I’m a Holy Knight, but I Contracted with an Evil God - Chapter 38

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 38.
How long had they been walking?
The dark tunnel did not stretch on indefinitely.
But what unfolded before the two of them at its end defied all reason.
“Chains Inscribed with Holy Seals, and now high-level Teleportation Magic? These people have serious backing.”
Tristan clicked his tongue, his voice dripping with bitter mockery at the sight before them.
Leon could only agree.
Illusion Magic might be one thing, but Teleportation Magic was impossible without proper institutional support.
There were too many variables—the departure point, the arrival point, the power source required.
Above all, mages capable of executing stable teleportation spells were rare as gems.
Finding one would cost a fortune.
“I suspected as much when I learned the disappearances spanned the entire continent.”
No mere heretical sect or band of thieves could command such resources.
These people clearly had sponsors.
Scattered across the continent.
Tristan licked his parched lips, his expression sharpening to a keenness beyond his usual demeanor, and adjusted his grip on his sword hilt.
“Stay sharp. The moment we breach that passage, we could be facing them.”
Tristan warned, and Leon answered with a nod, resetting his own blade.
At the same time, he drew every ounce of perception he possessed into sharp focus.
Ready to counter the instant an attack came.
“Let’s go.”
The two rushed toward the gaping fissure.
* * *
Midway through the passage.
Tristan’s footsteps halted.
Grrrrrrr…….
In the darkness, the cry of a beast echoed.
Not just one.
Dozens of alien eyes materialized in the void, accompanied by the wet friction of viscous membranes, fixing their gaze upon the two intruders.
“Damn it. What a mess.”
The eyes belonged to Contaminated Beings.
Yet their states varied—each grotesquely malformed, lacking any coherent shape.
As if they had been abandoned mid-creation.
“Cast aside?”
“They must not be worth keeping,” Leon replied coolly, raising his blade.
The creatures were clumsy and crude one and all, yet as if compelled to fill that void, they packed the passage with a nightmarish thrashing.

“Hah!”
Tristan burst forward, twin swords flashing.
In the darkness, blades danced and carved through the crude flesh into pieces.
Rip!
Crack!
Slash!
The lead creature’s neck flew clean away, and the one charging behind it was rent limb from limb in mid-air.
The motion was bestial.
It was Tristan’s signature swordplay—not refined technique, but explosive speed and force that annihilated his opponent.
“Can’t take them all! We push through!”
Tristan pressed forward, drenched in viscous blood, his advance relentless.
The twin blades traced arcs through the air, slicing the floating eyes to ribbons, finding and crushing the cores of whatever barred his path.
But there were far too many, and Tristan’s body was not whole.
“Ghk!”
Under normal circumstances, such a clumsy blow would have been trivial to deflect.
But as broken ribs drove into his lungs with a sharp, searing agony, Tristan’s form faltered.
Attacks rained down from every direction, bristling with malice.
And in that moment, his disrupted breathing became lethal.
Shriek!
One of the Contaminated Beings crawling along the floor dove at Tristan’s blind spot with a horrific shriek.
Normally he would have dodged with ease, but the pain seized his body rigid, and reaction came too late.
Crunch!
The creature’s fangs punctured through Tristan’s thigh.
The creature’s body swelled grotesquely at the same moment.
“Commander Barka!”
“Get back!”
Burst!
As Tristan shouted, the Contaminated Being that had sunk its teeth into the thigh exploded outward.
Dark crimson Toxic Acid sprayed violently from the creature’s severed edges in all directions.
Tristan hastily wrapped his cloak around himself, but in the narrow corridor there was nowhere safe to retreat.
Hissssss!
With a sound like burning metal, white smoke rose from Tristan’s left thigh.
The Toxic Acid that seeped through the gaps in his armor began to sear raw flesh with agonizing intensity.
Tristan’s face contorted in pain, but he gritted his teeth and pushed off the ground again.
Leon stayed close behind him, deflecting one attack after another from the creatures Tristan couldn’t reach.
Burst!
A Contaminated Being from below drove toward his ankle, but instead of dodging, Leon brought his blade down hard against its skull.
He wove deftly between the fragments of flesh falling beneath his feet, racing forward in a straight line.
“Ahead!”
The moment Tristan roared the warning, a faint shimmer of light rippled at the edge of the darkness.
The exit at last.
“Run!”
Tristan ignored the searing pain in his thigh, squeezing out his final strength to roughly shove aside the Contaminated Beings blocking the path.
Leon and Tristan burst through the carnage of blood and Toxic Acid, hurling themselves toward the wavering light.
* * *
Whoooosh!
A harsh wind that seemed to tear at eardrums struck both their ears.
The exit opened into a deep canyon where crimson cliffs rose sheer on either side.
Strange, wailing sounds swept through the entire canyon as if spirits themselves were crying.
Tristan, being from the east, immediately recognized where he was.
“This is the Canyon of Lamentation.”
“Where is that, exactly?”
“Near the Nerva River… wait.”
The moment Tristan spoke the name Nerva, both men grasped the exact same memory.
The traces of bandits they had discovered on the bridge—the very road leading toward Orden.
“Remember that incident on the bridge?”
“Yes. They must have abducted people there and brought them here.”
“Exactly. No doubt about it.”
Tristan’s eyes swept the surroundings with absolute certainty.
Clear wagon tracks ran from the canyon’s entrance deep into the clearing and continued onward toward the canyon’s depths—originating from precisely the direction of the bridge.
At the same moment, both men spotted something incongruous within the bend of the canyon ahead.
“There!”
Tristan shouted and surged forward at full speed.
Pain seized his ankle, but the distance was mere hundreds of meters.
Such momentary agony was entirely bearable.
‘This is nothing…!’
It was a distance he could absolutely cover.
Yet the men showed no alarm at being spotted, no urgency in their movements.
Instead, as the Black Carriage door swung shut, the face of a hooded figure appeared in the narrowing gap.
The man offered the two running figures nothing but a victor’s cold smile as he gasped for breath.
As if to say: you will never catch me.
And in almost the same instant.
Burst of light!
A pillar of light so brilliantly dazzling it made the head spin erupted from the center of the clearing, and a deafening crack split the air as the ground trembled, shaking the entire canyon.
After a torrent of magical force swept over both men, nothing remained in the clearing as the dust settled.
Only an oppressive silence.
“…Damn.”
The carriage and its occupants vanished without a trace along with the light.
What remained was only the trace left behind by long-distance Teleportation Magic etched into the ground and the acrid smell of scorched air.
Unable to swallow his rage, Tristan kicked at the earth and roared.
“Curse it all! Right before my eyes!”
Leon shared the frustration, but instead of venting it blindly like Tristan, he examined the remaining magical circle.
Parts of it had been erased by the spell’s execution, but given the enormous scale, considerable traces remained.
“You’d need tools to calculate the distance backwards.”
Tristan spoke as though he’d guessed what Leon was after, but Leon shook his head.
What Leon sought in the abandoned magical circle wasn’t mere distance.
‘Ekrdje.’
【Hmm. Fast feet, stupid minds. The trail’s far too long.】
Leon pressed his hand to the magical circle, expanding his senses.
Ekrdje’s perception traced the remnants left by the teleportation magic.
‘Where did they go?’
【The Space-Rending Teleportation Spell is powerful, but it leaves correspondingly massive traces. And a displacement of this scale must follow the Ley Lines.】
The more he expanded his senses, the sharper the image became.
Far drier and more barren than the east.
Below rather than above.
……Southwest?
“What lies southwest and below from here?”
“Southwest? That would be the Southern Desert.”
“Are there canyons in the Southern Desert?”
“Canyons, you say……”
After a long moment’s thought, Tristan and Leon spoke in unison.
“The Forgotten Canyon.”
“The Forgotten Canyon would be perfect for going to ground.”
The continent bore a vast desert spanning east and south.
At its boundary lay the Forgotten Canyon.
The surrounding land was so barren that few inhabited it, much like the east.
“And it seems they couldn’t all fly away.”
Leon spoke thus while pointing not at the ground but at the dirt path leading into the canyon’s depths.
Beyond the soot of the magical circle, several wheel ruts traced into the darkness.
It was evidence of a physical retreat—the escort troops and supply wagons that hadn’t benefited from teleportation magic.
Tristan’s eyes turned fierce.
The exhaustion vanished, and his amber irises gleamed like a predator that had caught the scent of prey.
“So the director used magic, but the rest couldn’t.”
“That appears to be the case. The wheel ruts are deep—they still have cargo.”
“Then everything changes.”
Tristan adjusted his grip on his sword, twisting his lips into a grin.
He’d lost the main target, but he could still catch the tail.
And once he seized that tail, he’d know exactly where the head was headed.
Yet Tristan’s hand trembled slightly as he gripped his blade.
His breathing came harsh through the fingers pressed against his ribs—the aftermath of the recent battle and the desperate sprint.
“Are you certain? Pushing yourself with broken ribs could puncture a lung.”
Leon’s observation was apt.
The fractured rib from his battle with the mutant Contaminated Being was on the verge of piercing his lung from the strain of that last teleportation.
But Tristan scowled and answered roughly.
“Quiet. This is nothing. We need to chase down the ones we missed before it’s too late.”
Tristan forcibly straightened his upper body, his eyes blazing sharp as he swallowed the pain.
“No time to waste on words. Can you run?”
“Of course.”
The two wasted no further time.
Leaving the fading traces behind them, they ran following the still-vivid wheel ruts.
The hunt was not yet over.
To be continued ▶
A Holy Knight with a Contract to an Evil God
Author
Ram Dat
Publisher
Kim Suk-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publishing
Contact
[email protected]
Release Date
March 27, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227066
※ This electronic book is protected under copyright law. Unauthorized reproduction and duplication are prohibited. Violations may result in criminal and civil legal liability.
※ Pentagram awaits your precious manuscript.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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