Genius Corpse-Collecting Warrior - Chapter 65
Internal strife (4)
The camp where Lucia and Parn were also attacked.
Even though Dallon drew out the holy sword and lured as many people as possible, there was a limit.
However, the surprise attack failed. The road leaving the camp and entering the forest. Dallen had deliberately touched Lucia’s blanket.
‘…….’
The quick-witted paladin quietly pretended to sleep, but when the attackers came within a stone’s throw, he got up and cut off one of the men’s heads.
There is only one number left. The guy didn’t panic and immediately crossed swords with Lucia.
Armed with advanced training and special equipment, the special team was capable of taking on even two or three ordinary paladins on its own.
However, Lucia has already surpassed the level of an ordinary paladin a long time ago.
The experience of following Dallen in the labyrinth, destroying over a hundred gnoll soldiers and cutting off the head of a fallen knight also raised her potential even further.
“I didn’t expect them to take advantage of the gap with a transparent dagger while everyone was dying.”
Lucia muttered while rubbing the armor on her side.
The armor was torn by the transparent dagger, and a faint scar was visible inside.
Even though it was healed with divine power, the pain itself seemed to remain, albeit weakly.
“Didn’t I tell you this many times? Lucia, you have the potential to turn a situation where you are outnumbered. However, when you have the upper hand, you tend to let down your guard. “Be careful.”
“…yes.”
Lucia responded in a downcast voice to Knight Commander Edgar’s words.
Dallen chuckled. This is my first time seeing that woman like that.
This is because, as usual, Lucia and the knight commander would never encounter each other.
Lucia, who had a fight with the demon Golacap in the labyrinth, ran away without being able to kill the demon.
After training while wandering through the city and the wild, she appears little by little towards the middle of the game.
And by that time, the Holy Knights had been half-collapsed due to the monsters flooding from the crack, and there was a high possibility that the Knight Commander would have died or been mortally wounded while fighting on the front lines.
Even if they were both alive and reunited in a once-in-a-hundred play, Lucia at that time was not a knight-in-training, but a completed hero.
There was no way we were having the same conversation right now.
‘This episode really changed a lot.’
Dallen laughed silently once again at the newfound appreciation he felt.
“Why do you keep smiling?”
“Because it’s fascinating. Are you dissatisfied?”
“…I didn’t say I was dissatisfied.”
Lucia turned her head. She quietly let herself be swayed by the words.
The four men were slowly driving their horses toward the gate. Since there were only three horses, the knight commander rode with Parn’s horse.
The boy mercenary occasionally turned his head to glance at the leader’s fluttering sleeves.
It was a gaze filled with curiosity, kinship, and perhaps even anticipation.
“You’re good at riding horses now. I always gave up halfway because I felt dizzy. “Have you trained horseback riding separately?”
“It wasn’t training, but after experiencing so much more, it was worth it.”
“No matter what the form, if you overcome your weakness, that is training. “Good job.”
The leader laughed softly. Dallen scratched his chin.
Does that mean you were riding on the carapace wolf’s back at that time?
“But why did you come here, leader? “Did you know we were coming?”
“God showed me that you crossed the border of Noria Kingdom. “You also told me about the three guests who came with you.”
Knight Commander Edgar smiled softly. His unfocused eyes sparkled in the moonlight shining through the forest path.
Parn, who tilted his head and looked up at it, said.
“that’s right! Yejian! “I heard that the leader of the Holy Knights is also called ‘the Guide’ because he can see into the future!”
Hearing the boy’s shout, the knight commander’s smile grew a little brighter. It was a smile like a kind grandfather looking at his grandson.
“right. However, as is widely known, it is not the ability to see the entire future. “God just shows certain scenes sometimes.”
well. It would be true that his abilities are greater than those words. Dallon thought.
Edgar Reinhardt, leader of the Holy Knights.
Known as a one-armed swordsman, he was blind but had the ability to see revelations given by the God of War.
The reason why the Holy Knights, who were in direct contact with the labyrinth through a crack, were able to withstand the flooding monsters without collapsing at once.
If half of the reason was the credit of the Holy Knights, the other half was the credit of the leader who accurately predicted and prepared for the day and hour of the invasion.
Of course, as he said, it was not all-powerful.
If that were the case, the vice-captain wouldn’t have staged a rebellion like he did now.
“Three guests…did you say something?”
Lucia quietly asked. Edgar answered, looking up at the sky with unfocused pupils.
“It is said that by the Holy Knight’s side, there is a young swordsman, a wanderer who left his hometown, and a small tree that was caught by him.”
“Sword Saint…”
Parn muttered softly. A smile that couldn’t be hidden crept onto the boy’s lips.
Dallen chuckled when he saw that.
A one-armed, one-eyed swordsman.
It seemed impossible to think it was just a coincidence.
***
As the day dawned.
The four people entered the valley where the gate was located.
The area around the entrance to the rift where the Holy Knights were located was a land with a very unique terrain.
The main altar blocks the entrance to the crack, and about a dozen large and small sanctuaries are scattered around the main altar.
It was a kind of basin area with mountain ranges made of cliffs surrounding the wide plain where the main altar and sanctuary were spread out.
It is like a huge natural wall created by God to protect sacred land.
Or, on the contrary, it looked like a cage surrounding the entrance to protect the continent from the monster army that could burst out of the crack at any moment.
‘The gateway is our only exit. Or the only entrance to the castle wall.’
The mountain range was literally full of cliffs and cliff-like terrain.
It is a rugged terrain that even the mountain animals that call most alpine areas their home cannot cross.
In such a mountain range, strangely enough, there was only one deep valley that anyone could pass through.
The gateway to the Knights was a fortress blocking the middle of the valley.
Lucia told us about the journey she and Dallon had gone through until they reached the valley.
He met Falcion in the pure silver section, went down to the labyrinth, killed the demon, and closed the eyes of Barrett, who had become a fallen knight.
He then went on a journey to transport the holy sword, killed a witch in a forest full of mandrakes, and wiped out a cave full of warlocks and necromancers.
I didn’t talk about the devil stuck in subspace.
Edgar also seemed to know that there was something through Yejian, but honestly reporting that it was a demon was another thing.
Especially if it is not just a demon, but a demon that gave up killing even the Holy Knights 300 years ago and sealed it away.
“There is a saying that in difficult times, heroes emerge. “I think I understand a little bit why God is paying attention to you.”
Edgar said with a smile. Dallen scratched his chin indifferently.
It felt a little strange to hear praise coming from the mouth of such a faithful person, not a mercenary or a back alley intelligence dealer.
“So, the situation of the war has not changed much and is still static. Is that right?”
“you’re right.”
The civil war between the knights was just as I heard from the messengers I met along the way.
The vice-captain and the special team were still occupying the 3rd sanctuary, and the main group was simultaneously keeping the rift and the 3rd sanctuary in check without any major damage.
In fact, the size of the special lease itself was not that large, so if they attacked, it was possible to capture the third sanctuary right away.
Nevertheless, it was the leader’s will that continued this confrontation.
“Most members of the Special Forces did not rebel against the Knights of their own accord. “It’s because of the curse.”
“You mean a curse?”
Lucia intervened.
Her face was one of incomprehension. A paladin is cursed?
The holy power of a paladin is the opposite of a curse. Unless it was a fairly strong curse, it could not harm the Paladin.
If he really suffered from such a curse, he couldn’t explain the members of the special unit who were still using divine power.
“okay. “To be exact, it is a tactic that lies somewhere between brainwashing in the form of a curse.”
The vice-captain spread the seeds among the special equipment mainly used by special teams.
A curse that resides in an object and gradually infiltrates the user each time the object is used is a commonly used method of assassination through curse magic.
However, in this case, there was no direct harm to the body or mind.
If that were the case, the divine power directly connected to the user’s soul would have immediately rebelled.
“This curse cleverly and gradually transforms the victim’s consciousness. “To make them dissatisfied with the power of the Holy Knights, which has become weaker than it was hundreds of years ago, and to make them believe that the revival of the Knights, as advocated by the vice-captain, is right.”
“Vice-captain, how on earth do you have such expertise in curses?”
“I don’t think he made it himself. “At most, we took some steps to neutralize the backlash of divine power, and for the rest, we probably received help from outside.”
It is believed that they received help from witches and dragons. Edgar added:
Dallen thought as he quietly listened to the conversation between the two people.
dragon. It’s a dragon.
I think that refers to the dragon in the crack.
‘A corpse that seems to have gained divine power… was probably just around the border of the dragon’s territory.’
Dallen once again reflected on one of the reasons he came to the headquarters of the Holy Knights. Then Edgar said:
“Oh, it’s already arrived. “Welcome to the Order.”
As we talked, the gateway was just around the corner.
***
The gateway was an enormous castle wall.
A castle wall as tall as 30 meters. Both ends were in contact with a sheer cliff.
The gateway that completely blocked the deep valley between the mountains seemed like it could withstand even a devil’s invasion.
“Stop!”
On the wall of the gateway. A paladin shouted among the crusaders standing guard.
The paladin, who had strengthened his eyesight and looked at the group, froze in shock when he spotted the knight commander. he shouted again.
“Are you by any chance the leader?”
Edgar let go of the horse’s reins and drew his sword. The white sword body shone under the slowly brightening sky of dawn.
The first holy sword is the white sword Ruwach.
The paladin urgently shouted after seeing the badge symbolizing the knight commander.
“Open the door!”
With the sound of heavy machinery turning, the huge castle gate, nearly ten meters high, opened wide.
The group drove their horses and entered the castle gate. The gateway was a fortress in itself.
A huge fortress with enough supplies and weapons to be able to survive inside for several months even if it is isolated and deprived of supplies.
“The sacred tattoo can be engraved at the headquarters. Since you have completed several requests for the Knights and even retrieved the Holy Sword, I will engrave it myself.”
As he passed the crusaders and paladins saluting to welcome the knight commander, Edgar quietly opened his mouth.
“And speaking of which, I heard you were recognized by the Holy Sword.”
“So it is.”
Dallen nodded.
They already had to negotiate over ownership of the Holy Sword.
Although the recognition of the Holy Sword was absolute, the Holy Sword was basically the property of the Knights.
Therefore, Dallen wanted to help resolve the civil war and receive the Holy Sword officially as compensation.
“Originally, it would have been right to bring him to the headquarters and give him time to recover from his travels, but if you are going to help with this civil war, you may have to go into action right away.”
Edgar said. Seeing as it’s a strategy, it looks like they aren’t planning on winning with a straight attack method.
Dallen shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter. “Am I going alone?”
“no. Paladin Lucia will accompany us, and the wizard who is helping us will also be involved in the operation.”
“A wizard.”
Dallen stroked his chin. This is the first time I’ve fought on the same side as a spellcaster since dealing with the Apostles of Retrograde.
And after a while, Dallon, who entered the conference room to explain the operation, couldn’t help but smile.
“Dallen! What’s going on here!”
An old man with a brown beard greeted him with joy.
He is an earth mage who fought alongside the cultists in Falcion and one of the few spellcasters that Daelon believes he can trust.
Because it was Felver Valentino, the elder wizard of the Elgaia Tower.