aircannonsinc Chapter 46 The Knight of Judgment
Chapter 46 The Knight of Judgment
Santo António, the capital of the Kingdom of Santo António, a cemetery on the outskirts.
A thin mist shrouded the cemetery, and the silvery moonlight cast long, crooked shadows on all the tombstones.
Deep in the cemetery.
A colossal object, whose shape was indescribable, was rolling back and forth in the mud.
It had no legs. Its lower body was a mass of loose, bloody, rotten flesh, leaving a trail of thick pus on the stone slabs as it was dragged.
Dozens of deformed arms extend from both sides of the body, some as long as three feet, others only half an upper arm remaining. The skin color varies, some pale, some purplish, and some so rotten that the bones are exposed.
There was no head on top, only a large, vertically split mouth filled with yellowish-black rotten teeth, from which thick pus constantly seeped.
Its missing head is located on its belly.
The head had sparse white hair, loose skin, and cloudy eyes that darted about in their sockets. A mouth moved incessantly, muttering the same phrase repeatedly:
"My child...give me my child..."
Beside the monster, several graves had been dug open from the inside, with soil churning out and coffin fragments scattered all over the ground.
The monster's deformed arms dug up grave after grave. Coffin lids were blown off, and corpses that were not yet fully decomposed were pulled out.
The adult corpse was dragged over by its deformed arm and forcibly pressed into the bloody, rotten flesh of its lower body. After a sound of bone and flesh dissolving, it turned into a new deformed arm, becoming part of its body.
When the child's tiny bones were unearthed, the gaping, festering mouth on its head eagerly opened and greedily devoured the shroud along with it, making a chilling sound of bones cracking.
"Good boy... good boy..."
With each child's corpse swallowed, the white-haired old man on the monster's belly would squeeze out a satisfied expression, his turbid eyes rolling upwards as if in a state of ecstasy.
"Tap, tap, tap."
A series of rapid, steady footsteps from boots approached from afar, disrupting the feeding rhythm of the monsters in the cemetery.
The thin mist was torn apart, and a swift black shadow moved among the tombstones.
The matte black armor clung to the man's tall and imposing figure, covered by a black cloak. He carried a longsword, the blade of which gleamed with a subtle, dark red light.
In the blink of an eye, the shadowy figure had moved behind the monster.
The monster's deformed arm was still digging in the grave, completely unaware of the presence behind it.
"Pfft—"
The shadowy figure uttered no words. Wielding a blood-red longsword, he left a trail of afterimages as he slashed diagonally upwards. The sound of the blade cutting through the monster was as clean as slicing tofu.
The three deformed arms were cleanly severed at the base, the cuts as smooth as a mirror. Moments later, dark red blood spurted out, splashing onto the tombstone and creating dotted patterns.
"Ouch! It hurts!!!"
A roar burst from the monster's abdomen and head, its muddy lower body twisting violently as it swung dozens of arms and lunged at the shadowy figure.
The shadowy figure turned to the side, its cloak grazing the nearest arm.
The shadowy figure didn't stop, sliding along the side of the monster. With a backhand swipe of the dark red longsword, several more deformed arms were severed.
"roar!!"
The monster, gripped by pain, became even more ferocious, its remaining dozens of arms swarming towards the shadowy figure like an enraged swarm of snakes.
"The blood of all sins—"
A deep vow emanated from beneath the shadowy helmet; the voice was soft, yet it drowned out all the monster's roars.
"Suffering by the blade, annihilated by the light—"
The blood splattered all over the cemetery seemed to be drawn by some invisible force, peeling off from the tombstones, from the withered grass, and from the muddy ground, turning into streams of dark red that converged on the dark red longsword in the shadowy figure's hand.
"With guilt and punishment upon you, you will be tempered and sharpened!"
As the oath was recited, the blood-red longsword seemed to have been thirsty for a long time, greedily absorbing every drop of blood. The blood-red light on the blade changed from dark red to a dazzling scarlet.
The dark figure stomped on the ground and crashed head-on into the giant net of arms that the monster was lunging at.
The first sword strike severed all four arms on the left side.
The second sword strike, a slash. The monster's right half was cleaved in two, the cut charred and smoking.
The third strike was a thrust. The tip of the sword pierced the center of the abscess, swirled around halfway, and when it was withdrawn, it brought out a string of rotten tooth fragments.
Within a dozen or so breaths, the surrounding muddy ground was already covered with severed arms.
"Tsk."
Another sword strike.
Dozens of deformed arms on the monster's body were cut off one by one, leaving only the head of the white-haired old man in the center of the torso, still panting heavily.
Realizing the power of the shadowy figure, the monster's entire body trembled violently, its flesh and blood churning into a ball, as it tried to roll away from the cemetery.
The shadowy figure darted forward, its blood-red longsword held horizontally in front of the fleshy mass, cutting off its retreat.
The monster had nowhere to retreat. The white-haired old man's head popped out from his belly, tears and snot streaming down his face, his lips moving as he forced out a sound:
"Knight of Judgment, you can't kill me! I'm the most senior priest in the capital's church; even Bishop Griffith knows me!"
The sharp gaze beneath the helmet of the Condemned Knight:
"No, monster. From the moment you swallowed the first innocent child in an attempt to prolong your life... you no longer deserve to call yourself a priest, nor do you deserve to call yourself 'human.'"
Seeing that the Knight of Judgment had no intention of stopping, the monster's face, belonging to the white-haired old man on its stomach, twitched, and a glint of madness flashed in its cloudy eyes:
"Hehehe... Then let me taste the flesh and blood of a Diamond-Rank Judgment Knight. It'll definitely be more delicious than a child's, won't it?"
The next instant, the pustule on the monster's head burst open.
The inner walls of the mouth were turned inside out, oozing black blood, defying biological structure. From this emerged hundreds and thousands of fine fleshy tentacles, each wrapped with broken bones and rotten flesh, spreading a pungent stench in all directions.
The Knight of Judgment slid backward, repeatedly severing the deformed tentacles clinging to his body with his sword.
After the tentacles were severed, new tender red flesh sprouted immediately from the cut, and the regeneration speed became faster and faster.
Just as he was about to be overwhelmed by the horde of tentacles, the Knight of Judgment defended himself with one hand using his sword, while the other hand gripped the silver cross pendant on his chest:
"Your sins are beyond forgiveness."
The Knight of Judgment's prayer pierced through the sticky, churning sound of tentacles.
"Your fate is sealed with my final punishment."
Clench your index finger on the cross pendant:
"This is hereby declared—True Word: Annihilation!"
An invisible ripple swept through the air, and an unseen power suddenly descended as the prayer ended.
"Thump!"
The monster's entire body seemed to have been struck from the inside by some enormous force, and suddenly stopped.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Then a muffled thud came from deep inside the monster's abdomen, a second, a third...
After a series of muffled thuds, the monster's entire body exploded from the inside out, scattering pieces of flesh and blood everywhere. Dark red blood rained down on the ground, soaking the crooked tombstone and flowing down its surface.
The Knight of Judgment stood amidst the blood-soaked ground, sword in hand. His light armor was speckled with dark red, and the edges of his black cloak were soaked with blood. He slowly lowered his blood-red longsword, tip pointing downwards, and bowed his head in mourning.
"May the merciful light guide the souls of young children who have returned home too early to the eternal kingdom of God, where they are free from pain and fear."
The thin mist gathered again, and the stench of blood gradually settled in the night wind.
A flapping sound came from above the Knight of Judgment, and a jet-black raven flew over through the thin mist.
The crow tilted its head, its orange eyes staring at the scattered pieces of flesh for two seconds before looking up at the Knight of Judgment:
"Quack! Tar! There's a new mission, quack!"
Tal slowly turned his head: "What?"
The cawing of crows seemed particularly noisy amidst the pile of corpses:
"Quack, your best friend, Rolanda!"
Tal's hand holding the blood-red longsword trembled slightly:
"Roland? Wasn't his spark of inspiration extinguished long ago?"
"It's been rekindled, Ga. The spiritual spark has been reignited, Ga, and the Court of Judgments has confirmed it."
Tal slowly sheathed his longsword back into its scabbard. The sound of metal retrieving itself lingered long in the quiet cemetery.
Where is he now?
"I don't know, frog. The [Judgment Mark] is worn down, so we can't locate frog. We only know that he has 'resurrected'."
The crow spoke so easily, leaving Tal speechless.
A few months ago, Roland had just apostasyed. At that time, the [Sign of Sin] was shining brightly in the spirit world, as conspicuous as a torch in the dark night.
But the high-ranking officials in the court who were always shouting to eliminate heretics seemed to be blind at that time, and not a single one of them issued an arrest order for this matter.
Now look what's happened. The [Sinful Mark] can't be located anymore, and nobody knows where the person has gone, yet they're sending me to hunt down Roland. What's the meaning of this?
[Oh, Roland, you always cause me trouble...]
Tal, who has been fighting on the front lines against "heretics," couldn't help but lament that the orders from the Holy Kingdom's higher-ups have become increasingly unreliable lately.
[Wait, that doesn't make sense... Could it be "that person" who caused this situation?]
[Is this "that person's" plan? Or Roland's plan? Or perhaps...]
Seeing that Tal didn't react for a long time, the crow tilted its head, its tone tinged with curiosity:
"Tal, why are you spacing out? That's unusual... It's because we couldn't locate you that we gave this task to someone familiar with Roland. Is there a problem?"
Tal sighed softly, his voice, which came from beneath his helmet, was a few decibels lower than usual:
"No problem... We must eradicate evil completely. I will find Roland."