CH 346

Iceline froze in shock upon witnessing the blood rain.

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However, the blood rain was caused by one of the few men whom Iceline could call her friends, not the Grand Duke, “Crimson Sky” Lucifer.

“Jo… shu… a…” Iceline painfully moaned.

Five hundred wyvern knights, enemies which mages usually had trouble dealing with, were annihilated without even getting a chance to fight back.

But there was something more surprising.

“You…” Lucifer gaped blankly—he had noticed it too.

Lucifer flinched as Joshua lowered his arms and began to move again. Joshua’s snow-white spear was gone—it had been pulverized and scattered into fragments of aura. The aura that Joshua now drew up was pitch black.

“Oh, no—!” Lucifer hastily drew his monster sword, Blood Rain.

At the same time… Joshua disappeared.

“Ahh!” Iceline screamed, but it was drowned out by the ground-shaking boom, leaving Iceline struggling to pull herself together for a few seconds.

“You bastard…!” Lucifer’s lower lip trembled with anger.

The explosion had come from the collision between his sword and Joshua’s fist. Joshua had clearly thrown a straight punch—in fact, it could even be called somewhat crude. However, the unknown black aura around Joshua’s fist had turned his simple punch into an unignorable attack. Above all, Joshua moved without hesitation in spite of the fact that one of Lucifer’s hands was still wrapped around his colleague’s throat.

“How dare you!” Lucifer shouted furiously. His sword also hummed with similar anger.

They clashed head-on again, and Joshua’s fist got bounced back.

Lucifer wasn’t done counterattacking. His sword technique emphasized speed—his sword attacks were known to be the fastest in history. Right now, Lucifer was just returning the attacks he had received with a straight thrust, but his sword was incomparably faster than any other sword on the continent. Anyone would marvel at the sight of Lucifer using Blood Sword Level 1, Blood Tear Sword.

Lucifer didn’t need to make any preparation in advance to strike Joshua like a lightning bolt. His arm lashed out to its full length.

“Kekeke…” Lucifer chuckled slyly. He could tell from the feeling in his hand that he had definitely cut Joshua, and blood was actually dripping down Joshua’s cheek. Joshua was bleeding quite hard; it looked like his wound was quite serious.

However, Lucifer’s smile died… Joshua didn’t flinch nor react in any way in spite of it all. Lucifer had aimed for Joshua’s forehead; Joshua had dodged Lucifer’s attack, but he hadn’t been able to avoid Lucifer’s attack completely. Of course, the fact that Joshua had managed to dodge Lucifer’s attack at all was praiseworthy, as it meant Joshua had been able to follow Lucifer’s movement to a degree.

However, there was one part Lucifer couldn’t understand.

“Jo.. shua?” Iceline mumbled in a trembling voice. She found herself in Joshua’s arms.

“He took her… during that moment?” Lucifer muttered in disbelief.

From the beginning, Joshua’s goal was to save his colleague, not defeat Lucifer.

“How could he move that naturally…?” Lucifer said, confused. Joshua was slowly floating down to the ground.

No matter how far beyond the bounds of humanity Lucifer and Joshua were, it was quite difficult to move around in the sky as if it was flat ground when there was nothing to stand on.

“Are you okay?” Iceline hurriedly asked in Joshua’s arms.

“…I’m fine,” Joshua quietly said.

Iceline’s eyes widened, but she soon heaved a sigh of relief. Although she was worried about how much Joshua’s wound would hurt, his low, sonorous voice was the same as ever.

“...So far.” Joshua raised one of his eyebrows.

“Wh-what do you mean?” Iceline asked, perplexed.

“Anyhow…” Joshua quickly changed the topic. “It looks like now is not the time for chitchat.”

“…Ah!” Iceline exclaimed.

“Can you use your mana now?”

“Ho-hold on.” Iceline began checking over her condition.

“Let me help,” Joshua offered.

“…Argh!”

Joshua didn’t even give her time to answer before he began infusing his power into Iceline’s heart. It was quite dangerous to infuse one’s power into someone else’s body, but Joshua acted without hesitation.

“Ah!” Iceline moaned and clawed for breath. The sticky, damp power that had been hindering her circulation of mana was pushed away in a flash. Joshua noticed Iceline’s unconscious trembling and frowned slightly.

“It’ll hurt a bit,” Joshua said, “but you still have to endure this. There are other ways, but this is the quickest.”

“You still…” Iceline trailed off. Joshua tilted his head quizzically.

“You still don’t hesitate. You’re definitely the Joshua I know. I’m fine, so…” Iceline reached her hand out and grabbed Joshua’s. “...be careful. I think I’ll be really sad if something happens to you too.”

After Iceline finished speaking, she fainted. Joshua’s expression changed subtly. Although she hadn’t said anything about it, she would have been feeling like her heart was being ripped out.

Blood-red smoke was coming out from her body, indicating that Joshua had successfully driven Lucifer’s energy out of Iceline.

Lucifer appeared before Joshua.

“Who… are you?” he asked. “Are you even really a human?”

“Well…” Joshua trailed off.

“You’d better explain yourself right now. I’m assuming you’ve sold your soul to a demon and signed a contract, and if I’m right, I and the entire population of the continent will not let it stand,” Lucifer said.

Joshua chuckled, drawing a frown from Lucifer.

“…Are you laughing right now?”

“The entire population of the continent won’t let it stand, huh…” Joshua remarked. “I think I can say the same to you.”

“What…?” Lucifer’s eyes narrowed.

Joshua shrugged. “It looks like you’re the one who signed a contract with a demon, not me.”

Lucifer stiffened as if he had been struck by a lightning bolt.

‘How in the world did he…?’

“Master!”

“Captain!”

Cain and Cazes happened to arrive on the battlefield while Lucifer was confused.

Cain drew his sword. “I’ll assist you, master!”

“…The Black Lion?” Eima, the first to recover from the shock, noticed the black lion mask Cain was wearing and quickly stopped him.

As the Sword Emperor was still lost in his thoughts, no one stopped Eima, but he stopped, dumbstruck, anyway.

“You’re… Wait, there are only two of you? Huh, you really wanted to follow your teacher’s footsteps, didn’t you?”

Cain flinched. “…What?”

“Huh?” Eima tilted his head in confusion upon seeing Cain’s reaction. He smiled crookedly. “You didn’t know?”

Cain frowned. “What are…?”

“The Lion King Ryan Geiger is dead,” Eima said.

Cain’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

“I, the Ice Emperor, was the one who cut off his head.” Eima grinned.

“The Ice Emperor... Then you’re definitely Duke Eima…!” Cazes, who had come up and stood beside Cain, groaned.

“You all won’t be able to take a single step forward. No…” Eima’s eyes were filled with murderous intent. “You’ll all die here.”

As if he was trying to show he wasn’t bluffing, Eima drew up his energy before Cain could react.

Eima’s sword slowly exuded a crackling coldness.

Joshua was the first to break the lull.

Joshua disappeared. This time, Lucifer had seen him vanish; he looked straight down to the ground. But… that was it. Joshua instantly reappeared on the ground in front of Eima.

“He’s my knight,” Joshua quietly informed the Duke. He then carefully handed Iceline’s unconscious form over to Cain.

Then one of the Swallow Empire knights roared, “Protect our commander!”

Tens of thousands of soldiers poured out through the wide-opened castle gates with the highly mobile wolf riders taking the lead. Everyone was coming to attack Joshua and his group, but he was still calm. He was just looking at the enemies that were running toward him.

“Ma-master…” The sight was terrifying enough for Cain to feel nervous. There were only four of them, after all.

“…Cazes, the rest of the Auxiliary Battalion is hiding right now, right?” Joshua asked.

“Huh? Ah, yes.” Cazes nodded. “They must have taken cover nearby with Theta, the master Magic Tower.”

“Good.”

“…But everyone had a hard time understanding why you’ve given such an order,” Cazes cautiously ventured. “They’re really eager to fight with you…”

“Even if we’re this outnumbered?” Joshua quietly chuckled.

“Don’t say that. Why would we be scared when we’re with the Hero King? You stopped a million soldiers on your own. If it hadn’t been for your strict order, they would have fought with you even if it cost them their lives,” Cazes fervently declared.

Joshua smiled faintly. “Just tell them to wait until the end of this battle. I have things to take care of.”

“…Pardon?” Cazes asked.

That was the end of their conversion.

“…Come to me,” Joshua mumbled, his voice laced with demonic power.

Cain flinched in surprise as the ground underneath him started to shake. He had sensed this power before, and the cold demonic power made him tremble too.

“The remains of the dead Berber,” Joshua said.

Then a vast chasm formed on the ground; it was one that threatened to devour everything.

Through the abyssal chasms, tens of thousands of soldiers of darkness revealed themselves, led by eight demonic creatures, each with their own distinct appearance.

“O-oh my god!”

“What are they?!”

Of course, the enemies fell into chaos. They tried hard to stop the dark army, but the soldiers of darkness had momentum on their side and weren’t going to give the enemy the chance.

The headless demonic creature taking the lead stomped for the first time.

When he stomped again, the tens of thousands of soldiers of darkness’ eyes shone with red light.

On the third time, the ground shook.

At the same time, the headless demonic creature held up his arm high in the air; he was the Dullahan Lord, the man who had been called the Mercenary King, Barbarian, while he was alive.

“…March,” Joshua ordered.