Chapter 165 – Similar Perspectives (2)
Translator: Seven
Editors: Ana_Banana, Yahiko
Regardless of race, if you were to ask anyone what the current strongest group on the continent was, you would only receive one answer.
The Kastkau Empire.
Although it had the reputation of the Magic Empire, it was also a country where outstanding Knights and Alchemists were constantly produced. It was also one of the only two countries left on the continent that had the title ‘empire’.
A middle aged man was seated on a throne which rested in the deepest part of the imperial residence. This man was Balia Diak Kastkau, the Emperor of Kastkau.
However, Balia currently had an extremely nervous expression on his face, an expression that wasn’t befitting of an emperor.
“What should I do?”
After learning about what happened in Geotanbul and Silkid, Balia was unable to sleep even for a moment.
Demigods.
These transcendent beings who had ruled the continent from the shadows had finally revealed their true colors. The Emperors of the Kastkau Empire had known of the Demigods’ existence for generations.
No, it wasn’t just knowing.
In truth, they had borrowed their power numerous times throughout history. It wouldn’t be false to say that the Demigods were the Imperial family’s benefactors.
Their invincible power had solved numerous issues that the Kastkau Empire had been unable to solve with their military.
‘We can’t fight against them.’
It was suicidal to fight against the Demigods. Even if they had hundreds of Wizards, thousands of Knights and tens of thousands of soldiers.
[It seems you have yet to make a decision.]
Balia’s heart almost stopped for a moment, his face quickly becoming pale.
The Imperial residence was surrounded by a barrier that the great Wizards of the empire put their minds and souls to create.
8 star Wizards had no hopes of entering without permission and even the legendary 9 star Wizards would not be able to enter easily.
But that meant nothing to the transcendent being in front of him who was emitting a bright white radiance.
He stood there as though he had been there since the beginning, without a sound or trace.
“…Lord.”
Lord looked up at the throne.
When he saw the face without any features, Balia’s heart, which had almost stopped just a moment before, began to pound heavily against his chest.
[Come down.]
“Wh-, what do you mean?”
Lord’s tone remained the same as he answered Balia’s question.
[Come down from the throne and kneel before me. Be polite and submit yourself. Then, I will spare you.]
Balia clenched his teeth at those words.
Get down on his knees and submit. That was what Lord had just told him to do.
He understood what it meant immediately. After all, he’d always felt that it would happen someday.
“…I can’t accept that.”
Emperor Balia refused.
He had no choice but to.
If he, the emperor, kneeled, then that would mean the entirety of the Kastkau Empire had fallen into the Demigods’ grasp.
One might ask why he chose to do this, when they couldn’t defeat Lord anyway, but being forced to surrender and voluntarily bowing your head were completely different things.
In addition he had to maintain the pride of Kastkau. Even though Geotanbul had been destroyed and Silkid was currently still fighting.
In such a situation, the empire could not be the first to raise the white flag. If they surrendered, then it was highly likely that other countries would jump to follow them.
This wasn’t something that would end with just the empire. Balia knew that.
That was why he shouted out in a voice filled with rage.
“Why did you begin to act like this all of a sudden? If we continued our symbiotic relationship, the continent would still be at peace…”
Balia stopped because Lord burst out laughing.
“…what’s so funny?”
[Symbiosis means to live together and exchange mutual benefits. It’s not suitable to describe our relationship.]
“The empire has never violated your orders.”
[And that’s why your country hasn’t been destroyed yet.]
Those words made Balia speechless.
He would have snorted in disdain if anyone else had said those words, but the one before him was Lord himself.
Lord waved his hand once.
Then Balia suddenly sprang up from his seat.
“Uh…”
“Yo-, Your Majesty.”
“Hu-, huk!”
Those who suddenly appeared in the room were none other than the emperor’s family members.
Lord let out a laugh.
Balia roared as the anger he felt at that moment covered the fear in his chest.
“What the hell are you-!”
[Shhh.]
But his anger seemed to evaporate as Lord spoke once again.
As soon as he heard Lord’s voice, his head cooled and his entire body became covered in sweat.
[I worked pretty hard to find all of them. One thing I envy about you is the fact that your race continually increases, even if you don’t try. We don’t have the means to increase our numbers.]
Lord fell silent for a moment.
Then the atmosphere in the room changed.
[That’s why I cared so deeply about every one of my people.]
It was a quiet voice. But those who heard it almost collapsed to the floor instantly. Some of them couldn’t even breathe under the sudden pressure.
[In the past few years, members of my race have been wiped out one after the other. Do you understand what I’m talking about? It means that I can’t see nearly ten of my people ever again. It’s also not possible for me to reverse time.]
“Th-, the empire did nothing. We had no involvement in the fight between you and the Circle….”
[You did. I know you’ve been neutral for hundreds of years. My presence today is closely related to that fact.]
“Wh-, what do you mean?”
[Don’t you already have an idea? I’m here to change your neutral standing.]
Balia grit his teeth.
A change of their neutral standing.
It was clear what Lord meant. He was demanding that Balia swear allegiance to him.
He also wasn’t just speaking to Balia, but to the entire imperial family.
He was asking for the loyalty of the entire Kastkau Empire.
“I won’t do it even if you kill me.”
Balia glared at Lord openly.
The fact that he didn’t look away till the very end was deserving of applause.
But Lord laughed as if he expected such a response.
[I see.]
Lord snapped his fingers.
Pop.
And then they heard a popping sound.
“…”
Balia couldn’t understand what just happened.
He saw it with his own eyes and felt the sticky substance covering his face, but his brain was still unable to process what just happened.
Or perhaps, his brain refused to accept it.
Balia blinked foolishly before a scream seemed to make everything click in his head.
“Ky-, kyaaaa!”
“I, I don’t believe… Jenia!”
His second daughter Jenia, the Second Imperial Princess, had exploded.
That was exactly what had happened.
Like a balloon, her body suddenly popped, splashing blood and pieces of flesh everywhere.
Some of the people gathered became sick at the sight.
“A-, ahhh….”
Only then did Balia realise why Lord had brought his family.
Tears streamed down his face.
Lord seemed puzzled by this sight.
[Are you sad? That’s amazing. You’ve only known each other for a few decades at best.]
“A-, ahh… why would you do such a terrible…”
[Terrible? How interesting. If this is terrible…]
Lord, who had been muttering to himself, suddenly looked up.
There were no eyes on his face, but the emperor was certain that he was looking at him.
[Then what about what you all did?]
“…wh-, what are you talking about…”
[If that was a terrible thing, then what about your people who killed my companions of thousands and tens of thousands of years?]
Lord’s voice grew progressively more angry. His mouth appeared, and he was gritting his teeth harshly.
[How I feel right now, you would never be able to imagine.]
“K-, kuk…”
He couldn’t even shed tears.
When Lord unleashed his aura, Balia found that he couldn’t even breathe. And just as he was about to reach his limit, Lord removed the pressure.
Then he lifted his finger and pointed to the rest of Balia’s relatives before saying.
[Now. Emperor of this Empire, I will give you another chance. This time you should think carefully. What do you plan to do?]
* * *
Frey needed to stop the bleeding from his left arm.
The pain was manageable, but the blood loss would be annoying.
Woowoong.
After staunching the blood flow with a brief application of mana, his broken bones began to forcibly twist back into their original position.
Crunch.
“…”
Naturally, this process was accompanied by sharp pain.
In his head, he couldn’t help but think that it wasn’t something that he should be doing just yet, but it couldn’t be helped. If he left it alone and his bones began to heal in that shape, it would be several times more annoying to fix.
Then he took a potion from his bag. It was a potion that he always had prepared in case of emergencies, but it wouldn’t be able to deal with such serious injuries.
Nevertheless, it was better than nothing, so he poured half of it over his arm, and drank the other half.
The pain seemed to decrease a little.
Frey looked down at his arm.
His forearm was in terrible condition as a large chunk of it was missing. If the wound had been a bit deeper, he definitely would have lost his left hand.
‘It’s a very small price to pay to slay a Demigod.”
To put it bluntly, it would have still been worth it even if he had lost his left arm completely.
Losing an arm wasn’t too big of a loss for a Wizard like Frey.
Frey glanced at Milled’s body.
It was time to retrieve his crystal. Milled’s body had already transformed into a pile of ashes, similar to Riki.
Frey pulled out the crystal that was buried in the pile.
Milled’s crystal shined with a color that was very similar to sand.
Frey still wasn’t sure of the most efficient way to use a Demigod’s crystal.
‘Should I ask Elliah or Schweiser?’
Riki had given him his crystal, so Frey intended to use it someday.
Crack.
“Hm?”
Frey looked down at his hand before his expression hardened.
“This…”
The crystal was currently stuck in his palm.
Frey hadn’t done anything. It was the crystal that moved on its own. Like a worm burrowing into the skin, it dug itself into Frey’s palm.
“…!”
Then the divine power from the crystal began flowing into him.
It was only then that Frey understood what was happening. The divine power was attracting each other.
Milled’s crystal was combining with the divine power in Frey’s body.
Krrr.
Frey stumbled, unable to stand properly. The overwhelming divine power pouring in from the crystal rushed forward without any hesitation, as though it was trying to erase Frey’s consciousness.
‘What the hell…’
Nothing like this had happened the last time he touched a Demigod crystal, so why was it happening now?
What had changed between now and then?
There was only one thing.
‘The fusion of my divine power and mana…’
He couldn’t keep thinking. Gradually, he felt his consciousness begin to blur.
He’d used the power of Absolute too many times in his battle with Milled. So it was almost impossible for him to remain conscious in a situation where his mental strength was already extremely exhausted.
‘This is dangerous.’
He could not afford to lose consciousness there.
There were very few places in Silkid that were safe, and he was definitely not in one of them.
Becoming defenseless in this place was no better than begging to be killed.
Frey desperately tried to control the rampaging divine power.
He wanted to Warp to a safer location, but his mana was not listening to him at that moment.
All he could do was try to force the divine power to calm down. It took a while before he was able to control some of the divine power, but by that time, his entire body was covered in sweat.
His mental strength was also waning.
“Kuk…”
Frey collapsed to his knee with a soft groan.
He struggled to hold onto his remaining strand of consciousness, but it was no use.
Pak.
He eventually lost consciousness and collapsed onto the sand, unmoving.
Whoosh.
A cool breeze blew.
After an unknown amount of time, a man walked up to the place where Frey had fainted, his gaze slowly settling on Frey’s immobilized body.
“….”
The man’s expression became complicated. He frowned, seemingly struggling with something.
After standing there for a long time, the man approached Frey.
Then, he simply lifted him onto his shoulder and continued walking.