Volume 2, Chapter 16 – The Fall of a Legend

For players, the death of an NPC was no different from that of a monster in the wild. Their bodies would scatter into countless particles, shimmering faintly like dust caught in the wind, before slowly, slowly fading into the air.

The sight was beautiful, yet it also marked the final glimmer of a life extinguished within the game.

At this moment, countless glowing particles vanished into the sky alongside the rain of B-rank magic.

And with each fading light, another Paladin, one after another, met their end.

Too many. Far too many.

In the span of an instant, the weaker Paladins had already been pierced mercilessly by spells, their bodies dissolving into dreamlike motes of light, slowly disappearing from the world.

Karl’s gaze grew dim.

His breath grew weaker and weaker. Though his body still floated in the air, he no longer had the strength to maintain that posture.

Before him, countless glimmers drifted through the sky like a rain of light without direction.

They refracted the sunlight falling from above, sparkling with a gem-like radiance.

Yet no matter how beautiful the scene was, the last reflection in Karl’s eyes was only that of those faint lights fading away, until they finally sank into stillness within this world.

Rеαⅾ oո KαtRеаԁіոɡCαfe

“…………”

All of them…

Are they dead?

Yes.

They’re all dead.

Not one remains.

Weakly opening his eyes, Karl could no longer see a single Paladin in sight.

Indeed, all those Paladins who had come to save him had been slaughtered one by one by the barrage of B-rank spells.

“……”

Ah… so they’ve all gone.

Rеаd oո ΚatReαⅾіոɡСаfe

My comrades of old.

My knights…

Perhaps because the Legendary rank was too strong, even though he had forcibly reduced his own HP to zero in an instant, Karl’s heartbeat remained steady despite his fading consciousness.

“The destiny of a Paladin… is death…”

Before he realized it, those words echoed faintly in Karl’s ears.

He still remembered hearing them long ago, back when he was just a naïve child.

“If you already know your fate is death, then why do you still choose to fight?”

The young Karl had looked up with curious eyes, asking that question to the old, gray-haired Paladin his village had rescued, an elder whose life was already at its end.

“What is a Paladin… fighting for?”

“If you know it will end in death,”

Rеαd οո KаtRеaԁіnɡCαfе

“Then why…”

“Why would you still…”

“Throw everything away like that?”

“Why?”

At that time, just like now, soft motes of light had floated around the dying Paladin.

“Paladins are simply those who protect the light that others call hope, child.”

“And that… is the Holy Light we must guard.”

“Hope is the Holy Light?”

“Yes, that is the Holy Light, the light we believe in. It does not belong to some lofty god above, but to us, to every person like us. Tell me, child, do you wish to be such a person? A life full of hardship, ending like mine… in death?”

The aged Paladin had passed away soon after.

Rеаԁ on КаtReаԁіոɡСαfе

But following his death, a young Paladin named Karl appeared before the world.

……

All memories… are just memories.

Once you die, nothing remains.

Ah… I suppose… it’s time for me to go as well…

Karl slowly closed his eyes.

His consciousness grew faint, his body slipping beyond control.

And in the next moment, the entire world fell into darkness.

The Legendary-tier Captain of the Holy Hand Knights… was gone forever.