TSMMT Ch 175

To Save You

The battlefield quieted as the solemn hymn resonated over the corpses of the fallen and the re-killed undead.

The survivors stared at a single point in the center of the massacre, listening as the requiem echoed again and again. There stood the king who had fought valiantly at the vanguard, and the queen whom the kingdom had deposed and abandoned.

As the requiem faded into silence, a breathless stillness fell over the field. No one dared to speak, as if any mortal word would ruin the sacred beauty before them.

A strange, profound tremor rippled through the onlookers. They marveled at the dramatic reunion. A king had risked everything to save his queen, and a queen had returned to save her king. Their devotion seemed almost divine.

Stripped of ornate dresses and glittering jewelry, Dianna stood clad in a pure white garment, looking like a serene angel. She gazed directly at her husband, the man she still loved with every fiber of her being.

Words were unnecessary. Their locked gazes spoke everything. Guiscard had always been a man to make foolish sacrifices. As she looked into his vulnerable, shaking eyes, a gentle smile touched her lips.

I came to save you.

That was her absolute truth. She wanted to say so much more, but words failed to capture the overwhelming emotion swelling in her chest. Her eyes burned as she fought back tears. She had rushed across the continent for this exact moment.

And because of that, I resent you just a little.

Tears spilled over her cheeks. He was an exasperating man.

Why did you discard me like that?

Why did you have to shoulder it alone?

I was always capable of protecting you, too.

She parted her lips, her voice trembling.

[Dianna] "Guiscard... I..."

Her words were cut short as Guiscard collapsed right before her wide eyes. He coughed up a mouthful of blood and crumpled to the ground, his gaze fixed on her until the very end.

She screamed his name.

[Dianna] "Guiscard!"

The sacred spell of their reunion shattered instantly, destroyed by the hooded villain standing over him.

Shouts rang out from the knights.

[Knights] "Your Majesty!"

Fafnir unsheathed her sword with a grumble.

[Fafnir] "Ah, useless. I dozed off for a second."

Dianna glared at the dragon, her voice dripping with hatred.

[Dianna] "Fafnir!"

Fafnir looked at Dianna with mild curiosity.

[Fafnir] "Ah, so you're the young lady this fool was so desperate to protect? Impressive, really. I'm almost amazed. All the dead I gathered... gone! Zmew helped you, didn't she?"

Dianna lunged toward Guiscard, but a snap of Fafnir's fingers bound her in place. Skeletal hands clamped firmly around her wrists. They were not from the defeated corpses, but fresh undead rising from the soil.

[Dianna] "Why... why are you doing this?!"

Fafnir planted her boot squarely on the fallen king's chest.

[Fafnir] "Why? Because of you."

She surveyed the gnashing knights around them with cruel elegance, then flicked her finger. Guiscard's limp body levitated and tumbled into the midst of his men.

[Fafnir] "Take him!"

Dianna cried out again as desperation seized her mind.

Even with the undead army dispelled by the requiem, Fafnir still towered over them with absolute, suffocating power.

Fafnir looked down at Dianna and tutted mockingly.

[Fafnir] "Poor little thing, how unfortunate that you crossed... ack!"

A surge of temporal force severed Fafnir's wrist in a flash. She turned her icy glare toward the attacker.

[Fafnir] "Ah, seriously! Tarascus! You still haven't given up?!"

Tarascus said nothing.

[Fafnir] "You really are persistent. I told you, you can't defeat me right now."

She thrust her hand forward, blasting Tarascus back with monstrous force. His body slammed into the earth, carving a deep crater into the ground.

She squinted at him as he lay in the pit.

[Fafnir] "Oh? Now that I look at you, you've grown a bit. Recovered some of your power, have you?"

Tarascus now possessed the form of a fourteen-year-old youth. Realization dawned on Fafnir, and a bright, sinister smile stretched across her face, baring sharp fangs.

[Fafnir] "Ah, I see! Of course!"

Tarascus gritted his teeth in silence.

[Fafnir] "You finally understand how we feel, don't you?!"

She giggled hysterically.

[Fafnir] "Lord Tarascus, please live a long, happy life! I won't kill you. Oh no, I wouldn't miss this for the world!"

As Tarascus struggled to stand, Fafnir carelessly waved her hand. An invisible, crushing weight slammed Tarascus deeper into the crater with a heavy boom. A strangled gasp tore from his throat as the earth cracked further beneath him.

Dianna shouted at the top of her lungs.

[Dianna] "Stop it!"

Fafnir rounded on her, her eyes darkening.

[Fafnir] "Hey... shut your mouth, will you?"

Fafnir glided toward Dianna and swung her hand to strike her. Dianna braced herself and squeezed her eyes shut. But when the blow never landed, she opened them to find Fafnir's hand trembling in midair, stopped inches from her face. Fafnir's jaw clenched in frustration.

[Fafnir] "Ah, seriously... so picky..."

As if her body was resisting her own will, Fafnir's strike faltered before it could hurt Dianna. Fafnir glared murderously at the queen, then turned away and snapped her fingers once more.

The ground ruptured. Mounted knights burst from the earth on skeletal steeds with decayed skin clinging to their bones, red light gleaming in their hollow eyes.

Tarascus ground his teeth as he struggled beneath the crushing weight.

[Taras] "Where... did you find such undead...?"

Fafnir merely shrugged as massive monsters surged into the ranks of the human army. Screams erupted as slaughter broke out anew.

Dianna watched the dark riders. These undead knights felt fundamentally different from the previous horde. They were ominous, ruthless, and terrifying.

Fafnir spoke to Dianna in a sweetly mocking tone.

[Fafnir] "I plugged their ears this time. So go ahead, try your song again, hmm? I hid these guys away because they're my absolute favorites."

The terrifying cavalry charged with overwhelming momentum. They stood arrogant in their armor like heralds of death itself.

Blurring with unnatural speed, the undead knights breached the disorganized human ranks. Their spears and blades swung in lethal arcs, severing heads that flew through the air.

Panicked screams shattered the atmosphere as troops began to flee. Though numbering barely thirty, their martial prowess was so terrifyingly absolute that it dwarfed the pressure of ordinary monsters.

Commander Clover's roar boomed across the chaos.

[Clover] "Hold the line! Reform the ranks!"

The Vargrhati Knights mounted their steeds and clashed head-on with the dark cavalry.

Dianna glanced toward Tarascus, but the Dragon of Time remained pinned, unable to budge.

Was this a battle we could never win from the start?

Yet, as the Vargrhati held their ground in a brutal stalemate against the undead, the fleeing soldiers rallied, hope flickering back into their eyes. Monsters suddenly flew backward in a bloody shower.

Guiscard strode out from the crowd, spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm, and raised his sword toward Fafnir and Dianna.

With a sinister flick of Fafnir's fingers, the undead knights swarmed Guiscard simultaneously.

Guiscard cleaved through a charging horse, sending its rider crashing down. Unlike the sluggish horde, these undead sprang up with uncanny swiftness and lunged at him.

Guiscard sidestepped their ferocious thrusts with razor-sharp precision, decapitating several in a single breath. Cheers erupted from the soldiers watching their king fight.

A coarse curse shattered the noise.

[Bill] "Holy shit! I thought I was losing my mind!"

Dianna turned at Bill's scream. Her eyes fell upon the fallen undead knight Guiscard had just struck down. The corpse's ears were plugged with lead, and beneath the helm was a face she recognized all too well.

[Dianna] "Bill...?"

The face inside the dislodged helmet was undeniably Bill's. Dianna stared in stunned confusion. Bill was alive, fighting among the Vargrhati right now. So why was a second Bill lying dead at Guiscard's feet?

Her heart hammered against her ribs.

Guiscard's bellow cut through her shock as he pressed toward her.

[Guiscard] "Dianna!"

Fafnir watched him approach, her dark purple eyes flashing with cold rage.

[Fafnir] "Surviving like a parasite..."

Fafnir intercepted him, her blade clashing against Guiscard's with a deafening screech. Her lethal arc nearly bisected his torso, but he parried just in time. The two exchanged blows at blinding speed, locked in an equal struggle.

Dianna watched them numbly, a sudden realization stirring in her mind.

Wait a minute. Why is Fafnir wielding a sword? Since when do dragons fight with swordsmanship?

She glanced back at Tarascus, then back at Fafnir. In that instant, a missing puzzle piece snapped into place, driven not by cold logic, but by pure, horrifying intuition.

She screamed with everything she had left.

[Dianna] "Guiscard!"

Both Guiscard and Fafnir turned toward her simultaneously.

As she met those dark purple eyes, Dianna prayed with all her heart that she was wrong. Still, she shouted the creature's true name.

[Dianna] "Guiscard Lodbrog!"

She called out the name of the human wearing a dragon's skin: the monarch of monsters leading the undead, the world's calamity, the murderer who had ruined her past life, and the man who had been her husband.

Fafnir's eyes widened in shock.

And across the battlefield, every single undead froze in its tracks.

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