Return of the Unrivaled Spear Knight

Side Story Chapter 253

Anna, being particularly sensitive to changes in the wind, was the first to notice that something was coming.

“Wh-What is that?” she exclaimed.

“…This is quite a problem.” Due to his injury, Cain was far from his normal condition, but he could also sense the many presences. There was no time to sit and recover, so he slowly stood himself up with a bitter smile.

“A hundred? No, there are at least two hundred of them…” Anna murmured, concerned.

Viscount Triam, one of the five nobles who had decided to support Kireua, came forward.

“We’ll deal with them,” he declared.

Two hundred people were a fraction of the tens of thousands of enemies they had fought recently. However, Cain did not approve.

“Don’t underestimate them just because we outnumber them.”

“Why?”

“Their group is smaller than us and yet they were able to pass through the Black Monster Forest. They must have chosen to travel with a few elites for mobility.”

Cain was pointing out that it was better to travel in a group that was as small as possible in order to move at maximum speed, but Triam and his knights were still confident.

“My and Viscount Aksen's knights will be enough to handle them. Please trust us with them.”

The five nobles had joined Kireua's group with hundred knights each, so it only took two of them to match the mysterious group in numbers.

“Yes, I will take them down,” Triam solemnly declared as the enemy came into view.

“Wa-Wait!” Cain shouted—but further words were cut off when the effort of speaking caused the wound in his abdomen to flare up. The pain was extreme; indeed, there was a good reason why dragon blood was no different from a curse to a human.

‘This is not good.’

Cain's sense of unease grew stronger as the enemies approached until the alarm in his head rang incessantly. A Superhuman's intuition couldn't be taken lightly, especially during battle.

Cain peered at the enemy’s faces as they came into view. When he saw the grinning man at the front of the group, Cain was horrified.

“I-Is that…? N-no, that’s impossible!”

“Let's crush them! Show them Avalon's power!”

“Yeahhhhhh!”

Before Cain could warn them, the two hundred knights had spurred their horses into a charge.

“No!” Cain screamed at the top of his lungs, despite the extreme pain. His blood dripped out from his mouth as he desperately shook his head. “No, not him…!”

Avalon’s knights fiercely charged toward their enemy who leisurely watched them close in, totally unthreatened.

“The Swallow Empire's flag? Did Swallow and Hubalt ally again, like they did in the past?” Triam sneered as he led the charge. “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. You've already seen that you’re fully capable of stabbing each other in the back, even with your alliance. Your idiocy must be why our emperor crushed you!”

That got a reaction out of the man leading the enemy. His grin vanished and was replaced with a frown. His knights were equally displeased

“…Hahaha. You're begging to be killed.”

“You're the one who’ll be killed!” Triam leaped off of his horse and drew as much of his aura onto his sword as he could muster.

“Oh?” The man smiled crookedly. “You’re almost a Master.”

“Die!” Triam brought his sword down with his full power.

An army without its leader was just a group of nobodies, as proven by everything Triam and the others had gone through to come here.

‘His Highness and Sir Cain already killed several nobles of Hubalt, so we need to accomplish something too!’

Triam and the four nobles saw Kireua's abilities through this journey, proving that he was entirely different from the rumors. When they had first witnessed Kireua's remarkable skills, they had been very relieved to know that they made the right choice.

Since they were the first ones to support the Second Prince of Avalon, their chances of becoming the most influential figures in Avalon's politics was high. Of course, that was possible only after the Second Prince of Avalon ascended to the throne.

‘I'll do my best to assist His Highness Kireua in becoming the next emperor of Avalon. Then, it’s more than pos—’

Triam’s train of thought was interrupted by a tiny—almost mosquito-bite like—sensation on his neck.

‘What…?’

For some reason, his words couldn’t leave his lips. Triam couldn’t do anything, not even open his mouth.

The following Triam watched on in horror. They didn’t even get to see what exactly happened. Something flashed, and then their leader's head was rolling on the ground.

The horse right behind Triam's accidentally kicked away the head, crushing it. The knight riding the horse yanked on its rein, shocked.

However, that was just the beginning of the surprise. The enemy leader suddenly released a billowing cloud of scarlet fog.

“What in the world…?”

“Hehehe. The moment you entered my range, your lives became mine.”

The red fog enveloped the Avalon knights in no time. They looked around, bewildered. The entire world around them was red, even the sky; the fog was so densely red that at one point the knights couldn't see anything.

“Ugh!”

“Arghhhhhh!”

“Th-The fog is closing in on us. It's attacking us!”

“Sh-shit! Witchcraft! Witchcraaaaaaaft!”

Isaac plaintively watched the one-sided massacre unfold before her. She was well aware of the man's identity; he was Grand Duke Lucifer, an Absolute from the previous generation. They called him the Crimson Sky, one of the three strongest people of his time. The Martial Emperor, Hubalt's Absolute, had been considered Lucifer's only rival.

Thinking of her father naturally reminded Isaac of her childhood.

‘To be honest… I was happy to hear the news,’ Isaac thought.

When she had first learned that Zactor had been killed by Joshua Sanders, Isaac felt her deeply suppressed emotions returning to her. One of those emotions was happiness, rather than sadness.

Nevertheless, she couldn't find a new way to lead her life even though she had no fucking reason to follow the future her father had set for her.

‘…I was already unable to defy Bel by that time.’

Isaac's father always used to say that this was the era where the strong took everything. Money, women, countries… Those who reached the top could have anything. If a girl could surmount the limits of her gender, Isaac could do the same.

“Would you give up everything you have if you meet someone stronger than you?” Isaac asked after listening to Zactor recite his beliefs again.

“Me, lose? Hmmm… I never thought about it, but if such a catastrophe were to take place, they would take everything from me without giving me a chance to do anything about it.”

“They might miss something.”

“Losers don’t deserve to live anyway. I would rather shove my head in a river and drown than become a loser living on the scraps the victor deigns to leave me,” Zactor scoffed.

Zactor was a man who could afford such mistakes. He was undefeated for his entire life.

“Still, if—”

“If, if! What is up with your endless questions? You don't need to be so obvious about the fact that you're a girl by asking these silly questions. Practice your punch more if you have free time.”

“…Just one more.” Isaac didn't know where she got the courage. Despite her father's scowl, Isaac managed to say, “It doesn't matter who that is, but leave me in the hands of whoever defeats you.”

And Isaac's father had actually been defeated a few years after that conversation. However, his first defeat wasn't from the infamous battle against Joshua Sanders, the Martial God. It was a hidden story that no one else on the continent knew yet, but the Martial Emperor, one of the three Celestials, had been defeated by a boy who wasn't even in his twenties.

“…I do wonder what my father's last words for me are,” Isaac murmured.

Kireua couldn't even think about putting his cape back on as he dumbly watched the new enemy steadily disassemble Avalon’s knights.

“Why are you so surprised? He's Grand Duke Lucifer. The Crimson Sky is from the same generation as your father.”

Kireua’s head whipped around to face Isaac. “G-Grand Duke Lucifer? Impossible! He's already dead!”

“Gods from the sky leech off of humans to survive, so what’s so hard to believe about the dead rising from their graves?”

Kireua couldn’t refute her.

“You’d better hurry now. Things in Avalon must not be good right now.”

“What?” Kireua asked.

“Swallow's Absolute finally took action… which must mean that Hubalt has decided what their next move is.”

Isaac wasn't a kind person; she wasn't sure why she was giving Kireua a warning out of the blue. Perhaps Isaac was still hoping for something, even after all these decades.

‘If you defeat Grand Duke Lucifer too…’ Isaac clenched her fists. ‘…I might have some hope after all.’