Chapter. 21. Another Solo Play (22)
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Buuk
Jiik –
Somewhere in the Castle City. A blade equipped with a sophisticated magic device rose up through the film covering the floor.
‘road. ‘You have to find a way.’
When the darkness of the canyon clears, the elite infiltration team that will join me departs.
It will take some time for the darkness exposed to the Emperor’s curse to disappear.
‘What I can do. ‘Finding the direction for the mutes who will soon follow me.’
Kauld said he was sending me alone to check my skills. Maybe you weren’t expecting this?
According to what he said, other Mute Lords except Cowld don’t seem to know how to move tactically.
If it were Professor Park, he would have become the path himself, but not me.
I don’t have enough force, but those who will come after me have that anyway.
‘Just because you fight well doesn’t mean your brain needs to be as strong as cast iron.’
Seeing, judging and leading.
This is what I realized in the cold darkness.
-Clap!
When I stretched my hand through the torn skin on my head, I felt a wet and squishy texture instead of a solid stone floor.
When I put my head out as quietly as possible, my senses of smell and hearing began to scan the surroundings instead of my sense of sight, which had been neglected in the darkness.
Sniff. Sniff.
The smell of blood that I didn’t want to get used to and the sickeningly sweet smell that I didn’t want to recall again.
The moment you wrinkle the bridge of your nose, tens of thousands of people scream at the same time, piercing your eardrums.
“….I guess it means that we arrived well and that things are going well.”
The foul and sweet smell means that you have arrived at a place where cursed flowers are concentrated, and the noise of the battle means that a battle as large as the sound has occurred.
Only after my nose and ears accepted the situation did my eyes begin to analyze what was unfolding before me.
What eyes that have just begun to adapt to light capture are a city covered in just two colors: red and purple.
“…It’s more miserable than I expected.”
A city at the peak of splendor and elegance, lined with mansions where the most powerful nobles in the empire have poured money into it.
The place where it used to be was now covered with constantly writhing flesh and skin.
….puck!
The mucous membrane covering the marble sculpture of the Goddess of Mercy burst into large blisters and splattered blood and fluid.
Slurp-
slurp!
The scattered blood and fluid were absorbed into the mucous membrane and spread through something like blood vessels into the flesh and mucous membrane.
“…Fuhu huuuu-”
“Fuu clack! ” “Woo-woo-”
The hole that rose above the once beautiful garden was singing a passionate chorus of breaths that I wanted to erase from my memory for the rest of my life.
The citizens of the capital were exposed to a curse and were reborn as beings solely for the purpose of radiating vitality.
The sparkling jewel rings and necklaces among the piles of flesh hanging from the gorgeous building caught my eye and wouldn’t let go.
“They are all… the nobles of the capital.”
….Why on earth? Didn’t the emperor resort to curses because he wanted to protect the empire?
Turning the executives of an empire into mere pieces of flesh?
can not understand.
Let’s not understand. Like the darkness of the canyon, the fog of curse will eat away at my thoughts and mess up my head.
Find your way. The environment in front of us is heading towards the imperial capital. Is it good news or bad news? Just think about that.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
The streets, buildings, and alleys were all covered with piles of flesh that had once turned into nobles. The nobleman who had everyone’s eyes on him was now lined up on the road and being stepped on.
‘This is good news.’
There was no sign of any knights around, and the noise of the battle coming from behind was further accelerating the scale of the battle.
I heard the sound of aurors concentrated to the limit burning the air, and I also saw the crazy sight of a whip made of bone swinging in all directions around a building that was collapsing at an angle.
There are no articles. That meant that the all-out war-scale bait really brought out the knights inside.
Sniff. Sniff. Ugh,
‘good news. It means getting closer to the source of the curse.’
The source of the sickeningly sweet scent was, of course, cursed flowers. When I cut off the net-like skin blocking the alley, I could see the cursed flower blooming profusely rooted on the red flesh.
It’s a crossroads. Is this a castle city that is still actively producing life force and serving as the source of an immortal army? Or is it directed at the emperor, the owner of the curse?
‘curse. ‘What was the role of this cursed flower in 3 World?’
Think, think! please! I may be an outsider, but Professor Park is an expert in magic!
As I progressed, the scent of flowers, as sweet as the smell of blood, disturbed my mind, and I desperately tried to recall old memories by inhaling holy water.
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‘Where did you find that?’
‘Gwok. I picked it up. In the city.’
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The discovery was made by Notum. At the time, she said it was a coincidence, but now that she thinks about it, she must have discovered it naturally due to her overflowing talent.
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‘Curse is ultimately black magic, and isn’t black magic also a branch of magic?’
‘It means that curses and black magic are ultimately a wizard’s dream. What’s different from regular magic is that it’s such a terrible dream that you can’t get out of it once you enter it.’
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Black magic. Magic. As a result, the reality that the wizard dreams of is overlaid on the real world.
Mea Maria used the endlessly spreading flowers of the curse to embrace all the souls of the world in her arms. Equally without discrimination.
‘Then what is the emperor dreaming of?’
different.
Although based on the same curse, the Emperor’s Curse and Mea Maria’s Curse were different.
If Mary’s curse spread endlessly, the emperor’s curse stopped at the borders of the capital.
If those caught by Mary’s curse were all equally collected as corrupted souls, those caught by the Emperor’s curse were classified in an extremely cool manner.
From commoners to nobles. Those without power become breathing flesh or living, breathing cities.
soldier. article. Perhaps, the nobleman who cultivated his military power for training was the emperor’s chess piece crammed into his near-immortal flower arranging body.
While Mea Maria’s curse was intended to spread throughout the world, the emperor’s curse did not even spread to the cities of the people.
It only made the castle city and imperial castle bloom more abundantly.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Even now
,
next to me, the pile of flesh covering the luxurious mansion was panting heavily and generating vitality.
The curse flower, a blooming purple flower, was a curse that spread by absorbing life force and sprouting other curse flowers.
Turning tens of millions of people in the capital city into nothing more than a pile of flesh.
The knight’s soul, who pledged allegiance to the unchanging banner of Auror, regards the cursed body as a chess piece that moves and repeats endless death.
Even after destroying everything in the ‘imperial capital’ and extracting its vitality, the imperial army just took a defensive stance, protecting the imperial castle? Just arrange the knights and knights of the royal guard, who are truly powerful, around the castle?
Instead of somehow pushing out Mute and reclaiming the empire’s territory?
“The curse was not a means to protect the empire.”
At the conclusion I reached in an instant, I unconsciously let out a disappointed voice.
The cursed flowers bloomed densely only around the imperial castle. A curse catalyst that acts as a relay to collect the life force drawn by the curse.
It was as if the city, nobles, knights, and citizens had all been thrown to the ground.
“…It was a means to completely take control of the empire.”
The capital was the symbol of the empire and its 700-year history.
Cursed Flower is a black magic that absorbs the power of the rooted place and transfers it to the newly sprouted Cursed Flower.
What if the Emperor didn’t break the curse seal as a last resort to avoid leaving the Empire in the hands of Mute?
What if you wanted to retrieve everything that was the empire itself?
What if, as the owner of a huge empire called Hyeonsinin, he had no doubt that everything was truly his, and wanted to take it back as if it were natural and be reborn as a god?
“…You have to ignore everything and run to the imperial castle.”
In that case, there was no point in destroying the source of power using the professor’s method. Because the pile of flesh and cursed flowers have already done their job for the past three years.
Countless citizen soldiers, all the knights residing in the imperial castle, and knights from all over the empire who have flocked to reclaim the capital over the past three years!
All those who fell without being able to achieve their goals would have become a source of enormous power and been absorbed into the monster that considered itself an empire.
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
‘….It’s good news.’
If the emperor wanted to become a perfect being through the concentration of power, the number of cursed knights would be smaller than expected. This meant that the obstacles our elite team would face were much smaller than previously thought.
As we ran forward, hopeful signs began to emerge.
Among the numerous paths spread out in front of me, the path to avoid battle was clearly visible. Knights with torn skin, crushed flesh, and crumpled armor were lined up like landmarks.
‘….The Third Force! Yes, there is no way that all the knights from all over the empire were annihilated!’
Perhaps, among the knights who chose a different path than the canyon, there were some who saw an opportunity in another survival area. Just as we tried to target the emperor while the enemy was distracted by the main force, the knights may have tried to advance toward the castle while Mutt was tying up the imperial army.
Rattling!
The body was caught on foot.
Kaang!
Wow!
The sound of someone fighting fiercely was heard beyond the dark purple fog. I hope I’m alive before it’s too late.
Whoops!
….While my feet were struggling to break through the sinking pile of flesh, the sound from in front stopped with a strong hitting sound.
“Off, off….”
The knight lost. Even the words of the cursed knight praise the emperor.
‘Stay alive. Please just stay alive until I arrive!’
If you go just one alley, you will be in front of the Hwangseong Fortress. A street with an open moat.
As I ran out of the alley with all my might and at the same time reached for my sword to swing,
“The Goddess said, ‘Our weakness is not a sin.’
A voice quietly flowed in and grabbed my ankle.
Crash. Crash.
“Uuuuuuu….”
Moaning sound. It is clear that it belongs to the loser, but the cursed knight does not groan.
“…He uses us preciously, and we are humbly consumed.”
Whoa!
No prayers are recited, and the corpse does not make that blood-filled, tearing sound.
Neither the fallen nor the one who defeated them were cursed knights.
puck! puck! puck!
“He only turns a blind eye to it after it has served its purpose.”
Above all, the sound was familiar.
“Fuuu-fuuuuuu-”
Even now, the heavy breathing sounds of the piles of flesh around me.
[….You probably know the way there.]
[Go first. Soon… I will follow you.]
The Holy Knight’s eyes sunken to an unknown depth and his voice was full of regret.
[puck. Wow. puck. Puck.]
Puck. puck. puck. Puck…
That lonely sound that followed me, holding my head as I ran away.
The sound of a Mercy Paladin doing his duty was as vivid as a hammer hammering a nail into my brain.
I walked along the sound in my memory, hoping that my terrible imagination would end as just an imagination.
The thick scent of blood wafted through the thick fog.
The person whose head was blown off.
A person whose arms and legs were torn off.
A person whose body was pierced by a broken flag, and
a person who was cut in half with his eyes open without being able to let go of the sword in his hand.
What they have in common is that they are corpses that have been crushed to the point where their entire bodies are hanging on the floor.
As
if he sensed my presence, the sound of hitting something wet stopped.
“Fuu phuh-”
“Cough huuuu-”
The pile of flesh’s heavy breathing struggled to blow away the fog.
A proud figure visible through the fog.
The paladin’s armor was once neat, but its original color became unrecognizable due to being covered in blood, dirt, and oil.
and.
….pop. Pop.
human. building. His empty space is exceptionally quiet around here, crushing everything that breathes, even the flesh.
“…Latura.”
The monster, with his hair loose and blood dripping from the tip of his armored mace, recited a prayer in a voice I recognized.
“…Frauk.”
Paladin of Mercy. The man who must have died alone in the temple was carrying out a massacre in front of the imperial castle gate.
Crushing and exploding both the Imperial Army and the Knight Mute.
Although it was short, the emotions I shared with the knight, who was pure as a human being until the end, were many, so I swallowed the lump in my throat and asked.
How did you live? How did you get here? What is this mess and why is it happening?
Sometimes I hated being smart. There seemed to be a lot of things I wanted to ask, but I realized that all of them were meaningless except for one.
“…Do you want me to help you?”
Broken joints, ruptured muscles, eyes with torn eyelids showing the whites of the eyes, and mouths that mutter prayers ceaselessly.
After slaughtering all the knights who would have come here with his own hands, he stared at me for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“….mercy.”
“okay.”
I grabbed my sword and aimed it at him.
Seup-
….Whew.
I shook off the remaining emotions with a sigh.
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!”
That small breathing moved the maddened paladin.
Wow!
An unknown force coming from his shattered body struck the empty space he had created.
I don’t know what Frauk is thinking or what I’m thinking when I see him.
“Aaaaaaa- Laturaaaaa!!!!”
“…Latura.”
The words spoken were the same.
Maybe also a thought.
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