Chapter 340

Chapter 340

Back from the brink of death, the allies were ready to resume their assault on Ashvka, but not the magicians. They had already been drained of much of their mana by the energy-sucking insects. All they could do was defend themselves.

Forcing the summoning circle to disengage at this point would be like sending the magicians out on a limb, so Ector decided to put the destruction of the summoning circle on hold and concentrate on defeating Ashvka.

“Bind his hands and feet! We must give the Scarlet Scales Knight Order a chance to strike!”

Cadel was confident that he could end Ashvka’s life with just one member. It was a confidence that was hard to believe, but he hadn’t won so many battles with vanity. So Ector pushed aside the fact that most of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order had been deployed against Lawrence, and the strangeness of the healing energy that surrounded his ally and chose to believe Cadel’s promise.

And so Cadel went to find the man who would fulfill his promise.

“I need this done in one shot. No time for regeneration, just a quick kill. Can you do it?”

Yozen said, wrapping the back of Cadel’s hand as he held his shoulder tightly.

“I can do it.”

It was a clean answer, no further words, no hesitation. Cadel smiled slightly at his trusty subordinate.

“I’ll give you the signal from over there. Aim for the heart the moment Ashvka is bound.”

“Okay. But.......”

Yozen, who had been obediently following Cadel’s instructions, stuttered. After watching Cadel puzzled, Yozen rubbed his eyelids out of habit.

“Do you happen to have any spare bandages or something?”

“Spare bandages?”

“I’m getting ready for a big skill, so I’ve been feeling a little...... uncomfortable.”

Uncomfortable. Was it uncomfortable if he didn’t have a bandage on his eye? It was usually the other way around. Maybe he enjoyed the pressure of the bandage, but it was also strange that he found it comfortable. Cadel pulled Yozen’s hand away from rubbing his eye and studied his face carefully.

“You don’t seem to have any new wounds, is there another reason?”Yôur favorite novels at n/o(v)el/bin(.)com

“......When I use my powerful skills, I look bad. You’ll be offended if you see it.”

“What do you mean, offended?”

“......It’s okay if you don’t have any.”

Yozen started to turn away, evading the answer, but Cadel wouldn’t let him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’ve got bandages and all they do is cover your eyes. Who says you look bad?”

“.......”

“Who? You can’t see your face, so you can’t be objective, because even if you grew five horns on your forehead here, you’d never look offended.”

“That’s a little.......”

“I don’t know when or where you met that fucking demonized snout, but don’t mind it.”

Cadel, who’d been admonishing Yozen, yanked Yozen’s hand away and put it over his face. Yozen’s hesitant expression softened as Cadel forced him to stroke his narrowed eyes and raised eyebrows to indicate his anger.

「Knight ‘Yozen Vardikta’ ’s favorability has increased by 2.」

「Current favorability: 64/100」

“Alright, I won’t mind.”

“......Good.”

“Lawrence......!”

Ashvka shouted Lawrence’s name over and over again. But Lawrence could offer no help, and even if he had, it would have been useless.

Yozen, riding Ashvka’s tilted body, stopped at a point. Above Ashvka’s heart. The sound of his heart pierced through the buzzing of the insects, the infinite beating of their wings. It was the sound of the terrified.

Yozen’s expression grew impassive, then a faint amusement flashed across his face.

“That sounds good.”

Muttering softly, he raised his hands, and the dark energy that flowed from his fingertips took shape, forming a pair of long-bladed daggers.

The two daggers emitted a strange, deafening sound. It was a ghastly, ear-splitting sound, but it excited Yozen, and he swung the twin blades wildly with a grin that could only be described as murderous.

[Inevitable Death].

Without warning, a giant X-shaped afterimage was carved out of thin air, cutting through Ashvka’s body. An afterimage blacker and darker than Ashvka’s body. It glowed ominously as if to suggest that the target was about to be erased from this world. The image faded slightly before disappearing.

Shaaaa―

The intersection of an afterimage. The space at the intersection, which pointed precisely to Ashvka’s heart, disappeared. Beyond the gaping hole in his heart, a swarm of insects fell like a shower of rain.

No thundering terminals, no splashing blood. Just like that, with no death-defying flight. Ashvka’s heart was taken from him.

Until Yozen, mission accomplished, washed away the dark energy and landed on the ground. Neither enemy nor ally could take in what was happening before them.

It was the thunderous echo of a dead meat that reversed the flow of the battlefield. The stately body fell limply, shaking the ground as if to prove its death, and the stiffened knights resumed their movements.

Now that their most threatening foe was dead, their next target was Lawrence, the man the Scarlet Scales Knight Order had been chaining up all this time.

‘How the hell did he......!’

Lawrence’s eyes fluttered as he flew through the rush of sword energy, aura, and magic spells. At the end of his line of sight was Ashvka’s body, heartless and limp.

Sure, the assassin had dangerous powers. But he hadn’t expected to be so powerful that he could take Ashvka’s life in one fell swoop, the peak of which was hard to measure.

Garuel’s presence had distracted him, and he hadn’t been able to gauge the power of the human side.

‘Losing Ashvka, that’s a huge mistake.’

He heard Ashvka’s call but was unable to help immediately. Two humans and a fairy held him back, unable to mortally wound him, but unwilling to allow him to move freely.

‘Especially that berserker....... I had never encountered an aura of that concentration before, not even by myself. There were too many variables, and Garuel wasn’t the only problem.’

The Demon Realm had lost one of its key powers, he had failed to kill Garuel and had failed to take down the Empire. If he returned to the Demon Realm at this rate, he would not escape Emilia’s punishment.

Nevertheless, Lawrence chose to return as soon as he realized that the summoning circle had not yet been destroyed. It was not that he was afraid of the humans, but rather that he would rather suffer Emilia’s punishment.

‘......Scarlet Scales Knight Order, they said.’

The individuals he had battled and found more than annoying, but shocking. He had learned their affiliations, even memorized some of their names. If he gave their information to Emilia, he would narrowly escape a severe punishment. If he played his cards right, he might even get a second chance.

Approaching the summoning circle, Lawrence breathed demonic energy over it. Beyond the pillar of dark demonic energy, he could see Garuel staring back at him from a distance. His nephew, dressed in a ridiculous mask, struggling to hide his identity.

Lawrence’s gaze shifted slightly as he too stared. Before returning to the Demon Realm, the human form he had captured was not Garuel, but Cadel.

The commander of the Scarlet Scales Knight Order. One of the major powers in the Human Realm, as far as Lawrence knew, and his nephew’s spiritual support. He had a hunch that taking that human named Cadel down would be crucial to winning this war.

‘I’ll see you next time, my dear nephew.’

And so Lawrence escaped, and the summoning circle that succeeded in bringing him back was rendered ineffective, a scar of the war.