Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

Chapter 166

Chapter 166: The Plague Investigation (3)

***

The dark mage’s eyes widened slightly at Damien’s words.

“…Damien Haksen?”

The dark mage tilted his head and searched his memory.

“Damien Haksen… Damien Haksen… Now I remember. He was the human they told me to capture alive.”

The dark mage looked at Damien with interest.

“I was wondering why they were so interested in you… Now I understand a little. You have incredible skills, don’t you?”

Damien wasn’t paying attention to the dark mage’s words. He just stared down at Fenrir.

“……”

Damien didn’t know what had happened between Fenrir and the dark mage. However, he could clearly feel Fenrir’s emotions.

Endless anger and bottomless hatred were pouring out towards the dark mage.

At the same time, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness. Frustration followed. A howl erupted from there, flooding like a wave.

“…I see now.”

He thought he understood why Fenrir was so ferocious in his previous life.

“…He must have lost something precious to that guy.”

Damien muttered to himself and looked back at the dark mage.

“What’s your name?”

“Me? Oh, right, you wouldn’t know.”

The dark mage nodded at Damien’s question and said.

“My name is Garrot. I am a Grand Dark Mage of the Monstrum Sect.”

Damien chewed on the name Garrot. It didn’t ring any bells.

Just because he was Damien didn’t mean he knew all the dark mages.

However, one thing was for sure. The dark mages that Damien didn’t know were mostly insignificant.

‘This is terrible.’

Damien looked behind Garrot. Thousands of souls were bound to Garrot, spewing out dark mana.

“I’m annoyed that you’re getting in the way between me and Fenrir… but I won’t kill you. I have a favor to ask.”

Garrot formed a hand sign. A large subspace opened up and various monsters emerged.

They looked very different from ordinary monsters. They were all chimeras.

“There are so many of them.”

Damien looked at the chimeras and fell into thought.

He could finish them off quickly using dark magic. But there was a technique he wanted to try instead.

Damien also opened a subspace and pulled out a travel bag.

“Wait.”

Garrot’s expression changed as soon as he saw the travel bag.

“How did you get that… ?”

As Damien opened the bag left and right, a dark space unfolded.

“Come out.”

Countless skeletons emerged from the darkness. They were followed by the Death Knight Dominico.

– Greetings, my lord.

Dominico and the skeletons knelt down in unison. Damien looked at them and tilted his head.

“Where’s Miya?”

Miya jumped out of the darkness as soon as he spoke. She swung her fist at Damien.

Damien blocked Miya’s fist with one hand.

“Kya! Kya!”

Miya got angry and swung her hands repeatedly. Damien blocked Miya’s attacks with one hand and asked Dominico.

“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

– That… my lord, don’t you remember?

“What?”

– You said that if she lacks experience, I should kill her with the intention of killing her… no, you just told me to kill her.

“Ah.”

Only then did Damien remember the order he had given.

“Kya! Kya!”

Miya stopped her hands and protested furiously to Damien. He looked at Miya and said with a satisfied expression.

“That’s why you’ve become so sharp. My judgment was right after all.”

– Do you mean… you’re not going to withdraw the order?

Damien looked at Dominico as if it was obvious. Miya’s face turned pale and hardened.

“This can’t be!”

Garrot exclaimed in surprise.

“Undead? Undead? You look like an ordinary knight, how are you controlling undead? How is this possible!”

Garrot shouted in alarm.

“You’re being noisy.”

– I agree.

“Grrr.”

Damien, Dominico, and Miya emanated killing intent towards Garrot. Garrot was even more delighted by their killing intent.

“Hey… you’re planning to fight me? That’s great! I’m curious to see who’s stronger, my chimeras or your undead!”

Damien ignored Garrot’s words and asked Dominico.

“Dominico, have you seen any results from your training?”

– I apologize, my lord. I am incompetent and have not seen any significant results.

Damien was not disappointed. It was too short a time to see any meaningful results.

– However, all of the former soldiers have been raised to the level of quasi-knights.

Damien couldn’t help but smile at the following words.

“Excellent.”

It was one thing if they were ordinary skeletons, but things were different if they were quasi-knights. With this level of strength, they were worth fighting.

“Go. Kill everything that moves.”

The skeletons drew their weapons at Damien’s command.

“Feel free to go wild.”

The chimeras bared their teeth at Garrot’s words.

The undead and the chimeras rushed towards each other.

***

The skeletons, now able to use aura, rushed at the ogre chimera.

– Owoooo!

Of course, they were no match for it. Ogres were monsters that even low-class knights had difficulty fighting.

And this was no ordinary ogre. It was a chimera that appeared to have four arms, combining two ogres.

There was no way that skeletons, who were only quasi-knights, could stand a chance against it.

However, the skeletons had one special advantage.

– Hahaha! Its head is smashed!

– Hey! Your arm is here.

They didn’t die.

As long as their master, Damien Haksen, was alive, the skeletons would never die. Even if they were broken, they would quickly recover.

The skeletons endlessly rushed at the ogre. They didn’t care if their bodies were broken.

The ogre chimera’s body began to suffer wounds all over from the attacks that disregarded its life.

Like the saying goes, even a raincoat gets wet in the drizzle. Eventually, the ogre chimera fell, covered in wounds.

– Euaaaak! We won!

– Who’s next!

The skeletons that had defeated the ogre chimera rushed towards the next chimera.

If the skeletons were steadily taking down the chimeras one by one, Dominico was slaughtering them.

– Where do you think you’re going, you monsters!

Every time Dominico swung his greatsword, the chimeras’ heads flew off.

Even in his lifetime, he had been one of the top among the high-class.

On top of that, he had succeeded in absorbing some of the insights he had gained from Damien.

The next most notable figure after Dominico was Miya.

– Kya!

Miya rushed in and bit the ogre chimera’s neck.

She absorbed the blood and copied the ogre’s abilities, then used the ogre’s strength to tear off the chimera’s head.

As the chimeras began to be pushed back, Garrot exclaimed in admiration again.

“Amazing… They’re not ordinary undead.”

The opponent Garrot was particularly paying attention to was Miya.

“Where did he get such a flesh golem… It’s almost on par with Fenrir.”

Even though the chimeras were being destroyed, Garrot didn’t seem flustered at all.

After all, those children weren’t chimeras he had worked hard to create. There was nothing to lose if they died.

“It’s time for you to come out, Bagder.”

If he wasn’t careful, he might end up killing Damien Haksen, so he didn’t want to use Bagder.

However, he couldn’t stop Damien with the chimeras, so he had to use Bagder.

“You can kill everyone except that human male you see there.”

As soon as the order was given, Bagder moved. It rushed towards Miya at an incredible speed.

– Kya?

Miya didn’t have time to react. Bagder’s fist fell over Miya’s head.

At that moment, Damien appeared in front of Miya. He blocked Bagder’s fist with the dawn.

At the same time as blocking the fist, he deflected its trajectory. Bagder’s fist missed Damien and hit the ground.

Damien immediately swung his sword and released aura. A huge slash cut through Bagder’s torso.

Bagder’s body was pushed back. But that was all. The aura hadn’t even scratched Bagder’s armor.

“It’s incredibly tough. It must be a chimera that you put a lot of work into, huh?”

Damien reacted with interest at the sight.

“You’d better be prepared. Bagder is comparable to a master class.”

Garrot said with a confident face. Damien burst out laughing at that.

“What’s so funny?”

“I can’t help but laugh. You’ve made it a little tougher and you’re deluding yourself into thinking it’s comparable to a master class.”

While he acknowledged the danger of Bagder to some extent, the idea that it was comparable to a master class was a ridiculous delusion.

“…Don’t talk big when you couldn’t even cut through Bagder’s armor.”

Garrot said in a sharp tone. He was different from the way he had been when the chimeras were being massacred.

This was a characteristic of the Monstrum Sect. The Monstrum Sect had a tendency to shower affection on a single chimera.

So while he might not care about other chimeras, he couldn’t just let go of the criticism against Bagder.

“Well, that’s true.”

Damien readily acknowledged Garrot’s words. Bagder’s armor was so tough that even Damien’s aura had a hard time cutting through it.

“This is perfect. I happen to have a technique I’ve been practicing for just such an occasion.”

Before coming here, Damien had gotten his hands on the mana cultivation method left behind by the previous Imperial Sword.

Damien named this mana cultivation method the Combined Infinity Cycle.

The Combined Infinity Cycle was a mana cultivation method that formed rings of mana within the body to double the output of mana.

Damien had created three rings in total.

He planned to use the Combined Infinity Cycle here.

“First Ring.”

One of the rings began to rotate. At the same time, a vibration sounded from Damien’s body.

As the vibration grew louder, Damien’s momentum grew stronger and stronger. At the same time, the aura that had been covering the dawn became even thicker.

“Bagder! Attack!”

Garrot, sensing something ominous, ordered Bagder.

However, before Bagder could move, Damien’s body disappeared.

“Where the hell… .”

The moment Garrot muttered in a daze, Damien’s afterimages surrounded Bagder’s body.

The afterimages swung their swords in unison. Dozens of slashes covered Bagder’s body.

***