1290: The Tear Gland

The combined forces of Kranzel and Raydoss successfully defended the outpost until sunrise. We gathered in the courtyard of the facility in the early morning hours.

The Red Knights wore grim faces upon seeing the sorry state of the capital city. Then, Kareid stepped forward and removed his robe in front of his subjects.

Everyone gasped upon seeing the condition of the young king.

「I’m sure you all have many questions about my current state, but now is not the time to go into details. There are more important matters at hand.」

The restless Red Knights straightened their backs, assuming a posture of attentive listening. Their king indeed held a special place in their hearts.

「There are fragments of the Evil God lying dormant underneath our castle. The royal family and the dukes have been maintaining the seal on them for ages.」

While the knights showed various expressions of surprise, no one made a commotion. Perhaps it was because Kareid had gained their recognition in such a short period of time.

He even visited them during night watch, after all.

「However, the royal family lacked the strength to continue, and the seal on the fragments is about to break. I must apologize to all of you.」

「Your Majesty, none of this is your fault. Those damn dukes went out of control and…」

「Even so! As an incident that occurred within my country, I must take responsibility as king.」

Kareid denied Sibylla’s excuses. There was no trace of the doubts he had shown us last night.

「I am about to challenge the fragments of the Evil God, and there is no easy path to victory… To accomplish this, I request your assistance!」

Kareid slowly scanned the faces of everyone present.

The Red Knights resolved themselves. They had been inspired by the resolution shown by the young king. Fran and the others felt the same.

「Simply defeating the fragments is not enough. We must also eradicate all fiends from our land, as allowing them to spread will grant the fragments even more power. I ask you to risk your lives for this cause.」

The warriors gathered here solidified their determination to fight against the fragments with their lives at stake. Is this the charisma of a king? Even I felt impassioned.

The young king nodded quietly upon seeing our determination.

「But do not worry! The royal family has a secret weapon! Gaze upon my body! This is the proof that I have been recognized by the divine sword Chariot, which grants us the power to combat the Evil God Fragments! With our powers combined, our victory is assured!」

「「「YEAAAAAH!!!」」」

The morale of the Red Knights reached its peak.

But ironically, evil energy surged from the royal castle right at that exact same moment.

OROOOOOOOH!!!

A deep bass-like sound resonated throughout the capital. This was undoubtedly the roar of something huge.

Then, a slight tremor struck Fran and the others.

「The castle!」

A knight standing watch on the rooftop of the outpost screamed, and Fran jumped to the roof next to him. We turned in the direction he was facing and saw…

「A black pillar from the castle.」

『It’s coming out!』

The black pillar of light rising from the castle collapsed many of the spires. It was made of pure, concentrated evil energy spouting forth like a geyser. The sheer physical force was enough to blow away the roofs and walls of the fortified building.

And then, something emerged from within the black pillar.

How do I even describe it…?

It was essentially an elongated mass of flesh dyed entirely in black. Maybe you could liken it to a worm or a snake since it slithered on the ground.

「OROOOOOOOH!」

The creature’s roar echoed again. This sound was undoubtedly emitted by the mass of flesh, despite its lack of a mouth.

Only a fragment of the Evil God could have such a grotesque and unnatural figure.

Unlike the fiends from earlier, it wasn’t simply cloaked in evil energy. The entire mass was practically composed entirely of it.

「Evil God… Fragment.」

「No doubt about it.」

「Yeah.」

Fran muttered the identity of the creature, followed by Amanda and Forrund, who had followed us, nodding in response. They, too, must have instinctively understood its identity.

I sensed another surge of evil energy coming from within the fragment, and its entire 50 meter long body began trembling.

「…! It’s doing something!」

The fragment raised its tip high in the sky in a serpent-like motion. Evil energy gathered above, compressed into a ball as dark as a miniature black hole.

Then, droplets of evil energy began dripping out of the ball. These sinister masses hit the ground in succession as if it was raining huge tears.

As the evil energy stained the earth, huge entities emerged from the puddles. Large, bipedal fiends.

It’s challenging to discern their exact species and appearance because of the veil of evil energy. All I can say for sure is that they’re bigger than the minotaur we encountered on the way here.

Standing right next to the huge Evil God Fragment made it hard to scale their size properly, but the fiends seemed nearly 10 meters in height.

In just a few minutes, the fragment had spawned over 20 such high-ranking fiends.

There’s no longer any room for doubt. This must be the Evil God’s Tear Gland.

In the midst of the raging vortex of evil energy, we heard the simultaneous roars from the fragment and its fiend spawn. The spectacle evoked a sense of fear, much like a combination of a monster movie with a horror film.

The giant fiends immediately began marching in our direction.

Kareid, who had also jumped onto the roof, glared at the Evil God Fragment.

「…I’ll strike down the main body. You take care of the fiends. Okay?」

「Got it.」

「I’m counting on you.」

After replying to Fran with a smile, the young boy raised his mechanical arm high in the sky and shouted.

「Awaken! The mechanical King of Red Knights! To me, Warmount Chariot!」

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