For two days straight, all kinds of monsters and beasts shoved their heads into the fray. They gathered, drooling, thirsting for delicious meat and blood.

Though the land had been tainted, the people still bled red. No one was seriously injured, but he saw a child who had fallen—blood trickling from a scraped knee.

Even while falling, the child had shouted, “Demon-Knight!”

To Enkrid, it sounded almost like a cry for salvation.

There was no need to explain how intoxicating that scent of blood must have been for the monsters.

They had come in droves.

And among them, the most troublesome by far was a magical being encased entirely in metal.

The so-called Iron Golem—one of those giant steel dolls.

Its steel body could deflect most blades, making it a difficult opponent. For anyone not a knight, it was normal to chip away at it until they exhausted themselves.

Which is to say—extremely dangerous.

Arrows didn’t work. Swords bounced off. The most reasonable tactic was smashing it apart with blunt weapons and exposing its core.

Even for a knight, it wasn’t simple. You couldn’t slice through solid iron like it was paper.

But still, this wasn’t beyond a knight’s reach. It just took time—strength, skill, and strategy.

Still, Enkrid wondered—did even this magical creature feel hunger? Or was it driven purely by the urge to destroy?

His thoughts vanished with its footsteps.

THUD!

The ground quaked with each step. It had to weigh several times more than the charging rhino beast from earlier.

Each step pounded out a wave of pressure. Its presence crushed the air.

Comparable to that bull swordsman, Enkrid thought.

This was no ordinary Iron Golem. It was much more dangerous.

It had no mouth, so it didn’t roar. Instead, it raised a long steel rod in its hand and smashed the ground.

BOOM!

A resounding crash exploded, followed by a vibration that traveled up through the feet.

It resembled a sledgehammer—blunt and massive.

They said if an Iron Golem lived long enough, it would forge parts of its body into weapons. At that point, it was basically an engraved weapon.

In bard tales, golems were always slow, foolish guardians of ruins. But seeing one in reality—this was no easy foe.

Someone had to stop it. Ragna, being the closest, stepped forward.

He half-opened his eyes to look at the golem—its sheer size forced his head to tilt up. Hard to even fit it all into one glance from below.

Big. Bigger than that bear-faced preacher.

At close range, perspective collapsed.

He vaguely remembered stories of how golems were born into this land through ancient magic. But he couldn't recall the details. Not that it mattered.

SCRAAAAPE.

The steel rod dragged across the ground.

Ragna, watching with half-lidded eyes, thought—

I can do it now. What? A more advanced cut.

Inspired by what Enkrid had shown, he’d been provoked—and now, he’d found his answer. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Conversion of Will.

If Zaun had focused on controlling Will, Ragna focused on transforming it. He emitted Will, gave it form, and fixed it in place.

Shaped by intention, fueled by desire.

He filled the Will with a single purpose: to cut through whatever stood in his way.

Its shape is a blade.

Over the glowing heat of Sunrise, a faint red shimmer wrapped the edge of his sword.

I can’t coat the entire blade.

He sensed the Will dissipating midway and fixed the shape at one edge. Thus, only one side of the blade gleamed red.

It looked like a crimson flame, molded into a blade.

As the golem swung its sledgehammer, Ragna slashed diagonally upward.

It wasn’t some extraordinary display of power or speed. His footwork was light, his motion casual.

He didn’t strain his muscles. From afar, it looked more like a probing swipe.

But the result...

SSSSHHHK—FWOOSH.

The sword Sunrise cleaved through metal like tofu. Fire flared in the path the blade had traveled.

The sledgehammer split apart. The golem’s body, too, was left with a diagonal, flaming scar.

Ragna raised his sword again and brought it straight down—cleaving the golem’s head and torso apart.

It all looked too easy.

A knight can defeat a golem? Of course. But not like that.

Most would swing dozens of times, gather force, break it apart, expose the core.

Not slice it cleanly in two with two strokes.

Once the core was exposed, it was simple. Ragna drove the blade into the spherical core—like a human heart—nestled inside the split body.

Crunch— The core shattered.

A faint glowing liquid seeped out.

The golem collapsed with a THUD, breaking apart into shards of metal. Thick liquid oozed out between the fragments.

Even in the midst of battle, everyone had seen it.

Everyone who had witnessed Ragna’s sword strike was stunned.

As the battle began to settle, Rem blurted out:

“What the hell did you just do?”

Ragna, though the question was clearly aimed at him, didn’t even look over.

“Cut.”

No elaboration.

“That’s your explanation?” Rem snapped.

Ragna ignored him.

Enkrid had seen it too.

Of course. That’s what monsters do.

Forging a blade out of Will? This crazy bastard.

It was hard enough just to understand the structure.

How did he even—?

He had wrapped his weapon in solidified Will—turning it into a blade that cleaved through everything.

“Flame Blade?” Teresa murmured. She remembered a passage from a holy text: a war god wielding a sword made of fire that could cut anything.

“No, Sister,” Audin corrected. “That’s not divine. That’s technique.”

It was beyond delicate control over Will—it was the craft of shaping it into something entirely new.

Audin, capable of using divine light to protect his body, watched and wondered.

Could I shape divine light like that into a blade?

It would be difficult—but perhaps possible.

And maybe not just a blade. Maybe something else. Lord, is this your gift to me? Are you showing me through that lazy man?

Just seeing it seemed to deepen his understanding of sacred power. He felt his own skill evolving.

Among all war god’s apostles, Audin’s talent had always been top-tier.

Rem’s lips moved, then closed again. Enkrid could tell—Rem wanted to curse loudly but couldn’t find the words.

“Feel like you lost?”

“Shut up. I can do that too, you know.”

It was clearly because he’d been provoked. Enkrid knew.

Ragna knew what he had done. A new path no one had ever reached. A new world. A new technique.

For the first time in a while, he felt omnipotent—superior.

He raised his chin slightly and looked around.

The Mad Order of Knights, killers of monsters and beasts.

Their captain stood at the center. So Ragna had only one thing to say.

“I’m the vice-captain now.”

Everyone immediately fired back without missing a beat.

“What kind of nonsense—”

“That position requires age and wisdom.”

“Have you injured your head, Lazy Brother?”

“If you’re gonna act like that barbarian, why don’t you two just go play by yourselves?”

Rem, Shinar, Audin, Jaxon—in that order. It almost sounded like one voice.

Jaxon’s final jab hit especially hard.

It referred to the time Rem had used the Residue technique to blast Audin’s room apart and assert dominance over Enkrid. His sermon back then ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) wasn’t so different from what Ragna was doing now.

“Want to try it? The Flame Blade?”

Ragna casually borrowed Teresa’s mutter and gave it a name. He aimed it straight at Jaxon.

“If you can’t dodge it, what’s the point?” Jaxon retorted.

A fierce air surged between them.

Two beasts growling. Neither bared their fangs—but for those watching, it was terrifying enough.

“It’s fine. They won’t fight to the death,” Rophod said, calming some of the creeping villagers from the Demon Realm.

Pell stared wide-eyed, muttering, What the hell is that?

Then he shook his head.

Doesn’t matter. I don’t need talent. I’ll get there with effort. Only training matters.

He resolved himself again.

“If you don’t give up, you’ll reach it. Isn’t that guy proof enough?” Lua Gharne said, having overheard Pell’s muttering.

Enkrid didn’t react to the vice-captain talk. Perhaps he was too shocked by the genius’s leap.

“This is insane,” he muttered.

It wasn’t hard to read the emotion in that tone. Enkrid wasn’t a fairy. But this time, the emotion he showed was like tossing a boulder into a lake—it spread deep and wide.

The ripple was like the scent of mountain wind in a forest—so vivid, so rich.

If you had to name what he was feeling now—it was euphoria. Joy.

His mouth curled into a smile.

Seeing that, Shinar spoke.

“Maybe we’ll just have three kids?”

At some point, Shinar’s jokes had crossed the line. Enkrid didn’t even seem to hear it anymore.

“I’ve fallen for him again,” Lua Gharne said. Not romantically—just admiring the overwhelming charm that came from the man himself.

The corrupted villagers watched all this—and only grew more terrified.

Why were these people, after killing all the monsters, just chatting among themselves?

Why was the man in the center smiling?

Why did the fairy mention having children, and why did Frokk say she’d fallen for him again?

Not even Balrogs, demons who lived to fight, seemed to enjoy battle this much.

They were demon-worshippers—but still humans.

Most had lived like frogs in a well—cut off from the world.

This... this was beyond anything they could process.

One by one, they dropped to their knees and prostrated themselves before Enkrid.

It took another two full days just to clean up the aftermath.

Even after clearing the corpses of monsters and beasts, the stench lingered. But no more monsters came.

Of course not.

They’d faced all kinds—Iron Golem, Harpy, rare beasts.

A Gremlin faster than arrows—Jaxon killed it.

An Armored Bear, its fur like steel—Teresa crushed its skull with her shield.

The villagers had seen it all—and were terrified. Many trembled.

Enkrid didn’t care.

What would kindness change here? Nothing.

Instead—

“So, what now? He probably hasn’t even thought about it. That guy just acts on impulse,” Roman muttered, having turned to Rem.

Among the group, Rem was the only one Roman was comfortable speaking to.

“I have thought about it,” Enkrid replied.

Ragna didn’t care.

Audin asked if the Lord had sent a revelation.

Lua Gharne rolled her big eyes and asked—

“What?”