Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 289

There was one thing Arendt did not tell his colleagues.It was one thing that he could never bring up, not now, nor for some time to come.

Arendt roughly wiped away the blood flowing from his busted mouth and watched the confrontation between Laius and Roger.

‘As expected, the captain is getting a little pushed back.’

As expected from a protagonist called a Munchkin1, Laius was insanely strong.

However, he still had not obtained the Holy Sword.

In “The Blue Knight of the Holy Sword”, Roger fought almost equally with Laius, who had obtained the Holy Sword.

However, the reality was that no conclusion could be reached.

Although he was on par with Roger thanks to the ‘Shadow of the Strong’, Roger’s artifact, the ‘Blessing of Karma’, was a ridiculous thing.

To face Roger with minimal damage, the correct approach was to be patient and buy time, but that was easier said that done.

‘If you think about it…’

It meant that he, Richt, and Arthur had to do more than just the Holy Sword to completely eliminate Roger.

‘Thinking about it, that’s also a difficult thing.’

Arendt stopped calculating.

It was because he realized that estimating things this way was meaningless.

Roger stubbornly tried to destroy the door while dealing with the knights.

Although Laius and Arendt took turns blocking the door, one or two large scars were still being carved into the sturdy door.

“I’m going crazy, seriously.”

Arendt took a magic stone out of his pocket, clenched it in his hand, and activated the artifact.

The magic stone turned into dust in his hand.

‘Is this the third one?’

Roger, who was momentarily taken aback by his actions being read, regained his composure as if nothing had happened.

As expected, he was not an easy opponent.

‘This damn stage.’

Had anything ever gone smoothly?

The fact that he was now thinking about it again was proof that he was feeling a sense of crisis.

Arendt quickly brushed aside his thoughts and focused on his role.

No matter what happened, what he had to do as ‘Arendt’ would not change.

The snake’s huge head rushed forward as if to swallow Shekhinah.

!

However, the snake’s fangs only dug deeply into the ground where she had just been standing.

Shekhinah quickly stepped back and began to prepare her magic.

While she was standing still, the snake opened its mouth again and attacked.

But Diana stood in its way.

!

The snake’s gaping fangs and Diana’s sword clashed head-on.

“…!”

Diana, who had been defending, quickly pushed the snake’s head aside with a sense of impending danger and retreated.

At that very moment, a thick cloud of poison erupted from the snake’s mouth.

“Ssss!”

As the purple fog touched the ground, it began to melt and turn black.

Perhaps frustrated at missing the attack, the snake raised its red eyes and looked for Diana.

Then, suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew in.

!

The snake’s temple burst open with a dull sound.

A little further away, Llewellyn activated his artifact.

In the meantime, Shekhinah finished casting her magic and shouted.

“Fire Spear!”

The flame spears that had bloomed near her flew all at once toward the stiff homunculus.

But the magic dissipated and disappeared before they could reach the homunculus’ scales.

Shekhinah’s eyes widened.

“What?”

Shekhinah, embarrassed, turned to look at Jiklin.

Jiklin met her eyes and smiled brightly.

“What’s the problem?”

A small spirit floating around Jiklin caught her eye. The spirit was protecting the homunculus by dispersing the magical power with its own power.

Meanwhile, the pierced homunculus’ head was slowly returning to its original shape.

Llewellyn burst into hollow laughter.

“I’m going crazy.”

It felt like they stirred up the temper of the giant snake monster for no reason.

Running away, as the guy habitually said, would be one way, but that didn’t seem very feasible either.

Diana, who was sticking close to Llewellyn, started speaking.

“I can’t think of any clever way to break through head-on, but how about you, Your Highness?”

“If it were me…”

Llewellyn let out an awkward laugh, then his voice died down.

“Well, I guess there is a way.”

“The problem is that spirit.”

Diana seemed to have had similar thoughts.

There must be a reason why Jiklin, who rarely shows up on the battlefield, took part in person.

‘To retrieve the artifact, I guess.’

Diana gripped her sword tightly, lost in thought.

Even though the ghouls and the so-called ‘miracle soldiers’ subordinates had intelligence, she couldn’t bring herself to entrust the Until Dragonborn into their hands.

Instead, she would have brought out a spirit named Rita for self-defense.

‘And Shekhinah’s magic is being hindered by that spirit.’

Only one way to overcome all these problems occurred to her.

Diana gave Llewellyn a sidelong glance.

“Your Highness, is it alright?”

“Captain, don’t you trust me? Don’t you know who I am?”

A playful answer came back.

It meant that he should not be treated differently because of his status.

“Of course I know. You are the leader of the Explorers’ Union and…”

Diana answered, looking towards Shekhinah.

Shekhinah, who had been keeping the snake homunculus in check, also noticed the gaze and nodded slightly.

Diana spoke, the corners of her lips slightly curling.

“Aren’t you a good errand boy for our Third Order’s apprentice knight?”

“Even you, Captain Diana?”

Llewellyn grumbled in discontent, but he couldn’t deny it.

The prince turned his gaze.

“I don’t know if it will work or not.”

His hand holding the magic stone tightened.

“Just give me a moment, Captain. And honestly, there is one thing I do believe in.”

“Okay, don’t get hurt.”

After giving a brief instruction, Diana immediately sprang up and ran out.

Her sword was aimed directly at Jiklin.

As soon as Jiklin took a step back in surprise, a curtain of warm air enveloped her.

The power of the spirit protected Jiklin.

The snake, sensing that its master was in danger, also uncoiled itself and rushed toward Diana.

But Shekhinah unleashed her defensive magic just in time.

“Shield!”

!

The snake’s head slammed directly into the shield.

While the homunculus and Jiklin were immobilized, Llewellyn started charging ahead.

Jiklin opened her eyes wide in confusion.

“Uh?!”

But Diana had no intention of letting her go yet.

“Look this way, kid.”

Diana, who had taken a step back, rushed at Jiklin again.

Of course, her sword never touched Jiklin.

However, it was difficult for Jiklin to maintain her composure when the sword blade flew right in front of her nose.

The serpent kept ramming its large head into Shekhinah’s magical shield.

But Shekhinah’s shield magic was also gradually showing its limits.

Jiklin had no choice but to grit her teeth as she saw the magic that had blocked the snake from the front gradually falter.

“You seem to be planning to let the prince escape, huh? Do you really think I’ll let that happen?”

In an instant, Jiklin’s figure vanished, only to suddenly appear a few steps away from Diana.

“Rita!”

As she cried out sharply, the little spirit answered her call.

Diana noticed for a moment that the strange magic that had been surrounding Jiklin had dispersed.

And the unexpected event occurred behind them, from Shekhinah’s direction.

!

With a cracking sound, Shekhinah’s defensive magic shattered into pieces.

An excited snake homunculus pounced on Shekhinah.

Shekhinah tried to dodge quickly and prepare for her next spell, but it was impossible to deal with the homunculus alone.

“Tch!”

In the end, Diana had no choice but to abandon Jiklin and join Shekhinah.

“Get out of here!”

Diana, who had pushed Shekhinah away, blocked the monster’s teeth once again.

!

The excited snake fought Diana with even greater force than before.

A shock that felt like it would take all the breath out of her body swept through her, but Diana somehow held on and managed to push the snake’s head to the side.

The snake was unable to overcome the speed at which it was rushing and ended up hitting its head on the ground again.

Shekhinah and Diana took a step back as the dust began to rise.

Jiklin had disappeared without a trace.

Diana asked shortly, not letting her guard down.

“Shekhinah, are you okay?”

“I’m okay. I released my magic just before the spell was broken. But…”

Shekhinah glanced in the direction Llewellyn had run to.

“Is His Highness really okay? I know he is not weak, and several of my subordinates followed him.”

Several elven warriors, already keenly aware of the situation, followed Llewellyn.

Diana responded calmly.

“He will probably be fine. As long as His Highness doesn’t push himself too hard.”

Actually, that’s what worried her the most, but Prince Llewellyn wasn’t that stupid, so he would figure it out.

It was unknown how powerful Jiklin would be, as she could summon ghouls and even mastered spirit magic, but there was no need to worry too much about that either.

Because they still had one option left.

“Let’s do something about that snake first, and then we’ll follow.”

“All right.”

Shekhinah nodded at Diana’s words.

Now that the spirit was gone, magic would no longer be interrupted.

And according to the report of the Third Knights, the homunculi were vulnerable to fire and ice magic.

Now all that was left was to beat up that big monster until it was dead.

Llewellyn ran frantically through the dark forest.

.

The bushes and trees passing by let out an eerie scream.

His destination did not matter.

‘It’s important to get as far away as possible.’

This way, Shekhinah and Diana could deal with the homunculi without any interference.

Jin will probably have no choice but to follow the one with the artifact.

Since she had a sharp mind, she would easily realize that this was a trap.

But she had no choice.

This was because she could not overlook the possibility that the artifact could be stolen or destroyed in the brief moment he was out of sight.

After running for a while like that, Llewellyn noticed a few figures following him overhead.

The elf warriors were deliberately making their presence known.

That alone was a great comfort to Llewellyn.

‘To properly use the archers…’’

It was better to head towards the side with as many trees as possible.

Regardless, the arrows wouldn’t be able to reach her because of the spirit named Rita.

Having made that decision, Llewellyn headed deeper into the forest.

As the trees grew denser, the darkness deepened, and the path was completely cut off.

Although it became more difficult to move, Llewellyn did not stop walking.

After a while, he arrived at a small clearing surrounded by trees.

The pitch-black sky, as if it was a lie, had opened up, and faint moonlight was streaming into the vast space.

However, Llewellyn had no choice but to halt his steps before even stepping into the clearing.

There was already a guest who arrived first.

“Running away…”

A clear voice, so pure it almost seemed innocent, could be heard.

A girl standing in the center of the clearing smiled brightly at Llewellyn.

“Is this all you’ve got?”

She acted as if she were meeting an old friend she had been waiting for a long time.

Although she could use teleportation magic, it was impossible to outrun him and wait ahead without knowing his destination.

There was only one possibility.

The forest was the realm of elves and spirits.

And next to Jiklin was a newly born spirit.

A spirit so strong that it was able to block Diana’s attacks several times.

The power of that spirit personally led Llewellyn to where Jiklin was waiting.

“…Damn.”

A short sigh escaped Llewellyn’s lips.