The Knight King Who Returned with Gods : Chapter 40
Translators: Nyx and Ririi Rain
Episode 40 The Demon Butcher
The Prime Minister's head rotated three times.
It was an instant death.
And his arm was torn off. Could it be corpse cruelty?
"......."
"......."
The reactions of the people were slow. In the face of an unexpected
event that far exceeded their wildest dreams, they freeze.
"Wha- what are you......."
Someone blurted that out. At the same time, the soldiers
pointed their spears.
"You!"
The soldiers charged in unison. Leon remained calm in the
face of the immediate danger. He didn't stop at twisting the Prime Minister's
head and ripping out his arm, but also kicked him in the knee to break his leg
when he was already dead.
"You, you...!"
"How long are you going to hide your identity,
filthy fiend? Do you really think you can hide from the eyes of this Lionheart
King?"
The corpse shuddered, then the skin peeled back to reveal
a hideous, grotesque creature.
-Kiii...!
The Prime Minister, after shedding its human skin, revealed
its true face, It had a mantis-like head and a large scythe-like arm that
flailed about.
It was an arm that had been quickly regenerated after
Leon had ripped it out beforehand.
"Th- the Prime Minister is?!"
"A demon?!"
It was then. Dozens of soldiers and the nobles who had
gathered in the audience hall shed their outer shells, and their horrifying
forms were unveiled.
"Huh...!"
"Demons!"
The non-demons were horrified by the sudden appearance of
the demons. If they were a little slow to respond, they would be wiped out.
"Don't panic, you lesser beings!"
The Lionheart King's roar was deafening to the soldiers
and demons alike. He was already drawing his holy sword.
"Unite! Fight as one!"
At Leon's command, the soldiers rushed to form a united
front. The nobles and officials retreated behind them in a flurry.
"Keeeeeeek!"
A demon whose eardrums ruptured from the holy roar rushed
forward, swinging its blade-like arm, but it was caught by Leon's hand.
"Khiiii?"
The demon struggled to move its arm. Leon yanked hard on
the arm, and it was ripped off in a pool of green blood.
"Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
The demon's howl of agony didn't last a second. The holy
sword had decapitated it.
As Leon cut the demon's neck in one swift motion, Chief
Kim Jin-soo hurriedly shouted,
"S- shield!"
Unlike Leon, who could summon his holy sword, they
entered the audience hall unarmed. So they grabbed the former soldier's items
instead.
"Kieek!"
And that was when. A mantis demon leaped at Team Leader
Jim Do-han as he picked up some weaponry. Just as the sharp blade was about to
cut into him, a sword flashed past and impaled the demon's throat.
"Tha- thanks......."
It was not Leon who wielded the sword. It was a gray old
man, the kingdom's General, who flicked the blade clean of the demon's green
blood and then barked out instructions,
"Demons have infiltrated the palace. Kill them
all!"
As the soldiers and the knights joined in, the demons
were slain one by one. But the demons didn't simply die.
-Kiiiieeeeeeeeeee!
-Kyaaaaaaaaaaagh!
A dark energy billowed from the demons' corpses, forming
a murky fog. It clung to their bodies and disoriented them.
- Ugh, ugh! Kuhihi?!
-Ahhhh! My head, my head hurts...!
The soldiers gasped in pain. Chief Kim Jin-soo and Team
Leader Jim Do-han also held their heads, shaking. Gu Dae-sung was the only one
standing in a cold sweat.
"The power of corruption. So, the demons at this
gate are minions of that thing."
The demons, on the other hand, were unable to breach
Leon's mental barrier.
His mighty spirit and absolute faith in the divine was
beyond their influence.
"Let me show you the grace of divinities."
Leon took out the Holy Grail. He sprinkled holy water
from the Grail into the air, dispersing the thick fog.
Divine grace took hold, and the evil was driven away.
"Ugh......."
"What the......."
What the non-demons could barely make out was Leon with
his glowing holy sword and chalice.
In a place infested with the energy of demons, Leon shone
more brilliantly than anyone else. Some fell to their knees and shed tears at
his noble presence.
"Di, divine warrior."
"A divine warrior......."
As they revered him, Leon moved closer to the Queen, who remained
silent amid the commotion.
"Stop."
The General stopped him with his sword pointed at him.
Leon did not blame him.
"I understand your loyalty, but in this time of
emergency, it's unseemly not to be checking your queen first."
"Only Her Majesty the Queen can judge my
loyalty."
"You indeed have a point. However......."
Leon flicked his fingers at the chilling blade pointed at
him.
-Bang!
When Leon flicked at the sword, the blade bent under
tremendous impact, even causing the General to stagger. A power that
transcended humanity.
Leon said to the General as he grabbed his trembling
hand,
"A king is a judge, not the one to be questioned. It
is also the queen's job to fix things, and you should know your place."
"Khh... Her Majesty is in a state of disorientation
and cannot provide any judgment. She has entrusted that authority to the Prime
Minister... and now that he is dead, I, the Grand General, have full
authority."
"Hmm......."
Leon stared for a moment at the Queen beyond the veil, who
remained silent. However, he was soon convinced that she was not among the
corrupted and so he spoke to the Grand General.
"This castle is already infested with the aura of
the corrupted, and we will have to clean it up quickly."
"Are you certain of that?"
"A king does not speak lies."
"......."
The Grand General thought for a moment, then opened his
mouth cautiously,
"What do you want?"
"Give me the right to command your troop. And the
right to execute the servants of evil. This king shall end this mess."
The Grand General turned his gaze toward the Queen for a
moment. The Queen's figure leaned against the throne, unresponsive.
The decision fell on him.
"......How will you do that?"
"Gather all the citizens of this city in the
square."
He will begin there.
* * * * *
Gu Dae-sung and Chief Kim Jin-soo were dumbfounded as
they watched the Spero Kingdom's troops move in line with Leon's instructions.
"NPCs... were they always this cooperative?"
"In a theme such as this, the hunters shouldn't be
anything more than soldiers......."
Although they were called NPCs for convenience, their
intelligence and self-awareness were no different from those of humans on Earth
as a whole.
If anything, they were more autocratic and wary of
outsiders.
But what was happening now? Soldiers, officials, and
nobles shuffled about at Leon's every command.
"I guess the King is something else after
all......."
Natural charisma. A noble spirit. Unquestioned authority.
Leon was a natural royalty and would act the same way
anywhere. He was used to being in charge and commanding others.
"I did struggle a lot when we were just being fed
sugar water, but...... I think I should stay with the Pantheon Guild."
Gu Dae-sung nodded at Team Leader Jim Do-han's words.
While the hunters were conversing, a large number of
citizens gathered in the square. Regardless of gender and age, tens of
thousands of citizens of the city had been gathered together, which was a lot
of people.
Leon stepped up onto the platform.
"I am Leon Dragonia Lionheart, Lionheart King of the
Lionheart Kingdom, and I have been entrusted with the power of authority by the
Great General of the Spero Kingdom."
The crowd erupted upon hearing the foreign knight introducing
himself. Leon spoke quickly,
"Among you, there are those who have been possessed
and corrupted by demons. They intend to incite a riot from within in line with
the invasion from outside."
There are demons among them. The citizens were shaken and
became chaotic at this. Leon waited until they were sufficiently agitated.
"But there is no need to worry. This King is an
agent of the gods who has slaughtered countless of that evil race. I have a way
of identifying the corrupted."
"H- how?"
"I'll show you with actions rather than words."
Leon beckoned. Then a group of soldiers began to block
off the square and stacked some logs. The citizens grew anxious.
"What are they doing?!"
Leon was not deterred by the commoners' words. He brought
his glowing holy sword closer to the oiled logs.
"O God of War and Flame, let your fire fall upon thy
war knight."
Then sparks burst from the holy sword. It was a split
second, but it was enough to ignite the oiled wood.
The logs, stacked up in a circle, quickly spread the fire
to form a prison that enclosed the entire square.
"Now, you who are not demons, you who are not
corrupt, and you who are not heretics, prove your innocence by throwing
yourself into the flames!"
"......Yes?"
The citizens were momentarily stunned by Leon's
thunderous command, and they weren't the only ones. Even the soldiers within
the circle were dumbfounded by Leon's order.
-Quaaaaa... !
The flames surged through the air. It gained intensity,
consuming the fiercely burning wood.
He wants us to jump in there? What? He wants us to die?
"You're crazy!"
"He's trying to kill us all!"
This was a logical reaction. Even Gu Dae-sung and Chief
Kim Jin-soo momentarily thought, "Is he crazy?" when they heard the
words.
Leon did not tolerate the clamor of the commoners.
"Would you close your mouths, you imbeciles!"
Leon's reprimand effectively shut them up.
"Demons spread their vileness and deceit. If need
be, I'll kill all of you to stop the spread of evil."
Of course, Leon wouldn't kill an entire city to kill
lurking evil. But Leon implied that he was capable of doing so.
"Pass through the divine flame and prove your
innocence. It's simple."
"Cra- crazy......."
"A madman. The Great General has brought a
madman."
I frighteningly agree. Chief Kim swallowed those words
hard.
"One must always show the peasants directly. This
King Lionheart will have to do the work."
Leon strode down the platform and grabbed a protesting
citizen and a soldier blocking him by the scruff of their necks.
The two panicked, but Leon threw them into the flames.
-Kkeuaaaaaaaag!
The terrible scream of agony reverberated as they were
burned alive. It was a guttural scream, as if a human voice should not be
capable of rising to such a pitch.
"What?"
Yet, a figure walked out of the flames. It was the
protesting citizen.
"You, you're all right?"
"Then what is that scream?"
"Hey, look over there!"
The citizens' eyes turned toward the soldier who had been
thrown in.
They saw a demon whose flesh was burning and its outer
skin was torn, revealing its hideous true self. The soldier was a corrupted
one.
"This sacred flame burns only evil beings. You shall
praise Pethos, the god of war and flame, while crossing the flames."
The fire only burns demons. With that realization, the
citizens rushed to cross the flames.
One hesitated, but Leon approached him.
"Why aren't you going through the fire?" Leon
asked.
"Yes? That, that's..."
"Are you a corrupted individual? A heretic? A cultist?
Or do you wish to fall by the King's sword?"
"N- no! I'm on my way this instant!"
The citizen ran hurriedly, panting. Just then, a child
approached Leon.
"Hehe, Mr. Knight. Please buy my flowers──"
Bwak! The child was sent flying by a kick before he could
finish his sentence. His body rolled across the floor several times before
bursting into flames.
"You, Your Majesty, what...!"
"Hear me, you sneaky fiend! Your foul stench is too
potent to be posing as the pure."
-Kieeek!
A miniature demon rose from the remains of the child.
Covered in blood, the small demon displayed its hideous teeth──
-Bang!
A bullet from out of nowhere pierced the small demon's
forehead.
Immediately after, its evil energy was sucked into Leon's
Grail, meaning the demon was destroyed.
-Enemy killed confirmed. Sniping point repositioning.
A small, compact spider knight weaved in and out of the
structures surrounding the square.
"I shall punish you. Your souls will be torn to
shreds."
Leon raised his sword, and from all sides, the corrupted
tore off their outer skin, revealing their true forms.
There were more than five hundred of them.
-Human scum. How dare you not know your place.......
-You think you're going to die a graceful death──
"We demons
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE──────!!!!"
-Kiyiyiik?!
- My ears! My ears aaaaaaa!
The eardrums of the demons were bursting. The Divine
Lion's Roar, which only burst the eardrums of demons, half deafened all the
demons in the square without exception.
The Divine Lion's Roar could only be activated when the
living demigod was truly enraged!
The noise was indeed more than 300 decibels, over a
hundred times the threshold of what would be categorized as noise but rather a
shockwave!
Of course, it was a holy skill that was only valid for
demons.
Leon's teeth grinded together. An uncontrollable rage
bubbled up inside him. He felt insulted by the maggots, having seen them
'swarm' and 'hostile' again for quite some time.
"Trash... maggots... parasitizing on human
emotions...!"
Ssshh! Ssshh! The gnashing of teeth and the flowing voice
were holy. The flesh of the nearby demons was disintegrating in real time.
"You dare to slip in among men, you dare to make
your appearance before me, you dare to gaze upon the Lionheart King. You do not
have the worth."
To be subjected to such unholy gazes. Was this what they
called harassment? Leon couldn't stop a shudder from running through his body.
"Parasites pretending to be humans and walking
around on two legs? Forming groups? Pretending to be soldiers? Do you think I
will allow this? You will all scream and die in anguish. Your cries and despair
will echo to the heavens."
-Crazy bastard.
-What's wrong with walking on two legs.......
-I... I think we got a bad one here...
The corrupted trembled, sensing that things had gone
terribly wrong.
"Scream more! Scream more!! For that is the only way
you will please this King!"
The slaughter centered in the square was over in less
than an hour.
Reynald Shelman and the Jewel of Wisdom were watching
from afar.
"...... It appears that planting corrupted ones is
not working, Great One."
[Ahhh... what a nasty bastard. He's got a mean
streak.......]
Reynald heartily agreed with the sentiment.
***
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