Chapter 307
Walking in Twilight (1)
When Adrian Leonberger had shown up alone, the paladin saw it as an opportunity.
Intoxicated by his fantasies, he had inwardly laughed, thinking that the God of War had come to die on his own two feet.
One of his fellow paladins had been pointlessly killed, but he did not feel any sense of danger.
There were 20 legions of tens of thousands of soldiers gathered here.
They were the most elite troops that had survived the civil war.
In addition, there were also 17 knights who had risen to fame during the civil war.
No matter how great the God of War was, he was still a human after all.
As long as he was human, he wouldn’t be able to deal with all of them by himself.
In the end, the God of War would exhaust all of his strength fighting the insignificant soldiers.
Of course, the paladin knew that the damage to the soldiers would not be small in the process.
Since they were facing a war god known to be a one-man army, he was prepared to lose at least one legion.
However, to catch the God of War, Adrian Leonberger, one legion was nothing.
He was prepared to sacrifice not just one, but two legions.
He would just wait quietly, defeat the exhausted God of War, and receive his reward.
The emperor had said that he would bestow a title and a fief to the one who defeated the war god.
It wasn’t just a regular reward, but a reward that the emperor had promised in his own name, so it wouldn’t be something trivial.
Perhaps he would drive out the Leonbergs and offer the kingdom’s lands as a fiefdom.
Since it was a land ruled by dukes, the title bestowed alongside it should be comparable.
It was not a dream to become one of the few dukes of the empire.
The reputation of defeating the God of War was an added bonus.
He felt ecstatic just imagining it.
Lost in his euphoria, the paladin trembled.
Then all of a sudden, he felt uncomfortable.
The paladin found the God of War.
Due to the dense crowd of soldiers, the appearance of the war god could not be seen.
He could only figure out the general position based on the occasional flashes and screams.
However, even that was inaccurate because the war god changed locations so often.
Screams and flashes came from the west, then screams and flashes came from the east.
He could guess how fast the God of War was moving just by hearing the screams that changed over time.
“Kkuagh!”
“Help me!”
The soldiers’ screams erupted endlessly.
By now, the God of War should have lost quite a bit of stamina, but the speed at which his allies were dying had not changed much from the beginning.
Through this, the paladin learned that the war god was not tired at all.
It was hard to believe.
Up to this point, the paladin was only a little surprised.
It was only after some time had passed that he began to notice something strange.
The screams were getting closer.
The speed and intervals of the screams also came incomparably faster than before.
The energy of the God of War, which had previously been hidden by the rows of soldiers, gradually felt clearer.
The God of War seemed to be running in a straight line.
The paladin frowned.
He couldn’t understand the sudden change.
He looked around.
He didn’t see anything that would attract the attention of the war god.
He had thought this was the case.
But no.
The figure of a high-ranking knight entered the paladin’s eyes.
It was a knight serving under the paladin who had died from the sword launched by the God of War.
A plain longsword was clutched in that knight’s hand.
Unlike the two-handed swords commonly used by imperial knights, it was a hand-and-a-half sword with a short hilt and old-fashioned shape.
“You, where did you get that sword?”
The paladin approached the knight and asked where the sword came from.
The knight replied that it was the enemy’s sword he had kept while recovering the body of the person he served.
He also added that there would be no revenge more exhilarating than piercing the heart of the God of War with that sword.
“What kind of idiot!”
The paladin spat out a curse.
He reached out and tried to snatch the sword held by the knight.
Bang!
A thunderous roar pierced his ears.
The paladin forcibly bent his creaking neck and looked back.
The ranks had completely collapsed, and the corpses of the soldiers had been crushed beyond recognition.
Clank clank.
Someone approached through the river of blood that had formed in the center.
A single figure made his way through the blood-soaked battlefield.
It was Adrian Leonberger, the God of War.
Swoop.
He held out his hand.
Flick.
He beckoned slightly with his fingers. His meaning was obvious.
The God of War wanted to retrieve his sword.
The paladin put his hand on the hilt of his sword and his eyes lit up.
He could not tell whether the blood that covered the war god was his own or someone else’s.
But the important point was that he had appeared in the middle of seventeen knights, weaponless and defenseless.
Now was the perfect opportunity to defeat the God of War.
The paladin quietly raised his hand.
If he lowered it, the fame of the great God of War would end.
Step.
Just then, someone suddenly walked forward.
It was the knight who had said he wanted to avenge his master with the enemy’s sword.
The knight walked toward the God of War as if he was possessed.
There was no time to stop him.
When the paladin came to his senses, the knight had politely offered the sword to the God of War with both hands.
Shaa. Tok.
The knight’s head rolled onto the floor.
The body which had lost its head collapsed as blood gushed out.
The paladin stared blankly.
Adrian Leonberger, the God of War, raised his hand and wiped the blood from his face.
Then he brushed back the blood-soaked hair that clung to his forehead.
The God of War straightened his back.
He held his sword upside down and lifted it up.
“…….”
He muttered something incomprehensible.
Ggooooooh.
The war god’s presence soared to the ends of the sky.
“Ah…”
The paladin’s hand sagged.
Tok.
His sword fell to the ground.
The paladin thought.
The leader’s plan to annihilate the Leonberg army with an overwhelming difference in numbers had been wrong from the beginning.
Their greatest mistake was thinking that the God of War, Adrian Leonberger, was a human being just like them.
“E-everyone will die…”
And the God of War thrust his sword into the ground.
* * *
Hwaag!
A flash of light engulfed the paladin and the knights.
And when the light disappeared, they had ceased to exist.
All that remained was a deep pit which resembled a crater left by a meteorite.
The soldiers who had luckily escaped the disaster because they were far from the center of the light threw down their weapons and started running away.
But they were forced to stop after less than five steps.
Quaaaaaaaaa!
The ground was shaking.
Rumble!
A roar echoed incessantly beneath their feet.
Countless soldiers were caught up in the intense vibrations and fell.
The unlucky ones were stabbed to death by the blades that had been left behind by their allies.
The ones who survived struggled to somehow balance themselves.
It was a futile attempt.
The troops were densely packed, and those who lost their balance did not fall alone.
“Let go! Let go of me!”
Chaos erupted between those who reached out to grab onto others and those who shook them off.
Some people landed on top of others who had fallen, and those who were crushed by their allies had their necks broken or died of suffocation one after another.
The unbearable devastation only ended after the shaking completely stopped.
But the real disaster had just begun.
At some point, the hard ground they were standing on had turned soft like sand.
Pshshsh.
And the land that had become sand began to flow in one direction.
Towards the great pit.
At first, the pit only swallowed corpses and weapons.
The survivors struggled desperately to get away from it.
But it wasn’t easy.
Their feet were caught in the muddy ground.
“Huh? Huh?”
The scrambling soldiers ended up having their legs buried up to their knees.
The earth continued to flow.
The trapped soldiers swore and screamed.
But when they arrived at the pit, their mouths shut as if they had promised.
A huge hole lay before them.
A bright blue flame burned in that hole.
The soldiers froze at the sight of the flames, which devoured countless of the dead and living and still continued to eat with its ravenous jaws.
Like that, they were sucked into the pit without even being able to move.
* * *
The world of Bale Balahard was nothing but darkness.
It had been that way ever since he had failed to escape the elven stronghold and had his eyes gouged out.
But he wasn’t frustrated.
Because it was only after he had lost his eyes that he could truly see the world.
He referred to this phenomenon as Eye Opening.
And the new sense he had obtained through Eye Opening was named Mind’s Eye.
The Mind’s Eye was in no way inferior to ordinary vision.
It was more accurate than sight and allowed him to see many things, so he had complete trust in the ability.
And now, for the first time since Balahard had started using Mind’s Eye, he doubted his senses.
“T-this…”
His skin burned as if it had been touched by fire.
Every muscle in his body trembled like crazy.
His five rings shook violently as if they were about to break.
This all happened when he faced the overwhelming energy that was rising in the distance.
He unconsciously turned his head to follow the energy.
And came face to face with it.
Bale Balahard had never seen anything like it before in his life.
In front of him, the power of a Penta Chain seemed like child’s play, and humanity felt too insignificant.
This was the true transcendence that his nephew had spoken of, which could never be achieved by weaving a chain.
It was a storm of tremendous energy that could not be measured even with his five rings, such an intense explosion that it dyed even his dark world full of color.
It was also a wave that touched his soul.
His nephew’s anger came through unfiltered.
The grief felt by his nephew seeped into his heart.
The sorrowful wish to commemorate the dead shook his soul.
Amidst all the emotions rushing in like a tsunami, Bale Balahard could barely even feel his own existence.
He gritted his teeth and endured.
Staring with his blind eyes at the blue light that burned brightly in the pitch-black darkness.
He had seen that light before.
Even though it had become an intense light incomparable to that time, he knew it well.
The flame that burned on his nephew’s sword was exactly the same as the one that he had used to burn the orcs.
His nephew had called this power the Poem of Requiem.
The moment he realized this, Bale Balahard felt his heart break.
How much did his nephew lose for the memorial poem to gain this much power.
How much frustration and heartache must his nephew have repeatedly suffered until the death and grief that had piled up became firewood to kindle such a huge flame.
It was tragic.
Suddenly, he saw the center of the blue light.
There was something that held its place even while the blue light flickered.
A strong and steadfast soul.
Like a strong citadel, like an unbreakable fortress, like a castle in winter.
The small, young prince’s soul was so familiar and wonderful.
Bale Balahard straightened his back.
With a reverent heart, he bowed his head slightly toward the place where his nephew would be and paid his respects.
He quietly muttered to himself.
May the future of the knight with a great soul be filled with only glory and prosperity.
* * *
Adrian Leonberger’s sword did not end with just making a large pit in front of the fort.
Just like the roar of Hwaryong, his presence could be felt from all around.
Facing that overwhelming presence, the imperial army stopped attacking Leonberg’s strongholds and immediately withdrew.
The imperial army believed that the intense waves of pressure which came from far away had been caused by Hwaryong.
In order to avoid ending up like the Dotrin army, they hurriedly withdrew in fear.
A while after they had retreated from the front lines, a group of defeated soldiers joined them.
They were part of the troops that had been heading for the Briand Duchy.
And from them, the army heard terrible news.
They learned that the 20 legions which had left to attack the Briand Duchy had been massacred.
But there was something else that was truly terrifying.
The overwhelming presence that they thought had belonged to Hwaryong had actually come from a completely different source. It had come from Adrian Leonberger, the God of War.
Naturally, the commanders and knights of the imperial army did not believe it.
It was absurd that the ground had collapsed after being struck with a sword, and that 20 legions had been sucked into it.
It was impossible for a human body to single-handedly annihilate 20 legions.
Also, the overwhelming presence they had felt that day was beyond the capabilities of a human.
The commanders of the imperial army not only condemned their words as being absurd, but also labeled it as groundless rumors that benefited the enemy and ordered all the survivors to be beheaded.
The survivors did not try to defend themselves up to the moment they died.
Like madmen, they just continued to recount the horrors of the day over and over again.
Then, one of them suddenly changed just as he was about to have his throat slit.
His eyes rolled, his lips twisted, and he spoke in a cynical and gloomy manner.
“I will go there soon.”
His way of speaking was completely different, as if he was imitating someone else.
Slash.
But the knights did not take him seriously.
Until they found out that all of the beheaded had left the same testament.
Note: I’ve added Vincent and Bale Balahard to the character guide, and I’ve also linked the official artwork for the game.
Note: sort of a hint for next chapter
The sourc𝗲 of this content is free(w)ebnov(𝒆)l