Paladin of the Dead God - C.160:

At last, Reyna seemed to realize her mistake and quickly covered her mouth.

She hurriedly added an answer.

“Oh, yes, you mean witch hunts. There have been a few! But rather than catching witches directly, it was more about destroying the summons they conjured or rescuing kidnapped children.”

“What was the witch’s reaction during those times?”

“It usually starts with beasts observing us from a distance. Then, their numbers increase, and fog begins to envelop the area. When people start getting lost, it indicates that the witch’s attacks have begun. What’s terrifying is that all of this progresses so stealthily that it’s hard to notice until it’s fully upon us!”

“Stealthily, huh? Have you experienced it before?”

“Yes. But I won’t fall for the same tricks again…….”

Reyna was about to boast when she noticed Isaac’s gaze fixed elsewhere and looked around.

Caw.

A crow that they had seen outside the village was perched on a branch, twisting its head to observe Isaac’s group. Thud-thud. Soon after, a magpie landed next to the crow, and shortly birds began to fill the branches one by one.

“Could it be the witch?!”

“Even in Port Aldeon, we never received such a haunting welcome.”

Not human, though.

Isaac didn’t refuse the invitation and strode forward. Reyna, though hesitantly, followed him. She had already drawn her sword, but she couldn’t fight the birds in the trees. Yulihida was nowhere to be seen by then.

Unbeknownst to them, fog was creeping into the forest. As the fog thickened, the number of glowing-eyed beasts hiding in the bushes also increased. Now, it wasn’t just birds, but rats, foxes, squirrels, boars, and wolves that were closely watching Isaac’s group.

This was not mere surveillance but an overt threat.

However, Isaac felt a strange abundance.

‘It reminds me of my time at the monastery.’

He reminisced about roaming the gloomy, deserted forests and freely preying on wild animals… a truly satisfying scene. It felt like returning home, a comforting feeling.

Then, a particularly large goat appeared among the animals. Its rectangular pupils fixed on Isaac. Isaac licked his lips seeing the large goat.

“This is how it should be in the forest.”

Maaa.

As if responding to Isaac’s muttering, a goat bleated long.

The goat munched on some leaves then spoke.

“Bring the heart of the Holy Grail Knight.”

[Nameless Chaos watches over you.]

[Nameless Chaos desires you to slay ‘the Witch Hectali Sisters’.]

[Chaos’s reward awaits you.]

The wild animals started howling in unison.

A chilling scene, but Isaac walked forward unfazed. Reyna was the only one panicking. A fox that tried to retreat messed up its timing.

Isaac quickly grabbed the fox by the scruff of its neck. It’s not easy for even a professional hunter to catch a wild animal barehanded, but for Isaac, it was as simple as picking up an object.

“Holy Grail Knight?!”

‘Hmm, I shouldn’t eat here.’

Isaac threw the fox amidst the birds. A clang sound spread as the birds took flight. The provoked wild animals began to move in unison. At the same time, Reyna began to chant a prayer.

“Lead us, Elil, at the forefront!”

“We march into the battlefield where You fight today!”

Flurrrrr! Reyna’s sword vibrated in response to her prayer. Similarly, two other knights who chanted the same prayer had their swords resonating. They quickly formed a formation and began slaughtering the approaching animals.

In the Kingdom of Elil, a knight is also a priest, a paladin.

The miracles were limited but all were practical, aiding in combat.

‘They won’t die if left alone.’

Isaac watched the knights fight and walked ahead towards the direction where the goat had vanished.

Reyna’s anxious voice was heard.

“Holy Grail Knight?! Where are you going!”

“The witch came to catch me. I’ll gladly go into her lair and slit her throat.”

Isaac glanced back and said.

“Go tell them that the Holy Grail Knight has charged in alone. It’s time for Elil’s army to move.”

If there was any chance to do so.

Isaac thought about what might be happening to Edelred’s Knight Order and stopped himself mid-sentence.

Isaac did not just spend the last night having fun.

He caught wild animals roaming around the village and infected them with the Parasite from Beyond. He didn’t take full control to consume them; it was just enough to share their eyes and ears.

The witches sent these animals to spy on Isaac, but essentially, he was just as aware of what they were seeing and hearing.

Among these infected animals were some meant to surveil the army of Edelred.

‘As expected, they are trying to disrupt the formation of the encirclement.’

The army was hindered by beasts summoned by the witches, forest obstacles, and swamp curses. Some of these summons were quite dangerous, but they were manageable without significant damage for the knights of Aldeon.

‘They rushed here too quickly to prepare perfectly.’

If they had gone to the swamp where the witches’ base was, there would have been much more dangerous monsters. But at such a distance, even the witches had to rely on local trees and animals.

However, the real danger was the curse.

Even now, the knights were unable to perform at their best because of the curse. Still, the situation was not disadvantageous for Edelred. As long as the witch did not show herself, they could quickly dismantle these minor disruptions.

‘They must be planning to finish me off before that.’

The Rite of Division would be a relic worth desiring for the witches.

“Cackle cackle cackle!”

A sudden gust of wind brought laughter with it. The leaves and grass of the forest trembled as if convulsing. The fallen leaves stood up all at once and rushed towards Isaac like a wave.

Isaac quietly raised the flames of the Luadin Key.

Crackle. The Luadin Key burned more fiercely, using the evil energy as fuel. The burning blade split the wind around it.

From within the disturbed leaves, a large goat appeared again. It stood on two legs as if it was natural, holding a large harvesting scythe between its hooves.

“You’ve walked right into my mouth, Grail Knight!”

“How tender will the flesh of a Holy Grail Knight be?”

“I’ll separate your head and show you how I play with your body!”

The goat’s head shook frantically as it spoke in three voices—it was the voice of Witch Hectali.

There was no need to distinguish who was who. Although they were called sisters, the three were beings split from one.

Isaac smirked and flicked his chin towards the goat.

“Take a bite.”

***

Maa!

Laughing like bursting into laughter, the goat charged towards Isaac. With each step, it grew larger, and by the time it reached Isaac, it was nearly 4 meters tall. Using its size and weight, it swung the large scythe downwards.

Bang! The scythe’s massive action made it easy to dodge, but the heavy scythe split the ground like tofu. Without hesitation, it scraped the ground and swung the scythe again, cutting through the air with incredible slicing power.

‘The Witch’s Scythe…’

Innumerable resentments could be felt emanating from the scythe held by the goat-man. The resentments tried to cling stickily to Isaac, while mercilessly cutting through anything in its path.

‘I knew it, but it’s more brutal than expected.’

It was a cursed relic created directly by the witches through human sacrifices.

With tremendous weight and power, and infused with resentments, the scythe was like a storm cutting through everything around it towards Isaac. Only the skill of a harvester was needed, no swordsmanship required.

Even the Luadin Key seemed too much to clash directly with that scythe, so Isaac initially kept his distance. However, the weapons of the Hectali witches weren’t limited to the goat-man.

As Isaac only tried to evade, the witches grew impatient. They needed to quickly complete the division ritual and capture the Grail Knight before the knights could intervene.

Maa!

The body of the goat-man suddenly started to swell.

From the swollen area, another goat-man tore through the wound and emerged. Beside it, another tumor that was breeding goat-men started to swell.

On the body of the goat-man, another goat-man grew, and on top of that, another goat-man, creating a fractal-like figure.

Maaaaaaaa!!

The massively swollen goat-man was now like a moving mountain. A headache-inducing loud cry shook the forest. The goat-man, with the strength and weight of hundreds, swept through the forest. Trees centuries old snapped like matchsticks.

The resentments emitted from the hundreds of scythes pulled Isaac into a pitch-black swamp in an instant. In the swamp, white hands of the witch welcomed him with open arms.

Boom! The massive attack of the goat-man swept over the place where Isaac had been in an instant.

It was an attack that could neither be avoided nor blocked.

“Such a pathetic illusion.”

However, Isaac instantly broke through the illusions of hundreds of goat-men and charged at ‘the real one.’ It didn’t matter if it was an illusion or not; compared to the tentacle attacks of the Drowned King, this was laughably simple and slow.

Isaac’s Swordsmanship: Eight Branches activated, tearing the goat-men’s false illusions to shreds. The breaking of the illusion curse made the goat-men extremely vulnerable.

Seeing the dark energy rushing towards him to slaughter him, the goat-man roared fiercely.

Isaac felt a sinister energy surging towards him and instinctively stopped, shuddering. He didn’t know what it was, but he could feel the presence of a powerful curse. A chilling sensation crawled up his spine.

Laughter from the witches burst forth.

“Cackle cackle! Holy Grail Knight, let’s see some tricks from you!”

“Let’s see how that noble mouth spews out leeches and rats…”

But even after a while, as Isaac showed no particular reaction, the witches stopped speaking in confusion. They wondered if their curse had failed, but they had definitely hit him directly with a curse that spared no sacrifices.

“Burp.”

Soon, a refreshing burp came from Isaac.

[You have consumed the ‘Rabid Rat’.]

[You have consumed the ‘Swamp Leech’.]

[Your absorption efficiency has increased due to the ‘Intestines of the Dead God’ perk.]

Although identifying the curse was initially troubling, the leeches and rats summoned inside him were digested before they could even reach his throat. It’s possible that the ‘Intestines of the Dead God’ were truly part of Isaac’s own intestines.

Isaac, having unexpectedly feasted on animals filled with faith, muttered,

“I’m receiving a welcome banquet here that I never got in Aldeon. It seems you welcome me more than the Kingdom of Elil, huh?”

“……”

–TL Notes–

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want to read up to advance 20 chapters or support me, you can do it at /Akaza156

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l