Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 17

Chapter 17: The Second Intruder

“. . . How.  How is it possible for a mere human to survive my direct lightning bolt? What trickery. . . . . .”

Shocked, Karugon suddenly met Russell’s gaze. His eyes shone brightly in the darkened surroundings, piercing violet. Karugon, upon meeting his gaze, felt a sudden surge of dizziness that caused him to stumble and lose his balance.

“Ugh!”

His large, scaled hand flew to his face, covering it. However, even as he squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hand against them, creating darkness, the image of Russell’s eyes burned into his retinas, refusing to fade.

Crackle, crackle. Yellow electricity surged over Karugon’s dark blue scales, writhing like a serpent before diving into his eyes. Karugon opened his eyes; his yellow iris was now rimmed with a blood-red hue. As Karugon spoke, tears of blood began to flow.

“Violet eyes. . . Those rare purple eyes. How could a mere human possess purple eyes?”

“How would I know?”

Russell shrugged at Karugon’s rant. He then picked up the claymore that had fallen nearby, its leather-bound hilt charred black. Russell completely unwrapped the frayed leather and grasped the cold metal.

“And what does it matter? You’re going to die anyway.”

“You insolent fool! I will rip out those cursed purple eyes of yours!”

As Karugon raised his staff to aim at them, the draugr corpses slowly began to advance. Seeing this, Russell let out a low chuckle and charged forward, meeting them head-on. Albert, who had been observing the situation from the air, gasped in astonishment as Russell faced the fifty draugr alone.

“That fool! What does he think he’s doing, rushing in alone? Everyone should prepare for battle! Huh?”

Albert, who had been hurriedly forming hand signs, suddenly uttered a strange question. An unbelievable sight was unfolding before his very eyes. The draugr were being decimated. A single warrior wielding a greatsword was doing the devastation.

Lifting dozens of stabbing spears into the air at once, the claymore slashed across the exposed backs of the corpses. A wide, sweeping arc from left to right severed the upper and lower halves of the draugr.

As Russell swung his greatsword, gaps in his defense appeared, into which the remaining draugr thrust their spears, swords, and shields. At that moment, lightning struck. Karugon’s eyes widened further, their vertical pupils narrowing.

“Impossible. . .!”

Crackle, buzz. Blue electricity flickered across Russell’s left hand. Russell had suspected he could wield lightning ever since he first appeared alongside it, but now he had confirmation.

“This can’t be! This can’t be happening! Even if you possess purple eyes, such a thing is impossible.”

Unfazed by Drakan’s cries, Russell continued to slaughter the draugr. Russell couldn’t definitively determine if he could continue to kill the already-dead, but the cleaving apart of their heads or upper bodies caused them to stop moving, a sufficient definition of death.

He deflected a shield and thrust his greatsword forward. The claymore, much longer and larger than a regular sword, impaled three more draugr corpses behind the first one. He moved his muscular arm, crushing the ribs of the snarling corpses, then pulled out the claymore, causing blue lightning to flash once again.

No hot blood or entrails spilled from the draugr’s twisted bodies. Only an unidentified black mass gushed out before evaporating into smoke.

Slash. Lightning. Slash. Lightning. In that endless cycle, more than half of the fifty Draugr had already fallen. In the midst of the battle, Russell felt more satisfied than ever.

Russell had noticed a sense of familiarity creeping in from the moment he first felt Karugon’s lightning strike. This sense of familiarity was stronger than when he had followed Evelyn’s fire or deflected the troll’s fiery breath. Lightning was an almost familiar sensation, seeping into Russell’s being as naturally as his original five senses.

He couldn’t explain why it was so, but it didn’t matter. At that moment, all that mattered was making this friendless, ugly monster of a dragon-man taste the thrill of his own crackling lightning.

Kwagagagaga!

Blue lightning and white sword strikes caused the draugr to collapse with silent screams.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

“. . .Is this human?”

Albert muttered blankly. He and the group of humans behind him stood as dumbstruck as he was. They couldn’t help it.

They had prepared themselves for a desperate fight, only to witness a single warrior slaughtering the draugr single-handedly. Someone spoke.

“We’re not necessary, are we? He seems to be able to handle them all on his own.”

“. . .So who’s that guy?”

“He’s the one who killed the minotaur earlier.”

“. . .that monster?”

“Yeah.”

Kaaa-aaa-aaa-aaak-!

At that moment, a thunderous roar echoed across the battlefield. The group of humans gasped in surprise and looked toward the roar’s source. It wasn’t difficult to find. Standing behind the draugr was a three-meter-tall dragon-headed monster: Karugon.

Russell, who had almost finished off the draugr, swung his greatsword at Karugon. Something fell from the sky with a thud. It was a dark blue, scaled left arm.

🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷

“You, son of a human!”

Russell dodged an attack from Karugon, who had suddenly appeared from behind a pile of Draugr corpses. However, the attack’s wider range than expected tore the leather armor on his chest.

Russell looked down to see blood seeping from his slightly cut skin. The monster transformed his staff’s tip into a blade and swung it.

“Your little runt doesn’t even know how to raise a dog, yet you dare to bark like one.”

Russell raised his claymores. The man with the greatsword and the dragon-headed monster with the spear clashed their weapons.

Karugon had spent countless years, several times the lifespan of a human, honing his physical strength, mastering combat skills, and becoming a master of spellcasting.

Even so, he was no match for Russell. He couldn’t overpower him. Moreover, he couldn’t even fight on equal footing.

Bang!

Karugon, who had blocked the great sword with his staff spear, was unable to withstand the force and stumbled backward.

“How dare you say that I am inferior in strength and skill?”

Karugon, his voice full of disbelief, lunged to the side. The greatsword, brought down from above, carved a large chunk of earth, creating a cloud of dust. Soaked in rain, Karugon stumbled to his feet, his appearance pitiful as he wore the soil and gore of the draugr on his scales.

“You. . .!”

Bang!

A bolt of blue lightning pierced through the dust before he could even let out a roar of anger.

“Gyaaaaah!”

Karugon thrashed about in agony as electricity coursed through his body. His vision flickered, turning black and white repeatedly. In his blurred vision, he saw Russell swinging his greatsword.

His muscles, still trembling from the electric shock, could only twitch. His left arm was weakly lifted. He tried to form hand signs, but neither his magic nor his fingers would move properly.

He couldn’t believe this situation. Karugon was filled with joyous anticipation when he first discovered the records of a vast underground labyrinth beneath the human city of Calisden, sealed within an ancient dragon.

Long ago, most dragons had left or disappeared, and even the remaining dragons had become elusive. Aside from his own kind, the dragonkin, all traces of those magnificent beings had vanished.

Despite this, Karugon had never stopped searching for traces of dragons. And finally, he had found it. Hundreds of years ago, Calisden, then known as De Calas, was the place where the last remaining dragon, Ismenios, had resided.

That was why he had dropped everything and traveled to this distant northeastern metropolis.

He had joined a powerful human bandit group, honed his strength, tamed and controlled monsters, gradually eliminated the increasingly suspicious bandit leaders, added them to his draugr, and planned to surround this city with trolls and minotaurs, poisoning them with magic seeds and killing them all.

And he had sought to discover the dragon’s existence, improve his magical abilities, and gain new knowledge. Even if it were sealed and alive, it would not be difficult to overthrow it, and if so, he could become the first of the dragonkin to tame a dragon.

‘If only, if only. . .!’

A flash of lightning and immense pain shattered his memories.

“Ah. . .?”

Karugon looked down blankly. His left arm was gone. A moment later, he heard the sound of his severed left arm falling to the ground.

“Aa. . . .”

Karugon staggered back. Black blood dripped from his arm’s stump, just below his shoulder.

“Aaa. . . Aaaaah. . . . . Aaaaahhh!”

Karugon began to scream. The scream gradually took on a metallic sound before becoming a deafening roar.

Kaaa-aaa-aaa-aaak-!

“I’ll! Kill! You━!”

Karugon’s skin began to emit dark, chaotic magic. Seeing the ominous signs of something sinister, Russell was about to charge forward, but an invisible force slammed into him, sending him flying far away.

As Russell flew through the air, he adjusted his posture and landed stably on his feet. He stood up and raised his claymore.

“What the?”

A violent windstorm suddenly struck.

“Whoa! What the hell?”

“D, Damn it! Someone hold me!”

Only a few could stand upright in the blinding windstorm. With their magic, Albert, Elenora, Lexi, the wizards, knights, and Zeona alone could withstand the wind. Albert looked in horror at the sinister energy gathering around Karugon.

“That’s the resentment and spirit of the dead! What kind of magic is that, crazy bastard?!”

Russell also looked toward the wind’s source. Karugon sucked in the same dark, sinister energy he had seen earlier on the ramparts. It looked like a black whirlpool was enveloping him. That must have been his doing.

Four surviving draugr, identified by their attire, stood around Karugon. They stood at the four cardinal points around Karugon, staffs of twisted wood in their hands, and chanted. Their voices murmured low, and the uneasy flow of magic swirled. The chanting ceased abruptly.

And then, the four draugr wizards collapsed. The wind stopped. The rain had noticeably weakened. Karugon uttered the final incantation.

“Black Branch of Calamity.”

Crackle, crackle!

Black lightning of a similar color struck down from the dark cloud-covered sky. There wasn’t just one or two. There were dozens, or perhaps hundreds, of lightning bolts.

“Waves of radiance! Embrace them with your warmth and loving heart.”

Elenora immediately raised her mace with both hands, holding it up like a flag. Her light and armor wings then transformed into a gentle wave of particles that climbed up her arms and gathered on the mace.

From the mace, a golden beam of light spread out to a certain point before expanding into a hemisphere, forming a protective barrier around the group of humans.

Thanks to Elenora’s quick thinking in creating the barrier, the group of humans were safe. They all looked at her with expressions of admiration and gratitude. However, at the same time, their expressions hardened. In streams, sweat dripped down their faces. Their limbs began to tremble as if they were about to give out. A single line of blood flowed from their bitten lips.

Crackle, crackle!

“Priestess! This is. . .!”

Albert immediately realized her burden and raised his staff to form a new barrier inside. As the elf wizard poured all his energy into the barrier, Elenora dropped her mace and collapsed. And the striking black lightning continued to hit Albert’s barrier.

“Ugh! This. . . Such, such reckless magic. . .!”

The 150-year-old elf wizard found himself forced to kneel on one knee. The blue crystal that rotated inside the crook of his staff spun so fast that its shape was indistinguishable.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I can’t see a thing!”

“Damn it, are we going to die like this!”

Black lightning engulfed the surroundings, making it impossible to see anything beyond the barrier. And then there was a sinister, crackling sound. It was the sound of cracks forming in the barrier that Albert had created.

Elenora, who had collapsed, tried to raise her trembling hand, but she continued to lose strength, while next to her, Lexi, Evelyn, and Zeona supported the priestess and looked outside the barrier. Their expressions showed no fear of death or resignation, unlike those of the other soldiers or mercenaries. They seemed to be waiting for something.

And then a blue flash of lightning struck.

The black lightning bolts stopped. Albert coughed up blood and collapsed forward. As the barrier disappeared, the rain that had stopped for a moment started again. It was much weaker than before. It was almost like a drizzle.

All eyes converged on one location. Russell stood there with his claymore plunged into Karugon’s chest. The divine energy that had been shining on the back of his left hand dissipated.

Sometime ago, when he had defeated the uruks, the divine power that Elenora had instilled in Russell had blocked Karugon’s black lightning. The time it had blocked was brief, but it was enough for Russell.

Karugon coughed up blood. He tried to say something.

“. . . . . .!”

Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo.

However, the vocal cords were no longer producing a voice or anything else.

As Russell pulled out his claymore, Karugon’s massive body fell to its knees.

And then a thick, black liquid covered him. Karugon’s corrupted magic is now consuming its master.

It was a mixture of the remains of monsters, humans, and draugrs that had fought on the plains until now. The pungent odor and evil energy wafted in the air.

Russell looked up at the four━or five-meter-tall giant standing in front of him.

“It’s jiggly.”

The black giant swung its fist. Russell was not there. He was floating high in the sky. Having learned the power of lightning from Karugon, he had become even more powerful, both physically and magically, than before.

It was what was known as enlightenment, a state where one went beyond the realm of a superhuman in times of life-threatening danger or when fighting an equal opponent.

In the midst of the countless lightning bolts striking down from the sky, Russell had realized the driving principle of lightning, the shape of the magic that formed its backbone, and the source of its rampant, expanding power.

Russell now believed he had grown strong enough to vanquish the Karugon he had battled prior to his lightning strike. Just the fact that he could leap into the sky with a single step was proof of that. The ground below him, which he looked down on, seemed far away.

Just then, Russell sensed a surge of magic power coming from far to the west. He also heard a clear voice. It was not the voice of anyone present, but of a third party.

“Keno-Kasto!”

At that moment, another flash of lightning and thunder occurred in the sky, and white lightning surged up like a net before shooting out from a single point. Its target was not Russell, but rather the black giant. ‘No, why are they stealing my kill?’

Russell, annoyed, pointed the tip of his greatsword towards the sky. At that moment, the white lightning that had been heading towards the giant suddenly changed direction and struck Russell.

“Huh?!”

The previous voice uttered a question.

Russell was struck by white lightning while floating in the air. The white lightning snaked along the blade of his claymore and seeped into Russell. Blue and white lightning flashed across his skin. It felt like the descent of a thunder god.

Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo!

On the ground, the black giant looked up at Russell and flailed its arms like a child. There was no trace of the drakan from before in that childlike behavior. It was a clumsy movement, as if a newborn child, who had not yet developed logical reasoning, was crying for its parents.

Russell swung his lightning-wrapped claymore straight at the black giant. The cyan lightning followed the great sword’s swing and raced across the sky.

A flash of lightning occurred.

Everyone on the ground opened their eyes, which had been closed. Russell was standing on the ground. The snake-like electricity licked at his body here and there before quickly subsiding.

Right in front of him was something that looked like charred coal. Kneeling on both knees, its arms hanging down, and its head bowed, it was unmistakably the black giant from before.

Russell stood tall in front of the black giant, who was kneeling with his head bowed.

The sight they were witnessing would leave a lasting impression on everyone present.

Cracks began to appear in the black giant’s body.

The lightning soon burned the black giant’s source of evil magic, causing it to lose support and shatter into several boulders.

And so, Karugon died.

“Ha! Who are you? What did you just do?!”

At that moment, the voice of the third party who had created the white lightning in the sky approached. His helmet muffled the voice, making the identity of the third party—a man or a woman—immediately unclear.

He was riding a white horse, wearing magnificent full-body armor and a gold and silver cloak. His belt featured a scabbard and sword hilt decorated with expensive-looking jewels.

His appearance suggested extraordinary wealth and high status, but Russell’s voice was curt, as he had almost lost the monster he had just captured.

“Before you ask that, why don’t you introduce yourself first?”

“Oh, right. Sorry, I was just so surprised.”

The white horse’s rider dismounted. The helmet and face guard he wore completely concealed his face and eyes. His vision seemed unrestricted, despite the helmet and face guard completely hiding his face and eyes.

When he muttered something inside his helmet, something amazing happened. The face guard slid open to the sides and folded down, and even the helmet he was wearing began to fold back. ‘What is he, Iron Man?’

Russell made a surprised expression at this sight, which was hard to come by in medieval fantasy.

When the helmet folded all the way back and disappeared into the cloak, the face that had been hidden from the world was revealed. Astonishing gasps echoed from various locations.

A waterfall of tied silver hair cascaded down. She had skin so fair and delicate that it appeared prone to staining upon touch, with neat eyebrows, a clean forehead, a straight nose, and full, red lips. She had the appearance of someone who belonged in a noble or royal family rather than on a rain-soaked plain.

She pushed back the silver hair that had fallen over her forehead, revealing her eyes. Brilliant golden eyes, which seemed to welcome the world, shone brightly.

And as if the timing were perfect, the dark clouds parted and the first rays of dawn appeared. The first rays of dawn bathed the sky, which had been unable to observe the ground due to the dark clouds, revealing its crimson hue.

The first thing the first rays of dawn saw was her back as she stood with her back to the west. The sunset’s glow touched her. Even her silver hair turned golden. With her golden hair and golden eyes shining, she looked like the daughter of the sun god who had descended to earth.

Standing with the first rays of dawn behind her as a backdrop, she placed her hand on her waist and spoke confidently.

“My name is Julia Hippolia de Hyperion. I am the first princess of the imperial family of Hyperion’s thousand-year empire.”

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