The trouble was that while animals knew when to give up, the ghouls had no such instinct. So long as the weak point in their chests stayed intact, they were indifferent even to being torn limb from limb. In small numbers, they would be no threat, but over ten thousand of them was a different story. The Azure Knights, the empire’s most elite soldiers, would have been the easier opponent by far.
But that’s not the worst bit... Paul could feel sweat pouring unabated from his every pore. There was no point in making comparisons, but still, at the height of his powers he would have taken out twice as many with his last attack. Keenly aware of his body’s decline, he looked over at the members of the Ten Swords protecting Cornelius. Their defense was rock solid right down to the line, and they were covering for the gaps left by Cornelius’s personal guards. They live up to their reputation. He should be safe for the time being. It would take time to withdraw their full force. Paul gripped his sword harder. Just hold on for me until the retreat is complete...
A ghoul slipped by the line of guards, coming into striking range. Paul sent its grasping arms flying into the air in a single slash, then brought his blade back to stab it through the chest. A moment later, he had his sword free and once more used Swift Step of Thunderclaps. Paul bared his teeth in a ferocious snarl as he charged into the mass of ghouls.
Even with power running through every fiber of my body, it doesn’t make the weight of the years any less crushing.
Cornelius’s illusion technique was in how he moved his feet. He fooled his opponents’ eyes to make them give him an opening. The fact that it was working well enough on the ghouls showed that, like humans, they used their eyes to identify their targets. On the other hand, some ghouls had lost their eyes, while others didn’t even have heads. For the time being, their reactions were considerably slower than the more intact ghouls, but there was no doubt that they had picked up on his and the others’ locations. Sight might have been their main method of identifying targets, but it wasn’t the only one. Cornelius judged that they probably detected the sense of presence that humans unconsciously gave off. This was the reason for the heavy sigh that now escaped him.
Chances are, we are going to find ourselves in quite the bind... He did not have long to wait until his bad feeling became reality. Ghouls against which the illusion had no effect began to appear everywhere. Worse, he was struggling to keep up the technique which, like Paul’s Swift Step, burned through his strength like wildfire.
Nothing for it but to fight the old-fashioned way.
Cornelius dropped his illusions, simultaneously ducking to evade the fist of a large ghoul that came swinging at him. The rush of air buffeted the back of his head as he drove his sword between the creature’s legs.
“Groah!”
Lemuria carved up perfectly along its center line as Cornelius rent the thing in half.
“Next.”
Ghouls piled over one another with the momentum to crush Cornelius flat. He took a few short breaths, then slashed the air. Leaving a streak of blue in its wake, the crescent blade cut the ghouls to pieces. This was a true finishing strike, and one that could only be realized by Cornelius and Lemuria together.
“Joyous as that was to behold, my lord, methinks you put yourself at too much risk.” Solid cracked open the right chest of another ghoul, then moved smoothly to place himself in Cornelius’s blind spot.
Cornelius took a deep lungful of air. “If now is not the time for risk, then when is?” He forced himself to choke back the blood that rose in his throat, then raised Lemuria and stabbed at the next wave of ghouls.
A black stain spread across the land, encroaching further and further as the sun sank into the west. Like the concentration of all the evils of the world, it chewed through great names, mighty wills, and even human dignity in its all-consuming advance.
“Hrngh...” Cornelius grunted.
“Lord Marshal! Fall back, ser!” Solid’s voice jarred discordantly in his ears. Cornelius’s world warped around him as he looked down to where his right leg was being chewed to shreds.
“Right now, you might still make it... You must...fly. That much time I can buy you.”
“You’ll forgive me if I’m not in the mood for jokes, my lord.”
“Listen. I am in the grips of a fatal disease. No matter what happens, my time is...short...” This had revealed itself back on the central front, not long after they had driven back the Helios Knights. Learning at that moment that he did not have long to live, Cornelius had staked everything on Twin Lions at Dawn in a play to turn the tide of the war.
“But for now, you are alive. So long as you live, I mean to serve as your shield.”
“You confounded fool...” He picked up Lemuria in his remaining hand, using the sword as a cane to haul himself to his feet. As Solid maneuvered himself to cover him, Cornelius, in his heart, silently thanked him.
Some time passed. As he watched Solid sink into a roiling mass of ghouls, Cornelius summoned the last of his strength into his arm.
“RAAAAAAAAAGH!!!” The roar exploded out of him as he slashed apart the ghouls in front of him one after another, the arc of his blade flashing blue for a fleeting moment before fading away. He did not mean to drop Lemuria, but the blade tumbled from his hand, hitting the ground with a hollow clang. The ghouls came on in a savage advance. He no longer had the strength to resist. Yet every line of Cornelius’s face showed only calm.