Chapter 258: Kal Is Dead? (2)
One of the stars of Demtor, Gram Seraphim, was currently operating while concealing her unique abilities.
Within Demtor, the role of an alchemist was crucial to Gram’s covertly growing influence, and I knew a way to deal a serious blow to that standing.
I looked at Karl and asked,
“How many people can move imdiately?”
“The ghosts and I can go right now. We kept our distance during the fight.”
Lochter, Fenry, and Elton, who had engaged in a fierce lee with Lyon, had been exposed to the cold and didn’t seem capable of moving right away.
The sa applied to .
With the effect of Burst Strike and the Divine Hunter fading, I was hit by fatigue and helplessness.
I needed ti to recover.
“Focus on eliminating as many Black Butterflies as possible. Just reducing their numbers is enough, so don’t overextend. If things look risky, fall back imdiately.”
“They probably moved toward the Ordor Forest, right?”
I nodded.
The Ordor Forest was Karl’s domain.
That ant it was favorable terrain for both tracking and combat.
Since Gram had consud a massive amount of true blood, she wouldn’t be able to exert her full strength now.
While eliminating her would be difficult so long as she had the Barrier of True Blood, the Black Butterflies were different.
The fewer of them grouped together, the weaker they beca.
“I’ve already taken out quite a few.”
They were my first target during the ambush, and I had cut down about half.
If the Black Butterflies suffer major losses, Gram’s position will take a major hit too.
The Black Butterflies were currently considered shared assets of the Mage Tower.
And she was secretly using them as her private force.
They were a research force that had received massive investnt and support. If their numbers were reduced any further, Gram would never be able to recover that loss on her own.
Not all the stars are on Gram’s side.
Infighting.
Demtor was a Mage Tower alliance bound by profit. Losses could be the perfect excuse to shake the unity between them.
“I’m good at hit-and-run. I’ll thin them out as much as I can.”
“Don’t return here. Go to Lily instead.”
“You an join the witches?”
“Yes. Assist them, and I’ll catch up with you soon.”
“I’ll head there and make contact.”
“Wait, there’s sothing you need to know.”
Before sending Karl off, I told him about Gram’s abilities. Listening carefully, he nodded and then vanished into the forest with the ghosts.
The forest grew quiet after the ghosts disappeared.
I stared at it for a mont, then turned back and began tending to the others with potions.
Lochter had fallen asleep from the strain of using Counter, and Elton was warming his frozen body beside a campfire.
I sat next to Elton and handed him a potion as I spoke calmly.
“Cold?”
“I trusted my Fla Sword too much. I nearly died.”
With his fire attribute, he had approached Lyon without fear, but Lyon’s cold was unimaginably powerful.
Elton and I stared into the fire for a while.
“Being just the two of us... it reminds of that ti.”
“The Chira prison?”
I let out a small chuckle and nodded at Elton’s reply.
I rembered how we’d fled, surrounded by a horde of Chiras.
Maybe because of that experience, it was always easy to talk when it was just the two of us.
“Did you fail to read the movent of the stars?”
“I was being chased by the Black Butterflies and didn’t have ti to observe them. There’s also the matter of Samuel suddenly turning his attention outward.”
“I heard a brief summary of the forest situation from Fenry.”
Elton let out a deep sigh.
He had been tasked with scouting Demtor’s movents but failed to alert the witches of the approaching stars in advance.
“Elton, Tobaron and Hell Gri are different. Be glad you made it back alive. We’re dealing with mages here.”
“What about Samuel? Did he leave any ssage?”
Samuel, who had suddenly disappeared in search of his benefactor, leaving Elton behind.
That benefactor was Kal.
The one who teleported Lyon from Beneta Territory to here in an instant.
But could he really have vanished without saying anything?
I had made a deal with Samuel.
To cure the Curse of the Razor Wind, he had no choice but to watch my moves.
Even so...
“This...”
Elton glanced at Fenry, then unexpectedly pulled sothing from his robes.
A silver coin.
It was a symbolic item associated with Samuel.
“A coin?”
“Samuel told to deliver it only to you. He said he’d go to the witch’s hut after finishing things. That he’d be waiting for you.”
“I didn’t hear anything from Fenry.”
“Fenry isn’t the leader of Hunt—you are.”
Elton had only shared what was necessary with Fenry. He hadn’t said everything.
Though we were tied by a blood pact, the bond between the Black Roses and the Ghosts wasn’t that deep yet.
“This coin lets contact Samuel, right?”
“That’s right.”
“How do I use it?”
“Just recite the phrase Samuel gave .”
“A phrase?”
‘Oh mighty gentleman with the glorious beard, Samuel Barber.’
I stared at the silver coin for a mont, then tucked it into my pocket while glancing in Fenry’s direction.
This wasn’t the right place to use it.
Fenry had climbed the tallest tree beyond the forest, saying she had sothing to check.
A short while later—
“Arthur.”
Fenry returned. For so reason, her expression was unusually serious.
“What’s the matter?”
She furrowed her brow and pointed to a direction with her finger.
“Is it true that Kal is dead?”
“I confird it using the Divine Hunter. Is there a problem?”
“It’s moving.”
“What?”
“The energy from the necklace—it’s moving.”
“Which direction?”
Recalling the monstrous bird Fortea, I asked about the direction. Fenry pointed toward a spot.
It was the eastern outskirts, the opposite of where the witches resided in Ordor Forest.
Located within Hell Gri, but unrecognized even there—a third territory.
***
The dark city, Pri Root.
The landscape outside the Forest of Ghosts was desolate.
Barren land without a single blade of grass.
A massive bird filled the space near the outer forest, gently shaking its head. It nudged its beak toward a man.
A white-haired man with sharp, slender eyes nodded with a smile.
“Well done, Fortea.”
KIIIIIIAAAK—!
The blue-feathered monstrous bird spread its wings wide, then was absorbed into an earring embedded with a sapphire gem.
Arcane fiddled with the earring once, then turned away from the forest.
The new region beyond the Forest of Ghosts was harsh from the very first step.
A stark contrast to Demtor’s fertile environnt.
It was the far end of Region 3 – Pri Root.
“I don’t get it.”
Arcane stared at the two figures sitting lifelessly beyond, as if they’d lost the world.
Lyon and Rengua.
They stared blankly into space beside their master Kal, who had t a grueso end.
Clink—
Arcane checked Kal’s divine na once more using his earring.
[Kal Blazer]
Nothing ca up.
It was the reaction that occurred when a divine na’s master had died.
Kal was truly dead.
“Even up to the mont of death, he tried to strike a deal and persuade ... I don’t get it.”
Kal’s corpse shouldn’t have been here.
Arcane had promised Gram that he’d deliver the body to Demtor as part of their deal.
But despite the paynt he’d received, he broke that agreent and accepted Kal’s proposal instead—because the offer had seed more profitable.
Arcane played with the necklace in his hand.
A crude necklace, but one with a mysterious power that had briefly extended Kal’s life after his true blood had been drained.
It didn’t seem like it was just a blessed item.
Arcane had taken the necklace without permission when Kal’s breathing stopped.
Ironically, Kal himself seed unaware of its full abilities until the mont he died.
“Arthur...”
Arcane murmured the na Arthur as he examined the earring.
He stood still with his eyes closed, then narrowed his brow and clicked his tongue.
“Arthur... hmm. It’s not the full na, is it?”
Only a partial set of divine na information was revealed.
But thanks to the intel he’d gotten from Kal, he could piece so of it together.
He recalled the offer Kal had made on Fortea’s back, just before dying:
‘I’ll tell you... the identity and na of “him”.’
Arcane couldn’t turn down that deal.
The identity of the Divine Hunter, who could perform the miracle of altering divine nas.
To uncover a being that defied divine revelation—it was more valuable than anything.
And since Kal was already dying...
Arcane quickly accepted the proposal, rescued Rengua and Lyon, and brought them to the outskirts of Pri Root.
With Kal’s corpse.
[Arthur XXXX – Divine Hunter]
[X XX XX XX]
[Siren’s Hymn]
[Heart of XXXXX]
[Guide of Other Races]
[Ring of Desire (XX)]
[Leader of Hunt (X)]
[Friend of the Witches]
[XXX (XXX)]
When Alex Marcia, one of the leaders of the blood pact, was revealed to be “him,” and his real na was Arthur, many of the hidden entries beca visible.
[Friend of the Witches]
[Guide of Other Races]
And—
“Even his abilities.”
Though it hadn’t shown on the divine na list, Arcane deduced that Arthur’s trait as the Divine Hunter was a bow that sealed divine nas.
He had confird it through Gram, whose divine na list had just been partially sealed.
That was enough to be certain.
The Divine Hunter was one who hunted the masters of divine nas.
“As for those arrows, I guess I’ll ask her directly.”
Now that he knew the identity and ability, the rest was just a matter of ti.
“This deal gave a lot.”
Before leaving, Arcane looked back at Kal.
A man who kept speaking until the last flicker of life faded from his eyes.
He didn’t seem to care about his death at all.
As if...
“He was preparing for what cos next.”
But Kal was dead now.
A divine na that had vanished no longer held Arcane’s interest.
Turning away, Arcane slowly walked back into the Forest of Ghosts.
The war between Demtor and the witches over the forest’s fate.
Regardless of how it unfolded, he had to go to Ordor Forest, the heart of the war.
It seed many holders of divine nas would die in this war.
Once Arcane left, only three remained in the barren dust.
It was Rengua who first broke the stillness that felt like it would last forever.
“So it really ca to this...”
To Rengua, Kal was the sky.
And now that the sky had collapsed, his sanity was barely intact.
Still, he composed himself faster than expected—because he recalled his lord’s final words, which had even anticipated death.
But Lyon was different.
Even dropping his Frost Sword to the ground, it seed it would take a long ti for him to accept his master’s death.
Rengua slowly stood and approached Lyon.
“Sir Lyon.”
“I will deliver our lord’s last words.”
“...What?”
The mont Lyon finally reacted, a red flash burst from Rengua’s hand—
—and pierced Lyon’s right chest.
Cough!
Lyon coughed up blood and collapsed slowly.
Gram, the Black Butterflies, Lochter, Fenry, even the ghosts—
He had already overdrawn his Frost Lord’s power far beyond his limit.
He had no strength left to resist, and no will to do so either.
Knight Lyon.
Having lost what he was ant to protect, he had also lost his reason to exist.
He didn’t even show anger toward Rengua for attacking him.
He simply asked,
“Last words? Speak.”
He wanted to hear his lord’s final will.
“Our lord wished for an ice flower to bloom on the Millennium Tree.”
“...Ice flower?”
Rengua took out the Dagger of the Dead, and removed the jewel from its hilt.
A gem containing more than ten thousand souls.
To mages, it was akin to a Philosopher’s Stone—A divine stone that could grant any wish.
In his robe was the research journal of Dominic Huaton, containing that wish.
Rengua tucked the gem into his robe and handed the remaining dagger to Lyon.
“Go to the Millennium Tree. And plunge this dagger into its heart.”
“...I have no strength.”
“You have three days.”
“Three... days?”
“Three days left to live.”
Rengua hesitated as he drew out the Stone of Madness.
It was as precious as his own life.
But he pressed it into Lyon’s forehead.
“GgaaAAAHHH!!”
Lyon’s scream rang out across the barren land of Pri Root.
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