Chapter 697

“…Where are you looking?”

Joshua, silently staring into the void, made Or-han feel an inexplicable unease. He raised his head and looked up at the sky.

– Kwaoooooo!

And then he saw it.

Something like a comet, trailing a crimson flame, hurtling toward the city.

“That’s…!”

Or-han’s expression hardened. The blood-red flames of Up-hwa, filled with murderous intent, burned fiercely. He knew all too well who the master of those flames was.

Ha-shal-leur. His daughter, who he thought would be in the east, was descending at lightning speed. As if she had been waiting for this very moment when his strength was greatly depleted.

“You tricked me, Ludwig…!”

Or-han gritted his teeth in frustration. Ha-shal-leur’s appearance at this moment meant that all the threats Ludwig had boldly spat out were nothing but lies, a deception to waste his strength.

‘That despicable man…! Over ten thousand allies, War Chief-level knights, and tens of thousands of Dane’s people. Did he throw them all as bait?!’

Or-han realized his judgment had been too lenient. It was a ruthlessly cold scheme.

He knew Ludwig was cold and merciless, but he never imagined he would sacrifice tens of thousands of lives just to set a trap.

The creeping sense of defeat made his teeth grind.

The lie that had shaken his resolve, combined with the countless corpses of his allies, created a trap that was all too effective.

Or-han, who had expended his Power of Feats without reserve to quickly defeat two heroes and return, now faced Ha-shal-leur, who was in near-perfect condition. The odds were slim.

‘Then, at least I’ll take you down with me…!’

Or-han picked up a spear lying on the ground and aimed it at a corner of the inner fortress. The immense power at the tip of the spear vibrated, resonating through the air.

“What…are you trying to do…?”

Joshua, reflexively turning his gaze toward where Or-han was aiming, immediately realized the location and desperately reached out to stop him.

“Stop…!”

“Don’t interfere!”

Or-han kicked Joshua’s remaining arm away and launched the spear like a cannonball toward Ludwig, who was hiding and watching.

‘These Empire bastards, every time I turned my back, their attacks faltered. As if they were afraid the aftermath would reach that place!’

So, Or-han threw the spear in that direction.

There was only one reason the Empire’s heroes would hesitate in their attacks. He was certain it meant someone they could never afford to lose was there.

‘I’ll take you with me, Ludwig!’

As Kagan, he told himself to eliminate the great threat to the grasslands. As Ai-mel-ra’s husband, he whispered to himself not to forgive the culprit behind all this.

For the first time in nearly a decade, Or-han felt a glimmer of joy as his duty and desire aligned.

“Ludwig!!”

The moment the spear, carrying a destructive force, left Or-han’s hand—

– Koooooong!

A moment too late, a crimson comet crashed into the ground.

—

A storm of fire raged like an earthquake. The flames of Up-hwa she had been wielding exploded upon impact, sweeping through the area like a whirlwind.

“Kuh…!”

Or-han, Hatan, and Heinrich instinctively shielded their faces and crouched low from the scorching wind.

The intense heat pushed their bodies back. The three slowly retreated, squinting their eyes at the epicenter of the comet.

The crimson flames scattered like petals.

In the center of the fading Up-hwa, a black-haired woman knelt, crouching.

The Sword of the Starry Sky, Ha-shal-leur Ai-shan Gi-or de Median.

The Traitor Wolf, Ai-shan Gi-or Ha-shal-leur.

The Empire’s strongest knight and the grasslands’ worst traitor rose, pulling her left hand from the ground.

Her eyes burned like flames.

A mountainous, beast-like aura pressed heavily on the atmosphere.

“You’ve shown yourself. The shame of Ai-shan, the traitor Ha-shal-leur—!!”

Bara-ma Hatan, Ai-shan’s War Chief, bared his fangs in rage.

The ultimate traitor who forgot the grace of being raised, joined the Empire, severed her father’s arm, and thwarted his ambitions.

To Hatan, she was a disgusting sight.

Perhaps annoyed by the shout, Ha-shal-leur, who had been silently scanning the fallen Empire heroes, turned her head like a ghost and looked at Hatan.

“Tear your crotch and feed it to the dogs—”

The next moment,

Ha-shal-leur was already behind him.

A blue longsword dangling in her hand, drawn without anyone noticing.

A movement faster than the blink of an eye. To Hatan, it was as if the enemy before him had suddenly vanished.

“Talking like a corpse.”

At Ha-shal-leur’s voice from behind, Hatan turned his body in shock.

Only his body.

“…Huh?”

Hatan let out a confused groan.

Even though he had turned his body halfway, his vision remained unchanged.

His body was facing Ha-shal-leur, but his head above his neck was still looking at the epicenter where she had landed. An incomprehensible situation. His face twisted in confusion.

“What is this…?”

His muttered words, filled with suspicion, were cut off.

His head, cleanly severed and resting on his neck, slid off due to the sudden rotation and subsequent twitching.

‘My…head…?!’

In the corner of his falling vision, Hatan saw his headless body spurting blood and staggering. Only then did he realize the situation he was in.

A slash he couldn’t even react to or perceive had severed his neck in an instant.

‘No way…this fast…?’

With disbelief-filled thoughts, his consciousness sank into darkness. His lifeless head rolled helplessly on the ground.

All this happened less than three seconds after Ha-shal-leur landed in the inner fortress.

—

‘She’s gotten faster.’

Or-han groaned softly as he watched his War Chief beheaded.

‘Reversed Heaven,’ was it? Even with his senses, he could only barely catch a faint afterimage. Blocking or deflecting it was out of the question.

‘…I can’t win now.’

Or-han realized. Even at his peak, facing Ha-shal-leur now would only end in defeat after a fierce battle.

Her superhuman techniques, shown twice, proved that the fruit of Ai-mel-ra and his efforts had finally surpassed her father.

Or-han let out a deep sigh.

An indescribable emotion surged within him.

Relief and worry, frustration and satisfaction, pride and despair. A chain of conflicting emotions filled his mind, leaving him terribly confused.

Or-han couldn’t decide which of his countless duties to choose.

As Kagan of the Great Plains.

As Ai-mel-ra’s husband.

As the conqueror seeking to destroy the Empire.

As a father dreaming of his wife’s revenge and his daughter’s safety.

Duties that sharply conflicted. Choosing one meant losing the other.

So, delaying and delaying the choice…

He finally faced this inevitable moment.

There was no chance of victory, and none of his goals could be achieved.

His daughter had become an uncontrollable monster, the Great Plains couldn’t surpass the Empire strengthened by Ha-shal-leur, and Ai-mel-ra’s revenge wasn’t his.

Or-han had to admit.

He had failed.

‘Even so…I can’t just die helplessly.’

Or-han tightly gripped his sword and mustered all the remaining Power of Feats within him. Giving up on winning didn’t mean he would meekly offer his neck.

Desperately, he racked his brain, trying to think of the best possible action in this situation.

‘We’ve dealt significant damage to the Empire…but this battle is our defeat. At best, mutual destruction is the limit. If I die, no one will be able to stop Ha-shal-leur. So, what I must do now is…’

Or-han’s eyes turned to the corner of the inner fortress. The pile of rubble where his spear had struck, almost simultaneously with Ha-shal-leur’s descent.

Had Ludwig, buried under the rubble, died? There was no way to know without checking.

After a moment of staring at the collapsed pile, Or-han finally made his decision.

‘Yes, if defeat is inevitable…then I must leave a scar on the Empire. A scar so deep they won’t dare look at the grasslands for decades to come. A scar that will never heal…!’

That was the last choice he made.