Book 4: To Slay a Dragon - Prologue

*Disclaimer note: This is merely a translation of the original Chinese version. I do not claim any part in the creation of the original story.

 

I am a knight. To be more precise, I am the Sun Knight of the Church of Light.

The Sun Knight; a head of shiny golden hair, deep blue eyes, a brilliant smile and a merciful and loving nature.

He who forever smiles kindly as he forgives you - 'the God of Light will forgive you of your sins'; that is the fate of the Sun Knight.

~O~O~O~O~

But what the hell has the above got to do with me?!

Sun Knight? Who's that?

And what the heck is the Church of Light?

More importantly…… who am I?

Huh? The benevolent God of Light will light the path of this lost sheep?

But… are you sure I'm a sheep?

 

Prologue: The holy sword and its missing owner

"Captain Judge Knight!"

Judge slowed down and looked back. The person was hard to miss with his signature black skin-tight outfit. In the whole of the Holy Temple, the Hell Knight Captain was the only one with such a unique sense of fashion. But at this moment, someone was missing from Roland Hell's side.

"Captain Hell Knight, should you not be staying by the Captain Sun Knight's side?" questioned Judge with a frown.

Roland got a guilty look at that inquiry.

"You lost him again?"

Leithe couldn't help but see the irony in the situation. It seems that ever since he had ordered the Hell Knight Captain to stay by Sun's side, Sun could never be found with Hell. But he couldn't blame Hell, for even he himself could not say for sure if he could have been able to stop a determined Sun from slipping away from him.

"Forget it, you won't have to follow him anymore." Judge shook his head in exasperation before sighing, "I should have known that sending someone to follow Sun around wouldn't work."

Instead of looking relieved, Roland looked even more worried. "But Sun's blind, what'll he do if he's in danger?"

"If he's able to throw you off his trail, I think he shouldn't have any problems handling himself."

"True," Roland conceded, but still he gave a sigh of frustration. "I just don't get it. How could Sun have managed to slip away from me when his skills are so poor…… "

Leithe smiled at that and said, "If that's what you really think of him, then you're severely underestimating our Sun Knight Captain."

"But aren't his sword skills pretty poor?" Roland asked in confusion.

"Sun's sword skills are unquestionably terrible," Leithe nodded in agreement.

Actually, saying so was a huge understatement. After having been trained by the 'history's strongest Sun Knight' for eight long years and still have his sword skills remain at such an appalling level, it was more than words could describe.

"It's true that the Sun Knight's skills are rather poor," said Leithe, "but if there's one single person in this world that I would rather not make an enemy of, it would be the Sun Knight Captain."

Roland looked even more lost. "But, Creus he……"

"Captain Hell Knight!"

Both Leithe and Roland blinked in surprise. While the latter remained indifferent to the interruption, the former had to quickly change his expression to a more appropriate one, pasting a dark scowl on his face and giving off a dangerous and unfriendly air.

But when he saw that it was one of his Judge Knight Division's knights, his frown became even sterner.

He knew his division's knights very well. They were quite similar to him in terms of behaviour – stern and composed. But to have one of his knights come running to him in such a flustered manner would mean that something serious had happen.

The holy knight took a moment to catch his breath before immediately straightening to salute them. "Captain Judge Knight, Captain Hell Knight."

"What is it?" Leihe asked with a dark frown.

"There was an explosion of unknown origin not too far from here, but luckily there were no casualties. However, the priests said that they could sense a very heavy dark aura still lingering in the area, and that it is very likely that someone had just performed necromancy magic there."

Leithe's face darkened at this news. What necromancer would have been so daring as to cause trouble in Sprouting Leaf City, the base of the Church of Light?

It doesn't matter who they are, if they dared to cause trouble here, he won't let them go!

Leithe gave his order in a dark voice, "Gather all the Judge Division knights, and Hell, you're coming with me."

"Yes, sir."

~O~O~O~O~

When he arrived at the scene, Leithe understood why exactly his knight had looked so flustered.

The explosion had left behind a huge crater ten meters wide.

The surrounding buildings had collapsed in the wake of the blast, and charred earth and shards of rock were strewn everywhere…… fortunately, this place used to be one of the older execution grounds, and was nearly deserted. If the explosion had taken place in the middle of the bustling city, the consequences would have been a hundred times more severe.

"Captain Judge Knight, Captain Hell Knight……"

The priests on site were about to salute them when Leithe raised a hand to stop them and gave the order, "Report."

"Yes, sir."

The priests started reporting what they had gathered so far. "Other than dark aura, we've also managed to sense large amounts of holy aura here. We believe that someone from the Church may have battled the necromancer, and we are now searching the surrounding area for-for their……"

Searching for their body.

Leithe knew without hearing the rest what they were trying to say. As he looked around and took in the sight once more, he could tell that it must have been an extremely fierce battle. If the person from the Light Church had won, they would have returned to the Church to report the incident. Even if they had been severely injured and had collapsed halfway back to the Holy Temple, they would have been spotted by the patrolling holy knights and royal knights.

But there had been nothing so far.

So the only possible explanation left was that they had been captured by the necromancer, or they were dead, possibly buried under one of the collapsed buildings.

Even though there were not as many buildings here compared to in the city, there were still more than ten buildings, and it was clear that it would take some time to clear everything. He hesitated between leading his men to search for the necromancer and staying put here to wait for more news, in the hopes that they would be able to find a survivor who could tell him what had happened.

Just then, Roland walked up to him and gestured at a collapsed building not too far away from them. "Captain Judge Knight, there is a very strong holy aura coming from below there."

Leithe frowned at that. Even if they were holy knights or priests, their bodies would still be taken over by dark elements after their deaths. But if Hell said that he could sense holy aura coming from there…… could it be a survivor?

At that thought, he immediately called to the search party, "Quickly, follow the Hell Knight Captain's directions and start digging there. Be careful, there might be someone still alive down there!"

"Yes, sir!"

The holy knights quickly began removing the rocks and fallen debris away. With their combined efforts they made short work of it, and soon enough had most of the building cleared away.

"Roland!"

Roland started in surprise, and when he turned around he saw a squad of knights in the red uniform of the royal knights of Forgotten Echo, and leading them was someone he was fairly familiar with – the royal knight Elliot who often came to spar with him.

Elliot walked up to him and looked on at the large crater in front of them. "What happened here?" he asked with a frown.

Roland shook his head and explained, "We do not know what happened either, only that there are large amounts of dark and light aura still gathered here."

Leithe, who had been standing beside them, turned to Elliot and asked, "Sir Elliot, can your men join in and help to clear away the debris? We believe that a priest or holy knight might have survived the explosion and is buried alive under the debris."

Elliot looked surprised to hear that, but he immediately nodded. "Of course."

He turned to his men and gave the order to help the holy knights.

As he watched the digging process with a heavy frown, Leithe understood that he was of no use here and decided to head back and see if he could find a trace of the necromancer's whereabouts…… he then suddenly remembered that necromancers were not in his area of expertise.

He turned to his vice-captain and asked, "Has anyone informed the Sun Knight Captain of this incident?"

"Captain, I was unable to locate the Sun Knight Captain, but the Sun Knight Division's vice-captain, Adair, has been informed. He said that he will send out the Sun Knight Division to search the city. He will report back if they find any hint of unusual dark activity."

Leithe nodded in approval. As long as Adair had been informed. But he wondered where Sun could have run off to this time.

"Oh that's right, the Sun Knight Captain is not here?" asked Elliot.

"Elliot, did you not see Sun on your way here?" asked Roland at the same time.

They looked at each other for a moment before smiling wryly and shaking their heads.

Judge's lips twitched at the amusing sight.

It had always been so; Sun might not be skilled at sword fighting, but somehow he's always managed to befriend skilled swordsmen…… no! Not just swordsmen, he's probably already friends with all the strong and powerful in the city.

The Church of Light's Twelve Holy Knights, a Death Lord and the Royal Princess's royal knight lover among them; the history's strongest Sun Knight and even a – unknown but guaranteed to be very powerful – necromancer.

And even without knowing all the strong and powerful, is Creus really as weak as the Hell Knight believes?

Leithe sighed at the thought. He was probably the only one other than the Pope and the previous Sun Knight who knows how strong Creus Sun really was…… no! Leithe felt that even he had not uncovered the full extent of Creus' capabilities.

"Creus," he muttered in an undertone, "You're always saying that you could never hide anything from me, yet I've never truly understood your true strength…… Or perhaps, you yourself do not understand your own true strength?"

Elliot and Roland thought they heard something and asked in curiosity, "What?"

"Found it!"

The three of them looked up at the cry and quickly approached the site. They saw the crowd standing gathered around the hole, watching, but no one was helping to pull out the survivor from the hole. The three of them frowned at that.

"What are the priests doing?" Leithe growled out in anger. "Why are you not helping to heal the survivor?"

The priests were shocked by the reprimand, and when they saw the Judge Knight's dark expression, they paled even further as they hurried to explain, "That-it's not a person!"

Leithe frowned at the strange reply and moved forward to investigate the matter himself. Inside the hole was no person, indeed, but a sword. It lied quietly in the hole and smudged with dirt, unbefitting of its dignity.

"The Holy Sun Blade?!"

Leithe had immediately recognised the Holy Sun Blade which lied at the bottom of the hole. The blade was Creus' most treasured belonging…… even though he rarely used it himself…

He rarely brings the sword out when he leaves the Holy Temple, but on the rare occasions that he did bring it out with him, he always kept it close to him on his person.

Yet now, the Holy Sun Blade is found here, but its owner was nowhere near…… Suddenly, Leithe saw something staining the sword…… He jumped into the hole and picked up the sword to get a closer look.

He was right, it was blood!

Leithe's face paled and he immediately turned to the surrounding knights and shouted, "Quick! Continue digging! But be careful, Sun-the person below might still be alive!"

Roland had jumped into the hole too, and he bent down to touch the earth, although his eyes never left the Holy Sun Blade in Leithe's hands.

He then stood up before saying to him in a soft voice, "There is no holy aura beneath us. The holy aura I was sensing previously was coming from the Holy Sun Blade. C-could it be that Creus-he……"

"No!" Leithe cut him off forcefully before jumping out of the hole. He then instructed the holy knights to continue digging below. Roland, too, jumped out.

Leithe looked around at the area that used to be the old execution grounds and said firmly, "It's not possible! This place…… this place could never be Sun's final resting place!"

So……

Creus, where are you?

 

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