Chapter 32: Reunion(2)
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Garrison’s forceful strike rushed right up to my eyes.
Ian’s kick twisted its trajectory, and Garrison’s fist grazed past the side of my face.
Kukwakwak-!
Twelve explosive booms shook the snowy plain.
Ian had completely nullified Garrison’s rapid strikes that had flown toward me.
A clash between the two that unfolded in the blink of an eye.
Until it was over, I hadn’t even realized that an attack had been coming.
‘This isn’t a probing exchange or testing the waters. He came in from the start intending to kill…!’
Only when the piled-up snow scattered in all directions did I finally catch their movements.
If it hadn’t been Ian, I would have vanished long ago without even leaving a trace.
“Heh heh, isn’t that greeting a bit excessive? Young man.”
“Step aside, old man. I must kill that Necromancer.”
Despite hearing Garrison’s emotionless voice, the smile never left Ian’s face.
“My nephew almost died right in front of me. I can’t exactly step aside so easily. Don’t you agree?”
“Nephew…?”
Hearing Ian’s words, Garrison’s expression twisted for a moment before he clenched his fist as if he understood.
“One of the Empire’s Four Great Public Enemies. Knight Butcher, Ian Leinrant.”
Knight Butcher.
At the term the Empire used to call him, Ian clicked his tongue in irritation.
“I wonder when that goosebump-inducing title will finally be forgotten.”
Back when he had been an imperial knight, the Sky Wing Knights, Ian’s own knight order.
The infamy bestowed upon the man who had annihilated the Empire’s strongest knight order, composed of 250 commander-class knights.
“How amusing. To think a member of Leinrant is protecting the family’s sworn enemy.”
“Sorry, but I’m an outsider who left the family. I’m a man unrelated to Leinrant.”
“You’re spouting sophistry.”
As he said that, Garrison extended his hand.
Kururung-!
A clear sky without a single cloud.
From there came a peal of thunder that shook the snow-covered mountains once more.
And how much time had passed?
Kwarung-!
With a flash of lightning, something fell before his eyes.
A gigantic hammer gleaming in silver.
It was a blunt weapon so heavy that only a hulking man like Garrison could even lift it.
‘Fuck, that’s…!’
I immediately stopped trying to draw up demonic energy.
Divine power that erased the existence of the soul was a natural enemy to the undead.
And that hammer that had descended from the sky was a massive lump of divine power.
‘Did he bring over an entire church wholesale? What kind of density is that…!’
I ground my teeth as I felt a numbing sensation throughout my entire body.
The dense divine power emitted by that hammer.
Low-grade undead like skeletons would melt away just from approaching it.
“A Sacred Relic! You really came thoroughly prepared!”
Sacred Relic.
The term referred to the three weapons left behind by Saint Gaul, the progenitor of the current Holy Order.
Each of them was a sacred artifact of the Order, imbued with divine power comparable to a grand cathedral.
Chwarak-!
“To catch just one little brat, you brought something that outrageous?”
Saying that to Garrison as he grasped the hammer, Ian likewise tightened his grip on his sword.
Compared to Garrison’s brilliantly shining hammer, it was a shabby iron sword.
Yet Ian showed no sign of being intimidated.
“I admit that your skill surpasses mine.”
Garrison, holding the hammer, spoke toward Ian.
“But once I hold this weapon, you cannot defeat me.”
Garrison’s words were true.
That hammer, the Sacred Relic, contained divine power equivalent to that of hundreds of priests.
Right now, Garrison was no different from having obtained an inexhaustible spring of mana.
“You’re not wrong. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve run away long ago.”
“If you think that, then step aside. My objective isn’t you—”
“But you see.”
The moment Ian’s voice cut Garrison off mid-sentence.
Chwaaak-!
“?!”
His figure appeared instantly behind Garrison.
“As it happens, I’m that kid’s guardian.”
Kukwuaaang-!
The ground shattered, fragments shooting upward.
Ian’s sword strike that swung upward toward the sky.
As Garrison twisted his hammer back to block it, his foot sliced through the air at the same time.
Kaang-!
To think a metallic clang would sound from a collision between a sword and a foot.
I was following the dizzying battle between the two monsters with my eyes when—
“Klein!”
Ian, still in the midst of fighting Garrison, raised his voice toward me.
“I’ll hold this guy back. Put as much distance between you as possible!”
As Ian said that, Garrison’s hammer came crashing toward him.
Kukwaang-!
“What are you doing! Go, now!”
Ian’s voice struck my ears.
He must have been planning to evacuate me to the wall, Leinrant’s stronghold, while fighting.
“No. I’m not going.”
“What…!”
But my thinking was different.
‘Garrison’s target isn’t Ian, it’s me. Even if I hastily leave the battlefield, my chances of survival are slim.’
And even if Ian held out, Garrison would target me sooner or later.
If that was the case, in this situation, running away was a losing move.
The most reliable way to sever the chain of pursuit.
“Running away is impossible. We have to settle things with that priest right here.”
The moment I said that to Ian.
“Chit!”
Kaang-!
Drawing up his mana, Ian struck Garrison’s hammer and forced him back.
“…!”
Garrison’s brute strength, capable of smashing an entire fortress wall, and the Sacred Relic, a massive lump of divine power.
It was only an instant, but that shabby-looking sword had overpowered it with sheer force.
“Anyway, the one thing that stubborn bastard really takes after his old man!”
Ian spat those words into the air, kicked Garrison square in the chest, and forced some distance between them.
Chwaaah-!
Propelled by the recoil of the kick, Ian shot backward and slid straight to my side.
“You said that because you had a plan, right?”
At Ian’s question, I nodded and opened my mouth.
“Uncle’s capabilities and Garrison’s are evenly matched. But they have a Sacred Relic on their side.”
At my words, Ian nodded.
Unlike Ian, who used his own mana, what Garrison wielded was the divine power of that Sacred Relic.
“Even if we run, he’ll keep the balance, exhaust your mana, and then come after me.”
“Oh? So?”
When I inferred what Garrison was aiming for, interest sparked in Ian’s eyes.
“How do you plan to break that?”
At Ian’s words, I slowly lifted the corner of my mouth.
A war of attrition using an externally supplied mana source.
The one who had used that tactic most often was me—Akimond.
‘That ironclad formation, Berkel broke through it like it was nothing.’
I recalled memories of my past life.
Berkel and the twelve knights who followed him.
The method by which just thirteen of them pierced through tens of thousands of Death Knights.
“Combination Strike.”
At those words, Ian’s eyes widened.
“If we use the same technique at the same time and maximize its power, it’s possible.”
“That’s easy to say.”
Ian cut me off as if dumbfounded.
“A Combination Strike only works if two swordsmen completely synchronize their sword paths and mana wavelengths.”
I nodded at words that were closer to a reprimand.
“Even if your talent lets you perfectly reproduce my swordsmanship, what about mana?”
Ian’s words, pinpointing my weakness, were answered immediately.
“Isn’t that something you know better than anyone, Uncle?”
“Huh…!”
At my counterquestion, Ian fell silent.
“I’ve learned every technique you showed just now. From the principles to the operation of mana, all of it.”
“…….”
Facing Ian, who had been left speechless as he stared at me, I drove the point home.
“All that’s left is to put Uncle’s mana into my body. Isn’t that right?”
Forcibly circulating mana through the blood vessels and operating it.
If it succeeded, even I—someone without mana—would be able to exert power comparable to an average knight for about five minutes.
‘And since I’d be operating Ian’s mana, not my own, mana synchronization wouldn’t be necessary in the first place.’
It was then.
“Yes. It should be possible.”
Ian’s playful voice sank.
Mana was like a person’s blood, like their organs.
If it was forcibly made to flow into another’s body, an overwhelming rejection would occur.
“However, the moment it fails, every blood vessel in your body will rupture. Even if it succeeds…”
“If I don’t do it.”
I cut off his warning and met his gaze.
Even as we spoke, Garrison could charge in again at any moment.
“I die right now.”
At those words, Ian was silent for quite a while.
And then, after a moment.
“Just as I thought…”
Ian’s voice directed at me trembled.
With a short sigh, he turned his head and examined my expression.
“Seems I really did judge a man correctly.”
A single sentence overflowing with exhilaration.
On Ian’s face as he looked at me was a smile that said he was enjoying this to death.
Thud.
Ian’s hand grabbed my shoulder.
“Ghk?!”
A presence invading my body.
A foreign sensation flowing through my veins made me let out a stifled groan.
“We’ll go with the fourth thrust you used. Entry route is the flank. You control the timing.”
“Under… stood…!”
I forced my voice out to answer Ian.
An urge to tear my skin off surged through me.
As another person’s mana entered, my entire body was reacting violently.
But I was Necromancer Akimond.
‘This level of pain, this kind of suicidal impulse…!’
Compared to the tortures the Empire, the continent, those disgusting things called the Alliance had inflicted on me—
This pain was nothing.
Wuuung-!
The more intense the pain became, the more faithfully Ian’s mana carried out my will.
My eyes had already captured every detail of his sword path and mana flow.
“If it’s now!”
For this brief span of just five minutes, I could wield power as a knight with mana.
Paat-!
My mana-reinforced body charged straight toward Garrison.
Ian was also approaching Garrison from another direction.
“So in the end, you crawl in on your own.”
Garrison raised his hammer as he said that to me, who was making a last-ditch struggle.
Buuung-!
Overwhelming violence slicing through the air.
It felt as though an entire fortress wall was charging at me head-on.
“This ends it.”
But the die had already been cast.
There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
“Now!”
“Kuhahaha!”
Sending the signal to Ian as he closed in beside me, I thrust my sword.
I meshed my wavelength with Ian’s mana, which was rotating to the right.
One of the essences of Imperial swordsmanship—concentrating mana into a single point and rotating it to pierce through the opponent’s defense.
Spiral Strike.
Kiiiii!!!
The two spirals overlapped and began to resonate.
The interlocked mana increased its rotational force, pushing its density to the extreme.
It felt as though the entire world was screaming.
“Mana synchronization—did you forcibly accept mana into that body…!”
“To take down a monster like you, staking my life is worth it!”
I shouted as I slashed toward Garrison’s hammer.
The foreign mana boiled inside my body, ravaging me from within.
“Stop screwing around and disappear, you damn priest bastard—!”
Even so, I did not withdraw the sword I had thrust out.
Instead, I poured out every last bit of strength into this fleeting mana, increasing its rotation even further.
And at the moment that condensed mana reached its peak.
Kukwuaaaang-!
With a massive explosion, Garrison’s body was blasted away like a cannonball.
He hurriedly wrapped his entire body in divine power, but it wouldn’t have been enough to fully negate the impact.
“Guhhh?!”
Garrison’s body smashed through dozens of thick trees and crashed into a corner of the forest.
Kwachik-!
With the sound of cracking, the sword I was holding shattered into pieces.
Further combat was impossible, but the result was worth it.
For a single instant, we had overwhelmed that monstrous Proxy Inquisitor.
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