Mission:042 Knight's Charge

Mission: 04-2 Knight Charge

Facing the second Silver Knight bearing down on her, Nero, who had been half-crouched to drive the lance into the ground, planted both hands on the ground and unleashed an Overhead Bicycle Kick, striking the lance's tip with one foot. Just like with Credo before, the Silver Knight's thrust was disrupted, and its lance was forced upward.

And this kind of conical lance could not copy Credo and turn a charge into a downward slash.

At that moment, the third Silver Knight had already set off as well. Nero had been driven to the edge of the bridge, so there was no way she could retreat like before to buy time. So Nero's long legs traced a perfect circle above her head and kicked hard into the Silver Knight's abdomen.

Considering Nero was currently wearing a skirt, she really should not have made that kind of move. Fortunately, the coverage of the Greaves formed by Gilgamesh was high enough, so there was no problem.

As for Nero herself—her thought was that, for the sake of making combat easier, she would be better off wearing pants in the future. After all, Gilgamesh would most likely have to be returned later.

The demon she kicked flew toward the third Silver Knight's lance.

The two demons crashed into each other, while Nero used the force of the kick to leap backward. In midair, she grabbed the lance stuck in the ground, completed a backflip, and landed elegantly.

The third Silver Knight's charge also stopped because of the collision. It hurriedly flung away its impaled companion and flew into the air. Immediately after that came the fourth.

Nero threw the lance she had pulled free during her backward jump at it, and so it too was destroyed in the high-speed impact.

The third Silver Knight that had been impaled earlier, however, had not died. With a large round hole in its chest, it flew up after them, preparing to regroup with its only two remaining companions.

Nero flung out Echidna and rose into the sky after it. The two surviving Silver Knights returned before the Golden Knight, raised their weapons high, and gathered a pitch-black energy sphere above their heads.

That would not do. Knowing how dangerous this move was, Nero yanked hard on the Serpent Sword and leaped into the air, stomping heavily onto one Silver Knight and sending it toward the ground, while she herself leaped again and charged straight at the Golden Knight flying the highest. A Spinning Kick in midair could not borrow force from the ground, so Nero chose to launch an elbow strike instead, slamming into the Golden Knight.

The Golden Knight was sent flying sideways by the elbow strike and embedded into the white wall. The black magic sphere lost control and fell straight to the ground, swallowing the Silver Knight with the hole in it and leaving a charred crater in the stone bricks.

Before the Golden Knight could return, Nero flung out Echidna again, approached the last Silver Knight in midair, and hammered its head viciously with her fist.

It sank into the ground as if struck directly by a Power Hammer, while Nero, for once, used Echidna's longsword form, falling from the sky. The Sword Edge plunged straight into the Silver Knight's body, then transformed into a Spirit Serpent and tore apart everything inside.

As a result, in order to pull it back out, Nero had no choice but to widen the strip-like sword wound into a pitch-black round hole.

Only the final Golden Knight remained. After its last companion breathed its last, it finally dug itself out of the wall, landed on the ground, and combined its two wings into a shield.

This thing's combat stance really was extremely similar to Credo's. If one did not think about how it had been made, it could practically serve as a model knight.

Unfortunately, not even Credo could defeat Nero, so the Golden Knight, as an imitator, had even less hope.

The longsword in the Golden Knight's hand began spewing high-temperature air currents just like the Order Knights' weapons, while its Main Body was carried forward by the blade, launching a long-distance charging horizontal slash.

Nero calmly whipped Echidna forward, then suddenly pulled it back just as it was about to reach its maximum range. Thus, the tip of the Serpent Sword turned a ninety-degree bend in the air and cut straight across the Golden Knight's helmet, scraping out a shower of sparks.

Across two consecutive battles, Echidna's performance had been very poor. The flexible Serpent Sword was, in fact, simply difficult to use to injure enemies wearing armor, so Nero had only treated it as a grappling hook.

In truth, Nero's first strike aimed at the helmet had not been meant to deal damage in the first place, but to interfere with the Golden Knight's vision. The Serpent Sword that had already been retracted could not immediately launch a second strike, but by this moment Nero had already vanished from in front of the Golden Knight.

She had jumped. In the instant the Golden Knight lost sight of her, she jumped toward it and landed behind it.

Then she swung Echidna, which was still flying through the air. This time, she aimed at the Golden Knight's ankle.

The Serpent Sword traced an arc and accurately wrapped around the Golden Knight's ankle, while Nero, who had been prepared for this, had already steadied herself and pulled hard with her hand.

The Golden Knight instantly toppled under its own inertia and fell flat on its face.

The Serpent Sword began contracting, pulling the Golden Knight toward Nero, while the knight itself gripped its sword and rolled over, intending to resist to the death. When the Golden Knight, swinging its sword wildly, got close, Nero stepped forward and broke its knee with one stomp. Then she swung Echidna, which was wrapped around half its leg, smashed it into its head, and bound the hand it used to wield its sword.

That was right. When it could not cut into the armor, wrapping around a heavy object and using it as a Meteor Hammer was the correct way to use the Serpent Sword. And this time, Nero directly swung the entire Golden Knight, whose leg was broken and who could not get up, into the air.

The Golden Knight traced a half circle and smashed heavily onto the bridge surface, shattering a wide spread of cracks across the tightly arranged square stone bricks.

Then she changed direction and did it again.

Again.

After repeating this nearly ten times, Nero finally smashed its helmet apart with one punch, ending this demon's life for good.

She straightened up, drew Echidna and Gilgamesh back into her chest, stretched, and sighed. "Without using Demon Transformation, this really is a bit troublesome."

In any case, the trouble had already been solved. Nero walked forward, pushed open the heavy iron doors, and entered the front hall of Order Headquarters.

After passing through the long hall of the front hall, on the other side was a skybridge that had been raised and cut off the path. Nero looked at the skybridge, blocked by scarlet Demonic Plants and unable to descend, and could not help sighing. "Why can't I fly?"

After transforming into Demon Form, the Order's upper ranks should all be able to fly. After all, their goal was to become "Angels," so their Demon Forms all had wings. Dante also had wings when he transformed into a demon, so he could fly by default. As for Vergil, depending on what the plot required, sometimes he had wings and sometimes he did not.

So the Power-User who could fly in CG usually could not even do a Double Jump.

If Nero transformed into a true demon, then she should be able to fly too. Unfortunately, she could not transform.

So Nero directly communicated with Echidna. "Can you control the plants over there? Make them grow a bridge."