Volume 2 chapter 21
"CLANG!"
Scythe and Longsword collided in the void of the mental plane. Sparks of spiritual energy flew, illuminating the faces of the two combatants in the space between the blades.
Demon Lord Phyllis was a blur of white hair and phantom motion. She moved like a specter, her attacks unpredictable and fluid. Charlo, in contrast, was a rock. His footwork was heavy and deliberate, his defense immovable.
However, as the seconds ticked into minutes, Phyllis’s confidence began to erode.
"Why... why hasn't he exhausted himself yet?"
Phyllis was panting slightly. Although breathing wasn't necessary in a mental space, the reflex indicated that her spirit was beginning to tire.
She glanced at her opponent. Charlo wasn't flushed. He wasn't gasping. He even had the leisure to twirl his sword with a casual flourish. Phyllis was baffled. How could a Sixth-Rank Knight possess a reservoir of mental energy deep enough to outlast her?
"Something is wrong... There is something very wrong with this kid!" After a few more clashes, Phyllis’s surprise turned to alarm.
"What's the matter? Can't keep up?" Charlo taunted, feeling more comfortable with every swing.
Not only did he have the System's protective shield negating her Saint-level pressure, but the mysterious voice had also implanted a core within his soul that was continuously replenishing his mental energy. He was effectively fighting with infinite mana.
"Damn it! Don't get cocky, brat!!" Phyllis parried Charlo’s strike and gritted her teeth. "Just you wait!!"
With that threat, she stopped engaging him entirely and vanished from the spot.
"Hey! Don't run!"
Charlo lunged forward, but his sword cut through empty air.
"Coward! Running away just because you can't win? Phyllis, you are despicable! Come back here and fight me to the death!!" He shouted indignantly at the void.
"Hmph! You weird little freak, I'm not stupid! Keep spinning in circles for all I care! Clyris's consciousness has already vanished. You can do nothing here!" Phyllis’s voice echoed triumphantly before falling into complete silence.
"Tsk!"
Charlo clicked his tongue in frustration. In someone else's mental space, against an opponent stronger than him who refused to fight, he was effectively blind. Unless the owner—Clyris—woke up to guide him, he was stuck.
"Damn it! Clyris! Clyris!! Are you there?! Hey! Are you really going to lose to this despicable witch?!" Charlo shouted into the darkness. "Clyris! Where is the confidence you showed in Ironwood Territory?! Where is your pride?!"
"Hahaha! Fool! You think you can call her back like that?" Phyllis mocked him from the shadows. "Do you think you are coaxing a runaway child?"
"Che!"
Charlo swung his sword angrily at nothing. It was useless.
"This is bad... I have zero experience with this kind of thing..." Charlo frowned, his mind racing.
"Dragging this out is dangerous. That Black Titan outside won't give me much time! If I don't wake Clyris up soon, the Wall of Holy Light is history!"
"Hahaha... do you understand now? I don't need to defeat you!" Phyllis saw the anxiety on Charlo’s face and laughed heartily. "Once I smash that damned wall and contact my Father, dealing with you will be effortless!"
"Since you look so anxious, let me share a little secret with you..." Phyllis’s tone shifted, dripping with malicious glee. "Clyris—this identity has been a ridiculous lie from the start! 'She' was originally a human knight. And a man, at that!!"
"How about that? Are you shocked? Are you disgusted? You are, aren't you?! A man! Wearing a woman's body! Hahaha..."
Phyllis laughed mercilessly. "Honestly, when my consciousness woke up and realized the situation, it was super gross!"
Charlo’s eyes widened as he processed this bombshell.
"You said... she, no, he used to be a knight? A human?"
"Eh?" Phyllis’s laughter cut short. She sounded annoyed. "Hey! Is your focus broken? Is that really the important part?"
"Clyris... if he was a knight, why did he become a Demon Lord? Why betray humanity?" Charlo was genuinely confused.
The hatred between humans and demons had spanned tens of thousands of years. Exterminating demons was practically a religious mandate in the Human Empires. What could drive a knight, raised from birth to kill demons, to betray his own race and join them?
"Hahaha! You can thank your precious Empires for that!" Phyllis gloated. "But do you think I'll tell you? Keep dreaming! Hahaha... Guess for yourself! No prize if you're right, but there's a penalty if you're wrong!"
"Tsk!!"
Charlo clicked his tongue again. This demon had a truly nasty personality, living up to every stereotype.
"This is a mental space..." Charlo frowned, thinking hard. "I fought Phyllis for so long, yet the environment didn't fluctuate at all. That means Clyris has completely lost control. She's in a deep coma."
He considered the possibility that Clyris was already gone, her soul scattered. But the mysterious voice wouldn't have sent him here—and given him such a powerful core—if she were truly beyond saving.
Wait... Mental Space...
Charlo suddenly had a bold, dangerous idea.
"Please... you have to hold on..." Charlo muttered to himself. Steeling his resolve, he began to disperse the mental energy maintaining his form.
"Haha... uh? What are you doing?!" Phyllis stopped laughing mid-breath. She watched in shock as Charlo’s figure began to melt like snow under a blazing sun, flowing into the surrounding darkness.
"Hey! Do you have a death wish?! Even I only dare to pull out fragments of memory to watch! If you dissolve yourself into the mindscape directly, aren't you afraid his memories will wash away your own cognition?!" Phyllis cried out in disbelief.
"Haha! Demon Lord! You better pray that happens! Because if I come back out, it will be your funeral! Hahaha..."
Charlo laughed maniacally as his form dissolved completely into the darkness...
The Outside World.
The Black Titan strode into the territory of the Thebes Empire. It arrived at the northern gateway, standing before the Belad Fortress, which had barely been repaired after being breached once before.
On the walls, the defenders looked up at the colossal black figure in despair. Hands trembled, and weapons clattered to the stone floor.
"H-How... how do we fight that..."
"There is no way..."
"I want to go home..."
The commanding officer, Ninth-Rank Knight Julius, swallowed hard. He understood the reality far better than the soldiers. The Alliance's Eight Saints had gone to intercept this thing. The fact that it was standing here now meant the Saints had failed.
An entity that could defeat eight Saints... could a small fortress hold against it?
Even a fool knew the answer was no. But—
"Soldiers!"
Julius’s voice boomed across the ramparts.
"You see it! That monster standing before us! I know you think we have no chance! I feel the same! I have no confidence either!"
"But that is no reason to give up! Behind us lie our homes! Your families, your friends! They were trampled by the Demon Lord's iron hooves once already! They have just started to rebuild their lives! They have just found peace!"
"We cannot let this fortress fall again! Not just for glory, but for the homes we have just stabilized! We must defend Belad Fortress to the death!!"
"Many of us will likely die today. I will likely die today!"
Julius turned to face his men, his eyes burning. "But I promise you this! I will never leave these walls! As long as I draw breath, this fortress will not fall!!"
"OOOOOOHHH!!!"
The soldiers roared in response, raising their weapons once more. The fear remained, but it was now overshadowed by a grim, death-defying resolve.
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