CHAPTER 1603: THE DEATH KNIGHT AND THE MARAUDER (2)

Just as Sila dashed towards the Death Knight, two figures breached the outer boundary to Cogent Stark Order, leaving its protection.

The first was Ferex, who, with Silrat safely nested inside him, marched over the raging ocean surface and gave a giant leap that took him far from the conflict. The Apostle could no longer involve himself with this conflict, not when he sensed that his fellow Apostles were doing greater things elsewhere.

Guissepo was the other. Unlike Ferex, he struggled against the raging winds and pelting waters, but he remained resolute. His reasons for leaving the comfort of Pherdanta’s Territory weren’t as valiant as Ferex’s, though. Not entirely.

Looking up and past the giant bodies of the Drakkens in the sky, he spotted the descending Generals of Boron. From the moment he’d seen them just after Pherdanta pulled everyone back to Aigas, he had made a decision on how he would burn the rest of his life.

As it turned out, Ashema and the six other Generals hadn’t missed his presence either.

Guissepo was, after all, one of the few humans to ever be blessed with powers from Boron.

The high-level Evenfall cultists had all been gifted powers that resembled Blessings ever since Boron spread his influence on Aigas thousands of years ago. Even though Guissepo hadn’t needed to use these powers for a while, now seemed to like the prime time for that. It helped that he too had been a victim of Ferex’s [Soul Talisman], and the power he had gained from it had not been wasted.

"I would have taken your head earlier. To think you once actually stood with us," Ashema said, his face contorted with fury. He was barely five meters away from the cultist.

Indeed, Ashema had seen Guissepo before, when he had been playing company to the first Herald of Boron. (A Carven that rose to Aigas after the Premium Age Royale concluded.)

"I know," said Guissepo. "I don’t need any more extravagant reminders about who and what I am."

"And what do you suppose you are? Have you obtained some kind of redemption by turning on Lord Boron when his powers still run through you? What have you been offered by other humans that’s made you slack back?"

Guissepo frowned.

"Nothing," he said, and colourful glowing dots began appearing around him. They resembled fireworks. "Nothing at all. As a matter of fact, out of everyone fighting here on Aigas, I am easily the least extravagant. The weakest. I lack a lot more resolve than I thought."

Guissepo drew in a breath and gave a self-mocking laugh. He backpedalled a few steps until his back was an inch from Pherdanta’s Territory.

"But be that as it may, I will die shielding the last of my extravagant humanity – the thing I thought I had lost in favour of fury against my own kind. I know what you are aiming for. I won’t allow it. You will only lay hands on this Territory over my extravagantly dead body."

Ashema smirked. It almost amused him to think that Guissepo was the one to guess that the Territory was in much more danger from the outside than expected.

"Death? No. I won’t give you such an easy courtesy. Traitors have a rich price to pay in our eyes!"

At once, Ashema stormed towards Guissepo. If he meant to kill him immediately, the cultist would have perished at once, but...

A jet of an ominous kind of fire blasted in Ashema’s path, forcing him to stop. The power behind it was atrocious. It would have incinerated him in a heartbeat.

The General scowled as he turned to the source. The Drakkens, bounding across the limited skies were all glaring at him and the other Generals.

When it came to shielding Pherdanta’s Territory, Guissepo had worthy allies.

***

Having six appendages was an incredible advantage when it came to close quarters combat. Sila sent a rain of punches blasting towards the Death Knight, and when it raised its arms to guard, he rammed into it with his shoulder, knocking it off-balance, and struck upward with an uppercut.

His fist was laced with Null EXP, making the blow that landed on the Death Knight’s chin even more aggressive. It showed with how the tall creature rose and fell back on its feet a few meters away.

’It’s leagues more durable than its previous iteration,’ Sila noted as he charged towards the creature again. Four of his fists burned with trembling Null EXP.

While it looked blue like ordinary Null Life Essence, Null EXP was very different; incomparably versatile. Reinforcing a single body part with a limited amount of it allowed for a drastic increase in physical attributes, which was how some powerful Null Lifeforms in the Null Verse gained a sudden edge in a physical contest with enemies they were relative to.

The next nine blows Sila landed on the Death Knight felt nearly twenty times heavier than his default strikes. Indeed, they could have crushed the physical vessels of weaker Divine beings in a single hit.

...But the Death Knight took them without taking any damage.

When Sila sent forth a forward kick into the creature’s thigh, he could have only applauded how the world shook around him from the force. The attack was also ineffective against the enemy. He realised then that his opponent was dispersing the force from his blows using its Undeath energy. The Knight had the energy constantly cycling around its body at rapid speeds to mitigate the effects of physical impacts.

’Seriously?’ Sila thought, gritting his teeth.

His momentary loss of momentum allowed the Death Knight to retaliate for the first time.

...!!!

A forceful straight punch aimed at Sila’s head before he could think. While he managed to duck to the side, narrowly avoiding what would have been a clean death, the sheer power behind the blow acting against the world forced him backwards!

When he got ahold of himself and stabilised his stance, the Death Knight charged him, locked its fingers, raised both arms and attempted to crush him with the impossible might it released. Several continents might have been falling on Sila’s head.

He guarded by crossing all of his arms above him, but that didn’t stop him from being blown through the ocean’s surface at such speed that he might have struck Aigas’ end.

Before he could recover from the sharp dose of pain, the deliriousness and the sight of his mangled arms, a chill-inducing pressure of Undeath came from above.... and evaporated all the water standing between Sila and the Death Knight!

...!!!

’What the... The ocean!’ Sila had just begun to think when a powerful grip constricted around him. It stank of Undeath, the kind he hadn’t yet felt from the masked man.

In a blink, Sila was yanked back up towards Death Knight, which was floating in the turbulent, humid air.

Everything living had no choice but float now. The ocean on Aigas was gone with a single, simple blow from the Death Knight.

It was truly awe-inspiring, but the Death Knight itself was not impressed.

Right when Sila reached it, it gripped his throat and squeezed hard.

"This will not do. This combat style is unbefitting of my status," the creature said. "I smell a rather fascinating power system on this world. So... why should I be brutish in my approach?"