Chapter 293 254: Knight's Ideal, Radiant Glory

Manon, who had been observing the distant battle, felt a sense of foreboding when the fight between the two traitors briefly halted. 'What are you hesitating for?!' he transmitted via Telepathy. 'We must...'

But before he could finish, a roar of pure agony, like that of a beast in its death throes, erupted from behind him!

Manon whipped his head around to see Matthias raising the Ejected Sword Blade from his Power Armor. He plunged it viciously into the wound where the Evil Bone Fragment was embedded and began to slice downward with savage force!

The horrifying sound of the metal blade grating on bone was enough to make one's blood run cold!

"Matthias—! What are you doing! Stop!"

Manon's face paled. Completely ignoring the two powerful traitors watching menacingly from a distance, he lunged forward to stop Matthias from this suicidal act of plunging an Ejected Sword Blade into his own ribs.

But Matthias shoved him away forcefully.

His agonized wails, which were destroying his vocal cords, grew increasingly hoarse.

At that same moment, the Dark Mage Iskander and the Carnivorous Hunting Dog Carlos also heard Matthias's tormented roars and cries.

Iskander, who had been enjoying the show just a second before, now wore an expression that went far beyond mere shock.

He stared intently at Matthias, utterly disbelieving that this Imperial Knight would forcibly sever his own contaminated ribs and flesh just to escape the corruption of Carlos's Evil Power!

'Doesn't he realize he's killing himself?!'

When Carlos saw his injured prey trying to escape his control, his hound-like bloodlust, compounded by the rage from his fight with Iskander, erupted in an instant!

A surging Knightly Aura, carried on his snarling roars, transformed into a streak of light as he lunged at Matthias for the kill!

No prey.

Can escape the Carnivorous Hunting Dog's pursuit!

None—!

Clearly, in Carlos's eyes, Matthias's action was nothing less than a blatant provocation!

Sensing the wicked aura rushing at him from behind, Manon's expression hardened. The Knight Power of his Guardian Barrier·Cyan Gold Rune erupted as a swarm of arcane golden Runes, enveloping his body like roaring, golden flames!

But his opponent was too fast. Manon only had time to brace himself before a terrifying force, like a speeding train, slammed violently into his Shield Tower!

BOOM—!

A circular shockwave blasted out from the sides of the Shield Tower.

Manon's feet sank deep into the cast-steel floor, carving out craters from the sheer force.

Seeing that retreat was no longer an option, and with Matthias's agonizing cries echoing in his ears, the face of the 2.6-meter-tall, tower-like giant twisted in fury. He roared, "I am your opponent, traitor—!"

The instant he finished speaking, like a wrestler in a grapple, Manon drove with his legs. He shoved the Shield Tower forward, carrying the powerful enemy still pressed against it, and rapidly moved away from Matthias.

No matter what, as long as he was alive, he would not let these two traitors lay a single finger on Matthias!

Meanwhile, the excruciating pain of severing his own ribs assaulted Matthias's nerves.

Ribs snapping, flesh tearing!

His face was a mask of utter ferocity, his features completely twisted in agony!

He knew with perfect clarity that if he didn't deal with the evil creation embedded in his body immediately, his mind would be completely corrupted by the Demon Evil Power and fall into darkness long before he could make it back to the upper-level port.

And this corruption wasn't like the temptations of the Spiritual Domain.

Just like Demon Poison, once afflicted, even a Legendary Level Imperial Knight would be slowly driven to depravity by the corrosion of the Demon Evil Power.

His earlier thoughts about power and the rage coiling in his chest were already signs that his mind was being influenced by the power of the Dark Abyss.

But he didn't have time to explain to Manon.

Rather than die a miserable death or kneel in submission before that damned traitor, he chose a third path: to stake everything on one desperate fight!

After severing the contaminated ribs, Matthias withdrew the Ejected Sword Blade. Gritting his teeth against the blackout-inducing pain, he gripped the Evil Bone embedded in his side and, with a savage yank, tore it out, ripping away flesh and bone with it!

The next moment, blood geysered out!

Arcs of electricity danced at Matthias's fingertips. The intense heat of his Extraordinary Power cauterized the edges of the wound. Even with his organs exposed, he had no more reservations. Even if it meant death, he would die with honor as an Imperial Knight!

His throat was so raw he couldn't make a sound. In fact, the excruciating pain and his Knightly conviction had already numbed his nerves, granting him limitless courage and stamina.

At this moment.

The Dark Mage Iskander saw Carlos locked in combat with Manon. His body began to fade into the shadows, but before he vanished, his voice echoed quietly in Matthias's ear, carried by Spiritual Power.

'The Pseudo-Emperor will not care about your sacrifice, Knight. Everything you've done is futile.'

Hearing the voice, Matthias slowly pushed himself up, leaning on his Knight's Broadsword. He looked up, staring at Iskander's fading silhouette, and replied with words borrowed from Götz, 'Shut your damn mouth, traitor.'

'The power of a Void Demon doesn't create desire from nothing; it only unearths a person's deepest cravings and magnifies them until they spiral out of control.'

'Matthias had once been obsessed with Extraordinary Power.'

'Born a noble, he had believed that power and status were everything—the very reason he had so steadfastly followed Sedon.'

'As for Knightly ideals and noble sacrifice, he had seen them as nothing more than lies the Empire told to deceive the common folk.'

'That Dark Mage was right that the power of an Imperial Knight comes from battle and endless slaughter, but he was dead wrong about one thing.'

'He might have been shallow and greedy in the past, but he had always valued the honor of his Battle Group.'

'After the profound shame of the Great Rebellion...'

'...Matthias had long since seen his path clearly. He sought to master powerful Extraordinary Power and obtain a position of great authority, but only so he could personally enact the Imperial truth he had been steeped in since birth.'

'Just like the Battle Group Leader he most revered.'

'For the good of the Empire, that man had willingly renounced his status as a High Table Noble—a symbol of the founding heroes of the Empire—to walk in the shadows. Deceived by the Imperial Regent, he had committed one heinous crime after another.'

'Matthias's Knightly ideal was to fight for the Imperial truth, and only for the Imperial truth.'

'In other words, just like Sedon, he had never believed in the Emperor. From start to finish, he fought only for the good of the Empire!'

As the Dark Mage Iskander vanished from view, the Knightly Auras of Manon and the Carnivorous Hunting Dog Carlos clashed, raging through the lower-level port like a howling storm.

Matthias pulled an injector from his Power Backpack and jabbed it into his body.

Blood Burning Needle.

In other words, the final glory of an Imperial Knight's ideals.

Only a man on the brink of death, willing to pay any price for victory, would inject himself with such an Alchemy Potion and its extreme side effects.

He had once witnessed Reinhardt use an Imperial Knight's "Final Glory." He never imagined that one day, he would use this injector himself.

Manon, locked in a fierce battle with Carlos, had been splitting his attention to watch Matthias. When he saw his comrade use a forbidden Alchemy Creation like the Blood Burning Needle, the color drained from his face!

"Brother—!"

But his battle with the Fear Knight permitted no distractions. As his fury rose at Matthias for disregarding his own life, a tall, hunched figure resembling a hound slipped past his Shield Tower and appeared before him in a flash.

Carlos's gaping, Abyssal Hound-like maw snapped viciously at his neck!

By the time Manon realized his formidable foe was upon him, it was too late to react.

'This is bad—!'

As he raised his left arm in a desperate attempt to block the vicious bite, a stream of ethereal blue electricity suddenly shot across the lower-level port, appearing silently above Carlos's head.

As the Ejected Sword Blade plunged down mercilessly, Matthias's cold, terse voice sounded in Manon's mind via Telepathy.

'I'll hold him off. You find a chance to retreat.'