Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 44

As Kang Chan arrived on the hill riding his air bike, he was met with an unbelievable sight.

A massive, fiery bird illuminated the dark night sky, flapping its wings and radiating intense heat.

Artheon was being mercilessly beaten by a green elf.

Numerous elves surrounded her as she was being beaten, but they could only weep.

They were too terrified to offer any resistance.

Just then, Jaina approached Artheon and Green through the crowd.

“Gasp! No! Jaina!”

Kang Chan finally spotted Jaina and screamed.

Jerenis was also wailing behind Jaina.

“Jaina! No! Don’t go, Jaina!”

As someone approached her again, Green stopped beating Artheon and turned her gaze.

Her face was covered in what appeared to be Artheon’s blood, making her look even more gruesome.

“Do you want to die, brat?”

“Please stop. Please, I beg you……”

Jaina, endlessly shedding tears, was terrified, and her legs were trembling, but the desperate desire to save Artheon made the timid Jaina grit her teeth and step forward.

Before meeting Kang Chan, Artheon, the elf who had been her only companion besides her family, was a precious being to Jaina, and the elf she respected the most.

Jaina could no longer bear to see Artheon being beaten so mercilessly.

So, while countless other elves were frightened and unable to even think of saving her, only Jaina risked death and approached her.

Whether it was because she was young and immature, or just foolish and naive, no one knew.

Her actions were enough to surprise all the elves present, including Green and Kang Chan.

“Stop? Heh heh heh.”

Green, who was holding onto Artheon’s collar as she hung limp, seemingly unconscious, began to laugh quietly.

“P, please……”

Green’s laughter disappeared as if it had never been, and her next words were chillingly cold.

“I wasn’t planning on saving anyone anyway, but if you don’t want to die right now, get lost.”

Her mood was the worst it could be.

No matter how much she beat Artheon, who she considered her mortal enemy, she didn’t feel any better.

In fact, she was feeling even dirtier.

Then, suddenly, the earnest plea of a young girl.

It reminded her of her own childhood.

“There will be no second chance. This is your last warning. Disappear……”

Her patience had reached its limit, and her words trembled with anger, but Jaina didn’t think of moving from that spot.

No, she couldn’t.

Jaina’s legs, paralyzed with fear, refused to obey her will.

“You ignored my last warning… Then die.”

No sooner had the word ‘die’ left her lips than Green’s red whip flew towards Jaina.

Right then.

A black shadow appeared like lightning and blocked Green’s whip.

The black object was torn in two by Green’s powerful whip, and a black doll jumped out of the black object, picked up Jaina, and began to run away.

The black object that blocked the whip was the air bike, and Kang Chan, who had abandoned the air bike and jumped out, picked up Jaina and started running away.

Green watched it all with a dumbfounded expression.

“Phoenix! Kill them both.”

Upon receiving the order, Phoenix flew at an incredible speed and cut across Kang Chan’s path.

No matter how fast Kang Chan was, he couldn’t be faster than Phoenix, the fire elemental king flying in the sky.

Kang Chan’s vision went dark at the sight of the huge Phoenix blocking his path.

Judging by the speed of the fireball that had overtaken him in an instant, he knew he could never escape on foot.

The huge fiery bird.

He had only thought it was mysterious when he saw it from afar, but seeing it from such a close distance, its appearance was truly awe-inspiring, making the hair on his body stand on end.

Jaina, who was being held by Kang Chan, was confused as to what was going on.

She was just thinking, ‘I’m going to die for sure,’ when suddenly someone snatched her up and ran away like crazy.

She was snatched up so roughly that she didn’t even realize she had been rescued by someone.

But soon, she came to her senses and burst into tears when she realized that the one who had saved her was Kang Chan.

“A, Mister!”

“Jaina, I missed you.”

“I thought I’d never see you again. Waaaaah!”

Jaina forced back her tears and spoke.

But their touching reunion didn’t last any longer.

Because a huge flame spewed from Phoenix’s mouth engulfed them.

The breath of Phoenix, the fire elemental king, boasted tremendous power comparable to that of a red dragon’s breath, and Kang Chan could sense that even his suit could not block the furnace-like flames.

There seemed to be nowhere to escape from such flames.

“I love you, Jaina.”

“I love you too, Mister.”

Kang Chan and Jaina braced themselves for death, and Kang Chan took off his helmet and kissed Jaina on the lips.

The moment the two kissed, Phoenix’s breath swallowed them.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the surrounding area turned into a lava zone stretching a hundred meters [approximately 328 feet].

Everyone who watched the scene shook their heads in disbelief at Phoenix’s tremendous power, which turned a normal forest into a volcanic zone.

But they were about to witness an even more amazing scene.

“H, how can this be!”

In the lava zone where no one could have survived, they were still kissing.

“What? Phoenix, what happened?”

“I want to kill her too. That girl. But that girl is the chosen one. And by Naiad, the water elemental king I hate the most……”

Green shook her head in disbelief at Phoenix’s words that she had been chosen by Naiad.

“That can’t be! I made a contract with Naiad! And originally, contracts were only possible with dragons!”

“That’s right. But there are exceptions. We are not exclusive to dragons. Why do you think we only make contracts with dragons? The only reason why they, the dragons, and we, the elemental kings, can make elemental pacts more easily than other races is because of the attributes they possess. They are races with distinct elemental attributes, just like us. That doesn’t mean that we elemental kings only make elemental pacts with dragons. We also have our own personal will. The fact that we made a contract with you when you had no power was also our personal will, and Naiad’s choice of that girl was also his will. From my point of view, that girl’s affinity with the spirits is worth it. That girl’s affinity with the spirits is one in a thousand years.”

“One in a thousand years? That’s ridiculous! So, can’t we kill her?”

Green’s heart grew anxious, fearing that another contractor would appear besides herself.

Although she had made an elemental pact with Naiad, an elemental pact was not restricted to one person but was shared with several people chosen by the spirit.

“That’s not true. That girl has not yet reached adulthood, so she has not made a formal elemental pact with Naiad. So, she cannot summon Naiad. It was only Naiad in the spirit world who blocked my attack with his personal will. If Naiad interferes, I cannot kill that girl. We are the same level of elemental kings… We cannot harm each other. So, kill her with your own hands. Then it will work.”

“I can kill her with my own hands?”

“That’s right.”

The leader of the green elves, Green, smiled bitterly at the words that she could kill her with her own hands.

Having someone with the power of an elemental king as an enemy would clearly be a major threat to them.

She knew that even better because she had wielded Naiad’s power.

She could never let that young girl live.

“Leave Artheon alone and get rid of all the trash, Phoenix.”

“Understood. And I will return to the spirit world. I have something to talk about with Naiad. Do you agree?”

Green, who knew why Phoenix was returning to the spirit world, did not hold him back.

“Okay. I’ll leave the rest to you.”

As soon as the summoner’s consent was given, Phoenix soared high into the sky, arrogantly looked down at his prey, the elves, and charged straight at them.

Then, thousands of elves screamed and began to flee in all directions.

“Kyaaaaaa!”

“S, save me!”

As Phoenix swept across the earth, scattering small flames, the land they were standing on turned into a lava zone, and countless elves burst into flames and turned to ashes.

Their screams of agony echoed from all directions, filling the dark night sky.

Leaving that scene behind, Green took out the blood-stained whip hanging from her waist and approached Kang Chan and Jaina.

She stepped onto the lava-covered ground created by Phoenix’s breath, but she crossed the lava zone without any difficulty.

The one who summoned the fire elemental king seemed to be immune to any interference with fire.

Kang Chan stared intently at Green, who was baring her white teeth as she approached him and Jaina, trapped in the lava and unable to move.

Her appearance, walking so casually on the lava, looked as if a gatekeeper of hell had come to greet them.

“Are you Green?”

“That’s not my real name, but that’s what people call me.”

“Please, can’t you just let us go? I will never forget your kindness.”

“Is that all you have to say? You filthy human.”

Kang Chan knew that she wouldn’t let them go easily, but he asked her for leniency, hoping against hope, and thought about what to do in this situation where they were trapped in a place where lava was raging all around.

As Kang Chan was racking his brains, Green’s whip flew in from the side with a tremendous sonic boom.

Kang Chan tried to cut Green’s whip in one fell swoop with his aura sword.

But her whip was no ordinary whip.

She was a whip master.

Kang Chan, who had taken her whip lightly, swung his sword, ready to cut it off.

Then, the whip, which had the characteristic of curling inward due to centrifugal force if it was not cut, received Kang Chan’s attack and lashed Kang Chan’s back with even greater force.