In Reinhardt's two short lifetimes, he had never felt time pass so slowly.
At the entrance to the narrow bridge, the corpses of Convicted Demons were piled high.
Beneath his feet flowed a river of Demon's Blood and severed limbs.
He had survived even the harshest of times, when he was starving and freezing.
But now.
Blood blurred his vision.
Pain was numbing his senses.
His right arm trembled uncontrollably, the Longsword in his hand long since chipped and broken.
Swarms of Convicted Demons stopped a short distance from Reinhardt. They gripped their Chain Hammers, eyes burning with Abyssal Fire, and stared at the young Knight standing at the bridge's entrance, unable to hide the fear in their gaze.
There were many powerful Knights.
But there were few Knights whose Power and Special Abilities could exert such all-encompassing pressure on them.
A speed their eyes couldn't track, an Extraordinary Armament their proudest strength and Chain Hammers couldn't break, and a superior Physique that seemed to grant him infinite stamina!
Even though this young Knight only held a Two-star Military Rank, with such overwhelming combat prowess, he was like a God of Slaughter!
The twenty-odd corpses of Convicted Demons were a testament to this.
Hundreds, even thousands of Convicted Demons were being held at the bridge's entrance by a single young Knight, unable to pass. The Red-robed Knight, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally opened his mouth to issue a new order.
The Demon Language was complex, verbose, and unsettling to hear.
Upon receiving their new orders, countless Convicted Demons swarmed toward the entrance of the bridge!
Reinhardt's expression hardened, and he prepared for battle. But in that moment, he was like a lone reef in a torrent of death—one Convicted Demon after another ignored his existence, streaming right past him!
Their immense weight made the long, narrow bridge tremble ceaselessly as they stampeded.
They roared as they charged toward the youths who had escaped the fortress, adhering to the Abyss Legion's unwavering principle: leave no one alive, kill them all!
Meanwhile.
The Red-robed Knight flashed Reinhardt a grin, apparently quite satisfied with the prey before him. He spurred his Flaming Warhorse, gradually accelerating as he charged straight toward him!
Reinhardt knew he was no match for the Fear Knight. Even after killing so many Convicted Demons, and despite recovering stamina by stacking Monstrous Devouring, Steel of the Heart, and the second Special Ability of his Morphic Armor, the physical toll had been immense.
Furthermore, the high-intensity battle had caused the old injury in his right arm to flare up; he couldn't even make a fist now.
But Reinhardt's thoughts remained completely clear.
His goal wasn't to fight the Red-robed Knight to the death, but to stall for as long as he could, buying more time for the young trainees!
Reinhardt picked up a fallen Chain Hammer from the ground. He chose not to get entangled in a fight at the bridge, instead using high-pressure air sacs to propel his body in a mad dash away from the fortress.
If it were only the Convicted Demons giving chase, the young trainees would have a much better chance of escape. Although the monsters had astonishing Physiques, the trainees' bodies were also the product of long, hard training!
The Fear Knight's target was him. Reinhardt decided to lure his opponent away from the fortress. First, it would slow him down from hunting the young trainees. Second, with one less Fear Knight inside the fortress, he could do his part to relieve the pressure on the Fortress Defenders.
Reinhardt couldn't remember the last time he had left the fortress.
South of the Frostfire Mountain Range lay a boundless wasteland with sparse vegetation and snow that never melted. Across the open expanse, he could clearly see that the trainees had already scattered, sprinting in every direction.
After all, they were followers who had received three years of paramilitary training in the Steel Knight Order, not ordinary boys. Scattering to preserve their numbers during a massive retreat was a fundamental tactic they had learned.
The only good news was that, for the time being, none of them had been caught by the Convicted Demons.
Reinhardt had no time to feel relieved. The moment he glanced back, his pupils constricted!
The Fear Knight's warhorse was like a crimson meteor, smashing aside every obstacle in its path! It was thundering straight toward him at an astonishing speed!
A cold sweat instantly drenched Reinhardt's back, and his scalp went numb. He knew the Red-robed Knights who served the Abyss Lords were powerful, but this level of strength...
When he had sparred with Vice Commander Erich, he hadn't been able to withstand even a single kick.
Knight An Jie, a warrior with a Three-star Military Rank, had only held this Red-robed Knight back for less than thirty seconds! 'If I'm forced into a direct confrontation with this terrifying being, whose power rivals that of an Earth Knight, death will be instantaneous!'
This was a different battle from slaughtering Abyssal Hounds and Convicted Demons.
Fear Knights didn't just possess Demon Power granted by an Abyssal Lord; like the Knights of the Radiant Empire, their bodies also contained Knight Power, a convergence of Physique and Spiritual Power!
This was a battle between Transcendents!
The worst part was that the Fear Knight pursuing him had witnessed all of Reinhardt's Knight Power abilities, while Reinhardt knew nothing about the traits of his opponent's power.
This was a fatal information disadvantage!
Even with the high-pressure air sacs of his Morphic Armor firing at full power, the distance between Reinhardt and the Fear Knight continued to shrink across the vast wasteland!
The thundering gallop of the Flaming Warhorse grew ever closer!
The aura of its Abyss-tainted Power, like the vast shadow cast by a mountain, gradually began to swallow him!
Reinhardt clenched his jaw. He didn't fear death, but he knew that if he died here on this desolate Northern Icefield, the truth behind the sacrifice of Lord Elias, Instructor An Jie, and the entire Steel Knight Order would be buried forever!
When people spoke of the Steel Knight Order, they would only know that the entire order was annihilated while resisting the Abyss Legion at Frostfire Fortress. No one would ever suspect that they had held their ground until they ran out of supplies and fought to the last man, all because of a filthy, rotten conspiracy!
To defend the glory of the Empire, to shed one's blood on the battlefield—that is a Knight's moment of glory. Perhaps the high command of the Seventh Group Army would write a report full of praise for His Majesty the Emperor's review, commending the Steel Knight Order for its Fearless Loyalty and securing honors and medals for the fallen Knights.
But to die an obscure and meaningless death because of some despicable conspiracy...
That kind of ending.
Reinhardt would never accept it! He wanted blood for blood, an eye for an eye!
His indomitable will and tenacity had helped him achieve Knight Power and forge ahead through the most difficult of times.
But the harsh reality—the absolute gap in raw power—was laid bare in his desperate flight from the Fear Knight.
The instant the distance between them shrank to less than ten meters, a terrifying aura of Power erupted from the Fear Knight! It was like a storm in the heavens! A bottomless vortex on a raging sea!
Reinhardt's expression froze.
He wanted to twist his body, to change direction and evade the suffocating power behind him! But even the high-pressure air sacs of his Morphic Armor needed time to charge before they could offset the tremendous kinetic energy of his forward momentum.
The next moment.
Everything went black for Reinhardt. He felt an immense force, as if an elephant had stomped on his spine. His body, completely out of his control, slammed viciously into the ground!