Chapter 148
Chapter 148
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Magic Empress (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Here! There's a path here!"
"Found it! Ragnar... Gahk!"
"Goddamn it! The passage is too narrow!"
The entrance to the underground necropolis.
It was a spot blocked by rocks, barely visible to the naked eye, yet they had managed to find it somehow.
Organizations under the old Dragon Society were attempting to breach it.
But the passage was so narrow and low that they couldn't enter all at once, and the ones who went in were picked off one by one, slowing their advance.
"Hurry up and get in, you bastards! Can't you see we're blocked because of you?"
"Fuck! Then you go in! Shove your head first and die ahead of us, what do you want?"
"That's your problem! Or else get killed by those human butchers behind us!"
"Goddamn it!"
The mercenaries of the Crimson-White Mercenary Corps wailed helplessly at the vanguard.
They had been saddled with the most perilous tasks solely because their captain had fallen out of favor.
The Azure-Black Captain had promised forgiveness and even induction into the family if they performed well.
But it was impossible not to tremble at the sight of certain death.
Outside the cave, however, the Azure-Black troops were watching them with fiery glares.
If they delayed any longer, the Azure-Black forces would kill them.
Either way, death awaited.
In that case...!
"I don't care anymore!"
The mercenaries squeezed their eyes shut and charged in en masse.
They figured at least one or two might survive by luck if they rushed together.
They had once been among the empire's elite mercenary groups, but their reputation meant nothing before Ragnar's sharp blade.
Slash! Slash!
In the end, every one who rushed in had their heads sent flying by the incoming sword auras.
"What are you doing? Not going in?"
"The Rose Family, advance!"
The Rose Family's shieldbearers, stacking their tower shields like a fortress wall, swallowed dryly and began a slow advance.
The spearmen in the second and third rows forcibly maintained phalanx formation, ready to thrust their long spears into any gaps.
'With these shields...!'
'We can block the sword auras no problem! Overwhelm them with numbers!'
The Rose Family soldiers were utterly convinced of their victory.
Unlike the foolish mercenaries who charged in without a plan, they were fully prepared.
Moreover, the enemy's combatants numbered only four, from what they'd heard.
With their overwhelming numbers, crushing them would be easy.
Clack, clack—
They advanced as slowly as turtles, and the sword auras shattered harmlessly against the rose-emblazoned tower shields.
Some vomited blood and collapsed from the shockwaves now and then, but the advance didn't stop.
Whoosh—
Then white frost settled on the ground, turning it into ice.
A few slipped, slightly disrupting the front line.
It was a change that wasn't immediately obvious.
"What are you doing! Get back in position...!"
But Ragnar didn't miss that opening.
Arin, who had been clinging to the cave ceiling, dropped down.
Shieldbearers were specialized for ranged combat.
Once infiltrated up close, they were at an absolute disadvantage.
Slashslashslash!
In an instant, dark bloodlines appeared on the shieldbearers' necks, and the spearmen screamed with their arms severed.
"Aaagh! My armmm!"
"Ghost! It's a ghost!"
Arin targeted the intruders' torches first.
To exploit the cave's poor visibility.
In the end, the vanguard crumbled, sword auras poured down again, and the Rose Family legion was annihilated.
The ground was soaked in the blood of the dead.
"Push harder!"
"Look behind! We've been shoving forward from the entrance for a while! Proof they're getting tired! Keep the pressure!"
"One Sword Society, maintain formation! Black Shadow Sword Group, form teams and search every corner!"
"Wandering Knight Alliance, prepare for ambushes!"
No matter how skilled Ragnar was or how well they used the terrain, they couldn't endure a rotation in their exhausted state.
The old Dragon Society was gaining ground bit by bit.
"Well, we can force our way through somehow."
"Hahaha. But the casualties keep mounting. Not a good look. Dozens of elites already in the dirt for just four."
At the heavy sigh from Kant, the first knight of the Wandering Knight Alliance known as 'Kingslayer,' the One Sword Society's leader 'Brown Beard' Barrosa burst into booming laughter.
His pipe shook with each laugh, filling the air with thick white smoke.
"Not really something to laugh about?"
"Nah! You think this is serious? I'm just mocking myself for my shitty situation."
Barrosa's lip twisted.
"We could've raked in money without lifting a finger, but nooo, we got greedy for one big score and picked the wrong side! Tsk!"
Contrary to its name suggesting sword devotion, One Sword Society was closer to an underworld syndicate.
The harsh northern environment had low population density and plenty of abandoned land, which they leased to grow narcotics like daimana and poppies.
Especially lately, with the empire's political instability worsening public order, business was booming.
So Barrosa saw now as the perfect time to expand.
But that was his fatal mistake.
Because he sided with Ed.
The massive route from north to east.
Chasing that market led to his downfall.
'Overreach without knowing your place, and something always goes wrong. Heh!'
At least they dangled the promise of favoritism if they retrieved the girl these guys were holding.
'But you gotta survive first for that.'
Barrosa spoke again.
"Anyway, let's open the path first and talk. We don't have much choice anyway, right?"
Kant frowned, displeased, but had to nod.
It was the truth.
Shing!
Finally, Kant slowly drew the sword at his waist.
"We gotta survive first."
Boom!
Kant hurled his body forward fiercely.
At that moment, Arin's sword, swinging toward the Wandering Knight Alliance, was blocked mid-swing.
Clanggg!
"Captain!"
"Everyone, scatter! Staying clumped makes us targets! Find these hiding rats somehow!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Wandering Knight Alliance was a guild of rootless knights who roamed the world, united for profit.
They possessed superb skill and ingrained courtly manners, but showed no loyalty.
Thus, wealthy merchants treated them as expensive mercenaries, while dignified nobles saw them as seeds of betrayal and distrusted them.
As a result, they naturally settled in the north.
Their pride was too high to serve lowly merchants, and no place suited them better than the north to endure noble scorn.
In fact, Ragnar never pried into their pasts.
The north was too barren for such nitpicking.
It demanded only strength.
If they succeeded in pioneering land with that strength, he even promised it as their fief.
Thanks to that, the alliance took root and achieved its current prosperity.
But unsatisfied, they allied with Ed like One Sword Society to expand—a fatal error.
Knights without a lord, yes, but knights nonetheless.
Beings who pursued noble honor and lofty fame.
-We'll build our own knightly nation on this land. Ragnar's ancestors did it with the Dragon Knight Order; why not us?
-No law says knights can't take the throne.
-Show those lords who abandoned us how sharp our swords are!
Like Ragnar's legendary forebears forming the Dragon Knight Order.
The alliance burned with ambition to establish their own nation and conquer the north.
Additionally, for reasons like blocking a lord from abusing serfs deemed weak, quarreling with comrades trying to raid a slash-and-burn village, or sharing meals with starving children—
Each with their own tales of exile, they wanted to prove to their original lords that they lived on here.
But the result was utter defeat.
Repeated downfall brought them here.
Their current forces were barely thirty percent of their peak.
Yet they hadn't scattered, thanks only to faith in their captain, Kant.
Who had guided them like a light through darkness.
A firm belief he'd overcome this somehow.
"This is...!"
Arin spun in surprise, but Kant blocked her path.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out of my way!"
"Sorry, can't do that. If we don't kill you, we're the ones who die."
Kant smiled bitterly and unleashed a barrage of sword strikes.
[Seven Gusts].
His prized secret art flashed, relentlessly pursuing the fleeing Arin.
'Pushed too hard. Should've taken out the shieldbearers and bolted.'
With so many enemies swarming the necropolis, greed to take down one more had tripped her up.
Moreover, before her now was the alliance's leader.
No easy win; she had to fight at full strength.
Apologizing inwardly to Selferd and Lei—
Fwoosh!
Arin unleashed her latent mana.
In that instant, a scorching whirlwind raged, dyeing her hair and brows crimson.
As if drenched in blood.
"Hmm...! [Fire Dragon's Breath]? But didn't all Ragnar's vassals who learned this perish in the last rebellion?"
"If you're curious, ask in the afterlife."
Arin had no reason to explain her heritage and moved swiftly.
Kant nodded and slashed down fiercely.
Clanggg!
* * *
"No, wasn't this supposed to be a forbidden zone the enemies absolutely couldn't know about?!"
Selferd beheaded two One Sword Society swordsmen aiming for a blind spot and glanced aside.
Odd parried a sword targeting her crown and yelled.
"How should I know! One of ours must've blabbed!"
Odd looked thoroughly pissed.
"Hey! Don't step there! Do these lunatics even know where they are...!"
Nothing in the underground necropolis lacked profound meaning, not even the smallest item.
For her, its self-proclaimed caretaker, watching it get wrecked in real time was maddening.
That's why she'd sworn never to touch a sword again after thirty years ago.
The grip felt utterly foreign.
'That damn old man Dangryong would tease me forever if he saw. Damn it!'
But what could she do.
This necropolis meant more than any pride.
"Escape route? None?"
"Where would that be! The entrance is the exit! Only one!"
"So we fight to the death here. Hope Arin's safe. Somehow until Theo arrives."
"Theo? That kid who went to the central sanctum?"
Odd caught Selferd's mutter.
"Yes. That's right."
"What changes if that kid shows up?"
"It changes. A lot."
Selferd pictured Theo's handsome face and smirked.
"He's a lucky charm."
One that had never failed.
As Odd's expression shifted oddly, Selferd spotted white smoke creeping up from below and slammed down his aura.
Boom!
"Damn. Tried sneaking from behind. Ragnar's no joke."
The dispersed smoke coalesced in midair into a torso-only humanoid form.
Barrosa smirked coldly, pipe in mouth.
Blending pipe smoke with his body was his secret art [Smoke Strike].
"You think rats like you were rare in all the battlefields I've seen?"
"Rat, huh. That hurts my feelings if you put it like that."
Sizzle!
White smoke sprayed like gas, instantly filling the cavern.
"Marmot experiments are kinda my specialty."
[Smoke Strike - Poison Mist]
Selferd quickly covered his mouth with his sleeve as vision-shaking agony hit.
Definitely laced with narcotics.
Breathing here was suicide.
「Humans can't last long without air. Toxicity thickens over time—what's your plan?」
Selferd hesitated a moment.
Reveal his secret art or not?
He'd hidden it, hating to recall his departed family, but not at the cost of his life.
As he turned,
「Gardner's Fangs are famed for tenaciously biting until the enemy's life ends, using tough hides. But what if we cut their breath first?」
'Assassin!'
Selferd's spine chilled at the sudden voice behind.
Then a figure slicing through space.
Clad head to toe in black cloth—a Black Shadow Sword Group killer.
Too late to dodge, Selferd braced to sacrifice an arm.
Lei moved desperately too, but the assassin was faster.
At that exact moment,
Rumble!
The cave ceiling flashed, lightning struck, blasting the assassin away roughly.
"Gahk!"
The spot where he landed, more charred than his clothes.
Drake's blade embedded in the ground, trembling violently.
Bzzz! Bzzzz!
"Theo!"