Chapter 96: The Plague Onslaught (2)

For a moment, time seemed to float, and then my body plunged straight down.

Beneath the ramparts, jaws clacked as they slammed their fangs together in a frenzy.

The sight of their drooling yellow spittle made it seem as if they thought this place was their own dining table.

I saw the sickly yellow liquid soaking the earth.

It wasn’t just disgusting—it was spit tainted with plague.

How dare they.

In the very fortress where I once spat on and marked my claim.

I drew two Cores from my waist and summoned sacred power.

A gathering of light, devouring the Cores, began to take form.

『 Two-Blade Sword Saint – Activate 』

Two completed stars swept across the ground beneath the walls.

Monsters caught in their path collapsed one after another.

Amid the vile, dirty, purplish blood, I stood firm.

Bang, bang bang!

Temple Knights landed behind me.

Monsters wreathed in dust rushed at us.

In an instant, chaos erupted.

“Temple Knights! Form up!”

I shouted as I cut down the monsters blocking our path.

The knights quickly gathered their spirit and started to form up.

As expected of those who had once served the House of Bartenberg’s elite—they lined up right behind me even in this pandemonium.

Soon, a wedge-shaped formation was complete.

We became a spearhead, breaking through the very heart of filth.

From the Fortress, a Sacred Song echoed, pushing us onward.

“Tch! Let’s move out!”

Huger urged us on, his voice bubbling with excitement.

“For the Saint!”

Aaron and the other knights expressed their trust in me.

Even Gide set his worries aside, gazing at me with expectant eyes.

Following that, I became the vanguard and strode forward.

Anything that irked me was sliced down before my eyes.

The brave knights supported me from behind.

Our steps soon became a gallop, transforming into a charge that rivaled any mounted cavalry.

“Agh, urgh!”

Flesh of the monsters blocking our way flew through the air.

Filthy streams of blood spattered the ground.

We stomped through it, pressing on.

Faith burned bright amid the filth.

The enemy’s vile forms were laid bare.

Some had dozens of gaping maws, others oozed slime from their entire bodies.

Monsters of every grotesque shape swarmed at us like moths to a flame.

And every one of them was beheaded.

Thud, roll—

Heads tumbled across the earth, only to be trampled by booted feet, never ceasing.

The momentum of the Temple Knights following me was truly fierce.

They swung their blades with the ferocity of wolves tearing through a flock of sheep.

And I was their leader.

At the very front, striking the fiercest blows.

So caught up in the movement, I suddenly felt something strange.

The sensation of cleaving monster flesh was repulsive, yet I didn’t feel revulsion.

The hot, filthy blood soaking my body—oddly, it didn’t disgust me, even as my skin crawled.

Excitement welled up.

“No one falls behind!”

I shouted, swinging my sword.

“We’ll follow you to the end!”

“Don’t look back!”

“Ho—r !”

“Ho—r uuuu—!”

It was a feeling I could almost become addicted to.

***

“Insane!”

Hans’s reaction upon seeing Richard von Bartenberg leap down was just that.

When he saw the Temple Knights throw themselves after him, his face went pale.

The walls were so high.

But more than that—how many monsters, bristling with menace, swarmed below!

Wasn’t this nothing short of suicide?

“Wa—wait, Saint!”

Hans wanted to jump down right away and search for them.

He couldn’t bear to lose his only hope, Richard, so meaninglessly.

But even sticking his head over the parapet was no easy thing for Hans.

He worried, terrified, that a monster’s maw might lunge out from the gaps at any moment.

But the wall top had already become hell long ago.

This was no place for Hans to worry over whether or not to stick his head out.

Rwaaagh!

A crimson arm lunged out without warning.

Cowardly Hans managed to block it with his spear.

He was lucky—it was a miracle, but that was all.

Snap—

His broken spear seemed to mirror his own future.

“Damn it!”

He landed on his rear, staring dumbly at the monster closing in on him.

How long had it been since Richard saved his life, only for him to face death again so soon?

Every negative thought crowded his mind.

After all, he was useless in this fortress. He was nothing but a name on a roll call by mistake.

“Graaaagh!”

The monster raised its grotesque arm high.

Hans trembled at the sight.

His wet, shaking legs felt unspeakably unpleasant.

Pathetic, pitiful, and wretched.

The unlucky soldier stared death in the face.

“No! I don’t want to die!”

He rolled his body aside.

The monster’s arm crashed into the wall, missing him by a hair’s breadth.

Crash!

Stone fragments and dust exploded everywhere, clouding his vision.

It was Hans’s chance.

He twisted himself around and ran for the wall’s stairs.

Monsters? Those would be dealt with by the real knights.

His mind scolded him to move as fast as he could, but the spot where Richard had kicked him still ached, hampering his movement.

Damn it.

He hated himself for being so pathetic.

But he wanted to live.

Hadn’t Richard told him to get off the wall if he was just going to freeze?

If he could only escape this hell, he’d give up his pride forever.

The blazing morale he’d felt before battle was nowhere to be found now.

Any shallow sense of duty as a vassal was shrouded by fear.

Then it happened.

A familiar presence was felt beyond the wall.

His hurried steps froze.

As if in a trance, he turned his head.

Over the wall, two hundred knights could be seen.

Richard and the Temple Knights, cutting through the heart of the monsters like a raging torrent.

He’d thought they were surely dead.

But not only were they alive, two hundred knights were driving back two thousand monsters.

There was not a hint of fear or hesitation in their faces.

Even if the blood on them was plague-ridden.

Even if their wounds were torn by plague claws.

The knights plunged through the mire before them with determined faces.

“Ho—r !”

“Ho—r uuuu—!”

Richard’s blood-stained figure charged all the way to the wall.

The Temple Knights’ battle cries echoed across the battlefield.

With that, the mood on the wall changed completely.

“Ho—r !”

“Ho—r !”

The cheers of the Alliance rang high.

Those who had survived the undead war raised their morale.

“Hor is with us!”

Helga’s commanding shout rang out.

Already, the Alliance Army, in turmoil, started to go wild.

To Hans and the Royal Army soldiers, it was incomprehensible.

Why did that one shout matter so much?

Why did it stir them so?

Hans straightened up.

The stairs down from the wall were right before him, but his feet refused to move.

What he’d dismissed as mere shouting now weighed on his conscience, holding his ankles.

A single line drawn in his mind.

That line became a taut rope bridge, and a contest began.

Soon, the winner was decided.

“Shit…”

In the end, he picked up a sword lying on the ground.

“Ho, Hor…”

Then, turning on his heel, he shouted with all his might.

After a few repetitions, the dying ember of courage inside him seemed to flicker alive.

“Ho—oooooor uuuu—!”

Soldiers’ eyes turned to him as he shouted at the top of his lungs.

Soon, the spark caught.

Lips that had been trembling began to shout in unison.

For some reason, hands pulled bowstrings faster, and spears and swords swung with renewed force.

“Ho—r !”

At last, even the Royal Guard Knights raised their swords.

Everyone defending the wall bellowed without pause.

The fire of morale spread through Riot Castle.

It was the sun bestowed upon Riot Castle alone, burning from shoulder to shoulder.

***

Everything in my way was cut down.

Slash after slash, and before I knew it, there were no more monsters—open ground stretched before us.

We had finally carved a path through the filth.

“Tired yet?”

As I caught my breath, Gide asked.

If I was, he slyly offered to switch places with me.

“A greedy old man can’t always have his way.”

I didn’t stop walking, but changed direction.

The knights behind me followed without a word.

“We’re going again.”

The enemy still stretched far and wide.

We had charged out of the fortress to kill every last one of these monsters.

“KIEEEEE!”

The monsters howling at the fortress turned to glare at us.

Annoyed by the light I cast, they abandoned the banquet that was Riot Castle and charged at us instead.

If we got surrounded by those filthy things, we’d be in trouble.

So we ran again.

Hot blood, splattering from the monsters, drenched our bodies once more.

Sluuurp—

Foul ooze flowed down my skin, dark bruises blossoming where it touched.

It was an Omen of Plague.

Already, half my flesh had turned pitch black.

A searing pain ran through me, making even my joints creak.

Not only me—all of the Temple Knights were groaning in agony.

It was something we’d accepted before the battle began.

No matter how well-prepared we were for the charge, it was wishful thinking to believe we wouldn’t be contaminated by the plague.

The Blessed Armor was stained, the wounds on our flesh soaked with monster blood.

Flaaash—!

The light I cast wrapped around the knights.

Even so, it wasn’t nearly enough to cleanse such deeply rooted plague.

Still, it was better than nothing.

“For the Saint!”

While I was busy cutting down enemies, Aaron called out to me.

He, in a mess, pointed toward the fortress.

While the monsters’ attention was focused on us, the gates of the fortress were opening.

Knights were pouring out.

There were men of the Alliance, and men of the Royal Guard as well.

“Took your sweet time, you bastards.”

They weren’t really late, but I grumbled anyway.

Truth be told, I was glad for the unexpected arrival of the Knights of the Royal Guard.

The faces that had always seemed aloof now looked more than acceptable.

Anyway, now it was time to finish the battle.

Rumble—

I wove Aura onto Dragon Tooth.

The faith-forged Aura vibrated the air around me.

The bustling Temple Knights turned their eyes toward me.

Strangely enough, even the monsters recoiled and shrank back.

Once you start a charge, you see it through to the end.

I stepped forward.

Layered Aura atop Aura.

Screeeee—

The air crackled under the overwhelming pressure.

I had ascended to the level of a Swordmaster, unleashing my full strength for the first time.