Chapter 162:

Chapter 162:

Along with a notification sound, Isaac let out a breath he had been holding back.

His fingertips tingled. It wasn’t surprising considering he had just torn off Hectali’s head at incredible speed. However, his hand quickly returned to normal, surrounded by a sinister fluctuating energy that he had blocked with sword energy in a manner similar to what Bashul had shown.

‘I was supposed to use my sword...’

He had drawn his sword first, but his hand had moved faster. Instinctively, he realized he could perform advanced swordsmanship more easily with his hands than with his sword.

The technique was inspired by Bashul’s sword drawing move, but what Isaac accomplished was entirely different.

If Bashul’s strike was like lightning coming down, Isaac’s was more like the touch of a predator hunting its prey.

It was a surprise attack that the opponent didn’t see coming. Isaac had simply become a massive tentacle that serenely scooped up Hectali’s head.

The action was so fluid and straightforward that even Isaac himself was momentarily taken aback. However, to those around him, it was a bewildering and incomprehensible sight.

‘Was the insight I gained that time... this profound?’

Isaac’s swordsmanship wasn’t originally at this level. However, something had distinctly changed after his awakening during the duel with Yulihida.

This move was also based on Bashul’s technique but modified from the ‘Hand of the Drowned’ technique he had developed on the ship. It was an instant fusion created out of immediate necessity.

‘But can this even be called swordsmanship?’

Martial arts often include movements inspired by animals or natural phenomena, and the Avalanche Knight Order had developed their swordsmanship based on avalanches; perhaps this wasn’t so different.

‘But this feels less like imitating something and more like becoming something.’

Isaac couldn’t quite explain it himself.

After his awakening, he felt as though he had accessed a different realm of existence.

“Holy Grail Knight.”

At someone’s call, Isaac turned around.

Numerous eyes were fixed on him. All the knights and soldiers in the field were staring at him with a mix of astonishment and shock after he had appeared and ripped off the head of the witch they were all struggling to subdue.

Isaac understood their shock, but he also sensed another emotion in their gazes.

Awe.

Beyond respect and affection, it was the emotion humans feel when they witness a supremely powerful being. Leading them was Mors Gideon.

With blood streaming down his head from where he almost had his skull crushed, Mors approached Isaac.

Naturally, he took off his battered helmet and knelt on one knee before Isaac.

“You truly are a Holy Grail Knight, even from a far land, carrying forth the will of Elil.”

Starting with Mors, other knights also removed their helmets and began to kneel. Edelred approached the uncomfortable Isaac. It was a scene that could be misinterpreted in front of the king, as if someone else was receiving loyalty in his presence.

“Your Majesty, this is...”

“Nothing more than a knight being respected as he deserves. Holy Grail Knight.”

Edelred removed his helmet and placed it before Isaac, bowing his head.

“Today you saved my knights. Accept my respect as well.”

***

“Don’t worry too much about today’s events. Those knight zealots think it’s only right to kneel before a strong one, disregarding any oaths of loyalty to the king.”

On the ride back to the village after the initial defeat of Hectali, Edelred advised Isaac. For a moment, Isaac wondered if this was a check on him, but as a foreigner from the Gertonia Empire, he posed no political threat. Instead, he realized that Edelred was disconcerted by the knights’ behavior.

“Half of those under Lianne Georg’s command were generals and knights who she bent to her will by her hand. Just 3 or 4 years ago, they were loyal to our father. ‘You defeated me, I acknowledge it! I will serve you!’ It’s absurd.”

“But...”

“Rather, please arrange an empty house nearby. My subordinate has already prepared for this curse.”

Everything was unfolding exactly as Isaac had anticipated.

In the northwestern region of the Kingdom of Elil.

Here lay a forest untamed by time, marked by rugged mountains, harsh climate, and the raw power of the wilderness. Despite being repeatedly cut down and burned across the ages during Elil’s reign, it quickly regrew due to fast-growing plants, the stench of decaying swamps, and the ever-present thick fog that made visibility nearly impossible. This forest, impenetrable even to sunlight, was held in awe and fear by the locals.

They called it the Witch’s Forest.

Now, the Witch’s Forest was shaking with unrest.

The swamp spewed foul-smelling bubbles, birds screamed as they flew erratically, and leaves convulsed as if in agony, all in rhythm to the hummed incantations coming from the house of the witch Hectali.

“What is the Holy Grail Knight made of?”

“Dead rats, severed centipedes, and crow’s heads!”

“What does the Holy Grail Knight feed on?”

“Ashes, rotten fish, and his own excrement!”

The Hectali sisters danced around, continuously throwing cursed catalysts into a bubbling cauldron. The ingredients were the stuff of nightmares. The smoke billowing from the pot drifted southeast, heading in Isaac’s direction, carrying a powerful curse of physical transformation.

Throughout their many ordeals of death, the sisters never overlooked the demise of one of their own. Previously, they had killed through plagues or famine as a form of revenge, but they realized that those were too merciful ways to die.

The Hectali sisters wanted their victims to suffer over an extended period. Thus, they chose this curse of physical transformation.

As the curse completed, Isaac would transform into the grotesque form they desired, living on the bizarre diet they had chosen for him.

“What will the Holy Grail Knight say?”

“He will fart through his mouth and speak through his...”

One of the sisters suddenly stopped dancing and gasped for air, her siblings paused to assess her condition.

“What’s wrong? Why do you stop?”

She was drenched in sweat, a common sign among the sisters that the curse was particularly challenging. While it was true that the stronger the victim’s faith, the harder the curse hit, this level of difficulty was unprecedented.

“No, it’s just really tough...”

[Nameless Chaos watches over you.]

As Hectali gasped for air, a bizarre and terrifying scene flashed before her eyes, a sight not even the denizens of the Witch’s Forest had seen before. The moment she saw the writhing, tumultuous scene, her mind slipped away.

Crack.

Hectali’s neck twisted at an unnatural angle.

“Sister?”

The concerned Hectali asked, puzzled. She couldn’t see her sister’s face because of the twisted neck. Hectali touched her sister’s shoulder, and at that moment, her sister turned her head.

From her sister’s eyes, mouth, ears, and nose, countless tentacles writhed out like fingers. Soon, her skull couldn’t withstand the pressure and burst open, filling the room with tentacles.

What was once her ‘sister’ quickly enveloped Hectali.

Hectali screamed.

But screams were all too common in the Witch’s Forest.

[Objective: ‘Witch Hectali Sisters (3/3)’ eliminated.]

–TL Notes–

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to read up to advance 20 chapters or support me, you can do it at /Akaza156