Chapter 70

Ash Wind Plain.

True to its name, it was a land where the ashes of death scattered on the wind. Thousands of years ago, after ancient wars burned all life, no blade of grass grew in this cursed wasteland. Gray dust rode the wind, drifting over the earth like powdered bones of the dead. The sky was perpetually dull gray, the sun hung like a faded disc, robbed of power. This place was a vast scar on the continent of Elysia, forsaken by gods and demons alike.

And today, this land of oblivion had been chosen as the great tomb where the sharpest blades of two empires would spill each other’s blood.

At the eastern edge of the plain, shadows of the Kairos Empire lay hidden in the rocks, watching the ashen land. Leading them was the imperial spymaster, Walter ‘Iron Blood.’ His steel-gray eyes held no emotion. He was the coldest cog in the great machine of the Empire, his heart beating only with a blind loyalty to the Empire.

“Everyone ready?”

At his low question, the surrounding shadows nodded silently. They were the Imperial Shadow Blades. Raised to carry out the Empire’s dirtiest and most brutal tasks, they were human weapons. Their black lamellar armor was made of sound-absorbing material, and at their waists hung poisoned daggers, steel wires, and small magic bombs. They were not knights. They were efficient killers meant to slaughter the Empire’s enemies.

“According to intelligence, the Valerian bastards’ secret laboratory is the cave under that visible gorge. Before they finish that horrific biological weapon, we wipe them out without a trace. Failure is not an option. For the Empire.”

With Walter’s last words, the Shadow Blades began to creep toward the gorge like a massive serpent, silent.

Around the same time, the western plain.

The shadows of the Valerian Empire likewise hid in the ashen darkness. At their head stood a woman clad in jet-black leather. Her silver hair shimmered enticingly in the moonlight, her crimson eyes seemed to pierce everything. She was the favorite blade of Shadow Minister Alcard—the cruel vampire assassin who reveled in blood and pain, the ‘Scarlet Countess’ Silvana.

“Heh… I can smell it. The disgusting scent of fear those Kairos curs spill.”

Silvana licked her lips with a red tongue and smiled seductively. Behind her, nonhuman beings waited in the dark with gleaming eyes. A massive, muscled werewolf, gargoyles hanging upside down like bats, and high-ranking vampires like her. They were the supernatural killing unit born from Valerian’s inhumane experiments—the Crimson Phantoms.

“It is Lord Alcard’s order. Before the Kairos dogs lay a hand on the Dragon’s Heart, tear their limbs apart and bring me their hearts. Especially that old dog Walter’s neck—I will take it myself. Now, shall we begin the hunt, my adorable monsters?”

At Silvana’s whisper, the Crimson Phantoms charged toward the gorge on all fours or with wings spread like beasts.

The cave beneath the gorge was a complex maze like a vast ant colony. The two shadow units that entered from both sides followed the traces Argos had cunningly left and went deeper. Fragments of Valerian experimental apparatus, broken arrowheads of the Kairos knights. The hatred and certainty toward one another thickened in the darkness.

At last, they met in the cave’s largest central chamber.

For an instant, time stopped.

No words were needed. Their eyes contained nothing but murderous intent for one another. Walter was convinced the Valerians had completed their horrific bioweapon, and Silvana believed the Kairos men sought to steal an ancient relic. The perfect misunderstanding Rian had sown had become an absolute truth that could only be cleansed with blood.

“Kill them.”
“Tear them apart.”

The two commanders’ low commands fell simultaneously.

And the gates of hell opened.

The Crimson Phantoms moved first. A werewolf roared and leaped into the formation of the Shadow Blades. His steel-like claws ripped a knight’s helm like paper. With a sickening crack, the head inside the helm was crushed, brains and blood spraying everywhere.

“Kraaak!”

But the Shadow Blades were not to be underestimated. Another knight beside him, instead of screaming, moved like a serpent and slithered behind the werewolf. The dagger in his hand pierced precisely between the werewolf’s spinal joints and drove into the lungs. With a gurgling sound, the massive body convulsed and collapsed.

This was not a battle. It was slaughter.

Vampires swept the field, leaving only afterimages. When a vampire tore a knight’s throat, the knight’s body dried up and fell like a mummy. But the vampire barely let out a pleasure-filled moan before a Shadow Blade from behind wrapped his neck with steel wire and pulled it clean off.

The cave instantly turned into an infernal slaughterhouse awash with blood and flesh. The sounds of bones breaking, flesh tearing, and the last screams of the dying collided with the cave walls in a horrific symphony. The floor was slick with sticky blood and entrails, squelching with every step.

In the center of that chaos, Walter and Silvana faced one another.

“Old dog, your blood will taste very bland.”
“Disgusting vampire bitch, I’ll cut your head off and hang it in the Empire’s square.”

Walter’s blade was as fast and precise as a black gust. Every movement of his traced the most efficient trajectory to kill his opponent. But Silvana dodged his strikes with superhuman speed and strength, slashing with talons like blades.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew every time sword met claw. When Walter’s blade grazed Silvana’s shoulder, she burst into a suggestive laugh instead of a pained cry.

“Aah…! Yes… hurt me more, grandpa…!”

She laughed madly and pressed Walter more ferociously.

At that moment, at the Shadow Forge.

Rian watched the hellscape of the Ash Wind Plain in real time through the massive mana crystal the meister Gideon had just completed—the Eye of the Abyss. Gideon, standing beside him, was pale and nauseous at the horrific sight his creation displayed.

“Y-young Master… this, this can’t be… they are…”

“Yes, they are the Empire’s sharpest spear and shield.”

Rian’s voice was as cold as ice. His eyes held no emotion. Like a scholar observing the fight of interesting insects, he analyzed their deaths.

“But only by colliding and breaking like that can a new era arrive. From their blood and ash will grow the peaceful garden where my family will live.

Rian rose and stood before the communication magic device. His voice was transmitted to Kael, who hid on the field.

“The time has come, Kael. Now lower the curtain on the play.”

Back in the cave beneath the Ashwind Plain.

Walter and Silvana’s duel had reached its final stages. Walter drove his trump dagger, silver-coated, into Silvana’s heart.

“Kraaaak!”

For the first time, a genuine cry of pain escaped Silvana’s mouth. But she, too, lunged like a beast just before dying and sank her sharp talons deep into Walter’s chest.

“Let’s… go together… into this hell…”

As the two commanders vomited blood and fell embracing each other.

Rumble—!

The entire cave began to collapse with a scream. At Rian’s command, Argos’s shadows simultaneously detonated the magical bombs placed on the cave’s main supports.

The survivors had no time to scream in terror; tens of thousands of tons of rock and earth crushed them, pulverizing bone and flesh.

The Ash Wind Plain fell silent once more. But it was not the same hollow silence as before. It was a heavy, damp silence of death that had swallowed the tormented souls of hundreds of the two empires’ sharpest blades.

Rian, watching the final scene through the Eye of the Abyss, quietly shut down the crystal’s power. The last light of the collapsing cave dimmed and vanished for a moment in his cold eyes.

He glanced for a moment at the drawing of his smiling face that Lily had drawn and left on his desk. Then, as if nothing had happened, he turned to a new weapon design.

The price of peace always demanded blood.