Chapter 431
Chapter 431
Chapter 431
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
When a massive explosion sound was heard, Azumund frowned.
He spoke to the aide beside him.
"Find out what's happening."
The aide immediately led the knights toward where the explosion sound came from.
Azumund's expression wasn't good as he watched them run out.
'Something feels off.'
Azumund had good instincts.
For unknown reasons, his entire body had been sending warning signals since earlier.
Even though the situation wasn't particularly disadvantageous for Azumund himself, his instinctive senses kept telling him to leave the palace now.
Azumund suppressed the warning signals and steadied his breathing.
'It's fine. If needed, I have the test subject provided by Jiemens...'
Just then, strange additional sounds were heard from where the explosion occurred.
SWISH!
Sharp sounds originating from the explosion site echoed everywhere.
Azumund stepped back and shouted toward the knights.
"Something's there! Everyone take defensive positions!"
The Crab Palace knights raised their shields and maintained formation while watching all directions.
Then something approached from the palace corridor.
SWISH
Giant Komodo dragons were charging toward the knights.
"S-Stop them!"
The knights couldn't help but be momentarily confused when dozens of giant lizards suddenly appeared in the palace.
As they were in disarray, the dragon warriors who had been tightly clinging to the dragons' backs revealed themselves.
WHOOSH!
The dragon warriors riding the Komodo dragons threw spears and shot arrows at the Crab Palace knights.
CLANG!
Though surprised, the Crab Palace knights calmly raised their shields to block the dragon warriors' attacks.
But soon the lizards pushed against the knights with their heavy bodies.
THUD!
The Crab Palace knights tried their best to block the lizards' charge but it was essentially impossible.
While they were unable to properly respond, the dragon warriors riding the lizards leaped into the air and charged into the midst of the Crab Palace knights.
SLASH!
The dragon warriors drew their twin swords and cut down the Crab Palace knights.
"ARGHH!"
When attacked by the dragon warriors while blocking the lizards, the Crab Palace knights' formation quickly crumbled.
Watching from behind, Azumund's face contorted.
'Where did such monsters come from...? Could they be Ropocale's summons?'
Not knowing the true identity of the shadow spirits, Azumund fell into confusion.
But this wasn't the end.
SLASH!
Who knows when they appeared, but the Black Specter Squad members had drawn their swords and were sweeping through the Crab Palace knights while approaching Azumund.
They were the ones who had been restrained in the mobile prison and dragged along with Zeke.
But somehow they had freed themselves from their restraints and escaped the prison to attack Azumund from behind.
Upon discovering the Black Specter Squad members, Azumund felt like he'd been hit in the head.
'Could it be that Zeke Draker...?'
BOOM BOOM!
Just then, with a tremendous roar, the wall crumbled.
Someone walked out along with the thickly rising dust cloud.
A knight wielding a giant hammer.
Zeke Draker had appeared, completely unharmed.
Momentarily thrown off by Zeke's sudden appearance, Azumund instinctively shouted.
"C-capture him immediately!"
The Crab Palace knights immediately responded to his order and charged toward Zeke.
Then Zeke raised his hammer and spread his golden force field.
RUMBLE!
And he swung his hammer imbued with golden force at the charging knights.
CRUNCH!
With that one strike, the Crab Palace knight at the front flew into the wall with both his shield and armor crumpled.
Seeing power like that of a giant swinging a hammer, the other Crab Palace knights stopped in their tracks, having lost their fighting spirit.
Seeing this, Azumund shouted at the knights.
"What are you doing?! Attack him now!"
Though Azumund shouted, none of the Crab Palace knights who had been charging at Zeke just moments ago dared to charge at him again.
They themselves had felt the overwhelming difference in martial prowess.
'He's not human but a monster.'
'Charging in would just be suicide.'
RUMBLE!
And then, the power of charisma naturally flowed from Zeke's body.
As the Blood King Caligula's power combined with the authority of charisma, the elevated dignity of a ruler naturally radiated from Zeke.
The Crab Palace knights who had lost their will to fight unknowingly lowered their weapons and knelt before Zeke.
The proud Crab Palace knights had surrendered without even fighting.
Though at a distance, Azumund too felt that the aura radiating from Zeke's body was extraordinary.
'Everything went according to Zeke Draker's plan.'
He realized that he and Ropocale had been nothing but clowns moving on a stage set up by Zeke Draker.
Azumund clenched his teeth and drew the sword from his back.
As if responding to this, Zeke spoke while looking at the sword in Azumund's hand.
"A sword imbued with the power of the Flesh Emperor Ajitahaka. Azumund Varios. It's too much for you to handle."
At Zeke's words, Azumund bit his lip hard and then thrust the sword into the ground.
TSSSS!
The sword quickly absorbed the blood spilled by the dead Crab Palace knights.
CRUNCH’
Having absorbed the blood, Ajitahaka's sword transformed into a similar shape as before.
Azumund raised the sword, glared at Zeke, and shouted.
"Zeke Draker! Come and..."
SLICE!
But before he could finish speaking, with a chilling sound, Azumund's arm holding the sword was completely severed.
'Huh?'
Azumund couldn't understand what had just happened.
When he stopped speaking and looked up, Zeke was standing in the same spot holding Azumund's severed arm.
He pulled out Ajitahaka's sword from Azumund's gripping hand.
Then he dissolved Azumund's arm with the power of decay.
SIZZLE!
Azumund, who had been blankly watching his arm disappear in an instant, finally grasped the situation.
"Zeke Draker, you bastaaaard!"
Zeke swung Ajitahaka's sword back and forth.
"The power of the Flesh Emperor. What a disgustingly sticky and unpleasant energy."
An even more gloomy and sinister energy than that of fallen constellations was deeply embedded in the sword.
It was impossible to even gauge how many souls of the dead and despair were contained within it.
'They said he was worse than Caligula. I can tell just by looking at this sword.'
Having looked into Ropocale's memories, Zeke could access information about the Flesh Emperor Ajitahaka.
A human who gave up being human to become a constellation.
That was the being that Ramon Jiemens had awakened.
Zeke spoke while looking at Azumund.
"Did Ramon Jiemens give you this sword directly?"
Azumund didn't answer his question.
He just stared at Zeke for a while, then instead of answering Zeke's question, he said something else.
"Zeke Draker, you cannot escape this room."
"That's for me to figure out. Azumund, you're the one who will die here today."
Then Azumund took a breath and stepped back.
"Is that so?"
Suddenly a black portal appeared in front of Azumund.
WOONG!
Something shot out from within the black portal.
Zeke reflexively swung his hammer at the suddenly appearing figure.
WHOOSH!
The hammer imbued with golden force flew toward the figure, but the attack merely sliced through the air uselessly.
Zeke looked at the figure that came out of the black portal.
'That is...?'
Reptilian eyes.
Skin covered in scales thicker than steel.
'A dragon kin?'
As he wondered, powerful fighting spirit flowed from the body of the dragon kin glaring at Zeke.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
However, he couldn't feel any of the dragon's energy that he had felt from Abel when he transformed into a dragon demon.
'Is it a chimera that only copied the outer appearance without a dragon's heart?'
Seeing how it was contaminated with fighting spirit, it seemed to be an experimental subject created by mixing the corrupted blood of the Four fiends with dragon's blood.
Even if it was a chimera that only copied the appearance, it had a hard outer shell made of dragon scales, so normal attacks likely wouldn't work at all.
As he was contemplating how to deal with it, sharp claws sprouted from the hands of the chimera glaring at Zeke.
At the same time, it quickly charged toward Zeke.
SLASH!
It swung its claws violently, but Zeke dodged it and deep claw marks were left where he had been.
Zeke stepped back, put away his hammer and drew Bahamut.
He immediately moved forward with the sword and launched an attack at the dragon kin-looking chimera.
CLANG!
Bahamut, made from dragon bone, clashed with its scales.
There was an intense metallic sound but the scales were only scratched, not cut.
Zeke stepped back, glared at the chimera, and this time tried using his Dragon kind domination authority.
[The authority cannot be applied as the target is not of the dragon race.]
Just like how Rahim's chimera wasn't recognized as a mine, this dragon chimera also didn't seem to be recognized as a dragon kin.
Azumund, hiding behind the dragon-form chimera, was glaring at Zeke while looking for a chance to escape.
Noticing this, Zeke gestured and the Black Specter Squad members blocked all escape routes to prevent Azumund from fleeing.
Seeing this, Azumund clenched his teeth and shouted at the chimera.
"Get rid of them and open an escape route now!"
At that command, the chimera immediately turned and jumped toward where the Black Specter Squad members were.
Though it may have judged that dealing with them and escaping quickly would be better than facing Zeke, this was a grave miscalculation.
There wasn't a single weak member among the Black Specter Squad.
RUMBLE!
Zeros instantly cast magic to bind the charging chimera's body.
Like the Knight of Flash she was, Reina didn't miss this opening and rushed forward to swing her sword at the chimera's neck.
CLANG!
But due to the hard scales it gained from taking a dragon's form, Reina's sword couldn't penetrate.
She immediately retreated and shouted to the other members.
"Its outer shell is as hard as Hersion! Keep it in check with ranged attacks!"
Following Reina's words, the Black Specter Squad members maintained their distance while containing the chimera.
Contrary to his expectations, Azumund was flustered when Ramon Jiemens' dispatched test subject struggled.
'Not just Zeke Draker, but to think the Black Sword Knights would be this strong too.'
It was a major error to have set this trap assuming Zeke Draker was just on the level of a Black Knight.
'He's no ordinary knight. We must assume he has magic, multiple blood abilities, and unknown powers as well.'
Azumund regretted his mistake in only now understanding Zeke's unknown powers, but it was too late to turn back.
While he was regretting, behind him, Zeke was slowly approaching with the shadow spirits.
"Azumund Varios, give up now."
Then Azumund opened his mouth while looking at Zeke.
"Sir Zeke Draker. I'd like to make a proposal."
The crafty schemer Azumund tried to use trickery even in this situation to find a way to survive.
He continued speaking to Zeke.
"Don't you want to catch the real Abel Jiemens? I can help you achieve your goal."
At Azumund's words, Zeke nodded and said.
"Indeed. So you know where Abel is?"
"Yes. Since Ropocale has hidden him away thoroughly, without me you'll never be able to find Abel..."
"He's hidden in the Imperial Tomb."
Azumund's face hardened at Zeke's words.
Zeke continued speaking while looking at him.
"Bold, I'd say. Hiding Abel in the tomb of past emperors. That place is practically absolutely forbidden."
Azumund hadn't thought Zeke would actually know where Abel was.
'Is there no limit to his abilities?'
Then Zeke spoke to Azumund.
"Azumund. Hypothetically speaking. What do you think would happen if Abel were to destroy the sacred Imperial Tomb? Aren't you curious how those stubborn Black Knights would react?"
At Zeke's words, the worst-case scenario formed in the schemer Azumund's mind.
'Surely not...?'
Zeke smiled while looking at Azumund.
"I needed a justification to move the Empire's Black Knights, and Ropocale went ahead and nicely brought Abel there."
If the berserk Abel destroyed the sacred Imperial Tomb, it was clear that the other nobles and houses maintaining neutrality could no longer just stand by and watch.
Zeke planned to provoke Abel into destroying the sacred ground and find justification to move the neutral nobles.
Azumund finally realized why Zeke had willingly walked into his trap.
"Zeke Drakerrr!"
Overwhelmed by the sense of defeat consuming his whole body, Azumund shouted while looking at Zeke.
Seeing this, Zeke spoke to Azumund while holding his sword.
"If you surrender now, I'll spare your life. I think that's quite a generous offer."
Even at this moment, Azumund's mind was racing quickly.
He had no choice but to make the worst remaining choice.
Azumund spoke the Language of oath to the chimera.
"Release all power limitations."