Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 331



Only Krnovel

Episode 331. Eyes and Sword (4)

Parts, parts, parts, parts!

A dark sphere appeared above Isaac’s head. It was a strange phenomenon that occurred when Kachulain absorbed the surrounding light. The wind blew across the area, scattering fallen leaves and sand, and it felt as if even the knights were being sucked forward.

“What the heck is that… … ?!”

“This is evidence of an evil heresy!”

While the adjutant was shocked, Soltna spouted nonsense. He said that because it was a code of light, but it seemed to absorb light. However, some high-level paladins, including Dera Heman, recognized that it was a type of advanced swordsmanship.

They had already experienced and seen the strange phenomenon that could be created by the combination of holy relics, swordsmanship, and swordsmanship. However, the great mass of power that Isaac was displaying was something they had never seen before.

The next moment, Dera Heman took a step forward. It was impressive how brave he was to approach that dark mass, but with such a powerful force, it would be common sense to dodge and wait for an opportunity.

But instead, Dera dug into Isaac.

The moment Isaac saw that place, he realized something.

‘this.’

Isaac slashed down with Isaac’s Sword Technique: Horizon of Thought before Terah could get any closer. The dark sword and the Ruaddin Key that Terah had drawn clashed head-on.

Kukukukung… … A gust of wind burst out like a storm and swept through the monastery. The knights staggered as if they would collapse at any moment, but they kept their eyes wide open so as not to miss this one scene that would go down in history.

But there was little they could see. When the dust finally cleared away, the courtyard was shattered into pieces around Isaac and Terah. The walls and floor were tattered in strange shapes, as if a monster had clawed them through.

But the most devastated of all was Isaac, who was covered in wounds as if he had been bearing the brunt of the explosion all by himself.

Of course, even though he was standing on the other side, he wasn’t completely fine. The pure white armor that seemed to have no scratches was tattered like a rag, and the mask was broken in many places. Isaac saw Dera’s deformed eyes behind the mask.

Three eyes revealed from outside the mask stared at Isaac. The moment Isaac met those eyes, he felt his strength drain away. At the same time, the key to Ruaddin flew towards Isaac.

Thud, thud! Crunch, thud! Isaac barely managed to block Cachulain. He was somehow able to block it by mustering up his strength, but it was clear that he was having a hard time.

The adjutant sighed in relief at the sight.

“… … Throwing a strong number from the beginning turned out to be poison to the Grail Knight.”

“Strong moves? Are you saying that was swordsmanship just now?”

“This is a truly advanced swordsmanship. Any other person would have been torn to pieces in an instant. If it weren’t for our leader, that is. With such a powerful move, the backlash would have been huge, but it seems he was quite confident.”

As the adjutant said, Isaac looked desperate to stop it.

However, the adjutant could not figure out how General Dera Heman was able to deflect such a powerful advanced swordsmanship. However, after watching the fight between the two closely, he was able to obtain a clue.

‘Are you really… … influenced by Carlsen Milter?’

Isaac knows that the duel between Carlsen Milter and De La Hemann ended in a landslide victory for Carlsen.

But one thing he didn’t know was that since then, De La Hemann has been replaying and training hard for that fight in order to defeat Carlsen Milter.

The adjutant could see why the fight was going one-sided.

Whether Isaac was a secret disciple of Carlsen Milter or a member of his Apostate Knights, Carlsen’s influence was felt strongly.

And De La Hemann spent countless hours trying to defeat Carlsen Milter again. He had already analyzed the Carlsen Milter from the time of the duel to the point where he could defeat him if they ever met again.

‘It’s decided.’

Isaac was only trying to hold on. No, Terah could have knocked him down at any moment. However, Terah seemed to be expecting something from Isaac, so he did not knock him down and just kept pushing him.

Crash! But the twist didn’t happen.

As Isaac’s wrist bent at an odd angle, making it impossible for him to hold his sword any longer, Kachulain was thrown out. Seeing this, Dera paused for a moment and then raised his sword as if he was going to cut Isaac at any moment.

At that moment, Hesabel and the adjutant reflexively jumped out. The adjutant hurriedly stopped Dera, and Hesabel protected Isaac.

“Chief, Chief! We decided to bring this to trial! You can’t cut it now! Think of the Isacrea Dawn Army!”

Fortunately, Dera Heman did not lower his sword. He glared at Isaac with bloodshot eyes, as if he was more excited than when he was fighting, and then slowly put his sword down. Then, without looking back, he left the courtyard.

The adjutant sighed in relief and looked back at Isaac and the other paladins.

“Isaac Isacre. As the match has been decided, you are hereby stripped of your title as Commander of the Isacre Dawn Army. Furthermore, Inquisitor Saltna Culbane has charged you with heresy. Until a fair trial can be held, you will be held in custody by the Knights of the Golden Lion.”

I thought there would be an immediate backlash because it was such a sudden remark.

However, Isaac did not rebel, but instead remained calm, unlike someone who had been defeated. Rather, his calmness was even more intense than that of Dera, and the adjutant felt something uneasy, but he motioned to the knights.

“Take him and bring him here.”

***

In every monastery of the Knights Templar, a prison has been created to confine heretics, apostates, and heretics.

Of course, most of the people who end up in that dungeon are trainees who sneak out of the monastery and get caught drinking alcohol.

A similar dungeon was built beneath the Milishar Monastery.

However, what was different from other prisons was that the windows were wide open to the sea, so seawater would seep in whenever the waves crashed. The walls were rough, cold, damp, and smelled like blood, and in many ways, it was the worst prison.

“I know that I cannot invite the renowned Grail Knight to a place like this, but I ask that you please wait quietly until the trial. I am sure that there will be a fair result.”

One of the paladins who had escorted Isaac to the prison spoke cautiously. As was the case with most prisons like this, there were prayers and taboos put up to prevent miracles from being activated, but it had been left unattended for so long that no one could tell if it was functioning properly.

But Isaac had no intention of causing trouble either. The knights looked visibly relieved.

They whispered at a distance from Isaac’s prison.

“Even if the rumors about the Knights of the Holy Grail were only half true, wouldn’t this prison be a piece of paper?”

“The captain is guarding it. If I escape, I’ll be in trouble right away. What can I do?”

Isaac laughed bitterly, but didn’t bother to argue back.

‘So this is what it ends up like.’

Isaac looked around the prison and thought.

As a courtesy to the ‘Saint of Resurrection’, his armor was not taken away, but all his weapons were taken away. Of course, Isaac’s real weapon was hidden inside his body. It was a weapon that could not be taken out and wielded carelessly.

Isaac lay down on the rough floor and called out to Hesabel. Hesabel had been expelled from the monastery for possibly helping Isaac escape.

‘Hesabel.’

‘… … .’

‘Hesabel?’

‘… …Why did you give in?’

Hesabel looked somewhat distressed.

It seems that Isaac was looking forward to seeing the arrogant Inquisitor take down even the Commander of the Paladins.

Well, the current situation is different from the scenario Isaac had discussed in advance.

‘It’s not that I gave up. I really couldn’t win. No, it was a situation where I shouldn’t have won.’

Just before the showdown, Isaac really intended to defeat Dera Heman. However, just before he could strike Dera down with Isaac’s Sword Technique: Horizon of Thought, he instead dug inward and canceled all his plans.

Dara was ready to take on any swordplay Isaac used.

It was a counterattack that struck at the very foundation of Isaac’s swordsmanship.

When Isaac was still a young novice in the monastery, eating rats, he trained his swordsmanship by swinging, stabbing, and striking his sword tens of thousands of times.

Isaac has tremendous talent, so if he just lays the foundation, he can blossom to the next level through his tremendous talent.

And Isaac’s very ‘tremendous talent’ came from Carlsen Milter.

In other words, the foundation of Isaac’s swordsmanship was something that came from Carlsen.

Whatever swordsmanship Isaac uses, its foundation is derived from Carlsen’s swordsmanship. And since his last defeat, Dera Heman has been working on conquering the basics solely to defeat Carlsen.

It was an abnormal obsession. It was also a proof of how hurtful the previous duel had been.

‘… … That’s why I hastily canceled the thought horizon and received all the recoil with my body. After that, it was difficult to deal with Dera with advanced swordsmanship. The bigger and more powerful the swordsmanship, the more likely it was to be dangerous.’

Of course, Dera Heman’s swordsmanship is excellent. However, if you ask whether he is far superior to Isaac, then that is not the case.

In fact, it was amazing that he had noticed Dera Heman’s response at the first move. If he hadn’t noticed, Isaac would have been hit by the counterattack and fallen on the spot.

But the problem was that after realizing it, there was nothing Isaac could do.

If we’re talking about compatibility, there’s no worse one than this. Derra Heman was literally a trap set up to eat Isaac.

As a result, we lost, so we had no choice but to say that it was a set procedure.

In fact, if it had been Carlsen Milter instead of Isaac, the outcome might have been different. Carlsen Milter wouldn’t have been sitting around playing while Dera Hemann was training.

Carlsen was a man who secured the status of an angel with just one sword and aimed for the position of a god. He could be said to be the strongest swordsman since Elril.

No, at least if Isaac had had another year or two, it might have been different.

‘It might have been better to have tried it once in Lichtheim… … No, then I might have read the traces of Carlsen that were attached to me.’

But Isaac didn’t lose entirely because of his swordsmanship.

Even if Isaac somehow defeated Dera Heman, there was still a possibility that the angel would intervene. The insurance that Isaac had prepared was not yet fully prepared, and he had to buy time until then.

So Isaac ended his duel with Dera on an unpleasant note.

To make Dera Heman feel thirsty.

Even though I gave it my all, I still lost, but I didn’t give it my all, so it felt like I lost for some reason.

‘There’s still time anyway. I knew it when I came with Soltna. Dara can’t kill me right away. There’ll be time before the trial, and maybe one more chance. Until then, you wait outside for your chance. When you’re ready, I need your help.’

‘… What if Dera Heman comes in before that and says he’s a bad guy and wants to kill him?’

Isaac was about to answer that that probably wouldn’t happen, but then stopped because he heard a strange noise coming from outside.

“Oh, Captain. Are you here? Yes? Are you a Grail Knight? Open the door?”

Isaac broke into a cold sweat and wondered if he could escape by breaking the window and jumping into the sea.

***

As Dera Heman’s large body entered the narrow prison, Isaac felt like he was starting to develop a claustrophobia that he had never felt before. The knights looked at their leader, who was still handcuffed, with anxious eyes as he tried to meet the Grail Knight alone. However, when Dera made a gesture, they quietly retreated.

Isaac spoke first because Dara had no choice but to speak first.

“Shouldn’t there be someone to interpret?”

Instead of calling his adjutant, Dera Heman slowly took off his golden lion mask. Isaac felt a fear of eyeballs growing on him as he looked at the face.

The face beneath the mask was as white and clean as porcelain, perhaps because it had not been exposed to sunlight for decades. However, when Isaac saw the seven eyes staring straight at him from that flat face, he couldn’t help but feel an instinctive sense of awkwardness.

It is a human instinctive fear of the ‘unnatural’. There is no way a human being in that state could survive. If it were not for a miracle, a human being who would have died long ago is being kept alive in an unnatural way, which in a sense is a denial of the order of the light code.

[You were weak.]

Suddenly a voice echoed in Isaac’s head.

Isaac recognized that this was the voice of Dera Heman. Among the dozens of miracles layered on his body, there seemed to be one that conveyed his will. It seemed that he could only use it if he took off his mask.

[You were much weaker than Carlsen. What happened? How did you defeat the angels and bring the swordsmen of Elril to their knees with that strength?]

“Didn’t you think you were strong?”

[I am weak.]

Isaac wondered if this was really what the most powerful knight in the Code of Light was saying. Then, as if something was bothering him, Dera Heman put his mask back on. To Isaac, it looked like he was putting an oxygen mask on his mouth.

After a while, Dera Heman took off his mask again and whispered.

[… … I am weak. Those who are strong are people like Carlsen. I thought you were like that too, but now I don’t know. Are you pretending to be weak, or are you really weak?]