55. The Return of the Phantom of Martial Arts (2)

The world did not move as one person wanted; obviously because numerous people were trying to live their lives in many different ways. In that sense, if it wasn’t for Alyssa Patrick finding Sio Howl, who was dying from being stabbed by a knife, and if it wasn’t for Boris’ continuous effort to contact the trainees, the trainees probably wouldn’t have been able to gather this quickly. This change actually caused a number of problems for Gaor, the knight order’s traitorous captain.

“Anyway, I did something stupid out there. Thanks to that, I had some difficulty finding you guys. Well, it’s better that all of you are together.”

“C… Captain? How could you…”

Some of the trainees seemed more shocked by the fact that the person who had attacked them was none other than Gaor, one of the knight order’s captains.

“No… There’s no way the Captain would try to kill…”

“Let me ask you guys one thing.”

The black-robed people began closing in.

“Would you be willing to sacrifice yourselves for humanity and for the glory of the great knight order?”

“Of course! The knight order is basically my home now!”

Captain Gaor chuckled when one of the Anchor Knight twins shouted. He replied, “Alright, Miss Shayir. That’s the spirit.”

“But I can’t understand you killing all our senior knight members, cornering us, and killing Davey as well!” Shayir shouted in anger.

Gaor looked down before saying, “Everything is for the greater good. Trainee Treve… No, I should say Special Knight Sir Treve, since he will become one after this wraps up. Shandra, the transcendental being, cannot be controlled only by Sir Treve.”

“…”

“That is why we need your power. Don’t be so sad; your sacrifices will not be forgotten. I swear on my name, Captain Gaor.” Gaor pulled out his sword while sharing about a logic that only he understood. He added, “Only five people are needed as sacrifices. If you pick five people, I will let the rest of you live after erasing your memories. It’s not like killing innocent people doesn’t faze me.”

“Lies!!”

There was no one stupid enough to give up their lives after listening to Gaor’s ridiculous logic. As the trainees remained standing, the black-robed people slowly moved toward them.

“Rule number three of Alpha Reinforcements; you already broke the most basic rule that a knight member should keep,” Illyna answered coldly while raising her sword.

Gaor chuckled. “How unfortunate. Get everyone.”

“Yes, sir.” The black-robed people moved even quicker than before, speaking in scary voices.

Most of the knight order’s skill levels were higher than Expert, like the Coalition of Disease Control, and they had much more real battle experience than them. Furthermore, it seemed like the black-robed people had no objections to killing humans, the one thing the knight order members should be strongly against.

“Kyahh!!!”

“No, Lincy!”

As Lincy Peila drew her bow to stop the black-robed people’s approach, she was crushed to the ground. The black-robed people had charged together and overpowered her.

"Keugh!"

"Kyahh!! Stop!”

“Let go!”

At the same time, the other trainees were also crushed to the ground. They screamed helplessly, unable to fight back.

Splatter!! Of course, the trainees did not surrender and still tried to fight back. After all, some of them of the 286th generation were suspiciously powerful. Among them, Illyna de Pallan’s performance was the most notable.

“Gurgle… Gurgle…” The black -robed people collapsed to the ground while spilling blood from horrendous neck wounds. They were human, after all.

Looking at the grotesque deaths, Illyna was still furious and did not think about their situation. She addressed Gaor. “You…made a mistake.”

“Mistake?”

“I never forget revenge. I will make sure to kill you.” Illyna glared at Gaor menacingly and amplified her power by calling upon Caldeiras’ holy power. At the same time, she shot out like a bullet and slashed a few of the black-robed people who were attacking her. She didn’t stop there and charged toward Gaor, showing off her smooth and fluid blade motion.

“Hm…”

Boom!! With a destructive sound came [Large Mountain]; Illyna had a gift of never forgetting a skill as long as she had seen it once. Her attack, which was an improved imitation of Davey’s, was much sharper and more weighted.

Kagaga!! Gaor gasped with wide eyes. He was truly surprised at the unexpected level of destruction.

“Quite good! I heard that you’re one of the most talented, but this is far beyond my expectations.”

“Shut up!”

“I think that I just might be sad when I kill you.”

Illyna’s talent was truly astonishing; in fact, she was so powerful that it was difficult to find a worthy opponent among the Experts. However, if her opponent was a Master who could stand their own ground even while fighting four other ones, the situation would be different.

“You are lacking a little experience.”

Punch!!

“Kyahh!”

As soon as Gaor made an opening with a grin, a black-robed person threw himself over and pinned Illyna down. Splatter!! At the same time, the end of Gaor’s thin sword pierced her.

“Illyna!” The other trainees who were pinned to the ground screamed in horror.

Illyna still glared at Gaor furiously even while gushing with blood. “I will…kill you… I will kill you.”

As blood dripped from the side of her mouth as Illyna repeated her death threat, Gaor moved the tip of his blade and slashed her abdomen without hesitation. After making that huge wound, he commented, “I will let you go if you miss that boy that much. You can go first…”

“Sir Gaor, wait.” That was when a man who had just been watching from behind slowly approached Gaor and stopped him. The man said, “Let’s not kill her for a moment.”

“Hm? Do you need something from her?”

“She is the descendant of the Sword Lord, who has received the blessing of the spirit. She has the strongest blood out of all the descendants.”

“So?”

“She may make a good Dark Knight.”

No one understood what the man was saying except for Gaor, who nodded in understanding. Gaor then said, “Well, then do as you like.”

Gaor retrieved his sword carelessly.

Illyna coughed up more blood as she trembled from her injuries. “Cough… Cough…”

“Are you angry?”

“…”

“History is entirely written by the victors, Miss Illyna. Wouldn’t you rather stay partially alive and leave great accomplishments than become a remnant of the past?” Gaor persuaded.

Illyna scoffed and spat out her blood. “Eat shit, you damn murderer. Davey will bury you for sure…”

“You are expecting something from someone who’s already dead? How unfortunate.”

“Fun… Cough! Sigh… Do you know who he is? He will not die. He’s someone who will ice their cake.”

Whoosh… At the same time, a black energy flowed out of the man’s body. As it surrounded her, Illyna went completely pale.

“Ah… Ah….” Illyna soon widened her bloodshot eyes and rolled around on the ground, screaming. “Ahhhhh!!”

Illyna was feeling the pain of becoming half-dead while still living. Despair came upon the trainees’ faces as they saw her skin gradually rotting.

“Make sure you bring the elementalist sisters without a scratch. We absolutely need them. What happened to Shandra?”

“A large number of golems are blocking movement right now. It’s not enough to stop Shandra, but we are not enough to…”

As a black-robed person gave their report, Gaor clicked his tongue and stared at one of the huge golems on one side. He muttered, “The golems that boy left behind are amazing. I have never seen anything like this.”

“Let’s go back with a sample. Our researchers will go crazy for it.”

Illyna had lost her original beauty. She was just wheezing with a sore throat, twitching wildly every now and then. Her skin had turned gray-brown, while her eyes were red. She was drooling saliva mixed with blood. Her nails had cracked and grown longer, and her hair had turned dry and dead.

Normally, Caldeiras would have stopped the deceasing of a living person, but for some reason, Caldeiras, which had flown far away, was silent… At last, Illyna became fully silent after experiencing a drawn-out seizure.

Lincy covered her mouth with her hand and looked at Illyna with teary eyes; how could she not go crazy as she saw her teammate and good friend turn like that in front of her eyes?

Everyone was speechless at the unexpected violence. The realization that they were indeed left in a horrendous situation with no one to protect them led to a dramatic decrease in spirits. The trainees, who were gritting their teeth but had lost their fighting spirit, just let themselves be dragged by the black-robed people. That was when…

Whee… Everyone heard a faint yet clear sound.

“Huh?”

“What is…”

Whee! Boom! And before anyone could realize what that sound was, the sky above turned pitch-black for a moment before returning to its original color. The sky was momentarily blocked by none other than the enormous terrestrial dragon; one could mistake it for a legendary dragon if it had wings.

Shandra, the transcendental being, was the symbol of fear of the knight order and the king of evil beasts. It flew through the air and was crushed into the ground after being penetrated with a huge spear of light.

* * *

Crackk!! The end of Longinus, the huge spear that pierced into Shandra, flew back after the attack and struck the ground like a nail.

“Look at mine. What do you think?”

‘Ah, yes. Big and beautiful? You have a good eye.’

Everyone was silent when Shandra, who was a great, big being, suddenly flew through the air and crashed right into the ground.

Davey descended from the sky like a cannonball, ignoring the people who looked dumbfounded. He saw a situation that was five seconds away from madness in front of him. He commented, “I was gone for only a bit but look at this mess. Huh? What’s with that?”

Davey glanced over at Puma, the youngest golem among his fleet, that was on the floor. Even though they weren’t completely perfected yet, the fact that the golems were destroyed meant that they had taken a lot of hits.

On the other side, Davey could see Illyna lying on the floor in stillness. She wasn’t dead; her heart was definitely beating, but her skin was as pale as a long-abandoned corpse.

“Rinne. What’s the situation of the Decepticon Fleet?”

“Decepticon Fleet: three out of the five are unable to battle. Analyzing that they need retrieval. Other than that, Megatron and Sniper accumulated major damage, but movement is possible.”

Even though the five golems could overpower a Master without a problem, Shandra was an overwhelmingly strong opponent; it was amazing that they had held up for this long.

‘I think they might be able to increase their fighting power if I use some of the data that Rinne has obtained.’

“You can retrieve it, right?” Davey asked Rinne.

“Megatron and Sniper can be activated by retrieving broken and crushed parts. The rest will be picked up by Rinne.”

“Okay.”

The golems were larger than Rinne, but other than Puma, which was completely demolished, they could be retrieved by Rinne.

“You…”

Gaor frowned at Davey’s nonchalant attitude. It was like Davey had come to a different world.

“Do you know how much that is?”