The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 31

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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 31. The Second Evolution
‘Hmph.’
The moment Muno was about to take a step forward, he felt the flow of Mana shift.
In that instant, he threw himself directly into the gap where three streams of Mana crossed.
Shwip.
Four strands of Iron Chains extended outward, threading their way into the pattern of Mana that had been about to intertwine, absorbing part of it.
Gulp, gulp.
—Kyaaaaa!!
The Demonic Consumer in his mind screamed in exultation as if he’d drunk divine nectar, but this time, unlike before, Muno didn’t surrender his body to it.
‘You’re sealed until I have perfect control.’
He had no intention of brute-forcing his way through every spell, swallowing them whole with his body.
If he’d learned that couldn’t work, then he needed to act differently.
Like now.
“Wha—!?”
The mage’s face bearing down on him was utterly ordinary.
A gray robe like any long-distance traveler might wear, and thick, unkempt whiskers covering half his face.
Had Muno not sensed the Mana radiating from him, he would’ve dismissed the man as a common vagrant—yet as he watched those eyes widen to double their size, Muno swung his Greatsword.
But.
Shriek.
Slash.
“Agh!”
‘Too shallow.’
Tch.
The third-circle mage, demonstrating the gulf between himself and Allon, left behind only a severed arm before sliding backward in retreat.
“How…!?”
“A freshly awakened one, and yet…!?”
Listening to the clamor of his enemies, Muno surged forward again with explosive speed toward the retreating vagrant mage.
“Where—!”
He had to pin down the one with the severed arm before it escaped this place.
But the moment he raised his Greatsword again while confirming the terror-stricken enemy’s face,
Crack, crack, crack.
A massive wall of ice suddenly materialized before the mage.
‘Damn! Already?’
Boom!
As his Greatsword, swung with full force, shattered the hapless ice wall,
“Seize him!”
The mage he’d been targeting barked an order toward his allies.
Though his own body was already sliding across the sudden ice sheet, hurtling away at even greater speed.
Almost at once, responding to his shout, a vicious storm of frigid air erupted from all directions, engulfing the space where he stood.
Crack, crack, crack.
‘This trash—!’
Crunch, crunch.
But Muno, absorbing the magical power while dispersing the brunt of the ice storm’s shockwave, charged toward his original target once more.
“How!?”
“Insane…!?”
The cries of bewildered enemies scattered through the air, and in their wake,
‘Hm!?’
This time, blade-like chunks of ice began raining down from all sides.
‘No warning?’
He was caught slightly off-guard, but his response was swift.
Thwack, thwack, thwack.
Crash!
In a single moment, his swinging Greatsword and the Iron Chains batted away the incoming ice blades together.
“Huh!”
Muno’s charging body suddenly shot upward in a straight line through the air, defying inertia.
“Above!”
“Kill him!”
“No, capture him!”
Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack.
As the enemies’ commands tangled over each other, the storm of frigid wind and the ice blades mixed haphazardly, their power cut in half.
Some of that magic was sucked into the body of Muno, a human spider using four iron chains as legs while performing acrobatic maneuvers through the forest.
The mages who witnessed the sight could do nothing but gasp in horror.
The magical barriers surrounding them, woven from their own mana, made them feel the process all too clearly.
– Magic is truth that reigns above all law.
– Therefore, the mage is mankind’s greatest achievement.
A knight who devoured magic—an act that seemed to negate that absolute doctrine itself.
Naturally, their response came in convulsions of rage.
“This monster consumes magic!”
“Kill him!!”
“Kill him no matter what!”
As voices thick with bloodlust, excitement, and panic poured forth in chaotic chorus—
The spider-limbed creature leaped from the treetops, hurling itself downward toward another mage, one of the pillars holding up this frozen prison of a domain.
“Damn……!”
Crash.
An ice wall materialized before him once more, but Muno’s smile turned glacial.
Crunch.
His body, muscles wrung tight as he unleashed a burst of energy, bent like a bow through the air.
Flash.
The greatsword whipped through like lightning, piercing the ice wall as though it weren’t there, and a scream tore from the enemy’s mouth.
“Aaaahhh!”
Shatter.
Boom!
The ice wall crumbled belatedly, its shockwave ravaging the surroundings.
‘Got him.’
Watching the gaunt mage’s body—with its severe, weathered face—split open from right collarbone to abdomen with a sickening crunch, Muno grinned with satisfaction.
He’d poured all his strength into the Wind Slash from the start, anticipating that the ice wall would surge upward, and it had produced exactly the effect he’d foreseen.
He’d neutralized one enemy completely in a single blow.
And that sight was—
– Very ‘appetizing.’
Crunch.
His eyes darkened to pitch black, his muscles bulged and swelled, and black veins rose across his skin.
Yet Muno seemed unaware of his own transformation.
If anything—
‘Before he dies!’
Whip.
He swiftly manipulated the iron chains, coiling them around the weakening mage’s body before breath could leave it entirely.
Crack-crack-crack.
“Gaaahhh!”
“Allon!!”
“Self-destruct! Damn it!!”
Crunch.
Following that command, the gaunt mage’s body, which had been swelling, began to shrivel like a deflated balloon as the chains tightened around him.
Hiss.
Then, descending toward Muno’s head—
“Die!”
“Monster!”
A massive blade of cold intent fell from above, its killing intent absolute.
Crackle.
An icy chain climbed the tree, binding both his ankles.
Snap.
Crack.
But Muno—eyes half-rolled back, drinking in a grayish aura through the mage he’d restrained, wearing a smile—did not react to any of it.
He only trembled from head to toe, crackling with that deep, rhythmic sound.
Yet in that moment, someone else stepped in to meet the attack in his stead.
“What the——!”
Boom!
“What are you doing!”
Hiss.
A blue-haired knight burst from the forest’s depths and shattered the blade that had been falling toward Muno’s head.
Having abandoned the attempt to exploit the mages’ opening, he’d chosen instead to save Muno.
“Muno, Your Highness!!”
Only after Klam’s roar shattered through the forest like thunder
did Muno stir.
His eyes—rolled back until only the whites showed black—began to move again.
And then.
“We must kill it!”
“Such an abomination……!”
Instead, two mages with eyes rolled back began wringing mana from their bodies with violent desperation.
As they tore mana out explosively, their bones twisted with sickening cracks, yet they paid it no mind.
That mana transformed instantly into searing cold, becoming blades of ice, spears, and arrows that rained down in every direction.
“Curse it!”
Crash-crash-crash-boom!
Klam’s spear, spinning wildly, deflected the spell in all directions—but
it was not enough.
‘This is absurd…….’
Klam gritted his teeth as his body began to freeze, his movements growing sluggish.
He’d overextended himself protecting Muno, and the creeping cold had slipped past his control.
‘They’ve both burned themselves out too. Just need time…….’
If he retreated now, he could probably save himself.
But a face kept flickering across his mind, and he couldn’t abandon them for it.
‘Lion, you bastard—I’ll collect this debt when we meet in the afterlife. Damn it all!’
His spear began moving faster than before, with renewed purpose.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash.
He had decided to protect the talent the General was counting on, the beloved son of the prodigy junior he once knew.
And for that choice.
Crack.
The hand gripping his spear shaft shredded and tore open.
Thud.
Thud.
Ice blades began piercing into his limbs one by one.
‘Ugh.’
That agony finally slowed his spear,
and just as his body was about to crumble completely under the lacerating ice—
“My apologies…….”
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
With the softest of voices, thick iron chains burst forth in all directions.
“……for my lateness.”
Crash-crash-crash-crack.
The black chains, now twice as long as before, erupted into explosive motion, beginning to shatter the cascading ice magic.
But even that could not fully replace the spear of a 4-Star Knight fighting at full strength.
And so.
“I’m here!!”
The chains’ master began hurling chains in all directions to obliterate the spells, charging headlong toward the two mages.
A decision only possible because he knew full well that the mages’ frenzied assault was now fixed upon him.
And proving that expectation true.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash-crash.
The cascading ice blades began pouring down solely upon him as he charged, leaving Klam untouched.
But of course, defending against the onslaught from all sides with merely four chains was impossible.
As Muno’s armor shattered like glass beneath the relentless magic,
his clenching jaws matched his hands and feet—the guards strapped to his limbs suddenly expanded, covering his arms and legs in an instant.
Crash-boom!
The ice shower that Muno’s chains had failed to block now shattered against the black ‘armor’ encasing his limbs.
The black guards that had wrapped from elbow to wrist now covered from fingertips to shoulder,
and the leg guards that had covered ankle to knee were now complete armor stretching from toe to thigh.
As if his limbs were now clad in seamless black plating.
And that armor barely frosted over as the relentless cold washed against it.
Of course,
Splat.
several ice arrows did pierce through the parts his black armor didn’t cover—his torso, particularly the back he couldn’t defend with his arms.
“Ugh…….”
Muno’s black eyes blazed with cold clarity as he reached the mages, alive and burning.
Naturally.
“No… I can’t…”
“This… isn’t…”
“Die!”
Screech.
The two mages, their limbs contorted as they drained every last trace of Mana, unable to move so much as an inch, were bisected by the Greatsword Muno swung down upon them.
* * *
“Phew… Second Star, a second Evolution already? You only Awakened two months ago, didn’t you?”
After the harrowing battle, something in Klam’s demeanor had shifted—his formal speech crumbled into casual vernacular.
Bewilderment and shock rang plain in every word.
Muno, meanwhile, felt the roiling energy of his reborn body thrumming with new power from the second Evolution, yet instead of crying out in triumph, he could only bow his head and apologize again and again.
“I’m deeply sorry. I lost myself—the impulse overwhelmed me.”
Klam’s armor was nearly shattered, his limbs riddled with deep puncture wounds.
His right arm, the most damaged, looked almost like rags.
A Fourth Rank Knight had taken injuries he shouldn’t have needed to take, all to protect Muno.
Yet Klam only smiled.
“Well, for a prodigy like you, it was worth the cost. Time heals wounds like this. Nothing serious.”
For an ordinary person, injuries of this severity would mean permanent disability, but fortunately Klam was a Fourth Rank Knight.
Moreover, he was a martial artist with Full-Body Enhancement—a trait the world deemed most stable and reliable.
Yet Muno only bowed deeper still.
‘If I’d kept my wits, those enemies would have fallen easily.’
The Demonic Consumer, which he’d believed he could control perfectly, had seized his mind in an instant.
He understood the reason well enough.
‘Strength. The rise in Realm. I was craving it.’
When fighting mages, the Demonic Consumer grew acutely reckless, responding to his hunger, and his body had slipped beyond his command.
‘This must never happen again.’
Had he succumbed to that greed, he might have died an absurd death right there.
He owed his life to Klam’s intervention, and he’d completed the Evolution unscathed.
He’d learned hard lessons today.
“I have no face to show you. This debt of gratitude, this mistake… I will repay it—”
“Ah, come on, it’s fine. Besides, we dealt with the enemies, didn’t we? But that—is that an artifact? It seems like it nullified their Magic somehow. Is it specifically designed to counter mages?”
The one mercy was that Klam seemed ignorant of the fundamental reason those mages had convulsed in panic.
“Yes… it is.”
Lying to his lifesaver sat ill with him, but he had no choice.
Crackle.
At his will, the protective guards on his limbs shrank to wrap only his wrists and ankles.
Then they shifted again freely, spreading from fingertips and toe-tips up to shoulders and thighs in the form of segmented armor.
“Like this…”
“Hoh?”
Like Klam, Muno too was marveling inwardly.
‘It can transform like this? I imagined it might, but…’
Apart from his exploded physical prowess, he’d gained another great weapon.
The basic form remained heavy and crude armor, but it seemed far more malleable than before.
The Iron Chains could now adjust their width, their weights growing larger or smaller, sharper or duller.
And most of all.
“The Gauntlet looks far softer than ordinary, and the Combat Boots have taken a form I’ve never seen before,” Klam observed.
The very structure of the armor’s base form had changed dramatically.
‘This is…’
The Gauntlet resembled the distinctive safety gloves he’d worn during his previous life, and the protective covering on his feet had taken the shape of the work boots he’d then worn.
The image that flashed unbidden through his mind at the moment his hand and foot armor shattered had shaped the evolved gear’s form.
Those work gloves and safety boots from his past—products he’d invested in carefully because his only asset was his body—had been faithfully restored in this new armor, stirring strange emotions within him.
‘It’s embedded itself even in my unconscious mind. How strange…’
The upper portions of his wrists and ankles retained the crude form typical of armor in this era, yet the sections corresponding to gloves and boots appeared uniquely refined and delicate.
Gloves and boots bearing an ergonomic design that echoed those premium products from his former life—designs that seemed quite unusual by this era’s standards.
Connected as they were to the crude limb armor, that contrast created an impression that was somehow fierce and weighty.
“They look quite heavy.”
“No, not particularly…”
Thump. Thump.
“…Actually, they do have weight to them. Ha. Ha.”
An odd smile played at the corner of Muno’s mouth as he deliberately rolled across the ground to test it.
‘This should be metal, though…….’
The fit felt light as air, yet its actual weight was considerable.
It wasn’t just ergonomic design—it felt like an extension of my own body…….
Ah, why wouldn’t it?
‘Because these are truly no different from my body itself.’
Harder than steel, yet when cut I would feel the pain, moving by my own will—another body entirely mine.
He felt himself drifting further from humanity, though the sensation brought no displeasure.
‘Well, that’s a good thing.’
His body had grown heavier, yet this imposed no burden on his movements—the added weight would translate directly into greater combat strength.
In a world where power became ability and ability became station, strength was indispensable for the life he envisioned.
Beyond the growth of his Realm itself, he had also acquired a Gauntlet and Combat Boots that felt as familiar as those he’d worn in his past life—no, far more comfortable and reliable than even those.
‘This is genuinely comfortable…….’
It seemed he could bid farewell forever to the cumbersome Gauntlets and Boots of this era.
That was truly a joyful thing.
Of course.
“Ah, I envy you, I truly do. Your father, you know…….”
Klam deliberately shifted the subject, unwilling to burden him despite having suffered grave wounds while saving his life.
Though meeting this noble knight was hardly a lesser fortune.

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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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