Alius’s hand trembled as he stared at the old knight before him. "What in the world..."

He could comprehend the situation. "The soul of Emil Strauss possessed the body of the martial king?” he muttered.

But even as he understood it, he couldn’t bring himself to accept it. It was the vilest of transgressions, an unthinkable abomination.

He let out a horrified outcry. ”A son stealing his father’s body? What kind of monstrous blasphemy is this!”

Varos and Serati both wore complicated expressions.

Right, Alius really doesn’t know about Sir Leven.

Even so, what he’s saying... isn’t wrong.

The future Leven, now housed within Gellard, gave a soft chuckle. "That priest truly knows nothing of the circumstances."

It was then. Karnak scrutinized Gellard’s body for a moment before speaking in a calm tone. "Gellard was already dead, wasn’t he?"

"What?"

The others turned to Karnak in shock.

Dead? What do you mean, dead?

He’s standing there alive before us, isn’t he?

Future Leven did not deny it. "Oh? So you saw through it?"

"Of course. That body, it’s a death knight, isn’t it? Though, I have to say, it’s unnervingly brimming with life."

Naturally, Serati, present-day Leven, and Alius had never seen an actual death knight in person. But still, the Gellard before them looked nothing like the death knights of legend.

A death knight?

That?

Even Varos, who had spent decades as a death knight lord commanding legions of death knights, looked visibly confused. "A death knight, really?"

He knew better than anyone what a death knight ought to look like.

“How could there be a death knight that looks this alive?”

The Gellard before them was visibly breathing. His skin showed healthy color, and there wasn’t even a trace of that corpse-like aura.

But as Varos scrutinized more closely, he soon noticed something crucial. Wait, he is dead.

Gellard’s heart wasn’t beating. Instead of a living pulse, there was concealed necromantic power circulating his veins.

"Your perception is impressive.” With that murmur of admiration, blue spectral energy flowed from Gellard’s eyes. "Since you’ve seen through it, there’s no need for me to waste strength maintaining this disguise."

His warmth faded, his skin turned pallid, and it took on a bluish hue. His breathing, too, ceased at some point. The eyes that had blinked like those of the living were now perfectly still.

Lowering his massive sword, Leven, within Gellard’s body, spoke with pride. “Behold. This is the true form where life and death exist in harmony."

The expressions of Karnak’s group hardened. What stood before them was the legendary, perfected form of a death knight.

***

Leven stared at Gellard, now a death knight, with a devastated look on his face. Father... is dead?

Until now, he had somehow managed to maintain his composure throughout everything, even when his older brother Emil’s body had been possessed by his future self’s soul, and even when he heard that the family had risen in rebellion and that Gellard had been imprisoned, he hadn’t been too shaken.

It wasn’t merely because Leven had a timid nature. From the start, his relationship with the Strauss family had always been complicated. Strauss was his homeland and his roots. It was undoubtedly precious to him.

But he had always been something of an outcast, half-driven from the family he cherished. His feelings toward both his father and Emil had never been entirely fond. However, seeing his father, now dead yet still moving before his eyes, he couldn’t help but give an anguished shout.

—You said Father was alive!

Karnak answered bitterly.

—I made a mistake.

From the reactions of the fleeing Strauss knights and those holed up in the citadel, Karnak had assumed Gellard was alive. It was the only explanation for how they were acting. That assumption had led him to declare without hesitation that Gellard must be unharmed.

But he had overlooked one critical thing. Ordinary people, unlike necromancers, could not distinguish so easily between the dead and the living. If the corpse was well-preserved, with a healthy color and moving limbs, there was little to tell it apart from a living person.

It was even more so because Gellard had been confined. He would not have appeared in public often. It was more than enough to mislead them.

Karnak cursed inwardly, realizing he had overlooked something so basic. Damn it, I really have grown too accustomed to this era.

Seeing Gellard as a death knight did resolve one lingering question for Karnak. Why had future Leven stopped aiming for present Leven’s body? Surely, without his original vessel, he couldn’t possibly survive.

He never intended to survive in the first place.

When a soul inhabited a body not its own, the mismatch inevitably led the body to perish. But what if the body was already dead and transformed into undead before the soul entered it?

Of course, the vessel would be far from intact, but it wouldn’t pose any significant problems either. Setting aside the minor issue of losing all human senses, that is. But what he stood to gain was enormous.

It was the very body that contained the power of a martial king. Trying to possess such a vessel while its living soul resisted would have been impossible. But after erasing Gellard’s soul and turning his body into a death knight? Claiming it would have been a trivial task.

Without the years of painstaking effort it would take to rebuild his former power, he could reclaim his strength in mere moments. Of course, this was only possible because future Leven’s soul was elevated enough to rival Gellard’s.

As the Monarch of Death, Karnak should have foreseen this much. Once, it would have come to him as naturally as breathing.

But I’ve grown too used to this living body.

Karnak had grown dangerously empathetic. His own living flesh had become so precious to him that he foolishly assumed others must think the same. Cold sweat beaded on Karnak’s brow.

Leven, now within Gellard’s body, looked down at the group with an arrogant gaze. "Judging by your faces, it seems you have no intention of surrendering peacefully." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Golden aura burst from his entire body.

"I suppose I’ll have to trouble myself and use force,” he declared.

Brilliant light flooded the surroundings, and an overwhelming pressure crashed down upon Karnak’s party. They groaned under pressure. Even though it was only his aura surging outward, the sheer magnitude of his power was palpable.

So this is the true might of a martial king?

Gritting her teeth against trembling knees, Serati glanced at Karnak. He had once made an offhand remark. Even if Leven, inside Emil, once again became a martial king, Karnak and his party had become strong enough that their odds were fifty-fifty.

It sounded ridiculous to Serati.

—You called this a fifty-fifty chance? Against a monster like that?

She was met with a sheepish response.

—That was assuming he’d only reach the level of a silver knight.

If future Leven were using Emil’s body to wield silver aura, then for a brief moment, he could perhaps unleash a martial king’s power of gold aura. Considering the time of Leven’s regression and Emil’s physical potential, no matter how quickly he progressed, that should have been his limit. Karnak was forced to admit his mistake.

—I never imagined he would regain his full power like this.

***

The old knight Gellard, now a death knight, lowered his massive greatsword and slowly took steps forward. With each step, invisible waves of pressure rippled outward, crushing the very air around them.

Serati and Lapicel broke into cold sweat.

"Ugh..."

"He’s just standing there, but he’s monstrous..."

Of course, the fact that their opponent was a death knight, a monster of legend, was part of the problem, but Karnak’s group was relatively familiar with that kind of danger. After all, archliches were also monsters of legends. And hadn’t they already faced the four governors? They had grown used to such horrors.

But facing Martial King Gellard was an entirely different matter. And worse still, the soul within that body was a future martial king, Leven Strauss himself. A martial king’s soul was inhabiting a martial king’s body. It was impossible to imagine just how horrific a combination this truly was. But even so, they couldn’t simply give up.

Alius raised his staff high. "O Hatoba, grant us your blessing and smite the dead!"

Holy light poured down and gathered on their blades. No matter how powerful a death knight might be, an undead was still an undead. The light of the goddess would surely have an effect! As expected, the overwhelming pressure that had been suffocating them noticeably weakened.

Leven, within Gellard, lifted one brow. "Hatoba’s blessing, is it?"

He smirked before raising his greatsword. "How pathetic."

He pointed the massive blade toward them, and it started glowing. A brilliant light surged forth, and the golden wave swallowed everything in its path. The divine protection of the goddess that had cloaked them was blown away all at once by the force of the golden aura.

A gust of wind scattered dust in every direction. Serati scowled as she stumbled backward. That was not the power of darkness. It was pure aura belonging to Martial King Gellard himself, which was why the goddess’s blessing had been blown away so easily. It was powerless against it.

—Isn’t a death knight supposed to use dark aura? How can an undead wield aura, the energy of life?

Karnak replied, his expression grim.

—This isn’t the first time I’ve seen it.

It was similar to his very first missions as part of the King’s Order, in his battle against Durald. Durald had been a red aura user from the Brellant family, and he, too, had become an undead vampire but still retained his natural aura.

Anything involving that damn Tesranach breaks the rules of common sense.

Future Leven completely nullified Alius’s divine magic with a single blow. He asked leisurely, "Did you witness the power of the true god?"

Glancing at the swirling golden aura cloaking the man’s entire body, Karnak replied, "If you mean the true power of Martial King Gellard, then yes, I’ve seen it."

What Leven had just unleashed was purely aura, the energy of life. It was not the dark power of Tesranach. But still, future Leven’s claim wasn’t entirely wrong. For a death knight to wield the Martial King’s aura was undoubtedly a miracle.

Smiling at Karnak’s relaxed demeanor, future Leven frowned. "You still seem rather composed. I suppose I’ll have to beat you down a little more to make your knees bend properly.”

The golden aura, which had been flowing in currents along his body, suddenly gathered at the tip of his sword. He thrust the massive greatsword through the air. The strike tore apart the atmosphere with a thunderous roar.

The very air warped, and seven slashes burst from the rift, hurtling straight for Karnak. It resembled seven golden arms of a monstrous beast lunging at him.

Damn it!

Varos moved at once. He threw himself in front of Karnak and countered the incoming golden flashes with his own purple aura.

And he wasn’t alone. Serati, Leven, and Lapicel also leaped into action, their radiant blue aura blades intercepting the golden waves, holding fast against the assault.

Beyond them, Alius’s powerful divine blessing descended upon the group. "O Hatoba!"

Four aura users devoted themselves entirely to defense, while the high inquisitor unleashed his full might in divine magic. And the result?

They managed to block the attack, but only barely. All of them were blown away like leaves in a storm.

"What kind of power is this...!"

Even so, their desperate efforts were not in vain. Thanks to them, they had bought just enough time for Karnak’s long-incanted spell to reach completion. "Come forth, El Ragna Terrastia!"