Inside Carne Village, the massacre was still underway — except now, the hunters had become the prey.
At first, the knights had done what they were trained to do: herd the villagers into the central plaza, then search every house.
To prevent anyone from hiding in basements, they followed their standard procedure — drench the homes in alchemical oil and burn them down.
Four mounted knights stood guard on the outskirts, bows in hand, ready to shoot down anyone who tried to escape.
At first, this process had been a little awkward, but this wasn’t the first time they’d done this — they had repeated this procedure several times already, becoming more efficient with every village they destroyed.
It was almost foolproof by now.
The next step was simple — slaughter every last villager.
“Accidentally” let a few escape so that word would spread, then make sure the story blamed the Empire for the attack.
The Church’s involvement would be perfectly hidden.
That’s how it was supposed to go.
But… Londes thought back to what had just happened.
He recalled the image of his comrade, Arianne, who had been responsible for cleanup, suddenly flying through the air.
It had happened so quickly that no one had even had time to react.
Nobody knew what had really happened.
But when a fully-armored man is sent flying like a ball, even if magic lightened his armor’s weight… there was no way a human could have done that.
Then, the monster had appeared — a terrifying Death Knight — slowly lowering its tower shield after swatting Arianne away like a bug.
And thus began a feast called despair.
Eighteen knights surrounded the Death Knight.
But it was obvious that the attackers were far more nervous and terrified than the one being surrounded.
The trembling tips of their swords gave them away.
And truly, the comparison wasn’t even fair — Death Knights didn’t even know what “fear” or “nervousness” meant.
“AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
One of the knights, completely unable to bear the crushing fear, screamed and bolted from the circle, breaking formation.
When faced with an undead monster like this, human nerves were stretched to their absolute limits, and the mind worked at peak speed.
Obviously, his calculations had concluded that fleeing was preferable to facing this abomination head-on.
But none of the others followed him.
Was it courage that kept them in place?
Of course not.
The reason quickly became clear.
In the corner of Londes’ vision, a black whirlwind appeared, moving so fast that the eye could barely follow it.
Nobody ever told him that Death Knights, things that look so heavy and clumsy, could be this fast, faster even than a demon panther!
The fleeing knight had barely taken three steps when a massive sword flashed like lightning.
On the fourth step, he learned the meaning of “splitting yourself in half” — literally.
His body fell apart into two pieces, blood spraying, unidentifiable organs scattering across the ground.
The Death Knight, now drenched in blood, threw back its head and roared in delight.
It was obvious that this undead creature was reveling in the slaughter.
‘Mother… I miss you so much…’
No one else ran.
The fate of the deserter had made that clear.
But no one attacked either, their weapons couldn’t even scratch the monster’s armor.
And its attacks?
A single swing could bisect a man.
If it wanted to avoid killing, it would merely bash them aside with its shield, carefully controlling its strength to leave them alive.
After a few more were cut down while trying to flee, the remaining knights no longer dared to run.
After all, living one second longer was still living.
No one wanted to meet their end sooner than they had to.
But their attacks were useless.
Running meant a gruesome death.
‘Did undead even take prisoners?
What a ridiculous thought.’
‘I really must be going mad’, Londes thought.
Then there was only one outcome left… to be toyed with until death.
Even though everyone was fully armored, hiding almost all skin and expression, Londes was certain everyone’s faces were showing exquisite despair right now.
Someone even began crying — he could hear it.
‘I want to cry too…’
Tears welled up in Londes’ eyes, just like the villagers earlier.
‘Why is this happening to us?’
‘Surely this was the peasants’ fault.’
‘If they had just obediently let themselves be killed, we could have been done and gone already.’
‘We wouldn’t have had to face this monster.’
‘Damn these filthy peasants!’
“You!
All of you!
Block this monster and let me escape, damn it!”
At that moment, a loud voice sounded right next to the Death Knight.
You had to admire the courage it took to shout like that with such a creature standing so close, but the words themselves were anything but brave.
It was Captain Belius…
Honestly, if Captain Belius hadn’t been aroused by that village woman’s screams and dragged her off to vent his desires, they would have been done long ago.
What was so fun about defiling such lowly filth anyway?
And then hacking off her limbs afterward?
It was disgusting.
Very rich!
Protect me — protect me and I’ll reward your families with as much gold as you want!”
Completely oblivious to his subordinates’ growing resentment, Captain Belius shouted as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
No one obeyed his order.
Not only did this “gilded” officer have zero authority, but who could possibly stop that thing?
And then — the Death Knight moved.
The loud, panicked shouting had clearly displeased the creature that loved deathly silence.
It began to advance toward Belius.
“Aaaaaaah!
Save me!
Save me!
I have money, lots of money!
SAVE ME!”
His screams went unanswered.
Well, perhaps half-answered — the knight who had been sliced in half earlier began crawling toward Belius, having turned into a zombie, emitting a grotesque moan.
Seeing this, Belius stumbled backward and fainted.
Which, under the circumstances, was perfectly understandable.
But would the Death Knight spare him just because fainting was understandable?
Obviously not.
Its greatsword plunged straight down, sliding through Belius’ body as easily as a knife through tofu — just as easily as he had killed villagers and that woman earlier.
“UuuuuuuuuAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Faced with true death, a human could scream far louder than they ever thought possible.
The searing pain shocked Belius awake and he howled in terror.
“Let me go… please… please…”
Crying, he clutched the sword impaling him as if holding it would somehow prevent the monster from pulling it out.
Of course, the Death Knight didn’t care.
The noisy source was irritating, and it wanted silence.
The sword began sawing up and down like a jagged saw blade.
Armor and flesh alike were sliced apart as though they were paper.
Blood gushed, painting the Death Knight red.
“Ah… ah… ah…”
The screams grew weaker and weaker.
By the time the Death Knight had severed everything inside his torso, Belius exhaled his final breath.
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