Episode 943
by CristaeThe furious Perkuntra drove the ambushed blasphemer mercilessly. The giant pillar that skewered the enemy turned into countless bolts of lightning, each transforming into an arrow that assaulted the blasphemer.
A-m-b-u-s-h…
Assailed by a storm of lightning fiercer than any tempest, the blasphemer groaned and went on the defensive—but didn’t forget to criticize this cowardly trickery.
‘It’s not wrong, honestly.’
Even the beast privately sympathized with the blasphemer.
For a thunder king-class spirit to be lying in ambush, pretending not to be summoned…? From the blasphemer’s perspective, the injustice was real.
Of course, both beast and blasphemer had no qualms about traps and ambushes, not the slightest prick of conscience. But they were undead, and Perkuntra was a lightning spirit.
Unlike the undead, who prided themselves on treachery and cunning, such acts were honestly shameful for a thunder spirit.
Shut it!
Perkuntra knew this well and chose to simply strike with another bolt of lightning instead of arguing. As the blasphemer tried to swell its body and regenerate, its limbs burned and were blasted off.
-Splendid, magician! Forcing the Lord of Thunder to participate in such cowardly, base stratagems—just splendid!
“…Please, keep the comments to yourself.”
Lee Han watched warily as Perkuntra pummeled the blasphemer in the distance.
He’d barely managed to talk Perkuntra into helping—now the demon Mahuda was pushing his luck.
‘As expected of a devil.’
-Why? The Lord of Thunder should be proud. Didn’t he set aside his pride and utterly deceive the enemy? That blasphemer is being made a fool!
“Hm… Another demon to add to the ‘never summon again’ list, like Amphursas…”
-…On second thought, the Lord of Thunder might be just a little annoyed!
Mahuda quickly regained his senses.
As a demon who had hunted undead for an age, he had remarkable political sensitivity and tact.
-Wait! It’s fleeing! Stop it!
All the blasphemer’s armies were sucked back into its body at once.
It was desperately trying to heal and store power as quickly as possible.
Pop!
The blasphemer mustered all its might—and then shattered its own body.
It wasn’t that it had been struck down; the blasphemer deliberately split itself, hoping to confuse the enemy and escape.
Indeed, each lump of flesh became a miniature blasphemer, muddying the Lord of Thunder’s pursuit.
–Such a shallow ploy?
But unfortunately for the blasphemer, a beast who had fought it for a long time was waiting.
The beast unleashed a wave of death, scattering the clones, then quickly tracked down and bit the real body. The blasphemer, trying to flee, let out a shriek of agony and fury.
-Lord of Thunder, now we finish it! Give me the power we agreed on!
Jabbering demon bastard!
-That’s awfully emotional… uhg!
Perkuntra, though cursing the detestable Mahuda, honored the initial bargain anyway.
An ambush, then a final joint attack, just as agreed.
As Perkuntra merged into Lee Han’s body, he became the incarnation of thunder—an avatar of dazzling lightning. Ordinarily, this would have annihilated an unprepared magician, but Perkuntra trusted the unwavering depth and stillness of Lee Han’s mana.
The true, penetrating power of lightning flickered and crackled at Lee Han’s fingertips. The unflustered Mahuda shaped that power into a colossal spear.
The beast, just witnessing the spear, felt instinctive fear. This spear was bane to all undead—a Spear of Nemesis.
The Lightning Spear of Slaying Demons and Undead!
‘I thought he was still an unseasoned magician… how could he command such grand sorcery?!’
Even if he had summoned mighty beings, it was the magician who bound them all together. It defied belief.
There was no more time for hesitation. The beast brazenly reverse-summoned itself back to the undead world.
The moment that spear was completed, the blasphemer’s fate was sealed. Its only hope was to get as far away as possible.
It was a pity not to watch its disgrace, but if it were caught in the blast, just healing would take decades.
“Javelin!”
“Hurry! We have to carry the potions!”
“We’ll take care of it, so just stay put!”
“What absurdity! As a noble of Granden City, do you expect me to just stand around at a time like this?”
If there was one thing Einrogard students hadn’t anticipated, it was how hard it would be to get people to listen.
The best action would have been to run until the palace was out of sight—but the proud, honorable citizens of Granden City instead carried the finished potions and supplies, returning near the palace.
The students negotiated desperately, eventually striking a compromise.
“Alright, then stop here at the -Three Gryphons- bridge! Whatever you do, don’t cross it! If anything goes wrong, retreat at once!”
“Grr… Fine!”
Camped at the bridge, the citizens handed out potions to nearby evacuees and tended the wounded.
Meanwhile, the students looked anxiously up into the sky. The battle unfolding before them was diverging from all expectations.
“That thing’s getting way too big. Can the knights handle it?”
“There hasn’t been any fallout outside the palace yet… but maybe we should evacuate after all.”
“How do we convince them when they’re insisting on helping?”
In the midst of the Seniors’ conversation, Yoner raised a careful hand.
“What about secretly giving them sleeping potions?”
“…It’s a good idea, but no one brought sleeping potions.”
The students had prepared anti-undead potions—not sleeping draughts.
Even if they wanted to, there was nowhere near enough for everyone here—
“That’s why we made them separately!”
“Here you go!”
Ahsan and Angrago appeared with a chest full of sleeping potions.
“Nillia will handle making them drink.”
“?!”
Nillia blinked like a cow being led away, bewildered by her sudden assignment.
But the Seniors were impressed.
“These second-years are on another level…!”
“To think you’d instantly go with the plan of sleep-dosing ‘troublemakers’ and hauling them off… That wickedness is pure Einrogard.”
A normal student would have hesitated, tried other methods—then maybe come up with that. The boldness to immediately settle on this impressed them even more.
“…It’s not that wicked, though…?”
Yoner muttered a little bitterly.
Normally, that idea would have come from Lee Han. But since he’d said it, being called ‘wicked’ felt unfair—and also guilty toward his friend.
‘Sorry…!’
Yoner resolved to stick up for Lee Han whenever anyone made snide remarks about the “scheming Wardanaz family” in the future.
“Huh? It is wicked.”
“Quick, bring the sleeping potions. Once they’re out, we’ll haul them far away.”
Bang!
But suddenly, there was no more need for sleeping potions.
The situation had changed in an instant.
“……”
“……”
“W-what is that…??”
The Seniors who’d never seen Perkuntra stared in shock.
Yoner, glancing around, finally spoke with care.
“Well, you see…”
“Ah. The Death Knights must have summoned it.”
-Brilliantly done, Lord Nago!
“……”
The Death Knight’s shout only made the Seniors more alarmed.
But the confusion among the gathered Granden City folk, who knew nothing, was incomparable.
They clamored at the sight of Transcendents battling.
“L-look, it’s Stedal! Stedal’s up there!”
“He really wasn’t just any mage… He’s overwhelming that monster?!”
Yoner, feeling guilty (for what he’d felt earlier), came to his friend’s defense.
That alias was getting far too famous for comfort.
“Actually, most of the fighting is being done by the Death Knights…”
“He’s, he’s merging! He’s fused with a lightning spirit!”
“Can a person even merge like that with a spirit?! That must be deadly strain!”
“What was that Death Knight just saying?”
“…It was nothing!”
Yoner quickly gave up and withdrew. Nillia sent him a supportive glance.
-…Javelin!
The fight was over at last. Granden’s citizens pounded the ground, showering applause.
“Hail, Knights of Einrogard!”
“Stedal! Stedal! Stedal!”
“Wait! Was Stedal the bandit hero who raided Wuap?!”
“…He, he might have been!”
Death Knights searching the remains for any signs of hidden foes or fallout were horrified to see so many people gathered with torches beyond the bridge.
-What were the students doing?!
Of course, the ones accountable had long since vanished like shadows.
Any Einrogard student knew to disappear the moment the enemy fell—otherwise, they’d be recaptured.
-Shall we disperse them?
-No, leave it. The enemy’s down. Just explain and have them go home.
-What about the successor…?
-Successor? Who’s that supposed to be?
The others murmured admiration at that.
It was truly wise to insist that ‘Stedal Nago’ really existed, instead of admitting they’d mistaken a second-year Einrogard student for a professor and recommended him.
Perhaps this was wisdom, not death, for a knight’s title.
‘We should be called the Knights of Wisdom, not Knights of Death.’
-Indeed! The enemy’s poison must have dulled my mind.
-Haha, rest well. Maybe shifting to spirit form will help you recover!
The Death Knights quickly agreed. The one at the rear hurried off to get Lee Han out of there.
“Sir Knight! Where’s Stedal?”
-Stedal has departed. The summoned enemy is gone, but who knows what danger remains—go home! We’ll keep this area clear.
“Was Stedal the bandit hero lately raising havoc?”
-I can’t answer that.
“So that means yes!”
-We know nothing.
Had Lee Han been there, he would have whacked them all on the back of their heads—but the Death Knights couldn’t help it.
They had no idea if he wanted a denial or a confirmation.
All they could do now was dodge responsibility.
We know nothing!
But sometimes, “knowing nothing” was as good as saying yes.
That’s exactly how the Granden City nobles took it.
‘So it’s true!’
Gossipy nobles spread the rumor even faster than Perkuntra’s lightning.
As a result, the legend of the terror called Stedal reached -The Inn of a Thousand Schemes- before Lee Han himself returned.
When the roar of victory—such as only a true champion of troll blood could manage—shook the upper floors, the page Maffi trembled in fear.
What on earth had so enraged that kindly professor?
“You’re back sooner than I expected.”
“Well, our junior sneaked in solo—of course it’d move fast.”
The Teleportation Club upperclassmen confirmed their identities in a shadowy alley.
If someone had been caught by the Death Knights and was using this trick to get a lighter sentence, this was when it would have come out.
“Let’s move.”
“What if our junior didn’t make it into the palace?”
“No way.”
“Yeah, me neither—wait, what the…?”
The upperclassmen stopped in place, seeing Death Knights occupying the bridge and roads leading to the palace.
They weren’t just blocking access, but fanning out in search—a distinctly odd movement.
And looking back, the palace looked…wrong. Nearly half destroyed.
“……”
“O-our junior didn’t do that, right?”
Sevius couldn’t quite bring himself to object.