Chapter 510 – Knights of the Abyss: Part Two

The girl—Sigritta—kicked off her shield to spin through the air while releasing various beasts from the book in her hand to clash with the royal guard member opposing her.

Due to the unique nature of the techniques Sigritta employed, her spacing and positioning against enemies were distinctive. Precisely because of this, she was difficult to deal with.

Individually, the beasts weren’t particularly strong. Most were terrestrial creatures, yet for some reason they flew around as if it were perfectly natural. Yes—they didn’t swim. Whether dogs or cats, they flew about.

Moreover, there were many of them. It was similar to the magic fish technique used by her superior, Divolis… but precisely because of that, if he couldn’t finish her off, things would become troublesome. Viewed as a technique for supporting others, it was quite powerful.

“Tch!”

The royal guard member clicked his tongue as Sigritta leaped back, leaving only the swarm of beasts behind.

However, Sigritta didn’t create that much distance. She maintained a constant spacing—neither too close nor too far—fighting with elusive, meandering movements that made the guard member grit his teeth. She herself remained unfazed, her emotions unreadable, making her intentions even harder to discern.

But he couldn’t afford to be dragged into Sigritta’s delaying tactics forever. He needed to eliminate the enemy as quickly as possible and go assist his comrades. Given the nature of her techniques, she was an opponent who absolutely had to be dealt with here.

He intercepted the approaching wolf pack with his spear. When a wolf bit down on the spear, he channeled his Fighting Spirit to sweep it away, causing it to crumble instantly. If that was all—then there was no problem. Deciding this was the moment to decide the match, he flooded his entire body with Fighting Spirit and launched a forceful Charge straight at Sigritta—

“What?!”

Just as he was about to do so, he felt an intense pain in his leg. One of the wolves had sunk its fangs through his Fighting Spirit-enhanced body.

That was—though the royal guard member had no way of knowing—a drawing of Lavigne created using a Magic Array. Hidden among the weak wolf pack, it baited the opponent into carelessness before delivering the real attack.

There, the royal guard member realized his Failure. Among the similar-looking Ink Beasts, some were mixed in with completely different levels of strength. Whether they were mere distractions or time-wasters, or whether the real threat was hidden among them—it all depended on the girl’s whims. There was no telling what might leap out.

He swung his spear to destroy Lavigne’s drawing, but—it released his leg before taking the attack. Leaping back dramatically, it began racing around the royal guard member. As he tried to follow its movements with his eyes—his attention drifted away from Sigritta.

“…Now.”

The voice came from close by. Right beside him, the girl had opened a page in her book and aimed it toward him. At her feet was a Magic Circle. Though he didn’t know the true nature of the technique, it seemed to be linked with the book. This was likely the girl’s true aim. The real deal. A chill ran down his spine.

He tried to launch a counterattack in that instant, but it was too late. From the opened page, something burst forth with tremendous force. Something like a massive black serpent—

It didn’t bite him. Instead, countless heavy impacts raced through his entire body. Strikes. Numerous Strikes were being unleashed from within the book.

Had that royal guard member been knowledgeable about terrestrial monsters, he might have realized that the things leaping out were the fists of a yeti. And Sigritta was temporarily Enhancing them with her Spell Formula.

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of blows, he was sent flying backward. Sigritta closed the distance by exactly how far he’d been thrown.

He crashed into a Mausoleum pillar. The Strikes from the book rained down relentlessly. The sound and pain of shattering bones. While shattering the pillar along with him, the blows continued to pummel the royal guard member. He was driven through to the other side of the pillar, and finally, after taking one particularly heavy blow, he was slammed against the Mausoleum wall. Timing it for when the Magic Circle vanished, Sigritta warily leaped back, but the royal guard member remained unconscious as he slid down the wall.

“Tch!”

By the time Marcesca deflected the Slash Attack with her spear, she was already far away. He reached out to grab her, but it was like trying to catch water.

Kicking her shield to change trajectory left and right, she came slashing in from absurd angles. At her movements, the royal guard member inwardly marveled.

Wielding her twin-headed sword freely while repeatedly using shield reflections, Marcesca moved in ways the royal guard member had never fought against—never even imagined.

In the water, she moved at speeds surpassing even his own. Though this was only possible due to Marl’s Blessing… regardless, she was overwhelmingly faster. Her unusual movements and small stature made this feel even more pronounced.

He was entirely on the defensive. While he managed with his Fighting Spirit-based Defense, he was accumulating minor wounds. If this continued, the Bleeding would increase, and the situation would steadily worsen.

But he had a plan. He could use that ridiculous speed against her. Rather than watching the angle of her slashes, he would predict her movements using his instincts as a Warrior.

And instead of aiming his attack at her, he would place—leave—his attack within a certain range to make her run into it herself. With that much speed, she probably couldn’t react to take evasive action. He would use Magic. Ice Pike Phalanx.

He couldn’t let her notice. While positioning himself within the storm of Slash Attacks, he focused without a chant. He was sliced shallowly two, three times. Yes. If she disliked having her movements stopped and being subjected to all-out attacks, then no deep, heavy blows would come. The intervals between slashes were consistent. Then—now—!

Predicting only the direction she would Charge from, the royal guard member unleashed Ice Pike Phalanx without even looking that way.

A moment later, he shifted his gaze there—and the royal guard member saw something unbelievable. Marcesca, deploying a Magic Shield diagonally just before the ice pikes and running through as if dashing up a slope. The instant the tips of the ice pikes extended, captured perfectly at the edge of his vision, was burned into the royal guard member’s eyes. Her expression was serious, but not even a hint of surprise colored it.

There, the royal guard member realized he had made a fundamental misunderstanding. Her attacks up until now hadn’t relied solely on burst power. In terms of reflexes and dynamic visual acuity as well, this girl named Marcesca was far—far beyond him. In other words, the fact was that she was

seeing

(

….

)

the Ice Pike Phalanx form and then changing her trajectory.

Moreover, terrifyingly, she had moved as if completely accustomed to countermeasures that tried to use her speed against her. That meant she normally fought or trained with opponents who could keep up with these movements.

A smile—whether of resignation or something else—floated at the corner of the royal guard member’s mouth. An expression mixed with praise and acceptance. Marcesca, having dashed through, performed a Form Shift. A Slash Attack approached from behind.

“This is—I can’t win.”

He was swept up in a tornado-like Slash Attack. Spraying blood from his entire body, the royal guard member was sent flying.

Divolis’s magic fish swirled into a vortex. They rushed toward Sheila, who was clashing with numerous tentacles shrouded in Miasma using her Pearl Sword, but Ignis placed itself before the magic fish, standing in the way as a shield.

Sheila sent a brief glance toward Ignis but then immersed herself completely in the battle against Oberk’s Familiar.

“Kukakak! Quite sturdy, aren’t you! You’re entertaining me!”

The magic fish were useless against Ignis. Yet Divolis laughed merrily. Ignis Charged toward Divolis, who was controlling the glowing school of fish.

The roaring War Hammer approaching was met with a complex Magic Shield resembling a turtle’s shell. Divolis cleanly received Ignis’s blow. He was probably enhancing his Defense Power by applying modifications to his Shield.

A Magic Circle flashed at the tip of Divolis’s Staff. The space between Divolis and Ignis—the water bent toward Divolis’s side for an instant, then snapped back toward Ignis the next moment. It generated enough impact to force the massive body backward.

“Nuuuh!”

And—General Lubald was exchanging blows with Dullahan without retreating a single step, using his long spear. Greatsword and spear clashed, while the horn growing from his forehead suppressed the horse’s Charge.

While clashing, he took a large gulp of water—and when he spat it out, it became a powerful water projectile hurtling toward Dullahan.

Dullahan thrust its Greatsword forward as if to meet the projectile. Using the flat of the blade to deflect the water projectile diagonally, it launched a Thrust aiming to finish General Lubald—a single strike combining offense and defense.

The general performed a Form Shift to Dodge while delivering a Sweeping Strike to the horse’s face. The horse bent down as if diving beneath, and Dullahan leaped upward, passing over the spear as if slipping through the gap. When Dullahan showed an acrobatic-like evasion that made the general stare wide-eyed, it remounted its horse and brought its sword down from a High Stance. The general caught the heavy blow with his Fighting Spirit-infused spear and laughed.

“Well now, I’ve been blessed with a fine opponent! Before being Sealed, every last one of those I fought was utterly unsatisfying!”

He laughed heartily and flooded his entire body with Fighting Spirit before unleashing his great spear. It clashed repeatedly with Dullahan’s Greatsword, ringing with heavy metallic sounds multiple times.

Both were heavy-class Weapons. Dullahan wielded the Greatsword—which would be difficult for ordinary humans to even lift—like a piece of wood with one hand. General Lubald met it head-on. They slammed into each other with brute force and were repelled.

The moment distance opened between them, the spear tip swept through the water as if cleaving it, releasing a fan-shaped Shockwave. Dullahan’s horse slammed down its green-burning horseshoes to intercept. It Charged in from long range, building momentum. Even underwater, green flames remained where the horse had run.

The horse Dullahan rode was also no ordinary one. General Lubald analyzed that tactics like matching spears to crush the horse probably wouldn’t work.

General Lubald also Charged while releasing Shockwaves in rapid succession. Dullahan swung its Greatsword to cleave through the Shockwaves and closed in.

The general relied on the momentum of the collision to slam his spear against the Greatsword, halting its movement. Rotating his spear, he flicked it upward from below, causing Dullahan’s horse to rear up high to avoid it.

Dullahan performed a Form Shift to evade the descending horseshoe strike, caught the pursuing Slash Attack with its spear, and fired a water projectile from point-blank range. The one spat out was more intense than before. A gouging strike with a spiral rotation added.

Dullahan crossed its arms to block it. Dullahan’s body shook—it was an impact strong enough to push it backward.

The horse’s hooves scraped, as if grinding against the ground, leaving green flames in the space as it braked.

Without a moment’s pause, General Lubald rushed in. Dullahan leaned its upper body forward as if lunging out, evading the spear tip by a hair’s breadth.

An upward-scooping Slash Attack. The general rotated his spear to block it with the shaft. He flew back as if riding the momentum of the slash.

An exchange where not even a single blink was permitted. They took distance and faced each other. Then—just at that moment, it seemed Sion and Eckels’s battle had reached its conclusion. Eckels was sinking toward the water’s bottom.

“Tch. That fool Eckels. Did he underestimate his opponent because she was just a brat?!”

General Lubald spat out the words. As Captain of the royal guard, both his skill and command ability were impeccable, but he couldn’t bring himself to kill defenseless opponents—from General Lubald’s perspective, that softness was glaring. He had allowed him the position of Captain because his military achievements more than compensated for it, but he had always found that softness bitter.

But he judged that he himself possessed no such softness. Looking at Dullahan facing him, General Lubald bared his teeth in a grin. In the battle so far, he had felt sufficient satisfaction.

Strength versus strength was even. The Sword Dance was also considerable—certainly a fearsome wielder—but the spear likely held the advantage as a Weapon.

Moreover, Dullahan seemed to have no long-range attacks. Then, as before, by pushing that front, he should be able to steer the battle situation favorably.

That assessment—might have been somewhat correct. Had Dullahan just been summoned and manifested by Marlene’s summoning, the result might have been different. Or, if General Lubald had been brave but not cruel—

“Nuooh!”

With a sharp battle cry, he unleashed his spear, slamming the tip down as if sweeping. Just as he tried to suppress its movements and release lightning from the horn on his forehead, he noticed Dullahan’s head was laughing. A shiver ran through him. An indescribable fear raced down his spine.

From its mouth, without any warning, a crimson liquid was spat toward him. The smell of iron rust. A dense stench of blood. A spreading cloud of blood. Beyond it, General Lubald saw a glimmer.

General Lubald leaped back and Dodged the approaching Slash Attack by instinct. But something was wrong. He saw green flames coiling around that sword.

The blood cloud began to clear. In inverse proportion, the pressure-like sensation emanating from Dullahan increased. Coiling around the sword like a living thing, it was—

“What… is this?”

He muttered in astonishment.

There were familiar faces. Faces, faces, faces flickering within the flames. Those General Lubald had killed before being Sealed. They were the people of Grantios. Laughing. Laughing.

That was—not souls, but the very karma of Lubald himself. The residual thoughts of the dead clinging to Lubald. Or what might be called Grudges, they resonated with Dullahan, amplifying its power.

“Death… god…”

From the gaps in Dullahan’s Armor. From the horse’s mane. The gushing green flames intensified. Laughter. At a speed that left no shadow, the green centaur became flames and Charged in.

The crossing lasted an instant. Unable to even react, Lubald’s entire body was swept through by a horizontal slash. Green flames set him Burning.

Sheila—was engaged in close combat with Oberk’s Familiar.

Perhaps realizing it couldn’t escape Sheila without support from others, the killer whale wrapped its tentacles in Miasma and unleashed them directly as Slash Attacks.

Sheila also didn’t retreat a step, clashing with her Fighting Spirit-infused Pearl Sword. An exchange of high-speed Slash Attacks so fast the tips of their arms became invisible. Sparks flew each time they made contact.

The tentacles had the advantage in numbers. While clashing with Sheila, the killer whale raised one of its arms and fired a Miasma Bullet from it.

She—saw through it. She performed a Form Shift to evade, but couldn’t turn it into a counterattack. Because evading delayed the offense and defense. With Twin Swords alone, she couldn’t completely withstand the storm-like density of Slash Attacks, so she deployed her Charge Shield to mitigate the power while leaping back. Immediately, she performed a Form Shift. They both closed the distance and clashed again.

Slash Attack, Slash Attack. Miasma Bullets fired from unexpected angles fragmented Sheila’s offense and defense. She couldn’t step inside the effective range. She couldn’t press the attack fully.

With a gesture like tilting her head, she evaded a Miasma Bullet by a hair’s breadth and threw an Invisible Blade from inside her Mantle. It shallowly sliced the killer whale’s surface. Taken by surprise, the killer whale froze for an instant.

She didn’t let the opportunity slip. Sheila stepped in like a gust of wind. Evasion—barely didn’t make it in time. As she passed by, she cut off one tentacle, and the killer whale growled irritably while laying down a barrage. She leaped left and right to evade. For strikes she couldn’t completely avoid, she cleaved through with her Pearl Sword.

But the result left her dissatisfied. She had revealed one of her cards—the Invisible Blade. The result against it was just one tentacle. The enemy had too many moves; the odds were simply unfavorable.

“…Again.”

But Sheila was driven by a different thought. Even while fighting, she let out a slightly bewildered voice.

Yes. When she swung her sword like this—sometimes, by some chance, she felt an extremely slight sense of dissonance.

It was the same when I was fighting the Subordinates on the plains. Before that… yes. I definitely felt it during the battle at the Magic Light Water Vein as well. At the time, I thought it might have been my imagination, but I wasn’t mistaken. It’s the same now. It feels like something is stuck and won’t open—a sensation akin to frustration. I don’t know what it is.

A Slash Attack grazed her cheek. As she responded in kind, Sheila carefully exchanged each strike, examining every attack and defense as if confirming something.

“To think I’d have to show such a Technique against a land-dweller!”

That voice. Sheila caught it for a moment at the edge of her vision. Then her eyes widened. That was Captain Eckels’ Technique. The source of her discomfort took shape in Sheila’s mind.

The shark made a gesture as if sucking in a large amount of water. Sheila’s senses detected danger signals. She leaped sideways as cracks formed in the wall behind her. An unpleasant sound, enough to make her grimace, reverberated chaotically. It was an ultrasonic attack.

“It’s similar to Seraphina’s Technique.”

Sheila spun rapidly as she flew. Multiple ultrasonic bullets exploded in the space she had just occupied, each wave of sound shaking her.

She understood. If she couldn’t block the sound, her senses—especially her hearing—would take damage. She’d heard from Theodore that the ears are directly connected to balance. Accumulating damage there would be a matter of life and death for Sheila. So, what to do? At close range, she’d be overwhelmed by the number of attacks, and at long range, while she could handle Miasma Bullets, she couldn’t completely avoid the ultrasonic waves. She had already revealed her invisible knives. They wouldn’t be decisive. As if aware of this, the red-eyed shark grinned. But—

“Like this, like this—”

Sheila’s hands trembled slightly, tracing a circle.

The Pearl Sword. Through the Pearl Sword, she wrapped Fighting Spirit around the water. The circle drawn by her hands quickly became a large vortex.

Changing direction, she stepped in. As she flicked up the Pearl Sword, the water vortex swirled upward. The vortex leaping from below became a long Whip, Deflecting the shark who had misjudged the distance.

“Giiiiii!”

The shark let out an irritated cry at the unexpected counterattack and pain from an unforeseen range.

Within Sheila, her discomfort turned into certainty. Yes. The Pearl Sword was originally obtained from the Guardian of the Magic Light Water Vein. There was no way it should have poor affinity with water.

But even when she wielded the sword in water wrapped in Fighting Spirit, she hadn’t been able to fully utilize its power. That had been the source of her slight discomfort.

All that remained was to find the path to a Technique that utilized that affinity. With vortices wrapped around her Twin Swords, Sheila stepped toward the Deflected shark.

The shark, having lost its balance, seemed to judge it couldn’t escape and prepared to meet Sheila head-on. It unleashed a Slash Attack to engage her, but the result was different from before. The water vortex seemed to entangle several of its tentacles. Its arms were Deflected, and its stance broken. The shark’s eyes widened in humiliation—being bested in water by a water Technique.

Though it glared at Sheila with burning anger, she showed no sign of being perturbed.

A Slash Attack approached. Unavoidable. As it tried to block, something wrapped around its tentacles.

Sticky Thread. She had hidden it within the vortex, created from the Arachnear Ring, and entangled the tentacles that tried to receive the attack. With several arms sealed simultaneously, it exposed a fatal opening. And there—Sheila flew in with complex movements, right and left.

It couldn’t follow. It couldn’t track her movements. The shark—abandoned Defense and switched to counterattack. It sucked in water deeply and released ultrasonic waves in all directions from point-blank range. But even after taking the ultrasonic waves, Sheila didn’t stop. A Slash Attack as they passed each other. Two streaks of Fighting Spirit brilliance raced. As the cross-shaped afterimage carved into its body—the shark collapsed onto the floor of the Mausoleum, eyes wide open.

“…Techniques like that aren’t much if you can’t aim them properly.”

Looking at the falling shark, Sheila muttered. Still, it seemed she hadn’t come out unscathed, as she grimaced and shook her head with a shudder.