The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 57

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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 57. The Fierce Battle of Rubel (1)
What am I supposed to do…?
“Brother?”
“What’s wrong?”
His head spun under the weight of the surrounding pressure.
Yet in that urgent moment, only one simple method came to mind.
“Lord Mayer, sir. Could I take the individuals I point out to somewhere deserted and… handle them? Perhaps in a shadowy alley, somewhere out of sight?”
Now that he’d said it, the plan didn’t seem half bad.
“That won’t do. Acts in the name of God must be carried out with conviction.”
The fanatic’s commander shot down the proposal without hesitation.
But fortunately, there was another person in the group who could be reasoned with.
“Why?”
“There are too many. I suspect this might be the cult’s main stronghold.”
“What?”
Mayer cut in smoothly, catching Chloe’s look of surprise.
“All the more reason God’s will must be carried out boldly——”
“And that’s how the enemy’s leadership could escape.”
“…But to see God’s will through to completion, one must also know when to bend.”
Fortunately, despite being a fanatic, Mayer didn’t seem to lack brains.
“Now then. You… ahem, Holy Knights, please gather here.”
The moment permission was granted, Munno assembled the Holy Knights together, conscious of the surrounding gazes.
And.
“There are many of us, so we’ll move all at once. All forty-four of you each take one target. Somewhere out of sight, quick and clean. You understand?”
“Brother, really that many…?”
“There’s more. We’ll need to do this another three or four times on the way to where the witch is.”
“Good heavens.”
“…So this truly is a den of evil.”
“Oh God…”
As Mayer lamented, the Holy Knights squeezed their eyes shut in unison and made the sign of the cross over their chests.
The sight struck Munno as strange somehow.
“You’re placing complete faith in my words?”
“Why wouldn’t we? You are the one who destroyed a den of evil. There’s no room for doubt.”
Though he felt those two things were rather different.
There was no wavering in the bright eyes of the fanatics.
‘Well, at least it works in my favor right now.’
He had no reason to argue when the Holy Knights unquestioningly trusted his judgment in such a desperate situation.
And Chloe added something more.
“You all remember the Divine Temple’s failure ten years ago, don’t you? The terrible damage it caused to our Trian?”
“Sister, that was——”
“Think of this as a chance to restore your honor. Right now, there’s no Demon Cult leader, just a badly wounded witch.”
At that cutting remark, Mayer and the Holy Knights’ expressions hardened in an instant.
He didn’t know the full story of what had happened, but the group’s resolve seemed to spike noticeably.
“Then…”
The moment he turned, Munno activated his senses to their maximum and swept the surroundings, searching for all those who carried Demonic Energy.
‘The instant I point them out, they die. There can’t be any mistakes.’
Concentrating his mind as much as possible.
And.
“We move all at once after I’ve finished pointing them out. The bald vendor at the second fruit stall on the left, the city guards on the right, the blonde in the sleeveless shirt, all three deep inside that alley over there…”
As Munno pointed out each person who carried Demonic Energy,
Mayer assigned one Holy Knight at a time to cover each target.
And the moment all forty-four names had been called.
“Now!”
Munno and forty-four Holy Knights began moving in perfect unison.
* * *
“Kill. Kill. Kill…”
The City Administrator’s Residence of Rubel.
In the deepest chamber of the guest hall within, a woman with her left ankle wrapped in bandages sat muttering with murderous intensity, her face twisted in rage.
What she gazed upon was a handful of documents.
The woman shuffled through records of Forbidden Experiments, bearing only basic personal information, as she recalled someone—
And in that moment, madness deepened steadily in her eyes.
To maximize the development of Metal Control ability, the Devil Metal was implanted into her body like nerve fibers, treated with special chemicals and magical processes.
“So I wasn’t seeing things! Then it’s not an Artifact, but……?”
Her blue eyes widened as understanding dawned.
“You wake up after four days and immediately bury yourself in old records. What in the world happened, Karin?”
A sharp, ringing voice that cut through the air seemed to suppress the madness for a moment.
“Elder Emma, ugh……!”
Karin, who had been about to rise from the bed, felt a dizzying pain shoot through her left ankle and sank back down.
And to her side came an elderly woman with a hawk nose and unkempt white hair, looking exactly like the stereotypical witch from a folktale.
“What happened? How did you end up like this……?”
An old woman with a hideous face, the very picture of a witch from storybooks.
The sensation of mockery in her words, even those meant to show concern, was certainly not a mistake.
But this was not the time to worry about such things.
“Is it truly possible for an ability to exist that absorbs magic while disregarding Soul Quality?”
“What?”
“A characteristic held by a mere 1-Star, or at most 2-Star Hard Body Practitioner……. And then there are these special Metal Chains. No, that makes even less sense, ah, damn it all!”
Karin, who had been sputtering and raging to herself, soon dragged her hand across her face and continued with measured calm.
“In any case, whether it’s an ability or an Artifact, how could a 2-Star Hard Body Practitioner of all people weaken or absorb 6th Circle Magic?”
“Do you truly believe what you’re asking makes sense?”
“The very impossibility of it is what put me in this state! Me!”
Whether from pain or emotion, her voice rose without her meaning to.
Karin quickly caught sight of Elder Emma’s cold stare and hurriedly lowered her head.
“I’m sorry. Elder. I spoke out of turn…….”
“That’s right. Not all elders are the same, Karin. You may order me about thanks to that personage, but seeing your condition now, I’m beginning to doubt whether they’ll continue to keep you as their successor.”
“I apologize. I spoke foolishly. Please forgive me…….”
Grinding her teeth inwardly, Karin nevertheless bowed her head.
After all, it was she who needed something now.
“The day has come when you bow your head directly to me. Well, that much settles the rudeness. Heh-heh.”
The old elder Emma laughed at the sight of Karin bowing repeatedly.
“But you’re asking such a strange question. An Artifact that a 1 or 2-Star Hard Body Practitioner could use to shatter 6th Circle Magic? Or some ability instead?”
“……Yes.”
“Advanced Artifacts and Magical Instruments require the skill to use them. To properly handle the Magical Power or Mana contained within, one must possess the appropriate Soul Quality and compatibility. Common knowledge, isn’t it?”
Grinding her teeth inwardly again at the repeated dismissal, Karin outwardly nodded calmly.
“Yes. I was struck by such an object. It may also be simply an ability on that creature’s part.”
“Hmm, how could such an ability exist? A mere human wielding the power of great Foreign Gods…….”
At Emma’s words, Karin found herself nodding without meaning to.
It was simply the common sense of mages.
And yet.
‘But it was definitely recorded in the experimental files. That creature wielding Metal Chains as a weapon. And those chains definitely weakened Demonic Energy, didn’t they?’
Her own worst experience directly contradicted that accepted truth.
But also, if Metal Chains suddenly protruding from armor were the case, they looked quite different from what had been reported beforehand about the experimental subject.
‘Could it be coincidence? Should I assume that experimental subject removed the chains and acquired a similar Artifact instead? That doesn’t make sense either.’
And yet, a mere human could never absorb Demonic Energy while transcending the gap between them.
The energy of great Foreign Gods, which disturbs the very order of the world.
‘That’s absolutely impossible.’
Because of this rigid conviction carved into her mind, Karin chose to distort the facts she had directly experienced and believe instead in an improbable coincidence.
A chain of thought that would have greatly relieved Munno had he known of it.
And Emma drove home the final nail.
“That personage might know, but to my understanding, this transcends comprehension. Why didn’t you ask them directly instead of calling for me? Heh-heh.”
As if she knew all along.
The smile was terribly grating, but Karin had no choice but to bow even lower.
“I could not trouble that personage with my inadequacy.”
“……Out of fear of death, no doubt. While I, on the other hand, have no choice but to hear your ‘request’ because of that personage’s orders.”
“……That too stems from my own failings.”
“Heh-heh. So the infamous Karin Imbuls shows such formal respect to someone other than that personage. Quite an amusing feeling indeed. Well then, having failed to provide you an answer, shall I simply take my leave?”
“That’s hardly possible. I would ask that you help hunt that creature.”
“……Hunt? That creature?”
“The experimental subject I mentioned before, the one wielding an Artifact resembling Metal Chains—that personage desires it. The creature itself would not be difficult to deal with, but Trian’s knights are hanging about, and particularly, that Artifact resembling the chains actually does possess the effect of weakening magic.”
“Hmm. An experimental subject, you say? Don’t tell me……?”
“Yes. Ten years ago, in Elder Kreymel’s research facility…….”
“Show me the records.”
The moment Kreymel’s name left Karin’s lips, Emma’s eyes blazed to life.
Anticipating just this reaction, Karin handed over the test subject’s file without hesitation.
Emma began poring over it with particular care—a record of old ties, after all.
“The last report was that he’d been offered as a sacrifice. Now he’s living as an adopted son of a minor nobleman in a rural area called Drasen. One of our informants discovered it by chance…….”
“The one who had metal chains driven into him is wearing an artifact of that configuration? Hm, a twisted connection indeed. Or perhaps it’s an artifact that requires that Metal Control Ability, so he found it himself.”
Emma, one of the organization’s elder members, arrived at much the same conclusion.
“Then, will you help?”
“No matter what artifact nonsense we’re dealing with, if he’s merely 2-Star rank, I don’t think you’d struggle with him alone. My role, it seems, will be to sweep away the rabble around him.”
“The elite here have nearly all left their posts because of that matter in the capital. Had circumstances been different, I wouldn’t have called upon you, Elder.”
Truth be told, with more thorough preparation, she would have had confidence in handling it alone.
But having already failed twice, she thought it wise to take out proper insurance.
“Fine. At any rate, I’m under orders from that person, so I must fulfill your request at least once. But I’ll be handling the report on this mission myself. Understood?”
“……Understood.”
Once Elder Emma was set in motion, a report would inevitably follow through the chain.
– Achieve the objective by any means necessary.
– Die rather than fail.
Because of that organization’s motto, Karin had been unable to report directly to that person until now.
Now it seemed better to accept some criticism than to risk failure and lose everything.
The moment she reached that decision.
“What—!?”
The magic she’d woven into the lower-ranked members of Rubel’s organization—for punishment and surveillance—suddenly unraveled in an instant.
Members of that rank couldn’t forcibly break free from her magic.
Yet the magic was scattering all the same.
“What’s happening?”
That meant they were dead.
“We’re under attack!”
“What?”
The moment Emma’s brow furrowed.
– Boom—!
A thunderous explosion erupted from outside the City Administrator’s Residence.
– Hold the line!
– Kill them!
– Ahhhhh!
Chaos erupted all at once.
And amid it all, the voices ringing loudest were.
– In the name of the Divine!
“Wretched small-time temple priests!”
“What gives you the right to strike here!”
As Emma and Karin—the organization’s elder and a 6th Circle Mage—began pouring out their Demonic Energy in unison.
Outside, a fierce battle was already raging.
A terrible clash involving that young fool they’d been discussing just moments before—the one who wielded black metal chains.

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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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