Dozens of shadows emerged from the darkness.
As the paladins raised their gazes upward, the black forms clinging densely to the ceiling revealed crimson eyes.
“Black magic!”
Aren Valerian, a paladin capable of wielding ‘divinity’, realized that the dozens of grotesque forms attached to the high cave ceiling were demonic beasts summoned by black magic and warned his comrades in a resounding voice.
“O beings of the dark abyss! His Majesty the Emperor is present here with us! Defeat is not permitted to us! Even if I burn my life away, we shall never fall! The wicked of darkness must fear the power of imperial authority!”
Aren Valerian was not merely waiting for the enemies to approach.
He roared powerfully toward the enemies on the ceiling and swung his golden greatsword, unleashing a storm of divine power.
“Come! Beings of the abyss! Receive His Majesty the Emperor’s wrath!”
The brilliant golden storm swept fiercely toward the ceiling.
The golden storm that collided with the ceiling exploded with a tremendous roar, tearing apart all ‘evil’ as it engulfed the black magic demonic beasts that had been clinging upside down.
When the divine storm that had swept through the cave ceiling embracing the underground ruins finally dissipated, no demonic beasts remained alive there.
The black magic substances that had formed jet-black bodies were pulverized into tiny fragments by the sudden assault of the divine storm and scattered in all directions.
By the time his attack ended, not even intact corpses could be found.
“Have we eliminated them?”
“…It’s not over yet. There are more. They are cunningly concealing their presence while targeting us.”
To the astonishing martial prowess displayed by the paladin of the Imperial Church who had reached the early Meister realm, Cain unwittingly let slip words he shouldn’t have.
However, Viscount Denver, guarding right beside him, explained that it wasn’t over yet and that the main force of the true enemies was biding their time with concealed presence.
“They were some kind of scouting party…”
“It seems so.”
Viscount Denver responded with a tense expression to what was nearly Cain’s mutter.
Among knights of the same realm, he was particularly skilled at reading presences, and he could discern that the level of those hiding in the darkness aiming for the emperor was considerably high.
“This doesn’t seem like we’ll be facing pushovers. It looks like it’ll be a tough battle.”
At Viscount Denver’s counsel, Cain nodded slightly and pressed closer to the barrier again.
It was to find clues about ‘Onisia’s power’.
The fact that the enemies were using black magic was an unwelcome situation for Viscount Denver and the Imperial Guard Knights, but not for Cain.
Rather, he felt glad that the enemies were wielding the power of darkness drawn from the ‘deep abyss’.
If the enemies used the power of darkness from the deep abyss, then liberating the sealed power of the Evil-Slaying Paladin, Onisia, here and awakening a new ‘holy relic’ would allow him to confront them without much difficulty.
What I need to do is clear.
If the enemies use black magic, the top priority is to find and liberate ‘Onisia’s power’ as quickly as possible.
“More are coming!”
While Cain carefully examined the barrier’s surface, Viscount Philips Grey, who had magically detected the presences of enemies approaching the defensive formation, raised his right hand holding the staff high and summoned dozens of fireballs.
“Go!”
The barrage of fireballs that flew illuminating the darkness was soon swallowed by a wave of thick darkness.
“Black magic!”
Dark magic that devoured dozens of fireballs in an instant.
Viscount Grey, discerning its nature, raised his voice.
Then Aren Valerian stepped forward one pace and swung his divine greatsword, scattering brilliant golden aura.
“Retreat! Beings of darkness! In this land where His Majesty the Emperor reigns, you shall not dare approach any further!”
As the darkness melted away like filth peeling off under Aren’s shout and golden divinity, behind it, knights of massive builds around 2 meters tall clad in jet-black armor revealed themselves.
The bright red glow visible through the slits of their helmet visors seemed to indicate they no longer belonged to the category of normal ‘humans’.
“Undead?”
“Death knights?”
Since black magic and necromancy had not appeared on the continent for so long, the Imperial Guard Knights lacking related knowledge guessed that the enemies before them were undead like death knights.
However, Cain, with abundant worldview knowledge compared to them, raised his voice to inform them of the enemies’ details.
“They’re not undead! They’re demonized knights! Respond from range with divine power or fire-based attack magic, and in close quarters, pierce the heart or sever the neck!”
In a world where black magic had vanished for far too long, it was natural not to immediately recognize their true nature.
Cain gave instructions on countermeasures with a regretful expression.
Originally, injecting black magic into humans turns them into demons.
At this time, much varies depending on what black magic is injected, but generally, if powerful black magic is injected, most knights and mages lose their ego and become demonic beasts obedient to the black magician’s control.
Just like those right before their eyes.
Those who were once human but no longer are.
Unlike undead, their bodies are not dead and moving, so piercing the heart that became the medium of black magic or severing the neck to cut the connection to the brain can instantly kill them.
“Could they even be black knights…”
Black knights was the term for demonized knights.
There are various ways to deploy black knights, but usually, black magicians in the rear support their advance.
Therefore, if they know how to handle black knights, black magicians’ firepower would be waiting behind them.
I need to hurry.
If it were merely engagement with black knights, considering the level of those here, they might hold them off without major losses… but if black magicians’ firepower support is added, it was uncertain how long the escorts could endure.
Knowing this well, Cain began hurrying even more to find clues related to Onisia.
Meanwhile, the knights burned with resolve for a fight to the death, swords drawn to protect the emperor.
“Hold the line! Protect His Majesty the Emperor with your lives!”
Aren Valerian’s shout echoed through the ancient underground ruins.
Accordingly, the Imperial Church paladins and imperial Imperial Guard Knights, who had instinctively stepped back one pace as if overwhelmed by the advance of the knights in black armor, regained their valor and stepped forward again.
“If you are knights! Do not retreat like cowards! We die standing!”
Aren Valerian said so and swung his greatsword radiating brilliant golden splendor toward the jet-black knights.
The Imperial Church, which had worshipped the Felberg imperial family inheriting the bloodline of the constellations from very ancient times.
The paladin Aren standing at its forefront resolved for death in this moment.
After a long, long wait, a true emperor had finally descended in this era.
Dying in battle devoting his life for the noble bloodline was rather a great honor to him.
His religious fanaticism infected the other paladins as well, and they began exerting strength beyond their original power.
“Block them!”
As the knights burned their lives holding the line, Cain moved without rest to find the device that could awaken ‘Onisia’s power’.
If it’s according to the initial planning settings, it should be around here…
However, the device was strangely nowhere in sight.
Cain grew increasingly impatient.
The detailed design, aesthetics, and settings of the underground ruins where ‘Onisia’s power’ was sealed had indeed been heavily handled by outsourced personnel.
However, the draft of this planning had been written by Cain, and as the overall supervisor, he had also conducted the final review for applying the completed data materials.
In the first place, he remembered confirming it didn’t deviate greatly from the draft and approving its application to the main data.
Therefore, according to the memories of the 32-year-old developer Kang Ji-hoon, sleeping incomplete in Cain’s mind now, ‘Onisia’s power’ should be discoverable near the deepest part of the underground ruins, at the dead-end path.
In other words, right around here.
Why on earth can’t I see it.
As time passed, Cain grew increasingly anxious.
From what he observed, the enemies’ level was by no means easy.
The later Cain was, the thicker the blood his allies would inevitably shed.
Should I not have come here at this timing?
But it had to be now, if not.
After the Beheading Priest arrives, moving like this would become even harder, and wasn’t this prepared in advance to gain his favor to begin with.
Moreover, regretting now was too late.
This was a dead end, with no retreat path.
To survive and escape here, there was no choice but to slaughter all the enemies before their eyes.
Judging coldly, it’s not without chances of victory.
Though early stage, the reliably holding the vanguard was Aren Valerian, who had strictly reached the high realm of ‘Meister’, and the Imperial Guard Knights, initially overwhelmed by the black knights’ momentum, had regained valor and were actively engaging the enemies.
The enemies’ forces were also formidable, but it didn’t seem they would lose in the immediate battle against the black knights.
However, the problem was after all the black knights fell.
Black magicians’ engagement methods vary by school and affiliated faction, but factions that induce demonization by injecting black magic or curses into knights and organize them into large-scale ‘black knights’ as main force are not many.
And in the worldview setting, the representative black magic school using demonized ‘black knights’ as primary force is…
The Black Legion.
Yet these treated black knights—strictly living beings unlike undead—as disposable supplements they could replenish anytime.
Their characteristic was particularly prominent in engagement style; the ‘Black Legion’ preferred wheel warfare, grinding black knights to secure definite victory.
Wheel warfare is a tactic of consuming weak majority forces to deal with strong minority enemies.
Accordingly, the Black Legion school gradually deploys numerous low-level demon-level black knights onto the battlefield to aim for continuous attrition of the opponent formation, and at the decisive moment, deploys elites.
In other words, they don’t deploy black knights right from the start; they scout with cheapest-to-operate lowest-grade familiar beasts to roughly gauge the enemy’s firepower, then deploy black knights in stages accordingly.
Those on the ceiling were familiars. And now it seems like the second wave…
The black forms that had been attached to the ceiling at the very beginning and were cleanly torn apart by Aren Valerian’s divine storm were undoubtedly ‘shadow goblins’ classified as lowest-grade familiars.
After scouting with familiars and roughly assessing this side’s forces, they immediately deployed black knights.
The several dozen black knights presumed as the first wave could be repelled without much difficulty thanks to Aren Valerian and the paladins’ performance, but without even a moment to catch breath, the second wave was already surging in.
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