Chapter 966 - I Was Deceived?
"If there's one opponent a Knight finds most excruciating to deal with, it would undoubtedly be a Mage."
At Audin's statement, Ropord nodded heavily in agreement.
Of course, if a Knight relentlessly trained their senses to perceive spells, they could somewhat mitigate the threat.
However...
'A fully prepared Mage is far more insidious than a determined assassin, and vastly more troublesome than a Knight resolved to fight to the death.'
That is the fundamental nature of spells.
They boast terrifying versatility, and their exact destructive output is near impossible to predict.
If an invisible steel spike suddenly burrows its way into your flesh without making a single sound, who in their right mind would enjoy that?
That is exactly what a fully prepared Mage is.
Even if they aren't quite at Esther's level, fighting them is a miserable experience.
Every single swordsman on the continent likely shares that sentiment.
Even when dealing with the magical corps Esther personally trained, if three or more of them banded together and laid traps, even a fully-fledged Knight would occasionally find themselves backed into a corner.
'Well, assuming you're willing to endure a certain degree of injury...'
It's entirely possible to slaughter them all, but if things go wrong, the damage sustained by the Knight could be catastrophic.
That is exactly what a Mage is.
A minuscule scratch is all it takes for a lethal poison to seep in and force you to amputate an entire arm.
"Does utilizing divine power make it any easier?"
Fel interjected from the side.
He was genuinely curious about the most effective methods to counter spells.
It was an innocent question born purely of curiosity.
It was just idle chatter meant to pass the time while taking a brief break from training.
Though, truthfully, it wasn't uncommon for someone to experience a sudden epiphany during exactly these kinds of seemingly meaningless conversations.
"Do you honestly believe the reason spells are so troublesome is because Mages attack head-on?"
Theresa chimed in from the side.
Audin simply offered his polite, trademark smile and nodded.
Of course not.
While channeling highly pure divine power can occasionally neutralize or completely obliterate spells and mana, a Mage facing an opponent wielding divine power will never, ever launch a frontal assault.
That was basic common sense for any spellcaster.
"That Knight who visited us a while back—the Guardian Deity of Evergart who wielded both magic and a sword—he must have had quite a few hidden tricks up his sleeve, didn't he?"
Ropord muttered, mentally reviewing exactly how one was supposed to fight a spellcaster.
"If you suspect the opponent is casting a spell, the first thing you do is throw something at them."
Force them to either fail to react to the projectile and die, or interrupt their cast to defend themselves.
This was a core tactic drilled into them since their days training with the Crimson Cloaks.
Naturally, the spellcasters were also acutely aware of this tactic and would do everything in their power to block it.
That is precisely why they constantly wander around wrapped in layers of defensive spells.
'What if I thrust from completely outside their range of perception, exactly like Sir Jaxen?'
Would that be the absolute best strategy?
"No matter how perfectly you erase your presence, the moment you physically pierce their defensive barrier, the opponent will instantly detect the entity causing them harm."
That was what Jaxen had told them once.
'Meaning it's incredibly difficult even if you've mastered the pinnacle of assassination arts.'
But do all Knights absolutely loathe fighting spellcasters?
As far as Ropord knew, there was at least one major exception.
When asked to name the single most terrifying opponent to face, every single member of the Knights Order would point to Esther without a second thought.
Yet, the person that very same witch, Esther, loathed fighting more than anyone else was...
'The Captain.'
Enkrid.
He actively looked at the very fabric of a spell and physically severed it.
When Ropord asked how on earth that was possible, Enkrid simply replied,
"You just do it."
Even Rem, who had been listening in, violently shook his head, implying it was a bizarre talent he couldn't even begin to replicate right now.
"That is absolutely not within the realm of ordinary instinct or intuition. It's a localized form of sheer madness."
That was Rem's exact assessment.
Would Jaxen, Audin, or Ragna say anything different?
They were all geniuses.
They possessed a level of raw talent far surpassing any other Knight Ropord had ever met.
Yet, despite that, when it came to the specific technique of perceiving, severing, and completely unraveling spells, not a single one of them could hold a candle to Enkrid.
"That is a feat only achievable after having your body violently mangled and outright killed by spells hundreds, if not thousands, of times."
That was Jaxen's evaluation.
"It is surely a profound mystery known only to the Lord, and a miraculous gift bestowed by Him."
That was Audin's take.
"Hell if I know. I just vaguely look at it and swing."
Ragna, whose combat style was arguably the most similar to Enkrid's, compared his own method of severing spells to a naive country boy sitting at a high-stakes gambling table.
It meant he just took a wild guess and swung.
If it hit, great.
If he missed?
He'd either violently flip the table to ruin the game or just take the hit.
Ropord briefly recalled something the witch had said a while ago.
It was a fleeting memory.
If those who had purely dedicated their entire lives to cultivating the path of magic were to meet him...
"They would look at Enki and absolutely lose their minds in sheer terror."
The witch Esther had said exactly that as the corners of her lips curled upward.
That smile had been so unimaginably captivating.
It was an appearance so bewitching that anyone who saw it would instantly lose their train of thought.
Vibrant red lips adorned pristine, snow-white skin, perfectly straight teeth peeked through, and a cascade of raven-black hair rippled down to frame her cheeks.
Of course, that didn't mean Ropord actually viewed her as a woman he desired.
Ropord was the type of man who, rather than hopelessly hacking away at a tree he could never climb, would simply turn around and find a different tree.
'I suppose that is why they call it demonic charm.'
Regardless, even a witch of that caliber faithfully followed the Captain.
Enkrid was an undeniably extraordinary human being in countless ways.
"It will be incredibly entertaining to watch."
Esther had repeated herself and let out a soft, chilling laugh.
He had no idea exactly what she was anticipating so eagerly, but she had looked absolutely brimming with expectation.
***
Master Eudokia did not take on many disciples.
Yet, for this specific operation, he had brought every single one of them with him.
And of the eight highly skilled disciples he had personally raised, the five currently standing here were among the best.
Since the other three had already been killed by Enkrid, Rem, and Esther a few days prior, these five were also the only disciples he had left.
The chest of one of the disciples suddenly expanded drastically before he violently regurgitated a thick cloud of green mist with a sickening burrrrp, sounding exactly like a prolonged belch.
Simultaneously, Esther chanted a spell.
"The Wind Cliff of Dmule."
A massive barrier of wind instantly materialized to block the approaching toxic mist.
The invisible, yet undeniably present air currents violently clashed with the green mist in mid-air, looking exactly like two armies desperately fighting for territory.
If you ignored the terrifying fact that being pushed back meant your internal organs would instantly rupture and explode, it was a genuinely spectacular sight to behold.
The green waves crashed against the invisible wall, violently pounding the wind barrier with loud thumps.
As the toxic mist violently compressed against the barrier, its color grew increasingly darker and more concentrated.
"The Target of Solisaider."
At the muttered words of another disciple, a glowing, cross-shaped reticle materialized directly onto Esther's black robe.
She had blocked this as well.
If she had simply stood still and done nothing, that glowing target would have been branded directly onto her thigh.
And what naturally follows a target is an arrow.
It was an incredibly common, highly standardized attack pattern utilized by Combat Mages.
Solisaider was an entity that used molten lava as its bowstring and roaring flames as its arrows.
While perfectly maintaining the wind barrier blocking the toxic mist, Esther simultaneously cast an entirely different spell.
"The Luncheon of Vartan."
Vartan was an entity that eagerly devoured light and fire, while violently rejecting earth and wind.
Therefore, she used earth and wind as her shield to block, while actively swallowing the light and fire.
Executing a flawless double incantation to simultaneously block two entirely different spells, Esther extended her left index finger, utilizing a perfectly calculated and fully prepared 'Glint'.
A Glint is a highly advanced type of spell designed to fire reflexively without requiring a verbal activation word.
Esther was currently demonstrating an absolute masterclass by deliberately infusing her own conscious intent into that reflexive trigger.
Someone ignorant of the World of Spells wouldn't understand the sheer absurdity of what she just did, but to any Mage watching, forcefully injecting conscious intent into a purely reflexive Glint was nothing short of a miracle.
With that single flick of her finger, an invisible blade of wind the length of a finger shot forward.
However, the opponents didn't just stand there and watch it happen either.
"The Flame Wall of Maerak."
The third disciple immediately stepped forward, absorbed the incoming wind blade, and used it as fuel to drastically expand the size of the spell he had just formed.
Having devoured the wind, the wall of roaring flames violently surged upward.
Every single one of them was a highly skilled Mage.
Three were women, and two were men.
One of the men was the bastard currently spewing the toxic mist, and the other had a face completely covered in jagged scars.
Neither of them possessed an appearance you could call pleasant.
Of the three women, one was a middle-aged woman with a severely bulging stomach, while the other two sported identical short bobs and remarkably similar features.
All five wore entirely different colored robes and clearly demonstrated mastery over entirely different schools of magic.
"The Child of Stars."
The woman with the bulging stomach spoke up.
"They would be incredibly pleased if we managed to capture her alive."
"Do you think her skills are superior to ours?"
"There are five of us."
"All we have to do is hold out until Master finishes his business, but... you don't really want to do that, do you?"
It had been a very long time since they had gone on an outing.
No matter how deeply satisfying it was to learn spells, conduct research, and relentlessly pursue the ultimate truth, getting out and breathing some fresh air every once in a while was equally exhilarating.
A vicious, bloodthirsty aura swirled in the eyes of all five Mages.
These were people who wouldn't blink an eye even if hundreds of innocent lives were brutally snuffed out right in front of them.
That was the fundamental nature of the group known as Astrael.
Under the self-righteous guise of 'seeking truth', they casually joined hands with demons, orchestrated scenarios where mothers murdered their own fathers, and forced children into deathmatches with their parents.
Furthermore, they were incredibly insidious.
"Wither."
Esther unveiled another spell.
An elongated tendril forged entirely of shadow that had secretly slithered right up to her feet instantly crumbled and scattered, exactly like dry sand baking in the sun.
"She caught it."
The heavily scarred man muttered.
He didn't sound particularly disappointed.
Esther knew exactly what it would take to completely annihilate these five in a single breath.
To be precise, she had multiple viable options.
She could execute a massive, highly dangerous gamble, put half her own life on the line, and instantly obliterate three of the five right here and now.
She could also simply accept the heavy toll it would take on her Spell World and systematically dismantle them one by one.
Well, she could also just wait for them to let their guard down and brutally shatter their cervical vertebrae utilizing the explosive physical strength of a Lake Panther.
'Though if I fought like that, I would have to dedicate the next few months entirely to recovery.'
That was exactly the caliber of opponents they were.
If she had encountered them individually, it would be a different story, but right now, all five were flawlessly coordinating their attacks against her.
During a brief lull, the plump witch stole a quick glance at the man named Enkrid, who was currently facing off against her Master.
His appearance was exactly her type.
You could call it a face that severely stimulated her appetite.
Even with just a fleeting glance, it wasn't difficult to accurately gauge his current condition.
It was the textbook posture of a swordsman who had completely fallen victim to the Master.
'He got him.'
A completely vacant stare, arms hanging limply at his sides, and the tip of his sword resting heavily on the ground with a dull thud.
It was the only natural outcome; the Master's illusion magic was something not even a Mage operating at the level of a Sage could easily break free from.
Esther had also clearly registered it.
While she couldn't meticulously analyze Enkrid's physical condition right now, she could absolutely feel the overwhelming momentum radiating from his body violently wavering.
And yet, despite sensing that, Esther deliberately chose an option completely outside her usual repertoire.
'If those bastards decide to throw their lives away and launch a desperate suicide attack, it will become incredibly troublesome.'
She completely discarded the massive gamble.
She absolutely loathed the idea of depleting her World of Spells.
Therefore, she wouldn't use that method either.
Resorting to the brute strength of the panther wasn't exactly an easy path either.
Then what should she do?
"Bone Head."
Esther planted her left foot, instantly drew a magic circle in the dirt with her toe, and pulled out her Flash Golem.
Just as the towering steel golem violently stomped its way directly in front of Enkrid—who still had the tip of his sword resting on the ground—the plump witch spoke up.
"Do not even think about trying to run away, Child of the Stars."
Perhaps she was the leader of the five, as she spoke on their behalf.
Esther actually smiled.
Letting out a soft, almost hollow scoff, she thought to herself.
'You absolute morons.'
Her chosen strategy was simply to maintain the status quo.
From this point forward, all she had to do was hold the line.
Ever since she had first fought Enkrid, she had dreamed of this exact moment for a very long time.
She had eagerly anticipated the day a scenario exactly like this would unfold, fully expecting Enkrid to deliver a spectacularly violent performance.
***
Rem instantly recognized the catastrophic physical strength loaded into the dwarf's axe swing.
If that hit him, it felt like it would effortlessly crush solid boulders into dry sand and easily shatter even the Silent Gold of his battleaxe.
'Is his muscle density completely different?'
Just glancing at the swing, it felt as though the raw physical strength of five full-grown giants had been compressed into a single strike.
That was exactly how terrifying it felt.
Did he use an explosive burst of Will?
Rem's eyes, heavily imbued with shamanic arts, meticulously scanned and dissected the dwarf's entire body.
That was how he reached his conclusion.
'A modified body.'
The overwhelming stench of a demonic beast violently radiated from the dwarf's flesh.
Just as Rem brutally shoved the dwarf's thick-bladed axe aside and slipped away, the dwarf's gaze locked onto him perfectly.
Rem fully intended to brutally cave the bastard's skull in with a kick, and was just about to extend his leg when he abruptly slammed his foot into the ground and violently threw his body backward.
Because the horns on the helmet the dwarf wore suddenly crackled with electricity before violently discharging a blinding white bolt of lightning straight at him.
Every single one of these actions occurred in a fraction of a second.
Attacking, evading, calculating, and the explosive discharge of lightning—all of it happened in the blink of an eye.
KABOOOM!
A deafening roar threatened to violently rupture his eardrums.
For a split second, Rem went completely deaf.
The lightning strike gouged a smoking crater into the earth, and the blinding white flash that erupted as the clouds obscured the moonlight temporarily blinded him.
'He was never aiming to hit me with that in the first place.'
His sole objective was to violently strip away Rem's sight and hearing.
This little shit is actually pretty good, isn't he?
With that thought, Rem entirely abandoned trying to perceive his surroundings by using his sight or hearing.
It didn't matter anyway.
Because the Angry Bird had already descended.
His hyper-sensitive tactile perception instantly took over, perfectly replacing all his other senses.
Rem casually swung his axe, effortlessly deflecting the rapier thrust by the dark-skinned fairy who had stealthily crept up on him.
Clang.
Along with that sound, his hearing—though not his sight—returned.
He had briefly entered a world completely devoid of sight and sound, but his senses were already recovering.
Perhaps noticing that fact, the dark fairy spoke up.
"If you are captured by the Master of Astrael, you will be transformed into a mindless Death Knight devoid of all reason. It is far better for you to just stand on our side."
Rem simply scoffed.
"So what you bastards are basically saying is, you actually think he's going to win?"
Rem spoke with his eyes completely closed.
By casually referring to the Master of Astrael as 'he', Rem brutally shredded the aura of absolute terror and overwhelming majesty the Mage projected.
"Listen here, Axe Friend. That man is an absolute master of casting spells. Even though this fairy and I absolutely despise each other, neither of us could dare refuse that Mage's request tonight. Do you honestly believe you will fare any better? Rather than being turned into a mindless puppet, it is vastly better for you to just join us."
Another persuasion attempt.
Is this literally the only thing these crippled fucks know how to say?
Rem finally answered both of them.
"You retarded fucks."
Neither the dwarf nor the fairy displayed even the slightest hint of offense.
This was strictly business.
They were simply doing exactly what they had been ordered to do.
If their Lord hadn't explicitly desired to recruit these warriors, they would have just tried to kill them immediately instead of wasting time talking.
"You are deliberately choosing to drink from the poisoned chalice," the dwarf stated coldly, raising his massive axe once more.
Rem steadied his breathing, completely withdrew the Angry Bird, and instead flooded his entire body with pure shamanic power rather than divine energy.
He was fundamentally different from Esther.
He had absolutely no reason to drag this fight out.
'False Descent.'
Instead, he unleashed a brand-new shamanic art he had recently created.
Naturally, even while doing so, he wasn't worried about Enkrid in the slightest.
***
Eudokia had established a very clear, highly specific role for the Legion of Steel Puppets he had summoned.
'A barrier.'
To be precise, a completely physical barrier.
The charging steel golems were solely meant to violently bind the hands and feet of his enemies.
If the enemy happened to be crushed to death by mere golems, that was perfectly fine, but if they weren't?
The one who would definitively end this battle was, naturally, his own spell.
And so, exactly like a subtle, creeping incense, he laid down a massive illusion spell to completely completely dominate the enemy's mind and reason.
The opponent's pupils instantly dilated and lost focus, and his jaw hung slightly slack.
It was the only natural outcome.
With that confident thought, Eudokia internally commanded his twenty-four steel golems to capture that human completely alive.
In that exact moment, the bastard who had been staring blankly into space abruptly vanished.
Eudokia instantly realized that two specific spells he had meticulously prepared in advance just in case—a Cognitive Interference spell and a Cognitive Expansion spell—had triggered simultaneously.
This was one of his signature Glints.
A spell that deployed purely on reflex.
The Cognitive Interference was designed to forcibly feed the opponent false coordinates regarding his physical location, while the Cognitive Expansion violently accelerated his own thought processes.
With his violently accelerated perception, Eudokia watched the bastard who had been standing there blankly suddenly launch himself directly at him.
The bastard's physical body left behind a blurred afterimage.
Even within his accelerated vision, the bastard's sword was already plunging directly toward him, emitting a bizarre, terrifying szzzzzt noise.
He didn't have the luxury to leisurely analyze the situation.
A ring on his left hand flared with intense light, forcefully and instantly swapping his physical coordinates.
When he reappeared, he was standing directly in the center of his Legion of Steel Puppets.
And the exact thought that crossed his mind the moment he evaded was this:
'The Cognitive Interference completely failed.'
The bastard had perfectly pinpointed his true location on the very first try.
"Ah, what a shame."
And those were the exact words the bastard uttered right after.
"I was decieved..?"
Eudokia was utterly flabbergasted.
For the first time tonight, his emotions violently fluctuated.
He hadn't actually fallen for the illusion spell; he had merely been pretending?!
He had completely overpowered the spell in that microscopic fraction of a second and then intentionally pulled a stunt like that?!
"He is an absolute master of deception! He deceives even his own allies! The only idiot here is the one who actually fell for it!"
Standing far in the back, the man who had been thoroughly deceived and felt incredibly wronged by it—the man named Andrew Gardner—screamed at the top of his lungs.
He simply couldn't suppress the burning urge to throw that exact comment out there.
To be precise, he threw out three separate comments.
His voice was incredibly loud and entirely unapologetic.
Aishia couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing with a loud Pfft!
It was a profoundly bizarre sensation, but for the first time in nearly a century, genuine, burning rage ignited within Eudokia's heart.
'I was deceived?'
That exact question violently echoed inside his mind.
***
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