Episode 60
While Sir Helmut single-handedly held back the main force of the hardline elders pouring through the front gate, a few elders managed to slip into the upper floors of the Saxon Ducal Castle.
But they were not alone. Standing in their path were the protectors of the Saxon family.
“The Black Executor…!”
A woman in a sharp suit, her monocle glinting, stood before them. One of the elders from the Black Tower recognized her and shouted.
Eris, the Black Duke’s secretary, the Black Executor.
Being the secretary to the Black Tower’s master was far from being just a mere assistant.
“To think there are so many foolish enough to oppose the Tower Master.”
Eris murmured bitterly, unable to hide her disappointment in front of the flustered elder.
“Even after witnessing the current state of the Black Tower, you still dare to speak such nonsense?”
The elder from the Black Tower retorted, unwilling to back down.
“Black Executor, can you not see the Black Tower’s decline and the weakened state of the Tower Master?”
“You speak of a fallen Black Tower and a weakened Tower Master?”
“Indeed, led astray by the warmth and affection of family, forgetting the spirit of the Black Tower—”
At that moment, Eris couldn’t hold back her laughter any longer.
“What is so amusing?”
“That a mere 6th-circle elder presumes to measure the depth of the Black Tower Master’s character.”
Eris spoke, her monocle gleaming coldly.
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing does not become a sheep at heart.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“No matter how much a demon disguises itself as an angel, its wings will never become those of an angel.”
With black magic swirling at her feet, Eris let out a derisive laugh, unable to contain her amusement.
“High-level Annihilation: Event Horizon.”
Eris spoke, and suddenly, ‘stars of death’ began orbiting around her like satellites. A celestial body that absorbs everything through gravity, from which even light cannot escape—a black hole.
“The Princess of Darkness!”
Though she found it embarrassing to admit, and rarely spoke of it herself…
Before she was the Black Executor or the Black Tower Master’s secretary, she was once known as the ‘Princess of Darkness,’ a 7th-circle dark mage.
”…Be consumed by the darkness.”
The Dark Princess.
A self-proclaimed title from her youthful whims, a naming sense so cringeworthy it still haunted her to this day.
“Damn it, damn it…!”
There was a man whose blood boiled like Walter of the Fiery Blood. Facing a 6th-circle elf mage.
“I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you!”
The elder of the Black Tower shouted, his blood boiling to the point of evaporation.
“I’ll torment you until you beg for death to end your suffering…!”
Amidst the cacophony of the Blue Dissonance, he struggled desperately.
“Why is a mage, who should remain calm, so heated? I truly cannot understand.”
Watching him, Sepia tilted her head in confusion.
As a 6th-circle water mage, she precisely intercepted every spell aimed at her, nullifying them one by one. Through her renowned nullification magic, she immobilized her opponent’s every move, sealing them repeatedly.
Contrary to what people thought, Ray Uris was not just the adopted son of the Blood Duke.
He was the heir to the blood legacy built by a great lineage. The one who carried on the legacy of the Red Tower.
Young Blood.
Ray Uris of the Uris family stood there.
“Could it be… your true identity is…!”
The elder of the Black Tower muttered in disbelief, ignoring the blood flowing from his own body.
“I don’t mind the blood of the wicked.”
Ray Uris smiled softly, licking the blood from his lips, revealing his sharp fangs.
What flowed within Ray Uris was the blood history and the power of the bloodline built by the Uris family, incomparable to the bond between mere parent and child.
“I cannot disappoint my father.”
Ray Uris surged forward, his physical prowess surpassing even that of an Aura Knight. Not relying on aura or magic, but purely on the overwhelming physical abilities inherent to his kind.
In this world, the fate of a mage who allowed a knight to close the distance was well-known.
And the same fate awaited a mage who allowed a vampire to close in.
Crunch!
Ray Uris’s fangs sank into the neck of the Black Tower elder. Simultaneously, the elder’s blood began to flow backward into Ray’s mouth.
“Gah, gah!”
The blood of the 6th-circle dark mage dripped down, following the vampire’s fangs and the bio-fusion artifact, the ‘Dragon’s Jawbone.’ This was Ray Uris’s true purpose for visiting the frozen lands of Saxon for the Black-Red Exchange.
“This is the power of a 6th-circle dark mage…”
He murmured, rotating the two circles within his heart.
The searing heat of red magic, like magma, and the deep, dark black magic, like the depths of night.
Fire and darkness.
The red-black magic swirled and surged at his feet, mixing like a vortex.
Much like the chilling cold and dark magic that Dale had once shown… the black-blue of it.
“Mother, Lize!”
When Dale crossed the corridor of the castle and reached the Duke and Duchess of Saxon’s bedroom.
“You’ve arrived, my lord!”
The room was fortified like a fortress, guarded by the castle’s night raven knights.
The loyal knights who usually resided in the Saxon Ducal Castle, protecting their lord. Among them, the finest knights, second only to Sir Helmut, were present.
Knowing the weight of their duty, they rarely revealed themselves and did not join the regular training of the knights. Silent knights who had sworn the ‘Oath of Silence,’ pledging to be the shadows of the Saxon Ducal family for life.
The Saxon Ducal family’s elite guard.
The Grave Guard knelt before Dale, planting their swords vertically into the ground.
Even if the Black Tower’s elders unleashed their world of ideas, they possessed the skill to break through such barriers with their thought swords.
Each one was an avatar wielder, surpassing even Aura Knights to reach the level of ‘Aura Masters.’ Knights capable of deploying the ultimate combat form as knights.
Just as 4th-circle and higher mages and mass destruction spells were banned in disputes among lower lords, the participation of ‘avatar wielders’ with the level of Aura Masters was also prohibited.
Because it would lead to too great a sacrifice.
The highest forces participating in the black-and-white rotation were limited to Aura Knights like Sir Bale or Sir Milvas for this reason.
And those very Aura Master knights, the Grave Guardians, were protecting the Duke and Duchess of Saxon’s bedroom. As the Black Duke had said, the Saxon fortress was not so weak as to fall to a few tower elders.
“Brother!”
Amidst the sudden commotion, Lize cried out in fear. Even at her young age, too young to understand the world, she sensed the ominous atmosphere within the Saxon Ducal Castle.
“Lize, come here.”
“Brother, I’m scared!”
“Don’t be afraid. There’s nothing to fear.”
Dale hurriedly approached his trembling little sister and embraced her. Lize couldn’t hold back her sobs any longer and cried out.
“Your brother will protect you.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Seeing the small, fragile life trembling, Dale bit his lip softly.
“Dale…”
“There’s nothing to worry about, Mother.”
Dale smiled at Elena, who swallowed her breath. An indescribable emotion tightened around Dale’s heart.
“They will never reach you or Lize.”
Dale spoke calmly, despite the ‘ebony tendrils’ constricting his heart.
“Sir Helmut is holding the enemy’s main force, and the castle’s high-ranking mages are stopping the elders infiltrating the upper floors.”
Beside Dale, Sir Bale of Baskerville reported.
The castle’s high-ranking mages, including Eris and Sepia, were loyal not to the Black Tower but to the Saxon Ducal family.
To be honest, the chances of them reaching this place were slim. But considering the one-in-a-thousand possibility, the Saxon family’s knights were guarding this place, and the skills of the Aura Masters here were beyond doubt.
The strongest knights were protecting the people of the Saxon Ducal family.
However, Dale had no intention of being passively protected by them. Moreover, it was not Dale’s role to guard this place.
That role belonged to them, the Grave Guard.
“I entrust my mother and Lize to you.”
“Dale!”
“My lord!”
“Please, trust me.”
Leaving a flustered Elena behind, Dale issued orders to the knights of the Saxon family. He moved through the shadows within the castle, determined to become the hunter seeking his ‘prey,’ ready to make those who dared challenge the Black Tower’s regime pay the price.
Velok, the captain of the Black Order and a sixth-circle dark mage, strode through the castle corridors.
During the war, the Black Order’s laboratory was a utopia for the pursuit of truth, a devil’s paradise where morality was cast aside. Velok recalled the heights of the sixth circle and the insights he had gained there.
It was then that he sensed a presence beyond the ominously flickering shadows of the corridor.
“A Night Raven Knight…?”
No, it was just one presence.
“Walking right into my trap!”
Velok couldn’t help but let out a triumphant laugh. His target, his prey, was right there.
“Ah, well, if it isn’t the Black Prince.”
The son of the Black Duke. Velok smiled quietly.
”…”
But the ‘Black Prince’ did not respond immediately. He simply stood there, enveloped in an indescribably ominous darkness and silence, feeling the presence of tendrils writhing in sync with his heartbeat.
“Do you still not understand your situation?”
The hunter who had found his monster spoke.
“Does the title of the Black Tower’s heir seem so trivial to you?”
The dark mage was convinced he was a monster, and thus, Dale had no reservations.
It was finally time to hunt the monster.