Chapter 481: S Rankers vs Death Knight
"Everyone, prepare for the battle!" Theodore commanded, rising to his feet. He was the first one to break free from the unsettling pressure of the Death Knight.
Nobody from the A-Ranked awakeners moved. Their bodies refused to lift even a finger. Fear was swallowing them whole.
"Wh-what just happened?" An awakener from the group mumbled. "D-did that thing just kill Sir Leo?"
"But...but isn’t Sir Leo an S-Rank?" Another added, unable to believe what had unfolded before their eyes.
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Live: 100.4m
DailyReader_3955: Did I mishear, or did someone just say that Sir Leo was killed?
MysticProgenitor: I heard the same. But the battle is already over, isn’t it?
Jarron_Sweeney: Is it another Boss Monster? Noah, say something!!
SirZontax: My heart is about to leap out of my chest. I have a feeling that something terrible is about to happen.
ye_thet_naing: Can someone tell me what’s happening there!!!!!???????????
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The livestream chat of Noah exploded into confusion and chaos. Noah had tilted the camera toward the ground when he went to confront Leo, so no one had witnessed what transpired before his eyes. However the mic was not muted, so they clearly heard Theodore’s command and the gasps of the awakeners.
Noah slowly moved his hand toward the camera mounted on his helmet and covered its lens with the cap.
While the Death Knight stood motionless over the fallen body of the monster, the S-Rankers immediately surrounded it from every direction.
Theodore and Aryan were the first to make their move. They bolted toward the Death Knight and hurled themselves upward, swinging their weapons at its neck from either side, roughly nine feet from the ground.
Tang!!
A loud metallic sound echoed through the ruins.
The Death Knight had blocked Aryan’s axe with its longsword while it caught Theodore’s spear with its bare hand, encased in dark metal-like armour.
With a single jolt, it sent Aryan crashing into the rubble of a collapsed building. It then tightened its grip, snapping Theodore’s spear clean in two.
"Im-impossi—" Before Theodore could finish his sentence, a fist slammed him squarely in the gut, sending him flying in the opposite direction.
The other S-Rankers also joined in, unleashing their most lethal attacks from every direction.
Rocky engaged it at close range beneath Saintess Riya’s protection and buffed spells, working to redirect its attacks using the fluid motion of his trident, laced with water elementals.
From a distance, Noah continued raining down enormous arrows of compressed water, each one tearing through the air like a ballista bolt.
Yet not a single attack landed on the knight’s body.
Unlike any other monster the S-Rankers of Earth had faced, this one moved with purpose and precision. It did not move like a rampaging beast. Every motion it made belonged to someone who had dedicated their entire life to the sword.
With only minimal movement, it blocked and dodged everything that came for it.
"Take this!!" Rocky shouted, driving his trident forward.
"Fangs of the Sea King Leviathan!"
A giant water serpent materialised along the trident, its gaping mouth surging straight toward the knight’s face.
However, before it could reach its target, the knight brought its sword down in a slow but utterly unstoppable arc.
The serpent split in two without any resistance. The sword continued its downward path, reaching toward Rocky’s head.
He tried to retreat but it was already too late. Just as he was about to be cut in half, a hammer of water slammed into him from the side, shoving him clear of the blade by a hair’s breadth.
It still managed to carve a deep slash across his arm.
"Hey, you alright?" Noah called from behind. He had reshaped his arrow into a hammer at the last moment to drag Rocky out of the sword’s path.
The knight raised its terrifyingly long sword again, but before it could strike, a spear appeared at the back of its head while an axe came for its gut.
The knight immediately leapt straight up, turning its massive body parallel to the ground mid-air, letting both weapons pass harmlessly beneath its back and above its stomach.
"How is this thing so fast?" Theodore snarled, swinging his new spear. It was a relief he had brought a spare.
"We cannot afford a single mistake," Aryan added as he turned to engage the knight again.
Just as the two were about to resume, the Death Knight vanished from sight entirely.
"Where has it gone?" Aryan muttered, his eyes darting across the ruins.
"Are you the strongest of this world?" A heavy voice rumbled from somewhere within the mound of debris.
"I-it can talk?" Noah mumbled, his eyes widening in shock. The other rankers were equally taken aback. They had never encountered a monster from a gate capable of holding a conversation. The only monsters that had shown any signs of intelligence were the trolls from the Black Gate. According to survivors, the trolls had been capable of speaking human language, though those accounts had been dismissed as exaggerated rumours due to the absence of any supporting evidence.
"Why are you attacking our world?" Theodore demanded, pulling himself together. "What do you want from us?"
"Are you the strongest of this world?" The Death Knight asked again, its burning blue flame-like eyes settling on Theodore.
"Yes, I am," Theodore answered. He needed to keep the conversation going. Avoiding this battle any longer was the only sensible option.
A brief silence followed. The knight looked up toward the sky and murmured in a heavy, grief-laden voice,
"It’s so unfair."
"What do you mea—"
"This world is made of weaklings," the knight continued, as though Theodore hadn’t spoken.
Its voice grew louder, cracking under the weight of something ancient and raw,
"Then why!!!? Why was my world destroyed while this one survived? It’s so unfair!"
The cry was so harrowing that it shook every awakener present to their core.
The moment the Death Knight’s roar faded, it vanished again, this time reappearing directly in front of Theodore’s face.
It was far faster than before. Too fast to track with the naked eye, even with Theodore’s superhuman vision.
Before he could react, the massive sword had already reached his throat. Theodore’s body moved on pure survival instinct. He raised his spear to intercept the incoming strike, pouring every last ounce of his remaining mana into the shaft. He knew that if he held back even a fraction of his power, he would not survive what was coming.
The two weapons collided. Sparks erupted and the spear split cleanly in two.
Theodore bent his head back to dodge the attack, but the tip of the sword still slashed across his throat, slicing it open.
A crushing kick followed, sending Theodore tumbling and crashing across the ground.
The Death Knight didn’t spare him a second glance. It vanished once more, only to reappear before Rocky and Noah. With a single swing of its blade, it carved deep diagonal wounds across their torsos. The cuts were lethal enough to kill them instantly.
Noah slammed into the ground with a heavy thud. The lens cap from the camera popped off, and the moment it did, the entire world erupted into an uproar.
In the livestream, the S-Rankers, pillars of humanity, could be seen lying lifeless on the ground.
On the battlefield, only four people remained standing.
Theodore stood at the front, clutching his throat. Aryan was right behind him, using his blood manipulation to stop the blood from bursting out of the gaping wound. At the back was Saintess Riya, channeling her last reserves of mana into Theodore to heal the fatal injury.
"You are the reason they aren’t dying," the Dark Knight muttered, fixing its gaze on Riya.
"Saintess Riya, retreat ba—"
Before Aryan could finish his warning, the knight had already seized Riya by the throat.
"Aghhhhh!!" Riya screamed. Her face turned crimson as veins bulged across her skin from the crushing grip. Her arms and legs shook violently as she struggled to breathe.
Aryan and Theodore bolted toward the knight with everything they had, desperate to save her in time.
However, before they could reach her—
Snap!
Her limbs went limp, and the light vanished from her eyes.
All the battles Aryan and Riya had fought side by side, her calm demeanor in every situation, and their long-standing friendship flashed through Aryan’s mind in an instant.
"I will kill you!!!!" he roared, his entire body igniting in a blazing crimson aura.
The blood of the fallen awakeners on the ground began to stir, rising into the air and gathering behind Aryan to form a compressed sphere.
Meanwhile, Theodore rushed in close to engage the knight, trying to buy time for Aryan to unleash his final attack.
However, the knight was far too powerful for him to handle alone.
Just as Theodore drew near, the knight drove its sword straight through his abdomen. Blood gushed from both the wound and his mouth.
"D-darn it..." Theodore mumbled, collapsing backward onto the ground.
The Dark Knight turned its focus to Aryan, the only awakener still standing. Behind Aryan, a large spear of blood resembling a crimson moon had materialized.
"Blood Demon Art: Chapter 4
Crimson Moon Requiem"
The moon shattered into countless shards. The Dark Knight stepped forward, but for a moment its movement halted. Its hand moved to its face, hidden behind darkness, and wiped away a small drop of black liquid.
"All that for a drop of blood," the knight whispered in a cold tone.
Aryan’s legs buckled and he fell to his knees, too exhausted to stand any longer.
"Die!" the knight rumbled, swinging its sword down toward Aryan’s neck.
