Hero's Coffin Chapter 82

Chapter 82

He muttered blankly.

"...You said you were good at disguise magic."

"What? Did you just address me as 'you'?"

At this moment, he was probably, no, definitely not in his right mind. He just spoke while feeling the stinging pain on his cheek from the wound made by the broken sword fragments on Haren's face, sensing that faint pain more sharply than anything else.

"I just need a moment."

Beatrice seemed to be shouting something, but it didn't reach his ears. He walked with his gaze fixed on only one place.

All sorts of thoughts poured through his mind in a torrent. Even while throwing questions at himself—what could he possibly do here, a realistic doubt; criticism about approaching a demon, calling himself crazy; mockery that this was no different from suicide—he couldn't stop his feet.

Yes, this was clearly reckless and dangerous. With no NPC around, maybe the player should just quietly watch. Even now, wasn't Haren somehow picking up weapons scattered on the ground to face the demon again? Waiting while buying time like this until Kalterik and Mela could get everyone out would be the wisest course of action.

[Hahaha! How long do you think you can keep dodging!]

However, until then, Haren would have to keep getting hurt. The Death Knight didn't miss the openings created in the knight who had lost his sword, and gradually more small wounds accumulated on Haren's body. Though he was trying to avoid direct confrontation as much as possible, since he couldn't show the hero's recovery ability to either the demon or the mercenaries here, even that was difficult in the swamp.

Perhaps he was angry now. He had warned him so much to be careful because he didn't want to feel pain, yet he still ended up getting hurt. From the start, the idea of trying to tie down the demon alone had been far from safe, and all his nerves were on edge with anger at why he had naturally made that choice.

As the Death Knight's sword plunged down towards him, he screamed out that name.

"Haren!"

[...How did you come here?]

A solution flashed like lightning in his mind. Though it was an ability he had never used before, and no separate action key appeared on the status window, he strangely felt like he could definitely do it. It was a bizarre certainty.

The Death Knight, who had been pressing Haren hard, turned to look at him who had suddenly appeared. It seemed to find it strange that he hadn't been caught by the evil spirits on his way here, but they hadn't been able to properly approach him in the first place.

Would detaching the Death Knight's soul now solve all problems? No, he needed an even more definitive method. To eliminate the fundamental cause of this commotion...

He reached out his hand towards the Death Knight, towards the necromancer knight, towards that 'soul'.

"Stay still."

Purple energy burst like an explosion. Through the energy swirling like a whirlpool, he heard someone exclaim from afar, "That crazy bastard."

A twilight-colored magic circle flew urgently to cover him. Since it couldn't hide everything completely, his energy changed to black as if trying to make it look like demonic energy. To others, it might look like a scene of two people being swept up in the demonic energy released by the Death Knight. Though it would only be disguised for about two minutes, that was enough.

His energy transformed into ropes and bound the Death Knight's entire body. As the sword pointed at Haren stopped, its arm trembled. Though only dark red flames flickered in its hollow eyes, it looked as if shocked. The scene of losing its own will and submitting to another's command.

The Death Knight had become subjugated to him.

[Ku, kuaaak! This is impossible!]

The demon let out a horrible scream and whoosh– retreated far away. Barely resisting the subjugation, it moved far away. Fleeing to the center of the swamp, it quickly cut down nearby trees to block all paths approaching it.

But the Death Knight still had ropes around it. It frantically tried to tear them off with its one remaining arm, but before it could remove them all, he gestured.

"Come here."

Since he couldn't go to the swamp, he had to call the Death Knight here. Though nausea welled up from pouring out so much energy, he barely suppressed it while summoning his undead too. It was an unavoidable choice to drag over the creature that was resisting and holding out.

He hoped his undead would blend in since it was already a space full of hundreds of evil spirits. Still, he made them rise only their heads from the swamp, not their full bodies, to grab the Death Knight. While the subjugation team members screamed as they were dragged into the swamp, the Death Knight let out horrible screams as it was dragged out.

Though his weak undead were destroyed by the Death Knight's fierce resistance, they still ultimately obeyed his command and brought the demon. They were beings loyal beyond measure whenever he saw them.

[A-attack this guy, all of you! Kill him, I say!]

The demon hurriedly commanded its evil spirits. It was quite chilling to have hundreds of evil spirits spread throughout the forest turn to look at him simultaneously, but this made him even more confident in his current method. If he could subjugate this Death Knight even for a moment.

[There's no way I would fall to the likes of you...!]

"Shut up and kneel."

He might be able to control even its subordinate evil spirits. Based on that judgment, he scraped up energy to his limit and poured it out. He stood stubbornly even through the dizzying vertigo.

The Death Knight was incomparable to the ordinary citizen-like undead that Isaph had controlled until now. Moreover, with this body he had panted heavily just from summoning a few dozen, so he didn't know what confidence made him step up to try to subjugate this demon.

Was it an absurd confidence that he might not lose when it came to necromancy, or was it fury at the situation where he could no longer treat 'his' wounds as someone else's problem? Or... because the image of that being alone in a space full of the smell of blood was particularly deeply embedded in his mind.

The feeling that he absolutely couldn't see that sight again finally took the form of anger.

[Ku, aak! Aaak, kuaa...! Ah, aah...]

Finally thud, the Death Knight knelt before him. As purple light spread momentarily through the dark red flames, its body went limp. The demon collapsed in a gesture that looked like making a bow of submission.

Just then, his strength completely drained and he staggered with relief.

"It's over... hup."

Don't raise a flag. As he hurriedly covered his mouth, the Death Knight's flames flared up whoosh! It raised its upper body and reached out towards him.

[You...!]

Ugh, was even the 0.5 flag activating?

But just before that hand could touch his leg, swish! A pure white sword cut it off. Haren. He had retrieved the holy sword from the swamp and blown away the demon's arm. Though he usually swung it gently and lightly, this time it was an attack that even gave a violent feeling.

It was surprising enough that he used holy power with the holy sword, but Haren even tried to thrust down his sword as if to completely kill the demon. He hurriedly stopped him.

"Ah, don't kill it yet."

Right now he had subjugated the Death Knight and was controlling even its hundreds of subordinate evil spirits. Though it would only last a few minutes, they were using this to rescue the subjugation team members who had fallen into the swamp, so if the Death Knight was killed, those undead would disappear too.

The subjugation team members were dazedly pulled out of the swamp by the evil spirits, and his companions looked at him with surprised faces, having noticed the truth of this situation. Only Beatrice repeatedly made strange exclamations of "That, that, that!" while pointing fingers. Now she even grabbed the back of her neck.

He knew that when Haren drew his holy sword, she had panicked and manipulated the area so sunlight spread throughout the forest. Everyone's vision would have temporarily turned white. Beatrice leaned exhaustedly on her staff and lamented that she had joined the wrong mercenary group, and he sympathized with the feeling of being deceived about employment.

Still, because it had been so chaotic, the subjugation team members didn't seem to have seen his necromancy and Haren's holy sword. Of course, Beatrice's magic had played a big part, and to the mercenaries' eyes, it would have looked like the forest had been full of black demonic energy before suddenly being filled with bright white sunlight as the situation ended, so some even gave thanks to God with moved faces.

At this amusing scene, his strength drained completely and his body collapsed. Haren supported him with his arm as he fell.

"That was reckless."

"You used the holy sword too..."

Weren't they both equally reckless? Of course, the part Haren was pointing out would be trying to subjugate the Death Knight, but he deliberately changed the subject.

Moreover, by that logic, he had more to question. Trying to tie down the demon alone in a situation where he couldn't properly use holy power. It was miraculous that he had ended up with just a few light wounds. Though those weren't visible on him now, he now knew what was hidden under the perfect mask.

Swish, he reached out to Haren.

It was an action committed in a quite dazed state. He traced where he had felt the pain on his own cheek, and the reason would only be to check if he was hiding his wounds while pretending to be fine again. That must certainly be it. Otherwise, there would be no way to explain why he had suddenly touched Haren's face.

"..."

Even at this bewildering action, Haren didn't push his hand away but quietly looked at him. Their gazes tangled in the air silently before he belatedly startled. Why wasn't he avoiding it?