— Ethan Heart’s POV —
I thought we would encounter more monsters before reaching the Black Knight Commander, but I was wrong.
We barely encountered any knights on the way to him.
Every now and then, one or two would appear at most, which made dealing with them easy considering there were eight of us.
Our formation consisted of one tank, four knights, one archer, and two Mages.
It was an extremely strong and well-rounded composition, allowing us to fight effectively at both close and long range.
Having us at the front gave Mages like Luna plenty of room to shine. Mages were known for their weak physical capabilities and their inability to use Aura Armor.
That naturally placed them at a disadvantage in close-range combat. If they wanted to gain the upper hand, they needed to begin a battle with a considerable distance between themselves and their opponent.
But everything changed when they had teammates capable of holding the front line for them.
With someone else covering that weakness, it almost disappeared entirely.
There were countless complexities and restrictions surrounding Mages, and as a side note...
That must have been what made Moon such a formidable Hunter, to the point that many considered her the greatest talent of the current generation.
She could wield both sword and magic at the same time.
Which meant she could cover a Mage’s greatest weakness by herself without needing anyone else’s help.
"There are three monsters ahead. All of them are knights."
Luna’s warning pulled me back to reality.
Thanks to the fire spirits illuminating the path ahead, she could detect enemies before they reached us, giving us enough time to prepare.
At the end of the dark corridor we had been running through, the knights appeared exactly as Luna had warned.
They were ordinary soldiers.
We had already fought plenty of them before, so by now, we were accustomed to dealing with them.
Raiden and I were the first to charge.
Taking advantage of knowing they were coming, both of us attacked with everything we had from the very beginning.
With the Executioner’s Sword in my hand and Aura Armor reinforcing my body, I launched a swift and flawless surprise attack.
My blade tore through the knight’s neck and separated its head cleanly from the rest of its body.
Raiden crushed the second knight with a thunderous blow from his greatsword.
As for the third—
Luna dealt with it herself.
A massive fireball swallowed the knight whole, reducing whatever existed inside its armor to ashes.
As expected...
Despite all the limitations Mages had to deal with, they were undoubtedly capable of inflicting the greatest amount of damage when given the right conditions.
Once the three knights were dealt with, Luna closed her eyes and manipulated her fire spirits, sending them farther ahead to inspect the path that remained.
A slight frown soon appeared on her face.
"The path ahead is clear..."
"Are we really about to fight the Knight Commander?"
There was obvious doubt in her voice, and I found myself wondering the same thing.
"A Knight Commander without any knights..."
"I expected there to be a lot more of them."
Raiden returned his large shield to his back after realizing he had been carrying it the entire time for no reason.
"But let’s look at the bright side."
"At least we won’t waste our strength before facing the boss."
Most of the others seemed to agree with him.
I, however, preferred not to be overly optimistic.
From what I remembered of the game, encounters with bosses in the final regions of Legacy Dungeons were never this simple.
"Keep your guard up, everyone."
"We have no idea what this place might throw at us."
I warned them firmly before signaling for everyone to keep moving.
Along the way, I could clearly see the tension that came before a major battle written across my companions’ faces.
Especially Alicia and Chai.
Even Luna, who normally maintained her composure, and Raiden, an experienced Hunter who should have been accustomed to situations like this, could not completely hide it.
Yet strangely enough...
I found myself calm.
Even though I knew perfectly well there was a very real chance this entire raid could fail.
Placing my human right hand over my chest, I felt the steady, peaceful rhythm of my heartbeat.
And without realizing it, a strange thought crossed my mind.
’Is this still... the heartbeat of a human?’
I was a cursed man.
And I carried more than one curse.
Little by little, it made me feel as though I was becoming something completely different from what I had once been.
All of it only made my insomnia worse.
’No...’
’This isn’t the time to think about any of that.’
Reminding myself that I was still inside a cursed Cathedral crawling with monsters, I forced my entire focus back onto the objective ahead.
We spent another ten minutes running through the Cathedral’s corridors in search of the boss room.
And contrary to all my concerns, we did not encounter a single monster after the last three knights we had killed.
Eventually, we found ourselves standing before the boss gate without a single scratch on any of us.
"Did we really get here that easily?"
Chai could hardly believe we had reached this place without trouble, his sharp gaze fixed upon the enormous gate before us.
The entrance to the boss room was dark, its surface carved with the stone image of an imposing knight holding a sword between both hands, its blade driven into the ground beneath his feet.
Behind that door, the Knight Commander was waiting for us.
An enemy we had no choice but to kill.
If we ignored him and moved directly toward the boss beyond him, he would be able to leave his room and join the next boss.
And that would make our situation far worse.
No matter the cost, we had to deal with him here so Jackson’s group and Asterion could fight without interference.
Before entering the boss room, everyone checked their equipment and prepared themselves one final time.
We all understood that once we crossed the door in front of us, there would be no second chance.
When everyone was ready, I gave them a firm nod before placing my mechanical Legion Arm against the gate.
"Let’s begin."
Putting some strength into the Legion Arm, I pushed the enormous gate open without much difficulty.
And what awaited us on the other side was finally revealed.
One by one, we stepped into the boss area.
Only to find ourselves standing in a place that seemed to belong to another world entirely.
"This isn’t a boss room..."
Raiden gripped his shield once again as he realized what awaited us would not be easy.
"It’s a battlefield."
The boss room was enormous.
It looked nothing like a place that should have existed inside a Cathedral.
Instead, it resembled a vast military barracks capable of holding hundreds of soldiers.
Ancient bricks formed the walls, while torches burning with unnaturally crimson flames illuminated the massive chamber.
The battlefield itself was completely empty.
There was no one there...
Except for the Knight Commander standing beside an empty throne, waiting in silence.
A complete suit of black armor covered every inch of his body.
The Black Knight Commander was incredibly tall.
Far taller than any human should have been, towering well beyond two meters.
Dark black plumes rose from the top of his helmet, while his right hand held an enormous greatsword of terrifying length.
And from its blade—
Black flames raged wildly.
Just looking at them was enough to send fear crawling into the hearts of everyone present.
Slowly...
The Knight Commander turned toward us.
A majestic crimson glow ignited behind his helmet, his eyes sweeping across each of our faces one after another.
With that single look—
We all knew the battle had already begun.
Taking one step forward, the Black Knight Commander raised his head.
Then a monstrous howl erupted from beneath his helmet.
A howl so deafening that every one of us instinctively covered our ears.