Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage
Chapter 312: -The Great Expedition (14)

Hector was towering around two meters.

The ink-black armor enveloping him made the red glow of his eyes stand out even more from his helmet.

With the combined efforts of Henry, Hoosler, and Vucanus, Hector had been reborn as a Death Knight, the only one that was allowed to exist on the continent.

Immediately after summoning him, Hoosler fell to the ground, catching his breath.

“Ha… Ha… Ha…!”

Hector glanced at him and gave him a thumbs up.

- Good work, Hoosler.

“Thank… you, Sir Hector.”

Hector had successfully been reborn as a Death Knight through Hoolser just as Henry had planned. However, because he had been created by a Warlock, there were a number of restrictions on him.

One of those restrictions was that the blood of a living being had to be sacrificed in order to summon him.

“Ha… I almost withered and died.”

- Hey Von. You also did well.

Hector also gave Von a thumbs up.

Von fell to the ground; he could finally take a breather, relieved that Hector was there.

‘It worked…!’

At last, there was a glimmer of hope.

Hector was essentially their secret weapon, meant to compensate for the team’s lack of divine power.

Of course, they had already tested Hector’s power to make sure that it would work against those who possessed divine power.

The principle of it was simple—although Hector had become a Death Knight with a pure soul, they couldn’t possibly purify him of the unique demonic energy resulting from the ritual of making him a Death Knight.

Thus, Henry and Hoosler had decided to use this to their advantage.

Black magic, demonic energy, and undead creatures—these three forces were effective against those who fought with divine power.

‘That’s a bit annoying, but this body certainly feels different from my old one.’

Hector felt the fullness of his power welling up from deep within his Core.

- This… This is true power.

Although Hector didn’t have lips, given that he was a spirit in armor, he felt as though he was smiling.

Hector was genuinely overjoyed. How he had missed this kind of overflowing power…

Out of habit, Hector stretched out his non-existent neck and drew his greatsword from its sheath on his back.

The greatsword was massive; it was so wide that it could almost be considered a shield. It was certainly much bigger than the one he had used in his previous life, and the materials used for it were also much stronger and heavier than before.

Hector held his greatsword effortlessly as though it were a dagger, challenging Narva in a confident voice.

- What are you waiting for? Come at me.

“How dare you?!” Narva shouted before lunging at Hector from all fours, letting out a combination of feline and beastly sounds. His speed was frightening.

However, Hector calmly tracked Narva’s movements, his eyes two gentle flames. Once he found the perfect angle, the flames raged ferociously.

- Hmph!

With his target in sight, Hector twisted his waist, grabbed his greatsword with both hands, and swung it in a satisfying motion.

In response, Narva fearlessly thrust his hands toward the sword.

At that moment, the two red dots glowing from within the helmet were accompanied by a smile.

- Goodbye.

“...!”

The moment Hector’s greatsword and Narva’s hands met, they both already knew the outcome.

Shhh!

Hector’s greatsword stretched out, seamlessly slicing Narva in half.

Swoosh!

Hector felt no resistance against his blade, as if he had merely swung a bat at nothing. Regardless, he had managed to draw a rainbow of blood in the air with his perfect swing.

“...Ha?”

“I knew it…!”

Von and Hoosler had different reactions to their clash. The former was dejected because of how easily his enemy had died, and the latter felt an overwhelming sense of pride in the Death Knight he had created.

Narva’s split body wriggled like a fish thrown out of water.

“H-ho…!”

Hector had sliced him horizontally, but not from the waist. Given that Narva had lunged at him from all fours, parallel to the ground, Hector had sliced him in half from his palms, his blade separating his upper jaw from the lower one, rendering him unable to speak.

Hector kneeled down and looked Narva in the eye before finishing him off.

- Don’t be surprised. You’re just weaker than me.

Squelch!

Following that, Hector stomped on Narva’s head, crushing it like a watermelon.

Even though they had achieved a valuable victory, Von couldn’t help feeling that such a swift death was too good for the demon who had annihilated Enkelmann…

Flash!

Before either of them managed to say something, a familiar flash of light burst from behind them. They all turned around and saw Maker Swarth, the head of the alchemy school from the Snow Spire.

Stepping out of the Teleportation gate, Maker awkwardly greeted them, “H-hello?”

Von chuckled and replied, “You’re just in time.” He figured that he had found them by tracking down his Log stone.

Maker had arrived at the right time, and just as everyone was about to follow him to the Teleportation gate…

Squirm, squirm!

“Huh?”

Everyone turned around at the bizarre sound.

The mangled remains of Narva were slowly gathering in one spot.

“I guess he’s not dead.”

Von scoffed as he watched Narva’s remains writhing and slowly gathering together. He didn’t look surprised, thinking that it would’ve been absurd for Hector to kill him in one blow, no matter how strong he was in his new form.

Seeing this, Hector rubbed his helmet awkwardly.

- Uh, I thought I won, but… Ah, this is embarrassing…

“You’ve nothing to feel embarrassed about. You can beat him again,” Von reassured him. He didn’t have any proof, but he was convinced that Hector would win a second time.

“I’m sorry, but we’ll be a bit late in joining the others,” said Von to the Sage.

“Hmm, are you sure? Since we don’t know what he’s going to do, why don’t we retreat for now and join the rest of the expedition team. We can hunt safely if we’re all together, right?”

Maker’s suggestion was reasonable, but Von waved his hand and insisted, “No, we were already in the middle of this fight, and I have a feeling that we’re not going to lose. Will you respect our decision?”

“But what about the others…?”

Flustered, Maker Swarth turned to Hector and Hoosler, but the two also agreed with Von.

- I don’t mind. I should finish what I started.

“I’m fine with it too. I feel like we won’t get another chance to finish him off.”

Hector wanted to stay to secure his win, while Von would do it to avenge Enkelmann. As for Hoosler, he didn’t tell the others that the real reason for his choosing to also stay behind was his need for redemption.

‘Messiah, please watch me carefully! Forgive me for only being able to avenge you this way!’

This was something very personal, and Hoosler wouldn’t be able to go on without dealing with it. He was doing this partly because he still felt grief for the Messiah, but he was also doing it to release his bottled up anger for the way everything had turned out for him.

Hoosler thought back on the night Henry had captured him. Just a little longer and a new Demon King would have arrived and reigned over this world through the power of the Messiah… So how had everything turned out like this…?

At first, Hoosler had blamed Henry because he was the one who had broken into the church and killed the Messiah.

However, Henry was too strong for him to do anything. Given that no weapons had worked on him, not even his poisonous suicide attack, Hoosler had to make peace with that fact that he would never stand a chance against the Archmage.

Thus, Hoosler had decided to shift his anger to someone that he could deal with, the one who had sent Henry to come to the Church of Nephram in the first place.

That culprit had been Ross, but Hossler was shocked when he realized that he had betrayed his people and sided with Arthus. He was even more shocked when he witnessed him fall at the hands of Henry.

Shortly after that, Hoosler was bewildered, not knowing whom to take revenge against. After many sleepless nights, he realized that Arthus was to blame for it all.

‘It wouldn’t have come to this if it hadn’t been for him.’

Hoosler was familiar with Arthus and with the fact that he had taken control of most of the continent in his quest to become a new god.

He found Arthus extremely arrogant. Moreover, he felt that Arthus had stolen his dream. Hoosler hadn’t even managed to avenge the Church of Nephram and the Messiah, and now Arthus was trying to claim the continent for himself, the continent that the Demon King ought to rule.

Because of that, Hoosler had made Arthus his new life goal. He would kill him and everything associated with him. Then, he would try to rebuild the Church of Nephram.

After hearing Hector and Hoosler’s answers, Maker said reluctantly, “Fine… I’ll be back in a few minutes then.”

Given that he couldn’t persuade the three of them, Maker had no choice but to return to the others by himself. If anything, he could at least report their situation to the team.

Oong!

With a flash of light, Marker disappeared.

In the meantime, Narva, who had gathered into a grotesque lump of meat, finally returned to his original form.

“Fuck!” blurted Narva.

In contrast to his subdued curse, anger was raging within him, threatening to burst out.

Hector was surprised to see Narva completely regenerated, as though he hadn’t just sliced through him like butter.

- Oh, I didn’t know you were part troll. You don’t look like it though…

“Shut your fucking mouth!”

- I mean, it just seems that way…

As Hector sneered at him, Narva replied with a somber expression, “Fine, I’ll admit I let my guard down. Just know that you guys won’t get a second chance.”

Following his warning, Narva cracked his neck in an unnatural way. Any normal human would’ve died from that.

Narva gradually turned purple from his neck down, then his body contorted and transformed into a flower just like the one back in Enkelmann.

‘A flower?’

Von quickly fixed his stance. He still felt dizzy and his whole body ached, but it was bearable.

“Sir Hoosler,” said Von.

“Yes?”

“Do you think there’s any way I could hurt him, even if for a brief moment?”

Von was being serious. Knowing that the Sage would soon return, he wanted to at least hurt Narva, even if superficially, now that he had returned. It was the least he could do for Enkelmann…

Hoosler thought for a moment and eventually replied reluctantly, “There is a way to hurt him momentarily, but… it’s too risky…”

“It doesn’t matter. I felt uneasy a few minutes ago because it felt like I was putting my revenge in someone else's hands. Now that the apostle’s back, I have a second chance.”

Hector became concerned listening to Von.

- Why don’t you just rest? I’ll take care of him. Besides, he’s not the only enemy we have to take down, right?

“I know, but I have to do this. I need to be part of his death.”

- … Fine, if you insist, I won’t try to stop you. But if you become a burden, you're getting out of the way.

Having made up his mind, Hoosler told Von about the method he could use to inflict damage onto Narva.

After listening to the Warlock’s instructions, Von nodded.

“Alright. Please help me out.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I’ve already made up my mind, so please help me.”

“...Alright.”

As Von was consulting with his comrades, Narva finished transforming into his final form. He looked like a small fortress made of flowers from the Demon Realm.

- From a boy to a troll, and now a carnivorous plant? What a sight.

- Shut up!

His voice was no longer human.

Enraged by Hector's mockery, Narva unleashed dozens of tentacles that stretched out like whips.

These were the same tentacles with which he had ripped out the hearts of the poor people of Enkelmann.

In response, Hector swung his massive shield-like greatsword, slicing through the tentacles in one swift motion.

The tentacles fell down in pieces, but that didn’t mean they were dead. They squirmed and wiggled back to Narva, seemingly being alive despite having been cut off from their host.

- Wow, you’ve got one hell of an instinct. Von, are you ready?!

“Roughly!”

- Niceeee!

Whoosh!

After calling out to Von, Hector swung his sword once again, severing more of Narva’s tentacles.

As Narva realized that his tentacles were ineffective, he immediately shifted his stance and prepared to fire the spores that had turned the citizens of Enkelmann into blind believers.

Hector, still relatively far from Narva, called out to his comrade.

- Von!

“Got it!”

Hector and Von closed in at lightning speed, positioning themselves on either side of Narva.

The two knights drew their own swords.

Goooo-!

Although neither of them spoke out loud, they both drew as much energy as they could from their Cores, as if they had made a promise, a pact with each other.

The air around them quivered as though they were in a drought, large, raging flames igniting in the midst of all.

- Let’s go!

“Okay.”

Hector’s flames were purple, his newfound demonic energy bestowing his Aura a unique color.

On the other hand, Von’s flames were a sunset red, his Aura having been altered by Hoosler’s black magic.

Narva released his spores everywhere.

As the deadly spores drifted toward the ground, the two knights concentrated the Auras they had drawn from their Cores into their blades, ready to deliver death to the enemy.

‘DIE!’

Von swung his sword with all his might, the blade carrying his desperate wish.

The moment their sword strikes overlapped and hit Narva, the two flames created a pure white radiance that engulfed everything around them.

It was a warm glow.