Return of the Unrivaled Spear Knight

Side Story Chapter 112

“Gabriel!” Raphael shouted.

“Loose!” Gabriel immediately ordered, his commanding voice quashing the paladins’ panic. “Prioritize taking out the flying mages! Disregard all of the knights approaching the walls!”.

The paladins raised their divine bows to the sky, and launched hundreds of arrows simultaneously. The rain of light arcing through the air was majestic, but Iceline and the other mages didn’t stop to watch.

Iceline acted first by firing her Blizzard, a sixth-circle spell, cueing all sorts of lightning bolts and a hail of fire to smash against the incandescent mana arrows launched by the paladins.

Despite how powerful the attacks were, both sides held their lines. Considering that the mages all had at least four circles, those bow artifacts were remarkably strong.

At that moment, someone leaped on top of the ramparts.

“A-Already…?” Gabriel’s divine bow jerked, his eyes widening.

An elderly man stood in front of Gabriel; his name was Duke Tremblin, famously known as the Sword Emperor—and he was swinging his saber toward Gabriel’s neck.

“Gah…!” Gabriel grunted.

“Get down, Gabriel!” Raphael shouted.

Gabriel threw himself to the ground without a second thought, allowing Raphael to swing his sword right over Gabriel’s head.

However, the outcome of their clash came as a shock. Was Raphael not fully healed yet? Or was his stance wrong because he had to respond so abruptly? He wasn’t even able to deflect the Sword Emperor’s one attack. In the split second it took for Raphael’s sword to fall to the ground, Tremblin’s saber bifurcated Raphael, its specialty.

“Raphael!” Gabriel watched his comrade fall in two pieces.

“Why don’t you worry about yourself?”

Gabriel flinched. Selim Sanders had joined them on the ramparts and had his spear leveled at the Paladin.

“You…!”

Gabriel’s divine bow transformed from a bow into a sword of light. The key ability of this weapon was creating as much aura as possible using the minimum amount of the user’s mana.

“…For just an artifact, it’s full of surprises,” Selim murmured.

“Sir Gabriel!” the paladins screamed, appalled by their leader’s precarious position.

“Don’t care about me. Focus on the sky!” Gabriel shouted back.

“Bu-but…!”

“Once we give up fighting back, all of those spells are going to land on our heads. Do you think you’ll be able to deal with those?”

The paladins of Hubalt bit their lower lips and continued launching arrows into the sky, filling it with an unceasing rumble.

“You’ve lost, so give up, you invaders disguised as paladins,” Selim quietly said.

Gabriel clutched his sword, but his expression was dark.

“Shit…”

* * *

“…Halt.” Babel raised his hand.

The nearby knights rushed to deliver Babel’s command to the rest of the army marching through the Hubalt Empire.

“Everyone, halt!”

“The general’s orders. Stop!”

It looked like Babel had perfect control over Avalon’s troops, but he didn’t. There were tens of thousands of soldiers deployed out of Arcadia on top of the knights and soldiers from the Agnus family. Those soldiers revered Joshua like a god, and the story between Joshua and his estranged family was known to everyone in the Empire. It came as no surprise, therefore, that the soldiers disapproved of their commander.

“Do we have time to stop and rest? Conquering the Hubalt Empire as quickly as possible is the priority right now…”

“Arcadia must be under attack as we speak. What in the world is he thinking…?”

“Is he trying to put His Majesty in a tight spot or something?”

Babel could hear every word, but he didn’t respond. Such was his karma. In fact, it was actually his subordinate who couldn’t stand it and grabbed for his sword.

“How dare they…!” The knight huffed and puffed in anger.

“Stop. I’m fine.”

“But, Your Grace…!”

“I said, I’m fine.”

Babel stared ahead without saying anything else.

An endless plain that was known as the Great Plain of Urdis stretched before him and the troops. Once they passed through this place, they would reach the capital of the Hubalt Empire within a week.

“You don’t have to get angry at everything they say. I am a sinner.” Babel shook his head.

“Wh-What do you mean? What could you have possibly done wrong, Your Grace?”

“Can’t you see the hostility in their eyes?”

“I can’t understand their reaction. What in the world did we do wrong…?”

“Have you forgotten? The person who started a civil war that disrupted the entire country is Carmen von Agnus, and she’s from our family.”

“…That is…”

“Many of them must have lost family, friends, and comrades, so accept their hostility. Don’t think that is unfair. I’m sorry for being a pathetic master, so if you really feel the need to vent out your anger, blame me instead. I’m the one to blame for these sins. ”

“Yo-Your Grace, that’s preposterous” the knight stammered.

“…I’m always grateful to all of you for accompanying me in my path of atonement in spite of my pathetic leadership.”

Babel’s voice was quiet yet clear, such that all the knights around him heard him. His knights trembled with uncontrollable emotion. Everyone in the world might be pointing their finger at Duke Agnus right now, but the knights knew how bad a shape he was in right now. Nevertheless, he had broken his silence and raised his sword at the Imperial Family’s request for the sake of atonement and atonement alone.

“Once we conquer the Hubalt Empire, the most powerful nation on the continent… we’ll at least be able to say that we did our duty,” Babel murmured.

“We’ll be with you until the end, Your Grace!”

“…Let’s go. Judging from the clouds, there’s going to be a downpour soon; tell the rest of the Red Cross Knights to prepare tents for the army, too.”

“Pardon? Rain?”

Speak of the devil—thunder echoed in the clear sky.

The knights’ eyes widened in surprise, but Babel ignored it and calmly got off his horse.

“It’s happening sooner than I thought. We’ll stay here tonight.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

The soldiers of the Arcadia Defense Army had stopped talking among themselves when they noticed the rain thickening. They exclaimed to each other about Babel’s foresight.

It seemed as if someone had opened a hole in the sky and emptied a bucket full of water through it.

While the army was busy setting up their tents, someone came walking toward the troops from the direction of the border they had marched through, catching Babel’s attention.

“Who… is that?” Babel narrowed his eyes.

One person? No, the man seemed to be carrying a corpse. Despite the extra weight, the man arrived right in front of Babel in no time. The knights were in the middle of driving stakes into the ground, so they didn’t care nor did they think that one man carrying a corpse could possibly be an enemy.

“…Who are you?” Babel asked.

The man came to a halt and then grinned. “Me? My name is Bel.”

“Bel…?”

“Let’s save the introductions for later.” Bel waved his index finger at Babel. “You look like the most skillful person here, so come at me. I’ll fight you one handed as a special bonus.”

* * *

“Mmmm…” Joshua quietly grunted.

His soul had pushed his new vessel to its limit. The more power Joshua used, the stronger the soul established itself in the vessel. Someone else’s body couldn’t embrace his soul. However, Michael was in a more serious condition.

“…Gnh!” Michael trembled. He lay helplessly on the ground; his white armor that once protected him from head to toe had shattered long ago. “I even used the descent, but… I can’t last a second?”

“Don’t be too disappointed. All of the Magic Spear Arts’ techniques are intended to finish my enemies with one strike, and I was able to use it in my normal condition. …The result is understandable,” Joshua said.

Michael smiled blankly. He may be one of the Four Paladins, but he was just a big fish in a small pond compared to Joshua. He could say without a doubt that he’d felt this way only once in his life: the day he had first met Bel decades ago. He’d never imagined he would experience the same thing again.

“Any last words?” Joshua asked.

“…What is your relationship to the original owner of my authority?”

Joshua stood silent for a moment before crouching down next to Michael.

“It’s a boring story. ”

“I still want to hear it. I have no way of knowing if you don’t.”

“…It’s nothing special. For example…” Joshua thought for a moment and then smiled meaningfully. “...you know, about that man named Bel…”

“Why are you suddenly mentioning him…?”

“If the Hubalt Empire were to succeed in conquering the continent, do you think you, paladins of Hubalt, would have left him be?”

Michael’s eyes slowly widened. He knew how terrifyingly strong Bel was better than anyone else. Unifying the continent? Bel had the power to divide the continent that the Hubalt Empire had conquered into dozens of pieces.

“…I see. I understand what you mean now.” Michael slowly stood up, revealing the true severity of his state.

A big hole gaped in the center of his abdomen; his intestines were also gone. Michael wouldn’t be able to recover this power even if the Angel Spirit descended into him.

“You’re a tragic man who wasn’t welcomed anywhere and was abandoned because you were too strong. I’m better than you.”

“If you can find solace in that way, it won’t be too bad.” Joshua stood up, slowly pointing Longin at Michael. “I’ll put your body out of its misery.”

“...It’s… quite disappointing… to leave… before seeing… the same two men’s fight.”

“Well…” Joshua lightly swung his spear.

Michael’s head rolled on the council chamber’s floor.

“…Judging from my condition, I don’t think we’ll be fighting though,” Joshua mumbled.

On top of that, his children were the ones who had the debts to settle with Bel, so the future was in the hands of the people Joshua was going to leave behind.

“I also need to… rest now.”

Joshua slowly collapsed to the ground.