CHAPTER 4 | The Sword of a God and the Sword of Magic The holy knight Diné returned to the capital and went directly to the king’s meeting room, where she reported everything she’d seen and heard in Krio Village without omission. But all she got in return was Prime Minister Gelan’s angry voice. “Are you saying you were fooled by that monster’s lies and came running back with your tail between your legs?!” “Uncle!” shrieked Calyx as he watched Gelan slap Diné across the face. However, she responded without so much as flinching. “Your Majesty, please calm down. Prime Minister, I understand your anger, but I would also ask that you calmly listen to what I have to say.” “Hmph, you want me to listen to a coward?” spat Gelan angrily, rubbing the hand he used to slap Diné. Her high levels of mana were constantly strengthening her body, to the point that even a direct strike from a wooden training sword wouldn’t leave a mark on her. If a normal person punched her, they’d obviously only end up with an injured hand. Somewhat satisfied at seeing Gelan accomplish nothing more than hurting himself, she turned back to her original conversation. “I get it. A lich appearing in Krio Village, saving the children from the green rot, and aspiring to unify the continent to build a peaceful world is a tale not even a two-bit minstrel would tell.” Actually, it wasn’t only Gelan. Calyx, too, was staring at her in disbelief. “It’s not as if I believe him entirely. However, the truth of his words is irrelevant at this point. The real problem is that he’s an Undead King.” “What?!” “An Undead King? Like in the legends?!” Gelan let out a cry of shock, and Calyx’s face went pale. “Diné, are you certain?” asked Calyx. “Yes. The lich who called himself Terios evaded my blade a number of times.” “Impossible…” Calyx trembled violently with despair. Diné could take on a thousand knights single-handedly. The only person capable of evading her blade was her late grandfather, the previous holy knight. Which meant that, at the very least, Terios was as powerful as a holy knight. “His physical defenses are one thing, but the real issue is his magical ability. His mana was well hidden, so I wasn’t able to get an accurate feel for his power, but I did at least see him use Teleport,” she noted. When she had been talking to Mira outside the village, he’d suddenly appeared with teleportation magic. Not a single magic user in the Erythron Kingdom could use that same spell. “Overall, he’s clearly more powerful than me,” said Diné. An undead being more powerful than a holy knight, a descendant of a god. If he wasn’t what you’d call an Undead King, then what would you call him? If an Undead King was powerful enough to destroy a country, then the tiny rural nation of the Erythron Kingdom might as well have been a sandcastle. “There’s no guarantee we would win, even if I led the army against him,” admitted Diné. “Hmph, how do we know you’re not just exaggerating in an attempt to conceal your own cowardice?” Gelan eyed her suspiciously, but she continued to address Calyx as if she didn’t care. “Even if we did win, our military would be torn to shreds. And if that happens, the Xanthon Kingdom will attack and destroy us.” The Erythron Kingdom bordered only one other territory by land—Xanthon Kingdom, to the south. The southern bogs prevented them from staging large-scale invasions, but they were always scheming to take Erythron Kingdom land. If the lich wiped out Diné and half the army or worse, Xanthon Kingdom would be more than happy to invade. “Pardon my rudeness, but it doesn’t matter whether the Undead King’s words are true. The only relevant issue is that our country will be destroyed if we fight him,” said Diné. Between the Undead King and the neighboring kingdom, it was only an issue of who would claim the spoils. The Erythron Kingdom was fated to lose either way. “……” The extreme despair had already made Calyx speechless, but Diné continued to her grim conclusion. “Your Majesty, there is a saying: ‘Don’t burn the forest and wake the sleeping dragon.’ We cannot ignore the threat the Undead King poses, but we should stay our hand for now.” Diné thought this was a compromise they could agree on. Personally, she hadn’t doubted Terios. She believed he was truly working toward building a peaceful world, and he wouldn’t become their enemy unless they stood in his way. Even if they set aside everything about his goals, Erythron Kingdom had been doomed from the moment such an insanely powerful monster crossed their borders. There were still parts of his true intentions Diné wasn’t certain about, but she did think that the Erythron Kingdom had no future unless they allied with him to protect themselves from other countries. Still, getting everyone to accept a monster ally won’t be easy. Diné had defeated countless monsters as a holy knight, but Terios was the first friendly monster she’d met that was as intelligent as a human. She was vaguely aware of monsters that weren’t hostile toward humans, like dragons and fairies, but that just meant they didn’t actively attack people. If you trespassed into their habitat, you’d be in for a world of hurt. And that aside, undead creatures were supposed to be the embodiment of hatred. Who would ever believe one was trying to give humans a peaceful world? There’d be no other way but to have people actually meet him, talk with him, and spend time getting to know him. That meant the best strategy currently was to avoid inciting hostile relations so they could continue to monitor the situation. But Gelan outright destroyed what she’d tried to lay out. “What ridiculous drivel are you spouting? Leaving a dangerous monster to its own devices is exactly the sort of foolishness that would destroy our country!” “But—” “No ifs, ands, or buts. There’s a chance this Undead King could conspire with Xanthon and attack us. In fact, it surely will!” said Gelan. “……” She couldn’t counter Gelan’s logic. “As the holy knight, what you should do is defeat the Undead King and protect your country, even if it means sacrificing your life. Am I wrong?” “……” “Diné…” She fell silent, and Calyx looked on in worry. Turning to the young king, whom she loved like a little brother, she gently asked, “Your Majesty, what are your orders? To defeat the Undead King or ignore the Undead King?” “I…” Depending on his decision, not only could Diné die, but his country could also be destroyed. Pressed against the weighty decision, Calyx turned pale and wavered. Diné did everything she could to hold back her urge to support him, so he could gain the resolution he needed to be king. She hardened her heart and pressed him for a decision. “What will it be, Your Majesty?” “I—I…” “That’s enough,” interjected Gelan, wrapping his arms around Calyx as he shook while preparing to speak. “My nephew is still only eleven years old. Don’t force him to bear a burden as heavy as the fate of the country.” “Uncle…” Tears welled up in Calyx’s eyes at his own pitifulness, and he buried his face in Gelan’s chest. There was nothing else Diné could do now that things had turned out this way. “I will give the order in His Majesty’s stead. Holy Knight Diné, you will rid our kingdom of the foul Undead King.” “Yes, sir.” Diné bowed low to hide her pained expression and quickly moved toward the meeting room’s exit. Calyx shouted to her back, “Diné! You’ll come back, right?” “…I’ll be taking my leave.” Intentionally withholding a promise to return, she hurried away from Calyx. I can only hope that my death will serve to help him grow into a king. Sad determination formed in her heart, and she slapped her cheeks to chase away her feelings of weakness. The probability of Diné winning against Terios was low, but it wasn’t zero. She was a warrior descended from Vulcanus, the God of Fire. She couldn’t give up, even in her final moments. Diné rushed back to her manor to prepare for the showdown. Five days after the holy knight left Krio Village with her warning, Terios’s Alarm spell alerted him to a visitor while he was in the middle of teaching the children reading and writing in the village chief’s house. “Ah, it looks like Diné has arrived,” he remarked. “Ah?!” “I will go and greet her. Please continue your writing practice, everyone.” Despite the children’s surprise, Terios spoke lightly and started to cast Teleport. As he did, Mira tightly gripped his robe. “Teacher, promise you’ll come back alive.” She was afraid of losing him just like she had lost her mother. Her head hung in unease, and Terios gently said, “Unfortunately, I cannot promise that.” “……” “The reason being that I am already dead.” “Huh?” Shocked, she looked up and saw Terios smiling and pointing at his cranium. “But if you’re happy enough with this moving skeleton, then I can promise I will return.” “Okay!” Mira nodded energetically and released his robe. Terios gave the girl a cheerful look, cast Teleport, and instantly warped from the chief’s house to the road connecting the village to the next town over a short distance away. He stood in an empty field, allowed to lie fallow without any wheat planted to avoid damaging the soil. He cast another spell and pulled out a mithril staff. With his preparations complete, he waited. Hoofbeats loud enough to make the ground tremble echoed across the field, and Diné and dozens of other knights astride horses came into view. “I see you’re operating with your troops today,” said Terios, having thought that Diné was the kind of person to shoulder responsibility on her own. This was an unexpected turn of events. Diné smiled unhappily and gestured toward the knights behind her. “Sorry. I’d planned on taking care of this by myself, but these fools insisted I bring them along for an early death,” she replied. “Ha-ha, bit harsh calling us fools, Captain.” “Don’t go insulting us when you’re the one reckless enough to fight an Undead King on your own.” The other knights laughed off Diné’s light insult. Though their tone was lighthearted, their expressions showed they were prepared to face the end. Oh, how wonderful, thought Terios. The captain would have fought alone to avoid endangering her troops, and they had expected that and all but forced her to bring them along. It was an ideal relationship where those above and those below trusted one another. That camaraderie was something Terios still hadn’t attained. He narrowed his blue flame-eyes at that which he’d never had a chance at. “There’s probably no point in bothering, but may I ask what the response to our discussion from the other day is?” The answer was obvious from the moment a squad of knights in full plate rode up, but he checked just in case. “On behalf of King Calyx of Erythron Kingdom, Prime Minister Gelan has declared you, Undead King Terios, an enemy of the kingdom who must be eliminated.” “Oh, I’m honored that you would call a little skeleton like me an Undead King,” joked Terios, but he sensed the pain behind Diné’s formal address. She can’t stand that it wasn’t the young king but his uncle, the prime minister, who made the order. He didn’t know the specifics, but he’d heard rumors about the relationship between Diné, the king, and the prime minister when he’d visited the capital before coming to Krio Village and when he’d been there buying food. Well, no point counting your dragons before they hatch. No matter what he planned, he had to deal with the knights who were prepared for a battle to the death standing in front of him first. Terios readied himself. In place of a sword, he raised his mithril staff with both hands, saluting the knights as he declared, “I, Terios, will use you as stepping-stones toward creating a peaceful world.” “Then our swords can say the rest!” With the grand declarations of war over, Diné drew her sword from her hip and courageously shouted, “Spread out!” On her order, the knights quickly urged their horses into a run and put space between one another until they formed a half circle surrounding Terios. A crescent formation? That’s standard for fighting a magic user. Knights generally fought in a tight-knit arrangement that they used to punch holes in the enemy’s formation. But magic users could create huge storms of fire that could take out all the knights in one hit if they were bunched together. By contrast, this fighting style worked by intentionally spreading them out. That way, even if a spell hit a knight and knocked them off their horse, another could still pull up on the magic user and finish them off. This strategy assumes they’ll incur casualties, so if an inexperienced squad uses it, they can fall apart and be picked off one by one. Yet… The knights showed no indication of fear as they gathered into a formation centered on Diné. They did not intend to fail. As Diné pointed her sword and kicked her horse’s flanks, Terios couldn’t help but be impressed by their training. “Attack!” “““Haaaaaaah!””” The knights let out battle cries and advanced, not a single one out of step. Against an average magic user, they’d close in by the time their opponent had taken out a few knights. Then they’d pierce the magic user with swords, spears, or even trample them with the horses’ hooves until they were nothing but chunks of flesh. However, Terios was only the third being in history who could appropriately be called an Undead King. “Swamp.” The incantation was one short word, yet its impact was massive. As far as the eye could see, the land softened and turned into swamp, trapping dozens of knights. “What?!” In a moment so short the knights couldn’t even react, their mounts sank into the bog up to their necks, immobilized. Since it was deep enough to sink a horse, the swamp had also ensnared the knights themselves, and they were unable to advance even a single step. “Cheeky bastard,” spat Diné. With her troops out of the picture, Diné stood on her horse’s back and leaped into the air. Just as it seemed she wouldn’t reach Terios and instead plunge into the swamp, powerful flames jetted from the bottoms of her feet, and she leaped as if she were jumping on the air. “I should have expected something that absurd from the descendant of a god.” “I don’t want to hear it from you,” muttered Diné, holding back her anger as she landed in front of Terios on the only remaining solid ground. “Tell me, why aren’t you trying to kill us?” If he had the power to turn a large area of land into a swamp and could immobilize an entire squad of knights even when they were spread out in a crescent formation, then he could have just as easily filled the same area with a fiery explosion or a cloud of poison. On top of that, he could have drowned both the knights and their horses to death by doubling the depth of the water. Diné knew how foolish it was to allow an enemy magic user the time to speak unnecessarily, but she just couldn’t keep herself from asking. “The world would be worse off from losing such wonderful people. That, and I’ve sworn never to kill a human again,” Terios stated in reply. “…Huh.” Taken off guard and lost for words for a moment, Diné narrowed her eyes sharply like blades. “Was it a lie when you said you would make a peaceful world, even if it meant using force?” “No, that was no lie. I will forge a peaceful world without killing a single person.” “Don’t bullshit me!” Diné exploded in anger and slashed at Terios with her sword. Terios stopped her attack using his staff and, with complete sincerity, replied, “I am not kidding. I am serious.” “Then you’re an incredible fool. You can’t create a single unified country without killing anyone! Even the Massacre King killed millions of people and only managed to conquer half the continent!” “Yes, I am well aware.” Terios parried all of Diné’s blows as she attacked him with both her sword and words. “Killing your enemies is the fastest method to success. And the path to a unified country is not so easy that I will never find myself without enemies.” “Exactly! Just as we are enemies here and now!” Their ideals and principles weren’t different. The two of them wound up as enemies simply because of their allegiances. Terios would certainly encounter countless more foes in the future. “Nevertheless, I decided I wouldn’t kill any humans,” he said. “…Is that so?” Diné abruptly stopped attacking and fell back when Terios repeated his conviction. “And here I thought that, even though you’ve got this absurd dream, if you really truly sought peace, it might be all right to leave my country and His Majesty in your hands.” If she, the kingdom’s greatest offensive power, fell, then the prime minister would surrender out of fear. That way, Erythron Kingdom and the young king would live on. As far as she was concerned, that was the second-best course of action she could shoot for. In reality, Terios did not intend to harm the kingdom or its people if they backed off. However, his oath to never kill anyone shattered her nascent trust in him. “An undead who won’t accept the responsibility of killing people isn’t good for anything. I’ll turn you to ash here,” challenged Diné, the light of red mana emanating from her entire body as she tightly gripped her sword and called to it. “Erupt, Vulcanus!” The white sword flashed red-hot. As it emanated waves of incredible heat, Diné attacked Terios. He motioned to stop the attack with his staff but suddenly let go of it and jumped clumsily backward, falling on his bottom. That was the right choice. The mithril staff that he dropped melted and split in two the instant Diné’s red-hot blade touched it. “A fragment of the miracle the God of Fire left in this world… I’d heard tales, but I’m surprised mithril stands so poor a chance against it. Mithril can even pierce dragon scales,” stated Terios, wiping his brow as if he were wiping away sweat. She held her sword directly in front of her and declared, “Know that Vulcanus’s flames can burn and cut through anything other than another weapon bearing the miracle of a god.” “Obviously, that would also cut me in half with one slash.” The protection magic on Terios’s jet-black robe prevented normal swords from leaving so much as a scratch on him, but it would be no better than paper against a holy weapon. Although he feared destruction for the first time in ages, he felt far happier to meet such a powerful opponent. Diné came at him again. “Hah, hiya!” She had the utmost faith in the power of the holy blade, which could burn through anything simply by touching it, even if she didn’t put much force behind her swing. Her sword danced more lightly and quickly than during her prior attacks. Unable to dodge for much longer, Terios cast another spell. “Bind.” Chains of light appeared from thin air and wrapped around Diné’s arms and legs. It would probably stop her for only a couple of seconds because of her incredible levels of mana, but in that time, he could cast a more powerful spell and trap her completely. Unfortunately, this plan collapsed in less than a second. Kaching! A sound like something shattering came from Diné’s chest, and the chains of light binding her instantly disappeared. Anti-magic? She must have been wearing a necklace or similar trinket that canceled spells cast on her. He stopped in surprise for the briefest of moments, and she used that hesitation to unleash a horizontal slash at his skull. “Hiya!” “Ah!” Terios immediately relaxed his knees and let gravity pull him into a crouch, allowing him to evade the blow against his vital spot. However, he was on his knees in front of his opponent. There was no way of avoiding the next attack from this position. “It’s over,” murmured Diné calmly. She put all her might into an overhead strike. Faced with the approaching red-hot holy weapon, Terios muttered the next spell calmly. “Blade.” A shining pale-blue weapon of light appeared in his right hand, and he parried the flaming holy sword that could cut through anything. “What?!” “I heard tales of your sword, so I devised a few countermeasures before our duel.” She was flabbergasted. Her holy blade should have had no equal. In that opening in her defenses, Terios kicked her in the stomach with so much force that it was hard to believe he’d done so while crouched. “Gah…” “All right, then. Here I go.” Diné groaned but quickly regained her lost footing, and it was Terios’s turn to go on the offensive. She stopped the approaching blade of light with her holy sword. Under normal circumstances, the attacking weapon would have burned and melted, immediately reversing who was on the offensive and who was on the defensive. But Terios’s blade of light was actually clashing with the holy sword without breaking. “Ack, how?!” “Take a good look.” They were locked face-to-face as they pushed on each other’s swords. Terios pointed his eyes to the place where the holy weapon crossed the blade of light. It was difficult to see because of the heat radiating off the sacred armament, but if she looked closely, Diné could spy a tiny gap between the two swords. The woman realized they had never actually touched. “I specially crafted this armament to constantly emit concentrated mana from the edge.” Since the mana continued to push back the holy blade without ever touching it, the blade of light was shielded from being burned or cut. “It can easily slice through steel armor as well. Yet, evidently, it can’t so much as nick a fragment of that miracle the God of Fire left behind.” Impressed by the power of the holy weapon once again, Terios then used powerful mana to further strengthen his body and push harder on his blade. “Grrr…” A band of normal men couldn’t stand against Diné’s strength, but she was losing ground. The holy blade, which had disemboweled so many monsters, was now jetting toward her own body. “Captain!” The knights, still trapped in the swamp, all started screaming. Just then, Terios suddenly stopped pushing on the blade and quickly moved to the side. “Hah?!” With the opposing force suddenly gone, Diné pitched forward. Terios swiped powerfully with his leg to kick at her feet and knock her out of her stance. With a swift motion, he brought his heel down onto her back as she fell, slamming her into the ground. “Gah!” An average person would have been split in two by the impact, but she didn’t even release the sword in her right hand, only groaning slightly in discomfort. That’s why Terios ruthlessly followed up his attack. “Bind, Bind, Bind, Bind, Bind…” He cast a series of spells that brought forth the chains of light that had broken earlier. Diné probably had more than one anti-magic item on her. If that was the case, then casting magic on her until they broke was actually a simple, if heavy-handed, way to counter them. The effect was tremendous, though. By the third casting, the breaking sound from the anti-magic accessories had disappeared. Come the seventh, Diné was fettered so thoroughly that her upper body was practically buried in chains. “Not yet!” cried Diné. She tried to remove herself from the chains through brute force, but Terios stood on her right hand with his left foot and waited for her to reflexively release her grip because of the pain. When she did, he quickly kicked the hilt of the holy blade with his free leg.
Chapter 8
21 min read