Volume 1, Chapter 94 – The End of Battle

Boom…!

It was the heavy, dull sound of something massive crashing to the ground.

On the other side, the Headless Knight Fischerna, riding her undead skeletal horse, finally arrived at the scene.

“Well, sorry little one. For now, all I can do is knock Xiaobingxue unconscious. Three minutes just isn’t enough time to do much~”

Standing atop the unconscious Frost Dragon, Tianyin murmured softly to herself.

“All in all, three minutes really is too short. I can’t help you any further after this, so you’ll have to be careful on your own~”

Just as she finished speaking, she seemed to hear something, and a helpless smile crossed her adorable little face.

“Alright, alright… I’ll leave this place and let you reunite with your good little disciple then~”

She spoke casually, her tone light and teasing.

Meanwhile, the Headless Knight Fischerna, who had ridden in on her skeletal steed, moved with extreme caution.

Having charged in at full speed, Fischerna immediately slowed the moment she saw the Frost Dragon Ysera unconscious on the ground, and the silver-haired girl standing atop her.

“Who are you?!”

Her spear pointed directly at Tianyin. Though she had no head, the tension in her grip and posture made it clear, this Headless Knight was on high alert.

After all, not just anyone could take down the Frost Dragon Ysera, a Throne-class being, in such a short amount of time.

“Does it matter who I am?”

Hearing Fischerna’s question, Tianyin tilted her little head, her crimson eyes locking onto the Headless Knight who had her weapon aimed at her.

“Hmm, how strange. Why do I feel such a familiar aura from you… yet at the same time, such an incredibly unpleasant one? How odd~”

She asked in confusion, but now wasn’t the time for Tianyin, no, Samael, to stand around chatting.

After all, the agreed-upon three minutes were almost up, and she didn’t plan to linger.

“Well then, Knight-sis, see you next time~”

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Tianyin playfully winked, and in the next moment, her figure vanished completely from Fischerna’s perception.

“…”

Fischerna stood in silence. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t sense even a trace of the girl’s presence anymore.

“Who… exactly… are you?”

She muttered under her breath. That mysterious girl who had appeared out of nowhere and defeated Ysera, Fischerna could only guess she must have been some high-ranking being from one of the major factions.

But the more she thought about it, the less sense it made. None of the known Thrones fit the description of a petite, silver-haired loli with that kind of power…

At least she could take some comfort in the fact that Ysera hadn’t been killed, only knocked unconscious.

Wait…

Knocked unconscious?

That realization struck her like a bolt of lightning.

“One of the Graveyard’s Thrones, the Frost Dragon Ysera… fainted?”

No matter how she thought about it, that simply shouldn’t be possible.

“It seems… I’ll have to report this to the Grand Duke.”

Meanwhile, Tianyin, who had disappeared before the Headless Knight’s eyes, reappeared only seconds later at the spot she had left minutes ago.

There, her loli disciple Mengyao was leaning weakly against the wall.

At this point, Tianyin had already reverted from her 【Seven Deadly Sins】 mode back to her normal self.

During the battle with the Frost Dragon, Tianyin’s personality had been completely overtaken by that of the sin within her. In other words, the Tianyin from before wasn’t truly Tianyin at all, it had been Wrath, Samael, acting through her body.

And because of that shift in personality, her eyes had turned crimson. Now that her original self had returned, her eyes had regained their normal color.

“Master… what were you doing just now?”

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Before the fight, Tianyin had only hidden Mengyao away in a relatively safe, concealed spot where she couldn’t see the Frost Dragon. So Mengyao had no idea what had just taken place outside.

Of course, she had clearly heard the thunderous crash when the Frost Dragon had fallen from the sky.

“Well… nothing really. I just… went to see if there was a safe route for us to escape through…”

In a fluster, Tianyin blurted out an excuse that sounded terribly unconvincing.

Still, it was enough to justify her absence.

And since Mengyao trusted her loli master completely, even such a clumsy lie was accepted without question.

“Uu… stupid Master. You ran out even though it’s so dangerous out there? Shouldn’t we be hiding instead?”

Mengyao half-scolded, half-laughed, but seeing Tianyin return safely, all her earlier worry quickly vanished.

“Well, as long as Master came back safely, that’s all that matters~”

“Of course! I’m super cute, after all. I bet even the undead wouldn’t hurt me if they saw my adorable face~”

“Pfft… Master, did you finally admit that you’re cute?”

“Well… there are some truths one just can’t deny~”

In the end, Tianyin and Mengyao decided to wait until the chaos of the sudden war subsided before finding a chance to leave.

The plan to reach the Teleportation Array was now impossible anyway, and after everything that had happened, Tianyin had already made up her mind to return.

About five hours later, the battle for the Northern Fortress finally came to an end.

Following the arrival of the Lich Legion, Ghoul Legion, Abomination Legion, and Vampire Legion, after Fischerna’s Dread Knights had entered the fray, the war’s outcome was sealed.

The Kingdom’s army of 300,000 stationed at the Northern Fortress lost more than half its forces within just five hours of fighting, while the Stronghold’s invading army was almost completely annihilated.

Meanwhile, the Graveyard’s forces, by reanimating the fallen corpses, had actually grown stronger instead of weaker.

After the Northern Fortress’ defense finally collapsed, Tianyin and Mengyao quietly slipped away, following the retreating remnants of the Kingdom and Stronghold forces.

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Leading this battered coalition was Karl, the commander of the fallen Northern Fortress and the leader of the Holy Hand Knight Order.

And since some Stronghold soldiers still remained, they were temporarily led by a surviving orc commander, who coordinated with Karl on the retreat.

His name was Orgum.

…

Elsewhere…

After the undead occupied the Northern Fortress, they immediately began constructing a new Bone Gate at its center, upon the ruins of the fortress’s abandoned teleportation array.

Not far from the fortress, in an unremarkable valley, a massive black light curtain slowly rotated in midair.

From beneath the swirling dark light, countless undead poured forth, Ghouls, Abominations, Liches, Banshees, Gargoyles, and more.

At the valley’s entrance stood Fischerna, the Headless Knight who had led the Dread Knights in the siege that claimed the Northern Fortress. She stood motionless.

Across from her stood a little girl with long, icy-blue hair, her face expressionless.

If Tianyin were here, she would have recognized her immediately, for that little girl looked exactly like Bingxue.

But there were differences.

Bingxue’s eyes and hair had been a pure, sky-blue color.

This girl’s, however, were a cold, glacial blue.

One was clear and serene. The other evoked the chilling feeling of ice itself.

At this moment, both the Headless Knight and the girl who resembled Bingxue turned their gaze toward the massive black light curtain in the distance.

“Ysera… when the Grand Duke arrives, how do you plan to explain fainting like that?”

After a long silence, Fischerna finally spoke in a low, ghostly tone.

That she could speak at all without a head made her all the more eerie.

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“I know how to explain… but when Father arrives, don’t say anything unnecessary.”

Father.

Of course, the Undead Grand Duke Sargus wasn’t actually a dragon. Ysera just liked to call him “Father.”

“I understand… But as a Throne, there shouldn’t be anything in existence that could defeat you so easily. That little girl… who was she?”

“Tch…”

Ysera clicked her tongue coldly.

“Just a silver-haired loli with a rather special ability.”

“Hmm… a nobody, then? Still, we should be cautious.”

Although Ysera said that, Fischerna wasn’t convinced.

After all… that little girl had said she sensed something familiar in Fischerna, a presence she both recognized and despised.

That aura…?

The Headless Knight fell silent.

But in her heart, she sighed softly.

Somehow, she had a faint feeling that the girl’s words referred to her past, back when she had still been a Paladin.

Even now, as an undead, Fischerna still unconsciously adhered to the code of a Paladin. The only thing that had changed… was her consuming obsession with vengeance against her former brethren.

As Fischerna stood lost in thought, the enormous dark portal rippled.

A towering man in armor emerged, riding a nightmare horse wreathed in blue ghostly fire.

Behind him followed rows of Nightmare Knights, each astride their own burning steeds.