The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 318

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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 318. The Knight’s Position
Sarpedon’s roar tore through the Death Legion, spreading outward in waves.
Soldiers swept through the undead.
The Elves’ spirits enveloped the earth.
The Dwarves’ mage cannons blanketed the sky.
The undead fell helplessly, and the approaching death halted in its tracks.
In that moment.
[Death cannot be evaded.]
Hades’ darkness surged forth.
[It can only be delayed.]
Grrrrrrrraaaaaahhhhh—!!!
The Death Legion rose again.
The undead reconstructed their bodies as if nothing had happened.
Infinite.
Literally.
Death had no end.
But resistance did not cease either.
Roooooaaaaaahhh—!!
Infinite energy produced by the Arcano Engine swept across the battlefield.
The soldiers’ auras surged.
The Elves’ incantations rose.
The Dwarves’ ether amplified.
“Hold the line to the end!!”
“Spirits! Shake the earth and burn it!”
“Maintain the ether flow! Fire regardless of overheating!!”
Boom boom boom boom crash!!
Grrrraaahhh—!!
Infinite energy resisted infinite death.
But Broombar could see it clearly.
‘…We’re only resisting.’
The Arcano Engine’s infinity.
Hades’ infinity.
…The Arcano Engine could not push it back.
We were merely holding our ground.
To be honest, we were being pushed back little by little.
In other words, Hades’ infinite death was greater.
The reason we’re holding on despite that is—
‘Without Seraphia, we would have been overrun long ago.’
It was thanks to Seraphia.
The authority of bitter cold.
An ultimate force that converges all infinities to zero suppressed death’s infinity.
Thus, a precarious balancing act continued.
But.
‘The Arcano Engine’s duration isn’t infinite.’
Broombar’s exclusive ether.
Once depleted, it vanishes.
The power of extreme cold, too, will fade when Seraphia’s strength runs dry.
But death is different.
Death is itself a law.
As long as nature exists, it persists infinitely.
Infinity that depletes.
Infinity that never perishes.
‘…It’s impossible.’
The outcome was already decided.
I cannot endure to the very end.
This current balance merely postpones imminent death for a finite span.
And.
Finite time flows and flows until it inevitably arrives.
‘Time is not on our side.’
We cannot win by merely holding out until Adrian awakens.
No—we cannot even last that long.
‘We must force a decisive confrontation.’
I must attack Hades directly.
Strike him down.
Sever infinite death from its very source.
But.
‘I have no strength left.’
It was because of Cerberus and Ammut.
These two beasts were no mere animals.
They were ‘apostles of death’ granted Hades’ authority.
Groooooooaaarrrrrrr!!!
Krrrrraaaaaahhh!!
The roars of both beasts shook the battlefield.
It was a roar through which the very concept of death intermingled.
A resonance that forcibly summoned death—that inevitable end all living things must face—forward in time.
“Impossible!!”
Broombar seized his hammer.
Clang! Crash!
He resisted by forging reality infused with death itself.
All while confronting Cerberus and Ammut.
“Aaaaaaahhhhh!!”
Crash! Bang!
Broombar’s muscles drove Cerberus and Ammut back relentlessly.
He pushed them even toward the brink of death.
Roaarrr!!
Grrruuuhhh!!
Yet they would not die.
Even with their heads shattered, their necks broken.
True to their nature as Death’s apostles, they rose again and again, launching themselves forward.
…I have no strength left.
Merely contending with these two beasts exhausts me completely.
I have no strength to face Hades as well.
Truthfully, I harbored no confidence.
No confidence in facing Hades.
Hades is death itself.
So long as one possesses life, one cannot resist death.
Therefore, only two people could ever face Hades.
First is Adrian.
But Adrian cannot move at present.
So there was only one person who could face Hades.
‘Wolf Brother….’
…Yet for some reason, he still had not appeared.
* * *
Within the Barracks of Count’s Castle.
Kai stood alone in the empty Barracks.
I knew chaos had erupted.
But I did not move.
I could not move.
Because the memory kept flickering before my eyes.
-Why did you have to kill my sister?
Adrian offered no answer.
-Was there truly a reason it had to be done?
-….
-Did my sister show you disrespect?
-….
-Or did she commit some crime I know nothing of?
-….
-Was there a reason she could not be allowed to live?
-….
-Was the Adrian who came through that blizzard that day… all a lie?
Adrian maintained his silence even as Kai’s emotions roiled within him.
-Say something, anything!!!
And so it ended.
Adrian’s single word reached his ears.
-…Rest now.
Kai burned with rage.
He also felt hollow.
And foolish.
At himself, who now wanted to forgive Adrian.
At himself, who now wanted to let go of that day’s memory.
Yet he could not bring himself to do so.
The reality was that he absolutely could not.
So Kai could only blame himself, despise himself, and harbor hatred for himself.
…He was far too foolish.
Adrian and Kai.
Their relationship could never be restored.
It must never be restored.
But if that were all there was to it.
Kai would not be doing this.
Soldiers were currently fighting for their lives.
There were still people who had not evacuated.
The Whitewolf Territory was crumbling.
Yet to do nothing, shackled by a relationship that could never be mended? Unthinkable.
It was impossible.
Kai had not the slightest intention of being trapped by such ancient history and neglecting the present.
But not long ago.
-Your sister…?
The words of Leverton, a knight of the Whitewolf Territory.
A former mercenary who had received his knighthood before Kai, he was both a senior and a peer.
Though now, by rank, he was Kai’s subordinate.
Yet in private, they shared the easy camaraderie of close colleagues.
-You had a sister?
Leverton tilted his head as if hearing this for the first time.
There was no hint of deception in his eyes.
There was no reason for him to lie in the first place.
-…Have I never mentioned her?
-Are you mocking me?
-No. I simply….
-We’ve been together in the Whitewolf Territory for years, and I’m hearing about a sister for the first time. Where did this sister suddenly come from?
It was not only Leverton.
The people of the territory didn’t know about Kai’s Sister either.
-What? Kai’s sister…?
-I’m hearing this for the first time. Father, do you know about her?
-Well… I’ve watched Kai since childhood, but the only sibling I’ve ever known was Adrian.
This was strange.
They were eyewitnesses who had observed Kai’s childhood.
They couldn’t possibly not know that Kai had a sister.
…But why?
The memories of my sister were vivid.
The emotions from that time were equally clear.
Yet strangely, everything that came ‘before’ wouldn’t surface.
When my sister was born.
How many years apart we were in age.
How we came to the Whitewolf Territory together.
…All of it had faded away into a hazy blur.
Something was wrong.
I didn’t know what.
But something was definitely wrong.
Did Adrian know?
But then why.
Didn’t he say anything at all.
What was he hiding.
What truth was he concealing.
-…Rest now.
Was Adrian trying to bury everything with those few words?
I couldn’t know.
I couldn’t possibly know.
But something inside me began to crumble.
It wasn’t merely memories and emotions falling apart.
Everything I had believed in until now.
It all felt like a lie.
It all felt fabricated.
And with that, even the purpose of my existence and who had brought me this far became obscured.
Emotions built upon trust.
Memories and relationships.
The identity that allowed me to be called Kai.
The foundation that let me exist as Kai.
The time I had accumulated.
The convictions I had upheld.
Everything I had chosen, turned away from, strived for, and endured… everything….
“….”
Everything within Kai was crumbling into ruin.
* * *
Hades slowly lifted his gaze toward the distant Count’s Castle.
A place where the power of death could not reach.
Death itself had been halted by the authority of bitter cold.
And thereby, the force of life had grown stronger than before.
…It had to be stopped.
That innocent birth of life, no matter what.
The moment those eyes opened.
The world’s order would be completely inverted.
Even the authority of death would become powerless before it.
So here, now, it had to be done.
That stirring had to be severed.
Hades moved immediately.
The battle around him raged fiercely.
Humans attempting to block his path.
Yet they were all insignificant.
Of course, numbers alone cannot overcome a true power.
Still, even the insignificant became troublesome when gathered.
But it mattered not.
Hades had his undead legions and the apostles of death at his command.
They did not fall.
They rose again and again.
Endlessly resurrecting to fill the battlefield, seal the gaps, and clear his path forward.
In other words, there existed no one to stand against him here.
No one possessed the strength to do so.
Hades advanced toward the Count’s Castle, where he sensed the stirring of life.
But then.
Boom! Boom!!
A sudden explosive force struck Hades head-on.
“Wolf Cub!!”
A Dwarf’s cry echoed across the battlefield.
* * *
Before Kai’s eyes, the veil of death shimmered.
Kai wrung every ounce of aura from his being.
There was no hesitation.
With all his strength, he thrust his blade through the veil of death.
In truth.
…He had found no answer.
He doubted everything.
Everything Kai had seen, heard, and felt until now.
What if it had all been manipulated?
If so.
Wasn’t this present reality merely what Kai ‘believed’ it to be?
If some deceptive god existed, imprisoning us within the framework of laws.
Wasn’t this world itself a virtual one?
Wasn’t everything false?
Wasn’t Kai’s very existence a fabrication?
Doubt everything.
Nothing had ever been true.
Senses could be manipulated.
Memories could be overwritten.
Laws could be constructed.
So even Kai’s existence might not be real.
Yet there was one thing.
Something that could not be doubted.
Something that could not be denied.
No matter how much I doubted.
Even with a deceptive god’s machinations at play.
This one thing could not be denied, no matter how hard I tried.
“I am a knight of Whitewolf Territory.”
A knight of Whitewolf Territory—Kai.
This alone was something Kai had chosen for myself.
Even a god who deceives memory and thought cannot deceive the very act of choosing itself.
Even if choice could be distorted.
The subject of choice must necessarily exist.
To distort a choice without a subject making it?
That is impossible.
The fact that a choice was distorted proves that there must be an entity to make that choice.
As long as I choose something.
The ‘I’ that chooses must absolutely exist.
I choose, therefore I am—an absolute proof of existence itself.
Therefore, even if a deceptive god manipulates all memory and emotion, and even distorts the very laws themselves.
In that moment of choice.
Kai, the one choosing, can never be deceived.
I could affirm my own existence as a knight of Whitewolf Territory, chosen by my own will.
And.
Today, a knight’s station was that of nobility.
One bore a title and was granted military authority.
The social ruling class.
Knights no longer stand upon the battlefield.
They no longer wield their swords.
Instead, they occupy seats in the Banquet Hall.
Breathing wine’s fragrance instead of blood’s stench.
Exchanging toasts instead of battle cries.
They have become mere ornaments of black.
Duels have devolved into spectacles of pride rather than honor.
Wielding authority under the pretense of lineage and bloodline—
Bachelors.
Today, a knight’s place upon the battlefield is ‘within the fortress’.
But.
A true knight is one who fights.
One who fights to fulfill their liege’s will.
One who fights for their convictions.
One who stands firm to protect what must be protected, never turning their back in any moment.
That was the true duty a knight bore.
The very reason knights existed.
Kai chose such a knight.
Not one sheltered within fortresses, but one who stands upon the battlefield.
Not one who merely understands bloodshed, but one who sheds blood.
A knight who would abandon honor itself, yet never surrender conviction.
Even should justification fade, one who will unfailingly protect what must be protected—
A Knight.
And.
Upon the battlefield, a Knight’s place is not within the fortress.
Nor is it at the vanguard.
Not the front lines, nor the very forefront.
Certainly not cowering in some corner consumed by despair.
A Knight’s place upon the battlefield is—
“Always before their liege!”
This very place.
The position Kai chose for a true knight.

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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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