Chapter 25 - My Mouth is Watering
The black-armored knights, lined up at the Citadel entrance, continued their advance.
No one stood in their way.
The criminals and riffraff wandering the Citadel locked their doors and didn’t show even a fingertip.
The Branch Manager, Stationmaster, and Council members closed their eyes and feigned ignorance, at least for the money they had received.
From ancient times, the Citadel was an arena and a stage for the powerful.
The Citadel lived by eating the scraps left on the stage until the main characters ascended.
No matter what kind of fight broke out and how it ended, the Citadel could take a large cut and take a step forward.
Thus, they neither stopped nor instigated fights, maintaining only the position of a third party.
The Cursed Knights of the Balum family advanced without stopping.
Their destination was the Maxman Merchant Troupe’s workshop, which had recently started operating.
Originally, it was a place that the Citadel's top military force was supposed to destroy, but they too were ultimately common folk.
Perhaps it was a mistake from the start to think that the matter would end at their level.
No. Rather, it was for the better.
“Fifth Son…. Wait. I am coming to take your heart….”
A man with a colossal black scythe on his back.
The people of Dusk Citadel, whether criminals or merchants, couldn’t believe their eyes.
They didn’t know his face, but there was no one in the east who didn’t know that giant Black Scythe.
“Th-The Black Guillotine….”
When the giant scythe appeared on the battlefield and was swung once, five heads flew into the air.
A moving guillotine, and the man who held that guillotine was a cruel executioner.
The sorcerer who had once dominated the east had revealed himself in the Citadel.
He had once again taken out the scythe that had not been seen for a long time, dragging out a buried past.
The knights followed their lord, exuding the lingering scent of curses.
The Black Guillotine. Cardmun Balum.
Srrrrrrng─
He dropped the great black scythe from his back and lifted it to the sky.
“…That must be it.”
The Maxman Merchant Troupe’s workshop.
As reported, a deep smell of grass emanated from it.
But that too would now change.
To the rotten smell of corpses.
To the demonic energy of the dead.
To the screams that filled the streets as blood rained down.
Chwaaaaaaaak─!!
The black scythe cut diagonally across the front.
Along that trajectory, a sharp and unbent black line appeared.
It was the splitting of the great gate that was like a castle wall, and for a moment, it felt as if the world had been shattered.
Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrung─
The main gate crumbled like a sandcastle.
“Utterly trivial. Is this what they call a defense?”
He didn't even laugh and turned his horse's head.
“Knights.”
Srrrrrrrrrng─!
The Cursed Knights drew their swords in unison.
With that momentum, the tips of their swords also pierced the sky.
“Your valor will be passed down to the world of the dead and bring joy to my son, and he will bless you in the afterlife. Even death will pass you by.”
──!!
A roar echoed.
The thunder that rang out in the clear sky spread like a resonance and became a declaration of war.
Sreung─
The giant scythe pointed at the shabby-looking warehouse.
“Burn everything that stands still and kill everything that moves.”
Burn. Kill.
There were two orders.
And those were the kind that the Cursed Knights of the east could perform most proficiently.
“Charge─!!”
Along with the shout of the knight at the forefront, 100 knights charged towards the warehouse.
There was no hesitation.
With the Black Guillotine by their side and dozens of comrades, what was there to fear?
However, what they should fear had not yet revealed itself.
It was hiding somewhere quietly, and the moment it stimulated the mana circuit that was connected like a spiderweb inside the fence.
Kuwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah─!!
A wave of violent power spread in all directions.
“Gyaaaaaaaak…!!”
“Euhhhhh….”
“Grrrrrrrk…!”
Blood poured out, starting from their ears.
The Cursed Knights, their insides in a mess, fell from their horses.
The mana of the circuit is sensitive.
The reason for activation could be external pressure, an attack, or a distortion of the circuit.
And the Cursed Knights had committed all of these.
───!!
Sonic waves, louder and more powerful than a war cry, poured out from all directions.
Curses do not work on sound and pressure.
They had to defend only themselves without retaliating, but today was not a day they came for defense.
A sudden, unprepared defense on a day they came for slaughter was meaningless.
The Cursed Knights, in their confusion, swung their swords here and there.
The fence broke and broke again.
The more it did, the more the mana circuit, far from being severed, convulsed and spewed out traps.
“Arrows…?”
Not bullets, but arrows.
But those arrows were not just arrows.
They were high-firepower firecracker arrows tinkered with by Reggie of Levering Firearms.
Tududadadadadada─!
As they flew, the fire attached to the tips continuously set off the modified firecrackers hanging from them.
Acrid smoke blocked their breath, stung their eyes, and caused rashes.
Even those small explosions could not be ignored if they went off at close range.
Moreover, unlike the sonic waves, the explosions that came more directly added to the confusion.
“……”
Cardmun Balum could not hide his disappointment.
The knights who had run through battlefields with him were flustered, unable to overcome noise and firecrackers.
What a pathetic sight this was.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off the fence.
“I don’t know what kind of cheap tricks you’ve pulled.”
He swung the scythe horizontally.
Dozens, hundreds of scythes grew from the fence.
It was a power wielded by a demon a thousand years ago.
“Cheap tricks are, in the end, just cheap tricks.”
Hundreds of blades minced the fence from the inside.
If one cut didn’t work, he tried twice, three times, a hundred times.
The fence’s mana circuit was eradicated, and the meaningless resistance disappeared.
The black horse that Cardmun Balum rode advanced through the fallen knights.
He mercilessly executed the knights who couldn’t stand up and hadn’t even regained their senses yet.
“Balum has no need for the likes of you.”
The Cursed Knights, who were suffering from constant tinnitus and bleeding from the sonic waves, straightened their bodies so as not to fall.
The black horse advanced between the knights lined up on both sides.
The scythe in his hand was tinged with orange in the darkening sunset.
He had crossed the fence and arrived right in front of the warehouse.
The door was ajar, but beyond it was only darkness.
No presence was felt.
Nevertheless, someone walked out.
It was a familiar face.
“Head of the Black Wolf Brigade. Have you betrayed me?”
Remus shook his head.
That word was incorrect in many ways.
“Anyone who hears that would think I am your subordinate. I simply received a greater reward from the Fifth Son. If there is a reason, that is all.”
“…You filthy, disgusting bastards. I will cut off your head right now.”
“Unfortunately, today is not that day. But it might be for your knights.”
The acrid smell of blood vibrated through the area.
It was the smell of blood as blades entered and exited the Cursed Knights’ necks.
There was no need to look back.
Only The Fangs were capable of such a thing.
Cardmun Balum threw back the hood that hung like a grim reaper’s.
“Do you intend to test your skills against me?”
With eyes that seemed to have turned red with countless capillaries, and pale, deeply sunken cheeks, he looked closer to a dead man.
His face was similar to his daughter's when she was possessed by the evil spirit.
It seemed a similar kind of evil spirit was clinging to this father's heart as well.
“I, too, lost my wife and walked the same path as you. But even in what I thought was only darkness, there was light, and if you reach out your hand, you can grasp it.”
“……”
“Whether I close my eyes or open them, all I see is a pitch-black reality. But because of that, even a small light will seem large.”
“Enough….”
Srrrrrng─
The tip of the black blade pointed at him.
“Since Kerard died, there has been no light. No matter how pathetic he was, a son is a son. And I am a father.”
“…As expected. I knew you would say that.”
Remus stepped aside.
When the Hunter’s frame, which was taller than Cardmun’s black horse, was moved away.
“It’s a pity to mark our first meeting like this, Cardmun Balum.”
The source of the problem revealed himself.
“Fifth Son….”
The eyes of the scythe-wielding grim reaper narrowed.
“I came to kill you.”
“How bold. For someone who was caught by a fellow blood relative while forcibly suppressing a merchant’s camp belonging to your own family.”
There were a thousand reasons for me to be bold, but his face didn’t waver in the slightest.
His eyes, possessed by the evil spirit of revenge, were not facing reality but were merely a distant illusion like a dream.
“After I kill you, I will rip out your heart by the roots and comfort my son. I will wash away the dishonor cast upon the family and rebuild its foundation from scratch.”
Instead of the scythe, his index finger, curved like a scythe, swept through the air.
It was a light gesture, but its meaning was by no means light.
Because a scythe emerged from the Youngest Son’s shadow and tried to pierce him through from the back.
If it weren’t for the wings that shot out from the spatial artifact, it would have happened.
“You…. What kind of evil sorcery did you use?”
“Dismissing everything you can’t understand as evil sorcery, you’re just like the pure mages of the west and some sorcerers.”
“Resistance is futile. Your life will only be extended by a few seconds─”
“Cardmun Balum. Let’s change locations.”
The black horse he was riding snorted roughly.
It was a statement that would make even a beast lose its mind with absurdity.
Cardmun Balum muttered coldly.
“You have no choice. From the moment you stood before me, you couldn't even move a single finger as you pleased….”
Kwaaaak─!!
Kuwaaaaaaaaaaaaaah─
The Youngest Son, who had grabbed Cardmun Balum’s face, soared.
His red wings, having regained their form, made the Citadel look as small as a fist with a single movement.
Why had the sky suddenly gotten so close?
Why could he grasp the clouds in his hand?
There wasn’t even time to think such simple thoughts.
Before he could get used to the cold air of the sky that had touched his face.
“…!”
Because he was plummeting so fast it felt like his heart would leap out of his mouth.
The Youngest Son lightly loosened the grip of the hand that held his face.
With just that, his body was mercilessly flung and tumbled ungracefully.
Considering he had been flying higher than an eagle just moments before, he was in a decent state.
He used the scythe he hadn't let go of even while falling as a staff to lift his body.
His torn clothes were no different from rags, but the light in his pupils had not gone out.
The mana that boiled like a blaze throughout his body was visibly immense in both quantity and vigor.
“The Balum family. Joined Millesdusk solely on the uniqueness of their bloodline, passed down from their ancestors, and their military might. When I saw your son, I thought it was just an empty reputation.”
Now that I had witnessed the real thing, the military might that even Millesdusk had coveted was certainly something to behold.
But the opponent, even after hearing the compliment, couldn’t smooth the brow that was as deeply furrowed as a canyon.
“…I will pull out that tongue of yours and wrap it around your neck.”
“Do as you please. If you can.”
“The chatter ends here.”
Kugung─ Kugung─
A heartbeat that could be heard even by those who weren’t blood nobles made the very ground tremble.
With just the echo of his heart, the earth cried out, and the clear sky was stained with the color of ink.
The wind that brushed between his limbs first brushed past the man in front of him, becoming heavily laden with a sinister aura.
Kugung─
His heart beat once more.
That thing, which moved without stopping until death, supplied a different kind of blood throughout his body.
The more that blood spread.
Cardmun Balum’s body was no longer human.
His frame grew to a size incomparable even to Remus, and ram-like horns grew out.
His scale-like skin turned red, and he spewed hellfire from his eyes and mouth.
“As expected, you’re bringing it out.”
A secret technique that only a very few talented individuals among the descendants of the half-human, half-demon race were born with.
Demonization.
The moment it is unleashed, reason flies away, and only the fragmentary thoughts held before the transformation are imprinted.
That thought was obvious.
Kill the Fifth Son.
So, to avoid being caught up in the demon’s military might, I dragged him to a forest devoid of people.
Furthermore, there was another reason.
“You said you coveted the heart?”
Even as I spoke, the blood relative’s red pupils looked at what was behind the red skin.
“The same goes for me.”
A tongue redder than my pupils licked my lips.