"Please…" Claudius prayed.
"Please hang on…"
He saw how his Undead fell, one after the other, at the hands of the clearly superior foe.
None of them stood a chance in the slightest
Ater pummeled all of them with ease, using his bare fist to strike them. He instantly ended their false lives with barely any effort involved.
Until finally… there was only one standing.
"Pathetic." In a flash, that one also got destroyed by a single enemy.
All of his most powerful Undead were gone.
"Huu…"
Claudius was not worried or afraid, though.
"… Finally…"
The answer stood right behind him, in the form of an entity that was born from the ultimate sacrifice of over two thousand lives.
The Ultimate Undead—Death Knight!
Of all the Undead that existed, this was known to be of mythical status.
It was coated in obsidian armor, standing at about three meters in height. This entity had a longsword and a sturdy shield, with a cape behind it that had the color of blood.
Its rotting face was hidden beneath its mask, but the crimson eyes that glowed from within it told of its bottomless hunger for battle.
… Its immeasurable hatred for the living.
'The Death Knight is said to grow stronger the longer a battle lasts, and it is immune to Magic attacks.
The march of the Death Knight never stopped until its head and false heart were both destroyed—both of which were covered in incredibly dense armor.
Claudius had never summoned a Death Knight before, so this was the first time he was laying eyes on one.
'It's at the pinnacle of A-Tier for sure!'
It was magnificent!
"Death Knight… heed your Master's call and eliminate my enemy!"
The moment Claudius spoke, the Death Knight cast out a deafening roar.
"URUAAHHHH!!"
The air vibrated as tremors took over the earth.
In a single flash, it blasted off from its position and charged towards Ater with breakneck speed.
~BOOM!~
The ground beneath and around Claudius shattered merely due to that single dash, causing the aged man to stagger and nearly fall into the crevice of the earth.
Despite narrowly managing to escape with his frail body, he had a wide smile on his face.
"Yes! End him!"
Claudius had sacrificed everything in order to have this single weapon of destruction.
Seeing how the thing had become a black blur as it attacked his foe gave him goosebumps. Delight replaced his anger and regret as he keenly watched his own slave tear down his enemy.
'I'm going to win! Death Knight is going to win!' His thoughts echoed.
And sure enough… he was winning.
Ater was struggling to keep up with the ferocious blows of the Death Knight.
He couldn't get past the tough defenses of the absolute monster that Claudius made.
Ater even duplicated himself, transforming into so many copies of himself, but the Death Knight spared none of them.
All of them met an end by his blade.
Claudius grinned intensely as he laughed like a maniac. Seeing his enemy struggle against his creation was surreal.
At some point, Claudius stopped caring about anything Ater did to struggle against the beast.
'Yes! Yes! KILL THEM ALL!'
Even when he used Elemental Magic, he didn't care.
After all, it had no effect.
Even when he created bursts of yellowish light, it didn't matter.
Blood Magic was useless, and the Death Knight surpassed Ater at Swordsmanship. In the end, the Death Knight emerged the ultimate victor.
… Until, there was only Ater left.
Claudius stood right behind his Death Knight as he stared at the wounded Ater that powerlessly sat on the ground.
He was surrounded by the other Ater corpses, soon to join them in the eternal embrace of darkness.
"Any last words?" Claudius asked as he looked down at the pathetic one known as Ater.
His gaze was cold.
'It seems once again… the truth remains unchanged.'
To achieve strength, one had to truly give up everything.
Claudius was finally able to achieve ultimate power.
But at what cost?
"I lost everything because of you. You… you monster."
In response to those words, Ater merely smiled with the most scornful smile.
"Look who's talking." Upon hearing those words, Claudius felt something in his heart churn.
His chest tightened in pain.
He didn't want to fill that.
"SHUT UP!" Screaming, he commanded the Death Knight to execute the vermin before him.
That very instant, the Death Knight's blade was thrust downward, piercing the final body Ater had at his disposal.
Blood spurted out, instantly staining the blade with its vile liquid.
"It's finally… over, huh?" Claudius whispered.
Tears trailed down his eyes as he uttered those words.
He had no doubt that he did the right—most logical—thing, but Claudius felt an emptiness that his victory could not fill.
It felt… wrong.
'I'm done with this life. I can't take any more.'
Claudius was sure that with the Death Knight, he would be strong enough to handle Fenrir and other members of the Mercenary Gang.
He was going to quit the Mercenary Gang and live out the rest of his life alone—away from everyone or everything.
He would have taken his own life, but his will to live was far too strong for him to do so.
To atone for what he had done… this was the best thing he could think of.
'To kill the monster… I became one.'
"How long are you going to keep sulking?" A voice suddenly rang.
It sounded so familiar… so sinister.
Claudius recognized it.
It belonged to…
"You're so boring." The man who spoke stood in front of the mansion's door, right beside Aldred.
… Ater!
'H-huh? H-how?! B-but… but I killed him!'
Claudius could see the amused smile that filled Ater's face. He instantly knew something was wrong.
Unfortunately for him… this realization came a little too late.
'E-eh…?'
Claudius saw the corpse right in front of him—the one that was impaled by Death Knight's blade.
It was Feyu.
'Why… why are you here?'
Claudius staggered back, nearly tripping over nothing as a mix of both fear and pain washed over him as he saw her dead body.
'N-no… no that's not her! That's not Feyu…'
To perhaps distract his gaze from her, he looked at his immediate surroundings, only to find more confirmation for his despair.
Fernand, Phobio, Shuri, and her Wyvern… their bodies were all positioned right where Ater's corpses should have been.
All of them were dead—gruesomely impaled and butchered by the full might of the Death Knight.
'No… no I didn't do this… I didn't—!'
Behind him, there was no one. All of them had been consumed to make the Death Knight.
The bare sight of everything behind him, and the horrors that surrounded him, made Claudius shrink back.
"Where do you think you're going?" Ater's voice echoed from right in front of him.
"Are you fully awake now?"
It was at this moment that Claudius realized the truth.
The time when Ater had uttered "Dark Possession" and he resisted it… that wasn't how it went.
Claudius was the target all along.
He had fallen for the power, despite thinking that he was the only one who resisted it.
And so, in his grand delusion, Claudius singlehandedly caused the demise of everyone.