Until recently, the Anti-Empire Alliance had set up a blockade along the Empire’s border. So they expected that as they drew closer, familiar landscapes would come into view.
But something unexpected happened.
Jared, who was at the front of the procession alongside Yuri, was the first to show signs of confusion.
“This is…”
He glanced around nervously.
“It’s changed. It wasn’t like this before…”
The scenery they anticipated was nowhere to be seen. Instead, an unfamiliar path stretched out before them, lined with plants they had never seen.
Trees, far larger and more twisted than usual, blocked their view from all sides, their thick roots jutting out from the ground, making each step a struggle.
And above all, a strange, foul stench lingered, constantly pricking at their nerves.
Yuri looked up. Even the sun in the sky seemed dimmer somehow.
“Could it really have changed this much in just a month?”
“Dark magic can do anything.”
“Yeah…”
“Looks like it’s been corrupted. Stay alert. Keep moving.”
Yuri said.
“There don’t seem to be any enemies nearby.”
There was no word yet from the scouts sent ahead. Yuri urged his horse forward, heightening his senses to stay on guard.
He could feel the soldiers behind him shifting uneasily.
“This is definitely the place from before.”
As they pressed on, traces of the Anti-Empire Alliance’s old defensive line appeared.
But it was different from before.
“This is strange. Not that much time has passed…”
Jared muttered, clearly unsettled. Yuri responded firmly.
“These are the kinds of things we have to fight.”
The remnants left behind by the Anti-Empire forces looked as if decades had passed. What the soldiers had abandoned was now utterly dilapidated, tangled in unidentifiable plants, becoming part of the landscape itself.
Scattered bones of the fallen littered the ground here and there.
The soldiers passed through the eerie remains of the old defenses, a chill running down their spines.
And with that, they had fully entered the Empire’s territory.
Laurent, following behind, spoke up.
“Yuri Briol.”
“Hm?”
“You can feel it, right?”
“Of course.”
Once tainted by Cedric, Laurent was more sensitive to dark magic than most. Only Yuri, who had mastered the Soul Slash, could sense it similarly.
“There’s going to be a welcoming ceremony.”
Beyond the defensive line, a different world unfolded.
The scenery was grotesque.
It looked like a painting born from a twisted imagination.
Knots in the trees twisted into faces frozen in screams, branches jutted out like sharp thorns stabbing in every direction.
The birds perched above all had bloodshot eyes, watching them like sentinels.
The path beneath their feet wound unnaturally, as if someone had deliberately twisted it into dizzying loops.
Occasionally, wild beasts crouched by the roadside, alert and wary—but none resembled any creature they had ever seen.
Yuri said quietly.
“If we leave this be, the entire continent will end up like this. Twisted more and more.”
“Yeah.”
“We have to win. For our families.”
As he spoke, a scout sent ahead was returning from the distance.
“He’s coming back.”
As the rider drew near, the expressions of those with Yuri hardened.
The horseman had no head.
Yet, the figure sat upright, gripping the reins as if alive.
The horse stopped right in front of the Anti-Empire Alliance’s vanguard led by Yuri.
The headless rider and horse stood motionless.
“Th-this is…”
Everyone who saw it was stunned, but Yuri was the first to react.
He swung his sword.
The rider’s upper body was severed, collapsing to the ground.
From within, something snake-like slithered out.
“That’s the thing from before.”
Jared gritted his teeth.
The thing that emerged from the rider’s body was a tentacle—one they had seen enough of to be sickened by. It detached itself like an independent creature and crawled across the ground.
Yuri swung his sword again.
But the tentacle dodged.
It suddenly convulsed, then pierced through the horse’s skin, burrowing inside.
The horse’s eyes turned red as it panted heavily.
Jared reacted.
“You bastard!”
He leapt off his horse and swung his sword.
The horse didn’t go down easily. It dodged Jared’s attacks several times, then twisted its body and kicked out with its hind legs.
The swift movement sent its hooves brushing through Jared’s hair.
“Damn it!”
Jared swung his sword fiercely. The horse’s body split in two and collapsed, its insides spilling out.
Among the gore lay severed tentacles.
“Damn…”
Wiping the blood from his blade, Jared grabbed the horse’s ankle and tossed the corpse to the roadside.
Immediately, the wild beasts that had been lurking nearby swarmed in, tearing into the dead horse.
“Don’t look.”
Yuri said.
“We don’t have time for that.”
Though they had only just crossed into the Empire’s land, it was enough time to realize how completely changed this place was.
Everyone tensed.
And that tension was useful.
Yuri raised his voice.
“Everyone, prepare for battle!”
The Anti-Empire Alliance had been marching in a long line, so they weren’t ready to fight immediately.
But the bizarre landscape itself kept their guard up, preventing chaos even in the sudden fight.
“Enemy attack!”
The sound of a horn blared.
Tirbo, holding the Alliance’s banner, planted the pole in the ground and drew his sword. The rest of the soldiers followed suit, ready to fight.
Then, enemies began to appear one by one from who knew where.
Jared said.
“Were they underground tunnels?”
“Who knows.”
“They came out of the ground.”
“Whether they crawled out of tunnels or were just lying beneath the earth…”
“They’re no longer human, are they?”
“Do they even look human to you?”
The Empire’s soldiers suddenly rose from the earth, surrounding the Anti-Empire forces.
Enemies had appeared where moments before there was nothing.
They looked human, but were far from it. Some had claws instead of hands, others had writhing tentacles.
Their bodies were so distorted that their uniforms no longer fit, hanging in tatters.
“This is brutal…”
Neither side dared to charge first.
The tension was thick enough to snap.
Yuri broke the silence.
“What are you waiting for?”
Dismounting, he stepped forward, swinging his sword, Guilty, in a wide arc.
A crescent-shaped wave of energy rose, cutting down the enemies blocking his path. They all spat blood and fell in halves.
Beast-like screams, not human, echoed.
The battle had begun.
The Anti-Empire procession was attacked from both sides, but they covered each other’s backs, cooperating as best they could.
“This is just the beginning. Don’t lose ground!”
Yuri shouted as he pressed forward. The enemies before him were grotesque, but not significantly stronger than the Empire’s black-clad soldiers they had faced before.
Still, their strange fighting style made them difficult to counter.
Before, it had felt like humans fighting humans. Now, it was like battling beasts.
They stabbed with tentacles, slashed with clawed hands, or bared their teeth to bite exposed flesh.
Yuri’s eyes darted quickly.
No matter how much they’d changed, there had to be a leader.
He expanded his senses.
His eyes, sharpened by entering the Soul Slash realm, scanned the enemies.
Soon, he spotted one radiating dark magic far stronger than the rest.
It stood at the back, seemingly advancing with the Empire’s forces, but its eyes darted nervously as it muttered something under its breath.
Yuri charged forward, sword raised.
The Empire soldiers blocked him again.
Yuri dodged tentacles flying from all directions, slashing them all away with Guilty. But they quickly regenerated.
Changing tactics, Yuri decided to cut through their bodies directly instead of just the tentacles, pushing deeper.
It seemed dangerously close.
But Yuri’s speed was beyond what the enemies could match.
Each swing sent chunks of flesh flying high into the air.
After dozens of strikes, a gap opened in the enemy ranks.
Shattered bodies littered the ground, and those who tried to block him were either dead or crippled, crawling on the floor.
Yuri pressed on.
The enemy leader, realizing Yuri had found him, turned his back and began to flee.
At the same time, the Empire’s soldiers formed layers of defense ahead of Yuri.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Yuri leapt.
As he fell, he aimed to stab the fleeing enemy in the back.
The creature turned and grinned.
Its mouth stretched wide, torn all the way to its ears.
“Foolish.”
To Yuri’s surprise, the voice was clear and fluent in the continental tongue.
Despite its hideous appearance, it hadn’t lost its wits.
Then a heavy blow struck Yuri.
Just before he could stab, he was knocked aside, tumbling to the ground.
Several Empire soldiers fell with him.
Yuri quickly got up, stabbing the nearby enemies with Guilty one by one, then looked up.
Someone was standing there.
“Hey.”
Yuri called out to him. Judging by his attire, he seemed to be a high-ranking figure—probably a commander of one of the numbered knight orders that once served the empire.
But now, he was corrupted by dark magic, his former self lost forever.
Though clad in black armor and helmet, glimpses of his body beneath revealed something no longer human.
Most unsettling was the sword he wielded—it was fused to his arm, more like a sharp bone than a blade.
“What’s your name?” Yuri asked, gripping her own sword, Guilty.
To her surprise, he answered.
“Valfua.”
“That name sounds familiar. Are you a knight commander?”
“Yes.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“Like what?”
“You’re not human anymore.”
“What does it mean to be human?”
Red eyes gleamed from within his helmet.
“Well? That’s a bit too philosophical for me to answer.”
“There’s no need to obsess over what you don’t truly understand.”
From his other hand, Valfua produced another sword—also fused to his arm.
He began to advance.
Facing an enemy with blades instead of hands was a first for Yuri.
“Alright. Let’s do this,” she said with a sly smile, tightening her grip on Guilty.
She lunged forward.
Valfua crossed his twin swords to block her strikes. Seizing the moment, Yuri kicked him in the abdomen, then swung Guilty down over his staggering head.
He raised his swords again to block.
Attack and defense went back and forth.
Yuri tripped Valfua’s leg, sending him sprawling, then glanced toward the enemy leader retreating in the distance.
At first, the leader had just watched the fight, but seeing Yuri gaining the upper hand, he was already fleeing.
A truly irritating coward.
Dodging a sweeping strike from Valfua’s blades, Yuri called out, “Is that your leader?”
Valfua said nothing. Suddenly, tendrils sprouted from his body.
“I’m so sick of those damn tendrils,” Yuri muttered.
“Did you know?” Valfua spoke abruptly.
“We’re just here to buy time. The real imperial army is elsewhere.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
“You can never win.”
“If they’re so strong, why are they just stalling every day?”
“To become whole.”
Valfua raised his twin swords.
“It’s soon. Just a little longer, and he will be complete. To die for that is an honor.”
“Very loyal of you. Is ‘he’ Cedric?”
Valfua remained silent. Yuri clicked her tongue.
Then she struck.
It happened so fast Valfua didn’t even realize he was dying.
Yuri closed the distance in an instant, slicing his head cleanly into four pieces. Passing his collapsing body, she said coldly,
“I’m the one who will kill Cedric.”