Translator: CinderTL
The viscous, living darkness erupted from the shattered armor, defying reason as it multiplied, twisted, and swelled at an impossible rate. In an instant, it devoured all light and air in its vicinity.
As if possessed by a malevolent consciousness, it hissed, writhed, and coalesced into a suffocatingly terrifying entity.
Crack... crack-crack-crack... BANG!
The ear-splitting sound of tearing metal reached its peak. The upper half of the black-armored figure's armor could no longer contain the frantically expanding energy within, and it exploded into countless fragments.
These fragments scattered like lethal shrapnel, instantly bisecting over a dozen nearby soldiers who couldn't dodge in time.
Exposed to the air was a horrifying core of pure darkness, constantly writhing and reshaping itself.
Under the horrified gazes of all present, a colossal, twisted, and indescribable form composed entirely of abyssal energy completely replaced the original armored knight.
It seemed to be constructed from countless writhing shadow tendrils and tens of thousands of malevolent eyes. Each eye swiveled erratically, radiating a blasphemous aura that threatened to shatter the minds of those who beheld it.
Merely gazing upon it caused one's sanity to evaporate at an alarming rate.
"Screeeeeee!"
A inhuman shriek erupted from its formless "head," not a sound but a shockwave that tore directly through the soul.
The dozens of soldiers closest to the creature immediately collapsed, blood streaming from their orifices, their eyes glazed over as their minds were utterly shattered.
Then, the dark monster unleashed its most primal and brutal slaughter.
A shadow tendril as thick as a water vat lashed out with a piercing shriek that split the air, sweeping across the entire Golden Valley Infantry Formation at a speed beyond the eye's ability to track.
Splatter! Splatter! Splatter!
A series of gruesome sounds of flesh tearing and bones breaking echoed like a torrential downpour.
Three entire squads—over a hundred Golden Valley Soldiers—didn't even have time to raise their shields before being reduced to a rain of blood and gore.
Shattered organs, severed limbs, and twisted fragments of armor rained down like a crimson storm, staining the surrounding earth a horrifying scarlet.
Another shadow tendril, coiling like a venomous serpent, darted into the melee, precisely ensnaring seventy-eight Golden Valley Pikemen.
abyssal energy, like a potent acid, corroded their armor and flesh with a sickening hiss.
The soldiers screamed in agony as their bodies melted like wax candles, their forms twisting and dissolving until not even bones remained.
A third wave of attacks followed immediately.
Thousands of malevolent eyes across the monster's body flashed simultaneously, unleashing countless thin, dark rays.
These rays, like living venomous snakes, automatically tracked down the fleeing soldiers.
Whether hiding behind shields or sprawled on the ground, anyone touched by the rays immediately convulsed, floated into the air, and withered visibly, their flesh shriveling until they became mummified corpses encased in armor.
Chaos could no longer describe the battlefield.
This was utter slaughter.
The Golden Valley Kingdom's soldiers completely broke.
They abandoned their weapons, shoved their comrades aside, and fled in a frenzy, their screams barely human.
The officers' hoarse shouts were drowned out by the tidal wave of terror, and any attempts at organized resistance were instantly swallowed by the darkness.
The River Domain Students were also subjected to the indiscriminate assault. The monster clearly distinguished neither friend nor foe, leaving only death and silence in its wake.
In an instant, the majority of the Golden Valley Kingdom's soldiers had been reduced to mangled corpses. The battlefield's front lines resembled a vast, bloody void, as if devoured by an invisible giant beast.
Meanwhile, the dark creation continued to expand, its writhing tentacles and flickering eyes greedily craving more life, as if determined to drag the entire battlefield into a bottomless abyss.
"Ha ha... ha ha ha! Do you see now?"
Auston, who had been pale with terror and panic after Leonard's defeat by Roland, watched the dark figure's sudden transformation. His fear instantly morphed into a manic, almost deranged glee.
Clutching at this last straw of hope, he let out a hoarse, triumphant laugh.
"You damned fisherman! This is the power of Duke Arno's meticulously researched supreme secret art! This is the true—uh, ah!"
His venomous, gloating shout abruptly cut off.
A dark tendril, fresh from tearing apart a Golden Valley Soldier, whipped around with impossible speed, drawn by Auston's voice or perhaps following some preordained directive of destruction. Like the sharpest shadow spear, it pierced his chest in an instant.
The wild joy on Auston's face froze, twisting into utter shock and disbelief.
He struggled to lower his head, staring at the tendril—purely composed of abyssal energy—protruding from his chest, feeling his life draining away at an unprecedented rate.
"Wh...why..."
A broken, gurgling sound escaped his throat. His eyes burned with fierce resentment, incomprehensible panic, and...
...a bone-deep hatred for the distant figure in the royal capital.
Suddenly, he understood everything.
This wasn't reinforcements or a trump card.
Duke Arno had never intended for anyone to leave this wilderness alive.
Not him, not Leonard, not any of the soldiers here...
They were all expendable pawns, to be purged to ensure the truth of what had transpired here would never be revealed.
Endless regret and darkness devoured his last shred of consciousness.
The noble earl, who had once sneered at "lowly fishermen," ultimately met the same fate: a rapidly cooling corpse, carelessly discarded.
He lay face down in the filthy mud, utterly forgotten.
"Hey! Theresa!"
Galvis's fingers slammed down on the strings, abruptly silencing the music.
Watching the black tentacles, severed by the sharp sword light, writhe and reassemble as if alive, he swallowed hard.
"This damned thing... is beyond our capabilities."
He dodged a lightning-fast, pitch-black strike with a desperate sidestep, his voice trembling with barely concealed fear as he continued shouting.
"Before it fully locks onto us, call Roland and get out of here!"
Theresa's breathing was heavy and ragged, her chest heaving violently.
Her fingers, clenched tightly around the sword hilt, were pale with strain. Her gaze remained fixed on the ominous, ever-expanding black figure looming nearby, its malevolent aura growing stronger with each passing moment. Her brow furrowed in grim determination.
"Ordinary attacks are completely ineffective. Severed tentacles regenerate instantly, and..."
Theresa shifted her feet slightly, narrowly avoiding a pitch-black tentacle that suddenly erupted from the ground like a razor-sharp blade.
Gravel flew as it grazed past her cheek.
She seized the opportunity to thrust her rapier forward again, but her efforts remained futile.
"Its strength is astonishing, and its speed is utterly absurd. This is simply..."
Before she could finish her thought, the pitch-black figure seemed enraged by its repeated failures to kill its prey.
In the next instant, the dark energy surrounding the figure surged violently, emitting a piercing shriek.
Multiple tentacles, covered in sharp protrusions, exploded outward with terrifying speed, far surpassing their previous velocity. Like venomous serpents from the abyss, they coiled in from all directions, seeking to crush her.
"Watch out!"
Galvis's panicked cry tore through the air, but it was already too late.
Theresa's pupils contracted sharply.
The creature's speed had surged again.
The pitch-black shadow-blades tearing through the air transformed into an inescapable web of death in her eyes.
Already difficult to parry before, now even tracking their trajectories had become nearly impossible.
A chilling despair, like a vine, instantly coiled around and froze her heart.
She futilely tried to raise her rapier, knowing it was a mere mantis trying to stop a chariot.
As the numerous tentacles, each radiating absolute destructive power, rapidly expanded in her vision, a flicker of helpless resignation finally appeared in her usually indifferent eyes.
Death was upon her.
Just as the dark, destructive tentacles were about to engulf Theresa...
Time seemed to freeze.
An invisible yet furnace-hot, unyielding will, as solid as bedrock, ignored the barriers of space and crashed down with thunderous force.
Theresa's vision blurred, and a figure stood before her like an unyielding fortress.
The newcomer moved with such speed that it defied visual perception, as if stepping directly from the void.
It was Roland.
Facing the deadly tentacles that swarmed down like a skyful of strangling vines, he showed no hesitation. With effortless precision, he simply swung his sword in a horizontal slash.
Vroom!
The space itself seemed to groan under the unbearable weight of the blade's passage.
The pitch-black tentacles, capable of tearing through steel with ease, shattered upon contact with the sword's edge, crumbling like fragile glass into drifting black ashes that vanished completely.
But this was not the end.
In the same instant he blocked the attack, a far more formidable mental power, born from Roland's indomitable will, erupted outward from him like an invisible storm of fury.
Oath Guardian!
The remaining black tentacles, still writhing and lunging, along with the malevolent abyss creatures lurking in the distance, were struck as if by an invisible giant hammer. They emitted piercing shrieks as they were forcibly repelled and stunned.
Weaker entities dissolved into nothingness under the sheer force of the spiritual shockwave.
This absolute defense had torn a crucial opening through the deadly crisis.
As the dust settled, Roland stood tall and proud, the faint golden light flowing along his Mithril Longsword shining like a flame in the darkness.
(End of the Chapter)
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