Those Ancient Matters

When Gawain charged at that hideous, bizarre monster with his longsword clenched tight, there was no longer any tension, hesitation, or fear in his heart. If there was anything at all, it was probably only a faint sense of daze and unreality.

He still clearly remembered the instant his plane had crashed.

He still clearly remembered the hundreds of thousands of years he had spent hanging in the skies above this world.

He had not yet fully adapted to the identity of Gawain Cecil, who had fallen from the sky.

Yet at this very moment, he was gripping an ancient Family Longsword and lunging at a strange creature that might have been a demon or an undead being.

Bang!

A tremendous impact surged through the blade, and every distracting thought in his mind vanished like smoke.

He dodged the monster's sweeping claws with an almost instinctive reaction, then twisted his upper body halfway around. The deflected blade drew a streak of flowing light through the air and chopped viciously at one of the monster's shoulders. As the sword came down, he desperately stirred the power hidden within this body and guided it into the longsword in his hand.

The faint trace of red near the base of the blade bloomed into brilliant Red Light under the stimulation of that power, spreading swiftly along the sword like flame. The scorching heat even warped the surrounding air.

The three-meter-tall monster sensed the threat in the blade's heat and abruptly leaned back with an agility utterly at odds with its massive size. As a result, Gawain's slash missed by a hair.

Releasing this magic-like supernatural power with his own hands for the first time, Gawain could not help feeling a flash of excitement and exhilaration. Perhaps it was precisely that momentary excitement that made him fail to grasp the rhythm of his first attack, but he quickly adjusted his state of mind and poured power into the longsword once more.

The skill knowledge in Gawain Cecil's memories truly could be called upon, and this body had not yet deteriorated to the point where it could no longer unleash its power. Though he had no idea how much of his former strength he could wield, Gawain's confidence had greatly increased.

He began to immerse himself in battle, striving to turn the combat experience in his mind that did not belong to him into strength he could use as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Byron had already fallen into a hard battle.

This mid-rank knight was one of the finest fighters in Cecil Territory. His years of battle before swearing loyalty to the Cecil Family had given him extraordinary combat experience. However, he had already exhausted too much strength when the monsters attacked the castle, and the monsters' bizarre magic had eroded him, worsening the old injuries within his body and further reducing his fighting ability. Of his full strength, he could only bring out forty or fifty percent.

Facing the monster's relentless assaults, he could only grip his longsword and struggle to avoid defeat, conserving his stamina as much as possible while searching for an opening in his opponent.

Rebecca gathered magic power, and a blazing fireball the size of a human head shot from the tip of her staff. It collided violently in midair with the Shadow Arrow cast by the distant spellcasting monster, erupting in an earthshaking blast. She took a breath, immediately noticed Byron's dangerous situation, and shouted to the Territory Soldiers beside her, "You three, go help Byron!"

One of the soldiers hesitated. "But, my lady..."

As she gathered another Fireball Spell, Rebecca called out, "We're fine for the moment—but if Byron falls, we're finished! I order you to go as the lord of this territory!"

The three soldiers could only obey and join Knight Byron in fighting the terrifying monster.

Gawain gradually sank into the battle. The memories and experience that did not belong to him were rapidly becoming his own, improving his control over this new body. The process filled him with a deep sense of accomplishment. By the time he stirred slightly from that absorbed state, he discovered that the monster before him had already been forced onto the defensive.

Those mutated bodies surging with "mud" were not invulnerable. They could be injured by blades and spears, and if cut enough times, they would die. Though they possessed immense strength and a size advantage, human bodies could still destroy them as long as one knew how to fight them.

That was knowledge left behind from Seven Hundred Years Ago.

The monster's claws swept over his head. Gawain ducked and drove his longsword into the opponent's thigh with a backhand thrust. The creature finally let out a muffled roar, its body toppling uncontrollably to one side. Seizing the opportunity, Gawain shouted to Byron, "Aim for their abdomen and lower body whenever you can! Ignore the chest—these things don't have hearts!"

Then, while his opponent was off balance, he twisted around to circle behind its side and raised his sword toward the monster's lower back. "Besides the abdominal cavity, their other weak point is behind them! The lower back!"

Hearing the guidance of the Cecil Family's ancestor, Byron's spirits immediately rose. With the support of the three soldiers, he swiftly restrained the monster's movements and, at the cost of having his shoulder armor pierced by claws, slipped directly beneath his opponent's crotch and struck its vital point with a reverse slash.

A second before Byron finished his enemy, the monster before Gawain also crashed heavily to the ground.

After dealing with his enemy, Gawain immediately looked up at the distant monster exchanging Shadow Arrows with Rebecca's fireballs. Just as he was about to charge straight at it, the creature suddenly let out a shrill howl and collapsed in convulsions.

Amber appeared behind the monster, twirling a poison-coated steel dagger in each hand. "That's what I'm good at."

Rebecca lowered her staff, her cheeks slightly flushed from the continuous spellcasting. She took a couple of breaths to steady herself, then solemnly corrected her, "Ancestor said the lower back."

Amber spun the daggers in her hands twice, and they somehow vanished into hiding. Stepping over the monster's corpse, she curled her lips as she walked over. "Tch, no sense of humor at all."

Once those monsters died, they began to rapidly disintegrate. The mud-like substance that constantly flowed and churned over their bodies stopped moving first, then gradually dried, hardened, and developed countless fine cracks. As the mutated "flesh" decayed and fell away, they swiftly became enormous, twisted Blood-colored Skeletons.

Gawain stood beside the monster he had killed and watched the process with his head lowered. He seemed to be speaking to himself. "So these were the things that attacked Cecil Territory..."

Heti looked at him curiously. "Ancestor, do you know where these monsters came from?"

During the previous battle, Gawain had already displayed an extremely deep understanding of these monsters. He had even instructed Byron on how to fight them, so there was naturally no way to hide it. He had not intended to conceal it anyway.

"We may encounter more of them if we stay here. Let's enter the hidden passage first. There is something in there that suppresses those monsters, so they will not enter easily," Gawain said as he started walking forward. "I can explain the details on the way."

Only after they entered the ancient underground passage and traveled some distance did Gawain break the silence. "I did fight them back then—actually, those things were the main enemies we dealt with. You should know the history of the Gondor Empire's collapse and the Second Expansion, right?"

"Of course," Rebecca immediately nodded. This history was practically required learning for a noble's child. "More than seven hundred years ago, Loren Continent had only one human nation: the Gondor Empire at the center of the continent. Historical records say it was the most powerful empire on the continent at the time. Even the Silver Empire established by the elves in the south did not dare make an enemy of it lightly. But later, the Aether Sea surrounding this world became turbulent, causing a great disaster on Loren Continent known as the Dark Magic Tide. The disaster began in the heartland of the Gondor Empire—almost overnight, Gondor's capital and one-third of its territory were swallowed by the magic tide and broken down by surging Elemental Power..."

"Not overnight. In fact, the process lasted nearly a month—the Court Mages of Gondor did not do nothing in the face of the magic tide," Gawain interrupted, then gestured for her to continue. "But the result was more or less the same. Go on."

"Oh... oh." Rebecca blushed slightly and became even more cautious, as though a parent were checking her homework. "After that, the magic tide in the Gondor Empire's heartland continued spreading in all directions and eventually destroyed the entire nation. That was the collapse of the Gondor Empire. Later, as the Aether Sea gradually calmed, the magic tide weakened. The surviving people of Gondor began rebuilding civilization. Since the center of the continent had become a rotting wasteland unsuitable for human habitation, they left the ruined empire under the guidance of a group of pioneers and expanded in the four directions of east, south, west, and north. This was known in history as the Second Expansion. Ancestor, you were one of the most famous Expansion Knights of that era."

"Mm, you've learned your history well," Gawain casually praised her. "Then you should have heard that although the magic tide ended, the ruins of the Gondor Empire remained infested with countless monsters born from it. Those monsters were one of the greatest threats humanity faced during the Second Expansion."

Heti's eyes widened. "You mean..."

"That's right. Those were the things we fought back then." Gawain sighed. "They were born from the magic tide. They had outlines resembling humans, but they were absolutely not human. After the Gondor Empire collapsed, vast numbers of such monsters poured out from the empire's ruined heartland and spread in every direction, hunting the survivors of that time. So rather than a journey of expansion, the first half of the Second Expansion was more like a journey of escape. And even after we left the Imperial Wasteland and established new nations at the edges of the continent, those monsters did not settle down. They kept pouring in from the direction of the Imperial Wasteland, repeatedly assaulting the defenses of the Civilized World... During the first ten years after Ansu was founded, I dealt with them practically every day."

Rebecca's eyes widened as if she had been completely captivated by those ancient, legendary tales. "Ah, so did those monsters stop appearing ten years after Ansu was founded?"

Gawain smiled, reached out to stroke the girl's hair, and gave her the sort of smile one reserved for a foolish child. "Silly girl, your ancestor died after that..."

Rebecca: "..."