Episode 206
* * *
“Oh my, what the hell. Did you even catch an octopus this morning?”
Choaack!
A pitch-black tentacle emerged from Modred’s throat, and Master Baro muttered as if it were someone else’s business.
“… … !”
Shock poured out from all over. However, the imperial camp that was watching the scene was not like that. It was as if they had known this would happen from the beginning.
A bundle of tentacles shot out through his throat and wrapped around Modred’s entire body, just like Shub had wrapped around Dale’s body.
The avatar symbolizing the Shadow Lord, the Dark Blood Armor, was wrapped around the body of the 7th Prince Modred.
But there was no magma-like blazing red or cold blue. It was pitch black, and at the same time, there was a gold that shone more brilliantly than anything else.
It was a black and gold armor.
The armor and helmet wrapped around Modred’s body, and began to spread an incomparable darkness.
“ha ha ha.”
Modred, armed with black and gold armor, laughed softly.
“The power of shadow and gold, both are in my hands.”
“The power of shadows?”
“Ah, yes. It’s the power that ‘Immortal Frederick’ gave me that day.”
Modred muttered softly.
“I’ll be honest with you, you damn Saxon brat. I still haven’t gotten over that defeat and the nightmare.”
“… … .”
“I struggled through these hellish days, tormented by this damned pitch-black darkness that wriggled through my body every day. But, but… … my father, the Golden Emperor, never abandoned me!”
Modred, clad in black and gold armor, drew his sword. It was a golden sword, incomparable to anything else in this world.
“I will subdue this shadowy power and be reborn as a standard-bearer for the Golden Empire!”
“Oh, is that so?”
Dale laughed when he heard that.
“Your dreams are big too.”
At the same time, the 『Book of the Black Goat』 that had fused with Dale’s heart began to shake madly, and the dark blood flowing within his body exploded and wrapped itself in the shape of armor.
It was not the avatar of the ‘Auror Master’. It was the avatar of the Shadow Lord, and a blood-red pattern that burned like magma began to be engraved on it.
Along with the bitter cold that brings about the end of the world, the red and blue magic is applied to the dark blood armor.
“It would be absurd for someone as strong as the Seven Swords of the Continent to have no abilities other than Aura.”
As he said that, the Shadow Lord smiled coldly.
“Even if that power came from somewhere.”
The curtain rose on the first duel in the Hall of Swords, where the best sword on the continent will be determined.
* * *
The Shadow Lord pulled out the pitch-black magic sword ‘Kia’, and Modred, clad in black-gold armor, rushed forward.
But it was never the monarch’s job to block his sword.
The monarch has knights. And there were the best swordsmen of the empire who called themselves knights of the Shadow Monarch. They had once tried to prove themselves through the Test of the Sword, and now they were just death knights dancing in the darkness of the beginning and the cold of the end.
Dale’s Death Knights rushed towards the Black-Gold Knight Modred.
Furthermore, the ‘Eye of Truth’ possessed by the Shadow Lord began to illuminate the area there.
First Prince Lancelot, Sword Sepilia, Heavenly Sword Archduke Lancaster, Seventh Prince Modred.
“… … !”
What the eyes of truth see is the secrets they are hiding. However, the history of man is long, and furthermore, the secrets that Dale can see are not of a nature that can be selected at will.
A headache that felt like his brain was going to burst hit him. Through the headache, Dale desperately turned his gaze towards the shadow of his opponent, Modred.
On a dark, white winter night, the Immortal Frederick stood before Modred, who was trembling with fear.
The celestial watchers looked upon him, and the madness that Modred was feeling raced through the Shadow Lord’s mind.
But I had to see. What the black knight in front of Dale saw, and what happened to him.
A bundle of pitch-black tentacles emerged from the Immortal’s mouth and slithered toward Modred’s body like leeches.
It was just then.
Kaang!
Modred swung his golden sword in front of the swinging Death Knight’s sword.
“Our lies are more truthful and beautiful than the truth.”
With his determination that leaves no room for doubt.
A voice was heard again from within Modred’s shadow.
─ Your Majesty, is it true that I am truly a descendant of the Holy Swordsman Count Brandenburg?
Young Modred trembled before the unbearable truth. However, the golden emperor looking at him was not flustered.
─ Is ‘truth’ that important to you? Is it that important to me that I love you as a son and that you serve me as a father?
The Golden Emperor, the Lord of Lies, whispered affectionately. It was a gentle smile like a father’s.
─ You are my proud son. Even if you do not have the blood of our dragons flowing in you, it will not make a difference. You are my son without a doubt, and the golden rider who will carry this great empire of fire and light.
─ But Prince Philip… … !
─ That child’s truth is more false than your lies.
At the same time, the expression on Arthur the Great’s face disappeared. He was truly his son by blood, but when Arthur the Great mentioned his name, he showed no signs of fatherly emotion.
─ Incompetent, weak, and without any talent or worth. Do you think that just because that child is my descendant, he is more worthy of the title of ‘Son of the Emperor’ than you here?
Arthur the Great said.
─ Remember, our lies are more truthful and beautiful than the truth.
The truth about Modred that the shadow had finally revealed had finally come to an end. The Shadow Lord with the eyes of truth turned his head away.
There was a lie and a golden rider, armed with black and gold armor, with a determination that was beyond compare.
Dale waved his hand as he looked at him. The cold and dark Death Knights all stopped moving, and Dale, wearing the blood-red armor, walked among them.
I glanced at Philip, who was sitting down. He was the real prince who believed without a doubt that he was the son of the Holy Swordsman.
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It was a good fact after all.
To obtain the position of the Heavenly Sword, Dale had to defeat the Seventh Prince, Modred, who was in front of him, and that was it.
Nothing changed.
“Ignite.”
The Shadow Lord muttered softly. At the same time, the magma engraved on the Dark Blood’s armor glowed red as if it was about to explode, and ‘Two Heat Engines’ were added to the mana circle and aura heart.
A mechanical device that can convert thermal energy into mechanical energy.
Along with the five circles, the otherworldly imagery overlaid on the aura heart on the lower abdomen, the essence of mechanical engineering, has finally begun to activate.
Not only did it stop at processing mana energy into magic and aura, it also began to convert the thermal energy supplied by red magic into magic and aura respectively.
The Shadow Lord surged forward, exploding with two powers. Although the avatar that Dale was wearing was a power derived from the Book of the Black Goat, he was not yet Dale’s avatar as an ‘Auror Master’.
However, it is not possible to use all of your power from the beginning.
The red Aura Blade, a sword of blazing flames like magma, was swung towards the black-gold knight.
Kaang!
Blades of shining gold and blazing flame clashed. But the Shadow Lord’s attacks did not end there.
Now, a part of his body that could no longer even be called a ‘shadow cloak’, Dale’s shadow prosthetic arm and the shadow itself began to stir.
Darkness began to pour down like rain right in front of my nose.
Amidst the endless barrage of shadow bullets, Modred, clad in black and gold armor, held his breath.
At the same time, the armor covering his body began to move like a living creature.
Choaack!
As Dale had done before, endless tentacles sprouted from the Dark Blood’s armor, wrapping themselves around Modred’s body and acting as a shield.
The tentacles acted as meat shields against the endless barrage of shadow bullets.
‘… …using the power of shadow.’
What the Immortal Frederick did to him, and what happened after that. But what the Eye of Truth shows is not something you can pick and choose.
The being before him simply mimics the power of the Shadow Lord that Dale had previously demonstrated.
It is unknown why the Immortal Frederick implanted the power of shadow in him. Nothing has changed.
Because the fake can never beat the real.
Kaang!
Their shadows entangled, and gold and flames clashed. Before they could even think of clashing, the Shadow Lord’s aura blade was suddenly covered in a blue light, scattering a cold aura. A swarm of cold aura containing the winter of the universe swirled along the tip of the blade.
Kaang!
The two swords clashed like that.
Gold and ice.
“… … !”
Swish, swish!
The blades crossed, and the coldness of Dale’s sword began to engulf the golden blade held by Modred.
The two blades interlocked and began to freeze.
Modred tried to withdraw his sword, but it was already too late.
The inescapable cold of winter was engulfing the golden blade of the sword, sliding towards the hilt holding it.
“Do you not have to put down your sword?”
Dale sneered coldly as he watched the sight. Modred, clad in black and gold armor, finally showed his bewilderment.
In a fight between those who wield swords, it would be shameful and miserable to lose the sword you are holding.
“Wouldn’t it be better to survive and bear all kinds of ugly shame than to become an ice statue while maintaining the pride of a knight?”
He didn’t hide his mockery because he knew the fact.
“Don’t make me laugh… … I, Modred, the proud seventh prince of the empire, will never fall… …!”
It was when Modred was desperately shouting something.
Damn.
The cold of the apocalypse finally enveloped his fingers as they wrapped around the hilt of his sword.
The cosmic winter that could not be escaped no matter how desperately one struggled began to wrap around the sword, the hilt, and the fingers, up to the wrist.
“Why didn’t you put down your sword?”
Dale asked back.
Towards the false rider who covers himself with gold and shadow.
“Beg for your life.”
Dale spoke to the false prince who was being swallowed by the cold.
“If you accept defeat and beg for your life, I will gladly take away this coldness of death from you.”
Without hiding the mockery openly.
Silence fell. Even in the midst of this, the cold of the apocalypse steadily engulfed the shadows and golden armor.
The cold rose to the very bottom of his throat, but Modred did not beg for his life until the very end.
The black knight was reborn as a sculptor of ice that shone with a fierce beauty.
