Chapter 110
Back of the Head (1)
Hallok ground his teeth in fury. The saying about a bolt from the blue struck him deeply.
A massive crystal battering the city walls. Giant explosions and lightning erupting from the direction of the Fiendbeasts. Even the Desert Alliance Army forces rampaging through the main camp.
“Unfortunately, this is as far as it goes.”
But true to a magician, he quickly regained his composure. He surveyed his surroundings, weighed his options, and soon decided to retreat.
“Backing that idiot eldest son really wasn’t a very good decision.”
The problem was that he had wanted to use the body of soone from a renowned family as an experintal subject. He never imagined the fool would be this stupid and have this many enemies.
Clicking his tongue, Hallok withdrew from the battlefield. He had gathered a fair amount of data regarding the Enhanced Soldiers already, and all that remained was to take the Essence of the Desert collected by the Fiendbeasts.
“It’s because soone without ability was consud only by greed.”
Hallok recalled the Kargula Family’s eldest son, who was probably still asleep in his bedroom even now. A petty man who had nearly lost the entire family to his half-brother because he lacked both talent and support.
Had they at least been on good terms, he could have spent his later years comfortably, but instead, driven by pointless greed, he even attempted to assassinate his half-brother.
That very situation was unfolding right now. He had proudly declared that his half-brother would soon die, yet that sa brother had appeared alive and well.
“I never expected even the Rahorakti Forces to help him.”
The people of the desert were originally highly individualistic and not inclined to help one another.
He had thought the Rahorakti wouldn’t care much either, yet they rushed over imdiately at a single word from Rama. Even the Chief of the desert tribe had joined them.
‘It was a good location, though.’
Of course, the villa provided by the eldest son had been an excellent spot. Since it was an oasis where the Essence of the Desert gathered well, he had accumulated essence far faster than expected.
“……”
Having packed all his belongings, Hallok quickly headed toward the Fiendbeasts. If the Fiendbeasts were still alive, he could simply carry them out as they were.
Even if not, he still had to recover the day’s collected essence stored inside them.
“You’re here.”
As Hallok hurried toward the Fiendbeasts, an unfamiliar voice reached his ears.
Hallok imdiately deployed a shield and scanned his surroundings. Around the Fiendbeasts, which had been charred black and blown apart halfway, there was nothing in sight.
“Looking for this?”
The owner of the voice erged from the Fiendbeast’s body. Hallok widened his eyes as he looked at the young man with sea-colored hair drenched in blood.
In the young man’s hand was the Essence of the Desert Hallok had intended to retrieve.
“For sothing gathered over such a long period, it’s pretty small. Guess you stored it separately.”
“……So you know our objective.”
He looked young. His sharp eyes and fierce aura made him seem thoroughly accustod to combat.
No matter how much he searched his mories, he couldn’t recall any information about the young man. That only made it stranger that soone like him knew his purpose.
“Who are you?”
“If I tell you, will you tell too?”
At Hallok’s question, Davide answered with a smirk. The attitude that seed to look down on him from beginning to end filled Hallok with strong displeasure.
Calming himself, Hallok tried to continue the conversation.
“I see now. You’re the Duhein Family’s eldest son.”
Only then did Hallok properly notice Davide’s features. Skin tanned by the sun and sea-colored hair. In the Empire, there was only one person with such a combination.
Davide rely shrugged and did not bother answering.
“I thought you and Rama were on bad terms.”
“Ah, that was just that idiot Kargula eldest son misunderstanding things on his own. Well, no. If you really think about it, we aren’t exactly on good terms either. So I guess that’s technically true?”
Davide spoke mockingly as he gradually approached. Hallok glanced at the essence in Davide’s hand.
The round sphere was filled with sand-colored essence.
“If that’s the kind of relationship you have, then there’s no reason for you to help him.”
“I get along fine with Soloven.”
Though the conversation dragged on lazily, tension flowed heavily between them.
There was no way Davide failed to notice Hallok’s obvious intent toward the essence. Watching Hallok repeatedly glance toward it, Davide tilted his head slightly.
He had never seen a character with that kind of appearance in the ga.
“What! You’re saying you’re close with her?!”
“?”
“?”
Aro suddenly cut in. Wearing a black mask and letting her black hair flutter behind her, Aro abruptly appeared and snapped at Davide.
Hallok, who had no idea there was another person inside the Fiendbeast’s body, was startled. Even Davide, who had specifically told her to stay hidden just in case, looked flustered as well.
“No. Why did you co out?”
“I heard sothing like that! How could I just stay still……agh!”
Davide flicked Aro on the forehead as she suddenly started freaking out over sothing strange.
Leaving behind Aro, who collapsed as if having a seizure from the sudden pain, Davide faced Hallok once more.
“……Looks like you reached an amicable agreent.”
“Enough of that. Mage?”
Davide cleanly ignored Hallok’s words and only said what he wanted. Deciding he could no longer overlook the rudeness, Hallok raised his mana.
“Here. Take it.”
“?”
“?”
The mont Hallok gathered mana, Davide tossed over the essence he had been holding. Hallok instinctively caught it and made a puzzled expression.
Aro, who had only just recovered from the pain, also stared at Davide in disbelief.
“No, why would you……give that away?”
Hallok observed Aro. The woman who appeared to be his companion looked genuinely flustered. Judging by her reaction, this was Davide acting on his own.
It bothered him, but there was no reason to refuse it. Hallok spread his mana and examined the essence. There were no traces of tampering.
“What reason do you have for giving this to ?”
“I have sothing to ask.”
Hallok let out a hollow laugh as he looked at Davide speaking so boldly. This brat was trying to hand over sothing the enemy wanted just so he could ask a question.
“What are you curious about?”
“Have you t Abadon?”
Hallok narrowed his eyes as he examined Davide. It was the first ti he had ever heard the word Abadon. He couldn’t understand the intention behind suddenly asking that.
Watching Hallok, Davide nodded his head. Then he picked up Aro.
“Go. I’m busy.”
“Huh? W-wait, you’re just leaving him?”
“You should go help the allies, Senior.”
The ones caught off guard were Aro and Hallok alike. Hoisting Aro up without warning, Davide headed toward the main building where the eldest son was likely staying, as if he had completely lost interest in Hallok.
Aro kept glancing back at Hallok as though reluctant to leave, and Hallok himself felt even more uneasy because Davide had abandoned interest so easily.
“……As expected of a Duhein. Completely insane.”
Clicking his tongue, Hallok turned away. He wasn’t foolish enough to throw away an opportunity gained so easily.
***
“This is absurd.”
“Hehe.”
Rama stared at Canis, who was humming beside him, in fascination.
There really was a reason people kept calling her “Mage~ Mage~.” Canis had single-handedly annihilated the city wall with her own power alone.
“It opened~”
When she hurled nine crystals each the size of a train car, the barrier shattered, and by the eleventh crystal, a gigantic hole had been blasted through the wall.
“Charge!”
Only after Rama shouted did the remaining allied forces let out a great roar and surge forward.
Inside the city was already complete chaos. Soloven’s strike force, which had appeared inside first through the Gate of Valhalla, was clashing against the Enhanced Soldiers.
“Support the allies! Form groups of three and engage the Enhanced Soldiers!”
The Rahorakti soldiers specialized in defense, so they could not defeat the Enhanced Soldiers alone, but they were more than capable of tying them down.
The deadlocked battle instantly shifted into outright slaughter once the forces from outside joined in.
“Lord Rama!”
The assassin escorting Winter spotted Rama. The assassin promptly grabbed Winter, who had been enthusiastically waving a flag while cheering and buffing the soldiers.
“Eh?”
Then, in the blink of an eye, they arrived beside Rama. Seeing this, Canis practically snatched Winter away from the assassin.
“Hmph~ How rude. Winter is weak~ You have to handle her carefully.”
“……I’m not that weak.”
Winter puffed out her lips at Canis’s overprotectiveness. After hearing a report on the internal situation from the assassin, Rama looked around.
“All troops, follow Soloven!”
Handing command of the forces over to Soloven, Rama imdiately began running in a certain direction with the assassin accompanying him.
Left behind, Winter and Canis tilted their heads.
“Where do you think they’re going?”
“Looks like they’re going after the head~ Should we follow? It seems fun~”
At Canis’s playful suggestion, Winter nodded. She had already beco accustod to the nauseating sll of blood and corpses.
“Mmm~ Creepy~”
Running diligently after Canis, Winter found herself agreeing with her words.
The deeper they went into the building, the colder the surroundings beca.
“It’s not ice though~ More like~ human sacrifice~ maybe?”
“Ugh…….”
Realizing the chill wasn’t caused by cold air, Canis voiced her guess. At the ntion of human sacrifice, Winter visibly showed her disgust.
She had fled because she hated battlefields, only to seemingly arrive sowhere even more grotesque.
—I! Am! The master of the Kargula Family!
At the thunderous voice echoing through the corridor, Canis stopped.
Winter, who stopped alongside her, caught her breath and looked at Canis curiously.
“The human sacrifice is~ this way~ but the voice is~ coming from over there~”
“……Should we go toward the voice?”
Canis giggled at Winter’s suggestion. Winter glared at her with fierce eyes before moving first.
“Winter~ Are you sulking?”
“I don’t know!”
“Not that way~ Go farther left~”
The place they arrived at did not look harmonious at all either. The opponent facing Rama was a man with the sa red hair as him.
If Rama gave off an impression of gentleness, stiffness, and courtesy, then the other man felt rough and wild like Davide.
“You bastard-born!”
“Brother. Please co to your senses.”
Even while catching her breath, Winter listened carefully to the conversation. The eldest son was shouting desperately. His condition did not look good at all.
The strange fabric covering half his body and his glossy eyes carried a disturbing eeriness that instinctively made one step back.
“He’s been modified~”
“Modified?”
—You know nothing! Of the sorrow of one born without talent!
“Mhm~ Similar to an Enhanced Soldier~ though this one’s a bit more~ delicate.”
“……Uh, illegal body modification?”
—You outsider! Don’t look down on !
The assassin deeply frowned as he looked at Canis and Winter. Feeling the sudden sharp gaze directed at them, both Canis and Winter shut their mouths.
“……This is an important conversation. Why don’t you keep quiet?”
“An important~ conversation? It just looks like~ the tantrum of a loser~”
The assassin growled out a warning. Canis answered back slyly.
Of course, Winter thought the sa thing, but saying it aloud was another matter entirely. The assassin’s expression turned icy.
“Haha. W-we’ll step back.”
Winter awkwardly laughed as she restrained Canis. Canis shrugged and took a step back.
“This is the Kargula Family’s affair. I appreciate your help, but beyond this, do not interfere—”
“Bullshit.”
Soone abruptly cut off the assassin’s polite words. Winter and Canis instantly recognized the voice and turned toward the sa direction.
—Boom!
The wall they had been staring at exploded apart as sothing ca flying through. A pure white club shot forward at terrifying speed and slamd into the eldest son’s stomach.
“You call this a family matter? Do you know how many mbers of the desert tribe died?”
Passing through the shattered wall, Davide appeared while glaring at the assassin.
Rama, who had been speaking with his brother, looked utterly dumbfounded.
Anyone would make that face if the person they were talking to suddenly got smashed by sothing trendous and embedded into a wall while twitching. After briefly checking him, it was clear the eldest son had lost consciousness.
“The organization that created the Chira is effectively a terrorist group. And your brother is a terrorist who joined a terrorist organization.”
“…….”
When Rama turned around to look at Davide, there was faint resentnt on his face. Davide paid it no mind and brushed debris off his shoulder.
“Enough already. He’s a criminal guilty enough to be executed on sight.”
“……Yeah. You’re right.”
Soft-hearted as always, Rama gave a heavy nod at Davide’s words. He had wondered if there might still be so way to bring his brother back.
“More importantly, what about the Fiendbeasts?”
“I dealt with them. I also t a lackey from the organization that made them.”
“Did you catch him?”
“No. I let him go.”
At Davide’s words, the expressions of everyone in the room beca strange. Not “he escaped,” but “I let him go.”
“You let him go? Do you even hear yourself?”
“Sounds more reasonable than all that bastard-born nonsense, doesn’t it?”
As the atmosphere grew increasingly hostile, Davide scoffed.
Then, with the hand wearing the gauntlet, he snapped his fingers.
—Clang.
The sound of tal striking rang out, and beyond the window everything beca flooded with yellow light. At the sudden burst of brightness, Winter nearly fainted and collapsed.
“……What did you do?”
Rama spoke in a cold voice toward Davide, who was helping Winter back up. Davide looked at Rama indifferently.
“He stored the Essence of the Desert separately. What I obtained was only a very small portion. I figured if he ran away, he’d try to combine them. So I planted a bomb in that Essence of the Desert.”
“…….”
“And just now, I detonated that bomb. He’ll probably die, but even if he doesn’t, the Essence of the Desert won’t survive intact.”
“……So you intentionally let him go?”
“If we can’t use it, then the enemy shouldn’t be able to use it either. Besides, he would’ve let his guard down, so he won’t get away unhard. You can collect the corpse yourself.”
After saying that, Davide gathered Winter and Canis together. Using magic, Canis retrieved the club.
“Let’s go. Our job here is done.”
At Davide’s single remark, spoken while shaking the blood off the club in disgust, Canis and Winter followed after him.
Watching the three gradually disappear into the distance, Rama wore a conflicted expression.
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