Chapter 178
Chapter 178
"Oh goodness! Not that witch! Thank God!"
Dario shed tears of relief upon seeing it was Zeke who entered.
'Lady Arina, what exactly did you do...?'
Trembling, Dario clung to Zeke.
"I-I'll do anything you ask. J-just please don't hand me over to that witch!"
Zeke slowly spoke while looking at Dario.
"Dario Nostra. I have a proposal. If you testify against the Nostra Family at the Draker trial, I'll spare your life. Though you'll have to spend the rest of your life in prison."
Dario trembled at Zeke's words before slowly nodding.
While Arina's interrogation was frightening, what he feared more was retaliation from the Nostra Family.
They would surely try to kill him brutally, knowing he had already broken the oath of silence.
In the current situation, entrusting himself to Draker and surviving in prison was the best option.
Dario spoke to Zeke through tears.
"A-alright."
After hearing Dario's answer, Zeke stared at him briefly before leaving the dungeon and heading up to the castle.
He planned to hand Dario over to Kali's side.
'Once Dario goes to trial, my mission to eliminate the human trafficking organization will be marked complete and recorded. And the responsibility will transfer to House Draker.'
Even the Nostra Family couldn't openly challenge House Draker. So once the trial began, the matter would be essentially resolved.
At the same time, the Nostra Family would likely operate beneath the surface, looking for an opportunity to quietly assassinate Dario.
Zeke planned to use that opening to strike at the Nostra Family's core.
'It's nearly finished.'
The next day, Zeke arranged to secretly transport Dario from Mycenae to Atlas for his trial.
To minimize evidence of his involvement, he manipulated information to make it appear that Red Eye had handed Dario over for the Draker trial.
With the Syndicate's information network and Kei's influence, manipulating the information wasn't difficult.
After manipulating the information, Zeke decided to personally transport Dario while concealing his identity.
Zeke planned to conduct the transport operation with unidentified Salmak’s men.
To create an alibi of contact with Red Eye, he set the route to enter Athens via Panstas from Mycenae.
The problem was that they couldn't use portals during transit.
If they used the Panstas portal, they couldn't avoid the eyes of the Nostra Family spread throughout the continent.
Zeke's group had no choice but to transport Dario via detour.
* * *
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Disguised as a merchant, Zeke headed toward Atlas with Salmak’s men in a specially manufactured transport carriage.
They initially considered using the railroad, but opted for carriage travel after Salmak suggested assassination risk could be higher by train.
Taking detours rather than main roads meant significant travel time.
Though they'd been traveling by carriage for days, fortunately there were no signs of a Nostra Family attack.
Still, Zeke remained vigilant.
Then, one of the Salmak personnel approached Zeke.
"We'll reach the Atlas Mountains tomorrow."
The Atlas Mountains were one of the final checkpoints when moving from Panstas to Atlas.
Due to the rough terrain and paths, most use tunnels or bypass roads to cross the Atlas Mountains.
But needing to avoid outside attention, Zeke had no choice but to go through the mountains.
'If they attack, it will be here.'
The next day, Zeke's group entered the Atlas Mountains.
SCREECH!
The narrow, unmaintained paths were unsuitable for heavy carriages.
"Push! A bit more! Now!"
Progress was further delayed by pulling and pushing the carriage.
Contrary to Zeke's expectations, there were no attacks in the Atlas Mountains, and the group passed through quietly.
After safely crossing the mountains, they entered an outer city before Atlas proper.
Once prosperous, it had become a ghost town due to urban hollowing as Midland cities like Atlas developed.
Zeke sensed something was off as soon as they entered.
'I have a bad feeling about this.'
He headed toward their designated inn with the carriage.
They had chosen a quiet inn to avoid drawing attention.
Zeke and the Salmak’s men skillfully acted as merchants while entering the inn.
While others paid and ordered meals, Zeke guarded the carriage at the stable, watching his surroundings.
That's when it happened.
Zeke's senses picked something up.
'Where?'
Though alert and scanning the area, he saw no suspicious movements.
Zeke activated Dragon Eye to expand his sensory range.
'The ground?'
Suddenly, cracks began appearing in the ground where Zeke and the carriage stood.
CRASH!
Zeke instantly deployed his gold Aura field to grab the carriage with strong power and pulled it away from the inn's stable.
RUMBLE RUMBLE!
The stable floor cracked and collapsed, sinking into the split ground below.
After pulling the carriage outside, Zeke gritted his teeth as he watched the collapsing floor.
'Magic? Or is this another Bloodline ability?'
Zeke sensed new presences.
Enemies revealed themselves from buildings around the inn.
Using his Dragon Eye, Zeke immediately identified who they were.
'Damn, Knight Killers?'
The Empire's Magic Corps special snipers had revealed themselves here.
Zeke pulled out a shield magic scroll from his chest and tore it.
WHOOSH!
A shield expanded around Zeke and the carriage.
SWOOSH!
At that moment, magic bullets from the snipers flew toward Zeke and the carriage.
Though the shield magic was blocking the bullets, he didn't know when it would break.
SWISH SWISH!
The Salmak assassins who were inside the inn suddenly came out and moved up to spread out to catch the Knight Killers.
As the Salmak assassins charged in, the Knight Killers could be felt retreating.
But the attack didn't end with the Knight Killers.
As if they had been hiding in buildings, suddenly people rushed out in droves and approached the carriage.
'So they wanted to end it all here.'
Their armor and weapons were all different, suggesting they were mercenaries hired to hide identities.
Given that even Zeke's senses hadn't detected them, there seemed to be skilled mages among them too.
"Kill him and take the carriage!"
The mercenaries charged at Zeke while raising their weapons and shouting.
Zeke responded by banging his palm against the carriage.
RUMBLE!
The thick carriage door opened.
STEP! STEP! STEP!
Enhanced skeletons began marching out in lines.
The mercenaries were taken aback seeing skeletons with purple bone armor.
"U-undead?"
A man who looked like a mage shouted from behind.
"These are undead summoned by those vampire bastards! They're just skeletons! Don't be scared and attack!"
Being quite an experienced battle mage, he calmly commanded the mercenaries.
At that moment, purple light flashed in the skeletons' eyes.
They immediately raised their bone shields and charged straight into the mercenaries.
CRASH!
The mercenaries were pushed back by the powerful force.
In that gap, the skeletons swung their weapons.
WHOOSH!
The skeletons created by Richmond boasted strength unlike normal skeletons.
The mage in the back made a bewildered expression seeing their power.
"H-how are these undead so strong?"
After his momentary confusion, he grimaced and raised his staff to cast magic.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Basic fire magic rained down on the skeleton unit.
Richmond's skeletons were infused with the power of the Herald of Blood and Madness.
Fire magic weaker than hell's infernal flames couldn't stop them.
Eventually, the mercenaries began retreating under the skeleton unit's power.
As the situation seemed to resolve easily, Zeke expanded his senses to guard the surroundings.
'These guys are just bait. The real one hasn't shown up yet.'
At that moment, something fell from the sky at high speed.
CRASH!
A massive iron sphere crashed down on Zeke, the carriage, the skeleton unit, and the mercenary force.
CRACK!
"ARGHHHH!"
The mercenaries caught under the iron sphere died screaming.
Zeke drew his sword and deployed his gold force field to deflect the incoming sphere.
BOOM!
Unable to withstand the power of the human torso-sized iron sphere, the building completely collapsed.
Simultaneously, someone slowly descended from the sky and stood on the iron sphere.
"Wow, first time seeing someone parry my ball with a sword."
A boy in a suit and shorts.
Zion, member of Six, the special-grade Bloodline ability user group, showed himself again.
As Zion twisted his lips and raised his hand, five more iron spheres floated up and spun around his body.
Zeke estimated the weight of the iron sphere he just deflected to be about 1 ton.
Even when knights used aura and strengthened their bodies and swords, battles were fundamentally about physical force.
Heavier and faster attacks had more power.
Zion's ability to freely control 1-ton iron spheres exceeded even Red Knight-level power.
'This guy will be tricky to handle.'
For Zeke who couldn't use his full power while disguising his identity, this was no easy opponent.
Spinning the iron spheres, Zion spoke to Zeke.
"Hey you. Try blocking this too!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Zion spread his palm and the spinning iron spheres flew at high speed toward Zeke.
WHOOSH!
Zeke rolled to dodge the spheres and deflected the ones flying toward the carriage with his sword.
CRASH!
After consecutively deflecting the powerfully launched iron spheres, Zion showed genuine surprise.
"Huh? Are you a knight? You don't seem like those stupid vampire bastards. Maybe a Draker Knight?"
Without answering, Zeke raised his sword and charged quickly at the boy using Shadowless steps.
SWOOSH!
Surprised by Zeke's sudden attack, Zion floated up into the air.
SLASH!
But Zeke's swift and sharp attack cut through the front of Zion's clothes.
Retreating backward while floating, Zion's face contorted.
"How dare you?!, you bastard."
RUMBLE!
A massive storm arose around Zion's body.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Five iron spheres floated up again and began spinning in the storm. Then Zion launched them at Zeke.
CRASH!
Zeke deployed his water force field and naturally caught the incoming spheres with his sword, sending them back at the boy.
Elemental Sword
Water Force Field
Reverse Wave Sword
As the spheres, now empowered with Reverse Wave Sword's force, flew back at him, Zion panicked and spread his palm.
CRUNCH!
Zion instantly exerted his power to forcefully block the incoming spheres.
"NNGHH!"
Veins bulged on his forehead from overusing his ability.
Zeke didn't miss this moment and immediately unleashed a lightning skill at Zion.
CRACKLE!
Massive lightning burst from the sword and struck Zion directly.
"ARGHHHH!"
Hit by the lightning, Zion fell to the ground. Zeke ran toward where he fell.
That's when it happened.
CRACK!
The ground in front of Zeke split and a massive rock shot up.
Slash!
Though sudden, Zeke didn't panic and cut through the rock.
But beyond it, the fallen Zion was nowhere to be seen.
Zeke realized another Six member was here besides Zion.
'An ability user who controls earth?'
This ability was on a different level from ordinary Bloodline ability users.
It was much faster and more powerful than magic cast by high-rank earth mages.
Then the fallen iron spheres began moving again.
CRUNCH!
But surprisingly, the spheres' form had changed.
Instead of smooth spheres, they now had sharp protrusions.
As the dust cloud from the rising spheres cleared, a lightning-scorched Zion appeared glaring at Zeke.
He stretched his hand toward Zeke.
"Die, you bastard!"