I Became a Mythical Knight King

Chapter 82: Knights of the Round Table (1)

Vanadain was a half-elf.

Born to a human father and an elven mother, he followed his father to become a knight of Camelot and, after numerous achievements, rose to become a Knight of the Round Table.

The name he was given at the Round Table was Tristan.

The name bestowed upon the finest archer of the Round Table.

“Of all things under heaven and earth, there is nothing my arrows cannot pierce.”

Chivalry was the soul of a knight and a record of their life.

With incomplete memories, chivalry, too, could not be complete.

Of course, it was not yet perfect even now.

Though empowered by the Knight Command [Round Table Oath], and having reclaimed the name of the Round Table, it was still far from his prime abilities.

But even so—

The one standing here was a Knight of the Round Table.

Tristan released his bowstring.

There was no physical arrow, but it did not matter.

It was an arrow of the soul.

It embodied Tristan’s beliefs.

The moment it was released, it hit its mark.

Balakai’s right foot, formed of magical energy, exploded and dissipated.

No sinister magic could withstand even a moment before the arrows of a Knight of the Round Table.

“Argh!”

Balakai frantically unleashed more magic.

There was no time to properly form a leg; he instead drew forth a massive pillar of energy to support himself and looked straight ahead.

Vanadain was holding Diana in his arms.

The woman from his memories was unmistakably Diana.

From the first time they met, he felt it was destiny, and she was the one who had been with him in the final moments of his life.

But he couldn’t recall the other name she bore.

The name of the Round Table she once held.

But that didn’t matter either.

The only thing that mattered was that she was here with him now.

“Vana… dain.”

At Diana’s call, Vanadain nodded.

As Tristan, Knight of the Round Table, he gazed at Balakai.

Balakai laughed.

It was more a reflexive act of self-preservation.

The rare and unfamiliar sensation of fear, one he had scarcely experienced in his life, forced an awkward grin to his face.

“Ha, ha, hahaha… No, no. It’s not like that.”

A Knight of the Round Table.

The monsters of human legends that appeared in the ratmen’s tales.

He had wished for this.

He had longed for this confrontation.

And so, he laughed.

Rather than cower in fear, he chose to unleash all the power he had!

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa!

The heads of the ratmen slaves, lying discarded near the cauldron, exploded simultaneously.

As if that weren’t enough, even the heads of the ratmen at the rear burst.

For a Rat Lord, at the pinnacle of a strict hierarchical society, the lower-class ratmen were nothing more than expendable resources.

The number of sacrifices totaled two thousand.

The continuous deaths brought a momentary stillness to the battlefield.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned in the same direction—to Balakai.

Under the violet-stained sky, death was gathering.

The divine power created by sacrificing two thousand ratmen enveloped the entirety of the Divine Blood vessel.

“Heh, hahaha, HAHAHAHAHA!”

Balakai’s horns grew larger and more majestic.

Demonic wings sprouted from his back, and his severed arms and legs regenerated instantly.

The previously clear sky became suffused with violet miasma, quickly plunging the battlefield into darkness.

What now stood on the battlefield was no mere Rat Lord.

It was a temporary incarnation through sacrifice.

A being akin to the avatar of the nameless ratmen’s god.

Shrouded in violet energy, its red eyes roamed.

Far away now, Vanadain was laying Diana down at a safer spot removed from the battlefield.

Balakai laughed and swung his sword.

A colossal, jet-black blade aura that seemed capable of cleaving the world in two surged toward Vanadain.

Vanadain released his bowstring in rapid succession.

Dozens of soul arrows struck different parts of the blade aura, unraveling it as if by magic.

“Ha!”

Balakai slammed into the ground.

Vanadain moved as well, pushing off the ground.

Not directly forward but laterally.

It was an obvious ploy to distance Balakai from Diana, and Balakai willingly played along.

Pop!

Balakai’s massive form vanished.

As everyone on the battlefield, previously engrossed in Balakai’s actions, widened their eyes, Vanadain leapt high into the air.

Slash!

Balakai appeared behind Vanadain and swung his massive blade.

The low sweep passed beneath Vanadain mid-leap as though he had foreseen it, and Vanadain, still airborne, drew his bowstring.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The soul arrows released at close range resembled ballista bolts.

Balakai, hit three times in the chest, was pushed back momentarily but quickly regained his footing.

He planted energy pillars behind him to halt his recoil and hurled his fist toward the still-hovering Vanadain.

Vanadain didn’t need to see it; he sensed it.

Thus, he drew and released his bowstring.

Not at Balakai’s fist, but at the ground below.

Wham!

Propelled by the recoil of his soul arrow, Vanadain soared upward, the enormous fist narrowly missing him.

He landed on Balakai’s broad arm and released another arrow.

This time, only one.

It struck Balakai’s face, exploding upon impact, shaking the heavens.

Crimson lightning rained down upon Vanadain and Balakai indiscriminately.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Though lightning rained heavily upon Balakai, he remained unperturbed.

As the endless storm of lightning fell, Vanadain maneuvered swiftly, evading the strikes while pulling his bowstring toward the sky.

He drew once.

But released ten arrows.

The unleashed soul arrows clashed with the descending lightning, creating explosions.

Thus, a path through the lightning emerged.

Vanadain, moving at breakneck speed, escaped the lightning seal created by Balakai.

It was a feat of extraordinary skill.

But his opponent, though temporarily, had harnessed the power of incarnation.

Balakai, letting out a furious roar, unleashed countless curses that rushed toward Vanadain like a wall of doom.

Vanadain held his breath and drew his bowstring.

His target wasn’t the wall of curses—it was the sky.

Releasing the arrow, Vanadain propelled himself high into the air, as if he had launched himself as the arrow.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The wall of curses tore through the air and Balakai leapt upward.

Spinning his entire body, he swung his colossal blade, and this time Vanadain had no means to evade.

Clang!

Vanadain blocked Balakai’s blade with Failnaught, but the impact sent him hurtling into the ground like a cannonball.

Enraged that he hadn’t finished Vanadain, Balakai unleashed another massive blade aura toward him.

“Diana! Retreat!”

At that moment, Yoo Seong shouted.

Vanadain twisted his unresponsive body to avoid the trajectory of the blade aura, while Roland charged toward Balakai.

Only Vanadain had received the power of the Round Table Oath.

Roland had not recalled his own name, nor had he acquired the sacred weapons of the Round Table.

The one who stood here was merely Roland, a knight of Camelot with incomplete chivalry but he didn’t care.

Charging straight toward Balakai, he unleashed his chivalry.

Honryun Ilsam—the all-encompassing, singular strike.

The soul’s final attack became a pure white spear that pierced Balakai’s chest.

It was light itself.

For a brief moment, the violet miasma enveloping Balakai dissipated.

But it ended there.

Groaning in pain, Balakai swung his fist toward Roland.

Having just unleashed his ultimate attack, Roland and his steed were unable to evade and were sent tumbling across the ground.

“Graahh!”

Balakai pulled out the spear.

He attempted to turn his body to attack the greatest threat, the Knight of the Round Table—Vanadain—once more.

“Kate! Regroup!”

Brilliant golden light held Balakai’s feet in place.

A radiant girl, like the sun itself, swung her flagstaff and charged forward, dispelling the darkness summoned by Balakai’s violet sky.

Beside her ran Yoo Seong, charging fearlessly toward the divine incarnation that radiated overwhelming power.

“King of humans!”

Perhaps because he had temporarily ascended to the status of an incarnation, Balakai unleashed an intense roar, as if recalling fragments of the Ratmen god’s lost memory.

Relentless lightning poured down and a massive black sword slashed wildly.

Yoo Seong measured the distance.

The act of gauging distance itself seemed futile amidst a battlefield teeming with lethal threats from all directions.

Still, he did not falter.

He resisted the cascading lightning with a sword imbued with a storm of heat and gale, a fusion of flames and tempests.

“For the glory of Camelot!”

Kate radiated dazzling golden light.

With an explosive surge of golden aura, she shielded herself and Yoo Seong from the falling lightning for a brief moment. But the strain caused her to collapse, coughing blood.

However, the opening she created gave Yoo Seong the time and opportunity he needed.

Yoo Seong advanced toward Balakai.

Kwagang!

A torrent of sword strikes clashed.

Gareth’s golden shield generated a radiant force field that held back the massive sword strikes for a fleeting moment.

The barrier shattered under the pressure.

Yet, Yoo Seong used that brief moment to take another step forward.

Balakai opened his massive jaws, unleashing a breath attack filled with violet energy.

In response, Yoo Seong pulled Agravain’s cloak tight to shield himself.

The cloak, once black, turned pure white, protecting Yoo Seong from the incarnation’s devastating breath.

Yoo Seong pressed forward, driving his feet into the ground.

He sidestepped the breath’s trajectory with what seemed like a stumbling gait but maintained his momentum, employing a lightning-fast footstep technique.

Tsupat!

Yoo Seong stood directly before Balakai.

Balakai smirked.

He sneered at the desperate charge of the human king, swinging his colossal fist.

Yoo Seong saw it and he understood why Balakai sneered.

What do you hope to achieve by arriving here? With what power can you harm me?

Balakai wasn’t wrong.

With the power Yoo Seong currently possessed, he couldn’t inflict a fatal wound on Balakai but Yoo Seong didn’t care.

From the start, he had not come here intending to defeat Balakai with his own hands.

Kay’s words.

The final advice he had given.

Never forget, you are a king.

You are—

‘Not alone.’

He did not need to strike Balakai down himself.

Yoo Seong drove his sword into the ground.

He unleashed the Sword of Binding.

The third sacred sword technique of the Holy King’s Cross Swords, attained through his battles with Kay and Vanadain’s awakening.

Golden energy surged through the ground, extending toward Balakai.

It climbed up his legs and wrapped around his entire body, constraining him.

The divine power of humanity’s god momentarily suppressed the divinity of the Ratmen’s god.

The duration of the binding was only a few seconds.

But that was more than enough.

Even excessive.

While Yoo Seong, Roland, and Kate had charged, Rene had been preparing something.

“Truly, the King of Humans. The man who is my lord.”

Vanadain smiled as he drew the string of Failnaught.

Nocked on the bowstring was a sacred arrow, brimming with the blessings of the Lady of the Lake, retrieved by Rene.

Sensing danger, Balakai thrashed violently, but the golden bindings refused to let him go.

Gritting his teeth, Yoo Seong maintained the Sword of Binding and glared at Balakai, shouting:

“Shoot, Vanadain!”

The King of Humans commanded and the Knight of the Round Table answered.

After five centuries, his chivalry once again graced the world.

“All things under heaven and earth—there is nothing my arrow cannot pierce.”

The sacred arrow imbued with Tristan’s ideals flew from the string and pierced Balakai’s chest.