EP.76 Side Story, Apostate (4)
In the middle of the night, rain is falling on the black meadow. Raindrops bounce on the blades of grass and make a pattering sound. The meadows where it rains are cool. There is a gloomy atmosphere.
In the chilly air, Kuntel saw his sword. The blade he pulled out of its sheath sparkled silver.
A sword made of rare metal.
This sword was recognized as a sword master and was given to him at the sacred place of swords. The knife that has been with Kuntel for the past several decades is like Kuntel’s body. He is like his life.
“·····.”
Kuntel reflects on his life.
The first thing that came to mind was my hometown. Kuntel remembered the day his hometown fell to disaster.
‘Sword Canyon, Galatric.’
A place that has produced numerous sword masters.
It was one disaster that brought down the place.
‘The sword of death, Ganicalt.’
Kuntel remembers the disaster that destroyed the Valley of the Sword single-handedly. When he faced the disaster, Kuntel could not even hold his sword. He dropped his sword and froze.
-Why don’t you hold a sword?
At that time, the sword of death asked Kuntel, who had let go of the sword.
-Your hometown is burning. Your teacher is dead. The Sword Canyon collapses. It is I who do it. And, I am standing in front of you now.
The question was simple.
It was a tone of voice that seemed to ask something obvious.
-Don’t you carry a sword?
Kuntel could not answer that question.
-You are not a prosecutor.
Ganicalt passed by Kuntel, dragging his greatsword on the floor. Drops of blood splattered wherever he walked.
-It’s not worth killing.
With those words left behind, disaster left Kuntel’s side.
The sword of death slaughtered countless sword masters that day. Their bodies were buried along the ravine.
And then Kuntel ran away.
It has been 30 years since that shameful past.
For 30 years, Kuntel sharpened his sword.
It has been a long time since I joined the ranks of sword masters. However, Kuntel did not overestimate his abilities. He swung his sword constantly. He never rested for a single day.
Because I thought it was a tribute to the swordsmen buried in the Canyon of the Sword.
Kuntel aimed the sharply polished sword at the Demon King’s army. When his own sword was swung for humanity, Kuntel felt rewarded.
‘Sword Master, Kuntel.’
He made a name for himself as a swordsman. He achieved performance comparable to that of a warrior on numerous battlefields.
Therefore, Kuntel secretly looked forward to it.
That his sword will reach that disaster this time. He thought he would be eaten by the four plagues, including the sword of death.
‘But, what are the results?’
Couldn’t reach it.
It couldn’t even penetrate the fog she had sprinkled, let alone Gletus. She only cut through a wisp of the fog.
Kuntel looks at the dull blade.
The toothless blade seems to be looking at its own life.
I tried, but couldn’t reach it.
As you get older, your body becomes more and more senile. The body has reached its prime and is falling. Kuntel smiled bitterly at that fact.
“It’s vain.”
Such murmurs scatter among the raindrops.
It was the moment when Kuntel was about to exhale as he pushed the blade into the sheath.
Snap.
“·····.”
I heard someone’s footsteps through the sound of rain. The sound of footsteps stopped in front of the tent. Kuntel held the hilt of his sword and rolled up the tent.
“···Raniel?”
There was a gray wizard there.
He was standing outside the tent in the rain with Shingung and Remia. That expression was dark.
“Uncle Kuntel.”
Raniel slowly opened his mouth.
“Right now, call Uncle Heinkel and Kyle.”
2.
“We must stop it at all costs.”
That was the first thing Raniel said.
Late at night, in front of the commanders and warriors gathered at Kuntel’s barracks, Raniel opened his mouth.
“We have scouted the fort. And, I found Gletus inside the fortress. It matches the appearance recorded in history. “White hair down to his waist and green eyes.”
Raniel pointed to the blueprint for Rodimel Fortress hanging on an improvised support beam.
“Here, in the halls of Rodimel Fortress, is Gletus the Apostate. There is only one demonic beast guarding the hall. “A crustacean based on a black dragon.”
A magical beast based on a black dragon.
At those words, the complexions of the commanders on the Western Front darken. Black Dragon’s main stage is the eastern and northern fronts. It is rare for a black dragon to appear on the Western Front.
However, just because it is rare does not mean that it has never been seen.
‘Black storm, black dragon Belial.’
A disaster engraved in one’s mind is a symbol of fear. Several commanders opened their mouths and touched their foreheads.
“···Then, wouldn’t it be better to give up Rodimel Fortress?”
That opinion is valid. Rodimel Fortress is a strategic point. However, if that is true, it might be better to give it away because it would have less loss.
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“no.”
However, Raniel shook his head.
“Even if it means destroying Fortress Rodimel, we must stop Gletus here.”
“…Why should that be the case?”
“Gletus is making magic beasts at Rodimel Fortress. And, there are three bases.”
Raniel spread out his three fingers.
“A dragon’s skeleton made of human bones.”
“The corpse of a hatchling that Belial guarded until the end.”
“finally···.”
Laniel said, folding his last finger.
“The bodies and souls of the paladins melted alive.”
“···what?”
“Using the hatchling’s body and dragon heart as the main body, we assemble the human bones. “We add flesh to the skeleton with the fused bodies of the paladins.”
Raniel replied with a wrinkled expression.
“It is not the Bone Dragon that is completed like that.”
Flesh was added to the skeleton.
The material of that flesh is a living human being.
Those who are alive but want death are no longer human. It is an offering to witchcraft. What do you call a dragon made of sacrifice that can be used at any time?
Even Raniel couldn’t know that.
‘Because existence itself is foreign.’
However, it was not difficult to guess what effect the completed dragon would have on the battlefield.
“It is a magical beast whose entire body is made up of a magical offering that can be offered.”
Raniel said what he thought.
“Living spells will roam the battlefield. To be honest, if we can’t stop it here, there’s a good chance it will become a black dragon-level nuisance.”
The commanders’ expressions turn sour. They sighed and touched their foreheads. They also agree with the words of the wise man.
‘We have to stop it here.’
We cannot allow a new disaster to be born.
Then, there is only one question left.
‘Who will stop it?’
Gletus, the apostate.
Who will recapture the fortress occupied by the disaster, and who will subdue the demonic beasts born within?
It is impossible with knights.
Even the Sword Master’s sword couldn’t touch it.
The enemy is a disaster beyond what humanity can deal with. And, dealing with such disasters has always been one thing.
‘Warrior.’
Everyone’s eyes turn to the warrior wearing the holy sword.
As if he had been waiting for that, Kyle slowly stood up. He approaches Raniel.
“The situation has been explained.”
he asked Raniel.
“When are you going to do it?”
He doesn’t ask what to do.
As always, the strategy will be established by the wise man. All he has to do is swing the sword according to instructions.
“I am ready.”
With a tap, Kyle touches the hilt of the holy sword.
Raniel turned his head and looked at the grassland immersed in darkness. It’s still raining.
Beyond the pouring raindrops, Raniel stares at the Rodimel fortress perched on a cliff.
And then, he answered briefly.
“Sunrise.”
When night passes and dawn comes.
When dawn settles on the meadows.
“That’s the right time.”
Kyle nodded. Heinkel, the knight commander who was overhearing their conversation, asked.
“Do you need support?”
The answer to that question is always the same.
“Please wait.”
Raniel said.
“The four of us will go.”
In the face of a disaster that goes beyond common sense, numbers are meaningless. Raniel knew him well.
Especially in this case.
3.
A black field adjacent to the Demon World.
The sun rises over the horizon of the wide grassland. An old castle on a cliff with a panoramic view of the meadow where Dawn is located.
Four figures are sitting on the watchtower of the old castle.
They succeeded in infiltrating from the underground waterway to the watchtower and were staring at the center of Rodimel Fortress.
“I feel dirty.”
Sarah, feeling the life budding there, frowns. Wriggling life is artificial. That in itself is blasphemy.
“Are you okay?”
“It should be okay.”
The wise man answers the saint’s question.
After receiving Sara’s blessing, Raniel tilts his head a couple of times. Release his fingers and place his feet on the floor a few times.
The blessing upon him is physical strengthening.
He took a deep breath and his body adjusted to the reinforcement, which was different from the spell.
“You remember everything about the operation, right?”
“How many times did I say it? I heard it all. I remember everything. human.”
“I’m just saying this because I’m afraid you’ll forget again, you idiot.”
Raniel grumbles and slaps his wrist.
As he took his stance, he looked at the warrior next to him with one foot on the watchtower.
“Are you ready?”
“I am ready.”
Raniel sighs and laughs at the answer. After exhaling one last time, Raniel gestured upward.
“Shoot, Remia.”
Shingung fires an arrow. The arrow connected to the steel wire flies in a straight line and is firmly embedded in the castle wall on the other side.
widely.
Kyle jumps from the watchtower, steps on the steel wire, and leaps.
Raniel runs after him. Several demonic beasts turn their attention to them.
Sigh!
Remia’s arrow fired later pierces the eyes of the demon beasts.
Kieeeeek!
Amidst the screams of the demonic beasts, Kyle spins around and lands on the castle wall. As soon as it lands, it kicks the castle wall and runs. At the end is a dome-shaped roof.
There is no delay in the movement.
What is under the roof is the hall, and what is in the hall is Cletus, the apostate.
‘5 seconds.’
Running after Kyle, Raniel counts in his mind. This is the time it takes for the summoner to notice that something is wrong with the connected magical beast.
‘We’ll rush in before that.’
Raniel follows Kyle as he runs, kicking the ground repeatedly. He kicks the ground and gets ahead of Kyle. Kyle reserves his strength by taking each strong step forward.
Raniel jumps lightly and floats in the air.
“hey.”
Raniel, floating in the air, raises his fist.
“Goes.”
The spells stocked on the forearm emit light one after another. With a flash like a flash, Raniel falls.
Smash.
As I fall, my fist lands on the roof. At that moment, the spell that came out shook the castle.
Quaaaaaaaaaaa!
The roof cracks with a loud noise.
The roof splits and begins to collapse. A piece of stone falls down the hall.
-The hall is guarded by a crustacean.
Looking at that.
-It’s impossible to rush in head-on. Since it reacts even to small pieces of stone, infiltration is difficult. But you’re dealing with Gletus while dealing with that? That’s impossible.
Kyle recalls the strategy he heard about from Raniel.
-You shouldn’t give the summoner time. That means you have to do it all at once. So, we’re going to take advantage of that extremely sensitive crustacean.
“Go, Kyle.”
Kyle nods.
Extend your bent knees. Taking a big leap, Kyle dove towards the collapsing roof.
Between the falling pieces of stone, Kyle looks down the hall.
In the slowed down time, you can see the crustacean moving. The crustacean coiled in the hall moves. The movement is not directed at Kyle.
– Enter by smashing the roof.
-Well, the crustacean will react to the falling stone pieces first. That’s the opportunity.
Crustaceans react first to the falling rubble.
It twists and rotates its body and grinds away pieces of stone. Kyle falls beyond the crumbling stone fragments.
Restriction.
Chain.
A chain flew from somewhere to hold the falling pieces of stone together. Kyle lands on a piece of stone that was caught.
Kwasik.
A piece of stone that you step on cracks.
Kyle curled his knees and looked down. He grinds a piece of stone and a crustacean comes up.
-Hey, Kyle.
Grab the sword.
Gather strength in your toes.
The stone I step on creaks.
-Do you remember when you cut off the black dragon’s wings?
I remember it.
When Raniel lowered the altitude with various spells, Kyle cut off the black dragon’s wings.
How did you cut off your wings back then?
He didn’t even swing the sword with much effort. I just pointed the holy sword towards the thing that flew by on its own.
‘It’s the same this time too.’
There is no need to hesitate.
widely.
Kick a piece of stone. Every time you step on a piece of the roof, the chain swings. As a reaction, Kyle continued to leap forward. Accelerates my body and turns it into a single arrow.
The arrow shaft is Kyle’s body.
The arrowhead is the holy sword held by Kyle.
Sreung.
Raise the holy sword. A halo of light flowed along the holy sword. Kyle accelerates, trailing the light.
widely.
Kick down the last piece of stone.
In front of you is the mouth of a crustacean. A maw made up of the skull of a black dragon that was once cut down. A piece of stone is chewed through the gaping maw.
-Split it up.
One arrow enters the mouth of a crustacean.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!
A pile of stones bounces up. The crustacean’s epidermis is split. A crustacean that seemed like it would not shed a single drop of blood spews out blood.
Gyaaaaaaaaaaa!
Blood pours out along with a scream. There is a ray of light advancing through the pouring blood. A blade that emits a platinum-colored light cuts through the crustacean’s skin and protrudes.
Sigh!
Kyle opens his eyes through the pouring blood.
After cutting open the crustacean’s body, he spins in the air and swings his sword.
Sigh!
The slash is fired at Gletus, splashing blood. Kyle is not the only one targeting Gletus.
Smash.
A shock comes from the side of the hall. Between the exploding bricks, a gray wizard with his back to the sunlight beckons. Shrine puts down the bowstring.
Tssssssssssssssssss.
Moonlight arrows rush in, dragging a cloud of light.
The arrow fired by the shrine is aimed at Gletus in a straight line.
Kyle’s slash.
Raniel’s Crushing.
Remia’s Moonlight Arrow.
‘Suffice.’
Seunggi was captured.
With that confidence, Kyle looks at Gletus. She also raises her head and sees Kyle. The two gazes met in midair.
-If you cut down the crustacean, that’s it.
-No matter what, there is a delay for the summoner. This is absolute. Because they call their familiars from the other world.
Her face is revealed through her shaking white hair.
That expression is extremely expressionless.
-If you quickly clear out the crustacean guarding the hall, you can inflict a lot of damage before the prepared familiar arrives.
It’s so relaxing.
-It means that even if you can’t kill it, you can take the battle to your advantage.
Even though there is no familiar to protect her, she appears calm. Kyle feels her chills at the sight.
‘Something is wrong.’
I have that intuition.
“ah.”
Gletus blinks.
Her green eyes widened.
“Is it you?”
she laughed
“Killing the black dragon.”
She waved her hand.
Her left arm, which was hidden by the hem of her dress, is revealed. Kyle’s eyes widen when she sees that arm.
‘It’s black.’
It’s a black arm, as if immersed in shadow.
Black arms, contrasting with pure white skin, dig into the air. To Kyle’s eyes, it looked as if it was tearing the air.
And then, the strange thing begins.
Something pops out through the torn space. The thing that sticks out resembles the crustacean that was cut down a moment ago. A new crustacean emerges.
It bites Kyle’s slash.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!
and.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!
It’s not just one animal.
Ka-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga!
Five crustaceans pop out of the air. It swallows Remia’s moonlight arrow. Deflects Raniel’s crushing blow.
“Holy shit.”
Raniel, who was falling outside the hall, stretches out his hand. The spell stocked on his finger emits light.
Chain.
Raniel swung loudly while holding onto the chain that wrapped around Kyle’s falling body. I saw Kyle floating in the air.
‘···What is this?’
The crustacean destroys the fortress.
A rotating crustacean guards Gletus.
Even while Kyle was panicking, Raniel continued to throw the chain. One is thrown outside the fortress and the other is thrown towards the watchtower.
“Remia!”
Remia holds on to the chain while holding Sara in her arms.
Churrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The chain swings back and forth following Raniel’s mana. Remia and Sarah, caught by the shaking chains, were thrown roughly to the floor.
However, I can’t complain about it.
Smash.
Raniel let go of the chain and immediately swung his fist.
It fires a shock wave at the skull of a crustacean charging towards it. However, it is Raniel who is pushed out.
Wudduk, wudduk!
Unable to overcome the recoil, Raniel’s arm breaks. His fingers break. At the cost of giving up one of his arms, Raniel managed to escape the crustacean’s range.
bang!
Raniel was blown away and crashed into the castle wall.
“f*ck, f*ck…”
He shakes off the rubble and stands up with difficulty. Raniel’s spit was mixed with blood.
“···What is this?”
Sarah, covered in dirt, looks up.
“·····.”
Remia takes a step back without saying a word.
And, Kyle.
Kyle bit his lip and looked at Gletus.
The five crustaceans stopped moving.
They step back with their heads bowed, as if attending a king. Pure white hair flutters between the retreating crustaceans.
Gletus, the apostate.
She walks out from the rubble and swings her right hand.
When I swing my right hand, which is not dyed black, the fog that covered the fortress gathers inside the fortress.
Blue and red eyes flash through the fog.
Okay.
She waved her black-stained left arm.
Space is torn apart. Fog flows out of the torn space. In the fog, the eyes of the demonic beasts sparkle.
“It’s broken.”
Gletus spat out.
“It was about to be completed, but it got ruined.”
He mutters as if he regrets it.
“Well, I guess it’s okay since there are better ingredients?”
She narrows her eyes.
Cloudy green eyes look at the hero.
“The body of a warrior.”
······Common sense does not apply to disasters.
Things that are obvious lose their naturalness in front of them. In front of the madness he faced, Kyle swallowed dry saliva.
I couldn’t think of a way to win.
A word from the author (author review)
The abduction is a bit longer than I expected.
I think there will be about 6 episodes…
In any case, I think I’ll finish it by Monday, a week from the start of the spinoff, and then move on to the main story. Thank you 😀
*This episode is a whopping 9,000 characters! I squeezed it in a bit… !
