245. Bloom (4)
245. Bloom (4)
- 1 -
The moment cold moonlight swept past, a blue trajectory traced the air.
Regina's fingertips moved slowly.
The motion of unwinding the greatsword slung over her shoulder was as smooth as a dance, but at its end, an aura of death coiled.
With the crescent arc slashing downward, a blue sword aura erupted like a storm.
The killing intent surging toward the Prince's party seemed as if it would cleave the very air.
"Hup—!"
Kwang—!!
The largest of the warriors standing beside the Prince blocked that sword strike with both hands.
His hands remained unscathed, shielded by the gauntlets wrapped around them.
Carelessly tearing off the tatters of clothing shredded by the strike, he glared at Regina, cruelty flickering in his wary gaze.
His attitude showed no concern for the wounds reopening across his scarred body.
Hwareuk.
Above their heads, a violent blaze soared upward.
It was the red flames of Court Mage Sermanthos.
Taking the shape of a phoenix, it spread its colossal wings and dove from the sky toward the ground.
That spectacle dyed the night sky as if it were twilight, putting those watching on edge.
- Where do you think you're going.
Seolhwa's sorcery blocked it.
A garden, where several white foxes seemed to frolic, unfolded in the air and halted the phoenix's flames.
Watching the ice mist bloom on the spot, Sermanthos ground his teeth.
"How dare you..."
His voice was thick with rage.
It was the memory of Evangeline, the knight who had recently blocked him with a chilling sword strike, that stoked his fury.
Sswe-e-ek—!!
Finally, Rastain's sword moved.
His sword strike was like a ray of light.
A fatal blow aimed at the Prince's neck—the target he had kept his eye on from the very beginning.
"Young master!"
Two warriors with criminal backgrounds panicked and tried to protect him.
The Prince raised one arm without any agitation.
"Hongjeop."
The arm accessory wrapped around his arm emitted light, then created multiple layers of shields in the air.
Kwakwakwang!!
Not a single wound was visible on the Prince's body as he brushed off his sleeve and swept his hair back.
However, the situation was not easy.
Because the three royal ability users, having each tested a single attack, were now beginning to unleash their true strength.
"The gentleman over there seems to be the representative, so if you leave only him behind, I will spare the rest."
Rastain, holding the ricasso of his two-handed sword in one hand and letting it hang, warned first.
That warning carried even more persuasive power due to the coldly brilliant light shimmering on the sword in his hand.
It was clear that not many could block that ray of light.
"As expected."
The Prince let out a light sigh.
'Had I underestimated the strong ones of Hysen...?'
He did not know how things had come to this, but they had been waiting for the Prince's party.
Now that things had reached this point, there were few choices the Prince could make.
"Go."
With that single word, the ten warriors and Siksin began to move simultaneously.
Their weapons glinted under the moonlight.
The warriors moved with a fair degree of coordination.
Even though each wielded martial arts of different schools, they advanced while filling each other's openings.
In the gaps, Seolhwa and the other yokai wove their sorcery.
An aura, laced with freezing air and demonic miasma, surged toward the three strong ones of Hysen.
However, it was not a sight that satisfied Sermanthos.
"I don't know where you bugs crawled from, but—"
Sermanthos, his pride deeply wounded by some unknown entity blocking his magic, raised his hand.
His finger pointed at the empty air.
Multiple magic circles unfolded instantly from his fingertips. The circles, expanding wider as they radiated outward, gathered the embers.
- Block it!
Seolhwa's command was an order from someone with no authority, but the other warriors did not bother to pick a fight over it.
Because even at a glance, the mage's momentum was extraordinary.
However, it was already too late.
- Kreuaaa—!!
A giant lizard made of flames descended upon the royal castle's garden.
The spirit drove back the warriors and yokai charging at it with intense heat.
The flames, which burned the adversaries with surgical precision without igniting the garden, radiated in all directions.
Meanwhile.
'What is this?'
Sermanthos looked at his hand with suspicion.
He had the impression that the mana inside him was not releasing its power cleanly, instead stuttering and grinding.
On the back of his neck, the 'Narcissus' emitted light.
- 2 -
The battle that erupted before the royal castle's main palace.
At first, the three strong ones overwhelmed the Prince and the warriors.
Kureureung!!
Regina's greatsword destroyed the ground and pounded against the barrier made of sorcery and magic with a fate-like bond.
The protective shield guarding the Prince shook as if it would shatter at any moment.
Kakang! Kwakwakwang!
Meanwhile, Rastain's sword rained down ceaselessly upon the warriors intercepting him.
The wrist gripping the two-handed sword rotated so fast it blurred for an instant, tracing a silver arc.
A swiftness unbelievable for a two-handed sword.
"Keuhuk...!"
Already, it had cut off one warrior's head and sliced off another's arm.
"What is it? Was that all you had to invade the royal castle?"
His mocking, provocative words rang out, but the warriors merely endured the onslaught and blocked his blows.
They had yet to find any opening for a counterattack.
"Dammit."
The Prince's mind tangled in complexity.
At this rate, everyone would die.
He knew well that things had already reached an unavoidable point.
'At this rate... but I can't back down now.'
The thought of seizing a chance to flee crossed his mind briefly, but he gritted his teeth.
The path of retreat was not easy, and the punishment that awaited him afterward was equally fearsome.
Though the Prince feared nothing in the world, he feared only the imperial family's 'reproach'.
- Kraaak!!
In the sky, Seolhwa and the other yokai were struggling to block Sermanthos's attacks.
Hwareureuk—!
The fire elemental, its flaming wings beating, singed the hem of Seolhwa's clothes and her hair.
The yokai also wore expressions of dismay.
- Tch...!
Seolhwa ground her teeth and tried to seize an opening to counterattack somehow.
Even that would have been impossible if the Prince's assassin had not been coordinating with her from the side.
Pit!
"This wretched murderer...!"
Every time Sermanthos attempted a decisive blow, the assassin's sword, concealed in the illusion shadows woven by the yokai, lunged at him.
But even this was only a matter of time.
If the battle continued like this, the royal house's victory was certain.
At this rate.
'What is it?'
Rastain realized that the power imbued in his sword was gradually diminishing.
His sword was still fast, but it could not produce the same destructive power as before.
'Strange.'
His face hardened gravely.
"Keuk..."
A groan burst from Sermanthos's mouth.
The giant lizard form made of flames was still as it was, but the ferocity of the mage's own attacks was losing strength.
'How strange.'
Regina also noticed the abnormalities in her nearby comrades.
Because the power her sword poured out had also weakened.
And this was not just a symptom caused by simple fatigue.
In the inner garden of Narcissus Palace, which the people here could not see, the flowers emitted an even brighter light.
"A good opportunity."
The Prince's eyes flashed.
Surely the enemies could not have failed to feel the anomaly he had sensed.
At first, he suspected it was another trap, but that caution turned into certainty upon seeing Sermanthos actually staggering.
"Go!"
Following his command, the warriors, now only six remaining, moved in unison.
However, what he had not anticipated was that these warriors had little skill in taking an opponent alive.
"Keuh..."
One high-rank warrior's sword drew a line filled with murderous intent.
He was a master of the dark arts of the western continent, who heightened his magic power by eating the hearts and brains of the dead.
Greed flashed in his eyes.
"Ah..."
A single sharp line was drawn across a slender neck.
With a quiet sigh, the greatsword dropped to the ground.
Though she pressed her neck with her hand, she could not stop the blood leaking out.
"Regina!!!"
"What have you done!"
Rastain's and the Prince's cries filled with rage rang out.
This slaughter was not what the Prince wanted.
He had only meant to subdue the three strong ones in order to reclaim Saya.
He had no intention of taking their lives.
But Regina was already dead, and Rastain's and Sermanthos's eyes, filled with horror and fury, stared at him.
"Whoever you are, the Hysen royal house will never forgive this deed!"
The cry of Capital Guard Knight Commander Rastain, thick with fury and hatred, struck the Prince's ears.
His voice was steeped in deep loss and despair.
Regina was his fated one.
"You...!"
The Prince's body flinched, and his eyes became bloodshot.
Among the high-rank warriors he commanded, one of the three was already dead.
The dead one was the assassin. He had burned to death painfully under Sermanthos's flames.
Two remained.
The martial artist who had blocked Regina's sword, and the swordsman who had killed her and taken her heart.
To punish these two, he could just use the spell binding placed upon them by the Han Empire, but doing so might block their escape route.
Because the Royal Guard Knight Commander and other strong ones still remained in the royal castle.
- Hold it in. Indecisive Your Highness. We were meant to disappear from this place anyway.
The Prince now realized that no path remained other than succeeding in this affair.
If he could not reclaim Saya, he would surely be expelled from the imperial family.
If he eliminated all these warriors, there would be no witnesses either, but losing even that human resource would also be a great loss.
"Knock out the others! We head to the palace!"
- Capture the enemy!!
The soldiers of Hysen, who had readied themselves the moment they sensed the anomaly, and the superhumans, who were weaker but far more numerous, were swarming from all directions.
There was no time to delay here.
- 3 -
Having left the main palace, the Prince stopped his steps for a moment and sorted out the situation.
'Still, it's fortunate.'
The Prince decided to think as positively as possible.
Now that the three high-rank ability users were suppressed, there was no one left to block their path.
Though the Royal Guard Knight Commander still remained, he would normally stay close to the king's side during such an incident.
Because other intruders might target the king.
'If so, I can handle whoever is left.'
His remaining six warriors were the strongest of the original ten.
Though they were heavily exhausted from the fierce battle earlier, there would be no trouble dealing with the leftover dregs.
Thus, he headed for Narcissus Palace.
'Finally...'
Feeling Saya's presence, Seolhwa wore a smile tinged with frenzy.
She was here.
Through all kinds of hardships, she had finally reached her side.
Saaaa...
The garden of Narcissus Palace was silent.
As if wholly separate from the chaos of the main palace, the purple daffodils and black lilies swayed gently, rustling against the grass.
The Prince's party, having entered the garden, felt a strange eeriness and stopped in their tracks.
"This presence... what is it?"
The warrior with the sharpest senses looked around.
A 'countless number of things' invisible to the eye were watching them.
It was then.
Hwaak—
The flowers in the garden all emitted light simultaneously.
A dazzling flash, and a color entirely different from the flowers' own light.
A deep purple, as if soaked in blood, dyed the garden.
The warriors' weapons were pointed in every direction.
An invisible danger was targeting them.
- This is...?
Seolhwa's face twisted. Her cold air was no longer spreading.
This garden was already a well-made trap.
- So you came all the way here, after all. You two.
Along with a voice that seemed to resonate everywhere, a person's figure appeared before them.
A frail frame. An unprecedented power blooming from that body.
Two eyes of vivid pink.
A person, no, a yokai they both knew well.
- Sangoyo...!
"Saya."
Seolhwa's voice filled with passion and the Prince's calm voice overlapped.
"You should not have come to this place."
The eyes of Amatsu Saya, who stepped forward out of the shadows, cast a shadow.
In that shadow, there was no anger. Only indifference and coldness resided.
The Prince spoke to her calmly.
"Saya. Let's go back. You cannot escape the Han Empire this way."
But Saya, without even looking at him, turned her head.
Toward her back.
"Master."
Watching Saya kneel on that spot, the Prince and Seolhwa opened their eyes wide.
Their gazes turned toward the woman in the black dress walking slowly out from the other side.
Under the faint moonlight, a beautiful woman walked out—outwardly, she seemed utterly harmless.
- That person is your new master...?
"You mean to say you serve the Princess of Hysen as your new master?"
Seolhwa's and the Prince's misunderstanding was reasonable.
If the beautiful woman who came out of the princess's palace was not the princess, then who else could she be?
But, they soon realized.
The woman's hair was pure black.
No trace of the blonde hair that marked the Hysen royal bloodline could be seen on her.
"You are..."
As the Prince furrowed his brows and asked, the corners of her lips drew a soft arc.
"You do not yet have the right to know my name."
At that moment, mana surged from every direction.