Eternally Regressing Knight Novel - Chapter 973
Chapter 973: Chapter 971 – That Madman Is on Our Side
Chapter 971 – That Madman Is on Our Side
“Master?”
One of the Mages fighting Esther inadvertently turned his head.
It was a remarkably stupid thing to do.
However, two of the others were exceptionally quick-witted.
Because the very second their Master died, they instantly began chanting spells explicitly designed for escape.
The bastard who had absentmindedly muttered ‘Master’ was the one who had been spewing the toxic mist earlier.
The exact moment the opponent exposed a fatal opening, a single throwing knife shot out from Esther’s hand.
Rather than a magical construct, it was far closer to the literal dagger-throwing technique Enkrid specialized in.
With a sharp zing, the dagger rode the wind.
‘The Warm Greeting of Dmule.’
While altering and modifying a borrowed elemental concept is incredibly difficult, Esther accomplished it flawlessly.
She seamlessly injected the power of wind into the thrown dagger.
While the physical strength behind the throw was already terrifying, the dagger, further accelerated by the wind mid-flight, violently broke the sound barrier, leaving an explosive shockwave in the empty air with a deafening CRACK!
It was a spell specifically engineered from the premise that physical attacks launched by Knights are incredibly difficult for Mages to block.
The dagger that closed the distance in a microscopic fraction of a second buried itself directly into the face of the bastard spewing the toxic mist.
Because she had systematically dismantled his defensive spells one by one leading up to this moment, the dagger flawlessly fulfilled the exact purpose for which it was thrown.
THWACK!
The visceral sound of the dagger embedding itself into flesh was horrifyingly loud.
It sounded exactly as if someone had dropped a massive boulder from the top of the city walls.
Fortunately for him, the single remaining defensive spell he possessed managed to slightly blunt the impact, meaning his head didn’t violently explode; the dagger merely shattered his nasal bone and buried itself deep into his face.
“Kuaaaagh!”
The bastard unleashed a bloodcurdling scream.
While he was violently staggering, completely unable to regain his senses from the shock, Esther simply flicked her wrist, utilizing an invisible hand spell to brutally smash him directly in the side of the head.
SQUELCH!
His skull violently caved in, and blood drenched the earth.
As one bastard died so pathetically, Aishia perfectly slipped behind the back of another.
If you allow a swordsman of her caliber to close the distance, you die.
It is an absolute ironclad rule known to every single Mage in existence.
Furthermore, it was even more of a guarantee when they had already exhausted all their defensive spells and mana desperately trying to survive against Esther.
Sliiice!
Aishia’s sword moved exactly three times.
A brutal vertical cleave, a violent thrust that physically shoved the target backward, and a horizontal slash to cleanly retract the blade.
To an ordinary person, it would have merely looked like blinding flashes of light accompanied by the deafening roar of thunder trailing behind the blade, but to Esther, whose dynamic vision had been significantly sharpened by constantly hanging around the Madmen Knights, she could vaguely trace the exact trajectory of the sword.
“I’ve got one too!”
Andrew also claimed a kill.
His sword plummeted violently, aiming directly for a Mage’s head.
To be precise, he aimed for the head of the female Mage who had desperately tried to flee but had her feet completely bound by Esther’s restriction spell.
The blade bypassed her collarbone and plunged deep into her chest, stopping right around her heart.
It was a feat only possible because he possessed considerable physical strength and had never once slacked off on his daily training.
Had that not been the case, the blade would have violently snagged on her collarbone and stopped.
The Mage Andrew had just struck down had entered the battle with a spell explicitly designed to artificially harden her bones to the density of steel.
Andrew flawlessly overcame the intense physical resistance vibrating through his hilt by perfectly harmonizing his technique with his raw strength.
Honestly, it was significantly easier than his usual routine of trying to cleave through solid blocks of steel.
“Goddamn it!”
Another Mage spat a vicious curse, desperately attempting to simultaneously detonate multiple highly volatile spells he had generated within his own body, but Enkrid was already standing directly behind him.
Esther simply viewed the cursing Mage as a pathetic amateur, or perhaps just an absolute moron.
‘If you sense lethal danger, you should be chanting a spell, not spitting curses.’
He was worse than the grunts in the magical corps she had personally trained.
His sheer magical output might have been high, but he knew absolutely nothing about actual combat.
The title of Combat Mage isn’t simply handed out just because you’re good at throwing destructive spells around.
At least, according to Esther’s ideology and values, it wasn’t.
Without even bothering to draw his sword, Enkrid reached out with both hands and casually snapped the Mage’s neck.
It looked as effortless as snapping the stem of a dandelion, but that simple motion violently shattered the glowing blue defensive barrier protecting the Mage’s throat, accompanied by the sickening CRUNCH of cervical vertebrae violently snapping.
The final remaining Mage was brutally finished off by Esther, who fully transformed into the Lake Panther and lunged at her.
Coating her entire beast form in the Mirror of Vanna, she brutally crushed the Mage’s skull using sheer, overwhelming physical force—specifically, a massive swipe of her front paw.
She had always suspected this would be an incredibly effective method for slaughtering Mages, and the results proved her hypothesis perfectly.
If she had been tasked with fighting only one of them from the very beginning, she would have done this immediately.
Because if she fought while maintaining the Mirror of Vanna across her entire coat of fur, the spell’s structure dictated that it would instantly dispel the moment she initiated a physical attack.
Vanna is an entity that merely brushes past, it never lingers.
Therefore, because Vanna cannot linger, it was impossible to artificially extend the spell’s duration beyond a single strike.
To extend its duration, an entirely different method was required.
But right now, it was a completely unnecessary measure.
Using the kinetic feedback from violently crushing the opponent’s skull, Esther executed a flawless backward somersault through the air, transforming back into her human form just as Rem’s explosive shout echoed from a distance.
“HAH!”
It was a completely deliberate, thunderous roar.
It either meant he was officially finished on his end, or it was a clear warning that absolutely no one needed to interfere.
“My blazing God!”
The dwarf roared, violently detonating a massive burst of lightning in a desperate, final struggle.
The lightning exploded outward in a massive sphere.
The falling raindrops caught in the electrical discharge instantly vaporized into steam.
In the blink of an eye, the entire area was engulfed in a thick, suffocating water vapor.
Cutting straight through the mist, the acrid stench of ozone and burnt flesh stung their noses.
Regardless of whatever the hell the bastard was doing, Rem simply swung his axe, entirely fueled by the explosive shamanic power he had just unlocked through False Descent.
Is a massive burst of lightning an unavoidable downpour?
Did it meticulously saturate every single inch of space?
Not even close.
Furthermore…
‘Even if it is a downpour, I’ll dodge between the raindrops.’
That was Rem’s absolute mindset.
The effect of False Descent was brutally simple.
Rem maximized the output of the Heart of the Beast and violently hyper-sensitized all of his physical senses.
Right now, he was a literal beast of prey.
He individually tracked and dodged every single tendril of lightning as he relentlessly closed the distance.
Because of the sheer voltage erupting from his own helmet, the dwarf’s eyes had literally exploded within his skull, and the catastrophic heat caused his blood to violently vaporize into a hazy red mist instead of flowing freely.
Rem’s battleaxe flawlessly cleaved straight through that dwarf’s neck.
Right before the dwarf died, he had already brutally finished off the fairy.
She had stubbornly insisted on a head-on collision, summoning some kind of blindingly white, pseudo-divine energy, only to have her arm brutally snapped in half before Rem violently kicked her in the abdomen, literally rupturing her stomach and killing her instantly.
Now that the dwarf was dead, it meant Rem’s battle was completely over as well.
Bzzzt…
The massive sphere of lightning dissipated, leaving behind a few errant streaks of azure electricity crackling from the residual heat.
“Ah, shit!”
One of the soldiers Andrew had brought—who had completely retreated the moment the apocalyptic battle began—yelped and jumped back as a tiny spark of residual lightning violently snapped right next to his boot.
Swoooosh—
The heavy rain continued to pour, quickly forcing the thick mist that had engulfed the area back down to the ground.
Before anyone realized it, a sizable crowd had gathered atop the city walls, silently observing the aftermath of the battle.
Although the fight took place outside the outer walls in an empty field entirely devoid of farmhouses, it was still a catastrophic battle unfolding literally right in front of the city gates.
Furthermore, considering the apocalyptic commotion they had caused, it would have been impossible for anyone to ignore it.
Standing atop the walls, Krang surveyed the visceral traces of devastation left behind by the battle and muttered.
“If the slums were still located out there, at least a few hundred people would have died.”
Standing to his right, Duke Marcus replied.
“If the Captain of the Madmen Knights hadn’t stopped them right there, the casualties wouldn’t have been in the hundreds, Your Majesty. It would have easily been in the thousands.”
Standing on the opposite side, the Duke of the Fertile Lands chimed in as well.
“It truly is a dizzying spectacle.”
He genuinely meant it.
He was still incredibly unfamiliar with all this talk of demons, minions, and apocalyptic magic.
Hiring a few people capable of casting basic spells and outfitting his mansion with Spell Objects containing defensive wards was the absolute limit of his preparation.
It was a profoundly bizarre feeling.
Looking at the beings who had just fought down there, his own political position and noble status felt completely, utterly insignificant.
It was the common, creeping apathy of old age.
In response to his deeply deflated tone, Krang spoke exactly as if answering that unspoken feeling.
“While they have their duties, we have our own, Duke. Never forget that. That sword down there cannot cook porridge for a sick child, nor can it pave a road for our people.”
No matter what he witnessed, Krang never lost his core center of gravity.
‘Ah, how incredibly fortunate I am that this man is my King.’
The Duke of the Fertile Lands instantly fortified his wavering resolve
. Duke Marcus simply stared blankly at Enkrid, harboring a slightly different sentiment.
‘If someone fought that monster, is there any conceivable way they survive?’
Was he afraid of the Empire?
He certainly used to be, but not anymore.
Was he afraid of the demons?
He was undeniably terrified of their existence and the horrific schemes they plotted, but…
‘Those exact same demons are going to have to fight that monster.’
Then wouldn’t they feel the exact same terror?
At the absolute bare minimum, they would be completely, utterly bewildered.
Because against a Mage capable of summoning lightning from the heavens, erecting walls of roaring fire, and freezing the very earth itself, a man holding a single sword casually charged through it all and violently punched a hole straight through the bastard’s stomach because he had a grudge.
Krang stared silently at Enkrid and thought to himself.
‘Ah, what the hell. That bastard could do shit like that too?! He’s terrifying. You are absolutely terrifying, you crazy bastard. Why don’t you just take the throne and be the King instead? Is there seriously anyone on this entire continent who would willingly fight that after seeing it? Well, at least this will make negotiations with the Empire a hell of a lot easier.’
Honestly, if someone watched that display and didn’t feel pure terror, they fundamentally weren’t human.
The soldiers didn’t cheer either.
Every single one of them was standing there utterly dumbfounded.
Hadn’t they just witnessed a battle that violently shattered all common sense and completely transcended the limits of human imagination?
Furthermore, they couldn’t even see the intricate details of the battle happening within that maelstrom.
All they saw was deafening thunder roaring, massive explosions of fire erupting, everything getting swallowed by a thick mist, and when the mist finally cleared, the fight was already over.
It even rained in the middle of it all.
How could they possibly have tracked what was actually happening?
Honestly, it was a sheer miracle that the three soldiers who had followed Andrew down there hadn’t completely soiled themselves.
Krang didn’t know it, but one of the three soldiers had actually pissed himself a little bit.
Regardless of how deeply shocked Krang was, he had successfully reassured the Duke of the Fertile Lands, and he certainly hadn’t forgotten his own role in this moment.
“Duke Marcus, we have achieved victory.”
“…Yes.”
“Don’t you think a cheer is in order?”
“Ah.”
Considering even Duke Marcus had been stunned speechless, it was obvious how utterly absurd the situation was.
Marcus immediately shot a sharp look to several of his commanders and roared.
“THE SPELL BUTCHER!”
Just look at the situation that had just unfolded.
The opponent was undeniably a terrifying, once-in-a-century Mage, yet every single spell that Mage cast was rendered utterly useless against him; it was an incredibly fitting moniker.
Spearheaded by Duke Marcus, several commanders desperately tried to shatter the paralyzingly stiff atmosphere, but it didn’t immediately transition into roaring cheers.
The soldiers hesitated.
Even if they hadn’t perfectly tracked every single detail of the battle, the apocalyptic devastation they had witnessed was burned far too vividly into their minds.
Because Krang was ultimately just an ordinary man himself, he understood their hesitation perfectly.
Therefore, he knew exactly what words they desperately needed to hear right now.
“THAT MONSTER IS OUR KNIGHT COMMANDER! THAT MADMAN IS ON OUR SIDE!”
It was a thunderous, earth-shaking roar.
It was a shout so deafening it felt as if he had borrowed the power of a Spell Object.
Following a brief moment of stunned silence, a deafening, unified cheer violently erupted from the soldiers.
“WAAAAAAAH!”
“THE DEMONIC KNIGHT!”
They roared the highly familiar moniker.
The heavy rain still hadn’t stopped, but the battle was definitively over.
The demonic minions had completely failed to achieve whatever it was they desired.
At least, that was how it appeared on the surface.
Enkrid made eye contact with Krang and gave a slight, respectful nod.
Because in that exact moment, he looked exactly like a loyal Knight who had marched into battle solely for the sake of his King’s orders…
Seeing that nod, the deafening cheers of the soldiers grew even louder.
That absolute madman is on our side.
It was entirely thanks to the profound, overwhelming wave of relief that single sentence provided.
***
“Congratulations on the victory.”
Krais, who had just woken up from a deep, satisfying sleep, greeted them.
Over the past few days, they had hunted down and slaughtered the minions in the dead of night, completely annihilated the Master of Astrael, systematically crushed the hidden forces the minions had amassed, and returned right as morning broke.
In the meantime, Krais had slept completely undisturbed.
When the entire crowd had gathered atop the city walls, he hadn’t even bothered to show his face.
Sitting half-slumped on the edge of his bed, wearing a fluffy nightcap he specifically reserved for sleeping, Krais casually rubbed his eyes.
A small piece of sleep crust fell from his eyelashes.
Rem immediately kicked Krais square in the ass.
“Gah! What was that for?!”
Having taken the kick, Krais violently tumbled across the floor.
Only then did Rem feel a genuine sense of peace return to his heart.
“Ah, my foot must’ve slipped.”
Because Krais perfectly deduced Rem’s exact inner thoughts, he didn’t argue any further.
He knew from painful experience that if he tried to talk back right now, he’d only end up with more bruises.
‘Even if I try to explain that I need a full night’s sleep for my brain to function optimally…’
He’d just get punched in the face again.
Fundamentally, their primary objective here was to decipher the Empire’s true intentions, and Krais had absolute faith that Enkrid would effortlessly crush whatever pathetic tricks the demonic minions tried to pull.
Honestly, if they were going to be severely held back by minor annoyances like this, they should just completely abandon the idea of fighting the Empire or the demons altogether.
This was precisely the time when they needed to possess exactly that level of overwhelming capability and latent power.
Of course, if the situation had become genuinely complicated, he would have stepped up immediately, desperately pressing his hands together in prayer to quell his own anxiety, but didn’t they win?
Furthermore, the apocalyptic battle itself had erupted at a completely unpredictable time, so he couldn’t have joined them even if he wanted to because he was dead asleep.
Everything had been perfectly resolved while he was sleeping.
To Krais, there were absolutely no words sweeter than those.
“Still, I suppose we can finally catch our breath.”
Are we dealing with the Empire next?
As Krais pondered their next move, Rem seriously considered whether he should kick that bastard in the ass one more time.
Enkrid also believed everything was finally over.
The demons had seeded their minions, and regardless of what their true intentions were, they had completely failed to achieve their goals.
That night, he dreamt.
Yeah, I figured he’d show up eventually.
He was inside a quiet, secluded cabin.
It was fundamentally different from the places he had previously met the Ferryman.
They weren’t outdoors.
Yet, he could still clearly hear the rhythmic sound of crashing waves.
Inside a small cabin built right on the edge of a riverbank, Zaiden sat waiting for him.
They were separated by a wooden table and a slightly unbalanced chair that looked entirely handmade, with a simple bed that looked like it belonged to him situated in the back.
The cabin was tiny, and aside from the absolute bare minimum of daily necessities, it was entirely empty.
“You did well. Very, exceptionally well.”
He spoke with an utterly emotionless demeanor and tone, silently staring at Enkrid.
His pupils were pitch-black.
“I have a question for you. This world is violently overflowing with nothing but pure malice, and there is absolutely no valid reason to endure living in a world like this with your sanity intact. Do you agree with this statement?”
Regardless of his true intent, the actual content of the question wasn’t exactly pleasant to hear.
“I do not agree,” Enkrid replied simply.
That was his honest, everyday belief.
Enkrid had fully experienced Zaiden’s life.
Whether they were humans, fairies, dwarves, giants, Frock, or beastmen—there were countless individuals who had viciously bared their malice toward him regardless of their race.
He had seen it clearly within Zaiden’s life, felt it, and by becoming completely synchronized with him, he had harbored that exact same burning hatred.
So, was this world truly a place where absolutely nothing but malice existed?
No, it wasn’t.
The man named Zaiden had simply internalized a heavily biased, fractured perspective of the world.
“An interesting perspective.”
Zaiden replied.
Because the pain he had endured was so unfathomably massive, Enkrid perfectly understood his hatred, but what is wrong is simply wrong.
The night was long.
No, since this was a mental landscape, the concepts of long and short didn’t strictly apply.
Regardless, they shared countless stories.
The agonizing pain, the deep scars, the profound shifts in his heart caused by those wounds, and the endless cycle of hatred that was born from them.
And in return, Enkrid shared all the things he had received in his own life.
***
And so, when Enkrid opened his eyes to a new morning, he had a visitor waiting for him.
“I was told that if they sent a minion, you would just instantly cut them down, but I am merely a simple messenger. I would be incredibly grateful if you didn’t kill me. Right now, I’m half-possessed, so I don’t even fully know what the hell I’m saying either.”
It was a messenger sent directly by a demon.
***
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***
If you enjoy the series and want to get more chapters early, head over to https://payhip.com/Samowek
Next 100 chapters – 25e [Be sure to message me on discord for any information]
[SHOP BEST BUY] – 50e – Every chapter translated – Latest WN-1120+ daily chapters from monday to friday for a month.
-KNIGHT – Cost 20e – Chapters 1050-1120 + daily chapters from Monday to Friday for a month
I welcome you to join our discord https://discord.gg/RY7BbJpeAZ
**ANY INFO ONLY APPLIES TO THE LATEST CHAPTER HERE ON WEBNOVEL**