Absolute Judgment
"So why didn't you report any of this? Shouldn't you have at least asked the Empire for help?"
Artlein had no real combatants among its dwarves. From childhood to old age, they swung hammers — they did not fight wars. The occasional dwarf who hated the forge enough to become an adventurer did exist, but even those were, relatively speaking, far weaker in battle than other races.
That was why, whenever something went wrong in the dwarf kingdom, Do-ha or his friends had always stepped in. They hadn't simply given aid, of course — they had received ample support in weapons and armor in return. Mutual benefit, plain and simple.
"If we told anyone… about what happened in Artlein… they said they would kill King Kael…"
The blacksmith spoke through clenched teeth, his whole body trembling. The fury in him was so raw it bled through even his dazed expression.
"You just took the threat at face value?"
"More than a hundred of our kin… were already burned at the stake… right in front of us…"
"…"
Only then did Do-ha close his eyes and let out a long breath. There had been no binding magic on them — he had wondered how the secret held — but of course. They had been bound by emotion. Sometimes chaining a person's heart was far more effective than any control spell. Exactly like this.
They had watched their own people die in agony before their eyes. That was why none of them could speak of Artlein's affairs to another kingdom or another soul.
It isn't fear holding them.
They simply wanted to protect their king and the rest of their kin. If word of what had happened inside the kingdom leaked out, their friends and relatives would burn.
"Horsem — that bastard? The one who was always at odds with Kael…"
"That's right."
Do-ha nodded at Canteas's question. Kael and Horsem had never gotten along. More precisely, Horsem alone had hated Kael. Kael had always praised his relative as capable and clever — he never spoke ill of him, even behind his back.
"And that son of a bitch Horsem pulled this kind of shit."
Killing intent flooded from Do-ha's eyes. It wasn't only because Kael was Tunrad's father. Kael had been a man Do-ha himself owed a great debt. In the chaotic years of Belhart, Kael had trusted him and built bridges to the other races. Those meetings had accelerated the coming of peace. And along the way, Tunrad had become his friend as well.
"Canteas. We're going."
Do-ha rose from his seat, jaw clenched, swept the curtain aside, and strode out of the workshop.
"Don't you dare put your hands on— huh?"
The blacksmith flailed his arms and shouted — then blinked at the empty workshop and tilted his head. Hadn't a human just walked in and put a hand on his head?
"Must be tired… I imagined it. What would a human even be doing in here?"
He turned back to his forge and lifted his hammer once more.
Footsteps echoed along the kingdom road.
"So what's the plan?"
Canteas asked as he walked beside Do-ha. They didn't know where Kael was being held, or what forces might be hidden inside the kingdom.
"Do-ha. What are you going to do?"
"…"
"Hey. I'm asking you what you're going to do."
"…"
Do-ha kept walking in silence. Artlein was not a vast kingdom like the others.
"You… don't tell me…"
As Do-ha continued toward the castle with that blank expression, Canteas's face hardened. He wasn't seriously about to just charge straight in… was he?
"W-wait!"
Canteas scrambled to block his path. He understood the anger — but charging in blind like this?
"We don't even know who Horsem is working with! What if there's a dragon?!"
As he had said earlier, Artlein's own fighters were weak, so the king's guard had always been soldiers dispatched from other kingdoms. And no kingdom would send weaklings to protect a king. If Horsem had wiped out forces of that caliber, the troops under his command had to be formidable.
"Then we burn the dragon at the stake too."
"You're planning to burn Horsem alive."
"They should suffer the same way. Their kin will feel a little less wronged that way."
Do-ha stepped past Canteas and continued toward the castle. Realizing he couldn't stop him, Canteas simply gave up.
"Ugh… seriously. I'm never going to die of old age at this rate."
"You're a lich. You already outlived old age."
"Shut up!"
They arrived at the castle gate.
"Halt!"
"The castle is closed to visitors. Turn back."
The dwarves on guard crossed spears taller than themselves into an X, barring Do-ha's path. Both of them were under some strange magic.
"Canteas."
"Got it."
Sleep
Canteas flicked his hand and cast the spell.
"They're using magic on us!"
"Enemies!"
But the dwarves did not fall asleep. They thrust their spears forward at once, as if the magic had no hold on them at all.
"Wh-what?!"
Canteas stared in shock. Weakened or not, there was no way he couldn't put two dwarves to sleep.
"Are you stupid? They're under magic."
"I bypassed the magic that was on them…"
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Which meant the dwarves were under layered magic — prepared for exactly this kind of approach.
Did he really get a dragon involved?
Do-ha slipped behind the dwarves and struck their pressure points. Both collapsed.
"Damn it — next time, you do it!"
"Train harder, idiot."
"No! Next time I'm doing it again! I'm too pissed to let this go."
Canteas seethed with humiliation. Failing to crack a multi-layered spell and getting embarrassed like this…
"There's magic on the main gate too — let me handle it!"
"No. This one's mine."
Baek-bo Myeol-hwang Gong
Third Step — Heavenly Manifest Diamond
As the technique unfolded, three colossal arms formed behind Do-ha's back.
"Step aside."
He peeled Canteas off the entrance and hurled one of the arms. The main gate exploded outward in a thunderous blast.
The magic is stronger than I expected — but it isn't dragon magic.
The roar brought soldiers pouring out from inside.
"What is this? They're all human."
Do-ha tilted his head at the oncoming force. For a moment he almost mistook the place for a human castle. There were virtually no dwarves — only humans, packed wall to wall.
"Where did they send all the dwarves?"
"Enemy!"
"Wh-what are those arms?!"
"I… I've heard of that somewhere…"
"Canteas, handle them. They're all under magic, so…"
"Don't worry! No mistakes this time."
Canteas drew a staff from his subspace and cast properly. Hundreds of skeletons began rising from the ground — and with them came the Death Knight, Cheon Seol-gyeong.
"Skeletons!"
"Attack!"
"There's a Death Knight too — be careful!"
"Hmph. Nothing but insects."
Cheon Seol-gyeong snorted, gripped his sword, and charged.
A heavy crash shook the hall.
"What is all this racket?!"
At the far end of a massive table, Horsem roared from the seat of honor. Guests were gathered here — this was a complete disgrace!
"Go find out what that noise is!"
"Yes, sir!"
Horsem jerked his chin, and the soldiers behind him sprinted for the doors.
In that same instant, the great doors blew inward and crushed the soldiers flat beneath them.
"No need to go looking. I came myself."
"Ha… One man? You all got wiped out by a single person?!"
Horsem scowled at the figures seated around the table. Every soldier in the castle had been dispatched by the people present. They had boasted that their forces would be stronger than anyone's — and yet a single man had crushed them without effort.
"Well now. What kind of little conspiracy were you all cooking up in here?"
Do-ha walked forward and glanced over the documents spread across the table.
Contracts. Mine locations. Receipts… and oh, look at that — a plan to swallow the Empire. So you all joined hands.
He skimmed the papers and almost laughed. These idiots, thinking they could devour the Empire. Not by force, of course — by slow, quiet work from the shadows, gnawing it away piece by piece.
Do-ha dragged a chair out and sat down hard.
"Familiar faces, every one of you."
He swept his gaze across the six seated figures. Horsem. Duke Gern. Marquis Jermac. Count Sernao. Count Bernen. Viscount Raciones. Every last one a noble he already knew.
"Y-you bastard — who do you think you are, sitting there?!"
"Hey, Horsem."
Do-ha's voice dropped low as he reached up and pulled the mask from his face.
"I told you before. Keep running your mouth behind my back, and I'll crush your legs."
"Hiiik?!"
"Gah!"
The moment Do-ha's face was revealed, the nobles recoiled in pure terror and toppled backward from their chairs.
"Th-the… the Emperor… Baek Do-ha…"
"The Absolute Being was… still alive…"
"…"
While the nobles shook, Horsem clenched his fists and ground his teeth.
"You've been busy doing insane things, haven't you?"
Do-ha locked eyes with him. Every instinct wanted to burn the man alive on the spot.
"Aaagh!"
Count Sernao finally snapped. He screamed and bolted for the exit.
Flare
Without so much as turning his head, Do-ha incinerated the fleeing count. Charred remains scattered across the floor.
"Hiiik!"
"Se… Sernao…"
"Anyone else feel like running?"
Do-ha propped his chin on one hand and regarded the remaining nobles. Anyone with the courage to try something dramatic would get a clean send-off.
"No one? You've got the guts to pull these dirty schemes, but not the guts to run?"
Bingbaek-singong
Second Form — Hateful Ice Hell
Still seated, Do-ha tapped his foot lightly against the floor. Ice erupted and locked every noble's legs solid.
"…If you kill me, Kael dies with me."
Horsem spoke slowly, staring at the ice around his legs. The Absolute Being's appearance had been completely unexpected — but he was no longer the Horsem of the past. He had already taken precautions. He had Kael.
"If I die, the space holding Kael compresses. He dies with me."
He had built a failsafe for exactly this kind of emergency. He was a dwarf, after all. A device that precise was something he could make in his sleep. And the mechanism was sealed with Eastern Continent sorcery — magic alone could not undo it.
Even Baek Do-ha won't be able to break it… that sorcery belongs to the Demonic Cult. Heh heh heh.
He knew the Absolute Being used martial arts as well. But so what? The seal on the device was Demonic Cult sorcery.
Footsteps crunched through the debris.
"Ugh, you really wrecked the place."
Canteas picked his way through the rubble and came to Do-ha's side.
"Do-ha. I got Kael."
"What?! How?!"
Horsem shrieked in pure shock. Without the Demonic Cult itself, that sorcery couldn't be undone — how had they freed him?!
"D-don't lie to me! The device has Demonic Cult sorcery—"
"Demonic Cult what?"
Cheon Seol-gyeong stepped out from behind Canteas, expression blank.
Do-ha rose from the chair with a cold, thin smile.
"Hey, you bastards."
"You're all due for a beating."
At those words, the nobles — and even Horsem — went slack with hollow despair.