Chapter 114
Chapter 114
Iron Emperor — Chapter 114
Tu-kwa-kwa-kwak!
A savage noise erupted, blending with flashes of light. When the two wizards who had unluckily flown up to confront Risel were struck down simultaneously, and even their commander Baron Pelson was crushed to death beneath them, the chain of command began to collapse in an instant.
"All ranks, fall in!"
Arrows flew unerringly toward the knights who drew their swords and moved to restore the shattered command structure. They managed to deflect an arrow or two, but the number of arrows aimed at each individual knight was far greater.
Thwack!
"Cough!"
"Baronet Vane!"
By the time the knights who had been attempting to hold command were falling away like hedgehogs, the two mounted groups that had been circling the perimeter and slaughtering soldiers crossed paths and pierced the formation in a cross pattern.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Charge forward!"
At the same moment, the Gauri and the South Road Army came rushing in from the rear with a roar. The soldiers of North Roselin, having lost their commanders, began to crumble.
"Agh! Enemies everywhere!"
"Save me!"
CRASH-CRASH!
"Guuaaaagh!"
Amid the ghastly noise, a soldier's torso hung and moved in midair. The man was screaming in the air, his hands clutching the spear shaft that had pierced his belly as if terrified it would be pulled out.
"Drop your weapons!"
"Surrender and we will spare your lives!"
The call to surrender, ringing out amid a scene of nothing but allies being massacred, combined with the absence of their commanders to make them abandon their weapons easily.
The unit, split into four pieces by the two mounted groups breaking through in a cross pattern, no longer had any combat capability.
"I surrender!"
"Spare me!"
A single decision spread into dozens. Fear and the desire to live were highly contagious. When a soldier who had not yet discarded his weapon had his head sent flying right beside a disarmed man, the soldiers behind him hastily threw down their arms, and the battle was over in an instant.
"......."
"I apologize."
Go Jin-cheon stood looking at the enemy commander who lay dead and flattened at his feet, and before him stood Risel with a mortified expression.
"He's dead, so it cannot be helped."
Yeon Hwi-garam stepped forward, perhaps finding the sight awkward. Even without Hwi-garam's words, Jin-cheon knew well that it couldn't be helped, but the problem was....
"Killed 'em all."
"......."
Hwi-garam, who had been asking Eulji Buru, who was dismounting to choose the second-best option if not the best, about other commander-level prisoners, quietly pressed one hand to his forehead at Buru's unashamed reply.
Habits are a terrifying thing.
"Since he's dead, mental magic will be difficult, and I'm no black wizard either...."
Risel's regretful voice leaked out. But Hwi-garam's expression changed when he heard that murmur. Jin-cheon, having apparently heard Risel's murmur as well, posed a question.
"You mean there is a way if he still draws breath?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. That is so, but...."
Startled by Jin-cheon's abrupt question, Risel answered with a bewildered look. At that reply, Jin-cheon rubbed his chin and glanced sidelong at Hwi-garam.
"Revive him."
"......."
A single word, spoken the moment his eyes met Hwi-garam's.
Receiving Jin-cheon's order, Hwi-garam gave an awkward laugh. At this, Risel also laughed awkwardly and cut in.
"Heh heh. Your Majesty, let us find another way."
Risel said this with an expression that read, 'Your Majesty, even a joke like that is....' But his expression instantly froze.
"I cannot keep him alive long, but...."
"We only need the important things."
At Jin-cheon and Hwi-garam's exchange, Risel wore a look of utter incomprehension. Yet one thing was clear: their conversation right now was heading in the direction of bringing a dead corpse back to life.
When their conversation paused, Buru and Uru pulled the soldiers back, and Hwi-garam approached the dead body. Taking a silver-needle pouch from his bosom, Hwi-garam stripped the corpse and placed needles at several points across the body.
"What in the world are you doing...?"
"Bringing the dead bastard back to life."
Jin-cheon gave Risel, who was looking utterly baffled, a short answer. Then Risel's eyes went wide and he asked back.
"How, if I may ask?"
"If I knew, I would be doing it myself."
"......."
It was a single line from Jin-cheon that mercilessly swatted away a pure wizard's question.
Hwi-garam, having apparently placed all the needles on the corpse's body, stood up, smiled wryly, and offered Risel an explanation.
"What I just did is a Painlessness Technique."
At Hwi-garam's explanation, Risel tilted his head as if puzzled. At that, Hwi-garam smiled as if he understood and added to the explanation.
"When reviving someone, if pain lingers, the mind will collapse first, so this technique is performed beforehand."
"You truly mean you are bringing him back to life?"
"The phrasing is a bit off, but since he hasn't been dead long, it's merely holding the soul to the body for a brief moment. After that, as you said earlier, Uljeol, you just need to find out a few things."
Risel clicked his tongue and cocked his head at Hwi-garam's explanation. Of course, similar things existed in magic, but they usually fell under black magic. Furthermore, in the act of bringing someone back to life, the adverse effects that occurred from going against the natural order were by no means trivial.
Resolving such side effects required material wealth, so black wizards were generally the ones who used such methods.
"The Spirit Liberation Art is normally an art used to resolve lingering grudges, but a little expediency should be acceptable."
"I-is that so?"
At Risel's doubting look, Hwi-garam offered him another smile, then seated himself before the corpse.
"To the spirit, which is freed from the body's pain and suffering and is heading to a new place, I shall lighten the weight of that spirit by resolving the remaining grudge... The boundary between this world and the next shall become one in this very moment, to open a life of an instant...."
In contrast to the easy tone of Hwi-garam's voice, beads of sweat began to form on his forehead.
Whirr-r-r-r-r.
On the windless ground, air began to swirl, centering on Hwi-garam. At that instant, Hwi-garam, who had been sitting in the lotus position, spread both hands wide and shouted.
"I create a new vessel for the shattered vessel of harmony, as the life-spirit of Flame resides in the left hand...."
Fwoosh!
Flames kindled in Hwi-garam's left hand as he spoke softly.
"Hut!"
Risel could not contain his astonishment at the sight of fire being ignited by will alone, with no trace of mana energy present.
It was hot, yet that fire did the body no harm at all. Then, the opposite energy began to dwell in the right hand.
"As the longevity-spirit of Water resides in the right hand...."
A blue stream of water jetted upward above Hwi-garam's right palm. Hwi-garam's handsome face was already tinged with pallor.
Yet his actions continued without pause. The right hand drew a circle rising over his head, and the left hand drew a circle descending to his navel.
"The harmony of yin and yang is the principle of all things. I momentarily seize the spirit fallen here...."
Fwooooosh!
Swooooosh!
As Hwi-garam's hands continued drawing circles, the crimson energy and the blue energy swirled separately before finally beginning to blend into one. And as the two energies transformed into one, they became a pure white light without a single speck.
"Calling upon the sun's messenger, the sacred bird Samjoko, and the holy relic Golden Frog, I beseech them: grant this grievous spirit a moment's time."
HUMMMMM!
When Hwi-garam's True Words were proclaimed, the circling white light seeped into the body that lay dead.
Crack!
"Keuhk!"
"General Yeon!"
As a violent cracking noise burst forth, Hwi-garam's neck twisted and his legs snapped and broke. It was Risel who was startled.
He had been about to hastily cast Healing but was blocked by Jin-cheon's hand and forced to stop. As Risel stared at Jin-cheon with surprised eyes, a cracked voice reached his ears.
"Keuh-heuk. Am I still alive?"
"This cannot be!"
Risel was shocked out of his wits. A man who had been dead had returned to life. And when he looked back at Hwi-garam with a worried heart, Risel realized what kind of art this was.
Hwi-garam's twisted, broken limbs showed that he had taken the same injuries as the corpse that had been brought back to life onto his own body. To Risel, who was feeling cold sweat running down his spine, Jin-cheon opened his mouth in a whisper.
'Use mental magic and find out what we need to know as quickly as possible. We have to kill that thing again so Hwi-garam's suffering is brief.'
'Understood.'
Now understanding the true nature of this spell, Risel approached the revived corpse(?) without delay and looked into its eyes.
"Keuk, by the Nobility Law, treat me at once!"
"Oum Sala di Krei Um Taha. Power of mana that composes the world, share your strength with me. Borrowing the smallest yet most necessary of your power, I beseech... guide the weak mind of this human as I desire. Mind Control."
The moment Risel's spell ended, a blue light was sucked into the pupils of the revived Baron Scully Pelson. And not even a few seconds passed before his pupils dilated and went blank.
"It's done."
Mental magic was a spell that threatened the target's mental collapse, but since the subject was already dead once(?), there was no hesitation.
Concern for Hwi-garam's condition was an even greater reason for the lack of hesitation in casting the spell.
"Do I just ask questions?"
"Yes."
When Jin-cheon stepped before Baron Pelson and asked, Risel moved back and answered. Jin-cheon's subdued eyes met Baron Pelson's dazed eyes.
"Tell me the location of the twenty thousand elite soldiers that are supposed to come from the Haian Kingdom."
"They have now passed through the gate by way of North Roselin."
"Mm."
Jin-cheon continued his questions.
The questions he focused on were about the twenty thousand Haian Kingdom reinforcements and the current battlefield situation of the Eastern Army of the South Roselin royal house, led by Marquis Baikal.
Although the information about the Haian Kingdom reinforcements was not revealed in great detail, because Baron Pelson had only recently broken away from the front line, relatively up-to-date intelligence was obtained.
And most importantly, they learned that the loss of the twenty thousand troops annihilated by the Gauri army had dealt North Roselin a much greater blow than expected, deepening the high command's anxiety.
"Good."
Having extracted satisfactory information from the openly answering Baron Pelson, Jin-cheon nodded and let a smile play at the corner of his lips.
"Now we should end this."
"Are you finished?"
"Yes. Release the spell and return him to his senses."
When Jin-cheon nodded toward Risel, Risel placed his hand atop Baron Pelson's head and reversed the spell.
"Return."
As Risel's spell was intoned, the blue light flowed out of the pupils and went back in. Then the clouded pupils seemed to flicker, and suddenly the baron began to twist his whole body. It was the side effect of the mental magic.
"Kuaaagh!"
"Oh dear!"
"It's a side effect."
When Jin-cheon frowned at the sight of Baron Pelson writhing and crying out in agony, Risel answered cautiously. At his answer, Jin-cheon smiled slightly.
"That's fortunate."
"Pardon?"
Just as the smile on Jin-cheon's lips began to feel so sinister it sent a chill down the spine, Baron Pelson spoke in a tormented voice.
"Kuaaagh! You wicked fiends! Do you not know that mental magic against a noble is forbidden!"
"Didn't know."
At Jin-cheon's matter-of-fact answer, Baron Pelson, who was trembling all over, opened his mouth again with an expression of trying to endure the pain.
"Kuaagh! Quickly, this pain!"
"Is that what you want?"
"Take away the pain, quickly!"
"Very well. I shall grant your last wish."
And then, Jin-cheon gave a sardonic smile and peeled off the charm that was stuck to the center of Baron Pelson's body.
Fwo-ro-ro-rok!
"Your last wish is granted."
"Kek, keuuh...."