This is the folklore known far and wide, only as true as any other.
This is what the Yiril had even told the Knight about once. Being information form a Yiril, it was somewhat trustworthy, but for the future, it is important, we hear the story as how the humans told it.
A long time ago, almost a billion years ago, humanity was almost over. The mysterious creatures came during the cover of nights. There was a war where they tried to resist, to only end in failure. After humanity had chosen to be passive and live during the day and avoid the night, something happened. The story goes that a knight appeared out of nowhere, almost as if it was a being meant to eradicate the darkness. His armour was pristine, black, but shone with the brilliance of jade.
It was a strange thing really. Humans knew what armour was, they actually had a whole era where that was all that people fought with during war. The strange part is that, in this world man had machine, mastered lightning, flight, the stars, and so much more crowning achievements.
It was a fascinating sight to behold. But this one was not wearing any of this, only an outdated piece of a long forlorn and ancient era. It is true that this was not regular armour though, it made all those from the past look like scrap, but what did it matter?
However, this one knight managed to protect the patron of humanity through an entire night cycle filled with multitudes of horrors. They say the price it paid for its defiance was even worse than death. When the patron of humanity came for daylight, the world was clear, the creatures within the darkness had vanished along with it, but strangely, the knight was nowhere to be seen either.
Over the years the patron of humanity sung songs, spread the word, and shaming the world that had given up in the face of this adversity. They say that three heroes rose from this. All were inspired to push harder, and they did, becoming legends in the process.
This is a folklore, so it lacks the reality of how it is they managed their feats, or the details of how it came to be, but it did mention that these were the first knights of humanity. Each of them was level one, then two then three, then four. Humanity was once again growing.
They trained the others how to get this power, passing it down through the ranks. These champions formed the world as it is. They were the knight of patterns, knight of power, the knight of change. There were more who arose from those era, forever to be known as the era of knights.
This was all still useless to the Knight. It even listened to all the ballads. None of them told it about the sword. The knight was thinking that it was probably one of the humans who took inspiration from the knights of that era, dying in this armour, it was still not sure whether this void status was intentional or just happenstance. The Knight was even slightly ticked, after all these 'inspirational' knights, had convinced it to march into its death in the pursuit of power, in that past life, and here in another one the Knight still chose to be a knight.
This would explain the peculiar set of skills. The Knight was still not sure which stage it was from; it guessed that it came from the era of knights, just an unfortunate soul that happened to fall for their propaganda. The Knight would have loved to believe this theory but in the end, there was still nothing togging at its memory, about these 'realisations.' No memory, no familiarity, and still no sense. Whatever kind of human the Knight was, it does not understand any of its actions. Part of the knight was even hoping there was something it could do to get the memories back, this would solidify the Knights guiding principles, if it even had any.
That is when it remembered a mention of something that could bring the memories back, in the book of souls. The book of history. 'This is a strange story; I am even surprised that it even survived a billion years of time.' It was not that surprising. There is a whole family dedicated to passing on the knowledge. The Laurels. They pass down the ballads, the stories, the knowledge about patterns, power, and change. Maybe they would know something about the real story. Even if their version is just as distorted.
The Knights knowledge stats are nothing to scoff at. They were working through so many levels of planning and understanding. This level of understanding made the knight understand why the creatures in the void tend to be weary of Yirils. Their knowledge stats are above the comprehensive level. This made the Knight see the Yiril in a new darkness, a more dangerous darkness. That made every single one of its actions more suspicious. Like for example, why did it decide specifically to tell the knights about the humans as a bonus?
"There's no way it could have actually known that I once was human, not just created in the form of one. Those surprised looks, those answers. Those questions. I think that bastard was playing me the entire time. I may not know what its skills are, but I bet it was not even by the blood river by mistake, could it have also really been a level 36?
I now know why no lord would trust a Yiril. Come to think of it, how was it able to be sent back to the void, I thought that was because it was not assigned there, there must be something off with the Yirils. Knowledge stats that high can be more dangerous than the corresponding power level. Good thing I still haven't headed back to the void. There might be a surprise waiting for me by the blood river again."
Maybe the Knight was just being paranoid. The Yiril was just the extraordinarily intelligent void creature it purveyed itself as. Still, the thought remained, festering within the Knight like the maggots that writhe on its body. There was no time to waste thought on such thoughts, which would come when time to go to the void came. Now, it is time to finish this current quest. Quests are usually what the adventurers do, but sometimes the guild requests help from the knights. There has been a strong monster seen roaming the area around the darkness, if it makes it to the city, it might become an issue. The Knight was on its way to deal with it.
"Commander! It's been reported somewhere near here. The adventurers around these parts said that they were unable to deal with its skill. The suitable ones are currently off on long quests and won't be back for a while. The appraisal tools at the guild say that it's level 199. The skill it uses is being called, divine call. It is able to summon a spirit, a very strong one. Usually, spirits are hard to fight if one does not have the appropriate skill.
The monster itself is already a problem, but the spirit is nearly untouchable, and not just in the literal sense. It is of unknown strength, and no-one has survived near it long enough to appraise it. The protocol with such a foe, would be to send multiple Commanders, but with the state of Maroon city, they decided they should send the strongest Commander first before leaving the city defenceless. So, what are your orders sir?"
The Knight was still the only one who could see in the void, the monster was just on its periphery, so in a while they would be able to see it. They had just gone through the void to sneak up on the monster; the squad was still surprising the Knight. They were moving with visual clarity, making the Knight realise something important. Although, the knights fight monsters and help when other disasters strike, they are all bred for the sole purpose of fighting the void.
They have honed their special awareness to allow a crazy amount of clarity. They were not as perceptive as Ansi, but they could fight as if they were in daylight, even as a cohesive force. Now, the Knight understood why the Banneret was relieved of this post. It is true that there is danger around these parts, but they are handled by the soldiers and adventurers, and the local knights – should the need arise, but that is not their purpose.
The reason was that this void is in-active, and in terms of resources, it is spreading too much of the knights' resources here. The Banneret was probably sent to a specific area that is still handling the void attack. 'The void lords army.'
This would mean that should this void that belongs to the Knight move, more knights will be sent here, and if it should disappear, the Knights' squadron, which is not local would eventually be sent to a new location. That would mean the Knight would have to fight against other void beings. The Knight had two paths; join humanity long enough to find the sword or destroy it and just look for it in the remains.
The problem with the first is that the sword may no longer be with the humans. The second one makes the Knight look a little cocky, after all the one Banneret it met was more than a hundred levels stronger, and there were more of these power houses. And this problem is bigger because the Knight seems to be struck at level 250.
The Knight looked at the knight still waiting for orders. The Knight was not used to this, it would usually just send mental images of what needs to be accomplished, but now it had to discuss it. "You guys are to deal with the monster, if not then hold it back long enough for me to handle the spirit. The formation to use is the category three assault, followed by the category one defence.
For those who do not remember the last meeting, category three assault is an attack by the strongest fighters while the support helps them, then the next thing would be for those with an assignation skill to keep increasing the size of the injuries dealt by the heavy artillery, the follow up is by those who switch flanks and deal damage to the weak spots, all while avoiding circling the monster, that way it will deal less damage when thrashing around.
The category one defence has been updated from retreating and attacking, whilst switching reserves, to a steady tactic, where there is a stronghold, then the fighters fight ahead, and the reserves sit at back, when retreating, wait for a while for the monsters to reach the stronghold, and while the strong hold holds back the foe, the reserves circle back, and attack with category three, pushing the monster back.
The point is to not let the monster get the rhythm and control the state of the battle, by moving it back and forth, you effectively, stop it from thinking on its feet, or even allow it to get used to the strategy, make sure it is always confused, it might be mad, but it is not an idiot, it will try to thrash, and that's when you begin the switch to make it think it's doing damage, then you counter, reminding it, it has no control.
Lastly, if it notices things, I give you the go ahead to try to deal damage however you see fit, do not retreat though, I'll be handling its skill, so it has fewer options to retaliate."
The Knight might have not liked having to voice out strategy, but with knowledge stats this high, it was as natural as breathing. What the Knight was wondering is how many cycles it would take for the monster to wise up, during the category three defence. In any case, it just meant that the Knight has to not dilly dally when handling the spirit.
The Knight was still sure with the full strength of its void territory; it could strengthen itself to astonishing levels. At the same time, fully absorbing the territory, robs the Knight of the use of daunting, which is only active inside the void.
The hits the Knight would throw when emersed in the full augmentation of the void would indeed disable powers upon impact, but there are powers out there that are better being fully disabled, rather than pacified at the point of impact. The Knight was not sure if it could handle an assault on a Banneret, but it was sure it would be a deadly endeavour. Fighting against the void lords is an even worse fate, it would mean that their territories would clash, thus the Knight might lose all its advantages.
In the end the Knight decided to put of the whole thing on hold, just then the whisper of darkness announced the monster.
You have encountered a level 200 monster, Juliet. Type-Summoner.
'Crap!'