Chapter 381 - 344: Comparable to a Horror Game

Avenger Flagship.

The corridor outside the hangar.

Three rebel Knights from the boarding party gathered together, Knight’s Broadswords in hand, their expressions grim.

"Sir, something doesn’t feel right."

One of the Knights, clad in purple Power Armor, glanced uneasily down the corridor. To his left, the vessel that had rammed the Avenger Flagship was still burning, billowing thick smoke.

By all rights.

A command flagship of the Vengeful Angels’ caliber should have been crawling with guards. The moment the ship was attacked, Imperial Knights stationed near the hangar should have come swarming.

Furthermore, the hangar and the surrounding corridors should have had permanently stationed Navy personnel and Technician Priests.

But.

Aside from the defensive fire as they boarded, they had met no resistance. Their path was clear, and they hadn’t seen a single soul.

Yet the silence only amplified the pressure mounting on them in the dead quiet of the corridor.

All three knew their assassination target—one of the ruling figures of the Administrative Region traveling aboard this very ship—was none other than the notoriously fearsome Emperor’s Vengeful Angel, a name that struck fear into the hearts of even Demons.

The Knight leading the boarding party possessed the power of a Four-star Earth Military Rank and held a high position, most likely a Battle Group Commander.

He gripped his Broadsword and said in a low, heavy voice, "The intel is solid. Reinhardt is on this ship. We have one objective: kill him."

Another Official Knight, who only had a Six-star Military Rank, said uneasily, "What if... we wait for Lord Schneider to board before we act?"

The battle hadn’t even begun, and his subordinate was already showing fear.

The Earth Knight leading them frowned and scolded, "You coward! If I hear you say anything like that again, I’ll kill you myself! Understand?!"

Not all Knight Battle Groups valued brotherhood like the Emperor’s Shield, where battle-brothers were as close as kin. More often, it was sheer power and brute force that maintained the ruling position of the Battle Group Commander and leader.

Facing Battle Group Commander Franz’s death threat, the Purple Armored Knight didn’t dare say another word.

With a powerful enemy ahead, the Battle Group Commander may have realized his words were a bit too harsh. He changed his tone and said softly, "Don’t forget the promise Lord Claudius made to us before we came.

Whoever kills Reinhardt will receive the title of Administrative Region Lord and a fiefdom of ten worlds.

If I get that reward, in the future, you two..."

Before Franz could finish, a terrified scream instantly cut him off.

"ARGH—!"

By the time he and the other Knight reacted, one of their men had vanished from where he stood, leaving only drag marks on the floor that stretched to the corner at the end of the hall.

In that brief second, adrenaline surged through the Earth Knight, Thunderlight Battle Commander Franz. A bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead as his eyes locked onto the far end of the corridor, his hands clenched around his sword hilt.

At the same time, he heard a muffled grunt. A sharp dagger, wreathed in faint Knight Power, tore through his subordinate’s Steel Armor from behind, pierced the man’s heart, and burst out through his chest.

His gaze caught a blurry figure in the air, but only for a split second.

Then, the figure dissolved as if into liquid, vanishing right before his eyes.

Two subordinates were killed right under his nose, and he couldn’t even see the attacker clearly.

A far cry from the stern commander who had just reprimanded his men, he now felt a terror far greater than theirs. The immense pressure of imminent death and an enemy lurking in the shadows filled him with regret.

He regretted letting greed blind him.

’To think I actually fantasized about killing that Vengeful Angel with my own hands and seizing the title of Administrative Region Lord!’

’Forget assassinating Reinhardt—I haven’t even laid eyes on the enemy, and my two Personal Guards are already lying in pools of their own blood.’

’And now I’m starting to understand why this flagship of the Vengeful Angels is missing its standing defenses.’

Franz took a step back, remaining on high alert. He activated his Knight Power, and lightning began to crackle across the surface of his Anti-Magic Steel Armor. Sizzling sparks, like those from a frayed cable, erupted into dazzling arcs of electricity whenever they touched the corridor’s metal bulkheads.

"I know you’re hiding nearby! Get out here! Fight me like an Imperial Knight, not like a rat hiding in a dark corner!"

As he taunted his enemy, his mind raced.

’Across the entire Ash Soil Star Zone, or even the old Imperial Holy Territory, I can only think of one type of Imperial Knight with such a strange and terrifying combat style: a Night Demon.’

’Dammit...’

’The intel from my superiors never mentioned anything about a damned Night Demon being on the Vengeful Angels’ flagship!’

From Reinhardt’s perspective, perhaps every move of the Silencer Warlord, Urus Brutus, was within his grasp, an opponent he could pin to the ground with a single hand.

But in the eyes of most Imperial Knights, the terror and unpredictability of a Night Demon in a small-scale assassination was even more frightening than facing the more powerful Radiant Angels.

These masters of assassination and infiltration devoted their entire lives to honing Combat Techniques and Special Abilities designed for precisely those two tasks.

In the end, however, the lurking Night Demon did not strike. Instead, a man of immense stature carrying a Black War Axe simply appeared at the far corner of the corridor.

Although he had never seen Reinhardt before, at this moment, he knew with absolute clarity that this Imperial Knight who had appeared before him had to be the Emperor’s Vengeful Angel!

Then, a cruel, ironclad voice, carrying with it a Domain Level Destructive Suppression, rang out in the corridor.

"Who sent you?"

It was as if Franz’s Knight Power had taken a physical blow. He stumbled back a step, the immense, tangible pressure surging from all sides nearly suffocating him.

After a brief silence, having had enough of this inexplicable fear, Thunderlight Battle Commander Franz’s eyes flew wide with anger. With a roar to banish his fear, his Steel Armor erupted in dazzling electric light as he charged at Reinhardt with his sword, holding nothing back!

"Die! Reinhardt—!"

With every step that crashed onto the corridor floor, lightning flared!

Earth Ring·Thunder Step.

This was Franz’s strongest technique, bar none.

What seemed at first to be nothing more than unremarkable overflowing currents was in fact a force built from Elemental Power. It didn’t just drastically increase his running speed; it also boosted his explosive power over short distances, letting him catch enemies completely off guard.

The invisible, overflowing electromagnetic force also created a sensory field around him with a radius of more than ten meters.

No enemy who entered this field could make a single move without Franz sensing it.

With this technique, no enemy had ever managed to defeat him in a head-on fight!