Episode 98
An Unfathomable Thought
No matter how much of a genius Christian was, he was at best a 4-star lower rank.
In contrast, the Dark Ghost Squad boasted no fewer than five 4-star demons. Including Mysaak, that made six.
On top of that, there were over ten 3-star demons, making their strength absolutely unbeatable.
Yet, the squad leader’s instincts sounded an instinctive alarm.
“Don’t let your guard down.”
“I’m unleashing the Dark Ghost Formation. Full power.”
The squad leader’s sword darkened, swallowed by shadows.
Black Sword Transformation—Black Mist.
The magical energy spread like fog, and the moment it touched the enemy, it shattered them with destructive clouds.
The other 4-star demons joined in, also transforming their swords into black mist.
The five 4-star demons’ black mist merged into one, then shifted in nature.
The fog turned into wind.
Like a swirling vortex.
It was a combined formation using Black Sword Transformation.
But that wasn’t all.
The 3-star demons behind them unleashed their own dark magic specialties.
Curses, destruction, illusions.
The dark wind absorbed these spells, radiating an even more terrifying aura.
In other words, the Dark Ghost Formation was a deadly combined attack—a vortex of magical black swords infused with curses, destruction, and illusions, designed to annihilate opponents.
Yet Christian’s reaction was strange.
He stood there, motionless, as if frozen.
The squad leader’s face twisted in confusion.
“What’s going on? Has he given up?”
But that couldn’t be.
A chilling sense of foreboding crept up.
The feeling of a demon who had faced death countless times.
The squad leader shouted sharply.
“Inject maximum magical energy! Kill him in one strike!”
“W-wait! Didn’t I say to capture him alive?”
“Shut up and stay still!”
The other Dark Ghost Squad members shared the unease.
Haah!
The dark vortex stormed over Christian like a tempest.
“Got him! He’s trapped.”
The squad leader exhaled in relief.
Though the 5-star demon leader was absent and the formation wasn’t perfect, no 4-star demon could survive that vortex.
They would be killed instantly by the combined onslaught of dark magic and swirling black sword winds.
“Not even a corpse will remain…”
But then, something unbelievable happened.
Fwoooosh!
From within the dark vortex, a brilliant white light blossomed.
A radiant glow that seemed to drive away the sinister darkness.
The dark vortex began to scatter into fragments.
“Ugh?!”
The squad members who had unleashed the Dark Ghost Formation coughed up blood.
“What the—?!”
The squad leader’s face was a mask of disbelief.
It was shocking enough that the formation had been broken, but something even more astonishing followed.
“Th-this feeling…? What? No way…”
And then.
After the dark remnants completely dissipated,
everyone held their breath at the sight of Christian.
“W-what is that?”
From Christian’s hand, a pillar of dazzling light shone brilliantly.
The mark of a 5-star union rank.
The symbol of the ‘Elder Knights’ class.
The ‘Aura Blade’ shimmered and rippled along Christian’s sword.
“…”
Silence fell.
Time seemed to freeze.
Everyone stood frozen, staring at the radiant aura with eyes full of disbelief.
Then—
“D-don’t be fooled! It’s an illusion!”
One of the Dark Ghost Squad members shouted desperately.
“I’ll check it out!”
“Wait!”
Flash!
The pillar of light flickered.
And that was the end.
The demon who charged was utterly destroyed.
“Sliced” didn’t even begin to describe it.
The sword he held, the black sword, and the entire path of the attack were completely erased.
A terrifying power that didn’t match the beautiful, radiant glow.
It was the real Aura Blade.
A silence like despair settled over the scene.
“H-how…?”
Christian shrugged.
“Ah, I guess I’m just a genius. Handling magic was too easy, so I picked up the power of the Holy Light too, and somehow ended up at 5-star rank?”
“Th-that’s nonsense…”
“Anyway, that’s not the important part, right?”
Christian spoke quietly.
“You’re all going to die here.”
“!!”
“Now that you’ve witnessed this, I can’t let a single one of you live. Sorry.”
The Dark Ghost Squad hesitated and stepped back.
But it was too late.
Fwoosh!
A fountain of blood erupted.
The Dark Ghost Squad resisted, but it was useless.
From 5-star Elder class upward, the power was incomparable to lower ranks.
Not a single one survived.
“Uh, uh… uh…”
Mysaak looked up at Chris with vacant eyes.
He had been pathetic to the very end.
He had entrusted the Dark Ghost Squad with his rear and fled.
Yet he hadn’t gotten far.
Terrified, he stumbled and fell, flailing helplessly before being caught.
“P-please, spare me…!”
Sitting on the ground, trembling, he bowed his head in desperate plea.
“P-please! We’re brothers! I-I won’t ever show myself to you again! Please spare me! No, I beg you!”
But Christian’s face remained cold.
Just as despair was about to swallow him,
Christian said something unexpected.
“You want to live? Then tell me something useful.”
“!!”
“If you give me information worth your life, I might consider sparing you.”
Even such a worthless fool was legitimate.
He might know some unexpectedly important information.
“W-w-well…!!”
“Don’t? Then just die.”
“N-no! M-my father is plotting a rebellion!”
He meant Marquis Langham.
Christian looked at Mysaak silently.
“That bastard wants to kill the clan head! I’ve seen him secretly communicating with the Demon King’s Castle! So…!”
It was shocking information, but nothing new to Christian.
‘I already know all about that.’
Instead, Christian asked something else.
“What about Princess Yulian?”
“Huh?”
“Do you know anything about Princess Yulian?”
She was the most dangerous rival in the succession race.
Mysaak’s eyes darted wildly.
“P-Princess Yulian is…”
“Looks like you don’t know much.”
“No! I mean…!! I’ll tell you about Brother Eshed instead!”
Mysaak shouted.
“Brother Eshed is plotting a terrible scheme to kill you!!”
“Hmm?”
That was an interesting story.
“He should be recovering from the injuries I inflicted on him.”
By calculation, it would take at least a year to heal his internal wounds. He still had a long way to go.
“He’s almost fully healed now.”
“No way?”
“…He used the forbidden ritual of human sacrifice.”
“!!”
Christian frowned.
“The Dark Mage prohibits human sacrifice. No, more than that, the Demon King forbade it, didn’t he?”
The Demon King.
The greatest and highest-ranking demon lord who had lived since the dawn of the Demon Empire.
But the Demon King ruled through strict non-interference.
Even when the empire was shaken, he never showed himself.
‘At most, he relayed his will through the third-ranked demon lord, the Demon Chancellor.’
Because of the Demon King’s hands-off approach, terrible things sometimes happened in secret.
“The Liberi family helped him. The Liberi Count’s house is firmly on Eshed’s side.”
They were vassals of the Dark Mage.
A family that had pledged loyalty for generations, considered the core among the Dark Mage’s retainers.
Also, Eshed’s maternal family.
‘So Eshed will return sooner than expected.’
No doubt, the returned Eshed would be even stronger than before.
Because he had performed human sacrifice.
‘Damn bastard.’
Christian clenched his fist tightly.
He hated human sacrifice with a passion.
He had seen too much of it during the Age of Ruin.
‘I won’t let him get away with it. Neither him nor the Liberis.’
To defeat Eshed, he would have to face his vassals as well.
It wouldn’t be easy, but that was fine.
He had a plan.
“I’ve given you information, so please spare me…”
Thud.
A cold blade pierced Mysaak’s throat.
Christian had only asked if there was any useful information, but he never intended to spare him.
Sigh.
Christian exhaled.
The Dark Ghost Squad had been no easy opponent, and fatigue washed over him.
‘Time to clean up.’
He began manipulating the scene as he intended, to avoid suspicion.
‘I wonder if Evan made it out okay. Now that it’s over, I should get going too.’
Flash!
But after Christian disappeared into the forest,
a single drop of blood fell, and a figure appeared.
“Hmm. Well, well.”
Radiant silver hair.
Blood-red eyes.
A beautiful face that belied a chilling madness.
It was the First Noble, Sherard.
He had been secretly watching Christian’s fight!
“This is getting interesting. What to do now?”
Sherard looked toward the direction Christian had vanished.
A bright smile spread across his lips.
“I want to kill him.”
Mysaak’s death!
The Dark Mage’s empire was thrown into chaos.
“What happened here?”
Marquis Langham summoned Christian for questioning.
“I apologize. While I was separated from my slave, an incident occurred.”
“What?”
“The Dark Ghost Squad and Prince Mysaak attacked my slave first, and my slave retaliated, killing them all.”
Christian pinned the blame for the incident on Evan.
“I used the swordsmanship of that renowned school on purpose for this very reason.”
“Based on the traces of the Aura Blade, it seems the slave was hiding his martial skills. When I arrived at the scene, both sides had already died in mutual combat. I apologize for failing to stop it.”
The scene had already been manipulated to fit his statement, so there was no fear of being caught.
‘Evan will have to stay hidden from the swordsmanship school for a while, so there’s no way anyone will discover he’s still alive.’
By the time it becomes known that Evan survived, this incident will be long forgotten.
“…I see. Understood.”
Marquis Langham frowned but said nothing.
Since Maysak and the Amgui family had attacked first, it wasn’t Chris’s fault.
Besides, in their eyes, the one who lost the fight and died was simply to blame.
That was the mindset of the Mains.
But not everyone thought that way.
“Ahhhhhhh!!!”
It was Marchioness Fresia.
“No! This can’t be happening! Ah…!!”
Her grief quickly turned to rage.
“I’ll kill you! Christian! Right now…! I’ll start by cutting off your fingers, one by one…!!”
Then—
“Stop.”
A cold voice cut through the air.
She whipped her head around to see a woman with a chilling expression glaring at her.
It was Merian.
She wore the uniform of the Black Shadow Knights, the family’s internal investigation corps.
“Step aside!”
But—
Clang!
Merian’s sword was pointed directly at Fresia.
Fresia’s face hardened.
“Did you really think the Black Shadow Knights wouldn’t know about your crimes all this time, Fresia?”