Chapter 52

(51)

From the moment the scene was captured, it was a confrontation that the opposing side could not win.

Even just four knights from the Black Iron Knights was an overwhelming force.

With the addition of the future Swordmaster Tenitia, the genius Lightning Mage Sererassie, the sharpshooter Rudi, and the Conqueror Duke Valencianus, the battlefield became overwhelmingly one-sided.

The transport ships missed their departure and ultimately, Tenitia and Sererassie came rushing across the plank bridge.

“Climb up!”

“Throw her down, ahhh!”

One brave guard charged at her to push her away but ended up getting thrown into the water by his wrist.

“Wait! I surrender!”

“Milady, just let me live. I’ll fetch my ransom from my family.”

The royals hung their heads, blades drooping.

“Ugh…”

Tenitia could not easily draw her sword against the royals whom the Silver Knight Order was meant to protect.

However, Sererassie unleashed her spells mercilessly towards her half-siblings.

“O lightning, my faithful companion! Annihilate all my enemies!”

Crackling!

With a single incantation, everyone aboard the ship that was just about to set sail trembled and rolled across the signboard.

“Wretched spawn of a concubine!”

“Please, close your eyes.”

“Why are you doing this to us?”

The royals standing on the sign shouted urgently.

At the bow of the ship, Sererassie, with an aura of silver and gold, spewed words filled with rage.

“I did not care whether you formed factions, nor who became emperor. But why couldn’t you just leave me alone? You locked me up in this Crimson Crescent Palace when I was happily living in the Ivory Tower, didn’t you? Didn’t you think that if I stayed quiet for a few years, you would eventually return me to my family?”

“How could you say that…!”

“Why couldn’t you endure those few years and cause such a row that ‘all royals’ were imprisoned in this Crimson Crescent Palace? Who among you thought they could kill a Swordmaster with some mediocre poison or an assassin? Who suggested attacking a 6th circle mage with magic? And why did it have to be lightning magic?”

“!”

“Why do you resist even after seeing your older siblings who are far stronger fall? Do you think the Emperor is like you? When a typhoon approaches, you should hide inside; why on earth would you take a ship out to sea to face it? The typhoon has no intention of fighting you.”

From Sererassie’s perspective, they were ignorant and brave individuals plucking at the scales of a sleeping dragon, and she was the enraged dragon burning the villagers of the town.

Now that dragon had become her patron and watcher, so her resentment turned towards those who had plucked its scales.

“Y-you imperial dog!”

“Fine. Let’s see that supposed prowess of yours.”

“I’ve disliked how you flaunted your magic for a long time!”

Eventually, the royals’ eyes flickered again.

They were people who could also grasp the workings of the world and command it.

Fireballs, stone spikes, chain lightning, and blades of wind, poison swarmed towards Sererassie.

Tenitia tried to take the brunt of it, but Sererassie shook her head.

“Dust be dust, ash be ash. The clock ticks backward, and a wrongly buttoned coat will not be able to be worn once it’s unravelled.”

Clash!

The sound of shattering glass echoed in the air, and all the magic that had been flying towards them scattered like smoke.

Covering her face with her left arm, Tenitia smiled awkwardly as the royal magicians gaped.

“Dispel?”

“No way.”

“She must be barely over twenty.”

“Alright, let’s get this ship moving!”

The master of the ‘Serpent’ pushed past the hesitant helmsman and took the wheel.

BANG!

In the next moment, an arrow came flying and split the wheel in half.

* * *

“Good job, Rudi! Don’t let anyone get away! We’re tossing them all into the canal today! Whether alive or dead, they will only be a hindrance!”

The Conqueror Duke Valencianus swung his sword alongside the four knights of the Black Iron Knights.

He struck down the grotesque, mutated royal tentacle monster that was feeding on the surrounding corpses with mana blade-wrapped strikes again and again.

Blood and bodily fluids splattered all over his white uniform, but he paid it no mind.

“To those who do not wish for corruption, grant them rest!”

Perhaps not pleased with those words, a tentacle exploded in growth, hurling one Black Iron Knight out onto the road outside the dock.

“Ahhh!”

In that instant, Valencianus and the three knights hesitated, and taking advantage of that opening, the tentacle monster tried to leap into the canal.

At that moment, Rudi was standing atop a building by the canal edge.

As a low-ranking noble, she found the scene of noble royals perishing in chaos terribly confusing.

However, she was a servant, and the one she served was currently fighting.

“There’s pride in being a servant.”

She turned her shoulders back powerfully, fixing her shoulder blades, and pulled the trigger frantically.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

With each shot, a tremendous recoil shook her entire body.

Her neatly pressed maid outfit got crumpled, her shoes slid back, and the glasses perched on her nose rattled up and down.

Nonetheless, Rudi did not blink her green eyes.

Those eyes, which looked as if they were made from jewels, remained fixed on a single point.

The tough body of the tentacle monster was shredded to pieces.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

She hit the protruding tentacle from its crown, blew apart its thigh, and split its mutated back.

A short silence enveloped the dock.

The royals who had been resisting until the end were flustered and dropped their swords in unison.

From the far sky came the cries of wyverns.

Valencianus jumped onto the ship and shouted.

“Assess the number of royal fatalities! It’s fair game to kill anyone who resists!”

Helena and Hadrian, who were lying on the deck, yelled out.

“We had 45 at the start of our departure!”

“Excluding our 8, the number of casualties and survivors should total 37.”

At that moment, Rudi, who had come down from the building, ran towards Valencianus.

“Lord Valen, that person is missing.”

“Missing?”

“The person I shot at the beginning—he’s gone.”

“What?”

The four of them boarded the ship that Lanzo had been on.

On the railing, where the master of the ‘Future’ had been trembling, only a trail of blood remained.

Sererassie let out a deep sigh.

“That wretch is a royal, so he could have quickly harnessed power. The ancient one he serves is known for its secrecy and profound knowledge. Yet I never imagined he would gather strength within the Crimson Crescent Palace. …Valen, why didn’t you know?”

“Didn’t you just say he was among the most secretive of the ancients?”

Valencianus recalled several disturbing memories from his past life.

There were those who carelessly exuded the aura of Infiltrators, and those who concealed their power until the moment they struck.

He followed the bloodstains along the sign to speculate where Lanzo had fled.

He needed to guide him to where he wanted them to go.

“Could he have escaped to the canal?”

He saw strange ripples on the water’s edge of the canal.

“Those aren’t his struggles. It’s a passage where groundwater flows in.”

“!”

Flames sparked in the eyes of the four simultaneously.

Valencianus quickly issued orders.

“Rudi. Help collect the royal corpses. No, the bodies.”

“Your Highness, I should go too…”

“Arrow, how many do you have left?”

“Ah…”

“If I get carried away in the river, help me then. Sererassie, you deal with the remnants of the Black Iron Knights at the casino, and Tenitia—handle the rebellious royal remnants. No one is allowed to flee until the wyverns arrive.”

“Why do you only speak informally to me…”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The fight wasn’t over yet.

The royals, momentarily shaken by Rudi’s shooting, were now fleeing in all directions or trying to flee the casino with the boat and escape into the canal.

They had managed to seize the initiative, but their combat strength consisted of only five knights.

Regardless of skill, they lacked the numbers to effectively hinder a pursuit.

“Everyone, stay safe.”

“Your Highness, you too.”

“Lord Valen too.”

“Come back with just enough injuries.”

* * *

The moment Valencianus entered the underground waterway, he ran eastward.

To the east were the sluice gates and the fortified city gates, so it was clear the wretch would use one of them.

Swoosh.

There were several holes through which water poured into the channel, making a deafening noise.

He couldn’t hear his own footsteps or those of his opponents.

Thud, he stomped down repeatedly.

The capital of the Thousand Year Empire was so large that they had to dig canals within the capital, and the distance from the central dock to the east gate was considerable.

Even with his mana in use, it took a fair bit of time.

However, that wretch would also be utilizing the ancient power to augment his body, so he could not afford to slacken his pace even for a moment.

He felt his breath rising to his throat as he thought of Lanzo, Justianus, and Arietta.

He understood their grievances while deep down resenting them.

He vividly remembered many things.

An era of despair where magical realms opened up all around, and ancient beings infiltrated this world.

Yesterday, a territory had fallen completely to the ancients, resulting in 800,000 deaths, with those who brazenly demanded a ‘seat’ if they wanted help.

Swish!

Just as he thought he was almost at the eastern end, a tentacle flew toward him.

Smash!

It had the power to shatter a solid stone wall.

However, through his duel with the genius knight Tenitia, he had become a swordsman who had deeply grasped the mysteries of non-repeating in ways beyond what he had known before his reincarnation.

He bent down, dodging as he drew his sword diagonally upward.

Slash!

A tough tentacle was cleanly severed overhead.

“Isn’t it fascinating?”

Lanzo, who had been hiding around the corner, stepped out.

The freshly severed left arm was wriggling as if trying to grow back.

“It’s funny that just because I’ve embraced the ancient, I don’t become strong overnight, right? I abandoned everything I built in this world, but they only grant me a pinch of power.”

If everyone could become stronger by offering their existence, this world would have already belonged to the Infiltrators.

Just as not everyone could become a Swordmaster by sacrificing everything to a blade, it also required talent to fall into corruption.

One must recite spells and prayers diligently, kill people to offer sacrifices, and learn to control their mutated bodies and strange powers.

“Corruption just isn’t worth it. Why did you do it, knowing this?”

“To gain power, this was the only way I could hide.”

Lanzo transformed his hands into tentacles.

His long blond curls hung low, and his gaze was gloomy.

Valencianus scoffed and asked, “Who did you lose?”

“Everyone. My brother, sister, and even my mother.”

“So, you were part of the Crown Prince faction.”

“No. I belonged to the First Prince faction. Just like Jeilliris.”

“Impudent.”

“I lost everything, and it’s this hard. Why do you siblings look so cheerful…?”

Valencianus cut off Lanzo’s words.

“Sharp, piercing flames!”

The words he’d heard for forty years didn’t resonate with him even a little.

The arrow-like flames pierced through Lanzo’s shoulder.

“Gah!”

He lifted his chin arrogantly and looked down at Lanzo.

“Don’t rely on feelings or grudges. Weakling.”

“What…?”

“Feelings can’t be trusted. People can eat serpent-horn leaves and laugh while slicing off their corrupted arms, and they can enjoy a beloved person in the morning and fall into despair in the evening, wishing to die while seeking gold.”

His yellow eyes shone brightly.

“Act like a royal. Use what can be seen, felt, and counted as your guide. We were born to live that way.”

“Dare…!”

“To the Emperor’s enemies, death!”

Thud, Valencianus charged, wrapping his sword with mana blade.

Lanzo tried to ensnare Valencianus with tentacles from both hands but had no idea that he had fought all sorts of Infiltrators for forty years.

Slash!

Before he could even blink, the boundary between tentacles and his arms was severed, and fingers dug into both his eyes before he could recover from his lost arm.

“Ahhh! You cowardly bastard!”

“It’s best to settle it with words without fighting. But now that it’s come to a fight, I must win no matter what.”

As Lanzo felt Valencianus’s sword penetrate his heart, he let out a mind-shattering scream.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

The underground waterway shook as if it would collapse, and dust began to fall.

For Valencianus, it was a relief that Rudi was not brought along.

Infiltrators were more powerful with mental attacks than through their mutated bodies.

For an ordinary person like Rudi, merely hearing that scream could have driven her insane.

If this were a battlefield, a hundred soldiers would have been driven mad by that very scream, causing chaos and attacking their own allies.

While Lanzo staggered Valencianus, he mapped out the area with echo location.

Without hesitation, he reached out towards the ceiling hole from which water poured in, stretching his newly regenerating arm.

His primary goal was escape.

The hole where groundwater flowed into the underground was located shallowly in the canal wall, and with the power of Infiltrators, he should be able to easily pull himself up.

He drew himself toward the canal surface with his tentacles.

“Ah!”

His newly regrown eyes gazed upon the world.

The massive sluice gate of the canal was right in front of him.

Next to it stood the outer city wall’s eastern gate.

“Ahhhhhhh-!”

He flailed his arms, sticking himself to the grate of the canal sluice gate.

At that moment, he felt a grip pulling on his body.

Thud!

Valencianus, who had chased after him, stabbed a dagger into Lanzo’s waist.

Three syringes sank below the canal from the severed waistband.

“You said you would take revenge, right? Did you think I would let you go after hearing that?”