Episode 302: The Decoy Operation (3)
Damian Haxen had lived a pitiful life.
“Have you lost your mind? Causing a scene at a tavern and getting thrown out? Do you have any idea how much disgrace you’ve brought upon our family?”
He squandered the family fortune and left his loved ones wounded, eventually being cast out by them.
“Leave. Never return. If you defy me, I’ll kill you myself!”
The only place that took in the wandering Damian was Juan’s mercenary group.
“Young man, let’s see what you’re made of.”
“Ha, your skills are something else, aren’t they?”
“Welcome to our mercenary band.”
Juan David, the leader, wasn’t particularly skilled, but he was a good man, as were the other members.
“Damian! You rascal! I never thought you’d beat a knight!”
“Brother! I’ll follow you anywhere!”
For the first time in his life, Damian felt a sense of belonging and joy.
That was until he met Dorgo.
“Fresh corpses walking right into my hands!”
What was supposed to be a simple task of hunting monsters near a village turned into a nightmare when they encountered the archlich Dorgo in the forest.
“Aaah! My arm! It’s rotting!”
“Brother! Run! We can’t beat that monster!”
“Damian! Go! You have to escape!”
Dorgo slaughtered the entire mercenary group, sparing only Damian.
“Such immense talent for a mere human? Even my evil eye can’t measure it!”
Dorgo was intrigued by Damian’s potential.
“But your talent is woefully underdeveloped. Your innate laziness has stifled it.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you fully realize your potential.”
What followed was a horrific ordeal.
Dorgo dissected Damian alive, injecting him with strange concoctions.
Each injection brought Damian excruciating pain and a sense of alienation from his own body.
“Please… stop… I’ll do anything…”
Desperate, Damian pleaded with Dorgo to stop.
But Dorgo paid no heed to his cries.
“Your bones are weak. Shall we replace them with alloy?”
“Are you even listening to me?”
“What about your muscles? Should we enhance them naturally or replace them with artificial ones?”
“It hurts… it hurts so much… I’m begging you…”
“Let’s start with your organs. You’ll need them replaced to endure the upcoming experiments.”
“Aaagh! Stop! Stop it, you monster!”
Despite his pleas, the torment continued.
Time passed, and Damian was eventually transformed into the undead creature Dorgo desired.
“Finally, it’s complete!”
Damian felt a twisted sense of relief, thinking it was over.
But the true nightmare was just beginning.
”…Where am I?”
Damian found himself trapped in a dark space.
“What is this? Why can’t I move?”
His limbs were bound to a chair, rendering him immobile. Even his head was fixed in place, unable to turn or tilt.
“Is anyone there? Please, help me!”
After what felt like an eternity of shouting, a window appeared before him.
Through it, he saw Dorgo’s face. Dorgo inspected the window and spoke.
“Hmm… just as I hoped, your consciousness is completely erased.”
“It was getting annoying, but now I’m satisfied.”
“From now on, you are my knight. Death Knight Damian Haxen.”
In the process of turning him into a Death Knight, Dorgo had erased Damian’s consciousness.
But Damian hadn’t truly disappeared. Instead, he was trapped in this dark void.
With his body immobilized, all Damian could do was stare through the small window before him.
“Damian! My knight! Let’s show them your power!”
Dorgo launched a war of annihilation, taking Damian to nearby territories as the villains of Pandemonium wreaked havoc.
“Go. Kill everything in sight!”
Damian’s body obeyed Dorgo’s commands without question.
He slaughtered a farmer in the fields, tore the head off a passing shepherd, and crushed a fleeing mother and daughter underfoot.
“Stop… please, stop…”
Bound to the chair, Damian could do nothing but watch the horror unfold.
He wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. His head was fixed, forcing him to witness everything.
“Aaah, mom! Mooooom!”
“God will never forgive such acts!”
Even with his eyes closed, the screams pierced his ears. It wasn’t just the screams; he heard the sounds of flesh being cut, torn, and crushed.
The cacophony of horror filled his mind.
“What are you doing to my people? Stop this at once!”
Before long, a knight arrived with soldiers.
“I am August, a high-class knight!”
“Death Knight! Your skills are lacking for your size.”
“Wha-? How did you see through my technique…?”
At first, Damian was overwhelmed by the knight, barely managing to defend himself.
But gradually, the tide turned. Damian saw through the knight’s swordplay and drove his blade into the knight’s chest.
After killing the knight, he slaughtered the remaining soldiers. Over a thousand men fell, their blood flowing like rivers, their bodies covering the fields. In the midst of it all, Damian stood, drenched in blood.
“Ugh… ugh…”
Unable to bear it, Damian retched repeatedly.
And so it continued. Under Dorgo’s orders, Damian killed countless people. The number of his victims soon surpassed ten thousand.
“Stop… stop it! It’s my body! Stop! I said stop!”
Desperate to regain control of his body, Damian struggled in vain.
“Someone… please, kill me… stop me…”
He gave up trying to reclaim his body. Instead, he wished for someone to end his life. But it was a futile hope.
Whenever he faced an opponent of similar skill, he emerged victorious.
Even against stronger foes, he prevailed.
With each battle, Damian grew stronger.
Eventually, he reached a point where he could perfectly mimic any sword technique after seeing it just once. At that level, he found no equal.
…
Around that time, Damian gave up on everything. He sat in the chair, listlessly passing the time.
Until the moment he drove a sword into his father’s heart.
“Why… why is it my father… no… stop… stop it…”
Realizing too late, Damian’s cries were in vain.
“Brother! Why are you doing this? Stop! Please, stop!”
The same happened when he beheaded his brother.
“Are you still alive? But that form…”
He couldn’t stop himself from killing his mother.
“Damian… you must not have been happy.”
In the end, Damian could only watch as his sister died.
“Aaah! Dorgo! Dorgoooo!”
In the dark void, Damian wept tears of blood, screaming in agony. Dorgo laughed heartily at his suffering.
“How did it feel to kill the family that cast you out? I prepared this just for you.”
Dorgo had no grand reason for making Damian kill his family.
It was pure curiosity.
Simple amusement.
He gave such horrific orders solely for his own entertainment.
“Haha, of course, you probably felt nothing. But I had a great time. It was quite the spectacle.”
That day, Damian made a vow.
He swore to kill that damned skeleton with his own hands.
To avenge his family, no matter the cost.
“Dorgo!”
In the present, Damian’s voice echoed with fury throughout the chamber.
“Stay right there! I’m going to kill you right now!”
His pent-up rage exploded, radiating murderous intent.
“Eek!”
“Ahh!”
Even the elves felt the impact, as if cut by invisible blades.
“Damian Haxen! Calm down!”
Mata shouted, but it was no use. Damian’s entire focus was on Dorgo.
At that moment, the dimensional gate began to close.
The thought of losing Dorgo now made Damian’s eyes blaze with determination.
“Where do you think you’re going? Stop right there!”
Damian charged toward the gate, channeling his power into his sword.
Ever since he learned that the Four Great Demon Lords could open dimensional gates, Damian had prepared for this moment.
He had devised a way to prevent their escape.
Damian’s swordsmanship had reached a level where he could slice through the fabric of dimensions.
So reopening a closing gate was a simple task.
“I told you to stop!”
Just a few more steps.
A little closer, and he could cut through the gate. He could kill Dorgo.
His heart raced with anticipation. His mind burned with intensity.
Then, suddenly, the magic circle on the floor lit up. From it, demonic energy surged forth.
Simultaneously, the ground shook with a violent tremor.
It wasn’t just a localized earthquake. The entire island was shaking violently.
And that wasn’t the only strange phenomenon.
“Gah, gah!”
“Aaah!”
Elves screamed and collapsed, their cries causing Damian to freeze in his tracks.
“I can’t… I can’t breathe…!”
“Cough, cough…”
Their once vibrant skin rapidly withered, and their hair turned brittle and dry.
What shocked Damian the most was the rapid weakening of the elemental power the elves possessed.
Caught between the elves and Dorgo, Damian hesitated.
Part of him wanted to chase Dorgo down and kill him immediately. But doing so would surely mean the death of the elves.
He had no personal ties to them. Damian barely knew their names.
Yet, the echoes of the elves he had killed in his past life— their screams and curses— held him back.
“Damn it!”
Damian clenched his eyes shut and turned around, rushing toward the elves.
In that moment, the dimensional gate closed completely, and Dorgo vanished from sight.
“Da-Damian… Haxen…”
“Yes, I’m here.”
Damian quickly opened a pocket dimension, retrieving potions to administer to the elves. He also used the power of dawn to heal them.
“Gah…”
“Cough!”
But the elves’ condition showed no signs of improvement.
Even now, they were dying in real-time.
“What on earth…”
Damian channeled his magic into the elves to assess their condition.
“The connection to the World Tree… it’s severed?”
Elves draw their life force and elemental power from the World Tree. With that connection suddenly cut, they were dying.
“No way.”
Damian expanded his senses. Only then did he realize.
The energy of the World Tree that enveloped the entire island had vanished. Something was seriously wrong.
He examined the magic circle on the ground.
Earlier, he had been too agitated to notice.
This magic circle was similar to the one he had seen at the fortress, but not identical.
The circle at the fortress was designed to inject ‘demonic essence’ into the roots of the World Tree.
And the circle here…
“It’s a magic circle to activate a power.”
Finally, Damian understood what Dorgo had done to the island.
He had injected demonic essence into the World Tree’s roots and activated a demonic power.
“If it’s a power that can affect the World Tree…”
It would require the power of at least a marquis-level demon.
And recently, Damian had encountered an even stronger demon.
Bahel.
A duke-level demon who wielded the power of ‘Isolation.’
“So that’s why they summoned a demon. To kill the World Tree…!”
At that moment, an explosion erupted from the walls.
Explosions occurred simultaneously, causing the entire chamber to collapse.
The falling debris buried Damian and the elves completely.
“Why did you close the dimensional gate so hastily?” Dorgo asked, displeased. Lambda explained calmly.
“Damian Haxen. Capable of rapid advance. Risk of gate intrusion.”
“You could have stopped him.”
“There is always the possibility.”
Even after the explanation, Dorgo’s mood didn’t improve. Something about this Damian Haxen bothered him.
“I didn’t even get a good look at his face.”
Dorgo turned away, sounding regretful.
“Imperial Swordmaster. How do you do?”
There stood the Imperial Swordmaster, locked in combat with Hella Fallen, the Ruler of Flames.
Surprisingly, the battle was tilting in favor of the Imperial Swordmaster.
Hella Fallen and the Ruler of Flames bore numerous wounds, while the Imperial Swordmaster remained unscathed.
”…”
The Imperial Swordmaster stared blankly at something in the distance.
”…The World Tree is dying.”
The World Tree, standing tall at the center of the island, was turning black and crumbling from the tips of its branches.
“What have you done?”
For once, the Imperial Swordmaster was visibly angry.
“Speak! I’m asking what you’ve done…”
“Why so calm? I can’t understand it,” Dorgo said, spreading his arms. The Four Demon Lords stepped forward.
“You can no longer rely on the World Tree’s support. Meanwhile, reinforcements have arrived on our side.”
The leader of Pandemonium, the Ruler of Flames, and the Four Demon Lords.
“Was that a joke?”
Yet the Imperial Swordmaster showed no sign of intimidation.
“Sorry for realizing it late. I couldn’t laugh.”
Instead, he exuded an even more formidable aura. The Imperial Swordmaster had yet to reveal his true strength.
“As expected… it’s you. The real threat that must be dealt with is you. Once you’re dead, I’ll finally be free.”
Dorgo spoke to the Ruler of Flames.
“Leos, use it.”
Leos immediately pulled something from his coat—a black spike.
The sight of the spike made the Imperial Swordmaster’s brow furrow.
”…A spike made from demonic essence? Leos, why do you have that?”
Leos responded with a smile instead of words. Then he plunged the spike into his own heart.
“Leos?”
In the next moment, the Imperial Swordmaster felt a violent shock.
“Gah…!”
The flow of magic froze. The flow of blood stopped. Even breathing brought no air.
It wasn’t poison or a curse. This was…
“A duke-level demon’s power, manifested through blood ties.”
Dorgo laughed as he spoke.
“Even the great Imperial Swordmaster won’t withstand this.”