Paladin of the Dead God
chapter-92

At the moment the vanguard of cavalry clashed head-on with the zombie horde, a chilling sound of breaking bones echoed through the air. The zombies surrounding the walls crumbled swiftly under the charge led by Isaac and the knights. The spectacle of the zombies being torn apart buoyed the soldiers’ spirits.

“Kill them all!”

Though the shout seemed odd against the undead, no better rallying cry was at hand. The soldiers, armed with blessed spears, thrust at the fallen or advancing zombies, bringing them down. The late attempt of the zombies to close their ranks and attack the soldiers who had ventured outside was thwarted by Jacquette’s mercenaries attacking from the village side.

“The Immortal Order weaklings, aren’t they!”

‘Well, yes.’

Isaac thought to himself in response to a soldier’s shout.

Zombies were barely considered a part of the Immortal Order’s fighting force, useful only as temporary cannon fodder or to fill ditches until they completely shed their flesh. Yet, even the weakest among them formed a formidable force when gathered in large numbers due to their sheer mass—unlike skeletons, zombies carried weight.

But what roiled beneath their decaying flesh now were not muscles but swarms of maggots, ants, and flies.

‘The priest of the Immortal Order must be flustered by now.’

Their ease in being torn apart was due to the flesh being so rotten it practically crumbled upon touch. The maggots that had lain dormant within the zombies now began their feast, causing the zombies to disintegrate from the slightest movement.

Invading Isaac’s domain had turned into a miscalculation for them.

“Maintain your formation and always be aware of your comrades’ positions! Any gap will be exploited immediately!”

Even amidst the chaos, squad leaders continuously issued orders. Isaac had emphasized never to break the formation. He had anticipated the zombies would fall easily.

However, should the soldiers scatter in excitement, they’d quickly be overwhelmed by numbers and devoured, only to be reborn as zombies themselves—this time without maggots and much more durable.

After a few soldiers, presumably new recruits, rushed forward to stab at the slow-moving zombies and were subsequently smacked on the back of their heads and dragged back, similar incidents ceased.

The cavalry and knights tore through the zombies, with the soldiers finishing the job by crushing their heads, repeating the process.

***

Knight Ansel could hardly believe what was unfolding. Though not the most experienced, he had faced the Immortal Order before and knew zombies were not usually such pushovers.

‘How is this happening?’

Such an outcome wasn’t possible with a priest’s blessing alone. He watched Isaac’s back with a racing heart.

‘Is it because of him? Do enemies fall so easily before the power of the Holy Grail Knight?’

To him, it appeared as though the zombies were collapsing of their own accord before Isaac’s authority.

Having received a death prophecy from the order’s priest and then hearing Isaac’s order to charge outside, Ansel had doubted Isaac’s sanity. Zombies alone couldn’t breach the castle. Yet, abandoning the defensive advantage of the walls to charge out?

The one-sided massacre now seemed more like a harvest than a battle. Ansel, forgetting the death prophecy, cheered enthusiastically as he sliced through zombies.

“Long live the Holy Grail Knight!”

Then, a chill blast hit him.

Ansel caught a glimpse of a spearhead darting towards his side too late to react. ‘Zombies can’t move that fast,’ he thought, but it was already too late.

Suddenly, something serpent-like snatched the spear mid-flight.

It was Isaac.

The Luadin Key, clashing against the spearhead, flared up, deflecting the weapon. Ansel belatedly realized his armor was nearly pierced through, and the surrounding area was discolored black.

“Are you all right?”

“Y-you’ve saved my life again…”

‘Although I used you as bait.’

Isaac had been vigilantly monitoring the battlefield, anticipating that the Immortal Order would target Ansel to undermine morale once again. The Order’s priest likely chose Ansel, a knight who had received a death prophecy, as the next target.

If the one prophesied to die actually perished, it would indeed terrify the soldiers.

But Isaac thwarted that outcome.

Whether the prophecy was true or not, to the soldiers, it appeared as though Isaac had defied fate itself.

‘In essence, the Order’s trickery has now backfired.’

Witnessing Isaac save Ansel, the morale of the knights and cavalry surged once more. Isaac led the cavalry, swiftly turning their charge towards the source of the thrown spear. Among the horde of zombies, there were those who blended in with their dark garb, making them less conspicuous. They picked up another spear and hurled it towards Isaac.

The spear was surrounded by a dark aura.

‘Undead Spearmen.’

Isaac calmly identified them while watching the incoming spear. Instead of dodging, he used the Ruadin Key to strike it down.

The Undead Spearmen, though not comparable to the Death Knights of the Immortal Order, could still cast spears imbued with the miracles of death. These miracles included powerful penetration, curses, and even a homing ability. However, this also made the spears easier to deflect.

The spears would change direction if avoided, so it was better to confront them with a miracle capable of incinerating them. The Luadin Key was a simple tool capable of shattering the miracles of death.

Had the siege been led by the Immortal Order’s direction, many would have fallen to these spears. They represented the true force behind the zombie horde.

‘But their bodies are mere skeletons… essentially glass cannons.’

Isaac charged through, trampling over the Undead Spearmen without even needing to wield his sword. He had identified approximately a dozen of them; as expected, the Black Empire could not bring a significant force of elite troops to this region of the White Empire.

Isaac crushed the Undead Spearmen underfoot, demolishing them.

Though they were part of the undead legion and attempted to reassemble their clattering bones, the knights followed with blessed weapons, ending them for good.

‘Is this person truly sent by the gods?’

As Isaac easily overcame the enemies, the knights looked upon his back with admiration.

Now, Isaac’s focus shifted towards the hunter, possessed by the Immortal Order’s priest, who contorted his body unnaturally. Flesh and joints were torn as a large, elongated skeletal frame emerged.

The grotesque appearance of this skeletal giant, with unnaturally long limbs reminiscent of a ghast, sent shivers through all onlookers.

Fear began to stir in their hearts again. However, there was someone who boldly charged forward, shining brightly alone.

Isaac, wielding the blazing Luadin Key, seemed like a spotlight on a dark stage. Whether the knights and cavalry could keep up or not, Isaac spurred his horse forward, outpacing them all. It was as if a beam of light shot forward.

The skeletal giant, yet to rise fully, swung its arms attempting to knock Isaac away. From atop his horse, Isaac swung his sword.

Eight flashes of light instantly sliced through the giant. The combined weight and speed of the horse enhanced his superior swordsmanship, unleashing formidable power.

All could see was the Luadin Key blazing brilliantly, its light flashing. Then, as bones burned away, acrid smoke obscured Isaac’s figure.

“There!”

A keen-eyed soldier pointed beyond the smoke. Isaac was emerging on horseback, unscathed, and already changing direction for another charge. In contrast, the skeletal giant struggled to rise with its broken arms and legs.

The giant turned its head, attempting to look at Isaac, but Isaac didn’t glance back at the giant. Instead, he rode off elsewhere.

The giant tried to stand again, but the sound of hooves approached.

The knights were upon it, bearing down.

Crack, thud!

After the joint-by-joint dismantling of the skeleton giant, subduing the remaining zombies was akin to a cleanup operation. The priests of the Immortal Order seemed to have lost even the will to command, as the zombies wandered aimlessly without any sense of unity.

“Do not inflict unnecessary wounds, aim for their heads to bring them down! They are but innocent victims sacrificed by the Immortal Order, and we must recover the bodies!”

With some breathing room, Werner instructed his soldiers to minimize damage to the bodies as they moved. Normally, they would have been burned regardless, and he wouldn’t have cared about the headless corpses of mere slash-and-burn farmers. However, Isaac had shown kindness even to barbarians and had taken them into his domain. Moreover, in this battle, they had risked danger with an ambush attack outside the castle.

Werner caught the eye of Jacquotte, who was clearing up the zombies. Werner, who had never hidden his contempt for Jacquotte before, nodded to him in a strangely emotional moment.

Jacquotte seemed a bit startled but nodded back in acknowledgment.

‘The Holy Grail Knight seems to have changed me somehow.’

It was a minor change, but Isaac seemed to be bringing about change to everyone in his domain. However, Werner didn’t find this change unpleasant at all.

“Isaac! Isaac! Isaac!”

As victory seemed certain, cheers erupted here and there, chanting Isaac’s name. It was a decisive victory at first glance.

The undead forces, numbering in the hundreds, were annihilated, whereas on the side of Isaac’s domain, not a single person had died. There were a few injuries, but they were minor, caused by personal mistakes or friendly fire. None were injuries that would pose a problem if treated by a priest.

“Brother Werner!”

In the midst of enthusiastic cheers, Knight Ansel rode up to Werner. Having survived the prophecy of death, he was also a symbol of this victory.

“Where is the Holy Grail Knight? This is a grand victory! Such glory should be in the midst of us!”

“Weren’t you with him?”

Werner asked back in confusion.

Indeed, since the fall of the skeleton giant, no one had seen Isaac. Since all threats were deemed gone with the giant’s fall, they hadn’t thought there was any issue.

In a moment of perplexed exchanges between Werner and Ansel, they recalled others they had forgotten.

“The bridge! The Holy Grail Knight went to assist the Inquisitor at the bridge!”

Then, they hurriedly set off again on their horses. The cheering soldiers were confused by the paladins’ sudden departure, but the paladins didn’t stop to explain, driven only by their respect for Isaac.

‘To forego the glory of victory right after such a harsh battle, and to go assist others instead. Who exactly is this man…’

***

In fact, Isaac’s focus had never been on the zombie forces from the beginning.

Right after speaking with the hunter, Isaac realized that the Immortal Order priest was towards the bridge, near the forge.

Since then, all of Isaac’s attention had been on the reinforcements that Isolde had set out with first.

‘After all this trouble, I can’t miss out on the core of it!’