Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Hunt (1)
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Flesh golems crumbled into chunks of meat and rained down. The floor was dyed red with blood and scraps of flesh.
The Corpse Puppeteer stared at Demian with a look of profound shock on his face.
“……Splendid.”
He soon began clapping his hands.
“To destroy my puppets in a single blow! I’ve never seen such an incredible technique!”
Even after seeing his puppets wrecked in an instant, the Corpse Puppeteer showed no sign of panic.
“What tremendous talent! You’ll make the greatest material of my life!”
Material.
Demian’s lip twisted. What a grating word.
Especially from his perspective, having been remade into a Death Knight by Dorgo.
“Sir Demian…… how did you…… get here…….”
At that moment, Agnes lifted her head with great effort and spoke.
“Run…… away…… That man…… is too dangerous…….”
The Corpse Puppeteer listened to Agnes’s voice with a look of intense fascination.
“You two seem awfully close, don’t you?”
The Corpse Puppeteer wiggled a finger.
Kite pressed down harder on Agnes’s head. Agnes let out a groan.
“Demian, was it? I’d prefer to take you intact if possible. So here’s my offer. If you want this woman to live, surrender quietly.”
“Sir Demian…… no…… hurry…… run…….”
The Corpse Puppeteer wiggled his finger once more. Kite’s pressure increased. Agnes’s groans grew louder.
“I should warn you ahead of time. There’s another hostage. Want to take a look over there?”
The Corpse Puppeteer pointed to the side. Margata was being held by the flesh golems.
“What a truly pathetic piece of trash.”
Demian spoke with a bored expression.
“But at least that’s a relief. You’re trash that doesn’t deviate from expectations.”
Demian looked up and shouted toward the ceiling.
“You two, rescue Margata. I’ll handle Agnes.”
Gamal and Dionysio descended through the hole Demian had made and moved with swift precision.
Gamal hurled a spear of ice. The mass of frost froze every flesh golem solid.
Dionysio followed up by throwing his spear. The flying spear shattered the flesh golems to pieces.
The remaining flesh golems tried to attack Dionysio and Gamal.
In that instant, Margata—now freed—summoned blue flames.
Her flame-wreathed fist burst the flesh golems apart. But the moment she swung, Margata vomited blood and collapsed.
“Margata!”
Gamal caught and supported her. Her wounds must have reopened. Blood poured continuously from Margata’s mouth.
“Don’t touch my material without permission!”
The Corpse Puppeteer spat in fury and tried to command the other flesh golems.
At that moment, Demian swung his holy sword, unleashing an aura blade.
The sword energy flew toward the Corpse Puppeteer. He shouted in urgency.
“Kite!”
Kite, who had been restraining Agnes, blocked the Corpse Puppeteer’s path.
The aura slashed across Kite’s body. But it failed to leave even a scratch before dissipating.
“Kite! Secure the material!”
Kite pointed at Agnes as he spoke. But it was already too late. Demian had anticipated the Corpse Puppeteer’s move and reached Agnes’s side.
“S-Sir Demian…….”
Agnes looked up at Demian in astonishment.
Even she, elevated to a higher realm by her stigmata, had missed Demian’s blindingly swift and stealthy movement.
“Dionysio, I’m entrusting Lady Agnes to you.”
Demian called out to Dionysio. Dionysio rushed over and supported Agnes.
“I’ll hold off the Corpse Puppeteer. Everyone else, get out of here.”
“Sir Demian…… what are you saying? The Corpse Puppeteer is a dangerous foe. I’ll fight alongside you.”
“Lady Agnes is right. I’ll help too.”
Agnes and Dionysio refused to obey Demian’s words.
Demian turned to look at the two.
Murderous intent overflowed from Demian’s eyes. The pair unwittingly fell silent.
“Go.”
That single short word carried an irresistible force. The two left without further protest.
“Refusing help…… I can’t understand it. You don’t think you can win alone, do you?”
With only Demian remaining, the Corpse Puppeteer asked in bewilderment.
“What you destroyed were just my practice puppets. My true ‘masterpieces’ are different.”
The Corpse Puppeteer wiggled his finger. Flesh golems standing like mannequins at the back began to move.
Each one emanated an immense aura of dark magic.
“Still calling lumps of meat ‘masterpieces,’ I see.”
Demian spoke with contempt.
Back when he was a Death Knight.
Demian had carried out countless missions alongside the Corpse Puppeteer under Dorgo’s orders.
He had witnessed it all too clearly. Just how nauseatingly vile the man called the Corpse Puppeteer truly was.
The Corpse Puppeteer, obsessed with how human emotions affected puppet creation, had subjected war prisoners to all manner of horrors.
Once, to obtain a corpse infused with maternal love, he had killed children in front of their mothers. And not just once—he repeated it thousands of times.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to kill you with my own hands.”
Laughter he couldn’t suppress burst out intermittently.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to get material like you.”
The Corpse Puppeteer smiled as he raised his hand.
The ‘masterpieces’ he had poured his heart into charged at Demian.
Mid-class-level puppets focused solely on killing Demian alone.
The fastest-reaching masterpiece attacked Demian.
It looked identical to a human on the outside. But four thick arms like support beams protruded from its back.
The four arms contracted like rubber, trying to seize Demian. It was as if four massive serpents had surrounded him.
Demian dodged the grasping hands by the narrowest margins. Then, in one fluid motion, he drew his holy sword and swung upward.
The straight-extending sword energy severed all four hands at once. With the arms gone, his view cleared.
Before the masterpiece could react, Demian lunged. He thrust his holy sword into its body.
The holy sword’s divine power destroyed the core. The puppet ceased functioning on the spot.
Other masterpieces followed, swarming Demian. He evaded every attack like flowing water.
Even while dodging, Demian precisely stabbed the masterpieces’ bodies.
The deeply embedded blade destroyed their cores. The masterpieces stopped dead.
“Stop! Fall back!”
The Corpse Puppeteer shouted desperately. The charging masterpieces retreated.
But it was too late. More than half of the masterpieces lay destroyed on the floor by Demian’s sword.
“……You…… how…… my puppets…… my puppets…….”
The Corpse Puppeteer’s eyes shook violently. He screamed like a child.
“This can’t be! My masterpieces can’t fall this easily! Tell me! What did you do!”
The Corpse Puppeteer’s talent was so extraordinary that even Dorgo acknowledged it.
The puppets he crafted with that talent displayed incredible performance.
At the peak of his talent, he had mass-produced high-class-level puppets nonstop.
Yet in reality, the Corpse Puppeteer’s high-class puppets had never once defeated a true high-class opponent in combat.
Physical output, quantity of embedded dark magic, bizarre functions.
On paper, they were undoubtedly high-class. But one crucial element was missing.
Technique.
The Corpse Puppeteer was an expert in puppet crafting, not combat technique.
A high-class knight could instantly read the puppets’ movements.
Flashy on the surface, but fake.
That was the Corpse Puppeteer’s puppets.
To Demian, they were no different from stiff wooden marionettes.
He could dodge such low-level attacks with his eyes closed.
“Unacceptable…….”
The Corpse Puppeteer muttered lowly as he watched his cherished masterpieces get sliced apart.
“I don’t need something like you anymore. I won’t use you as material. Just die.”
The Corpse Puppeteer raised his hand. Two puppets descended from the dark ceiling.
Shockingly, the two puppets were levitating through self-cast dark magic.
“They’re not fully tuned yet, but no choice.”
The two puppets spread their arms wide. Magic circles of dark magic floated up around them.
Demian recognized the level of black magic from the circles.
Incredibly, those two puppets were manifesting advanced black magic.
“Kite. You step up too.”
The puppet guarding the Corpse Puppeteer advanced.
Scale-like iron plates began enveloping Kite’s skin.
Soon, Kite’s entire body was clad in iron plates. Three blades then protruded from each forearm and shin.
Kite emanated dark magic. His aura alone surpassed the combined power of all the masterpieces.
“Impressive, right? Kite is my ultimate ‘masterpiece.’ I prepared him to face high-class foes.”
A relaxed smile returned to the Corpse Puppeteer’s face. He seemed utterly convinced of victory.
He had every reason to be.
One puppet called a masterpiece.
Two puppets turned into advanced black mages.
Plus five more of his boasted masterpieces.
A terrifying force. No wonder the subjugation force had been annihilated in his previous life.
Perhaps they would have been wiped out regardless, even without that blinding betrayal of agony.
“Toys putting in effort, how cute.”
Of course, to Demian, it was laughable.
With his swordsmanship, he could sweep aside Kite or whatever else without issue.
But Demian had no time for leisure now.
He wanted to subdue the Corpse Puppeteer as quickly as possible and interrogate him about Dorgo.
Find out where that skull-headed bastard who ruined his life was hiding, then tear that body to shreds.
His thirst for revenge set Demian ablaze.
“No helping it.”
Demian removed the bracelet from his wrist.
The dark magic sealed within the bracelet was unleashed.