[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
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Chapter 259: Recapture (1)
***
“You really came here to kill the Weapon Master?”
Kilo asked with his trembling voice. His eyes were filled with disbelief.
“That’s ridiculous! Do you have any idea what kind of monster the Weapon Master is? He’s one of the titans known as the Pillar of Pandemonium. And you think you can kill such a monster?”
“Well, he is a bit of a headache.”
Damien replied in a nonchalant tone. Kilo’s jaw dropped at Damien’s dismissive attitude toward the Weapon Master.
“Even if you had the ability to do so, we have no intention of cooperating with you!”
“And after you kill the Weapon Master? Wouldn’t you then try to dominate us?”
Damien felt annoyed. Nothing ever went smoothly.
“Seems like you have quite a high opinion of yourselves.”
Damien didn’t bother trying to persuade the dwarves. The atmosphere wasn’t right for it, plus Damien was currently playing the role of the ‘dreadful dark mage Victor.’
“I have no interest in smelly dwarves like you. The only one I’m interested in is the Weapon Master.”
He mocked as he looked down on the dwarves.
“What, what did you say?”
“I’m telling you because your delusions are nauseating.”
“You said you won’t cooperate? You’d better reconsider your answer. I’ll make you cooperate with me one way or another.”
The undead surrounded the dwarves.
Faced with the menacing aura, Kilo and the dwarves all gulped nervously.
“Decide now. Will you cooperate willingly, or shall I force you to cooperate?”
***
“That’s the emergency storage.”
Kilo and the dwarves led Damien deep into the valley. After pushing through trees and bushes, a square building came into view.
Without the guidance of the dwarves, it would have been impossible to find.
“It’s a warehouse where we store metals for rebuilding in case of an emergency in the city.”
“What about security measures?”
“There are none. Instead, it’s incredibly sturdy. Once the door is locked, no one can get in.”
It seemed the square building’s appearance was not just for show.
While Damien was inspecting the warehouse, Kilo asked with a skeptical look on his face.
“…Was what you said to us true?”
“Hmm? Oh, you mean about not being interested in you? Don’t worry. Once the Weapon Master is dead, you can do whatever you want among yourselves.”
Damien replied in a dismissive tone. His irritating attitude somehow reassured the dwarves.
“Huh? What’s that?”
At that moment, something caught Damien’s eye. The warehouse door opened, and a horde of dark knights emerged.
“Stop dawdling and get out here!”
“Hurry up and get out!”
Next, dwarves chained together poured out of the warehouse. Their bodies were covered in wounds, clearly showing they had been through a lot.
“Th-Those are…!”
Kilo was visibly shocked at the sight of the captured dwarves.
“Do you know them?”
“…They’re survivors from the city. They went missing when our hideout was attacked recently. I never thought they’d been captured by them.”
Meanwhile, the dark knights drove stakes into the ground, securing the chains that bound the dwarves. The dwarves watched in terror.
“Hello there.”
One of the dark knights, a woman, addressed the dwarves.
“Were you startled being dragged out here so suddenly?”
Her voice was beautiful enough to be soothing, but the dwarves only trembled in fear.
“I was going to do this inside, but cleaning up would have been a hassle.”
she said while clashing the daggers in her hands together.
A bizarre phenomenon occurred. The handles of the daggers fused with her hands. The transformation didn’t stop there. The blades grew larger, sprouting eyes and splitting open to reveal teeth.
– Screech!
– Screech!
The daggers, now resembling monstrous heads, screamed hideously. The dwarves shrieked in horror at the sight.
“Let’s start with you.”
The woman swung her dagger at the nearest dwarf.
Thud!
With a chilling sound, the dwarf’s leg was severed. He collapsed to the ground.
“Honey!”
“Father!”
His family members screamed. The legless dwarf shouted in pain.
“Run! Don’t worry about me, just run….”
The woman swung her hand again, this time decapitating the dwarf.
Blood gushed from the severed neck, and the woman looked ecstatic.
“Ah… Delkoi… I can feel you enjoying this… Yes… It’s delicious, isn’t it? I’ll feed you more.”
Kilo, watching this horrific scene, screamed in panic.
“Wh-What on earth…!”
“She’s using the dwarves as sacrifices for her Demonic sword.”
“What… What do you mean?”
“To wield a Demonic sword, you need to constantly provide it with prey. Otherwise, the owner gets devoured.”
As Damien explained, the woman’s gaze shifted to the remaining dwarves.
“A monster! She’s a monster!”
“We need to escape!”
The dwarves screamed and tried to flee, but the chains secured to the stakes prevented their movement.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
The woman approached the dwarves with her arms outstretched.
“I must stop this.”
Damien rose to his feet, but Kilo grabbed his hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to kill those bastards and take back the warehouse.”
“You’re just going to charge in like this?”
“Don’t you want to save your kin?”
Kilo bit his lip and shouted in frustration.
“The one you killed earlier was nothing compared to her! You can’t just rush in without a plan….”
“Quiet.”
“W-What?”
Damien shook off Kilo’s hand.
“Just stay there and watch.”
Damien launched himself forward, landing right in front of the woman.
“Hmm?”
The woman stopped mid-swing, looking curiously at Damien.
“And who might you be?”
“What’s your purpose here?”
The other dark knights reacted aggressively, ready to kill Damien on the spot.
The woman raised her hand, and the knights fell silent.
“A dark mage? I’ve never seen you before. Do you know this is the Weapon Master’s territory?”
“Of course.”
Damien spoke calmly. A spark of interest lit up in the woman’s eyes.
“So you know and still came? Doesn’t look like you’re here to swear loyalty to my master… Could it be what I think it is?”
“Yes, it’s exactly what you think.”
“Wow, I’ve seen a lot in my life, but this is a first. You plan to go against my master? Are you insane?”
Despite her smile, the woman exuded a chilling murderous intent.
“So, who are you? Let’s hear your name.”
“I’m Victor the Woodcutter.”
“Victor? That sounds familiar….”
The woman pondered for a moment, then shook her head.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter. My name is Cherrybell. Just so you know, I’m a Master Class.”
In terms of combat, knights generally held the upper hand over dark mages.
In terms of power, there was a very big gap between a Master Class knight and Grand Dark Mage.
It didn’t matter if one became a Grand Dark Mage, to a Master Class knight they were just a mere bug.
To stand a chance against a Master Class, Grand Dark Mage needed special preparations or had to perfect their unique vision.
Damien was no exception.
No matter how vast his knowledge was, confronting a Master Class with dark magic alone was extremely difficult.
“How kind of you.”
But now, things were different. Damien had awakened three authorities.
Damien summoned his mana.
Thanks to consuming a Dragon Heart, Damien’s mana reserves had nearly doubled.
He imbued this immense magical power with the Authority of Envy.
The Authority of Envy had the ability to transform the nature of anything.
It could freely convert mana into dark mana, or dark mana into divine power without any limits.
Damien converted his mana into dark mana.
And it was the purest, most intense dark mana.
The transformed dark mana began to whirl around him. Damien applied another authority.
The Authority of Wrath.
Authority that could amplify anything.
The converted dark mana was amplified. It turned into a storm of dark mana. A black storm enveloped Damien.
Damien constructed a spell. He expended all the dark mana to manifest his dark spell.
“…What is this?”
Cherrybell’s face instantly hardened.
Her instincts as a knight warned her. Something extraordinary was happening right now.
“What kind of dark magic is this….”
It was then.
Something started seeping out of the ground.
Water? No, the color was strange. It was as if darkness had melted into it, turning it pitch black.
Black droplets seeped out from the entire ground and floated into the air.
“What is this?”
“Water droplets?”
Cherrybell’s subordinates looked at the droplets with curiosity.
At that moment, Damien clapped his hands together.
Suddenly, the droplets turned into vapor and scattered in all directions.
“Huh? What?”
“What is this?”
In that instant, Cherrybell’s instincts screamed fiercely. She shouted at her subordinates.
“You fools! Hold your breath! Get out of here right now….”
Before Cherrybell could finish her sentence, Damien snapped his fingers.
In the next moment, spikes erupted from the bodies of her subordinates.
***
Spikes erupted from their bodies.
Their chests, abdomens, sides, necks, and heads were all impaled. The spikes tearing from within shredded their organs. Muscles and skin were all pierced.
“Ugh!”
“Ahhh!”
The subordinates screamed and collapsed. Thanks to their knightly resilience, none were dead yet.
“Ahhh! It hurts… I’m going crazy…!”
“Someone… please kill me!”
This only made it worse. The pain was excruciating, driving them to the brink of madness.
Eternal Darkness.
One of the ancient dark spells kept as a secret by Dorugo.
Eternal Darkness was a curse-based dark spell.
Contact with the black droplets accumulated the curse within one’s body. Once a certain threshold was reached, the curse activated.
It not only exhausted both physical and mana but also transformed into spikes that burst outward.
“It’s still not enough.”
Damien looked at the dying dark knights and spoke.
The power was less than half of what Eternal Darkness had been used in his previous life.
Naturally, it was. In his previous life, Damien not only possessed an immense amount of dark mana but had also embedded countless rare magical artifacts within his body.
“You… you…”
At that moment, one of the knights stood up.
Amazingly, Cherrybell was still alive. She didn’t even have spikes protruding from her body.
“What have you done to us… Ugh!”
Instead, Cherrybell vomited black water.
Eternal Darkness had drained her physical and dark mana but had failed to form spikes, expelling it as black vomit instead.
“You managed to survive. As expected of a Master Class.”
“How dare you… my master’s subordinates… I’ll kill you!”
Cherrybell immediately charged, swinging her dagger at Damien.
Damien used the Authority of Envy to instantly convert his mana into dark mana.
Pointing his index finger downward, he murmured softly.
“Crush.”
In that moment, the sky turned black. It no longer radiated blue light but was filled with pitch darkness.
Blackness.
An ancient dark spell that crushed everything within its range.
The immense pressure bore down on Cherrybell. The overwhelming force slowed her down instantly.
“Another strange dark magic…!”
But she was a master class. Blackness alone wasn’t enough to stop her.
So Damien unleashed the Authority of Wrath.
The Authority of Wrath amplified Blackness. Unable to withstand the pressure, Cherrybell was forced to the ground.
“Ugh… Grrr…”
Cherrybell gritted her teeth, trying to stand but she couldn’t move a finger.
“A Master Class who has exhausted all their physical and mana is no threat at all.”
Even though she had the Demonic sword, it was not fearsome if it didn’t make contact.
“Come forth.”
Skeletons emerged from Damien’s shadow. They surrounded Cherrybell.
Despair filled Cherrybell’s face as she urgently shouted.
“Wait, please…!”
The skeletons drove their weapons into Cherrybell’s body.
Her scream of agony echoed long and loud.
***
[Translator – Kie]
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