The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 69

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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 69. An Egg Shell……?
‘What is this?’
For a moment, he sensed a flicker of Demonic Energy, only to have it vanish abruptly.
It might have been his imagination, but it nagged at him.
Something bearing Demonic Energy had clearly employed some means to evade his senses.
‘……Like that woman.’
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Munno’s eyes narrowed to slits.
He then began moving toward the forest, dissolving into the darkness as if becoming one with it.
And as he approached the woods with cautious steps, ready for any confrontation, he spotted something unexpected.
Or rather, sensed it.
‘There’s nothing…….’
The moment he frowned at the sight of the goblin corpse he’d left behind.
Thump.
From an empty clearing not far off, he felt the pulse of that strange Demonic Energy spreading outward again.
A peculiar aura that bore both its characteristic displeasure and, inexplicably, a sense of familiarity.
‘What……?’
Thump.
Nothing visible appeared, yet that strange Demonic Energy flickered into being, only to vanish once more.
Had it not been for the Demon Devourer, he might never have sensed that gossamer trace of Demonic Energy—so faint it seemed to burst and fade in an instant.
‘What is this?’
Faced with an unfamiliar situation, Munno cautiously moved toward that clearing.
Hiding in the shadow-laden forest path, he fixed his gaze on the center of the clearing where the Demonic Energy emanated.
‘No matter how I look at it, there’s nothing here.’
He wondered if that woman had done the same—concealing her aura.
Whoosh!
He hurled a Black Dagger—compressed into the form of a Two-Handed Sword—toward the epicenter of the disturbance.
But.
Thud.
Crack.
The dagger, now a streak of black light in the dead of night, passed through the clearing and obliterated a tree on the far side before vanishing.
And then.
Thump.
That subtle pulse resonated from the same spot again.
‘What on earth……. The ground?’
Whoosh.
Bang.
He suddenly extended Metal Chains that coiled like serpents across the ground of that space.
Still, nothing caught.
“What is this?”
Possessed by something like a ghost, he muttered aloud without thinking.
It was then.
Thump.
Among the dust particles rising from the chains, he suddenly detected that familiar pulse.
And only then did something very small and pure white enter Munno’s field of vision.
Crack.
He moved without thinking, snatching it from the air as it fell with the dust.
And he froze.
“A shell……?”
An Egg Shell?
That couldn’t be right, yet it looked exactly like one.
An impossibly tiny fragment of white shell—perhaps a fraction of a fingernail’s width, maybe less.
This mysterious substance.
Thump.
Faintly emanated that same Demonic Energy—unpleasant yet strangely familiar.
“What exactly is this?”
He had no choice but to be bewildered.
Suspecting it might be a trap, he heightened his senses and surveyed his surroundings.
In a space free of any obstruction, the Demon Devourer’s perception stretched endlessly outward, yet still failed to detect any Demonic Energy…….
Thump.
“Huh?”
No, there’s something there.
At the very edge of where the Demon Devourer’s fully expanded senses could reach, he felt a faint ripple—something that seemed to resonate with this shell.
‘A lure? No, that can’t be right.’
The strange vibration this shell was emitting was extraordinarily faint.
He was certain that without sensing abilities like his own Demon Devourer, no mage, priest, or Spirit User could perceive this Demonic Energy’s ripple.
More precisely, even if he stood before Rasmia holding this shell concealed, he wouldn’t be discovered.
And yet such a weak ripple was being used to lure him in.
‘Even if it’s meant to lure me… it doesn’t make sense.’
It would be impossible unless the other party understood him better than he understood himself.
Naturally, curiosity stirred within him.
And beyond that.
‘If there’s any being with Demonic Energy…’
It must be eliminated.
With that resolve, Munno decided to pursue the strange ripple he felt in the distance.
Of course.
‘With caution.’
Whoosh.
His movement from shadow to shadow through the forest, shrouded in darkness, was so concealed that no ordinary eye could detect it.
It seemed this midnight hunt was going to take far longer than anticipated.
* * *
Crack.
“Kee…?”
Thud.
A mass of black energy burst from the darkness, smashing the head of a goblin that had been foraging in the forest, then vanished.
The corpse fell, only to be lifted by an invisible force moments later and hurled into the forest’s shadows.
Thump.
‘These wretched things are getting in the way.’
The shadow, having dispatched the goblin with ease, furrowed its brow even while concealed.
There was no recognition of overreaction.
With nerves already stretched taut by the ‘egg’ cradled in his chest, how could he bear to see shabby monsters crawling about so persistently?
‘Damn it, how did things come to this?’
Countless allies had lost their lives just to locate this single egg.
And contrary to what he’d expected—a safe return to the organization—here he was again in this godforsaken corner of the Northern Region, even closer to Drasen than to Trian.
He couldn’t defy those orders, but the dread gnawed at him.
‘If that mother arrives…’
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.
Merely thinking of ‘it’—that thing as dark as the endless night itself—sent his heart racing wildly, a constricting pain blooming across his chest.
He marveled that he still drew breath after witnessing such a thing.
“Hh… hh…”
The shadow forced himself to breathe deeply, trying to empty his mind.
‘Elder Karin said she would bring a Named Magical Artifact. I only have to safeguard this until then.’
Only after steadying himself could he begin to suppress the terror that had seemed etched into his very bones.
In truth, Elder Karin was coming for a different task connected to it rather than the egg itself, but thinking of it that way seemed the only way to ease this suffocating dread.
And so he pressed on with deliberately optimistic thoughts.
‘There’s no way I’ll be discovered. By anyone.’
Only those developed by that one—the Dark Veil technique, which doubled the effect of the Curtain—could be wielded by Elder Karin and her direct subordinates.
A miraculous secret art accessible only to those specialized in darkness and concealment magic.
Because of this, he and his allies—mere 5-Circle practitioners—could accomplish what had once been possible only for the madman Seven Star Heriment three centuries ago.
‘It’s Elder Karin who’s remarkable, able to activate Dark Veil simultaneously while casting other spells. That’s why she became her true disciple.’
Of course, he deliberately ignored the fact that all his companions had died in that process.
‘Yes. There’s no more danger now. I only need to wait.’
In the meantime, all he had to do was deal with these irritants.
He didn’t consider that clearing the nearby monsters might draw someone else’s attention.
His current location was in the southern reaches of this remote area during a Monster Wave, and it was the middle of the night.
And above all, if he didn’t find some outlet for this escalating stress, he felt he might go mad.
‘Only a few hours remain until the dawn meeting with Elder Karin. Just until then…’
From the anxious shadow’s hand, Detection Magic spread out like a net in all directions, searching for nearby monsters.
‘Hm?’
Munno’s brow knitted for a moment.
Chasing after infinitesimal fragments of eggshell—barely visible unless one looked closely—he had been carefully advancing several kilometers through the darkness for hours now.
In a small forest he entered for the third time, a pulse of Demonic Energy entirely different from before radiated outward.
Unlike the random fluctuations the Egg Shell had been broadcasting until now, this Demonic Energy carried a clear purpose and pattern.
‘A Mage!’
It was no mistake.
Munno smiled silently as he absorbed the Demonic Energy drawing steadily closer, drawing it in without a sound.
He had countered Detection Magic before, back when he first met Amerus.
Of course, it hadn’t been intentional then, but now the pattern seemed to read itself clearly to him.
‘If the Demonic Energy they’ve spread doesn’t transmit a signal according to a pre-loaded pattern, detection fails.’
In other words, if he simply absorbed the Demonic Energy as it spread outward, the Mage would perceive no response at all.
And if that happened, he could in turn track the enemy’s position.
The trouble was, there were too many loose ends.
What exactly was the identity of this Egg Shell, and why couldn’t he sense the Mage’s true body?
‘Could it be that woman? No, it’s not. It’s different.’
Was there another Mage out there, besides that witch, whose power could evade the Demon Devourer’s senses?
If so, what in the world was such a Mage doing alone in this sparse southern forest, so far from Drasen?
Everything left him unsettled.
Of course, he shed that uncertainty just as quickly.
‘Set the Egg Shell aside for now.’
The enemy—the Mage—was close.
‘Focus.’
The thought that it might not be that woman was mere speculation.
In the worst case, he had to approach this assuming he’d be facing her alone.
‘Grateful it’s night.’
From that moment on, Munno’s footsteps grew even more deliberate.
Since learning Spirit Arts, moving through nature had become easier, more seamless.
But facing an enemy broadcasting Demonic Energy, hostility surged unbidden within him.
So much so that it didn’t matter to him whether the Mage was a Heretic or not.
‘I was never like this before…….’
As he hunted monsters and cleansed Demonic Energy, the words Rasmia had spoken were becoming increasingly real to him.
— Once you learn Spirit Arts, you’ll understand. Why we despise Mages.
How the Demonic Energy spreading across the world pollutes nature, and how it undermines the ‘Order’ of this world—you’ll feel it all, bit by bit, with perfect clarity.
Thanks to that, his inspiration for the third Spell—the next stage after ‘Blade’ and ‘Shift’—had been growing steadily sharper of late.
‘The third Spell is taking shape as a combat technique, which is somewhat troubling,’
but it was inevitable when the very first Spell itself had been ‘Blade.’
And when Spirit Arts spoke of Order, it never meant rejecting destruction.
Survival of the fittest was part of nature’s Order too.
— Once you grasp the third Spell, consider yourself promoted to 2-Class immediately.
— What changes? A great deal. But that……. Pfft, what’s with that look? Anyway, experience it yourself. Just looking at your Mana alone, it’s strange you’re still 1-Class now.
‘I’m excited, but is this…….’
As he delved deeper into the forest’s darkness, the color of his armor seemed to merge with the surrounding environment—another byproduct of Spirit Arts, it seemed.
‘……feels like I’m gradually becoming an assassin. Ugh.’
Yet contrary to his inward complaint.
The black-haired, black-armored dark knight melded into the forest’s shadows with perfect naturalness.
And not long after.
‘Found you.’
Munno’s eyes gleamed as he confirmed the point where Detection Magic radiated outward once more.
Even the pulse of that Egg Shell was flowing from that exact location.
He waited a moment longer to be certain.
Then.
Crack.
A condensed mass of black energy burst forth from that spot and flew somewhere into the forest, producing a “Screech!” from some monster.
Likely.
‘A Goblin.’
What in the world was that about?
From the Demonic Energy glimpsed when the spell unfolded, that Mage appeared to be at least 4-Circle or 5-Circle.
Which made it all the more strange.
A high-ranking Mage capable of fooling his senses was hiding in this southern forest hunting Goblins?
The sight sparked another, more unsettling theory.
‘If a 4, 5-Circle Mage is doing something so trivial……. Could there be another Mage I haven’t detected? One of even higher rank?’
Could it be that woman?
The worst imaginings flickered across his mind for just an instant, setting his heart racing with sudden doubt.
But his resolve came swiftly.
Whether the thing lurking here was that Heretic or not.
Every Mage was an enemy regardless.
Better to press forward now than to retreat and be caught from behind.
‘If anything, I’ll take down at least one for certain.’
The moment hesitation vanished.
Crack!
‘Hah!’
His blade shot through the forest’s darkness and pierced straight through the empty space where he sensed the Mage to be.
And then.
Thud!
“Gah!?”
Thud?
A heavy, utterly unexpected impact met his strike, and something transparent warped violently as a masked figure was hurled back through the air.

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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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