A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

Will fluctuates wildly.

It must be because there are few things more exhilarating than this.

Enkrid sometimes felt that Will moved on its own, outside of his control.

This was one of those times.

But if you asked if that was bad, he’d say not at all.

’What one desires unconsciously.’

That’s what was projected onto Will.

If you considered its structure or principle, it wouldn’t deviate much from this.

His prolonged thought created over a dozen ideas, but they soon converged into one.

’Cut.’

It brought even the wildly fluctuating Will into focus.

Will, responding to his intent, circulated throughout his body, moved through his arm and fingers, traveled along the sword’s grip, and surged into the blade.

’An engraved weapon is a part of my hand.’

That’s how it felt.

It was natural for Will to flow towards and reside in Dawnforged.

He stopped his controlled breathing and half-closed his eyes, looking at the rampart.

Ragna, holding the sunrise, watched his commander from afar.

In his eyes, he saw Will, infused into Enkrid’s Dawnforged, ceaselessly gather and thicken.

”Doing something interesting.”

Ragna murmured.

Shinar watched Enkrid dash off, then stopped the rough movements of his hands and feet.

Shinar was similar to Ragna.

She was already conscious of Enkrid, so one could say she looked at Enkrid even faster than Ragna.

The air of the Demonic Domain was poison itself to fairies.

She endured it because she harbored spiritual energy that had reached the knight level; otherwise, fairies wouldn’t even be able to set foot in the Demonic Domain.

This place was truly filled with unpleasant air, making one’s chest instinctively tighten.

Yet, watching Enkrid grip his sword now, it felt as if the spiritual energy of the forest wafted from somewhere.

That could have been a trace of the power she herself infused when the sword was made, or it could have been because the fairy’s keen senses predicted what was about to happen.

Whatever it was, the reason wasn’t important to Shinar.

An ordinary person would probably be aghast at what Enkrid was doing now, but Shinar was filled with nothing but support for what that madman at the forefront was about to do.

Was that not the proper attitude towards one’s beloved?

Above all, Shinar believed in that man.

Where he goes, a path opens, and where he heads, there is light, so the sword that will protect the child of the forest and flowers shall harbor spiritual energy.

It made her want to hum a fairy song.

Instead of singing, she murmured, echoing her heart:

”Cut, fiancé.”

No one heard her murmur.

Even Fel, who was blocking arrows, and Ropord, who was fighting monsters, couldn’t help but have their gazes drawn to Enkrid.

Is what that guy is trying to do now really what I think he’s trying to do?

Fel and Ropord secretly had the same thought.

Even amidst the charging monsters, a part of everyone’s consciousness turned towards him.

Enkrid, knowing his sword wouldn’t break, poured the inexhaustible Will into his sword with all his might.

An intangible power, born of his will, seemed to flow through the blood vessels of his entire body.

All of it entered the sword.

Dawnforged accepted it readily.

For a moment, he felt a sense of exhaustion.

He adjusted himself to prevent that.

Then Enkrid placed his engraved weapon against the fortress wall.

Crunch.

The blade, now horizontal with the ground, embedded itself about a finger’s depth into the Thornbriar Fortress Wall.

Gripping the hilt with both hands, he steadied his breathing.

There were no extraneous thoughts.

He was so focused that a blue circle seemed to form within his pupils.

Uooooooh, Uoooooh, Aaaaaahk.

The wall erupted in monstrous shrieks, trying to stab at him by extending thorn-like barbs and attempting to ensnare the madman before it with whip-like thorn vines.

With the sword still stuck in the wall, he took off running—carving a gash across the Thornbriar Fortress Wall as he moved. It was more than just slicing through—it was a cut infused with Will.

It couldn’t just be said it was drawing.

He had imbued the sword with Will, after all.

As Enkrid ran, the wall exploded with a deafening roar.

Kiaaaak, the wailing vengeful spirits shrieked.

Kwagagagagagagak!

The sound continued as he ran.

As Enkrid ran, Dawnforged carved a line along the base of the wall in the direction he was running.

Black blood splattered as the base of the Thornbriar fortress wall was cut, exploded, shattered, broken, and crushed.

A whitish smoke seemed to rise.

And whatever it was, everything that begins must end.

Enkrid stopped running.

Steam rose from his shoulders.

His dark green cloak, which had spontaneously lengthened, fluttered in the wind and then wrapped around his shoulders and back.

A long trail marked the Thornbriar Wall as far as he had run.

A very short time later, the ground vibrated faintly, and the wall swayed before beginning to tilt backward.

Kugggeugeugeu.

With a rumble, part of the wall toppled backward.

It was a spectacular sight.

A scene that made one wonder if such a feat could truly be accomplished by human hands.

The fallen wall looked surreal, but the vibrations and impact proved that this was no dream.

The fallen wall collided with the ground, announcing the considerable weight it carried.

Kwaaaang!

The sound and pressure that followed were enough to burst an ordinary person’s eardrums.

The vibrations shook everything.

It felt like an earthquake.

The ground trembled.

That was natural.

A part of the wall had collapsed backward in the direction Enkrid had swung.

The stones embedded within the thorn bushes to form the wall cracked and shattered, creating grey dust.

Even in the Demonic Domain, dust wasn’t black or purple.

Rocks were just rocks.

Amidst the purple earth of the Demonic Domain, in the pitch-black darkness of night where colors could no longer be distinguished, dust billowed.

Something whitish covered everything, like an overlay on the darkness of night.

A brief silence permeated the roar and dust.

Even the charging monsters were about to retreat, reacting to the sound and vibrations.

Everyone stopped in surprise, their mouths agape.

Can the one who builds a Steel wall also cut down one?

Eyes filled with such astonishment gathered on Enkrid.

Yet, they were still the madmen knights.

Although surprised, they weren’t shocked to the point of losing their minds.

”Not breaking through, but cutting and toppling?”

Fel’s murmur.

Even amidst the flying dust, Fel saw, and at the same time, his pupils continuously trembled.

How is such a thing possible?

It was a remark imbued with such meaning, but it wasn’t merely surprise.

More accurately, if you asked how he felt after seeing that.

”You asked us if there’s even anything we can do about it—!”

Luagarne’s shout would express that feeling.

Thump-

Her heart pounded, and she felt naturally excited.

Damn it, he can do something like that?

Something like that is possible, you say?

Such thoughts followed, and she was simply thrilled.

A frog croak, resounding everywhere, burst from Frog’s mouth instead of a battle cry.

The retort from Frog’s vocal cords loudly echoed everywhere for the enemy.

Audin paused his punching for a moment.

’Brother.’

It was an act that elicited admiration and exclamations.

He cut an entire wall with a sword.

Rather than a competitive spirit, Audin wanted to show something in praise of the feat he had displayed.

In front of him, he saw a part of the rampart that had just been punched through.

”Lord.”

He threw himself into the part of the wall the captain had split and broken.

It was a place that could rightly be called a thorny jungle, squirming, moving, entangled, and twisted.

”Crazy.”

Ropord murmured in surprise upon seeing that.

In his eyes, Audin had just thrown himself into the squirming, self-restoring thornbriar wall. And as soon as Audin entered, the wall’s restoration ability accelerated several times over, as if it was exerting its full power.

In addition, the thornbriar vines became entangled and twisted, blocking the opening where Audin had entered.

Two breaths passed.

The hole where Audin entered was blocked by thorn vines, and streaks of light began to leak out from between the wall, which was a tangled mess of distorted faces of vengeful spirits, thorn vines, and broken stones.

The light streaks flowing from the crudely blocked hole gradually thickened, and then their number began to increase, until the fragmented lights gathered and burst.

White light, the holy light itself, was not accompanied by sound.

Only the deafening roar of the things scorched by that light collapsing followed.

Kudududu.

The ground rumbled, and another section of the holed wall collapsed, dropping thorn vines and stones onto the ground.

The ballistaes that Jaxen hadn’t managed to deal with yet was swept away and fell, spreading black blood everywhere with a thud.

The gazes of those avoiding the collapsing debris now turned to Audin.

If Enkrid had cut the wall, Audin had made a large hole in it.

”Ha, ha, ha! This is delightful, Brother!”

A shining armor over his innate physique was his symbol.

The thick thorn vines covering him, and the stones etched with vengeful spirits, solidified in the very act of opening their mouths and screaming.

It was a grotesque sight, but Audin smiled broadly, looking at it.

A smile of utmost happiness and satisfaction.

”The Lord awaits you in Heaven.”

The wall’s groans, which had been stubbornly cursing and screaming, completely ceased.

Finally, the defiant thorn vines sagged.

”These insane bastards, what the hell.”

Only then did the one who had been provoking them appear.

The corrupted fairy followed him out, and Enkrid realized for the first time that a fairy’s eyes could grow that wide.

’Ah, is she already too different of a species to be called a fairy as well?’

They were called fairies because they consumed spiritual energy, and corrupted fairies because they lived in the Demonic Domain.

A longbow in her left hand, a needle-like sword at her left hip, the corrupted fairy’s eyes were fixed on Enkrid, but in the meantime, Shinar glared at the corrupted faity.

If a stranger had seen it, they might have said she was gazing intently, but Enkrid, being somewhat familiar with fairy expressions, knew it was a glare.

”You, who have rotted away and even changed your form.”

The corrupted fairy glanced at Shinar when called, but what was happening before her was simply more baffling.

What insane humans cut walls with swords and smash them with bare fists?

Such madmen were here.

”You, you really.”

The one who was either the lord of the fortress, or a sorcerer, or an apostle of the Red Toe, or whatever that guy is, couldn’t bring himself to finish his sentence.

No, what kind of bastards are these?

Luagarne looked at him, puffing out her cheeks. She was satisfied.

The Frog, with puffed cheeks, opened her mouth.

”How’s that? Good enough answer to your question of what could we possibly ammount to?.”

The lord surveyed his surroundings.

Given the dead monsters lying around and the lack of calls or signals, the three fairies who had been on the wall must also be dead.

It was absurd, but that didn’t mean he forgot his duties.

Especially since the collapse of the wall wasn’t his first such experience.

”Kill them.”

He spoke, and at the end of his words, black figures surged from behind Audin and Enkrid’s shadows.

These were corrupted fairies specialized in assassination.

Purple skin, a wavy dagger in hand, and astonishing techniques that suppressed sound, smell, and presence.

Jaxen looked at the two of them and thought they could easily claim a spot among Georg’s daggers.

Two shadows rose, and one friendly shadow also rose behind the assassins.

Jaxen slashed the neck of the one reaching out behind Audin with a stiletto.

Along with the crunching sound of a neck being cut, a thwack echoed from the head of the one targeting Enkrid.

It was the sound of the Silent Dagger he had thrown embedding itself.

The one with the dagger in its head made a motion of thrusting its wavy dagger into the air and then collapsed.

”Necessary?”

Enkrid turned around and asked.

His left hand was on Penna, while Dawnforged remained in place.

He could have blocked it even if he had left it.

He was focused, and although he had poured Will into cutting the rampart, it wasn’t a complete depletion.

He didn’t feel exhausted.

”No need for thanks, right?”

Audin was similar.

He could have taken a hit, but he still had holy light all over his body.

What he wore wasn’t some blade manifested from Will like Ragna had shown, but armor forged from holy light that wouldn’t easily be pierced by ordinary metal.

”It felt like my kind of work.”

Jaxen retorted casually, and the lord, resident of the Demonic Domain who worshipped the Red Foot, was no longer surprised.

Alright, so none of you are pushovers, huh?