“You’re wide open!”
“I wouldn’t say that.” The skeletal knight lunged at me with his broken sword, and I avoided it by leaping to the side. As he passed by me, I swung my sword at his back, only to be repelled again. However, unlike last time, my sword very nearly touched his bones. There really was an invisible barrier. It was similar to a holy woman’s divine protection, but without the light.
“Whoa! Y-You would attack someone from behind, you coward?!”
“You sure are active for a dead guy.” Doesn’t all that screaming hurt his throat? I guess not. He doesn’t have one.
“Nonetheless, you reacted well for never having seen my power before! You have my praise!” Turning around to face me, the skeletal knight adjusted his posture and held his broken sword like a dagger.
“I know there are some of you with weird powers out there, so it wasn’t a surprise.”
“My power is a holy shield that repels evil! I call it Absolute Holy Prote—”
“Save it, I’m not gonna remember.” What was he doing telling his enemy about his power anyway? I could understand if he were bluffing or trying to buy time, but that didn’t seem to be the case. As he said, his Embodiment of the Spirit was an invisible shield.
“How dare you interrupt me, insolent cur!” I was getting tired of listening to him talk. He had definitely been the type to get ridiculed by other holy knights for shouting about guts and pride back when he was alive.
This time, I was the one on the offensive. Although he was able to fend me off temporarily with his broken sword, he wouldn’t be able to keep it up for long. I soon shattered it all the way down to the guard, leaving only the handle and pommel. It couldn’t be used as a weapon anymore.
“You’re a knight. Try dying with some grace.” Spouting something I didn’t really mean, I unleashed a diagonal slash upward from his lower right to his upper left. This too was deflected—not by his sword, but by the invisible wall. He tried to take advantage of the opening, but it was futile. I had expected my attack to be repelled from the start, so I used the momentum to rotate my body and unleash another slash, this time from the upper left to the lower right.
“Wha—?!” The knight didn’t seem to have anticipated that, as the attack wasn’t reflected this time, and I sliced diagonally through his neck and upper body. His body hit the ground and stayed there. “You realized in such a short amount of time that my Absolute Holy—”
His body disappeared before he could finish his sentence. He could only use his defensive barrier to protect himself. If he could have used it on his horse or sword, I was certain he would have. He could deploy it instantly, but it required him to actively do so. Once deployed, it wasn’t constantly active, nor did it activate automatically. That was why he had been so panicked when I’d tried to slash him from behind.
Knowing all that, the rest was simple. I’d just needed to kill him before he had time to consciously use his ability. I’d attacked him head-on, deliberating baiting him into activating the barrier. Not expecting his defensive ability to be used against him, the skeleton knight had been in a state of shock before he died. He’d realized in his final moments that I had understood the true nature of his ability. He was no weakling. The fact that he’d had an ability to begin with was proof of that.
I looked back at my squadmates and saw that they had wiped out the second wave as well. I didn’t get that skeletal knight’s power, I thought to myself as I regrouped with them. I had absorbed Hector’s Pestilent Fire, so why hadn’t I gotten the holy knight’s “Absolute whatever”? Is it because he wasn’t one of the Twelve Corpses?
As I recalled, the Heavenly Swords given to the Twelve Saints could only steal a single special ability. Meanwhile, I, one of the Twelve Corpses, had two abilities at once—my own and Hector’s. Heavenly Swords were also burdened by restrictions like the power potentially disappearing after ten years. Despite apparent similarities, the two forms of powers might have been quite different after all. That would mean it was only possible for me to get new abilities from the Twelve Corpses—a pretty good thing, as far as humanity was concerned.
Although ordinary curions didn’t kill each other, the Twelve Corpses were a different story. There was me, obviously, but even the Grave Keeper of the Golden City was killing his fellow curions. If there weren’t limits on our ability inheriting, the Twelve Corpses could go around killing other curions for their powers and very quickly get out of hand. Knowing that wasn’t on the table was good news. That said, it was always possible for there to be a loophole when the Eternal Witch was involved.
What the Twelve Corpses actually were wasn’t clearly defined to begin with. Ostensibly, they were just the most threatening curion in each city, but given the conditions around ability inheritance, it seemed like there was more to it than that. If nothing else, it was clear that they could grow stronger by killing each other.
Given the existence of the barriers, it was impossible for the Twelve Corpses to escape and enter other Forbidden Cities, but there were already two exceptions to that rule—both of whom were right here.
“Albert? Were you injured?” I met the princess’s eyes as she looked at me with worry. They were as beautiful as ever, as if the blue of the sky were locked away inside them.
“Nothing to worry about.”
“Really?”
I chuckled in response. “I know this isn’t the place for me to be stubborn. Though I would’ve gotten hurt if it weren’t for your protection.” Fortunately, it seemed like any kind of impact was treated as potential damage and blocked by the divine protection.
“Good.” Her genuinely relieved smile was irresistibly adorable.
“Still, I can’t believe you cut down a charging horse without Physical Enhancement. You sure you didn’t come straight out of a book or something?” Cuphea asked with a conflicted grin.
“Thanks. It’s nice knowing you see me as some hero out of an epic.”
“I didn’t say all that.”
“But if that’s the case, I wonder who’s the maiden I’ll be wed to.” I meant it as a joke, but neither the princess nor Cuphea looked amused. It seemed wise to stay away from that topic. “Jokes aside, you all did great. I was able to focus on my duel thanks to you.” Fights with curions tended to devolve into chaotic free-for-alls, so I was fortunate to have allies capable enough to let me focus on the foe in front of me.
“It’s all because you went to face that knight yourself,” Linum said with a gentle smile. She truly was the squad’s soothing force.
“Indeed. Were it not for that, the knight’s charge would have disrupted our formation,” Monia said in a serious tone.
“Lady Agrimonia is correct,” Hypericum followed up. It seemed they were praising me. Even though most of them had yet to reach womanhood, their words still felt nice.
I shot an expectant look at the princess. Seemingly guessing what I was thinking, she made an exasperated face and cleared her throat. “You did well, my knight.”
“I should be thanking you for your divine protection, Lady Astrantia.” We shared a look and then laughed.
“You could learn a thing or two from Sir Albert’s valiance.” Nemophila looked between me and the grave keeper with a faint smile.
“I will do my best,” the grave keeper responded.
Why had she come with us today? No, I knew why—it was a silent reminder. By allowing me to witness what the grave keeper was capable of, it was easier to imagine what might happen if he went berserk. She was trying to emphasize the danger we faced so we’d go along with her strategy to defeat the One-Armed Giant.
Then the third wave of curions arrived. A single glance at the rest of my squad assured me that they had plenty of stamina left. “Looks like our work isn’t finished.”
“Once we’re done, let’s retreat back to the gate.” Everyone nodded in agreement with the princess. Mana and stamina weren’t endless—they would gradually get used up as the series of battles dragged on. When acting as a squad, it was crucial to think about your allies. The princess was handling the situation well.
Readying my bone sword, I engaged the oncoming curions.