Chapter 223
'Peter Pan... my sister?'
Billy, having regained his lost memories, spoke urgently.
"I-I remember now! The captain definitely created a huge wave to wreck the ship and fought that pretty but scary knight."
"Where are the two of them now?"
"O-over there... they went inside."
"Inside the ruins?"
"Yeah, that's right. The Silver Knight couldn't beat the captain in the sea, so she ran into that inner part. The captain went after her and told us to wait here and stop anyone who comes in."
Hearing Billy's words, Zeke realized that Cali was being pursued by Peter Pan.
'If I'm any later, Cali might die at Peter Pan's hands, just like in my previous life.'
Zeke said to Billy,
"Billy, help me. That's the only way to save you, as well as your captain."
If Peter Pan killed Cali, it would become irreversible.
Abel would surely kill all the mermen, claiming it as revenge for Cali, and try to bury what happened here.
Billy's face turned pale at Zeke's words.
"W-we have to save the captain. Can you really do that, sir knight?"
"Yes, your captain is probably cooperating because the Empire has you mermen as hostages."
Then, Billy nodded vigorously.
"That's right! That's right!"
"Take me to your captain. Then I'll help you save the mermen who are captured."
Billy hesitated at Zeke's words and then stood up.
"Alright. I'll take you to where the captain is, so follow me. You know how to swim, right?"
Zeke nodded, and Billy led him, plunging into the seawater of the circular space they had entered earlier. With only his upper body above water, he pointed to one side.
"There's a path this way!"
Then, he went straight underwater.
Zeke followed Billy, also diving underwater.
As he submerged, the newly acquired skill 'Underwater Breathing' activated.
'Being able to breathe underwater is amazing.'
Zeke swam much more easily underwater, following behind Billy.
The space created underwater was much larger than the temple he had seen above.
However, this place had also been destroyed by someone and was in ruins.
Zeke followed Billy, passing through the ruined underwater temple and going deeper inside.
Then, a huge entrance appeared below. As he confirmed the entrance, a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[You have entered the Abode of the Deep Sea Race.]
'Deep Sea Race?'
In context, it seemed to refer to the ancient mermen.
'So the ancient birdmen were the Sky Race, and the ancient mermen were the Deep Sea Race.'
Zeke followed Billy into the Abode of the Deep Sea Race.
Billy gestured to Zeke and then pointed towards the surface of the water.
The two immediately went up to the surface.
"Phew!"
Just like when they had entered, the two were in a huge circular space filled with seawater.
Zeke went up to the terrestrial temple and then raised his mana, blowing away the seawater.
Hooduduk!
Dried salt crystals fell down with soft thuds.
Billy looked at Zeke with wonder.
"Sir knight, you can do all sorts of things. You're the first person I've seen who can dive as long as we can."
"It's nothing special. But Billy, do you know where this place is?"
At Zeke's question, Billy shook his head.
"We don't really know either. We were drugged and dragged here too. Since it's hard for people to come all the way here, they probably brought us to see what's inside."
"Do you remember what they told you to look for?"
"It's blurry, but... I think they told us to come and tell them if we found anything dangerous or rare-looking."
As Zeke had expected, they seemed to have used the mermen to explore these ruins.
'They don't seem to know that this is the Sea God's ruins.'
Zeke had always wondered how the Empire found out about the locations of ancient ruins.
They didn't seem to know exactly what the ruins were or where they were, but they seemed to know that something was in the vicinity.
'Do the Abyss side have some kind of magic artifact specialized in searching, like an absolute compass?'
Since they used such bizarre magic and sorcery, it was hard to be certain about anything.
Zeke followed Billy deeper into the ruins.
Then, Billy, who was walking ahead in the ruins, looked at the floor and showed a flustered expression.
"Huh? What's this?"
"What's wrong?"
Billy pointed to the floor and said,
"There are footprints here that I've never seen before."
Zeke approached and checked. They were traces of the Imperial Army.
'Judging by how deeply they're imprinted, they were wearing armor, and the stride is consistent but somewhat unnatural.'
Zeke realized that these footprints were those of a Fiend.
In that instant, Zeke pushed Billy away and stuck close to the wall.
He gestured to Billy to be quiet and pointed to one side.
Fiends were walking around in the opposite corridor.
Zeke whispered softly to Billy.
"Is there another way in here?"
"Th-there might be. This is a really big ruin, you see. The captain and the Silver Knight probably came through a different entrance."
It seemed the Empire's forces had entered up to a point they deemed safe.
Zeke left Billy behind and approached where the Fiends were.
He first took out a ghost soldier to scout the surroundings.
'Maybe because it's so big. There are only those three here.'
If it became noisy, Cali and Peter Pan might escape to another place.
If that happened, he would end up missing them again, so Zeke decided to deal with them as quietly as possible.
He stealthily deployed the Authority Shadow Domination.
Tsutsutsutsu—
Zeke's shadow expanded and touched the shadows of the Fiends.
Kugugu—
As Zeke's shadow grabbed the Fiends' shadows, they stopped moving.
At the same time, Zeke moved his ghost soldiers to restrain the Fiends' bodies.
Then, he quickly dashed out and severed their necks with his dragon claws.
The ghost soldier caught the falling head.
In this way, Zeke eliminated the three Fiends in an instant.
To avoid leaving any traces, he devoured the Fiends with Gluttony.
Tsutsutsutsu—
The Fiends, enveloped in shadow, soon vanished without a trace.
[You have devoured a corrupted Fiend tainted by demonic energy.]
[Consumed health, mental strength, and mana have been restored.]
[300 Karma Points have been awarded as a reward.]
He had received 100 points per Fiend.
'Quite lucrative.'
Fiends tainted by demonic energy had high Karma Points and could be devoured, making them efficient to deal with.
After cleanly disposing of the Fiends, Zeke turned his gaze to Billy and gestured, but Billy was trembling as he looked at him.
"S-sir knight, are you a m-monster? I wouldn't taste good even if you ate me..."
He seemed to be shocked at seeing Zeke instantly kill the Fiends and devour them with his shadow.
"If I were a real monster, why would I have left you alone until now? Stop worrying about useless things and guide the way quickly. That was just magic."
His excuse worked, and Billy, relieved, brushed his chest and re-entered the temple.
He went into a hole in one corner of the temple wall.
"We waited here and moved according to those guys' orders when the captain came."
Following him into the hole, Zeke saw a makeshift base.
Billy went further inside and called out,
"Captain! It's me! Billy!"
It was then.
Zeke felt a strange premonition and abruptly grabbed the back of Billy's neck.
Whoosh!
A sharp sword sprang out from the wall.
"Eek! W-what was that!"
Zeke threw Billy behind him, took out Bahamut, and activated Hercyon.
Chrararak!
The reason he even equipped Hercyon was because the hostile aura he felt from behind the wall was formidable.
'What is this aura?'
It was a fierce aura like that of a Fiend, but it felt more refined.
Zeke recalled a similar feeling of aura.
'A demon?'
Thump!
In that instant, a knight in armor appeared from behind the wall.
He was wearing full plate armor that covered his entire body, and his face was hidden by a helmet, making it impossible to identify him.
Zeke recognized that the armor the mysterious knight was wearing was Hercyon.
'Is he an Imperial Knight?'
Just then, the knight moved.
Bang!
He was quite far away, but with just one stomp of his foot, he instantly flew to where Zeke was.
As the knight flew towards him, he brought his sword down on Zeke.
Kwa-kwang!
Zeke raised Bahamut and blocked the knight's sword.
However, he felt as if the knight's sword strike was permeating his body.
'This is?'
Zeke quickly stepped back.
He recognized the identity of the aura that had swept past his body.
'Forceful Quake? No, it's a bit different. Is it another kind of martial art?'
If he were a normal knight, his aura would have scattered from that attack, and he wouldn't have been able to stand properly.
Zeke, gripping Bahamut, unleashed Forceful Quake.
Uwooo-oong!
Shockwaves spread out from his center.
Feeling the vibrations emanating from Zeke, the knight flinched.
He raised his sword again and aimed it at Zeke.
'His swordsmanship is Imperial style, but the martial art he uses is demonic.'
He was an opponent whose identity was difficult to gauge.
Zeke also aimed his sword, inwardly calling out to Arataso.
'What?'
'Arataso, take a look at what kind of martial art that knight is using right now.'
'You think martial arts are child's play? Humans can't use that—'
Paching!
'—can they?'
Arataso was taken aback seeing the knight's martial art imbued with shockwaves.
This time, the knight swung his sword in succession.
Paching! Paching! Paching!
Even the simple sword strikes were imbued with shockwaves, making him quite difficult to deal with.
But that was only the case for ordinary knights.
Zeke gradually read the texture of the shockwaves the knight was loading onto his sword and neutralized them with Forceful Quake, offsetting the knight's sword strikes.
Paching!
Before he knew it, Zeke's sword pushed back the knight's sword and counterattacked.
Thump!
The knight, whose sword strike was pushed back, took a large step and retreated.
Having grasped the situation, Zeke nodded and smirked.
"Alright, I'll make you spill who you are soon enough."
At Zeke's words, the knight took stance again.
But surprisingly, the stance he readjusted to was none other than the Ready Stance of the Dragon Slayer Art.
'This bastard? Could it be?'
Kwa-kwang!
The knight stepped down hard and unleashed the Dragon Slayer Art towards Zeke.
It wasn't even a basic Dragon Slayer Art technique, but an advanced Dragon Slayer Art skill passed down only to the official Draker knights was unleashed.
Dragon Slayer Art
Form 3
Thunderclap Sword
Like a descending thunderbolt, the sword fell towards Zeke swiftly.
Zeke took a step forward towards the knight and also used the Dragon Slayer Art.
Dragon Slayer Art
Chapter 1, Section 2
Sky Piercer
Zeke's sword pierced through the thunderbolt and shot straight forward.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
The deflected sword completely devastated the spot where Zeke had been.
Zeke didn't miss the opportunity and thrust his sword.
Kwaddeudeudeuk!
Bahamut struck the knight's armor.
Zeke imbued the shockwave of Forceful Quake into the Sky Piercer's sword strike.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The shockwave permeated the knight's body, vibrating his aura circuits.
Kwaddeudeudeuk!
The knight was flung back against the wall by the powerful impact.
Kwa-kwakwang!
The knight crashed straight through the wall.
Hoodududuk!
Stones rolled down from the broken wall.
Zeke slowly approached where the fallen knight was.
Getting closer, he could tell that the knight's breath was barely there.
Zeke quickly used Shadow Domination to read the knight's memories.
Perhaps because he was on the verge of death, only fragmented, disjointed information flowed into his mind.
Zeke frowned as he read the information.
The fallen knight was none other than one of the knights belonging to the Silver Knights Order.
Zeke quickly read more of the fragmented information.
'The information is too broken up. Baptism? This word keeps repeating. And another word that keeps repeating is...'
Zeke gritted his teeth as he looked at the fallen knight.
"Hail, Siemens."
It was a word he had clearly heard when looking into Aeron's memories.
Zeke's expression turned cold.
"This bastard, he's someone Siemens raised."
Just like the Night Killers, he had been brainwashed since childhood, raised as a knight, made a Draker knight, and then inducted into the Silver Knights Order.
Zeke felt a chill run down his spine at Siemens's scheme.
'Aren't these guys completely insane?'
They had been meticulously preparing for over a decade to strike Cali from behind at a crucial moment.
Soon, the knight slumped over, his breath gone.
Just then, Billy's urgent voice erupted from inside the base.
"Sir knight! This is bad! Our captain is dying!"