438 Part 2

Already, the space in front and to the left and right had been filled with those whips of holy water, which would render him unable to fight with a mere touch. And one of them managed to hit him straight on his face.

A shocking sound that sounded like a plane breaking the speed of sound echoed at the tip of Rudra’s nose.

“You’re not half bad, tentacle guy!”

Rudra’s face shattered with a small cracking sound, revealing the skull underneath.

“How disrespectful! These are but hands to ward off evil, given to me by God Himself!”

Being able to control such a large number of them with that amount of freedom, they would certainly look like tentacles to those who see them. With such an impression, Rudra took off the remains of his broken face, which no longer could be used as a mask, and threw them aside.

“Yes, their purpose is to destroy unsightly undeads like you!”

“… Unsightly?”

It was the first time anyone had spoken to him like that.

There had been countless occurrences where he had been called “monster” and “heartless”, but no one had ever called him “unsightly”.

It was as if he had never heard that word before. He contemplated it, thinking “Ah, that’s right, I guess I’m quite unsightly right now.”

Certainly, compared to his best days, his body seemed to be significantly weakened. Not only did he look like a thin, sick person, but his pure physical ability was about less than half his usual.

Even though he was fully devoting himself to the sword, his power was far behind that of a young and foolish True Vampire who showed the 100% of his power.

Had it made sense to choose the path of the sword, even if it made him weaker than he could be?

“Hmph, what a stupid question.”

That was the path he had chosen for himself.

There was nothing shameful about choosing to seal away his powerful and unrivaled dark magic, severing his ties to the blood that is the source of a vampire’s power, and fighting only by relying on his own sword.

Even if his life were to end right at this moment because of that very choice. Even if that was his destiny.

“There’s no escape. That’s because I’m not the only one you’re fighting against. Book of Holy Water, verse 33: [Enchanted Church – Aquarian Rage].”

It was a standard measure against undead monsters to “purify” or “enchant” a weapon to be used against them. Since they were already dead, undead monsters would continue to move as much as they can without feeling any pain, unless they are seriously damaged, but they still had several weaknesses to exploit, such as light.

Apparently, this strategy for dealing with the undead was well known across the Arc Continent.

There were still dozens of Armor Knights crowding around Rudra.

He had been causing head after head to fall, but that didn’t mean these guys were easy to beat. The longer the battle dragged on, the weaker his sword-fighting became. In the blink of an eye, he had to aim exactly for the gaps in the knights’ armor and the places where their armors were thin. If the aim was off for even a little, he would not be able to deliver a fatal attack on those knights.

And now that the priest had used the spell [Enchanted Church – Aquarian Rage], those knights’ halberds had the same properties as the holy water the priest had been using.

Their blades, which had only been shining with the luster of steel, were now surrounded by a pale, clear light. Their slashes would no longer be blocked by Rudra’s iron-plated black coat.

“I’ve always wanted to fall on the battlefield.”

But ideally, he would have rathered to be defeated in a single stroke by another swordsman. Being destroyed by holy light would make him no different than any other mindless undead monster.

However, he didn’t say anything about that.

“Very well. Let’s see how many of you can I take with me on my way to Hell!”

Rudra had decided that this would be the place he would meet his end.

“Gahahaha! I’m shining stronger than ever today!!”

The golem Gardan was screaming lines of joy as he was hitting Armor Knights left and right. Without any magic or special technique, he repeatedly battered on the knights –who were one head shorter than him and were putting up their huge Tower Shields– with nothing but his sheer physical strength put into his giant mace.

The sound of the pounding and steel colliding with each other echoed for a short time. Immediately afterwards, the shields were pushed away, followed by a “splat” –like a watermelon cracking open as it fell to the floor– made by their helmet-covered heads.

Even these Armor Knights, who were a proud part of the Crusader Army, seemed to be unable to cope with the strength of this Iron Golem who was made entirely out of steel.

Gardan kept on pushing forward, kicking the frail human soldiers with his sheer power. Leaving both Subcommander Eliwood and Rudra –who are the forefront of the assault unit– behind, he didn’t realize he was out of position.

Rather, one could assume that Gardan’s intention was to keep this pace up, but also that he wasn’t aware he was leaving others behind.

“Damn, this huge thing!”

“We can’t tackle it one by one! Let’s get him, the three of us together!”

The heavy knights continued to boldly challenge Gardan, even when they saw their companions, who were clad in full plate armor, being easily transformed into dented, crushed, and shattered junk. From their already disturbed formation, three knights raised their halberds overhead.

“That’s just fine! Bring it on, you small fry!”

Gardan was confident that he would be able to withstand whatever those three would throw at him. Even ten or a hundred of them, it would be all the same. He was absolutely convinced. The core that moved the golem’s body was so aroused that it seemed to be on the verge of overheating.