CHAPTER 47………………………….
. The Knight’s Oath
A blade of blue light split the sky.
Screeech—!
The half-rotten dragon’s head opened its maw wide as it fell toward Ronan.
Krrrrack—!
Ronan’s sword scraped across its skull, then split its body apart like a bolt of lightning.
Craaaash—shhhhk—!
The massive body tore in half as it crashed to the ground.
“Ro–Ronan!”
“H–How did you…?!”
The elite soldiers, locked in combat with the swarm below, gasped as they saw him.
The blue radiance rising from Ronan’s body reminded them of Siruela’s aura.
“Where is the captain…?!”
Before Ronan could even ask them anything—
Whoooosh—!
The swarm of calamity dropped toward his head.
Beyond the dragon’s wide-open jaws, rows of jagged, saw-like fangs gleamed.
“Kh…!”
Ronan swung his sword and rolled his body toward the side without allies.
Boom—!
The swarm’s head slammed into the ground with a thunderous crash.
“Everyone, fall back!”
Ronan shouted to the elite soldiers who were about to join in.
“I’ll handle this place!”
“B–But…!”
“What can you do alone…?!”
“Esric! This is an order from the vice-commander of the Mage Corps!”
Rumble—! The swarm raised its head again.
“Hurry!”
From the hollow sockets of the dragon skull, teeth glimmered in place of eyes.
“I… can’t protect all of you…!”
With those words, Ronan kicked off the ground.
His blade slashed at the creature’s long body.
Shhhhk—! Blue light flashed, cutting the pale white body wide open.
But only for a moment.
Slurp, slurp.
The snow-worm squirmed, knitting the wound closed once again.
Screeeech—!
The swarm shrieked and moved with serpent-like agility, sliding across the snowy ground.
The soldiers could be seen scattering behind it.
“Hoo…”
Ronan steadied his breath and aimed his sword at the calamity before him.
Vmmmmm.
The blue light carried by his will resonated through the blade.
He didn’t know it was mana channeled from Esric, but he knew it was connected.
Not aura… but this power was enough to fight.
Even if someone explained, he wouldn’t have fully understood.
Nor did he need to.
Because Ronan trusted Esric.
And Esric, in turn, trusted him enough to send him here.
…Then he had to live up to that trust.
Clench.
Ronan gripped his sword and charged at the swarm.
At the same instant, the swarm lunged too.
Boom—!
Its head smashed into the ground, snow exploding upward.
Through the flying powder—
“Haaaah!”
Ronan’s sword flared blue.
Slash—! He plunged the blade into the swarm’s flank, carving a deep, long cut.
Scales-like shell tore away, flesh split open.
Countless insects burst into the air, shredded.
Yet still, swarms of them writhed, sealing the wound again.
“Kh!”
Ronan didn’t stop.
Dodging the lunging jaws, he stabbed and slashed, widening wounds again and again.
The swarm thrashed the dragon skull left and right, writhing its serpentine body as it pressed closer.
Despite its massive size, it moved with terrifying speed, pressing Ronan.
Crash—Bang—Smash—!
Even as he narrowly avoided the lunging skull, Ronan struck whenever he found an opening.
Rip, tear—then insects closed the gap again.
Cut and heal, cut and heal—the relentless cycle dragged on.
Until—
“…?!”
The swarm coiled its long body around, trapping Ronan inside.
No way out.
Its gaping maw opened toward him.
Unless he split its body in one stroke, there was nowhere to escape.
“Kh…?!”
Gathering every ounce of strength, Ronan swung at the incoming jaws.
The moment of impact—
Claaang—!
A piercing sound rang out as his arm was flung back.
Pain shot through him, as if his shoulder would tear off.
The swarm’s jaws did not stop.
“Gh…!”
Ronan clenched his teeth, reclaiming his sword to block the gleaming fangs.
The swarm uncoiled, pouring all its strength into devouring him.
The move was obvious.
Without hesitation, he twisted his body, deflecting the blow and tumbling out of the monster’s open maw.
He rolled over and over across the snow.
“Damn it…!”
Blood streamed from his head, torn open by the impact.
From old wounds, bleeding that had once stopped began again.
The problem wasn’t Esric’s mana.
It was Ronan’s body that could no longer endure.
As if knowing that—
Screeech—!
The swarm shook the dragon skull violently and slowly crept toward him.
The crushing pressure returned.
Even after dying once… no, twice already…
He could feel exactly why this thing was called a calamity.
Spit.
Ronan spat blood and raised his sword.
“If I die, I die… but I’ll stop you first…”
That was the least repayment he could give for Esric’s trust.
But then the swarm suddenly turned its head.
“…?”
Ronan followed its gaze—
There, in the snow, lay a fallen figure.
“C–Captain?”
Siruela, collapsed with her side torn open.
Gardner clutched her tight, though his left shoulder was gone.
Before Ronan could even think of what had happened—
Screeech—!
The swarm lunged, maw gaping.
“…!”
Ronan kicked off the ground with trembling legs.
I have to protect them.
I want to protect them.
But how?
No matter how many times he cut it, it reattached.
Then… maybe…
Fwshhh!
Ronan’s entire body was suddenly wreathed in blue light.
What once only shimmered faintly now flared like blazing fire.
This time, he wouldn’t just wound it.
He would sever it.
Clench.
With resolve, Ronan gripped his sword with both hands.
Vmmm—! The blue light roared skyward from the blade.
The rising light grew murky, then darkened until it gleamed nearly black.
A fleeting, unnoticed change.
“Uaaaaaah!”
With a scream like a warcry, he swung wide.
A jet-black swordlight flashed—severing the swarm’s body at the waist.
The lunging head wavered… then—
Craaaash—Thud—!
It smashed into the ground, veering past the two fallen allies.
The enormous body had been cleaved in two.
Ronan barely held himself upright, staggering.
The blue glow around him vanished completely.
The black light from his blade was gone as well.
Just now…?
Panting, Ronan turned back.
There lay the swarm’s body, now two writhing halves.
Did… did he do it?
Ronan’s knees buckled, drained to the limit.
The pounding of his heart echoed like drums in his ears.
But still… still the swarm moved.
Screeeech—!
Its head writhed violently, shrieking in fury.
I have to finish it…
Ronan tried to push himself up with his sword, but even that was hard.
He had no strength left to rise.
At that moment—
Thump, thud, splat.
Shadows fell from the sky with the snowfall.
They struck near the swarm’s head.
“What…?”
Barely lifting his gaze, Ronan saw the truth.
…What?!
His stomach turned.
What the hell…!
Grinding his teeth, Ronan turned his head.
There stood the only mage he knew.
Esric Spelder.
Staring coldly this way…
Thump, splat, thud.
As he dropped the corpses of fallen comrades.
Hagen could not believe his ears at first.
“…What?”
“I said, gather all the bodies of the fallen in one place.”
“R–Right now… sir?”
“Yes. Now. Immediately.”
Esric’s tone was firm.
“As many as possible.”
On Ice Rock… in these mountains… the rule was to burn every corpse.
Otherwise snow-worms would infest them and spawn anew.
Friend or foe, beast or man—it didn’t matter. All bodies were burned.
But to do that now?
With hundreds of snow-worms still threatening them?
Hagen couldn’t understand.
But an order was an order.
So he and the others began gathering their comrades’ corpses.
Those within range of Infernia Burst, and even those outside, retrieved as many as they could.
Among them was…
“…”
Barent.
“He said I’d die first…”
Hagen had once been a bandit.
Before that, a gutter rat in the slums.
Death was no stranger to him.
People died every day.
Kids he slept beside under the same blanket sometimes never woke up.
He had killed his share too.
But still… Barent’s death felt different.
Barent, whom he had taught magic.
“A guy who could use magic… why…?”
Hagen carried Barent’s body himself.
As carefully as if he were carrying his own newborn.
“All… gathered.”
“Good work.”
Esric stepped forward.
“Hog.”
He opened an old tome.
“From now, no one is to disturb me.”
“…Sir? Ah—yes!”
Hog raised his shield at Esric’s side.
Snow-worms couldn’t even breach the magic perimeter—so why this order?
Hagen wondered.
Hog’s expression showed he thought the same.
But Esric offered no explanation.
“.”
Without even the incantation he forced his men to memorize daily, he cast the spell instantly.
Whoooosh—!
A powerful wind surged from his feet, lifting the piled corpses into the air.
“…What?”
“V–Vice-commander?”
“What are you… doing…?”
Eyes went wide.
As Barent had been special to Hagen—
So too did the soldiers have comrades dear to them.
Even if not, they had lived together until now.
And yet Esric was… with magic…
“No… no, don’t…!”
Barent’s body…
Whoooosh.
Was hurled away.
The dead were flung high into the air, falling en masse toward the swarm.
Splat, crack—grotesque sounds rang out as they crashed.
Hagen could hardly believe his eyes.
No matter how much he doubted them, reality didn’t change.
Among those corpses, of course—
“Y–You…!”
Barent was there.
“You bastard!”
Hagen screamed and charged Esric.
“That was Barent! The one you made into a mage! Damn you!”
He couldn’t demand reasons. If he didn’t hit the man right now, his chest would burst from rage.
He wasn’t alone.
Several other soldiers rushed at Esric as well.
“S–Stop…!”
But all were knocked aside by Hog’s shield.
“It’s… the v–vice commander’s… o–order…!”
His trembling voice fell on deaf ears.
“To hell with orders! That bastard—he’s not even human!”
“Shit! If he hadn’t come here… none of us would’ve had to die!”
“It’s all his fault! All of it!”
Hog couldn’t understand either.
“V–Vice commander… at least… an explanation…”
But Esric gave none.
From his moving lips flowed only—
“<Smoldering spark, blossoming flame, blazing fire>.”
The words of a spell.
