Episode 245 – The Dagger of the Dead (3)
Dorneth had shown the majesty of a true lord, instantly uniting the non-human races into a single force.
Just a few words were enough to rouse all of Beneta—proving once more that not just anyone could become a lord.
Behind Dorneth, who charged toward the castle walls, the non-human races rapidly gathered.
‘Three thousand? Four thousand?’
It was a small number compared to Kamel’s main force, but more than enough to reinforce the wall defenses.
As Dorneth appeared near the broken wall, the mood within Beneta shifted.
Knight Commander Natone raised his voice to boost morale.
"The Lord has arrived! The Lord is here!"
"Uwaaaaah!"
Excitement swept through the soldiers, their focus drawn to Lord Dorneth.
But in my case, my eyes weren’t on Dorneth—they were on the weapon in his hands.
"A shield...?"
His signature weapon, the Hammer of the Frozen Tundra, was nowhere in sight.
All he held was a rectangular shield mounted to his forearm.
I’d seen it once before, in the Garden of the Blacksmith.
It had been placed next to the Ring of Blood, one of the ancient artifacts.
Its rough, square shape was etched with the symbol of the Gader Clan—a hammer. The moment I saw it, I recognized it.
Like with the Ring of Blood, this was a piece of gear that had never appeared in the novel—something I didn’t know.
But...
Did he give up being a Grand Craftsman?
I knew what that shield was because Dorneth had once explained it to me.
The Shield of Vow.
An artifact granted only to the clan head, granting immense physical power, stone-like skin, and dulling the sense of pain when awakened.
But the cost—was the loss of the dwarves’ greatest blessing: their supernatural crafting intuition.
Past heads of the clan had always avoided the Shield of Vow.
Losing that innate blacksmithing ability meant losing their racial identity.
No one would ever know what it took for Dorneth to choose to become the shield’s master.
The Shield of Tobaron.
I was certain now—the Shield of Vow was directly tied to Dorneth’s Divine Name, The Shield of Tobaron.
He had chosen to become a guardian, not a smith.
What kind of power would he show?
KRAAAAAAH—!
As if to answer my question, Dorneth rushed through the breach and joined Natone.
The Dwarf Knight Order had been barely holding the line from the inside, against waves of overwhelming enemy numbers.
But the moment Dorneth took the center and charged forward, the battlefield changed.
A miracle unfolded before our eyes, wrought by a single dwarf.
“I fulfill my vow!”
As Dorneth roared, light erupted from the shield—The rectangular shield expanded, large enough to cover his whole body.
The Gader Clan's symbol, the hammer, flashed brightly on its surface.
KWAANG—!
“Guhuaaagh!”
“W-What the hell!?”
Everything the shield struck flew away in chunks—
Armored knights, shield bearers, even charging horses were flung into the air.
Blood splattered across the battlefield, and the sounds of rupturing flesh filled the space.
KRAAAAAH!
Dorneth’s warcry ripped through the chaos.
With both hands gripping the massive shield, he swung it wildly side to side like a madman.
“That’s Dorneth! Kill him!”
“Whoever kills him will receive 10,000 gold!”
At the desperate shouts of the enemy lords, dozens of knights surged forward, unleashing sharp sword strikes toward Dorneth.
But he crouched low, shield raised, and charged forward.
The shield trembled under the barrage of impacts, and arrows rained down from above.
Dorneth covered his face with one arm and kept running.
Dozens, hundreds of arrows pierced his arms, shoulders, and back, But as if he couldn’t feel a thing, his momentum never slowed.
Like an iron wall advancing, the Shield of Vow bulldozed through the enemies guarding the breach.
“Damn! What is this!?”
“P-Push him back! Don’t retreat...!”
But pushing, hitting—it did nothing. Anyone the shield touched was flung away.
The knights who clung to Dorneth were soon sent flying, coughing blood,
Until the shield finally reached the far end of the breach.
The enemy archers’ formation came into view. Dorneth, bloodshot eyes gleaming, charged like a raging bull.
Behind him, Natone and the knights followed like vengeful spirits.
“The Knights of Beneta!”
“CHAAARGE!!”
“Uwaaaaaah!”
With bestial howls, the Dwarf Knight Order charged forward.
A wave of steel slammed into the archer line.
“Get out of the way!”
“R-Run... Gaaaah!”
The archers were swept away like dead leaves in the wind.
And finally—
KWAANG—!
A shockwave sent enemy soldiers flying like pebbles outside the broken wall.
Dorneth stood tall at the breach,
Slamming the massive shield into the ground, breathing heavily as he glared forward.
His overwhelming presence halted Kamel’s main force, making them hesitate and step back.
“Insane.”
I chuckled dryly and shook my head.
So this was the power of Dorneth, the guardian.
He reminded me of the very image of Hercules.
With Dorneth and the knight order reinforcing the breach, the remaining Beneta forces quickly filled in the gap.
Others climbed the wall to support us from above.
With Dorneth stationed at the front of the hardened defense, it felt like we had a mountain on our side.
I turned to scan Kamel’s main force again and nodded to myself.
“With this much…”
It didn’t look like they’d break through easily.
I glanced toward the horizon and calculated the time—The anti-Kamel alliance led by Heinz Bell should be arriving soon.
If Heinz had followed my instructions and hurried, then within half a day, their ten thousand troops should appear beyond the horizon.
We only had to hold out until then.
“And with that army composition alone, they won’t break through.”
Looking carefully at Kamel’s forces again, a mix of relief and suspicion settled in my mind.
Beneta was outnumbered, yes. But—
There were no core forces.
I continued scanning Kamel’s army from the walls.
Sure, Kamel himself would stay hidden due to the risk,
But I couldn’t spot any of Blyer’s key elite forces.
No Royal Guard. No shamans.
Wiley and Harkman were dead.
Now, with no remaining 5-star forces deployed to Beneta, and Blyer’s elites absent,
Breaking Dorneth’s line was impossible.
And—
“There’s not a single shaman puppet…”
With Rengua’s awakening, Blyer’s shaman puppet creation had grown exponentially beyond the novel’s depiction.
While Hunt had been busy in Ordor Forest, Kamel surely focused on producing more.
At minimum, over a hundred should’ve been here.
But there were none.
No puppets, no shamans to control them, in the main force.
At a glance, it was clear—This was a battle of attrition. One where only blood would be shed.
A throwaway army.
Would he really abandon fifty thousand?
The thought was ridiculous—until it happened right before my eyes.
“Kill him! Beyond that wall lies gold, women, and everything you desire!”
The enemy lords shouted frantically, reigniting the lull in the battle.
Overwhelming numbers charged again at the breach where Dorneth stood.
Dorneth raised his shield once more—And blood began to fly.
Metal clashing, screams, the cries of dying horses. Hell unfolded before my eyes.
Under the red sky, the entire wall was drenched in blood.
The ground became a swamp of gore.
Even knowing they would die, the enemy’s attacks didn’t relent.
It was like they were charging in just to die.
It wasn’t normal.
“You bastard... What the hell did you do?”
They looked like fanatics.
From their relentless assaults, Beneta’s losses began to rise.
The troop gap was too large—No matter how solid the defense, casualties kept piling up.
Bodies filled the area near the wall. It had become a field of graves.
“Just a little longer…”
There was a way to end this battle all at once.
I looked toward the horizon, waiting for the signal, when suddenly—
The Specters behind me cried out.
“Th-There…!”
“Ghhk!”
Some of the Specters fighting near the wall suddenly collapsed at the rear, unable to stand.
Why?
I rushed over and checked their bodies. They weren’t injured.
“It feels like something’s pulling at me from below…”
“The pressure… It’s too strong to stay upright…!”
They were hunched over, straining to resist.
“You bastards! This isn’t the time to slack off—ugh!”
Karl narrowed his eyes and approached, only for his head to suddenly slam into the ground.
His eyes widened.
“W-What the hell is this!?”
Everything had been fine a moment ago.
Now, some strange phenomenon was affecting a specific area.
The rest of the defenders rushed over, startled.
“Ugh!”
Only the Specters were affected.
They described it as an overwhelming pressure that was rapidly intensifying.
Why weren’t Lochter and I affected?
[It seems tied to souls.]
“Souls?”
[Something below is pulling at us. The force is rapidly growing.]
“You feel it too, Reto?”
[I sense the pressure, but it can’t affect me. I have a house. It only pulls at wandering souls.]
I didn’t understand all of Reto’s words,
But I understood one thing—
Something was absorbing souls and its force was growing explosively.
Looking back at the Specters, they were clearly struggling to keep their ghost energy from being pulled away.
Ghostification. Spectral form.
All of it was ghost energy gained in Ordor Forest.
If there was a tool that could harvest that energy…
“…Ah.”
One item came to mind.
If it was tied to Kamel, there was only one possibility—The Dagger of the Dead.
Ah. Could it be…?
A bolt of realization struck my mind like lightning.
The cavalry unit—ten thousand strong—had been thrown at the walls like trash.
They were annihilated.
Why would Kamel use all of them as disposable pawns?
If the reason was what I suspected…
Then everything—this irrational battle—fit together.
Even the absence of his elite troops.
“A sacrifice! They were sacrifices!”
“...?”
At my panicked shout, my companions looked at me in confusion,
But I didn’t stop—I leapt from the wall.
My theory might be wrong.
But if I was right—I had to retrieve and destroy it.
In midair, I summoned the Ring of Blood.
Wuuuuung!
I used Burst Strike, drawing a massive crimson arrow with full force.
It fell just above Dorneth’s head—
And I released it forward.
BOOM—!
Once, then again—each Burst Strike sent a devastating arrow crashing into the center of the enemy ranks.
KWAANG—! KWAANG—!
Huge explosions tore through the enemy line.
[What a waste.]
“There’s a reason.”
Enduring the dizziness, I landed behind Dorneth.
He turned, alert, but lowered his shield when he saw me.
Covered in blood, he was no longer a smith—He was a true warrior.
Lowering the shield slightly, he breathed heavily.
The battlefield fell into a temporary lull due to my explosions.
There was only one reason I used Burst Strike to buy time—
To extract one person from the center of the formation.
“I need Sir Natone.”
“Pull the knight commander now?”
“There’s something under the wall. We need to check it immediately. And we need someone who knows the terrain inside and out.”