Myths Reawakened

Wayne’s longsword of moonlight stabbed through the right eye socket of the Death Knight’s skull squarely. Clear white light extinguished the dancing orb of red light in the eye socket. The great pain cut into the Death Knight’s thoughts. Recovering from the shock, he growled out loud. The ghostly claws of the Death energy that enveloped him lunged toward Wayne at the same time, about to consume him.

Hovering in the air, Wayne pushed his wrist forward before making a downward flick.

The longsword was half corroded by Death energy, but a part of the blade remained. Drawing a radiant trail in the air, it shaved shards of white bones off the Death Knight.

The moment the Death energy closed in on him, Wayne retreated and calmly nocked an arrow to his bow, escaping the surging tides of Death energy at the last moment, his thoughts leading his way.

“Ahhhh—”

The Death Knight’s scream reverberated across the Great Cemetery. He covered his skull with his hands. The sword of moonlight had cut across the right side of his skull, mirroring the scar on the left.

“That’s better.”

Wayne landed gracefully. His obsessive-compulsive tendency screamed every time he saw the lone scar on the left side of the Death Knight’s face, so he added another matching scar for symmetry.

Amid the grey mist, Death energy rose in waves. The Death Knight tipped his head up and howled. The pronounced scars on the left and right cheeks resembled tear streaks, especially fitting in the inner world where negativity abounded.

Auston didn’t waste his time enjoying the view of his mortal enemy’s pain. Instead, he seized the chance to make a deadly attack, raising a blade of infinite black light for a downward swing at the Death Knight and his undead warhorse.

Frightening Darkness descended in violent waves like a demonic dragon. The moment it hit, everything in the proximity was erased in its entirety by the thick Darkness.

Bam!

The slash came down on the top of the Death Knight’s head. The mounted knight failed to dodge in time and only managed to take the slash on his shoulder. Darkness brushed past the skull and hit with a loud bang. The Death Knight hurriedly made a counterattack with his Death energy. The tremendous force made the undead warhorse’s legs buckle, and half of her body ended up buried underground.

Cracks spread on the Death Knight’s armor. He growled and blocked the attack with his sword, going into a free fall with his mount. Only with his volatile Death energy corroding the ground around him did he manage to stop himself from becoming half-buried.

Yet the sword aura of Darkness had not dissipated. With every inch it pushed down, the Death Knight’s armor creaked and cracked.

Just then, Wayne shot an arrow of Moonlight with White Night Creed, splitting through the air and bypassing the defense of Death energy to hit the black chest plate armoring the Death Knight like lightning, striking a crack with precision.

It was the last straw.

The crack in the armor burst, and black shards splattered. The arrow of moonlight continued to pierce through the Death Knight’s sternum and burrowed into his empty chest, crushing the thoughts inside.

The Death Knight stilled. Shadow Nightmare halted for a moment.

That moment was all it took for the black light to come crashing down.

Boom!!!

Auston’s eyes glowed red. The chance to kill the Death Knight was right within reach. Ignoring his capacity, he pushed himself past his limit and unleashed infinite black light. In his pain, he had surpassed his peak. Tremendous energy waves rippled out from Twilight Despair before contracting into a single line. All the energy in the area was converted for his use, enhancing Twilight Despair.

The blade aura of Darkness smashed the Death Knight’s black armor, slicing through a skeletal arm. It fell to the ground, scattering Death energy before it reverted to a regular arm of flesh and blood. Then it became white bones once more under the corrosion of the Death energy.

The Death Knight suffered critical injury to his face, chest, and arm. Before he could let out a cry of pain, a cluster of scorching golden light increased in size in his view. The blinding radiance drowned him in an instant.

Rumble!

Golden and red mushroom clouds rose as a quake shook half of the City of Londan. It grew ever more violent in the following explosions and shockwaves. The currents of energy razed the entire area to the ground in the blink of an eye, leaving only a flattened wasteland.

In the heart of the explosion, scorching rivers of heat fluctuated, and land glowed with red-hot lava streams pouring into the deep crater. A dark portal opened. The Death Knight, now missing an arm and wearing damaged armor, leaped out on horseback in a downtrodden state.

Three figures reached him instantly as if they had teleported. The black sword, white bow, and golden spear pointed at him with the wielders’ thoughts locking onto him. Another wave of lethal attacks was incoming.

“Wayne!”

The Death Knight ignored Auston and William, his red glowing eyes fixed on Wayne. He spoke with the malice of a curse, “You once again betrayed your faith. The last time, you were the Church of Heavenly Father’s watchdog, and this time, you became the Goddess of Moonlight’s servant!”

“Talented people are valued everywhere!” Wayne scoffed. Watchdogs and servants? The Wayne of the inner world didn’t know how good his life in the surface world was, which was to be expected. Wayne was special, after all, and he wasn’t even the same person as the Wayne of the inner world.

Wayne knew who he was, where he came from, and what he had done. The Death Knight of the inner world knew nothing. He thought that he was facing his other self from the surface world.

“Auston, Sun Knight, I don’t want to fight you now. I’m having a duel with him to decide the victor.” The Death Knight raised his sword at Wayne. Today, there would be one victor and survivor between them. This was the Goddess of Death’s gift for him. He had been waiting for this day for a long time.

“You want a duel, and I’m supposed to just give you a duel? Who do you think you are? Are the three of us just gonna let you have your way?”

Wayne could defeat the Death Knight in a duel, but there was no point in doing that. There was no place for chivalry when facing an evil fiend. It was better to attack together and be done with it.

Besides, even if he agreed to the arrangement, William wouldn’t, and Auston definitely would object.

Those on the right path would have many supporters, while those who had lost their way would walk alone. The Death Knight, a solo player, would never understand that.

William immediately nodded in agreement, while Auston made his stance clear enough without speaking. The enemy who had killed his wife was right before him. He would never let Wayne monopolize the kill.

Sword aura of Darkness surged once more. Auston charged in the front, followed closely by Wayne and William. Darkness, Sun, and Moonlight closed in on the grey Death in the center from three directions. A lone pole could not stand strong. As the Death Knight growled furiously, darkness and light trapped him like a pair of massive hands pressing together.

Julia, the undead warhorse, stopped moving like she had lost her soul. Her math skills fell far behind her other self, perhaps due to the influence of negative information, or there might be another reason. The three-colored energies surrounded her. She chose to surrender after a few attempts at struggling.

The sun melted death, the moonlight cleansed death, and the darkness devoured death. The three energies retained their unique qualities as they crushed death in three different ways.

The Death Knight was about as strong as Auston, or perhaps a little weaker. It was too tall a task for him to take on three chosen knights at once.

He likely knew that he would be meeting his death, so he lowered his defense against Auston and William. He would rather die at their hands than allow his surface world self to kill him. At the same time, he gathered the last of his power to raise Shadow Nightmare high and hurl it at Wayne.

Shadow Nightmare tore through the Void and cut a grey trail in the air. Countless vicious skulls and dead spirits swirled around it, painting a horrifying picture.

The attack had been quick and sudden. In an instant, the grey light washed over Wayne, and the blade pierced through his face. He stilled, bending backward while standing, going motionless.

William roared, rushing past Auston in a flash of golden light and thrusting Dawn Doctrine through the Death Knight’s ribcage, rendering it into powder with a powerful twist. At the last second of the explosion of golden light, Auston broke through his limit once more to cut the Death Knight’s skull in half with Twilight Despair.

The killing blow isn’t the injury in the chest, but the head injury!

The Death Knight had already been on the verge of death. The two deadly attacks dimmed the red light dancing in his skull. In his last moment, he howled with laughter, “Wayne, this is the fate of traitors. You’ve defiled the goddess, so She grants you death!”

But then, Wayne started moving with the sword in his head. As William watched in joy, he dispersed Moonlight Armor and White Night Creed, extracting Shadow Nightmare from his skull. The ugly injury on his face instantly mended.

The Death Knight stared at him in shock.

“Do you find it difficult to believe? Are you wondering why I, the Moonlight Knight, haven’t been devoured by the power of Death when you’ve let go of your restriction on Shadow Nightmare?”

Wayne heard a familiar sound of devouring in his head. He raised Shadow Nightmare before him. “I told you, talented people are valued wherever they go...”

He raised Shadow Nightmare above him. Death energy surrounded him without doing any damage to him.

The Death Knight stared at him in horror, realization dawning on him. His heart surged with overwhelming resentment and rage, sinking to rock bottom. “Impossible. Why would the goddess forgive your desecration? I am the only Death Knight.”

“Ha, if not for me, you would not have qualified to become the Death Knight. Talking about loyalty before me? Don’t make me laugh.” Wayne told blatant lies despite knowing the truth to trample on ‘himself’. He broke out laughing. “The truth is self-evident. Only after I became the Death Knight did you become one. The goddess never cares about you. Even though I’m involved with other goddesses, She always forgives me...”

“That’s not the case for you. Even when you devote your loyalty wholly, the goddess won’t even spare you a glance!”

“That’s the difference between you and me!”

“Die in peace. The Goddess of Death is satisfied with me alone!”

“Impossible...”

The Death Knight would like to speak more, but Auston didn’t give him the chance. Darkness devoured his thoughts and erased his vitality. The moment the grey Death energy wilted entirely, his body collapsed, turning from a damaged skeleton to a severely damaged corpse.

Boom!!

“Die! Die!”

Auston swung Twilight Despair repeatedly to turn the Death Knight into minced meat. Even then, he still had more rage bottled in him. With crimson eyes, he conjured tides of Darkness to render the area where the minced meat was to nothing.

(一`´一)

For some reason, Wayne could picture the Auston of the surface world stuffing him into a barrel of cement and sinking him into the river, laughing at the same time with such joy that he didn’t look like himself.

Wayne wasn’t going to tolerate the offense. He took out the camera he had just acquired and snapped several pictures of the raging Auston. He would show Silvia the photos after he went home.

Master, the Auston of the inner world decimated me and scattered the ashes everywhere. Please punish him.