Volume 6, Chapter The Sixth Week of Annihilating an Undying Lich: “The Hero Saves the Beauty”

Doza

The last time I used my sensing ability to contact him, Judgment told me he had already inquired and learned that Stephen and Charlotte had been sent out on patrol and would not be back before midnight, so he had decided to bring Metal along to come rescue me.

Legend says that the first generation Metal Knight was a thief before he became one of the Twelve Holy Knights and left behind many devious techniques to the following generations of Metal Knights. Therefore, to carry out this sort of secret rescue activity, it is definitely ideal to bring Metal along!

Although I felt that directly seeking Awaitsun’s cooperation would be more convenient, Judgment still decided it was better to be careful and not to trust anyone else. He and Metal even vaulted over the wall to secretly enter the palace instead of walking in openly.

With Metal around, infiltration was, as expected, not a difficult matter. He led the way through many unusual places, such as beams, storerooms, and drains. Also, it seemed he was very familiar with the secret pathways of the palace… These secret pathways might as well have been open corridors!

Not long after, they arrived outside the room where I was being held.

Judgment, there are two death knights inside the room. Their individual positions are the northeast and southwest corners of the room.

After I finished warning Judgment, about ten seconds passed, and then the door flew open with a bang.

The two of them charged into the room, their actions precise and agile. Judgment raised his sword to face one of the death knights, while Metal held his two knives to face the other… But right after that, the two of them didn’t begin their duels. Instead, they turned around to survey the whole room.

Actually turning your back to a death knight? Even if the death knight is standing still, turning your back to him is way too dangerous!

Incredulous, Metal asked, “Captain Judgment, what is going on? Isn’t this the place?”

Judgment frowned deeply and surveyed his surroundings… His line of sight swept over me, but he seemed not to notice that I was lying there at all. How can this be? I’m right here!

His following actions made me even more astonished. Judgment actually stood in front of me and lifted his sword to carve words on the wall:

Sun, where are you? Does this room have a hidden chamber?

I shouted “Judgment!” but he didn’t react in the slightest, as if he hadn’t heard me at all.

I’m right in front of you! I can see you and can hear you two talking!

Judgment frowned even more deeply and said to Metal beside him, “Break everything that can possibly hide a person.”

Metal nodded, then, without restraint, the two of them started wrecking the room. The wardrobe and nightstand were hacked into pieces, and the bed was chopped up and overturned. After all of the furniture was destroyed, Metal even started digging at the walls and the floor.

We really aren’t in the same place… Just now, Judgment undoubtedly chopped up and overturned the bed. His sword even slashed across my waist, giving me a huge shock. However, the sword passed directly through my body and didn’t hurt me at all. The bed underneath me was also as unharmed as before.

Even though the two rooms looked the same, they apparently weren’t… The wrecked wardrobe and the still intact wardrobe were superimposed together. It looked like a new wardrobe had been placed on top of the wrecked wardrobe, an extremely strange sight.

“Who dares to be so impudent here… Judgment Knight?”

A good number of knights stood at the doorway, and the person in the middle, raging furiously, was Silent Eagle Awaitsun. At first, his face was full of anger, but when he discovered it was Judgment Knight, his face immediately became one of shock, and it was as if he didn’t know what he should do.

Compared to Awaitsun’s fluster and Metal’s guilt, Judgment was certainly a master of acting cool for ten years and then some. His cold face didn’t reveal any emotions, and he didn’t have a single bit of intention of leaving the room. He acted as if this was his room, and the person who had gone to the wrong place was Awaitsun.

“Huh? Why is everyone crowded around my room? Is something wrong?”

This voice is… Stephen appeared in the doorway of the room, startling me. He seemed to glance at me, although I wasn’t sure if it just my imagination.

He questioned Awaitsun, surprised, “Captain Eagle, has something happened?”

Awaitsun opened his mouth, but didn’t say even half a sentence. Most likely, he simply did not know how to answer.

Judgment calmly said, “I received intelligence that someone was harboring a criminal in here, so I came over to investigate.”

Awaitsun was stunned and frowned. Although he didn’t quite believe his words, he didn’t refute them either, merely asking, “Did you find the criminal?”

“No.” Judgment said flatly, “Metal, let’s go.”

To my surprise, Metal replied “Yes.” The two of them were actually going to leave the room. I was stunned and immediately started panicking.

Wait, Judgment don’t go!

Judgment looked back, still frowning. Even though things were very difficult for him, I couldn’t let him go. Stephen knew that he had entered the room. Most likely, Stephen wouldn’t believe the excuse about harboring criminals. Now that he knew I had a way to contact the outside world, although I didn’t know what he would do after Judgment left, he definitely wouldn’t do nothing!

Since Charlotte isn’t here, will Stephen take this opportunity to kill me?

Stephen smiled as he spoke to Judgment. “If the Judgment Knight still has doubts, why not search again to be thorough?”

I was extremely nervous, afraid that Judgment would say “no need.” Instead, Judgment said dismissively, “Actually, I don’t need to do a thorough search, but I must ask you to accompany me back to the Holy Temple. Moreover, you people have a shadowpriest named Charlotte, right? I’ll have to ask you to tell Metal of her whereabouts, so that he can take some people to go look for her.”

Could the intention of these words be… I get it!

I understand your intention now!

Judgment placed his right hand behind his waist, his forefinger and middle finger bending, like a person nodding his head. I laughed aloud.

At this moment, Awaitsun was finally a little angry. He glared at Judgment and growled, “What is the meaning of this?”

Awaitsun, this is Sun. Follow what Judgment said and then go with him to the Holy Temple. He will tell you everything.

Awaitsun’s eyes widened, but he is truly the leader of a church. Other than his eyes widening, he didn’t have any other reactions.

Judgment also relieved him of his embarrassment in a timely manner, saying, “I know you are very angry and shocked, but please do not be. Maybe I have received false intelligence, but regardless of the situation, it is better to be careful. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Awaitsun was silent for a while before replying, “It is as you have said.”

While the two of them were exchanging pleasantries and at the same time talking rubbish, I started searching for Charlotte’s presence and immediately found her in a room not far away. However, instead of telling Metal, I directly told Judgment and insisted on him taking Awaitsun and a large group of dark knights to go capture her together.

Charlotte is truly very strong, and she has a habit of doing things a bit willfully and rashly. I could not possibly rely on the hope that she would not kill Metal Knight due to not wanting to offend the Church of the God of Light. After all, she could even kidnap the Sun Knight off the streets!

Subsequently, Judgment and Metal took Awaitsun, Stephen, and Charlotte back to the Church of the God of Light.

Right from the start, at being taken away, Charlotte’s expression was one of extreme unhappiness. Thus, I repeatedly instructed Judgment to take particular caution and to definitely find Roland and Earth to watch Charlotte together. In addition, if possible, it would be even better to find some more of the Twelve Holy Knights.

Judgment’s and Roland’s strength combined was very strong, and adding on the Shield of Earth would also ensure that the two of them would not get hurt. It should be absolutely safe.

Since there was no way to find me, Judgment simply took Stephen and Charlotte away. This way, my whereabouts could be forced out, and it would also prevent them from hurting me. This was what he intended to do.

Although there was temporarily no way to escape from here, there was at least a hope of leaving. I finally felt a lot more relaxed.

At this moment, a death knight walked up to my side. I looked at him suspiciously. I hadn’t called him. Why had he come over on his own? Could it be that Stephen even set it up so that at certain times the death knight would come and remind me about things like sleeping?

The death knight looked down and showed an expression that seemed like a smile yet not a smile, saying, “Looks like the secrets of the Twelve Holy Knights are greater than what I imagined! Luckily, I hid you in a space that I created and didn’t let you get rescued. If not, I don’t know how much trouble Charlotte would have made. But then, Sun Knight, do you believe that by letting the Judgment Knight detain Charlotte and me, I would not be able to do anything to you?”

I was stunned and asked in reply, “Stephen?”

“It is I.” The death knight chuckled, his expression really similar to Stephen’s.

I deliberately frowned and used a bit of a doubtful tone to say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Stephen coldly laughed, saying, “Sun Knight, your prowess at acting dumb is astonishing. That has a bit of a discrepancy with your public image.”

“I really don’t understand what you mean,” I said with great emphasis. “If Knight-Captain Judgment did anything, then surely that is the result of his investigation. Please do not underestimate Knight-Captain Judgment’s abilities!”

Currently, I could only fake it to the end and speak highly of Judgment’s strength to make it so that Stephen would not dare to act recklessly.

Stephen frowned and was silent, but then he stretched out his hands and seemed to recite a small incantation. Suddenly, the bed under me shattered into pieces. However, I didn’t fall onto the ground. Instead, my whole body floated in the air.

“What are you planning to do?”

The moment the words left my mouth, the Chains of Darkness on my hands and feet suddenly started extending and wrapped around me like a vine. Even though it was not wrapped as densely as a cocoon, I’m afraid the level of firmness of those chains of darkness was higher than my carelessly wrapped cocoons.

Lastly, with a sudden great spin, and before I could gasp in shock, my whole body was in an upright position. But like before, neither of my legs could touch the ground. Right in front of me was Stephen, whose body had changed to that of a death knight.

Against Stephen’s rapid series of actions, I had no way of resisting at all. Even though I was dying to gather elements, even recklessly trying to gather the dark element wasn’t a single bit of use. I could only yell, terrified, “What are you going to do?”

Stephen sneered as he chuckled, saying, “Don’t be a fool. Only if you were a demon king candidate would you be able to manipulate the dark element here.”

What? But I’m certainly a demon king candidate! Why can’t I manipulate… Oh right! Startled, I bowed my head and bit the chain on my neck.

After the situation with Scarlet, the Pope had taken away Eternal Tranquility to modify it. Now, not only did it have Scarlet sealed inside of it, it would also prevent dark element from entering my body. With it on my body, my competency at manipulating the dark element would fall significantly.

If I don’t have it, maybe I can gather the dark element… But then, under the circumstances of only being able to move my neck and my mouth, getting rid of the chain is simply too hard!

Crack!

Startled, I looked down towards the source of the noise and discovered my legs had unexpectedly been frozen. Also, the ice continued to creep upwards, in a moment reaching my knees, and, with no hint of stopping, continued upwards.

I started panicking. He wouldn’t turn me into an ice sculpture just for Charlotte to be able to continue “possessing” me, right?

Stephen raised his head and looked at me, saying, “It doesn’t matter if you’re in the know or not. In any case, please sleep deeply for a while. When Charlotte becomes the demon king, she will personally come to rescue you. But if Charlotte fails, then you will forever be a sleeping beauty… Ah! I almost forgot you’re a male! In any case, wait for Demon King Charlotte to welcome you! Hahaha!”

I hastily shouted, “Wait a minute! I’m the leader of the Holy Temple! I can help her become the Demon King!”

However, Stephen snorted, saying, “Save it, I would never trust you.”

Watching the ice rapidly freeze upwards, I couldn’t think of any other excuses. I sensed for Judgment, thinking of telling him what was happening, but the ice crystals had already reached my neck. I was so alarmed that I had only enough time to use my sensing ability to yell loudly, “Judgment!”

Then, the entire world froze over.

Crack!

…A sound? What kind of sound is this? Very faint. Rather like the sound of shattering. As if… As if… Oh right, the sound of glass or ice splintering.

The scene started to appear in my blurry mind. After habitually using my sensing ability as a substitute for my sight, when I wake up every morning, I automatically use my sensing ability, which is similar to a person dazedly opening their eyes as they wake up.

The first thing I saw was a crack extending before my eyes… But how can there be a crack in front of my eyes? Doubtful, I followed the crack as a path to sense outwards. At the opening of the crack appeared an object with the shape of a sharp sword. However, it was also unlike any other sword. A sword shouldn’t have such a high concentration of holy element… Wait a minute, my Divine Sun Sword would have it!

The Divine Sun Sword had created a crack in front of me.

This sentence abruptly made me fully conscious, and I explosively expanded my sensing ability in one breath. My body was entirely encased by ice, the thickness of the ice being about two meters. The Divine Sun Sword was pierced into the ice, its position roughly in front of my right eye. Although it had not pierced deeply, only about ten centimeters, the crack it had created went right before my eyes. Even though the tail end of the crack was only as thin as hair, it was enough to wake me up.

Beside the ice crystal was an alarmingly large concentrated amount of dark element. This mass of dark element was vaguely in the shape of a person… Hold on, this face is seemingly a female’s and a short-haired one too. Charlotte?

Alongside Charlotte was another person, only his dark element was not as strong as hers, so I momentarily had not sensed this person’s presence. Charlotte, with such strong dark element, was beside him, so differentiating the facial features of a person with the same type of dark element was really not easy. However, I could still faintly see that he should be Stephen, make no mistake about it.

Even more strange was how the three of us were floating in the sky.

I continued expanding my senses outwards and discovered that we were actually in the sky above the plaza of Leaf Bud City. What is the current situation now?

“Release Sun!” … Blaze’s roar?

It would make sense that Blaze wouldn’t be flying in the middle of the sky, so I hurriedly extended my sensing ability towards the ground, and as expected, found Blaze on the ground with the other Twelve Holy Knights and… filling up the whole plaza were an amount of undead creatures as large as an army!

What’s happening? Could it be that I was asleep for a very long time? How has Leaf Bud City become such a sight?

With so many questions, I could only continue to sense the current situation.

Judgment stood at the forefront of the Twelve Holy Knights, incessantly swinging his sword to hack and kill the undead creatures. He was not draped in the black robes he normally wore. Instead, he wore a set of entirely black but more close-fitting clothes, probably for ease of movement. They were the clothes he normally wore underneath his robes.

The others were not far from him. The formation everyone stood in was approximately a rhombus, with their backs facing the heart of the rhombus. This was one of the Twelve Holy Knights’ fighting formations, a formation taken when surrounded by enemies.

The Pope stood at heart of the rhombus, but that is actually my position. The Sun Knight should stand at the middle, responsible for using holy light to support his team. However, at the moment, I was trapped in the sky, unable to move.

At least, I should use the Wings of God spell to help everyone.

Although the Pope also knows the Wings of God spell, he would be unable to cast a very strong one on twelve people at the same time. In addition, after casting it, I’m afraid he would be unable to cast an additional Light Shield on everyone.

Wait! Looking at the amount of holy light surrounding everyone’s bodies, the Pope hasn’t cast Light Shield on any of the Twelve Holy Knights. Why?

I carefully observed the Pope and discovered he was looking in my direction… No, the person he was looking at was Charlotte! His expression was extremely alert. Now I understood. He needed to save his strength until the necessary time came to use it to oppose Charlotte and Stephen.

Although the army of undead creatures didn’t look strong, and everyone was able to cope with them skillfully and easily, there was still Charlotte and Stephen, gazing like tigers watching their prey. The two of them did nothing at all, worrying me a bit whether they had any schemes.

I called out to Judgment.

Judgment.

Suddenly, Judgment froze, but he was still in the middle of battle. The brief split-second halt caused an additional three sword wounds. Oh no! I quickly gathered holy light and cast an Advanced Heal on him, though I abruptly remembered I couldn’t gather elements… The holy light enveloped Judgment’s body, healing the blade wounds on him.

I can gather elements now!

In the split second of understanding, I immediately started gathering a large amount of holy light and cast Light Shield on each of the Twelve Holy Knights. After that, I strengthened the Wings of God spell that the Pope had cast, allowing their movements to be even faster and swifter.

Everyone was startled, and their bodies were sliced by a good number of blades. Luckily, there was Light Shield to block them, and no one received any serious injuries. Everyone quickly continued to fight, on one hand continuously sneaking a glance at me, on the other hand hacking the undead creatures into pieces.

Charlotte and Stephen apparently also discovered something was wrong. Stephen even spun around and grabbed hold of the hilt of the Divine Sun Sword, but immediately pulled back and roared.

His right hand should be medium cooked now. What an idiot! As an undying lich, he actually dared to touch the Divine Sun Sword! If he had held onto it for a few more seconds, I’m afraid his whole body would have been cooked by the Divine Sun Sword!

Stephen shouted, “Charlotte, get rid of this divine sword. I want to repair the seal.”

“Has he really woken up? Was it him who made those holy knights stronger?”

Charlotte turned around to ask again and again, her expression actually becoming very joyous! This made Stephen’s expression even uglier. Only when he used a stern tone to once more request for Charlotte to remove the sword did she reluctantly move forward to grab the Divine Sun Sword, and she was not burned. Evidently, the Divine Sun Sword does not treat demon kings as enemies.

Luckily, Charlotte’s strength was apparently as bad as mine. Hence, even though the sword was only pierced ten centimeters into the ice, she still couldn’t pull it out. Only after shaking and kicking for a long while did the Divine Sun Sword loosen a bit.

“Can’t I use magic to knock it out?” Charlotte was starting to get a little angry.

Stephen instantly rejected, “No way. If an even greater crack is formed, it could allow him to take the opportunity to escape. Can’t you see that just a small crack enables him to gather a whole mass of holy light?”

Charlotte impatiently said, “But I cannot pull it out! Repulsive Judgment Knight! Why did he launch the sword onto the seal? What would he do if Sun Knight was harmed?”

Taking advantage of Charlotte and Stephen being troubled and frustrated by the Divine Sun Sword, I furtively gathered a mass of wind blades and then blasted them at the ice along with Charlotte and Stephen. It was a pity that Charlotte seemed to be protected by very strong dark element and was not harmed at all. In contrast to her, Stephen’s cooked arm was directly chopped off and was devoured by the mass of undead creatures.

But most importantly, the ice didn’t even have a tiny scratch on it. I really don’t know how Judgment managed to shoot the Divine Sun Sword into the ice. What should I do now? I can’t be trapped in the ice here forever, waiting for everyone else to come rescue me!

Bastard! I’m definitely not a princess! I don’t need to wait for knights to come rescue me.

“Why are there wind blades?” Charlotte asked, stunned. “Is there a mage?”

“There shouldn’t be. The whole city has been mostly evacuated. There are only some knights from the Church of the God of Light and the palace left.” Stephen frowned as he pondered, and then he abruptly turned to look at me, roaring with a furious expression, “Is this your doing?”

“How can it be?” Charlotte refuted on my behalf. “He is the Sun Knight, not a mage!”

But Stephen continued to glare at me, absolutely not believing that those wind blades had nothing to do with me… I’ll count you as clever!

Acting like a spoiled child, Charlotte said, “Stephen, let’s just leave! If I exert all my strength, breaking the seal the clerics placed outside won’t be difficult. We don’t have to be trapped in this plaza and continue wasting time with them!”

“No! If you use up too much strength, your weakness may be taken advantage of by the other candidates!”

Upon hearing this, I finally realized that Charlotte and Stephen were floating in the middle of the sky doing nothing not because they couldn’t get away, but because they didn’t wish to battle it out with the Twelve Holy Knights head on and waste their strength. Hence, the two could only float in the air, making the undead army fight against the Twelve Holy Knights.

“What should we do now, then? You said to use the undead creatures because the Twelve Holy Knights would realize it would be difficult and retreat, but it’s already been a day of fighting, and they look like they are not the least bit tired!” As Charlotte talked, she forcefully kicked the Divine Sun Sword, hurting my heart so much that I wanted to kick her a few times as well, to take revenge for the Divine Sun Sword!

“This…” Stephen used an appeasing tone to say, “Charlotte, how about returning the Sun Knight back to the Church of the God of Light for now! When you become the Demon King, you can have whatever knight you want!”

In my heart, I frantically approved. That’s the way you should do it! So long as a person has a bit of common sense, he will pick this solution…

“I don’t want that!” Charlotte actually yelled, furious. “I only want the Sun Knight! He is the only thing I will never let go!”

…Regrettably, one shouldn’t talk about common sense with a girl who goes so crazy over love that she won’t even acknowledge her elder! I pity Stephen as a guide. He really has it tough, just because the demon king has fallen in love with the Sun Knight.

Dis…t-tract… them.

I was startled. Just now, there seemed to be someone talking in my head, but who was present that could use this sort of ability? Could it be that Pink was in the proximity?

I’m… Pope…

It’s the Pope? My attention shifted to him, and I saw him frantically indicating himself and then pointing at Judgment, and lastly he put both hands by his sides and flapped frantically, the action akin to an old hen that could not fly.

Could this mean he wants to bring Judgment to fly over and rescue me? To think that he even knows psychic magic and the Spell of Flight. Just how many skills does the Pope know? Although my capabilities are not small either, now I know it has to do with me being a demon king candidate.

You want to bring Judgment to fly over and rescue me, so you want me to pull Charlotte’s and Stephen’s attentions away?

Right!

The Pope’s expression looked like he had heaved a huge sigh of relief. After replying to him, I thought about how I should pull Stephen’s attention away. As for Charlotte, her eyes can see only me, so with this huge ice sculpture of me here, there was no need to use other things to distract her at all.

Oh right! Apparently Stephen has been very worried that there might be other candidates hiding by the sidelines watching the commotion, so I’ll just let his wish come true.

I started gathering a large amount of dark element, although this was a bit hard… The crack in the ice seal was too small, and with the Divine Sun Sword, an object swathed with light all over, stuck in at the top thereby creating a large canceling effect, it was not easy to call the dark element over. Also, there was a lot that was being sucked up by Charlotte.

The Demon King was no doubt a vessel for storing dark element. Even if one were only a mere candidate, they would naturally attract dark element. If I wasn’t the Sun Knight, an occupation that was also a vessel for holy element, I probably wouldn’t be able to suppress the innate tendency of attracting dark element.

Stephen, abruptly alert, asked, “Charlotte, are you gathering dark element?”

With her entire face in an indescribable expression, Charlotte replied, “Me? I’m not. Why would I need to go out of my way to gather it? The dark element in my body can already blow up this entire plaza.”

At this moment, Stephen’s remaining arm suddenly caught on fire and in the blink of an eye, his whole arm was burning like a torch. His astonished expression made me want to laugh. Luckily, I was entirely frozen. Don’t talk about laughing, even moving an eyelash is impossible.

Following that, the roof of a nearby building also ignited with Hell’s Fire. The intensity of this fire was a lot fiercer. Even Stephen, who was busy putting out the flames on his arm, couldn’t help looking up and staring blankly at the house on fire.

Two Hell’s Fire spells totally exhausted the dark element I had painfully gathered. Under a situation with Charlotte and Stephen on alert, I’m afraid there would be no way to gather dark element once more without causing them to begin to suspect me.

Pope, Judgment, you better hurry up and come! Better not miss this chance. I can’t create it a second time!

I was just about to sense how their progress was going when a body suddenly slammed into the ice, producing a loud noise that shocked me. Luckily, the ice was extremely hard and didn’t move the slightest bit.

I also clearly saw that the “body” that struck the ice crystal was actually Knight-Captain Judgment himself. With one hand, he held onto the top edge of the ice. With his other hand, he held the Divine Sun Sword and twisted it with all his strength. The nonstop sound of the cracking and breaking of the ice entered my ears.

Finally, he slashed the Divine Sun Sword sideways, slicing off a huge chunk of ice. I took the opportunity to bring in a large amount of wind element from the shattered spot, and then I released wind blades from within the ice, destroying half of the top.

Now, at long last, I could open one eye and half of my mouth.

“Cover yer face an grub un me tightly.” I muttered out of the side of my mouth to Judgment.

Judgment raised an eyebrow, but still gripped my shoulder with one hand and covered his face with the other… He really was a tapeworm in my stomach. Even like this he could understand!

Just when I was thinking of using wind blades to thoroughly blast open this ice that was nearly ineffective by now, I heard Charlotte’s shriek. “You’re not allowed to take away the Sun Knight!”

Following the explosion of the shriek, the dark element in Charlotte’s body also exploded. The never-ending expansion of dark element seemingly engulfed her in a split second, then multiplied as it grew, turning into an immense, continuously expanding sphere. We were trapped in the middle of this sphere that was so concentrated it could suffocate a person.

All of a sudden, Judgment forcefully kicked at the ice. The ice, with me inside, was kicked so hard we flew out of the sphere. At the same time, he used the momentum to fly backwards. Following that, due to the huge mass of concentrated dark element in the middle separating us, I couldn’t see what happened to him.

In front of my eyes, the giant sphere suddenly exploded, and dense dark element swept directly towards me…