The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 53

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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 53. Collision Anew
“Tch……!?”
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
Only when ice beginning at his feet had crept up to cover his face did Munno recall what had happened in Trian.
When that Mage had left behind a false corpse and vanished, he’d found no trace of her Demonic Energy either.
And.
‘When I broke into the Prison too…….’
Was that a limitation of the Demon Devourer, or a difference in Realm?
The question occurred to him anew, but.
Crackle, crackle.
By then the chill had already swept completely over his head, and his consciousness was beginning to cloud.
– Hmph. You dare……!
He thought he heard that woman’s voice from beyond the ice, but before he could catch her final words, his senses were already blurring.
Yet.
‘No——’
Thrummmm.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
In the throes of mortal peril, the Armor pieces covering his limbs vibrated violently of their own accord, shattering the ice and absorbing the Demonic Energy.
Crack.
Snap.
The Metal Chains from his right arm shot forth and shattered the ice that had encased his face.
“Hah…….”
The moment breath returned, Munno instinctively craved intense heat, his mind still fogged.
Mercifully, his body remembered the way.
‘Acceleration.’
Crackle-crackle.
His entire frame tingled as fat and protein within his body rapidly broke down, releasing tremendous heat.
The metallic mana prevented his body’s collapse while part of it was consumed in place of that heat.
The result.
“Huuuuh…….”
Skin that had been turning blue with frost flushed crimson in an instant, and light returned to Munno’s widening pupils.
‘Seize. Kill. Devour…….’
Before reason could fully return, the Demon Devourer’s instinct moved his body first.
Boom.
In that accelerated time where the world moved slow, Munno hurled himself at the enemy’s back of the head.
“Grrraaaaagh…….”
Blocking incoming arrows with a Protective Shield, carpeting the cavern plaza with flames and Lightning, cold air and pillars of stone while driving Chloe’s opponent to the wall single-handedly, that enemy’s head slowly turned to look behind her.
Her eyes—pale, lips streaked with blood—widened sharply in an instant.
“Wha……!?”
A look of profound shock.
Munno—or rather, the Demon Devourer—answered with a savage grin, swinging his blade.
Boom.
Combat Boots modeled perfectly after footwear from his past life, sleek despite their safety-function nature, bore his full weight and struck the ground.
Crackle.
Gloves of unique design that wrapped every joint from fingertip to shoulder in double layers while ensuring fluid motion gripped a massive two-handed short blade forged of mana, then swung it with crushing force.
CLANG——!
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
The blade split the Protective Shield with a deafening crack, fracturing it instantly.
“Wh-what——!?”
Unsatisfied even with that, the Demon Devourer pivoted stance and unleashed strike after strike like lightning.
Slash-slash-slash.
Munno’s body left phantom trails of afterimages, delivering dozens of blade strokes in a single breath.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRACK!
At last the Protective Shield shattered.
CLASH——!
But his ‘blade’ had also shattered with it.
“……You——!!”
The astonished Witch staggered back, retreating.
‘I must seize her…….’
Only then did Munno’s reason fully reassert itself, but the backlash and exhaustion from pushing Acceleration to maximum output made him stumble in that critical moment.
How dare you……!”
In the Witch’s eyes, fear gave way to fury as a tremendous Demonic Energy surged before her, churning violently.
‘Of all the—’
In that instant.
Whoosh.
“Aagh!”
Chloe’s arrow pierced through the scattered magic and drove deep into the Witch’s thigh.
“This, this——!”
As the Witch, realizing her mistake in the midst of pain, spun around.
Chloe was already there, inches from her face, her Short Blade flashing like lightning.
A line of brilliance traced the shortest path from her waist to the Witch’s throat.
But.
Clang!
The streak of light struck the reddish Barrier that surged up again and bounced away.
‘Again?’
Munno, barely holding his ground, called forth his memories from Trian and grimaced.
“Cough.”
Perhaps the price was not without cost—the Witch spat blood.
Chloe too had paid a price.
The Short Blade, which seemed to have been carefully crafted, shattered pathetically, and blood now dripped from her palm.
She grimaced slightly, then drew a Dagger and swung it without hesitation.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tap.
Clang!
With her barrage against the Barrier, Chloe’s arms seemed to multiply into dozens.
“Wretched, wretched things……!”
Cough.
Within the Barrier, the Witch coughed up blood continuously, her eyes blazing red as she ground her teeth at Chloe and Munno.
Perhaps she refused to accept that she had become the hunted.
But there was no reason for them to hold back.
‘End this.’
Whip.
Unable to move from the extreme energy depletion, Munno hurled four strands of Metal Chains instead.
Without the strength to cry out, he hoped Chloe would react appropriately.
As the chains wrapped around the Barrier in tight coils, Chloe’s Dagger, fortunately, continued its assault, aiming with exquisite precision at every gap.
Screech.
The reddish Barrier, which had been fading in real time, began to fade much faster now, as though melting, the moment the chains enclosed it.
‘Just as I thought……’
This was different from before.
He could feel anew that the Witch’s condition was not normal.
Yet the enemy’s reaction seemed quite the opposite.
“This, this can’t be……!!”
‘It can.’
Munno answered only in his mind, a faint smile crossing his lips.
Suddenly, he saw fine cracks spreading across the Barrier.
A memory flashed through his mind—from not long ago.
“Get back!”
Squeezing out his last reserves of strength, Munno shouted to Chloe and wrapped the Metal Chains even more tightly around the Barrier.
And then.
——Boom!
With a deafening roar, the chains that had held the enemy snugly unraveled in an instant, expanding to fill the entire chamber.
“Eek!”
Bang.
Chloe cried out—a sound at odds with her image—as she was flung by the chains against the Cave wall with crushing force.
In Munno’s vision, the Witch, enveloped in a red mist again, was shooting toward the exit.
‘You think I’ll let you escape!?’
The blast was weaker than he’d anticipated.
Staggering, he moved the chains again, trying to snare the fleeing Witch.
Of the four strands, only one managed to catch the Witch’s left ankle as she lunged for escape.
Crack.
“Agh!?”
But that alone was enough.
‘Got her!’
The Metal Chains coiled around the Witch’s ankle drank in her Demonic Energy.
The 4-Circle Mage’s aura that he hadn’t even digested yet thrashed inside his body in revolt.
‘I’ll swallow it even if my belly bursts!’
He absorbed the Demonic Energy by sheer force of will.
“You……!?”
The Witch’s face twisted with urgency, then fresh shock flickered across her features as the light of the crimson meteor began to dim.
The three chains he’d missed their mark with now lunged again to bind her body.
Screech.
In that instant, as if a lie made flesh, the Witch’s left foot severed clean away.
“You mooonster——!!”
Crash!
As the chains swept through empty air, the red clouds wrapped around the Witch’s form transformed once more into a shooting star and tore from the Cave.
And then.
Boom!
– I will never forgive you. Never. Never!!
A voice seething with resentment howled through the cavern.
Crack-crack-crackle.
Whatever the Witch had done on her way out, the walls around them splintered with fractures and the entire Cave began to heave as if on the verge of collapse.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
“Damn it…….”
Munno caught sight of the Witch’s severed left foot and groaned as he tried to push himself up, only to collapse forward again.
His body refused to obey.
‘That vicious bitch! Damn.’
Rage boiled up inside him, but he no longer had the strength even to shout.
As his body remained unsteady, only the Metal Chains could still move.
Whoosh.
‘I’m not dying in this cursed place!’
Munno wrapped one strand of Metal Chains around Chloe’s body—she lay unconscious, struck against the wall.
Then, dodging falling boulders, he began to move like a three-legged spider toward the opening through which light poured in.
‘Focus. Focus!’
His speed was far from swift, but within the collapsing Cave he moved with exquisite precision, finding the path to survival.
And then.
– Rumble-rumble-rumble.
‘I… I made it.’
As the entire Underground Cave collapsed around him, Munno barely descended into the forest beyond, then wrapped both himself and Chloe entirely in Metal Chains before collapsing face-first into unconsciousness.
* * *
“Mm…….”
He’d been dreaming.
A dream of the Witch—who’d escaped leaving only a severed ankle behind—mocking him while giving him the finger repeatedly.
His teeth ground together naturally, and curses rose unbidden.
“……Damn witch.”
“What’s eating you?”
……What?
At a voice entirely unlike the Witch’s responding, his body flinched reflexively.
Then, as his eyes slid open, the vague dream scattered and bright light flooded his vision.
And beyond it, a female knight with a particularly severe face and crimson hair.
Who……?
Oh.
“……Chloe?”
“You just cursed and now you’re playing dumb?”
Only after hearing her exasperated tone did Munno remember everything—the moments right before he’d passed out.
“Huh!?”
Bang.
He reflexively lurched to his feet and stumbled backward, only to collide with the hard log behind him.
“……I, I was talking about that Witch. Saw her in the dream. R, really!”
As he fumbled through his excuse, the fierce woman let out a soft laugh and nodded.
“I know. You did your part. I’m the one who fell short on mine. You even had to be rescued. I’m just ashamed—figured I’d mock you a little for it.”
……So if you’re ashamed, you taunt someone? That’s the usual way?
“Ugh…….”
Once the initial shock wore off and his mind cleared, the world around him came into focus.
Not far away lay an enormous crater, nearly a hundred meters across, and the forest surrounding it.
Around them were scattered the bodies of nocturnal predators—wolves, serpents, pumas—all bleeding out on the ground.
“……Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I came to before those beasts tore into you—thanks to those Metal Chains of yours.”
Chloe turned back with a casual wave, as if brushing aside a flame.
Though her hand was soaked in blood, mauled as though by a predator’s fangs.
“Your hand—are you hurt……?”
“This? Spit on it and it’ll heal. Woke me up, actually. The one that did this? Over there.”
Chloe jerked her chin coolly toward a massive puma sprawled nearby.
……Just as expected. A warrior through and through.
For all her overt savagery, there was a fierce beauty to her—something untamed that set her apart from Karina’s more muscular, guileless charm.
‘Could I actually be into tough women?’
He dismissed the useless thought with a shake of his head.
‘Stop running from reality. Get yourself together…….’
The real problem staring him in the face was that he’d let the Witch slip through his fingers.
No—it wasn’t just that.
‘I showed her everything. My full power. And still lost her.’
To a mage that dangerous, he’d laid bare the strength that devoured magic itself.
If word of his ability reached the Deus Empire through her…….
— The mages will see you as heresy incarnate. Tell no one. Ever.
Even without his father’s warning, the consequences were easy to imagine.
‘No, no. Who’d believe the word of a Heretical Sect mage? It won’t happen. I have to think like that. And before anything does happen, if it does…….’
He’d catch that Witch again.
The moment he resolved this—
“We’re going after her again, right?”
“Hm?”
“That Witch. You’re not thinking of calling it quits here, are you?”
“……Of course not.”
Chloe had spoken exactly what he needed to hear, scratching an itch he didn’t know he had.
And then:
“This time, the trail’s clearer than it was back in Trian.”
She scanned the trajectory of the red meteor streaking south, grinding her teeth as she rose to her feet.
“Come on, let’s—”
Or tried to, anyway.
A stumble.
“Wh……?”
Thud.
At least he’d managed to drop to his knees rather than fall flat.
And then:
Growwwwwwl.
A loud, undignified announcement of his collapse.
His face flushed crimson at the sound his body made, betraying his true state.
“You look like you haven’t eaten in half a year. Here, eat something.”
Chloe thrust toward him a chunk of meat skewered on a twig, wafting a savory aroma.
“Th—thank you.”
Before he could stop himself, he was inhaling it like a man snatching his eyes shut in embarrassment.
As if she’d expected exactly this, Chloe kept pressing skewer after skewer of similar meat into his hands.
Gulp, gulp.
Smack, smack.
Driven by pure instinct, eating ravenously to survive, a question suddenly arose in his mind.
He’d always heard that predator meat wasn’t fit for human consumption.
So what was this……?
“What kind of meat is this?”
“Snake meat.”
“Gack!?”
“It’s good for you.”
Only then did his eyes fall on a long, shed snakeskin lying crumpled beside Chloe.

“……”
A twig slipped from Munno’s grasp and fell to the ground with a soft tap.

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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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