Chapter 51..
‘Did he say three times?’
Dante smirked inwardly.
If he had known it would turn out this way, he wouldn’t have bothered setting such a condition.
Who would’ve thought monsters like that would already show up?
Looking at the creatures charging madly toward him, Dante thought wryly.
But only for a moment.
Now wasn’t the time to be lost in idle thoughts.
‘Never seen these ones before.’
They were only about five meters at most.
But every single one radiated terrifying power.
They weren’t on the level of Nergal, who had been slain by Isabella’s sword, but the aura they exuded made it clear—they were undoubtedly children of Erebos.
‘Nergal was especially strong.’
He was the firstborn of the Red Mother.
Of course he possessed power incomparable to the mass-produced spawn.
‘The first strike will be mine.’
No matter how much he respected Isabella, he had no intention of conceding the opening attack.
Boom—!
Dante stamped his left foot hard, twisting his body.
From ankle, knee, waist, shoulder, all the way to his arm and finally Arpeon.
Not a single ounce of force wasted, he poured every drop of mana into his blade.
Fwoooosh—!
The compressed rotational power erupted along the sword, surging forward in a massive arc, tearing through the monsters that blocked his way.
Screeeeech—!
The three monsters at the front were caught in his slash.
Thin, fine lines appeared across their bodies.
‘Tch.’
But Dante couldn’t help but click his tongue.
Their flesh was so tough, even his blade couldn’t split them apart.
Still, they hadn’t completely withstood it—black blood hissed like steam from the deep lines carved into their bodies.
“Excellent.”
From behind, Isabella’s voice of praise rang out.
Suddenly at his side, she wore a proud, approving expression.
“I still have a long way to go.”
When Dante shook his head, Isabella smiled faintly.
“Don’t overreach.”
In that instant, her sword ripped through the air like lightning.
Boooom—!
The mana unleashed from her white blade pierced straight through the three monsters Dante had already cut.
Like they had been struck by artillery shells, they screamed and collapsed forward.
Dante seized the opening, sliding forward and swinging Arpeon once more.
Shshshshshshshshk—!
The extreme sword technique.
Arpeon carved through the monsters behind without pause.
Splatttttt—!
Blood rained down, filling the air with a foul stench.
And yet, not one of them had died.
At that moment, Isabella perfectly covered Dante’s back.
He struck first, she finished second.
Their swords formed a flawless harmony.
Dante’s blade inflicted crippling wounds, restricting movement.
Then Isabella’s sword severed their life force.
Simple, but fatal against Erebos’s children.
In an instant, five nameless monsters lay shredded upon the ground.
Seven still remained.
“Form ranks! Lumiere Guard, block the charge in Akrathion’s place!”
A thunderous command erupted from behind.
It was the commander of the Lumiere Guard.
Advancing silently, his heavy armor thundered forward.
Thud—, thud—, thud—!
The ground shook with every step of the armored knights.
Behind them, the Palantium knights marched like a spearhead.
The finest knights, every one of them awakened.
“Protect Lumiere Guard!”
At Aizen’s order, twenty Palantium knights swung their blades.
Clashclashclashclash—!
“Bloodyon, flank and take their legs!”
The red-armored Bloodyon swept left.
“Windgale! Show them who the fastest on the continent truly is!”
With Arthur’s command, the Windgale knights stormed the battlefield like the wind.
Escarion, Breiven, Harmion, Belzenor, Blackbau.
All of them too.
Their movements flowed together, natural and seamless, like one living organism.
‘An excellent joint assault.’
Watching them, Dante nodded.
No one had to be told what to do; they simply knew instinctively.
That was the caliber of these battle-hardened elites.
“Akrathion, conserve your strength!”
Meanwhile, Milleon pulled Akrathion to the rear, focusing on recovering their stamina.
The battle wasn’t over yet.
The true enemy had yet to even reveal itself.
Dante and Isabella both knew that.
“I think we can leave it to them for now.”
The knight orders, who had been conserving strength until now, efficiently blocked Erebos’s spawn.
“That is the power of unity.”
Facing enemies beyond one’s ability, together with comrades.
Reducing risk, and gaining the strength to push back.
“It means you don’t have to bear everything alone.”
“I never have.”
“Really now.”
Isabella chuckled.
Even today, Dante had rushed ahead countless times alone.
Though Akrathion supported him, they had only played a supplementary role.
Most monsters had fallen by Dante’s sword.
She knew why he pushed himself so recklessly.
“First time, isn’t it?”
The subject left unsaid, but Dante understood immediately.
“…Yes.”
Yurian’s death.
The knight who had fought at his side for three years, through life and death.
Dante had witnessed countless deaths, but never that of someone so close.
Even including his past life.
The mercenary Dante had never opened his heart to anyone.
After his house fell, he had no friends to share burdens with, no comrades to entrust his back, no family waiting for him at home.
This was the first time.
“You’re pushing yourself because you don’t want to lose anyone else.”
He couldn’t refute it.
Because it was true.
“Still, you need to learn to trust and rely on others. This isn’t just advice about camaraderie.”
Though it carried that meaning too, it was something deeper.
“To overcome the walls you’ll someday face, your strength alone will never be enough.”
The words of someone who had walked that path before.
Her voice was gentle, but it struck Dante’s heart.
“…Understood.”
He didn’t fully grasp it yet, but he engraved her words deep within himself.
“Good. Then you’ve rested enough, haven’t you?”
The clash between the knights and Erebos’s spawn was nearing its end.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s finish this ourselves.”
The two knights charged back into battle.
The fight was brutal.
Each child of Erebos was a calamity in itself.
Relentless, powerful, fatally dangerous.
But against them stood ten knight orders.
Led by their commanders, they took the monsters down one by one.
Until only two remained.
Then Dante and Isabella, who had hung back, stepped in and ended it.
Crack—!
Blue flames split one skull in two.
A white blade shredded the last monster’s body into hundreds of pieces.
Thudthudthud—
The foul stench of rotting flesh and black blood splattered across the ground.
And silence fell.
Every knight stood panting, eyes fixed on the corpses.
Ready for any that might revive.
But fortunately, these were not the type to rise again.
“Phew…”
The Lumiere Guard’s commander let out a long breath.
They had won.
It had been horrific and desperate, but victory was theirs.
Exhausted, he smiled faintly.
“Well done, all of you. Take a moment to catch your—”
The instant he turned to his men—
Kwoooaaaaaahhhhhhhh—!
A massive tremor erupted, engulfing the knights.
A force incomparable to anything so far.
The ground split, the ceiling collapsed.
And from the darkness—
Something began to rise.
Not merely something big.
Something no human words could describe.
‘Erebos!’
Dante instinctively knew.
Thump, thump!
His heart pounded furiously.
The sacred flame enveloping him screamed in warning.
Its presence was beyond human perception.
The very air was ripped apart, shrieking.
“Fall back!”
Isabella’s urgent cry rang out as the knights hurled themselves away from the source of the tremors.
Darkness.
Not merely black, but primal fear itself.
Hundreds, thousands of eyes gleamed in the dark.
Glowing faintly, as if stars had been ripped from the sky and nailed into the void.
“That’s… the Red Mother.”
For everyone here, it was their first time seeing her.
And Dante finally understood why there was so little information about her.
Because she was constantly changing.
As if she had no set form.
Erebos’s body twisted and transformed endlessly.
One moment like a shell, another like oozing flesh, then surging like massive tentacles.
A living lump of chaos itself.
――――――――――――!!!!!
From her body burst an indescribable sound.
Not a simple roar.
It was the scream of all the world’s cries, all its pain, all its deaths, condensed into one.
Knights groaned, clutching their ears—the mere sound was unbearable.
Just hearing it corrupted the mind, twisting reality itself.
Nuaragaron and Nergal were nothing compared to this overwhelming existence.
This—was the Red Mother, Erebos.
