That was his reaction. Seeing him like that, Damon let a faint smile rise to his lips.
“Now you are my servant. Are you not?”
“Y-yes, I am.”
The Ice Bringer in the lich’s hand was slowly vanishing. Seeing that, Damon sensed that his opponent had fallen for it completely.
“You have never seen me. Have you?”
“That is correct.”
“This human, too, died by your hand and left not a trace behind. Did he not?”
“That is correct.”
“How did you dispose of this human?”
“I… I froze the human solid with Ice Bringer, then burned him away entirely with Fire Storm. Not a single trace remained to show that the human had ever existed.”
“Good.”
Having received the answer he had hoped for, Damon nodded in satisfaction.
“Now return to Gedenhide. And report everything truthfully. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
The lich turned around with vacant eyes. The way he shook his head as though completely bewitched was quite comical. Once he was no longer looking into Damon’s eyes, the lich’s gaze gradually began to return to normal. Sensing this, Damon drove in one final nail.
“Hurry. You must help Gedenhide repel the intruders.”
“Y-yes. That’s right.”
The lich flew off without looking back. He did not know why, but for some reason, he felt that he had to. Behind him, Damon was smiling in triumph.
“Consider it an honor to have fallen victim to the Ghost-Spirit Mind-Subduing Eye, one of the Apostates’ higher black arts. I may not be confident in subduing even Gedenhide, but the likes of you is no more than a bit of exercise after a meal.”
After speaking, Damon lowered his head. Alkaris’s idiotic face came into view at once. Drool was running from the corner of his mouth, so much so that it had even soaked Damon’s sleeve. A regretful glint passed through Damon’s eyes.
“What a waste that a Sword Master died by a hair’s breadth. It can’t be helped. I’ll have to take this fellow and try it on him instead…”
Damon quickly moved his hands and examined Alkaris’s condition. A light of expectation appeared on his face.
“Is this heavenly luck? This fellow is completely soulless. Judging by the irregular waves in his brain, it seems he was intellectually disabled from the start. This is better, in fact. If he’s already lost his soul, the chances of the Great Rite succeeding are comparatively high.”
After speaking, Damon launched himself away. He had to hide the man away where Gedenhide’s eyes and ears could not reach. Though he was not the Sword Master Damon had originally aimed for, Damon actually considered it fortunate. Right now, he welcomed a soulless body far more than a body with great strength.
Carrying Alkaris on his back, Damon arrived at a valley a short distance from Verkis’s lair. Judging by the strange rocks standing about in disorder, it seemed to be a place almost untouched by outsiders. But to Damon, this was one of his most precious places.
It was here that he had completed the vast undertaking of converting sorcery into magic. Arriving at a place where rocks were piled in layers, Damon formed hand seals without delay.
Rumble, rumble.
With a thunderous sound, the rocks rotated, revealing a pitch-black entrance. With Alkaris still on his back, Damon soon disappeared inside. As soon as he entered, the rocks returned to their original state and sealed the entrance.
The interior of the secret chamber was relatively spacious. The rock walls on all sides had been cut smooth and straight as though sliced by a blade, and on one side stood a small bookshelf. Most of the books on the shelves were handwritten. The theories Damon had completed by compiling magic and sorcery were all recorded there.
In the center of the stone chamber stood a large altar. As though it had been used to refine magic and sorcery, the altar was stained black with the traces of Damon’s hands.
“Up we go.”
Damon laid Alkaris’s body upon it. As if he had become a corpse, Alkaris did not move in the slightest. Damon gazed at Alkaris’s face with expressionless eyes. Even at a glance, it was truly a handsome face. If it had belonged to a woman, one might have described it as beautiful enough to stir the heart, but unfortunately, Damon was a man. Worse yet, he was an ugly man who hated good-looking people to an extreme degree.
“The fellow has a pretty face. Though it’s all meaningless now.”
Shaking his head, Damon opened one side of the stone wall. Inside, reagents used for casting sorcery were piled like a mountain.
“First, I’ll have to put him into a state of suspended animation. If he dies during the procedure, then because of the Sevenfold Severing Restriction Art, I won’t survive either…”
Thinking of the Sevenfold Severing Restriction Art that bound him, Damon murmured in a low voice. When he thought about it, it was quite a strange thing. Even after becoming a lich, he still could not take life. If so, the Sevenfold Severing Restriction Art had to be something that acted directly upon the soul. Otherwise, there was no reason it would persistently restrain him to this extent. Damon stared intently into Alkaris’s blankly open eyes.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to take your body. You were fated to die anyway, so you shouldn’t have any particular regrets. It’s probably better to hand your body over to me than to live your entire life as an idiot…”
Of course, there was no answer. Alkaris’s soul had already left his body due to the extreme shock. To put it simply, it was no different from having become a vegetative person. If left alone, he was fated to die just like that.
After selecting several ingredients, Damon began mixing them to make a reagent. It was a necessary process to preserve the man’s body until the Great Rite was fully prepared. Of course, putting a single human into a state of suspended animation was as easy as eating cold porridge for Damon.
After a short while, the reagent was complete. Damon brought it over and poured it into Alkaris’s mouth. When he lightly pulled at his Adam’s apple, the reagent flowed down Alkaris’s esophagus.
Gurgle, gurgle.
Seeing this, Damon immediately gathered mana. Normally, he would have had to employ internal energy to perform the Acupoint Striking Method, but there was no way Damon had any internal energy to draw upon now. For that reason, he intended to substitute the mana he gathered from the surroundings for internal energy.
That was the solution to sorcery that Damon had discovered.
Once a certain amount of mana had gathered, Damon rearranged it without delay. Countless flashes of light bloomed from both his hands. The flashes were Magic Missiles, once his trademark. Damon intended to use them to strike Alkaris’s acupoints.
Thud, thud, thud.
The Magic Missiles filling the stone chamber struck Alkaris’s entire body in sequence under Damon’s control. Not one of them missed in power, accuracy, or any other respect. In some ways, it looked easier than striking the acupoints by hand. Damon already prided himself on the fact that, when it came solely to handling Magic Missile, his skill was not inferior even to a god’s.
As force continued to be applied to his acupoints, a change occurred in Alkaris’s body. His blankly open pupils rolled upward, showing only the whites of his eyes. At the same time, a chilly energy covered Alkaris’s entire body. The color drained from him, and soon Alkaris’s body became no different from a rigid corpse.
“It’s done.”
Letting out a sigh, Damon scattered the mana he had gathered. Since this place was not very far from Verkis’s lair, he had to conceal all traces of magic as quickly as possible. Though he had reached a realm higher than Gedenhide’s, he still had to be cautious where caution was due. If Gedenhide discovered that he had become a master of the 9th Circle, he would certainly report that fact to Verkis at once.
“If that happens, both my revenge and rescuing Daphne will be finished, won’t they?”
Murmuring softly, Damon turned around. By now, Gedenhide and the other guardians would have returned to the lair. Of course, the intruders would have been repelled without a single one left. After all, it would be nearly impossible to find a human capable of standing against Gedenhide. Damon’s gaze turned to Alkaris.
“This body will remain in this state for roughly one month. Before then, I must retrieve Nidelhark’s Sealing Orb. Otherwise, I have no reason to get out of this place.”
It seemed he had overcome one problem, but the task remained just as difficult. He had absolutely no idea how he was supposed to bring out Nidelhark’s Sealing Orb from within Incresia, the magical treasure vault that perfectly prevented theft.
After Damon left, only the ill-fated crown prince remained in the stone chamber, lying upon the altar.
Without even knowing what situation he had been placed in.
“The operation has ended in complete failure. The forces deployed have been all but annihilated.”
“What? Annihilated? How could that be?”
Fershtein’s eyes widened as though he could not believe it. He had deployed the enormous force of three knight orders to rescue Alkaris, yet they had been annihilated. The adjutant continued his report, fidgeting as though it were his own fault.
“The three knight orders deployed suffered truly devastating losses. Four of the ten Sword Masters were killed in action, and most of the paladins failed to return. In the process, it has also been confirmed that Court Mage Kuslan was killed in action. If not for his order to retreat, the rest of the men would have had to leave their bones there as well.”
“Damn it all.”
Unable to endure it any longer, Fershtein sprang up from his seat. If the adjutant’s words were true, this was no ordinary problem.
“What kind of place is it, exactly…?”
“According to the Intelligence Bureau, it is the lair of Verkis, the Red Dragon who displayed the greatest might during the ancient Race War. What is astonishing is that most of the guardians protecting the place are liches exceeding the 6th Circle. This is a fact we learned from the mouths of the survivors.”
“That’s impossible. If the opponents were 6th Circle liches, the paladins might have been outmatched, but I don’t understand how even the Sword Masters could have been defeated. Sword Masters should be able to block offensive magic at the level of the 6th Circle with ease…”
At first glance, Fershtein’s anger made sense. There was bound to be a stark difference between a high-level Sword Master and a lower-level paladin when it came to the magic they could withstand. Of course, the quality of the anti-magic armor was not much of an issue here. Even when wearing the same armor, a Sword Master could block far higher-level magic than a paladin could endure. That was due to the difference in the amount of mana they could draw forth. The more mana that was infused, the greater the defensive power of anti-magic armor became. Of course, only up to a certain level.
Fershtein’s question was soon answered by the adjutant’s explanation.
“There was a terrifying lich there who is presumed to be of the 9th Circle. It seemed to be the leader of the liches, and most of the Sword Masters who died were defeated by it.”
“The 9th Circle… Astonishing.”
Only then was Fershtein able to calm himself. No matter how strong a Sword Master was, he was no match for a grand mage of the 9th Circle. Though a Sword Master displayed vastly superior strength to a mage because of anti-magic armor, that applied only up to a certain level. Offensive magic cast by a 9th Circle grand mage could shatter the anti-magic armor surrounding a Sword Master’s body in a single blow. Furthermore, a grand mage’s incantation was completed in the blink of an eye.
Unless one was at least a Grand Sword Master, one could not hope to defeat a grand mage. Fershtein’s expression twisted sharply.
“This is maddening. To think matters would become so tangled…”
The annihilation of the three knight orders was not such a serious problem. What mattered was the fact that Alkaris, the crown prince he had been backing, was dead. The knights he had already dispatched had confirmed and recovered the bodies of Feyrun and Ludwig. Though, of course, they had recovered only portions of their bodies.
Naturally, he had more than enough troops to send in addition, but he judged that there was no need to do so. Sending more troops for Alkaris, who was already certain to be dead, would be nothing but a pointless act.
Now he had only one card left. His plan to place the feeble-minded Alkaris on the imperial throne and control state affairs had gone up in smoke. He shook his head with a displeased expression.
“Then in the end, I have to support the second imperial prince, Dviers?”
Though young, the second imperial prince was, unlike Alkaris, by no means an easy opponent. Despite his youth, his judgment and decisiveness had already surpassed the level of ordinary people. Perhaps not now, but once he grew older, he would never be someone Fershtein could manipulate.
“It cannot be helped.”
Nevertheless, Fershtein made up his mind. In truth, he was in a position where he had no choice but to support Dviers. He could certainly not assassinate him in secret as he had done with the two princes’ parents. In fact, Duke Fershtein’s influence had been behind the unexplained deaths of the imperial descendants.
“It cannot be helped. If all the descendants of Emperor Krosen disappear, nobles and the rulers of other kingdoms will rise up like swarms of bees, aiming for the imperial throne… I still do not have the power to stop them.”
If he had obtained the strength of the Krosen Knight Order, that would not have been a concern at all. In that case, he would possess the strongest military power in all of Arcadia. Unfortunately, however, the Krosen Knight Order still pledged its loyalty to Emperor Valencius alone. Duke Fershtein knew all too well that this loyalty might be passed on to Prince Dviers, but it would never come to him.
“It can’t be helped. Since I’ve lost Alkaris, I’ll have to place Dviers on the throne to buy time, then gradually win them over. That must be the best course in the current situation…”
In Duke Fershtein’s eyes flashed a light of resolve, one that showed he would achieve his will no matter what.