Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: The One Seeking Fate (4)
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Such events repeated themselves several times.
The Karzark Marquisate was a vast territory. Naturally, numerous villages and cities sprawled out around Karzark Marquisate Castle at its heart.
Azel wandered through ruined villages.
He passed cities where even the walls had been utterly demolished.
Every landscape etched in his memories, every place he had hoped would remain beautiful forever, lay in the most undesired state of devastation. With each one he passed, Azel's face grew ever more expressionless, his anger fading away.
He had steeled himself for this. On the journey here, he had imagined the worst scenarios countless times to brace his mind.
But the shock of witnessing it with his own eyes surpassed all imagination.
"It was definitely like this before..."
Azel caught a familiar scent. It was the blood of the monsters he had slain.
"I've been through similar things before. Many times. And yet... it's still hard to bear."
Countless monster corpses littered the ground around him.
On his way here, Azel hadn't bothered hiding his presence at all. A wise person would have avoided villages and cities. Even in ruins, they provided ample shelter for monsters. Everywhere humans had once lived, monsters now strutted about like they owned the place.
Azel didn't avoid them. He strode openly into the ruins, drawing them in before engaging in fierce battles.
It was utter folly. But Kairen, caught up in Azel's outburst, didn't rage—instead, he broke out in cold sweat.
'To think he's this overwhelming.'
He had thought he knew Azel's skills inside and out by now. But it was all an illusion.
Savage ones, cautious ones, small ones, large ones... whether in packs or alone, approaching or fleeing—it made no difference to Azel. The moment they entered his sight and locked eyes in hostility, the slaughter began.
The more he fought, the bigger the commotion grew. Monsters scattered across the area stirred and swarmed toward the epicenter.
Half a day after entering the Karzark Marquisate, Azel and Kairen faced hundreds of monsters in the ruins of a small city.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Heavy thuds shook the earth. From behind a half-collapsed building emerged an ogre the size of a house.
"Grrroooar... huh...?"
The ogre, roaring out of habit to intimidate its foe, had its breath cut short in the blink of an eye. Azel had closed in, stomped its chest to drive the shock inward and burst its heart, then sliced through its thick neck like butter with his sword.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed in a geyser. Amid the mist, Azel's form flickered like a phantom as he pounced on the monsters trailing the ogre.
"Kyaaak!"
"Grroooar!"
The monsters couldn't even grasp what hit them. A flash before their eyes, and they all crumpled from fatal wounds. Slaughtering over twenty was but a fleeting moment.
Thud!
It happened before the ogre's lifeless body even hit the ground.
Not a drop of blood stained Azel's body. He moved faster than the blood could spurt. By the time the airborne droplets rained down, he had already moved on leisurely.
Kairen watched Azel with a mix of thrill and curiosity.
'Is his reason truly clouded by rage?'
He seemed to be deliberately provoking the monsters into fights.
Yet watching him battle sowed doubt. Wouldn't someone mad with anger abandon refined techniques and just rampage?
Azel's combat was a symphony of uncanny insight and near-divine skill, sharp enough to make one suspect precognition. He used sounds and phenomena to lure enemies where he wanted, disrupted their senses with psychic waves, and massacred them with minimal effort.
Sometimes he let a few escape on purpose. The more terrified, the easier to implant illusions via Spirit Order. He spread false info to sow chaos or lured them into prepared traps for cleanup.
"If there had been flying ones, it might've been tiring... but seems no one's controlling them that far."
Azel remarked from atop a half-ruined wall.
Caw, caw...
The sun dipped low. Beneath the crimson sunset glow, hundreds of monster corpses sprawled across the ruins.
Every monster that had claimed this small city as their turf in territorial squabbles—wiped out. Azel left not a single one alive.
Suddenly, Azel spoke.
"...Sorry."
"Good thing you know what you did."
Kairen gave a wry smile.
What a foolish act. But Azel couldn't have endured otherwise.
Kairen gazed at Azel, lost in hollow despair amid the sunset.
'Why?'
Azel's true nature nagged at him again. If Azel was a descendant of hero Azel Karzark, rage at the Marquisate's ruin made sense. But this level of raw fury?
'No way it's really...?'
Kairen recalled Azel's self-revelation: that he was Azel Karzark himself, awakened from a long slumber induced by great mage Kallos's spell.
A ridiculous tale, unworthy of belief. The details were oddly vivid, which piqued curiosity, but impossible, right? Even Burein Mirkel, the kingdom's top mage, deemed Kallos—revered as a god among wizards—incapable of such.
Yet the more he watched, the more it felt... plausible.
'Not that it is, but it wouldn't be strange if it were.'
Kairen felt the same unease as Arietta or Zail. It grew stronger the longer he observed Azel.
Turning to him, Azel said,
"We've cleared this lot, but lingering will draw more. Let's find a place to rest and move."
"Yeah. Suppose we should."
Kairen snapped from his thoughts. As they traveled on, he couldn't hold back.
"Why did you do it?"
"Who knows."
Azel smiled bitterly.
Precious memories, cherished across 220 years of exile to this distant future, lay shattered. He had hoped this land would tether him to his past. Instead, only ruins awaited.
He couldn't stomach monsters desecrating the dead of those who once lived here, strutting like lords. To Azel, these battles were a rite for the departed souls.
'I can't soothe your spirits with this... but yes. I promise.'
As the lord who once ruled here, he vowed to those who had been his people, his children in life:
'I won't forgive those behind this. And... I'll restore this land to human hands.'
He'd hunt the culprits, drag them to hell—Dragon Demon Worshippers or whatever. Azel swore it.
But he couldn't tell Kairen that outright. Azel glossed over it.
"Just felt like... my holy ground was trampled."
"I see."
Not very convincing. Kairen pressed,
"Your head seemed too clear for blind rage. Made me think there was more to it you weren't sharing..."
"I wish it were that simple."
"No rational reason, huh?"
"Yes."
"Still... well, extreme anger can sharpen focus instead. As a high-level Spirit Order practitioner, your mind control must be top-notch."
"That's partly true, but not the whole story."
"Then?"
"I've seen too many die pointlessly, raging blindly without thought."
"..."
"I needed it. To stay cold, no matter the fury."
Azel recalled old days. He'd rampaged in fury, nearly dying more than once. Those brushes with death, and watching comrades fall, forced him to master his emotions.
"Hm?"
Azel looked up sharply. Kairen, running beside him, tensed and muttered.
"Someone's 'watching' us."
7
A gaze upon them. Hidden cleverly from afar, but impossible to conceal the act itself.
Azel spoke via Whispering, forgoing voice.
-Not the guard unit here.
-If a mere guardsman's this good, we'd fear Visjes Kingdom conquering the continent with their military might.
-Not those Prophecy Guardian pervs stalking me, I hope...
Unlikely, but possible. The Prophecy Guardians hadn't approached since Seiga's rescue. Only the Shadow Guardians likely tracked Kairen, their member, via markers.
Either way, they couldn't ignore being observed. Azel and Kairen chatted casually while heading toward the gaze's source.
Azel grew certain.
-Magic.
-How do you know?
-The angle looking down. Magic eye floating in the sky.
Magic, Spirit Order, and Dragon Spirit Art all had "far sight" techniques—not enhanced vision, but projecting the gaze itself remotely.
In far sight, magic outshone Spirit Order and Dragon Spirit Art.
The latter expanded the user's own sight; blocked vision meant no sight beyond. Azel bypassed this with clones, but limits remained.
Magic created floating magic eyes, freely scouting anywhere—even distant or through walls—for high mages.
Kairen nodded.
-I see. That's your reasoning.
-No hostility or malice... but a hovering magic eye like that hides emotions. Unless they attack.
After some travel, Azel and Kairen were a bit surprised.