I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 189: Chemois

Chapter 189: Chemois

A strange, indescribable noise echoed through the dirt basement of the Duke’s Tower.

Sometimes it was loud, other times it was only a faint clanking.

All anyone knew was that it was consistent, and they had no way to describe it. It wasn’t as if they could knock down the walls of the Duke’s Tower and hope that everything turned out alright. The ancient architecture of such a large building was uncertain. Would cracking the foundation cause the whole place to collapse? There were some parts a thousand years old and others a mere couple of hundred.

This went on for months.

At first, it was Phillip who noticed because he took over most duties when it came to guarding the treasury.

It was a noise that ate at him slowly but surely.

Eventually, he placed his ear against the wall in the armory, which was a bit deeper, and he realized that whatever it was came from deep inside.

This was brought up in the winter. While everyone heard it, there was no way to confirm it.

Nothing much more was said about it than a dismissive statement about how it was beyond anyone’s control. It clearly had nothing to do with anything living because otherwise it would have to take breaks. It would have ceased at some point.

Being told this by Gunnar, Phillip decided to put it to rest.

Even if he could hear it each time he guarded, he simply bore it. There were far more things to be worried about than that.

However, the time came when it was more than just that.

The clanking was louder than it ever had been before. As Phillip placed an ear against the stone wall, he swore he could feel movement on the other end.

But it was nothing, right?

Then there was a stench. Something awful—almost rotted.

It was all in his head. They were all in hard times.

Yet he swore that something was just on the other end of those ancient rocks.

The knight’s heart was rushing, but he tried to remain still.

It didn’t sit right with him after too long, and he found himself rushing up the stairs. He needed to alert someone, anyone.

As his foot met the lowestmost stair, the earth began shaking, and he turned around as quickly as possible. A sure extension of himself, his sword was unseathed at that moment as well.

He saw the wall he once stood beside crumble.

An outpouring of black smoke came along with it.

Out of the smoke, he heard the creaking of goblin throats as they communicated with one another in an unknown language.

When the first goblin appeared, it was different than what he had ever seen before. It seemed almost... intelligent as it scrutinized him and decided to pull out a weapon.

Sheathed. Weapon!?

Goblins merely grabbed weapons and used them. They put them down and forgot about them until something threatened, then they found something to hit again.

There was no such thing as intelligence.

He was too stunned for a moment, but when he saw a dozen more goblins appear from the depths of a black expanse of smoke and clanking, Sir Phillip took to the stairs and slammed the basement door shut. He began panicking as he found firewood, stone, anything, to block them from coming out of there.

He felt like a failure. The Duke’s treasure and all the knights’ weaponry. He failed to protect it.

Eventually, a squire took notice and came rushing from the stables.

"Sir Phillip, what is happening, sir?!" William shouted.

"Goblins!" Phillip cried. "Get others. There are so many. They’ll get through!"

His words weren’t in vain because, as the boys ran away, the door was smashed to pieces by the seemingly intelligent goblins that broke through the door.

Phillip, who once thought he could merely block off the exit, began fighting for his life and the lives of all those who lived in the Duke’s Tower. What more could he do? The world, in that moment, was solely on his shoulders.

There was no time to question the number of goblins coming out from the basement. He didn’t see the full extent of multiple walls collapsing as something changed to make the goblins so powerful.

Reason did not exist in this world. The world of the Duke’s Tower became similar yet more severe than the life the other six travelers were experiencing as they went through the duchy.

Why were there so many goblins? Why would they not stop?

It was like they were breeding at unnaturally high rates and hiding until there was an abundance to fight back.

What had happened for Tenetium to turn out like this?

However, sentiments changed.

Tenetium... Chemois.

The place wasn’t Tenetium. If the King cared for the north then perhaps it would be.

At that moment, as the one place that was supposed to be protected started to crumble, it became Chemois. The forgotten lands of King Alfred and Peroda.

As what was left of the knights, apprentices, and squires fought off what they could of the goblins, the horrible reality of goblins infiltrating the tower became all too real.

Doors shattered. Maids were as good as bait in a trap.

Dead ends everywhere. Dead bodies littered the dead ends.

Complete and total annihilation of everything they once knew.

There was a quietness after hours of fighting.

No monsters stood there because they had receded somewhere else. The humans still alive pulled together and sent knights south.

Sir Phillip was insistent on staying north to try and keep the scattered pieces together. The nightmare their lives had suddenly become and he was still loyal to the north... it was commendable as it was idiotic to some.

Without the mages, they couldn’t send a letter. Sending knights was their final plea to the south that they needed help. If the King could offer them nothing, Chemois they would remain, and Tenetium would be forgotten.

It would be a two-week-long journey, and he hoped that it would be enough.

In the meantime...

Phillip turned to the Duke’s Tower, knowing that from the front it remained strong, but the heart of it spoke of something far different. He walked through the front, strong doors and down the halls where things were being cleaned up. He was the last knight among a few apprentices and squires. He hoped that he could keep it together at least in the meantime.

The kids didn’t deserve to see more death.

After finding a way to lure down a messenger hawk who was spooked during all of the activity, Phillip sent the bird off in search of Sir Gunnar. He hoped the bird would recognize the knight’s armor. They needed all the help they could get as quickly as they could get it.

By that point, it was a waiting game, and all he could do was keep it together.

His only job was to keep it together...

Until hell returned and he heard a shriek from a monster that was supposed to be the weakest in the forest. Yet the noise had become his worst nightmare.

Phillip slept in the Duke’s study on a cot, hoping that he could be on the lookout in case anything came back.

As he stood up and pushed the thin blanket off himself, he was met with the sight of maids being chased down the hallway. There were goblins at the bottom of the stairs. As the goblins gathered in the hallway, the old floor of the main hall began to crumble and it partially collapsed towards the back entrance, opening the space to the old basement and storeroom that was underneath the kitchen.

As Phillip took what he could of the goblins, they backed him towards the stairs, and he ended up sprinting to the higher floor.

There, he found maids pushing beds, boards, and anything else they could imagine into the hallway to create a barricade of the second-floor stairway. Would they end up being safe up there?

Their focus was on the highest tower, but they were cornered when more goblins found the maid’s stairway from the outside.

Phillip took it upon himself to face the goblins head-on.

"Dirty bastards!" he shouted.

One tried to shoot an arrow at him, but narrowly missed him. Phillip charged forward with a raised sword. There was a smaller one beside it, and he firmly kicked it in its chest when he had an opportunity from slicing down the other one.

However, there were more, and he sprinted down the hallway towards the library.

Not knowing what else to do, he shut himself in the library with the goblins. It would be better if it were him and them so that the maids wouldn’t get hurt. They had to hold on for a bit longer.

Them... the apprentices... the squires. If they could just wait for Sir Gunnar and the others to arrive.

As Phillip was caught off guard, he was nearly knocked out as one of the goblins swung a wooden club against his head.

However, all it did was throw him to the ground.

"Sir Phillip!" a voice cried from the doorway. "This way!"

The knight looked up in his daze from such a blow, and he saw Rosalind desperately gesturing to him to come to the door.

"The monsters will get you!" he shouted and had to parry away the dull blade from a larger goblin.

"We have a plan!" she argued.

Able to right himself for a moment, Phillip scrambled to his feet and started sprinting.

Could he survive this too?