Chapter 68: The Traitor (3)

The Demonic Knight of Annihilation returned, Chapter 68.

Damien pierced Sanus's chest with the holy sword and then planted it into the ground.

“Cough! Cough!”

Sanus spat out blood repeatedly. Damien spoke in a cold voice.

“Stop whining. Heal your wound with holy power.”

Damien had avoided Sanus's heart when he stabbed him, as he still had many questions to ask. He couldn't kill him immediately.

“Brother!”

As Damien subdued Sanus, Dyonisio ran towards Gamal.

Dyonisio poured a potion into Gamal's mouth and then used holy power to heal him.

“D... Dyonisio...”

Fortunately, Gamal quickly regained consciousness. As soon as he came to, he got up.

He still looked very weak due to his severe injuries, but Gamal moved his legs and approached Damien.

Dyonisio tried to persuade him to rest, but Gamal ignored him.

“Thanks to you, I was saved. I will repay this favor.”

Gamal's voice was sincere. Damien shrugged.

“Sanus.”

Gamal looked down at Sanus, who was in pain with the holy sword still in his chest.

With the sword in his chest, Sanus couldn't properly use holy power, and he couldn't pull the deeply embedded sword out.

All he could do was endure and try to heal his wound with holy power.

“Was betraying us the will of the Blinding Pain?”

“It was my decision. I prepared this alone.”

His words contradicted his earlier statements.

Since the plan had failed, he seemed determined to take all the blame himself.

“Pretending won't help. If we take you to the Order, the interrogators will make you confess no matter what.”

“I've already told the truth. What other truth can I tell?”

Sanus smiled strangely.

“And have you forgotten? We, the Blinding Pain, never speak.”

The Blinding Pain.

A cult of fanatics so extreme that even Damian Hassen, known for his ruthlessness, had shuddered at their name.

As Sanus said, there had never been a case of a member of the Blinding Pain breaking under torture or confessing.

“Still, if you want to take me, go ahead.”

Gamal turned to Damien and asked.

“Sir Damien, is it alright to kill Sanus here?”

Damien had subdued Sanus, so the decision of his life or death was in his hands.

“Do you not plan to take him to the Order?”

Gamal smiled bitterly in response to Damien's question.

“Sanus will claim he is the mastermind even if we take him to the Order. The Blinding Pain will deny the charges.”

Given the influence of the Blinding Pain, they could easily disguise this incident as Sanus's personal decision.

“And they will try to protect him in every way. They will say he must atone for his sins through labor, and then they will find a way to bring Sanus back into the fold.”

“2nd-class Holy Knights are valuable, but to that extent?”

“The Blinding Pain would do it. To them, Sanus is a noble saint who merely carried out the will of God.”

If that happened, everything would return to square one.

In that case, it would be better to kill Sanus here.

At least, it would weaken the Blinding Pain's strength.

“Do as you please.”

With Damien's permission, Gamal raised his spear.

“Gamal, kill the heretics for me as well.”

Sanus smiled as he spoke. Gamal silently brought down his spear.

Sanus met his end without even a scream.

As soon as he brought down the spear, Gamal collapsed to the ground. Dyonisio supported him.

“Brother Gamal!”

“I'm fine. I'll be alright after a short rest.”

Damien had a different opinion.

Holy power was not a cure-all. If the injuries were severe, no amount of holy power could fully heal them.

Gamal had suffered a critical injury from Sanus. Even if healed with holy power, he wouldn't be in a condition to fight.

“Sir Damien, can I ask you for a favor?”

Gamal spoke to Damien. Damien looked at him, indicating he should speak.

“I hope you will save the others while I heal.”

“That's a given.”

Damien had come here to prevent the annihilation of the extermination team.

By stopping Sanus, he had saved Gamal and Dyonisio, but it wasn't enough.

To achieve his goal, he needed to save more people.

“...You truly are a model knight. I understand why the Burning One keeps recommending you for Holy Knight.”

Gamal said, looking impressed.

To Damien, it was a chilling statement. He had no intention of becoming a Holy Knight.

“You're more suited to be a Holy Knight than just a knight.”

Whether Gamal knew Damien's true thoughts or not, he looked at him with a burning gaze. Damien felt an ominous premonition.

‘I need to avoid him from now on.’

Damien added Gamal to the list of people he needed to be cautious of.

At that moment, something was detected by Damien's senses. A massive amount of dark magic was being emitted from deeper within the dungeon.

There was only one being in this dungeon capable of emitting such a vast amount of dark magic.

‘Corpse Play.’

A former subordinate of Dorgo and a mass murderer from his previous life.

But that didn't matter now.

The reason Damien was chasing Corpse Play was simple.

Corpse Play had already made contact with Dorgo. He might know Dorgo's location.

This possibility made Damien's body tingle with excitement.

The problem was that the source of the dark magic was too far away.

Finding Corpse Play in such a complex place would take a long time.

‘I could break through the ground in a straight line, but... my magic power is insufficient for that.’

His limited magic power always held him back.

While Damien was pondering, he felt a massive surge of power from his pocket.

Damien reached into his inner pocket. The Heart of the Spirit was glowing like a ball of fire.

“Such pure energy... What is this?”

Gamal looked at the Heart of the Spirit with surprise.

The Heart of the Spirit, which had been hard and rigid, had finally melted completely.

By absorbing the Heart of the Spirit, Damien's magic power would increase, allowing him to dig a tunnel to where Corpse Play was.

Damien swallowed the Heart of the Spirit. A ball of fire slid down his throat.

As expected, the power of the spirit was immense.

The mana was completely pure, and there was an overwhelming amount of it.

Most surprisingly, the spirit's power was affecting his body.

‘My body is becoming resistant to fire.’

Not just his skin, but his muscles and internal organs were changing. Now, even intense flames wouldn't harm him.

‘I'm developing new senses.’

Damien's vision gained a new sense: the ability to detect the heat of living beings.

It wasn't just seeing; he was sensing.

He could feel the heat of Dyonisio and Gamal next to him, as well as the survivors on the other side of the wall.

Damien expanded his senses. The number of heat signatures he could detect increased.

‘Satisfying.’

With pure magic power, a body resistant to fire, and the ability to sense heat, he was content.

‘...Hmm?’

Then, something caught his attention.

Next to where the massive dark magic was being emitted, two heat signatures were detected.

The heat they emitted was incredibly strong, almost like balls of fire.

‘Agnes? Margarita?’

Damien immediately identified the two.

Their heat signatures were fluctuating, indicating they were in battle.

Suddenly, the ball of fire he assumed to be Agnes was hit without resistance.

Shortly after, Agnes's flames noticeably weakened.

“Dangerous.”

Dyonisio and Gamal blinked in surprise at his sudden statement.

“Dangerous? What do you mean?”

There was no time to explain. He needed to get there immediately.

Finding a path would take too long. He needed to create one.

A large axe that Sanus had used came into view.

Damien lifted the axe and channeled magic power into it. An aura enveloped the blade.

Simply pouring aura wasn't enough. Damien recalled a specific technique for this situation.

‘Shatterwave’

A power that could amplify shockwaves several times over.

The Master known as the 'Wall Breaker' had shattered walls like glass after mastering Shatterwave.

Damien struck the ground with the large axe. The ground didn't just break; it turned to dust.

“Ah!”

Dyonisio and Gamal screamed in shock.

But Damien didn't stop. He delivered a second strike.

Boom.

The ground shattered again with a loud noise.

Damien wasn't satisfied and delivered a third strike.

With each swing of the axe, the ground visibly sank. After a few swings,

Boom.

A hole several meters deep appeared, revealing a large cavern.

“Really deep.”

Damien shook off the dirt from his clothes. He was covered in dirt from breaking through the ground.

Looking up, he saw familiar faces.

Agnes and Margarita, and a young man who looked frail.

Though younger than he remembered, Damien recognized him immediately.

“There you are. You damn bastard.”

Corpse Play Delante.

Finally facing his prey, Damien smiled.

* * *

“Oh...”

Corpse Play looked at Damien with a moved expression.

“To think the material I've been waiting for would appear before me! How can I not be happy!”

Damien chuckled.

The old Corpse Play he had seen in his previous life was always lost in his own world.

The young Corpse Play was no different.

“Don't kill me, and don't damage my body.”

Corpse Play raised his hand. The flesh golems looked at Damien.

The flesh golems charged at Damien.

Damien dropped the axe and opened a subspace, pulling out a thousand-mile sword.

Damien recalled his battle with the Sword Demon.

The Sword Demon wasn't particularly strong among Masters, but he was the most terrifying when facing multiple opponents.

During that battle,

When the Sword Demon flicked his finger, the undead army, numbering in the tens of thousands, disintegrated into pieces.

He couldn't replicate that technique before due to his limited magic power.

But now, after consuming the Heart of the Spirit, Damien's magic power had greatly increased.

Now, he could perfectly replicate that technique.

He infused the thousand-mile sword with magic power. The sword began