Chapter 112
KUGUGUGUGUGU!
The lair walls cracked and stones fell from the collapsing ceiling.
At the same time, the magic stones covering the cavity floor turned red.
WOOOONG!
Zeke panicked watching the flickering magic stones.
“Th-This…!”
Seeing the rapidly decreasing countdown, Zeke hurriedly summoned Bucephalus.
NEEEIGH!
Mounted on Bucephalus, Zeke shouted.
“System! Open an escape route!”
[Unable to activate the lair’s emergency escape portal function.]
[Accessing the fortress administrator system to open the skyway.]
DRDRDRDRD!
The lair’s ceiling began to split open.
Avoiding the falling debris, Zeke rode Bucephalus up the wall toward the ceiling.
Kwakwakwakwakwa!
Bucephalus moved at high speed from the lair to where the fortress was located.
Zeke returned to the top of the fortress where he had found the Terakan Draker’s legacy earlier.
‘So the path was connected like this.’
[Opening the ceiling of the 4th Defense Fortress.]
DRDRDRDRD!
Just as seen in the hologram, the fortress ceiling split open.
Like the Terakan who flew up riding a Pegasus, Zeke also flew up above the ceiling riding Bucephalus.
NEEEEEIGH!
As Bucephalus soared into the air, the situation on the ground became clearly visible.
The dragon lair underground was collapsing, causing the excavation site above it to cave in as well.
The mages, hounds, and excavation slaves inside could be seen frantically escaping from the dungeon.
KURRRRRUNG!
A massive explosion occurred in the dungeon.
Simultaneously, the temple area shook with a thunderous roar as if an earthquake had struck, then collapsed inward.
“Good grief.”
Watching everything from atop Bucephalus, Zeke broke into a cold sweat.
If he had been even slightly delayed, he might have been buried there.
Then Zeke’s eyes caught the mages fleeing from the dungeon.
Seeing the mages escaping with secure sealed boxes, Zeke rode Bucephalus to get ahead of them.
If these were documents the mages risked their lives to save in a crisis, they must contain crucial information about the biological experiments conducted in the dungeon.
Zeke dismissed Bucephalus and jumped down from the cliff to block the mages’ path.
THUD!
The mages backed away in surprise as Zeke suddenly appeared blocking their escape route.
“Th-The enemy! Kill him!”
At one mage’s cry, the hounds behind charged at Zeke.
CHWAAAK!
Zeke’s sword, empowered with Aura, cut through the hounds’ swords and necks in one stroke.
Seeing this, the mages quickly chanted spells.
“Fire Wall!”
A massive wall of fire appeared between Zeke and the mages.
However, the Cloud Iron Armor automatically generated a shield to defend against the magic.
The mages unleashed a barrage of spells at Zeke who was blocked by the fire wall.
KWARRRRRUNG!
PAPAPAPAT!
KWAKWAKWAKWANG!
Powerful spells rained down on Zeke with sounds that threatened to collapse the ravine.
But Zeke simply deflected all the incoming spells using his magic reflection skill.
HWARRRURUK!
Zeke walked through the fire wall toward the mages without taking any damage.
The mages’ faces turned pale seeing their magic had no effect.
“Im-Impossible!”
Seeing Zeke unharmed after a magical barrage that could wipe out an entire knight order, they quickly decided they needed to escape.
While more hounds rushed in to hold Zeke back, the mages chanted spells and slowly rose into the air.
Then they tried to fly over the ravine past where Zeke was.
Seogek!
After quickly dispatching all the hounds, Zeke turned to look at the flying mages.
He needed to capture them with minimal damage to avoid destroying the sealed boxes and damaging the documents inside.
Zeke took out a dagger from his inventory, infused it with Aurai, and threw it at the flying mages.
The dagger imbued with the will of pursuit chased after the flying mages.
PUK!
“KUHUK!”
The mages hit by Zeke’s dagger plummeted down into the ravine.
Kwakwakwang!
Half of the dozen or so mages lost their lives on impact, their necks broken or heads crushed.
Zeke ran to where the mages had fallen.
“KUUUK!”
He saw one of the surviving mages trying to escape with a secure bag.
Zeke drew his sword and pointed it at the mage.
“Put down the sealed box and I’ll spare your life.”
Ignoring Zeke’s words, the mage immediately cast a spell.
“Ice Arrow!”
Hundreds of sharp ice arrows flew toward Zeke.
PACHING!
But the ice arrows shattered without penetrating the shield and armor.
With the Dragon Scale Armor skill active underneath his armor, Zeke took no damage from magic of this level.
The mage’s expression turned to despair when even the Ice Arrow spell failed after trying it thinking Zeke might be immune to fire attribute magic.
Zeke swung his sword at the wrist of the mage holding the sealed box.
SEOGEK!
“KYAAAK!”
The mage screamed as his wrist was cut off.
Zeke removed the hand still gripping the sealed box’s handle and put it straight into his inventory.
Approaching the wrist-severed mage, Zeke made an offer.
“Tell me what’s inside the sealed box. Then I’ll give you a healing potion.”
For mages who needed to form hand signs to cast spells, hands played an extremely important role.
The mage ground his teeth and shouted at Zeke.
“Damn you! How dare you interfere with the Empire’s great work! The Empire’s hooves and swords will tear you to…”
Seogek!
Zeke cut off the mage’s neck without listening further.
He could find out everything once he opened the sealed box anyway. He had only wanted a chance to learn more details, so there was no need to waste more time.
More importantly, he needed to escape this place quickly.
Just as Zeke was about to summon Bucephalus.
PUSHUUUK!
Zeke instinctively spun his body to dodge something flying at him.
KWAKWAKWANG!
An explosion occurred where Zeke had been standing.
‘This is…?’
It was one of the things that had given Zeke the most trouble during the Third Continental War.
‘Imperial Magic Corps Special Snipers.’
They were special mages who killed knights using magic specialized for sniping rather than regular attack magic.
So many knights died on the battlefield because of them that they were nicknamed ‘Knight Killers’.
For Zeke, who had lost countless comrades to the Knight Killers, he couldn’t help but be tense.
‘To think Knight Killers existed in this era too.’
Zeke tried to locate the sniper’s position using Dragon Eye.
Since Knight Killers could snipe from up to 3km away, it was difficult to spot them with the naked eye.
Zeke looked around for an escape route.
WHIK!
Zeke threw himself toward another piece of cover.
KWAKWANG!
A sniper spell that flew from far away exploded precisely where Zeke had been.
While the sniping magic used by Knight Killers wasn’t very powerful at destroying terrain or objects, it inflicted fatal wounds on knights.
Even after the Third Continental War ended, the nature of the special magic used by Knight Killers remained unknown, so Zeke was more alert than usual.
‘I’ll have to trust in Aura and shield magic and make a run for it.’
The longer he delayed, the worse his situation became.
Usually, even if Knight Killers failed to kill their target, they would keep sniping at knights like this to pin them down until their main force arrived.
Well aware of this fact, Zeke tried to leave this place as quickly as possible before encountering the main force.
CHWAAAK!
Zeke wrapped his entire body in Aura’s defensive will and ran toward the escape route.
KWANG!
The sniper spell was so fast it hit Zeke’s armor before his shield magic could activate.
‘KUK!’
The impact penetrated through his armor.
If he hadn’t been wearing Dragon Scale Armor, the impact would have knocked him down.
Zeke kept running to escape the ravine without stopping.
He considered summoning Bucephalus, but bringing out such a noticeable familiar might reveal his identity later.
‘Damn, there’s nowhere to open a portal here either.’
He didn’t have enough points to open a portal to somewhere farther away.
Hiding behind cover again, Zeke regulated his breathing.
Then a message appeared before his eyes.
[Demon Energy is corrupting your body.]
Zeke was startled by the message.
‘Demon Energy?’
He could feel increasing pain from where the sniper spell had hit.
Even with Healing Factor active, the pain wouldn’t go away.
Zeke immediately equipped Agamemnon’s Mask and used the purification skill.
Woooong!
Only after golden light spread throughout his body did the pain subside.
Zeke could now understand the secret of the Knight Killers’ sniping magic that he couldn’t solve in his previous life.
‘So they shot magic containing Demon Energy to break down knights’ bodies.’
If it had been known that the Empire was using such forbidden techniques in warfare, both the Magic Tower and Nirvana, who had claimed neutrality in the Continental War, would surely have joined the fight.
Since there was no way to treat Demon Energy except with the purification skill that only Healer classes could use, it was essentially like a poison without an antidote.
Zeke clenched his molars.
‘Damn bastards. So this is what they were doing.’
While the sniping magic had been an object of fear when its true nature was unknown, there was no need to fear it if it could be treated with the purification skill.
Zeke emerged from cover wearing Agamemnon’s Mask under his helmet.
PUSHUUUK!
Another sniper spell flew toward Zeke.
Zeke took the magic head-on.
Terrible pain was felt where it hit.
Zeke immediately used the Golden Mask’s skill while getting up and starting to run to escape the ravine.
‘Purify.’
WOOOONG!
With the flash of light, the Demon Energy that had seeped into his body was purified and disappeared.
Confirming that the sniper spell’s effects were gone, Zeke infused Aura’s will of speed and ran even faster.
Zeke’s current speed was comparable to that of a mounted cavalry soldier.
Pishuuuk!
The sniper magic struck Zeke’s body, but he used his purification skill and continued running without slowing down.
That’s when it happened.
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
He could see hundreds of knights rushing into the ravine.
It seemed they had delayed too long, and the Imperial garrison forces had revealed themselves.
Zeke recognized the identity of the knight charging at the front.
‘Morgan Buffon.’
A knight of the Snake Palace, one of the Thirteen Empire Palaces.
Morgan Buffon, a commander of the Empire, personally led his knights charging toward Zeke.
“Capture him alive!”
THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!
The knights swung their swords toward Zeke.
CLANG!
Zeke swung his sword imbued with golden power and struck the sides of the horses the knights were riding.
NEEEIGH!
The horses, feeling the strong impact, collapsed sideways with their flanks caved in.
At the same time, the knights’ formation was disrupted.
Morgan shouted toward the knights.
“Block his escape route! We absolutely cannot let him get away!”
Knight Killers were positioned above the ravine, and knights and mages blocked both sides of the ravine.
Zeke was essentially trapped inside the ravine.
He raised his sword and glared at Commander Morgan.
‘In this case… I’ll break through head-on.’
Zeke summoned Gurab toward where the knights were.
KAAAAAAK!
The summoned Gurab sprayed poisonous mist toward the knights.
The knights were momentarily stunned at the sight of the giant poison-spewing chimera.
“It’s a monster, stop it!”
Taking advantage of that opening, Zeke deployed a wind barrier and charged toward Morgan.
Claaang!
Zeke’s sword and Morgan’s sword clashed.
“HAAAAHT!”
The strength of Morgan, knight of the Snake Palace, was certainly not to be underestimated.
Boom!
He pushed back Zeke’s sword, leaped from his horse, and brought his sword down.
A sword wrapped in aura bore down on Zeke.
Zeke quickly dodged using his ultimate skill shadowless step.’
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Morgan’s aura blade collided with the ground creating a massive explosion.
Red sand clouds rose up.
Morgan pursued Zeke with his sword and shield.
‘Where is he?.’
That’s when it happened.
Zeke’s sword suddenly shot out from within the sand cloud.
SLASH!
Zeke’s sword struck Morgan’s body.
But instead, Zeke’s sword was deflected.
‘That’s…?’
In that moment, a helmet automatically covered Morgan’s face and full plate armor equipped itself over his entire body.
The constellation of the Snake Charmer was engraved on the chest of the armor.
Morgan Buffon’s Hersion had revealed itself.
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