Chapter 231: Goddess' Personal Teaching? Soul Reincarnation!
Deep in the mountains outside Axel, morning mist swirled.
Arthur stood alone, quietly observing the dilapidated ancient castle before him.
The next second.
"Boom!"
The heavy iron gate exploded inwards, flying like a cannonball and shattering the patrolling skeleton minions!
Arthur retracted his right foot and waved at the skeletons still intact inside the castle.
"Good morning, is Headless Knight Beldia at home?"
Clack, clack!
The pale white skeleton soldiers' jaws clattered wildly, their brittle sounds mixing with the roars of swarming zombies, forming a symphony of death.
Facing the tide of undead, Arthur didn't even bother to draw his sword.
He raised both hands, crimson magic bullets firing from both sides, accurately piercing the head of every undead and instantly clearing the overwhelming offensive.
"Stand down!"
Accompanied by a deep, powerful reprimand, Beldia, clad in grotesque black armor and riding a headless warhorse, strode out from the shadows deep within the castle.
He held his head in his left arm, his blood-red, cold eyes scrutinizing Arthur from above.
"An adventurer who knows my name, you didn't stumble in here by mistake, did you?"
Arthur drew durandal, its tip pointing diagonally at the ground, showing his intent with his actions.
Beldia snorted, "Challenging a Demon Lord's Army Executives alone, such courage is commendable. Let my personal guards entertain you properly."
"Summon Undead!"
Dense death energy permeated the earth, and undead knights in tattered armor burst forth from the ground!
Through the gaps in their armor, rotting flesh was faintly visible, emitting a nauseating stench.
Arthur casually fanned the air in front of him, his gaze passing over the restless undead knights and directly at Beldia himself.
"Can we skip the foreplay and go straight to the boss battle?"
Beldia waved his hand indifferently, and the undead warhorses beneath the undead knights let out piercing neighs, their war stomps arriving in an instant!
"Sigh… so troublesome."
Arthur raised durandal, a fierce wind swirling around him, and he transformed into a crimson dragon tearing through formations, charging forward fearlessly!
In an instant, the charging legion of undead knights was ripped open, leaving shattered men and horses in its wake, dismembered limbs and broken bones flying everywhere!
Seeing such a devastating offensive, Beldia immediately shed his arrogance, drew the knight's greatsword from his warhorse, and, imbued with dense death energy, brought it down fiercely!
The dark slash tore through the air, colliding head-on with the steel gale, and the shockwave sent all the surrounding skeleton minions flying!
The nearby wind blast startled the headless warhorse, causing it to rear. Beldia had no choice but to dismount, holding his sword with one hand, and said in a deep voice.
"To withstand a heavy slash from me, you are certainly no ordinary… "
Before he could finish, a chilling sword light struck him squarely in the chest!
The grotesque black armor shattered, and an unprecedented pain choked off his unfinished words.
Arthur, having transformed into a meteor, reappeared, casually catching a flying shard of armor and examining it closely.
"Indeed, there's a power flowing that doesn't belong to you. Is this the Demon Lord's blessing?"
Beldia knelt on one knee, a large amount of foul blood gushing from his chest, his breath carrying a dense death energy.
"It's been a long time… since I encountered such a powerful adventurer! In that case—"
He suddenly raised his head to the sky, and a blood-red magic circle abruptly unfolded, like a demonic eye gazing down at the earth!
"Eye of the Necromancer!"
Arthur, locked on by the demonic eye, merely shrugged his shoulders, feeling no abnormality whatsoever.
Yet Beldia had already pushed all his magical power to the limit, charging forward with a powerful stomp!
The dark slashes, trailing afterimages, instantly reached him. Arthur blocked with his sword, durandal like a clear water mirror, effortlessly swallowing the opponent's furious assault.
Beneath the water mirror, undercurrents surged!
The flashing sword light precisely pierced every connecting point of the black armor, dismembering it completely in the blink of an eye, turning it into a pile of scrap metal!
In mid-air, the floating head suddenly lost all power, the red light in its eyes extinguished, and it rolled to Arthur's feet.
In Beldia's blood-red pupils, only endless astonishment and fear remained.
"This… how is this possible! How can an adventurer from a starter village be so strong!?"
Arthur bent down and picked up Beldia's still-not-quite-dead head, then glanced at the regenerating, broken body, clicking his tongue in wonder.
"You, a Demon Lord's Army Executives, instead of staying on the front lines, why did you come to the starter village to seek death? Don't you know that the small fry here can solo goddesses?"
"Goddess!?"
Beldia's blood-red eyes flared with a sharp glint, and he muttered to himself.
"So that's it… that's what this is! You! You are the hero blessed by that suddenly descended goddess!"
"Curse of Death!"
He used his last bit of strength, his chilling gaze locking onto Arthur, and a purple orb filled with ominous energy shot forth!
"Not this one."
Arthur raised his hand and pinched the curse orb, his five fingers, covered in a pale glow, suddenly exerted force, crushing it as easily as crumbling a ball of sand.
"Although I also have dominion over water, I'm not really skilled at purification. No choice, I'll have to imitate a certain idiot's method."
Beldia blinked his stiff eyelids, his pupils filled with bewilderment.
Could this adventurer be the deity that the Demon Lord wanted him to investigate?
"Ritual of Cycles, Order of Life and Death, descend, pure grace."
The divine words governing water resounded, and a drop of sacred clear spring condensed out of thin air, landing precisely on Beldia's head.
There was no violent explosion, only a piercing wail from the depths of his soul!
Billowing black smoke furiously poured from the head, as if to release all the accumulated resentment.
Under the purification of the divine power, Beldia rapidly melted like thin ice under the scorching sun, eventually vanishing completely.
Having lost their commander, the Headless Knight, the tattered undead army also lost its backbone, collapsing and disintegrating into a pile of dry bones.
Arthur clapped his hands, as if dusting off non-existent dirt, and turned to leave the ancient castle.
"In your next life, remember to be a good person."
…
The Adventurers' Guild was as boisterous as ever.
Arthur's eccentric teammates were gathered around a dining table, collectively slacking off.
Aqua, for once, wasn't clamoring for alcohol, but sat quietly, folding meaningless crafts out of napkins.
Kazuma was sprawled in a chair, stuffing fried giant frog meat into his mouth while flipping through a worn storybook.
"Once upon a time, a mage named Kiel, who diligently studied magic, fell in love at first sight with a certain noble lady."
"The disparity in their status made his love unrequited, so he dedicated himself to cultivation. As time passed, he unknowingly became the strongest archmage in the kingdom."
"To honor his achievements, the King promised to grant him one wish. Kiel said he had only one wish…"
"Hey! Why is it gone!"
The abrupt end of the story made Kazuma slam the table, flipping through the incomplete storybook with a look of resentment.
Although the story was cliché, he could probably guess that Kiel would ask to marry the noble lady, but not seeing the ending was frustrating!
Darkness, who was sitting nearby sipping tea, shook her head: "Don't bother, no one knows the Archmage Kiel's ending."
Kazuma looked at her in surprise: "You've read it too?"
Megumin, who was playing Crimson Demons special chess with Yunyun, turned her head and explained.
"Archmage Kiel's story is famous, a top choice for children's bedtime stories."
Yunyun, contemplating her next move, also nodded in agreement.
"One theory is that after Kiel's marriage proposal failed, he abducted the noble lady, holed himself up in a dungeon, and was eventually eliminated by the King's army."
Kazuma's mouth twitched: "What is this? A dark fairy tale?"
"Since you're all so curious about Archmage Kiel…"
A clear voice sounded behind Kazuma, and a parchment scroll was slapped onto the table with a "pah," making everyone turn their heads simultaneously.
It was Arthur.
"Big Brother, are you done with your work?"
"You disappeared this morning, where did you go to slack off?"
"Your clothes are neat and tidy, and there's no strange smell on you, suspicious~~~"
"Neglect play! It must be neglect play, right!"
"Arthur…"
Seeing that even the most honest Yunyun was about to be led astray, Arthur pointed to the request form on the table, successfully diverting everyone's attention.
"Quest: Explore the newly excavated hidden area of Kiel Dungeon."