Chapter 65: Chapter 51: An Angel Came to Me
Maxim vaguely heard the sharp roars of the Scaya Dragonfolk. He heard Dietlinde shouting his name.
He fell back onto the ground.
A blinding, incandescent light, like a sun hanging high in the sky, reflected in his slowly fading pupils.
In his daze, Maxim saw a tall Knight bathed in holy light. He had long, silver-frost hair as brilliant as a galaxy, and his heavy Golden Armor was solemn and majestic.
The Knight looked down at him, his gaze cold and merciless.
An unseen force flooded into Maxim’s body. The instinct to survive made him reach out his right hand and tightly grasp the large hand the strange Knight extended toward him, struggling to crawl back from the brink of death into the world of the living.
As his mind regained control of his body and his senses returned, Maxim quickly reached for his chest. The bleeding from the fatal, bone-deep wound had already stopped, and it gave off the stench of scorched flesh.
A glass syringe was sticking out of his shoulder, its contents already injected into his body.
A huge question surfaced in his mind. ’Was that... a hallucination?’
The blurry-faced Knight he’d seen at the brink of death had vanished without a trace, just like a dream.
The person who had pulled him to his feet was a tall Knight clad in Full Coverage Anti-Magic Steel Armor, painted in a mix of silver-white and gold, with a massive Imperial Radiant Silver Emblem embedded in the chest plate.
The giant Steel Wings on his back, a mechanism of perfectly interlocking gears, whirred ceaselessly. Hazy white steam intertwined with arcane Witchcraft Power, making him look like an Angel.
Maxim took a deep breath, gritting his teeth against the intense pain. He frowned, raising his left hand to shield his eyes from the blinding white light.
A massive Dao Mark Teleportation Gate loomed before him!
The Imperial Legion’s Radiant Waymark, like a steel warship, hovered over piles of Dragonfolk corpses. The roar of its steam engines drowned out even the ceaseless screams and wails of the battlefield.
Its dazzling, sacred light was like the Human Empire itself, standing firm for a millennium in this Dark World.
Wherever the light shines is the territory of the Empire!
Knight after Knight, clad in the same heavy Steel Armor, flew out of the Dao Mark Teleportation Gate. The steam-powered devices of their Steel Wings roared as they transformed into the Empire’s angels of death. The heavy Giant Swords in their hands, overflowing with a Dark Red Sorcery Light, were like Slaughter Knives, reaping every Alien Race in sight!
The Knight who had pulled Maxim up and injected him with the life-saving drug stood before the young Knight. After confirming Maxim had recovered his strength, the Knight gave him a slight nod. Then, with a deafening roar and a violent blast of air, he soared into the sky, crashing down toward the rear of the battlefield where the high-ranking Scaya Dragonfolk officers were located!
Maxim had never seen the Armor of these Lord Knights, nor did he know their unit designation. But the aura of their Power was so heavy and murderous it left him breathless.
They were even stronger than Captain Dietlinde, who held a Five-star Military Rank!
’A Six-star Military Rank? Or... the legendary Seven-star?’
’Someone that important actually nodded to me?’ For a moment, Maxim couldn’t make sense of it. He was just a Third-class Knight scraping by in a Border Region province. If it weren’t for this war, he would never have crossed paths with such influential figures.
’He even... nodded to me?’
「Meanwhile.」
Far on the southern end of the battlefield.
Identical Dao Mark Teleportation Gates appeared high in the sky, their sacred light tearing the night apart! Like drop pods wreathed in the immense fire of falling meteors, they slammed heavily into the ground!
The young Knight, Maxim, suddenly felt his eyes well up with tears. The great weight that had been crushing his chest seemed to lift.
Because the Empire hadn’t forgotten them!
So many of them had died, fighting tooth and nail, desperately holding on for so long. And finally, reinforcements had arrived!
"Maxim! Don’t space out! That Lord ordered us to fall back to Baihe Town and help them clear a defensive perimeter!"
Dietlinde’s furious shout dragged his consciousness back to reality.
Maxim picked up the Longsword he had dropped. He had no idea what drug that Lord Knight had injected him with, but he could feel strength surging through his body!
"What about Reinhardt?! What happens to him if we retreat?"
Kicking away a pouncing Dragonfolk Soldier, Maxim cut it down with a single, swift strike. Scalding Dragonfolk blood splashed across his face.
Dietlinde’s Knightly Aura had grown incredibly faint. If the Empire’s reinforcements hadn’t arrived, she feared she would have suffered the same fate as Maxim, drowning in the terrifying tide of flesh and blood created by the Dragonfolk army.
She had served in the Blood Corps for twenty years and had never seen Knights with Steel Wings. The fact that these reinforcements were, at a minimum, all of a powerful Six-star Military Rank left her utterly astonished.
More than Maxim, she was the one most worried about Reinhardt’s safety, but the defensive lines at Baihe Town had already been completely cut and scattered by the enemy.
「On this moonless night.」
Visibility was no more than twenty meters. Coupled with the chaos of the battlefield, she couldn’t find any trace of Reinhardt, nor did she know if he was still alive.
As the captain of the Ninth Tactical Squad and an Imperial Knight, she had a duty to the war and to those who were still alive.
"This is an order! Retreat—!"
「Elsewhere.」
Reinhardt’s breathing was heavy. The corpses of Scaya Dragonfolk Soldiers were piled high at his feet, scalding blood dripping slowly along the edge of his axe.
In his left hand, he gripped the massive head of a Mixed-blood Dragonman Warrior. He stood amidst the enemy’s heavy encirclement, his terrifying aura pulsing through the air and creating palpable waves of pressure.
The long battle had lasted for over an hour.
Countless Dragonfolk Soldiers had tried to kill this Human Empire Knight, but he was like an immovable mountain! No matter how they piled on death and flesh, sacrificing one Mixed-blood Dragonman Warrior after another, they still could not overcome him!
When the Knight from the Imperial reinforcements arrived—an old veteran from the Imperial Second Legion, the Radiant Angel Legion, who had served for a hundred years—he too was frozen in place, stunned by the bloody terror of Reinhardt’s Knight Power!
For a moment, he thought this powerful being with the terrifying aura was a Fear Knight of Avernus! An Abyssal foe who would put immense pressure on even him!
He even subconsciously gripped his sword with both hands, his fingers tightening on the hilt.
But the unique radiance and courage of an Imperial Knight deep within Reinhardt’s soul dispelled the veteran’s doubts. The only thing that puzzled him was why such a gifted Knight would be serving in an unremarkable, low-tier corps in the Empire’s Border Region.
’This is a huge loss for the Empire!’
’A disgrace to the Imperial recruitment office!’
If this had been four hours ago, he would have personally filled out a trial application for this nameless Knight to join the Radiant Angel Legion after the war.
But after the Regent Council executed a large number of National Church Priests and assassinated the Shepherd Leader...
...after the great traitor Karloman personally opened an Abyssal Teleportation Gate in the Radiant Holy City, publicly proclaiming that the Empire was built on slavery and lies, and that Pseudo-Emperor Ludwig had abandoned the Empire and its people...
...everything changed.
