Chapter 235

Chapter 235: Noble Class

Noble Class
Chapter 235. Noble Class
Golden scales dug into his flesh, and red blood flowed.
Even that was brief; the golden scales that had been a foreign substance soon settled into his palm, and from within it, a golden light poured out.
The widely spreading light illuminated the surroundings, propagating from his hand like guide lights.
No, “pierced” would be the more accurate expression; the light was far more intense.
At that moment, as such a brilliant light illuminated the path, something surprising occurred.
The corridor connected to an infinite darkness began to tremble.
The unnecessarily long tiles compressed, the darkness grew increasingly faint, and the castle returned to its original size.
— As expected, it is the power of a dragon.
King Hudret let out a burst of laughter and asked the mage.
— How is it now? Have we entered another space?
— No. The true form of this castle has revealed itself!
The scout mage’s face brightened.
— And… it is certain. I can clearly sense where the space-distorting magic has manifested!
— Is that so?
— Yes. If we attack that place, the castle will return to normal.
King Hudret stroked his chin.
Then he said this.
— What if we leave that place alone?
— What do you mean, Your Majesty?
— Excluding the place maintaining it, let us head to the other locations first.
— Then the others will remain trapped in the space, will they not?
— Truly frustrating. You should know without me explaining it.
— Ah.
This is a joint operation, but at the same time, it is a race to claim territory.
When one holds the advantage, is there any need to deliberately let them go?
— Let us advance. As long as we have time, we can slit King Heinkel’s throat, after all.
— Yes!
King Hudret took the lead again and advanced.
Meanwhile, Ferdá, having left the bedroom, was also wandering through Heinkel’s Domain.
He had once reached the position of Archmage, but now, naturally, he was nothing more than a 5th Circle mage.
With his skills alone, he could not escape this place.
Of course, that did not mean it was impossible.
Although it was a very broadly created space, it was not infinite, so a destination had to exist.
— To escape… at least a week?
Having finished his calculations, Ferdá reached a conclusion.
— Better to wait for someone to break it for me.
He would not be the only one trapped here, and countless forces of the realm would be deployed regardless.
The problem was what to do if there were many bastards thinking like him.
It was like a poker table full of beginners.
Bluffing to their heart’s content, hoping the others would not match the bet.
Ferdá continued walking down the silent corridor.
Zealots, demons, ghoul monsters, beast monsters…
Various groups attempted to attack Ferdá, but all were eliminated.
Fighting alone felt far too familiar to him.
— My strength is constantly draining.
Would he be able to pour out everything he had when he found himself before King Heinkel?
Such doubt stimulated Ferdá’s anxiety.
Then, something caught Ferdá’s attention.
Unlike the reckless monsters, its speed was extremely slow.
Something was crawling with great difficulty.
It was the middle-aged man seen during the talks with the Allied Forces.
A king of some realm.
— S-save me… me… quickly…
He wore splendid armor, but his mouth held bright red blood, and he struggled to cling to the speck of hope left to him.
Even so, he had not forgotten his authority as a king.
— Do not just stand there looking… act… I cannot feel my legs…!
It seemed he did not know the fact that the entire lower half of his body had been torn away.
The only mercy Ferdá could offer was death.
Yet there was not even time for that.
A single sword flew and pierced his upper body, ending his life at that very instant.
That sword was exceptionally fine and bore a pattern similar to the one on the back of the dead king.
— Do not tell me…
Ferdá looked toward the corridor.
Fortunately, the tragedy of a knight killing his king did not happen.
Instead, what met his gaze were the traces of a one-sided massacre by some entity.
The number of dead knights was around twenty.
Chosen to escort the king, they were without a doubt the finest of the realm.
What swept away the elite was truly demonic.
The aura emanating from it was unmistakably that of at least a Noble-class demon.
Along with that thought, Ferdá immediately prepared his magic.
He needed to prepare in advance to bring it down in a single blow with immense firepower.
Eyes that could see through the darkness examined its shape.
The moment a specific piece of information settled in his mind, Ferdá could not hide his surprise.
— Second Prince?
Second Prince, Ureas Arken.
Even as he uttered the name, Ferdá doubted whether it was truly Ureas himself.
Horns growing wildly on his face covered it like roots piercing the skin, leaving only a quarter of his facial features visible.
His skin had turned black, and his pupils reflected a pale white light like that of a midnight beast, creating an unsettling feeling.
Ureas had originally been a large man, but he had swollen even further, turning into a towering figure 2 meters and 50 centimeters tall.
His golden armor was in tatters.
— Demonic transformation?
Yet he did not have red eyes like other demons.
— Then… a curse?
What kind of curse would result in such an appearance?
Ferdá tried to think, but there was no time for that.
— Ferdá…
Ureas’s pupils pierced the darkness and stared directly at Ferdá.
He poured out the emotions boiling within him.
— Ferdáaaa!!
With a beastly roar, his figure lunged at Ferdá.
Like an arrow drawn with heavy tension, he shot forward and cleanly severed Ferdá’s waist.
The lower half of Ferdá flew completely away.
Chapak!
The sound was like throwing a glob of paint against a wall.
The wall that should have been stained with blood and flesh spread out as if smeared with black paint.
And the black marks moved swiftly, relocating somewhere.
As if it were human fate not to be able to defy gravity, the shadow went to seek its master.
Ferdá did not miss the opportunity.
— Lightning Spear.
4th Circle Release Magic.
A red lightning bolt flew in a straight line toward Ureas.
Kwachak!
The red lightning that tore the demon’s skin ripped away Ureas’s shoulder.
Ureas clutched the wound and screamed.
— Aaaaaah!! Ferdá! You damned bastard!! How dare you! You attacked me!!
He raised his eyes, baring the sharp teeth of a beast.
It was not that he had lost his mind and gone mad.
He was simply foolish as usual.
— Second Prince, is your mind still intact?
Ferdá tried speaking to him for now.
Ureas screamed at the top of his lungs.
— I must wash away the disrespect of attacking me with your blood!
— Calm down, Second Prince. We still have a common enemy.
— Shut up! As if I would listen to your words! Evil spirit that will take everything from me!
A shout of hatred striking out blindly.
Not wanting to accept that hatred any longer, Ferdá chanted Calm Magic and shot it toward his head.
‘Strange.’
What Ferdá used was magic that settles the qi of the blood and returns a narrowed field of vision to normal.
He felt it pierce Ureas’s head and thought it had certainly worked.
Yet no reason whatsoever could be felt in Ureas’s eyes.
Why?
The problem was that the surprises did not end there.
As he panted, the severed left arm was regenerating.
‘Something that most demons cannot even recover from…’
Had Ureas become a Noble-class demon or higher?
Using that black blood?
The last thing seen through Director Linne’s sample was the unstable Bouncer.
It is incredible that he has evolved so much in the meantime.
— Second Prince, regain your composure. You are the Second Prince of the Arken Empire, a person who could reign as the next Emperor. You must not allow a demon to steal your mind—.
— Shut up, you lowly, despicable bastard!
Ureas’s roar buried Ferdá’s words.
— I should have killed you the first time I saw you. From the moment my sister looked at you! I should have torn you to pieces! How pitiful my own stupidity for not having done so!
The rage does not cease.
Ferdá also judged the situation swiftly.
Talking does not work, so all that remains is force.
Severing his limbs to incapacitate him, or crushing his heart to leave him half-dead.
Ferdá prepares a magic circle.
Ureas, having received a fatal attack, had no intention of letting that attack slide.
Naturally, he charges at Ferdá.
Yet his body leans forward and collapses face-first against the ground.
— What?! What is holding me back?!
At his feet was a shadow darker than darkness.
The dark shadow was a powerful force, and even the strengthened Ureas could not easily shake it off.
Ferdá’s shadow grew even darker, taking the form of a slime and swallowing Ureas.
— Damn it! Damn it! Ferdáaaa!!!
The magic Ferdá was preparing was Lightning Cluster.
It was a magic focused on firepower that fired a powerful beam of lightning to shatter the entire body.
Even a veteran mage would find it difficult to counter, and Ureas might not survive.
It did not matter.
Holding back would put Ferdá in danger.
It was then that it happened.
Ferdá, while preparing the magic, sensed something strange.
The clusters of shadow enveloping Ureas held all their senses alive as parts of Ferdá’s own body.
That sensation detected an intense heat from Ureas’s body that should not have been there.
Before the assumption that it could be a delusion could finish, a scorching heat, as if melting everything, enveloped Ferdá.
— Ugh…!
Ferdá swiftly severed his senses.
Yet the chanted magic continued, and finally a magic circle condensed in Ferdá’s hand and took form.
— Lightning Cluster—.
At first it flew forward like the previous Lightning Spears.
Yet the moment it drew close to the target, its surface began to bloom like a flower, spreading into dozens of strands of lightning.
The lightning beam accurately tore through the shadow cluster and completely violated the form of whatever was inside.
Head or heart, it did not discriminate: an indiscriminate attack.
An attack that left his life in the hands of the heavens.
Yet even that now felt arrogant.
The scorching heat felt from the shadow was saying so.
That Ureas, inside that shadow, had turned into something beyond Ferdá’s imagination.
At that moment, a bright red light seeped out of the shadow cluster.
The light heated the shadow cluster more and more, and when it had fully matured to a glowing red, it tore through it and burst, leaping outward.
— Aaaaaah!!!
A roar that tore through the air.
Seeing that form, Ferdá could not hide his astonishment.
Ureas originally only used mana in the form of a knight’s aura, as a purely physical type of force.
And when his form changed completely, the aura had vanished.
Yet now he was using magic.
His empty pupils burned with ferocity, and flames erupted from the joints of his body, burning intensely.
It was a light so intense that all the shadows Ferdá had spread out completely lost their power.
— Shadow…! It was shadow, Ferdá! You are a black mage! Dirty black mage! Kuhahaha!
Ureas burst into exaggerated laughter as if he had discovered something great.
— Pretending to be noble, acting cold, but in the end you are just one of the fallen humans!
— I do not know what you are so proud of. Coming from someone who fell into a demon’s temptation—.
Yet Ureas put on a shameless face.
— A demon’s temptation? Do you think I would fall for such a low-level illusion?
— Can you still say that after seeing your own face?—
— My face, you say?
Ureas touches his face.
From his chin to the strange horns.
He seemed to know his own appearance.
— Is it not quite noble?
What blooms on the face, of which only a quarter remains, is joy.
— Are you proud of that hideous face?—
— Do you think it is ugly? No, this is the natural appearance for one who rules!
Nonsense spoken with confidence.
— Now that I think about it, it is a truly strange thing. Resembling other humans was the strange part. How can we, who look down upon tens of millions, be called humans under the heavens?!
His voice was filled with excitement.
He shouted with a voice indistinguishable between ecstasy and lamentation.
— The Arken lineage is golden blood! Gold flows in our bodies! Look!
He even began to self-harm.
He tore open his own chest and poured out what was inside.
If it were a human body, blood would have flowed, but what came out of his body was bright red lava.
The lava did not cool, emitting a terrible heat.
— I have the qualification to rule! The qualification to conquer! The qualification to love Olivia! A human drunk on black magic like you has no qualification to be loved by that girl!
Kwang-kwang!
He stomps the ground, producing threatening sounds.
Olivia’s words come to mind.
That Ureas sees himself projected in his mother.
Looking at it now, it is not just that level.
The madness he displays is enough to make even Ferdá, who had nothing to do with it, feel sympathy for Olivia.
Yet if it is born of such delusion, the thought arises that it might be resolvable.
He cautiously seeks a breakthrough.
— Your delusions are severe, Second Prince. I have not had a single thought of embracing the Princess. If you wish, I can swear it right here—.
Ferdá could give her up.
To begin with, they were not lovers, and she felt nothing for him either.
— Even if you are like that, do you think Olivia is the same as you?
— What do you mean?—
— How can you not know?! That Olivia loves you!
He wondered what nonsense he was spouting now.
— Second Prince, wake up. What you saw is nothing—.
— No! It is not an illusion! It was definitely the truth!
— That is a hallucination created by a creature called Trauma. It forces you to think things you normally would not. Open your eyes—.
— I tell you it is not a delusion! Then why does my sister have your handkerchief?!
— What nonsense…—.
Ferdá could not continue.
A memory suddenly surfaces in his mind.
When he met alone with Olivia, she spilled tea, and Ferdá had given her his handkerchief; that memory arose.
While Ferdá could not speak, he convulsed and shouted.
— Why?! Why is she smiling looking at your humble handkerchief!—