SSS-Knight in a Hero World-Chapter 93: Snap back to reality

Ignoring the suffering of his empty stomach, Felix quickly investigated the area and found two key details.

Eos’ bakery no longer existed, and the only bakery nearby was over a dozen streets away, so there was no way Felix was simply lost.

However, Eos’ bakery definitely existed, but its mere existence was held by that elf’s story, which didn’t even reference Eos herself. But Felix was sure it was actually Eos that the elf was referring to.

After an hour of no leads, Felix tried approaching every elf he found on the streets to gain more information, but he found nothing among all the innocent citizens he disturbed.

I’m definitely not going crazy.

To confirm his sanity, he stepped onto the air and walked upward as if it were nothing. He went back down and repeated it, but that wonderful sense of essence was no longer there.

I guess my body has already adjusted to that sensitivity. Everything’s as dull as usual.

Lost in thought, he failed to notice the crowd watching him. Only when they began to applaud did he realize.

Oh, they think it’s a magic trick... Felix laughed and played along by bowing before getting away from the attention, then walked back to his apartment to take care of his disgusting appearance.

. . .

It was the last day of his vacation, and Felix had already packed his belongings, including his sword, which he secured at his side.

Feels great. Felix had never felt more secure than when he carried a weapon with him at all times. Such were the privileges of a knight allowed to bring one anywhere.

Viking Knight Order, Citadel.

The teleportation room flared with a burst of rainbow light, and a single figure emerged after the dazzling display.

Almost immediately, he was greeted by everyone in the citadel, which amounted to four people, excluding Felix.

Yaromech was the most excited at his student’s victorious return from depression. "Felix, I’m so sorry about last time!—

"I’ve got something to report. Let’s go to the conference room, Sir Yaromech."

"Huh?"

Skipping straight to the core of his strange encounters, Felix wasted no time in telling everything he knew about what happened to him, including Eos herself, the nature of World Trees, the afterlife, and the history behind the City of Burials.

And most important of all, the disappearance of Eos’ existence.

"..." Atreus had an unnerved expression and exited the room in silence.

Tyr was also unnerved. "That’s fucking creepy, kid..."

As for Yaromech, he had nothing to say.

But for Alaric, it was the exact opposite. "There’s a citadel in the City of Burials that belongs to the Holy Knight Order. They have a strong presence there... could they have the answers?"

Yaromech immediately shook his head. "Even if they do, we aren’t exactly influential enough to start asking them personal questions.

I’m sorry, Felix, but I don’t think we’ll ever find your answers."

"...One day, then."

Felix stood up and gazed at his teacher, breathing deeply. "Thanks for having me back."

. . .

. . .

. . .

Unfortunately, Felix never found out more about his encounter with Eos. As the prophecy dragged on to new heights, there was simply no time to investigate what truly happened. However, thanks to his new understanding of the nature of essence and the information Eos told him about the World Trees, the elves ushered in a new era of essence development, which effectively elevated his order and himself to new levels of glory.

But Eos was never mentioned in those exchanges, and as far as the world was concerned, when Felix breathed his last atop the serpent’s corpse, he was the only one who knew that an elf named Eos had once existed.

***

And it was still the same as before. In this new world, only Ferris knew that Eos existed, and with that knowledge came what she taught him.

Normally, this level of essence perception was locked at the fourth layer, the most notorious layer to enter. But with Eos’ teachings, it could be used at the early stages of the sixth layer.

But that simply wouldn’t do. Ferris had to replicate that at the ninth layer.

The armor he was wearing simply gave a flat boost to his essence and physical strength. It didn’t give him what he needed at all, which was perception.

Oh, whatever...

There’s one thing that fighting a god has taught me.

Meet absurdity with absurdity.

A Serpent God doesn’t function within mortal thought, so neither should I!

In a move of defiance, Ferris stepped on the flat edge of the massive red crescent that was about to slice him a split second ago.

But almost instantly, his armor that made contact with the red essence of Tianqin ignited in sparks.

These essence blades are so dense, damnit. One wrong move and I’ll be stuck in a wheelchair.

To prevent further damage, he jumped off the impaler’s essence blade and onto the next, this time using his other foot.

Thanks to the sheer essence density of those attacks, it wasn’t hard to perceive them, and since they aren’t pure essence, it was made even easier.

What Ferris was doing now was merely a flimsy copy of what he knew.

I’ve never tried walking on essence blades before!

In that moment, Felix remembered something he was told before, as he felt the danger he was charging straight toward.

Humans work well under pressure.

And just like before, he set everything into one objective alone.

Reach the heaven-defying demon.

And kill him.

The stream of devastating essence blades crashed onto the earth itself, which caused a cascading effect of dust being shot up into the air and collapsing streets.

Everything fell under Tianqin’s might without question, except one being.

Tianqin stared at Ferris in disbelief, as the only being that defied him was quickly ascending upward, using his own attacks as stepping stones no less. "...This brat brought himself extra testicles, it seems," he laughed, yet respected the absurdity in front of him.

As the Impaler came closer and closer to his vision, Felix reinforced his arm with essence, then even more with his hands, sharpening each of his fingers with sword essence and forming invisible claws.

Slice!

A direct hit. Tianqin immediately stopped his attacks when his head recoiled from the impact of Ferris’ essence claws.

But... there was no mark left on the old man’s face.

Grab.

"Urk!" Ferris tried to escape when Tianqin suddenly grabbed him by the neck.

Turning his head, Tianqin smiled at the helpless prey in his hands.

Whether it was respect that allowed Tianqin to let Ferris hit him like that, or Tianqin was too shocked to react, it didn’t matter.

Even with his armor’s boost, Ferris couldn’t do anything to Tianqin, even if he had his sword.

"Was that essence steps? Impressive that you can even perform that at your level," Tianqin acknowledged. "It’s becoming harder for me to kill you. You’re simply too pretty to kill, to be honest. I wouldn’t want to deprive this world of a potential swordmaster."

"...Then let me go." Felix struggled to say, but his eyes were enough to convey his furious will to live.

Tianqin gave that considerable thought, then smiled.

"So be it. I’ll betray my own daughter.

Dodge this, and I’ll allow you to live."

Tianqin didn’t allow Ferris time to think as he was suddenly tossed away like a rock.

But not even a meter away from Tianqin, Ferris noticed that the Impaler’s blade was already at his neck.

Ferris blinked. Climbing over those fast-moving essence blades required extreme mental precision and focus. Just being able to climb all the way to the top and land a blow took a lot of Ferris’ strength.

Haha... I should’ve meditated more.

Clap.

Slice!

"What?" Tianqin exclaimed as he quickly caught the object he had slashed. "Did the boy turn into a metal tube of refreshment?"

In his hands was a soda can, sliced cleanly in half.