Chapter 44
Mev's slow steps resembled a burning red torch, capturing the attention of everyone present.
"Stop! Halt! Protect the king!"
Although one of the knights shouted, no one dared to rush toward her recklessly. Facing certain death, few could muster the courage to confront her. Paralyzed by fear, everyone remained fixated on Mev, unable to look away. This allowed Ian, crouching low and sprinting to the side, to go unnoticed.
One down, Ian mused.
A tingling sensation spread from his fingertips, and the Swamp's Resentment extended its grasp toward one of the minions nearby. Without sparing a glance, Ian dashed toward his next target.
Suddenly, Lucia, whom he had left in the mansion's hideout with Philip and Miguel, came to Ian’s mind. The girl who had witnessed the horrific scene before her eyes yet hadn't shown any sign of fear. However, her gaze, as she looked at him, was filled with earnestness, as if pleading to him not to forget her request.
...This is why I hate dealing with kids. Thinking this, Ian eyed a nobleman under his nose. The nobleman's eyes widened as he noticed Ian's approach, but it was too late.
Thud!
Ian's hand had already grasped the nobleman's face. A portion of the chaos energy in Ian’s grip surged into the nobleman's eyes, nose, and mouth. It was a very small amount of chaos energy.
Hope this works. With that thought, Ian forcefully threw the nobleman toward Mev.
"Ugh?!"
"Ah!"
The nobleman tumbled and fell near Mev and the soldiers, causing a brief scream among the refugees. The soldiers and Mev, who had nearly rushed over, now turned their gaze toward the fallen nobleman.
"Ugh... cough... ugh...?"
As the nobleman tried to rise, his hands began to tremble. Purple and maroon veins popped out across his body, and his muscles twisted and bulged.
"Transformation...?"
As one of the soldiers murmured, the nobleman, convulsing, raised his deformed face.
"Gra—aah—ack!"
His scream of pain finally set off a wave of panic among the refugees.
"Everyone, run!"
With that cry, the refugees scattered toward the exits. In the meantime, Ian, having grabbed another noble's face, noticed the transforming corrupter.
This actually works, thought Ian.
It was an idea that came to him while observing the lower-ranked corrupt beings who couldn't control their mutations. He wondered if perhaps it wasn't the corrupted magic itself they couldn't handle, but the chaos power mixed within it.
Therefore, he speculated that if he were to push pure chaos power into them, it might actually cause a counterreaction, and this prediction turned out to be spot on.
While for someone like Regis, who could properly handle chaos power, it would ironically add to their strength. For these half-baked ones, it meant he had gained a new card to play in the future.
Although there aren't many corrupters I can distinguish yet, thought Ian.
As Ian threw the chaos-infused noble again, he shouted toward the hall, "Secure the king's safety! Soldiers, deal with the corrupted ones!"
Amid the chaos of fleeing refugees and transforming corrupters, and with the Apostle of Vengeance engulfed in divine power, whose shout it was didn't matter. One of the six knights guarding the king, Jonathan, who had previously confronted and then apologized to Ian, was the first to notice him again.
At Ian's nod, Jonathan immediately shouted, "Guards, follow the king! Your Majesty, you must evacuate. We will ensure your safety."
"No, what is all this... Yes, understood-" Confused and almost coerced, the king was hurriedly escorted out.
The presence of a real corrupter among the nobles had just been revealed, causing nearly half of the soldiers to scatter as if fleeing.
Whsssh....
Mev, lowering her sword, quietly observed the transforming noble. She seemed to have no intention of killing him swiftly, waiting instead for the transformation to complete, her divine power calmly surged around her. This, in turn, only intensified the fear among the surrounding soldiers and knights.
"Grr... ahh..."
With a violet body and protruding tentacles, the transformation continued. Amid the grotesquely rearranged features of his face, the transformed corrupter groaned at Mev. His eyes, devoid of any rationality, showed only the pure chaos that had turned the weak human mind to mush.
"AAAAHHH!" He lunged at Mev with arms and tentacles outstretched.
Finally, Mev's grip on her sword tightened.
Whoosh! Crack!
A crimson crescent swept through the corrupter. His torso, cleaved at an angle, crumbled with the momentum of his charge. Black blood and entrails scattered in all directions.
Thud.
Mev, catching the head of the fallen corrupter with her left hand, squeezed until it burst, with red divine power flaring from her grasp. The emotions she had suppressed welled up in her eyes as she held the limp body. The light leaking through her visor pulsed violently.
"Ah... Ahhh... Ahhhhhh!" Her cry, a mix of myriad emotions, filled the hall. The remaining onlookers were pressed down by fear.
"Choke... Ugh... UGHHH—" Another noble, thrown by Ian and caught in the swamp's curse, began to transform. Ian's experiment worked; the noble reborn in a twisted form showed no uniformity in their mutation, a testament to their inability to control the chaos within.
Flump.
Mev charged at them, throwing the corpse she had on her arm. She scattered red divine light in her wake, leaving a trail of long afterimages.
"How... how can we...?"
Several gazes shifted back to the knights and to Duke Regis Brant, who still stood imposingly at the high seat. Unlike the Duke, who furrowed his brow, most of the knights had faces that showed uncertainty about what to do next. Feeling the gaze, one of the knights pointed his sword toward Mev's back.
"What are you all looking at? She's turned against the king- Uh?" A knight's eyes widened as a hand, clad in leather gloves, had abruptly and forcefully covered his mouth.
"Is it acceptable for a knight to serve a duke instead of a king?" A low voice spoke to him. The knight, wondering when he had been approached, turned his eyes and looked into Ian's dark ones.
The knight's lips barely moved, “Who are you... Urgh....”
"You don’t need to know me," Ian added as he pushed the knight aside and retreated.
"Wh...who are you?"
Other soldiers and knights pointed their weapons at him.
"If you want to live, get rid of those things. And it would be wise for you to step back. Don't get involved and die a dog's death for nothing." Ian added, then suddenly threw a throwing dagger at one of the knights.
"Cluck?!"
The knight's eyes widened as a throwing dagger suddenly embedded itself in his forearm, not just because of the unexpected attack, but because something was wriggling on the blade. It was a serpent with its mouth wide open, revealing tiny fangs as big as grains of rice. The creature bit down on the knight's arm.
"You...! What kind of sorcery...?!"
When the knight looked up, Ian was already gone. Lowering his head, he saw the viper turning into smoke and disappearing. The next moment, the world seemed to melt away like dissolving paint. The only thing filling the wide-eyed, terrified gaze of the knight, who was holding his breath, was the imposing figure of a paladin, brimming with dark red divine power.
"Ah, Aaahhh!"
The knight, thrown into a state of shock, let out a scream filled with terror. The knight, consumed by chaos power, began to mutate with a sinister hiss. It was a spectacle grim enough to convince the remaining knights and soldiers that following Ian's advice might be prudent. They began to hesitantly step back toward the passage.
"If you can't run, then don't make a sound and just stay hidden here. Got it?" Ian dragged a woman, whose legs had given out, causing her to collapse, to a corner of the assembly hall and dumped her there. The woman, her face smeared with tears, only nodded in response.
"Ha..."
This feels more like training a dog, thought Ian.
Sighing, Ian finally surveyed the hall. His decision to let Mev take the lead in this battle wasn't solely because it was the easier option.
Beyond their employer-employee relationship, Mev was among the most responsible and virtuous individuals he had encountered in this world. He did not wish to see her, after fulfilling her duties and responsibilities, kneel before such unworthy corrupt beings.
He rather hoped she would unleash her suppressed inner self and rampage as she was now. Perhaps this resonated with his own past experiences of being unable to properly retaliate against minor harassment from superiors or seniors.
Swish, crack!
In the meantime, Mev had sliced through two more corrupt beings and even bisected another mutated knight, crushing the head of a fallen corrupt underfoot. This brutal, barbaric display was a far cry from the efficient combat style she had shown in the past. The blood of the corrupt that splattered on her mixed with her divine power, giving her the appearance of a dark knight.
Whoosh!
As Mev sliced through the last corrupt charging at her from behind, she finally stopped, with her shoulders heaving.
A momentary silence fell over the blood-soaked hall. Mev, catching her breath, eventually turned her gaze toward the high seat where Regis Brant was. He had been watching her with a look of amusement.
"Truly, I cannot understand... I thought you were the easiest to manipulate. How did you become the most unpredictable entity?" Regis finally spoke.
"If I had been alone... Perhaps that would have been the case..." Mev replied slowly.
Regis's eyes narrowed. His gaze suddenly shifted toward Ian, standing at a distance in the corner of the assembly hall.
"So... you were the mastermind behind this. I heard there was a paladin leading the rebellion in Orendel... I see it wasn't just rumors," said Regis.
"Even after all that culling, there are still rats in Orendel? Impressive. Like cockroaches." Ian smirked.
A smile flickered across Regis's lips, "Thinking you were just a mere mercenary was my mistake. Even a trivial variable shouldn't be overlooked. I'll remember that for next time."
"There won't be a next time for you—!" Mev charged with a cry. The red trajectory from her blade spread out in an explosive arc toward Regis.
Clang.
A translucent purple force field sprang up in front of Regis just then. Surprisingly, the force field withstood the strike filled with divine power without breaking. As the shockwave mixed with divine power and magic swept across the hall,
Growl, roar, howl!
About a dozen hounds started pouring in from the corridors. The knights and soldiers, nearly reaching the corridor, were pushed back against the walls. The hounds gathered around Regis, ignoring them. Between the remnants of the force field and divine power, Regis's laughter spread.
"You seem to forget. Tonight, in this Agel Lan, I am..." Regis’s face was revealed. The skin on his forehead grotesquely protruded, and his entire face was veined like a spiderweb. His eyes, now entirely purple, drew a gentle curve.
"...no different from a god."
Boom!
The remaining force field exploded, and Mev, frozen in her sword-thrusting pose, was flung back.
"No one will know that I serve the true God. There won't be any witnesses left," said Regis.
As silent horror began to spread across the faces of the soldiers and knights,
Swoosh.
Ian drew the Sword of Judgment, with his smile revealing his fangs.
"Talking bullshit," said Ian.
You have already been defeated by me once, Ian mused.
Foll𝑜w current novels on fre(e)w𝒆bnovel