The Dead

Ruin left the fleet to different races and led two priests and alliance forces to advance inland.

The outer castles beyond the coast were completely empty. It seemed they’d judged that defending here was meaningless after Breia withdrew.

Thanks to that, Ruin didn’t spend time on outer castle conquest either.

Leaving only minimum troops while securing a retreat route, he headed toward a 13 Lord’s castle in earnest.

“Teacher.”

Marco cautiously called Ruin.

“What?”

“Don’t we need to set traps separately?”

“There’s no need to divide people. It doesn’t matter if we can’t capture the castle. Just pressing in from the coast finishes our role.”

There were often cases of gaining advantage just by advancing.

Especially since alliance forces surrounded from five directions, just loading pressure on one side to stimulate enemies’ nerves had the effect of making other formations comfortable.

The role Pernok entrusted to Ruin was just one.

Prevent the enemy from turning eyes to the sea to sever all exchange with the outside.

“You mean trap them inland?”

“That’s right. So even if our role looks easy, it’s weighty. If the coast breaks through, it means Rakis gains the sea as a living route.”

“Then isn’t it fine to just make camp at sea?”

“Who fears enemies that stay still and protect themselves? The best method to guard the coast while instilling pressure on the enemy is advancing. And if we add one more thing here, it would be taking the enemy general’s head.”

“Is Breia that important?”

“Now that Chris disappeared, Rakis’s most dangerous person is Breia. Though former elders joined, they won’t match Breia. He’s not only excellent in tactics but has Magus Arts that pierce through everything……”

Marco looked at Ruin intently.

Even though they’d shown the cards of different races and priests at the coast, they couldn’t block Breia’s escape.

Moreover, now they were heading toward the middle of enemy territory. Could they stop Breia who rampaged in an environment advantageous to the enemy?

Recalling Ruin wounded by Breia in Rezhen, Marco closed his mouth.

Ruin chuckled and grasped the reins.

“If there’s absolute strength in the world, it’s His Majesty.”

“What?”

“All Magus Arts have compatibility, and Magus think of numerous methods to counter experienced Magus Arts. Breia is certainly an existence that clashes with me. But there’s exactly one method to kill him.”

Ruin stared at Marco.

“When I create an opening, insert Origin. That one moment will be the first and last chance to kill Breia.”

“Yes!”

“Of course, it won’t be as easy as thinking.”

Ruin suddenly drew out his staff.

“Though much distance to the castle still remains, enemies don’t seem to intend to let us through easily.”

Everyone looked at Ruin as if drawn to the solemn voice.

“It starts from here.”

And the moment he drove down the staff.

Crackle!

The spreading mana was blocked by something opaque.

“This mana wave is certainly……”

“Zer Targas.”

The Red priest and Green priest raised gazes to empty air.

A sharp-eyed old man was trampling empty air.

Mana starting from his toes spread widely like a massive barrier to embrace the great army.

“The sea was you bastards’ territory, but inland is different.”

Soldiers made of mana were generated from the ground.

Zer Targas.

Called the Beheading King, his Magus Arts was mana manifestation.

He freely manipulated mana existing in nature to make it into desired forms.

He could sharpen it keenly like a blade, or make dolls to use.

And that number reached as many as 50,000.

Because he used surrounding mana, not his own mana, this was possible.

Worthy to be called a one-man army without lack, the title “King” bestowed to him by the previous emperor wasn’t a hollow name.

Whoooong!

Even though Ruin overturned all directions with Loss, the mana soldiers didn’t disappear.

“Kekekekek. I saw through your Magus Arts’ principle long ago. In the end, it’s a fight of who does mana domination better. However, you and I have lived different amounts of time.”

Soldiers began pouring down from the mana barrier.

“Do you know how much mana I’ve dominated, brat!”

The Red priest clasped both hands like praying then spread them to the front.

Though the palm strike landed, mana soldiers were generated again.

Even when the Green priest raised water streams from the ground to overturn them, it was useless.

Zer’s Magus Arts was materializing intangible mana.

Even if forms collapsed, as long as mana existed, he could regenerate them endlessly.

And this Magus Arts’ core was in mana domination power that accomplished all processes instantly.

‘Does it mean since he’s acting alone without bringing Rakis’s soldiers, it doesn’t matter if he recklessly wastes mana? First he intends to wreck this place……’

Ruin turned his gaze to Marco.

“The opportunity to match combinations came faster than thought.”

“What?”

“Zer concealed his ability at the coast. And now his Magus Arts is dominating wider space than me. If we struggle to break through this, Breia might slip through weakened gaps. So this side will also counter with clashing power.”

Ruin still remembered Zer’s appearance caught off guard by Origin.

“I’ll create an opening. Then, insert all Origin to disorder Zer’s mana control. And if Zer retreats, we’ll aim at his back and charge straight into the castle where Breia is.”

“Understood!”

Marco didn’t speak of impossibility.

Because Ruin always didn’t refuse encouragement that things were possible, and Marco himself resolved he must reach higher places in this war.

“I’ll leave what happens after escaping this place to the priests.”

And Ruin’s Loss inflated its size.

Without caring at all about mana soldiers’ Loss, he only concentrated on clashing with the barrier. As Zer tried to suppress it with a sneer, Ruin chuckled.

That moment, Ruin’s Loss was released.

It returned to pure mana state and began entangling with the barrier.

‘Mana domination? Pathetic……’

If it was pure mana domination competition, there was nothing at all for Zer to be pushed back by.

Both sides’ mana entangled complicatedly.

It was throwing good prey so Zer would obediently accept the match.

That was what Ruin aimed for.

‘I’ll be pushed back in mana domination. But I can connect infiltrated mana to intervene in your domination power for one moment.’

He momentarily caught Zer so he couldn’t pour mana elsewhere.

To Zer, it was a cute level.

‘Those pushed back in mana domination hand over that mana entirely to the victor.’

Though Ruin started, Zer decided the end.

The moment mana initiative passed, Ruin’s mana entered Zer’s control as is.

Merely 10 seconds.

Even if the opponent was S2, mana competition that wasn’t Magus Arts could settle in short time.

Ruin dug into Zer’s outstanding confidence.

Whooong!

Only after hearing a hollow sound did Zer detect an unfamiliar existence.

When he dominated about half of Ruin’s mana, the shadow behind stretched and a heteromorphic existence that couldn’t be detected at all by mana appeared.

Marco, who’d learned Origin from Pernok and Ruin to face strong opponents for just one moment.

“If you fight Magus head-on, you will certainly lose. But when another person catches a Magus’s attention, there’s exactly one method to dig in undetected. An ambush hiding in darkness to aim at the opponent’s rear. It’s the method the Lord of Despair used frequently when killing opponents stronger than himself in his youth.”

Pernok counted frontal confrontation as ambush’s weakness.

When the opponent was before your eyes, no matter where you disappeared, vigilance would intensify.

He’d said that a massive presence that disturbed a Magus’s attention was absolutely necessary as prior preparation for ambush.

That was Ruin.

Ruin’s silent Magus Arts concentrated opponents’ attention just by unfolding.

Naturally all nerves would focus in fear of his Loss.

Right now Ruin caught Zer’s arrogance.

He fell deeply into mana domination enough not to know what mixed into the shadow beneath his feet.

And Marco who inherited the Lord of Despair’s darkness had grown to the capacity to aim at this gap.

Crack!

Though Zer tried to defend by making a small mana shield, he couldn’t completely avoid Marco’s Origin containing full power.

The black hand that shattered even the shield tore off Zer’s side.

“This vermin!”

Zer struck away Marco with an arm wrapped in mana.

Before falling to the ground, the Red priest ran and caught Marco.

Though he’d only taken a direct hit from one arm, Marco’s whole body swelled up and blood flowed out everywhere.

“Cough. Damn that hurts……”

But Marco smiled.

Even in intact state, handling all the Magus was difficult.

Moreover, he didn’t think Zer pouring blood would endure long against Ruin.

“You bastard dared draw a dagger in a match with me!”

As Zer shouted angrily, resonating mana shook heaven and earth.

To this man like the Origin of mana, Ruin calmly raised his staff.

“If you want to discuss pride, you should have requested a duel, not war.”

Ruin released the mana eroded by Zer.

And condensed independent mana small to make a mass of Loss.

“How far can you dominate my Magus Arts with that body?”

Zer avoided the Loss sphere shot up.

For the first time, he didn’t counter.

Black lines spreading from the wound area lowered his concentration.

Ruin grinned widely and made Loss spheres in all directions.

Because he judged that means to concentrate density and shoot directly was actually far more useful against the current Zer than spreading space widely.

As many as 100 spheres were made, and Zer’s complexion paled.

“Healing wounds made by Origin would be insufficient even staying up all day.”

Ruin shot the Loss spheres.

He didn’t care whether Zer avoided or not.

Because even in the moments he moved and concentrated, the wound was spread wide open.

“The moment darkness blooms into lines to reach your heart and your blood stops will be your last.”

Though victory reports echoed everywhere, news didn’t reach Pernok.

Because he’d been smashing 13 Lords’ castles one step ahead of messengers’ arrival speed.

BOOM!

While capturing Gedden’s castle, Pernok looked around.

Though there was clearly a great army of 10,000 here, no Magus presence was visible.

Leaving terrified citizens behind, Pernok descended to the cavalry commander.

“This place also has no Magus.”

“It’s strange. No matter how much they avoid frontal confrontation, isn’t it a 13 Lord’s castle? I don’t understand why they only drive soldiers to death.”

If they promised the future, they should have withdrawn even soldiers.

But at every castle passed until now, soldiers made camp.

Pernok beheaded all except those who fled.

Simply sending out troops was a war of attrition that posed no threat at all to Pernok.

Even so, why did they keep leaving only troops?

‘They must know this degree can’t hold my feet.’

There was still no report that Arad caught the traps.

If the situation met a new phase, Pernok’s means also became more simple.

Break through.

The moment they trampled everything and planted flags to occupy was exactly when the bastards would reveal appearances.

He intended to thoroughly engrave who was the desperate side.

“After quickly securing supplies, we head to Gashfaldt’s castle.”

“Yes!”

The reason Pernok chose 2,000 cavalry was simple.

Because only cavalry had the mobility to follow matching his speed.

Fierce speed battle.

Whatever they did, he simplified even rest intending to wreck things faster than that.

And upon reaching Gashfaldt castle, Pernok learned the reason they’d kept sending only soldiers.

“Y-Your Majesty……!”

There was no Magus there either.

Far from mages, they hadn’t placed even one siege weapon.

Even so, what flowed out from the broken castle gate was a phenomenon impossible to understand with human common sense.

“C-corpses are moving!”

The place the cavalry commander pointed.

Soldiers and citizens were walking out gripping weapons with pallid appearances.

Their pupils were entirely white, their steps were shaky, and vitality was extremely hard to find at all.

Certainly, they were corpses.

Yet dead people kept pouring out endlessly from the castle.

Pernok’s eyes narrowed thinly.

Observation Eye observed the heterogeneous thing flowing along the ground.

“The Dead……”

The distant past.

Scenes like nightmares that had slept in memories.

“No matter how much you cut, living flesh cannot extinguish dead souls. Peerless, have you entered the Soul Ledger?”

The Dead’s power that had revived battlefield soldiers again riding amber-colored lines along the earth.

The same power as then was now stretching out like branches from Gashfaldt’s castle.