Hero's Coffin Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Though it was an amusing scene, relief welled up inside. Though he had been wary when two demons appeared, fortunately, thanks to the experience of fighting the succubus, it seemed they could handle the incubus without much trouble. If that one disappeared, the uneasy anxiety in his heart would dissipate.

Then the problem now was the Death Knight...

[I'll leave Lily's revenge to you!]

[Hmm, though I don't know how to keep humans alive.]

[That's fine! I was going to use them as hostages to call other holy knights, but it can't be helped. But if everyone who came to the forest dies, won't the holy knights launch a major expedition?!]

At the incubus's cry, the Death Knight slowly nodded.

[Yes, it's time for humans to know. That our era is soon to come...]

With clanking friction sounds, the Death Knight stepped forward. Drawing a sword that looked like an animal's spine with a shing–, the Death Knight held it vertically in front of his face and ground out ominously.

[Now all that remains before humans is excruciating pain and miserable doom...]

Beatrice dropped a comment to him.

"That guy seems like he'd get along well with you."

I really hate that.

As he looked at Beatrice with disgust, she burst into giggles. She was clearly enjoying his gaze, saying it was amusing, but it was a reason he didn't want to know at all. Though he tried to move away because it was uncomfortable, Haren was far away, and if he moved away from her, he would leave the shield's range.

However, this leisure lasted only briefly. Whoosh, as darkness rippled from where the Death Knight stood, it soon spread like a wave across the area. This phenomenon was familiar to him.

[Uh, uuh...]

[Uuh, aaah...]

Things that looked like ghouls crawled out of the blackened ground, pressing their hands down thud, thud. He recognized them as undead from their translucent bodies. The Death Knight had summoned subordinate evil spirits, and there seemed to be about a hundred of them.

The subjugation team members were startled by the considerable number, but fortunately, the commander stepped forward to fulfill his role again.

"I-if it's undead, we won't lose to them! Everyone, form ranks!"

Though they didn't know how the incubus had been dealt with, they seemed to think responding to the evil spirits that had appeared now was the priority. It was a wise judgment.

"There shouldn't be any fools in Solares who would lose to undead! Everyone, get your wits about you!"

"Yes!"

As it was a time when antipathy towards necromancers was at its peak in the Holy Empire, the holy knights commanded while stimulating that, and the mercenaries shouted with fighting spirit and steadied their postures.

He looked around strangely at the scene where morale had truly risen. He should consider this fortunate, right, yes...

Loud noises erupted everywhere. The holy knights struck down monsters solemnly as if they absolutely couldn't lose to undead, and the mercenaries each swung their weapons vigorously. He deliberately pretended not to hear the occasional shouts of "That bastard Isaph!" coming from various places.

Taking advantage of everyone responding well, Haren, Kalterik, and Mela approached the Death Knight. That demon was unfortunately in the exact center of the swamp that spread out like an open field, making it difficult to approach through the trees.

Creak– Noi quietly looked around and moved tree trunks. Whenever the subjugation team made loud noises while facing monsters, he created paths by moving trees, and Kalterik gave him a thumbs up. He continued in spectator mode, cheering for them to resolve things well.

The Death Knight seemed completely unaware of the three approaching from behind as it only looked forward. They rushed at the demon simultaneously and struck down with their swords, bang! They attacked so hard that the ground shook.

But by the time those vibrations subsided, he had no choice but to drop his imaginary popcorn.

"...It disappeared?"

The Death Knight had moved to a completely different location. What, did it have some kind of teleportation skill? Beatrice also sighed quietly.

"Is it so fast because it's a soul, or is it because this prison is its domain?"

Its movement was completely invisible, and this seemed to be the case for the three knights as well. Haren's eyes narrowed strangely. Rather, only the incubus who had been beside the Death Knight was unexpectedly slammed into the ground.

[Kyaaak, what is thiiiis!]

[Yes, as you said, there really are strange ones here.]

An eerie muttering fell. While the incubus, who had barely escaped from the swamp with his half-remaining wing, squawked asking if it hadn't believed his words, the Death Knight held its sword vertically.

[I know humans' dull nature. To bind the feet of those suspicious ones...]

Then the Death Knight muttered something to its sword, but he couldn't understand the content of those words. It was a completely unfamiliar language. But, no, because of that, he seemed to know what language it was using. He had had this experience in the western Encroachment Zone before.

The demon was reciting the Dium's language. He had seen this on the sky island too, and then... it was when the third horn had appeared on the succubus.

Whoosh!

Finally, a black horn rose from the center of the Death Knight's forehead too. Simultaneously, an ominously sticky wind swept through the entire wetland, and energy as dark as an abyss spread out. The subjugation team hesitated at the black fog obscuring their vision, and the holy knights also urgently looked around.

But they had no time to create countermeasures.

[Guuuurgh...!]

Evil spirits were summoned from the swamp, and their number was several hundred. After barely dealing with a hundred earlier, now evil spirits numbering five or six times that sprang out. Everyone was shocked.

Moreover, these evil spirits didn't simply harm humans but grabbed them and dragged them into the swamp. Without time to resist, everyone was caught and pulled in.

"Aaaack!"

"H-help!"

It was pandemonium. Now the sounds coming from everywhere were not of striking down monsters, but the screams of humans struggling in the swamp. No matter how much the holy knights shouted to stay calm, people panic when their feet sink into sticky mud.

Moreover, even some holy knights were sucked into the swamp. They lay on the ground and struggled wildly trying to escape, but the evil spirits dragged them to deeper places.

Though Noi moved tree trunks to help while looking around nervously, and Beatrice also clicked her tongue while sending protective magic to other places, it wasn't easy to save all these people. As an evil spirit approached right next to him, he shrank further into the shield in disgust. Go away. Shoo, shoo.

From the other side, Haren commanded with a hardened face.

"We need to get the people out first. Mel, find and break through the weak points in the prison, and Derik, clear the evil spirits to make a path for people to escape through there. I'll keep the Death Knight tied down here."

"Yes."

"Understood!"

Mela and Kalterik quickly obeyed the command. The strategy seemed to be that Mela, being half-demon, would read the demonic energy well to identify where the prison was weak and create cracks, then evacuate people through there. After that, the three would probably fight more comfortably.

Meanwhile, the Death Knight remained still in the center of the swamp. After confirming no one was around, Haren ran quietly across the tree trunks, and finally, as he swung his sword.

[Haha, didn't I say humans have a dull nature.]

As the Death Knight burst into laughter, whoosh! Demonic energy rose from the ground. It was a trap.

[When their companions are caught, they try to save them first. And in that process, they inevitably make foolish choices. For instance, three who were together scatter, and only one comes to me.]

Haren quickly retreated to avoid the demonic energy that pounced like vines. It was a natural reflex, but it seemed the trap hadn't aimed for him in the first place. What the black demonic energy grabbed was another sword tied at his waist, the holy sword Piarus.

The Death Knight's eyes flickered as it looked at the ordinary scabbard hiding the holy sword.

[Yes, I kept being drawn to this. Whispers endlessly rang in my head like revelations. To steal it, this...]

As the black flames seemed to surge in the hollow eyes of the skull, finally splat! The holy sword was thrown into the swamp.

[To eliminate it from this land.]

Right after, the Death Knight rushed at Haren. It poured out attacks as if to prevent him from retrieving the holy sword from the swamp, and Haren calmly faced the creature. Kwabang, bang! Chilling loud noises rang out between them several times.

Fortunately, Haren wasn't pushed back by the demon. No, rather he seemed to be gaining the upper hand and even managed to cut off the demon's left arm by exploiting an opening.

However, this demon happened to be undead.

[Kuk, kuhaha, hahahahaha!]

The Death Knight approached Haren laughing madly as if it felt no pain even with its arm flying off. Though the crazed approach created openings, it didn't retreat even as half its face was blown away.

With dark red energy ominously flickering over half its face, the demon ground out. As if it had finally figured something out in this brutal brawl.

[Unknown being, you avoid properly crossing swords.]

The Death Knight held its sword vertically and attacked Haren. He tried to deflect the attack, but this seemed to have provided a clue to the demon as it had been repeated several times in their previous exchanges. The demon pressed even harder with its sword, and finally.

Crack–!

The sword Haren was holding shattered.

"..."

And in his head, watching from afar, something also seemed to break, snapping.