Episode 125: High Class (3)
At Damien’s question, the eyes of the Hanger couple widened in shock.
“How… how do you know his name?”
“Only those of us bound by the pact are aware of his existence…”
Without hesitation, Damien stomped on their heads, the sound echoing like a hammer striking metal. As their heads hit the ground again, he kicked them, dislodging them from the earth.
“I’ll be the one asking questions. Now, tell me everything you know about Dorogo.”
“We… we don’t know…”
Damien raised his foot again, and the couple’s faces turned ashen.
“It’s no use asking! We’ll never betray him!”
“Yes! We will never betray him!”
The couple shouted defiantly, their resolve unwavering. Damien clicked his tongue in annoyance.
“So, that’s how it’s going to be.”
It was no wonder Dorogo kept the Hanger couple as his errand runners. Their faith and reverence for him bordered on fanaticism.
No matter the torture, the Hanger couple would never speak.
“You poor fools. You don’t even realize your minds have been altered, and you serve Dorogo blindly.”
The couple hadn’t volunteered for Dorogo’s experiments. He had simply captured four people and used them as test subjects. The emotions they felt for Dorogo were artificially implanted.
“Your silver tongue won’t sway us!”
“Stop wasting time and just kill us!”
Despite their ignorance of the truth, the couple desperately clung to their loyalty to Dorogo. Not that Damien felt any sympathy for them.
Before becoming test subjects, the couple had already reached high ranks as dark knights and black magicians. It was obvious how many lives they must have sacrificed to reach such heights.
“Fine, have it your way. I intended to ask your souls from the start.”
“S-souls?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! There’s no way you can use such advanced black magic…”
Damien grabbed the couple by their throats and lifted them. He had no intention of granting them a peaceful death. He planned to show them excruciating pain until their last breath.
Recently, Damien had been delving into the art of Myeonrigumchim. As a result, he developed a method of torture that manipulated acupoints to inflict pain and a technique to burst bodies.
He went further, researching the fusion of Myeonrigumchim and Paeryeokchukgigong. Paeryeokchukgigong excelled at absorbing magical energy, not just from nature but from living beings as well. While absorbing energy from plants was one thing, doing so from animals was incredibly difficult. Myeonrigumchim provided the solution.
By forcibly controlling and expanding the opponent’s acupoints with Myeonrigumchim, he could then use Paeryeokchukgigong to extract their magical energy. Though crude and inefficient, the pain inflicted was unimaginable, leaving much room for improvement.
But for now, none of that mattered.
“I didn’t create this for trash like you, but since we’re here, enjoy it.”
Damien injected magical energy into the Hanger couple’s bodies. The energy began to seize control of their acupoints.
“Ugh, ugh!”
“Aaah!”
Normally, the husband bore the brunt of the couple’s pain. But the agony from Myeonrigumchim was different. Both felt the intense suffering.
“What are you doing to us?”
“Honey! It hurts so much! Honey!”
The husband tried to resist, but Damien had already taken complete control of their bodies. Their muscles were paralyzed, and their acupoints were conquered, opening the path. Damien then activated Paeryeokchukgigong.
The technique created a powerful suction, forcibly extracting the dark magic from their bodies.
“Aaaah!”
“Stop it! Please, just kill us!”
The couple screamed in desperation, but Damien had no intention of granting their wish. Their bodies shriveled like deflated balloons, drying up as if left under the sun.
No more screams were heard. The Hanger couple died in a pitiful state.
Damien discarded their bodies and expelled the absorbed dark magic and life force. He had no desire to retain such vile power.
Soon, the souls of the Hanger couple emerged from their bodies. Damien seized them.
-Screeech!
-Aaaah!
The souls screamed, but Damien tightened his grip, ignoring their cries. The souls slowly disintegrated, leaving behind fragments of memories.
‘Combine these with the memories from the siblings.’
When he had destroyed the souls of the siblings, he had absorbed their memories as well. Damien sifted through the combined memories.
“Honey! We received a message from him!”
“What? When? I didn’t hear anything.”
“He sent a letter through a familiar while you were asleep.”
“Why do that? We have the mirror, don’t we?”
The mirror. It was a magical communication device Dorogo had given to his minions. In the dungeon of the necromancer, there had been no contact from Dorogo. Damien had assumed Dorogo was in seclusion, focused on his research.
“He said to discard the mirror. From now on, he’ll send a familiar if he needs to contact us.”
“What? Then we can’t hear his holy voice! Why such a cruel decision?”
Even Damien found Dorogo’s decision puzzling.
‘Was he always this thorough?’
Dorogo had never shown himself throughout history, known for his caution. Yet, he maintained contact with his trusted followers to prepare for the war of annihilation.
‘Did he not trust the Hanger couple enough to maintain the communication device?’
In hindsight, the Hanger couple were mere errand runners, not trusted confidants. That likely explained the order to destroy the device.
“And… um… well…”
“What other orders did he give?”
“He said to transfer the Jabakgwe to Gasdal.”
“What? Why to that guy? That was our task!”
The Jabakgwe was a box sealing a fragment of Erebus. The Hanger couple had often mentioned it during their time as death knights. According to them, it was created long ago by the Holy Order to seal the fragment.
“Then what about our mission? We were told to collect the souls of holy knights to break the seal on the Jabakgwe!”
“We’re to continue, but send the collected souls to Gasdal…”
“Why such an order? Does he not trust us?”
To break the seal on the Jabakgwe, souls imbued with holy power were needed. To obtain such souls, they had to attack the Holy Order. The Holy Order had set it up so that if anyone found the Jabakgwe, they would know immediately.
The problem was that the Jabakgwe was so ancient that few within the Holy Order knew of it.
‘Gasdal, of all people.’
Gasdal the Selector. During the war of annihilation, he was one of Dorogo’s trusted lieutenants. A necromancer known for leading a small, elite force rather than a large army of undead. Gasdal’s elite corps had decimated several imperial knight orders.
‘He was a standout genius among Dorogo’s confidants.’
Gasdal was a monster who had reached the rank of Grand Dark Mage by achieving the 10th circle at a young age. A Grand Dark Mage was equivalent to a master-class knight. In terms of magical talent, he could be compared to Michael Ryanbloom or the Sword Queen.
‘It’s dangerous for the Jabakgwe to fall into his hands.’
The fragment of Erebus was a massive source of power. It was not good for it to end up with Gasdal.
‘At this time, Gasdal should be in the Duchy of Almond.’
The only silver lining was that Damien knew Gasdal’s location.
‘He’s likely planning to strengthen his elite force there.’
Not only did Damien know Gasdal’s location, but he also had a rough idea of his purpose and plans. Gasdal enjoyed raiding families with talented soldiers or knights, using their souls to bolster his army. Among Dorogo’s confidants, Gasdal was particularly dangerous due to his talent and potential growth. It was imperative to eliminate him as soon as possible.
“I’m heading to the Almond White Kingdom. I need to retrieve a piece of Erebus anyway.”
With that, Damian decided on his next destination.
“Now that I’ve got what I wanted, it’s time to set these souls free.”
Damian rummaged through the bodies of the Hanger couple, eventually pulling out a small pouch. It wasn’t enchanted with spatial magic, but it was large enough to hold a variety of items.
As he sifted through the pouch, the first thing he pulled out was a glass bottle filled with a swirling, misty smoke.
“Disgusting creatures,” Damian muttered with a grimace. The contents of the bottle weren’t mere smoke; they were the souls of the holy knights and priests the couple had slain.
He smashed all the bottles from the pouch, releasing the trapped souls into the ether.
Suddenly, Damian paused. The last item he pulled out wasn’t a bottle but a worn, rugged bracelet.
“This is…”
He glanced at his left wrist, where he usually kept a bracelet infused with dark magic. It looked identical.
“Could it be the same artifact?”
He brought the two bracelets close to each other, and they began to vibrate before merging into one.
“What the…?”
Despite merging, the bracelet’s size and thickness remained unchanged. Damian channeled his magic into it to check for any issues.
“The capacity… it’s increased?”
Lately, he’d often felt the bracelet’s capacity was insufficient. Now, not only had it doubled, but it also gained a new ability. When he manipulated it, he suddenly vanished from sight.
“Interesting.”
Finding another bracelet like his was surprising enough, but merging them had unlocked new powers.
“Where did they get something so valuable?”
The Hanger couple must have used it to conceal their dark magic while in hiding.
Damian absorbed the surrounding dark magic into the bracelet. With its capacity doubled, it easily stored all the magic with room to spare.
“That’s everything taken care of.”
He surveyed the scene: the fallen holy knights and the Hanger couple’s bodies.
“Now, what to do about this mess?”
It had been satisfying to deal with them, but the aftermath was a problem. He couldn’t exactly announce his involvement, lest he be accused of using dark magic.
“Hmm.”
How could he cover his tracks effectively?
After pondering for a while, Damian reached a conclusion.
“I’ll just play dumb.”
As long as his identity remained hidden, that was all that mattered.
He decided to leave a few misleading clues to throw the Order off his trail.
“It’s crucial to make the Order chase their own tails.”
Damian picked up a nearby stick and scrawled a message beneath the Hanger couple’s bodies:
Realizing it wasn’t enough, he added a few more words:
Satisfied, Damian nodded with a contented smile.
Early morning.
Nadine awoke with a start as sunlight streamed down from the sky.
“That vile heretic!”
He leapt to his feet, drawing his sword, only to wince at the sharp pain in his body. But he couldn’t afford to worry about injuries; the battle was still ongoing…
Then he realized the world was bright.
He remembered fainting for some reason, succumbing to dizziness.
“What happened?”
It had been the dead of night when he lost consciousness. The daylight meant hours had passed since then.
“The heretic? That monster?”
Nadine scanned his surroundings, spotting the Order’s holy knights sprawled on the ground.
“They’re alive!”
He started toward them but stopped short at the sight of something strange.
A desiccated corpse lay discarded on the ground. It hadn’t been there the night before. Drawn by an inexplicable compulsion, Nadine approached.
That’s when he saw it.
The corpse had two faces on its head. It was undoubtedly the heretic who had pushed him to the brink. Yet here it lay, dead and pitiful.
“Who could have… or rather, how…?”
As he struggled to comprehend, Nadine noticed the message scrawled beside the body.
While Nadine read, the holy knights began to regain consciousness one by one.
“Ugh… my head.”
“Where’s the enemy? Sir Nadine?”
They looked around, searching for Nadine, and found him reading the message.
“Sir Nadine! You’re safe!”
The knights rushed toward him, but Nadine didn’t respond to their calls.
“Sir Nadine? What’s wrong?”
Finally, the knights noticed the corpse and the message. Like Nadine, they were transfixed by the words.
“What do you all make of this?” Nadine asked the knights.
“The sleep curse knocked us out. So, the one who killed the heretic and saved us must be a dark mage.”
It was a given that holy knights and dark mages were mortal enemies. They’d rather kill each other than save one another.
“Maybe they only came to settle a score and had no interest in us.”
“Could it have been an executioner from Pandemonium? We weren’t the target to begin with.”
Pandemonium was the largest and most powerful dark mage organization in the empire. They often sent enforcers to punish those who broke their rules.
Perhaps the creatures Nadine fought had violated Pandemonium’s laws, and an enforcer had dealt with them.
But even that explanation seemed implausible.
“Why spare us, though?”
The knights had been helpless under the sleep curse. A mere flick of a finger could have ended them, yet they were left unharmed.
A dark mage showing mercy to holy knights was unheard of.
“That…”
“Well…”
The knights couldn’t easily answer, each lost in thought.
“But what about this?” one knight asked, pointing to the message.
“Victor the Woodcutter… Have you heard of such a dark mage?”
“I haven’t. Maybe he’s an old recluse.”
The knights pondered the name Victor for a long time.