Chapter 116
White light spread out in all directions.
Along with the purification ritual, a memorial ceremony honoring the victims was held simultaneously.
The number of victims exceeded several thousand.
Among them were knights and mercenaries who had died caught in the explosions.
Due to the corpse explosions conjured by the elf, the Knight of the Lighthouse suffered casualties for the first time since its founding.
Three had died.
It was the result of being caught in a single explosion.
The sorcery the creature used was lethal enough that even knights who had reached a certain level would find it difficult to avoid if caught by surprise.
"Look kindly upon these souls and embrace them."
Isabel quietly recited the prayer, clad in the armor of an Inquisitor.
The sight of the Saintess reciting prayers wearing armor as a comrade who fought alongside them, rather than the robes of a Saintess, carried considerable resonance.
As all the priests seated around followed Isabel in prayer, the surroundings were enveloped in bright light, and black energy began to scatter like smoke from the ground of the Andersen Domain and disappear.
"It's an amazing sight."
Karl quietly turned his head towards the voice that naturally sounded beside him.
"Thanks to you, I avoided disaster. Are you really some kind of Saint? How did you know about the threat we weren't aware of and warn us?"
"Guess I am some kind of Saint."
Anne chuckled at Karl's short reply and stood quietly beside him, watching the purification ritual led by Isabel.
"I owe you a debt. Last time too, if you need help, just say the word."
"I'm always getting information, so that's enough."
"Isn't there something you want?"
Looking at Anne's peculiar expression, Karl opened his mouth with indifferent eyes.
"The ones who committed this act. They were elves."
"Elves?"
Nod.
"It's already been over 15 years since I started handling information. Everything has changed so much that I wonder if the continent now is the place I used to know.
To the point where I wonder how things could be like this... As for information about elves, we are also gathering it bit by bit. It's certainly clear that they are not the beings from the records we read."
"It's astounding that the word 'elf' refers to beings that command undead and make corpses explode."
Anne nodded in agreement with Karl's words.
"That's something I didn't know."
"I saw two of them. One was Baltimo's strategist, but his appearance was different. They are creatures skilled at disguising their appearance. Anyway, in their true forms, both had red eyes and blonde hair. Their ears were pointed and long. Their features were handsome."
Anne nodded slightly.
"If you obtain any information, let me know too. I have a debt to collect."
Three of Karl's members lay in the area where the severely damaged corpses were gathered.
He fixed his gaze on the members' corpses for a while before looking away.
"I'll let you know as soon as possible. By the way, your gaze has changed."
"...?"
"Before, you had a face like you weren't from this world. A suffocatingly dry atmosphere. Like the desert said to be on the East Continent."
"Was that so."
"Now you seem human."
"..."
"I mean it looks good. Whoever you are, whatever life you've lived, you look better than when I saw you last time anyway."
"..."
"Anyway, I'll drop by soon. Are you returning to Collo?"
Nod.
"I'll be going then, see you again soon."
Karl watched Anne disappear as quietly as she had appeared, then saw the ritual was almost finished and summoned the knight order.
The steps of the knight order returning with the coffins containing their comrades' bodies seemed heavier than usual.
"Parting like this, I don't know when we'll meet again."
"Stay well. The day will come when we see each other again."
Ellenhower showed a satisfied smile at Karl's longer-than-usual reply.
"Less cold than before, indeed. Hahahahahaha. I look forward to seeing you soon. Take care of yourself too."
Ellenhower thus departed first, leading his domain's army.
"Call us whenever you need us. We'll come to help without hesitation."
"Same here, Brother!"
Owen, with his snake-like face, promising to come help anytime, and Verpin, who had started calling Karl 'Brother' at some point, also turned their steps after finishing their farewells.
After everyone had left, Karl began heading towards Collo, accompanied by Isabel and the people of the Order.
It was decided to leave the Andersen domain and the other northern territories as uninhabited zones.
Although the purification ritual had been performed, the negative energy needed to dissipate completely, and the land's vitality needed to recover enough for people to live there.
All the domain's residents had either died or fled, and it also needed to be decided who would be appointed as lord.
With the Emperor absent now, the disposition of this domain could be decided by the nearby nobles under Ellenhower's supervision.
Other matters would be distributed through appropriate negotiations.
And those who had abandoned their domain and people to flee would not be allowed to participate in those negotiations.
***
Countless people died, and the north was nearly ruined, but just a little distance away from the north, the world seemed as if nothing had happened.
Dwarves who emerged from the uninhabited zones began trading with people.
In large cities, one could occasionally encounter one or two such individuals.
However, where elves showed themselves, accidents or ominous signs tended to appear.
It was still difficult to specify the correlation between accidents, ominous signs, and elves, but some people well-versed in information were noticing that elves were by no means beneficial beings to humans.
"To think elves were actually such beings... It's quite a shocking story."
Count Vito listened intently to the story Karl told him while taking a sip of warm black tea.
"For the time being, it's time to consolidate our internal affairs. To avoid being attacked, we need to grow stronger than we are now. Kelvin's growth is fast. Once he matures a bit more, he'll be capable of leading a knight order."
With Kelvin already adapting to the Master level, the strength of the Knight of the Lighthouse was now greater than before.
And thanks to continued applications for enlistment from various places, he planned to increase the total number to 150.
Of course, retraining was also necessary to match that.
"Where are you planning to go?"
"I owe a debt to those things called elves, so I must repay it. They are creatures whose danger grows the longer they are left alone."
"If possible, wouldn't it be better for somewhere else to clash with them first, rather than us?"
Count Vito, given the current state of affairs, was worried that clashing with them would weaken their forces.
"Don't worry, this time, if I move, I plan to go alone."
"That is too dangerous a thought!"
Even Count Vito, who rarely got angry, shouted at Karl's statement about going alone.
"There's no need to be so serious. I'll assess the situation and run away if it's dangerous."
"...Sir Karl is no longer alone. Many people rely on you. Including myself."
"..."
Karl nodded silently and replied.
"Anyway, I understand. I'll be careful."
"Then that's settled. Well, you are someone who receives God's calling, I can't possibly block the path of such a person."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Didn't you know? Rumors are rampant everywhere that Sir Karl was the first to know about the recent disaster and prepare for it. Moreover, when everyone abandoned the people of the north, only you rushed in to save them. The story of Karl Meyer and the Knight of the Lighthouse is the most popular trend among storytellers these days."
"...This is driving me crazy."
Karl's brow furrowed.
He had heard something he shouldn't have.
Karl finished his conversation with Count Vito and sat alone in his room, taking out the rewards he had received previously.
[Elixir (Medium)]
[Body Enhancement Elixir]
He could roughly deduce the function of the Elixir.
Since potions had healing effects, perhaps the Elixir was like a miracle drug helpful for increasing internal energy, akin to something from martial arts stories.
The name Body Enhancement Elixir was good because it was intuitive.
"I guess I should drink both first."
It was hard to expect detailed explanations from this foundationless trash game.
Even now, the explanations for the two drugs were merely:
[Elixir: A mysterious elixir with mystical powers.]
[Body Enhancement Elixir: Enhances the user's body.]
They were vague tooltips at a kindergartener's level.
"Hoo..."
After taking a deep breath for a moment, Karl called for Kelvin standing outside the door.
"Do not let anyone enter under any circumstances until I say so."
"What are you doing that requires such measures?"
"Gambling."
"Gambling?"
Karl, leaving that one word behind, closed the door and drank the elixir without hesitation.
Gulp. Gulp.
After drinking both bottles of elixir, he sat on the floor in the posture commonly known as the full lotus and focused his mind.
‘No particular abnormalities.’
He only felt a refreshing sensation upon drinking, and even after about a minute had passed since drinking, there was no pain or abnormal symptoms.
Rather, a strange sense of exhilaration, as if his entire body had been activated, came over him.
After about three minutes passed like that without any particular issues, Karl released the full lotus and stood up.
"Was I nervous for nothing..."
But the punch landed without any preparation always hurts the most.
"Keoheop...!"
Karl, who had stood up, felt a pain as if his entire body was shattering due to the energy rampaging like it would explode throughout his system.
Since he was caught off guard, the pain struck his entire body several times stronger.
Karl lost his balance and collapsed onto the floor.
Then, the bones and muscles throughout his body began to twist.
Whether it was because there were two drug components or because one of the two drugs produced such effects, Karl lost consciousness due to the profound pain that felt like it would break his spirit.
His body twisted uncontrollably, unable even to scream properly, repeatedly fainting and waking up.
During that time, Karl's body twisted and returned to normal several times.
‘Fuck...’
For the first time in a while, a curse in Korean surfaced in Karl's mind.
The pain, like his soul was breaking, showed no sign of ending.
After what felt like an eternity passed, the pain suddenly stopped, and his whole body felt light as if it could fly.
‘Survived...’
Just when he thought he had finally survived.
The energies within his body suddenly gathered near his dantian and then surged towards his head as if to pierce the heavens.
Kwaaaaaang!
It wasn't a real sound.
But Karl felt a chain explosion occurring inside his head.
The energy rampaged, stirring here and there in Karl's head, exploding madly.
The explosion occurring in his head presented Karl with a pain different from his body breaking.
Thus, Karl repeatedly fainted from the pain and woke up again several times, and at some point, he felt something like a dam burst inside his head.
Swishhhh!
It wasn't an explosion sound like before.
Something blocked had been pierced, and only then did the energies that had been madly hitting everywhere move along a single path.
Karl didn't realize it, but at that moment, his body floated into the air, and colorful energies spread out centered around his body.
"Commander, are you alright-! Ah...!"
Kelvin, startled by the sound of things breaking and crashing in the room, quickly opened the door and entered, gasping in admiration as he saw Karl floating in the air, emitting a mystical light.
At the incredibly amazing and mystical sight, the likes of which he had never seen, Kelvin unknowingly clasped his hands together and murmured Essus' name.
‘Save me...’
To a third party, the sight was nothing short of magnificent, and Kelvin prayed with clasped hands.
Karl himself was rolling his eyes back in pain and blacking out repeatedly.
And just as Kelvin finished reciting the prayer, the changes occurring in Karl's body also ended.
"Truly a miracle... That must be why you told me not to let others in... But where is this smell of rotten rags coming from?"
Thus, Karl's body enhancement concluded, along with Kelvin's misunderstanding.