On the broken streets, the undying knight stood tall.
She gripped the broken sword reforged from her own flesh and charged once more into the enemy lines.
The erupting mana manifested as a pitch-black Soul Color.
She stomped the ground hard, and every step sent tremors that rattled the armor of the Demon Army soldiers blocking her path.
“Don’t be afraid… Stop her…!”
Facing her advance, the Demon Army commander issued another order.
But anyone could hear that his voice was already tainted with burgeoning fear… and so soldiers began to steadily retreat.
“No retreat! Do you want to be executed by the Demon Lord? Summon demons to block her, then keep bombing from a distance! If one volley doesn’t kill her, bomb her until she dies!”
What happened next, Iyue couldn’t recall clearly.
It was incomparable agony—pierced, torn, shattered… falling again and again, then rising again and again.
Fortunately, the pain that nearly crushed her consciousness finally came to an end.
After she single-handedly shattered the battle formation, the Demon Army, unable to bear the losses, finally routed.
And only after they retreated did the guard unit defending the entrance to Fenglin City’s Upper District finally arrive.
“It’s that knight again? Healing mages and doctors, come quickly!”
In a daze, Iyue heard a familiar voice… Lian En’s voice.
Only then did she remember… during that war, he and Vera had jointly defended the Upper District entrance of Fenglin City.
And the reason Fenglin City could hold out until reinforcements arrived under the surprise attack of the Demon Spirit Duke was almost entirely thanks to the two of them joining the fight.
—Actually, that wasn’t the whole truth. The numerical disparity between friend and foe was truly immense at the time…
The fact we could win was largely due to the sacrifice of a nameless Fairy Knight.
At the door of the cabin, Lian En, who had recounted the battle of Fenglin City to her, once told her that.
“Hah… hah…”
Replacing the pain was an endless surge of fatigue.
But hearing the footsteps of people approaching from behind, the owner of this body forced herself to stand up from the ground.
She ordered her flesh to stop expanding… and at the same time created a mask on her face to conceal her features.
—She wore a mask on her face, so we didn’t know her true identity.
But when we were stretched thin by the enemy’s assault, she always harassed the rear of the Demon Army, drawing away a large portion of the enemy’s attention.
“Lady Knight… how are your injuries?”
The one who came to support her was Vera. Vera studied her wounds with a grave expression.
But the knight simply raised one hand and waved gently, signaling that she didn’t need help.
“Wait… Lady Knight!”
She walked with immensely heavy steps toward the street where the Demon Army had retreated…
That place now belonged entirely to the Lower District, which had become the Demon Army’s encampment.
“Please don’t fight alone anymore! Come with us and receive treatment in the Upper District! Your injuries are too severe!”
She was very strong. The Demon Army, constantly harassed by her to the point of annoyance, had been trying to hunt her down, but every time she managed to drive back those who came to capture her.
We kept inviting her to join us… but she always refused.
She did not respond to Vera’s invitation. When doctors and healing mages tried to check her condition, she waved them away.
—Her strength is probably greater than both mine and Vera’s, right? Maybe she thinks we would hold her back…
No, that wasn’t it… Iyue could hear her inner voice:
‘I have to leave. The mana that twists this body and makes it regenerate without limit can no longer be suppressed.’
‘Otherwise, this swelling flesh… will horrify them. These brave people, fighting desperately to defend their homes and protect peace—I can’t let them see something so ugly.’
“Lady Knight…!”
Vera’s call grew distant… The knight walked alone, once again stepping into the ruins of blood and fire.
By day, she devoured the flesh of enemies to replenish the mana that regenerated her body—the realization of any magic demanded a corresponding price.
By night, she curled up in collapsed ruins, desperately suppressing the mana that threatened to burst her body, maintaining her mental clarity and her human form—every moment, her spirit was tormented by searing pain.
—That knight’s guerrilla warfare kept the Demon Spirit Duke from ever breaking into the Upper District.
In the end, he was even forced to appear personally—it was during that battle that we heavily wounded him.
But the knight also suffered a fatal wound… She left alone, as always, and we never saw her again.
The young hero felt genuine reverence and admiration for that noble person she spoke of… but beyond that, she also felt regret and sorrow for the ending that person met.
—If only she were still alive.
Waletidina… Waletidina. In such pain, how did you manage to endure?
In the blink of an eye, everything Iyue saw changed.
She hastily touched her body to confirm her existence… and realized that her attire now was the armor she had worn as a Guard Knight.
“Are you asking me that?”
She looked up and saw a forest where a crimson stream flowed… and standing on the shallows, a female knight in battered armor.
“Waletidina… is that you? What is this…?”
“Have you seen it all clearly? This is the hell that the Princess—Her Majesty the Queen—once faced.”
The stream flowed… a corpse floated before the two of them.
It was the Ancient Elf King, unable to rest even in death—Senia’s father.
“The Previous King protected her until the very last moment, but she could only leave the bones of her beloved father behind, letting those magical beasts gnaw at his body.”
Then the female knight—Waletidina—raised her sword and pointed in another direction.
Iyue followed the tip of her blade and saw that the surroundings had turned back into that broken street, that blood-soaked battlefield.
On the battlefield, the Demon Army and Fenglin City’s defenders were locked in desperate combat.
“And this is the battlefield you once fled from. The toppled trees and collapsed houses here were the homes of the people you swore to protect. The dead soldiers here were your brothers and sisters you swore to share life and death with.”
“You ask me how I endured… Isn’t it obvious?”
Waletidina’s blade pointed at Iyue.
“Because I have always been faithful to my oath, just as I was back then. And you—a traitor who abandoned what should have been protected—still have the nerve to wear this armor?!”
Soul Color manifested, and icy killing intent surged.
“I hate you, Iyue Nairfu. Why did a traitor like you gain Her Majesty’s favor? Why did she choose to forgive you, who committed such grave sins? Why did you, the strongest among the Imperial Guard… not stay by her side, by our side back then?!”
“Waletidina…!”
Waletidina swung her sword to strike, and Iyue had no choice but to draw her blade to parry.
Under Waletidina’s frenzied assault, which aimed to take her life with every blow, Iyue kept retreating.
“Her Majesty may forgive you… but I will not! Neither will the eighteen comrades who died in that forest land! You, who abandoned every oath, who forsook everything you were meant to protect—how dare you stand before me?”
The twin swords clashed, the ringing of metal echoing sharp and clear.
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