Chapter 262
Chapter 262
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 262
Chapter Title: Recapture (4)
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“...How dare you... treat me like this... you of all people... I’ll never...”
Alexander couldn’t hear Demian’s words.
His head was smashed into the ground, consumed only by hatred for Demian.
Demian gathered black mana at his fingertip and cast a black magic spell.
A black snake materialized in the air and coiled around Alexander’s body. His eyes widened in shock.
“Kuhk! Kaak! Kaaaak!”
Alexander thrashed about like a fish pierced by a harpoon.
Corpse Snake.
It was a curse-school black magic that corroded the flesh of living beings.
This was the very spell that had rotted Alexander’s limbs.
It wasn’t black magic suited for combat, but Demian deliberately chose it to deal with him.
There was only one reason.
“How does it feel, the pain of your body rotting away? I wonder if it suits your tastes.”
They say humans feel the greatest pain when burning in fire.
But in truth, there was something even more agonizing. It was the pain felt when one’s flesh decayed at a rapid pace.
The torment of one’s entire corpse rotting simultaneously was incomparable to mere burns.
Demian had learned this fact from his father.
“Stop! Stop it! Stoooop!”
“Then you’d better listen when people talk. I’m going to ask you a few questions now. Understand?”
Alexander nodded. Even with his face smashed into the dirt, he was remarkably compliant.
“Is there a restriction on you too?”
Demian spoke as he lifted the foot that had been stepping on Alexander’s head.
“H-How do you know about...?”
“I’ve already met the others.”
“What? N-No way... you’ve gone after the other senior brothers too? You son of a bitch...!”
Demian commanded the Corpse Snake. It constricted Alexander’s body even tighter.
“Kraaaak!”
“I didn’t give you permission to speak. From now on, only open your mouth when I ask a question.”
“Damn... fuck...!”
Alexander trembled and spat curses. Demian ignored him lightly.
If this guy had a restriction too, ripping out his soul and absorbing his memories wouldn’t yield much information.
In cases like this, it was best to coax the answers out of him himself.
“Moving on to the next question. How complete is the ‘Doomsday Demonic Sword’?”
“Y-You bastard... H-How do you know that name...? Even among the disciples, hardly anyone...”
“Answer.”
“I-I don’t know.”
Demian raised his finger. Alexander cried out in panic.
“I-I really don’t know! As soon as the city fell, Master sent us out! To wipe out the dwarves! I haven’t been back inside the city since!”
“So you’re saying the Weaponmaster is the only one left in the city?”
“N-No, that’s not it! Th-There’s one dwarf... a dwarf named Akilo!”
“Akilo? You don’t mean the Ghost Craftsman, do you?”
Ghost Craftsman Akilo.
A master smith infamous for crafting all the favorite weapons used by the great evils under Pandemonium.
Demian had seen him a few times in his previous life. A horrific dwarf who reeked of blood from head to toe, despite being a smith.
“So the dwarf who betrayed Splinterhammer City was Akilo?”
“Y-Yes.”
“I had no idea the dwarf who birthed the Doomsday Demonic Sword in that city was him.”
Demian questioned Alexander once more.
“You said you couldn’t return to the city. Did Master not summon you? Or are the city gates sealed?”
“Th-The gates are sealed. Master won’t open them for any of us, no matter who comes knocking.”
“What a shame.”
It seemed he’d have to abandon the plan of using the Curse of Lust on Alexander to get through the city.
‘Why the ironclad security? Is he worried his disciples might covet the Doomsday Demonic Sword?’
In his previous life, countless knights had lusted after the Doomsday Demonic Sword.
Not just dark knights, but imperial knights as well.
All because it held such beautiful, terrifying power.
“I think I’ve asked everything I wanted.”
Demian converted his mana to black mana using the Authority of Jealousy.
Terror flooded Alexander’s face as he saw it.
“Sp-Spare me.”
“I can’t do that.”
“P-Please, I beg you! Y-You’re a black mage too, aren’t you? Why is a black mage turning against us?!”
Alexander screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. Demian grimaced in disgust.
“Just go in peace.”
The black mana gathered in Demian’s hand grew denser.
At that moment, someone spoke to Demian.
“...Victor, hold on a moment.”
Demian turned his gaze. Kiro and the dwarves were walking toward him.
In their arms, they carried the corpses of their kin.
“Why should I wait?”
“I thought these guys deserved to witness his death too.”
The dwarves laid the bodies down in front of Alexander.
Their faces were utterly expressionless, chillingly emotionless.
“Now execute him.”
But their eyes boiled with hatred.
“...”
Demian silently cast the black magic, layering on another Corpse Snake.
“W-Wait! Just a second!”
Alexander cried out desperately. But Demian did not cancel the spell.
“Sp-Spare me! I’m begging you! Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh!”
Alexander’s body rotted away rapidly. His facial bones were exposed. His ribs protruded outward.
“E-Eugh... Keugh!”
Even the lungs and heart inside his rotting body decayed completely.
The dwarves watched it all from start to finish. They didn’t blink once.
As if committing every moment to memory.
Demian reached into the air and seized Alexander’s soul.
-Why, why?!
Alexander’s soul wailed. Resentment poured through—why break the promise?
“I don’t keep promises made with beasts worse than dogs.”
Demian extinguished Alexander’s soul right before the dwarves’ eyes.
-Aaaagh! Kraaaaaagh!
With a horrific scream, Alexander’s soul vanished.
* * *
Afterward, the dwarves began inspecting the forge facilities.
They had recaptured it, but they didn’t know when the Weaponmaster might send more minions.
‘It’s about time they noticed over there.’
From rescuing the dwarves to retaking the warehouse and forge, it had taken less than a few hours.
It had happened so quickly that even the Weaponmaster’s side would struggle to notice.
‘Who would’ve thought they’d lock the city gates and hole up inside.’
Demian clicked his tongue.
It was regrettable that he couldn’t use the Curse of Lust anymore, but nothing really changed.
The dwarves just needed to craft a siege weapon to breach the city.
“Victor.”
Demian was lost in thought atop the ramparts when Kiro approached.
From the moment they recaptured the forge until now, Kiro’s face had been as dark as a dying man’s.
“What is it? Is there another facility we need to retake?”
“No, nothing like that. We have plenty of materials, and we’ve got the forge back. All that’s left is making the siege weapon.”
“Something I’ve been wondering since before. What exactly are you planning to make?”
“What, that’s what you were curious about?”
Suddenly, color returned to Kiro’s face.
“The siege weapon we’re making is called the ‘Ancient Sun.’ It’s about the size of a jar. You just throw it, and it causes a massive explosion. The blast radius is so huge that...”
Demian hadn’t asked for that much detail, but Kiro prattled on anyway.
‘He really is a smith.’
Demian thought of Molta from the Holy Order. Molta had been immensely proud of the things he made too.
“It sounds like it has tremendous explosive power. You sure it’s okay to use something like that?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“The city will take heavy damage. It’ll be hard to rebuild later, and there’ll be massive civilian casualties, right?”
At Demian’s words, Kiro’s expression darkened again.
“That’s... fine.”
“Fine?”
“We can just build the city bigger... and our kin... won’t take any damage.”
Demian felt a flicker of doubt.
But he didn’t pry further. Dwarves were stubborn, but not foolish.
“More importantly, I have a proposal for you.”
“A proposal?”
“Those undead you command. I saw they’re using terrible weapons.”
The skeletons wielded rusted, crumbling weapons that looked ready to fall apart at any moment.
Strictly speaking, they weren’t real weapons. They were just temporary constructs Demian had made with black mana.
“Are you mocking me?”
“What do you take me for? Sure, they have no balance, the edges are all chipped, and they’re so garbage even looking at them gives you chills—but I’m not mocking you at all!”
Demian’s brow furrowed slightly. Irritation was starting to build.
“So what proposal are you getting at?”
“I’ll make them for you.”
Demian tilted his head at the sudden offer.
“Make what?”
“We’ll craft weapons for the undead under your command.”
Rather than joy, Demian felt an even stronger wave of suspicion.
“Don’t think it’s weird. It’s... payment for helping us with our revenge.”
“That’s nonsense. I didn’t move for your sake. I killed them for my own goals.”
“Even so, the fact that we got our revenge thanks to you doesn’t change.”
Kiro looked up at the sky and added,
“...Without you, we wouldn’t have gotten revenge. We’d have been captured and killed instead.”
Kiro met Demian’s eyes again.
“So we want to repay you, even a little. This isn’t just my wish—it’s everyone’s.”
Kiro spoke with the face of a true craftsman.
“Please. Entrust us with arming your soldiers.”
Weapons made by dwarves sold for more than gems of equal weight.
Moreover, Kiro and his group were dwarves from Splinterhammer City, heirs to the ancient dwarves’ secrets.
Armaments crafted in earnest by such dwarves were too tempting to pass up.
But Demian didn’t accept the offer right away.
“Armaments like that would just get in the way for undead.”
The undead’s greatest strength was slipping between physical and ethereal forms.
Demian favored the tactic of lurking in shadows and striking with surprise attacks—it was that threatening.
“Don’t worry about that. Among the alloys our ancestors developed, some were made specifically for undead use.”
“There’s an alloy like that...?”
Kiro’s nose rose proudly as Demian expressed surprise.
“Then it’s no problem at all. But you have to make a siege weapon to breach the city walls. Do you have time for armaments too?”
“Think about how many of us there are. That’s child’s play.”
Kiro boasted confidently. After a moment’s thought, Demian replied.
If Kiro was telling the truth, it was a chance to greatly bolster his undead forces. Too good to pass up.
“Alright, I’ll take you up on it.”
“You won’t regret it.”
Kiro grinned.
* * *
After that, Kiro and the dwarves focused on crafting the siege weapon to retake the city and armaments for the undead.
Demian bolstered the defenses in case of a Weaponmaster counterattack.
But no attack came. Thanks to that, the dwarves could work without interruption.
And on the day the siege weapon and undead armaments were completed, as promised.
The dwarves vanished without Demian noticing. The siege weapon they’d said was finished disappeared with them.
-Sorry about this.
In their place was a note and the undead armaments.
-We’ll finish this ourselves.