The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 150

The spear aims for the lower body.

Judas swings his shield downward, deflecting the attack.

A sword targets his head.

He ducks.

Again, another sword goes for his body.

He plants his shield into the ground and spins away to evade.

He’s reaching his limit.

His muscles scream in pain, as if they’re being torn apart.

Even breathing feels overwhelming.

Sweat drips into his eyes, forcing him to wipe it away constantly.

‘This can’t happen…’

Losing is not an option.

There’s no value in doing his best only to be defeated.

Only victory and survival matter.

But reality doesn’t work that way.

A mace flies toward him like a battering ram.

He raises his shield.

“Guh…!”

He should have deflected it, but he failed.

His arm goes numb.

In that brief moment of hesitation—

A survival expert shouts a warning from behind.

There’s no enemy at his back.

Which means—

‘Magic…!’

Except for elite combat-capable mages, the spellcasters remain at a distance.

One of them must be attacking.

It’s too late to dodge.

Seizing the moment of hesitation, dozens of enemies charge at him again.

The enchantment on his armor has worn off.

He can’t block them all.

So—

‘I’ll take the hit.’

If he lets it graze him and avoids a fatal wound, he can still fight.

At that moment—

Thud!

The sound of something piercing flesh.

A strangled whimper follows, like a wounded beast.

‘…!’

Judas weaves through the incoming weapons, dodging and deflecting each one.

When he turns around, someone is slashing downward diagonally with a sword.

He lowers his waist, barely avoiding the strike, and counters by slicing at the legs.

With a wet slash!, the enemy’s knee is severed.

Their upper body tilts in midair.

Judas cleaves through their torso.

Blood and entrails splatter onto him as he surges forward.

A pained whimper—

Yuel trembles, an ice spear lodged in her flank.

“……”

There’s no time to hesitate.

Judas uses his sword like a shovel, heaving up the ground.

The rocky terrain rises into a barrier.

It shields him and Yuel from their enemies.

The wall won’t hold for long.

But it only needs to buy enough time for Yuel to escape.

Fortunately, Its wound isn’t too deep.

It’ll limp, but It can run.

“Go.”

Yuel looks up at him with anxious eyes.

Every second counts.

He has to get her out of the battlefield.

Judas speaks as calmly and reassuringly as possible.

As if it’s the last time.

He strokes Yuel’s head.

“Go find help. That’s all you need to do. Okay?”

With effort, Yuel stands. Reluctantly, she leaves him behind.

There’s no time to watch her go.

The rock wall shatters.

Cracking from a single point, it collapses—

And beyond it, a platinum-clad knight charges forward.

A spear thrusts toward him.

He deflected the attack by standing his sword vertically, then followed through with a slash.

The platinum-colored armor was dyed red as it split apart to the sides.

The moment he pushed off the ground to advance—

“…!”

His feet were bound.

Massive roots sprouted from the ground, entangling him.

A restraint spell for subduing people.

The next royal guard charged in.

A descending sword.

He blocked it with his shield and held his ground, but at that moment, the guard raised his other hand.

A reverse-gripped, pointed dagger.

He twisted his upper body, but there was no angle to evade.

It came straight for his face.

The dagger gleamed as it struck his face.

—Thud!

Pain exploded, and blood splattered across his face.

Yet, Judas did not die.

Everyone who witnessed it was struck with terror.

His sheer determination was bordering on madness.

“What… the hell… is that…?”

The dagger had pierced through Judas’s cheek, stabbing all the way to the other side.

But he had avoided a fatal wound by opening his mouth.

In other words, it had only pierced through his cheek and stopped.

The guard tried to pull the dagger out, but it wouldn’t budge.

Judas was biting down on it.

With a blade embedded in his face, Judas glared at his opponent with wide eyes, and the guard was consumed by an incomprehensible fear.

His body froze in place.

Despite having his face punctured, Judas felt neither fear nor pain.

Ever since he had been forced to stand idly by, powerless, watching Eliza collapse under the weight of a past that was not her own, he had felt as if his sense of pain had vanished.

His anger, which had long been cold and subdued, ignited the moment he saw Yuel get hurt.

He was on the verge of losing his mind in rage.

With his teeth clamped onto the dagger to keep it in place, he grabbed his sword tightly in his remaining hand and thrust it forward.

He stabbed his opponent, twisted the blade, and pulled it out.

The guard’s torso split apart at the waist and fell.

“He’s someone who must not be allowed to leave this place alive….”

His face was drenched in dark red blood.

His golden eyes gleamed viciously.

Like a wild beast, he was ferocious.

“You… will not… get to her….”

Judas muttered, holding himself up with his sword.

Though his legs trembled under accumulated fatigue and wounds, his presence was still menacing.

“I suppose I’ll have to join in as well.”

Geist began preparing a spell.

“With his feet bound, now is the time. Unleash every prepared spell in succession.”

Even if their allies got caught in the crossfire, it was a risk they had to accept.

The enemy was just that dangerous.

Judas barely held onto his fading consciousness.

He focused on his enemy.

‘I… can’t die here….’

Enemies rushed in from all directions.

His feet were bound.

He could see the mages preparing something.

Because Eliza had tried to read his memories, he could not use the Revelation of Discovery.

He had no means to defend against magic.

‘The full moon….’

At some point, night had fallen.

A full moon hung in the sky.

A technique that had seemed possible ever since he had grasped the pupil of the moon within him.

In the slowed perception of time, he thought.

Realization came like a drizzle soaking into clothes.

Like watercolor bleeding on paper, it crept in slowly.

He felt neither deep emotion nor joy at his own growth.

He simply had to kill the enemy—kill, kill, and kill again—so he could return to Eliza’s side.

He had to face her.

He wanted to apologize for the moment he hadn’t been honest.

This was merely a means to an end—a process to return to her.

‘Sword energy is a line.’

The sword energy woven from mana was an extremely thin line.

‘If you draw countless lines, they form a surface.’

Blade energy fired without gaps could form a hemisphere.

Is it possible?

I don’t know.

So far, I’ve never had to because it was always possible.

When something had to be done, I did it.

Even now, it’s not much different.

Countless weapons of the Imperial Guards rushing in.

Massive boulders, lightning, flames, ice, and more beginning to fall from the sky.

A barrage of magic attacks.

I erase them all at once.

Judas plants his shield into the ground and grips his sword with both hands.

What he cuts is not an object, but space itself.

As if splitting the sky, he swings his sword in an arc upward.

—Swish.

Even before the enemy’s attacks reach him, his motion is already complete.

Spears and swords.

And a storm of magic descending simultaneously.

Like a bombing raid, they are about to crush him.

Then—

A pale ivory light bursts forth from him.

It surges outward, pushing against the ground.

The weapons of the Imperial Guards break upon contact, their armor shatters, and their bodies are torn to pieces.

Boulders are pulverized, fire and lightning dissipate, ice chunks explode into fragments.

All magic is nullified.

Even after crushing his enemies, the light continues to advance.

It looks as though a moon has risen upon the earth.

The captain of the Imperial Guard wanted to applaud.

“To use sword energy as a surface…”

That hemispherical light—

It was an impenetrable formation of countless sword slashes.

It was only natural that anything that touched it would be shredded.

For a moment, even the ground trembled from the sheer force of the sword energy.

Then, a yellow sun appeared in its place, swallowing Judas whole.

“Hooh.”

The captain of the Imperial Guard murmured in admiration.

“So this is the so-called ‘Sun’ that mimics Eliza’s magic?”

Some geniuses surge ahead of everyone else, profoundly influencing countless others in their field.

Eliza was one such genius among geniuses, and Geist was another, shaped by his influence.

Geist had watched Eliza’s magic, fought against him a few times.

And at last, he had succeeded in imitating it.

Though, compared to the original, it was still far weaker.

“I’m not even sure if I’ll need to step in.”

“Don’t let your guard down. This isn’t over yet.”

“Hmph. All remaining guards, advance. If he escapes, respond accordingly. I will join as well.”

Swallowed by the sun, Judas held his breath.

Eliza?!

No. That was impossible.

Eliza could no longer use magic.

This was merely an imitation of his magic.

Though he was immune to fire, this space itself was consumed by magic.

There was no air to breathe.

He had to escape quickly.

Rushing out of the blazing sphere, he emerged—

Only to find an Imperial Guard lunging at him.

As if they had been waiting, weapons swung toward him all at once.

“….!”

His reaction was purely instinctive.

He swung his sword in a short, swift arc.

A crescent-shaped slash shot out, severing the approaching guards.

Their bodies split apart, blood spraying through the air—

And cutting through that crimson backdrop, someone rushed toward him.

The captain of the Imperial Guard.

“Truly impressive.”

A massive Zweihander came crashing down.

He barely blocked it.

“Ugh—!”

Even though he blocked, it was as if he hadn’t.

His shield was knocked away, and he was sent sprawling backward.

—Screech…

Digging his sword into the ground, he barely managed to stop himself from sliding further.

Shakily, he rose to his feet.

The Imperial Guard captain lunged again, swinging his Zweihander.

As he did, he offered his farewell.

“I honor your loyalty.”

At that moment—

His survival instincts screamed a warning.

Geist’s magic was complete.

A massive ice spear, large enough to crush a person, was launched straight at him.

Evasion is impossible.

Judas gritted his teeth.

‘If I’m going to die anyway…’

I’ll take at least one with me.

With death in mind, he charged at the captain of the guards.

He never thought he’d see his life flash before his eyes so often.

Eliza’s face flickered in his mind.

The woman who had been by his side for five years.

This farewell might be the last.

‘Eliza… I’m sorry.’