Knight Commander

The students watched in horror as their classmates were engulfed by the explosions. Mateo, on the other hand, was stunned at the abrupt appearance of the Lich beside him. Before he could say anything, the Lich reached out with its skeletal hand. As the hand hovered over his head a sigil was conjured beneath his feet.

“Time’s up.”

“That was all he heard the Lich say before Mateo found himself somewhere completely different from where he had been before. His head swiveled as he tried to get his bearings in the new environment, only to be met with a familiar figure. Standing before Mateo was the demon that was currently in possession of his bow.

Mateo was finally able to understand the intention of the demon general. In one smooth action he took off his armor and retrieved his bow. After a moment’s thought he also kicked away the demon who had been previously using his bow.

Mateo continued his attack by firing several arrows at the Demon. At first the demon thought the human had betrayed him, only to find that all the arrows were near misses without him even having to dodge them. Mateo was satisfied as he saw the Demon flee towards the battlefield.

His first true appearance, at least to the humans, was his pursuit of the Demon. He gave up on the demon and instead turned his attention to those still surrounding his classmates. Having figured that it was now pretty much impossible for any of his classmates to die due to the appearance of the Knight Commander, he started to proactively defend them.

As he recklessly made his way over to his classmates, the Knight Commander had finally arrived. His first action upon his arrival was to go straight for the Lich, ignoring everyone else. The Lich was fully focused on defending against the Knight Commander’s Greatsword as the knight tried to cleave him in half.

This gave Mateo a clear view of the Knight Commander. All he could see of the figure was a robust figure covered in white armor with a golden trim and cape. The crest he sported upon his cape was that of three crossed swords. The next moment the invincible knight proceeded to remove one of his hands from the hilt of his sword, only to then punch the Demon General in the gut.

Mateo continued with the cover fire for his allies while keeping an eye upon the monumental battle. The Lich had retrieved all of his undead and had them all charge towards his opponent. While the Knight Commander may have cleaved dozens of undead with every swing of his greatsword, it still gave the Lich enough time to cast a spell.

This time nearly a dozen magic circles surrounded the Knight. From half of the magic circles came giant skeletal hands while the other half were colossal spears made of necrotic energy. The hands all grasped the knight until he was no longer visible, while the spears pierced through them. However, the Lich was still not done as above all of this was yet another magic circle. From it came a putrid green flame that jetted down upon the trapped Knight Commander.

The Lich knew better than anyone though that everything he had done just now meant nothing to his opponent. While the true intentions of the Lich had gone mostly unseen, one person in particular had noticed.

Mateo’s eyes narrowed as he saw one particular demon fleeing from the battlefield. After a moment’s hesitation he followed after. No one else on the battlefield had noticed their sudden disappearance. Mateo continued to follow the familiar figure as both soon had distanced themselves far enough from the battle.

Deciding that the two most fearsome individuals would no longer be able to sense anything that would happen at this distance, especially due to the fact that they couldn’t divert too much of their attention from the battle, Mateo took action.

Knowing that he could not prolong the encounter, he opened up with his strongest move. Even after unleashing the Null Impact he did not become complacent; he fired a combination of arrows and spells.

The demon was at first surprised at the sudden ambush, but after identifying the culprit he felt a mixture of fear and anger.

“Mateo! What is the meaning of this!”

Mateo watched as the figure used the Demon Blade to destroy the earth that tried to ensnare him. That’s correct, the demon that Mateo had been chasing this whole time had been Tilch, who had been running away with the Demon Blade.

Tilch, after trying to defend against the Earth Magic, had missed the opportunity to completely dodge the arrow heading his way. The demon exerted all of his strength to shift his body by even a few inches, knowing that the only true target was his heart. At first Tilch smirked seeing how the arrow was going to miss his heart; however, he was stunned when he saw rather than phasing through his chest, it embedded itself instead.

The arrow proceeded to explode, creating a crater on his chest, scattering his flesh and blood. While the move may not have killed the Demon Lieutenant due to his vitality, it was still a devastating blow. Mateo approached his downed former ally while creating shackles of earth to bind his wrists, ankles, and neck.

He bent over and picked up the Demon Blade that had escaped Tilch’s grasp during the explosion. He could feel the demonic energy that radiated off the blade, but rather than contaminating him, it instead flowed into the sigil on the back of his hand. As he studied the now visible smiling lips he heard the sound of clapping from behind him.

Mateo froze at the abrupt noise; however, what stunned him was the sudden feeling of deja vu. Even without looking behind him he could already guess who he would see. The last time they had met was under circumstances much like this one. The next moment he felt a pair of arms snake around his neck and hugged him. A pair of lips came ever so close to his right ear and whispered into it.

“My agent, I must say, you never disappoint. Everytime I see you, you are always doing such fun and interesting things.”

“Shouldn’t you be angry at me for attacking your comrade?”

“Why would I?”

He truly could hear the confusion in her voice. Tilch was also the same as all the hope that had been on his face at the new arrival vanished. Mateo actually felt pity as he saw the despair in the demon’s eyes.

“What are you waiting for? Finish him.”

“What is your goal? I thought the demons were hellbent on getting their hands on this sword. Are you betraying them?”

“Only one thing has ever been the motivation for my actions, I thought you already knew that.”

“Who are you? What are you?”

“You can call me Layla. As for what I am? I’m just a little demoness who has an interest in you.”

“There’s no way some random demon would ruin the plans of a Demon General.”

“But telling you would be no fun. You’re not some boring human, are you?”

Mateo felt a chill as he saw the smile drop from her face. Instead he was met with a cold gaze that contained zero emotions. These eyes made him feel as if he were falling into a void, where his very existence would fade away. But just as quickly the smile returned and he was met with a passionate gaze that was terrifying in a completely different way.

Knowing his next actions were being heavily judged, he raised the sword and drove it down into the chest of the unresisting demon at his feet. The next moment he was almost knocked over as Layla lunged at him and smashed her lips upon his own. Mateo was at first taken by surprise, but the next moment his mind was clouded with pain as he felt demonic energy pour into his mouth, down his throat, before making its way into the sigil on the back of his hand.

He shoved her away and glared at her.

“What did you just do!”

“I just gave you a little reward, and a little something extra. Try and put mana into your sigil while you're holding the Demon Blade.”

Mateo hesitated for a moment before following her orders. As the mana poured into his sigil and was converted into demonic energy. While he was familiar with the sensation so far, the next part was completely new to him. He felt the demonic energy he produced link up with that of the demonic energy of the Demonic Blade and resonate.

Both he and the Sword were empowered by the resonance. Mateo could also feel that the demonic blade had also recognized him as its owner. He then cut off the supply of mana. To his surprise the connection between him and the sword wasn’t severed and the Demonic Blade was absorbed into the sigil on the back of his hand.

He looked back up to the smiling demoness.