Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 62



Only Noblemtl

Episode 62. One Man Siege (2)

The trajectory, which originally had only three branches, increased to five branches. The power to cut through armor made of steel was powerful, but there was also a knight who lost his eardrums and lost his mind just from the explosion of alcohol. I could see why Gebel said this skill was useful in a melee.

At first glance, I thought it was slightly lower than what Gebel used.

‘Has the practical experience accumulated so far, knowingly or unknowingly, added to its power?’

Of course, it was inevitable that it would still put a strain on my body. Fortunately, the tentacles surrounding the body within the armor acted as a cushioning material, mitigating the impact.

Isaac laughed even though he felt his whole body creaking and screaming.

This was because all the knights around him were looking at him.

“I’m out of breath, so you guys come.”

Isaac raised his sword and aimed it at the knights. The knights began to stagger closer, reeling from the shock of their heavy drinking.

The one closest rushed towards Isaac, swinging his flail.

“Count! Paladin!”

At that time, the knights of Lehardt’s army came in with the loud sound of horses’ hooves. The Hendlock Territory knight who tried to swing the flail was instantly trampled by the horse’s hooves and turned into mush. The knights in the rear joined, and the knights who had escaped the shock of the initial surprise rallied their soldiers and launched a counterattack.

A clumsy army could have been disintegrated just by the shock of the first surprise attack. However, as if to prove that Lehardt had not raised the knights in vain, they were rallying the scattered organizations and fighting back. It was a counterattack that was possible thanks to Isaac breaking his momentum. If he had not come forward, he would not have been able to escape the shock of the initial surprise attack and would have collapsed.

As Lehart’s army began to respond systematically, the Hendrak knights eventually began to be gradually pushed back with their strength and momentum.

“Is the Count safe?”

The knight who had cornered the Hendrak knights with a wall of shields and long spears, and trampled on the knight holding the flail, approached and asked.

I don’t remember his name, but he seemed to be the leader of the Lehart Knights or something.

“I was dazed, but I’m okay.”

Isaac saw Lehart, still in shock, riding on the black horse. It seemed like it would take some time to come to my senses.

“First, take the Count and escape. “I need to get rid of my enemies.”

Isaac said, looking around the area where the melee was taking place. The Hendlock Knights had abnormal fighting spirit and strength, but their numbers were small and they were not properly organized.

It was only a matter of time before they were suppressed.

‘Why?’

Isaac looked puzzled at Hendrak Fortress, which had not given any orders to retreat even during this time.

If this continues, the carefully raised Hendlock knights will be wiped out. Did they decide to get rid of the knights along with Baxter’s execution?

‘Was it written as a sign of abandonment? ‘Is it enough to give this much of a shock?’

In the end, no retreat order came from Hendlock Fortress. Most of the Hendlock Knights, including their leader Sir Baxter, were killed and some were taken prisoner.

And in the meantime, the being planted by Isaac was moving inside Hendlock Fortress.

***

After the assassination attempt on Heshabel, Isaac naturally did not sit back.

On the surface, it was a secret attack by a knight from the Hendrak Knights, but it was clear that the Red Holy Grail was behind it.

As requested by Lehart, Isaac pretended to wait and infiltrated Zihillet into the castle to collect information. Isaac’s war had already begun by then.

Zihilet climbed up the castle wall in a melting, flowing form.

Zihillet, who was hiding in Hendlock Fortress, watched all the skits between Baxter and Kyle.

There is also the sight of Baxter being decapitated by Owen’s sword.

Afterwards, Kyle regained control of Hendlock Castle, but no one believed that Kyle had real power.

‘Raella.’

Jihilet watched her.

Jihilet, who received knowledge through Isaac, knew that there were followers of the Red Grail Club within Hendrak Fortress. Although it was Owen who suppressed Baxter’s rebellion, it was clear that Raella was behind it.

After suppressing the rebellion, Owen arrested the knights and took them to the citadel. And not long after, the half-mad knights rushed towards Lehart’s soldiers.

At that time, Isaac was already observing the whole thing through his ‘rat in the wall’ ability.

However, they were just leaving it alone so that Laella could reveal her true colors more. So we were able to intervene and stop Lehart before he was murdered.

If we had intervened earlier, we might have been able to prevent what happened to the soldiers. However, it would have become more difficult to defeat Raella.

‘Something is happening inside the fortress…’ … .’

Through Zihillet’s eyes and ears, Isaac observed the desolate landscape of Hendrak Castle.

After sending out the knights, Raella continued to do something inside the fortress. However, Zihillet’s body was not suitable for spying inside.

It’s still not bad for hiding anywhere, but to hear or see more closely, I needed a different form.

Specifically, a human form was needed.

Jihilet happened to find a suitable body.

It was Baxter’s body, abandoned in a pit beneath the castle wall.

In addition to Baxter, there were a few corpses of knights and soldiers in the pit who seemed to have resisted until the end.

However, Jihylet chose Baxter’s body.

[Under the skin: ‘devour’ the other person’s insides and use that skin as your outer shell.]

It was once one of the three perk options given to Isaac, but it was an ability he had given up. Now that power has been granted to Zihilet, who has been promoted to Apostle.

After being reborn by Isaac, Zihillet did not have a clear form. Basically, it had an appearance similar to that of a rat, but its size had decreased significantly compared to when it was alive, making it slimmer.

However, the body was like a skein of thread with numerous tentacles tangled together. It had countless teeth and eyes hidden inside, and if desired, it could form a thin film to resemble skin.

This meant that, if you wanted, you could inflate your body to the size of a giant bear, but at the same time, you could also have an appearance that was exactly the size of a person.

Jihylet burrowed into Baxter’s body. If anyone had seen it, they would have been horrified by the bizarre appearance, but no one bothered to look into the pit where the body was left.

Soon after, Jihilet, who had taken control of Baxter’s body inside the pit, raised himself up.

It didn’t matter that the head fell off. After all, the body was just a shell, and the main body was Jihillet.

Jihillet connected the tentacles to the head and body. Her facial expressions may be a bit awkward, but there was no problem with her body movements.

No, on the contrary, when he took over the strong and disciplined body of Baxter, he was able to go beyond simply putting on the shell and even imitate swordsmanship to a certain extent.

However, since a person known to be dead cannot walk around, his identity had to be hidden.

Fortunately, all kinds of weapons were left in disarray inside the fortress due to preparations for battle and the chaotic internal situation.

Zihilet picked up a helmet that was rolling around and put it on the helmet rack over his shoulder. Although there was some blood on his clothes, he was dark and covered in dust, so if you didn’t look closely, you would have thought he was just an ordinary soldier.

“hey!”

As Jihilet was thinking about how to enter the fortress, he heard someone calling. A soldier who appeared to be of high rank was approaching Jihilet with strides.

“What are you still doing here? “Didn’t you hear the order to stop burial work and gather together?”

When Jihilet did not respond, the soldier became even angrier and insisted.

“Follow me now! “The battle is just around the corner!”

Jihilet quietly followed behind him. It seemed like the presence of blood and dirt was misunderstood as a result of burial work. Unexpectedly, things turned out easily.

I followed the commander and arrived at a place that looked like a banquet hall inside the castle. It was the only indoor space where large numbers of people could gather. Through Jihillet, Isaac found out that most of the soldiers of Hendrak Fortress were gathered inside.

‘what? ‘Are you trying to make a speech when the battle is just around the corner?’

But the lord Kyle was nowhere to be seen.

In addition to Baxter’s treason to arrest Kyle failing, it seemed like power had passed to the wrong person.

To the two men and women right in front of me, Owen and Raella.

The soldiers also looked very agitated, as if they were scared and unfamiliar with this situation. However, Baxter’s head was lost, and the knights that Kyle Hendrak had carefully raised were wiped out outside the castle.

No one could step forward and express dissatisfaction in this situation.

At that time, Raella stood up.

The noisy soldiers all fell silent.

Raella slowly crossed between the soldiers and climbed onto the table. Her soldiers watched Raella walk barefoot before their eyes. Raella, standing right in the middle of the soldiers, whispered amidst countless gazes.

“Be in awe.”

There was silence, as if even the sound of breathing had stopped.

All he could hear was his own heartbeat. No, you could even hear the sound of blood flowing inside his body. Then suddenly, Jihilet realized that the sound was not because he had become too quiet or his senses had become more sensitive.

You could really hear the heartbeat echoing throughout the castle.

I could feel the vitality of the veins pulsating within the castle.

At that time, something fell on Jihilet’s head. It was a dark red liquid.

‘blood?’

At the same time, countless amounts of blood flowed through the cracks and stones of the walls of the fortress. Blood poured like rain. The soldiers looked at Raella, who was sobbing slowly and frantically in the heavy rain filled with the scent of blood.

Raella crossed between them as if dancing.

Her appearance, drenched in blood, looked like a woman with peeled skin, as if she had nine limbs, or as if she were a doll made of clay.

Jihilet felt sick to her stomach. Her blood flow was speeding up.

‘Is it a miracle?’

Isaac noticed what was happening and clung to Jihilet’s will even more strongly. Although he was now a Jihillet in the class of a divine beast, it was impossible not to be influenced by the powerful divine being in front of him.

Fortunately, as Isaac strengthened his control, Zihillet was able to stop feeling somewhat excited.

But others were different.

It was a miracle that even the divine beast Jihillet was affected.

Raella kissed her lips again.

“Place the enemy’s flesh on a plate and fill the cup with blood.”

The moment the shower of blood stopped, the soldiers’ eyes and mouths were stained with madness and fighting spirit. They looked exactly like the knights who raided Lehart’s knights. No, it was tinged with even stronger madness.

Isaac sensed that this battle would not end easily.

***

“Are you going to give up the siege?”

“yes.”

Lehart answered in a dying voice. Lehart was probably so shocked by the battle that day that he locked himself in his room and did not come out. But Isaac was neither surprised nor disappointed.

‘It’s a good thing that you decided not to pack your bags and return to the estate right away… … .’

Lehardt was not the only one who was shocked.

Even the villagers stayed home, horrified that their somewhat foolish but good lord would do something like this. And that’s without even ordering residents to evacuate.

If the soldiers had vented their anger against the residents, a massacre could have occurred.

But fortunately, Lehart did not give such an order. They didn’t have the energy to do so due to the shock, and it was foolish to turn the residents into enemies when they had already lost nearly half of their soldiers and knights.

‘Actually, if the damage is this much, it’s right to admit defeat and retreat… … .’

However, even though Lehart lost nearly half of his troops, Hendrak’s knights, including Baxter, were almost completely wiped out. Considering that the knights actually performed the role of officers, the Hendlock estate was no different from a peasant army.

In addition, there is no possibility of reinforcements coming to Lord Hendrak, but reinforcements will continue to arrive for Lehart in real time.

They had already obtained testimony from the knights they had taken prisoner that something close to heresy was taking place within Hendrak Fortress. Originally, he was not in a state to testify, but when Isaac came forward and looked at his hands, he was in a state that was at least acceptable.

“The Code of Light Church will send paladins and priests. Then that wall will also collapse.”

Lehart muttered helplessly. In this era when miracles abounded, relying on priests was also the most efficient siege method.

But Isaac didn’t think the situation would get better easily.

‘Behind that wall is Raella.’

Through Jihillet, Isaac recalled the scene that took place at Hendrak Castle last night.

And the moment I saw Raella, I remembered the nameless message of chaos that appeared.

[Nameless Chaos is watching you.]

[Nameless Chaos wants you to feast on the ‘Prophet of Red Flesh’.]

[A reward of chaos awaits you.]