Demon King of the Royal Class

Chapter 401

I let out a sigh.

There were twelve resurrected corpses in total. Their physical abilities had been enhanced so much that ordinary soldiers found it difficult to handle them, but they were no match for Olivia and me.

Although there were countless individuals still stronger than me, I had also ascended to a level of superhuman ability far beyond that of an ordinary person.

I took down five, Olivia handled six, and the guards, who had regained their composure, managed to subdue the last one, which I then finished off.

The purifying power of Tiamata had caused the reanimated corpses to stop moving, and Olivia had drawn upon the power of Ouen to do the same.

Despite this, it was a disaster. At least fifty dead bodies lay everywhere, their necks bitten, heads smashed, and limbs torn apart.

A massacre had occurred in a very short time. Many had fled, but countless others had been frozen in place, having been overcome by fear, collapsing as their legs gave out from terror.

Since these people had participated in the executions, convinced that those being executed were demon god cultists, they should have considered the possibility of something horrific happening that was beyond their comprehension. Now that such an event had actually occurred, I didn’t feel like mocking those who had been paralyzed by fear, but I couldn’t help the nausea rising within me.

“Uh... Thank you for saving us. What on earth is this...”

The guards had been nearest to the reanimated corpses and had lost many of their comrades, including many heavily armed ones, but those who had managed to collect themselves had drawn their weapons and fought back.

The guard who seemed to be in charge, as well as the other guards, still looked terrified.

“First, take care of the people. I don’t have time to explain who I am.”

“Yes, ah, yes!”

Not everyone recognized the relic. I wasn’t sure what they thought of Tiamata, but they certainly believed it was something extraordinary.

I hadn’t intended to make such an appearance, but I would end up being known as a hero who had intervened during a sudden and unexpected massacre and exterminated the undead responsible.

Olivia approached me. “Reinhart... this... it seems...”

Olivia trailed off, but I knew what she was trying to say.

While it could be black magic, she seemed to have honed in on another possibility.

The power to resurrect the dead... It was the power that the cursed Tiamata had once wielded. The power of Kier, the antithesis of Ouen.

There was a high possibility that the Divine Power of that Demon God was being used. This meant that the real Demon God Cult might have intervened.

Although the situation in the grand plaza had been resolved, there was no sign of additional guards arriving, and we could still hear the screams of terrified people coming from further away.

—Aaaah!

—S-save me!

—Run away!

Olivia must have noticed the awe-filled gazes that the guards and the petrified people were directing at us. She had a sorrowful look in her eyes. It was because she knew what the people would do next.

They probably hadn’t recognized Olivia and me, but it was obvious what was coming next. After all, they had all just seen a mysterious man and woman appear like saviors, wielding immense Divine Power in the midst of a horrific situation.

—The gods have sent their messengers...!

—They have saved us!

As people bowed their heads and prostrated themselves before us, Olivia looked at them with a complicated expression.

These people had been happy to hang others, while worshipping others without question. Olivia tore her gaze from those around us and gazed out over the grand plaza.

The plaza had been lined with corpses in an instant, and there were no longer any moving bodies.

“Let’s go, Reinhart.”

We had to do something about these bizarre occurrences happening in Raziern.

***

The catastrophe in the grand plaza had been averted, but the resurrected corpses had exhibited physical abilities surpassing those of ordinary humans. The important thing was that what was happening did not seem confined just to the grand plaza, but had erupted throughout all of Raziern.

—Aaaah!

—Run away!!!

Flames of unknown origin were engulfing the city, and there were resurrected corpses running amok everywhere, sinking their teeth into the helpless people.

Since the dead bodies were coming back to life and attacking people, the chaos was always bound to spread. If things continued like this, Raziern would become a fiery hell teeming with resurrected corpses.

Slash!

“Goddamn it...” I said.

I cut through a reanimated corpse with Tiamata, and white holy flames flared up from the severed area, burning away the evil energy. If this was truly the power of the Demon God Kier, then since Kier was also Ouen, it was a situation in which one power was being extinguished by another that stemmed from the same entity.

—Aaaah!

—Arghhh! S-save me!

Raziern, which had already been chaotic before this, was turning into a charnel house.

But that wasn’t all.

Crack... Crack...

“Damn it, they’re coming back to life,” I said.

The corpses Olivia and I dealt with did not resurrect, but the bodies on the streets began to twist grotesquely and come to life after some time. Unless purified with Divine Power or completely crushed beyond recognition, the dead bodies would rise again after a short while.

Crash!

With a grim expression, Olivia stomped on the head of a female corpse that had just started to move, crushing it.

Olivia’s face was twisted in agony, her lips pressed tightly together. No matter how undead they were, she was still crushing the head of someone who had been alive not long ago.

—Don’t be afraid!

—Cut off their limbs! Cut them off!

The only relief was the sound of battle cries coming from somewhere within the city, indicating that a fight was taking place.

This battle required not just ordinary soldiers but priests and holy knights. However, it was doubtful how many high priests there were in the small province of Levina. In fact, the priests in the grand plaza had been so stunned that they had been attacked and killed without being able to do anything. Clearly, none of them had been accustomed to fighting.

“When will the empire’s support arrive...? Or will it even come...?” Olivia muttered with a look of despair.

Since the warp gate was functional, news of this would reach the empire, and a support unit would be sent. Moreover, the empire’s special investigation team was also on-site, and they would be able to handle the situation to some extent.

But could Raziern hold on in this bizarre situation in which the dead were constantly being reanimated? Olivia and I ran through the streets of Raziern, which had suddenly been turned into a living hell, searching for the source of this chaos.

As we ran, we cut down, slashed, and crushed the reanimated corpses we encountered.

Rumble!

Burning houses were collapsing. A naturally-occurring fire couldn’t spread this quickly. There was no way Raziern could be turned into a sea of flames so suddenly unless someone had systematically set the fires.

We had been running for what seemed like an eternity when Olivia pointed to the end of a straight road. “Reinhart! Over there!”

There was a group of people clad in black robes standing at the end of the street.

I could clearly see one of them wave their hand at an intact house, causing a wave of flames to engulf the entire building like a tide. Someone was indeed causing the fires. Were they using magic?

One of the robed figures riding a horse. No, it wasn’t just any horse.

“A phantom steed...?”

It was a translucent horse with a faint bluish-white form, known as a phantom steed. The figure mounted on the phantom steed turned its head towards us.

Due to the distance and the flickering flames, I couldn’t see the figure clearly, but I could feel it distinctly. My Qi Sense warned me that it was watching me. From afar, Olivia and I both saw the figure in the black robe spur its mount.

I didn’t know who it was, but it was approaching us.

“You use Tiamata from now on,” I said.

“Okay,” Olivia replied.

I was certain that Olivia couldn’t fight this being unarmed. Tiamata appeared in Olivia’s hand, and Alsbringer was in mine.

The phantom steed didn’t run but glided across the ground, covering the distance as it charged towards us at an unbelievable speed.

Swish!

The figure in the black robe revealed a long double-bladed weapon as it approached us. Within the cowl of the robe, no face was visible; all I could see was a black mass. It came at us, holding a lance in its left hand and a sword in its right as it rode the phantom steed.

In an instant, the unknown knight closed the distance and thrust the lance at Olivia while swinging the sword at me.

Clang!

Thud!

My hand tingled painfully as I was knocked back, and Olivia staggered heavily. We weren’t injured, but the force behind the blows was almost unbearable.

Rumble...

The weapons in its hands were imbued with an unknown dark energy.

“Who the hell are you bastards?” I shouted at the phantom rider, who had created some distance between us after that singular attack.

Slowly, a voice emerged from the darkness.

The phantom knight growled out in a low voice, “The Demon King desires... the destruction of Levina.”

‘What...? When did I ever say that?!’

***

I didn’t know these guys, nor had I ever met them. How dare they claim such nonsense, that the Demon King desired the destruction of Levina? I couldn’t understand it.

And if the demon god cultists had this level of power, why had they remained in the shadows until now? Had they used the time to expand their influence? I could only make these unfounded guesses; nothing was certain.

The phantom rider, wielding two weapons tainted with darkness, charged at us again at a speed that no physical horse could match. This time, it targeted only Olivia, as if knowing she needed to be eliminated first.

Whoosh!

The first attack had been difficult enough to withstand, but this time, Olivia was infusing Tiamata with powerful divine energy. Tiamata would likely be more efficient in Olivia’s hands than in mine.

Clang!

Olivia blocked the blow, creating a fierce shockwave that exploded outward. Olivia didn’t retreat this time, but the phantom rider seemed unscathed as it passed by Olivia.

The rider silently considered Olivia. I stared into that pitch-black darkness where its face should have been. I couldn’t tell what it was thinking.

Once the phantom rider had decided to face us, the rest of the group in black robes had vanished from the end of the street.

There was no escaping. The phantom steed it rode seemed to defy the laws of physics, moving at a speed no real horse could match.

Clang!

“Ugh!”

In an instant, the rider charged, slashing downwards as it passed us on its way to the other side of the street, then turned back as if inertia didn’t exist. Despite moving as if unbound by inertia, the speed and force behind the rider’s strikes and thrusts were real.

“Reinhart! Be careful!”

Clang!

“Ugh!”

Even with Mana Reinforcement, the force I felt from deflecting its thrust sent a sharp pain through my arm. It felt like it would shatter my wrist. However, the true terror of this being wasn’t just in the destructive power of each strike.

After a single slash, it spun and charged again without giving me a chance to recover from the impact.

Swish!

“Goddamnit!”

With an almost imperceptible motion, the phantom rider thrust its lance toward my face.

Whatever this thing was, was it really trying to kill me while claiming to be on the Demon King’s side?

Clang!

Just before the tip of the lance reached me, Olivia intervened, knocking the lance aside.

Screech!

In an instant, the horse turned its head, and the phantom rider, having regained control of its lance, moved to the side.

“Are you okay, Reinhart?”

“Yes, for now.”

I couldn’t gauge its capabilities fully, but the phantom rider’s abilities far surpassed mine. I wasn’t sure how it compared to Olivia, but it was clear that it found Olivia troublesome.

“The horse. We have to do something about that horse,” I said.

The phantom steed moved as if it ignored the laws of physics. The rider’s combat prowess was a problem, but as long as it was mounted on that phantom steed, it held an overwhelming advantage.

“I’ll try to hold it down somehow,” Olivia responded.

Olivia held Tiamata in her right hand, and her left hand also glowed with a white holy light. With her Mana Reinforcement and Divine Power at maximum output, Olivia looked like an angel descended onto the battlefield. In this burning chaos, she seemed more like an agent of judgment than of salvation.

Screech!

The phantom steed let out a bizarre cry and charged at both of us once more.

Clang!

A deafening sound echoed down the street. It was hard to believe that it was merely the sound of two weapons clashing. However, the rider did not rush past Olivia this time. No—it couldn’t pass. Instead, the rider was pushed back by the force of its weapon clashing with Olivia’s sword.

But that wasn’t the end. @@novelbin@@

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Olivia pressed the attack, preventing the horse from moving and driving the rider back. Her strikes were all aimed at the horse, but the rider, as if aware, deftly parried all of Olivia’s attacks with its lance and sword.

Olivia was formidable, but the black knight’s combat prowess was immense. It wielded its sword and lance in each hand, skillfully blocking Olivia’s two-handed strikes. It was an unbelievable monster.

However, there was no overcoming a coordinated attack. While it focused on protecting the phantom steed from Olivia’s attacks, I moved to flank the rider.

First, I needed to dismount the unknown knight before I could consider the next step. What I needed at that moment wasn’t strength or skill, but speed.

It had been a while since I’d used this ability in actual combat.

‘Haste.’ I concentrated the power of Self-Deception on speed, channeling all my focus into speed. The stronger the enemy, the more Alsbringer enhanced me, and this enemy was clearly stronger than me.

As I took one step forward, I moved so quickly that I was even astonished by my speed. In the blink of an eye, I caught up to the rider from behind. However, the rider reacted, turning its lance to block my thrust.

Clang!

“Ugh!”

That was the fastest I could move, yet the rider had managed to react. However, as I said, there was no overcoming a coordinated attack. The lance in its left hand was caught against my blade, and the sword in its right was engaged with Olivia. For a moment, the phantom rider found itself unable to move forward or backward.

Though the horse moved as if defying the laws of physics, it could not move sideways.

In that fleeting moment when its retreat was blocked...

Crunch!

Olivia abruptly grabbed the rider’s sword with her off-hand. Enveloped in light, she seized the sword by its hilt and twisted it violently.

Slash!

With Tiamata, she severed the neck of the phantom steed.

Screeeech!

With a chilling wail, the phantom steed dissipated in a blue mist, and we immediately distanced ourselves from our opponent. The rider, finally dismounted from its unnatural horse, landed on the ground.

-Thud!

The rider in the black robe said nothing about losing its mount. Apart from its initial statement, it hadn’t spoken at all, and I could sense no emotions or intentions from it.

Clatter!

The rider carelessly discarded the lance, which was taller than the rider itself. It now held only its sword, swirling with darkness.

“What are you?” Olivia said to the rider, who stood there, watching us silently as it held its sword. “Are you minions of the Demon King?”

While the rider’s skill was a concern, Olivia seemed to prioritize uncovering its identity.

The enigmatic rider looked at us from within the hooded robe. “Yes.”

This was maddening.

‘When did I ever agree to any of this?! I don’t even know you!’

A stranger was claiming to be my subordinate.

“We shall complete what the Prophet could not.”

The Prophet...

Calling the Demon King a prophet suggested they were demon god cultists.

While I didn’t fully understand the situation, I had an inkling of their purpose and intent. Since the Demon King had supposedly failed in his attack on Levina, these cultists, who considered me a prophet of the Demon Gods, were attacking Raziern to complete what I had supposedly failed to accomplish.

The situation had become truly twisted.

Rumble!

The sword in the rider’s hand began to surge with dark energy.

This was different from before. Instead of being weakened by being dismounted, it seemed to be revealing its true power.

The weapon, oozing with dark energy, seemed to hold a terrifying promise the moment it clashed with something else.

A sly smile appeared on Olivia’s lips. “Indeed? The Demon King wouldn’t do such a thing.”

Olivia hadn’t come to Raziern to uncover the truth behind the first attack. The fact that the Demon King’s minions were actively turning Raziern into this state seemed to give her the certainty that the Demon King had saved her for some other reason.

She had said that she sought certainty, and she had just obtained it.

No matter how detestable and unpleasant human behavior might be, could the essence of all humans be evil?

While the essence of all demons couldn’t be known...

—Aaaah!

—S-save meeee!

Raaaargh!

... If the Demon King was behind such atrocities, then the Demon King was indeed an evil being. Olivia was certain of it.

Olivia Lanche stared at the black knight as she clutched Tiamata, her expression chillingly calm. “There’s no need to plead for the power of authority anymore.”

Olivia had abandoned the gods, yet she still wielded Divine Power. It had been granted to her. But now, it seemed she was even denying the principle behind it.

“Light.”

She wasn’t asking for salvation.

She wasn’t asking for guidance.

It wasn’t a plea.

“Come to me.”

She commanded the light to follow her.

Vwoooom!

The white light enveloping Tiamata grew more intense, finally taking on a golden hue. Olivia Lanche used Tiamata differently than I did. I now understood that Divine Power, in any form, empowered Olivia. There was no need to beg for it or force herself to believe.

Olivia was chosen by the gods, and having been chosen, she was now demanding power from the gods who lent it to her, regardless of what she did.

Rumble!

Olivia Lanche, engulfed in a torrent of immense Divine Power that made the very air tremble, glared fiercely at the black knight.

Even Leverier Lanche hadn’t been this incomprehensible. While Leverier Lanche might have had superior practical abilities, Olivia’s Divine Power surpassed Leverier Lanche’s.

Standing so close to her, I could feel the air quivering from the storm of Divine Power. Yet the evidently evil being before us did not retreat in the face of Olivia’s overwhelming presence.

The dark energy surging through the black knight was ominous, but the storm of Divine Power emanating from Olivia was colossal. It was already immense, and was being amplified through Tiamata,

The amount of Divine Power Olivia concentrated within her seemed capable of enveloping the whole world when released.

Olivia, clad in light, and the knight, shrouded in darkness. The black knight charged at Olivia, but it seemed small and pitiful, like a rowboat in the face of a tidal wave.

As she stood against the charging black knight, Olivia focused her Divine Power into Tiamata.

The holy light, a dazzling golden hue, began to concentrate within Tiamata. The Divine Power, so intense it seemed it might explode at any moment, was condensed within Tiamata as it prepared to counter the black knight’s blow.

As the black knight thrust its sword, Olivia brought hers down from above. It was a straightforward move, but the force behind it seemed capable of shattering the world.

Flash!

The moment the two swords clashed, a storm of light engulfed the world.