Chapter 114
Chapter 114
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: Revenge (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“So much for a duel of swords. What’s with the divine power?”
“What about it? Isn’t divine power better than poison?”
Peri Batoni answered coldly, slashing his aura down toward the man’s chest.
He had only been defeated so helplessly before because he was fighting with a handicap, having to protect his other squad members while the base was under attack.
In truth, this man was never his equal.
The man’s only tricks were demonic energy and poison. With Niceta providing support with her divine power, he was powerless, toyed with by Peri Batoni.
His vaunted demonic energy and poison couldn’t overcome Niceta’s divine power.
It was absurd to even think he’d lost to someone like this.
What good was emitting an aura if your fundamental skills were so lacking?
“That’s enough. I think this is sufficient.”
Whatever he was about to say, the man’s mouth hung open as Peri Batoni’s sword severed his head from his neck.
“Hoo…”
Peri Batoni calmed his slightly ragged breath and sheathed his sword.
“…”
The battle was over.
The only ones lying on the ground were enemies, and all the squad members, now part of the Mercenary Nation, stood firm. Yet, no cheers of victory could be heard.
They simply sheathed their swords and gazed at those who were once their comrades, their expressions grim.
“Niceta.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s begin the purification.”
At Kratos’s command, Niceta performed the purification ritual.
They were comrades in the past, after all. The squad members gathered the corpses in one place.
After purifying the residual demonic energy, Kratos collected all the weapons as Dwalin had requested.
“Why the weapons…?”
“Dwalin’s request.”
“Ah…”
When he answered someone’s question, the squad members let out a collective sigh. They began gathering the swords scattered on the ground and handed them to Kratos.
They could guess the feelings that drove Dwalin to make such a request of Kratos.
But this wasn't enough. These were only the swords of the traitors.
“Where would they have put them…?”
They headed to the forge where Dwalin used to work, searching for the swords of their fallen comrades.
There, they found them—piled up like trash, chipped, rusted, and broken.
Kratos gritted his teeth and put every last one into his inventory.
Hundreds of swords, each belonging to a comrade whose name he might not have known, he collected them all, one by one.
While Dwalin’s mission was being carried out…
Peri Batoni and the others, having purified all the corpses, searched the building to salvage anything that might be left and to tidy up.
“You look sad.”
Niceta murmured, standing with Kratos outside the base, both staring blankly at the massive holy pyre.
“They were my comrades. And my family.”
Most of the comrades from Kratos’s time as commander were dead. Mike Hoare was one of the few who remained.
He couldn't describe how relieved he’d felt. That at least someone was left, someone who was carrying on his will.
“Family.”
At that word, a hint of bitterness crept into Niceta’s expression, as if she was reminded of her own deceased family.
“Family isn’t anything complicated. If you live together, eat together, you’re family.”
“You’re right. That’s what family is.”
For a moment, he wondered how his family on Earth was doing, but he quickly shook his head, clearing the thought.
That was decades ago. Besides, hadn’t he made plenty of family here in his past life?
Perhaps he was in the process of making one in this life, too.
As the holy fire began to die down.
“We’ll strike camp and stay here tonight. If there’s anything you need to grab, do it tonight. It looks like we’ll have to move to a different location tomorrow.”
“Understood.”
Peri Batoni, who had emerged from the base, gave the order in a subdued voice.
“They burned everything.”
“In that short amount of time?”
As the squad members bustled about following his orders, Peri Batoni spoke to Kratos, who had followed him. He glanced once more at the now-empty base, a look of emptiness on his face.
“But why…?”
All the materials related to Lord Prometheus.
The history of the White Mercenary Corps, the member roster, the mission logs collected over the years.
All that history and all those memories had turned to ash in an instant.
“It seems they tried to erase all traces. No, they *wanted* to erase them.”
It wasn’t just here. Any place that held even a faint trace of the old White Mercenary Corps had been burned, destroyed, and boarded up.
He wistfully stroked a spot where a memory once resided.
All traces of the 40 years he had dedicated his life to had been thoroughly destroyed and erased.
And now, he had to destroy the remaining traces with his own hands. Utterly.
“New wine for new wineskins.”
It might not have been the perfect saying for the situation, but it was the only one that came to mind.
“That’s right. New wine for new wineskins. It’s for the best.”
Peri Batoni looked at the place where he could no longer find even a trace of himself.
“We just have to build a new history.”
“A greater and more magnificent one.”
He firmly closed the door to what was once his office.
***
Everything was burning. Or perhaps, it was the memories that were burning.
The mercenary squad members watched with mixed emotions, but they all understood it was necessary.
It was better to destroy it completely than to let it be captured and defiled by the Empire as one of their strongholds.
Besides, it held a clear symbolic meaning.
They did not tear their eyes away until everything the Mercenary Corps had been was reduced to cinders.
The story of what happened here would soon spread throughout the continent. Hattie Shaw had already informed them the previous evening that she was ready to spread the relevant rumors.
Of course, as discussed, she would add incitement and fabrication to the facts—all aimed at the enemy.
She also mentioned she had additional information from Fritz Schäffer that she would organize and pass on.
“Alright! Next mission. There’s no time to rest. The more diligently we move, the more the tides of war will turn in our favor.”
After staring at the ruins for a long while, Peri Batoni turned to his squad.
“This is information we obtained from Fritz Schäffer, the former Finance Minister of the Empire.”
The squad members’ eyes lit up. They already knew the Alliance had captured him; they just hadn’t paid it much mind.
“The Holy Kingdom said he possessed the demonic energy of avarice, didn’t they? A fitting energy for him. For Schäffer, for Ivan Pons, and for that bastard Iscario.”
It was as if the demonic energy attached itself to a person’s specific deficiency.
“It seems they have a secret research lab in this vicinity.”
At the mention of a secret research lab, the members who had been to one before grimaced. They had seen and heard enough about what happened to the 3rd squad.
“We will take care of that secret research lab. After that, we head to the Holy Kingdom’s border and deal with their base there. The Holy Kingdom needs to start making its move in earnest.”
“Yes, sir!”
As if they knew this mission wouldn’t be their last, the members all grabbed their reins and followed Peri Batoni.
The war had only just begun.
***
A connection was made through the communication device from the agent sent to scout the former White Mercenary Corps base.
“So, what’s the situation there?”
- We’ve been attacked. It’s been reduced to complete rubble…
“No survivors?”
- No, sir. Everything has been burned down and left in ruins.
“Tsk. A waste. Can you find any trace of the attacking force?”
- The scale… is estimated to be around a hundred men. We found traces of a campsite nearby, but a recent sandstorm hit. They moved south.
Upon hearing that all the former White Mercenary Corps bases had been burned and ruined, Ludwig Brandt clicked his tongue and cut the connection.
“I still had uses for them.”
They were the perfect pawns to use as meat shields, test subjects, or for handling miscellaneous tasks the Empire didn’t want to bother with.
“The investment wasn’t worth the return. All that effort just to sow a little division.”
The amount of money and information used to win over that Iscario was substantial.
And yet, as soon as the war started, the mercenary base was ambushed and reduced to ruins before they could even make contact.
“The Northern Alliance played a cheap trick.”
They must have sent a separate group out of Rzhev as soon as the war began. And it was undoubtedly the members of the White Mercenary Corps.
The mercenary mindset was predictable. With a knife in their backs, they would seek revenge themselves. They wouldn’t bother borrowing the hands of the Holy Kingdom or Rzhev.
“Relay this to all forces. A portion of the Northern Alliance’s mercenaries has left Rzhev and will be attacking Imperial strongholds.”
The war had begun, and now was the time for a battle of wits.
***
“No… no! No! No!”
The territory visible beyond the highest spire of the lord's castle could no longer be called a territory. Everything was burning, breaking.
Patches of black energy coiled and rose into the sky, accompanied by the screams of his people, the breathing of monsters, and plumes of red smoke.
“Why… why!”
The lord tore at his hair, weeping tears of blood. The Imperial forces that had suddenly appeared were systematically annihilating his lands.
This wasn’t about holding him accountable. It was as if they were delivering a swift and total punishment for a past sin, erasing the territory from existence.
“Only death awaits those who oppose the Empire.”
“The monster wave… I had no troops because of the monster wave!”
“A mere excuse. His Majesty’s orders should have taken precedence over all else.”
The lord couldn’t speak, only wail like a beast. Everything he had was disappearing.
Everyone inside his castle was long dead, bleeding out on the floor. His wife, his children, his parents, his knights, his soldiers, and even his butler.
No, they had reaped the lives of every living thing.
And he alone had been dragged up to this spire to witness the end of this tragedy.
“Hehe… hehehe… so that’s what it was… heh…”
The lord, slowly losing his mind, began to drool and scratch at the floor. His nails bled and broke, but he kept scratching.
“It’s done. Send him to the laboratory.”
At those words, soldiers grabbed the lord’s arms and dragged him down from the spire. His knees scraped against the floor, bleeding profusely, but even as he was dragged away, the lord did not stop laughing.
No, he couldn’t stop.
“Aargh—sa… save me!”
“Run! I told you to run!”
Outside the castle, a true hellscape unfolded, a mix of people being devoured by monsters and others being dragged away to laboratories.
But not a single ant could escape this territory. The entire area was surrounded by troops, with not even the smallest gap.
The people could only scream in vain as they awaited their deaths.
And all of these emotions were steadily accumulating in the Stone of the Seven Deadly Sins, placed prominently before the lord’s castle.
This was already the second territory to be erased from the map.
They would be more thorough, more certain in shattering the territories and slaughtering the people.
To extract their emotions.
*Ssssp—Haaa—*
With a deep breath, all sorts of negative emotions flowed deep into his lungs.
His tongue instinctively licked his lips. The emotion was so sweet he couldn’t help it.
“This place is finished. Two more to go, then.”
A total of four territories had been marked as examples this time. They had to move quickly, as they needed to visit not only the castle towns but also the nearby villages to collect test subjects.
It would take quite some time. And once this cleansing was finished, the Northern Alliance was next.
The true main dish.