(1) It was a dismal bell ringing in a place where no one could see
.
The sound of the bell coming from the strangely rising bell tower.
Dang- Dae-ang-
A burned down church that is ominous just to look at and uneasy just to hear about.
A vague feeling of anxiety was spreading like black ink in the hearts of the soldiers looking up at that place.
“…Hmm.”
Is it because I am so close to the embrace of God?
Inside the church after the aftershocks, Pope Conrad was staggering with a pale complexion.
While all the high-ranking priests who were with him collapsed from exhaustion, he was the only one standing and looking at the church in Achiuk that had come into its own.
“It’s terrible.”
The inside of the church from that perspective was truly miserable.
It was such a scene that even the Pope, who had followed God’s will his entire life, was left speechless.
“…….”
In front of the completely charred chapel, there was a symbol of the person I served.
It was erected properly, but heavily charred.
However, the place where Pope Conrad’s eyes actually fell was not where the church emblem was located.
“iced coffee.”
Numerous white handprints right underneath them.
The handprints, which were painful just to look at, were crying out under the church emblem as if they were hoping for God’s salvation until the last moment of their burning death.
“What on earth happened…”
Pope Conrad slowly walked towards the pattern and carefully spread his palm towards a handprint imprinted there.
“…….”
The handprint that faced him was so small.
Dozens of delicate handprints that look like they could be held tightly by old hands.
The Pope, who slowly raised his head following the handprints, was able to look at his emblem, which the children here had been anxiously singing about until the last moment.
“……Oh God.”
Along with Conrad’s lament, there was a ray of sunlight coming through the broken window.
However, the sunlight that came inside only stopped in front of the god’s pattern and could not capture any traces of the children beneath it.
Gurgling – Gurgling –
A cold and dark space that no one in this world has ever visited.
The children, unable to enter the embrace of God or the warm sunlight, sat there in the dark for such a long time.
“Pope.”
The Pope, who had finally found the poor children, was crying.
With the pattern of the church starting to turn upside down.
“Pope!”
Nood-dud-!
Black tears began to flow from various parts of the church along with the screams of an unknown priest.
The tears flowing on the floor mixed with pitch-black ash were the tears shed by the woman alone holding her children in her arms.
“Get the Pope out now…!”
Her tears had no place to flow, so they rotted away.
Her anger, which bloomed slowly because no one cared for her, may be justified.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaa!
A huge door began to emerge from the god’s symbol, which exploded loudly as if someone had torn it apart.
Behind that door, which rose like a bubble with an ugly crack, was still filled with the cries of evil beings screaming fiercely.
Wow!
Argh!
A pitch-black waterfall began to flow from the head of Pope Conrad, who was still sobbing.
The waves were so strong that even the noble Pope could not contain them with his own two hands.
The army of the dead came out as if they had finally found a place to escape, trampling on the exhausted priests and rushing out of the church like a flood.
※※※※
Kaaaa!
Stop it! Push it out!
Holy shit! There are too many!
The sound of spears and shields clashing, the swearing of soldiers. And even an eerie sound that pierces something.
There was a noise at the bottom of the hill that sounded like something from a battlefield.
The group riding on horseback on the hill stopped turning their heads as they heard that loud, earth-shaking sound.
“…!”
“What the hell is that!”
Along with Radu’s astonishment, there was the sight of Achiuk below.
A ruin-like village with only a pitch-black bell tower that seems to pierce the sky.
However, what the party was looking at right now was only an incredibly bizarre sight on the ground.
“……What a b*stard.”
When I turned my head, I saw the soldiers of the Northern Union Army blocking the pitch-black wave with their whole bodies.
No, more accurately, they were soldiers stabbing the reanimated corpses.
The army of the dead was so dense that it was impossible to push back the spears that had been pulled out to stab them due to the number of corpses they were dealing with.
[The situation is not good. [We are being pushed back.]
As expected, as Quijano said, the Steel Ball army was being pushed back little by little.
As if it couldn’t handle the waves bursting from the dam.
Although the Iron Lord’s army had formed its maximum strength to deal with the army of the Dragon Blood Lords moving north, the struggles of the largest gathering of warlocks in the history of the Empire were also formidable.
“Let’s go down!”
The northern flags were swaying precariously in the pitch-black waves that burst out.
When Vlad saw that, he tried to run down the hill, but stopped when he heard Marcus’ voice coming from behind him.
“…Not that place!”
Marcus urgently blocked Noir’s path as if to stop him from going down.
His eyes sparkled as he looked at Vlad.
“Those guys over there don’t have to be your swords. “You can deal with them with the soldiers’ spears.”
“…….”
“The place where your sword should reach is somewhere else. “I will guide you there.”
In the middle of the ruined village, there stood a pitch-black church still spitting out corpses.
The Steelworker’s army was silently fighting back corpses to destroy the place, but if they tried to break through all this resistance head on, they would have given too much time to the warlocks hiding inside.
“all right.”
As if he understood what Marcus said, Vlad silently put away the sword he had drawn.
The group quietly ran up the hill, leaving behind the fighting soldiers, and finally found the men hiding behind a shallow bush.
“Nice to meet you again. Vlad Aureo.”
The Holy Knights were secretly hiding behind the church, waiting for their moment.
Among them, one of the men wearing the brightest armor recognized Vlad, who had just arrived, and smiled warmly.
“Mr. Günter.”
“I’m glad it’s not too late.”
The second leader of the Knights Templar, the pride of the Northern Orthodox Church. Günter.
The man who had faced the Black Woman together in the city of Moshiam had been waiting for Vlad all along.
“I strongly requested that we wait for you. “Wouldn’t it be easier if there was someone who had experience dealing with it?”
Behind Günther, who shrugged his shoulders, there were exorcists quietly chanting prayers.
They were looking for the right path while leaving themselves in the dark, and were looking for another way to secretly enter without the warlocks, rather than the entrance visible in front of them.
“Are you tired?”
“no.”
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“no.”
The voices of the exorcists were growing louder as they realized Vlad had arrived.
The air around him begins to slowly stir along with him.
Finally, having found another passage to the world in the bubble, the paladins with Gunter slowly began to stand up.
“Then, I, Günter, would like to make a formal request to you in the name of the Northern Orthodox Church.”
Crackling-crackling-
With a sharp sound like tearing paper, a black hole was forming from behind Gunter’s back.
The hole, which was like a dark well, was too small for an adult male to fit through, so it was doubtful whether he would be able to get out again.
“Please join us this time too.”
And now Günther was saying that we should go together into the darkness where nothing can be confirmed.
Toward the Pope’s knight, Vlad Aureo, who cut down the darkness of Moshiam.
“…….”
After hearing Günther’s words, Vlad quietly looked back.
It was to see three men looking at him there.
A wizard who pursues mysteries.
A heretic inquisitor who practices the word of God.
And even a dragon bound by an oath.
They were all nodding their heads quietly.
“Let’s go.”
Even though one had a bad look in his eye, Vlad could tell that his group was ready.
“I can finally repay the words I received from the Pope.”
With those words, Vlad closed his left eye and carefully stroked his left breast.
Vlad, who felt those words with his fingertips, held up his own world like a torch toward the darkest place in the world.
“I was hoping you would say that. “Vlad.”
A knight who saved the lives of children.
Vlad remembered the children he could not bring out from the darkness of Moshiam, where he entered through a dream to save Jean.
At that time, he had no choice but to leave them behind because his abilities were not enough, but this time, Vlad planned to shine at least a little light for those children.
※※※※
“Cough! “Ugh!”
The world inside the bubble created by Lamarshut.
The sound of someone vomiting was heard from a corner of the dark hallway.
“Huh huh…”
It was a violent cough, but the way he was suppressing it was pitiful.
Josef coughed cautiously in case anyone heard, and was leaning against the wall in the hallway, laughing weakly.
“It spread quickly.”
The tips of Josef’s raised fingers were gradually turning black.
Like a bunch of corpses running rampant out there right now.
Josef, realizing that there was little time left, picked up the bag that had fallen at his feet with trembling fingers.
“Is this the limit even for the dwarves’ magic?”
A gentle heat was coming from the bag that Josef had picked up.
A bag containing dwarves’ teaware that is said to have been baked with a breath that will never die out.
It was a sacred item of the dwarves that purified everything in the world because its breath was hot and pure, but even that seemed to be insufficient to block the poisonous tea of death.
“…I guess I can’t give it back after all.”
It was a precious treasure from the dwarves who had said they would return it, but it seemed like there would no longer be a chance to do so.
Even though it ended up being a betrayal of trust, Josef was determined to do his best to fulfill his cause.
“Where are you going?”
“…!”
A golden opportunity that might expose the evil groups that have been taking root for a long time.
Josef was trying to burn everything he had for that opportunity that would never come again, but he suddenly flinched from the cold energy he felt behind his back.
“…You always appear behind my back. Mr. Frausen.”
The tip of the sword that was stabbing his back slowly rose up to his shoulder.
When the blade of the sword that had been placed on his shoulder entered the side of his neck, Josef felt as if he could not breathe.
“Army outside. “Did you bring it here?”
However, to Josef, Frausen’s voice coming from behind was even more chilling than the silver sword leaning next to his neck.
“That’s right.”
“You don’t even deny it.”
Black veins were slowly rising around Josef’s neck as he swallowed.
Frausen, who knew what those veins meant, looked at Josef in front of him with interest.
“Death is just around the corner.”
“So there was work to be done.”
Even though the person in front of him is not a dragon, Frausen is gradually starting to find his colors.
Josef’s voice, which spoke only the truth in a calm manner, neither deceitful nor false, was gradually filling in something that had been very broken in Frausen.
“Do you want to pursue honor even at the last moment of death?”
“…….”
At Frausen’s question, Josef began to slowly turn around.
The laid blade of the sword was coldly grazing the nape of his neck, but he seemed to not care about such things.
“Pursuing honor is what knights should do. Unfortunately, I couldn’t swear to you.”
Although his life was at stake, Josef’s voice did not waver at all.
Rather, the voice, which even contained subtle anger, was gradually drawing Frausen’s attention.
“Then why? “For the family?”
“…It’s for drinking.”
“drink? what?”
The blue blood of nobles must be cool-headed.
This was because it was only for the glory and survival of the family.
Frausen knew that well, but the dark-eyed young man in front of him was not a person driven by such things.
“The poison you all leave behind.”
Josef Bayezid was able to be freed from his duties as a nobleman because he lost the competition to become the head of the family.
Therefore, the world he could freely explore was already a place full of poison.
“I understand the older generations who, like your Majesty, were devoted to prosperity and glory. But the places you don’t look back on are full of poisons that are left behind for generations.”
There is a brilliant empire.
A brilliant empire that someone built, someone protected, and someone prospered.
However, the current empire was torn apart and groaning, and this was probably the fault of those responsible who had neglected the darkness that needed to be swept away in pursuit of only the shining.
“Look out there. In the end, these evil poisons you left behind became our generation’s responsibility.”
Therefore, the deeply rooted evil poison was pouring out along with the black tears that the woman shed.
The flower of darkness that grew in the silence of everyone who only pursued prosperity might pass through Achiuk and spread to the entire continent.
“…That’s why we have to drink poison. “It’s that kind of generation.”
Even now, there are those who are laughing through the cracks.
Among the nobles in the center who ignore the north.
Among God’s servants who ignore non-believers.
Among the countless desires for the beastmen who lost their home, the elves hidden in the forest, and the dwarves who control fire.
Among the countless worlds that were so different from each other, evil people were spouting poison and lashing out their pitch-black tongues.
“…So you won’t leave these poisons behind?”
In the middle of a dark, poison-filled hallway, the emperor who had opened the era of glory was looking at the now shabby youth of the era.
“For the next generation?”
This is a generation that has to swallow poison as soon as they are born, even though they may not have wanted it.
Unlike themselves, who chased after shining things, today’s children are a generation that has to pick up the crumbs of fallen stars.
“That’s a funny story.”
Tuk. Tuk. Tuk.
Frausen’s sword was hitting Josef’s shoulder as if the story just now was funny.
Once, twice and three times.
Every time the beating was repeated, an unfinished duty emerged in Josef’s mind.
“Okay, give it a try.”
“……yes?”
The silver sword turned back with a cold sneer.
Although its shine had faded, the sword that still belonged to Frausen was leaving Josef’s shoulder and returning to its sheath.
“Just try struggling. Until your death comes.”
Frausen, who was facing him, had a faint smile on his face.
However, Josef, standing in the dark hallway, could not tell whether Frausen’s smile was laughing at him or whether it had some other meaning.
“……thank you.”
I didn’t know why he let go, but Josef turned around to take advantage of the last chance he had been given.
Running through the dark hallway carrying a small bag.
Frausen, who was gradually losing his color, was watching his back.
“For the next generation.”
For the young potential to have their own world.
“That guy is the only one.”
If you’re where you need to be, do what you need to do.
“…I probably won’t die a nice death.”
A person who receives and pays only the fair price.
He was now running alone through a dark hallway.
I tried to ignore the hint of death rising up my throat.
“I have no choice but to let you go since you have the right qualifications.”
There was a young boy who wanted to become a knight.
A boy with black eyes who longed for a knight and dreamed of being the knight from the fairy tales his mother used to tell him.
However, the honor of becoming a knight, which he thought was an unattainable dream, now rested on Josef’s shoulders.
A faded silver sword struck his shoulder.
Josef Bayezid. The last knight appointed by the first emperor of the revived empire.
He was now running through the pitch-black darkness to drink the poison given to him.
