March

Where Divine Punishment struck down collapsed, and Pernok and mages leaped over the loudly pierced wall.

Then the interior hidden by thick walls was revealed.

“Aaaargh!”

“S-save me!”

“O-open the gates! Quickly!”

Panic-stricken soldiers fled in all directions. Among them, several command center staff were also spotted.

“Urgh!”

Pernok turned his head following the retching sound.

When a soldier with bluish spots on his face vomited, sour and fishy stench wafted out.

“…!”

Pernok immediately flicked his sleeve to raise wind.

While blowing away the stench, he swept over soldiers being poisoned in succession.

‘I wondered why security was lax—it was because of this poison.’

It was Buckingham.

His Magus Arts that Gram conveyed was spreading poison that could melt even iron lumps.

Just slightly inhaling toxic energy flowing in the air caused extreme pain before death.

The sight of everything except the caster being poisoned resembled the Lord of Calamity.

‘The center.’

The middle of the command center.

There, fiercely burning mana contrasted with extinguishing mana.

‘Even Magi can’t easily shake off this poison.’

The center was thicker with poison than here.

Even without breathing, if poisons penetrating through pores accumulated in layers within the body, even Magi might lose strength and die poisoned.

Pernok brought sparks to the drifting toxic energy.

Bang.

A shallow explosion occurred but couldn’t burn the toxic energy.

‘The moment poison collides, fire explodes. If I burst fire in that center, this place will explode like a powder keg.’

It seemed he’d need at least an equal-rank Magus to spew fire to melt the poison.

But even after exploding, there was a problem.

‘This poison doesn’t lose toxicity even after transforming to smoke.’

Rather, it had the danger of poison spreading widely riding the wind.

‘A more troublesome type than I heard.’

It differed from ordinary poison.

No matter how much he broke and erased it, it melted into the air or endlessly proliferated.

For Flemyr whose specialty was cutting, it was Magus Arts like a natural enemy.

He erased from his head the expectation that Flemyr and Buckingham would be evenly matched.

“An enemy Magus used poison. It’s extreme poison that causes severe pain within the body the instant you inhale. Never approach poisoned ones, and don’t stay in windy places. And find all military staff and kill them.”

“Yes!”

“Sever those necks, put them in boxes, and immediately leave the fortress to await my instructions.”

“Understood!”

Mages scattered in all directions and began killing staff amidst the chaos.

Thanks to Buckingham’s poison continuously spreading from the fortress, the military formation easily crumbled.

As those poisoned by toxin increasingly grew, soldiers couldn’t even think of responding to assailants and were desperate to flee.

While mages wove through that space, Pernok crossed through the military center.

The more he headed toward the center, the poison thickened like fog, and corpses melting down were spotted in the opaque vision.

The moment he saw corpses with skin already rotted to the point their forms were hard to recognize, Mana Reinforcement activated.

His body accepted this place’s severity.

‘If I burst fire that repels poison here, an explosion that swallows even the fortress will occur.’

There was only one way to handle this thick Poison Fog.

Deal damage to the mana generating poison with pure energy, then blow it all away with magic.

BOOOOOOM!

He first struck down the sticky toxic energies’ connecting links with Over Impact.

As soon as cracks formed, he used level 7 storm magic to blow all the fragmented toxic energies into midair.

The center brightened in an instant.

And the figure of the Blood Sword man staggering and the one facing him mockingly became clear.

Thud!

As soon as Pernok landed, he swung his sword at Buckingham’s neck.

Buckingham’s reaction, who belatedly noticed a hole was pierced in the center and Pernok had intruded, was one step slow.

But surprisingly, the spread toxic energy reflexively clustered before him.

Whoosh!

Though Pernok’s sword split the toxic energy in half, Buckingham had already buried his body in Poison Fog.

It was so deep green that confirming Buckingham’s figure was difficult.

If it were ordinary vision, that is.

BANG!

Observation Eye precisely captured Buckingham’s mana buried in Poison Fog.

When he burst Over Impact in succession while pressing forward, a roar arose. And where Poison Fog slightly lifted, Buckingham’s figure with a severed forearm was visible.

Drip… drip drip…!

But the eerie sound came from behind.

“Huff… haah… Y-Your HIghness…”

The Magus who handled blood was rather vomiting pitch-black dead blood.

At injuries more severe than expected, Pernok furrowed his brow.

No matter how his Magus Arts focused on severing enemies with poor methods for handling poison, if he were an opponent who didn’t even match up, Flemyr would’ve already withdrawn.

But Flemyr had things to protect.

“Urgh!”

“Graagh!”

Flemyr’s retainers writhing in pain.

Buckingham had trapped in Poison Fog those who’d tried to leave the Magi’s combat zone to kill staff.

With Flemyr’s Magus Arts, blowing away poison was impossible.

If alone, he could’ve withdrawn, but with retainers already poisoned, there was no other choice.

Severing the Magus Arts user’s neck to release this poison was the best judgment he could choose.

But Buckingham’s poison was clearly different from ordinary ones.

Because the more he cut, the poison seeped into air like smoke to poison targets in some way.

‘The duke has 5 minutes. Retainers have about 2 minutes.’

Extreme poison had already taken hold within their bodies.

At least being high-level mages with poison resistance, they were only breathing.

‘I must kill that bastard within 2 minutes.’

While drawing estimates in his head, Buckingham revealed surprised eyes.

“Prince Pernok… how are you here?”

He also hadn’t expected Pernok’s appearance.

“Not frontal but detour? Then you mean you tied Owen down with the main force, but how was such deception possible?”

But Buckingham wasn’t greatly flustered.

Flemyr and Pernok had allied.

And right now, allies were collapsed in this place.

In Buckingham’s view, there was no better situation than this.

“You’re quite a person. But if you sensed this place from afar, you shouldn’t have entered!”

Poison Fog he’d blown away in wind filled this place again.

In hazy fog where he couldn’t see an inch ahead, Pernok bit his thumb while bleeding.

Bloody Poison.

Without detoxifying, he mixed poison that penetrated his body with blood and sent it outside.

And immediately blocked with mana the poison trying to penetrate through the wound.

He had to repeat this work every 3 minutes going forward.

The moment he delayed even one timing, Pernok would also accumulate poison in his body and be poisoned.

“Duke, can you move?”

“Huff… possible… huff…”

“What about taking retainers and fleeing?”

Flemyr silently shook his head.

Buckingham watched that desperate appearance with a smile from within Poison Fog.

‘The end went wrong. Even if you survive my poison intact, they’re already dead lives. If you leave Poison Fog right now, there’s a glimmer of survival chance, but your type tries to sacrifice the small for the great.’

Would he kill Rakis’s 13 Lord?

Or save Flemyr and retainers?

Between two choices, there was no correct answer.

Whatever he chose, Flemyr’s forces weakening was natural.

“2 minutes… difficult.”

At words sounding resigned, Buckingham grinned.

‘Save Flemyr and retainers? Not a good choice.’

He made the toxicity even thicker.

So retainers would gasp for breath, suffer, and die.

So Pernok’s judgment would be disrupted by those screams.

‘Taking them out is already too late!’

It was when retainers’ skin began melting down bit by bit.

“Your Highness… flee… cough.”

“We proceed as scheduled. Protect your bodies with mana.”

Within Poison Fog, Pernok slowly raised his sword.

Already a minute had passed.

Even Magi should show wavering, yet Pernok showed not an inch of weakness.

“Is it there?”

Indescribably eerie coldness burst from overhead.

Buckingham, who hurriedly raised his gaze skyward, widened his eyes.

Pure white lightning clearly visible even within Poison Fog was formed in a clear sky.

BOOOOOOM!

It was fast as light to see and respond—his body couldn’t follow.

Though Poison Fog automatically clustered to perform a shield role, blocking all Divine Punishment was impossible.

BOOM!

In the time Poison Fog briefly opened, Buckingham stepped back.

‘That just now…?’

Before thought converted to reasoning, Pernok’s Observation Eye pierced secrets hidden in Poison Fog.

Poison born from mana connected like thin thread to maintain form, and dominated the area with defense mechanisms surpassing Buckingham’s reflexes.

Poison Fog with offense and defense integrated was like a deeply rooted tree’s trunk.

Even if he couldn’t cut the great tree, it didn’t matter.

If he kept burning the trunk, the great tree that lost supports would inevitably collapse.

Normally he’d try to strike the main body, but the situation judged by Observation Eye was confident to erase this Poison Fog itself entirely.

Boom boom boom bang!

Divine Punishment that burst in succession exploded irregularly in all directions.

Simultaneously, the impact gathered in the artifact converted to Over Impact and struck Buckingham hard.

“…!”

Buckingham couldn’t understand—two types of power simultaneously attacked Magus Arts and the main body.

‘If he conducts an attack of this scale, mana should drain. And poison should dig into that weakened gap, so how can he move intact?’

Initial leisure completely disappeared.

It was poison Magus Arts, yet how should he respond to a human not poisoned by poison?

Slash!

“Urgh!”

Finally, Pernok severed Buckingham’s right arm.

While Buckingham clutched his forearm, he gathered all Poison Fog in the area and poured it on Pernok in the center.

The action wasn’t hoping the attack would work.

It was merely a smokescreen to buy time to flee.

‘Poison doesn’t work on Prince Pernok. And there’s something incomprehensible lurking. This must be conveyed to Owen. The empire must be informed!’

If Buckingham resolved to die, he could’ve injured Pernok.

But rather than resolve to fight risking death, he prioritized information.

His rear figure turning back beyond the fortress was clearly captured.

“Cough!”

Where Poison Fog disappeared, Flemyr and retainers all vomited blood and collapsed.

Pernok also bit his thumb to extract blood from within his body again.

“As expected, impossible within 2 minutes.”

There was no leisure to pursue Buckingham.

Flemyr and retainers were one step before death.

But there was no need to kill Buckingham right now either.

Either way, his destination was obvious.

He’d go inform Owen of this fact.

He’d handle them all at once while gathered together.

However, after making Buckingham into critical baggage unable to activate Magus Arts.

Whirrr!

Magus Arts Space Severing.

Using his Magus Arts from Rakis’s 13 Lord who’d wielded a sickle, he created space before his eyes.

When he thrust his sword there, Buckingham who noticed suspicious signs twisted his body in midair.

Though he evaded the sword strike that grazed his neck, his back was penetrated by the following thrust.

“Graaagh…!”

Screams rang the sky resonantly.

He’d pierced the center of mana circuits that became the Magus Arts’ core.

At minimum two months were needed to recover.

Even if he crawled to reach Owen, injured Buckingham unable to use Magus Arts was just baggage.

“Don’t… worry about us… that bastard…”

“He’s just a bug that lost combat ability. I’ll just handle him together with Owen.”

He hadn’t been confident to kill Buckingham within 2 minutes.

To save Flemyr and retainers and prevent leaving Buckingham as future trouble, he stabbed in a critical dagger.

It was handling for the future, and fortunately the greedy choice of fighting while protecting succeeded.

And a blue signal flare burst from the fortress’s outer wall.

“It seems they killed McDonnell too. Now not a single staff remains in the command center.”

“Fortunately… cough!”

He immediately laid down Flemyr who’d grown pale from pouring out too much blood.

“Did you say you manipulate blood flow?”

“Magus Arts… that consumes blood…”

“Since your consciousness stays firmly attached, manipulate blood flow inside your body as I say from now.”

When Flemyr’s consciousness tried to blur, Pernok spoke indifferently.

“If you want to save your retainers, keep your mind straight.”

“Urgh…!”

“It’s a technique called Bloody Poison.”

And when Pernok whispered the Bloody Poison method in his ear, Flemyr’s body trembled.

It was a beginner’s side effect of mixing poison inside the body with blood to send out.

“This is just the beginning.”

The moment Pernok struck Flemyr’s chest with his palm, his entire body stiffened and black blood lines starting from his chest gathered in his palm.

When he drew a small sword mark on the palm, pitch-black dead blood began flowing down.

Pernok gathered black blood pooled on the floor at his sword tip and flicked it over retainers.

Then retainers gaped their mouths while vomiting pitch-black blood, and nauseating smoke came along attached to the sword tip.

It was a technique called poison domination from the Lord of Calamity that designated poison’s parent body and drew related poisons together.

Though he couldn’t pull up poison spread to the heart, fortunately retainers hadn’t collapsed to desperate levels.

“Cough!”

When looking down at them whose breathing began opening, mages approached with enemy heads in boxes.

“All cleanup is finished.”

Pernok nodded.

Though he couldn’t kill Buckingham, he’d made him into a state close to dying.

Nevertheless, capacity remained.

The original plan was to seize the military to annihilate the royal army after eliminating Flemyr and Magi who might join here, but if capacity arose in forces, the story changed.

Power to overwhelm everything became means to lightly subdue enemies.

“Who’s the royal army’s commander?”

“It’s General Garth.”

“How does that blockhead oversee the royal army?”

“It seems he received orders as military’s 5th in rank.”

“Perfect. Then as soon as Duke Flemyr regains consciousness, have him lead his forces.”

While sensing remaining spiritual power, Pernok spoke in a voice tinged with laughter.

“I should take the royal army.”