(269)
“General, it’s good to see you again. It’s an honor!”
I greeted Brnoa with a bright smile.
“I brought a small gift from the bottom of my heart. Do you like it?”
Zap!
Suddenly, lightning struck right behind me.
“Did you think you could defeat the power of truth with borrowed strength!”
Sererassie shouted angrily.
Swish-!
“For the sake of my lifelong sword and loyalty!”
Lady Trentia swung her sword.
Boom! Boom!
“The wicked hands trying to grab Lord Valen’s ankles will have their tendons cut!”
Rudi jumped between tents, intercepting soldiers rushing my way.
I thought this could be a very impressive gift.
Brnoa looked at me and my party with a dismayed expression.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“It seems you’re quite moved? Don’t you have any words of gratitude? I’m not thinking of declining. Yes, a retreat would be appropriate.”
“…Duke Valencius. Yes… Ensis would have faced this too.”
Brnoa murmured in resignation.
“I couldn’t distinguish between good things and things that seem good, thinking I wouldn’t fall like the rest. I interpreted the world only in my favor.”
“You know well. I hope you won’t make any more mistakes from here on?”
Brnoa’s face twisted in anger.
“I shouldn’t have faced you from the start. Damn it, damn it!”
He cursed as he tried to grasp the circular cross hanging around his neck.
It was certainly a powerful relic.
Of course, I had no intention of letting Brnoa use it.
I extended my left hand toward him.
“Don’t call me ‘you.’ Call me Your Grace, Duke Valencius!”
Whooosh!
The black magic tool gloves exerted invisible power, stopping Brnoa’s hand just before the cross.
I gave a light flick of my left hand, pulling him toward me.
“Oi!”
Brnoa’s large body lifted off the ground and was dragged toward me as I raised my right hand and slapped his cheek.
Smack!
His face flushed a color similar to his beard, and I pushed him, causing him to fall onto the grass.
Thud.
A middle-aged man bedecked with medals looked up at me.
“Knowing when to give up is also a kind of courage. The courage you need now is to find a way to save the soldiers and return.”
“…”
“Since it has come to this, let me share a secret. I intend to allow the Empire to conquer the world without meteorites and without His Majesty’s direct support. If we humans conflict with each other, we only amplify the numbers of our enemies.”
“!”
Brnoa’s face twitched.
“So, if we had attacked by dispersing thousands into the interior and taking each stronghold city, we might have lost the battles but won the war. Your urbanization has slightly advanced population density, and your conscription is faster. You also have good leadership capabilities.”
Right now, the Imperial Court couldn’t mobilize an army of 100,000.
Of course, the Great Lords of the Empire have evolved to nurture thirty knights capable of facing 3,000 troops, but anyway, the army of the Land of Lanzo held both quantity and quality.
“With such advantages, you think it wise to confront us directly? If you can’t even beat us four, what direct confrontation are you talking about? This encampment could be set ablaze with a single word from me.”
Brnoa gritted his teeth and trembled.
His bloodshot eyes reflected his fury as if to say I knew everything.
Instead of sympathizing with him, I kicked him hard in the ribs with my polished boot.
Whack!
“You probably knew, didn’t you? Knowing is one thing; acting is another! I know many people know what they should do but don’t do it.”
Merely practicing swordsmanship can lead to success as a sword user, and diligent studying can lead one to become an administrative officer in the Imperial Court, and brushing one’s teeth diligently should prevent being completely robbed by healing priests or blood mages, while choosing corruption means losing everything. Everyone knows that.
“But still, we must be different. We are people who have something to protect.”
I began to stomp on Brnoa.
“Ahhh! No!”
Only after being thoroughly beaten did some regain their senses.
I wasn’t yet sure whether to kill him, but I had to ensure he couldn’t perform his commander duties, or the officer advocating retreat would not be able to take command.
He curled up his body and shouted.
Tears streamed from his tightly shut eyes.
“Officers of Lanzo, engage in individual combat with your troops! We must preserve our forces!”
“It’s already too late. You stupid fool! What good are individual combats for an army without food?”
I frowned and halted my kicks.
His voice carried a sense of having given up something significant.
It wasn’t just the regret of a late order.
Suddenly, I sensed a chilling presence.
“…”
From inside the tent where he had emerged, a black mist flickered.
I reflexively took a step back, and as I realized it, I furrowed my brows.
Did I just back away?
Me, who burned down a one-kilometer monstrosity even before absorbing Az?
Clang!
I immediately drew Black Tear.
“Come out, foul creature.”
Swish!
The tent entrance tore open, and a figure stepped out.
At that moment, all eyes in the encampment turned toward it.
“W-What is that?”
“Oh, Oh Light.”
“My goodness.”
The sight of Lady Trentia and the heavy infantry drooping their swords at the same time while fighting madly was terrifying.
Rudi, who had been running like the wind, also stopped, biting his lips and trembling.
I focused my incantation energy and stared at the figure.
“…”
It seemed to be over 2 meters tall, with a rather thin build, yet its height made it imposing.
It wore a flowing black ceremonial robe, which, though the material was unknown, appeared very thick and majestic.
True to its suspicious nature, it wore a hood, which had a flat surface at the top, rising high like a tower.
Its hands, shoes, and face were obscured, and the face hole appeared as nothing but darkness to my eyes.
“Brnoa.”
It spoke with a voice that resonated directly in my head.
The sound echoed, prompting my brows to furrow involuntarily.
Brnoa trembled as he looked at the figure.
His body seemed completely frozen, unable to flee.
“You continue to disappoint me.”
The figure turned its gaze toward Brnoa.
Though I couldn’t see its eyes, somehow, I could tell it was looking at Brnoa.
Brnoa, like beggar, or rather, did beg.
“…Your Excellency, the High Priest—.”
Before he could say anything, black feathers began to sprout from his entire body like boiling lava.
Pop, pop, pop!
The sight of feathers emerging from his flesh was something out of a nightmare.
His flesh gradually disappeared, his teeth elongated and protruded, melding into his lips and becoming a white bone beak.
The general of the Land of Lanzo, leading 100,000 troops, transformed into a bundle of feathers with a beak in less than five seconds.
I knew about those black feathers.
“Alchenbersa.”
It was the infiltrator who had devoured the monastery priests trained for a lifetime, entering the monastery and fleeing with the sacred relics, who also carried black feathers.
During the first sortie of Helena, which became the catalyst for Lady Trentia’s reconciliation with her father during the central Greenskin subjugation, those infiltrators with the same feathers had emerged.
This thing was undoubtedly at the core of the massive infiltrator cult threatening the Empire.
I gritted my teeth and slowly raised my head to ask.
In front of such a high-level infiltrator, I absolutely could not show fear.
One must use their actions to bind their heart, for they would worm into a fearful heart with just a few words.
“Did you say High Priest?”
As the figure turned its head toward me, a crossbow bolt flew toward its back.
Thwack!
The crossbow bolt glimmered with a bright holy power, visible even in broad daylight.
Thud!
The bolt struck its massive body, sizzling, with a bit of black smoke rising.
“I will kill the infiltrators and the mages.”
I felt the mana in the entire area freeze.
It felt like I was gasping for breath in a viscous pool.
From all directions, witch hunters dressed in black and wearing iron masks stepped out.
“Duke Valencius.”
“You are a malicious mage, but the infiltrator comes first.”
“There will be a day we meet again.”
Clang, bang!
At least fifty witch hunters charged toward the infiltrator, once called the High Priest.
They wielded weapons that radiated warm yet cold holy power in their grip.
However, the High Priest lightly shook his head, as if dismissing them.
“Are you the Exiles of Mana?”
Swish—.
From beneath his robe came a flowing black mist.
The shallowly spread mist quickly swelled like a river.
It felt as if a flood of black waters were engulfing the plains.
“Truly foolish.”
The High Priest looked down upon the encampment of the Land of Lanzo.
“You don’t even know who created you.”
I, Sererassie, Lady Trentia, and Rudi all carefully concealed our hands, but there was no way to avoid casualties in combat.
The dead soldiers of the Land of Lanzo and the seriously injured began.
Cries of confusion erupted all around.
“W-What is this!”
“Oh! Light be praised!”
“Slice it away!”
“Pray!”
Bam, bam, bam!
From their wounds, black feathers sprouted.
Those who swiftly cut those areas with holy weapons remained unharmed, but those who were even a moment late burst forth with feathers all over their bodies and transformed into infiltrators.
“Bring holy water!”
“May the light shine!”
“That enemy of the Republic is over there!”
Certainly, the officers of Land of Lanzo did not allow themselves to be subdued easily.
They poured holy water to burn the feathers and slow the rate of corruption, holding onto their pillar relics and praying to enhance their soldiers throughout the area before preparing to engage the clear enemy.
However.
All of this was only possible if allies functioned as allies.
Thud!
“Geh, geh!”
One officer turned pale at the sight of a hand bursting from his chest.
“Sub, subordinate?”
His subordinate’s eyes had already turned pitch black.
“Hahaha!”
“Keekekekeke!”
With savage laughter echoing all around, the black mist flowing sternly beneath our feet deepened, while the light to oppose it grew increasingly diminutive.
Thwack!
One witch hunter was rolling on the ground, a feather-like blade lodged in her throat.
“Kekekekek!”
Something that was once called General Brnoa was scattering feathers in all directions.
Each feather that flew through the air caused a witch hunter to tumble to the ground.
The witch hunters froze the area and mana, stealing the mana from others, while reinforcing themselves with holy power.
Thus, they held an absolute advantage over mages who wielded mana and a relative advantage against knights who enhanced their bodies with mana.
The infiltrators, the higher their rank, wielded the power of the ancient beings they served rather than mana.
If the infiltrator created by a High Priest produced other infiltrators, they could exhibit terrifying strength even in front of witch hunters.
Ping!
I flicked away the feather flying toward my neck with scales of a dragon, inwardly sighing deeply.
I had anticipated that infiltrators would be entangled, but I hadn’t expected such a big fish to emerge.
Rudi stood atop a tent roof, giving me a look of “What should we do?”
I didn’t know either.
At that moment, the High Priest looked at me.
“White hair, golden eyes. Hybrids of Silentalouon.”
There was a surprisingly fresh nuance to his tone.
“I didn’t expect to meet you here.”
“Yes. The same goes for me.”
“I owe you a great debt from Silentalouon.”
Indeed, that fake royal was clearly crafted by these ones.
“Yes, I received your gifts well. I had quite the experience during that winter…”
The dragon’s heart, the shard of Az resonated and amplified my wild fury.
I thought I should light the flames even if I had to take a hit.
If I didn’t land a single blow, sleep wouldn’t come.
At that moment, the High Priest made an unexpected suggestion.
“I will repay that debt. How about we return now?”
