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99. Beggar Siblings – Oriax

Prince Eric de Yeriel stared blankly at Leo, who was gagging.

‘Why, why isn’t it working? That guy isn’t an apostle, right? He doesn’t have any sacred items…’

It was perplexing. However, before that confusion even faded, the guy pointed a finger at me.

“Kill… Uuugh, kill him… quickly!”

The knights charged in.

Ungrateful bastards, how dare they!

“Rov qab los!”

At the prince’s bizarre shout, the knights who were rushing in flew back. They rolled around grotesquely as if they were hit by something in mid-air, but Eric nervously chewed his lips.

“It’s magic!”

Regardless of the knights’ shock, he looked out the window. He caught a glimpse of the church and those filthy minions of the deity to the south.

Fortunately, they seemed unaware.

Eric grabbed the ‘Mother’s Necklace’ from the display case by the window and jumped out.

I need to escape. I can’t die absurdly like this. The throne… the throne is mine. It’s my rightful place promised by Him.

“No!”

The knights following Leo stuck to the window and shouted. Jumping down from nearly ten meters high was daunting even for the knights.

However, Eric waved his hand lightly and landed smoothly. He peeked around again and shouted.

“Royal Guards! Royal Guards! Over here!”

The royal guards, who had rushed out in confusion, came running and asked.

“Prince! Are you okay? What’s going on?”

“It’s a counterattack. The Knights Order is plotting a rebellion. Gather the Royal Knights and soldiers immediately. They’re above…”

– Bang! Bang! Bang!

The knights following Leo jumped out one after another from the window.

Even that despicable “Younger Brother” jumped down with the knights and shouted with a pale face.

“Capture him! We must not let him escape! No, we don’t need to capture him; just kill him outright!”

Dozens of knights pulled out their swords and approached menacingly.

“Stop! Execute the traitors!”

Hundreds of royal guards and a dozen royal knights formed a formation. They advanced, protecting the prince, but Eric’s heart felt uneasy.

Those sixty men were all knights. The scum of the Knights Order had sided with Leo.

Even the Captain of the Royal Knights…

Although the royal guards protecting the castle were elite, they were no match for the knights.

“Ristad! Where are you? Show yourself!”

“It’s Ristad Jegen Dorph. Eric. De. Yeriel. Prince.”

A middle-aged man popped out of nowhere at the prince’s shout.

The cocky magician, Ristad Jegen Dorph, casually wore a blue pajamas and had a scruffy beard.

Eric spat out words as if names didn’t even matter.

“It’s treason. Inform the nobles of the emergency. Summon the Rutina guards as well.”

“I’ve already informed them. It’ll take a little time to arrive, though.”

He was a magician contracted with the Yeriel royal family and asked while rubbing his eyes.

“By the way, Prince, can you use magic? You just sent those knights flying earlier, didn’t you? It’s a magic I’ve never seen before…”

“That’s none of your concern. The situation is urgent, so go catch the traitors.”

“I’m contracted to assist in the palace’s defense, not to meddle in the power struggles between princes.”

Ristad chuckled and lowered his voice so that the nearby guards and knights wouldn’t hear. He was aware that Prince Leo de Yeriel had returned alive.

“I’ll pay you any amount of money. Just help the soldiers right now!”

“Hmm… let’s see.”

Eric de Yeriel ground his teeth and urged him, but Ristad only observed the situation and didn’t take any meaningful action. Regardless of the prince’s growing impatience, he crossed his arms.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t take on an extra contract. I neither want to get involved in a power struggle nor… honestly, it looks like they have the upper hand? Hahaha. It’s better for you to run quickly, Prince.”

“You bastard! If you could just stall for a moment… Wait, you didn’t call for reinforcements, did you?”

“Who knows? So, please take care. I’m leaving now. Hahahaha!”

With those words, the magician floated and flew up to the castle tower, while Eric de Yeriel couldn’t hold back his frustration and stomped his feet.

“For Prince Leo!”

“What, what’s going on? For Prince Leo?”

The knights led by Leo swept over the royal guards. The royal knights, who had dashed out in a panic from sleep, were so taken aback by seeing Leo that they couldn’t muster their strength.

The corpses piling up in the garden were all royal guards.

“Damn it!”

Abandoning the royal guards who were fighting to protect him, Eric rushed away in a frenzy.

I can’t trust that magician. I need to run and gather the army since I don’t know if he called for reinforcements…

“For Prince Leo!”

Knights gathered at the front door. They were cutting down the royal guards protecting the palace as they approached.

How many knights are there? Could it be that the entire Knights Order…?

“What the hell!”

I abruptly turned the other way. I tried to escape through a secret passage at the well on one side of the garden… damn it. Even from the well, knights were emerging.

“Capture Prince Eric!”

There was nowhere to run.

As he bolted this way and that, Prince Eric was ultimately cornered against the castle wall. The knights pressed in, swords pointed at him.

The magician watched from a distance, chuckling in amusement.

“How dare these lowly wretches point a sword at ‘Yeriel’! Can’t you just step aside?”

He screamed until his face turned crimson, but the knights merely stepped closer, not retracting their weapons.

Behind him, Leo was running in with a pale face, shouting, “Kill him! Immediately!”

“Leo, you bastard! If you’re alive, you should’ve kept your head down and hidden!”

The knights stoically advanced another step, cautiously.

“Put down your swords! Damn it! What does it matter that I was born of the queen! This and that… Fine. If it’s come to this… let me show you. I’ll prove that I am the chosen heir of God!”

“Don’t dawdle!”

“Ah! Prince!”

Leo swung his sword hastily.

He had no time to spare upon seeing that bizarre illusion. He even thought about running away. Though he had succeeded in surprising Prince Eric with overwhelming strength, turning back now, with the summit in sight, was out of the question.

So I must kill him quickly.

This one is dangerous.

Something is going wrong.

But Eric’s eyes were burning red quicker than Leo’s sword.

“O Great Oriax!”

Prince Eric raised his arm high. Red light glinted from his eyes, and a hole opened in the air.

The charging Leo was repelled and sent flying to one side of the garden.

Ristad, who was watching the chaotic scene from the tower roof, jumped up in shock.

“Ugh! No, stop…! Uh, rreerreeerereak to be! …”

The magician’s head shook like a clock. He rolled his eyes as if he had seen something he shouldn’t, wildly flailing around.

The once noisy castle was suddenly enveloped in silence. The battling knights, the guards, and even the shrieking handmaidens in the palace stared blankly into the air.

The only one making noise was the magician, who was foaming at the mouth.

“Guuuuuudhhaahaaa! Bow! Devote yourself to the great god! Oriax!”

– Splatter!

Tears, no, blood, fell from Oriax’s eye. The ground touched by the blood rotted, and suddenly, a bull’s head burst forth from the soil.

“Muwooooooo!”

The creature with the bull’s head shook its heavy body, shaking off the dirt while howling.

– Splatter! Splatter! Splatter!

“Gaaaah! Muwooor!”

Blood kept dripping down.

A soldier unfortunate enough to get splashed with blood screamed. The scream rapidly morphed as his head transformed into that of a bull.

Monstrous creatures, nearing three meters tall, stood up, with hooves on each side. Ten of them roared, grasping the horns sprouting from their heads.

“F-fight! Capture them!”

Leo shouted, but there was no need to shout. The knights and soldiers charged at the monsters, as if entranced.

The only one in their right mind was Leo. The palace’s handmaidens, servants, and the chamberlain grabbed anything they could find and rushed forward, throwing themselves at the monsters, disregarding floors two or three as they hurled and broke their legs.

“W-What? Commander! Get a grip!”

Leo grabbed the royal guard captain as he passed. Shaking him by the shoulders brought him back to reality, and he opened his eyes wide.

“Prince? Gah… Please let me go. If we don’t kill those things…”

He shrugged off Leo’s hand and dashed towards the monster, swinging his sword, as if he had to finish those monsters before it was too late.

What the hell is this…?

Blood and flesh spattered. A handmaiden lost her upper body while flying, and a soldier squirmed after being gored.

In this unrealistic scene reminiscent of a slaughterhouse, Leo was struck dumb, and then…

“Ugh!”

He flinched at a chilling sensation. With tears shed, Oriax’s eye observed him closely.

Just that gaze sent chills down his spine.

‘This… this doesn’t make sense.’

Am I supposed to face something like that?

Me?

Collapsed, Leo strained to hold onto his shattered senses as Oriax’s eye pulsed, and every time it filled with curiosity, Leo’s blood seemed to surge along with it.

Blood pooled unevenly in his body, shifting back and forth.

It’s impossible.

That’s not something humans can face.

Leo grasped his own throat. Pressing hard against the bulging carotid artery, he sank to his knees.

This game was wrong from the start.

Events of “bloodline” and all that are meaningless; there’s no way to clear this. How can I drive out someone who summons such creatures?

It’s over.

I’ll never return here again. No, Minseo! You must never come here.

This place… this place is hell.

Before his eyes, a soldier exploded. The organs of a soldier kicked by the monster splattered against Leo’s face.

Leo felt dizzy.

As he despaired and tried to give up everything…

“Muwooooo!”

Handmaidens, servants, and soldiers burst, struck by the monster’s enormous palm, yet knights were fighting well.

“…Huh?”

They didn’t seem as strong as they looked.

Despite the decaying blood pulsating from their enormous bodies, presenting grotesque terror, were they merely a type of ‘monster’?

Only enough strength for such a huge body.

That was all.

And there were more than a hundred knights here. They rushed at the monsters, paralyzed with fear, yet continued to take down the grotesque beings one by one.

Just as a glimmer of hope began to rise,

“Thov koj kho kuv! I dedicate this blood!”

Prince Eric was running around, performing a sacrifice. He sliced open a knight’s corpse with a dagger and began chants of offering.

The corpse decayed in an instant, vanishing.

Repeating that farce caused drops of blood to fall from ‘Oriax’s eye’. Another monster appeared.

“Thov txais! I dedicate this flesh!”

The wounds on the monsters rapidly healed. Legs that had been severed grew back, and plucked eyes returned to their sockets.

The monster, which had been half-dead, rose, snorting as it shook its head.

‘That guy is the problem!’

Leo struggled to get back on his feet.

Feeling off due to the gaze of the Child God, he couldn’t just sit there.

He identified the main culprit: Eric de Yeriel, that prince was the problem.

The one looking down from above showed no signs of wanting to face him, yet the monsters below were oddly weak. So… there must be some restriction. Otherwise, he wouldn’t just be looking through that hole.

Leo gripped his sword tightly.

The knights were too lost in combating the monsters to care about Prince Eric.

I need to catch that guy.

Leo dashed across the chaotic garden. Blood oozed from his ears. He lunged at Eric de Yeriel, who was searching for corpses.

“Die!”

“Ah! You bastard! Rov qab los!”

Leo was sent tumbling again.

Eric, shocked, asked incredulously.

“What the hell are you? How are you alright even after being marked? You didn’t get enchanted earlier… ugh!”

Leo charged again.

This time, he didn’t bounce back.

He was just blocked.

– Clang!

Eric de Yeriel shrieked, thinking he was hit by a sword, then cautiously opened his eyes.

A translucent sphere surrounded him. The dark red energy swirling around it was undoubtedly a gift from God. Leo swung his sword down again, but the sphere didn’t break; in fact, its density only thickened.

At that moment, one of the monsters noticed the ‘apostle’ danger and drew closer to Leo.

‘This won’t do. I was wrong.’

Leo discarded any lingering attachments. He needed to flee now. He turned his back on Oriax’s gaze and ran.

I need to escape with my younger sister. No, wait, Lena has Jenia. I shouldn’t go to Lena and risk trouble, so I’ll head to Bart instead…

As he racked his brain about what to do next and sprinted towards the front gate, Leo’s heart sank.

Jenia Jaqueri appeared. She bore a hideous mark on her face and was charging at him with her sword drawn.

Thick pus dripped down her chin.

Just like Leo.