Heavenly Lord Of The Blue Turban (5)

“Be careful, Chief.”

Scott, who had spoken, dismantled the Corpse Abomination he had dragged into the forest, transforming it back into human-sized undead soldiers. He then personally controlled them to advance.

If he allowed the undead to move autonomously and follow behind, he risked losing control.

In other words, the undead were now being directly controlled by Scott, one by one.

“Send one of the undead soldiers forward for now.”

“Okay.”

Scott agreed with Azadine’s suggestion and sent an undead soldier armed with a wooden club ahead.

At that moment, a jet-black shadow plummeted from the dense trees above and struck down the undead soldier.

Thwack!

With a single blow, the undead soldier’s head was sent flying. Seeing a hobgoblin’s skull crushed like a watermelon, it was clear that no human could have survived such a vicious strike.

“Damn it! I worked hard to prepare that one!”

Fuming at how his undead soldier was crushed so easily, Scott moved to control the others.

But…

Thwack! Thwack!

The black shadow attacking from the trees began swinging its forelegs.

The undead soldiers couldn’t do anything and were sent flying like fallen leaves in autumn.

“It’s big,”

Shati marveled.

The creature that dove from the trees in a swift attack was a massive black leopard.

But it was far larger than any normal leopard—comparable even to a northern tiger or beyond—and bark-like armor protruded from parts of its body like natural plating.

“A fearsome beast. As expected…”

Azadine drew his bow and loosed an arrow.

It seemed unlikely an arrow could do anything to such a large leopard, yet… Azadine’s arrow pierced straight through the leopard’s nostril and directly struck its brain.

Graaah!

The startled leopard thrashed in pain, trying to swat the arrow lodged in its nose, but the arrow broke halfway through.

The more it struggled to remove the arrow, the more it tore into its own brain, only worsening the damage.

In the end, unable to withstand it, the leopard collapsed and died.

“Goodness. To take down undead soldiers with a single blow… and I even used ogre muscle on them.”

Scott grumbled and cast a spell to control the leopard Azadine had just killed.

“Send another one.”

“Got it.”

When Scott sent the newly-undead leopard forward, the jungle once again stirred in response.

This time, a pack of wolves the size of calves appeared.

Grrrrrrrr!

The wolves, foaming at the mouth as if they had rabies, also had tree bark-like protrusions growing from their bodies, just like the leopard.

“These ones too, huh.”

“I’ll take a turn this time.”

As Shati chanted her spell, the grasses around them grew thick and entangled the wolves.

As they tried to push through the overgrown field, their fur got torn out, and they slowed at different rates, making it impossible for them to charge together.

“Nice!”

That alone gave Scott’s undead leopard ample opportunity. Controlling it, Scott had it strike the leading wolf’s head with a powerful foreleg, then bite its neck, killing it.

Other wolves belatedly freed themselves from the vines and leapt at the undead leopard, but it lashed out in a frenzy, taking them on while Azadine fired arrows in support.

“Oh, great. We took them down without much damage.”

“It’s probably because you’re trying to control too many at once, Scott. Try sending just one wolf ahead this time.”

“Understood, Chief.”

Following Azadine’s suggestion, Scott used necromancy to control one wolf and sent it forward. Sure enough, the forest reacted again, and a massive spore monster appeared.

“A spore monster, huh. Nothing to salvage here.”

Scott had the wolf charge in, then used a detonation spell to blow it up, damaging the spore monster.

“Why?”

“The spore monster’s body isn’t really suitable for making undead once it’s dead. Controlling multiple corpses at once weakens combat capability, so it’s better to just use them as expendables.”

So saying, Scott sent another wolf, detonated it, and completely shredded the spore monster.

Only after breaking through several such layers of defense was Azadine’s group able to reach the edge of the swamp.

At the swamp’s shore stood a tree in the shape of a human. From the part that resembled a face, crimson translucent sap dripped like bloody tears to the ground, flowing into the marsh.

It was likely that the beasts who drank this sap-tainted water became the minions of Grimslone and threatened any who approached.

“Is this the body of Grimslone? The one that supposedly gave revelation to the Heavenly Lord of Blue Turban?”

The shard of Grimslone, perhaps trying to defend itself, began pulling out massive dead trees from the swamp again.

But Azadine kicked off the ground like the wind and accelerated, standing before Grimslone in an instant.

“So this is the shard of Grimslone said to have given enlightenment to the Heavenly Lord?”

As Azadine reached toward Grimslone, a lightning strike suddenly hit him.

“Now, you foolish disciple. These are the words of the Nether. Don’t go peeking recklessly.”

“…Huh?”

Azadine abruptly lifted his head.

There stood Kazas’s hut, the place where he had spent most of his childhood. The scenery of that day unfolded before him, just as it had been when he lived and trained under Kazas.

“Oh?”

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Kazas showed Azadine the letters in the book he had opened.

The Nether characters were writhing on the surface of the book as if alive.

“The letters shift. Don’t stare at the transformation too long. The weak-minded can go insane just from watching it.”

“This is from when I learned Nether script…”

Azadine was about to explain it was from when he studied the Nether script, but Kazas seemed to interpret it differently.

“Yes, this is a book for learning the Nether script. The words written here are not from our dimensional language. Look, see the shadow cast by that tree…”

“?”

“In our world, that tree is the essence. The shadow it casts is a lower-dimensional, two-dimensional projection of that essence. Likewise, these Nether languages written here are fragments of shadows cast by the true essence. But if you perceive that dimension correctly and pronounce it…”

So saying, Kazas pronounced a word in the Nether language.

In that instant, part of Kazas’s tongue transformed, and a worm appeared.

Kazas immediately took out an obsidian blade, sliced his tongue, severed the worm, flung it to the floor, and crushed it underfoot.

“Amazing. Are you alright?”

Kazas looked at Azadine, who was calmly watching all this, and was astonished.

“Of course.”

This wasn’t Azadine’s first time experiencing it. Long ago, when Kazas dragged him into helping with Nether research, he’d already gone through it.

Back then, he had trembled in fear at the sinister power of the Nether language Kazas uttered. It had been painful.

But to the current Azadine, that level of Nether language posed no difficulty.

“Incredible. Azadine, your anti-magic resistance seems stronger than I expected.”

“Master… is this a dream?”

“…Ah, perhaps not? Are you becoming disoriented?”

Kazas thought Azadine was suffering from delusion due to the Nether language.

‘Seeing how he’s reacting… this doesn’t feel like a normal dream.’

As Azadine sank into thought, Kazas became flustered.

“If you’re not feeling well, should we rest a bit? You’re not losing your mind already, are you?”

“I’m fine. Actually, more than fine.”

Azadine then repeated the Nether word Kazas had uttered.

“!?”

The Nether’s power tried to invade Azadine’s tongue as well, but he blocked it using the Light of the Crown and the power of the Heavenly Kings’ Grimoire within him.

Even Kazas had needed to cut off his own tongue with an obsidian blade, yet Azadine remained unaffected.

“Dear heavens. What are you? A genius? Is that it?”

“No way. But, Master, I have a question.”

“…What is it?”

“What is the ‘Demon King Who Eats Grimoires’?”

The Demon King Who Eats Grimoires. That was what people often called Kazas.

“Oh, where did you hear that? How do you know? Hmph. I see. Aldis must’ve told you in advance.”

Surprised by Azadine’s unexpected question, Kazas shrugged his shoulders.

“Yes. I used to devour humans under the Nagasura Empire. I could absorb the grimoires of those I consumed, which allowed me to master all kinds of magic. Before long, even the Nagarajas feared me, and I gathered great power. I taught many mages and turned their achievements into my own. People, in their fear, called me a Demon King.”

“What kind of magic did you research?”

“I started with blood magic. I taught it to many humans and helped them escape from the Nagasura Empire. Some of them remained loyal to me afterward, and I became their king. That’s when people began calling me the Demon King. After that, many challenged me. I studied blood magic, killed those challengers, devoured them, and grew stronger.”

“What was the end of that path?”

“When the Nagasura Empire collapsed, my small kingdom of mages fell too. I realized the limits of blood magic and turned to necromancy.”

“What happened then?”

“I was defeated by the Emperor and his followers. The Aragasa, seeing my broad magical knowledge as useful, brought me in and had me advise on their magical research.”

“So when did you become an Elder?”

“When Hathir became the leader of the Aragasa, he kept his promise and set me free, giving me the opportunity to study Nether magic. Though, it’s more accurate to say he forced me to study it. I roamed across lands, hunted down Nether mages, devoured them, and stole their grimoires. Of the many grimoires stored in my body, I erased the lesser ones through Nether power while extending my life and researching the Nether.”

Kazas said this and suddenly looked startled.

“Amazing. Why am I telling you all this? You… you’re not the version of you from this timeline!”

“…No.”

Azadine nodded, and Kazas stepped back and drew a dagger.

“Good heavens! Kid… what are you?”

“Who knows?”

From far off, Azadine heard the voice of the Nether. Speaking in the Nether language, it was likely the voice of Grimslone.

“Must be some kind of heavenly principle or law of clarity or something like that.”

Azadine let out a faint bitter smile—then awoke from the dream.

“You—are you okay, Chief?”

“Hey!”

Scott and Shati approached Azadine in a panic.

Meanwhile, Giswoa suddenly bowed toward Azadine.

“T-The Heavenly Lord!”

“…Huh?”

Azadine saw that the tree—Grimslone’s fragment—before him had become petrified.

Just moments ago, it had looked like a person shedding tears of blood. It had been so lifelike it resembled a living man in tree form. Now, it held only a faint human shape, so warped it was hard to identify unless you were extremely nearsighted.

Instead, Azadine found an unknown chunk of wood in his hand.