Chapter 79

With a cold mechanical sound, the final mercy was executed, and the Apostle of the Plague Malak turned into a handful of ash and scattered. Rian stood there without moving. Inside his helm, Malak’s memories and knowledge, flowing directly into his mind, raged like a massive blob of filth.

It was not mere information. Decades of a fanatic’s twisted faith, the ecstasy felt while spreading the plague, hymns sung as life rotted, and the blind reverence toward the “great lord, the Ashen Worm” at the apex of it all. Rian was exposed to a horrific mental contamination as if he had become Malak and compressively experienced the entirety of his life.

[System Warning. External mental contaminant influx. Strengthen mental barrier. Begin isolation and analysis of contaminated data.]

If not for the system built into the ‘Abyssal Shell’, his mind might have lost its way and collapsed in the flood of alien information. Rian closed his eyes for a moment and, within the vast library of his consciousness, isolated the filthy book bearing the name Malak into a separate shelf. Then, like a cold librarian, he turned the pages one by one and began extracting only the information he needed.

“Master.”

Kael approached. Deep concern was in his voice. He could not even guess what price his lord would have to pay for the act he had just performed, as if he had forcibly taken a soul.

“…Begin the cleanup.”

Rian’s voice was lower and drier than before. He did not remove his helm. He did not want his subordinates to see the light in his eyes now.

“Not a speck of dust must remain as proof that we were here. Recover all remnants of the Purifier, and completely incinerate the cultists’ corpses. This place must remain merely an abandoned refugee settlement where everything vanished in an unexplained fire.”

“I obey your orders.”

Shadow Blade operatives moved like machines. They were as expert at erasing traces as they were at combat. While they moved, Rian drew a new map of the continent in his head based on the extracted information. It was a map stained with blood and plague, the sphere of influence of the Ashen Worm cult.

There were seven Apostles of the Plague in total.

Besides the ‘Corrupt Malak’ he had dealt with, six other calamities hid across the continent, cultivating their own “farms.”

The Apostle called ‘Screams of Agony’ was in the lowest slums of the Valerian Empire, corroding people’s souls with drugs that induced pleasure and pain. The Apostle known as the ‘Silent Slayer’ had penetrated deep into the Kairos Empire’s aristocracy, rotting the empire from within through political assassinations and sowing discord. There were other apostles too: one who mutated mountain monsters into twisted abominations, and one who rallied sea pirates to spread curses across maritime trade routes.

Like a vast cancer, they burrowed into the continent of Elysia’s weakest points and quietly built an empire of death.

And their ultimate goal.

The ‘Great Descent.’ To summon their god, the Ashen Worm, to this land, they required seven great sacrifices. One of them was the Red Dragon Ignis. Malak’s memories held no clue to what the other six sacrifices were, but it was clear they would be beings of dragon-caliber or higher.

“Master, the cleanup is complete.”

Rian emerged from the abyss of thought. The square that had turned ashen was now a perfect void where no trace of life remained.

“Return.”

The “Night’s Ghost” slipped silently into the darkness.

The next day, in the deepest strategy chamber of the Shadow Forge.

Rian removed the Abyssal Shell and stood before the commanders with his true face. His eyes had deepened overnight, so much that merely looking into them could freeze a person’s soul.

He placed seven red markers on the vast continental map, based on the information extracted from Malak.

“These are our true enemies.”

Rian’s voice cut through the cold air of the war room.

“The imperial nobles we’ve fought until now were merely beasts craving money and power. But these ones are different. They are fanatics who have lost reason and seek the world’s annihilation itself. If we fail to stop them, everything we aim to protect will be reduced to a handful of ash.”

All the commanders in the chamber swallowed.

“The war between the two empires no longer matters to us. No, it will serve as our shield. While they bleed each other and draw attention, we will cut out the continent’s cancer cells one by one from the shadows.”

Rian picked up one of the red markers on the map. It pointed to the lowest slums of the Valerian Empire’s capital, Ethernom.

“Our first target is ‘Screams of Agony.’ He is turning tens of thousands of addicts into ‘potential incubators’ through drugs. He seems like the weakest link, but if he so wished he could turn the entire capital into living hell overnight — he is the most dangerous ticking time bomb.”

“But Master, that is the heart of the Valerian Empire. Moving without drawing the eye of Shadow Minister Alkard is…”

Kael voiced his concern.

“That’s why we’ll use a ‘guest.’”

A cruel smile touched Rian’s lips.

“Leak anonymous intel to the Kairos Imperial intelligence service once more. Say that ‘the Valerians are using data recovered from the Ashwind Plain to conduct horrific plague experiments in the capital slums, and as a result uncontrollable monsters are about to be unleashed.’ Kairos’ Shadow Blade will have been rebuilt, so we give them the chance to clean it up.”

It was a plan that heralded another hell. The shadow forces of the two empires would be made to tear into each other, this time in the heart of the Valerian capital.

“We will slip into the gap of chaos they create and quietly eliminate only our objectives. While the snakes bite each other, we will steal the most venomous egg from the nest.”

Rian rose and looked out through the war room’s enormous window. Far off, the peaceful lights of the Aster estate were visible.

“When this hell is over, I will return there. And I will read my sister Lily the most beautiful storybook in the world.”

Hearing his low voice, the commanders once again understood why their lord was committing all this blood-soaked slaughter.