Episode 69: The Hunt (Part 1)

The flesh golems crumbled into pieces, leaving the ground stained with blood and gore.

Corpse Puppeteer stared at Damian, his face a mask of shock.

”…Impressive.”

He began to clap slowly.

“To destroy my puppets in an instant! I’ve never seen such incredible skill!”

Despite the swift destruction of his creations, Corpse Puppeteer showed no sign of panic.

“Such extraordinary talent! You will be the finest material I’ve ever had!”

Material.

The word twisted Damian’s lips into a grimace. It was a particularly grating term for someone like him, who had been transformed into a death knight by Dorgo.

“Sir Damian… how did you…?”

At that moment, Agnes struggled to lift her head and spoke.

“Run… you must… that man is… too dangerous…”

Corpse Puppeteer listened to Agnes with a face full of curiosity.

“You two seem quite close, don’t you?”

He wiggled his fingers.

Kite pressed down harder on Agnes’s head, causing her to groan in pain.

“Sir Damian, was it? I’d prefer to have you in one piece. So, let me make you an offer. Surrender quietly if you want to save this woman.”

“Sir Damian… don’t… run… quickly…”

Corpse Puppeteer wiggled his fingers again, and Kite increased the pressure. Agnes’s groans grew louder.

“Just so you know, there’s another hostage. Care to take a look over there?”

Corpse Puppeteer gestured to the side. Margata was held captive by the flesh golems.

“What a despicable creature you are,” Damian said, his face showing nothing but disdain.

“At least you’re predictable. It’s a relief you’re as much of a scumbag as I thought.”

Damian looked up and shouted, “You two, get Margata. I’ll handle Agnes.”

From the hole Damian had created, Gamal and Dionysio descended swiftly.

Gamal hurled a spear of ice, freezing the flesh golems solid.

Dionysio followed with his own spear, shattering the frozen golems into pieces.

The remaining golems tried to attack Dionysio and Gamal.

In that moment, freed from her captors, Margata summoned blue flames.

Her flame-wreathed fists exploded the golems. But as soon as she swung, she collapsed, coughing up blood.

“Margata!”

Gamal rushed to support her. Her wounds seemed to have worsened, and she continued to cough up blood.

“Don’t you dare touch my material!”

Corpse Puppeteer, seething with rage, tried to command the other golems.

At that moment, Damian swung his holy sword, releasing a burst of aura.

The aura flew towards Corpse Puppeteer, who shouted in panic, “Kite!”

Kite, who had been holding Agnes, moved to block the attack.

The aura slashed at Kite’s body but vanished without leaving a scratch.

“Kite! Secure the material!”

Kite pointed at Agnes, but it was too late. Damian, as if anticipating Corpse Puppeteer’s move, was already by her side.

“Sir Damian…”

Agnes looked up at him, astonished.

Even with her heightened senses from the stigmata, she had missed Damian’s swift and stealthy approach.

“Dionysio, take care of Lady Agnes,” Damian instructed. Dionysio quickly ran over to support her.

“I’ll handle Corpse Puppeteer. The rest of you, get out of here.”

“Sir Damian… what are you saying? Corpse Puppeteer is a dangerous opponent. I will fight with you.”

“My sister is right. I’ll help too.”

Agnes and Dionysio refused to comply easily.

Damian turned to them, his eyes filled with a murderous intent that silenced them.

“Go.”

The single word carried an undeniable force. Without another word, they left.

“Refusing help… I can’t understand it. You don’t actually think you can win alone, do you?”

Left alone, Corpse Puppeteer asked, puzzled.

“The ones you destroyed were just practice models. My true ‘masterpieces’ are different.”

Corpse Puppeteer wiggled his fingers, and the flesh golems standing like mannequins began to move.

Each one exuded an overwhelming dark energy.

“Still calling those lumps of flesh masterpieces, I see,” Damian said with contempt.

During his time as a death knight, Damian had carried out numerous missions with Corpse Puppeteer under Dorgo’s orders.

He had witnessed firsthand just how repulsive Corpse Puppeteer was.

Corpse Puppeteer had performed all sorts of horrific experiments on prisoners of war, claiming he wanted to understand how human emotions affected puppet-making.

Once, he had even killed a child in front of its mother, saying he wanted a corpse imbued with maternal love. And he repeated such atrocities thousands of times.

“I’m thrilled to finally be the one to kill you.”

Damian couldn’t suppress a laugh that escaped intermittently.

“I’m equally thrilled to have someone like you as my material,” Corpse Puppeteer replied with a smile, raising his hand.

His ‘masterpieces,’ crafted with utmost care, charged at Damian.

These mid-class level puppets focused solely on killing Damian.

The first masterpiece reached him.

It looked human, but had four thick arms protruding from its back like beams.

The four arms contracted like rubber, trying to grab Damian. It was as if four massive serpents were encircling him.

Damian narrowly dodged the grasping hands. In a flash, he drew his holy sword and swung it upward.

The sword’s aura sliced through all four hands at once, clearing his view.

Before the masterpiece could react, Damian lunged, driving his holy sword into its body.

The sword’s divine power destroyed its core, and the puppet ceased to function.

The other masterpieces quickly followed, attacking Damian.

He moved like flowing water, evading every attack.

Even while dodging, Damian precisely stabbed his sword into the puppets’ bodies.

The deeply embedded blade destroyed their cores, and the masterpieces stopped functioning immediately.

“Stop! Fall back!” Corpse Puppeteer shouted urgently. The charging masterpieces retreated.

But it was too late. More than half of them lay destroyed by Damian’s sword.

”…How, how did you, my puppets, my masterpieces…”

Corpse Puppeteer’s eyes widened in disbelief. He screamed like a child.

“This is impossible! My masterpieces can’t fall so easily! Tell me! What did you do?”

Corpse Puppeteer’s talent was so remarkable that even Dorgo acknowledged it.

The puppets he created with that talent were indeed impressive.

At the peak of his abilities, he could mass-produce puppets of high-class caliber.

Yet, the high-class puppets he made never once won against actual high-class opponents.

Their physical output, the amount of dark magic they contained, their various bizarre functions—

In those aspects, they were certainly high-class. But they lacked one crucial element.

Skill.

Corpse Puppeteer was an expert in puppet-making, not in combat skills.

A high-class knight could easily see through the puppets’ movements.

They were nothing more than convincing fakes.

To Damian, Corpse Puppeteer’s puppets were no different from stiff wooden dolls.

Such low-level attacks could be dodged with his eyes closed.

“I can’t accept this…”

Watching his cherished masterpieces being cut down, Corpse Puppeteer muttered in a low voice.

“I don’t need someone like you anymore. I won’t use you as material. Just die.”

He raised his hand, and two puppets descended from the dark ceiling.

Amazingly, the two puppets were using dark magic to float in mid-air.

“They’re not fully adjusted yet, but they’ll have to do.”

The two puppets spread their arms, and magic circles formed around them, made of dark energy.

Damian assessed the level of the dark magic from the circles.

Shockingly, the two puppets were casting high-level dark magic.

“Kite. You should join in too.”

The puppet that had been guarding Corpse Puppeteer stepped forward.

Scale-like metal plates began to cover Kite’s skin.

In no time, Kite’s entire body was encased in metal. Blades sprouted from his forearms and calves.

Kite exuded dark energy. The aura he emitted was far stronger than all the masterpieces combined.

“Impressive, isn’t it? Kite is my greatest ‘masterpiece.’ I prepared him specifically to face high-class opponents.”

Corpse Puppeteer’s confidence returned, as if he was already certain of victory.

And he had reason to be confident.

One puppet, hailed as a masterpiece.

Two puppets, crafted as high-level dark mages.

And five more of Corpse Puppeteer’s prized masterpieces.

It was a terrifying display of power. In his past life, it was no accident that the entire hunting party had been wiped out.

Perhaps they would have been annihilated even without the betrayal of blinding pain.

“Playing with toys, are we?”

To Damian, it was nothing more than a trivial amusement.

With his swordsmanship, he could easily sweep away anything, even a kite.

But right now, Damian had no time for such indulgences.

He needed to quickly subdue the macabre spectacle and find out about Dolgo.

He was determined to discover the whereabouts of the skull that had ruined his life and shatter it into pieces.

The thirst for revenge burned fiercely within him.

“No choice, then.”

Damian removed the bracelet from his wrist.

The dark magic contained within it was unleashed.