Chapter 147
Chapter 147
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 147
Chapter Title: Civil War in Half a Day (3)
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“What is this?”
With the main instigator, First Duke Serdov, and the next emperor, Rodius II, dying so pathetically.
Fifth Duke Berefconi fell into a panic.
“The enemy has disguised themselves as allies! We’ve fallen into a trap!”
Fourth Duke Orpheusus, at least, kept his head.
He grasped the truth in an instant.
“Then what do we do?”
“We kill them.”
“Rodius II is already dead.”
The man they had planned to enthrone as the next emperor was Rodius II.
With him dead, the rebellion had fizzled out before it even truly began.
“There are those sons of his.”
Rodius II had wastrel sons who looked just like him.
“Besides, it’s too late for us to back out now. Do you think Crown Princess Cecilia will let us live if we surrender at this point?”
Fourth Duke Orpheusus and Fifth Duke Berefconi had already crossed the point of no return.
“Kill them! Kill those bastards!”
Fifth Duke Berefconi, belatedly grasping the situation, bellowed his attack order at the top of his lungs.
But the situation was hopeless.
Their numbers were clearly greater.
And the encirclement was formed by their own allies.
“Arrrgh!”
“It’s a monster!”
“Spare me!”
Their allies were being slaughtered one-sidedly.
“Let’s plan for what comes after.”
Fourth Duke Orpheusus said to Fifth Duke Berefconi.
The forces here were merely a tiny fraction of those under Fourth Duke Orpheusus and Fifth Duke Berefconi.
If the plan had gone awry?
All that remained was all-out war, mobilizing every soldier in their territories.
“Got it.”
While their subordinates bought time, Fourth Duke Orpheusus and Fifth Duke Berefconi hurriedly fled.
“Where are you two off to in such a hurry?”
But blocking their path was a single player clad head to toe in jet-black armor.
“Get out of the way!”
At Fifth Duke Berefconi’s command, the guard knights charged.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
But with one strike from the opponent, who unleashed a bloody aura.
“Aaack!”
They were annihilated in an instant.
“Demon-Slaying Blood God! The Dark Knight has joined Crown Princess Cecilia!”
Fourth Duke Orpheusus grasped the situation in a flash.
“You’re pretty quick on the uptake, traitor to humanity.”
Kang Hyun-soo smiled as he looked at Fourth Duke Orpheusus.
“Thanks for starting the rebellion.”
Even if Cecilia ascended to the throne.
Removing Fourth Duke Orpheusus, a key member of the Fifth Duke’s faction boasting ironclad unity without any evidence, wouldn’t have been easy.
That was why he had planned to bring him down using doppelganger summons.
But thanks to him rebelling on his own, it could be handled faster and more easily.
“Grr!”
Fourth Duke Orpheusus ground his teeth.
But all he could do now was.
“We’ll see about that!”
Spit out a clichéd villain line and flee.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
But Kang Hyun-soo had no intention of letting Fourth Duke Orpheusus escape.
His guard knights had died in an instant.
“Eek! I surrender! Please spare me!”
Slash!
He even beheaded Fifth Duke Berefconi, who begged for his life.
In that time, Fourth Duke Orpheusus had fled as far as he could.
“Where are you rushing off to?”
But he was caught immediately.
Fourth Duke Orpheusus was no different from a rat in a trap.
“Let me go. If you don’t, you’ll die right here too.”
Fourth Duke Orpheusus warned Kang Hyun-soo in a grim voice.
“Did you make a Death Pact or something?”
Kang Hyun-soo asked Fourth Duke Orpheusus.
“You know quite a bit, don’t you? Yes, I made a Death Pact. If I die, a demon noble—not some ordinary demon, but a demon realm earl—will descend into my body.”
“A demon realm earl, huh.”
“If he descends, you’re as good as dead.”
A demon realm earl would certainly be a tough opponent for Kang Hyun-soo right now.
Even the lowest demon nobles like Demon Dragon Karas and Doppelganger King Taliman had been incredibly strong.
But that assumed a full demon realm earl crossing through a dimensional gate.
“Try it if you want. I won’t die. It’s not your main body coming—just the earl’s spirit descending into a dead corpse.”
Kang Hyun-soo smirked.
Whoosh!
And with those words, he swung his sword.
Crunch!
Kang Hyun-soo’s blade pierced Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s heart.
“Gah! You’ll regret this.”
With those final words, Fourth Duke Orpheusus breathed his last.
Shwaaaaa!
Powerful demonic energy and death aura began pouring from Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s corpse.
“An undead-type demon?”
That was the most likely.
As proof, Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s corpse was rapidly turning into a skeleton undead.
“Then I just need to smash it before it’s complete.”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Kang Hyun-soo swung his blood aura-wreathed sword repeatedly.
The bones of Fourth Duke Orpheusus, transforming into an undead, cracked and shattered.
-You’re quite strong, human.
Red glows lit up in the empty skull, forming a barrier of demonic energy and death aura.
-But merely a human in the end. Eventually...
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Boom!
Before the demon that had descended into Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s corpse could finish speaking.
Kang Hyun-soo’s swung sword shattered the barrier in an instant.
-What power is this?
The demon in Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s corpse was considerably shocked.
Crunch!
Kang Hyun-soo’s sword pierced the empty skull.
The explosively surging demonic energy and death aura rapidly dissipated, the red glow slowly dimming.
-Impossible?
It had finally descended.
Yet it couldn’t even properly use its power or finish its sentence before the vessel shattered.
“See you next time. But brace yourself. Next time, I’ll smash your main body, not some descended vessel.”
At Kang Hyun-soo’s words.
-You arrogant human! Just because you broke one doll...
Crunch!
Before the demon in Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s corpse could finish, Kang Hyun-soo stomped the skull to pieces.
At the same time, the demonic energy and death aura vanished in an instant.
‘Even as a descended clone, it’s pretty juicy.’
[The demon noble’s clone has been eliminated, permanently absorbing its demonic energy.]
[The Goddess’s Tear EX-Rank purifies the permanently absorbed demonic energy, converting it to the special stat Divinity.]
[The Divinity stat has increased.]
Divinity rose by a whopping 80.
At this rate.
‘It’ll deal a decent blow to the main body too.’
From the demon realm earl’s perspective?
It had descended for nothing, permanently losing that much demonic energy.
-Roaaar!
“What? What’s happening!”
“Aaack!”
“Our allies turned into monsters!”
“Kill them!”
Screams erupted from all directions.
‘The sacrificial victims turned into undead too?’
For a demon realm earl to descend, a great many lives must have been sacrificed.
And they all seemed to have turned into undead under the earl’s influence.
‘I need to clean this up as fast as possible.’
Turning into sacrificial victims without prior preparation?
‘Means they’re traitors to humanity who contracted with demons.’
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Kang Hyun-soo and his summons stepped up to swiftly eliminate the undead.
At the same time.
“Fourth Duke Orpheusus, contracted with demons, has summoned undead!”
“The rebels colluded with demons!”
They didn’t forget the media play.
“What’s going on?”
“What happened to our lord?”
The rebels fell into chaos.
“Rodius II, the ringleader of the rebellion, and the dukes are dead!”
“Rebel forces, surrender!”
“Surrender and you’ll at least keep your lives!”
“Rebels who refuse will have their clans exterminated!”
The summons, under Kang Hyun-soo’s orders, raised their voices to urge surrender.
‘No need to kill all the rebels.’
The gathered forces under First Duke, Fourth Duke, and Fifth Duke numbered over 100,000.
Most of them anyway.
‘Were just following orders from superiors.’
The best move was to eliminate key figures and absorb the rest for use in the future all-out war against the Demon King’s army.
Kang Hyun-soo and his summons mercilessly cut down those who resisted.
The rebels, leaderless, ultimately all surrendered.
‘Didn’t even take half a day.’
And even that half day was less time suppressing the rebels than.
Traveling from Terra Kingdom to Rokto Empire.
And from Rokto Empire’s imperial palace to the rebels’ base.
Probably the shortest civil war in Atlantis dimension history.
* * *
Crown Princess Cecilia assassinated Emperor Rodius I, then swiftly crushed the rebellion by Rodius II, First Duke, Fourth Duke, and Fifth Duke.
With the situation resolved overnight.
The first nobles to move were Second Duke and Third Duke.
“We sincerely congratulate you on suppressing the rebels!”
“Congratulations!”
Second Duke and Third Duke prostrated themselves before Cecilia.
They knew full well their heads could roll if they slipped up.
“You two were close with the traitors, weren’t you?”
At Cecilia’s question, Second Duke and Third Duke paled.
“It’s true we were acquainted, but the rebellion was entirely the traitors’ independent action.”
“We never took part in the rebellion!”
“We’ll find out with an investigation. Both of you, relinquish all positions and confine yourselves.”
At Cecilia’s command.
“We are immensely grateful for Your Majesty’s mercy!”
“Immensely grateful!”
Second Duke and Third Duke relinquished their full authority over judiciary and administration and withdrew.
With Second Duke and Third Duke leading the way.
High nobles and military leaders, who had been watching, flooded into Rokto Empire’s capital, kneeling before Crown Princess Cecilia and swearing loyalty.
From the high nobles and military leaders’ perspective, they had planned to gauge the situation.
Assess the odds between Crown Princess Cecilia and the deposed crown prince Rodius II.
Then leisurely side with whoever benefited them most.
But with the civil war ending one-sidedly in less than a day.
They had no choice but to scramble.
On top of that, Fourth Duke Orpheusus’s demon contract was publicly exposed.
If they weren’t careful.
They could be framed(?) as rebel collaborators.
Or misunderstood(?) as demon contractors’ allies.
Naturally, high nobles and military leaders had to urgently prove their innocence(?).
Having received the high nobles and military leaders’ loyalty oaths, Cecilia ascended as Rokto Empire’s first empress.
She then swept up the rebel remnants.
And by installing her subordinate commanders in Rokto Empire’s key posts, she seized control in an instant.
* * *
‘We achieved even greater results than expected.’
Swiftly suppressing the rebellion immensely solidified Cecilia’s imperial authority.
With her subordinate commanders occupying Rokto Empire’s key posts.
The chance of further rebellions dropped to near zero.
‘Cecilia’s subordinate commanders are my subordinate commanders.’
An enormous prize, the entire Rokto Empire, had rolled right into Kang Hyun-soo’s hands.
‘My status got an upgrade too.’
Kang Hyun-soo had noble status in both Rokto Empire and Mulan Kingdom via double seal technique.
But both were low-rank nobility.
However, this incident skyrocketed his Rokto Empire noble status.
‘Duke, huh.’
Empress Cecilia officially bestowed the duke title on Kang Hyun-soo, leader of the Dark Knights.
Along with authority to command Rokto Empire’s entire army in emergencies and inspectorate powers.
Essentially handing over two of the emperor’s greatest powers.
There was no backlash.
They saw it as the Dark Knights earning a great reward for their merits.
If anything, many regretted it.
If they had actively sided with Cecilia from the start and helped the Dark Knights crush the rebels?
They too could have earned rewards on par with the Dark Knights.
From Kang Hyun-soo’s perspective, it was all good.
Cecilia’s subjects would now compete fiercely in loyalty.
‘Now I have real power.’
Kang Hyun-soo wasn’t the type to let power rot.
‘Time for a massive purge.’
First target.
The Demon King’s minions hiding their true nature, like Fourth Duke Orpheusus.