CIATB Chapter 448: What life is
Chapter 448: What life is
Laius moved forward without hesitation.As the battle continued, the number of corpses killed by the Holy Sword increased.
Even the knights following the captain’s momentum were a little discouraged.
“He seems to be in a really bad mood today…”
Glenn let out an awkward laugh. He cut down the confronting priest in one fell swoop, then turned to Laius with a concerned look.
As they advanced, each step forward became increasingly difficult.
However, Laius was still single-handedly wiping out as many enemies as he could, fearing that his men would suffer even the slightest harm.
‘This is really something.’
Glenn clicked his tongue inwardly and started moving faster.
With the sound of bones snapping, the ghoul let out a scream of agony.
“Keeeeeek!”
However, Glenn, with a blank expression on his face, completely dismembered his enemy and moved forward to find his next opponent.
As if swept up in Laius’ enthusiasm, the other knights were also moving more boldly than usual.
The knights, fiercely advancing through the enemies, looked like exploding bombs.
As they advanced, the elf archers and Shekhinah also shifted their positions, steadily keeping the enemy in check.
The enemies the knights left behind were being dealt with by soldiers led by Ludwin.
Literally everyone on this battlefield was giving their all to wiping out the enemy.
But the enemies were also giving their all.
“Everyone, stand back! The miracle soldier is coming!”
At the end of someone’s shout, a familiar red light burst out from a point some distance from the front line.
The homunculus began to be summoned.
Rider, who had quickly cut down the priest blocking his way, turned towards the direction of the light.
“Damn it, those bastards!”
The homunculus was a formidable opponent. Only by somehow blocking its summoning could they prevent further damage to their allies.
The knights began to advance towards the summoning circle, cutting down the enemies without hesitation.
“Don’t worry about it and just focus on the enemies in front of you!”
Laius’ shout caught the knights off guard.
The moment Rider stopped, Laius shot past him.
As Laius leapt high and landed with a heavy thud, the red glow of the summoning circle faded away at the same time.
“Kueeeeek!”
The giant homunculus that had just been summoned let out a sharp cry towards the sky.
It was a monster that looked like a giant raccoon.
It had countless sharp, numerous legs attached to its long body, and its open mouth was full of sharp teeth.
Despite its hideous appearance, the hero was completely unintimidated. Glenn shouted at Laius, who flew forward without a moment’s hesitation.
“Captain! Don’t overdo it! You need to conserve your energy!”
Since they didn’t know how long the fight would last, if he started using up too much energy now, he could end up in trouble later.
But Laius gave the order once again.
“Don’t worry about it, open the way! We will reclaim this territory and castle today!”
Glenn, who had been silent for a moment, expressed his displeasure.
“…Oh, damn! Do as you please!”
The other knights also had no choice but to focus on the enemies again.
“Keeeeeek!”
The homunculus’ mouth opened wide and it rushed towards Laius.
Instead of dodging, Laius raised his sword and defended himself head-on.
For a moment, an enormous weight pressed down on him, but Laius stood firm.
The homunculus, unable to close its mouth or retreat, twisted its long body as it was trapped by the Holy Sword.
“Ugh… Keeeeek!”
A sticky liquid came out of the monster’s mouth, dripping down onto his hands and arms.
The parts of his uniform that came into contact with the liquid began to scorch, and vivid burn marks began to appear on Laius’ arms.
But Laius calmly stared down his enemy without even blinking.
“…It doesn’t matter how many there are in the future.”
An unwavering voice flowed out.
It was a sentence directed at Jiklin, who was watching everything through the homunculus.
“I’ll take care of everything.”
There was no way the homunculus could understand those words. With its mouth wide open, filled with sharp teeth, the homunculus pressed even harder.
“Ugh…”
“Keeeeek!”
Laius’ feet were pushed back and sunk into the ground. Even as this was happening, he glared at the homunculus, or more precisely, at Jiklin beyond it, with unwavering eyes.
“I will guide these cursed ones to their rest.”
The Holy Sword began to glow white. Then, the scars all over Laius’ body, as well as the burns he had just received on his arm, began to glow softly and heal.
“So, I want you to pay the price for your sins against these living beings. I want you to suffer and writhe in regret even after death.”
Perhaps sensing an eerie murderous aura, the homunculus paused.
It was a curse completely unbecoming of a righteous hero. It was also something he would never have uttered, even to his enemies.
But now, Laius decided not to bother pretending to be polite.
He had long realized that in a fight to the death, appearances were meaningless.
‘And…’
At least for now, it would be better to let his hatred out.
That would also be helpful to Arendt.
Strengthening his grip on the sword, he activated the Shadow of the Strong.
A powerful magical force, strong enough to cause a gust of wind to blow around him, enveloped him.
Laius firmly braced himself and struck the homunculus blocking his path with all his might.
“Keeeeeeeek!”
For a moment, the severed head flailed aimlessly. Laius seized the opportunity and swung his sword once more.
The Holy Sword flashed and cut off the homunclus’ thick head with a single stroke.
The fight was just beginning.
“…Ha.”
White vapor rose from the corners of Arendt’s mouth as he took a short breath.
Arendt stood with his sword thrust into the ground as a support, trying to steady his breathing.
The ice blocks scattered on the floor sparkled in the sunlight.
They were the remains of a homunculus that had just died.
‘How long has it been?’
Looking at the position of the sun, it didn’t seem like much time had passed since the battle began.
It wasn’t time to get tired yet.
“Hoo…”
Arendt took a deep breath to calm his breathing and straightened up.
“You’re not tired already, are you?”
At the moment they had just barely won against the homunculus, it felt a bit premature to say ‘already’.
But that one word was enough to irritate his seniors.
“Who said we were tired?”
Arthur straightened up, answering with irritation. Richt, too, roughly wiped the blood streaming down his chin and replied.
“This much is no problem.”
It wasn’t a very convincing argument.
Because they looked like a mess, full of filth and all sorts of dirt sticking to them.
Arendt was also in a bad state.
Perhaps because he had used the artifact excessively in a short period of time, he was already feeling a chill.
Because his body temperature had dropped, even his fingertips outside his gloves were pale and trembling.
“Well, that’s fortunate. Seeing you both look so exhausted, I thought you were about to give up.”
But Arendt dismissed the cold air with a flick of his sword.
While dealing with the homunculus, they had advanced quite a bit forward.
Moreover, thanks to the elf warriors clearing the way by dealing with the surrounding enemies, their destination, the lord’s castle, seemed much closer.
Arendt took a moment to catch his breath and look around.
Ghouls were swarming in from all directions. In comparison, the number of priests seemed to have decreased significantly.
‘So they’re trying to drain my power somehow.’
It seemed like they were planning to kill Arendt, who was exhausted after a long fight, with a priest or homunculus stronger than the ghouls.
There were many obstacles to overcome in the future.
‘Honestly, it’s half a gamble.’
He talked all kinds of nonsense, pretending to be great at what they did, but the fact remained that they had to penetrate through the enemy themselves.
Because it was a battlefield, if they let their guard down even a little, they could get attacked by a small fry.
But now, Arendt was betting everything on the belief that those with him would not be left behind by mere ghouls or priests.
‘It’s not really like me, though.’
At the same time, it was something that didn’t really suit the role of ‘Arendt’.
He thought that it might be meaningless to dwell on such things any longer on this stage.
‘Those stupid knights will treat me like a troublemaker no matter what I do.’
He couldn’t tell what would happen at the end of this story.
Arendt shook off his thoughts by clenching and unclenching his fist once and then focusing on his role again.
“What are you doing? You said you weren’t tired. Then let’s get moving. Let’s go cut that elf brat’s head off.”
Richt and Arthur sighed deeply at the natural, blunt dialogue.
Arendt, who had moved first and pushed them aside, rushed back into the battlefield.
At the sound of Arthur and Richt following behind him, muttering something, a small smile that no one could see crossed Arendt’s lips and then disappeared.
The moment the homunculus sent towards Arendt von Eckhart died, Jiklin could only hit her forehead.
“…Did these bastards eat something weird as a group?”
Following the homunculus’ defeat at the hands of Captain Laius, the miracle soldier sent towards Arendt also suffered a futile defeat.
“Damn it!”
Although she tried to suppress her anger somehow, Jiklin couldn’t hold it in and started yelling.
“You’re the one who personally touched that child, Lord Chernion! How can he fall so meaninglessly?”
There was also a hint of fear in her sharp voice.
After hearing Laius de Winfried’s curse, Jiklin was once again gripped by extreme anger and anxiety.
“At that moment, I could clearly sense His will! With the power of the Miracle Soldier, he was going to kill Arendt von Eckhart! If only the interloper hadn’t intervened!”
The third eye that opened at that time was clearly a small miracle caused by Lord Chernion.
As the eyes increased, Jiklin trembled with exhilaration.
The eye that filled the black body undoubtedly represented Chernion’s will.
“It can’t fail! Lord Chernion was involved himself!”
Jiklin, having messed up her hair, shouted in a fit of rage.
Then Rita, who had been watching quietly from a corner, began to speak.
“The child must have been too weak to accept all of Lord Chernion’s wishes.”
“…”
The tone was calm, as usual. Thanks to this, Jiklin was able to calm down a bit.
“…My work was lacking?”
“Of course, all of Lady Jin’s creations are wonderful.”
Rita replied to Jiklin’s irritated remark.
“But I dare not challenge the might of Lord Chernion. While the child was undoubtedly a fine soldier, he would have felt a burden when serving as Lord Chernion’s vessel.”
Rita slowly approached her and began to straighten her messy hair with her hands.
Jiklin accepted the touch obediently, even though her face was pouty.
“My Lady, you have accomplished your purpose. They must have been quite exhausted from facing the Miracle Soldiers.”
“…I guess so. As long as they’re human.”
Jiklin replied bluntly to Rita’s words.
“Don’t worry, Lady Jin. Lord Chernion will definitely support you. And if there’s no one who can carry out Lord Chernion and Lady Jin’s wishes…”
Rita continued speaking slowly, braiding Jiklin’s hair with her skillful hands.
“I will personally make your wish come true.”
Her long blonde hair, which had been a mess, was quickly tidied up into a single braid.
Jiklin, who had been silent for a long time, nodded like a child.