The Headless Knight’s Request

A groan, laced with venomous malice, echoed.

“Don’t… go… away…!”

…

‘This…’

‘Even I, with experience battling four-star demonic beasts, found myself facing such a weak, half-bodied monster now.’

‘It was simply…’

“W-wah! Don’t come any closer! I was wrong!!! Really! I’m so, so sorry!!”

Before me, a grotesque figure with a human face, yet radiating an unsettling aura of endless strangeness, hopped on one leg. It resembled a Qing Dynasty zombie, relentlessly closing in.

I could faintly, yet distinctly, smell a pungent stench of blood and decay.

Despite my past life’s experience, I found myself utterly devoid of courage to confront this creature.

Even though my ‘Intent Flow’ energy was several times stronger than in my previous life, without the augmentation of an ‘Ability’, no matter how potent my ‘Intent Flow’ became, it couldn’t unleash its true effectiveness!

“Just a mere minion!… In my past life, anything that dared to approach me would have turned into a cheap popsicle! I… I’m definitely not scared! Really!”

I tried to steel my courage, making this declaration in my mind. Yet, in the end, it was inevitably followed by the suffix, ‘…right?’

I finally understood: I couldn’t muster the courage to face even ‘half’ of this creature.

“Eek! Don’t come any closer!”

‘True, I had once hunted down dozens of demonic beasts, but those were all ‘Fairytale-type’ monsters! Even if they looked a bit pathetic, they still exuded at least a tiny hint of cuteness…’

‘But what in the world was this thing before me?! There ought to be a limit to how ugly something could be, right?!’

I was absolutely terrible (and terrified) at dealing with these ‘realistic-type’ creatures.

I had vaguely heard rumors of ghouls lurking in certain places, but I had never once ‘felt motivated’ to hunt them.

Compared to the brutal lives of other ‘Ability Users’, my own conquests included only things like [Suppressing the Rampaging Forest Sprites], [Defeating the Beginner Nightmare], [Subduing the Pig Brothers Who Damaged the Supermarket], and so on…

Although their threat levels were equivalent, there was only one undeniable commonality.

They were all ‘Cute-type’ demonic beasts.

‘Does that category even truly exist?’

…Huff, puff!

The burning sensation radiating from my lungs and chest caused me genuine agony. Still, I had already run for nearly an entire street; surely, I must have shaken off that half-ghoul by now, right?

Finally, just as my body threatened to give out, I halted.

“Good thing I ran… fast, or it would have been real trouble.”

Wiping away sweat, my tense spirit finally relaxed.

****

Then, half a second later.

Plop.

A blood-soaked hand landed on my white T-shirt.

A burning, viscous touch spread across my shoulder.

…

In that moment, I felt goosebumps erupt across my entire body, spreading from my shoulder. I could almost hear the stubborn, unyielding protest of each individual bump.

Clack.

I stiffly turned my head.

…

“Hey there, little girl!… Ah!”

“…”

“A-a-a-ah, a ghost! A ghost!!”

“I’m sorry!! Uwah!! I was wrong! Mr. Monster, please, please don’t eat me!!! I really don’t taste good!!! My brother is much stronger than me, I can lead you to him!!! And it was truly my fault for being out so late at night!!! I deeply, deeply apologize for my actions!!!!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, utterly terrified to open them. A potent sense of dread washed over me.

A demonic beast I hadn’t encountered in over a decade had appeared at this very moment, and what’s more, when I possessed no ‘Ability’ whatsoever.

Even if my ‘Intent Flow’ was considerably stronger than in my past life, it was like having a clip full of machine gun bullets but no machine gun to fire them.

Even if I fought with all my might, those bullets could, at most, self-destruct, taking the entire clip with them.

A shiver ran through my body. At this moment, poor me was simply awaiting my cruel, inevitable fate: to be devoured!

“…”

“Oh? Mr. Monster? Little girl, you actually know about demonic beasts?”

“A-ah! Of course I know! Even if I didn’t before, I certainly would now, wouldn’t I?!”

“Heh heh… Chuckle… Little girl, I’m actually an ‘Ability User’.”

I slowly opened my eyes.

“Huh?”

The half-bodied uncle before me revealed a glimmer of teeth that seemed to sparkle like starlight, even in the dead of night.

“As you can see!”

“I am Colt von Kritian Dullahan.”

‘What exactly did I just witness?’

‘And… why is a foreigner trying to imitate a Heavenly Dynasty person, even saying “I am…”? It’s really out of place, alright?!’

“I possess an ‘Ability’ that can strengthen my physical body to the point of splitting mountains and breaking cliffs, and even allows me to survive if my head is severed!”

“Although in Europe my ‘Ability’ is known as the Headless Horseman, your Heavenly Dynasty’s ‘Ability User’ organizations call me—’Xingtian’.”

…

“Tch, what the heck? So you’re an Ability User? Why didn’t you say so earlier?… So, what do you want?”

Once I realized my fate wasn’t to be eaten, my attitude immediately reverted to that annoying demeanor which made anyone who saw it want to slap me across the face.

Of course, I would never admit it.

‘This person nearly scared me to death; did they really expect me to communicate nicely with them? Dream on!’

“You’re truly not cute at all.”

“So what!”

“Alright, to be honest… this time, I was looking for someone to entrust my ‘Conceptual Armament’ to… and also…”

“What did you say?! Conceptual Armament?!”

I seemed to have heard an extraordinary term… supposedly, it was a legendary special item that only ‘Ability Users’ of Level-5 and above could possess.

While not inherently too powerful, it could ignore elemental reflections, making it the ‘only’ ‘non-elemental’ equipment.

For other ‘Ability Users’, ‘Conceptual Armament’ might be optional. But for me—who had literally self-destructed from my own ‘Ability’ reflecting back—it was different.

In my past life, my ‘combat power’ was almost comparable to a Level-5 super ability user, even though my actual rank was only Level-4. Yet, in the end, I suffered a bitter defeat at the hands of a Level-2.

Obtaining such an item had become my absolute obsession!

“Yes, little girl.”

“I am a Level-5 ‘Super Ability User’.”

“But… I believe my luck has run out today…”

“Therefore… my other request is…”

The half-bodied uncle before me suddenly bent at the waist.

“Little girl! Please help me build a tomb!”

“Huh?”

‘Did I just mishear something?’

“As a follower of the great God Jesus, I truly… cannot allow myself to die without a peaceful resting place! So… little girl, please build me a tomb!”

“…”

“But you said… you wouldn’t die even if your head was cut off?”

“…………So if any other part is cut off, I’ll definitely die!! And before a battle even begins, if the enemy doesn’t cut off my head, my full power can’t be unleashed! Who knew that demonic beast girl wouldn’t play by the rules at all!!”

…

“And then?”

“Then I died?”

A cold gust of wind swept across my back.

“…Dead?!!”

“Then… then how are you still talking to me?”

“Because my ‘Ability’ possesses the power of ‘resurrection from the dead’.”

……..A shiver… ran down my spine.

‘If it’s ‘resurrection from the dead’… doesn’t that mean this… this thing before me…’

“Little girl.”

Xingtian’s demeanor changed, suddenly becoming exceptionally solemn.

“This, is my ‘Conceptual Armament’.”

He reached… reached in and pulled it out.

“The ‘Primordial Demonic Sword’.”

“Obtained through an accident… a mysterious demonic sword possessing power so immense that even I haven’t fully unearthed it, yet its strength is undeniably potent!”

‘So, does it have power or not? If you haven’t unearthed it, how do you know it possesses immense strength?!’

The item appeared before me. Yet… the uncle had no place on his body to store anything. His remaining half still trembled precariously.

‘So where exactly did you pull that out from?!’

…

In Colt’s hand was…

…a black metal collar?