Chapter 158

Episode 159. I Won’t Give You Mercy (1)

My medical mentor, Franken, loved to chatter about medical cases, and among them were some rather gruesome yet fascinating anecdotes.

“There are often cases on the battlefield where decapitated corpses moved and attacked. People dismiss it as a ghost story, but it’s true. If a person had strong willpower in life, their body can move even after their head is cut off.”

Indeed, just as my mentor said. Otherwise, how could Jeffrey, with his head cut off, create a sword aura and sever the left arm of a bio-weapon?

*Crash!*

The sight of headless Jeffrey driving back the bio-weapons with his sword aura was grotesque.

“He’s fighting better without a head, huh? Don’t you think so, Mr. Spy?”

“Is he undead?”

“I saw him eat and poop before, so he’s probably not undead.”

“…Did you bring him here without knowing what he was?”

“I knew he was skilled, but I didn’t expect him to fight so bizarrely. Ugh, what’s that? His head’s growing back.”

Bubbles formed on the cleanly severed surface, and in the blink of an eye, a new head sprouted.

I’ve lost my appetite. Good thing I ate lunch already.

*Whistle!*

When Hansen blew a short whistle, the bio-weapon retreated. Jeffrey didn’t pursue and instead adjusted his stance.

“How long are we going to keep calling him Hansen, a fake name, and refer to him as a bio-weapon with such a lame name? If you’re going to destroy the evidence anyway, can’t you at least tell us his real name?”

“Fine. I’ll tell you. My name is Kai, and what you call a bio-weapon is actually a Homunculus.”

“I can feel your determination to kill me. It’s quite charming.”

While they exchanged brief words, the two had already finished their healing.

The Homunculus’s severed arm reattached as if drawn by a magnet, and Jeffrey’s severed head regenerated with bubbles.

‘Monstrous healing power.’

No, that’s beyond healing—it’s regeneration.

Even though my blood is mixed with troll blood, I can’t heal that fast. Of course, I can’t regrow a severed head either.

‘Wait, if a new head grows, isn’t that a different person?’

Jeffrey, you terrifying guy.

You’re forcing me to think philosophically.

“Kai. Is that Jeffrey over there the Jeffrey we know, or is he a different Jeffrey?”

“Don’t talk to me like we’re close. You’re next after Jeffrey.”

*Snap!*

As if signaling the end of the break, Kai snapped his fingers, and another blue-haired boy appeared.

The world is vast, and there are many interesting toys. A Homunculus… Even with my past life experience, this is the first time I’ve heard of such a toy.

Chimeras have intelligence but are filled with emptiness and malice, while golems lack intelligence but can be made to appear as if they have it under a controller’s command.

The Homunculus seems to combine the best of both. It has enough intelligence to appear sentient, is easy to control, and while human-sized, its durability is on par with a golem.

“Does it cost about 5 million gold to make one?”

I’m full of questions, but Kai kept his mouth shut and pointed at Jerpy with his finger.

Two blue-haired boys, enveloped in sword aura, charged at Jeffrey. Their movements suggested they understood the concept of a joint attack.

“Even if Jeffrey has incredible regeneration, can he regenerate after being completely torn apart? If that doesn’t work, we could bury or burn him.”

I’ve met and killed regenerators before. They weren’t immortal.

“They just have longer lives than others, but they still die eventually.”

*Boom! Crash!*

With three 6-star Grandmaster-level fighters clashing, the heavens and earth shook.

Jeffrey’s concise yet deadly swordsmanship and the Homunculus’s hand swords danced chaotically across the ground.

“This won’t end quickly. Their regeneration is about equal. The Homunculus’s weakness is probably the mana core in its chest, right? Wow, the Empire is amazing. They’ve shrunk a mana core capable of Grandmaster-level power to the size of a heart.”

Alchemy isn’t my specialty, but I know enough to understand how impressive that is.

“It’s like compressing a windmill to the size of a pinky finger.”

“…Don’t compare a mana core fusion reactor to a windmill. It’s like holding the sun in your hand.”

There’s no tree that won’t fall after being chopped ten times, but this guy fell early.

That’s also charming.

“Mana core fusion reactor. That’s too long. Let’s just call it the core.”

Kai, seemingly deep in thought about the battle between the Homunculus and Jeffrey, crossed his arms and responded to me.

“If you’re going to speak casually, do it. If you’re going to be formal, be formal. Don’t switch back and forth.”

“Since we’re meeting on official business now, I’ll be formal. So, did I win the bet?”

“I don’t remember making a bet with you.”

“Didn’t you say the Homunculus couldn’t kill Eslow? You said you could win.”

“We never had that conversation, and even if we did, I didn’t lose.”

“Even after seeing this?”

I pointed at Jeffrey, who was fighting two Homunculi evenly.

“The Homunculus can’t kill Jeffrey because of his unexpected regeneration, which has nothing to do with Eslow.”

“How logical. Then I’ll have to refute you logically. Namely…”

I paused for a moment.

I remembered the day I wondered who to bring instead of Eslow if I went to the orchard alone, thinking Kai wouldn’t show up.

No, actually, I didn’t think much. Henya is weak, and the other knights in the palace wouldn’t listen to me.

The only fool who would follow my words was Jeffrey over there.

Not that I trusted him. I knew he was roughly a 6-star Grandmaster, but I didn’t expect him to beat Kai’s confident Homunculus. But look at this.

After observing Jeffrey for a few days, I felt something familiar about him. At first, I thought he might be using the same perfume as Eslow. That’s how much something about Jeffrey reminded me of Eslow.

‘It can only be one thing.’

Eslow’s authority is ‘turning living beings into weapons.’

If he could transfer such a weapon to someone else? Jeffrey is a loyal servant, so wouldn’t Eslow give him one?

And knowing Eslow’s personality, if he didn’t give it, he wouldn’t, but if he did, it would be something proper.

‘At least a weapon capable of fighting a 7-star Prime.’

To think that wielding a weapon made by Eslow’s authority could allow a 6-star Grandmaster to fight a 7-star Prime… Even I think that’s an incredibly powerful and unfair ability.

But that’s what authority is. To others, it’s like, ‘What kind of cheat ability is that?’

Jeffrey definitely has Eslow’s sword. A sword imbued with immense power, created by authority.

Of course, it’s just speculation, but there must be a reason he confidently revealed himself to someone determined to kill the lord, right?

I haven’t personally experienced the power of the sword Jeffrey was given, but you don’t have to eat jelly or slime to know what it’s like.

“Right now!”

The space in front of Jeffrey distorted. A precursor to a weapon being drawn from subspace.

*Slash!*

The Homunculus’s arm and the sword Jeffrey pulled from the air crossed paths.

At the same time, something round shot into the sky. It was the shape of a head.

*Thud, roll.*

This time, it wasn’t Jeffrey’s head.

The expressionless boy, the Homunculus, had his head cleanly severed and rolled on the ground.

* * *

The sword that tore through the air at Jeffrey’s gesture was a rusty iron sword. Its blade was blunt, more like a club than a sword.

But as sword aura enveloped it, it became the sharpest sword in the world.

The Homunculus’s body resisted the sword aura. Its neck and chest, considered vital points, were especially thickly armored.

The Empire’s magitech engineers declared that unless hit by the sword aura three or four times in a row, or unless sawed through with the sword aura, it couldn’t be cut in one go.

‘So why did it cut through in one strike…’

Kai watched everything without blinking. From Jeffrey drawing the iron sword to the Homunculus’s arm and head being severed simultaneously.

The Homunculus resisted fiercely, expanding its Aura Armor to a 10-meter radius.

But it was all useless. Neither the Aura Armor nor the Orichalcon body.

‘That sword… Could it be a sword made by Eslow’s authority?’

As a member of the Empire’s Intelligence Division, Kai couldn’t have missed Eslow’s abilities. He analyzed them thoroughly. But there was no mention of this.

‘There was no mention of weapons made by Eslow’s authority having power beyond artifacts. No, did he just not notice…’

Witnessing Eslow using his authority in the first place was incredibly rare information.

But going a step further, even the Empire hadn’t witnessed the full extent of that weapon’s power.

To know that, one would have to witness Eslow in battle or fight him directly.

But throughout history, clashes between 7-star Primes were extremely rare. And once Primes start fighting and using their authority, they don’t leave witnesses.

Whatever the case, the conclusion is one.

‘Eslow’s power is far beyond what the Empire anticipated.’

Of course, Kai didn’t fully trust the Empire’s information. He estimated it to be about four times stronger than reported.

That’s why he initially requested only six Homunculi but later asked for eight. This was the force Kai believed could reliably kill Eslow without variables.

But now—

That plan is worse than garbage.

“Jeffrey was just given one weapon made by Eslow’s authority. Yet, he’s this powerful. If Eslow himself were to step in…”

“Homunculi or not, they’d only serve to buy time.”

“…”

Keter, who had been silent, finished the sentence as if he were part of the group. Kai turned to look at him.

“How were you so sure the Homunculi couldn’t defeat Eslow? This makes no sense. Even if you knew Eslow’s strength, you only learned about Homunculi today. Knowing one thing doesn’t mean you know everything. How did you know all this and call me here?”

A barrage of questions, tinged with hostility, was directed at Keter. His response was consistently simple.

“Instinct.”

“Are you Eslow’s lackey?”

“That’s harsh, coming from someone who owes me. If it weren’t for me, what would’ve happened to those expensive Homunculi?”

Keter didn’t elaborate further, letting Kai imagine the rest.

Kai couldn’t help but imagine that future. Humans can’t resist the command to ‘not imagine.’

‘There’s no chance. The Empire’s information was wrong, no, it’s just too outdated.’

According to the Empire’s experiments, at least five Homunculi are needed to subdue a 7-star.

But Jeffrey, wielding a weapon granted by Eslow’s authority, is fighting two Homunculi evenly. He may not be 7-star level, but he’s capable of standing against one.

If Jeffrey, who only wields one sword, is this strong, how powerful would Eslow be, wielding dozens, even hundreds of authority weapons?

‘To face Eslow, eight Homunculi are far from enough. Twenty. At least that many would be needed to stand a chance.’

Kai revised his estimate of Eslow’s strength upward, from 7-star to 8-star.

And that means, for now, there’s no way to kill Eslow.

Currently, the Empire has only produced 30 Homunculi as prototypes. Kai had to wait five years just to receive eight.

When and how long would it take to receive twelve more?

‘In that time, Eslow would grow stronger too. In the end, my plan failed… No, not yet.’

Even if I can’t kill Eslow to benefit the Empire, I’ve gained valuable information.

The monarchs of the Lilian Kingdom are far stronger than the Empire’s 7-star Primes.

If I had lost all the Homunculi and found that out, it would be a failure, but I haven’t lost anything yet.

*Crackle!*

As I sighed in relief, Jeffrey’s sword pierced the Homunculus’s solar plexus—right where the core was.

Kai’s eyes narrowed. He had just lost one Homunculus, worth 6 million gold in pure production costs.

Now, he had to achieve something of equal value.

‘If I take Jeffrey and the sword made by Eslow’s authority back to the Empire for analysis, it would be worth it.’

Jeffrey isn’t displaying the full power of a 7-star. He’s only matching 7-star attack power through Eslow’s sword.

If I join the two remaining Homunculi, I can capture Jeffrey.

*Swoosh.*

Just as I was about to raise my hand to command the other two Homunculi—

*Thud!*

Keter, who had been silently watching, grabbed Kai’s wrist.