“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” a lone knight took off his helmet as he proceeded to examine the body in front of him. It was freshly dead. He came here as soon as he managed to sense a mental anguish of someone’s death. As he focused, he could feel more and more deaths occurring.

It was no coincidence or natural phenomenon. This was murder.

Unlike the ordinary soldiers, guards, or knights, he was one of the few who reached the level of a hero. He was the Knight of Mind, a man blessed by a secondary goddess of Humanity, Serena. His blessing allowed him to hear people’s thoughts and enter their minds.

That was the reason he was the only one who managed to sense to many deaths happening from such a long distance. It was a matter only a hero alone could solve, he had a hunch there was a danger nearby, but placing knights who are weaker than him in danger would be not wise. The herald of Serena knows better than take foolish actions.

While gods, like his goddess Serena, have given many people their blessings, only a select few managed to distinguish themselves to the point of being recognized as the champions of humanity. Those champions were known as Heroes, the protectors of humanity.

While there were those among Holy Order who were not demi-gods, people without blessing, they were rare, most being people with blessing. The strongest among them is Knight of Light, but it has been a while since Knight of Mind saw him. He was the only hero nearby, thus as the strongest warrior available at the moment, he proceeded to investigate the prison alone.

While he did sense multiple deaths, he did not expect himself to find himself at the scene of a massacre. All of the prison guards were brutally killed; even their leader was reduced to pink bloody, meat-like mush.

“Did the demons do this? I heard they managed to capture a Demon Lord, but to think they managed to sneak into the city. Did they somehow cross over the barrier? Or was the barrier weakened to this extent? I must inform the order to contact the Holy Maidens…” Five holy maidens, each chosen by one of the five gods were responsible for keeping the barrier active throughout the kingdom.

The barrier is not permanent; it has to be maintained with their joint effort at each corner of the kingdom, which is why they moved around a lot in order to strengthen each part of the barrier. If this portion of the barrier grew this weak; then it was an emergency.

Knight of Mind proceeded to check all of the jail cells, as expected; none of the prisoners were there.

“Even the captured Demon Lord is gone, so it was demons after all.” Knight of Mind muttered.

Then he saw the trail which demons most likely took, their leftover energy signature might be traceable. No matter, he proceeded to activate his blessing.

His special ability granted by his blessing allowed him to telepathically sense thoughts, feelings, and emotions of those around him. It also allowed him to sense the thoughts of those that touched particular objects, at least their leftover presence, once he managed to zero in on their presence, he can track them down. After that, it would be a simple matter of breaking their mind from the inside.

However, because his ability senses leftover presence of anything around him, he makes sure not to keep it active or the constant input of information would be too overwhelming.

As he walked out of the prison into the courtyard, he sense a killing intent.

Die

He read his thoughts and managed to dodge an attack an arrow that came flying at him from nowhere.

“You might not know this, but your thoughts betray you, I can read you loud and clear, like an open book.” With a swift movement, Knight of Mind proceeded to block the dagger that came for his neck with his sword coated in mana.

But to his surprise, the sword was cut in half. Alarmed, Knight of mind proceeded to dodge, before delivering a round kick to his invisible attacker.

With his way of concealment nullified, Knight of Mind came face to face with his adversary. A man wearing a black mask, with only his red and brown eyes showing. His hair was black. He looked human of average build. However, his weapon, an unusual crystal dagger, it was no joke. Knight of Mind looked at his broken sword.

That dagger sliced through my sword as though it was made of butter, even when I coated it in mana. I need to avoid being cut by it at any cost. However, his physical prowess seems to be at knight’s level at best. As long as I avoid the dagger and focus on attacking him, I can easily beat him.

“I assume you are not one of the guards of the prison.”

The masked man did not answer, with his concealment nullified; he faced the knight of Mind armed only with a dagger.

“I suppose it would be rude to ask you questions without introducing myself, I am Cereb Belius, I am also known as Knight of Mind.”

They were circling each other as if to size up their opponent.

“Still no response? And your mind is so clear, and then I must assume you already knew who I was, in that case, am I to assume that you are the one responsible for Demon Lord’s escape?”

“And what if I am?” the masked man finally spoke.

“In that case, you should know to not expect any mercy from me. In the name of the Holy Order, I shall purge anyone who allies himself with demons, even if it is a human.”

I would like to see you try.

Knight of Mind could hear the masked man’s thoughts as he proceeded to charge at him with his crystal dagger.

However, Knight of Mind skillfully dodged the blade and grabbed the masked man’s forearm and proceeded to fling him towards the wall. The man crashed into the wall, leaving a body print in it.

But instead of being knocked out, he attacked again.

It soon became clear that Knight of Mind was superior in close combat, even without his weapon, he was dangerous. He proceeded to deliver punch after punch, kick after kick while the masked man could not even land a single hit.

Now, his crystal dagger was flung away, leaving the masked man to be brutally beaten by the Knight of Mind.

“Your physical abilities are below the level of an average knight. And you have no style nor finesse, this is not even a fight, it is just me having fun~” he proceeded to deliver a blow after blow upon masked man’s body with his punches coated in mana, each punch disturbed his body with a shock as though he was hit by an air impact. Now he delivered an upper cut that sent the masked man flying and falling.

Each time the masked man was knocked back, he stood up.

Just how many punches can he take? My attacks are not weak… His body should be down by now. Is he forcing himself to stand up just by strength of his will? Hmm, even if he is working with demons, his resolve is worthy of praise. Before I kill him, I might as well ask his name.

“What is your name?” Knight of Mind asked his stumbling adversary.

“Dark Lord.”

“Dark Lord? Ha ha ha! You, a weakling, dare call yourself with such a preposterous name?! What a laugh!” Knight of mind put his hand over his eyes while laughing.

Keep distracted, at that moment I kill you.

“I told you already, I can hear your thoughts, loud and clear.” Knight of Mind proceeded to dodge a stab from Dark Lord, grabbed his arm, twisted it and put the Dark Lord on arm hold in front of him.

Now the Dark Lord could not move, his arm was twisting at a strange angle.

With their eyes meeting, Knight of Mind put his hand upon Dark Lord’s forehead.

“Your struggle was fun while it lasted. Now, it is game over.”

Knight of Mind’s another ability allowed him to insert himself into the mind of someone else. In a sense, he could see everything about the person and influence them from the inside of the mind. It was mind takeover. A skill he used in order to break his enemy’s mind, turning his enemies minds into mush. He did so by inducing horrifying visions within the mind, or replaying the worst memories thousand times over, it was a cold blooded mental torture.

However, such a perfect means of defeating someone had its own demerits; he would inevitably end up witnessing the inner world of anyone whose mind he enters. No matter how disturbing the mind is, he would see it. Once, he ended seeing the mind of a perverted woman, it was safe to say, he never wanted to talk to her again.

Now he entered the mind of Dark Lord.

However he only saw bleak world without light, using his powers over mental domain, Knight of Mind proceeded to turn on the lights. He could only wish he had not done so.

Within Dark Lord’s mental realm, it was a horrifying world, each part seemed to be made from a patchwork, each connected together into a single being, a single being that was Dark Lord’s true self. However, each patchwork was made from human parts, each living, groaning in pain. This was the representation of Dark Lord’s real self, thousands of tiny human patchworks sewn together to create a monstrosity.

As he ran as far as he could, Knight of Mind ended up within Dark Lord’s memories.

Except now, he was being burned on a stake. The pain of such an experience transmitted into his consciousness.

Then, the large red dragon proceeded to swallow him, leaving him to cook within the gastric acids.

These are his memories. How he is still alive, how in the world is he still sane?!

Countless spears slashing at him, beheading, drowning, stabbing, all of the horrifying experiences came flooding into the Knight of Mind.

Each one was worse than the last and the memories were not stopping.

What the hell is this place!? This is not a mind of a person, this is hell!

Knight of Mind screamed as his body was being consumed by hordes of undead tearing him apart.

In the real world, Knight of Mind clutched his head while screaming; his eyes were turning inside out. As if he witnessed the horrors never seen by man, he kept screaming, trying to see, but his sight only revealed more horror.

As he saw ten more deaths within Dark Lord’s mind, Knight of Mind started to hysterically laugh and breathing heavily, while sobbing like an infant all at the same time. He was shaking; his mind could not take it.

He had seen enough. He proceeded to pull his mind into his body.

But the last sight he saw was of his head being separated from his body.

Dark Lord did not waste his chance. As soon as Knight of Mind let go of him and started to crawl on the ground like a madman, Dark Lord grabbed his dagger and proceeded to execute him.

Knight of Mind only realized a second after his head was severed that he was already dead.

“Well, he really gave me a hard time, but at least I did not end up going back this time.” Dark Lord proceeded to treat his injuries using the kit that was hanging on Knight of Mind’s belt. “He was troublesome in life, but at least he is a little useful in death.”

Dark Lord proceeded to examine the corpse; his armor was of extremely good quality. It was concealable under clothing and light as well.

It is not grave robbing if you are taking it from a corpse instead of digging it out of the ground. So this should be fine~

With his new armor on, Dark Lord proceeded to catch up with the two demons that left earlier.