Kassel screamed and ran to stand in front of Sheyden.
Sheyden’s heart was still beating, but he wasn’t breathing. Kassel, not knowing what to do, just placed his hand on the spear that pierced Sheyden’s stomach. This did nothing to stop the bleeding.
A gray-robed sorcerer raised his hand quietly, and a spear held by one of the black knights flew up into the air. The black knight, deprived of his weapon, reached out to recapture the spear, but it had already floated high above.
The gray-robed sorcerer, like when he had thrown the spear at Sheyden, turned its tip towards Kassel.
“Is this all there is to the blessing of Aranthia? Were you just the last shield standing in my way?”
The sorcerer looked at Kassel and sneered.
“If I had known this, there was no need to bring Welch back from death.”
Kassel alternately looked at Sheyden and the gray sorcerer floating in the air.
‘I’m the target. I shouldn’t be near Sheyden.’
Kassel stepped aside.
The hand of the sorcerer, clad in a leather glove, moved slightly. The massive spear flew towards Kassel like an arrow. Kassel clenched his eyes shut and turned his head.
Thud!
The spear, reaching close to Kassel, stopped mid-air as if held by an invisible force and broke in two, falling to the ground.
“You summoned the black knights to hide your evil power and pass through the Gold Gate,” Tanya said, standing behind Kassel. Her necklace’s bead shone brightly. She had one hand on Sheyden’s back. The bleeding from the pierced spot ceased. Kassel nodded briefly at her, and she returned the nod.
‘Even if I die, that magic must not stop!’
Kassel prayed that his wish was conveyed.
The gray-robed sorcerer spoke.
“Still alive, little one from Lutia? But the damage you suffered from me hasn’t recovered yet, has it?”
The ground shook. Turning around, Kassel saw the entire Wolf Knights charging towards them from the direction of the White Gate. Franz and Jaymer were at the forefront. The gray-robed sorcerer let out an ear-piercing laugh and continued.
“It wasn’t easy to get here, but it won’t be hard to bring down the White Gate now.”
The sorcerer began chanting in an incomprehensible language, spreading his arms wide.
It became as dark as night around them. Then the black knights screamed and writhed on their horses. Their agonized voices soon turned into that very sound one would never want to hear again, even in a dream.
The black knights of Camort. The sound of trumpets boiling like soup.
Kassel couldn’t calm his trembling heart. His lips quivered, unable to speak.
The gray sorcerer reached out to Black, who had fallen.
“Captain Welch. As long as I am here, your body is immortal. Rise again. And turn these insolent wolves into the same fate as yours.”
“I won’t let it happen.”
Tanya, still keeping one hand on Sheyden’s back, stretched out her other hand into the air. A blue light stretched out towards the gray-robed sorcerer but shattered before it could reach him, scattering to the sides.
He folded his hand that was extended to block Tanya’s magic and laughed unpleasantly.
“It’s too much for your power. Even if you brought all the masters of Lutia it still wouldn’t be enough.”
Black smoke rising from the ground enveloped Black. The shattered parts of his armor reassembled, and his fallen body was forcibly raised.
“Go, corpses. You were reborn to die once again here.”
The sorcerer gestured to the black knights engulfed in black smoke. They all simultaneously pulled on their horses’ reins and charged towards the approaching Wolf Knights. Amidst the dust raised by about a hundred horses, Black was once again lifting his halberd.
Kassel clenched his teeth in despair as he watched the situation unfold from two directions. Everything he had tried to prevent was happening. And Black, whose body had recovered but was still unconscious, was aiming his halberd at Tanya. She couldn’t retreat because if she did, the halberd would target Kassel and Sheyden behind her. She had no choice but to defend. But after carrying Kassel and running all night, then just having used her magic against the gray-robed sorcerer, and currently stopping Sheyden’s bleeding, she wouldn’t have the strength to block Black’s halberd.
Then, someone Kassel hadn’t even thought of stabbed Black from behind with a sword. The sword, emitting a different light from Aranthia’s sacred sword, was the sacred sword of Lontamon.
Billy, clutching the sword that had stabbed Welch, grabbed his back.
“Black, this is a captain’s order. Stop. This isn’t why you came all this way!”
Black hesitated for a moment. The faint light from the sword of Lontamon enveloped him.
“You’re doing something pointless.”
The gray-robed sorcerer gestured lightly. At that moment, something like black smoke escaped from Billy’s body and was sucked into the sorcerer’s hand.
“Huh?”
Billy made a short sound and staggered backward. Dark red blood gushed from his chest, which had just healed from being stabbed. His clothes around the stomach also started to darken. The old wound from Jaymer’s stab, which had healed, burst open.
Billy collapsed to his knees on the spot.
The sorcerer flicked his hand again. This time, the sword of Lontamon, stuck in Black’s stomach, began to come out. But Black grasped the sword with his hand, preventing it from leaving.
“Stop it. If living again was my will, then dying should be my will too. My subordinates also revived of their own will, so let them die of their own will.”
Black’s strained voice faintly leaked from inside his helmet.
“It’s already too late.”
The sorcerer, his face hidden inside the hood, raised his other hand. Black screamed in agony and fell to the ground, yet he didn’t let go of the sword piercing his stomach.
“Let… let me die… Don’t make ‘us’ commit sins anymore.”
“Rise, Welch.”
The sorcerer’s mocking tone tormented everyone alive. Kassel, feeling like his eardrums would burst from the pain, covered his ears with both hands and knelt down.
“You were a sinner from the start. Born to commit sins, so I’m giving you the chance to continue sinning. You were born to defile Aranthia. Drench this land in blood.”
“My only remaining task… there’s only one left. But it’s not for you. Rather than becoming your puppet, it’s better to give up my task and die.”
“Your task is to meet the queen. To do what you couldn’t do 10 years ago. Kill the queen. Why can’t you, who once cut down Sanadiel’s back, do it now?”
Kassel removed his hands from his ears and shouted.
“Black! You didn’t lead this long journey just to kill the queen from the start, did you?”
Kassel couldn’t believe it.
He didn’t want to believe it.
So, he screamed.
“Don’t give up, Black. You are the captain of Excelon! Now, at this point…”
“Silence!”
Kassel screamed and covered his ears at the sorcerer’s shout. Tanya, standing to protect the magic, couldn’t block his voice either.
Kassel collapsed. Something hot rose from his stomach, up his throat, and burst out of his mouth. Dark blood poured onto the ground. Blood flowing from his ears ran down his cheeks. Looking up again, Kassel saw four black bats fluttering and flying around the outstretched hand of the sorcerer.
“What kind of creature are you to stand in my presence, unable even to stand upright, yet you dare to confront me?”
Kassel, with bloodied hands, clenched his fists and stood up. Even staggering, he shouted.
“I am Kassel Wolf, captain of the Wolf Knights. I came to break your evil will.”
“You came not to break, but to submit. There will be no pain if you kneel before me of your own will.”
“You may be able to kill me, but you will not make me submit.”
“To die is to submit.”
The sorcerer flicked his fingers. The four bats flew at Kassel all at once. With varying directions and speeds, the bats, spreading black smoke, dove towards Kassel’s face.
Tanya emitted a blue light with her bead. The four bats, like fish swimming against the current, entered the domain of the blue light. However, it only slowed them down without stopping them.
Then, a dark halberd swung, shattering the four bats. Black stood in front of Kassel and shouted.
“I stand here of my own will. It will not go as you wish anymore.”
Black pulled the halberd back, ready to throw it. But he couldn’t. As if someone had grabbed his limbs, Black was unable to move.
The sorcerer laughed.
“No living being can kill me, and all dead beings are under my command. You cannot escape my grasp.”
The sorcerer extended his hand. Black, planting his halberd into the ground, knelt down. Clutching his helmet with one hand, Black groaned in pain.
“Kill. Kill all the living behind you.”
Black struggled to look back. He looked directly at Kassel and said,
“It’s this child who led me here. This child’s promise gave meaning to my death. I will not follow your will.”
Black, barely holding his creaking body, repeated the words ‘I will not follow your will.’
Kassel breathed roughly and looked back. Beyond Tanya’s back, the battle between the Wolf Knights and the undead knights raged on. It was a fight between the strongest knights and the undying knights.
“Then die.”
Again, four bats rose around the gray sorcerer.
“But even in death, you shall find no rest.”
The bats flew towards him, but this time Black couldn’t swing his halberd. Barely lifted, the halberd shattered as the bats struck, and the helmet that the bats passed through split in half, his right hand broke, and his left knee shattered. Broken shards flew towards Kassel, cutting his cheek and embedding in his shoulder. But Kassel did not move, just dumbly watching Black slowly crumble in front of him.
“Get out of the way, Kassel.”
Tanya shouted. But Kassel did not dodge.
‘I can’t avoid it by running. If I’m going to die anyway, I won’t turn my back on it.’
Kassel drew the sacred sword of Aranthia.
“Don’t do it.”
Kassel shouted.
The black smoke, following the sorcerer’s hand, flowed towards Black like black ink released into a river. Black did not avoid it but just stood still, looking towards Kassel. Like a person facing death, Black remained silent.
Kassel, lacking the strength to rush forward, extended the sacred sword and shouted like a child.
“Don’t do it!”
A sense of helplessness.
Feeling helpless as a great hero crumbled before his eyes, Kassel cried and shouted repeatedly.
‘No. No. No!’
There was no force he knew of that could defeat the gray sorcerer. It was like death itself was attacking, and there was no resisting it. He could only watch.
“I’m sorry.”
Kassel, unable to see ahead, spilled tears as he spoke.
“I’m sorry, Welch.”
A black shadow quickly enveloped Black. But at the same time, a white light flew in from behind him, tearing the black shadow away all at once.
The gray sorcerer, surprised, withdrew his hand.
Kassel, equally startled, looked back. The light was not only enveloping Black. Tanya, Sheyden, and Kassel were all wrapped in a faint light.
Thump, thump.
The sound of bare feet walking on the floor approached. Queen Sanadiel, with long silver hair trailing behind her like Tanya’s in her wolf form, approached. It was as if time had stopped; the sound of the distant battlefield ceased. Only the fluttering of the gray sorcerer’s robe drifted into the space of white light.
Sanadiel stepped beside Black, whose body was half-destroyed and jerking. Black, barely keeping his helmet on, looked up at her.
“Your Majesty…”
The Queen placed her small hand on Black’s ragged armor and, with calm eyes, spoke to the sorcerer.
“Back off, evil one. This is no place for the likes of you.”
The sorcerer, his face hidden by the gray robe, trembled. His laughter, initially faint amidst the fierce battle of the two knight orders, grew louder. It was a laugh of ecstasy.
“How foolish. Truly foolish, Sanadiel. Here I am, trying so hard to bring down the White Gate to kill you, and you step out of its protection to appear before me.”
The sorcerer waved his hand lightly. From one hand, black bats fluttered up into the sky, increasing in number. In the other hand, a crescent moon-shaped bundle of light formed.
“I am the lord who rules all the undead, and I shall be the king who brings down Aranthia and rules the Sky Mountains. I never thought I would achieve my long-unfulfilled dream so easily here. Die. The only praise and blessing I can offer to the queen of humans who lived a thousand years is just this.”
Dozens of bats flew towards Sanadiel, followed by the crescent moon-shaped bundle of light in his hand.
“Die, Queen of Aranthia!”
“Get out of the way!”
Tanya screamed, lifting her magic bead, but Sanadiel spoke faster.
“Quain, Irine.”
Sanadiel, hand tucked in her waistband, glared at the sorcerer of darkness. She extended her index finger, giving a command.
“Kill the lord of the undead.”
In a moment, Quain, crouching unnoticed behind, drew his sword and swung it widely. For a brief moment, Kassel saw the background where the blade swung distort. With that single swing, half of the approaching bats vanished, and the rest, not fast in Quain’s swordplay, were all split in two.
The crescent moon-shaped blade, not aimed at Quain’s front but flying behind him, changed direction in mid-air towards Sanadiel’s back. However, Irine struck it, splitting it in two.
“Vena’s Champions. You were conserving your strength behind me to stop me?”
The sorcerer spoke while raising his hands high. A black orb formed above his head.
Quain said,
“I’ll block it, Irine. Focus on attacking.”
Quain placed his palm on the blade and lowered his stance, while Irine, with Vena Esarck thrust into the ground, closed her eyes. The black orb created by the gray-robed sorcerer was swallowing the surrounding light.
In front of the immense magical duel, Kassel could only widen his eyes in awe. Tanya was equally astounded by the exchange that surpassed her magical understanding. The gray-robed sorcerer, as if prophesying, spoke.
“Quain, you will not be able to stop this magic, and Irine, you will not be able to attack me. If you lay down those two weapons, I might offer a card for negotiation.”
Speaking for Irine, who was preparing magic with her eyes closed, Quain responded.
“Can someone who’s been bitten by a white wolf twice afford to say that?”
“Then I’ll make sure I’m bitten a third time!”
The sorcerer hurled the black orb. Quain, instead of dodging the massive dark magic, struck down with his sword. A tremendous wind and roar ensued, throwing Kassel off his feet. Tanya also covered her face. Yet both kept their eyes on the battlefield till the end.
The black orb was destroyed, and within it, Quain and the Queen stood unflinching. Only the Queen’s silver hair sparkled, fluttering in the opposite direction of the shockwave. The gray sorcerer staggered in the air from the recoil of his broken magic.
Irine, who had been kneeling with her sword in the ground, suddenly stood up. Red radiance leaked from the inscriptions on her blade.
“This time, you won’t escape!”
Irine charged at the gray sorcerer with terrifying speed, swinging her sword. The sorcerer’s body moved aside as if disappearing, but Vena Esarck tracked his movement. After her sword sliced through, one of the sorcerer’s arms fell to the ground, but it turned out to be just an empty piece of cloth.
“I said I wouldn’t be hit by that sword twice.”
The empty sleeve burned away in black flames. Irine lowered her stance again but didn’t launch a second attack.
“Remember this, Queen of Aranthia.”
The gray sorcerer continued to giggle and laugh joyously.
“A thousand years ago, the Yellow Gate, which was protected even at the cost of dragon’s blood, fell without a drop of blood in a battle ten years ago. And the Gold Gate, which didn’t fall even to the armies of Lontamon, collapsed yesterday without a single death. Your holiness has weakened. The day when the White Gate falls is not far. When that day comes, every living thing will kneel before me.”
Sanadiel responded in a monotone voice.
“I am the representative of the lord who rules all living beings and the queen protected by the blessings of the Sky Mountains. Your evil darkness will not penetrate the light of the Dragon Orb, and your evil death cannot hinder the sacred life of Nadium. As it has been, so it will be forever.”
“There is no forever. Do you not hear the screams of Lutia? The calamity will start not in Acrand but in the Sky Mountains. Everything is already too late.”
The gray-robed sorcerer gradually faded away until he disappeared. His laughter was no longer heard.
“Halt the battle, all troops!”
A loud voice that could fill the entire plain echoed resoundingly. It was Black. Pieces of his armor cracked and fell off due to the strain of his own voice.
The black knights, engaged in fierce combat with the Wolf Knights, heard his command and immediately retreated. The Wolf Knights also ceased their battle. The shattered fragments of the black knights on the ground were reassembling themselves and rising. The Wolf Knights were exhausted from fighting such endlessly reviving enemies.
Sanadiel turned to look at Black. Black, with difficulty, pulled out the sacred sword of Lontamon embedded in his abdomen and lifted his helmet to look up at the Queen.
“You kept your promise, Welch.”
Sanadiel smiled gently and reached out to gently touch Black’s helmet.
☆ ☆ ☆
This was the second time Sanadiel had met Welch. The first was on the last day Welch was alive and breathing, on the plains of Nenadros. The Queen, accompanied by her Guardian Knight, Grondol, had personally gone there to meet Welch.
Aranthia had refused to participate in what could be called the last battle of the war. No one expected the Queen to appear at a place where not a single member of the Wolf Knights was present.
Captain Welch of Excelon, drawn out of the darkness, froze in place upon seeing Queen Sanadiel. Sanadiel left Guardian Knight Grondol behind and stood alone in front of Welch. Even seeing her slender neck that looked like it could break with a mere touch, Welch could not show any hostility.
“Are you… the Queen of Aranthia?”
Sanadiel nodded and smiled faintly. Welch was intimidated by her smile. If there was ever a moment he felt fear after setting foot on Aranthian land, it would be this moment.
“Surrender in tomorrow’s battle.”
She spoke directly, igniting a flame in Welch’s momentarily faltering heart.
“Nonsense!”
“It’s not nonsense. You will inevitably lose in tomorrow’s battle, and if you die, this war will essentially end. Lontamon’s army will try their best, but it will be meaningless. Only a massacre will continue, a meaningless fight. I do not wish for blood to flow in this land. So give up.”
“Me, listen to the persuasion of an enemy’s ruler? No, rather…”
Welch raised his halberd, his eyes wide.
“If I kill you now, this war will take a significant turn.”
“Listen, child. This war is not for Lontamon. It is a war stirred by an evil being using humans to destroy this world. I cannot bear to watch a gentle and good-hearted child like you leading it.”
Sanadiel spoke with earnestness, extending her hand.
“Put down your weapon. You are not meant to die here.”
“Even if you tempt me like that, it’s useless!”
“It’s not a temptation, Captain Welch. Make your own judgment.”
Sanadiel slowly approached Welch. Though he held a weapon, he could neither resist nor flee, his legs frozen.
“I am not proposing surrender to you. I want you to realize the truth.”
Sanadiel gently placed her hand on Welch’s cheek and calmly closed her eyes. Welch, unable to muster the courage to look again into her sparkling eyes hidden behind long eyelashes, also closed his eyes.
“Step back! I am a knight of Lontamon, and only the Emperor of Lontamon can command me.”
“Poor child. If it had been Lofin and not another who had first found you, you might have used your strength beside me. Why… “
Sanadiel shook her head.
“No, it’s not that. If this is your destiny, your sense of duty, I will not interfere any further. Do your best in your judgment.”
Sanadiel slowly turned and went back to where Grondol was. At that moment, Welch, with trembling hands, lifted his halberd.
“If I strike you down… If I strike you down, I can win this fight. Lontamon will…”
“Stop it. What victory would it be for you now, when there are no comrades left to enter the White Gate with you to receive their rewards?”
Welch, his lips quivering, stepped back. The blade of the halberd he clutched tightly shook greatly with fear and sorrow. Sanadiel looked at him with a look of pity. Even in the darkness, she couldn’t deny those purely shining eyes. She slowly turned away.
At that moment, Welch struck down with his halberd. Only after striking did he realize what he had done.
The blade of the halberd had struck the Queen’s back, and her red blood dripped onto the grass. A wound across her back revealed broken spinal bones.
She was human. A human who bleeds when cut, who dies when she bleeds.
It was blood he had seen countless times. In the darkness, it felt like nothing more than black liquid, not even blood. Blood that he never hesitated to spill as he was nicknamed the God of Death by his enemies. But the sight of that blood made Welch feel as if he had lost his mind. He screamed and collapsed, holding his head.
“Your Majesty!”
Grondol ran to the fallen Queen and supported her. She, bleeding, could no longer stand. Although the enraged Grondol drew his sword and took a step towards Welch, the Queen stretched out a small hand to stop him.
“It’s enough, Grondol. Let’s go back. I am fine.”
“Your Majesty. With such a wound…”
“In Aranthia, I cannot die.”
Sanadiel smiled faintly, then let out a short groan. The frail sound caused Welch a pain as if a knife had been plunged into his heart.
“I cannot stand. Help me.”
Sanadiel struggled to speak. Grondol, tears streaming down, picked her up. The black blood shining in the darkness flowed like water down her bent back. With a pale face, she spoke to Welch, who had knelt down.
“Welch. You have struck down an unarmed woman from behind. There is no greater shame for a knight than this. So, if you survive the battle tomorrow, return to Nadium and kneel before me to atone for this act. Promise me you will live and come to apologize.”
Sanadiel spoke in a reprimanding tone.
Welch, on his knees, spoke with a trembling voice.
“Yes, I promise.”
Welch’s sobbing voice echoed several times even after Sanadiel disappeared into the darkness.
“I will definitely return.”
☆ ☆ ☆
And after nine years, Welch, now known as Black, stood before the Queen again. Sanadiel, as she did in Nenadros Plains, gently stroked his helmet.
“Your Majesty, the Queen of Aranthia.”
Black, with his cold metal arm, softly held her hand and knelt, bowing his head.
“If you would forgive me for returning only in this form, please forgive me for the mistake I made back then.”
Sanadiel nodded and replied.
“I forgive you.”
After looking up at Sanadiel for a moment, Black slowly bowed his head as if falling asleep. The broken helmet fell from his head, and his arm detached from the armor. The shaking armor, revealing its emptiness, rolled to the side, and the legs disassembled, completely collapsing. It all vanished along with the black smoke.
The Queen, in a low voice, addressed the black knights standing before the Wolf Knights.
“Open the White Gate for the knights of Excelon.”
At the Queen’s command, the gate beneath the two white columns swung wide open.
“Your duty here has ended, and rest awaits you.”
The black knights all dismounted their horses and knelt before Sanadiel. Then, like Welch had done, they bowed their heads in their armor, which crumbled into ashes and disappeared. On the vast plains in front of the White Gate, no trace of the black knights could be found anymore.
–TL Notes–
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