The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 75

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 75. Dragon
“Miya!?”
“Hey, I really need to have a word with your mom about this!?”
“Miya……?”
My trembling body lurched forward in an awkward sprint, and all that came out was a thin wheeze.
“My lord……!?”
Even as I ran, someone recognized me and called out in surprise.
“Move!”
Crash-bang-crash.
With my body barely under control, I barreled straight into the cart he’d been pulling as I passed.
“Sorry! Bill the lord for damages!!”
“But……”
I had no time to comfort the villager’s anguished face.
The crushing pressure bearing down on me was so immense that I almost wished I couldn’t sense Demonic Energy at all.
Compared to this, that witch who’d threatened my life just hours ago felt like nothing—a mere insect.
Even the Demonic Energy of Behemoth, that massive beast whose presence had made me instinctively know my father was in danger from miles away, felt cute as a kitten by comparison.
‘How the hell did those mages manage to steal an egg from something like this?’
A bone-deep terror pressed against every nerve in my body.
“Damn it, everybody clear out!!!”
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
Rather than trying to run with a body that wouldn’t obey, the Metal Chains were better.
Munno made that judgment and extended the chains from his limbs, using them to propel himself upward.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
He landed on the rooftops of nearby buildings and kept sprinting, then
“My lord!?”
—wrapped around the rampart and vaulted over the northern wall.
“The lord is sortying……!”
“This isn’t a sortie!”
“……Should we also, um……?”
Boom.
“Everyone stay put! Don’t even think about following! Keep your heads down!”
“Miya?”
“No, not you, Miya. There, there.”
The moment I landed, I wrenched my legs free from the earth one more time while soothing Miya with the other hand, and
—noticing my fingers had stopped shaking, I realized I’d adapted to some degree of this terror.
Yes. Not disappeared. Adapted.
“Damn it……”
My instincts were still screaming that I should turn and run from the dread that coursed cold through my chest.
The only reason I could resist that urge
— Growl-growl-growl.
—was the Demon Devourer, which forever radiated an endless hostility toward anything that carried Demonic Energy from deep within my soul.
“Right then. Let’s die trying.”
“Miya!?”
“Not talking to you!”
“Miya?”
“You’re going to your mom! Or is it your dad? Damn.”
“Miya!?”
“I’m not cursing at you, okay!?”
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.
Munno, cradling Miya in his arms, pushed his pace faster and faster.
But.
‘Damn, this thing’s fast.’
The speed at which Miya’s parent(?) was closing in overwhelmingly outpaced his own sprint toward the Northern Range.
‘Getting closer every second. It’s flying. Damn it all.’
What if that monster hurtling down from above attacked without warning, without hesitation?
The thought crossed my mind that Drasen itself would be reduced to the same small, charred forest in the Southern Plains that the witch’s bombardment had leveled.
There was only one way.
I had to keep Drasen at a distance—force the incoming monster to focus only on me.
I needed to widen the gap between us and the city as much as possible.
‘Accelerate.’
Crack-crack-crack.
Munno drove forward, tearing through the air resistance that swelled with his increased speed.
Boom!
The soil erupted beneath his feet, and every strand of wind that brushed past stung his skin—he could feel his body moving faster than ever before.
It wasn’t to fight some unknowable presence whose mere presence inspired dread.
Only to distance himself further from Drasen, to draw closer to that creature.
‘If I send Miya back and die myself, that settles the debt. Father, Mother… or does it? Did Miya come this way because of me?’
Useless thoughts tumbled through his mind as he clenched his fists and squeezed out more power.
How long had he run like that, burning through all his strength?
Just as the accelerated time and the slowed world around him began to blur his sense of duration—
When the Gorge beneath the Northern Range appeared before him, he clenched his teeth against the colossal, overwhelming Demonic Energy he felt bearing down on him.
‘Just a little more!’
It might mean nothing, but some stubborn part of him was determined—at least he had to keep that creature from crossing out of the Northern Range.
Thud-thud-thud.
Boom-boom-boom-boom.
Tearing through soil, punching through the air as though it were a barrier—in that moment of relentless charge—
Whoosh!
He heard the air tear apart near his ear, and suddenly his speed surged beyond what it had been.
‘What is this…?’
In that instant, the secret principle of one of the Drasen Grand Swordsmanship techniques—something his father had hammered into his ears since childhood—surfaced in his mind.
— “The air is everywhere, even where you can’t see it. And the lighter it is, the harder it pushes back when you force it. With a thin blade edge riding the grain of that air, you cut through resistance itself and achieve pure speed. That’s the principle of Wind-Cutting.”
— “And Space-Cutting aims to pierce through that very resistance in the first place. If you can master it properly, you can cleave through any metal or object. In theory, at least. As for the concrete technique…”
— “Even to manifest it in its most minimal form, you’d need to reach at least the Fourth Evolution before your body could withstand it. And that would only be possible if you could master the Gluttonous Hardening Technique.”
‘Space-Cutting?’
He’d only achieved the Third Evolution.
Yet he’d already succeeded at Space-Cutting.
Of course, it had felt like piercing through space with his body rather than a blade—so it seemed like a different matter entirely.
‘Either way, what is my body? It’s a weapon in itself.’
There was no other way to explain it.
His own path remained unclear—what that truly meant—but in this moment, he’d undeniably taken a step forward.
A fleeting smile crossed his face, caught in that electric thrill of achievement.
The moment he entered the Gorge, he felt small Demonic Energy signatures pressing in from all directions.
But.
‘They’re not moving?’
Goblins, Nolls, even monsters with far greater Demonic Energy—all of them were frozen in place, trembling motionless as if seized at the same instant.
A few goblins visible in the brush lay flat on the ground, quaking.
To Munno, the sight seemed perfectly natural, not strange at all.
Of course it did.
“Hah…”
Power drained from him in a rush. His sense of time snapped back to normal.
Fighting to keep his collapsing body upright, he turned his gaze toward the northern sky.
The moment he lifted his head, he saw it: a pitch-black darkness.
“Breath…!”
How could one describe it?
It was well past dawn, the hour climbing toward noon.
Yet a darkness rolled in, consuming that daylight entirely.
An enormous shadow filled the northern sky, blotting out even the sun’s rays, its borders creeping steadily southward.
And within it, a Demonic Energy so vast it was almost impossible to comprehend.
Was this what the great demons of legend were like?
A Demonic Energy so overwhelming that its very existence threatened to collapse a portion of the world—and it was bearing down on him.
‘Damn… damn…’
And then.
Within that vast darkness, something like a pair of full moons rose into view—or so it seemed.
No, they were something’s ‘eyes.’
‘Cursed… cursed thing.’
He’d anticipated it, but facing it in reality was far more crushing than he’d imagined.
Could this even be called a monster?
Was it not a god, or a demon?
— Grrrrr.
The Demon Devourer within his mind writhed and thrashed, pushing back the terror.
His body felt frozen solid, each finger barely responding to his will.
Then two enormous full moons split vertically, revealing black irises that fixed upon him with an almost tangible gaze.
Thump.
A shock like his heart stopping seized him entirely.
“Ugh…….”
“Miya!?”
He felt Miya startle in his arms and lift her head, and he fought desperately to hold on to his spinning senses.
The vertical-slit pupil curved gently into what looked unmistakably like a smile.
‘Smiling? At me? No—no, that can’t be. It must be because of Miya.’
Crack.
He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, and sensation gradually returned to his body.
In that moment, he lifted Miya toward the enormous moon-like orb.
“Mya!?”
“That’s your mother. Probably. Don’t be afraid, Miya.”
“Miya……?”
Only then did Miya tilt her head and gaze upward at the sky.
The enormous moon—no, the eye—that had been curved in that gentle smile now lowered its gaze upon them both.
Thump.
“Gasp.”
Pain clamped around his chest, strangling his breath.
– So the bloodline still lingered in the Human Realm.
Thump.
“Ugh…….”
With violent heartbeats came a voice—no, an intent—resonating through his mind.
– I wondered why I was robbed of my eggs by such trivial creatures, and now I understand. It was to find this connection.
……What?
Before his fear-locked mind could fully comprehend the meaning.
His breath suddenly opened up.
“Mya!?”
Miya, whom he’d been holding aloft, drifted gently into the air.
“Mya! Mya! Miya!!!!”
Miya cried out pitifully toward him, and Munno too felt his chest begin to ache as if being pierced.
It had been only a day of companionship, and even accounting for whatever camaraderie they’d built, he couldn’t believe it could hurt this much.
Yet in the midst of it all, he realized his body could move again.
But he did not move. He did not extend his chains.
It was not fear that stayed his hand.
“It’s alright, Miya. That’s your mother. This is how it should be.”
He forced a smile toward Miya.
And again, his chest stung.
But then.
In that moment, the will of that enormous presence echoed through his mind once more.
– You named her Miya? Why?
It was just because that’s what her cry sounded like.
But somehow, answering that way felt like it would invite disaster.
Fortunately, Miya’s Mother came to her own conclusion immediately.
– Miya means ‘mystery’ in a forgotten tongue. Coincidence? Or yet another manifestation of that bloodline’s power?
– If it is that bloodline, I can forgive even gaining such unnecessary human strength through the Regulator’s Authority. After all, our kind ends with this child……. Hmm?
Whatever Miya’s Mother was saying, Munno’s attention remained fixed on Miya as she rose into the sky.
“Mya! Mya!”
Miya cried as she ascended into the fathomless heavens above.
She met those enormous moon-like eyes, her own growing wide, and then—as if understanding something—she beamed with joy.
Even from that vast distance, he could see it.
‘Hey, don’t leave me feeling…….’
Even if she had found her real mother, something in him felt abandoned.
– The Regulator’s Authority!? How can this be……!
– You carved into this child the primordial power we lost!
– Is it truly as the prophecy foretold—do we now have hope to break free from our shackles at the very end……?
Miya’s Mother’s presence flooded his mind like exultation, like ecstasy.
But of course.
‘Regulator’s Authority? Power? What primordial……?’
Lost in thought about Miya, Munno couldn’t begin to comprehend what she’d said.
But in that instant.
Miya, who had soared high into the sky, began descending smoothly toward him once more.
“Huh?”
There was no time to puzzle over what it meant.
“Mya?”
As though a wayward child were returning home, Miya drew near again, and Munno swept her up into his arms without thinking.
“Miya~!”
The joy of seeing Miya again, who had been smiling bashfully before her own mother, was overwhelming—her cheeks trembling with delight at the reunion.
“Oh, my little one…….”
The words tumbled out naturally as he pressed his face against hers, and he caught himself, thinking inwardly how foolish this must look.
Here he was, doing this in front of her real mother.
High above, the full moon seemed to smile down serenely.
– Feed the child your blood, human.
“……Pardon?”
Formal courtesy spilled from his lips unbidden.
– Only then will the contract be made perfect, and only then will the child be able to find you again in time to come.
The will of the vast presence came through with unmistakable clarity.
“Ah…….”
“Mya?”
“Miya, wait just a moment.”
Scrape.
He drew back the armor covering his forearm.
Swish.
Drawing his blade across his wrist, he squeezed out blood.
The sharp sting of the wound dissolved into the tension of the moment and faded away.
“Mya!?”
“It’s for you. Your mother’s request.”
“Miya?”
Miya looked back and forth between the full moon above and Munno’s wrist.
Then suddenly she nodded, and began licking the blood streaming down his forearm.
Zing.
In that moment, the invisible thread that had always connected him to Miya—a feeling he’d sensed from the beginning—wove itself together more firmly still.
And.
– The contract is sealed, human.
“What?”
“Mya!?”
Once more, Miya’s body lifted gently into the air and began rising toward the sky.
“Wait, if that’s how it’s going to be……!”
– When the time comes, this child will find you again. And when that time arrives…….
The full moon laughing from above let fall a satisfied thought before trailing off mid-sentence.
‘Why leave it unfinished…….’
With an uneasy feeling, Munno could only glare up at the sky.
Whether the presence noticed his gaze or not.
– Wait with a joyful heart, human.
– That time will not be long, even by your mortal reckoning.
The vast darkness, leaving only a thought tinged with laughter, began then to withdraw endlessly toward the north.
And in the place where that immense darkness had vanished.
“Hah…….”
Munno stood gazing up at the sky in a daze for a long while, and it was only after the great darkness had completely disappeared, and long moments had passed, that he came to himself again with a sigh.
“This is…….”
And the moment he realized where he was, instinct drove him to draw his blade again.
But simultaneously, he understood.
That every monster within a certain radius of where he stood was already dead.
“A gift, perhaps?”
Munno managed a bitter smile, then noticed something else remarkable.
That tremendous demonic aura, which had seemed suffocating merely to look upon, had left not the slightest trace of corruption on the natural world of the Northern Range beyond.
‘Is such a thing even possible……?’
An experience so astonishing, so utterly absurd.
A tale no one would believe, no matter how he told it.
Munno felt both the surge of wonder and the sting of Miya’s absence wash over him at once, and for a long moment he simply stood gazing up at the sky again, lost in thought.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————