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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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Chapter 232: So this is what it looked like?
The moment I smashed through the roof and landed on the ground, I immediately began knocking down every enemy in sight.
"The Commander says to wreck everything!"
Boom!
In just seconds, the guards were obliterated. A few more seconds passed.
Beep. An alarm blared, and several middle-aged men, clearly high-ranking just by appearance, appeared all at once.
"What’s with this commotion? What happened to the barrier... Ugh!"
I instantly used Crazy Mage-style movement, appearing behind them and unleashing a shockwave blast.
As the middle-aged men collapsed, my comrades appeared one by one and began hammering their faces with rapid strikes.
"Aaargh!"
"What is this... Ugh!"
I watched for a moment, then tilted my head slightly.
"Elders?"
Now that I looked more closely, I noticed an array of high-grade weapons mounted along the wall.
The antique chairs, now half-destroyed from direct magic hits, finally caught my eye too.
"So this is the Council of Elders."
Looks like I chose the perfect landing spot.
Bellusia’s Council of Elders wielded authority rivaling that of the clan head.
While my comrades were busy beating them down one by one, more elders started to show up, only to be knocked out just the same.
Ssshh...
With a slithering sound, like snakes crawling, a swarm of fully armed warriors appeared, covered in all sorts of combat gear.
"Oh, the Golden Warriors."
If the Silver Assassins specialized in assassinations, then the Golden Warriors was focused entirely on frontline combat.
This is why choosing the right position matters.
Because we set up in the heart of the Council of Elders, a strategic hotspot, enemies just kept pouring in like bees drawn to honey.
"Seismic Wave!"
Naturally, the Golden Warriors was also smashed into the ground the moment they arrived.
Makan’s spear strike flipped the earth, swallowing them whole in an upheaval of ground and debris.
In a confined terrain like this, a direct hit from magic is nearly impossible to counter properly.
Soon after, a young man appeared with a large escort, clearly the heir apparent of the clan. But of all things, I recognized the head of his guard unit.
"Hey there."
The guard captain trembled like he’d seen a ghost.
"You must get away, young master!"
"So the clan head’s dead, and now you’re guarding the heir in the meantime? Quite the loyal man."
The young heir of Bellusia, still trying to make sense of the situation, looked back and forth between the guard captain and me with a confused expression.
"Who are you?"
"The man who made you the heir in the first place."
"What?"
"Run, young master!"
The panicked guard captain screamed. He was none other than the leader of the Fourfold Poison Squad.
Not just him. Every member of the Fourfold Poison Squad stood frozen, unsure of what to do.
Boom!
Before the heir could say a word, I activated spatial acceleration and slammed his face into the ground with a crushing grip.
"Urgh!"
"Is it over now?"
It hadn’t even taken thirty minutes to seize control of the leadership.
Bellusia was one of the most powerful among the vassal clans in terms of sheer size, but its main weakness lay in the fact that, apart from its core organization, the rest of its structure was dispersed in a network of cells spread throughout the southern jungle.
This allowed them to exert influence over the entire southern jungle, but it also made their organizational response sluggish.
Once I seized the core like this, there was nothing they could do. It was a vulnerability rooted in the assumption that enemy intrusions would be practically nonexistent in this region.
Hmm.
Still, I couldn’t shake off a sense of doubt.
Looking around, the Council of Elders was in ruins, with fires raging here and there.
The snake-tattooed ones were being relentlessly beaten down by my subordinates, unable to even regain their senses.
Council of Elders. Heir. Fourfold Poison Squad. Golden Warriors.
It was clear now that none of them could match up to the Crazy Mage Squad anymore, but still, something felt off — not in terms of strength, but in how utterly disorganized they were.
It felt less like a disciplined army and more like a ragtag mob.
"Enough."
I called off my subordinates and looked around at the bodies scattered across the floor.
"Anyone recognize this guy?"
I lifted Number Six by the hair, showing his face to everyone.
"No one?"
"……"
That’s exactly what feels wrong.
No one responded.
Alshura had been nothing more than a puppet clan head.
There had to be someone pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Yet not a single one of them had stepped forward.
I started counting the number of elders and comparing them to the information I had.
"Some of them still haven’t shown up."
Bellusia had ten elders.
Only seven were present.
Three were missing.
"What’s going on?"
Right then, more figures arrived amidst the commotion.
Two middle-aged men and a young man who still looked quite youthful.
"Who are you? What do you think you’re doing in Bellusia?"
The youthful one barked a sharp command.
I stopped Zion from charging forward and locked eyes with the young man.
A sly, snake-like gaze.
It left a foul taste in my mouth, but at the same time, it stirred a familiar feeling.
This was it.
This was the gaze I remembered from Bellusia.
I spoke to the young man.
"I’m from Samael. What’s your name?"
"I am Alhad, second son of the great Bellusia. Are you saying Samael is declaring hostility against Bellusia?"
"This is revenge for your side striking first. Are you Alshura’s bloodline?"
"……"
"Alshura died by my hand."
Even after I said I had killed his father, his reaction was strangely subdued.
The same went for the two middle-aged men beside him.
They didn’t even seem to know that Bellusia had attacked Samael in the first place.
Now that I looked closer, he was pale and emaciated, as if he hadn’t seen sunlight for a long time.
Had he been imprisoned somewhere?
"…One is still missing."
Even if I assumed the two newly arrived middle-aged men were elders, one was still unaccounted for.
I signaled to my subordinates with a glance before scanning the surroundings.
"Let’s have some fun until they all arrive!"
While the Crazy Mage Squad kept the enemies occupied, the incantation was completed.
Fwoosh.
6th-circle Inferno.
A concentrated burst of searing flames erupted in an instant, blasting through the walls of the council chamber with a loud bang.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The layered wooden walls, save for the supporting pillars, were blown apart in a straight line, revealing the outside world in a flash.
As the embers spread into the humid air, the jungle caught fire, and soon flames were leaping across Bellusia’s inner compound.
Shaa.
It was then that the sound of approaching footsteps came from the opposite side.
Through the gaping corridor, a dignified elderly woman appeared, accompanied by her attendants.
At the same time, the elders who had been sprawled on the ground seemed to regain their vigor.
With each creaking step she took, the sickly stench of venomous insects filled the entire space.
Tap.
"You’ve come from Samael, I presume."
"Are you the head of the Council of Elders?"
"What a surprise. I never imagined you’d come this far."
The atmosphere was strange.
Sensing hostility from somewhere, I turned my gaze and saw Alhad glaring at the head elder with murderous intent.
The two elders who had arrived with him were also radiating open hostility toward her.
Having grasped a rough idea of the situation, I immediately gestured towards Six.
"You recognize this guy?"
Ignoring my question entirely, the elderly woman spoke.
"I found it odd that all contact with the Silver Assassins had been cut off, but to think…"
"Your hunch was correct, old hag."
She let out a short, incredulous laugh.
"So, you came all this way for revenge? Don’t tell me you intend to start an all-out war."
"You talk too much. You must have heard what happened at the Vassal Clans’ Banquet."
"……"
"Not much of a reaction. What, are you scared? You know I killed Alshura."
"Such arrogance."
"Alshura really must have been a puppet. The clan head is dead, and this is all the reaction I get?"
I shoved Six’s face forward and asked again.
"Old hag, do you know this guy or not?"
"……"
For a brief moment, the woman whispered something to her attendants in secret before speaking again.
"Ruin Samael, let me propose something."
"No need to hear it. I accept."
"What?"
"Idiot."
Paang!
As if they had read my mind, the Crazy Mage Squad leapt forward all at once, charging straight at the head elder.
In the meantime, the freed elders and Bellusia’s elite forces sprang into action, throwing the battlefield into chaos.
I simply watched, like a spectator sipping contraband liquor while observing a play.
To an outsider, I might have seemed like a heartless commander sending his subordinates to their deaths—but not this time.
This was an act of trusting my instincts.
I checked the faded Stone Orb.
Then, I looked back at the head of the Council of Elders.
No doubt about it.
Viiing.
7th-circle Blink.
In the blink of an eye, I swung a long blade of wind at my opponent’s neck.
"You can react to that?"
The elder’s attendant stepped back, strands of their hair severed.
Even Alshura couldn’t react in time—yet this mere attendant did.
Shaa.
As they lifted their head, silver hair shimmered like frost, revealing a delicate jawline.
"As I thought."
The head elder and their attendant.
Once the Stone Orb faded, only those two appeared.
They hadn’t shown even a glimpse while the light was on, yet the moment it extinguished, they emerged as if they had been waiting.
If the reason the orb’s light had vanished was because the Seven Demons had finished their meeting…
That meant one of them was the Thousand-Faced Fox.
And the moment I saw them, I knew exactly who.
"Hey. What’s with that face? Am I more impressive than you thought? Didn’t expect me to kill Alshura?"
"……."
A flicker of surprise crossed the silver-haired attendant’s gaze.
I grinned and beckoned with my fingers.
"You know him, don’t you?"
At last, the attendant’s gaze settled on Six, writhing on the ground with his right arm severed.
Their expression darkened.
Time to drive in the final nail.
"Six. You know them, don’t you?"
"You… what are you?"
Their pupils dilated ever so slightly.
Then, with a soft paah, they shot into the sky.
"Running away?"
Suddenly, traces of demonic energy surged from all directions.
More than half of Bellusia’s elite forces began exuding a vile stench, their aura growing exponentially stronger.
Leaving my subordinates to handle them, I took off after the Thousand-Faced Fox.
I had no idea where she was headed, but she was unbelievably fast.
"Damn… this is dizzying."
Like a fox leading prey astray, she weaved through the jungle, leaving behind afterimages, almost as if she was using clone techniques.
A sudden wave of dizziness hit me, so I immediately extended both hands.
Viiing!
6th-circle Firewall.
A semicircle of flames erupted around their escape path, cutting them off.
Then, I detonated a gust of wind to clear my vision and pinpoint their exact location.
Paah.
Using the Crazy Mage’s footwork, I wove through the air in secret, accelerating space at just the right moment.
"You fox bitch."
As I cut off her escape route in an instant and landed, the Thousand-Faced Fox finally turned to face me.
That’s when I got a good look at her face.
"So this is what you look like?"
Large eyes, rosy cheeks, silver hair as smooth as frost.
"…Who are you? How do you know Six?"
Even her voice, smooth as a pearl rolling across a tray, was mesmerizing.
She was the embodiment of a fox spirit.
I grinned.
"You damn bitch."
"What?"
"How’s Phantom Thief doing?"
Only then did she realize my identity and try to unleash her Demonic Energy.
But just before that, I manifested the hidden Dark Sword and pierced her wrist, grabbing the back of her neck with my other hand.
"...The... the Clown... So you were Ruin Sammael?"
It happened in an instant.
Yin-dimensional mana.
Faced with that intensely blooming fear of death, Thousand Faced Fox's black-stained tongue began to dart out uncontrollably, as if she had experienced a momentary brain seizure.
The higher one’s level, the more sensitive they were to Yin mana.
Like someone pissing themselves, the massive demonic aura she had been releasing dispersed helplessly in all directions.
"Thousand-Faced Fox. It doesn’t matter who I was disguising myself as. Why did you betray me?"
"No. It's not betrayal..."
"Didn't I tell you I received a premonition of a revelation? Why did you betray me?"
"N-No. I didn't betray you."
Crack.
I unlocked all the circles in my heart and locked eyes with her.
"This isn’t the Assembly, you fox bitch. Do you think I can’t kill you?"
"I didn’t betray you!"
Her pupils slowly lost focus.
Yin mana didn’t induce hallucinations, but right now, her gaze was anything but sane.
"Who ordered you? Was it Phantom Thief? White Heron? Who orchestrated that mess in the North?"
"No. It's not a betrayal. It's a revelation. A revelation came down!"
"Who gave what revelation? How did the revelation come down?"
"The Supreme Realm! I never doubted it! I never doubted it!"
[TL/N: Supreme Realm is not confirmed. Might change depending on the context I will get in the future.]
A chilling realization from the Seven Demons’ meeting flashed through my mind.
"Who’s in the Supreme Realm? Who gave the Seven Demons their orders?"
"The supreme Realm has existed since the beginning of the Myriad Demon Assembly. We must obey!! I didn’t betray you!"
I immediately shot back.
"Since three hundred years ago?"
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Prøks]
[Proofreader - Prøks]
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