Chapter 19: The Darkness Surrounding the Empire (II)

In his memories, Thors remembered Argus having said more than once that he wanted to destroy this country. He had thought Argus was merely dissatisfied with the empire’s rulers, but he never imagined Argus would go so far…
Those black cavalry members certainly didn’t resemble humans. Wrapped in black armor from head to toe, they wielded obsidian swords and could use sheer physical strength to cut through walls made of rock—a feat impossible for ordinary humans.
Especially that thick, flesh-like stench of death could be smelled even from afar. As they breathed, they exhaled frosty mist, resembling the legendary [Death Knights].
Yet Death Knights neither existed in the Land of Death nor in the Abyss, the dwelling place of demons. Legends said they were dark creatures born from the corruption of humans. Where exactly did Argus get such an army?
No matter how hard Thors thought about it, he couldn’t find a reasonable explanation.
Amid the cries of those hundred or so villagers, the twenty Death Knights locked them in chains without any expression. A few strong young villagers tried to resist, but were cut in two by a Death Knight’s obsidian sword without hesitation.
“Is this the army Argus has now?” Thors frowned slightly. He had a vague premonition that this battle against Argus might not be a one-on-one fight like before, but rather a battle between armies. As long as Argus still aimed to destroy the empire, he was likely to avoid fighting Thors this time. After all, battles between apostles couldn’t be said to determine a clear winner—anything could happen.
Just as Thors was thinking about future battles with Argus, the eager new bishop, Bon Hamsworth, seemed unable to contain himself. In a voice filled with anger, he whispered, “We can’t let those dark creatures act as they please. As clergy, it’s our duty to save these helpless people! Please, sir, help me!”
Glancing at Father Bon’s eager yet hesitant expression, Thors snorted lightly and said indifferently, “Clergy? The only clergy here is you. Don’t forget, I’m just an ordinary person now!”
“…” Father Bon’s expression became quite interesting. He opened his mouth, hesitated, and said, “Even though you’re an ordinary person now, you’re still an ordinary person with great power. How can you stand by and watch innocent people suffer under persecution by heretics?”

“What does that matter?” Thors snorted lightly, changing his posture to lean against a tree trunk, sitting on the ground with his arms behind his head, seemingly uninterested in getting involved.
It made sense—under the influence of Sloth’s power, he had no interest in the outside world at all. To him, those villagers were just strangers; whether they lived or died, what did it matter to him?
“Lord Volmon!” Father Bond stared at Thors with deep dissatisfaction, but Thors remained unmoved, as his only concern at the moment was killing Argus—perhaps the only goal he had, just as he had said to Argus from the beginning…
“I’ve never thought of becoming the savior of this world!”
“Lord Volmon…”
“Shut up!” Thors said coldly, staring at Father Bond intently, “Don’t you think your ideas are too idealistic? Such things are everywhere in the empire these days. How many people can you save? Even if you save them, what then? They’ll still face such things. How long can you protect them? Be realistic, Bond Hamsworth. The culprit behind all this is Argus. Without dealing with him, nothing will change!”
“But…” Father Bond took a deep breath and spoke in a devout tone, “But I can’t tolerate it. I know this phenomenon might be common in the empire now… You know, Lord Volmon, I’ve always believed that ‘saving one person means saving the whole world!’” With that, he turned his head toward the village and slipped away quietly.
Watching him leave, a slight ripple appeared in Thors’ otherwise calm gaze.
“‘Saving one person means saving the whole world?’ How bold…”
Father Bond crouched low and moved along the earthen wall outside the village toward the villagers locked up by iron chains. Fortunately, only two Death Knights were guarding them at the moment; the others were busy burning the village.
When they saw Father Bond, the once-desperate villagers immediately regained hope, staring at him eagerly. One woman holding a baby pleaded desperately, “Please save us…”
“Shh!” Father Bond’s expression instantly changed dramatically. He didn’t even have time to signal to the villagers.
Hearing the woman’s cry, the two Death Knights immediately turned around, their gazes meeting Father Bond’s.

“This is bad…” With a bitter smile, Father Bon gathered the little holy power he had left and shouted, “[Disarm]!”
With two clinks, the two Death Knights seemed to be under some mental control as they immediately dropped their Onyx Knight Swords. But once they regained their senses, they picked up the swords again with expressionless faces.
After all, [Disarm] was just a peaceful spell—a coercive mental magic similar to word magic that made the target discard any weapon they were holding, without causing harm, even to dark creatures. It was one of the spells invented by the Church hundreds of years ago, but its power was now so weak that even ordinary priests gave up mastering it.
“Disarm!”
Having no other choice, Father Bon kept casting his only spell against enemies, while urgently shouting at the villagers, “Run! Run quickly!”
The villagers were only chained around the waist, which didn’t hinder their movement. Hearing Father Bon’s warning, they panicked and stood up, running in his direction in a daze. One woman carrying a baby fell to the ground in her panic.
The noise from the villagers might have alerted the Death Knights burning houses in the village. They rushed out, and upon seeing the scene outside, their expressions didn’t change much, but their aura of death grew stronger.
“Disarm!”
“Disarm!”
“Disarm!”
Father Bon kept casting his only spell against enemies. He could see that the villagers were terrified by the Death Knights’ cruel methods. They weren’t unable to run; they just didn’t dare, fearing they would be killed if they tried to flee.
So, his original plan was to hold off those Death Knights and buy time for the villagers to escape as smoothly as possible. It was a good plan, but he never expected such an accident: a woman with a baby fell and sprained her ankle in the chaos…
“This is terrible!” With a low bitter smile, Father Bon rushed to the woman who was sitting on the ground, her eyes filled with terror. But facing nearly twenty Death Knights, he felt utterly helpless.
After all, his meager holy power was no longer enough to delay those Death Knights.

“Jenny!” Suddenly, a man among the villagers turned back—perhaps the woman’s husband. Duty drove him to return when he saw his wife in danger, but what could he do with his hands tied behind his back?
“Don’t go!” As Father Bond cried out in alarm, the man let out a final, desperate scream of “Ahhhh!” before charging headlong at a Death Knight’s chest.
Yet human strength was clearly not enough to shake the Death Knight’s dark form; the knight didn’t even budge, like an impenetrable wall. Glancing at the man who had fallen to the ground due to the force of the impact, the Death Knight’s expression remained utterly unchanged. It picked up the fallen Obsidian Knight Sword and raised it high…
“No!” The woman holding the baby screamed hoarsely.
Watching the Obsidian Knight Sword approach ever closer, fear grew in the man’s eyes. Suddenly, the sword stopped as an arm reached out from beside him and firmly grabbed it.
“You…” The man was stunned, unable to speak, at the seemingly fifteen- or sixteen-year-old boy who had appeared beside him.
“Looking for death?—Back off!” The boy said coldly after glancing at the man.
“Yes… yes…” The man, lucky to have saved his life, scrambled toward his wife. Perhaps worried about the boy, he turned his head back as he ran and then noticed that the boy had actually been using his right hand to hold the sword’s blade tightly.
“Lord Volmon!” Seeing that familiar figure, Father Bond felt a surge of relief as if he’d found salvation in desperation.
“Hmph!” The boy sneered and said indifferently, “Don’t you realize your own weakness? Idiot!—I’ve said it before: without great power, nothing can be achieved!” With that, he placed his left hand on the Death Knight’s chest plate. A hissing sound, like boiling water, came from it, and the Death Knight let out a painful scream before turning to ashes under the pure holy power, leaving nothing behind.
“Truly pure death energy…” Thos frowned slightly, as he felt he hadn’t used much holy power just now. Though holy power had a coercive killing effect on dark creatures, this level…
As the Death Knight disappeared, his mount—a warhorse also clad in black armor—also turned into a pile of ashes in the distance.

Where on earth did Argus get such an army? As he pondered this, Thors suddenly heard Father Bond’s warning cry. “Be careful, Lord Volmon!” Thors looked up only to see the Death Knights already on their mounts, holding black spears in their left hands and obsidian swords in their right, charging at him. “Hmph!” With a light snort, Thors slowly raised his left hand. To Father Bond’s astonished and incredulous gaze, just as the Death Knights’ spears were about to pierce Thors, he suddenly vanished from his spot. Moments later, streaks of faint light appeared, and Thors reappeared in front of each Death Knight simultaneously, quickly tapping their chests with his left hand before vanishing again. For a brief moment, it seemed as though there were a dozen figures present… “Mirage magic? No!” Father Bond murmured, staring at the terrifying scene. “It’s teleportation—extremely fast consecutive teleportations… Amazing!” With eyes filled with admiration and envy, Thors reappeared behind the Death Knights, raised his left hand, and softly uttered two words. “[Condemn]!” As soon as the words left his mouth, a faint light representing holy power appeared on the chest plates touched by Thors. Then, that power suddenly erupted outward in all directions, like a cross… Within that cross-shaped burst of holy energy, the charging Death Knights suddenly stopped, letting out pained screams, before turning into wisps of ash and scattering to the ground. “Incredible… Truly amazing…” the man comforting his wife murmured in astonishment. “Of course!” Father Bond smiled easily, brushing dust off his clothes, but when he saw the mockery in Thors’s eyes, he couldn’t help but show a wry smile. “Hmph!” Thors turned and snorted at Father Bond, then snapped his fingers. The chains binding the man and woman instantly broke and fell to the ground. An hour later, with Father Bond’s help, the surviving villagers put out the fire that had ravaged the village. They gathered all the remaining food to the open space in the village center, lit several bonfires, and prepared a modest dinner to express their gratitude to Thors and Father Bond. Throughout it all, Thors sat by the bonfire, head bowed, staring intently at the flames as if deep in thought. Suddenly, his gaze shifted slightly as he noticed a full cup being handed to him.

“This is the fruit wine brewed by the villagers themselves…” The woman named Jenny looked at Thors with grateful eyes and said in a low voice, “Thank you for saving our entire village!”
“…” Thors glanced at her, took the cup, and said calmly, “Is your wound on your foot healed?”
“Mm,” the woman nodded and turned to look in the direction of Father Bon, saying, “That priest has already healed me…”
Watching Father Bon chatting amiably with the crowd of villagers, Thors shook his head silently, picked up the cup, and took a sip. The familiar taste seemed to remind him of past events.
On the other hand, Father Bon was indeed having a pleasant conversation with the villagers. After all, compared to Thors’ aloof expression, he was much kinder.
“Are you a priest from Salonia? Thank you so much…” An old man kept expressing his gratitude while holding Father Bon’s hand.
“Oh, no,” Father Bon shook his head shyly, then asked curiously, “What exactly happened here? Why did those ‘Death Knights’ capture you?”
“Sigh,” the old man sighed sadly and shook his head. “We’re not sure either. When we heard that the villagers from nearby villages had been captured and taken to Sassen, we fled to the mountains… We hid there for a long time, thinking they had left. Plus, we ran out of food, so we returned. Who would have thought that just a few days later, we’d encounter those demons again…”
“I see,” Father Bon frowned thoughtfully and asked kindly, “So what do you plan to do from now on?”
“The village is in such a state, and those demons might come back at any time… I’ve thought about it, and we plan to go to [Boydell]…” the old man said with a sigh.
“Boydell?”
“Mm, it’s a city directly under Operelles’ rule. I heard that Operelles’ merchants formed a knight army that has repelled those demons many times, so it’s safe there for now…” The old man paused and asked curiously, “By the way, why is a priest from Salonia here? Oh no, please don’t mind me. I’m just asking casually. If it’s inconvenient…”
“It’s not a problem,” Father Bon said with a smile after taking a sip of the village-made fruit wine. “I was sent by His Holiness, the Pope of our church, to Sgdel to discuss some matters with the black magicians of your empire…”

“Oh, Sgeldel…” The old man nodded in relief, then seemed to remember something and sighed softly. “I heard that Sgeldel is one of the few safe places left these days, but it’s home to a large number of magicians who fight against the magical forces of the Saxon Imperial City. It doesn’t seem to take in ordinary people like us… Only Operelles remains; that’s the only place we can go…” As he spoke, he pointed in a certain direction and warned kindly, “If you’re heading to Sgeldel, you’re going in the wrong direction. Sgeldel is in the northwest…”

“You know that?” Father Bon was surprised. After all, under normal circumstances, how could an ordinary civilian know where Sgeldel was?

“It’s impossible not to know. Wars are breaking out everywhere in this country right now. Sgeldel is now the center of the free magical forces, uniting several major cities in the west to resist those demon armies. Like Operelles I mentioned earlier… Those demon armies are extremely powerful. As you saw just now, ordinary people are no match for them. Without the help of dark magicians, I think Operelles would have already fallen to those demon armies…” The old man paused briefly, glanced at Thos secretly, and asked softly, “Is that child also a priest from your Salonia? He’s amazing—those demon armies are no match for him at all. He seems even stronger than you…”

“Uh,” Father Bon awkwardly scratched his head and said sheepishly, “Yes. Even in our Salonia, basically no one can defeat him…”

About ten minutes later, Father Bon brought a plate of roasted meat to Thos. Seeing that he was still holding an empty cup, staring blankly at the campfire, he handed him the plate and said casually, “We’re really lucky. The villagers said they’d take us to Boydell on the way, and from there, we just need to head straight north to reach Sgeldel…”

Glancing at Father Bon, Thos said indifferently, “As long as we figure out the direction, we can get there without their help! — Are you planning to escort them to Boydell? Since when have the cardinals of the Church become as cheap as mercenaries?”

“Heh, you can’t put it that way. What if they encounter those Death Knights again? Consider it doing a good deed. It’s on our way anyway. Don’t worry about it, Lord Volmon!” Father Bon held out the plate again.

“Hmph! — Weren’t you saying you didn’t want to see roasted meat anymore?”

“There’s nothing we can do, right? After all, this is the villagers’ kindness. It would be rude not to eat it all, wouldn’t it?”
“……”
After dawn, the villagers brought down the few cows and horses hidden in the mountains, cut down some trees to make a few simple and rough carts for transporting the surviving crops and food.
Soon after, after drinking a bowl of meat soup for breakfast, the group set off toward Boydell.
Perhaps blessed by the goddess of luck, they didn’t encounter any more armies like the Death Knights along the way, avoiding many troubles.
After traveling slowly for two days, Thos and the others finally arrived at the supposedly peaceful city, [Boydell].
Along the way, they met many patroling knight teams, indicating that the defenses here were quite strict.
At the city gate, Thos and Father Bon bid farewell to the villagers, planning to rest there for one night before continuing toward Sgdel. But as soon as they entered the city, Father Bon noticed that the people on the streets were looking at him and Thos with very strange eyes, as if with some kind of hostile intent, which puzzled him greatly.
He curiously examined himself but found nothing amiss.
Suddenly, he remembered.
It was the clothes!
Thos was wearing the unique uniform of an Inquisitor. While ordinary empire citizens might find it strange, they wouldn’t recognize it. But Father Bon was wearing a proper cardinal’s red robe in the style of the Church, which anyone with a little knowledge could identify at a glance.
As Thos had said before, the empire’s people weren’t very friendly toward Salonia.
“Bang!” Suddenly, Father Bon felt pushed. Before he could react, the fierce-looking mercenary in front of him said in a strange tone, “Can’t you watch where you’re going?”
“Uh,” Father Bon was taken aback and defended himself, “I don’t mean to offend you, but it was you who bumped into me, wasn’t it?”
“What did you say?”
With a rustle, a large group of mercenaries gathered around, all staring at Father Bon with fierce eyes.
Seeing Father Bon’s pleading look, Thos said calmly, “Didn’t I tell you to change into other clothes?”
“You can’t say that. I’m here representing the Church…” Facing those mercenaries who were deliberately causing trouble, Father Bon seemed at a loss.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, a young man with light yellow hair wearing golden knight armor was leading a warhorse toward the city gates, accompanied by a retainer. Suddenly, an unusual expression appeared in his eyes, one mixed with surprise and disbelief. “Huh?”