Chapter 69: Chapter 55: Champion Program Candidate, Reinhardt’s Oppressive Presence
The roars of slaughter echoed without end.
The clash of arms.
Crimson stained the ground.
The reddened skyline and the night sky were like a boundless sea of fire. The sacrificed Heroic Spirits and the unjustly dead souls transformed into whispers on the chilling wind, a coldness that pierced to the bone.
Dim, flickering light reflected on Sedon’s grim face.
He was the only Death Battle Group Knight not wearing a helmet. His slicked-back hair was, just as Reinhardt remembered it, immaculate.
His slightly raised chin was filled with arrogance.
Beneath the heavy Anti-Magic Steel Armor, his posture was still ramrod straight.
The only difference was that the right arm he had lost at Frostfire Fortress had been replaced with a mechanical steel prosthesis.
Sedon’s cold gaze swept past Fei Ning, completely ignoring his former subordinate, before finally landing on Reinhardt’s face. His voice was cold and merciless.
"Capture him."
Dietlinde’s brows furrowed. She carefully scrutinized Sedon’s appearance and thought, ’So this is the Lord Sedon that Fei Ning War Commander mentioned?’
Unlike the other powerful Knights she had seen.
She couldn’t sense any powerful fluctuations from Sedon—only an extremely faint Knightly Aura, comparable to that of a Three-star Military Rank Official Knight.
But her intuition told her that this Knight, who once served as the deputy commander of the Death Battle Group, was definitely not as simple as he appeared.
Dietlinde gripped her sword hilt. She glanced at Reinhardt’s profile, her brow creasing slightly, and took a step forward to stand silently by his side.
She didn’t understand why these rebels wanted to capture Reinhardt, but if they wanted him, they would have to step over her dead body.
Fei Ning’s face was deathly pale.
In his mind, Sedon had always been the Knight he respected most. No one else came close.
He couldn’t accept that the man and superior he once trusted most would one day use him so ruthlessly, and one day also betray the Empire!
This thirty-year veteran was, at this moment, thunderstruck, frozen in place.
Reinhardt looked directly into Sedon’s eyes. And just like in the past, Sedon’s gaze was condescending, arrogant, and disrespectful.
In that instant, time seemed to rewind to their days in Frostfire Fortress. But things were different now. Reinhardt was no longer that young follower in the fortress who could only swallow his anger and look up at him!
He reached out to stop Dietlinde and turned his head. Their gazes clashed in mid-air.
"This is a personal grudge between him and me. Stay out of it."
"Reinhardt!"
Dietlinde wanted to stop the young Knight, but Reinhardt’s steps were resolute as he walked alone toward the enemy ranks, as if marching to his own death!
He raised the Giant Axe in his hand. Even though behind Sedon stood hundreds of elite Knights from the Imperial Main Battle Legion, there wasn’t a trace of fear on his face.
"Are you coming one by one, or all at once?"
A Knight stepped out from behind Sedon. He drew a Broadsword, its massive blade coated in black. A dim, deep-blue glow formed by Witchcraft Power, like lightning, leaped and flickered across the Broadsword’s surface.
Holding the sword in his right hand, he traced an arc through the air. His young, deep voice was as arrogant, disdainful, and deliberately provocative as his commander’s.
"I’ve heard Lord Sedon mention your name more than once, Reinhardt. I used to think that the application for the Champion Project candidate should have had my name on it."
The heavy Anti-Magic Steel Armor clanged sharply. He raised the Broadsword in his hand, pointing it straight at Reinhardt’s throat, his tone suddenly dropping and filling with rage!
"But your inferior talent and weakness almost cost me and my brothers in the Battle Group the chance to join the project, and caused Lord Sedon to lose face in front of the Imperial Regent!
I once swore a Knight’s oath that I would prove my strength to the Empire, defeat you with my own hands, and restore Lord Sedon’s dignity!
Remember my name, lowlife.
I am Matthias of the Ash Guard of the Seventh Corps Death Squad, a candidate for the Empire’s Champion Project—!"
The moment his voice fell.
Leaping arcs of deep blue electricity suddenly appeared on the surface of his Armor, crackling like a bolt of lightning. In an instant, he vanished from the spot.
The next second, he reappeared.
The Broadsword, crackling with electricity, was already pressed against Reinhardt’s neck.
Matthias’s face was hidden beneath his Full Coverage Armor, but his jealousy and rage burned like an invisible flame.
He had once given everything for the Champion Project.
But then he learned that some low-level Knight he’d never even heard of had snatched his spot in the Champion Project from Lord Sedon, invalidating all his efforts.
His anger was uncontrollable.
He had wanted to meet Reinhardt more than once. He wanted to know why a Third-class Knight from some border province had earned such high praise from Lord Sedon.
Every day, he fantasized about killing Reinhardt, proving his strength to Lord Sedon, to the Imperial Regent, and to this great Empire!
Now, the fantasy was about to become reality.
If not for their orders to capture Reinhardt alive, his blade would have long since taken this lowlife’s head!
’Just a low-level Knight who served in a Mercenary Corps, a peasant lowlife, and he thinks he’s worthy of stealing what’s mine?!’
Matthias’s speed was extreme.
When his figure vanished from Dietlinde’s sight, the female Knight’s expression changed drastically. She was horrified, thinking, ’Five-star Military Rank—!’
A Knight’s journey begins with being a recruit and follower. With enough talent and years of harsh training, their Power Level could eventually reach the Four-star Military Rank.
But from the Four-star Military Rank onward, for every promotion in Military Rank, grueling training and exceptional talent were merely the prerequisites.
