Chapter. 14. One Empire, Three Legends (38)
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Outside the Imperial Castle. Giant’s Bridge.
“Where are they going and why are they like this?”
….what was.
As soon as the professor left the castle, he ran into a difficult situation.
The giants who had been quietly building a bridge with their own two hands were climbing up from a deep cliff.
It was embarrassing just to cross that large moat that looked like an abyss, but the bigger problem lay beyond it.
Kurrrrrrr…. Deuk, deuk, deeudeeudeud-!
Wow!
The giant stone statues were calmly pulling out the weapons they were carrying on their backs and destroying the capital.
Whoa!
“Ahh, where is my vow, where is my sword… where!”
“It will not be broken, do not doubt that the end will reach loyalty!”
“Get out of the way! “We must go to His Majesty’s side, even if it means cutting down everyone who stands in our way!”
“I, I will not collapse like this! The rat is a toothless sword and will not disappear into rust and dust!!!”
Knights who fight for life and death not only with the giant but with everything around them.
The cause of all this was clear. the death of the emperor. Although the death broke one of the chains of the curse that led from the catalyst to the caster to the target, it instead completely tilted the tightly maintained balance of power to one side.
As a result.
Sugeeook-!
“To His Majesty’s side! Even if it is a place beyond life! “I will follow you until the end as a knight!”
Because he instinctively knew the emperor’s death, he was loyal to follow him. A personal desire to die on the battlefield as a knight without putting down the sword until the end. It was completely twisted by the curse, and they became knights who would fight with anyone and die with their swords in hand.
Kuuuuu-
Kwagwaang!
The ancient golems, who had been bound by an unknown spell, were transformed into puppets that obeyed the emperor’s remaining power, the power absorbed by the witch, with their crystal eyes shining purple.
The sight of a shield the size of a nobleman’s mansion sweeping over the city, and knights so fearless that they could stop it coming in like waves of iron, was a nightmare scene for anyone who had to get through it and get to where the witch was. .
This is not it. No matter how much the current situation in the capital is like hell, where an average person would die without even making a sound, this has gone beyond the limit. Jumping into the midst of that vortex of destruction right now was tantamount to suicide. This is not a metaphor; it means that you will actually become minced meat.
“…Hey, Hyde. Should I quietly flip over the coin stuck in front of the emperor? “Let’s ask you to step aside just once.”
[….I don’t think it will work, right?]
“never. “Even if we were fully equipped, we wouldn’t be able to clear that path, but our fuel tank is empty right now.”
It was a mistake to say that I was going to ask the dead emperor because I was in a bad mood. Even a bastard emperor dies and it’s just a matter of fate. What do you know about fate?
Looking at that tail, it was clear that this was a story about the next emperor being chosen and the power that was scattered with the emperor’s death being absorbed and pushed forward. There’s no way I have to push through all that. Well, no matter how much GG is a crappy game, there’s no way they’re forcing a player who has been exhausted through repeated battles to fight even more battles alone. Unless there is help from a helper…
“…Sooya! “Professor!!!!”
“Oh my professor, you bastard!”
“Guuuuu! found! “A two-legged disaster!”
….Shit.
Just as I was about to return to the dead emperor, I saw three familiar figures across the cliff in the distance.
Ottman, Aldrich, Notum.
First, it was the magic, curse, and shaman trio that went to the flower empress’ palace.
Although it was a bit subtle to welcome you. Anyway, these are my colleagues who arrived at the right time when the future was dark.
In a situation where curses and auras were everywhere, delicate magic such as messages were scattered, so in the end, I put my hands over my mouth and started shouting.
“Thank you for coming! And through all that chaos!!!”
“Us too! I was chased away! Hwangseong looks unusual! I was about to pass! Suddenly the bridge collapsed and the knights became more frantic, so I finally took a breather!!! “How did you get over there?”
“Before it collapses!!! And since the work on the Hwangseong side is over, there is no need to come! “Please give me some water so I can cross over there!”
The three people’s complexions turn white when they hear that Hwangseong’s work is over. While the professor was amazed at the fact that even the troll’s face could turn white even in this urgent situation, the water bridge that Ottman had built crossed the cliff and arrived in front of him. It wasn’t strong enough for an average person to cross, but it was strong enough for a water magician to cross.
Snap!
“Phew! Anyway, it’s nice to meet you again. “Just when I didn’t know what to do on my own, oh!”
“nice to meet you? Nice to meet you, guy? “You’re like a mule that got stuck with a stallion like this!”
“Even if you go crazy, I asked you to go crazy in a nice way, so why did you kill the emperor? why! Why you idiot! “What are we going to do now?”
“Ah, ugh! Now, wait! Wait!”
puck! puck! Pop! Wow!
The professor, who ran to the three people with a happy heart, was greeted by a barrage of fists from wizards who were filled with resentment after being chased by knights all day.
After leaving the Flower Empress’s abode, the people who had been running until their old bodies gave off a sweet smell were finally able to outrun the knights, of course, thanks to those ancient golems blowing away the knights like fallen leaves. Instead, at a moment when they were stranded between the battle between the knights and the golem, the professor who seemed to be the culprit, and who was the culprit in most of the major events they had experienced, appeared from the collapsed emperor’s palace, carrying what appeared to be the emperor’s mementos. , the sadness of the past exploded with confidence.
“I’ve been doing it since you were over there! What to do now! What should I do! “The emperor has died and the entire capital is going crazy!”
“You worked so hard to kill the emperor who protected the empire from the hands of a witch and collect his treasures! Now the capital is out of control! No, when they see that scepter in your hand, their eyes will roll back and they will rush at us!”
“Oh my gosh! I didn’t kill you! “I didn’t kill him!”
“…You didn’t say that?”
“yes! “I think he’s a psychopath who kills everyone he meets!”
“Then… is the emperor still alive?”
“Uh…no?”
“Were you already dead before you left?”
“That’s not true either…”
“So, can you briefly explain to us how he died?”
“Hmm… When he met me, his eyes lit up… and he laughed so hard that he died on his own.”
“….”
“….”
“….Boo.”
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puck! puck! Fight! widely!
“As expected, you killed him!”
“The emperor assassin, my disciple is the emperor assassin!”
“Two-legged disaster! Perhaps the culprit of evil! “Saint of the Apocalypse!”
“evil! ouch! It hurts, wait! My current state is- 100,000,000! Notum! “If you hit me, it will be fatal!”
In the end, the professor had to tell the story of the conversation with the emperor who was ahead of him at the fastest possible speed on the cliff in front of the castle, which was an empty space created by the battle between the golem and the knight, and those trying to protect the castle and those trying to enter the castle.
Of course, the witch’s curse-filled cries were spreading throughout the capital at every moment, but right now, there was no way for the four of us gathered here to escape the gap in that ignorant power fight, so there was a reason to wait for one side to collapse.
****
“…They said the emperor was very old.”
“I heard that too. Well, the emperor of the empire was also famous for his longevity. “It’s worth getting senile.”
“Open a new dynasty. “This guy is the one who has been given the equivalent of full authority….”
“If you’re a professor…. Hmm! Umm…”
“Why me! I’m capable, I’m smart, and I have a great background! “I’m not a talented person who will be overlooked anywhere!”
“It’s not talent, you idiot. Wherever we go, incidents break out, and as if that’s not enough, the scale only grows bigger each time. Even after the empire issue is over, I am so scared of what will happen next that I am on the verge of collapse. Well, do you think even the five great immortals are going to die?”
“Geuuu. Everything is noisy. “I can’t really feel the morale.”
“Hmm. This way. “There’s a lot of dark mana on the left.”
About two hours, amidst the terrible screams and noise of destruction.
As the safety zone behind the golem was gradually being pushed back, the group waited for the situation to calm down on the protruding part inside the cliff, and cautiously came out when the noise died down.
Aldrich’s perception-impairing magic became even more powerful because it was night and the double soundproofing magic. Add in Notum’s natural concealment spell, and there would be no need to sneak around like this.
click!
“…who…are you….”
‘Eup-eup-eup! Ugh-! town!’
‘Mmm, mmmm! ‘Mmmmmmm!’
The problem is that, after a battle with a group of golems the size of a small castle, it was the crazy knights who cut down all the favorites of ancient magic that even Aurors could not resist and won.
Of course, many knights also died. If you weren’t careful where you step, you could have stumbled over a knight’s severed thigh or a flat knight that had been half-crushed into one body with plate mail.
but. There were people who survived the battle. In other words, it meant that only the real knights among the real ones survived and roamed these shattered streets.
‘Eup-eup, eup-eup-eup!’
‘Huh…. Eup!’
“Jijik, jjik! float-”
Sgak!
“….was it a rat? ….Umm, sorry, Juilliard. I guess I was oversensitive. It seems a bit cold. Is the stove still there? Umm… I’m dizzy. “I guess the entertainment was too much….”
When Notum throws a rat that he had lured with a spell, the knight lets his guard down and falls back into his own delusions.
Although he was covered in blood and out of his mind, 30 minutes ago, that knight was a true Master Knight with tremendous strength, who had cut down the golem’s giant sword while pulling out an azure auror as tall as me.
There are knights like that wandering around everywhere, injured. The steps to avoid battle and approach the witch were bound to be slower.
『Aaaaaaaaaah!』
As if hastening the slow pace, the witch’s scream pierced through the streets.
“…I guess we don’t have much time.”
“It’s a choice. Do you preserve your fighting power and give the enemy time, or do you use up everything you have left and get to the witch as quickly as possible? “Knowing that her opponent was her strong suit from the start, she had no choice but to make a choice to reduce her consumption for the future when she would have to face her.”
“Please, I can only hope that we arrive before the witch finishes making other preparations.”
Aldrich muttered as he looked at the wall of flower trees he had already arrived at.
The center of the screams and the place where the witch is.
With the first scream, a huge number of cursed flowers bloomed, stretching out their stems and entwining each other, and now the place where the witch was was turned into a tower covered with huge purple flowers.
A skyscraper that grows towards the sky without knowing the end.
A collection of deep curses that makes me want to dig out my eyeballs just by looking at them.
“….mother.”
Inside, he would face his old nightmare.
Aldrich spoke to Otman, who was fiddling with his soul jar and maintaining a cloaking spell.
“Then, please do as we decided in advance.”
“…I understand. “Notum and I were to wait outside, and if the starting point of the curse was revealed, we were to intercept it, right?”
Aldrich nodded.
A huge tower made of cursed flowers.
Since warlocks have always been persecuted, most warlocks tend to fortify their strongholds.
Like a dragon’s rare. A space where your black magic becomes stronger and your opponent cannot demonstrate their full power.
Just as in the past, in his hometown, the stone chamber turned into a horrible space filled with lumps of flesh and avoided general divine surveillance, this time, it was a space for witches who had been cursed.
‘If only the emperor were alive. If the witch’s curse that had been prepared for so many years had been completed… the entire imperial capital could have become part of that terrible tower…’
Due to the emperor’s decision, such a worst situation did not happen, but the current scale was ridiculously high, as if several ordinary magic towers had been stacked on top of each other. The perimeter was wide enough to resemble an imperial castle.
It is not a tower, but a tower of curses that is like a pillar reaching towards the sky.
As much as the size of the area. A witch who must have become as strong as the number of humans she has sacrificed.
So, we chose to shake it up from the outside and the inside at the same time, structurally disrupting the area rather than destroying it entirely.
‘It’s a complicated curse, but you can’t escape from the basic principles of the curse. If it is an area created by combining curses and curses, several curse shoes that serve as the core will be hidden. There is no choice but to attack that….’
The criteria for dividing the members was very simple. He, who is well versed in curses, and a professor who can engage in close combat, a weakness of wizards, deal with witches. The rest perform external missions.
Inside, the professor and he attack the witch, who must have become unstable due to the failure of the Great Curse and its reaction, and from the outside, taking advantage of the witch’s neglect of the attack, they search for and destroy several cursed flowers that form the core of that huge tower, leading to the witch’s territory. Destroy and join.
As of now, as there are no obvious solutions, the only way to come up with this plan is to do so.
….I have been avoiding and waiting for this moment for such a long time. This was just the best.
“….”
“Aldrich.”
“….”
“Aldrich, Aldrich!”
“Hmm?! Oh, I’m sorry. “I have something to think about for a moment.”
“I asked if you were ready. Do you need some time?”
“No. The more time you give, the more the witch’s curse and her realm will stabilize. Are you really okay with that? “When I came here, it certainly seemed like dealing with one unskilled royal guard would be too much.”
“…It’s a bit like that, though. Since we have our capabilities, there will be no disruption to the operation. Let’s go, then.”
Nod. Ttduk, ttdduk!
The professor’s fingertips, with only his left arm turning black, cut through the wall made of flower trees, and as soon as they were cut, the tree trunks of the Notum tree began to tangle themselves together, maintaining the shape of a small door.
“Gwok. Closed and open spaces. There is a huge difference magically and symbolically. I don’t know about the curse, but come out while this door remains open. “That’s good.”
A tree root gate created by Notum. Judging from his frowning face and the blue magic inscriptions on his forehead and arms, he seemed to be expending a lot of mental energy just to keep that small door open.
Although his face is as bumpy as usual. Maybe it was because I had been looking at it for a long time, but I felt like I could see the image of an anxious girl subtly fidgeting in that bumpy and fierce troll’s face.
Come to think of it, the youngest person in our group was Notum, not Lucilla, I guess?
“…Thank you, Notum. “If you think about it, you just joined because of the church, and there’s no reason to get caught up in something this dangerous.”
“Geuuu. Restoration of the old order. This is my job too. “The ghosts of ancestors say so, so I guess that’s the case.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll come back alive. “You look like a tsundere troll.”
“Professor, you talk a lot. “The faster you go, the faster you will come out.”
guy. It’s refreshing.
The preparations are over, and after many twists and turns, we have arrived here with the final arrangements left.
Margrave’s territory. Wuthering Heights. Haunuman, and the capital.
After all that, we finally reached the witch who penetrated into the heart of the empire.
The obstacle that blocked that final encounter appeared in the professor’s eyes.
What is revealed between the cracked cursed walls.
The interior is filled with purple fog and you can’t even see an inch in front of you.
No matter how you look at it, it is a terrible battlefield full of curses, completely different from the capital you saw at first.
A garden of cursed flowers blooming beautifully in the Sea of Sisan and Blood.
“It’s a completely different space.”
“It won’t just be the power of the curse. The emperor I saw transformed the imperial castle into a different space with a single gesture. “Maybe it’s about using that power.”
“The power of the empire… yes. Before the witch achieved what she wanted, she changed the surroundings to suit her taste….”
….Pagak!
Aldrich closed his eyes for a moment and felt the power, then crushed the soul jar that was rolling in his hand with his thumb.
Instead of her usual fierce appearance, Neria’s spirit clings calmly to Aldrich’s arm in the form of a girl.
“Yes, I can feel it. There is no need to contain this child anymore. It’s over there. Your body stolen by the witch and her mother. Let’s go, Neria. Now… it’s over. Finally, we reached the end. “It’s time to fulfill the contract we’ve waited so long for.”
“….yes? The emperor clearly said that the first princess was in there….”
“no. It’s clear. Subject of contract. The agent of the curse that turned me into a warlock and bound me and Nell together. Neria’s body is in there…”
Aldrich walks into the witch’s space before the professor, who is overwhelmed by the atmosphere.
“Eh, I don’t know.”
After that, the professor jumped into the fog, following Aldrich, who disappeared in an instant.
“…You’re gone.”
The two people disappeared without a trace, leaving only Notum and Ottum behind.
“…Now, let’s get started. “Even if it’s not as much as the professor and Aldrich, we have to go through some trouble.”
“Geuuu.”
Otman, who saw the spot where the two people disappeared like a mirage before even taking a step back, drew up all the mana and groundwater he had saved, just as the professor saved his strength, and made a hand seal.
A thin stream of water and dozens of magical tree roots climbed up the huge cursed hill and wrapped around it like a net.
Otman is not a warlock, nor is he well-versed in curses, so he couldn’t have predicted what would happen there.
As a magician who gained enlightenment of the flow, I was certain of one premonition.
“…It’s the end.”
The end of some huge trend. Just as a winding river has an end, everything has a beginning and an end.
A huge country called an empire. I felt that the huge flow of power that had been flowing throughout history was finally running towards its end.
Who will stand on two feet at the end will probably be decided within.
****
fantasy,
