Audin was helping with Roman's training when he spotted over a dozen figures gathering from the surroundings.
None of them had normal eyes. Some rolled their pupils in circles, others had left and right eyeballs pointing in different directions, and several drooled continuously.
Yet their presence was anything but ordinary.
Every one of them displayed something like intimidation, as though wielding Will. However, it was unrefined, scattered haphazardly in form that seemed inconsistent.
'Knights?'
When Audin looked at them, doubt naturally arose. He held about a question mark's worth of suspicion in his mind.
Knights were those who established conviction and oaths. Their mental fortitude was on a different level from ordinary people. They weren't ones to crumble easily.
Then what were these?
They were beings whose bodies remained strong but whose minds had collapsed.
Those dozen or so knight-level forces charged in all at once. Whether knights or not, they were threatening enemies. Audin responded immediately.
He'd been one of the least injured during the previous battle at Thornwood Fortress's walls. Though he was exhausted from excessive use of divinity, a few days of rest had resolved that much.
In other words, his condition wasn't bad.
"Lord."
Audin wrapped his entire body in Holy Light as he watched those approaching.
Then he struck the face of one who immediately came at him swinging a massive axe.
It was a punch thrown after moving his feet in a brief moment to relocate at high speed. In that process, by adding the trick of escaping the opponent's perception through variation in speed, the opponent couldn't even think of dodging and had to take the hit.
Kwang! Crrrack.
'Wield the divinity.'
Holy Light Armor, Ragna's blade, the experience gained from manifesting divinity, and the words his adoptive father had spoken before leaving.
Everything condensed and harmonized into this result.
The divinity dwelling in Audin's fist rotated. He'd moved the divinity incorporating the principles of Vortex.
It was truly a remarkable technique.
The face of the one struck exploded in a spiral rotation. Neither helmet nor anything else could survive that single blow.
After killing one, Audin's gaze looked behind the horde of mindless monsters. Behind them, he glimpsed someone holding what looked like a flute, smiling eerily.
Covering his mouth, he blew into the flute held sideways perpendicular to his face. There was no sound. Instead, those in front only grew more enraged.
Through the black mist scattering as the head burst apart, a spear blade shot forward, and two spread left and right thrusting sword blades.
Though a horde no different from monsters, they charged as if they'd practiced fighting in formation.
'If not that, then that brother with the flute must be giving commands.'
This level of tactical judgment was basic. And whatever the case, the fact remained that he had to fight with force leading the way.
Audin stepped back once while raising his left hand like a blade and swung it.
The light forming Holy Light Armor gathered at his hand-blade and changed into the form of a blade.
One wearing armor half-corroded to brownish rust was in the middle of thrusting forward with a long spear.
Audin's steps were slightly slower than his opponent's, yet moved forward. That alone avoided the trajectory of blades flying from left and right, and simultaneously, as he dodged the thrusting spear blade with minimal motion by slightly twisting his body, the face of the spear-wielder came within Audin's striking range.
It was movement like they were having a promised sparring match. As it was, Audin's left hand grazed the opponent's neck.
Swish.
The noise was minimal, but the result was not. The rusted helmet bounced into the air with a thud, and from the severed cross-section, black mist shot up like a fountain.
After dispatching one, Audin leaped sideways to avoid the axe, mace, and blades aimed at him.
His movement drew a long line leaving an afterimage. The clustered things followed along that line.
Audin's yellow eyes sank coldly. Instead of his usual gentle, warm gaze, it seemed as if a cold wind was blowing fiercely.
Whom would clergy hate most if asked to name someone?
Cultists? Bandits? Demon beasts?
No.
Those they loathed most were those who revived and controlled the dead—necromancers. Among the few such beings in the world, those who used souls and corpses for abhorrent purposes.
'Why must those who should go to Heaven above.'
Part of the reason the Cult Extermination Priest Corps, who lived solely to raise the banner of cultist extermination, hated cults was related to this.
They had lost acquaintances or kin to cults, and among them, some had to fight corpses that revived in the form of those very kin.
The experience of having to kill the person they loved again—that was the force that made the Cult Extermination Priest Corps fight until cults were annihilated.
'Draugr.'
Those who should go to Heaven's prison had become beings resurrected here, bound by incantations.
The collective term for such existences was Draugr.
'Lord.'
Praying inwardly, Audin shifted his center of gravity backward as if retreating, then burst forward showing speed unimaginable from that massive frame.
From above, it looked like a huge bell defying the laws of physics, moving back and forth before being flung forward.
That appearance also seemed like a slung stone hurled by an existence even larger than a giant.
In other words, it looked like a shot boulder.
All while divine armor of light enveloped his entire body. His hands and feet became maces and blades imbued with light.
Audin knew well what he possessed. Mixed with what he'd learned while mingling with Enkrid and his brothers in the Madman Knight Company.
'There's no reason to use Holy Light Armor only for defense.'
Simple and clear enlightenment was the source of the violence he now displayed.
Whiiing—
Holy Light swirled around his entire body. The rotating light became spiral violence imbued with destructive power.
Kwang! Boom! Bang!
The light dwelling in his swinging fist became a mace, proving the power possessed by the Apostle of Battle everywhere it touched.
When it struck a head, that head shattered.
When it struck a torso, black mist spread radially with that body as the center.
He caught a falling morning star studded with sharp spikes with his shoulder.
Tidididing.
The rotating Holy Light Armor deflected it sideways.
Next, the body of the one who'd swung it split in half. Because Audin had swung his hand-blade vertically in a chopping motion.
The body split in two bounced away as if someone was pulling left and right.
It was due to the shockwave created by the pressure that force and speed produced.
Audin spun his body half a turn and extended his foot backward. Though the motion was swift, for those caught by that foot it was anything but light.
Bang! Fwaaaash!
Following the foot that tore through one's body, black mist spread radially backward.
The upper body had been crushed into oblivion. Even the remaining lower half spilled black mist before collapsing.
Beyond the scattering, vanishing Draugr Knight, the one holding the flute furrowed his brow.
'What is this monster?'
He was a knight who commanded necromancy.
Once someone who'd terrorized the continent with the alias Necromancer Knight.
Having grown up under a graveyard keeper grandfather, he'd mingled with evil spirits from childhood, and through a master met by chance, he'd walked the path of a necromancer.
Later, realizing he had talent for wielding blades, he underwent repeated training to rise to knighthood, but in that process, he saw limits and walls.
'My talent for swordplay is lacking, but I have other talents too.'
Thus he came to dream of wielding the military might of a knight company alone by placing others' souls at the forefront. His wish was to make all humans across the entire continent kneel at his feet. Then he met a Balrog and died.
Even so, his wish remained. It hadn't changed.
'I'll gather forces here and even strike at the Balrog.'
In the labyrinth confined by the Balrog's power, there was nothing to enjoy but fighting. Therefore, those trapped here only fought, fought, and fought again.
Among them, some whose minds had collapsed emerged. Originally, those with collapsed minds became wraith knights wandering the labyrinth, but the man with necromantic talent had gathered them.
The man's gaze also saw the woman on one side facing two wraith knights with sword and shield while protecting the man standing behind her.
That woman's skill was formidable too.
While fighting, she'd turned her gaze toward him several times.
That woman's eyes and the eyes of the man now bursting through all the wraith knights he'd gathered—both had sunk completely.
As he perceived those gazes, despite lacking a body, he felt the sensation of chills.
"Tsk."
The man clicked his tongue. He drew his sword instead of the flute, but he couldn't win against that monster flying at him using his entire body as a weapon.
In truth, he knew he'd been sustaining himself with false hope as a shield.
How could those killed by the Balrog and subordinated to him rebel against their master?
He gave up easily again this time, and Audin stood before him with fist clenched and asked.
"Release them all."
What? He meant the wraiths the man bound with his flute.
"...Do it if you can."
The man sneered at his opponent. Anyway, all this was merely amusement.
The Balrog's amusement—those trapped within were all that demon's playthings.
If that was unacceptable, then kill that demon called the god of War. If the Balrog died, everything would end.
Of course, that wouldn't happen.
The man knew that when he died now, he'd forget part of his memories and awaken again.
If he preserved his ego in that process, he could do the same thing once more.
'If not.'
He'd just remain as one wraith knight and that would be the end.
'Damn it.'
In that moment, the man gained enlightenment. This wasn't the first time. I'd already died many times.
Memories sprouted freshly. As death approached, sealed memories naturally surfaced.
'To not give up, I must not know.'
It was a struggle to turn away from reality and rebel against the Balrog.
One day he died as the Balrog's sparring partner, another day he died fighting other wraiths. Recently, he'd fallen to swordplay wielded by some female knight.
And now it was this moment.
Kwang!
Audin's fist severed his memories.
"Seems the captain brother's wish has been achieved."
Audin said while withdrawing his Holy Light. He'd guessed the reason for the surrounding terrain changing and this chaos.
Everything around him stimulated his divinity. It was no different from being inside a Demonic Realm.
'The reason?'
Long ago, he'd learned that demons wielded powers. Knowledge gained when learning this and that as a Battle Priest.
Though what that power was or what kind it was remained unknown, he sensed instinctively that this was part of the Balrog's powers.
'Where are you, captain brother?'
And probably right now, Enkrid was meeting the master of this power.
Where light disappeared, darkness crept in, expanding its domain to fill the space. When the Necromancer Knight died, the wraith horde he'd been controlling also staggered before sinking into the ground and scattering as black mist.
Teresa calmly steadied her breathing while casting her gaze beyond the bizarrely transformed place that had become a massive cave.
"It feels like more will keep coming."
After becoming a Holy Chanter, her intuition had grown even sharper than Audin's.
She didn't know what had happened right away and it was all incomprehensible, but these things would continue coming. They'd appear endlessly.
Until when?
Until they died.
Teresa listened to what her intuition told her.
"Then I too must ultimately wield my fists."
Audin said with a gentle smile finally appearing. Just doing what could be done right away was enough—this was one of the things he'd learned from Enkrid.
Right now he couldn't search for or help anyone. Instead, he could fend off the incoming things while protecting those whose skin had turned purplish.
'This too must be the captain brother's will.'
The Lord Father in Heaven would be watching. Audin gathered his resolve with that thought.
Roman stood up behind them using his greatsword as a crutch.
His right leg wouldn't obey due to a thigh wound received in the ambush. Seeing this, one of the villagers approached and held out something like a bandage.
It was a bandage made from demon beast leather.
"Thank you."
Roman said while wrapping the bandage tightly around his thigh.
More things would keep emerging? And every one would be knight-level like just now?
Should he therefore yield to frustration, break under despair, kneel down and wait for death? Or else should he know he'd die yet clutch a sword and charge in recklessly?
'Neither.'
He would endure. Whatever happened at the end of this, he would ultimately fight and endure.
Roman's mind no longer broke easily. It was different from before meeting Enkrid again. Now, even if a parasite tried to dominate his mind, he could shake it off.
He deliberately drew up Will and felt it. Though he couldn't immediately become a knight, he could wield a sword.
'Even if this is the machination of a being I cannot handle.'
He would be faithful to the present.
If Roman was like this, the others weren't even shaken. To be precise, the Madman Knight Company was composed even in this situation.
"We should gather the villagers at the assembly hall."
"I'll make the rounds."
Lawford, who'd been watching, approached and spoke, and Pel picked up that thread.
Like herding sheep, they'd gather all the villagers and put them in the assembly hall. Familiar work for Pel.
Boom—!
A roar burst from far away, and everyone's gaze turned that direction.
Rem appeared. A disc floated above his hand. Not a real disc, but an optical illusion created by whirling a tough leather cord above his head.