Chapter 94 – Visitors (1)

As the undead pushed into the temporary safe zone Yerim had created while burning from holy power, the people who had taken refuge there had nowhere else to run.

Hoffman, Zahina, Jae-ha and the young awakened one stood to block the burning undead, but they alone couldn’t stop the undead rushing in from all directions.

Yerim raised her head to avoid seeing people being torn apart by the burning undead, and noticed something strange.

Above her head, something like a mirror was floating in the previously empty air.

It didn’t really look much like a mirror, but there was no other way to describe it.

It was difficult to explain the rectangular frame with its interior rippling like water’s surface, showing different scenery, as anything but a mirror.

The rectangular frame kept growing larger.

When first spotted it was about the length of an arm, but now it had grown large enough for a person to pass through.

“Could that be a gate?”

The silently expanding rectangular frame stopped growing after reaching the size of a house’s main gate.

Then, something emerged from inside.

It was a person wearing gleaming armor, with head and limbs.

*Thud*

The rectangular frame, the gate, had formed about 3 meters above ground where she stood.

It was high enough that a normal person would get hurt jumping from that second-floor height, but the person who emerged landed as casually as if walking down stairs.

“Higher than expected. Jumping from this height isn’t good for the joints…”

However, the person who landed complained while patting his knees.

It wasn’t the kind of thing one would expect from a knight who landed so easily in plate armor, but seeing the knight’s face, Yerim didn’t find his words strange.

For someone wearing plate armor coming through the gate, he must surely be a knight, so there should be solid muscles like Knight Egger’s under that armor.

But even with such muscles, the unhelmeted knight’s face was that of an elderly man.

White hair, white beard, wrinkled skin – whether this old man was handsome like Knight Egger, he was quite a handsome elderly man, but still elderly.

Of course, what he said wasn’t in Korean, nor any language Yerim knew, but she could understand what the knight who landed before her was saying.

This was because Zahina had cast a translation spell on her.

She had heard it wasn’t magic but rather her race’s ability using telepathy, but to Yerim it was just magic.

The old man clicked his tongue immediately after checking the chaotic surroundings.

“Didn’t they say they’d clear the area beforehand with message magic? That’s just like mages. Good thing I came down first.”

He drew the greatsword from his back and spoke to Yerim who was staring blankly at him.

“Are you a priest? Haven’t heard about female priests. Anyway, please hold on a bit. We’ll clean this up soon.”

“No, I’m…”

Before Yerim could answer, the old man turned his head. He first checked where the battle was taking place.

“Where should I clean up first.”

He tilted his head looking at where Zahina and Hoffman were fighting.

“A pointy-eared woman in spotted clothes firing thundering weapons, and an old soldier shooting strange arrows… This is quite different from what I heard.”

Looking puzzled, he turned to observe Jae-ha and the young awakened one’s fight as well.

“Those who can’t fight seem to be this world’s natural awakened ones. And…”

He clicked his tongue again watching their poor fighting, then his eyes widened.

*Roar!*

In the distance, he saw a massive monster rampaging and a knight fighting it.

“A hero? No, not a hero? Was there such a knight in the hero’s party?”

“Well, I can figure that out later. They’re fighting well over there, so let’s save the panting old man first.”

The old man who had been muttering unlike normal muttering shouldered his greatsword and launched himself toward Hoffman.

The old man who had been rubbing his knees complaining arrived before Hoffman in an instant, and

*Crash!*

With a swing of his greatsword, he cut down dozens of burning skeletons.

Though the greatsword was large, clearly more than half the undead that were cut were beyond the sword’s reach.

It was strange, but Hoffman who witnessed this before his eyes wasn’t surprised at all.

He just gaped at the elderly knight who appeared before him.

“S-Sir Sword Master, you came personally!”

“You did well with that creaking body. Take a rest now.”

The elderly knight who saved Hoffman launched himself again.

He passed by Zahina who was firing her gun wildly and saved the two Earth awakened ones who were struggling desperately.

The awakened ones who saw the zombies they had been struggling with scattered instantly looked at the elderly knight in surprise, but the knight moved on without even looking at them.

As the old man moved, skeletons burst apart and zombies were swept away in groups.

However, he alone couldn’t block all the rushing undead.

On the opposite side from where he was crushing undead, burning undead rushed toward Yerim.

The old man knew this situation but didn’t go to save Yerim.

Instead he grumbled while looking at the gate.

“What, did they chain their feet? They should hurry up and come out. Making this old man work so hard.”

At that moment, more people burst out of the gate.

Knights wearing armor and mages wearing robes.

*Thud* *Thud* *Crack* *Crash*

“Ouch! Why is it so high! Which bastard orthodox mage calculated these coordinates so poorly!”

While the knights and most mages landed safely using magic, one mage rolled on the ground.

That mage clutched his waist and cursed at the gate.

While the mage was cursing, the others immediately assessed the situation and began to move.

“There are still survivors! Save them! There’s an amazing priest maintaining a holy power safe zone, so just deal with the burning ones that get inside!”

The elderly knight shouted to the moving knights and mages.

The knights and mages moved according to his words without any resistance.

As the dozen or so knights and mages who had descended began clearing the area, the hellish surroundings were quickly brought under control.

The burning undead were destroyed one after another by the knights’ and mages’ coordinated attacks, and all the rushing undead were pushed outside the safe zone.

Someone placed a hand on Yerim’s shoulder as she watched blankly.

“To maintain a safe zone with holy power alone. I don’t know which sect you’re from, but you’re truly amazing.”

Along with the words, holy power flowed in from the hand on her shoulder.

“Sister, you’ve worked hard. We’ll help from now on.”

When Yerim turned her head, she saw a middle-aged man and woman wearing old but neat robes.

Though they wore old clothes and their rough hands and faces were covered in scars, even without holy power she could immediately tell what kind of people they were.

“You’re priests.”

The female priest smiled and answered Yerim’s words.

“Yes. We are priests who serve the Moon Goddess and the Human God. Which god do you serve, sister?”

“A desert country’s god… No, that’s not it, I’m from this world. I suddenly became an esper, no, awakened and became able to use holy power.”

The two priests’ eyes widened at Yerim’s answer.

“My goodness.”

“For holy power to descend here too, truly it is divine grace.”

The female priest marveled while the male priest clasped his hands and offered a brief prayer of thanks.

“More importantly, we’ll help now, so please rest a bit. Though you have amazing holy power, even that power isn’t infinite.”

Along with the female priest’s words, holy power poured in again.

Yerim felt her strength drain away at the warm, gentle energy.

She barely shook off the drowsiness that threatened to put her to sleep and said to the two.

“More importantly, we need to help the knight.”

When Yerim pointed at the octopus monster still rampaging, the male priest spoke.

“Ah, no need to worry. Sir Sword Master just went there.”

Come to think of it, the elderly knight who had been sweeping away undead was no longer visible.

*Slash!*

With a final swing of the sword, black energy shot up like blood from the cut tentacle.

I had to launch my body again without even time to feel joy at cutting the tentacle.

Because the octopus monster whose tentacle was cut thrashed even more violently.

Anyway, I finally managed to cut it.

Now six tentacles remained.

Unlike the tentacles that cut easily at first, this tentacle was really difficult to cut.

It wouldn’t stay still, and trying to cut it with a not-so-long sword while constantly under attack, I nearly got hit by tentacles several times.

With my armor destroyed too, getting hit by a tentacle would mean instant death, so the difficulty had increased several times from before.

Normally I would have fled several times in this situation, but having jumped into this battle I couldn’t run away.

My party members were behind me, and my ex-girlfriend too.

No, more than that, I just couldn’t leave this annoying octopus monster that was chasing me.

“I’m sure you feel the same way.”

Looking at the octopus monster frantically stabbing down its tentacles, the monster seemed no different from me.

As we focused so intently on each other, it felt like only the monster and I existed in the world.

My field of vision narrowed.

All other mana signatures were erased except the monster’s presence and mana.

As a result, I couldn’t tell how my party members were doing.

I could check if I broke my focus for a moment, but I had no energy for that.

No, the thought didn’t even occur to me.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Dodging incoming tentacles, swinging my sword, getting covered in energy, swinging my sword again, and doing this I managed to cut off another leg.

It was the third tentacle.

“Oh no, I made a mistake.”

But that was the octopus monster’s trap.

After cutting the tentacle, I saw tentacles pouring down in that spot.

The octopus monster planned to sacrifice one leg to catch me.

And like a fool, I fell for that trap.

I could only let out a dumbfounded laugh.

To think I’d fall for an undead monster’s trap after becoming human.

This was worth dying for.

Come to think of it, I’d been too focused on the fight from the start.

Usually I would have tested things out before dodging, but my suddenly improved skills led to this mistake.

Crisis came again.

This time I had no armor and no greatsword.

Still, I raised my sword and prepared to block the tentacles.

Even if I died, I couldn’t die quietly.

I planned to take at least one more tentacle with me.

*Crack*

But the tentacles didn’t reach me.

The stabbing tentacles were cut by someone’s sword.

The tentacles were cut by a longsword like mine.

Clearly the longsword was only long enough to barely scrape the tentacle’s surface, but when that sword swung, two huge tentacles were cleanly cut off.

*Roar!*

The monster’s scream hit my head.

At the same time, the other tentacles withdrew.

The octopus monster seemed very surprised by its suddenly cut tentacles.

As the tentacles withdrew, a knight landed on the fallen cut tentacles on the ground.

It was the knight who had just cut the tentacles.

An old knight with white hair.

The old knight who landed on the tentacle grumbled while rotating his wrist.

“Oh my. My wrist. I won’t be able to hold a sword for a while at this rate.”

It was an old knight I’d never seen before.

But I felt like I knew who he was.

Naturally, he didn’t know who I was.

“You clearly aren’t the hero party’s knight. Are you a free knight from the advance party?”

There was no need to answer separately.

“Was the hero party wiped out? This will be troublesome for the royal family and nobles.”

The old man muttered to himself, then spoke to me.

“More importantly, how about becoming my disciple? I mean becoming a disciple of me, Eric von Schönheim, the Empire’s Sword Master.”

With the octopus monster frantically fleeing after losing more than half its legs as a backdrop, the Empire’s Sword Master extended his hand to me.