Chapter 99

Valenciaunos was skilled in fighting against the otherworldly beings and Infiltrators.

It was never easy to always gain the upper hand against foes with different abilities and combat methods.

However, he was a delicate swordsman and an exceptional fire mage, aware that an unknown attack could come crashing down on him.

Knowing the immense difference in physical durability and recovery between humans, otherworldly beings, and Infiltrators, he refrained from rushing in carelessly, and knowing how strong a desperate fight could be, he did not attempt a clumsy critical hit.

“Caw!”

The mutated Sister Telera swung her arms, making a crow-like sound.

Hooook-!

Standing at 4 meters tall, her arms were long enough to drag on the ground, and her hands, even considering that, were large.

It was obvious that trying to block with his sword would result in a hole being made in her palm, followed by being crushed.

Valenciaunos calmly waited for the approaching black claws and thick, root-like hands.

There was no point in awkwardly rolling and dodging; from that height, everything would be visible.

It was better to show a detached demeanor and then counterattack in an instant.

He felt the chill of the black mist brought by the black claws.

‘Now!’

His golden eyes blazed fiercely, and Valenciaunos pivoted on his right foot, spinning around.

It was a risky step, as he nearly pressed his side against the mutated Sister Telera’s thumb, which was as thick as his waist.

However, he succeeded, seizing the fleeting blind spot.

He tightened his left hand around the wrist of his right hand holding the sword to support it and prevent it from bending, then thrust the sword between the wrist joints of the mutated Sister Telera.

Whoosh!

The long sword plunged almost to the hilt, and the mana blade and flames erupted violently in the darkness.

“Caw!”

The mutated Sister Telera screamed as she tried to shake her arm off.

With just a light gesture, the potential to crush Valenciaunos like a bug was apparent.

Yet, he seized the moment when Telera’s arm moved outward to pull out the sword instead.

He jumped off the ground, trying to stab the sword into the inside of Telera’s elbow.

“That’s ridiculously big!”

In terms of height alone, Telera seemed larger than any Infiltrator he had encountered since his reincarnation, aside from dragons.

He could barely reach Telera’s elbow even when stretching his hand as far as possible and adding the length of the sword, and her elbow was surrounded by white bone-like exoskeletons.

If he messed up, he might end up breaking only the sword.

Valenciaunos’s golden eyes slitted like a reptile.

As he jumped, he chanted a spell.

“Piercing Fire.”

A spear-like flame materialized in the blink of an eye, stabbing first into the elbow joint in place of the sword.

Boom!

As it struck, the flames exploded, and the white exoskeleton shattered like glass, leaving a scratch on Valenciaunos’s forehead as he leaped up from below.

Whoosh!

He endured the scratch and drove the second attack into her elbow.

The mutated Sister Telera tried to strike Valenciaunos away with her left arm, but this time he easily rolled back.

‘It may be longer, but the joints haven’t changed. It moves like a human arm. The strength is tremendous, but perhaps because she was originally a nun, she’s not skilled in fighting itself. I need to get close and finish quickly.’

While organizing the information gained from the first charge.

“Shining Greatgoooong, Your Highness!”

Telera raised both arms above her head.

A massive hand burst forth, shrouded in black mist.

Valenciaunos, with his long experience, quickly understood the form of the attack.

‘She’s preparing a big move. There’s a high chance it’s a shockwave-type attack. If Lady Trentia or Sererassie were here, it would have been much easier to fight in formation.’

“You’re as fast as a rat, aren’t you? Time to dodge……!”

‘But I can’t do anything alone.’

Before that hand could strike the ground, Valenciaunos kicked off the earth.

Telera’s giant hand dropped as if to crush the world.

He closely pressed against Telera’s exoskeleton-covered foot.

Most area attacks had less effect near the one using them.

Boom!

Telera’s hands struck the ground, and a black feather and red mist erupted, causing ripples on the ground.

The ripples didn’t spread by collapsing buildings; they passed right through them.

‘Crazy. If I had come with the soldiers, they would have all mutated just now.’

For a brief moment of that thought, Valenciaunos’s eyes gleamed.

Telera aimed a kick at Valenciaunos as if to kick the ball.

Whoosh!

Even a mere brush from that foot, wrapped in white exoskeleton and claws, would surely break his bones.

Yet, Valenciaunos instead charged in, trying to stab the sword.

‘There were places on the joints that were covered in skin without scales, just like Infiltrators.’

As long as it took on a biological form, that would always remain the same, and finding common weaknesses was the foundation of tactical doctrine.

Thud!

Telera lifted her foot, and Valenciaunos was sent airborne.

Yet again, the one screaming was Telera.

“Caw!”

Valenciaunos had embedded his sword between her ankle joints and leveraged himself upward.

If it weren’t for the Imperial Court’s ceremonial sword, it would have surely broken under such strain, but the mana blade-wrapped sword endured.

The terrifying claws and exoskeleton never reached Valenciaunos.

The moment that foot descended back to the ground, Valenciaunos switched to a reverse grip on his sword and prepared his technique.

Stage 1 of Imperial Swordsmanship, All-Connecting Attack.

Crack!

Mana rushed like steel chains around his muscles, and Valenciaunos kicked off the ground while twisting his body with the sword still in reverse grip.

The mana blade igniting sword sliced through the gaps of her exoskeleton, making a half-turn, and more than half of Telera’s right ankle was severed.

“Caw!”

Despite her towering height of 4 meters, her slender build made her unbalanced and more vulnerable.

She staggered onto her right knee, and Valenciaunos instinctively realized the moment to strike for her head had come.

Stage 5 of Imperial Swordsmanship, Assassination.

I, mine, and my persistent and sticky obsession towards it.

His mind cooled as information flooded in from around him.

The thick darkness vanished from his sight, and underneath the veil of the nun’s robe, Telera’s neck was clearly visible.

He realized how to aim between the white-bone exoskeleton.

That clarity was enhanced by his uniquely delicate swordsmanship, mixed with the sadistic disposition inherited from his bloodline.

Thud, Valenciaunos kicked off the ground and raised his sword.

“Stick to it, unquenchable flame.”

A persistent fire rose, blinding Telera’s eyes.

Cutting off the variables, he brought his sword crashing down.

In that final moment, he gazed into Telera’s eyes.

Within her red eyes, the brown and white lights flickered.

‘Divine Power?’

At the moment he thought that, a blinding white light erupted.

Valenciaunos lost his balance in mid-air and tumbled to the ground.

This strange sensation that was both chilling and hot.

It was undoubtedly divine power.

“Insane.”

He grasped his sword again, standing up to witness this unbelievable sight.

Caught between astonishment and disbelief, he felt like he would lose his mind, but his mind, cleared by ‘Assassination,’ calmly faced reality.

‘They said they researched sacred objects. Indeed, it seems she can articulate even in a fully mutated state. It appears they’ve achieved some results.’

White feathers rose and then vanished, and Sister Telera’s wounds healed.

“Keep going! Shining Greatgoooong, Your Highness!”

“The world is turning upside down.”

***

Matheos gazed at the young man who just entered.

He appeared to be ill, suffering the effects of Corruption; his complexion wasn’t good, and his left arm seemed like it would need to be cut off immediately, with or without Corruption.

He spoke to Abbot Hans.

“I heard that worldly matters often derail the path of faith. I didn’t expect you to twist it, but I have heard tales.”

Hans opened his mouth in his gentle and polite voice.

“Thank you, Saint.”

“Don’t call me that. It makes me want to vomit.”

“Yes. …First of all, it’s been a long time since the war between the Count families began, do you know that the children of the two Counts have fallen for each other?”

Matheos answered coldly.

“I’ve heard enough about the background from Duke Valencia. I also know you lied to me during the day.”

Abbot Hans smiled bitterly.

“Yes. Count Antares would never try to kill his heir over such an issue. Initially shocked and bewildered, he got angry but regained his composure soon after.”

“Regained composure?”

“If the powerful Count families unite, they might merge their territories and be promoted to Dukes. If one’s grandson becomes a Duke, that’s a good thing.”

It wasn’t a logic that resonated much with Matheos, who was originally a commoner, but he could understand.

“Furthermore, His Majesty Emperor Jeilliris has consistently sent letters demanding to halt the war and develop the mines, so they must have felt a sense of crisis too.”

“Why would they feel a sense of crisis?”

“For generations, the Imperial Emperors have often assassinated the heads of two feuding families and then married their heirs or divided or combined their territories to keep the High Nobles in check. Moreover, Emperor Jeilliris could personally arrive here.”

That much, Matheos could accept.

“Please continue.”

“However, he was already enraged, and the frightened heir fled. Of course, he didn’t flee thoughtlessly. Despite escaping, as Count’s heir, he holds a title and has a territory granted to him. He was likely thinking of waiting until his father’s anger subsided.”

Matheos looked at the heir.

The heir nodded with a troubled expression.

Hans continued.

“As you know, the bodies from the war must be properly collected. The more obvious the corruption, the stronger the chance of plague and resentment.”

Zombies, skeletons, banshees, wraiths, specters, ghouls, abominations, and dueling heads created and gathered all kinds of undead and ghosts.

“Did the heir get attacked and corrupted?”

“Yes. He stumbled into our monastery with blood dripping. At that time, we all thought that the war would soon come to an end.”

Matheos recalled the children he had seen during dinner.

“He couldn’t have been left to die.”

Hans nodded.

“Yes. We did our utmost to treat him. That wasn’t very difficult.”

A high-ranking clergy could regrow a severed arm.

“However, purification was impossible.”

Matheos was about to argue about that nonsense, but upon examining the degree of corruption in the heir once more, he bit his tongue.

Once corruption progresses beyond a certain point, purification acts as an attack.

Purification is the act of completely burning away and disinfecting the corrupted area.

The problem comes when that area is too large; the moment it’s burned away cleanly, the person would die.

“It was essential to keep him alive. The moment he dies, war would undeniably resume.”

The fury of the Count, upon losing the heir, would burn the surrounding area.

“I treated the wounds. However, I could not cure the corruption. Thanks to entering the monastery, his corruption did not progress further. But….”

Corruption is often likened to drug addiction.

Once corrupted, one must endlessly offer sacrifices and perform rituals to maintain their body.

“The side that was corrupted began dying. That area needed sustenance.”

Crack, Matheos thought he heard a sound as if the sky was cracking.

“So?”

“Yes. We brought in injured soldiers or dead soldiers and extracted their vitality to inject into the heir. Throughout the process, we consumed reagents and could not list them in accounts, so we had to procure them secretly. Fortunately, we managed to siphon off a large amount of reagents from a grand workshop in the capital.”

The abbot’s voice began to tremble slightly.

“We also had to continuously manipulate divine power. The state of corruption itself is a ‘wounded’ state, and we needed to keep the heir’s intact parts alive too.”

They endlessly poured healing power into the heir.

“That’s why we researched sacred objects. Thanks to that, we were able to hold onto the remnants of the old while still maintaining our reason. But it can’t last long.”

Hans splashed water on his face and asked.

“What were we supposed to do, Saint? Should we have allowed the heir to die and let the fires of war engulf the two territories again?”