章節 315: Chapter 474
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Only fifteen people remained in Gaifa Archipelago when the main unit of the Zipfel Magic Tower and the reinforcements from the main house arrived.
Five people of Zipfel, five members of the Vermont Imperial family, and five beastmen of Kinzelo.
The rest were killed by Proch siblings, Vigo and his knights.
Members of the three factions had already lost both their strength and fighting spirit, so they couldn't stand against Runcandels and the Proch siblings.
Vigo had considered capturing Sandra Zipfel in the process.
But "Murakan and Jin just went back," he made a very wise judgment and decided that he should not capture her.
He remembered the fact that this was a situation where he had to respect the position of a flagbearer who, although lower in external hierarchy, had a much higher practical ranking.
He thought that he should not ignore the decision of the guardian deity of the clan and a flagbearer whose actual rank was much higher than his, although lower in external hierarchy.
"Vigo Runcandel, right? Hahaha, he must have wanted to capture me, but he made a pretty smart decision."
Sandra chuckled as she sipped the fruit juice in front of her.
She was in the commander's room of the battleship Kozec. The other pureblood Zipfel members who had been organized as a rescue support team had naturally moved to other places when she took over the commander's cabin.
"Vigo would have died today if he hadn't given up on capturing me. Hmmm, if it had turned out that way, I wonder if my Jin would have been sad? Jin didn't seem particularly close to him."
"Hoo."
The old man sitting across from Sandra let out a frustrated sigh. He was the second-class butler of Zipfel, named 'Hedo.'
Hedo was also a muscular man who did not fit the image of the world's most famous magic clan's butler. His bulging muscles seemed to express his very disgruntled mood.
"Young lady, you should have fought back properly even after Jin Runcandel left."
"Is that so?"
Sandra's completely carefree attitude, seemed to be turning Hedo's insides upside down.
"I don't know about Vigo doesn't know, but if the Proch siblings had died, my Jin would have definitely been sad, Hedo. You should think about that much. Jin and I are in love, you know."
Hedo shook his head.
The fact that Sandra was a very eccentric young lady had been known to him better than anyone else for a long time.
But suddenly, love? Romance?
'Moreover, she fell for Jin, of all people, the 12th flagbearer of Runcandel. What kind of joke is this from the heavens?'
There had never been such a situation before.
However, one thing he was sure of was that, no matter what the reason for suddenly falling in love with Jin, Sandra would never let go of her feelings in the future.
Hedo had seen Sandra Zipfel for a long time, and she was that kind of person. A completely spoiled brat, an incredibly uncompromising human!
It wasn't a matter that would end as a simple love affair or fleeting romantic emotions. It was difficult for Hedo to suppress the tumultuous feelings.
"...And, young lady, that arm. Are you really going to leave it as it is?"
"Yes."
"You can heal it, right? Why on earth would you leave it as it is?"
"I can commemorate my meeting with Jin every time I see my severed right arm."
"Young lady, you're right-handed. You've done everything with your right hand all your life..."
"I can eat with my left hand from now on."
"It will definitely be inconvenient, very inconvenient."
He was at a loss for words as he tried to control his anger.
"Heheh, it's okay. It's all for love!"
Chiiik!
Hedo took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. One cigarette was burned down like a fuse as he took a deep puff, and a cloud of smoke escaped outside the commander's room when he exhaled.
Hedo felt a bit more at ease after smoking five cigarettes in an instant, and soothed his urge to shout and curse.
Hedo combed his hair back and met eyes with Sandra.
"...Alright, I understand. But what about the technology leak? It's quite likely that the right arm of the young lady, as well as the space-time device that Jin Runcandel took, will become a problem."
Dealing with the former issue was relatively simple. Sandra's sealed right arm would have come back if she tried high-speed regeneration using the authority of time instead of normal healing.
'But the young lady won't heal her arm until the recoverable time has passed.'
Although the latter is equipped with a safety device to prevent technology leak from the 'space-time device'.
Hedo was not inclined to trust such technology. He remembered the scholars and technicians who had been shouting that there was no way it could leak because they had prepared a surefire prevention measure. The thought made him feel incredulous.
"Yes, that's right. But Hedo..."
"Please, go on, young lady."
"I have to do that so that my lover competes with our clan, no. At least it becomes something like competition, no?"
Sandra said, smiling mischievously as she continued.
"There is literally a gap of egg and rock between my Jin and our clan. So I just thought giving him that chance wouldn't hurt."
"I see, there's a deeper meaning to it."
Hedo nodded as if giving up. Sandra found his reaction quite amusing and burst into laughter for a while.
"Hedo, you understand me, right?"
Soon, Sandra stopped laughing and looked at Hedo. After a brief pause, Hedo replied.
".... Yes, of course. I'll do my best to explain to the patriarch."
"As expected, there's no one like Hedo. Hehe."
***
The land of the beastmen, the headquarters of Kinzelo.
"Ahhhh! Ahhh! It's painful, too painful! I feel like I'm going insane! Aaaah!"
Bubare Gaston has been suffering for several days, complaining of his pain and crying out in bizarre agony. Whenever he contorted his body and let out a scream that sounded like a pig being slaughtered, his bobbed belly swollen grotesquely.
"Bring more painkillers, quickly!"
"Rather just kill me!"
The medical staff and beastmen who were barely holding on to Bubare were sweating.
Berakt, Margiella, and Cold Joe watched from a distance.
"Haah, I thought we were on the verge of achieving the great cause. How did things get this bad with so much bad news piling up...!"
Joe clicked his tongue and said.
"Shut up, Joe. As if I'm not frustrated enough, listening to your annoying voice makes me even more frustrated."
"I apologize, Sir Berakt."
"I told you to shut up. Don't say a word. If you don't want to be eaten alive."
Joe turned his head away with a mouthful of curses.
Bad news.
As Joe said, recently Kinzelo had been going through days filled with bad news.
The leader fell ill after using more power than expected during the time of the Sword Emperor Castle's terrorist attack. And as if that wasn't enough, Zephyrin went wild on her own, causing further strain on the leader's body.
And this time, it was Bubare's turn.
Although almost everyone in Kinzelo, excluding someone like Margiella, despised him, Bubare Gaston would play a crucial role in achieving the great cause.
The reason why Bubare was suffering so much was because of his 'fusion' with Amela.
The process of releasing the fusion was not smooth, causing damage to Bubare's soul and chaos.
If the leader was in perfect condition, he would have quickly sorted this out. But for now, Bubare was just relying on painkillers.
To persuade Amela, Kinzelo decided to highlight the fact that they had more information about "chaos" than any other faction.
As a result, Kinzelo's best warriors took some of Bubare's chaos when they went to Gaifa Archipelago, in the form of a sculpture.
The result was a great success.
Amela was extremely satisfied once she realized that chaos could merge, creating even more powerful abilities.
She felt as if she had obtained a clue about the chaos that she had been searching alone for a long time. From then on, Amela did not even negotiate with other forces at all. It was because someone had spoken to her through the chaos of Bubare.
"If you join me, I will tell you everything you want to know about chaos..." The voice was strangely trustworthy.
"The leader even sent a message to Amela with his exhausted body. She showed a stance that she would kill our warriors after the negotiation was over, saying that we still have to pay for bothering her, but I decided to endure that."
Crack, Berakt continued to grind his teeth as if he was going mad.
In the treatment room on the other side, five warriors of the White wolf tribe and the Red Tiger tribe who had returned from the Gaifa Archipelago, were receiving treatment.
"But now Amela is dead, our warriors are massacred, the survivors are completely insane, and Bubare is in that state! We didn't get anything and only suffered severe damage."
How should I accept the fact that the center of all these bad news is Jin Runcandel? Berakt couldn't fathom it.
Margiella, who was also listening to him, wore a rare dark expression.
"I'm sorry, mister Berakt. I honestly didn't expect Sir Jin to be so uncooperative."
"You don't have to apologize to me, Margiella! I said that because I am frustrated. The leader's condition is constantly at risk... so something needs to change, don't you think?"
Berakt shrugged his shoulders, pointing to a map on the table.
There were various marks on the map, representing Kinzelo, Runcandel, Zipfel, and Vermont, indicating strategic points for their operations.
Berakt spoken while pointing to a point on the map where many marks were gathered.
"What should we do if, by any chance, Jin Runcandel causes trouble here and starts meddling again!?"
It was the location where the 'thing greater than Amela' is at stake, as Jin expected in the Gaifa Archipelago.
"At that time..."
Margiella paused for a moment.
"At that time, I will seriously consider whether Sir Jin is the right person to be with us, mister Berakt."
"Yes, you need to consider it."
"I hope Sir Jin doesn't know what's happening here. If he continues to obstruct us, he might truly become our enemy."
"Hmm!"
He didn't expect Margiella to accept this calmly, so Berakt cleared his throat as if embarrassed.
In reality, Berakt had no other choice but to agree with Margiella, even if she insisted that she was always right and expressed her displeasure.
"Well, he probably doesn't know. If he did, he would have gone there first, not to Amela."
"That's true, mister Berakt."
"By the way, it's a shame that our vice-leader can't witness Bubare's condition. He would have been delighted to see Bubare suffering like this."
"Yes, he would have been very pleased. But mister Berakt, you know that mister Bubare is our friend, don't you?"
***
Meanwhile,
Runcandel's Black Knight, Dox McRolan, was infiltrating the southern region of Huphester, Rikalton, to carry out Jin's orders.
And while he was checking the basement of Rikalton Execution Ground, he noticed a strange and horrific phenomenon.
'What on earth... is this?'
章節 316: Chapter 475
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Dox McRolan saw countless humans. To be precise, it could be described as a kind of "tower" formed by countless humans.
It seemed to be at least a dozen feet high.
The bodies of humans that made up the tower were grotesquely twisted and folded, resembling large bricks.
Dox had experienced many battlefields where blood, bones, and flesh intermingled, but he had never seen a tower built from humans like this.
Hu…
Dox involuntarily held his breath. The toxic stench of decay and stench was so terrible that it felt like his lungs were rotting. He also felt nauseous, making it hard to endure.
'They're alive.'
All the humans who had become the bricks of the tower were alive.
Their waists were bent completely in the opposite direction, their necks twisted, and their bodies folded into square shapes to form the bricks, yet they were still breathing.
Grunt, squish. There were the sounds of humans barely exhaling from the various parts of the tower. With each breath they took, the tower expanded slightly and then sank back down.
And their pupils.
Countless pupils were blinking. Some pupils simply opened and closed without focus, while others seemed to do something as they shifted their gaze.
The latter were all trying to look at Dox.
'Is this some kind of ancient dark magic? Or perhaps a rite for divine possession? Either way…'
This was happening in Huphester, in the backyard of Runcandel.
Of course, this place was an "execution ground." Most of the humans used for the tower were likely to be serious criminals, but even so, this should not have happened.
Dox doesn't care how the prisoners die, but this would defile the land that worships combat skills and struggle.
-As soon as you recover, head to the city of Rikalton in the southern region of Huphester. And investigate the truth of what is happening in Rikalton.
Dox recalled the words of the 12th flagbearer.
'Even a Black Knight like me knew nothing about Rikalton. The 12th flagbearer has lower access to records than I do, so how did he find out about this place?"
The 12th flagbearer possessed an information network that exceeded expectations.
Naturally, he could reach such a conclusion. In reality, Jin discovered this place by chance from the story Emma had told, rather than Tikan's information network.
However, that wasn't a particularly important issue. What was truly important in Dox's mind was how many people within the clan knew this fact.
'And who owns this facility and what is their purpose?'
The Patriarch, acting matriarch, chief of black sword association, and top flagbearers.
That was the limit to how many people could have possessed a facility of this size. Chiron and Luna were out of the question from the beginning, and the chief of black sword association had recently lost his influence.
'If it belonged to the chief of black sword association, someone in the Elder Council would have exposed this facility to gain an advantage.'
The remaining possibilities were the acting matriarch and the top flagbearers.
'It is highly likely that it's a work of Madame Rosa, and the 2nd flagbearer..."
The 3rd and 4th flagbearers wouldn't have done such a thing. Until recently, Luntia had been living like someone who had given up on the world, and Diphus couldn't do anything because of Mary.
On the other hand, Rosa and Joshua were different. Above all, Rikalton belonged to Joshua.
'After the 1st flagbearer gave up the throne, Madame Rosa showed an obsession with the 2nd flagbearer that was sometimes incomprehensible.'
And how all those around the 1st flagbearer were killed and taken over in that process, was a well known fact to all the Black Knights.
'When the 12th flagbearer chose Barisada during the Selection Ceremony, there were reports that the acting matriarch and the 2nd flagbearer were in contact with mage who was good at curses. They said it was just a circumstance.'
His head was growing hot.
It was because he remembered that the senior knight, who mentioned this, was retired not long after due to an injury during a mission.
I was naive. It was by no means a typical injury, and Dox shook his head.
'Still, I have to report back to the 2nd flagbearer. I will personally confirm if this place truly belongs to him and report to the Patriarch…'
The moment Dox thought that far.
Gahahaha, hahahaha-!
Suddenly, laughter echoed throughout the human tower. It was the voices of the human bricks that formed the towers. Dox readied himself and assumed a defensive stance while preparing to draw his weapon.
"Ahahaha!"
Then he heard a woman's laughter. Dox had an intuition that the owner of this voice was the manager of this facility.
Step, step.
The woman was walking among the human towers.
She was the Prophet.
"Now, a riddle for the foolish intruder."
The Prophet stopped.
Her face wasn't visible, concealed in deep shadows, but she didn't seem to have a large build, and she gave off a fairly young impression.
"What are you doing here?"
Dox stared at her without answering. Even though he felt vulnerable, for some reason, he couldn't extend claws towards her. His body had stiffened, much like prey encountering a predator.
A Black Knight of Runcandel stiffened.
"You foolish child! You don't seem to understand at all. Well then, here's the next riddle!"
The Prophet extended her open palm.
Huuung...!
A black energy gathered above it. The power of Solderet, the shadow force, spread from the Prophet's hand.
"Whose place is this?"
The Prophet smirked, and Dox felt as if he'd been struck on the back of the head with a mace. Looking at the shadow force, he thought that the Prophet was closer to Jin than to Joshua.
"I am the subordinate of Jin Runcandel, contractor of Solderet. So, if Runcandel's Black Knight is here without permission, you'll have to pay the price."
"..... I came here under the orders of the 12th flagbearer."
"Ahaha, if that's true, my master is playing another wicked trick. In any case, I can't just let you go. Surrender quietly. I'll have to confirm it with my master. I'll kill you if you resist."
Hahaha, the human bricks in the towers laughed in agreement with the Prophet.
Dox's body wasn't in the usual state. He had come to Rikalton in haste to settle his debt with Jin, without a full recovery.
'I can't win in this condition.'
Dox turned around as soon as he made that judgment. The Prophet seemed disappointed when Dox started moving.
"Tsk, that's no fun."
When the Prophet reached out her hand, a purple beam shot out. After seeing that purple beam pass by him and graze his shoulder, Dox couldn't help but think of the Black King Mountain Hideout.
'This power, it's similar to what Zephyrin used!'
A chill ran down his spine. He had never experienced such a crushing defeat as he did that day after living as a martial artist.
The purple beams struck him again. He managed to dodge or deflect most of them, but a few beams got through.
And it was unfortunate that the beams he missed were targeting vital points. They were moving toward his heart and throat, which meant certain death.
Strangely, as death drew near, the face that came to his mind wasn't those of his companions in Runcandel, but someone he hadn't thought of at all.
So, just as he was about to call out that name in his mind...
"Dox, snap out of it!"
Clang!
Someone deflected the beams aimed at Dox's heart and throat.
***
"...That's all, Your Majesty."
The Imperial Palace.
Latz, wrapped in bandages all over his body, reported to the Emperor. The imperial family sent so many people to the Gaifa Archipelago, but only Latz and the four others that Jin had deliberately left behind returned.
Even those five came back with severely damaged bodies. Latz, in particular, could no longer do his duties as a leader of the special forces division. He couldn't even perform ordinary movements anymore.
Unlike Jin, the Proch siblings had no qualms about making their enemies as miserable as possible, regardless of their personal feelings.
"It's a shame that the great mercenary Amela died... Haha, but it's quite a gain."
The Emperor's first words after Latz's report was about the "gain."
The first "gain" was none other than the information about Zipfel's living golem and the Demon God's Orb.
'Zipfel's living golem technology seems to have superior effects compared to our Majins, they are using authorities of gods without being the contactors.'
He shuddered, and a shiver ran down his spine. The power that Zipfel, the greatest in the world, possessed always filled the Emperor with reverence.
"Myuron Zipfel must have been resurrected with the help of that Demon God's Orb for sure!"
The Emperor stood up, exclaiming in admiration.
Ever since Jin was a reserve flagbearer, no. Even before he was born, the Emperor had always been curious about the name of that object. It was the name of the orb that the great Zipfel had longed for.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Based on the circumstances, it seemed that Sandra Zipfel's high-speed regeneration and Myuron's resurrection were phenomena caused by the Demon God's Orb."
"Undoubtedly, there will be a price for that. Moreover, it is probably stronger than Majins, but there must be limitations to mass produce these living golems."
The second gain the Emperor had in mind was information about Jin and Murakan.
"Jin Runcandel."
The Emperor smiled as he thought of Jin.
Although their first meeting was disappointing, the Emperor never underestimated Jin's abilities. However, he had a conviction that someday, those who sought "friendship" in the battles of the major factions would naturally disappear.
The recent report from Latz on Jin and Murakan's battle prowess made him think that they might become a variable like "Chiron" in the future. It was a slim possibility, but still.
'Is it the unique confidence of people like Chiron Runcandel or White Whale? You knew that all information about Zipfel would be reported to me... Why did you bother to send Latz alive, Jin Runcandel?"
Is this a provocation? Or is it a sign that this information is not so important? In any case, the emperor felt uncomfortable with the sense that Jin is 'looking down' on him.
The emperor burst out laughing lightly.
'Well... My discomfort is nothing compared to the pain you will soon feel.'
A smile tugged at the Emperor's lips.
Sword Emperor castle.
The Emperor was suddenly curious about how Jin would react when Hairan's home, which is slowly being restored, collapses once again.
Hairan was in an isolated state like an abandoned island after the terrorist incident at the Sword Emperor castle.
Zipfel constantly pressured Hairan, and the imperial family didn't protect them. The dignity of the Sword Emperor was needed more than ever, but Ron was gradually reducing his external activities.
With rumors circulating that Hairan could fall as is, the Emperor was determined to make those rumors a reality.
"I can't wait to see how that tough guy values his friendship."
The emperor muttered to himself and organized his thoughts. The Emperor was unaware of the fact that Zipfel was pressuring Hairan more than necessary lately largely because of Jin.
"Latz."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"I will give you a new mission. As soon as your body transforms, investigate Ron's movements."
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