Ch.240Report on the Downfall of Restraint (5)

“God Almighty!”

When they reached the horizon, the knights were left speechless. Some rubbed their eyes, while others asked if everyone else could truly see what lay before them.

Until now, the wasteland they knew had been a shrouded, abandoned land. Those who ventured through the dark fog curtain invariably went mad.

Occasionally, rumors spread that monsters would emerge from within to kidnap and devour people, which kept everyone far away.

But now, a forest of light had grown there.

The central ash tree reached almost to the heavens. Around it stood rows of trees of various forms.

Those with keen eyes and observation tools could see thin traces of light moving between the trees. If they weren’t mistaken, those beautiful curved lines resembled black butterflies.

Occasionally, beams of light shot up from the ground to the sky. Meteor showers normally fall from sky to earth, don’t they? This was the opposite. Yet to call it defying the heavens would be wrong—it was too bright, too warm.

And beneath it all, beasts rampaged, nightmare-like shadows cast against the luminous trees.

It reminded one of shadow puppetry seen in childhood. But these weren’t paper cutout shadows from those plays. They were the terrifying monsters they had faced at the fortress.

“There! Under the ash tree!”

The knights’ gazes converged. Beasts were gathering there.

Someone in black armor wielding dark flames was fighting. The beasts leaped at this figure, who toppled them with movements that seemed hardly human.

Grand Marshal Alleghieri and Regent Astrid saw the same thing. They wondered if the Knight of the Scabbard had always fought like this. The style seemed completely different.

But what needed to be done was clear. The Grand Marshal gave the order.

“Prepare to fire.”

Horn blasts echoed. Luminous military banners waved. Soldiers strained to rotate the carts. Atop them were ballistas brought from the Blue Fortress.

Soldiers beneath the carts secured wheel chocks and supports. Those above carefully adjusted the firing angles.

“Our targets are the large ones! Don’t waste shots on the smaller creatures! Raise the firing angle! Load, fire!”

Priests blessed the flying steel darts. Dozens of glowing darts—capable of piercing even fortress walls—flew toward the luminous forest. Even from a distance, the beasts’ agitation was visible.

The horns sounded again.

“Glory to the wings of the Two-headed Eagle!” shouted the Mercy Knights.

“For the Eternal Light!” cried the Holy Grail Knights.

Cavalry charged from both flanks. The horses’ initially light steps soon became a steady gallop, and finally an all-out charge.

The heavy, ponderous sound of hooves was a symphony promising victory to allies and a dire omen to enemies.

Like experienced performers, the cavalry didn’t get carried away by momentum. Even during the charge, they carefully soothed their mounts, gradually increasing and decreasing the intervals between them.

The leading edges of both flanks gradually increased speed. The semicircular encirclement transformed into a deep bowl shape.

Passing by the sides of the forest, the edges curled inward. A cavalry encirclement was forming.

“Align! Align! Match your intervals! Maintain formation!”

The Holy Grail and Mercy Knights shouted. The excited horses grew restless. The knights calmed their mounts while drawing a large arc.

Before long, the moment arrived. The larger beasts, unable to withstand the barrage, began rapidly fleeing the forest.

“Advance!”

Thousands of gleaming spears aimed at the beasts escaping from the forest.

Caught by surprise in the encirclement, the beasts didn’t know what to do. Soon, like a sand embankment swept away by waves, the horde of beasts literally melted away.

Skulls were crushed, bodies impaled and thrown backward, and smaller creatures trampled under hooves.

Some creatures leaped back into the forest. Those that tried to fly or jump high were invariably pierced by steel bolts.

The stronger ones grabbed and tore apart smaller creatures, spraying their blood on those nearby—a reign of terror showing what happened to those who wouldn’t fight.

But the first line of knights had long since moved on. Before the beasts could regroup, the second line charged.

Unlike the first line that had to quickly form an encirclement, they had slightly more leeway. Their morale was higher, their stamina better, and their momentum more ferocious.

Again, the beast horde collapsed.

The cunning ones tried to escape through gaps in the cavalry formation. But the Holy Grail and Mercy infantry had long since taken position there.

Large shields formed a thick wall. Pikes so long that three men would struggle to carry them rested in the gaps of the shield wall.

“Hold!”

The beasts charged, foaming at the mouth. To them, the shield wall looked like a heap of scrap metal that could be torn apart with one swipe of their claws.

“Hold!”

Fifty paces away. The infantry swallowed dry saliva. Forty paces. They looked at their equally tense squad leader. Thirty. Questions arose. Had he forgotten the order? Twenty. Doubts emerged. Was he too frightened to give the command at the right moment?

Ten.

“Thrust!”

The pikes extended in unison.

At an unexpected distance, the beasts couldn’t react. They impaled themselves on the protruding spikes. As they flinched and halted:

“Withdraw, and again!”

The embedded pikes retreated, tearing flesh and muscle. The shield wall was dragged forward slightly, then a second thrust pierced the beasts.

Enraged creatures picked up their fallen comrades’ bodies. Using them as meat shields, they charged the infantry line. Hastily thrust pikes merely stuck weakly, without coordination.

Casting aside their dead comrades, a beast leaped forward in ecstasy. While the frightened soldiers hesitated:

The beast stood tall, smiled strangely, then slowly fell forward. Blood showered down on the shield-bearing soldiers. The pike-men carefully pushed the massive body away. The beast’s corpse collapsed.

Its back was split open.

From the back of its head, along the neck and spine to the tail, it was cleanly cut. Like an experienced fisherman inserting a long knife into a fish and removing the flesh in one motion.

The terrified soldiers saw a mounted knight. A two-headed eagle emblem on the breastplate. Red jewels embedded in the eye sockets, like burning eyes watching them.

That alone was bizarre, but they dared not even look at the helmet.

Between the deer antlers branching out on either side, a lion’s head and upper jaw were visible. The lower jaw sat on the neck guard below the face cover, resembling a ferocious beast with its jaws wide open to tear apart prey.

Yet even this failed to fully convey the knight’s intimidating presence. The squad leader swallowed hard several times before realizing why he was so frightened.

The knight made no sound at all.

When wielding a halberd of questionable size for human use, when the beast collapsed, even now as soldiers regarded him with fearful eyes—he simply watched in silence.

“Th-thank you.”

The squad leader forced himself to bow. The knight turned his horse and disappeared into the darkness. But no one could complain that he hadn’t acknowledged the greeting.

In the forest darkness, beasts floundered. Creatures born of darkness feared the dark and thrashed about. It was incomprehensible why they behaved this way.

The next moment.

An axe flew from the other side. A beast with its head split open collapsed. Knights in armor engraved with the two-headed eagle approached silently.

Wielding great swords, double-bladed axes, and flails that most men could barely lift with both hands, they struck the beasts’ bodies.

They paid no attention whether the beasts wailed pitifully, raised their heads, or waved their hands. Thud. Thud. Thud. They struck emotionlessly, kicked away the dismembered corpses, sprayed the blood from their weapons into the air, and vanished into darkness.

No beast withstood more than three exchanges. First their necks were pierced, then their leg joints severed. As they tilted slightly, massive weapons split their bodies without mercy.

They were the White Blood Knights.

The squad leader understood how they had come this far and why they hadn’t been noticed.

The large White Blood banner remained far behind. While Mercy and Holy Grail drew attention with their brilliant light, these knights had approached through darkness, maintaining silence.

But he couldn’t complain about being used as a shield. He felt that one wrong word might cost him his head.

What the White Blood main force was doing now was neither an honorable battle nor a holy war glorifying God.

It was slaughter.

* * * * *

White Blood High Executioner Astrid divided her forces into eleven units. After giving free authority to eleven Berserkr and Valkyrja, she positioned them carefully.

Then she herself plunged in with the execution squad.

The light was bright enough to distinguish friend from foe.

The darkness was thick enough to move stealthily and cut off breath.

Meanwhile, Holy Grail and Mercy were so brilliant and flashy that they attracted the beasts’ attention.

But she knew they couldn’t hold out long. That’s why Astrid assigned a substantial combat unit to support Holy Grail and Mercy.

This was a tactic agreed upon with Grand Marshal Alleghieri. Holy Grail and Mercy would surround the forest perimeter to form an encirclement and block stragglers, while the White Blood main force advanced into the forest.

An unexpected combination, but it worked reasonably well.

Thanks to the ballistas’ firepower, the overwhelmingly large creatures could be easily sniped. Those that cleverly fled outside were hunted by knights.

Unlike Holy Grail and Mercy who were building momentum, White Blood remained silent. They didn’t think they had gained the upper hand.

That black knight was dangerous. Far more dangerous than any beast they had faced.

The black knight, covered in blood and flesh, noticed them. He readjusted his grip on his sword and lowered his stance.

“Prepare!”

Astrid’s cry echoed through the forest. All White Blood members simultaneously took defensive positions. As soon as she finished speaking, the black knight leaped.

It was a leap more like a leopard or tiger than a human. But the next moment, the black knight twisted in mid-air. An axe flew into the spot where he had just been standing.

Axes continued to fly. The black knight deflected them all with his sword. Because of this, he lost much of his leaping advantage.

As soon as he landed, a black horse charged at him.

Atop it sat the antlered knight wielding a heavy halberd.