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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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Chapter 38
As if a massive swarm of mosquitoes had swept through, only desiccated corpses remained in its wake.
The lich swallowed the life force he had absorbed in a single gulp, then lightly clenched and unclenched his fist.
He then waved his hand slowly.
Slash!
Simultaneously, a black blade cut through the bodies of two knights who had collapsed behind the duke.
"Aaaaaah!!!"
"N-no... this can't be!!"
Like souls being dragged out, as if swept away by a massive wave, their spirits flailed along the ground before being sucked into the lich.
"Hmm..."
However, the lich smacked his lips as if unsatisfied.
"You bastard!!"
Enraged by the sight, Duke Berli raised his sword and charged at the lich.
Thud!!!
At that moment, an incredibly intricate magic circle appeared throughout the entire space.
At the same time, a tremendous pressure weighed down on him, sending shockwaves through his body.
He couldn't even comprehend what kind of magic it was, but he realized that destroying it was impossible and that as long as this magic circle existed, victory was out of reach.
"Kuhh?!"
"Heh. Did you have any idea where you were stepping into when you came here? Do you see it now? Do you understand what you’ve walked into?"
"So this place was a trap all along…."
A turbulent stream of black mana shook his very mind.
It wasn’t that he was weak.
The lich was a being created by a six-circle mage who had invoked forbidden magic.
A six-circle mage was already at the level of an archmage—comparable in rank to Duke Berli himself.
If such a being had existed for a long time, then it was at least six-circle, but judging by the scale and precision of its magic, it could very well be seven-circle.
It was only natural that the lich could overwhelm the duke so easily.
"Oh ho. I sense two more beings nearby brimming with life force. And my Death Knight is close as well."
At those words, Duke Berli staggered, his eyes widening.
Two beings.
He knew exactly who the lich was referring to.
His son, Farrell, and the eldest son of Count Cascadia, Leon Cascadia.
Slowly, he began to unravel the force that was constraining his entire body.
Then he declared,
"You will die here, you monstrous fiend."
At that, the lich let out a hollow laugh.
"Hohoho, how bold for a child who has barely crossed the threshold! Very well, come and show me what you've got."
Even though his defeat was inevitable, he could not back down.
If he retreated, the next target would be his son.
For a brief moment, Leon’s presence flashed through his mind, but he quickly dismissed the thought—he wouldn't be any different.
* * *
"Aaaahhh!!!"
Duke Berli fought desperately against the lich.
However, after the magic circle was activated, the battle became completely one-sided.
"Kuhh!!"
He cut through the black blades flying at him from all directions and, as a swordmaster, launched attacks akin to a bombardment.
But his opponent was an existence beyond an archmage.
The lich’s magic was so formidable that even Duke Berli, a swordmaster, could do nothing against it.
Moreover, the lich fought deviously, periodically targeting the fallen knights to create openings, or draining the suppressed power of the duke to grow even stronger.
"This… what kind of magic…?"
Duke Berli panted heavily as he asked.
Floating in the air, the lich stretched out his skeletal black hand.
At that moment, black spikes formed from mist, and he slowly approached before gently stabbing one into the duke’s shoulder.
There was no strength left to resist.
"Kuhh?!"
A faint, mist-like substance began to waver and seep out of the duke's body.
The lich toyed with his captured prey, taking his time.
"Were you curious? Very well, I suppose I can tell you. After all, this magic is my life's masterpiece."
"A unique… spell."
"Heh, I put considerable effort into this magic. And here, you and I are bound to a tug-of-war."
"What?"
The unexpected analogy made the duke’s eyes twitch.
"Child, how close are you to death and the underworld?"
A meaningless question.
"This magic is like a scale. You and I have placed our very existence on the balance. And the one closer to death and the underworld..."
The lich's eerie skull wavered before curling into a sinister grin.
"The one further from death and the underworld will have their soul mortgaged."
There was no need to ask what happened to a mortgaged soul.
Duke Berli could feel his condition rapidly deteriorating—his aura disintegrating in real time, his body wracked with unbearable pain whenever he moved.
The suppressed and stolen power was converted into energy, flowing into the lich.
As the royal knight commander, he had faced many formidable foes, but never before had he encountered magic as overwhelming and terrifying as this.
Whatever conditions the lich had set, there was no way for the duke to overturn them now.
"I've had my fun. It’s time to reap my harvest."
As the lich twirled his black spike, crescent-shaped black blades materialized in the air and cut down several fallen knights.
Duke Berli tried desperately to block them, but a following strike landed a grievous wound on him, completely subduing him.
"Aaaahhh!!!"
"Nooo!!!"
Those caught in the black blades suffered horrific fates.
Their bodies emitted mist-like wisps that stretched out, drawn into the lich’s mouth like a vacuum.
"No! Stop, you monstrous fiend!!"
Duke Berli screamed in fury, but the lich, wearing a ghastly grin, did not stop.
One by one, they were devoured.
They were the future of the kingdom.
Among them were both young and seasoned warriors alike.
This also meant that they were not ones to meet their end so futilely at the hands of a monster.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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"Why... Why are you targeting our Bata Kingdom?!"
At the duke’s shout, the lich tilted its head quizzically.
Then, it asked.
"Child, should living beings not repay the grace they have received?"
"What nonsense..."
"What, indeed? I am merely granting the wish of those who freed me from my seal. To me, this country is no different from an ant on the roadside. Do humans get punished for stepping on ants?"
Disaster.
This was a dreadful disaster.
Duke Berli made up his mind to use his last hidden trump card.
If he used this method, his life energy would be consumed, causing him to lose all his power and soon die, but unleashing this monster was far too dangerous.
Just as Duke Berli was about to stimulate his life energy and awaken it—
BOOM!!!
A solid wall shattered as a knight in pitch-black armor with glowing red eyes rushed in.
And then—
Huh?
The knight hastily approached the lich and then came to an abrupt halt.
Something about this was incongruous with the menacing presence of the black armor.
"Hmm? What is this? Why is my Death Knight...?"
Even the lich, seemingly unable to comprehend the situation, stopped its soul consumption and stared at the Death Knight.
A being unafraid of death.
Not just any ordinary undead either, but one emanating an aura of at least Expert-level at its peak.
What could have possibly frightened such an undead?
If the target had been the lich itself, that would have been understandable.
But this Death Knight seemed to belong to the lich.
The answer to that mystery soon became clear in the most absurd way.
"What the hell? Such an elaborate setup, yet such crude magic?"
Whoosh!!!
With a simple gesture, as if distorting a part of a magic circle, two boys stepped into view.
“Ugh… Uweeeck!!!”
One of them, the moment he stepped inside the magic formation, immediately vomited everything inside his stomach and collapsed.
Duke Berli's son, Farell Berli.
He was experiencing firsthand just how horrifying this magical domain was, writhing in agony.
“Farell!!”
"Kuhuhu. If this isn’t a moth diving straight into the flames!"
The lich burst into a satisfied laugh.
“A lich…? What the hell… And this magic—what even is it…?”
It wasn’t the lich that answered Farell’s question.
“It’s a tug-of-war magic. A contest of who holds more necromantic mana, and whose authority over it is stronger.”
“Oh?”
The lich let out an intrigued exclamation.
“I’ll have to take a closer look, but from what I see, that’s how the system works.”
Unlike Farell, who was writhing in pain, Leon was completely fine.
At this point, even the duke, and the lich itself, found this puzzling.
"However… why are you so unaffected?"
Even the lich, astonished, cautiously posed the question.
“When the magic activates, it targets all hostile lifeforms within the space. Oh, so like this? Considering how shoddy the security is, this is pretty creative.”
Leon, seemingly unbothered, casually gestured in the air, dissecting and manipulating the magic circle at will.
He had long since lost interest in the Death Knight and was entirely focused on the magic itself.
"Hmm. So in the end, it applies various debuffs on those whose necromantic magic proficiency is lower than its own."
Leon, speaking as if analyzing an experiment, turned his gaze toward the lich.
But his eyes did not hold the look of someone facing a powerful opponent.
Rather, they were the eyes of someone observing something fascinating.
And perhaps because of that—
"Do not look at me with such eyes, you insect."
Something had flipped a switch within the lich.
As it exuded a massive surge of power, most of those present coughed up blood.
Among them, Farell suffered the worst.
Whether it was due to his constitution or some other reason, it was evident that he had sustained severe internal injuries from the shockwave.
“Farell!!”
Simultaneously, as the enraged lich gestured, black spheres formed around Leon, swirling menacingly.
"I will not let you die easily."
“Run, Leon!!”
The duke desperately tried to warn him, but before Leon could even move, the black spheres completely engulfed him, lifting him into the air.
This monster was not of the Sixth Circle.
At the very least, it was Seventh Circle or higher—an ancient being from the distant past.
From the moment the subjugation force failed to detect the existence of this lich, their fate had been sealed.
Duke Berli despaired.
A small part of him had clung to the hope that Leon was hiding some sort of trick up his sleeve, despite knowing how absurd that was.
But look at the situation now.
Leon had been swallowed by the black spheres and vanished, while Farell was dying in real-time from internal injuries.
"The more one resists, the more painful this magic becomes. For one so talented, it must be excruciating."
The lich, satisfied, conjured a dagger of black mist and stabbed it into Farell’s shoulder.
"Khugh!! Aaaaagh!!!"
The agony was unbearable.
And Duke Berli could do nothing but watch his son suffer, his heart breaking apart.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Night]
[Proofreader - Gun]
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