The city was doing well for itself, enough that they had spared enough to hold a feast. They had wanted to hold one when the Knight woke up but the Knight refused and used the state of the city's economy to discourage the idea. This time however it could not hold them from their desire to send it off the Knight with flare.
Unbeknownst to the Knight, all those who believed in the Knight gained a peculiar skill; [Belief of a Hero]. The skill is built from their hopes. It emerged due to them connecting with the Knight. This skill does not do much in terms of affecting the person who has it, but it does make them more connected to the Knight.
If someone with this skill has the deep longing for a hero to save them, as in times of upheaval, their desire will be felt by the Knight, and when their belief is centred around the Knight winning a fight, it will bring it strength. But in the simplest of ways, it is just a hassle for the Knight, now it gets regular bombardments of hope occasionally. The Knight has learned to just ignore these nuisances.
The Knight was there on the city square, pretending to eat like it usually did, bringing the food into the helmet and just sending it to inventory. There was a thick darkness of the void flowing in the armour to dissuade on lookers from trying to get a peek and stop those with certain skills from getting a good look.
The Knight had learned how to imitate human emotions, so it had been having small polite conversations with those passing by. The city had not relaxed, those on patrol were still on duty. The celebration was very modest; the Knight had refused anything bigger.
The day flew by; by evening the festivities were over, it was time for the Knight to prepare for departure. Well, it already had, this was just a checklist to see if everything is in order, the Knight did not sleep, so this was just a simple task to make the night pass by.
Some details about the journey had been changed. They were going to also be escorting a few officials to HQ. The Knight is currently preoccupied with checking on the state of the caravan when Zuri walked in, she too would be joining them, she was only stationed here to help with the Knight's affairs, and now that it was leaving, so was she.
"You really don't sleep, do you?"
The Knight looked back and then looked at the caravan again, it never really had a response to her prompts, and she still continued like usual. "You only ever sleep after exerting yourself, and even then, you sleep for a long time. You remind me of the Bannerets."
However, today the Knight had something to add to the conversation that was not an answer to a question. "Really now? What makes you say that?"
She looked up, she was not used to the Knight's curiosity about anything other than swords, "You see I am usually around Banneret Vice, and she rarely acts normal, so do the other Bannerets, even some of the knight Bachelors, they call it the 'numbness of power.' I don't know much about it, but you seem to be like them, meaning you are stronger than most believe, and trust me people believe you to be extraordinarily strong."
With that she walked out, she had come here to tell the Knight that they will be bringing a few squires. Squires are the stage trainees move into before being given the final test to become full knights. They are sent to follow around a knight on its duties until they become familiar enough that they find themselves ready to take the test.
A few of them had chosen knights in the Knight's squadron, so they will be coming along on the escort mission. Amongst them is Jack and Dart, they had made it to squire status after two decades which was an impressive feat. Once they become knights, which could take a decade or more, they will then be assigned a city to guard, otherwise until then they are to follow their assigned knight.
***
The morning came, followed by a procession of cheers from the people when they left the city, some merchant caravans had decided to come along as well. This was a huge traveling party, which would not be advised, but a whole squadron was enroute to the same place, so it was allowed. Something similar happened when the knight Bachelor and Banneret Vice left.
The Knight did not care much anyway. In the shadows, the vile army was following them, culling some of the monsters. There was a familiar face amongst the officials other than Zuri, it was Jacks sister, Noree. She had finished her studies and done well for herself, all thanks to her brother, of which she will never find out, probably?
Her friend Redan had passed away a few years back, during an escort similar to this, the monsters were stronger than the adventure party with them, as adventurers are usually those in charge of escorts and similar journeys.
The Knight was ahead scouting, but really it was just to keep away from the stares of the people. There was unwelcome news though, the Knight had hoped sensing the hopes of people would vary with distance, but the Knight could still feel every single person clearly.
"Boss just why does a being such as yourself even have the hero skill. It's not something that I would have pegged you to have. I can feel their hopes as well."
Would you like to use fifty slaughter points to remove the feeling of their hopes?
"Tempting, but slaughter points are important, so no."
Should you reconsider the option still remains.
"At least whisper is helping, what about you Mugaw."
"I could assimilate all their souls and make them as hopeless as can be."
…
"You sure would like that wouldn't you."
The Knight then heard the call from the squadron; the tools had picked up on a horde of monsters converging on their location. The Knight already knew, it did order the vile army to let it pass, there was no need to make this escort too safe now, they would be moving for a month or more.
The jackal standing on its hind legs lunged at the Knight, with a simple punch, the Knight crushed it deep into the road, then teleported to the others and kept butchering every jackal above level 150. When the Knight finished it watched as the weaker ones ran, knowing that they would not make it past the vile army.
"Thank you, Commander Knight." Said the officials.
Noree seemed to be quieter. She had met the Knight before, seeing that her brother was determined to join the Knight's squadron, she often bumped into them looking for Jack. It's just that she had never had a conversation with the Knight and never had cause to. The thing this time is that the Knight had decided to sit inside the caravan, and she felt obliged to say something.
I say caravan, but the best description would be a decked-out car. It is a huge model, truck sized, with an energy source the Knight could not quite figure out. The reason I have identified them as caravan is because they are modelled as such.
They don't have much in the terms of modern comfort, but they have self-propulsion while keeping the form of a caravan, just bigger. The look was of a car ten times larger than usual, but it is covered in a strange wood material, patterns are caved across it, it was like a very massive limo, made of wood and patterns.
There are ones made from stone and metal, but it is easier to carve patterns on wood, and it is easier on the energy source, more than metal. The pattern smiths had explained that for larger things like buildings and city walls, using stone and metal was easier, but for moving things with complex patterns, metal and stone did not do well.
The chairs in them were huge enough to fit even the Knight, who towered at four metres now, this was the most it could compress, after absorbing the rest of its void territory. It was not quite its paralysing throne of bones, but it would do.
The Knight had become a fan of chairs since that first one in the void lord's manor. While trying to enjoy the seat, just a few seconds at most had passed, the official in front of the Knight decided to start a conversation. "Greeting Commander Knight. I see that you are interested in the seat, is it to your liking."
"Oh, I do like this seat, but it is not to my liking."
"I could arrange for a seat you might like."
"I doubt that you can satisfy me with a worthy seat."
She smirked and said, "Pray tell, what would be your preferred seat?"
"One that paralyses me down to the soul, I am too strong for most poisons to affect me. The best I can do is pretend to relax in these."
The whole caravan was focused on their conversation, who knew Commander Knight had a passion for seats. More strangely he seems to not jest when suggesting the paralysation part. Just what type of person wants a seat that would paralyse them. Sounds like what adventurers say about alcohol. She chuckled a little and said, "I am not sure I have a seat so comfortable that it would paralyse even you down to the soul, but I'm sure can come very close."
Thoughts of relief ran through the others minds as they realised – assumed – that that's what the Knight had meant by 'paralysing.' It was easier to believe that, then to come to terms with it being serious. The Knight too had not paid heed to its own words. After noticing their looks, it affirmed the assumption made by Noree, with a slight nod.
'I guess I should be leaving, this whole thing of being surrounded by people is such a bore, chair or not.'
For a few weeks they continued in this fashion. The Knight would fend off the stronger foes, letting some pass to create a sense of danger for the squadron. The month soon passed, and in the horizon lay the view of the largest human city. This one is so huge that it could be seen from afar, and by the looks of it, they still had quite a bit of traveling to do.
That was when the Knight felt it, an ominous presence. The Knight could not see it yet, but it was close enough for the Knight to feel it, and close enough for the whisper of darkness to announce it. This was a feeling the Knight had not had in a long while, and the thing is that everyone around seemed to not feel it. There are beings in this world strong enough to send crushing shockwaves through the lands.
The Knight had seen the damage dealt by the clash between the Knight and the spirit Romeo. Some of the roads had been decimated, they had to take a few detours due to the state of some of the roads. Huge chucks were raised kilometres up, forming cliffs and gorges. Some had been filled with so much debris that the terrain was not manoeuvrable by caravan.
There had been some effort to clear up the infrastructure over the year, but it was taking longer than expected. They had even passed a few adventurers who had taken these quests to clear up the debris on the roads. This is why the Knight had been wary about encountering such presences and now it felt one that it could not see, one that could pounce and with so many onlookers it would be hard for the Knight to go all out.
The Knight was frantically trying to come up with a way to deal with this, thinking, 'should I call the army closer? should I summon the void fast enough to not be suspected? should I just ignore the protocol and take arms…?" then the Knight felt it in its soul, and so did whisper.
You have encountered a level 304 True Beast, Wargnier. Type-Disaster.