I Became the First Prince

which had already become torn in the catastrophic battle, now screamed wildly.

In addition, at the center of it all was the prince of the Leonberg Kingdom.

* * *

Shortly after the battle started, I found out on my own: the difference between four rings and five rings is not simply the addition of one ring.

“Urgh.”

I realized this when I started vomiting blood.
I glanced at my blood-soaked chest.
Obviously, the wave from the rings would have been resolved when sword touched sword, but instead, when I snapped awake, the energy from the rings was invading my whole body.

And in the next moment-

“The light on your sword seems too weak to beat me back.” I stepped back for a while, still thinking, and the black night spoke to me.
“It’s not too late now.
If you hand them over to me, you will have the same tomorrow as yesterday.”

The knight spoke as if he had already defeated me.
Instead of answering, I wiped the blood from my mouth.
I fixed my sword before me and stabilized my breath.
“Woo.”

My mana, which had then been disturbed by the wave of the rings, quickly returned to its original state.
My Aura Blade, which had been shaking unstably, also began to shine brightly again.
The black knight readied his greatsword and looked at me.

I took a few short breaths, at the same time charging across the floor.
Then, I struck down like crazy.
Morte blocked my assault using his greatsword.

‘Klang! Klang!’ Whenever the sounds came of our swords colliding, the light forming along the edge of Twilight was cut into chunks.
Riding all along the edge of my sword, the energy waves of my foe’s rings broke through without hesitation.

However, instead of retreating, I matched my blade against his blunt sword and turned my mana to dissolve his ring wave.
His attack continued, then something snapped, and I again retched blood.

“I expected more from your heart.
Now I’m just disappointed by your weakness.”

The black knight sighed as he saw me like that.
Regardless of his words, I settled my dizziness and readied my sword in an upward position.

“Because you don’t know when to retire, it shows you to be a useless man.
Because you don’t know how to think, it shows your foolishness.
You are just a little fiercer than the others.”

Despite the blatant ridicule, I ran at Morte without worrying about it — and retched blood many times.

“I can’t find a reason to continue this meaningless duel.” The black knight suddenly swung his greatsword violently.
I gripped Twilight with both hands and stopped the attack.
The power contained in it was so dangerous that I could not stop myself from being pushed back.

‘Qrrsck! Duk!’

Only by dragging my sword along the floor was I able to brake myself.
I straightened my back and spat blood from my mouth.

“Stay back — before that modest heart of yours is broken to the point where it will never have mana again.” The black knight glared at me, his greatsword hanging relaxed in his grip.

“This is my last mercy to you-” the black knight suddenly stopped talking.
“Why are you laughing?” he asked.

I quietly touched my lips at his words.
It was as the black knight said: I was laughing.
My grin almost stretched to my ears; it felt as if my mouth would tear open.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s fun,” I said as I fixed my sword again.
“I can barely stand the joy of knowing that there are conditions in the world that I haven’t been through yet.”

The mana released from my heart reached the tip of my sword after surging through my body.

“I am so joyful because it is fascinating to know that an enemy who has achieved such a level is right before my eyes.”

Mana clung to my blade- ‘Hwaak!’ and converted into an Aura Blade.

‘Woow!’ My Aura Blade became a blazing flame.

“Also, I can’t bear it because I am happy to think that such an enemy will soon fall in front of me.”

“Have you forgotten your own situation?” The black knight laughed mockingly at me.
His helmet rattled as he did so.
Let him try it then! Twilight was at the ready as I walked toward him.
Morte lowered his posture and raised his energy.
I just kept moving.
When I was a certain distance from him, I then stopped.

“From here?” I asked myself and stretched out my hand.
Foreign energy penetrated my fingertips.

“Obviously, the wave that invaded with the sword attack was resolved.
But I didn’t understand how the flow of mana kept cutting out.”

Unless… it was a secret wave that cannot be felt unless you were aware of it.

“After knowing of it, it’s nothing.”

I clenched my fist.

‘Quap!’ I broke the energy that had invaded my hand.

“It’s quite understandable.
Even after weaving five rings, all I had to do to counter them was to fall back ten steps, outside of the area of effect.”

“You’re talking as if you have discovered a great fact,” said the black knight, as if it was no big deal.
He then asked if anything changed just because I had gained a new fact.

He was right — eventually, the fight had to be fought closer than ten steps within his territory.
Because of this, I decided to enter that area.

‘Thuk!’ Someone timed the stomping of their boot with my footsteps.

‘Thuk!’ The sound of iron bashing against the floor followed.

‘Thuk! Thuk!’ At first, it was only one sound, but it quickly increased to dozens or hundreds.

It was the same sound I had heard when I was fighting the High Elf.
My knights were telling me to move forward again.
The sound of their stomping was the sound of them pushing back, and the sound of their metal shields became a sound that led me on.

I stepped forward, taking two steps.
A mighty energy rose around the black knight like a wall, and extreme pressure began to weigh me down.
An intense wave penetrated into my body of a magnitude beyond comparison to those before.

“The era of mana hearts is over,” the black knight declared – as if he found me pathetic.

Seeing him, I stepped forward again, three steps this time.
Morte raised his energy even more fiercely, as if not allowing me further access.
Right then- ‘Thuk’ the sound of an unusually heavy footstep hit my ears.
I knew whose it was without having to look.
It was a fierce energy similar to that of the Templars, and it belonged to York Willowden, their commander.
It was obvious that he had come out.

That was the beginning – heavy, threatening, and sharp waves erupted from all over.
The palace knight commander, the old knight who had faced the Warlord, and an unknown champion — each one of the kingdom’s champions was watching the situation and helping me by stomping their feet and bashing their fists against their iron armor.

Arwen stood together with them.

‘Woow!’ The resonating mana unleashed by the kingdom’s champions became overlaid on my heart.
I felt a feeling of fullness that I had never felt before come over me.
So ecstatic did it make me feel that I stopped and laughed.

My enemy had five rings that were pressing against my entire body, and the number of champions who supported me was five.
The coincidence was too convenient for me to ignore.

‘Chin!’ I stepped forward without hesitation — and I finally got into the knight’s space.

The black knight looked down at me, and I looked up at him.
We looked at each other for a long time before swinging our swords simultaneously.