Chapter 840 - Deterioration, Decline, Downfall
"How often have they actually fought?"
Esther was once called the Struggling Witch.
The reason?
Because among those who wielded spells, she was an anomaly.
It is very rare for a magician to risk their life to test their skills.
They were accustomed to exploiting and plundering, but life-threatening battles were awkward for them.
They were the type to flee at the slightest sign of danger.
That is why the moniker 'Struggling' was special.
It was the reason other magicians treated Esther as an oddity.
"They probably haven't had a proper fight in decades."
She had spoken with conviction.
"They have deteriorated."
Esther knew their nature.
"Because they can't trust each other, they're only busy hiding things. Sparring? Not a chance. They don't reveal their skills to each other, and they keep their secret arts to themselves."
A flower withers if it stays only in the shade, and a spring that does not flow runs dry.
Therefore, the decline of the magician group was inevitable.
It was a grave they had dug for themselves.
However, only they were unaware of it.
'If they had formed a group, they should have shared what they had.'
Enkrid had raised the level of the Border Guard's standing army, even by sharing what was his.
He shared everything he had realized with those who followed him.
He was not stingy with learning, nor was he stingy with teaching.
Astrail?
They are stingy with both learning and teaching.
What they desire is plunder.
They see the world only in the ways they know.
They are frogs in a well.
Their world is only a small, round sky.
"Astrail does not know knights. To be precise, they do not know the level of the Border Guard's Knight Order."
Even if Esther herself prepared in earnest, she could not face the entire Knight Order.
Moreover, that group, drooling with greed, only perceives knights as mere swordsmen.
They do not know that even within the category of knights, there are different levels.
To borrow Enkrid's words, they were a bunch of absent-minded magicians and witches.
Esther had smiled as she said this.
And Krais had looked at the suddenly smiling Esther with a strange expression.
"They are just a bunch of absent-minded magicians and witches."
"It will be a headache if those absent-minded people take the city hostage and attack," Krais had said.
"They won't."
Esther knew the nature of magicians.
A magician who protects the people of a city?
They would think such a being does not exist.
They are not people who look at others, but merely minions swallowed by the demon that is knowledge.
Therefore, they would not take hostages.
Though there might be those who target the city for their own purposes.
***
"They're coming."
As this operation began, Jaxen had mobilized Georg's Daggers, who were spread throughout the city.
A member of that guild spoke.
They were not just sharp-eyed and keen-eared, but first-rate assassins who could sense danger with their sixth sense.
"Thank you, brother. You must be running your feet off."
A large build.
From up close, his height was such that you had to raise your head to meet his eyes.
The guild member knew what his opponent was called.
'The Bear-Beastkin, Audin.'
In reality, he was not a beastkin, but his body was enough to be called so.
Up close, his body was even more destructive.
The guild member was also a man who trained constantly.
He saw the texture of the well-defined muscles packed all over Audin's body.
The Bear-Beastkin clasped his hands together in front of his forehead and murmured.
"Oh Lord, today I intend to send more people to Your side."
The prayer was quite bloodthirsty.
As he raised his hands, a part of his abs was revealed under his loose shirt. The chiseled abs were an armor in themselves.
'Muscle armor.'
Should it be called a form that had broken and re-broken the limits of what a human body could possess?
It had reached a point where his skin looked as hard as a monster's scales.
'A Holy Knight.'
The image of a holy knight in the guild member's mind changed.
Audin finished his brief prayer, unclasped his hands, and looked down at the person in front of him.
On the surface, it was the help of an information guild, but he could tell just by the footwork of the person who had approached and spoken.
'Steps that have a habit of killing sound.'
Audin already knew the other's identity.
And yet, he just showed a smile that gave the impression of a rock or a bear, as always, as if he hadn't noticed anything.
Theresa, who was next to him, finished a similar prayer and said, "We should be going."
They were inside a guard post protecting the Rockfreed city gate.
The city was vulnerable to raids, and Rockfreed even more so.
In other words, fighting here would become a headache.
So, the basic framework of the plan Krais had made this time was an interception.
But they could not know the routes of all the magicians who were approaching separately.
"Of course, we must protect the city. It will be enough to be in front of the walls and the gate. According to Esther."
Krais, who had said that, paused for a moment.
It was as if he were organizing something that had come to mind.
After a brief moment of thought, he continued.
"Arrogant people never hide their identity."
Audin agreed with those words.
And now, those words were becoming a reality.
They had even mobilized Georg's Daggers just in case, but the magicians were brazen.
"What is that?" one of the soldiers in the guard post said, frowning.
"What is it?"
Two soldiers observe the front.
In the far distance, screams are heard, and people can be seen running away.
A merchant caravan abandoning its carts and fleeing was also visible.
"Well then."
Audin and Theresa stepped out of the guard post.
Some of those fleeing were from the standing army.
They were not just fleeing, but scattering to the left and right, gripping their weapons and reforming their ranks.
Audin had also participated in the standing army's training.
He discovered something strange in their movements.
"That is not a formation for fighting a small elite," Theresa said.
Audin also nodded.
The standing army, having scattered and retreated, watched the two hulks approaching from the rear as they gathered among themselves.
Even without speaking, a sense of relief could be felt from their eyes.
"Retreat in wall formation," Audin's voice, separate from its rhythm, had an excellent volume. His voice spread wide. Some of the standing army gave a military salute and moved back.
"Knight Order confirmed. We are pulling back while maintaining formation. You mercenaries, you pull back too," a standing army soldier said to a mercenary band that had been caught up in the mix.
They were country bumpkins from the south who had joined a merchant group.
"You're leaving just the two of them?" one of the mercenaries asked back.
"Didn't you come here because you heard the rumors of the Madmen Knight Order?" the standing army soldier said as he moved his feet.
"But…"
The continent is wide.
Even if they had heard the rumors, there were plenty who would not believe unless they saw it with their own eyes.
But what could they do?
Fighting here would be like throwing away their own lives.
They retreated.
The complexion of one of the mercenaries was still grim.
He was a native of Zaltenbuck, of the duchy of Okto, and had been active as a mercenary in the southern border region until now.
He had heard the rumors of the Madmen Knight Order, but he could not feel it.
It was too different from the world he lived in.
He had been busy with local wars and beast hunting in the south.
'Is this okay?'
And in front of them, what the mercenary had been worried about appeared.
A horde of undead.
Monsters resurrected from death, beings called Draugr, charged as a group.
It was enough to create the illusion of a large rock made of flesh and bone rolling towards them.
The smell of rot pricked his nose as festering skin tore and fell to the ground.
Because rotting corpses had risen to fight.
Among them, skeleton soldiers supporting their bodies with white bones and skeleton knights wearing armor made of rotten flesh were also visible.
Their shields were human heads, and their weapons were swords carved from bone.
And among them were dozens of Flesh Golems.
Draugr, a general term for the undead.
It was full of monsters resurrected by necromancy.
At the center, there was a being who sat on a throne made of bone and looked down on everyone.
The throne was carried by four skeleton soldiers.
"I will not speak at length. Bring me the Child of the Stars. Then nothing will happen. At the very least, you can avoid a terrible fate. You know who the Child of the Stars is without me having to tell you, right?" the magician on the bone throne said.
Audin saw the horde of the dead.
Why do these things keep coming out, no matter how many we crush, break, and send to the Lord's side?
Do I really have to crush the head of that 'Father of all the Dead' who is said to be in the demon realm for these things to disappear?
"I can hear the song of the dead," Theresa said.
Audin could also hear their cries.
They were those who wanted to die.
The corpses who wished for eternal rest were wailing.
"Let's clean them up," Audin said.
The collection of items to be sent to the Lord's side had increased today.
Necromancers were the ones the Lord desired most.
He had to send them to His side quickly.
"Oh Lord, for Your glory, I raise my fists."
Theresa begins to sing.
A white light begins to spread wide from her.
The magician who saw it said, "So you insist on drinking the cup of punishment. I am the master of necromancy who commands a hundred phantoms."
Krais had seen that among the members of Astrail, there would be one who would target the city.
Hadn't Esther said that his hobby of raising corpses to fight was unlikely to have changed?
Krais had moved the Knight Order based on the information she had given.
And their fight was taking place right in front of the city.
In other words, there were many watching eyes.
The standing army and mercenary band that had pulled back, the merchants who were fleeing, the people who were lining up to enter in front of the city walls, and those who had opened stalls outside the walls.
As they all watched, five Flesh Golems moved at the same time.
With the sound of the ground exploding, they rushed the large man.
The mercenary's eyes widened.
He couldn't even properly see the five golems move.
He hadn't even blinked, but they had already soared up and charged.
In his eyes, the scene was seen in broken frames.
A golem jumping up, a golem charging from the front, golems rushing in from the left and right.
He was watching without even swallowing, without even breathing.
'He's dead.'
The five Flesh Golems were no ordinary monsters.
They were things brought to deal with a knight.
Monsters that had undergone countless modifications.
And the mercenary saw a scene that shattered his expectations.
P-p-p-pow!
Compressed air explodes. The process is not visible. All that is visible to his eyes is the flesh being sucked up by a whirlwind of white light.
Th-thud.
A rain of rotten flesh fell.
"...What was that?" the mercenary muttered, and a standing army soldier next to him said, "What do you think? The Knight of the War God."
Audin, a fanatic or the Knight of the War God under the Madmen Knight Order.
He was already famous among the standing army.
Next to him, the half-giant with a sword and shield moves.
She moves, leaving afterimages, and swings her sword and shield, unfitting for her build.
Where she moved, a group of Draugr, their bodies crushed and exploded, collapsed.
"Bring to the Lord the master of ten thousand phantoms. This much is not enough," Audin muttered, recalling the civil war in Naurilia.
The hands of the magician who had called himself the master of a hundred phantoms trembled.
'What is this?'
His five Flesh Golems were destroyed so easily?
At the same time, dozens of his minions disappear.
He had called himself a one-man army.
It was a natural statement, as he commanded a hundred phantoms by himself.
It was a part that even his rival, who adhered to a completely different method, acknowledged.
And the symbol of his military power was being broken and shattered.
As Esther had said, they had come without gauging the military power of the Knight Order.
The result was tragic.
From the magician's perspective, that is.
***
"My name is Worhope. I have no grudge against you, but this is a fine material that I covet."
Ropord, Fel, and Dunbakel moved together as a group of three.
The three of them faced a magician on the opposite side of Enkrid, centered on the Border Guard.
It was at the base of the southern mountain range that blocked Green Pearl at the end of the mountain range.
The man who had appeared from between the summer grass had brought two Death Knights with him.
Two death knights, one clad in black armor and the other in white.
The magician named Worhope did not handle many phantoms, but traveled with only two death knights.
In fact, Worhope had found the traces that the undead knight had left in a ruin and had collected and trained in his magic.
He had also modified his own body with magic, so he was a battle magician who was confident of his knight-level skills.
"I don't think the three of us are needed."
"Sir Krais worries a lot."
As Fel and Ropord spoke, Dunbakel added her own words. "The one in the middle seems like the biggest chaff. He smells like it."
Worhope coveted not only the Child of the Stars, but also the Madmen Knight Order itself.
He was the only one in Astrail who rated the skills of the Madmen Knight Order highly.
It was natural, as his main focus was the magic of handling death knights.
'If it's three, not the entire knight order.'
Worhope licked his lips.
He wouldn't have come this far if Astrail hadn't stepped in, but since they had, he wanted to increase his collection.
"I think I can handle two of them by myself."
"Is there a need for that?"
"It doesn't seem like that one will discuss honor."
Whatever the three said, Worhope hid his left hand behind his back and pulled the string of a pouch hidden on his wrist.
At that gesture, a powder scattered and spread into the air.
At the same time, he summoned a gentle breeze with a spell.
He had secretly released a poison like that.
His specialty was to sprinkle an invisible poison while pretending to lead with a sword strike.
The three in front were bickering.
In other words, it was a perfect opportunity to release the poison.
The three suddenly stopped talking and turned their heads at the same time.
Then they looked at Worhope, and all three of their eyes seemed to shine.
"It smells nasty."
Among them, the beastkin spoke, and the two humans quietly took a step back.
The three of them were beings who had been beaten countless times by Rem, had overcome Jaxen's torment, and had been forged by sparring with Enkrid.
Their sixth sense itself was different.
A knight is one who overcomes their limits through repeated training, so in a way, it was natural.
In fact, Worhope had never met a proper knight in his life.
The two death knights he handled were just a legacy of the past that he had obtained while exploring a ruin.
***
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