The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 73

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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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Chapter 73. Just die.
‘Now.’
Munno forced his mind to focus.
Even as he swallowed the acute agony that flooded through him when one strand of the Metal Chains dissolved in an instant, he moved the remaining chains.
He barely batted away the cascading boulders and jagged wooden shards.
Bang!
“Gah!”
Taking one rock squarely against his body at an angle, he managed to send a single strand toward the Witch’s feet.
Crack.
The Metal Chains punched a tiny hole in the woman’s barrier.
“Hmph…….”
The instant he saw the Witch let out a scoff.
A small Dagger shot through that hole like lightning, driving straight through the woman’s torso lengthwise.
Or rather, it should have.
If the Robe the Witch wore had been merely ordinary cloth.
Bang.
“Eek!”
The moment the Red Robe moved of its own accord to block the Dagger, Munno’s face twisted.
‘Damn it!’
His body, already exhausted to its limit, felt impossibly heavier.
“You bastard!!”
The Witch, who had been flung into the air for an instant, screamed with her pale face now flushed crimson.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
Crack.
Crunch-crunch.
At the same time, a fresh barrage of boulders and timber erupted from the ground, raining down across his entire body.
He had neither the means nor the strength to block it.
……Damn.
“Mya!?”
“Sorry!”
He instinctively hugged Miya to his chest and hunched his body, but.
Bang!
“Gah!”
In the empty air with no ground beneath him, his body took the full force of a boulder and flew backward helplessly.
And then.
Bang!
Again and again.
Bang! Crack!
Over and over.
Crunch.
‘Ugh.’
The relentless barrage of boulders and wood colliding against him filled his mind with a white-hot pain in an instant.
‘Is this how I die……?’
Instinctively, the memory of his final moments in his past life came to him, and a distant despair began to creep in.
Bang.
“Ugh!”
The violent impact against the ground tore another groan from his throat.
“Miya……?”
And then.
Immediately, the now-familiar, unwelcome voice came from nearby.
“If it weren’t for his orders…….”
With a voice full of reluctance, his body suddenly felt lifted, and then.
Crunch-crunch.
He felt something wrapping around his body roughly.
“Ugh……?”
His orders?
Could it be…….
‘She’s not going to kill me?’
Shock jolted him awake, clarity flooding back.
‘If she’s not killing me……. Then there’s a way.’
The moment a path to survival became visible, he could forget the pain that engulfed his entire body.
A primal instinct seized by that small hope flared bright, and sensation and sight swept across everything around him in a single instant.
Whether the Witch knew this or not, she snorted derisively and pointed not at his body, but at the object coiled around it.
“It’s a Magic Tool that constrains both strength and mana entirely. Well, if you can absorb Demonic Energy, go ahead and try. You won’t be able to recover your vitality anyway since it’s a low-grade Magic Tool, and once the Demonic Energy drains out, it’ll harden into that exact shape forever.”
Tch.
“But after that, I’ll pierce through your body myself and bind you. If you don’t want to become a skewer, come along quietly. Got it?”
The presence of something wood-like (?) wrapped three layers thick around his entire body, and the glint of madness flickering in the Witch’s eyes made him furrow his brow again.
And there was more.
“Mya!!”
The baby dragon floating in the air was now bound by a Black Rope woven from Demonic Energy.
‘What……?’
When he saw the creature trying to gnaw through that rope.
‘Don’t! Not now!’
Munno’s gaze snapped toward the creature with desperate urgency, a thought flashing through his mind like lightning.
“Mya……?”
Had that intention gotten through to her?
The baby dragon tilted its head, then stopped the gnawing motion with a downcast expression.
To the woman, this must have looked quite different.
“That’s right—struggling will only hurt you more.”
……After all.
The woman didn’t know the creature could absorb magic.
Had she really thought that was his ability?
“An Imprinting Phenomenon? For understanding to pass with just a glance like that… Was a Wyvern always this intelligent? Surprising.”
Hm?
Why didn’t she seem to think the creature was a dragon?
Another doubt flickered, but it was brief.
The crisis wasn’t over yet.
“You’re a grating one, aren’t you. I’d like to ask you plenty, but…….”
The woman stepped up close, a lethal smile on her face, and thrust forward the Dog-Head Staff.
A pale flame flickered at the staff’s tip—the Blue Flame that had nearly killed him once before.
“First, let me break a few things, then we’ll talk.”
With an eerie laugh, she swung the staff at his left ankle with a sharp strike.
But then.
Bang!
Such a small flame could never pierce his armor.
Whoosh.
“Ugh…….”
His ankle armor melted slightly, but as he absorbed the intense magical power contained in that flame, strength actually flooded back into his body.
And the Witch clearly didn’t like that.
“……Kuh, kuhuhuh. Kyahahaha. So it’s not the Metal Chains but the entire armor? Huhaha. This damned thing—can’t even sever one ankle!?”
Her disheveled red hair, ashen complexion, and sweat-drenched round face began to be painted by madness from the fierce struggle.
“Fine. Can you block this too?”
Again, a small Blue Flame erupted from the Dog-Head of the staff.
A flame barely the size of a fingernail.
Yet that flame, containing the heat of hell itself, drew close to his face.
“Come now, let’s experiment whether you can absorb the power of a great Outer God with your face too.”
This woman—her eyes had gone mad.
‘Damn…….’
Truth be told, he was terrified.
But he didn’t want to show it.
“You said you had to keep me alive, didn’t you? If you burn my eye out like this, I’ll die.”
“Hmph! Burning one eye won’t kill you!”
The Witch snorted, spitting out a menacing sound, but in that moment she switched the Blue Flame to a Red Robe.
Of course, that flame would still singe his eye.
But even so, it confirmed once more that the Witch wouldn’t kill him.
And because of that.
“I’m already in pain everywhere—if I lose an eye, how am I supposed to survive…….”
He could manage this kind of taunt.
“Then. I’ll make sure to keep you alive somehow, so you just scream.”
“Don’t you have any recovery magic or something?”
He’d meant to buy time, but.
“There is nothing impossible for great magic!”
The moment those absurd words reached his ears.
“Then why don’t you heal your own ankle first before spouting such nonsense.”
Before that wild-eyed woman, his hand moved of its own accord—a lethal Dagger slipping between her ribs.
“You mad bastard! How dare you!!!”
In an instant her expression twisted from rage to something unhinged.
A low rumble.
The Red Robe’s flames shifted, deepening to Blue Flame—and swelled in size.
The sheer heat was already singing the hair from his scalp when.
‘Now!’
“Miya!”
At Munno’s wordless signal, the baby dragon—who had devoured the spell binding him—dropped to the ground with a metallic clang.
“What—?”
That instant of distraction: the Witch’s gaze flickered in that direction.
And Munno moved.
Swift as wind.
He drained the Magical Aura from the Magic Tool that had bound him, all in a single breath.
A sharp snap.
The discarded Dagger—crumpled, forgotten by all—he willed it to life; it crawled along the ground, then sprang upward.
And in that moment, Munno poured every last reserve of strength into motion.
‘Acceleration.’
A shriek of metal.
The Dagger sliced through one band of the binding Magic Tool; the restraints tore away, ragged and useless.
The black Dagger fell into his grip and reformed—shifting back into a two-handed blade.
Yet even as his body moved, even as the sword took shape, the frail Mage’s eyes remained fixed on Miya, unable to turn.
And then.
A low thud.
In that slowed time, Munno alone seemed to move; his body tore across the earth, every muscle twisting with brutal force.
‘Wind Slash.’
His first attempt at a layered Family Secret Technique.
An all-or-nothing gamble, unleashed.
A flash of light.
Even within the slowed time, brilliant rays of luminescence split everything before him; the sensation was exquisite.
Yet.
A tremendous, deafening boom!
Crash after crash, wave upon wave.
That single stroke—a mere sword swing that had somehow birthed a shockwave—achieved only partial success.
“Aaahhhhh!”
That crimson barrier he’d seen twice before flared into existence; he shattered it instantly.
He crushed the Dog-Head Staff and tore the front of that sinister Red Robe to shreds—but he failed to take the enemy’s life.
Yet mercifully.
“Hack—blegh—how… how is this…? Khhhhh—”
The destruction of that barrier had dealt a mortal blow; the Witch could do nothing but cough up blood, again and again.
Of course.
A heavy sound.
“Uuuugh—”
Munno too staggered, his body feeling as though five kilograms had evaporated, his head spinning with exhaustion.
Layering the Family Secret Technique with his body in this state had been too much.
‘Dammit. Dammit.’
A thud.
His body refused to obey, his eyes growing heavy—he forced himself to stay upright.
But his frame, pushed to its limit so many times already, would no longer answer his will.
As his vision clouded and even his knees began to buckle, he saw the wild-eyed Witch stirring, rising once more.
‘No, this can’t—’
Bitterness flooded him in that moment.
“Miya!!”
A small, endearing cry; the baby dragon waddled forward on fluttering wings and licked his face.
And in that instant, a thread of cool Mana seeped into his mind, anchoring his fading consciousness.
Lick. Lick.
Each time that rough tongue licked across his face, his depleted mana began to recover, little by little.
Though the amount was small, it was enough to shake off the crushing exhaustion that had threatened to pull him under.
‘If you could do this, why didn’t you do it earlier?’
A fleeting sense of letdown crossed his mind.
But seeing those round eyes staring at him so intently, he couldn’t help but smile.
“…Thank you, Miya.”
“Miya?”
“You keep making that sound, so that’s your name now. Miya.”
“Mya?”
“I can’t just keep calling you ‘it’ or ‘you,’ can I?”
“Mya!”
Lick. Lick.
The creature continued to lap at his face, eyes curved into crescents—a clear sign of contentment.
Thanks to that, the minimum strength needed to move his body returned.
And then.
Spit.
“Now let’s finish this, you bastard.”
Thud.
The moment he forced himself to his feet and took a step forward, the staggering Witch saw him move and let out a wet cough, blood spraying from her lips as she collapsed to her knees.
Then.
Whirrrrrrr.
The Metal Chains extended and coiled around the Witch’s body.
There was a brief moment when the Demonic Energy resisted the absorption.
“Urgh!”
Hack. Hack.
But the instant the Witch coughed up blood again, all her Demonic Energy began flowing into his body.
“You… you cursed creature. Sacrilege…. How does someone like you even exist….”
Cough.
The Witch’s grinding teeth and murderous glare didn’t bother him in the slightest.
Because despite her state, the sheer volume of Demonic Energy flooding into him was enough to send shivers down his spine.
Of course, even with all this, he couldn’t achieve another Evolution without enlightenment—not right now.
So then.
‘I’ll use it all to recover.’
Zzzzzzzzzt.
The melted Metal Chains on his left arm and the crumpled, corroded Armor regenerated anew, and in that same instant, the fatigue and wounds ravaging his body washed away as if they’d never been.
“Hah….”
That strange surge of vigor added strength to his stride.
Step.
“W-Wait!”
Step.
“I… I’m not ready….”
Step.
“I don’t want to die!”
Step.
Munno laughed viciously, looming over the thrashing Witch.
“What a filthy connection we had. Let’s never see each other again. Not that we will.”
Crack.
He clenched his fist.
“I… Aren’t I pretty!?”
The Witch let out an absurd, desperate shriek.
It was so ridiculous he actually froze for a moment.
“…What are you saying?”
“I’m—even like this, the Duchy and everyone in the organization say I’m the most beautiful! You know how rare it is to see someone as beautiful as me!?”
“What?”
“Whatever you want, I’ll do it. You can seal my magic, you can do whatever you want to me. If you spare me, I’ll be useful to you.”
Wrench.
The Witch, her face frantic, twisted her bound body desperately, and her already-torn Red Robe tore further, exposing her undergarments.
‘The smell….’
His face twisted involuntarily.
But the Witch seemed to interpret it in an entirely different way.
“It’ll do well enough even on a bed, won’t it? I mean, it’s damaged now, but once I just clean it up a little, it’ll really be quite pretty, I promise?”
Clean it up?
Even as she spouted this absurdity, Munno’s frown deepened at the fact that the word “wash” never once crossed her lips.
“People have even told me I’m prettier than those flowers from the Northern Region! I’m good at this, really good, so if you’ll just let me live, I’ll—”
The Witch’s eyes glistened with desperation as she hurriedly worked her ruined red hair into some semblance of order, her face twisted into an expression of pathos.
Her transparent scheming aside.
He simply could not bring himself to agree.
“Pretty? Don’t make me laugh.”
“…What?”
“You’re a filthy pig that hasn’t even bathed.”
“You…!? What did you just…!?”
Even now, she hated hearing herself called ugly more than anything.
Her bitter cry, sudden and venomous, became—
“Just… die.”
Bang!
The Witch’s final words.

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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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