Chapter 176
"Tch. Damn bastards. Made a mess like dog shit."
Ptoo!
The Saintess spat on the troll's corpse, while the Northern Army watched her hesitantly.
The Northern Army was dumbfounded.
That the suddenly appearing Shield forces had saved them was something they should certainly be grateful for.
However, rather than expressions of gratitude, most of them radiated deep wariness.
The Shield.
They were formerly the Empire's underlings who had aided the Empire in various fields.
Thus they needed to know. They needed to hear.
Why they had helped them.
Why the Empire's puppets were in the North.
"We are grateful for the help. But why did the Empire's Shield help us? Why did you suddenly lead this army into the North without permission! We need to hear it."
Crunch!
"Still bitching even after being saved."
The Saintess, having stomped and burst the magic beast's head, spoke with annoyance toward the knight on guard against her.
"Callius sent me. Told me to help you."
"Ca-Callius!?"
"The Hero of Carpe! As expected! Heaven hasn't abandoned the North!"
"But... is it really true? What if it's a lie?"
Murmur, murmur. The Northern Army was half-believing, half-doubting.
Among them.
One knight stepped forward and asked again.
"Where is Lord Callius right now?"
Orphin de Liophevin.
When she asked—Callius's confidante and one of the Three Great Commanders of the North—the Saintess of the Shield shrugged.
"Somewhere in the North, I suppose. All he asked me to do was come here and help you. How would I know where he is or what he's doing? Probably playing by himself, or else..."
Kwaaaang...!
The battlefield fell silent.
But far away, from a distant place, explosions and howls could be heard.
Everyone tensed at the situation that seemed like another fierce battlefield had opened up.
"He's no gentleman."
Only the Saintess of the Shield shook her head as if exasperated.
* * *
Same time.
Crack. Crack-! Squelch!
A dragon clad in iron armor.
At the sight of the dragon radiating ashen energy and tearing into the troll, not only the magic beasts positioned nearby but even the followers were terrified, unable to take a single step.
The dragon, which they thought only existed in legends. When it appeared, the army of followers marching toward Jaibars was instantly annihilated.
The Ironclad Dragon's breath.
With that alone, the army was brought to the brink of annihilation, and as it repeatedly grabbed resisting trolls, carried them high into the sky, and dropped them, even those creatures could do nothing about it.
Right after.
The Ironclad Dragon—Beati—began to bite into the troll and devour it.
No one.
Could interrupt the dragon's meal.
Except for one person.
"No."
A man walked into the utterly devastated battlefield.
And boldly threw a fist at the head of the dragon that was chewing on the troll.
"What am I supposed to do if you eat all of that? Troll blood is quite precious, you know."
Screech...
The dragon's bewildered reaction to the man's reproach was more frightening than amusing. A being that could make a dragon cower.
The terror of that man was what kept them frozen in place.
"That's enough troll. Go chew up those bastards instead."
Beati nodded, looking at the troll regretfully, before unleashing her anger on the magic beasts.
Leaving behind the followers' magic beast army being torn apart in an instant, Callius had the Ashen Knights collect the troll's blood.
"She ate quite a lot."
With this much damage, making a sword out of it would be difficult.
It seemed more profitable to dismantle it, store it in subspace, and later call Helena to sell it off.
"I could also leave it to Beatrice."
She'd probably make something out of it.
With such thoughts, while waiting for the knights to dismantle it, Callius sat down leaning against Vivi who was lying nearby.
After feeding her holy water.
Vivi's wounds healed quickly.
However, she couldn't seem to muster any energy, and that was probably.
'Because of the holy water.'
Originally, Vivi was a magic beast.
To be precise, she was the offspring of a magic beast born among devil's beasts. A half-dragon, half-demon born between such a magic beast and a dragon.
In any case, just as trolls die when fed holy water, Vivi was the same.
Callius had his own conviction.
Vivi's dragon blood was thicker than her demon blood.
It had always been that way, and he had raised her by feeding her dragon blood afterward.
Even if that wasn't the case, there was no other way.
The wound inflicted by the Saintess was fatal, and she would have died without the holy water.
He gambled, in his own way.
"As expected, there's no major rejection, but..."
Still, it seemed to have some effect.
It didn't look like it would seriously threaten her life, but her energy was gone.
Would she wither away and die like this?
He didn't know what would happen.
If she died, he would immediately raise her as the Iron Lord again, but...
'I don't really want to do that.'
He hoped she would live.
Originally, he had planned to raise her to reinforce swords, but now things were a bit different.
He must have grown attached.
The loyalty and affection Vivi had shown had changed Callius.
The reason it came to this in the first place.
Was because she had blocked his enemy.
"The holy water's energy remains in her body. Demonic energy and holy water are clashing, and the dragon blood seems to be trying to do something about it... but I'm not sure if it will work out."
For now, all he could do was watch.
There didn't seem to be any other way.
Callius sat with his back leaning against Vivi's chest and took out a few things to examine.
[Fragment of Corruption]
- A fragment of the Corrupted One. It possesses infinite power, but using it may lead to corruption.
An item obtained by killing the Undying Corrupted One.
A fragment of corruption.
Originally, the Corrupted Ones were saints in their lifetime.
Since they had fallen, it wasn't strange for such a crystallization of power to remain.
'I never set up something like this.'
It possesses infinite power, but misuse leads to corruption.
That seemed to be the gist. When he opened his Three-Color Eyes after a long time, the color was blue.
It meant it could be either beneficial or harmful depending on how he handled it.
He had obtained it, at least.
He figured this was probably an item that would drop the more Corrupted Ones he killed.
"Hmm. Can it not be purified?"
Could holy water purify it?
Or would it disappear entirely?
After pondering for a moment, Callius took something out as if he'd had a good idea.
It was a silver chalice.
The Holy Grail of the Defeated God.
An item he didn't know where to use.
Even so, the reason he hadn't easily discarded it was because it was still a Holy Grail, defeated or not.
Callius immediately placed the Fragment of Corruption in the chalice and poured holy water.
"It's changing."
There was a change.
When he poured the holy water, the black Fragment of Corruption, which had shown no change, slowly began to melt.
The Holy Grail emitted a soft glow as the Fragment of Corruption slowly began to dissolve into the holy water.
Soon it became a shimmering black liquid.
As if containing the Milky Way.
"...It doesn't look ominous."
He opened his Three-Color Eyes.
Callius's eyes narrowed.
The holy water contained in the Holy Grail.
The holy water that had purified the Fragment of Corruption appeared golden.
Callius pondered for a moment.
He glanced at Vivi.
It had purified the corruption, but that energy was dissolved along with the holy water.
And the Holy Grail of the Defeated God had perfectly contained it, making it one.
This was holy water, yet not holy water.
It would be safe to call it a concentrated mass of different energy.
"An energy that seems significant for increasing divine power."
It was a rich energy to that extent.
But he didn't know what side effects there were, nor could he know the exact effect.
Just a feeling.
And this.
'Can't be kept for long.'
Instinctive intuition told him so.
As time passed.
This energy would scatter.
"Is it the arrangement of the gods? A destiny created by chance and effort..."
Callius pondered for a moment.
Then he poured the Holy Grail into Vivi's mouth.
'I'm already struggling to digest what I have. You're better suited for this than me.'
He would fight the Corrupted Ones frequently from now on.
If he obtained fragments each time, the opportunity would come again anytime.
The total number of the Corrupted was 666.
Now one had become his, and one had died, so the remaining number was 664.
It was no different from having 664 fragments.
So giving away one was fine.
Gulp, gulp. Vivi's eyelids slowly closed after drinking it all.
There was no immediate change.
There was no energy felt either, so it seemed it would take some time.
[My Lord.]
"Garcia. What is it."
[This.]
When General Garcia called him over to look.
Something was inside the torn troll.
There were stitch marks on the troll's back, and when they were all torn off, a person suddenly popped out from inside.
A person connected with all sorts of threads.
Hands, feet, head—without exception, threads were embedded...
"A strangely familiar, unlucky face."
He watched carefully, wondering who it was.
"Brans?"
He hadn't recognized him without hair. This guy.
It was Brans.
[He's still alive.]
[Shall I kill him?]
Niol placed his hand on Brans's neck and spoke, while Garcia took out his spear and answered.
"I sent him to learn martial arts from Cedric, so why is he here?"
He could roughly guess what had happened.
The threads wrapped around Brans's neck.
The metal needles hidden and embedded here and there.
He was probably captured and brainwashed by those guys.
"Useless bastard."
He couldn't even learn martial arts properly.
Seeing him captured and used by these guys, it seemed sending him to Cedric had been pointless.
"I didn't expect him to be inside the troll controlling it. Was this guy strong?"
[If not for the dragon's advantages that Beati possessed, we wouldn't have been able to handle it easily.]
[Beati also struggled considerably.]
So that's why she was biting it so aggressively.
Out of anger?
As expected, a dragon is a dragon.
Beati also had quite a temper.
[What should we do.]
"If he's been brainwashed by the thread bastards, undoing it is tricky. It'll be quite difficult in a short time. The threads will have penetrated inside his body."
At first glance, it looked like threads were only wrapped around the neck and wrists.
And ankles, but the threads would have penetrated the body and reached the brain.
If pulled out by force, he'd either die instantly or become half-crippled, drooling for the rest of his life with cloudy eyes.
"There are two ways to break the brainwashing. First, by devoting yourself to a god and learning to control the threads as your own."
However, this method had the constraint of having to betray the god one served.
Even if one had no god to believe in, it would take some time to become a believer of the thread god.
And the second method.
"Make the brainwashing useless..."
Callius clenched his fist.
"Violence."
Also known as violent treatment.
"Wake him."
Callius, arms crossed, had Niol splash water on Brans's head.
"Puah! Wh-what!? Who is it!! What the—!"
Brans, bewilderedly shaking his head, turned his eyes toward Callius.
The guy looked like he was about to shout "My lord! You were here! It's good to see you!" but his eyes and mouth were utterly foul.
"You bastard! Do you have any idea who I am!"
"Can you not remember me?"
"Hmph, seeing that unlucky face, you must be some bastard who flips up women's skirts and shakes your hips! Is it you? The one who tied me up like this?! Let's settle this with fists like a real man! I'll show you the taste of a real man, hehehe!"
Callius's eyes turned cold.
"Beat him until he comes to his senses."
[Yes.]
Thud! Thud! Squelch!
"Urk! Cra-ack! What the fuck! Aaagh! Stop hitting! Don't step there! You bastards dare!! Urk!!"
Niol stomped.
Garcia stomped.
Soon the other generals also slowly approached and stomped on Brans.
As they stomped with their feet and struck with fists, the rebellious bastard slowly began groaning.
"Sp-spare me! Spare me! I-I'm sorry! I was wrong, so please!! Pleeease!! Urk! Ack! Bone! You hit the bone! Bo-bone!! You hit the bone, damn it!! Aaagh!"
Watching Brans being beaten so hard that dust flew from the snowy ground even though it wasn't raining, Callius nodded.
"Beat him until he's on the verge of death."
"Kuhak! Urgh!"
Callius also gave a stomp to Brans's mouth that kept babbling nonstop before turning back to Vivi.
"Is it starting."
An intense light began to appear from Vivi's entire body.
A blue glowing light.
It was the light of the Firmament.
And the sword Vivi held.
The Firmament Sword as well.
Was emitting an intense energy.
And then.
Kwaaaang!!
Lightning struck down from the sky.