Chapter 52

The air inside the tunnel was heavy. Black ash drifted like snow and piled softly on the bloodstained armor and torn robes of the survivors. There were no cheers of victory. Only low groans as they collected their comrades’ bodies, and the stifled sobs filled the death-riddled shaft.

Commander Gerard stood leaning on the splintered haft of his war-hammer, his lost left-arm wound temporarily bandaged. His eyes were hollow. The conviction and strength he had dedicated his life to had been brutally shattered in this hell. He had lost countless men, and he himself had suffered a mortal wound that might prevent him from ever taking up a sword again.

“…Are you all right?”

At that moment, Lucas, who had collapsed from depleted mana, approached supported by another mage. His face was still pale, but his eyes held complex emotions in place of his former arrogance.

Commander Gerard did not look at him and answered in a hoarse voice.

“As you can see, I’m in no shape.”

“…Thanks to you, I survived.”

Lucas spoke with difficulty.

“If you hadn’t bought us time at the end with that barrier of light, we mages wouldn’t have been able to finish the incantation. And… if it weren’t for your final strike, we all would have become that monster’s sacrifice.”

At the mage’s candid admission, Commander Gerard turned to look at him for the first time.

“If not for your grotesque magic lance, my hammer wouldn’t have even scratched that thing’s shell.”

Their gazes met in the air. The contempt and mistrust they held for one another had been washed away by their comrades’ blood and death. What remained in that place was the camaraderie forged through a desperate fight and a heavy sense of shared responsibility against a common enemy.

“Did you hear that senior priest’s last words?”

Commander Gerard asked.

“Yes. ‘This is only the beginning.’ Probably this Karnak mine is just one of many strongholds of the so-called Ashen Worm cult.”

Lucas’s voice sank heavily.

“We must report the full truth of this incident to the imperial palace and the Holy Kingdom. This enemy cannot be handled by either of our forces alone. The Empire and the Holy Kingdom… must join their strength.”

Paladin and mage. From the mouths of two beings as different as water and oil, the same words came for the first time. Commander Gerard nodded silently.

That night, urgent reports on the brutal battle at the Karnak mine and the true nature of the ‘Ashen Worm cult’ were sent to the capital Kailus and Holy Kingdom Artemis respectively. The reports, detailing the course of the battle, included a proposal—under the joint names of Commander Gerard and Lucas—for ‘close cooperation between the two forces.’

A few days later, the peaceful Aster estate.

Rian was in his study reading the detailed report sent by Argos. The report recorded everything that had happened at the Karnak mine as vividly as if it were being watched firsthand: testimonies of the survivors, analysis of the destroyed golem’s remains, and even Commander Gerard and Lucas’s final conversation.

“So this is how it turns out.”

Rian set the report down and gave a wry smile. As he had planned, the two giants had finally joined hands. But the cost was hundreds of innocent lives. Could he have reduced the casualties if he had intervened more directly? Rian shook his head. No, if he had, he and the Aster family would have drawn the world’s attention and been exposed to greater danger. This was the best course.

‘But… I cannot stay hidden in the shadows forever.’

The Ashen Worm cult was a much more dangerous and vast enemy than he had imagined. Even if the Empire and the Holy Kingdom joined forces, it would take countless time and sacrifices to root them out completely. And meanwhile, he did not know when the cult’s blade might be turned toward his own family.

‘We need our own power. A blade that is the sharpest and strongest to protect only me and my family, without watching anyone’s reactions.’

Rian rose from his seat and looked at the estate map hanging on the study wall. His finger pointed to the abandoned quarry nobody used on the border between the monster forest and the estate.

He called Kael.

“Kael, secretly hire the Empire’s finest dwarf craftsmen through the Dawn Guild. Pay whatever it takes. Bring them to that abandoned quarry. And through Argos, find the knights and mages abandoned by the Marquis of the Reinhardt family and Valois—those who are skilled but have nowhere to go. Tell them we’re offering a chance to serve a new master.”

“My lord, what are you intending to do?”

Rian’s eyes gleamed chillingly in the dark.

“It’s time to build our own ‘forge.’ A forge that will create weapons and armor unlike anything the world has ever seen, the most powerful. And with those weapons, it is time to sharpen our own ‘blade’ who will willingly shed blood for me.”