chapter_0134

“You’re a truly fascinating human.”

“What’s so fascinating?”

Dullahan held out the helmet in his hand and examined me. I wondered if his eyes were really in that helmet.

Fighting on the ground was one thing, but it would be difficult to fight with both a sword and a spear while riding a horse.

“How did the Demon King arrange things so that you can stand so close to a succubus queen without being affected, even when she’s in heat and releasing pheromones?”

It seemed that he believed it completely, so I didn’t have to worry about him backstabbing me. It was a mutually beneficial relationship.

“Patience.”

“Patience?”

“It’s an essential virtue for a knight seeking honor. Sometimes, in order to obey your lord’s command, you have to wait endlessly. Sometimes you need to accept dishonor for the sake of true honor.”

“Indeed. Your words are truly wise. It is indeed honorable for a true knight to serve the Demon King. Truly, great leaders attract great talents. He was indeed born to rule.”

Dullahan, interpreting my words in his own way, leaped onto his ghost horse. Then he placed the helmet where his head should have been.

It was a bit strange and awkward to see him with a head for the first time. When I looked closely, the helmet wasn’t completely attached; it was floating slightly away from his body.

“Now, let’s depart. The sooner we finish this, the better.”

“Wait a moment. What about me? You don’t expect me to run after you, do you?”

I could keep up with a normal horse using physical enhancement, but I wasn’t sure if I could keep up with a ghost horse that was unaffected by terrain, twice as fast as a regular horse, and never tired.

Most importantly, I didn’t want to waste my energy by running after them. I would need all my strength to face the hundreds of thousands of undead we were about to fight.

“Hmm, I didn’t think about that. Wait a moment.”

Dullahan poked the ground next to his ghost horse with his spear. A shadow emerged from the spot and began to wriggle. The shadow coalesced and took on the form of a ghost horse.

The newly created ghost horse walked up to me and lowered its body, inviting me to mount.

“Can you ride it? If you can, ride it and follow us.”

“Are there any conditions for riding it?”

“Yes. The first condition is that you must be a ghost, but that doesn’t apply to you. Of course, if you want, I can make you one.”

“No, thanks.”

I wasn’t crazy.

“Okay, so there’s a first condition, which means there’s a second one. What’s the second condition?”

“You must have killed enough humans for the ghost horse to recognize you as its rider. But since you’re human, it’s practically impossible……”

Before he could finish his sentence, I jumped onto the ghost horse’s back. I felt a strange, cold sensation on the inside of my thighs, as if it were alive and yet not alive.

The ghost horse calmly stood next to Dullahan’s horse. It then turned its head slightly to lick my hand, sending a chill through my body.

Dullahan, who had been watching from the side, asked, “What’s this?”

“Practically impossible, you say?”

“I was about to say it was impossible, but it seems the ghost horse recognizes you as its master. This is surprising. What have you been up to?”

“Well, something like that.”

I evaded the question with a vague answer and smiled bitterly inside. It was true that I had killed enough humans to make the Sword Saint show killing intent when we first met, even though it was in another world.

Since the karma on my soul didn’t change when I came to this world, it wasn’t strange for the ghost horse to recognize me as its master so easily.

“It’s not honorable to dig into someone’s unpleasant past. All right, let’s head straight to the Demon King’s Castle now.”

“Yes, let’s go. But you’ll guide us, right?”

“Of course.”

After the ghost cavalry had left the succubus territory, I closed the gap we had made when we left. The white flames soared up to the sky, enveloping the entire territory without a single gap.

The helmet’s visor was facing me as if it were watching.

“Why?”

“Seeing you makes me think of the Sword Saint. I used to think the Sword Saint was the only human I couldn’t defeat, but I guess I’ll have to change my mind.”

“Is the Sword Saint that strong?”

Of course, the current Sword Saint is strong enough. But it was clear that she wasn’t as strong as she was in her prime, when she boldly declared that she would bring peace to the continent by killing demons.

“Twenty percent of the demon race died at the hands of the Sword Saint. Eight Legion Commanders were wiped out. The remaining Legion Commanders are the ones who didn’t get a chance to fight her back then. If the Demon King hadn’t acted when he did, Astaroth, Leptarukus, and I would have ceased to exist as well.”

“The Demon King overwhelmed the Sword Saint in a frontal battle.”

“Yes. I witnessed the Sword Saint’s strength with my own eyes, and I also witnessed the Demon King’s strength. That’s why I can’t believe that she’s truly gone. I saw her power with my own eyes, so how could she possibly die?”

His words confirmed my suspicions. Astaroth with the Demon Sword wasn’t as strong as Elysier. She was disgustingly strong, but she wasn’t on Elysier’s level.

‘Did she obtain the Demon God power but couldn’t fully utilize it?’

Or perhaps the power she had before she became the Demon King affected her abilities after she obtained the Demon Sword.

I briefly wondered how strong Dullahan would be if he were to wield the Demon Sword. I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t think of a way to defeat him without using the Dragon Tooth Sword.

“Let’s pick up the pace.”

The ghost horse galloped forward, and I unconsciously grabbed its mane before letting go. My body didn’t shake at all, even though the horse was running at full speed.

It was a strange experience. Despite the horse’s vigorous movements, my body didn’t shake at all, and I didn’t feel any vibrations either. Moreover, I didn’t hear the sound of hooves hitting the ground.

“Is it strange?”

“Of course, it’s strange. When would a living human ever ride a ghost horse?”

“I feel the same way. I never thought a living human could ride a ghost horse. This must be the Demon King’s doing as well.”

With that habitual worship, the conversation ended. Dullahan and I, along with thousands of ghost cavalry, rode in silence.

As I pondered which weapon to use while riding the ghost horse, I eventually put Eternity away and took out the Dragon Tooth Sword.

‘The Elder Lich will recognize the Eternity.’

After all, the Maker had come to the Academy with him to try to kill me, and we even fought briefly, so he would remember the weapons I used, including Eternity.

There was no point in revealing my true identity unnecessarily.

‘…… I don’t know what to do with this guy.’

I glanced at Dullahan, who was riding his ghost horse with a furious expression, as if he were heading towards an honorable death.

Perhaps because his detachable helmet was filled with nothing but honor and loyalty, I felt surprisingly little hostility towards him, despite the fact that he was technically an enemy of humanity.

It was as if I understood why he had challenged the hero to a duel instead of killing him outright.

I thought it would be less uncomfortable to reveal my identity, give him time to recover if he was injured, and then fight him one-on-one honorably, just like in the original story.

“Halt!”

At Dullahan’s command, the entire cavalry came to a stop without any inertia. It was something only ghosts could do. I looked ahead, curious about what had caused the halt.

The horizon in front of us was writhing.

“Do they know we’re coming?”

The ground couldn’t move on its own, so it was obvious what was happening. The Elder Lich had somehow realized that we were heading towards the Demon King’s Castle.

Dullahan growled lowly as he observed the writhing horizon for a while.

“That traitor has set up quite a defense. It won’t be easy to continue riding the ghost horses.”

The ground ahead wasn’t just writhing; it had become a sea of rotten flesh, with countless arms reaching out as if to grab the horses’ legs.

“We’ll have to take a detour……”

“I think it’s too late for that.”

The same rotten flesh was rising from the sides, diagonal directions, and even the path we had just taken.

“Didn’t you sense anything while we were riding?”

“No.”

“I didn’t sense anything either. So, the conclusion is that he’s spread it out thinly and widely so that we can’t detect it, and he’s combining it into one big mass right now.”

In other words, the sea of rotten flesh and the countless arms rising from it were like a Flesh Golem, a type of undead.

Since it was undead made of flesh, it could freely disassemble and reassemble.

Suddenly, the rotten flesh closest to us began to round up. On the mass of flesh, organs that mimicked a creature’s eyes and mouth were created.

“I’ve been waiting…… First Legion Commander……”

A horrifyingly distorted voice came from the melted undead’s mouth, and pieces of flesh fell off with every word, only to be quickly replaced by new flesh.

“And next to him……”

-Flrrrrr!

The white flames I had released struck the undead’s face directly. The white flames burned away the flesh that defied the cycle of life, leaving not even ashes behind.

“What’s the point of listening to that?”

I drew the Dragon Tooth Sword and released a slash of the Demon Sword Technique, enveloping them with white flames and sending them down as a meteor of white fire.