‘During the Warring States Period, countless pseudo-religious cults flourished, and most of them sought salvation and eternal life. I do not know the name of the Order this man belongs to, but whatever he seeks is not salvation.’
When Beligan stomped heavily, his mountain-like body leaped into the air and landed in front of Ernolf in an instant.
“Tiri!”
Kazar called out to Ernolf in alarm.
CRASH!
Beligan’s fist buried itself in the wall. Stone dust scattered, and the wall was left deeply dented.
Beligan’s fist missed because Ernolf, startled, fell backward onto the ground. Having barely avoided the danger, Ernolf frantically crawled to the side.
“You rat bastard!”
As Ernolf tried to flee, Beligan reached out. Black energy poured from his hand like smoke.
“Fire Wall!”
A Fire-Attribute Barrier formed between Ernolf and Beligan. The flames wrapped around the black energy and burned it away.
CRACK!
Beligan’s fist suddenly burst through the fireball.
Ernolf hastily erected a Shield. The Shield collided with Beligan’s hand.
At that moment, Kazar flew in, intending to drive his dagger into the back of Beligan’s neck.
Without looking back, Beligan swung one arm at Kazar’s flank.
“Kazar!”
Kazar hooked his arm around Beligan’s arm as it came for his side, then spun his body. The moment he had turned halfway around, Kazar released the arm he had wrapped around Beligan’s. Centrifugal force lifted Kazar’s body into the air.
FWIP, FWIP, FWIP!
As Kazar somersaulted through the air, he threw concealed weapons. The concealed weapons wrapped in Aura flew at Beligan’s face.
Beligan tilted his body and easily dodged them. A nasty smile formed at the corner of his mouth.
“Stupid bastard. They all miss—”
Before Beligan could finish speaking, screams rang out behind him.
“Urgh!”
“Agh!”
Beligan turned around. Two priests who had hurried over and tried to target Ernolf from behind had been struck in the throat by the concealed weapons and collapsed.
Kazar had not missed Beligan. He had targeted the priests behind him.
“High Priest Beligan!”
The other priests running down the corridor shouted with wide eyes. Beligan, who had been looking behind him, turned his head forward.
THUD!
Kazar leaped powerfully and drove his dagger into the crown of Beligan’s head. He had targeted the vital point precisely.
“Hah.”
Beligan laughed. The dagger Kazar had driven down with all his strength had not even pierced his scalp.
While Kazar drew Beligan’s attention to himself, Ernolf did not remain idle either.
“Rock Spear!”
When he chanted the spell with a hand on the floor, a spike as tall as an adult rose and attacked a priest.
One priest barely avoided the spike and rushed at Ernolf.
Ernolf slowed the bastard’s movements with Ice-Attribute Magic, then immediately cast a Shield to block another priest’s attack.
While the Shield was breaking apart, he hurled a fireball at the abdomen of the priest he had frozen moments before.
Ernolf had not created only one fireball. As he turned and extended his hand, the remaining fireball burned away a death arrow flying at his back.
Things that were too orderly could sometimes inspire fear. The priests felt frightened when they saw Ernolf respond with extreme calmness, speed, and precision.
‘This is the ability of a little brat?’
Even a mage warrior hardened by the battlefield would likely be unable to fight so cleanly.
‘He is on another level.’
The priests felt as though their opponent was not a child, but a seasoned veteran who had survived a hundred battles.
However, there was no time to hesitate. Now was their chance, while he could not use the Beast King’s Heart.
‘It has been a while.’
Ernolf felt as though he would die from exhaustion, yet for some reason, he was in a good mood.
He had been away from the field for a long time while handling state affairs, so it had truly been a while since he had fought one against many.
Thinking back, when he had first been assigned to an excavation site, he had happened to fall into a monster nest and suffered a terrible experience.
At the time, his father and grandfather had not helped him. They had merely watched from the upper level while drinking sparkling water, saying that the heir of the Torlier Family had to be able to escape on his own.
‘They definitely dropped me in there on purpose.’
Ernolf still suspected them of that. His only regret was that when he came out alive, the two of them had been so happy that he could not bring himself to question them.
While Ernolf fought the two priests, the priest who had not joined the battle treated the two priests struck by the concealed weapons and helped them back up.
They surrounded Ernolf and watched for an opening. They seemed to be weighing the chance to attack all at once.
There were five priests in total.
They had been badly affected by the corridor that spewed deadly poison, so they were in terrible condition, but Ernolf was still certainly at a numerical disadvantage.
As he quietly broke into a cold sweat, Ernolf checked on Kazar’s situation.
‘The priests called him Beligan earlier.’
Kazar had still not subdued Beligan, whose body was as hard as a golem’s.
No matter how much he had enhanced his body, that one bastard was a greater problem than the five men before Ernolf.
THUD!
“Kah!”
Beligan grabbed Kazar by the collar and slammed him into the floor.
Kazar had his dagger embedded in Beligan’s forearm. It seemed that the moment he had somehow managed to stab the forearm, he had been counterattacked.
Ernolf was in no position to help Kazar.
The priests waited like hyenas for their prey to tire, waiting for Ernolf’s stamina to run dry. Ernolf wanted to eliminate them before that happened.
“Death Spear!”
With the hand pinning Kazar’s neck, Beligan launched a black spear.
‘Damn it!’
He had no time to spare, but Ernolf hurled a large fireball at Beligan to save Kazar.
At that moment, the priests surrounding him all stretched out their hands and expelled black poison at once.
Through the black smoke that covered his vision, a pitch-black spear shot out and pierced Ernolf’s shoulder.
“Kgh!”
An agonizing pain, as if his arm were being torn off, struck his shoulder.
WHOOSH!
BOOM!
Beligan sensed the approaching fireball, but he did not dodge. He could not miss the chance to eliminate one of the twins.
“Kehk!”
A scream burst from Beligan’s mouth. Kazar had forced the dagger embedded in his forearm deeper.
The Death Spear Beligan had fired was stopped by Aura above the nape of Kazar’s neck and could not burrow any deeper.
The dagger that had pierced Beligan’s forearm cut through muscle and nerves as it moved down toward his wrist.
“Aaargh!”
Unable to endure it any longer, Beligan finally released his hand.
Kazar rolled backward and got up. Worried about Ernolf, he turned his gaze in that direction.
WHOOSH!
Ernolf took an antidote from his bag and scattered it through the air. The black poison mist met the antidote and was neutralized.
‘It is a general-purpose antidote, but its efficacy is excellent.’
He did not know who had made the medicine in the supply crates, but it seemed to be the work of a highly skilled apothecary.
“Shield. Aqua. Lightning Field.”
With calm spell chanting, the three spells unfolded one after another, almost like a combo.
As the moisture in the armory gathered like mist, a pure-white flash struck the floor.
The flash filled the area where the mist had spread at the speed of light.
ZZZZZT.
“Aaargh!”
“Aaaaaargh!”
The flash first penetrated the relatively weaker Shields.
Two priests were electrocuted, their bodies trembling violently as they collapsed.
WHISH!
A concealed weapon imbued with white Aura flew in and tore through one priest’s barrier. Kazar had thrown it.
The steel concealed weapon became a conductor and drew the flash into the Shield.
“Aaargh!”
The priest inside the Shield was electrocuted, his body shaking violently.
In the meantime, Ernolf broke through the encirclement and fled to where Kazar was.
“Huff, huff.”
Only when he stood back-to-back with Kazar did Ernolf finally gasp for breath. He wanted to keep fighting, but he was not sure whether his stamina and Mana Heart could hold out.
“As expected, they are all Healers.”
Ernolf spoke as he watched Beligan and the priests pour Healing Magic into their wounds.
“Yes, they are all damn Healers.”
Facing Healers was not good. They could heal their own wounds, turning every battle into a drawn-out fight.
“It’s all right. We have treatment medicine.”
Ernolf pulled the cap off a bottle of wound treatment medicine with his teeth and liberally splashed its contents over various parts of his body. Kazar also caught his breath and hurriedly treated his injuries.
When they had finished regrouping, Ernolf’s cold fingers touched Kazar’s fingertips.
“What is it?”
“Use this.”
Shakim’s Ring slipped onto Kazar’s finger. It had the ability to strengthen stamina and the Aura Heart.
“You…….”
Kazar had been about to ask whether Ernolf could hold out without the ring’s help, but he closed his mouth. There was no need to ask; Ernolf’s legs were already swaying.
“I had hoped that we could handle this on our own, but I guess we cannot.”
Ernolf muttered in a low voice.
It was vague, but Kazar knew what he meant.
While looting the supply crates, the two had thought up a plan they could use if they met Beligan and found themselves in danger.
“I do not know what will come out, but…….”
“Fuck, let’s do this!”
At Kazar’s shout, Beligan cast a spell at the two.
“Dark Light!”
A black beam flew at the two standing back-to-back.
A shining chain burst from Ernolf’s hand.
“Chain!”
The shining chain wrapped around the fine sword embedded in the pedestal.
Kazar embraced Ernolf and hurled himself toward the collapsed wall.
The black beam Beligan fired grazed Kazar’s back and pierced a pillar.
***
Kasion was crunching an apple at the Lord’s castle, where the entire city could be seen at a glance.
As he counted the carts entering the city in a line, he thought of the bride price he had to pay Baron Buzoni.
‘I have to hand all of that over.’
Until now, he had only extorted money from Baron Buzoni while handling various matters for him. This time, he had to bring him an enormous sum.
‘It is damn hard to change one’s lot in life.’
Baron Buzoni, who had acted as though he would give Kasion his daughter, suddenly said that a fine marriage prospect had appeared and behaved slyly.
For Kasion, a commoner, to gain an advantage over the other competitors, he had to offer a bride price they could not even dream of paying.
When Kasion brought the large bride price he had promised, Baron Buzoni was visibly flustered.
Seeing the awkward smile on his face as he could neither accept nor refuse, Kasion realized that the Baron had apparently never intended to give him his daughter in the first place.
If Baron Buzoni had been a poor local noble with neither connections nor power, like the Lord of Talisa, Kasion would have killed him long ago and turned him into fertilizer. Instead, he had been unable to do so and had paid the full price, which made him feel cheated.
‘Once that bastard’s daughter becomes mine, everything in the Buzoni Family will become mine, so it is not a losing deal. Still, it feels damn filthy.’
Before the Sarapi Empire’s rule, the Teres Continent had native nobles whose power was no different from that of kings.
The Emperor of the Sarapi Empire, who lacked the means to rule the Empire’s vast territory directly, granted titles to those local powers and recognized their autonomy.
They would govern themselves and protect their own territories, but they had to pay taxes to him, the owner of the Empire. They were the Great Nobles called dukes, marquises, and counts.
The Great Nobles were not fools either. Just as the Emperor had done, they selected people to manage their territories and handle public safety in their place, then granted them titles. They were the viscounts and barons, such as Baron Buzoni.
There were also people like tribal chiefs whose families had lived on the same land for generations. The Lord of Talisa belonged to that group. He had territory to rule but no title, so there would be fewer repercussions even if he were killed.
“We have made it look convincingly as though the Barbarians were responsible, and other than that monster, the Lord has no descendants to carry on his line. You need not worry.”
Evner, Kasion’s right-hand aide, ran over and reported. Kasion was indifferent. If he had been concerned about repercussions, he would not have plundered Talisa in the first place.
“What about the brats?”
“We found their camp and are lying in ambush.”
“To kill them?”
“Pardon?”
“I asked whether you are going to kill those twin bastards.”
That was not what one would expect from a man who had growled daily that he would catch the little bastards, grind them up, and drink them.
Evner’s lips moved as he struggled to decide what to answer.