The Death Knights

The truth of the world shattered by the power of Fle, the god of dreams and death, was devastating.

The seemingly living inhabitants of the Gate were dead, and Grand Marshal Ricardo and his knights were Death Knights.

Witnessing the truth, Leon was exhilarated.

"Ha! I see why I didn't notice, I see why I didn't realize! The power to create the world itself!"

The gate itself had been a dream.

"That's it…!"

Grand Marshal Ricardo and his knights awoke to their true selves in the shattered dream, and the creepy aura of the Death Knights was no longer hidden.

-Do not disturb the queen's rest.

-Protect the queen.

The hostility of the Death Knights is directed at Leon, and he is puzzled by it, though he takes it all in stride.

"You are not a Fallen, soaked in malice, then…!"

Leon's sword turns to the Queen because as the dream cleared, he felt the aura of corruption from her.

The visions of this gate must have originated from her.

But Leon's blade is blocked by Ricardo Burns… the blade of a Death Knight. He deflects Leon's blade away from the Queen.

-Eliminate hostiles.

Muzzles pointed at Ricardo but just then, a Death Knight bumps into Yappy.

"Lord Yappy?!"

Yappy is pushed back by the Death Knight's charge but he swings a steel wire with his secondary arm.

Meanwhile, Ricardo's blade slashes at Leon with a fierce intensity. The warlord strikes again and again, as if he will never tire.

His sword is worn with age and power, and its strength is more than A-grade. But it wasn't enough to reach Leon.

-Boom!

Sword clashes with sword, and the struggle begins.

The warlord's sword pulses with power, but Leon's sword doesn't show the slightest sign of being pushed back.

"A fine sword, no, a sword so well honed that even though you're an undead I do not despise it."

But he was no match for Leon. Leon is the pinnacle of those who have walked the path and Ricardo's blade is pushed further and further away, until it finally digs into his shoulder.

"Get out of the way…!"

"General!"

With voices like boiling phlegm, the two knights parry Leon's sword and Leon's face lit up with anger at their intervention.

"How dare you betray the honor of knighthood and interfere in a one-on-one duel!"

Leon saw the pride in their swords. He felt the honor of knights who walked the path, and that made him even angrier.

"A scribe's sword and a knight's sword must be different!"

Leon's words were not lost on Ricardo and the knights' swords.

"Honor has long since been forsaken!"

"For…the Queen!"

The cries were unintelligible.

Were they not the ones who imprisoned her?

The queen herself had asked him to kill her knights.

Wait, kill her knights? Why would she make such a request?

Leon stared at the queen lying on the bed as he passed the knights.

For a queen who exuded an aura of blatant depravity and seduced creatures, she was still....

'Not an evil species?'

As the dream unfolded, the knights revealed their true colors but the queen still had vibrant skin and beautiful features unlike the demons of lust, who are ugly.

"What have you done, you bastards! What have you done to the queen?"

"We made a -deal- with the demons, King Lionheart."

The Spero Kingdom, like Leon's world, was being invaded by demons.

It was Beatrice, now Queen, who led the kingdom's army against the onslaught of evil. However, she was unable to withstand the onslaught of demons, and the Archdemon of Pleasure, Androzin, reached out to her as she stood on the brink of destruction.

[Queen, I admire your courage. We'll make a deal.]

[A deal…?]

[Embody the essence of corruption, and repeat the destruction of the kingdom for a hundred years. If you are not corrupted, I will spare you and your people]

Already facing destruction, the Queen of the Kingdom had no choice but to accept it, even if it was a demonic trap.

The war with the demons recurred every year.

At first, it was bearable.

Even if you were killed by the demons, you would be resurrected the next year and fight again. But they were up against the Archdemon of Pleasure. They humiliated and transgressed the people, the soldiers.

They corrupted them with endless pleasure and torture, breaking their minds.

Even the longest-lived soldier did not last more than three years.

[I… what have I done....]

Realizing what she had done, Queen Beatrice sought a way out, but the devil's traps were cunning and insidious. There were no loopholes in the deal she had already accepted.

She grew madder and madder.

By day she had to watch the demons slaughter her people, and by night the Fallen whispered to her.

[It's because of you. You're the reason they died]

[Be corrupt, embrace pleasure]

The sight of her kingdom falling and the essence of corruption planted in her body constantly tempted her.

After fifty years of this, when a loyal knight was finally unable to resist her temptations and infiltrated her bedchamber── Captain Ricardo Burns made a decision.

[Self-destruction]

Self-destruction was strictly forbidden in the world of Repetition. Androgen made no allowance for suicide, even when it was self-imposed or with the help of others.

[Those who commit suicide to evade the contract will become spirits wandering the Nine Realms forever! At the end of the hundred-year deal, you will become servants of the Fallen!]

Nevertheless, Ricardo Burns and the Thirty-seven Knights chose self-destruction.

Defend the Queen, and serve her. They knew that the oath they swore when they became knights of the realm could never be fulfilled while they were alive.

The queen's charms did not work on those who had died and become Death Knights, and they sealed her away.

"Though even that seal was little more than a half-day ritual to put her to sleep."

"...."

Leon sighed as he listened to Ricardo's story.

Their loyalty surprised even the Lionhearted King. But....

"That is why the queen asked this king to kill you."

To prevent her knights from becoming servants of the demons.

"The queen knows. She knows she won't last."

"No-! The Queen will endure-oh, five more years! Five more years! She will make it through!"

"How can a knight judge a monarch; your loyalty is admirable, but it is not loyalty!"

"Thou shalt not judge my loyalty!"

Ricardo's sword struck with all his might but Leon parried it with one hand.

Leon stretches out his arms to him, empty-handed. He reaches out with the intention of tearing his head off, but is stopped by a stabbing sword.

Leon drops his arm and steps back. Behind him, two knights swing their swords sideways.

-Boom!

Leon stretches his holy sword back to block and kicks out at the charging Ricardo.

"You think you can stop me…! Even in a pincer attack!"

The power of this monster has been witnessed in battles against demons.

A monster that has reached superhuman status with its physical abilities alone, even without the Holy Law. A knight among knights. Knight of Knights.

"Forgive the disrespect!"

One of the Death Knights swung his sword wildly. A stance solely for added strength but was too crude for a knight to use.

Leon didn't miss the opening. The blade of his holy sword stabbed straight for the Death Knight's empty side, but──

-Bang!

The Death Knight's shield blocked Leon's blade and in the next moment, the Death Knight's sword swung at Leon.

Leon barely manages to deflect it aside and a strand of golden hair is cut off.

'He's deliberately showing me a gap to make me attack!'

A bold move based on the assumption that his fellow knight would defend him.

Leon could feel the trust in that solidity.

The attacks continued and just when he thought he dodged the spear, he was tackled from behind.

The Death Knight throws his whole body to push Leon away, not giving him room to swing his sword, but giving his teammate a chance to attack.

Leon catches Death Knight with a right hook and throws him to the ground and as he raises his sword to deliver the decisive blow, a sharpened spear stabs him.

-Bang!

The sound of impact rang out like a cannon blast.

He barely managed to block the spear strike with my sword blade, but his trembling hands couldn't absorb the impact.

'Strong.'

If it were the Lionheart Kingdom, they would be able to walk the path of the Holy Knight to uphold the honor of the Goddess.

Each and every one of them must have been a knight of renown.

'Perhaps their abilities have been diminished by becoming undead.'

Knights of this caliber are known for their refined swordsmanship. Becoming undead might have increased their physical strength, but it would have diminished their refinement.

"And yet…so capable…excellent!"

Ricardo Burns looked down at Leon from his position at the head of the knights.

"We are the knights of the Spero Kingdom. Throughout the centuries, we have grown stronger and united!"

For the defense of the Queen alone.

How can these loyal knights be called a bunch of wraiths?

"Well done, knights, you have done more than your share of honor and pride. But...."

Leon returned his holy sword to the Grail and in his hand, he now held a large jousting lance.

"Before you is the history of the Three Hundred Years' War of the Lionheart. Can you bear this weight?"

"What nonsense...."

"Take this weight, and I will recognize you."

Leon rode on Stallion as he distanced himself from the Death Knights.

"Chase!"

But the Death Knights have also summoned ghost horses. The ghostly horses roam the land, united in death with their masters, and pursue Stallion.

"Fast!"

But the ghost horses failed to catch up to Stallion. This horse, given to him by the Goddess of Light and Justice, is of a different bloodline.

The ghost horses could only stare in disbelief as the white horse closed the distance in an instant. And the moment the distance is closed, the rider's head turns in the opposite direction. Any knight can recognize it.

-Charge…!

-Coming…!

A cavalryman's strongest strike. Charging.

"Glory to the Lionheart…!"

The horses pound the ground and with their lances raised the knights charge in unison.

One knight and thirty-seven knights but in the moment of contact, the Death Knights realize their fate.

-Boom!

The first collision sent the leading knight flying along with his ghost horse.

The second clash did not diminish Stallion's momentum in the slightest as the Death Knights were sent flying.

"Kwak?!"

The third row of Death Knights had only grazed the god horse, but they couldn't hold on to their horses.

-Thwack!

Ricardo raised his sword straight up even as he rolled on the ground. He realized that his opponent's charge was beyond common sense.

"No…!"

Ricardo looked around and saw that all of his fellow knights had fallen to the ground.

In this moment of shock, he was the only one who managed to pull himself out of the way and withstand the impact.

"With a single charge… you managed to dismantle the Queen's Guard?!

Even his hardened skin quivered at the shock but Leon's holy spear burrowed under Ricardo's chin.

"Awake from your fleeting dream."

"The Lionheart King…!"

Where did this monster come from, how could such a powerful being appear now?

"We-I…!"

He had not yet extinguished the flame of defiance. His loyalty to repeat his queen's time and finally save her moved his body.

"If you can't wake up from your dream in the end, then live forever in your delusions. Foolish knight."

The spear was about to strike when Leon realized at once that a horde of demons was approaching, with an aura that could not be more sinister.

They were already gathering their forces and marching however Leon could have taken care of Ricardo first but he didn't.

"Rise up, soldiers of the Lionheart! How long will you remain asleep?"

The voice rumbled through the halls and roused the stunned soldiers.