Chapter 69

The seed of chaos sown by Rian took root in the continent’s most fertile and darkest soil, beginning to grow like a vine full of lethal poison.

The dark underside of the continent. Since its founding, the ‘Ashen Worm cult’ was facing its worst crisis. Blades of a vile and unpredictable nature, unlike the assaults of their long-standing enemies—the Holy Kingdom or the mage tower—came flying from all directions.

“Another one’s been struck! This time it’s the leader of the secret meeting place in the southern port city!”

“They say the culprits were those ‘Night’s Claw’ bastards. They slit the corpse’s belly and carved the cult’s emblem inside!”

The cult’s secret communications were filled with screams day after day. Darkness guilds, blinded by bounties, pounced like hyenas and tore into the cult’s lower organizations. The problem was that the attacks were so precise and deadly. The locations of secret meeting places known only to them, even the contact codes—everything had fallen into the enemy’s hands.

“There is a traitor inside! Those who clung to the Marquis of the Reinhardt family and Valois must be selling information to their remnants!”

Distrust spread like poison. The cult’s leaders, the ‘apostles of plague,’ suspected one another and retreated into their own ‘farms,’ and organized activity had effectively come to a standstill. Unaware that they were being played like pawns on a vast chessboard, they isolated themselves.

The imperial intelligence of the Kairos Empire.

Chief of Intelligence Walter could not relax his stern expression as he read reports coming from the shadows infiltrated into the Valerian Empire.

‘Their movements are unusual. Troop movements near the border have become frequent, and peculiar magical energy waves are detected every night in the underground laboratory of the capital Ethernom. Especially… since the missing spy “Cypher” returned a wreck, their research has become even more fanatical.’

The report’s contents were enough to render the Crown Prince and Kaion’s caution meaningless. Evidence that the Valerian Empire was indeed scheming was arriving one after another.

Heated debates raged day after day in the imperial palace’s great hall.

“We can no longer stand by, Your Majesty! Before they complete their monster, we must strike and cut off their heads first!”

The hawkish nobles raised their voices, and a gleam of resolve began to crystallize in the Emperor’s eyes. Kaion could not hide his unease. It all seemed like a script laid out by someone, flowing toward a single outcome: war. He wanted to send a letter to his younger brother Rian for counsel, yet he also felt powerless within this vast current.

At the center of all this chaos, the Aster estate.

Rian was not in his study but in a newly prepared laboratory deep within the ‘Shadow Forge.’ Before him stood an old man with a head full of white hair and eyes filled with childlike curiosity.

“Th-this is impossible! To compress and convert the flow of mana in this way! Young master’s mind—what on earth is it made of!?”

The old man’s name was Meister ‘Gideon.’ Once one of the magic tower’s most celebrated prodigy magical engineers, he was a tragic figure driven out as a heretic for his eccentric temperament and ideas ahead of his time. Rian located him through Argos and recruited him on the condition of ‘a laboratory to explore all the world’s knowledge and unlimited funds.’

Gideon looked at the new blueprint Rian had handed him and rejoiced like a child. It was a design to modify a ‘mana firearm’ into an ‘Aura Rifle’ so that a knight using aura could directly convert his aura into projectiles and fire them.

“If this is completed, a single Sword Expert will be able to deliver destruction comparable to a Sword Master from a distance! The paradigm of war will change!”

Rian quietly watched Gideon’s excitement. His eyes were envisioning the future this new weapon would bring.

“Kael.”

When Rian spoke softly, Kael emerged from the shadows.

“Master.”

“The time has come. Move Argos—cast the last stone.”

Rian pointed with his finger at the wasteland ‘Ash Wind Plain’ on the continent map, located along the border between Kairos and the Valerian Empire, a place nobody paid attention to.

“Leak information to Kairos’s chief of intelligence Walter: ‘Valerian’s biological weapon experiments have reached their final stage, and their ultimate testing ground is the underground caverns of the Ash Wind Plain.’ At the same time, feed information to Valerian’s shadow minister Alcard: ‘Kairos has discovered the location of the Dragon’s Heart and secretly dispatched an elite order to the Ash Wind Plain to seize it.’”

Kael swallowed at his master’s cruel plan. It was a devilish whisper to make the two empires’ sharpest spear and shield collide and shatter in a barren wasteland.

“Two hungry wolves fighting over one prey. We only have to wait from afar until their breaths cease.”

Rian looked out at the peaceful estate beyond the window. Lily’s laughter could be faintly heard.

“When this play ends, for a very long time… no one will dare threaten our family again.”