A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

A deal is difficult to make unless it is between equals.

How can a fair trade be conducted while one side is holding a knife to the other's throat?

It is a simple principle, yet it is one that the species called human sometimes misses when blinded by greed.

The Lengardis merchant, whose jowls were his pride, had realized this principle before he even turned twenty.

And now, over fifty, it was a principle he had forgotten again.

He had mortgaged his soul in exchange for eternal life, youth, and a healthy body.

A crack had formed in that one-sided deal.

Crack—.

As soot rose, a crack also formed on his body.

His skin split like stone, and black smoke billowed out from within.

"That's vile."

Dunbakel finally pinched her nose.

For a beastkin whose sense of smell had developed exponentially, the stench was excessive.

One of Rem's eyebrows twitched.

An ominousness that grated on his sixth sense was oozing from the merchant's body.

He didn't just watch.

He took a small stone from his pocket and threw it.

The motion of pulling his shoulder back and extending it forward was so fast that it left an afterimage.

Rem's arm bent like a whip, taking the place of a sling.

Of course, it was naturally less powerful than a sling that let out a whizzing sound.

Still, for the man who was hit at point-blank range, the impact must have been considerable.

It was a stone thrown with the strength of a knight.

CRASH!

In the time it took Rem to move, the soot had formed a three-layered barrier.

The loud noise was from the stone hitting it and exploding.

There was an impact, but it hadn't been able to penetrate.

"Look at this bastard."

The corner of Rem's mouth turned up.

It was likely because his fighting spirit had been stirred.

That fighting spirit was converted into interest, and his hand touched his descended weapon, the axe.

Despite the bizarre phenomenon he was seeing for the first time, Enkrid's heart did not waver in the slightest.

If his ship were to be rocked by a wave of this level, it should have been shattered long ago.

Storms always approach, and one can only move forward by overcoming them; that is how he had done things until now.

He did all of this without any particular great resolve.

That was the man called Enkrid.

It was surprising, but it meant he could watch all of this with a casual attitude.

"Shouldn't you be doing something?"

Krais, who had already retreated five steps, said.

Nurat was on guard, her hand on her sword.

In the midst of it all, Esther, who had been muttering 'person, magic', extended her hand.

In this place, only she knew what was happening.

'A Forbidden Word spell.'

The merchant's body swelled and split, and pale skin was revealed from within.

The black soot was like his blood and flesh.

It gathered and wrapped around his body like armor, and his skin tore and ripped, beginning to transform into a black carapace.

'Is it a threat?'

No.

Esther asked and answered inwardly, gathering her hands in front of her chest and performing a few gestures.

"In the name of Phil de Frode, I command. It is the principle of things that a shadow is born before the light, and it is the principle of things to reveal what is hidden before me. In the face of this truth, you cannot hide your form."

It was a long incantation.

That meant she had put a lot of effort into it.

And Enkrid, who had been feeling something approaching him based on intuition alone, had just raised Dawnforged and held it before him.

The thing raising soot in front of him was confusing his senses, but if there was doubt, it was natural to raise one's blade.

He was not off his guard.

While Esther was chanting the spell, something shimmering could be seen in front of Dawn's blade.

It was an amorphous mass whose shape was not fixed.

It resembled a malevolent spirit, but it was something more vile.

In other words, it was something that had been aiming for a gap in the midst of the merchant's body writhing and throwing a fit.

To be precise, it had been approaching with the intent to strike Enkrid.

Even while chanting the spell, Esther continued the thought from before in her head.

'Can one discuss life without knowing people?'

Can one discuss magic, the pursuit of truth, without knowing life?

Can one become a star by just locking oneself in a forest and only doing research?

Esther had gotten rid of the curse that had been entangled in her body through Enkrid.

Through the epiphany she had gained in that process, she had re-stacked the concept of magic within herself, as if returning to childhood.

The man she had seen, the human named Enkrid, had not lived a single day—not one today—in vain.

He had lived as if stacking stones one by one.

Esther had seen that, and had naturally emulated that attitude.

And the stones she had stacked had now formed a tower and reached the sky.

The principles she had known in the past and the principles she had realized now interlocked, and the world of mana opened.

For an instant, the boundary between the inner world that forms a spell and reality crumbled.

Illusion and reality could not be distinguished.

One who is initiated into magic is called a 'Seer'.

When the seer speaks of what they have seen, they become a 'Speaker'.

Then, when they manifest and possess their own world, they are a 'Possessor'.

Commonly, this stage is where one becomes a true magician.

It is the reason the nickname Immoderantia was created.

Beyond this stage is Tacitus, silent assent.

Esther also knew the system of magicians.

But wasn't being trapped in that system itself creating her own limits?

If one moves forward after drawing a line, their feet will stop the moment they cross that line.

Esther had never wanted such a thing.

That was why she was now forging, building, and walking a new path.

Even among those who wielded spells, there was a word that was like a legend.

It was a word that signified the moment illusion and boundary collapse.

'Fantasia.'

It was also a word used to describe the moment a magician transcends their stages.

Compared to a knight, something similar to a sense of omnipotence soars.

Instead of the feeling that she could do anything, the feeling of floating in a world of illusion filled Esther's entire body.

At the same time, the true form of the demon appeared in her eyes.

A true form that exists only between reality and illusion.

'A shattered fragment of thought-will.'

That amorphous mass was the work of the one called the Heat-Bearing Companion.

Her intuition, born from her experience and knowledge, swirled in her head and produced an answer.

'A Parasite Demon.'

What was the identity of the Heat-Bearing Companion?

Living by parasitizing the bodies of others was the foundation of that demon.

It had been hiding in the body of the man with the greatsword, then had come out and pretended to disappear, and had been trying to dig into Enkrid's body.

Even if it couldn't take over his body with that.

'It would have at least left a brand.'

If one were branded by a demon, they would become the prey of malevolent spirits, monsters, and beasts day and night.

Enkrid wouldn't be defeated by something of that level, but there was no reason to endure such a troublesome thing.

Esther, still intoxicated by the sense of Fantasia, raised her left hand and projected her mana into the world where the boundary had collapsed.

Tacitus, the stage of silent assent, is ignored.

That is for show.

Why cast a spell without an incantation, without a starting word?

There is no need for the struggle to appear as if one has deviated from providence.

That is done because one is conscious of the eyes of others.

"Vinc-tus, Compes, Nexum."

Silent assent was unnecessary, but abbreviation was possible.

This was not bravado, but efficiency.

Chains, nets, and shackles that began in the world of illusion become a contract that binds the opponent's existence and holds them fast.

The magic circles drawn on this land were engraved one by one by herself.

They had been individually tailored to react to her mana.

Therefore, on this land, her contract takes precedence over all else.

Esther knew that.

She reveals with the first spell, and binds with the second.

Kiiiiiii!

The amorphous object let out a strange shriek.

It was a final, desperate struggle.

An attempt to break the opponent by tearing their eardrums.

For humans who rely on their five senses, it was an incredibly appropriate attempt.

It just didn't work here.

"Opillatio. I block and destroy."

She was half-drunk on Fantasia, but there was no hesitation.

No, perhaps it was because she was drunk on Fantasia that it was possible.

A person who wields spells builds their own world, and in that world, they become a god.

She had just drawn out and revealed a part of that world.

Screee—.

The thought-will of the Parasite Demon called the Heat-Bearing Companion disappears.

In the meantime, a part of it seemed to have already fled, but there was no need to chase it down.

This all happened in the time it took for Rem to just grip and draw his axe, for Dunbakel to clench her fists, and for Enkrid to raise Dawnforged.

In that time, the portly merchant was gone, and in his place, a creature wearing a black shell that looked like an exoskeleton, except for its face and hands, stood with its neck held stiffly, looking this way.

Black steam rose from its body.

It was due to the residual heat generated just after its body and very existence had been transformed.

Esther knew the identity of that spell.

It was a type of Forbidden Word spell.

'Swordsman of the Black Soul.'

In a way, it was similar to a death warrior or a death knight, but the structure and method of implementation were completely different.

'It consumes a soul as its cost, and in return, it makes the owner of the mortgaged soul into a wielder of knight-level military power.'

It was a spell that could not be imitated unless one was at the level of a demon.

However, the implementation time was, at most, the time it took to count to twenty.

Even just that was a calamity if dropped among ordinary soldiers.

It was as powerful as opening a passage in the sky and dropping a large boulder.

The implementation itself was also a much easier spell than summoning and dropping a boulder.

'A Forbidden Word spell possible only for a demon.'

That's how Esther saw it.

She didn't know it, but it was a spell created through the collaboration of the demon called Father of the Dead and the Believer in Gold.

The Believer in Gold valued compensation and deals, and the one called Father of the Dead was a being engrossed in specters.

Esther's two eyes shone like blue stars.

Enkrid, though he had felt the formless existence disappear, was about to swing his sword right away.

He knew by intuition.

The killing intent of the mass before him was not directed at him.

In the creature's hand, a carapaced blade with a similar texture to the shell covering its own surface began to form.

Creak, creeak.

It was a blade that grew with the sound.

In the Border Guard, there were many who could subdue that creature, but there were just as many who would die, unable to block it.

Well, it was enough to just cut it down before it became a problem.

That was Enkrid's judgment.

Dunbakel had only the intention of cleaning up the stench, so she was about to charge out.

Rem had gone through a similar thought process as Enkrid, but he was more than willing to use more drastic measures.

"All vile and wicked things will be crushed."

He had completely called upon one of the western divine generals.

It was what his descended weapon, the axe, desired, and what the divine power influencing a part of his shamanism also desired.

At the same time, with the intention of restricting the movements of the creature that had transformed from a portly merchant into a large black mass, he gripped a stone in his left hand.

In an instant, the three's battle preparations were complete.

Fel and Ropord, who had dealt with the man with the greatsword, were no different.

The two prepared for the moment the suddenly transformed demon's subordinate, or whatever it was, would charge at them.

In that gap, Esther's voice rang out.

"Detainment, Imprisonment, Restriction, Maintenance, Preservation."

Esther's two eyes shone like blue stars.

It was as if the overflowing mana was trickling down through her eyes.

A blue wall, which crushed and trapped the soot-spewing creature but was transparent enough to see inside, enveloped it.

It all happened in an instant.

It had happened simultaneously with Esther's muttering.

CRASH!

Not to be outdone, the creature swung what was in its hand.

The wall held.

It cracked and fragments flew off, but that was all.

Black veins popped on the creature's deathly pale hand.

It tried to extend its sword again, but the space was too narrow.

Even if it could turn its body, it was not spacious enough to swing a sword.

Be it a Forbidden Word spell or whatever, the moment a physical entity appears, it is natural that space is required to apply force.

'Just as humans are affected by their five senses.'

The moment one takes on a physical form, one cannot escape the laws of space.

Esther had done all of this not with calculation, but with her senses.

It is said that magicians originally repeat calculations, but if one looks at the essence of it, they are beings who cannot even begin to see if they do not have a unique sense.

For the time it took to count to twenty, the wall held.

The creature rampaged inside it.

It rammed the wall with its head, stabbed with what was in its hand, and even transformed its elbow into a blade and slashed.

All of it was useless.

The wall rippled, dented, and cracked, but it did not break.

And so, as time passed, the creature disappeared, leaving only black smoke and ash.

The portly merchant had become less than a handful of black powder.

"Well, uh, no, mate, I didn't know it would be like this either. So just go back."

Rem dismissed the divine power that had briefly entered him.

Enkrid sheathed his sword and looked at Esther.

She had not blinked once, and her pupils were dilated as if she were looking at a distant place.

The jet-black circles at the center of her blue eyes grew larger, and it felt as if he would be sucked into them.

"Esther."

Enkrid called to her.

Esther's dilated pupils slowly constricted.

Esther, who had been steeped in a sense of Fantasia, had just returned to reality.

As soon as she shook off the Fantasia, she felt a wave of dizziness.

It was a symptom of exhaustion from the excessive use of mana.

The world spun, and someone caught her collapsing body.

There was no need to even see who it was.

"One of them seemed to be an acquaintance of yours."

The words of the man in black seemed to point at him knowing Esther.

Enkrid had registered the words the visitors had spoken, and spat out the question he had been preparing to ask after dealing with them.

"A few magicians, incited by that man, might come looking for you."

Esther also answered nonchalantly.

"I see."

Contrary to her intention or heart, Esther felt her mouth moving on its own. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

She had never relied on anyone in her life, but the words she spoke now were so instinctive that she couldn't even register why she was saying them.

"I'll be behind your back too, right?"

This was no different from asking to be protected.

"Of course."

Enkrid's answer was like his sword.

Upright, unwavering, and with no hint of hesitation.

At those words, a blush might have risen on Esther's white face, but.

"Hey, who's supposed to be protecting who?"

Rem interjected at the perfect moment.

Esther was momentarily curious as to how that bastard Rem had managed to get married and even have a child, but she brushed it aside.

"I have no strength to walk."

She said instead, and Enkrid lifted her up in his arms.

Compared to the magic she had just shown, her body was truly light.

And news of this also reached the ears of the elf who was resting in the Spring of Life, inside the city of elves.