บท 220: Rakshar, Lord of Chaos (2)

Leading the Knights of the Burning Sword, Vulcanus crushed the demons in front of him.

The flames from the Holy Knight of War and Flame and his knights, as well as the weakening of the enemy's fire resistance throughout the battlefield, made their defenses even more difficult.

"GARARARARA──!! Get out of here!!!"

The breakthrough power of Vulcanus and the Burning Sword Knights was overwhelming.

But the enemy's numbers were truly overwhelming.

Not only had they transformed the entire population of Pyongyang into monsters, but they had also used the massive gate event to accumulate countless monsters.

Even if the Holy Knights boasted the strength of a hundred men, they would not be able to break through this endless tidal wave indefinitely.

"That's a lot! Reminds me of the old evil ones!"

"They are nothing compared to those days, Lord Raihar!"

Yes, the knights had seen a truly hopeless tidal wave of evil in that great war that brought about the fall of Lionheart.

But there were countless Holy Knights then. There were more than twice as many Holy Knights as there are now, a dozen whole Knight Orders.

And what of the knights of the realm? There were many Knights of Glory, guardians of the realm who were not chosen to be Holy Knights, but who guarded everywhere.

There were elite legionnaires whose skill and experience was recognized by even the knights themselves, soldiers who were willing to die for the kingdom, and many serfs who could be used as meat for the walls.

But what about the TTG Temple now?

With the exception of Grail Keeper Leon, Holy Knight Vulcanus, and Grand Duchess Karina of Dragonia, all of the powerhouses of the past have ascended.

Queen Beatrice the Magician Queen and Yakt Spinner the Artificial Intelligence are powerhouses in their own right, but the rest—well…

'There wasn't enough time.'

There were certainly geniuses with promising futures. Han Ha-ri is one such example.

A goddess chosen by the two gods to inherit the 'heart of fire' of Duke Renoa, the Orc Undertaker who is the protagonist of Lionheart's founding mythology.

What about Chun So-yeon, Kim Jae-hyuk, or Han Soo-ho? They were knights who were handed down the holy artifact by the Lord of the Moon himself.

There were talented people on Earth, and perhaps a Holy Knight would be born from among them.

However, Holy Knights are not simply born.

In other words, we cannot hope for a new Holy Knight to be born, at least not at this time. In other words, it would take too much time for the current power to increase.

'It is pointless to hope for something that is not there.'

The Burning Sword Knights humbly accepted that, but did that mean they had given up hope? Not at all.

'The Lionheart King is here, and as long as he is, the glory of the realm will not fall.'

After two hundred years of frozen existence, the Knights of the Burning Sword have heard many tales of Leon from the God Petos.

How he had fought alone against evil for so long.

How he had defeated countless Demon Lords and Archdemons and triumphed over them.

As the knights listened to these tales of glory, they cursed themselves.

They blamed themselves for forcing the king to fight alone.

"But not this time! We will fight alongside the king! We will clear the way for him!"

"Of course!"

The Knights of the Burning Sword, with Raihar at their head, respond. Their wedge charge is the strongest of the Knights and they push through the tidal wave of evil.

"Through!"

They have broken through the wave of monsters, albeit temporarily. A mere fifty knights had broken through hundreds of thousands of monsters. Even if it is a hole that will soon be filled.

"Scatter!"

At Lord Raihar's command, the Burning Sword Knights began to spread out widely to the left and right.

It was a tactical oddity. As a mounted force, they are at their best when united. Yet they chose to scatter to the left and right as if they were trying to hold back the tide alone.

"Well done!"

Vulcanus enters the breach. The massive footsteps of the Marquis of the Battlecruiser passed by, followed by Karina, then Leon and Beatrice.

As they passed above them, Leon said.

"I'll leave it to you."

""Chong!!!""

Where the Holy Knights passed, the Knights of the Flaming Sword dismounted from their steeds, their comrades-in-arms, and raised their flaming swords.

-Keeeeeeeeeeee!

And the waves of monsters rush in once more. The noise is loud as the monsters try to make up for the shame of having been broken through by them once.

"Knights of the Balthan Burning Sword."

Lord Raihar shouted. The sword held vertically erupted in flames, and the next moment------

"Ignited."

The flames from their swords instantly formed a huge curtain of flame, as if creating a prison of fire.

The prisoners in that prison, of course, were demons.

* * * * *

In the darkness of the black fog Leon, Beatrice, Vulcanus, Karina, and Yappy stepped forward, wary of their surroundings.

[It's been a long time, Lionheart, you're stronger than before, or have you regained your strength?]

A rumbling voice echoed through the space. Leon couldn't find the direction of the voice, but that was not the case for Yappy.

-1 o'clock. Return fire.

-Quack, quack, quack!

A blast of energy-turned-holy power erupted from the marquis-class energy cannon.

Accurate fire, with not even a 0.01 second delay but no sound of impact.

-Whoosh?

The next moment, something huge lunged toward Yappy, it was a giant tentacle. The marquis-class plasma barrier was deployed, but the giant tentacle broke through it.

-Thud!

The Marquis-class behemoth is struck by the tentacle and staggers back.

-Angler fires. Attitude control deflector nozzles activate.

-Boom, boom, boom!

Anchors are driven into the ground and buildings, and boosters in the opposite direction of the collapsing fuselage stabilize it.

Yappy's mechanical foot barely regains its footing before a plasma cutter slices through the tentacles.

[Crackle, that's a fun toy.]

Yappy realized the direction of the sound was completely different than before. He pointed his muzzle toward it, but once again, Rakshar was nowhere to be seen.

"Lord Spinner. Do not rely on observation alone."

-Giggles------

Yappy scanned his surroundings, ready to summon his full arsenal at any moment.

"But even after coming all this way, I can't make out his presence."

Karina assumed the fog was tainting her senses, otherwise there was no way a Demon Lord like Rakshar could have gone undetected.

"GARARARA──! Then we'll have to pull him out ourselves!"

Vulcanus immediately channeled divine power into his body.

Divine Descent <God of War>.

The miracle of imbuing Petos, the God of War and Flame, into his body was as simple as a flip of the palm of his hand for this most powerful Holy Knight of all time.

-Kaaaaaah!

Flames leak out of his armor, creating a wave of flame that engulfs the area around him.

"Lord Vulcanus, your hasty holy descent is--!"

Karina called out to Vulcanus, but it was too late. The immense power Vulcanus unleashed with his divine descent was immediately absorbed by the World Tree.

The World Tree seedlings that the Chaos Demon Lord Rakshar had modified would absorb the holy power of their surroundings. Naturally, the immense power manifested in front of it is just a nutritious meal for it.

Of course.

Even a nutritious meal can make you feel sick if you eat too much.

"GRARARARA! My power! Can a mere seedling contain it?"

After absorbing Vulcanus' immense flame, the World Tree suddenly stopped absorbing Vulcanus' holy power. Instead, it spat out the power it had consumed, spreading flames in all directions.

-Kaaaaaaaah!

The flames drive away the dark mists and burn them away, and Karina watches in disgust.

"You remain an ignorant vessel, Lord Vulcanus."

With that, the pesky fog dissipates, revealing their true form.

The demon lord may be powerful, but since he has formed such an army, he will not go out alone.

There are at least five Archdemons. But there are also four Holy Knights with Vulcanus is the strongest Holy Knight of all time.

If Leon is in charge of Rakshar, the Archdemons can be cleaned up by the Holy Knights.

And with that, they disappeared into the mist.

Beatrice's face twisted as she spotted one of the Archdemons gradually revealing its massive form.

"------Quai?"

The entrance to the World Tree, with the Liu Jing Hotel as its foundation, and the familiar demon archduke hanging there.

"Here you are------"

The Magician Queen had found the enemy she had missed in Taiwan, but she couldn't help but twist in bewilderment.

It was the Corrupted Archduke Quai, stuffed into a corpse.

"Your Majesty------"

"This king is watching too."

Quai wasn't the only one. Each and every one of the ancient Archdemons called the Great Old Ones had been stuffed.

"What the hell did you do──?"

So the roaring demons were hallucinations?

[I was waiting for you, nemesis of all demons.]

Rakshar's form is revealed.

His appearance was unchanged from before.

Huge claws and hundreds of giant tentacles hundreds of meters tall, he is violence in size alone.

But what is different is his presence.

Formerly the Demon Archduke of Chaos, he had been released from his long sealing and had taken over the vacant seat of the Lord.

He has the ability to fill the seat of a monarch where neither Quai nor any other Demon Archduke could.

[Leon Dragonia, son of Wolfric Dragonia, Agent of the Gods with the heart of a lion. The warrior who defeated Malus, Lord of Chaos, Carakael, Lord of Wisdom, and Dothradon, Lord of Pleasure.]

Rakshar's voice rumbles through the air, his massive form moving among the buildings of Pyongyang, looking down upon the Holy Knights.

[I've heard your stories for years, how feared you are, how miraculous you are.]

Still, it was an instinctive hunch that the Holy Knights did not immediately attack Rakshar. They had a hunch that it would be dangerous to attack him blindly if they weren't confident that they could kill him right away.

[Many demons have not come to this battlefield for fear of you. They have chosen to hide from you, hoping to outlive you and remain hidden for eons.]

"Is that why you summoned so many Archdemons and killed them all?"

[Yes, even the most ancient of demons, especially the ones who fought you two hundred years ago.]

Come to think of it, some of the hulking demons hanging there looked familiar. The one that had escaped through the remaining gate before he destroyed all the demon gates in the 256th year.

The one who had half of his body fall, baiting his minions to escape, was now stuffed and nailed to a building.

"But you've come to the right place, and if you thought this king was weakened, you were sorely mistaken."

[Hmph, the demons are not frightened by the size of your power. For the Lords, a power of your magnitude was never beyond the limits of mortality.]

Rakshar asked with genuine awe.

[Lionheart, Leon Dragonia Lionheart, are you truly human?]

"Demigod."

[Do not underestimate yourself, yours is no less mythical than the gods.]

Through Leon, Rakshar saw beyond. The gods of the heavens, still watching over him. They must have realized that they were fallen, living off the heart of a single human.

[Abominable celestial gods, how dare you treat beings better than you as your servants. You do not deserve it.]

[[------]]

The gods were silent. They owed their beloved knight a great debt of gratitude, and they knew that the devotion he had shown to them had come solely from his virtue.

After so many years of devotion, the gods cannot repay him for the miracles he has performed time and time again.

So there is nothing to say. He has fought alone for hundreds of years, and it is only now, in the Great War, that he still demands devotion.

[Lionheart. No, Leon Dragonia. Take our hand. Leave the gods that can do nothing for you, and become evil, you will be our god.]

Become an evil god.

"Kukuk---!"

Leon let out an unexpected laugh, and it didn't take long for him to realize it was real.

"This damned bastard talks so much nonsense, my ears are itching to hear it!"

Leon raised his holy sword. The holy sword glowed with the light of justice, symbolizing his unwavering justice.

"You vain, spiteful beasts, as if this is the first time you've tried to seduce this king, how tirelessly you've tried to do so for so many years without success!"

[------]

Light pours from Leon's holy sword as Leon's body glows.

"Arianna favors me. Petos is proud of me, and Poma has promised me safe passage at all times."

"Demera has granted me a place to lay my head, Heto has forged my sword and armor, Fle has watched over me in my dreams, and Dinah has forgiven me the great crime of stealing her virgin."

Leon is unmoved. He may stop, he may grieve, he may fall, but he has never wavered. As if the gods' worries about the potential for corruption meant nothing.

"Who among mankind since the beginning of time has been so loved by the gods as I am, and how shameful and regrettable it would be for me to not repay this love!"

Born as an orphan, he died at a young age and was reborn into the fantasy he had longed for.

He was given a chance by his parents, and he followed a difficult but honorable path. It must have been a long, long childhood, for at the end of it he saw proof of God and turned away from the foolish path of godlessness.

"I am Leon! I am Dragonia! I am Lionheart! I am the Lionheart! I am King Lionheart!"

That was enough of an answer. Rakshar realized, as he had suspected, that this man had an unwavering spirit.

A pity and a waste, indeed, for he was truly qualified to be the God of Evil but no amount of malice will be able to taint him with evil.

[Excellent, Lionheart, and so your legend will end here today.]

"Try it, beast. You will realize that there is a knight of God who can never be defeated."

[Let me introduce myself once more.]

The Chaos Lord cried out.

[I am the chaos that will bend your norms!]

[I am the despair that will stop your beating hearts!]

[I am the scream that will crush your screaming hopes.]

[I'm Rakshar, Lord of Chaos!]

Before the guttural roar had finished, the Holy Knights charged at the Demon Lord.

And in that moment──

[Today, you will lose your divinity and die as mere mortals.]

-Bang! Kwak-kwak!

""------!!!""

The stuffed bodies of the Archdemons exploded, releasing a black mist.

"Vulcanus, Beatrice---!"

At Leon's call, the two of them unleashed a barrage of flames and purple mist with their immense power but a sense of foreboding flashed through his mind that whatever it was, it had to be stopped.

[It's useless, it's a great magic that consumed the souls of the six Archdemons, and mere mortals can't stop it.]

As he spoke, the black fog swiftly overwhelmed the two of them, filling their surroundings with a thick black mist.

Day turned to night in an instant, and they could not see a thing. Leon sensed something flashing.

Holy Law <Shield of Arrows>

The strongest defense that absolutely blocks a single ranged attack. This is the power of concepts. It is an invincible shield that has never been pierced before.

-Kwak!

The moment the invincible shield was pierced, a curse spike pierced through Leon, and he fell from the white divine beast.

""Your Majesty---!""

The Holy Knights cried out in horror as Leon felt the goddess's voice fade away.