The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 163

The Imperial army, brainwashed and under the mental control of Johan.

They were running, gathering the Sun Statue and the Star Fragments.

Their bodies, enhanced by dark magic, raced at full speed, leaving Golgotha behind.

Then, at a certain moment…

A soldier’s neck snapped with a sickening sound.

They quickly stopped and took up battle formation.

Someone appeared from the surrounding area.

It was not anyone who had been with Eliza.

They were strangers.

The person in the center of the group was wearing a robe.

It was Herold , the bishop of the Moon Church.

“Your Majesty… You will pay the price.”

Herold  and the holy knights of the Moon Church ambushed them.

The reason was simple.

Emperor Johan had betrayed them first.

After obtaining the Sun Statue and stealing the Star Fragments, he had killed Pope Nadab of the Moon Church.

He had also killed the holy knights who had helped in the Catacomb attack.

Fortunately, Herold  had not been there.

A long time ago, on the day of Eliza’s coming-of-age ceremony, Barak had warned him.

“I don’t know what your Majesty promised, but do you truly believe that it will be fulfilled exactly as you wish? When the hunt is over, and it’s judged that there is no need for hunting anymore, the hounds will be slaughtered.”

Herold  had dismissed it as a divisive comment, but he thought it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.

Afterwards, Herold  secretly gathered his own forces and lay low.

He had warned the Pope as well, but the Pope, for some reason, trusted Emperor Johan unconditionally.

Now, Herold  understood the reason.

At some point, Pope Nadab had been brainwashed by Johan’s dark magic.

“I will repay in full, even the portion that belongs to Him.”

The holy knights charged.

The brainwashed soldiers fought back.

These soldiers were each frighteningly powerful, but fortunately, the number of holy knights far outweighed them.

It was a battle where victory was not guaranteed.

But neither Herold  nor the holy knights backed down.

After all, they were standing on the edge of a cliff.

Then, at a certain moment, the soldiers suddenly stopped moving and began to sway like corpses.

“Bishop? The enemy’s reaction is strange.”

“This… Has the brainwashing by dark magic been broken?”

That meant Johan and Geist were dead.

Though Herold  did not know the full story, it was a welcome situation for him.

It was a short battle, but many of the holy knights had died.

It had almost been a defeat, but by chance, they had claimed victory.

Herold  looked at the items left on the ground.

The Sun Statue that was being held up.

The Star Fragments.

With just these two, any miracle could be achieved.

“……”

Herold  knelt before the Sun Statue, holding the shard of the pale gray star in both hands.

And he prayed.

He wished and hoped.

“The resurrection of the evil god.”

Johan’s wish was to imperfectly resurrect the evil god.

Johan wanted to become the imperfect incarnation and apostle of the evil god.

The evil god was merely a means.

A way to show off his power and a tool to borrow miracles when needed.

Herold ’s wish was different.

“I hope for the resurrection of the true evil god, so that this world may be destroyed…”

It was not only Nadab who died.

The high priests, the core members of the Moon Church, had all died.

The Emperor never had any intention of preserving the Moon Church.

The Moon Church knew too many truths.

Thus, the Emperor had to eliminate even the smallest possibility for the sake of the new order.

But Herold  survived.

Filled with resentment towards the Emperor, with no reason to continue living in the world, he now wished for the world’s end.

His feelings were close to mere childish complaints.

Rather than wishing for his own happiness, he cursed and resented those who had harmed him.

Herold  desperately wished and prayed for the misfortune and destruction of others, not his own happiness.

“Ah…”

The Star Fragment shattered.

It crumbled into dust and rose into the air.

The ashen Sun Statue shone with a faint golden light.

The wish had been fulfilled.

“With this….”

At the moment he was moved with emotion…

“There they are—!”

A group of people came rushing in recklessly.

They killed a few of the holy knights who had tried to stop them, and then subdued Herold .

It was the Imperial Guard and Epona, sent by Eliza to track the Sun Statue.

Epona looked at the glowing Sun Statue and shouted.

“It’s already too late…!”

Argon grabbed Herold  by the collar.

“Where did you come from? You don’t seem to be from the Imperial Army. What wish did you make?”

“Heh, heh… Even if you know, it’s already too late! You’re all finished!”

Seeing him laugh eerily, Argon shuddered.

At that moment, all of them felt a sense of dread.

A sticky fear, like something emerging from the bottom of an abyss, that was hard to identify.

Slowly, they lifted their heads.

The blue sky was darkening.

And far in the distance.

The bright shining sun.

It was being swallowed by some kind of black flickering.

Epona murmured absentmindedly.

“A beast that devours the sun…”

The dark god of emptiness was being resurrected.

In close combat, the difference in length is absolute.

Even if both parties possess transcendent bodies capable of closing a vast distance in an instant, the difference remains just as significant.

The greater the physical prowess, the quicker the reaction time, making it even more remarkable.

Thus, the difference in weapon length is akin to an insurmountable wall.

In other words, if one overcomes this difference and wins, it means there is a vast gap in their levels of ability.

For the above reason, Johan was flustered.

“How did this happen…?”

He thrust the spear of the god killer forward.

Stretching both hands to the limit, he adjusted his grip with one hand and thrust it deeply.

The rapidly changing length prevented the opponent from reacting.

That should have been the case.

But his opponent, Judas, smoothly dodged it, as if he had already known it would happen.

The spear, extended so far, took a long time to retract, exposing the spearhead to the enemy.

Judas, as if waiting for this moment, grabbed the spearhead and advanced.

The ivory-colored sword sharply aimed for the neck and struck.

“Ugh-!”

The Emperor leaned back with a grunt.

At the same time, a swirling darkness exploded from his chest, engulfing his front.

It was the power of black magic.

He barely managed to shake off Judas and retreat.

“Tch…”

Judas brushed off the black jelly-like substance clinging to his body with an expression of annoyance.

‘This is troublesome…’

The Emperor was already a powerful and sturdy warrior.

His divine power was overwhelming, even greater than that of any priest.

‘The pattern is the same. Normally, I should have already killed him…’

But he had also mastered black magic.

At crucial moments, he retaliated with dark magic, making it difficult to finish the fight.

‘It looks like he’s sacrificed a great deal.’

Meanwhile, Johan was uneasy about Judas’ response.

He had heard that Judas was an extraordinary person.

But this was crossing the line.

Moreover, what was with that calmness?

As the fight prolonged, one begins to analyze and learn the opponent’s movements.

Everyone has certain habits after all.

And Judas responded with a relaxed manner, as if he had already learned everything about Johan.

Had it not been for the black magic, he would have died several times already.

In fact, Johan had conserved some of his strength.

It wasn’t that he was careless, but rather that he was targeting Eliza.

After all, Geist alone would be a difficult foe to handle.

But then, an unexpected ambush appeared.

Golden eyes once again rushed at him like a beast.

He quickly thrust his spear forward.

-Screeech!

It was yet again a near miss.

Judas deflected it with his sword, then, grinding it against the spear, charged forward.

Immediately, rocks shot up from the ground, blocking his way.

The ground began to sink rapidly.

“Ugh-!”

The sudden shift in the earth made Judas slip and fall.

The pit that quickly formed was as deep as if a meteor had struck.

Red liquid hung in the air.

Lava began to pour into the pit.

“Dammit…!”

Judas gritted his teeth and smiled.

It seemed the Emperor had truly decided to face him head-on.

That meant Eliza was now safer.

‘I didn’t want to call him, but…’

The pit was too deep to escape with just his body.

In that case…

“Yuel-!”

The moment he called, something pushed him from behind.

Without even looking, Judas expertly grabbed the reins.

His body lifted into the air.

He soared, skimming past the burning lava.

Above him, Geist, transformed into a centipede-like creature, fought Eliza.

Below, Emperor Johan was visible.

‘It has to end quickly.’

Judas looked down and pointed his sword.

“Send me flying!”

Yuel twisted his head in the air and, using his horns, shot him downward.

Gaining momentum, he plunged toward Johan like a comet.

Johan immediately extended his spear.

The god-killing spear.

Its true power had not even been revealed yet.

How he knew his moves, Judas couldn’t understand, but there was no way he could know about this weapon.

It had never revealed its abilities in front of others.

On the day the brief era of peace began,

The Emperor used the spear to defeat a demon with six arms.

The spear’s tip shattered into countless blades that rapidly grew, resembling branches of a tree.

The Emperor named this technique:

‘The Tree of Life.’

Only one blessed by the sun could unleash the true power of this weapon.

The silver spear’s tip split open.

Like a sprout piercing through a seed, silver branches shot out and rapidly grew.

White branches began to sprout and grow thickly toward the front.

They stretched outward, forming geometric patterns.

The spear grew in the direction where Judas was falling.

Judas, suspended in mid-air, could not change direction.

Anyone caught by the Tree of Life is torn apart and dies.

‘It’s over.’

At that certain moment of conviction.

Judas spun in mid-air and swung his sword.

The ivory-colored sword left a soft afterimage.

The circular trajectory resembled a full moon.

The circular sword energy surged like a whirlwind toward Johan.

‘It’s useless….’

Just as he was about to mock, a chill ran down his spine.

‘…!’

The branch that brushed against the sword energy shattered easily, like a rotten branch meeting a storm.

‘How could such sword energy…!’

Despite that, the sword energy did not stop and continued forward.

The spear tip, grown from a branch, kept breaking apart.

Small fragments splintered and fell like white snow.

‘Could it be, even that weakness!’

The point where the Tree of Life began.

Its roots.

The spear tip pierced directly into its center.

-Crank!

As it expanded wide and forcefully, the structural flaws inside revealed themselves to the outside.

A tiny crack.

Judas had targeted that spot precisely.

-Creak!

With a loud sound, the Tree of Life collapsed.

Judas, with his shield in front, continued to fall.

He pushed away the branches with the shield and defended himself as he approached.

The spear that kills gods lost its shape and crumbled away.

“Don’t…!”

But he couldn’t finish the sentence.

-Squeak!

Judas’s feet, which had already touched the ground, slipped.

Dust rose.

Finally, when he stopped and turned to aim at Johan, Johan’s head fell off.

It was a bit longer than expected, but shorter than feared in terms of removing Johan.

Judas had no time to relish the victory.

He quickly raised his head.

‘Where is Eliza?!’

At that moment.

A sharp light burst out into the air, sharper than ever.

Several suns rose into the sky.

“Ugh…!”

Judas closed his eyes and shielded his vision with his arm.

Beyond his eyelids, everything was pure white.

When he squinted, the light began to fade.

Someone was falling with their back to the light.

Fluttering black hair.

Shining golden eyes.

“Judas—!”

It was Eliza.

She was falling with her arms wide open.

For a brief moment, he was lost in her wide smile.

But Judas was in a panic.

“Ah, miss?!”

She didn’t slow her descent.

What should he do if she keeps falling like this?

In his flustered state, Eliza was almost within reach.

At the very moment when it seemed like they were about to collide.

As if riding the wind, Eliza’s speed softened.

She fell gently toward Judas, like a flower petal.

She smiled softly and embraced Judas’s shoulder.

Judas also caught her by the waist to break her fall.

“Were you surprised?”

“It was scarier than when I fought the emperor.”

“Hehe.”

With a pleasant chuckle, she buried her face in the back of Judas’s neck.

She took a deep breath.

“I missed you.”

“……”

Judas felt an overwhelming emotion, as if it was about to burst out of him.

He was momentarily speechless.

He had the same feelings, but he couldn’t bring them out carelessly.

He silently embraced Eliza.

Like her, he gently buried his face near her neck.

Eliza did not pull away but embraced him more deeply, accepting him.

It was rude to approach someone’s body carelessly and inhale their scent.

But Eliza allowed this rudeness from him.

A strange sense of joy overwhelmed him as he inhaled.

There was a pleasant scent from her soft skin and hair.

Perhaps because of the burn, there was a slight smell of scorched, but it was overshadowed by Eliza’s scent.

He was buried in that fragrance.

The exhaustion he had felt all over his body seemed to melt away warmly.

In this dreamlike atmosphere, Judas finally spoke.

“I missed you too…”

At that moment.

“Eliza…!”

A voice interrupted.

Turning his head, it was Epona.

Judas and Eliza immediately sensed Epona’s expression.

That instinct was confirmed by Epona’s voice.

“I failed…”

She had failed to take the Sun Statue and stop the wishes.

The solar disk she brought was darker and more ash-gray than before, and there was a crack in the center.

It was evidence of its use.

“It doesn’t seem like the imperial army… it seems like the Moon Church made a wish…”

“The Moon Church?”

Eliza stepped down from Judas and examined the Sun Statue.

Judas scanned the surroundings, realizing that all the brainwashed soldiers of the imperial army had lost their function.

“What the wish was…?”

At that moment, when Epona was speaking.

The surroundings grew dim.

The light faded like the setting sun.

Everyone looked up.

The bright blue sky was turning into a deep indigo.

And high in the sky, something black was swaying near the sun.

It had horns, was lumpy, and although it had no eyes, its massive front paws had claws growing like mountain ranges.

It was a beast.

A sun-eating beast.

A Evil god of emptiness.

Everyone simply stared, watching the resurrection of the Evil god.

The beast that appeared beside the sun raised its front paw.

It grabbed the sun with both paws.

The sun was obscured.

In an instant, the surrounding darkness deepened.

The beast opened its mouth.

A vast, yawning darkness.

Slowly, it began to swallow the sun.

Countless sharp teeth, like saw blades, seemed ready to crush the sun.

And finally, the mouth closed.

There was no sound.

Silently, darkness and silence descended.

The sun was devoured.

Where the sun had been, only a swirling haze of darkness remained.

The land turned into night in an instant.

The sky was filled with stars.

Epona couldn’t control her trembling knees and collapsed.

She dropped the Holy Grail she was holding.

She stared up at the sky, dazed.

The constellation in the pitch-black sky was something that could not be seen in this season.

“Ah…”

Someone sighed.

Thud.

Someone else collapsed.

“Ah, aaah…!”

Someone screamed, as if in agony.

The moon, seen from the opposite side of the land, lost its light and disappeared.

Before their eyes, the complete arrival of the Evil god left humanity powerless.

Judas gritted his teeth and glared at the place where the sun had been.

‘What should I do?’

It wasn’t the first time he’d seen the resurrection of a Evil god.

But he’d never survived one of these resurrections.

‘A perfect bad ending…’

When the sun disappears and the Evil god descends, all life on the earth withers and dies.

It becomes a world where no one survives.

No matter how much he thought, he couldn’t find a way out.

Judas felt the warmth in his hand.

Eliza’s small hand.

‘What should I do…?’

As he thought, he turned his head.

He looked at her.

In a world of darkness, that place was bright.

Eliza’s eyes sparkled with a golden light.

She was staring at the spot where the sun-eating beast was swaying, as if in a trance.

It wasn’t just her eyes.

Her body, too, was being covered with golden light in places.

From the hand she was holding, the gold spread outward.

In the deep darkness, she alone shone with a sacred radiance, illuminating the surroundings.

Judas felt an anxiety he couldn’t fully explain.

He didn’t know the source, but he could sense the reason for the anxiety.

It felt as if Eliza might disappear like this.

“…Miss?”

Eliza did not respond.