult Annihilation Priesthood, but they united for more personal reasons and are crazier than them.
If you ask why.
“To kill a crazy Yongin, you obviously have to be crazy yourself.”
That is what the Emperor said.
“What is the third one?”
“Malapais, the devil’s trick, a witch’s scheme.”
Malapais, meaning “devil’s prank,” was referring to a unique monster phenomenon that suddenly pops out.
“Are there really this many headaches?”
Krang shook his head in disbelief. The Emperor smiled broadly. With that appearance and a smile so full, it looked as if a celestial goddess had come to visit for a brief moment.
So, I’m really glad to see you.
And what he says next is another thing that cannot be understood.
“Why, do you think I can solve one of them?”
“I’d be grateful if you could.”
Whenever Krang met the Emperor, it became increasingly difficult to read his mind. One moment he was a cheerful girl, the next a virtuous beauty; today, he looked like a priest summoned by a goddess.
Whatever the case, it was a solution in name only; wasn’t it one of those things the Imperial Knights had failed to handle?
Well, if you look into it in detail, the Imperial Knights simply withdrew because it wasn’t efficient—since these were targets that required a small number of knights to invest a long time to capture, rather than the Order itself.
I don’t have the capacity to do that.
Krang said firmly.
* * *
Having already defeated the monster, Encred had no intention of rushing in to kill whatever lay behind it. That is, until he discovered the gift the witch had prepared. He
had stopped by a small village on his way back.
Only half the inhabitants were alive. It was not a large village. In the Empire, there were many people who formed villages near cities without fortifications, and this was one of them.
His eyes fell upon writing on the ground in the blood of the dead.
They will pay the price for daring to challenge.
Aaaah!
It was a place where the cries of a mother who had lost her child erupted.
Encred stared at Trimache silently. He wasn’t even glaring, but his gaze was chilling.
“back?”
A short word aimed at Trimache’s neck like a blade. He would have answered even if it hadn’t been a blade.
“Malapais calls it the devil’s scheme. Should I call it a tool for that scheme? It is the work of a witch who is a henchman worshipping the devil. She is the arch-enemy that the Wizard’s Tower is using its power to pursue.”
“Esther.”
“Yeah.”
“Can you chase her?”
Is the resolve contained in that question heavy? Yes. However, even if it were not heavy, Esther was full of heart to grant Encred’s words, requests, and wishes.
She, too, felt emotion as she watched the dead and those who had surrendered themselves to grief.
He is truly someone who regards human lives like insects.
One day will do.
Esther spoke and reached out her hand to Trimache.
I need to contact Nephir Tesher.
Now that the time was right, the name of the sorcerer who had been chasing her clearly came to mind.
Nephir Tesher was the one Encred called the sorcerer of flirtation.
