The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 336

A paladin, looking as if he had stepped out of a painting, stood atop a group of hippogriffs, holding a burning sword aloft.

“I am Triodana, a Hospitaller of the Wisdom Order of the Rescue Knights! I have come to save you!”

As the paladin spoke, dazzling wings of light unfurled from his back.

The angel’s wings shone brightly in the dark sky, moving people to tears.

They glided through the sky and, finding no suitable landing spot, touched down on top of the caravan wagons.

The majestic hippogriffs, combined with the angel-like paladin and his fiery sword, made it look like a scene from a heroic legend.

Many people were thrilled and filled with hope just by his appearance.

In the midst of this, a young man with black hair and a bird mask descended from a hippogriff, looked around, and then removed his mask.

He looked rather plain compared to the Celestials [beings with divine powers], but he was Azadin, the leader of the warlords who had conquered the Chadra Plateau and the true owner of this merchant group.

“Ah, Lord Azadin!”

The guards of the merchant group and Azadin’s subordinates recognized him and were moved.

Azadin himself had flown in on a hippogriff to save them, so they believed that he could at least resolve this situation.

That was how great the loyalty of Azadin’s subordinates was to him.

“Messenger!”

“Yes!”

“Let the refugees into the caravan wagon circle. Two lines! Keep to the right! Vermilion soldiers! Help the refugees safely take shelter inside the caravan wagon circle!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Tell people to keep to the right! We’re going out this way!”

The soldiers immediately began to manage the traffic according to Azadin’s instructions.

When they were told that they would be allowed inside the wagon circle if they followed the instructions, the chaos subsided.

The refugees began to follow the instructions without complaint when they heard that they would be allowed inside the wagon circle, and the path was cleared.

“Sir Triodana!”

“Speak.”

“Come with me to the north. Let’s support the warriors in the north!”

“Understood!”

Sir Triodana spread his wings and soared into the sky, rising to a height that could easily clear a house or two. Azadin ran across the tops of the wagons, chasing after Triodana.

“Ha, he’s really become a paladin. Azadin of Muan….”

Delia watched Azadin, who had quickly resolved the situation and was running, and was impressed.

She had been looking down on the refugees and was furious at their unruly and ungrateful demands, but Azadin had resolved the situation very quickly and concisely. Of course, the impact of the appearance of that angel-winged knight named Triodana had also silenced everyone….

Even so, it was undeniable that he had excellent crowd control skills.

‘He really… has a power that makes you want to trust him.’

Delia found herself cheering for Azadin and gave a wry smile.

*********

In Hybris, a cultist is a general term for those who are obsessed with black magic, forbidden sorcery, the faith of the Kurt Pantheon [a pantheon of dark gods], or Nether magic, and have undergone physical mutations.

In other words, the appearance of cultists meant that humans who had been consumed by the power of the otherworld had been discovered.

Baron Jerod’s army was facing such cultists, grotesque humans with thorny tendril arms from the power of the otherworld.

These beings, once human, crawled on the ground in grotesque forms, wielding terrifying tendril whips.

A surprised knight blocked the tendrils with his lance and shield, but the tendrils sparked against the shield and struck the horse’s head.

The horse screamed, spewing blood, and collapsed.

“Ugh!”

The knight’s arm, which had blocked with his shield, was also broken.

“Damn it! What kind of power is that….”

To kill a horse in one blow and break the arm of a knight wearing plate armor in one go. They absolutely should not be fought head-on.

Baron Jerod immediately pulled out his pistol.

“Everyone, fire at once!”

As knights and attendants of the Vanling Kingdom, they all had pistols.

The knights, who had carefully stored their pistols to keep them from getting wet in the rain, began firing at once.

Half of them did not fire because the powder pans were wet from the rain, but even the other half that fired created a deafening roar that shook the heavens and the earth.

-Thwack!

The cultists, the monsters of the otherworld, fell.

The power of gunpowder weapons was truly absolute.

However, more cultists came rushing in behind them.

“Grrr.”

“Ugh!”

A pistol that had been fired once took too long to reload.

Therefore, the cavalry of the Vanling Kingdom used the caracole tactic [a cavalry tactic of firing pistols and retreating], firing their pistols and retreating, then reloading and re-engaging, but if it was raining on the battlefield like now, they could not reload their guns anywhere.

“We must fight here! There is no path behind us anyway!”

Baron Jerod put away his pistol, raised his sword, and encouraged his soldiers.

However, considering the monstrous strength of those monsters, close combat was suicide. They had to fight because there was nowhere to retreat, but what should they do? It was at that moment that it happened.

“Behold!”

A knight with wings landed from the sky.

“Huh?”

“A, an angel!”

Everyone was shocked at the sight.

It was the Celestial, Sir Triodana, who had arrived at the rear before Azadin.

He created flames with his ceramite longsword [a sword made of a special material] and tapped the blade with his finger.

Then, he transferred the flames from the sword to his hand and drew a sacred fire rune in the air.

“Holy flames!”

A firestorm erupted in the cold night rain. As Triodana swung his sword, the firestorm moved forward, sweeping away the approaching monsters.

The monsters swept up in the firestorm rose from the ground and burned. They let out indescribable, terrible screams, but to the soldiers whose lives were on the line, it sounded as sweet as a heavenly hymn.

“Sir Triodana!”

“We will help!”

“We have arrived!”

Other Celestials, Triodana’s subordinates, also revealed their wings and began to fight the monsters.

When the knights in the form of angels appeared, people were moved, as if they had seen a ray of light in the midst of destruction.

*********

Azadin let Triodana and the Celestials go ahead, and he cautiously looked around.

Many monsters were rushing in from the darkness. Because of the road, the attack was currently focused on the rear, but when more troops arrived, they would naturally bypass the sides and arrive.

He had to either cleanly cut off the enemies at the rear or operate a separate unit to expand the front line here as well.

‘The Celestials definitely look more impressive.’

Azadin was inwardly impressed as he watched the Celestials instantly capture people’s hearts.

The ritual of being reborn as a Celestial was a blasphemous act, but those who were born that way were definitely beings who gave hope to people in this age of destruction.

As a member of the Herald clan, hated by all, and called Azadin of Muan, who was shunned for his hideous appearance, he felt complicated emotions when he saw the Celestials, who were loved by all just for their appearance.

Was it jealousy… or self-pity?

Of course, that was no longer the case now that he had taken Araiel’s appearance, but that made him feel even more empty.

‘Shall I see Triodana’s skills?’

Not only Triodana but also his subordinates, the Celestials, drew their ceramite longswords and charged in to fight the cultist mutants.

Some of the cultist mutants still had human forms, while others had already mutated into huge tendril masses.

The Celestials fought them so well.

They gripped and swung their swords with tremendous strength, as if they were attached by machines, cutting and burning everything that touched the blades. The tendril attacks of the cultist mutants, which could kill a horse in one blow, were also met head-on by the Celestials with their swords.

“Waaaah!”

“T, the angels are amazing!”

“We’re saved!”

It was difficult to see the soldiers rejoicing and cheering. Considering the manufacturing process of the Celestials and the ambition of the Northern Empire behind it, he wished that people would not cheer for them, but he also understood that they were in an environment where they could not help but be fascinated.

[It is the glory that you should enjoy, Azadin. Are you not the one chosen by the angels?]

Araiel’s voice spoke to Azadin.

‘Well, I’m not sure. My divine power is surging, and I’m sure that I’ve encountered some higher being, but I can’t say that it’s because I’ve been chosen by the angels.’

[Whatever it is, you deserve to be loved, Azadin. You have been persecuted since childhood, but have you not strived to save people and uphold virtue and justice? Even when others insulted and persecuted you, your beliefs never wavered, but now those truly unholy things made from ground-up angels are stealing the glory that you should enjoy just because they have wings. They call you a soulless blasphemer.]

‘I don’t know about that either.’

[What don’t you know?]

‘Because I want to be loved so much.’

[……….]

‘Yes. I envy the worship and love that the Celestials enjoy, the unwavering trust that is poured upon them. No matter how much I become a member of the Rescue Knights and grow into a warlord of the Chadra Plateau, people look at me with suspicion and distrust because I am a member of the Herald clan.’

[…….]

‘I want to be loved. I want to give trust, receive trust, and be able to connect and communicate with someone, not be a lonely being on this earth. But the more desperate that desire is, the more I suspect that I hate them. If I have hatred for the Celestials that goes beyond fair anger, I’m afraid that I’ll make the wrong choice because of my jealousy and longing.’

[Foolish… to that extent.]

Araiel’s voice, Araiel, felt sorry for Azadin.

In Araiel’s view, the Celestials were trash stealing the glory that Azadin, the rightful agent of the angels, should enjoy.

But Azadin, who had lived a lonely and painful life, was still taking a step back even against the Celestials who had committed wrongdoing in order to maintain fairness.

‘More than that, scout for me. How far do these monsters extend?’

[I don’t know.]

‘You don’t know?’

[The cold wind in the sky is a powerful magic storm, making it difficult to scout the surroundings by flying. However, it is visible even at this height that the being causing this wind is approaching.]

Araiel’s voice shared its vision with Azadin.

In the sky where Araiel’s voice was flying, about the height of two towers above Azadin’s head, there was a blizzard raging instead of rain.

The blizzard and thunderstorm were coming down from the north, and the source of it, the source of the wind, was getting closer and closer.

[It’s a good opportunity to see those foolish Celestials destroy themselves. If you just leave them alone, they will die. It’s not your responsibility.]

‘Then I should go help them.’

[You fool.]

Araiel’s voice sighed, knowing that Azadin would not leave the Celestials to die.