Betrayal Knight's Joyful Faith

Chapter 508

Arendt’s judgment was correct.After Zakar and Diana changed their attack methods, the homunculi, which seemed to have an unlimited strength, began to take damage.

“The attack is working!”

An elf warrior shouted.

The archers in the rear and Llewellyn also continued to attack, focusing on the homunculus’ face.

A barrage of flaming arrows rained down on the face that resembled a god.

The homunculus continued to regenerate its wounds, but its slower recovery rate couldn’t keep up with the relentless onslaught of attacks

The arrow that Llewellyn shot with all his might flew towards the head of the homunculus that Diana was fighting.

The divine power was concentrated thickly and tried to obstruct the arrow’s path.

But Ray, who had just flown in, briefly dispersed the divine power with a powerful flap of its wings.

The arrow flew true, striking the homunculus squarely in the forehead. Llewellyn didn’t stop there, unleashing the power of the artifact condensed within the arrow.

!

With a loud bang, a large hole appeared in the homunculus’ head.

“Ugh..!”

Llewellyn staggered violently as his magic power was suddenly drained. Startled, Salem reached out and supported him.

“Your Highness!”

“I’m fine… really.”

Llewellyn answered, his face pale. He staggered back to his feet, refusing Salem’s help.

The homunculus’ head was badly damaged, as if it had been hit by a cannonball.

The wound slowly began to heal, but Richt, taking advantage of the gap, rushed forward and swung his sword again.

Part of the head, weakened by the arrow, was completely severed. The fragments that fell with Richt as he landed, immediately began to squirm and try to rejoin the main body.

However, as the knights rushed in as if they had been waiting for that to happen, they tore it to pieces, and the severed pieces were unable to return to the main body and simply disappeared.

Meanwhile, Arendt, who saw the sight, said:

“First of all, we can say that it’s not the head.”

Even as part of its head flew off, the creature showed no sign of defense. Laius, who had been fending off the merciless black tendrils, landed lightly next to Arendt.

“Then let’s aim lower.”

“I was planning to do just that.”

Next came the head, followed by the shoulders and chest. The goal was to gradually narrow the scope.

The two moved simultaneously. The moment Laius blocked the incoming attack…

Arendt leaped lightly, stepped onto Laius’ shoulder, and launched himself into the air.

For a brief moment, Laius staggered and snapped in annoyance:

“Don’t step on people!”

“Then why are you in the way?”

After exchanging a snarky retort, Arendt used the retracting tendrils as another springboard and launched himself higher. The previous divine power began to manifest again.

But, !

Llewellyn’s arrow flew in at that moment and scattered the mass of divine power.

Arendt spun midair, stomped on the tendril flying towards him, and leaped once more.

Silver frost swirled violently, leaving a long trail of frost across its shoulders and chest. Almost simultaneously, another strike came hurtling toward him.

Arendt was instantly thrown and crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust. Laius shouted urgently.

“Arendt!”

Laius shouted urgently. But Arendt remained motionless for a moment. Laius tried to approach him, but was forced to dodge another attack.

“Ugh, damn it…”

Arendt slowly lifted his upper body. Gravel and dust fell from his body.

‘I’m still okay.’

Still able to move, Arendt staggered and forced himself to sit up.

His entire body was a mess, covered in blood, dust, and tangled hair. But his golden eyes, still bright, held an even deeper venom.

A white frost began to settle on the ground he stood on.

‘It’s just a prop.’

No, that wasn’t a prop. It was a mountain too difficult to climb, an enemy too difficult to handle.

But the greater the challenge, the more it was fit for a heroic epic.

“Let’s see who wins, you monstrous bastard.”

If he couldn’t deal with this, there would be no moving on to the next act.

The sky, which had been dawn when the battle began, was now approaching late afternoon.

The homunculi were being carved, pierced, and slashed, gradually losing their divine majesty.

As a result, the number of wounded and dead on their side was increasing.

The cries of the medics who were hastily moving the bodies to prevent them from being taken by the enemy could be heard from time to time.

His head was pounding.

Reality and stories were different.

The spotlight of the play was only on the protagonist and the leads.

The screams and cries of soldiers dying in vain, those who lost their families, and those who were kicked out of their respective stages were omitted.

‘Reality is cruel.’

Arendt repeated blankly.

His vision kept shaking.

Because it was cruel, it was more beautiful than a clumsy stage.

So, he had to protect reality from the enemy’s hands.

It was impossible to take responsibility for everything, but it was possible to contribute a little bit of strength to make the world a better place.

That was the only divinity he could show to the grieving and the fallen.

Arendt adjusted his grip on the sword.

His dizzy vision faded and sounds returned all at once.

“Arendt! Are you okay?”

Laius’ urgent voice pierced his mind like a blade.

Thanks to that, Arendt was able to utter his lines again.

“Then would I be dead? It’s annoying, so please stop calling me.”

“…”

Suddenly the air around him changed.

It wasn’t just Laius, but everyone else around him were also momentarily bewildered by the absurd answer.

Arendt wiped the blood flowing down his jaw and flicked his sword. Then, whipping his unmoving legs, he attempted to rejoin the battlefield.

But then…

Arendt froze, eyes widening.

“Captain!”

Arendt’s gaze was fixed on the homunculus recovering from the blow that Zakar had just delivered.

Arendt opened his mouth without realizing it and shouted loudly.

“Solar plexus! Around the solar plexus!”

The massive sword-shaped projections seemed to be drawn toward his chest, as if sucked in. At Arendt’s shout, Laius, as well as Zakar and Diana, all froze.

Finally, the light was beginning to shine on this long fight.

The mountain echoes were intensifying. Warren followed Stellar, but occasionally had to swerve to avoid falling rocks from the summit.

As a servant of Lexion, Stellar was sensitive to a dragon’s presence. So, at some point, Warren, a werewolf, became of little help.

It was the same even now.

Smelling something, Stellar transformed into a dog and ran forward fiercely.

‘If this continues, it won’t just be a landslide…’

The entire mountain might collapse. If they were caught in it, Stellar and Warren wouldn’t be safe either. The tremors intensified, and it became nearly impossible to take a single step in human form.

Warren glanced sideways at the tree that snapped right next to him, then looked back at Stellar.

Stellar was leading him in the opposite direction from the epicenter, further and further from where he’d first smelled Nikephoros.

‘I have no choice but to trust him now.’

Warren just stayed silent and followed Stellar.

After a while of doing that, Stellar suddenly jumped and changed direction.

The ground surged upward, and a large boulder burst through the earth. Warren faltered, but Stellar, who had grown in size in an instant, bit his neck and leaped forward with a mighty leap.

Warren, flustered by the sudden situation, tried to struggle.

But the next moment, the sight came into view…

He froze stiffly.

“…”

The mountain itself seemed to scream. Black clouds were gathering around the distant peak, as if night had suddenly fallen.

And between the dark clouds, something slowly raised its head.

He couldn’t even find the words to express it.

It was nature itself, and at the same time a gigantic living creature.

The strongest creature on earth, who was given the title of the closest being to God, spread his giant wings.

He felt an instinctive fear.

He had a feeling that if he flapped his wings once, everything in the surrounding area would be destroyed.

“…”

His golden scales gleamed in the sunlight.

Lightning struck from the dark clouds that filled the sky, and soon a sudden downpour began.

As if in response, the giant dragon opened his mouth slightly.

The moment Warren stared at the sight, lost in thought.

A vibration greater than the echo of a mountain tore through the air.

Warren’s pupils began to flutter wildly. His stomach churned, and he felt like he was going to vomit.

The beautiful body of the golden dragon was fully revealed beneath the sky.

His enormous wings blocked out the sky, and his once-contracted body spread wide.

The dragon, clutching the mountain peak with both feet, leaped forward in a great leap.

A detonation, like the detonation of several gunpowder cannons, swept through the surroundings. Warren instinctively squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, Nikephoros was already gone.

Only then did Stellar, who had put Warren down, instantly return to his human form.

“Are you okay?”

“…”

Warren remained silent for a moment. No, he couldn’t even transform into human form, let alone answer.

Stellar, after a moment of frozen hesitation, glanced at him and prescribed a strong medicine.

“Snap out of it!”

He kicked him with all his might.

“There’s no time to stand around like a fool.”

“…!”

Only then did Warren come to his senses and return to his human form.

“…I’m, I’m sorry.”

Suddenly, the shaking around him had stopped. Warren looked in the direction Nikephoros had left and spoke in a dazed voice.

“Why is he just leaving? There’s no way he didn’t notice us.”

“He’s so out of his mind that he can’t even cast teleportation magic. He instinctively headed towards the Saintess.”

Stellar responded angrily.

“As I said before, Nikephoros is an old dragon. And… even after that war you call the Great War ended, he must have forcibly reduced his sleeping periods to maintain the Cult.”

And recently, he was seriously injured after a fierce battle with Lexion.

“He finally reached his limit.”

“Then…”

Warren hesitated, but Stellar responded with absolute resolve.

“But you can’t let your guard down. I know full well what kind of stupid idea you’re thinking.”

“…”

“A dragon that loses its mind and runs wild is more than just a natural disaster.”

It was not for nothing that they were called the closest being to God.

Stellar, who was looking at the sky where Nikephoros had disappeared with a complicated look, urged Warren on.

“…We need to move too. If you want to be of any help, you need to come to your senses. Now that the dragon is gone, you can smell it as well.”

“What do you mean by smell…”

Warren, who had been asking the question in a dazed manner, closed his mouth.

He noticed a strange smell secretly mixed in among the fresh scent of nature.

It was a stench that was impossible to describe. It was like the scent of blood, or like the smell of a rotting corpse.

It meant that the production site of the ghouls was not far away.