104 — Chapter 104

News that Unit 4, which had headed for the North Gate, had been hit caused no small amount of agitation.

The Bureau had not raided the Thirteen Palaces of the Void with a small elite force as they had with the center of the Sea of Decay precisely because there were so many locations requiring military strength.

The original plan was for us to kill the King first.

Then, we were to regroup with Units 2 and 3, who had entered through the West and East Gates, and entrench ourselves in the audience chamber until the Thirteen Palaces of the Void left the Korean Peninsula.

It was essentially a defense mission where we would have to fend off enemies swarming from all directions once they realized the King was dead.

Because of this, if any of the four directions were breached, the other units would be put at risk.

“Was it a total wipeout?”

“The damage is heavy, but seeing as we can still reach them, we should be able to rescue them if we move quickly.”

Ha Yeri fired several red signaling arrows in a row through the window.

It was a signal to regroup immediately due to the unexpected turn of events.

Lifting her greatsword, she looked at the Sword Immortal.

“May I take the guild members from The Old Gods’ Wound with me? Half should suffice.”

“Do as you wish.”

“Union members, please raid the audience chamber with the Sword Immortal. Do not let anyone sit on the throne until we return.”

“Understood.”

Seo Chae-rin nodded at the instruction to kill the King alongside the Sword Immortal.

It was a calculated move—by not sending the Busan Awakened, who were only Middle Level and might drag the team down, into the heat of the new battlefield, Ha Yeri was simultaneously instilling the mindset of ‘You are now comrades in the same boat as us.’

Even in this urgent situation, Ha Yeri’s political shrewdness was evident.

However, this meant the Special Unit had to head to the North Gate to supplement the lacking firepower. This implied that Alexei, who was considered one of the strongest assets in the raid team, could not be left behind here.

“Alexei, you must follow me.”

“……”

“Set aside your personal feelings. Even at this very moment, the lives of our comrades are in danger.”

“I know.”

He said he knew.

Yet, despite his answer, he couldn’t easily pull himself away.

He had left his burnt-down village with nothing but two axes. He had wandered the continent under the shadow of the apocalypse for over a decade to reach this place.

Now that his desire for revenge had reached its peak, one could only imagine how it felt to have to turn back with his enemy right before his eyes.

Furthermore, he didn’t have any colleagues he considered family in the unit at the North Gate.

“Alexei.”

“I’ll go in his stead.”

I wasn’t ignorant of Alexei’s story. After all, I was surely the one who had told him the information about the King.

Nevertheless, I stepped forward in front of Ha Yeri, who was calling his name again.

“This humble one will be more than enough to fill the Great Hero’s vacancy.”

“You?”

Her gaze was skeptical.

Right then, other Special Unit members nearby began to speak up about the prowess I had shown in the previous battle. It seemed they wanted to help Alexei out.

“He’s right. He cut down three Royal Guards in an instant.”

“I saw it too; he was so fast I didn’t even realize his sword had been drawn.”

“If you didn’t see the sword being drawn, what exactly did you see?”

“……”

Actually, what they witnessed was accurate. I had killed the Royal Guards without drawing my sword.

I hadn’t used any special tentacles; I simply took a stance as if I were performing a quick-draw like the Sword Immortal while simultaneously using magic to slash them.

Ha Yeri, who had been listening silently, pointed her sword at my throat.

“I do not gamble when people’s lives are on the line.”

“Commander…!”

The people around us were shocked and tried to stop her, but her resolve was firm. I didn’t avoid her gaze either.

After all, I had experienced a situation like this back when we first met.

“Are you truly confident you can replace the Butcher of Bishkek?”

“Just trust me. Whatever you’re imagining, I’ll be more than that.”

Minor Justice.

The weight of the words held by oneself and the opponent. She measures that gap to uncover the true intent.

My confidence was greater than Ha Yeri’s conviction that she couldn’t gamble in such a critical moment.

After confirming this, she looked slightly surprised, then lowered her sword and spoke briefly.

“Join the unit. If you fall behind even a little, I’m leaving you.”

---

There was some friction, but as a result, the strength of the split forces was appropriately balanced.

It would have been a waste if I had stayed behind to fight the King with the Sword Immortal anyway.

Circling around the inner castle toward the North Gate, we eventually arrived at the spot where Unit 4 had been attacked.

Corpses and the wounded.

The surroundings were so hideously destroyed that one could tell at a glance a fierce battle had taken place.

“This is…”

“Judging by the hidden weapons, poison, and the clothing of the fallen enemies, this appears to be the work of the Black Shadow Society (흑영사).”

“What is the Black Shadow Society?”

“It refers to a group of Awakened from the Chinese side.”

Lee Hee-chan of the ‘Mist of Silence’ guild explained the situation to me.

Unlike Korea, where Awakened are split into dozens of guilds, China had historically been dominated by two major factions: the Orthodox Faction and the Black Shadow Society.

In the terms of wuxia novels, they occupied positions similar to the Orthodox and Unorthodox sects, standing as polar opposites in both their goals and their members’ character. Unlike the Baekdo Alliance, which shared information with Korea’s Ability Management Bureau and even allowed Magic Tower branches within its territory, the Black Shadow Society wouldn’t hesitate to recruit even black mages if it served their interests.

“At least dozens of Awakened have entered the Thirteen Palaces of the Void. Moving that many people all the way to the northeast region couldn’t have been easy…”

Due to its vast landmass, most of China’s territory had also been overrun by monsters. To enter the Thirteen Palaces of the Void, they would have had to fight their way through those monsters all the way to Harbin or Jilin Province, which share a similar longitude with Korea. Even their return journey would require taking the same route.

The fact that they had deployed such a powerful force while their own nation was suffering profound damage made their intention transparent.

They were here to seize the throne.

To prevent that, Ha Yeri immediately tracked their trail.

“This way. Fortunately, they haven’t gone very far.”

Since we had been ambushed, there was no intention of settling things through dialogue. After tending to the wounded nearby, Ha Yeri moved out in pursuit.

I was about to follow her immediately when I paused for a moment. I approached the fallen Awakened of the Black Shadow Society—those defeated by Unit 4—and examined them closely.

“I see. Chinese Awakened, huh…”

“Sae Pa-ran? What is it?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Hurry up. I told you I’d leave you behind if you fell back.”

At Ha Yeri’s urging, I straightened up. Then, I spoke quietly to Mala-nim.

『I think it’s almost time to reveal my true self.』

『FEAR NOT?』

『No, it’s not because of the Outer God of Salvation we saw earlier. It’s just… I think I’m about to run into a familiar face.』

Of course, the other party wouldn’t be happy to see me.

Having spent more than half my life in the Demon Realm, I never missed this particular scent. A faint smell of sulfur wafted from their corpses.

I had only just heard of the Black Shadow Society, but I had a good idea of exactly who had ambushed Unit 4. My pace quickened as I imagined seeing that snake-like face fall apart in shock—not in the Council, but here on the surface.

---

Ranked 20th, the Archduke of Symphony, Furcas.

His faithful subordinate and First Familiar, the Herald Karzos, was waiting for the moment of decision.

A secret room was prepared behind the audience chamber. It was meant to be used as an escape route for the King in emergencies, but conversely, by positioning troops here, one could enter the chamber directly. Since it was a place where royal guards often stood by, one could observe the situation inside through a small hole.

Of course, the royal knights had already been murdered by Karzos’s group, who were currently wearing human skins.

“Once the humans kill the King, soldiers will swarm in immediately. We seize the throne in that opening.”

“There’s someone extraordinary in there. What should we do?”

A subordinate pointed toward someone.

Among the many Awakened, it was an elderly man walking as leisurely as smoke. Every time his sleeve fluttered, the sword at his waist was drawn, slicing through the guards’ armor like tofu.

Even the dark-skinned King sitting on the throne looked startled.

“That’s no ordinary Awakened. He’s one of the Seven Immortals of Korea.”

“It doesn’t matter. That old man can’t sit on the throne anyway.”

Becoming the master of the Thirteen Palaces of the Void wasn’t something just anyone could do. Only one who satisfied the ‘specific condition’—which changed every year—could claim the throne.

According to a spy planted in the Baekdo Alliance, who had gone to restore the flood damage in Shanxi Province, the requirement to inherit the throne this year was to drink ‘100 liters of the blood of one’s own kind.’ It was a condition that, under normal circumstances, could never be met.

‘I never expected a King to actually appear, but this guy had excellent timing.’

Karzos thought as he watched the Awakened rise from the throne and fire red blood at the raid team.

Kandu Vailanish.

He was an Awakened with the ability to manipulate blood, once famous in Central Asia. However, his ability wasn’t the only reason he was able to become the master of the Thirteen Palaces of the Void.

—Die, Kandu! This is revenge for Kochigalan Village!

—Are you a survivor of the village I burned? You failed to understand my profound intentions. Leaving those who were attacked by demons to fend for themselves would only lead to a miserable end. I was saving them.

His ideology and actions suited the taste of the true master of this place, the Outer God of Salvation. Kandu had dehydrated those whom the demons might have used as sacrifices for summoning an Archduke, turning them into nothing more than desert sand. The ‘Blood Bond’ guild was merely a den of criminals, but their leader had pursued a form of apocalyptic salvation.

He had apparently already consumed the blood of all his guild members, as the size of the blood spheres he spat out was extraordinary. Furthermore, as he began to use the power of gravity stolen through the Thirteen Palaces of the Void, casualties among the raid team began to mount.

When many raid members retreated before that overwhelming firepower, only two men continued to advance: one with an axe, and one with a sword.

Kandu was stronger than rumored, but since that old man already had a sword in hand, there was no chance of victory. Sensing the battle would soon end, Karzos instructed his subordinates.

“Our goal is only one: the reclamation of the throne. Is the magic circle ready?”

“Yes, Herald. Once you sit in that chair, we will transport the entire thing via transmission.”

That would be enough. The Thirteen Palaces of the Void was, as the name implied, merely a royal palace that existed in the distant past. The corpses of the knights currently bleeding out, and even the crumbling castle walls, were all nothing but illusions.

The souls of the ‘True Inhabitants of the Demon Realm’ who once served the Outer God of Salvation would continue to wander, bound to the throne, searching for their master. Just being able to manifest that Seed of Calamity back on the surface would bring them closer to summoning Furcas.

“At the next Council, I’ll finally be able to tear that bastard’s arrogant mask off.”

Recalling the black mage who always picked fights with him, Karzos opened the door to the audience chamber. Once he had the Thirteen Palaces of the Void in his hands, the first place he would destroy was the neighboring country, where the most demons belonging to the Seat of Flame resided.

The moment the old man’s sword split a blood sphere in half and the giant charging through the gap decapitated the King with his axe, Karzos leaped out from behind the throne. Without hesitation, he threw himself forward and shouted.

“It’s done! Now with this, I can grind that unlucky bastard’s face to a pulp and—”

“Grind whose face, exactly?”

But in the next instant, Karzos realized his body was slammed down onto the cold stone floor.

The throne he saw before him was barely a few steps away. However, someone stood in his way.

A man was crushing his back with a foot—no, a tentacle—strong enough to shatter his spine.