Chapter 172: A Starry Night (2)
Yuri held his breath and hid among the bushes.
A group of knights passed nearby.
As he watched their backs, Yuri gripped Guilty tightly. He continued the battle with an almost intoxicating sensation.
He fought when he wanted, hid when necessary. The whole process felt absurdly easy.
“Phew…”
Yuri looked down at his sword. Although the blood-stained blade, covered in shadows, appeared dull, it was different in the realm of the soul he perceived.
Guilty clearly reflected the glow of the stars spinning in the night sky. It was so bright it was almost blinding.
Yuri took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again. Each time his eyelids fell, strange landscapes appeared.
And when light returned to his pupils, reality enveloped him once more. Yuri strove to maintain his grasp on reality.
“Focus…”
He organized the current situation. At that moment, he was hiding alone among numerous enemies.
And they hadn’t found him yet.
Those who mastered mana methods often relied more on senses other than sight.
That’s why Yuri, who could erase his presence and mana at will, seemed to them as if he teleported.
At this point, there were hardly any complete eight-man squads left in the Ninth Knight Squadron.
One by one, they had fallen to Yuri’s arrows or sword. As a result, their strength had been significantly reduced.
Retreating wasn’t a bad option.
But Yuri still wanted, if possible, to kill the squad leader Elpeso. If he succeeded, it would send a clear warning to the Empire.
“Let’s give it a shot.”
Yuri revealed his presence. Immediately, there was a reaction.
“It’s the enemy!”
By standing still, the enemies approached him on their own. It was an eight-man squad.
After a few exchanges, a couple of knights ended up wounded and staggering.
“Just buy us time!”
One shouted desperately.
“We can’t beat him! Just hold him!”
It was a purely defensive response. The Ninth Squadron no longer showed pride.
They acknowledged Yuri as a formidable enemy and just wanted to pin him down. For Yuri, that was a complication.
It’s easy to exploit gaps in an attacking enemy, but much harder to bring down one who huddles defensively.
“So that’s your game, huh…?”
Those who initially tried to surround and annihilate him were now huddled together.
Yuri found it amusing. The answer was simple—he just had to run.
From the beginning, he had no reason to insist. Although he wished to kill Elpeso, if they were withdrawing this much, he wouldn’t take unnecessary risks.
Yuri took a step back.
“Huh?”
The knights facing him were surprised to see him retreat.
“Shouldn’t we stop him from escaping?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
Pursuit is for the strong against the weak. Chasing a stronger enemy wasn’t wise. While the squad hesitated, Yuri kept getting farther away.
“What do we do?”
“Let’s follow him at a distance!”
“Yes!”
They called out to nearby allies while keeping a certain distance from Yuri. Yuri glanced back and smiled sideways. Seems they didn’t want to let him go that easily.
Well, after all, that knight squad had been wrecked by practically one man.
If they let him escape, the squad’s prestige would be in ruins.
“Stubbornness is what ruins people.”
Suddenly, Yuri accelerated. The knights were startled.
“Don’t lose him!”
To close the widening gap, they ran desperately. Yuri made a big show of his presence as he ran.
The dark mountainous landscape rushed by on both sides. Then, he spotted a large, sturdy tree ahead.
It looked several hundred years old. It would do.
Yuri pushed off and jumped.
He landed on the tree, cushioning the impact with his knees and waist, and sprang forward like a spring.
It was a sudden recoil movement. The tree cracked with a loud creak.
The distance between the speeding knights and Yuri shrank drastically.
“What the hell?”
As they crossed paths, Yuri unsheathed his sword. Since they were disorganized, they couldn’t react well.
Armor was torn, flesh splattered. Yuri’s sword spared no one.
Then came the sound of clashing metal.
Some skilled knights managed to block Yuri’s blow.
“Hold your ground!”
The one-against-many battle continued. The clashing of metal echoed again and again.
Yuri deflected all enemy trajectories that entered his field of vision, finding gaps between them. Despite attacks from all directions, he didn’t tense up.
It was as if time flowed slowly.
While wielding Guilty, Yuri pondered.
Where was he now? One thing was certain—he was stronger than when he killed Yalta.
Had he reached the level of the Ten Greats?
No, not yet. The chaos still didn’t fully belong to him.
He had to go further.
Yuri twisted his waist and delivered a powerful slash with Guilty. A knight was cleaved in half, armor and all.
In that battle, Yuri killed one and incapacitated two. Then, the remaining knights withdrew like turtles into their shells.
Yuri didn’t hesitate to turn on his heels. Despite losing their comrades, the knights just watched him leave without moving.
“Phew…”
Yuri picked up the pace. Now that they grouped in eights, the surveillance net was looser and he could move more freely.
Currently, the Ninth Squadron was concentrated toward the upper part of the mountain. That opened a direct path to where Laurent and Jared were.
It seemed he might finally be able to retreat.
Then, suddenly, Yuri felt a sharp presence aiming at his back.
He leaned to one side. An arrow grazed him and lodged in a tree.
“I knew you’d come through here.”
“Huh?”
It was Elpeso’s voice.
Yuri tilted his head in confusion. Since he hadn’t sensed him via aura, he didn’t know he was so close.
“How…?”
“You weren’t the only one with a plan. Jared.”
He was accompanied by the knights Yuri had seen earlier from atop the tree.
One of them was missing—perhaps killed by Yuri’s arrow.
Yuri scanned Elpeso and the other knights. The energy they gave off wasn’t ordinary.
“I can’t let you go just like that.”
Elpeso and the three knights activated their mana method. It was as violent as a volcanic eruption.
They were unleashing their full power even before the battle began. That meant they fully acknowledged Yuri as an enemy.
‘…’
If it had been the usual Yuri, he would have fled immediately. But now that he had accepted the power of chaos, he no longer viewed crises as something to be entirely avoided.
Like an acrobat walking a tightrope, for him, fear was something to overcome.
Once the decision was made, Yuri acted without hesitation.
“Jared!”
Elpeso shouted and charged at him, while the other three knights flanked him as escorts, pressing from both sides.
Four swords targeted Yuri’s blind spots at the same time. It was a perfectly coordinated attack.
Time began to flow slowly again.
How should he respond? Among all possible options, Yuri found a tiny chance to reverse the situation.
But it required moving at his absolute limit—like threading a needle mid-jump.
He asked himself.
‘Is it really worth taking such a risk?’
Maybe it would be better to retreat and reassess the situation.
But Yuri shook his head. He couldn’t move forward if he always chose to retreat. A sword advances only through blood.
Overcoming danger wasn’t enough. Yuri wanted to push through it and rise even higher, to a point where no one would dare face him.
And above all—Yuri slightly curved his lips.
Because he knew he would succeed.
By accepting chaos, a sensation verging on madness filled him inside.
He also finally understood what the energy deviation Moyongchan had mentioned truly meant.
But Yuri felt no fear whatsoever.
Restrictions like that would never bend him.
Whether the Heavenly Demon was dead or Erich Briol had whatever he had—it didn’t matter.
He was Yuri Briol. And he would go all the way.
“Die!”
Yuri charged into the four swords, executing a forward step.
A few stones on the ground lifted from the force of the mana. He swung Guilty.
A piece of rock improbably struck the edge of his sword mid-swing.
It flew into the face of one of the flanking knights. At the same time, with Guilty, he blocked Elpeso’s frontal strike.
At the moment of impact, he let go of the hilt. Guilty flew, spinning through the air, and struck the knight on the other side.
Only one sword remained, coming at his side. Yuri caught it between his arm and armpit and struck the enemy’s wrist.
The impact dislocated the joint, and the knight dropped his weapon. Yuri snatched it immediately and rolled over the opponent’s body.
In that instant, Yuri positioned himself behind his enemies. He had a fraction of a second before they turned around.
Yuri stabbed the disarmed knight in the back. Then pushed forcefully, making the body crash into Elpeso.
They both fell entangled.
Yuri looked up.
Guilty, which had struck a knight, was spinning in the air. He leapt off the back of the freshly stabbed corpse and caught his sword.
From the ground, another knight looked at him in shock. Yuri descended with Guilty raised high.
The blade cut through helmet, armor, and body completely. It cleaved him in two.
Now, two were dead, Elpeso was pinned under the bodies, and only one remained standing.
That last one stabbed him in the back. Yuri managed to turn, but was still slashed across his back and side.
Blood gushed. Yuri swung Guilty.
The swords clashed. The enemy staggered back.
Yuri followed with a descending slash.
The knight, overpowered, fell to his knees. As he tried to raise his weapon, Yuri kicked the ground, raising dust to blind him.
Immediately, he changed targets.
He charged at Elpeso, who was barely getting up.
“Kugh!”
Still off balance, Elpeso only received blows and stumbled back.
“You bastard!”
Elpeso’s desperate voice was soaked in blood. After another clash of swords, Yuri stepped back a bit.
“Jared! I swear I’ll—”
“That’s a lie.”
“What?”
“The truth is I’m not Jared.”
“What are you saying now?”
“It was a trick. Now I’ll tell you my real name.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“…”
With some distance between them, they stared at each other. Yuri noticed a part of Elpeso’s armor—its joint had come loose from the prolonged combat.
“I am…”
While speaking, Yuri swung his sword in the air, as if loosening up.
He even made a few mock attacks.
Then, blood spurted. A shot to a single point.
Single Strike.
A technique that usually didn’t work on the strong. But Elpeso, worn from the night battle and weakened under Yuri’s pressure, let his guard down from a few simple words.
And so, he couldn’t react.
Yuri’s blade pierced the spot where the breastplate and helmet met—his throat.
Elpeso could no longer speak. Blood just bubbled from his mouth.
Leaving the falling body behind, Yuri finished off the last remaining knight.
It was all over.
“Gugh…”
Elpeso wasn’t completely dead yet. Yuri approached to finish him off.
His eyes were dull. Yuri spoke.
“My name isn’t Jared. I’m Yuri Briol.”
Then, Elpeso’s dying eyes regained a flicker of life.
“I see…”
Yuri looked him straight in the eye. But Elpeso no longer saw him.
He only stared silently at the night sky.
By luck or misfortune, the last thing he saw before dying was a sky similar to the one Yuri saw—not a dark one, but one rippling like the sea, with a swirling moon and stars.
A strange light flowed from his eyes.
And he said.
“How beautiful… the stars are…”
That was his final will.
Yuri crushed his chest with his foot.
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