The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

The human body is fragile. No matter how well one can manipulate blessing, it is impossible to make up for the difference in the innate physical abilities.

It was obvious that the enemy was an excellent warrior. His unbreakable spirit in a desperate situation like this and his capability was of the top class amongst the humans Rainel had met until now.

However, even if he wouldn’t have problems against an ordinary magical beast, when compared to Gamelyon Rainel, who was born to be a ruler, his power was a bit too weak.

Dell’s attacks were powerless against Rainel’s impregnable fur. Neither sharp slashes, nor the rushing energy of light could wound Rainel’s body.

So this is a human, huh…

 “Weak, too weak. I could have enjoyed myself more if you had brought the Dragon Slayer sword…”

Dell didn’t reply to Rainel. He just desperately came to grips with Rainel’s attacks.

He fended off the attacks that could smash him along with his weapon and quickly came around into his blind spot. He endured the roar and boldly aimed for Rainel’s eyes.

At first glance, his movements weren’t abating, but the dazzling light that filled his body was starting to fade away.

Blessing―― the power that Death Knights use is finite. There was also a difference in the endurance of the two. it was obvious that Dell would eventually collapse if things continued this way.

But that kind of battle wasn’t what Rainel was looking for. It was meaningless to defeat a warrior that wasn’t at his peak.

After crossing each other countless times, Rainel finally retreated. Dell readied his sword that was now pretty much fully blunt with countless chips in its blade and glared at him with blazing eyes.

“Death Knight, there is no killing intent in your attacks. Why won’t you charge in and kill me?” 

“Haa, haa…”

Dell was an excellent warrior. His skills, power and courage were exceptional for a human.

However, he was boring. Dell’s attacks lacked the intent to kill. That was exactly why he wouldn’t pursue retreating Rainel. Perhaps there was a reason for that, but that would be too boring.

The attacks of End Baron had an intent to kill Rainel at all costs. It had a sentiment close to a curse that he’d kill Rainel even if he had to die to do it.

The way he pushed forward even in face of his weakness, holy silver, despite still not being on par with Rainel, was admirable. And his determination didn’t change even as he was escaping from the hole in the wall.

Race didn’t matter. He was the true monster. One had to be a monster to kill another monster.

It was too much of a pity to expend the warrior in front of him just to buy some time.

Rainel gathered his power. Strong heat rose inside his body. As he took a deep breath, his golden mane bristled up.

“Try to take this, human warrior. My power――”

Perhaps sensing the change in the air, Dell’s expression distorted. All the light power in his body gathered on the tip of his sword.

Unlike before, he focused on attacking. As expected, the warrior before him had experienced countless battlefields, Rainel thought and laughed.

Rainel was a hybrid of a lion magical beast and a dragon. Bestowed to him by the dragon blood flowing in his veins was not just his sturdy body.

His energy became concentrated. A burning pain ran through his throat. His fur started shining golden.

‘Dragon Breath.’

It is a secret technique of dragons that transforms one’s power and releases it. It is also one of the reasons why dragons are considered to be the strongest.

It had been a really long time since Rainel had last released this. Until now, most of his battles ended before he could use it. He might’ve not used it even once after he got the title of the Demon King.

Rainel wasn’t a pure-blooded dragon, but the power of Breath released from his trained body surpassed that of an ordinary dragon.

Dell didn’t need a warning. As weak as he current was, the Death Knight fully intended to receive the ‘Breath’.

A sword made of steel meant nothing in front of the dragon breath, but the knight himself had no fear.

A quiet light whirled around the sword’s blade. Fatigue was irrelevant. Right now, the power of the Death Knight in front of Rainel was at its peak.

And, this was the end.

Taking a deep breath, Rainel roared. Dell roared back.

Then, the golden light was released.

☠☠☠

It was truly a power befitting of somebody known as the strongest.

There was no impact. The sound disappeared along with other sensations. The surge of a powerful energy temporarily paralyzed Dell’s five senses.

He couldn’t avoid it. If he turned his back, he’d be instantly burnt to black. Overcoming this situation would require him to concentrate his power.

“Uooooooooooooooooooooh!”

He mustered up all his spirit and roared in order to gather all his power. He focused all his blessing on the sword. This strain made even more cracks appear on the steel sword.

The spiral of power that whirled around the sword’s blade looked far too powerless against the enormous energy in front of him.

However, Dell wasn’t afraid. Death Knights had fought a lot of things over the years.

Naturally, one of those also included the strongest creatures in this world, dragons.

‘Photon Break.’

That was the name of this technique.

Death Knights are offense-oriented knights. Techniques like this are naturally being taught.

The technique to block dragon breath isn’t exactly possible for a 3rd ranked knight to use.

In that case, he’d open up a way. He would break through his fate of death from the front.

The whirling light pushed its way through the destructive energy from the front. The air burnt and he felt strong heat on his skin.

He lost all his sensations, only controlling the energy with sheer determination.

It was a tremendous energy that was hard to believe came from a pure-blood dragon. However, ‘Dragon Breath’ wasn’t something one could use continuously.

“――――――”

He didn’t even know what he was shouting anymore.

The tip of the thick steel blade shattered, and the cracks spread to its base, corroding it. A dull impact was transmitted to his arm.

‘Photon Break’ wasn’t the kind of technique that would drown out ‘Dragon Breath’. It was a technique for parrying it. It disturbed the flow of the energy with the positive energy and warded it off to the side.

The released power certainly pierced through the centre of the far more enormous power.

However――

For a second, within his slowing thinking, Dell Gordon realized that he had lost.

No, the breath is too powerful!

The power that was sharpened and over concentrated, was completely pushed back. He wouldn’t be able to fend it off at this rate. And, Dell would surely die in the aftermath.

Rainel’s power was undoubtedly being showcased at its peak. Breath was still continuing. It was long. It would most likely be quite a strain on Rainel himself too.

Demon King used all his power against Dell, an opponent that he would be able to defeat easily if they kept on fighting. 

Because of the nature of his technique, it wasn’t possible to evade it by moving to the side. He bent forward and stood firm. The heat burnt his bare skin and face.

The golden power in front of his eyes that could end the world was frightening, yet beautiful.

He remembered the figure of the vampire that escaped.

Damn it… I at least made him use his Breath… The rest, is up to… you.

To think that the Death Knight, who had spent his life slaying vampires, would think of one in his final moments; Life could take strange turn sometimes.

The moment he thought this, the pressure suddenly disappeared.

When he came to himself, Dell was lying on the floor.

He could not feel his body at all. But what he saw was definitely the ceiling of the same castle where he was fighting a moment ago.

He was completely out of power. In Dell’s current state, he could be killed effortlessly even by the lowest ranked magical beast.

But ―― he was alive.

It wasn’t that he withstood dragon breath. It stopped midway.

He used all his power and slightly tilted his face. That was when the sound finally came back.

He couldn’t understand the meaning. Then, his heart trembled. Rainel had already stopped paying attention to Dell.

The one Rainel was looking at was that vampire.

But his entire body was wrapped in sinister black flames. 

As his limbs and head, even his transformed blade was being burnt by black flames, End Baron declared.

“I made it in time. If I can only produce sparks, I can just come back after I make it flame up. With this, with this I can kill you. I can kill you. I will kill you… Demon King Rainel.”