NOVEL WEB
Side Story Chapter 300
“Im… possible…!”
The remaining Martial Knights shook in their boots. They couldn’t believe that they were facing the real Martial God. Hawke, their commander, was the most shocked because he had believed that if he ever ran into the Martial God, he would be able to bring Joshua Sanders to his knees. In fact, Hawke had been certain that he would be able to defeat anyone except Bel. It turned out that he couldn’t have been more wrong. The Martial God was the very definition of overwhelming power.
One of the Martial Knights swallowed. He had been part of the Four Paladins’ surprise attack on Arcadia and had caught a glance of the Martial God then, but Joshua hadn’t given off the energy he was exuding right now. What in the world had changed?
“My power has recovered.”
The answer came from—of course—Joshua, who opened and closed his fists several times. His voice was loud as if he wanted everyone to hear him.
“He… recovered his power?”
“Shall we continue?” Joshua asked. His ferocious energy slowly spread throughout the area.
Tension filled the air.
Actually, Joshua was bluffing. Even though he had the power to kill every one of them, he wanted to save as much power as possible for his final fight.
At that moment, bright light lit up the area. The Martial Knights turned, assuming it was their reinforcements, but they were startled to discover that the new arrivals were their enemies.
“Selim…?” Joshua whispered, equally surprised.
Selim turned, his head cocked. When he laid eyes on Joshua, he was stunned.
“...Your Majesty?”
Although Joshua was using Creshua’s body, Selim instantly recognized Joshua’s energy. When they heard him, Selim’s Black Knights also stared.
“Hi-His Majesty?”
“But he’s a boy…”
“Hey, watch your mouth!”
“They and I will handle it from here,” Kireua told Joshua as he staggered to his feet. “We can handle the Battle God’s knights on our own.”
Kireua’s eyes burned with quiet conviction; he was determined not to lose consciousness at this crucial moment like he had every other time. This time, Kireua wanted to show something, knowing that it may be his last chance to show his father how much progress he had made.
Kireua unleashed ebon flames on his sword. Reading the air, Selim laced his spear with arcs of lightning.
As expected from the commander of the Martial Knights, the strongest order in Hubalt, Hawke calmly gave orders despite the disadvantageous turn of events.
“The Seventh and Eighth Martial Knights will deal with the princes! The rest of you will deal with the Black Knights while the two captains and I will handle the Martial God!”
“Seventh and Eighth?” Kireua frowned.
“They’re obviously underestimating us,” Selim scoffed.
As one, Kireua and Selim started to excite their mana halls in the same way. A great amount of mana was laid over their weapons, a sign that they were going to use their ultimate techniques. They were, in fact, preparing to use the same technique; the only difference right now was their choice of weapon.
‘The Magic Sword Art Level 1.’
‘The Magic Spear Art Level 1’
Selim hefted his spear and Kireua his sword to release their aura like two lightning storms.
‘Lightning Flash.’
The Martial Knights who were facing them readied their swords.
“What?!” Hawke’s attention was ripped away from the Martial God. His hands clenched in surprise.
Kireua and Selim vanished and Hawke’s knights couldn’t even follow their movements. The Martial God’s intimidating presence was not helping them in the least.
Selim and Kireua’s blades cut through the Seventh Martial Knight’s shoulder and Eight Martial Knight’s thigh with a neat swish, followed a moment later by the princes landing nimbly back on the ground. Even at a glance, it was obvious that the Seventh and Eighth Martial Knights’ injuries were critical. If they didn’t stop the bleeding now, they would have to worry about bleeding out.
“Ugh…!”
The Seventh and Eighth Martial Knights groaned in pain. Their eyes were filled with confusion.
“You people underestimate us too much. Have you forgotten that we’ve already fought the Battle God?” Selim frowned.
Kireua casually jerked his chin at the Martial Knights. “Next.”
‘This is not good.’ Hawke bit his lip. He couldn’t deny the fact that Selim and Kireua were better than before, but he got the impression that all of the Martial Knights were unable to use their full power because they were too intimidated by the Martial God’s presence. Otherwise, Hawke’s knights wouldn’t have allowed Selim and Kireua’s attacks that easily.
Hawke made a decision.
“Get into the counter-god formation!”
The Martial Knights got into formation in an orderly manner.
The Martial Knight Order had been founded for Bel’s entertainment because he needed training puppets that wouldn’t be destroyed easily. They had to survive, so they had worked incredibly hard to earn Bel’s approval; earning his approval was what had made them into the famed Martial Knight Order. That was possible because of this counter-god formation. Now they were going to use the formation against the Martial God’s children, not the Battle God.
After surrounding Kireua and Selim, the Martial Knights exuded energy that completely eclipsed what they had demonstrated before.
“Mmm…” Kireua grunted quietly as he watched the Martial Knights prepare. He could sense a multitude of gods’ energy in the Martial Knights’ ferocious formation and knew that his attack had only landed because he was lucky.
‘But I don’t have to play along.’
“Coju!” Kireua yelled. “Eat everything!”
Coju, who had been swallowing the demonic power that the undead were releasing, quickly came running to Kireua. Living up to its title, the power of Greed, Coju didn’t care if it was swallowing demonic power or divine power.
-Wowsieeeeeee!
Gulp!
“What?!” Hawke’s jaw dropped to the floor as his knights’ authorities vanished and their energy dwindled before his very eyes.
Kireua grinned. “Let’s go back to the era when people only used mana. We’ll test our martial might against each other until one of us.”
Kireua couldn’t have been more pumped right now. Both Selim and his father were watching him—today was going to be Kireua’s tribute to the little boy who had had to leave his home because of his lack of talent.
“...An Evil Sin is incredible indeed.” Selim approached Kireua with his spear at the ready.
“My skills are even more incredible,” Kireua boldly declared.
“Leave the rest to us and go aboveground,” Selim told Joshua. “The Queen Consorts are waiting for you.”
Kireua was startled. “Uh… N-No, he can’t go yet.”
“Why not?” Selim turned to look at Kireua with a furrowed brow.
The anxious look on Kireua’s face only deepened Selim’s confusion.
“…Haha.” Joshua burst into laughter. “Kireua, it’s okay even if you don’t show me. I know better than anyone how much you’ve improved.”
Kireua’s face reddened—Joshua saw through him.
Selim chuckled after discovering the truth. “What are you, a child?”
“Sh-Shut up.” Kireua brandished his sword. “It sounds like something is going on aboveground. Go ahead, Your Majesty. Selim and I’ll be right behind you as soon as we wrap things up here.”
“Are you sure you guys will be okay on your own?” Joshua asked.
“You said you’d trust me with the rest. Leave it to me,” Kireua responded with a confident smile.
“…I’m here too,” Selim spoke up. His eyes blazed with determination.
The battle in the underground vault was quickly sorted out. The undead never died, so they inevitably cornered Hubalt’s knights, and since the Martial Knights had lost their authorities, they weren’t that big of a problem anymore.
“Oh, yeah! You can take the undead with you, Your Majesty!” Kireua shouted.
Hawke realized that he was the last of the Sanders family’s concerns right now and was about ready to blow his lid.
“You fucking basta—!”
Selim shook his head before Hawke could continue. “No, we can’t.”
“What’s that? Lost your confidence?”
“No, I haven’t. Her Majesty Icarus told me not to bring the undead aboveground.”
“Huh…?” Kireua was surprised. “Her Majesty Icarus did? Why?”
“Do you think we gave up our home without reason? We haven’t been sitting on our hands,” Selim shrugged, but he was stealing glances at Joshua.
“You must have gone through a lot,” Joshua said.
“Not at all. But… I would like to apologize for my incompetence. If I were you, we wouldn’t have had to give up our home like this,” Selim bitterly answered.
Joshua smiled. “No, Selim and Kireua. You two have done a better job than I could ask for.”
Kireua scratched his cheek, and Selim eagerly infused more mana into his spear.
Joshua looked at his sons for a moment and nodded. “I’ll trust you two with the rest. Teach those insolent invaders a lesson for trespassing in our home.”
“Your will be done, Your Majesty!”
Buoyed by his sons’ energetic shouts, Joshua walked into a pool of light that would teleport him aboveground. The finale was drawing near.