The battlefield fell silent.
The headless corpse of the Great Demon stood in the wind, a suffocating aura sweeping across the land.
A muffled, cruel laugh crossed the dimensions between reality and illusion, filled with mockery, echoing in the depths of every Knight’s soul.
It mocked them for overestimating their own strength.
Reinhardt’s right arm hung limply at his side, blood dripping from his fingertips. He struggled to lift his head, an exhaustion in his eyes that would not fade.
His gaze went past Albert’s arm.
He saw the tall figures of Heinrich and Sedon, their backs to him. The Mighty Power of the Earth Knights was like a bonfire lit in the dead of night, dispelling the darkness.
He saw the severed neck of the Furious Great Demon Hekatos, from which gushed twisted Demon’s Blood and blasphemous Mighty Power.
Bone reconstructed.
Muscle and skin enveloped it, layer by layer.
Vicious, steel-like horns extended outward.
The fire of its terrifying eyes reignited. It stared across the battlefield at Reinhardt, a cruel smile revealing an infinite craving to taste the blood of the strong.
It tried to taste fear on Reinhardt’s face, in the soul of this tiny, ant-like Human Knight.
But all it found was fury.
Hekatos raised its War Axe, blessed by Avernus, and pointed it directly at Reinhardt.
The Mighty Power of its fury became a whip, lashing the Demons who were frightened and uneasy after witnessing the Miracle of Radiance. The scourged Demon Army, like a stampede of startled beasts, let out agonized wails and swarmed madly toward the Imperial Knights’ final position.
Hekatos’s massive, fleshy wings stirred up a monstrous gale. It transformed into a Flesh Battleship spreading slaughter and death, soaring into the sky and roaring as it smashed down toward Reinhardt!
As if it sensed the Empire’s reinforcements were about to arrive, the Demon Army’s assault grew even more ferocious under its direction, fearless of death and relentless as the tide.
𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
The Knights fought shoulder to shoulder, and countless Demons fell beneath their blades of Loyalty.
Reinhardt took out the needle gifted to him by the Radiant Angels and, ignoring Albert’s vehement protests, plunged it into his left arm without hesitation.
The concoction, a fusion of Imperial Technology and Alchemy Magic, would overdraft his life force to restore his stamina and heal his wounds.
Albert, a battle-hardened veteran with short white hair and a face full of scars, grabbed his shoulders and roared in anger.
"Using two Blood Burning Needles in a row! Reinhardt—! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
But the only reply he received was serene.
"Death is not frightening, Angel."
Albert watched Reinhardt’s back as he moved past him. He watched the young Knight throw himself into the fray once more, and he finally understood why his pious prayers were never answered by the Divine Emperor.
Because that was a reward reserved only for the bravest of souls.
At that moment, the Great Demon crashed to the ground.
Heinrich gripped his Dragon-Hunting Giant Spear, his Dark Gold Scale Armor Extraordinary Armament glowing. He raised his Shield Tower and, with a roar, met the descending War Axe head-on.
His feet sank deep into the ground, and a terrifying gash was torn into the heavy Shield Tower.
Sedon raised his right hand. The high-temperature Domain of the Magma Master instantly killed swaths of Demons. His Formless Mechanism merged with his prosthesis, transforming into a pitch-black, lightless Broadsword.
Hundreds of magma tentacles shot out from the ground, seizing the Furious Great Demon’s massive body.
His half-elementalized body slid along the magma tentacles at high speed, and in an instant, the lightless black sword pierced through the Great Demon’s chest.
In the instant Hekatos’s body froze from the attack...
Even as blood spurted from his mouth and nose, even as the Divine War Axe had already broken through his Extraordinary Armament, its cursed power seeping into his soul and flesh...
Heinrich still stood tall and proud!
He threw down the Shield Tower in his hands. The vertical pupils of his Eye of the Dragon Descendant erupted with a terrifying, dark gold light. A humming, sonic Force Field materialized into the energy phantom of a Giant Dragon and charged forward with vicious ferocity!
He and the ten-meter-tall Great Demon were sent flying backward like a cannonball, hurtling away. He was giving his all to get the demon away from the Imperial Knights’ position, to buy time before the evac support arrived...
---
An unknown amount of time passed.
The scattered corpses of Demons piled up at the Knights’ feet.
Loyalty-Level Broadswords were chipped and broken. The darkness of the Abyss gradually overwhelmed the radiance of their Knight Power.
The battle between the two Earth Knights, who had once achieved countless great deeds, and the Great Demon shook the heavens and earth. The collision of their Mighty Powers sent out aftershocks that kicked up monstrous storms.
It was only three minutes.
But it felt as long as a century.
Reinhardt’s vision blurred. Foul Demon’s Blood caked his body, and the hands gripping his axe trembled uncontrollably. He had never felt so tired.
An endless battle that had lasted a day and a night.
Heinrich, Scaya Dragonfolk, Ash Guards, rebels, Sedon, the Demon Army, the Abyssal Great Demon...
An endless tide of vile Alien Races to kill.
Powerful enemies that he could barely fight even with all his strength.
Reinhardt had long since exhausted his last ounce of stamina. His very soul was bleeding.
That he could still stand was only due to the final dregs of his unyielding will, his life force set alight by the Blood Burning Needle.
But he had never feared death!
Tearing the massive body of a Convicted Demon apart with his bare hands, Reinhardt swayed, standing bathed in blood atop a pile of Demon corpses.
So tall and formidable.
So terrifyingly fierce!
Deep within his eyes, a fire like that of a Great Demon burned fiercely. A low roar escaped his throat—the last swan song of a valiant man, an Imperial Knight.
"Come on, you Demons—!"
The few remaining Radiant Angels surrounded Reinhardt, their sharp swords cutting down one pouncing Demon after another.
A low hum echoed across the land as the Radiant Waymarks appeared high in the sky via warp.
Albert kicked away an Abyssal Hound trying to ambush Reinhardt from behind and shouted, "The evac Waymarks are here! Hold the line! Hold the line—!"
He grabbed Reinhardt’s arm and roared into his ear, his voice already hoarse.
"You can’t fight anymore, Reinhardt! You’ve done all you can! The evac Radiant Waymarks are here, I’ll cover you..."
BOOM—!
The roaring crash of their landing drowned out everything.
Three steel behemoths, each over ten meters high with a five-meter-wide platform, smashed down heavily in front of their position. Piles of Demons were crushed to a pulp. The holy light of the Radiant Waymarks flickered uncertainly.
Albert had been about to cover Reinhardt’s retreat to the platform first, but someone beat him to it, hoisting the blood-soaked Reinhardt onto his shoulder. The power of an Earth Knight cleared the way ahead as he sprinted.
Fei Ning.
This single-minded Bald Knight, though ordinary, had proven his Loyalty and valor by bathing in blood to slay his enemies. Fulfilling his mission was his only purpose.
Even though his strength was not enough to save Reinhardt from the Great Demon, he had silently guarded the faltering Reinhardt throughout the defensive battle, never leaving his side.
The window for retreat was only thirty seconds.
This was a military regulation all Imperial Knights were told on their first day of service.
After thirty seconds, the teleportation Magic set within the Radiant Waymarks would activate automatically, warping them to a predetermined spacetime coordinate.
But then the Great Demon descended from the sky. In one hand, it clutched Sedon’s severely wounded body. With one foot, it crushed the teleportation device of a Radiant Waymark, blocking the Imperial Knights’ only path to the evacuation point—blocking Fei Ning’s path.
In that moment, the distance from their position to the Waymark—less than fifty meters—felt so hopeless, so utterly out of reach.