Chapter 32

Reunion (2)

Garrison's iron fist came hurtling right in front of my face.

Ian's kick twisted its trajectory, and Garrison's punch grazed past the side of my head.

KWAAAAANG-!

Several deafening explosions shook the snowy plains.

Ian had neutralized every single blow in Garrison's rapid assault aimed at me.

The clash between the two happened in the blink of an eye.

Until it was over, I hadn't even realized an attack had been coming at me.

'This isn't probing or testing the waters. He came to kill me from the very beginning…!'

Only after the piled snow scattered wildly in every direction could I finally follow their movements.

If Ian hadn't been here, I would've vanished without even leaving a corpse behind.

"Hoho, isn't that greeting a bit excessive, young man?"
"Move aside, old man. I have to kill that necromancer."

Despite Garrison's emotionless voice, the smile never left Ian's face.

"My nephew almost died right in front of me. I can't exactly step aside so easily, can I?"
"…Nephew?"

At Ian's words, Garrison frowned for a moment before clenching his fist as if he understood.

"One of the Empire's Four Great Criminals. The Knight Slayer, Ian Leinrant."

Knight Slayer.

The moment the title the Empire used for him came up, Ian grimaced in disgust.

"I wonder when they'll finally forget that cringeworthy nickname."

Back when he had still been an Imperial knight, Ian had commanded the Skywing Knights.

He had annihilated the Empire's strongest knight order, a force composed of 250 commander-class knights.

That was the infamous title granted to him afterward.

"How amusing. A member of Leinrant protecting the family's sworn enemy."
"Sorry, but I'm an outsider now. I've got nothing to do with Leinrant anymore."
"You spout nonsense."

With those words, Garrison stretched out his hand.

RUMBLE-!

A perfectly clear sky without a single cloud.

Yet thunder roared from above, shaking the snowy mountains once more.

And then, after a brief moment—

KWA-RUMBLE-!

Something descended before him alongside a radiant bolt of lightning.

A gigantic silver hammer.

A blunt weapon so heavy that only someone with a body as massive as Garrison's could even lift it.

'Shit, that thing!'

I immediately stopped trying to raise demonic energy.

Divine power that erased the very existence of souls was the natural enemy of undead.

And the hammer that had descended from the sky was a gigantic mass of divine power.

'Did he drag an entire cathedral here or something? What the hell is this concentration…?!'

Feeling the tingling sensation throughout my body, I clenched my teeth.

The dense divine power radiating from that hammer—

Low-grade undead like Skeletons would melt away simply from approaching it.

"A Holy Relic Weapon! You really came fully prepared!"

Holy Relic Weapon.

A term referring to the three weapons left behind by Saint Gaul, founder of the current Holy Church.

Each one was a sacred artifact of the Order, containing divine power comparable to an entire grand cathedral.

Shiiing-!

"You brought out something that monstrous just to catch one little brat?"

Saying that to Garrison as he grasped the hammer, Ian tightened his grip on his sword as well.

Compared to Garrison's brilliantly shining hammer, Ian's iron sword looked utterly unimpressive.

But Ian showed not even the slightest hint of intimidation.

"I admit your skill surpasses mine."

Holding the hammer, Garrison spoke toward Ian.

"But as long as I wield this weapon, you cannot defeat me."

Garrison was right.

That hammer—the Holy Relic Weapon—contained divine power equivalent to hundreds of priests combined.

At this moment, Garrison had essentially gained an inexhaustible wellspring of power.

"That's not wrong. Under normal circumstances, I would've run away long ago."

"If you understand that, then step aside. My target is not you, but—"
"But you see."

The moment Ian's voice interrupted Garrison—

SHWAAAK-!

His figure instantly appeared behind Garrison.

"Whether you like it or not, I'm that brat's guardian."

KWAAAAAAANG-!

The ground shattered as debris erupted upward.

Ian's sword swung skyward.

At the exact moment Garrison spun his hammer behind him to block it, his kick tore through the air.

KAAANG-!

A metallic clang rang out from a collision between a sword and a kick.

I was staring blankly at the battle between those two monsters when—

"Klein!"

Still fighting Garrison, Ian raised his voice toward me.

"I'll hold this bastard off. Put as much distance between you and us as possible!"

As he shouted those words, Garrison's hammer came crashing down toward him.

KWAAAANG-!

"What are you doing?! Hurry and go!"

Ian's voice struck my ears.

He was trying to evacuate me toward the Wall, Leinrant's stronghold, while holding Garrison back.

"No. I'm not leaving."
"You little…!"

But my thoughts differed.

'Garrison's target isn't Ian. It's me. Even if I recklessly flee the battlefield, my chances of surviving are slim.'

And even if Ian managed to endure, Garrison would eventually come after me anyway.

If so, fleeing in this situation was the worst possible move.

The surest way to sever the chain of pursuit—

"Running is impossible. We have to settle this with that priest here."

The instant I said that to Ian—

"Tch!"

KAAANG-!

Ian surged with mana and smashed Garrison's hammer aside, forcing him backward.

"…!"

Garrison possessed enough raw strength to pulverize an entire fortress wall, and the Holy Relic Weapon itself was a massive clump of divine power.

It had only lasted an instant, yet Ian's unimpressive sword had overpowered all of it through sheer force.

"Seriously, the only thing more stubborn than you is your damned father!"

Shouting that into the air, Ian kicked Garrison square in the chest and widened the distance between them.

SHWAAAAAK-!

Using the recoil of the kick, Ian slid back beside me.

"You've got a plan if you're saying all this, right?"

At Ian's question, I nodded and opened my mouth.

"Uncle, your abilities and Garrison's are evenly matched. But they have the Holy Relic Weapon."

Ian nodded at my words.

Unlike Ian, who used his own mana, the source of Garrison's power was the divine energy contained within that Holy Relic Weapon.

"If we run, he'll just maintain the stalemate until your mana is exhausted, then come after me."
"Oh? And?"

The moment I deduced Garrison's intentions, interest flickered in Ian's eyes.

"So how exactly do you plan to overcome that?"

At Ian's question, the corners of my lips curled upward.

A battle of attrition using an externally supplied mana source.

The one who had relied on that tactic the most was me—Archimond.

'Yet that bastard Berkel tore straight through that ironclad formation like it was nothing.'

Memories from my previous life surfaced.

Berkel and the twelve knights who followed him.

The method by which merely thirteen people had broken through tens of thousands of Death Knights.

"Combined Strike Technique."

At those words, Ian's eyes widened.

"If we use the same technique simultaneously and maximize its power, it's possible."
"Easy enough to say."

Ian cut me off as though the idea were absurd.

"A Combined Strike Technique is only possible when two swordsmen perfectly synchronize their sword paths and mana waves."

I nodded at what was practically a scolding.

"Let's say your talent allows you to perfectly reproduce my swordsmanship. What about the mana?"

Ian's words precisely struck my weakness.

I answered immediately.

"Wouldn't you know that better than anyone else, Uncle?"
"…Hah!"

Ian fell silent at my response.

"I already learned all the techniques you showed earlier. From the principles to the mana control. Everything."
"…!"

As Ian stared at me speechlessly, I drove in the final nail.

"All that's left is for you to pour your mana into my body. Isn't that right?"

Forcefully circulating mana through the blood vessels and controlling it.

If it succeeded, even someone like me, born without mana, could wield power comparable to an ordinary knight for around five minutes.

'And since it's Ian's mana, not mine, mana synchronization itself isn't even necessary.'

Just as I was thinking that—

"Yes. It should be possible."

Ian's playful tone sank heavily.

Mana was like a person's blood and organs.

Forcefully pouring it into another person's body would trigger an overwhelming rejection reaction.

"But the instant it fails, every blood vessel in your body will burst. Even if it succeeds—"
"If we don't do it—"

I cut off his warning and met his eyes.

Even in the middle of this conversation, Garrison could attack again at any moment.

"I die here and now."

At those words, Ian stayed silent for a long while.

And then, after a moment—

"As expected…"

Ian's voice trembled as he spoke to me.

I turned my head with a short sigh and looked at his expression.

"I really did judge you correctly."

A single sentence overflowing with exhilaration.

Ian's face wore a smile so delighted it looked as though he could die from joy.

Ian's hand grabbed my shoulder.

"Ghk?!"

Energy invaded my body.

The foreign sensation coursing through my veins forced a groan from my lips.

"We'll use the fourth thrust I showed you. Approach from the side. You handle the timing."
"…Understood…!"

I forced my voice out in response to Ian's instructions.

An overwhelming urge to peel the skin off my entire body.

The moment another person's mana entered me, my whole body erupted in rejection.

But I was the necromancer Archimond.

'This level of pain… this pathetic suicidal impulse…!'

Compared to the tortures inflicted upon me by the Empire and the continent's so-called Alliance—

This pain was nothing.

WOOOOONG-!

The worse the pain became, the more faithfully Ian's mana obeyed my will.

My eyes had already fully grasped his sword path and the flow of his mana.

"If it's now!"

For these brief five minutes, I could wield the power of a true knight.

PAAAT-!

My mana-enhanced body shot directly toward Garrison.

At the same time, Ian approached him from another direction.

"So in the end, you crawl to me of your own accord."

Watching my final struggle, Garrison raised his hammer.

BUOOOOONG-!

Overwhelming violence split the air itself.

The pressure felt as though an entire fortress wall was charging straight at me.

"This ends now."

But the dice had already been cast.

There was nowhere to run.

Nowhere to hide.

"Now!"
"KUHAHAHAHA!"

I signaled Ian as he closed in beside me and thrust my sword forward.

My mana waves intertwined with Ian's rotating mana.

One of the ultimate techniques of Imperial swordsmanship—

A technique that concentrated mana into a single point, rotating it to pierce through the enemy's defense.

Spiral Strike.

KIIIIIIIIING!!!

The two spirals overlapped and began to synchronize.

The intertwined mana amplified each other's rotational force, driving the density to its absolute limit.

It felt as though the entire world itself was screaming.

"Mana synchronization? You forcefully accepted mana into that body…?!"
"To kill a monster like you, risking one life is worth it!"

I roared as I thrust my sword toward Garrison's hammer.

Foreign mana boiled inside my body, ravaging me from within.

"So quit screwing around and disappear already, you damned priest bastard!"

Even so, I didn't withdraw my sword.

Instead, I poured every ounce of strength into the fleeting mana gathered within me, increasing the rotational force even further.

And the moment that compressed mana reached its peak—

KWAAAAAAANG-!

With a colossal explosion, Garrison's body was blasted away like a cannonball.

He hurriedly wrapped his body in divine power, but there was no way he could fully nullify the impact.

"Gghhhh?!"

Garrison's body smashed through dozens of massive trees before crashing deep into the forest.

CRACK-!

With the sound of splitting metal, the sword in my hand shattered into pieces.

Further battle was impossible now.

But the result had been worth it.

Even if only for an instant, we had overwhelmed that monstrous Executor.