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Among the commanders of Grave there is a saying.
If you see a crimson object in Elf territory, run away at once.
It meant that if you meet the chieftain ‘Nilberis’, you should retreat immediately.
“Hurry! The sun will set soon!”
The champion riding a hoverbike at the front was anxious.
They were getting close to the monsters’ nest.
Soon it would be a night when the demonic beings ran rampant.
At this rate they might miss a once-in-a-lifetime chance.
‘I have to do something…’
Just as the champion took out a staff to cast a spell again.
A hoverbike shaped like a manta ray appeared above the elves.
A large, flat crimson craft cutting across the red sunset.
Seeing it, the elven warriors drew in the magic held in their staves.
They released the drawn bowstring.
Their role ended there.
The crimson hoverbike approached the champion.
In the driver’s seat sat a male elf with long silver hair.
A sculpted face.
Ash-gray eyes that felt empty.
He wore a fur coat made from demonic beings’ fur and held a long staff, which was also crimson.
“Lord Nilberis. You’ve come…?”
The champion bowed his head in respect.
“I heard you were in a struggle.”
“No. It will end soon.”
“Put away your bravado. It’s the devil’s seed. Kill it today and there will be no aftereffects.”
The champion could not answer to Nilberis’ cold voice.
He knew it too.
The longer they delayed, the higher the chance of failing the hunt.
That’s why the chieftain guarding the city had come to the front himself.
“If you heard me, get out of the way.”
At Nilberis’ words the champion raised his right hand.
The elven warriors slowed and fell back.
Now the only one chasing the airship was the crimson hoverbike.
Nilberis closed his eyes, feeling the black magic power seeping from the airship.
He thanked the World Tree for the opportunity and raised his staff to the sky.
He moved his lips and chanted an incantation.
“Ael’quor, fen’dara. Mor’ashi’vor fen’dara. Elu’minae fen’si…”
The air around twisted and shimmered.
Magic poured from his body, whipping his long silver hair and shaking the hoverbike.
He opened his closed eyes again.
The moment blue flames flashed in his pupils.
Compressed magic burst out through his voice.
“…Met’eor! (Meteor!)”
A mighty blue pillar shot from the tip of his staff.
It struck straight at the center of the sunset sky.
The sky split vertically as if a crack had formed, and searing crimson heat leaked through the gap.
Small sparks poured down like rain.
Then a crimson sphere blazing into view followed.
It was so huge it could be mistaken for a falling sun, and the surrounding clouds evaporated instantly from its heat.
Kugugugugu-
A celestial fire fell to the earth.
It traversed the air dragging a black tail.
It soon collided with the airship.
The hard-shelled vessel that had been fleeing was consumed by the fireball.
—––Kuuuuuuung!!
A thermal storm swept through.
The elven warriors raised their arms to shield their faces.
After a while, beyond the calmed air, they looked upon it.
The airship engulfed in infernal flames.
The airship losing altitude and plummeting.
Fragments of the once indestructible deck fluttering like snow.
“It’s over… ”
Nilberis’ hollow eyes watched the scene.
A satisfied smile touched his face, pale from expending magic.
“At last… I have delivered divine judgment to the demon.”
—
Grave was engulfed in silence.
From the bridge to the hangars and living quarters.
All internal facilities were hushed.
People couldn’t take their eyes off their screens, speechless and stunned.
The heir of a hero was dead.
The rumored next head of Yeomra was dead.
He died tragically before becoming a commander.
It was something no one had expected.
Most thought Commander Baek would appear dramatically or that Yeomra would send rescue teams.
“What are we to do about this…?”
The captain of Grave grabbed his forehead.
This would cause great turmoil for Underheaven and Grave.
Something similar had happened twenty years ago.
Since then Anubis Corporation has not exchanged with other companies.
They built their stronghold somewhere other than Underheaven and kept it secret.
If even Yeomra, the leader in Necroshell production, was like that, humanity would clearly be disadvantaged in war.
As the captain suspected.
Yeomra headquarters was currently on emergency alert.
“It’s all over… ”
Baek Ran stood by the window with dull eyes.
Below the neon-lit city, messages from heads of other corporations floated before her eyes.
Calm down. We don’t know yet.
Wait. We’ll be there now.
Several hovercars could be seen flying outside the window.
They were sent by other corporations and the government to stop Baek Ran’s rash actions.
“What have I done to Baek Ho… Telling him to save humanity… what did I do…?”
Allowing him to go out this time was because they hoped he would return.
They thought experiencing the outside would help her remember her forgotten purpose.
They weren’t overly worried since the destination was supposedly a paradise.
Besides, hadn’t she paired guards with the airship?
Even if the worst happened, she trusted Grave.
She believed they would somehow rescue him.
She also trusted her older brother.
He would do anything to protect his child.
“I was foolish… like an idiot… ”
To her, who couldn’t have children, Baek Ho was as good as her own son.
And a mother who lost her child could do anything.
She planned to show Grave’s commanders what they had given up today.
“Evacuation of the staff?”
A guard behind Baek Ran answered her.
“Completed.”
“You should go now too.”
“It’s fine. Life was getting boring for me too. I’ll accompany you to hell.”
“I won’t stop you.”
Baek Ran took a red orb from her bosom.
She had thought she would never need to use it when she received it….
Messages poured in endlessly before Baek Ran’s cold, sinking eyes.
Baek Ran! Snap out of it! Look at this!
Sis! Please pick up the phone!
Baek Ho is alive!
“……”
It’s a lie.
A trick to stop her.
He was struck directly by a Meteor that reduced even a large battleship to ashes.
Reapers could revive if the vessel remained intact, but not a Necromancer.
He probably felt the terrible pain of being burned alive and then dissipated into a pinch of black magic power.
“How much pain and agony he must have felt…“
Baek Ran shut down her Smartbone.
When the prosthetic system stopped, tears suppressed by the system poured out.
They streamed down her cheeks.
Wuuuuuuung-
The red orb in her hand vibrated.
As of today, Yeomra Corporation would vanish into the back pages of history.
All the achievements of the genius engineer Baek Ran would disappear.
Some might say this.
Is it right for a company that sustained humanity’s survival to disappear over the death of one person?
Baek Ran would answer from hell.
From the beginning all of this existed for Baek Ho, so of course.
Wuuuuuuung-
She breathed black magic power into the orb.
As the red light spread and filled the chairman’s office.
A massive object appeared outside the window.
It was the airship that had been broadcasting I_Vu’s concert live over the nearby stadium until recently.
“…Huh?”
Baek Ran faced the giant screen beside the airship head-on.
Her legs went weak and she sank down.
She dropped the red orb she had been holding to the floor.
She began to sob loudly like a child.
—
Nilberis’ pupils trembled.
He was as bewildered as when the World Tree planted on Earth blazed in human hands.
“What is this…?”
What poured out of the bisected airship were not human corpses.
Black crows.
Thousands of grim little creatures flapped up and vanished into mist.
It was like opening a gift box only to have houseflies swarm out.
The elven warriors muttered at the absurd and eerie sight.
“What on earth is this…?”
“Where did the Undead go?”
“What is happening right now…?”
Nilberis immediately recognized the identity of the crow swarm.
They were black spirits from another realm summoned by black magic power.
They were a vile type of dark sorcery used by humanity.
Could the powerful black magic felt from the airship really have been those things?
Had he been chasing a shell all this time?
‘I… was deceived…’
Had the one who fed him information betrayed him in turn?
Or had he too been deceived by his kin?
In any case, he had been foolish to hastily pursue based only on a betrayer’s words.
“O Yggdrasil…“
He should have wondered why the guards who always fought bravely were fleeing first.
He shouldn’t have dismissed it thinking they wanted to save the demon’s seed.
Perhaps this was all the devil’s scheme.
He had heard the demon seed burning inside was someone who couldn’t even become a commander.
But look.
A Necromancer lacking in learning summoning thousands of black spirits at once?
Even if those black crows were weak black spirits, it’s absurd.
If that had been possible, this war would have long ended in victory for that Undead legion.
‘Even a seed is a devil indeed.’
Suppressing his anger, Nilberis gave orders to the elven warriors.
There must still be a Necromancer nearby.
If they used black magic they couldn’t have gone far, so search the vicinity thoroughly.
The elven warriors replied loudly, but the order was impossible from the start.
Beeeep-
A roaring noise came from inside the broken airship.
Beeeep-
Dozens of flares exploded at once inside the airship.
With thundering blasts the surrounding sky filled with green clouds.
Realizing what it was, Nilberis lost composure and gaped.
“Mo- Monster Call!”
A pheromone aggregate that lures nearby demonic beings.
If Urban Elves have spell-smog arrows, humans have the dirty trick called Monster Call.
“Get out of here quickly! Hurry!”
The elven warriors frantically hit the accelerator on their hoverbikes.
—
People watched the screen in horror of a different kind than before.
An elf’s body had just been crushed in the grasp of a massive demonic being.
Blood and chunks of flesh splattered in all directions.
The bridge echoed with elven screams and the howls of the demonic beings.
-Aaaaargh!
-Kkiaaaaah!
Dozens of concentrated Monster Calls were potent.
Demonic beings swarmed in from all directions with eyes afire.
Flying demonic beings species arrived quickly to pin them down, and then other types followed up.
The elves fought fiercely but were pushed back over time.
Even the great Nilberis was powerless.
He had used vast magic teleporting the elven warriors here and then expended most of it casting the level-8 elemental spell Meteor.
His once-unstoppable performance was not what it used to be.
His spellcasting was slow and the power weak.
A magical burnout was suspected.
-Protect Lord Nilberis!
-Break a path!
The screen showed pandemonium.
The scene of the airship being pursued was so fierce and terrible it made children’s educational videos seem tame.
And it was gratifying.
Thinking of comrades wronged by those bastards felt relieving.
If it weren’t for the shock, they might have been shouting encouragement to the demonic beings.
“In all my life…“
“To see elves get pushed back like this…“
“Huh… ”
When had they ever watched an Urban Elf battle so comfortably?
Had they ever watched comrade deaths without sorrow?
Those crafty ones preferred guerrilla tactics to head-on fights and were so good at dodging demonic beings that such battles were rare to see.
-The champion has broken a path!
-Hurry!
-Escort Lord Nilberis!
After many elves died and they secured an escape route to some extent.
A Reaper watching the radar sprang to his feet and shouted.
“Azrion!”
The Reaper controlling the drone moved the camera.
In the corner of the large screen a gigantic creature could be seen flying in.
It looked like a sperm whale stretched out like a serpent.
Beneath its body fin-like legs sprouted densely like a centipede’s legs.
An 8-level flying demonic being, Azrion.
A demonic being that rides magic currents in the air and manipulates magic freely.
-Guuuuuu!
A hull-blast sound emanated from Azrion’s body.
Magic waves spread in all directions.
The hoverbikes the elves rode lost power and crashed one by one.
The drones spying on the scene also went dead and plummeted.
The screen cut to black.
They quickly switched to the radar screen.
A rough map and innumerable dots appeared on the screen.
It was a field of demonic beings in every direction.
Seeing it like this made it clear.
You cannot survive here.
Beep- beep- beep- beep- beep-
Upon Azrion’s arrival the dots marking elves quickly vanished.
Soon only two dots remained marking Nilberis and the champion.
Then the champion’s dot disappeared as well.
Gulp…
The captain swallowed nervously.
He clenched his fist and waited for the result.
Beep-
Soon the red dot representing Nilberis vanished too.
Did he escape by teleport?
Is that possible in front of Azrion?
“Confirm it.”
The ship’s voice trembled.
Reapers manipulated holograms and moved busily.
After a while reports began.
They detected no energy waves of teleportation.
Even after multiple scans Nilberis’ energy couldn’t be found.
“Th- this can’t be… Nilberis is dead…?”
At the hands of a mere cadet?
‘Shock’ was far from adequate.
—
Unlike the bridge, the conference room where seven admirals gathered was noisy.
Each contacted their headquarters and began confirming Nilberis’ death.
“He couldn’t die this easily!”
“Keep checking! You can order the nearest strike unit to go directly! What? If you’re worried, send only a Reaper!”
“…Ah, understood!”
Admiral Hades manipulated his Smartbone and displayed a photo on the front screen.
An enlarged photo taken from a distance.
A head hung on a branch, long silver hair flowing.
The admirals recognized it at once.
Nilberis, the Urban Elf chieftain who had brought great despair to humanity.
The crimson staff beside it confirmed it once more.
-……
The admirals stopped talking and stared blankly at the screen.
Even if it was hard to believe, seeing it with their own eyes left them no choice.
“With a single airship… he killed Nilberis…?”
The admiral from Anubis closed his gaping mouth and asked the Yeomra admiral.
“Could this… have all been planned?”
“……”
No one spoke.
Or couldn’t.
Admiral Izanami slammed his fist down on the table.
“You used the next head as bait to claim glory! Deceiving all of us! To become Commander-in-Chief!”
“Don’t make reckless accusations without certainty.”
“You made fools of us all! You said there were spies inside for ages! You made us all idiots!”
“Baseless conjecture.”
Admiral Hades frowned and continued.
“You know Commander Baek is not that sort of man, don’t you?”
“So you’re asking me to just accept this? A raw cadet moved an airship using Bari Sect sorcery, used it as bait, detonated Monster Call to kill an Urban Elf chieftain? Without consulting the main force? Does that make sense?”
“Hmm… what’s the problem?”
Admiral Anubis tilted his head.
“Even if he deceived us all, it’s a clear fact that that kid killed Nilberis. It’s an enormous achievement.”
They couldn’t believe a cadet had accomplished it.
Using Bari Sect sorcery.
Having powerful black magic power enough to move a large airship for a long time.
Even hiding Monster Call expecting to be shot down and detonating it near the demonic beings’ nest.
This was beyond what a mere cadet could do.
So they assumed Commander Baek had intervened.
But the admirals present knew that wasn’t likely.
Such methods weren’t Commander Baek’s style.
Therefore it was believed this was Baek Ho’s plot alone.
‘What kind of monster have Yeomra been hiding…’
‘The elders will be quite interested.’
Unlike other corporate heirs since academy days, he had kept things tightly hidden.
There had been rumors he had nothing to show and thus hid it, but this incident suggested otherwise.
‘Baek Ho, was it?’
‘I should have her cultivate a relationship in advance…’
Many people watched this unfold.
Rumors would spread quickly to outposts and warships, and the next head of Yeomra would gain significant attention.
After all, didn’t he kill Nilberis himself?
‘We should increase exchanges with Yeomra…’
‘At this rate, won’t Yeomra keep producing Commanders-in-Chief?’
‘I don’t know what card Masamune has… this will be hard.’
And there was one more fact even the admirals here didn’t know.
Not just Grave.
The citizens of Underheaven had also watched this scene on the airship screens.
—
The black magic power pouring from Baek Ho ceased.
Seonhwa stopped her dance and looked at Baek Ho.
Blood poured from every hole in his face.
“Master!”
Seonhwa ran over panting and cupped Baek Ho’s face.
She checked for a pulse.
It was so weak he was near death.
“Seongyu! Quickly!”
Seongyu threw down his drum and ran.
He pulled a long needle from his bosom.
He inspected Baek Ho’s torso, veins darkly reddened, and bit down hard on it.
“Sister… this won’t work… it’s too late…”
“Shut up!”
Seonhwa snatched the long needle from Seongyu’s hand and felt Baek Ho’s head.
She stuck the magic-charged needle into the Baihui point on the crown of his head.
To control yin she inserted a needle into the Fengfu point and to bolster yang she inserted one into the Taiyang point.
Her trembling hand moved to insert a needle into Baek Ho’s ankle when Seongyu grabbed her arm.
“It’s useless… it might even be poisonous…”
Seonhwa’s body trembled.
She then hugged Baek Ho and wept bitterly.
Sobbing, she yelled for him to wake up.
She had sworn he’d never die—what was this?
The other guards bit their lips and quietly sobbed.
It had been predicted from the moment he drained his life to the limit to use black magic power.
Knowing he did it to avoid sacrificing them, a storm of emotions raged within.
“This can’t be…“
Seonhwa swallowed her sobs.
She couldn’t let the child she’d watched for twenty years go like this.
She took a talisman from her bosom.
She planned to freeze Baek Ho’s body solid and take him back to headquarters.
If it was Baek Ran, he could be saved.
She would punish her for letting it get to this, but she didn’t care.
As she attached the talisman to Baek Ho and was about to chant the verbal spell.
Nana approached her.
Her pupils dilated and her gaze flashed, like someone whose mind had slipped.
“What the—! Won’t you go to hell…?”
Seonhwa’s words faltered.
Because Nana picked up the blood bowl on the floor and poured it over her own head.
Like splashing water on herself before entering a pool.
“What are you—”
“Haah… ”
Nana swept her blood-soaked hair back with a refreshed expression.
She curled the corner of her mouth and looked at Seonhwa.
“Not human blood, huh?”
Seonhwa flinched at the eye contact.
Not because of Nana’s strange appearance, but because a particular person came to mind.
“…Se- Selena…?”
Why did that legendary lunatic seem to appear in this woman?
Regardless of Seonhwa’s reaction, Nana twisted her neck from side to side to loosen up.
She dusted her hands and spoke to Seongyu and the other guards.
“Drop the beat.”
As everyone stared in stupor, Nana scanned them with sharp eyes.
“Give me a beat, you idiots. Never seen a celebrity before?”
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