Chapter 34
"...is up and running."
"Yeah."
I nodded silently as Aria stood by my side.
"Glad to see you guys are in high spirits!"
Alice giggles, jumping up and down, wondering what's so funny, so I can't help but laugh.
What was unfolding there was unquestionable evil.
What should be a celebration is shattered and burning, blood raining down, people dying.
At the same time, evil was being done in my name, in the name of no one else, and for my own sake.
For the answers I seek. For myself.
That's why I asked myself again.
Can what I find here really be the answer for me?
"...."
I looked down at the stage, still a spectator in the audience.
"─Come, children of the Holy Kingdom!!!"
With a roar, Sandalfon stomped the ground, to remove the cumbersome obstacle that was blocking his path and at the same time blocking my path.
The distance narrows. The Crusader Knights with the distinctive features of a group of stars along their armor formed a square, and the werewolf who claimed to be the vanguard of the organization clashed with them.
-Boom!
The ground shook with the impact of a dump truck. With it, the starlight armor of the Crusader Knights glowed even more dazzlingly.
Even in the face of the impact force of a real truck crash, it never crumbled—a will as strong as steel and as noble as the stars.
But in the end, will is just will.
No matter how firmly resolved and unbreakable it is, it is the most fleeting of resolutions, and it crumbles before the winds of the world.
"...Weak."
For a moment, the knight front line seems to be holding their own against Sandalfon's rush.
– BANG!
Sandalfon stomped his foot as hard as he could, and the ground cracked, sending out an intangible shockwave.
The initiator utilized a unique foot stomp to increase the power of his lower body. With that movement, the result of what could only be called a technique was revealed.
"Weak! How weak you are, you bastards!"
As the two sides clashed and struggled, the knights were knocked off their feet by Sandalfon barrage from zero distance. In addition, the knights who fell like that did not just end up being thrown away.
– Kwajik!
They were squashed.
Literally – squeezed and stuck.
Like a sheet of paper being crumpled over and over again, the knights' flesh was squashed flat like a cannonball.
Blood and bodily fluids dripped from the cracked flesh, bones, and entrails, as the shattered armor spewed out starlight. It was as if the stars were bleeding red.
And it didn't stop with the single knight who was directly struck by the Iron Mountain, but also with the knights in the back of the line who supported his weight.
At least they were far enough away that they were barely recognizable as 'human'.
"Weak."
─The knight closest to Sandalfon's Iron Mountain had been struck by a direct hit, and his form was no longer recognizable, and the surrounding area was no exception.
The wall of men that the heavy knights had built to protect themselves from the dust had literally become a wall of men.
"The strong shall eat, and the weak shall be eaten."
Sandalfon laughed in front of the wall of meat.
"Weak, weak, weak! Everywhere you look, you see nothing but weak meat!"
Sandalfon shouted in triumph as Firebolts from the Redcoats' rifles rained down on them from all sides.
The crusaders were also unleashing a barrage of starlight offensive projectiles and other negative effects known in game as divine curses.
That had been the case with Sandalfon from his first appearance, and it was no different now.
But no amount of leashes, chains, or the Holy Curse of the Crusaders could subdue the rampaging wolf.
Realizing the futility of the struggle, the officer shouted.
"Leo formation! Everyone, disperse and immediately execute the Leo formation!"
"Holy Throne, grant us the protection of Leo...!"
The constellation was said to have been reborn as a star in the night sky after Hercules defeated the Lion of Nemea in the past, to honor the feat.
"Who's the lion?! Is it you?!"
The crusaders shouted the lion's name in unison, and the wolf-headed head of Sandalfon twisted the corners of his mouth.
"Good. Come, lions! Show yourselves worthy of the name!"
It twisted, then straightened once more as the crusaders scattered and formed a siege line.
– Thud!
With another
"─
With the face of a wolf, he spoke the tiger's name. And despite its technical name, which means "tiger-crushing mountain," there are no claws on his palm as he strikes. In fact, he doesn't even show his claws.
The clawless hands of a wolf perform martial arts.
A tiger before a lion.
The tiger looked up at me on the stage, and I looked down at him in the audience. Our eyes met.
"He's looking at me! He's looking at me!"
The hairs on his body stood on end and he was ecstatic.
"This is great! This is a great day!"
– Kwajik!
Sandalfon's hand slammed into one of the scattered crusaders. The wolf's claws didn't even touch but that was the end of it, for he died instantly.
Moves like a bear to cut off the breath of a tiger's blow.
A fatal blow, a killing blow. There is no next.
That's the art of the Eight Gates, the art used by Sandalfon.
One by one, the knights disappeared as the technique unfolded, leaving no corpses to collect.
Like a corpse struck by a cannonball, the body oxidizes into nothingness, leaving behind a few strands of intestines.
"Watch me, Chief!"
Alice said pointedly from the sidelines, leaving Sandalfon to rampage alone on the stage.
"Sandalfon, have fun by yourself, you cheat! Alice wants to join in!"
"Wait, Alice."
Aria smiled in a soft voice at her tantrum and her voice had a soft, creepy chill in it.
"─because the fun has only just begun."
With her words behind me, I turned my head to look around at the people still seated and unmoved, even as the Crystal Palace was engulfed in explosions, fire, and blood.
There was no need to mention the most prominent among them, a girl who shone like the sun even at the farthest distance.
The girl sat with the three dukes who hold the empire together. Surrounded by the strongest of the strong, the ones who defend the queen amidst all the chatter, she was unflappable and quick to give orders.
There is no need for her right now so I'll just mark her in my mind for the future.
The queen of this nation, the girl who carries the sun – Nike Pendragon II.
Letting things get chaotic, but not touching the queen and her surroundings, was our own message. I think they understood.
Furthermore, the reason they don't leave in this situation is probably because the prestige of the Empire is at stake.
Pride in not backing down in the face of the Black Snake. Her pride is also the pride of the Empire and her refusal to budge is something we have no reason to interfere with.
Our purpose is the Holy Kingdom on the stage, and as long as the Empire knows that, they will not seek to engage with us and will focus their efforts on 'protecting the Queen'.
As was the case with the three Dukes of the Empire who sat at the Queen's side at the moment.
Things were going according to plan.
Sandalfon was no longer alone on the stage as my subordinates were performing their duties and rampaging about in their respective roles.
Their opponents, too, were no longer the underdogs who would be beaten senseless.
"Ah, truly elegant!"
A knight stepped out from the dust of the defeated and crumbling defense.
"Astolfo, captain of the Second Crusader Knights of Orion—I declare war."
An army's virtue is not its individual strength, but its cohesion as an organization.
But in a world full of 'out-of-scale powerhouses,' there are monsters that even the best organized armies can't defeat. Like right now.
And when they do, their response is no different.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and monsters against monsters.
"Is the broadcast still on? What better battlefield for the most handsome and magnificent body of men in the world."
In the face of the wolf that slaughtered his men, the man who claimed to be the leader of the Second Knight's Company took off his helmet without a care.
The helmet revealed a handsome face of dazzling beauty. His hair was well trimmed. It was long, reaching down to his feet, and looked a bit too long for a man.
"─Gorgeous, confirmed."
And it wasn't just one knight who walked out.
"It's time to have faith and reach for the stars! Come, you invincible foe, I, Sir Quixote, will take you on!"
"Oh, my lord, please, take my advice and live a long life! Are you still so out of touch with the situation? It's the Black Snake you're up against!"
"Sancho, are we not the twelve knights of Charlemagne!"
"...Shut up, you two idiots from La Mancha."
Charlemagne's Twelve Knights.
Twelve knights, the strongest and pinnacle of the Holy Kingdom, the land of chivalry.
Each of them is at least a captain of the Crusader Knights, or a military equivalent and are the core power of the Holy Kingdom.
The organization of the most virtuous and just knights in the world.
There was one man who led the Twelve Knights.
"...All be silent."
A knight with a holy spear in his hand and the tinnitus of a god.
"Sir Roland!"
"We have an evil to defeat, don't we?"
Saying this, Sir Rolland raised his head but the justice he spoke of, unlike the Knights Order of old, never rang hollow.
And his eyes are not on Sandalfon, who is directly in front of him, nor are they on Silan or Selena, who are nearby.
They were looking at me, far away, up in the audience.
'That's the key to the mausoleum....'
I looked at him, too, at the holy relic in his hand, the Star Spear.
I wondered what the man was thinking, coming here with a holy relic in his hands.
Did he really not realize that unfathomable forces, including us, were after that relic?
There is no doubt that it is a trap. But what is it, and for what purpose?
Do they even have the cards to say "trap" in the first place?
Surely he wouldn't call Charlemagne's 12 knights joining him a trap.
I think about it and shake my head. Even if it were a trap, it wouldn't change anything.
I'll just break through and get it.
-Boom!
Suddenly, a javelin shoots out of Roland's hand in this direction. A holy javelin, that is.
It's almost too scary to think of it as a javelin, but Sir Roland is lunging ahead of the spear and snatching it up.
He is now within inches of me and grabs the spear by the hilt.
He grabs it, and thrusts it down with all his might.
-Kaang!
Roland's spear's tip, which rushes like a harpoon, never touches me.
"Black Sword...."
"I will not let any of them touch you, Master."
And there it was, Aria's black sword, blocking Roland's holy spear.
Like a black hole devouring stars, the inky blade sucked in all thought.
"Yes, yes!"
The blonde girl smiled, the corners of her mouth twisting as if she'd been waiting.
Her eyes were blacker and darker than ever, not smiling in the slightest.
"Because we're not going to let that happen."