Others Summon Dragons, I Summon Legendary Knights

Chapter 538: The Unknown King’s Rule of Law

Miasma erupted from Keres’s body as he prepared his mind.

"Henceforth, by my authority, the air shall deny itself to those who oppose the crown."

Another explosion of miasma followed his decree. The flames of thousands of candles that had somehow survived the collapse went out at once as a dense fog swallowed the city, spreading beyond it into the valley and across the mountains.

The Unknown King’s hand went to his throat.

He couldn’t breathe.

He spun and cut down the demons to his left, but something was immediately wrong. His movements produced no wind. His sword carved cleanly through flesh and bone, yet there was no rush of displaced air following the blade.

With a step forward, he divided an orc and crushed another demon’s head beneath the sole of his boot. He felt the skull collapse beneath his weight, but still he felt nothing from the air around him.

Something was wrong.

He turned with another swing of his sword, slicing through three demons in tandem before his fist tore through the skull of another with surprising ease. His movement itself wasn’t hindered. His body remained just as fast, just as powerful, and the demons around him were still predictable—still little more than victims of their king’s cunning.

But if this continued, he would fall.

The Unknown King could already feel it. Something had been imposed upon him, something that went beyond merely taking away the air he needed to breathe.

A law.

His golden eyes searched the crowd as they had been doing for some time, but the dense miasma made Keres even harder to find. Worse, his movements could no longer drive the miasma away. No matter how violently he swung his sword or moved his body, the air refused to respond; there were no shock waves to scatter the demons and no violent gusts to create space around him.

Which meant they could swarm him.

As though answering the thought, footsteps thundered from every direction, so numerous that they began to merge into one continuous sound. The wind was no longer on his side, there was nothing for him to breathe, and the space around him was rapidly disappearing.

His existence was being threatened.

As expected of a God-King.

The Unknown King tightened his grip around his sword and prepared himself. Without a voice, he could not unleash his own Rule of Law, and without the air responding to his movements, he could no longer force entire groups away with the pressure of his attacks. If enough demons packed themselves around him, eventually there would be no room to properly move his arms, his feet or his sword.

But Rules of Law were meant to have such an effect.

So he would wait.

The amount of energy required to maintain one was enormous, which made it impossible for such a law to remain in effect indefinitely. Keres would have to release it eventually.

The Unknown King raised his head.

Demons surrounded him from every direction. Some had climbed over the bodies of others until they formed a wall of malicious creatures around him, while more scrambled across that living wall and threw themselves down from above.

He swung upward.

Blood scattered through the miasma as bodies fell, and his sword was already moving again before the first had struck the ground. His arms and blade left afterimages even in the eyes of these empowered demons as he forced his body to move faster than before, killing them quickly enough that corpses began piling around his feet.

But his vision was growing fuzzy.

And the blows began to land.

One came from his side, another from behind, followed by several more as the demons pressed closer. Most bounced harmlessly from his armour, but the force behind them was occasionally enough to shift his footing or disturb his stance.

Still, the bodies continued to pile.

Before long, the street beneath him had disappeared beneath a new pavement of flesh, shattered bone and blood, with miasma steadily oozing from the dead.

The demons had never encountered anything like the golden-eyed being of darkness standing among them. They were afraid of him, and that fear only strengthened their desperation to kill him. This might be their only chance. If they allowed this creature to survive, he might wipe them all out.

The struggle became increasingly arduous as time dragged on, yet the Unknown King endured until, at last, the thick miasma began to disperse and the air returned to him.

By then, he was already on one knee, using his sword to keep himself upright.

Countless corpses surrounded him, while the demons still standing had become sparse enough that he could finally see Keres again.

The Demon King wore a proud sneer.

Then he shifted.

His body expanded into an enormous red Hellhound with three monstrous heads, and flames erupted simultaneously from all three maws, engulfing the Unknown King before he could recover.

The heat was tremendous. His dark armour slowly began to glow red while everything behind and around him burned to ash.

But not him.

He would not burn. He could not burn.

He was tired, though.

So even he had limits.

The Unknown King slowly raised his head towards the sky, but there was no sky to be seen. There were only flames, surrounding him on every side until, for a moment, it almost felt as though he had been forsaken in this vile world.

Like he had walked into his own tomb.

Yes... almost.

"Henceforth, by my authority..."

There was a stir in the atmosphere, as though his voice had called forth something that was never meant to be there.

"...my dear castle, source of my imperial might..."

His voice was soft, yet it thundered in Keres’s ears.

The world began to quake.

Something was invading this space, something that was never meant to exist in a world such as this, and every demon could feel its approach in their bones. Their nemesis, their fear, the very thing that stood opposed to what they were.

Order.

"Arise!"

The heavens broke asunder.

Stones manifested from nothing and assembled at tremendous speed, joining one another by the thousands until, within mere moments, a massive and magnificent castle hovered above the demon city. Towering statues of generals surrounded its exterior, overlooking the world beneath them.

The demons stared upward in shock, awe and dread.

The Unknown King vanished within a burst of golden light and reappeared inside the throne room of the castle. He lowered himself onto his throne, his seat of power, and at that moment one of the towering statues outside erupted with golden light.

Solstice walked out.

Within the castle’s domain, his power had been restored to its peak, and his very presence seemed to burn the world beneath him. There was undeniable pride in his eyes, accompanied by a deep scowl as his gaze settled upon the Demon King below.

Solstice transformed into a mighty dragon, drew in a tremendous breath and unleashed a torrent of dragon fire.

Keres raised all three of his hound heads and answered with flames of his own.

But how could the demon have known that he now faced an actual Absolute at full power, restored to the height of what could be considered his prime?

Solstice’s flames overwhelmed his own.

Then they swallowed the city.

The Chief General cared little for his King’s desire to take only one life. Where the Unknown King had seen one being awaiting judgment, Solstice saw an entire city filled with threats to his King, and he treated them accordingly.

His flames vanquished everything beneath him.

The city disappeared. The valley burned away, and even the mountains melted beneath the heat until the land itself collapsed into a massive crater whose depths vanished into darkness.

By the time Solstice descended to retrieve the Demon King’s core, there was almost nothing left.

The Unknown King used the last flicker of mana remaining within him to return himself and his castle to Pathan.

Only a few minutes had passed between the moment he summoned the castle and the moment he returned, but every trace of mana within him was gone. He had been sucked dry, and even the throne beneath him no longer held an ounce.

His gaze moved towards Solstice, who now stood within the hall.

The Chief General had already been absorbing the core of Kabsal, the Orcish God-King, and had risen to become a 55.0 Sovereign.

"I shall gladly receive your punishment, Your Majesty."

Solstice lowered himself onto one knee and bowed his head.

"You are prone to doing too much, Solstice. But this will serve as a sufficient message to the rest of demonkind."

"Then allow me to handle the other races that dare interfere," Solstice said.

"Enough, Solstice. Have some reins over yourself."

"They are the ones in need of reins, and we have them," the Chief General replied softly before lowering his head again. "Apologies."

"Ballista."

The Unknown King’s gaze shifted towards the empty space beside his throne.

The air twisted, and a knight appeared where there had seemingly been no one. Ballista had been standing there all along, invisible and awaiting his King’s need. His King had found no use for him this time, but he would remain regardless.

One way or another, he would be of use.

This was his dream.

"Your orders, Your Majesty?" Ballista asked.

"That core." The Unknown King pointed towards the core in Solstice’s possession. "It is yours."

Ballista had no need to turn his head towards it. He could already see the core, and he knew exactly what possessing the core of a powerful God-King would mean.

His strength would soar.

And in return, his King would become an entity the world would not merely respect, but tremble before.

Or was it...

Ballista understood.

His King was about to eliminate his mana problem. The Unknown King was going to become a Primordial.