Ch.72Doom Knight (2)

The skeletal horde of the newly born Death Knight from the Land of Death was eventually exterminated by the alliance of kingdoms and the religious order.

If they had been left alone, they might have witnessed the resurrection of the Death Knight that destroyed the kingdom 150 years ago by obtaining the remnants of the Death Knight that was emanating death energy in the Land of Death…

Thanks to the quick formation of the kingdom alliance, the support of the religious order, and even the participation of the Saintess, humanity was able to unite their strength and escape the threat of the Death Knight.

The bad news was that a new Death Knight, who called himself the Doom Knight, had escaped.

No matter how thoroughly they purified the Land of Death and searched the surroundings, not even a trace remained of where he had teleported to.

The religious order mobilized all their Divine Knights—those with the strongest faith and combat abilities approaching Master level, or even surpassing Master level under certain conditions—to search, but the Death Knight was not found.

Eventually, the Saintess purified the Land of Death and sent official documents to branches throughout the former kingdom, ordering that any corpse emitting purple energy should be reported as a top priority.

* * * * *

“Kyaaaah—!!!”

A pale-skinned woman appeared with a scream in the middle of the forest.

Falling from empty space, she was completely naked, her body covered with numerous cuts from which purple smoke was billowing.

The purple smoke, accompanied by the smell of rotting corpses, was contaminating and withering the surrounding grass, and even the large trees were being poisoned by the smoke, gradually losing their vitality.

“Kuk… Where is this…?”

The woman who fell from empty space, the Doom Knight, clutched her head and rose to her feet, appearing disoriented.

The grass around her lost its vitality and drooped, and small insects decomposed and rotted away in an instant.

“Huu… Damn it, just two more days. If I had just two more days, I could have made that power completely mine and even defeated the Saintess…!!”

Boom—!!

The Doom Knight slammed her hand against the ground in frustration. After becoming like this, being chased by humans, narrowly escaping death countless times, and finally making it this far…

If she could have taken just one more step forward…!!

As the Doom Knight struck the ground in frustration, the earth screamed and began to crack, creating fissures.

“Huu… I have to start all over again… But it’s okay. Unlike before, my skin has returned, and I still have some power left… I’m no longer a skeleton that shatters after taking just one hit… I just need to get a weapon and armor, and replace them with better ones later… Huu…”

While the Doom Knight was resolving to start anew.

“Oh my, what’s this! Are you alright, miss? Why are you completely naked? And… ugh! What’s that smell! Something’s rotting…”

An old man approached, concerned about the naked Doom Knight… But he shouldn’t have. The old man probably approached with pure goodwill… But he should have been more cautious of his surroundings.

Thup!

The Doom Knight’s hand grabbed the old man’s face and drained his life force.

The life force circulated through the Doom Knight’s body and converted into death energy, leaving the once reasonably plump old man like a corpse drained of all moisture, with only skin and bones remaining.

“Huu… One old man isn’t enough for recovery… I need to devour someone stronger…”

With those words, the Doom Knight followed the old man’s trail toward what she presumed to be a human village.

* * * * *

After passing through the Forest of Demonic Beasts and leaving the human city, we were walking aimlessly.

Humans were busy running away when they saw us, and even the large cities with walls didn’t respond when I appeared—they just watched.

Even when I broke through walls as I passed, the humans’ expressions were like those watching a natural disaster pass by. Some among them even praised me, saying to believe in “Lord Wrath, the savior.”

Of course, soldiers and knights executed them on the spot. Thinking that there are all kinds of humans, I continued moving without a destination.

“So, Khan, where are we going? Do you have a place in mind?”

“Mmmoooo— (No, I’m just walking without a destination. We need to find other participants too, but the land is vast and there are few of them, so it’s hard to find them.)”

“Hmm… Then let’s just walk aimlessly for now, repel humans if they attack, and look for explosions high in the sky! When a participant dies, it reveals their location, so that might be good!”

Wooooar—!!!

Nodding in agreement, I tore off the head of an ogre trying to escape from me, popped it into my mouth, then properly cooked the body with lightning before continuing to eat as I moved.

* * * * *

People in the city were moving busily. People selling goods, people moving items, people hurrying somewhere—many people were moving about in this bustling city.

The people in this former imperial territory, now called Beron Commercial City, were full of energy.

When the imperial capital collapsed and the emperor and royal family all died, the people of this city were also shocked, but now, after much time had passed, the city showed a population flow befitting its name as a commercial city.

Other kingdoms had given up on absorbing the imperial territory to deal with the anomaly that occurred in the south of the former empire, in the Land of Death.

As a result, Beron Commercial City, located between the central and western regions, suffered no damage and was actually experiencing a boom due to increased flow of goods and visits from merchants.

Of course, now that the incident in the Land of Death had ended, and the kingdoms would move again to absorb the imperial territory, they would need to decide which kingdom to align with…

But it wasn’t that urgent yet.

Therefore, the former Marquis Lorza of Beron, now the mayor of Beron, had also decided to take his time deciding, but recently he had one concern.

Information that the monster that destroyed the imperial capital, the minotaur that the religious order had directly named “Wrath,” was heading this way.

The mayor of Beron urgently tried to hire adventurers, but… The adventurers already knew about the monster that had destroyed the capital, so no one accepted the request.

Ding-ding-ding-ding—

“Currently, a giant minotaur is approaching! Evacuate! Please evacuate!”

While the mayor of Beron was trying desperately to hire adventurers, the situation he feared occurred.

Wrath had arrived earlier than he expected.

While citizens were bewildered by the ridiculous announcement to evacuate because of a minotaur.

When people began to realize the seriousness of the situation as they heard ballistas being fired from the walls and the sound of mages’ spells exploding, they started to flee.

Mmmooooo—

The minotaur ignored all such attacks and showed its face above the city wall.

“Kyaaaah!!! Monster!!!!”

“Evacuate! Evacuate! Damn it, what are the knights doing that they don’t appear when such a huge monster is approaching!”

“Before saying that, run away first! This minotaur is a monster certified by the religious order! It will definitely destroy the wall, so fragments will fall as far as the central area—get as far away as possible!”

The minotaur pulled its foot back slightly, then kicked the wall.

Kwaaang—!!

A thunderous sound echoed, and the wall screamed under the attack, but…

The wall reinforcement magic circle installed on the wall withstood the minotaur’s kick.

The soldiers on the wall quickly judged that they couldn’t win and swiftly descended from the wall, allowing them to escape.

Kwaaang—!!!

A second kick. Thanks to the magic circle on the wall performing admirably, the wall was still intact. However, the kick had caused large cracks to form in the wall.

With one more kick, the wall would be shattered. As people fled farther away, in the opposite direction.

Mmm?

The minotaur suddenly turned its head to look west. Then, as if it had seen something, it began to run urgently.

As a result, the wall that had barely maintained its form despite the vibrations caused by the giant minotaur’s running finally collapsed, and a huge cloud of dust rose, concealing the minotaur as it ran westward.

* * * * *

“Kyaaaah—!!!”

The pale woman, the Doom Knight, was gripping a short-haired woman’s neck and draining her life force.

The captured woman gradually lost her vitality and became emaciated like a mummy, eventually dying with only skin and bones remaining.

The area around the Doom Knight was devastated. Having encountered a powerful opponent while lacking weapons and armor and having few attributes, her body was covered with stab wounds, one arm was missing, and her eye had suffered a major injury, damaging one eye.

But as she converted the life force she had just obtained from her enemy into death energy, the stab wounds disappeared, and the injuries inflicted by the holy knight and Saintess also healed. However, it seemed that restoring the eye and arm lost in this battle would take time.

As she was about to put on the sword and leather armor of the woman she had just defeated and leave this place.

Whoosh—

A roulette appeared in the sky with a bright light to greet her.