Skeleton Knight - Volume 07 - United Front

  Skeleton Knight

  vol.07: United Front

  by Hakari Enki

  Prologue

  The Southwestern region of the Northern Continent. Nozan Kingdom, one of the four countries that occupied the area.

  In the north, there was the Delfuento Kingdom. In the south, there was the Salma Kingdom. To the west, there was the Hiruku Theocracy. Surrounded by these three countries, Nozan Kingdom was currently facing a life-and-death struggle for its very survival.

  On a certain day, Nozan Kingdom’s capital, Soulia, had been attacked by an army of one hundred thousand undead and forced it into a siege battle.

  Against the never before seen number of tireless undead.

  One of the main gates of the city’s outer wall, which was essential to maintaining the front line, had been breached on the dawn of the seventh day.

  King Asparuf Nozan Soulia had immediately ordered his forces to retreat behind the inner wall once he learned of the breach.

  The old city district rested behind the inner wall, which acted as the residential area for the nobility and the upper class, but it had been converted into a shelter for those evacuated from the new city district, most of whom slept in the streets.

  Many of the capital’s citizens nervously watched the inner wall as they listened to the battle taking place beyond it.

  Other evacuees sought refuge in the majestic Hiruku church that had been built near the center of the old town, and wholeheartedly prayed for God’s salvation.

  The oppressive tension washed over everyone gather in the building like a wave, but the smile and encouragement of a man dressed in extravagant robes managed to ease their worries somewhat.

  The man with the neatly trimmed black hair and who was leading the prayer was Palermo Avaritia Liberalitas, one of the seven cardinals of the Hiruku religion.

  Despite being one of the highest ranking members of the Hiruku church, he gently spoke the teaching of God in the time when the people needed it the most.

  However, that was only his public face.

  (Hahaha, what is this. The stench of a concerned beast clings to these people…… I eagerly await the moment desperation consumes the last shred of hope in their eyes, watching as it gradually infects one after another. Truly the most delectable of experiences……)

  On the inside, Cardinal Palermo relished in the twisted pleasure he received from witnessing the suffering of others.

  He was at the peak of supreme bliss within this place.

  But his pleasure was abruptly brought to an end.

  Outside of Soulia’s city wall…… a huge pillar of light suddenly rose into the sky where the majority of the undead had gathered, and a magic formation appeared in the sky shortly after.

  Despite being hidden behind the wall, the entire city was enveloped by the blinding light, every head turning towards the source once the light faded.

  The enormous magic formation in the sky shot a pillar of scorching flames towards the ground as a giant figure could be seen emerging from within the fire…… from the citizen’s standpoint it obvious that a divine being had descended.

  The being in the sky was covered in a flame cloak and six magnificent wings were spread behind its back.

  Just like the heavenly messengers of myth, the being wore vermilion full body armor, carried a feather-like shield in one hand and a crimson sword in the other.

  ……An angel.

  Divinity, an existence of fierce power…… the energy it gave off shock the sky itself and sent the people into a state of awe as their gaze remained skyward.

  An angel had appeared in a land tormented by an undead horde…… from this side, it seemed as if God had responded to their prayers.

  However, in the face of the absolute existence, people felt that such a being hadn’t simply been sent to relieve the worries of those below.

  Those that had gathered around the church felt their fear vanish immediately, they lowered their heads towards the angel and began to pray or seek forgiveness for past transgressions.

  Only one man remained standing as he such a spectacle unfolded before him.

  (Wha-What……? An angel…… that’s ridiculous!!)

  Cardinal Palermo’s entire body trembled as he shook his head and scolded himself in an attempt to deny reality.

  “Angels in this world…… God doesn’t even exist!! That is something different!!)

  The people surrounding him were too busy paying reverence to notice that Cardinal Palermo was baring his teeth at the angel.

  On the other side of the outer wall, the angel gradually began to shrink until it disappeared from view.

  Silence fell over the city……

  The next moment…… screams filled the air as fire and waves of heat burnt through the area beyond the wall.

  Cardinal Palermo became blue in the face as the sounds of battle echoed through the air.

  (What’s happening!? My minions’ signatures…… are disappearing one after another!?)

  Palermo glared in the direction the angel disappeared in while struggling to suppress his haggard breathing.

  The Pope’s personally created undead, the forces he’d been entrusted with.

  The spider-humanoid ghost knights that had been made to control the forces…… Palermo became greatly upset as hundreds, no thousands of those connections were severed.

  (That false angel!! It’s destroying my undead soldiers and ghost knights!! Why, why has such an existence appeared now of all times!? To save the people? Ridiculous!)

  Palermo groaned as a headache struck him, his rationality could barely keep up with the reality before his eyes.

  Even as all the connections the Pope himself had implanted into him continued to disappear, the Cardinal shook his head and took a labored step in the direction the angel causing all of this had appeared.

  (A force capable of bringing this capital to its knees was destroyed in a matter of moments. Even if it’s by my own hands, I must find the source behind all of this and eliminate it……)

  Cardinal Palermo ground his teeth as he weaved his way through the people prostrating themselves in the street. The irritation at knowing the other cardinals were carrying out the Pope’s invasion unimpeded carrying him forward.

  ◆◇◆◇◆

  Soulia, Nozan Kingdom’s capital, old town district.

  The noise of the people still fleeing to the safe haven behind the inner wall overpowered the diminishing sounds of combat.

  Meanwhile, within the confines of a cubical tower near the wall where he and his advisors had gathered, King Asparuf Nozan Soulia released a deep sigh.

  The undead had managed to breach the outer wall on the seventh day of the siege, and Nozan’s fate was in a precarious state.

  King Asparuf’s shoulders slumped as he cast a glance outside a small window…… as his eyes wandered towards the destroyed southern gate, it happened without warning.

  A blinding light many times more powerful than sunlight filtered through the small window, the moment the king looked outside.

  “Wh-What!? What’s happening!?”

  However, no one in the room could answer the King’s question, everyone had covered their eyes when the light entered the dusty room.

  The light illuminated the entire dusty room before dimming, even as they reoriented themselves, the source of the light couldn’t be found outside the window.

  When he looked back he saw that his ministers and generals speculating amongst themselves what that light might have been.

  Even though he tried to locate the cau
se, it seemed to have originated beyond the outer wall.

  However, the troops had already been ordered to withdraw from the outer wall.

  Undead would be flowing through the breach, even if he deployed a unit to investigate, he would only be sending them to their deaths.

  However, everyone began holding their breath when the sounds of battle beyond the outer wall flared up again.

  Though he knew that something was going on, he just didn’t know what…… the fact that he couldn’t investigate frustrated him to no end.

  King Asparuf could feel the tension of everyone in the room rise, but he couldn’t think of anything to say that would ease their worries.

  The wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened as the king clenched his fist on the window sill, but everyone’s eyes snapped towards the breathless young soldier who suddenly burst into the room.

  “R-, Re-, Report! The undead around the outer wall…… an angel appeared!”

  The scatter shot words of the messenger the general, who proceeded to reprimand him for it..

  “Imbecilic! You are in the King’s presence, speak clearly!”

  The messenger straightened his posture and saluted the general before apologizing.

  “I am sorry! Reporting! An unidentified cavalry unit was spotted outside the outer wall, and a single rider charged at the undead army! At the same time, a supposed angel descended upon the battlefield and began exterminating the undead!”

  Everyone, including the king himself, turned to one another to see if they’d heard the messenger’s report correctly.

  The general who had reprimanded the messenger was the first to speak up.

  “Wha-What was that report!? How could you come here saying such nonsense as “an angel” descending!?”

  Although the messenger flinched when confronted by the general’s yell, he regained his posture and reaffirmed the contents of his report.

  “That is correct! Most of the city witnessed the angel’s descent! By the time I was sent to give this report, the angel had exterminated a third of the undead horde!”

  Some the the country’s leaders could not believe their ears as they listened to the young man’s words, but those who could discovered a ray of hope in their bleakest hour.

  King Asparuf glanced outside the window, closed his eyes and smiled as he realized the source of the light from before.

  “It’s as the Cardinal said, God really has blessed us……”

  The king let out sigh of admiration and relief while thinking about what had occurred beyond the wall.

  If the messenger was speaking the truth, then Nozan had been saved on the brink of destruction and given a ray of hope. However, the king’s smile turned bitter and shook his head as concern for the princes set to obtain reinforcements and the princess entered his mind.

  (The situation is still too unstable to start celebrating now……)

  As if it were a self-fulfilling prophecy, another breathless messenger burst into the room.

  “A large amount of undead managed to enter the city through the outer wall’s breach!”

  The king nodded his head and turned his gaze toward the people around him.

  “Hasten the evacuation into the old city district! General, take charge of the retreating troops and intercept the undead! As the previous report stated, there’s no way for them to take Soulia now! Clear that filth out of our city!”

  Everyone saluted at the king’s orders and immediately sprung into action.

  Once more, King Asparuf clenched his fist and glanced at the section of the city he could see beyond the wall.

  Regardless of what the angel’s appearance meant, if they did nothing Nozan could still collapse.

  While there was a food warehouse within the old city district, the majority of their resources were stored within the new city district. Now that the outer wall has been breached by the undead, the provisions had to be procured as soon as possible.

  The King prayed to God and the angel he’d sent that his troops returning to the battle would be treated mercifully.

  Lille, please be safe.

  The King had yet to learn that the one whose safety he had prayed for was already making her way back to the capital.

  Chapter 01: Annihilation Knight

  Soulia, the capital city of Nozan Kingdom.

  A high city wall had been built around the city to defend it from invaders…… sprawling fields, maintained by the city’s farmers, once surrounded the wall.

  However, the fields had been trampled by the hundred thousand undead that had besieged the city.

  The area around the southern gate was surrounded by countless suits of scratched and mangled body armor, a thick layer of ash covered the entire area and flaming pyres sent black smoke into the air.

  These were the marks of a recent battle……

  Only a single individual stood in the center on this battle-scarred stretch of land.

  He wore a set of ornamental silver armor with white and blue undertones, in his right hand he carried a blue longsword which gave off a pale aura, in his left was an elaborately decorated round shield…… and a jet-black mantle on his back blew in the wind.

  “Hmm, maybe…… maybe I went a bit too far……”

  With a deep sigh I voiced my thoughts as I took in the surrounding area.

  My original plan was to destroy at least half of the undead with the Heavenly Knight’s Area-Of-Effects skills, but this was the end result.

  Other than those that had managed to slip into the city before I arrived, the entire horde had been purified, with only the scattered pieces of armor remaining.

  The few remaining undead were a good distance away from me, but with their chain of command destroyed, they were just mindlessly wandering around.

  There was a clear difference between these undead and the ones I encountered in Tajiento. While the same power controlled the two undead factions, it was obvious that these ones lacked clear direction.

  If I had to guess, I’d say that seven hundred undead remained, but they weren’t much of a threat in this condition.

  The only problem were those within the capital.

  The backlash from using the heavenly knight skill still wrecked my body, but I couldn’t just stand here forever.

  Following that train of thought, I turned towards Soulia’s destroyed gate, but a familiar and kinda sharp female voice behind me halted my step.

  “Hold on, Arc. You don’t plan to enter the city by yourself, do you?”

  Looking back I saw a tall, beautiful woman making her way towards me with long strides.

  However, she wasn’t human. Her clothes, decorated with a distinct pattern, were wrapped around her voluptuous body, her skin had a lilac hue, and she had golden eyes and pointed ears.

  She was what this world referred to as a ‘Dark Elf’. Even though she held her sword, whose hilt was decorated with a lion, at waist-level she still approached me while keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings.

  “Oh, Ariane-dono. Our end of the bargain is complete.”

  She was stunned by want I said and shook her head after a moment.

  “I only came to scout ahead…… but only the matter of our payment remains.”

  I couldn’t disagree with her statement and started chuckling in a manner unbefitting of this place.

  “Hehehe, I overdid it just a bit this time…… sorry”

  Ariane’s eyebrows shot up when she heard my apology.

  “It wasn’t an accident this time, right? What was all that? Lille-chan and her guards cowered as they watched you single-handedly blow away nearly one hundred thousand undead while laughing to yourself, you know?”

  She sheathed her sword and looked towards the heavens as she bombarded me with questions.

  “Ky〜un.”

  All of a sudden my entire field of view was covered by a ball of fur that had fallen out of the sky.

  “Oh, Ponta. Were you a little worried?”

&nb
sp; I started talking to the furball…… Ponta, after pulling her off my face.

  She was about sixty centimeters long, covered in green fur on her top half while her underbelly and the end of her tail were white, and since she was capable of use wind spirit magic elves referred to her as a spirit beast.

  Because of the puffy tail that made up half of her length, she was commonly called a Fluffy Fox.

  Once Ponta had settled into her usual spot atop my helmet, she let out an energetic cry and wagged her tail before turning towards Ariane.

  Ariane couldn’t help but sigh after seeing such a scene.

  “If word gets out about an elf being capable of such a feat, it’s possible that the kidnappings might increase…… However, there was no helping it this time.”

  I had to lower my head at her slightly resigned statement.

  However, someone entered the conversation and interrupted us.

  “Isn’t it all right? After witnessing Arc’s power, I can’t imagine that they would be reckless enough to show us hostility, given their capabilities. So……”

  A girl was speaking as she approached us…… and one look showed that she wasn’t human either.

  She was dressed from head to toe in black clothes, cats ears stuck out of her head amd I could see a tail that was wrapped around her waist.

  She was a beastman…… specifically, she was a cat beastman that belong to the “Blade Heart Clan”, which I suspected had been founded by someone named “Hanzo”, who had also crossed over into this world.

  Even though she was young, her abilities had allowed her to become one of the “six great ninja’s”. Her name was Chiome.

  Her almost completely silent approach was definitely reminiscent of a cat’s agile movements.

  Seeing Chiome’s blue eyes suddenly snapping towards another direction made me follow after her gaze.

  When I did so I was met with the slightly jarring sight of a little girl running across the charred battlefield.

  The girl was younger that Chiome, perhaps ten or so. Her curly, light-brown, shoulder-length hair bounce around cutely as she ran.

  While a leather breastplate had been strapped over her rather fancy dress, she was far from being suitably equipped for battle. She didn’t even seem to be carrying a weapon.