Chapter 136 – Yeouido (2)

The knight in black armor who emerged from the National Assembly building was once a renowned knight on the continent.

He was widely known as the knight who fought to the very end to protect his kingdom when the Demon King first invaded, but after his kingdom fell, he reappeared as one of the Demon King’s subordinates.

He wore jet-black armor imbued with dark energy and led a skeleton army.

The Black Knight Commander.

This was the new name given to him after he became a Death Knight.

Unlike the Lich we had fought before, he had fought against the Demon King’s army until the very end and had not willingly become an undead. Many had initially pitied him.

However, as people began to die at the hands of the Black Knight, such sentiments quickly faded.

Seeing the Black Knight, Hoffman muttered with a serious expression, “Surely, not all the missing commanders are here, right?”

As the war between humanity and the Demon King’s army continued, several commanders had been eliminated.

Some were destroyed by the allied forces, while others were dealt with by the former hero’s party.

Even though new undead would replace the fallen commanders, we continued to destroy them and push forward to confront the Demon King.

During this process, some commanders had disappeared without a trace.

The Lich we had dealt with before and the Death Knight we now saw from a distance were among them.

The disappearance of these commanders had sparked various theories within the expeditionary force.

Some speculated that they had been ousted in internal power struggles, while others suggested that powerful undead could not sustain themselves for long.

However, none of these theories were confirmed.

The missing commanders had never reappeared, and we had no way of capturing the Demon King to interrogate him.

Nor could we capture other undead for questioning.

In the end, the expeditionary force chose to take the disappearance of the commanders as a positive sign.

“It’s a terrifying thought, but we can’t just ignore it.”

The expeditionary command must have seen the signals we sent and likely thought the same.

If there were more commanders in the north, it would undoubtedly make it harder for the new hero’s party to capture the Demon King.

“Will the operation be canceled?” Hoffman asked.

I shook my head. “Probably not. They sent us here knowing the Black Knight might be here.”

That made it even more puzzling.

If not only the Demon King but also other commanders were present, capturing the Demon King would clearly be more difficult.

Yet, they were pushing forward with the operation… I couldn’t understand their reasoning.

Fortunately, the expeditionary command wasn’t made up of fools.

“They’re not idiots; they must have some plan.”

Ea was a rigid class society, but it was also a meritocracy.

Those who could sense and use mana formed noble families, and the royal families of various nations, though influenced by their bloodlines, were all powerful awakened individuals.

In that sense, it wasn’t surprising that the new Saintess had emerged from the imperial family.

For the same reason, the nobles in the expeditionary command were all capable individuals.

They were all mana users and had experienced combat.

Such people wouldn’t send a new hero to face the Demon King without a plan.

“Couldn’t they just be clueless? If you think back to when we were pushed back by the Demon King’s army early on, it was a complete mess…”

Instead of agreeing with Hoffman, I turned to the priest who seemed close to the higher-ups.

“What do you think, Father?”

“I only intend to assist you all,” the priest replied.

There was nothing more to say. It wasn’t a wrong answer, and it was time to end the small talk.

The Black Knight had just mounted an undead wyvern.

As the knight climbed on, the wyvern, now reduced to bones with only its heart, lungs, and blood vessels clinging to them, began to flap its wings.

Under normal circumstances, flying with just bones for wings would be impossible, but mana and dark energy made the impossible possible.

Black smoke, dark energy, poured out from the skeletal wings, spreading into the air.

It was as if the lost wings were being recreated, the dark energy filling the skeletal remains.

The undead gathered in front of the National Assembly began to move westward, behind the building.

They were preparing to stop the humans coming up the river.

Now, once that wyvern took to the skies, the knight would command the Demon King’s army from above.

And if there were any gatherings of mages or priests, the knight would descend with the wyvern and personally wipe them out.

When the Demon King’s army had been stopped before, he had commanded the kingdom’s forces in the same way, and even as an undead, he had crushed countless human armies using the same tactics.

Now, it was Hoffman’s turn to act.

“Should I do it? Wouldn’t it be better if you shot, Sir Knight?”

Of course, I had far more strength and mana than Hoffman, but the knight’s strength wasn’t needed to draw the bow Hoffman was holding.

Moreover, infusing the arrow with mana was Zahina’s job, and ensuring the arrow reached the National Assembly was also her task.

Hoffman just needed to fire the arrow before the wyvern flew too high.

Mana flowed into the arrow, and Hoffman drew the bowstring with all his might.

He aimed at the wyvern, which was flapping its wings, preparing to take off.

“I’m not sure if this will work.”

The distance from this rooftop to the National Assembly was about 500 meters.

Without Zahina, the arrow wouldn’t even reach, let alone have any effect.

“It doesn’t need to work. We just need to draw their attention.”

Even if it had no effect, it didn’t matter.

Hoffman’s arrow was meant to divert their attention.

And Hoffman succeeded.

Twang!

As Hoffman released the bowstring, the mana-infused arrow shot out like lightning.

The arrow flew swiftly toward the National Assembly.

Under normal circumstances, the wind blowing from the river would have caused the arrow to waver and fall, but this time, the wind pushed the arrow forward.

As if cradling the arrow, the wind propelled it in a straight line.

All of this was Zahina’s doing.

Though she couldn’t unleash the same overwhelming power as she could in her world, here too she could perform feats other mages couldn’t.

She infused the flying arrow with mana and manipulated the wind to keep it from falling.

And she could fire a gun.

Click.

Zahina manipulated the wind as she loaded the sniper rifle.

Then, she rested the barrel on the railing and watched the flying arrow.

The arrow Hoffman had fired with all his strength, carried by the wind, flew toward the National Assembly.

Before the arrow arrived, the Black Knight noticed it, but before he could deflect it, the arrow struck its target.

Thunk!

The arrow pierced the wyvern’s tailbone.

Though the bone was too hard to sever or fully penetrate, the arrowhead managed to pierce through the dark energy and embed itself in the tailbone.

Even with the arrow lodged in its tailbone, the wyvern continued to flap its wings and rise into the sky.

As Hoffman had said, the arrow was useless.

On the other hand, as I had predicted, it succeeded in drawing their attention.

The wyvern, now airborne, turned its direction from the undead moving westward to the south of the island, toward Banpo-dong.

Whoosh!

In the next moment, the dark energy-formed wings flapped mightily, and the wyvern shot toward us like an arrow.

The wyvern and the Black Knight grew larger, and the 500-meter distance was erased in an instant.

Just as the wyvern was about to reach us,

Bang! Bang! Rat-tat-tat!

Bullets poured from the sniper rifle Zahina was holding.

Fired in rapid succession, the bullets pierced the wyvern’s body.

Bones shattered, and the dark energy-formed wings scattered.

Screeeech!

The wyvern, which had been charging toward the rooftop, let out a scream and twisted its body.

The undead wyvern flapped its wings, trying to rise higher.

But the wind and air hindered its ascent.

Though it flapped its wings, the wyvern couldn’t rise.

The Black Knight, riding the wyvern, stood up.

The knight leaped off the faltering wyvern.

“That’s enough! Everyone, take cover!”

Seeing the knight jump onto the apartment rooftop, I shouted to everyone.

Fortunately, everything had gone according to plan so far.

At my command, the party members all jumped off the rooftop.

They grabbed the prepared ropes and, with Zahina’s help, swiftly descended to the ground.

Thud!

At the same time, the Black Knight landed on the rooftop.

A knight with a robust build.

The all-black armor and helmet he wore were, aside from their color, incredibly beautiful.

“Even in black, the elegance of the armor remains.”

“It was a treasure of the kingdom. Not something that would tarnish just because a corpse wore it.”

An admiring remark escaped me, and a response followed.

It was a comment that slipped out as I looked at the Black Knight’s helmet.

The knight looked at me for a moment, then spoke again.

“Is that you? The free knight, Jansen Eger. You’ve changed a lot.”

“You remember me?”

“Perhaps because I’m undead, I can’t forget the memories I had at the time of my death.”

Long ago, before the war with the Demon King began, I had met the knight before me.

Back then, he was the greatest knight of a kingdom, and I was just a rookie who had just become a free knight.

That he remembered me…

Even now, meeting as enemies, a smile formed on my lips.

“You seem more lucid than I expected.”

“Turning a knight of my caliber into a fool wouldn’t make for a proper fight.”

“Moreover, to command mindless undead, you need to keep your wits about you.”

“Even with your wits, you’ve chosen to side with the Demon King.”

“Perhaps it’s due to magic, but I feel it’s only natural to side with the Demon King.

Maybe it’s because I’m already among the dead.

Just as I fought for the living when I was alive, it’s only natural for the dead to fight for the king of the dead.”

Persuasion was impossible.

Even if he retained his sanity, an undead who had sided with the Demon King was destined to fight against humans.

“Shall we begin, then? We’ve shared some words out of old ties, but we’re not here for a chat.”

From below, the sounds of the fallen wyvern and the party members fighting could be heard.

Rat-tat-tat. Thud.

Screeeech!

Gunfire, the sound of arrows, the wyvern’s roars, and the bursts of holy energy.

The party members were fighting as planned.

As the Black Knight had said, it was now my turn to fight.

A knight who had been renowned for his swordsmanship in life and, after death, had slain countless knights as a commander of the wyverns.

I raised my sword toward the knight I had once respected.