The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 162

The battle that unfolds on the hill of Golgotha.

Eliza created the sun in the sky and dropped it down.

The blazing light and flames fell toward the emperor.

However,

A harsh, whistling wind followed by a sinister sound, “Ssshhh!” echoed, and the sun seemed to be sucked somewhere.

The one it was sucked into was Geist, the leader of the Imperial Mage Corps.

Above his head, there was a black dot.

A dot the size of a fist, the depth of which was hard to gauge.

The sun rotated and was absorbed into it, soon vanishing.

Geist looked down at Eliza and grinned.

“Once, it was truly cursed, but when I think back on it, I’m thankful. Living in the same era as a Mage who will rewrite history.”

Eliza de Bevel.

A genius Mage, known as the reincarnation of the mythological age.

Her very existence had an undeniable influence on countless Mages.

Before Eliza awakened as a Mage, there were three geniuses.

Barak, Epona, and Geist.

However, out of them, Geist was the strongest, simply by natural ‘talent.’

Though his talent had been overshadowed by Eliza, paradoxically, he was the one most influenced by her.

He decoded, analyzed, and even imitated her magic, causing his own abilities to grow rapidly.

During the time when Eliza had been in seclusion for several weeks taking care of Judas,

Geist had acquired the means to oppose her.

“…….”

Eliza stared at him quietly.

‘…He wasn’t like this before.’

The atmosphere around him had changed.

It was much darker and deeper.

It resembled the sticky, slimy aura unique to dark magic.

‘…I can’t see the Imperial Mage Corps.’

The Imperial Mage Corps had not been wiped out.

There were survivors, aside from Geist.

But here, the only one from the Imperial Mage Corps was Geist.

There were no Mages among those who fled earlier carrying the solar symbols.

And earlier, Johan’s dark magic barrier easily blocked her magic.

‘A few days ago… The incident where the residents of Yggdrasil disappeared on a large scale.’

Clues cross and paint the outcome.

“…You used quite a bit of the sacrificial offerings.”

The remnants of the Imperial Mage Corps.

And the thousands of residents of Yggdrasil.

They had all been used as sacrifices for dark magic, strengthening both Johan and Geist.

Eliza speculated thus.

“Impressive deduction.”

Geist smiled and nodded in agreement with her words.

“I never realized dark magic could have so many uses.”

“How fortunate that the monstrous mage never realized that. If you had meddled with dark magic, you would have never been able to handle it.”

“Well… I don’t need such things. I’m plenty strong already.”

Eliza glared at him with displeasure, then turned her gaze.

Directly behind her, Judas.

Unlike the elite guard, he was sticking close to her.

Just confirming his presence made her heart feel warm.

“Judas.”

“Yes, Miss.”

He answered while still keeping an eye on the surroundings.

“Go.”

It was a signal for him to go fight instead of staying by her side.

Judas looked at her with concern.

Eliza couldn’t help but smile.

Even in such an urgent situation, the smile came naturally.

His worry was more than welcome.

“Don’t worry.”

The sun rose in the sky.

It was unstable and distorted compared to the sun Eliza had created, but it was definitely the magic she had used.

However, Eliza didn’t cast the spell.

It was Geist who had imitated it.

The hot light exploded.

Eliza paid it no mind, gently resting in Judas’s arms.

It was stiff because of his armor.

There was no warmth from his body.

But it was still fine.

Under the falling sun, Eliza laughed, nestled in Judas’s embrace.

“As long as you’re here, I won’t die.”

“……”

Judas sighed deeply.

Honestly, her concern seemed almost laughable.

Eliza was stronger than anyone on their side.

Moreover, their forces were in a severe disadvantage.

It was more practically advantageous for him to step in than to stay by her side.

“…Be careful.”

Eliza’s smile brightened.

“That word is enough.”

She slowly pulled away from him.

Judas stared at her face for a moment.

Her eyes, slightly narrowed.

The golden pupils beneath them.

Originally, her eyes were red in the background, with orange flames burning, and in the center, a golden sun-like hue.

The eyes of a mad fire, clearly like that.

But now, her eyes were completely golden, shining brilliantly.

“You be careful too.”

There was no time to hesitate and ponder the situation.

Eliza spoke as she held onto the fingertips, and Judas nodded resolutely.

Eliza’s golden eyes gazed upwards.

The sun filling the sky.

Compared to herself, it was insignificant.

Eliza soared towards the sun.

The falling sun swallowed her.

After that, the sun rapidly diminished in size.

Before long, the falling sun disappeared.

And in its place, Eliza floated in the air.

Her blazing golden eyes looked down upon the ground.

The sun had not disappeared.

It was held in her hand.

The compressed sun, now small, trembled as if it might slip from her grasp at any moment.

Gaist also rose to her height.

Eliza watched him intently.

‘Gaist… He seems confident enough to fight me. Judas will handle the Emperor somehow. Let’s trust him.’

She would do what she had to do.

It wouldn’t take long.

“But, if you thought you could follow me and face me with just this much, I’m disappointed.”

Eliza extended the hand holding the sun towards Gaist.

‘Orbital distortion.’

She twisted the path of the energy trying to burst out directly.

‘Miniaturized supernova explosion, linear.’

The golden light shot straight out, scraping the ground.

The earth touched by the beam boiled, and the enemy soldiers were burned away.

A gap formed in the enemy formation surrounding them.

At the end of the beam, Gaist stood.

After the beam flipped the earth once, a sharp screeching sound, “Screeeech!” spread out in all directions.

“Ugh-!”

He cast a defensive spell while simultaneously using teleportation.

If he had taken that beam head-on, even his barrier wouldn’t have withstood it.

The best option was to get out of this place.

Casting magic at the same time was extremely difficult.

Especially when high-level magic like teleportation was involved.

If he miscalculated, he might end up in the wrong place, but Gaist decided to trust in his enhanced self through dark magic.

The beam that turned everything in front of him pure white.

As he teleported, his view rapidly changed.

It succeeded.

He arrived near Eliza.

Just as expected, he immediately connected his magic.

Reaching out his hand…

“…?!”

Eliza was looking at him.

As if she had anticipated it.

She was already in the posture of reaching out to him.

Golden flames flickered from her hand.

Eliza smiled leisurely.

The high-speed, close-range magic used by Barak.

The target was cursed, but magic was not to blame.

And her own magic was stronger and faster than that.

‘Solar core release.’

-Boom!

Brilliant golden light exploded.

Gaist had no time to defend or dodge.

He was hit directly.

“Cough…”

He spat out blood.

His waist burned and snapped.

His upper and lower body separated, and he collapsed.

However…

“Truly terrifying…”

Gaist smiled grimly.

From the severed parts of his upper and lower body, black shadows squirmed and rose, reconnecting them.

In an instant, the wounds healed, leaving Gaist with an elongated form resembling a centipede.

The obsession he felt in his gray eyes resembled madness.

“I can’t die like this…”

Eliza looked down at him nonchalantly and muttered.

“Disgusting.”

***

“Judas! Where’s the young lady?!”

Richard asked as he sliced through the waist of an enemy soldier.

Judas, who had just joined, finished off the enemy by severing their neck and responded.

“She went up to deal with the mage!”

The magical battle in the air made the ground shake, and their ears rang.

Because of this, they had to shout to communicate.

“We don’t have to worry about her!”

“How’s our situation?!”

“We’re in trouble! There are too many of them!”

Imperial guards.

Imperial knights.

And soldiers enhanced with dark magic.

Each one was a formidable enemy.

Excluding Eliza, their forces numbered only nine.

They were barely managing to defend while standing back-to-back.

There was Yuel, but it was uncertain whether she could contribute much in the fight.

The question was whether they could hold on until Eliza killed Gaist and came down.

That was the situation.

It was different from the battle where she faced the Imperial army alone at Eliza’s mansion.

The enemies were spread out in all directions, and she had used Yuel and the terrain to ambush and hide repeatedly.

This place, however, was a vast desert with no trees or bushes to hide in.

He was completely exposed to the countless enemies surrounding him.

Even worse, the quality of the enemy had improved since then.

The soldiers enhanced by dark magic were each a serious threat.

The only comfort was that there were no mages.

That was thanks to Geist, who absorbed them all.

However, that didn’t mean the situation was hopeful.

‘I can’t let this go on.’

Judas looked up the hill while facing the approaching enemies.

Emperor Johan.

He was holding a spear, looking down at Eliza.

It seemed like he didn’t even need to pay attention to this side.

It looked like he was waiting for the right moment to ambush Eliza.

‘In all the times I knew, the Emperor had never done something like this. Especially wishing for a dark god with the use of dark magic…’

What caused the Emperor’s future to change?

It was unknown.

It wasn’t something to dwell on right now.

What mattered was how to get through this situation.

‘Those two must know about the combined strength of Eliza and me. For them to still engage in battle means they must have something they believe in. That incident recently, where residents of the Imperial Capital disappeared—could it have been dark magic…?’

A disturbing black aura flickered around Johan and Geist.

It was a sign of being consumed by dark magic.

‘And the soldiers who’ve been mutated or enhanced by dark magic… These guys are a serious problem too, but there are too many of them to deal with one by one.’

Those brainwashed by dark magic lose intelligence.

They can’t move systematically like these soldiers.

In other words, there must be a central force controlling their mental state.

Just like when I encountered dark mages in the underground city during the imperial guard trial.

‘It’s either Geist or Johan. Or maybe both.’

And Johan’s spear was dangerous.

I couldn’t let it be aimed at Eliza.

‘It looks like Geist has become stronger than before. Eliza won’t lose, but we can’t afford any variables. I need to kill the Emperor as quickly as possible.’

Judas severed the arm of a guard, pushed forward, and shouted.

“Senior Richard! Please help me!”

“What’s up?”

“Please cover me so I can reach the Emperor!”

“Can you win if you get there?!”

“Yes!”

Judas answered confidently.

Richard grinned.

“You little brat! I like your boldness! Hey, Dylan! Did you hear that?!”

Dylan responded to the command.

“Imperial Guard, assemble!”

The loud cry shook the battlefield.

All the Imperial Guard gathered around Dylan without looking, moving as one.

“Clear the way! Protect Judas!”

The gentle slope leading to where the Emperor was.

The enemy was swarming.

The Imperial Guard decided to break through that direction as one, executing a breakthrough.

It was dangerous as it would make them more vulnerable to encirclement.

But they were willing to risk it.

“Judas.”

Lindel patted Judas’s shoulder.

The hand that touched his shoulder trembled slightly.

“I’ll cover you, just keep running.”

Lindel was the fastest member of the Imperial Guard.

Also, the one who had grown the most since the past.

Judas nodded, recalling the day he first clashed with Lindel.

“…Understood.”

“Advance!”

At the sound of Dylan’s commanding yell, Judas ran.

Enemies were swarming directly ahead.

They surged forward like waves.

Swords and spears.

Arrows and crossbows.

All kinds of weapons were coming toward Judas.

Survival experts’ warnings rained down from all directions.

Instinctual fear surged.

He wanted to block or dodge.

But Judas gritted his teeth and held on.

Ignoring everything, he just advanced. And kept advancing.

He ran forward, focusing only on the path ahead.

Then, as if to reward that belief.

-Clang, clang!

Richard and Dylan stepped in to block and eliminate the threats against Judas.

“Run!”

“Go!”

The goal was the Emperor.

Though it should have been just a few seconds’ distance for a knight’s body, it felt like an eternity.

Judas gritted his teeth.

“Keep running!”

Lindel shouted from beside him.

He ran at a similar speed to Judas and defended against the smaller threats around them.

Even when enemies blocked the front, Judas kept running forward.

Other members of the Imperial Guard would rush in and push the enemies aside.

He trusted his comrades and kept running.

The scenery around him blurred by quickly.

The sound of metal clashing.

Sparks flying.

The smell of blood. The scent of earth.

Screams from those falling.

It was impossible to tell whose they were.

Then, at some point…

A knight clad in platinum armor blocked the path ahead.

He was the captain of the Imperial Guard.

A gap that was bound to appear due to the shortage of personnel.

The entire guard was tangled with other enemies.

Judas tried to place his hand on his sword.

“Just go-!”

Lindel shouted urgently.

He had followed Judas, preparing for this moment.

Judas hesitated for a moment.

The captain of the Imperial Guard.

A formidable opponent.

If he helped, if he cooperated with Lindel, they could kill the captain in one blow.

But what would happen after that?

In the brief moment of hesitation, what if they were surrounded by enemies?

Even now, his comrades were fighting behind him.

The Imperial Guard, who had become more like family than just friends.

Richard. Dylan. Felin. Esmo. Jerry. Hador. Gaus. Nils.

Dyke and Argon, who had chased the sun’s path.

They must have been injured.

Someone may have died.

It was a precarious operation with their lives at stake.

If they were surrounded, blocked, and defeated,

Then their sacrifices would be in vain.

In less than 0.1 seconds.

Judas made up his mind and gritted his teeth.

Lindel, not even looking at him, shouted.

“Keep running! Judas-!”

Lindel’s new model was shot like an arrow from his side.

It became entangled with the Imperial Guard captain and disappeared from sight.

A scream was heard.

It was unclear whether it was Lindel’s or the captain’s.

He wanted to confirm, but he kept his focus on the Emperor and ran.

Two steps away from the Emperor.

A shadow fell over him.

A soldier, grotesquely enlarged by dark magic from the sky, swung an axe and fell.

He placed his hand on the moon’s pupil and drew it out.

The small crescent moon flickered.

-Slashing!

The trajectory of the sword brushed by.

The soldier was torn apart and fell to the left and right.

As blood and entrails poured out, Judas finally stopped running.

He slid and arrived at the top of the hill, beneath Johan.

“…Amazing.”

The Emperor admired as he looked down at him.

Judas suppressed his breath, which felt like it would burst.

“Finally, you’re looking this way…”

“It will be a meaningless struggle.”

The Emperor’s gaze turned toward Judas’ back.

Judas shook his head inwardly.

It wasn’t meaningless.

Even if there was no result,

A struggle fought for oneself was never meaningless.

He didn’t say it out loud.

He didn’t have the luxury or time for that.

He just kept running.

The Emperor sneered and thrust his spear.

A spear of overwhelming length, twice the size of a strong adult male.

Judas raised his shield.

Just before the silver-white spear collided.

He rolled forward.

The spear scraped the shield’s surface at an angle and passed by.

Judas tumbled forward, using his heel to strike the Emperor’s face.

“Ugh?!”

A near-miraculous counterattack.

The startled Emperor couldn’t even properly defend himself and got hit in the face.

Judas quickly rose and adjusted his posture.

The Emperor looked at him with wide, surprised eyes.

Judas chuckled inwardly.

Although he didn’t know why the Emperor was doing this,

Before his possession, he had fought that Emperor countless times.

When playing the game, he had tried many things to get close to Eliza.

To try anything, he needed power.

‘I’ve killed you so many times.’

In other words, he was theoretically adept at fighting Johan.

The only variable was that he had enhanced his body with dark magic.

‘Even so.’

Judas feigned an opening and then swiftly attacked.

The Emperor thrust his spear.

The target was Judas’ face.

Judas deflected it with his shield.

As expected, the Emperor quickly withdrew the spear and tried to thrust it low.

The head attack was essentially a feint.

However, Judas, anticipating this, jumped up and stepped on the spear’s shaft with one foot.

‘He’s not one to lose easily.’

The Emperor’s trembling green eyes gazed up at him.