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Nestor continued speaking at length, then subtly began shortening his words. That was probably because he had unconsciously shrunk back. To Nestor, this moment was so important that if he could only pass through it safely, he would be willing to offer part of his remaining lifespan. It could not be helped. The Demon Soldier Corps he had shown so far could not yet be called complete, and could be seen as a kind of experimental attempt.

Because the results had been encouraging in their own way, he had committed a major deed that could even summon the Papal Court and produced the Demon Soldier Corps in large quantities. In any case, even without Nestor explaining in detail what his next words meant, Ian, who remembered receiving separate education about forbidden techniques, roughly understood the current situation. That was also why he was standing there with his arms crossed. In the current situation, Louis had caught an uncannily good timing for a strike. It was a golden opportunity where he could catch the king with a simple charge alone.

“So?”

“Ian. You need to stop the cavalry.”

“With what? By myself?”

“Would it not be possible if you used all the small number of troops remaining here? Do not think of deceiving me.”

Strictly speaking, they still did not know whether Louis was charging into this place, so if one thought of the level of an ordinary commander, it was not impossible. At the very least, in terms of personal skill, Ian, who bore the position of leader, would not be pushed back by an ordinary commander. With a small number of troops, literally by sacrificing the troops, if he was given a brief amount of time, Ian had the ability to kill the enemy commander. However, the problem was that Ian’s insides were twisted all over.

He had absolutely no intention of purely cooperating with Nestor, and to him, even coming here had, in a way, contained sinister intentions, so it was true that risking his life was somehow unpleasant. Even so, Nestor, who gave such an order, had his own point of faith: Ian’s strong pride. Refusing the mission would mean he had been frightened, so it was obvious that this rumor would circulate among his subordinate members and even to the Church.

“Ha ha. I think I know what you’re scheming.”

The words Ian brought out with the intention of putting Nestor in a difficult spot were simple yet fatal.

“Sorry, but I have no intention of obeying your words as they are. I need soldiers, and those are here.”

Dragging out the end of his words, Ian coldly swept his gaze over the surroundings. That meaning was related to the Demon Soldiers still in their cocoon state. Nestor, who immediately noticed, shouted.

“What are you saying! These cocoons cannot be touched. These are to be used in the future….”

“Future or whatever, the way to resolve this problem right now is to revive these incomplete cocoons. With that much, I will dismantle the cavalry you mentioned, and you will gain time to wage all-out war against the Duchy of Eron.”

“………”

“I’ll say this in advance: there are no other choices here. You have to choose between listening to me and releasing the cocoons, or welcoming the cavalry and having everything smashed apart. Naturally, the very intelligent Apostle Nestor will choose the former. So… what’s your answer?”

“You fool…. Are you thinking of making trouble for me here? There is no benefit for you to gain by doing that…. No, putting that aside, the things that emerge from incomplete cocoons have problems. They will not listen to orders. The current stage is before refinement. In other words, they are at the stage of beasts crossing over from the Demon Realm. The moment we release incomplete cocoons here, we will appear neutral to them, and the Demon Soldier Corps may attack us.”

“That’s exactly it. It’s what I want. Let me ask one more thing, Nestor. Being in a neutral state means, in reverse, that we can also control them. Beasts of the Demon Realm that have just been born learn ecology quickly. If fear can be implanted in them, they will become our hands and feet. If what you are worried about is the incomplete Demon Soldier Corps…. As long as this Abyss is maintained, does it not matter? If the humans of Christopher’s territory have been almost ground up and are still insufficient to make the Demon Soldier Corps, then you can simply capture more people from the Kingdom of Ruderwin and the Duchy of Eron. So….”

Nestor caught a subtle something flashing within those words and cut Ian off.

“Wait. I find your words about being able to implant fear strange. That is… not something I can do, and in that case, it means you can do that, Ian… you….”

Nestor’s eyes narrowed. That was a signal that he was trying to find a key, and Nestor eventually found it.

“You are no longer a complete human. You showed movements close to being missing for several years, and such a change….”

“That’s enough, Nestor. If you babble any further, I’ll kill you and leave even if I resolve this matter.”

Thick mana, probably turbid enough to be distinguished from ordinary impurity, flowed out from Ian. Nestor had no choice but to stop speaking. However, he did not stop because he was terrified. The assumption that Ian could kill Nestor and leave was mistaken, but if Ian had now become a being that was no longer human, then there was a possibility.

Of course, since Ian was almost ignorant of calculations for techniques, magical power, and how the Demon Realm worked, Nestor judged that there might be a chance that he could inject fear into the Demon Soldier Corps. However, he thought it was unclear whether Ian could succeed in controlling them. So he hesitated over the decision, and then a piece of news flew in quickly.

“The cavalry is right before us!!! And the one commanding it is Grand Duke Louis!!! He has personally come here!!!”

It was a crisis, but the fact that Louis was personally commanding them gave both of them a fresh shock. It was especially true for Nestor. Something was fundamentally bent from the beginning. Because of that, all schemes had gone awry. It was an important matter worth thinking about at length, but right now, the single word approval filled his head with a thud, so even though he tried to peek past it and move on, he could not. And so, he gave his approval.

These Demon Soldiers were special Demon Soldiers, a shield that would block the elite knights of the Papal Court even after obtaining Louis’s body. Ian was, without knowing anything, effectively urging him to do it, but according to Nestor’s calculations, generating identical Demon Soldiers would be nearly impossible. Even so… he did it. Rather than thinking about what would happen afterward, the current problem was more urgent.

The sea-like black space spreading around the center let out a cold scream. In truth, this was the first time even for Nestor to commit such a deed and to witness such a deed. There had been similar incidents in his memories, so when he rummaged through them, only fatal things came to mind. Due to the sudden activation of the technique, the Abyss began to squirm.

The space itself shook as if an earthquake had occurred, as if it were alive and in pain, and it began squeezing out thousands of humans who were providing nutrients in an instant. To expel something, more energy was bound to be needed, and so, unfortunately, those in the innermost part whose deaths were imminent—no, perhaps it was a happy thing for those who had been suffering long torment—were crushed as they were.

The Abyss absorbed that blood and flesh, and even the pain they must have experienced all that time. What was fortunate for those who had barely survived was that these events were occurring in order. Among the many holes, especially those who had been left behind to be used as reserves, when the Abyss shook and terrifying screams grew thick, they instinctively sensed that their threadlike fate was just about to be severed.

Some knelt and sought God, and some embraced children. Even if those children were not their own, they embraced them. The men picked up even stones to protect the women. Until now, their minds, which had shown no resistance as if they were dogs on leashes, had been suppressed by Nestor’s technique, but that was because it had weakened now.

However, simply awakening their minds made it so difficult for them to find any hope that it was almost faint. In a pit with not even a path, where light only entered like a needle, the only thing they could do was wish for a miracle. However, even that fact was certainly an important development.

In any case, the cocoons absorbed these energies and all split apart with crackling sounds. As if vomiting something out, they spat out one Demon Soldier after another. The newly born Demon Soldier Corps, wrapped in thick black liquid, numbered in the thousands by themselves. They were on a different level from the ones that had been operated in hundreds until now. Moreover, their height, strength, and even the mutations they had obtained from the Demon Realm were all superior to the previous ones, but their rapidly formed, highly completed bodies—parts of them—melted and flowed down with a hissing sound.

The result Nestor had warned of, incompletion, was occurring. The consciousness of each Demon Soldier that had been suddenly forming was like pure white cloth, and like a red dye vat being poured over it, the first emotion they felt was the pain of their skin melting.

And when a savage ego that had been far from good from the beginning was ignited, the first emotion they completed was murderous intent. Because it did not matter who the target was, there were some who harmed themselves, but usually, they immediately charged at the identical Demon Soldier Corps right beside them. Since the Demon Soldier Corps had been granted their own weapons through mutation from the moment they were born, there was no need to place separate weapons in their hands. And since they had not been born equally—though they were larger than the existing ones, their heights differed, their granted weapons differed, and their collapsed bodies, strength, flexibility, explosiveness, endurance, and so on were all different—in an instant, a survival of the fittest unfolded, where only the strong survived.

The inside was truly pandemonium. This was a result more serious than Nestor had expected. Newly born Demon Soldiers crawled up from the pit beside Nestor and Ian, and their number alone was six. Since they had received energy from the innermost part, their degree of incompletion was low, and most of all, they did not attack each other. These creatures had instinctively burst out with murderous intent toward Nestor and Ian.

Perhaps it was the manifestation of their awareness that they had been born stronger than the others, and at the same time, their desire to dominate the remaining comrades. Their entire bodies were masses of muscle, and one hand was shaped like a blade, hammer, or spear. As if containing some special effect, one of them only had to stand still for liquid to drip drop by drop from its blade-shaped arm. The floor touched by the liquid was corroding, so being struck by that sword would not end as a mere injury.