Chapter 204. Fall (2)
At that moment, another herald standing beside Hatir leapt forward, blocking with his body.
Of course, he didn’t just throw himself in the way. He drew his black steel arrow that was in his tradition, meeting the incoming black steel arrow and moving to defend, and astonishingly, he succeeded in protecting Hatir.
In return, he suffered grievous injuries, his fingers torn apart and severed, but as the price for stopping such a perfect ambush, it was cheap indeed.
“Urgh!”
“Chief!”
“Tsk.”
Hatir looked toward the direction the arrow had flown from. At the second-floor window of the royal castle’s audience chamber, Azadin revealed himself.
“Ah, Azadin!”
“You cur! How dare you shoot at the chief!”
The herald clan fumed at the fact that their fellow clan member Azadin had shot a black steel arrow at their chief, but Azadin was equally shocked to see them throwing themselves to protect Hatir.
“Are you out of your minds? Throwing yourselves for the one who bound us with the curse of service!?”
“How dare you!”
“A traitor like you has no right to argue.”
The Aragasa had their salvation right before them. Even if it was not by righteous means, they had long suffered persecution by unrighteous means, and so they no longer cared for anything else.
The entire clan raised their bows at Azadin all at once. No matter how skilled Azadin was, he could not dodge or block so many attacks. And a good number of them were black steel arrows.
How long had they been preparing for this? So many black steel arrows… damn it.
Azadin sensed death.
—Shwaeeek!
All their arrows flew at Azadin almost simultaneously.
Just as Azadin resigned himself to death, an anomaly occurred.
The massive figure of Manza-Zadek, who was now closer to an ogre than a man, threw himself forward, receiving the arrows with his body and shielding Azadin.
“Y-your Majesty!”
Azadin, who had long been wary of Manza-Zadek’s ruined spirit, was deeply moved.
When all the clan sought his death, it was not even a clan member, but rather a king who was considered the enemy of the clan, who threw himself to save him.
“Pay it no mind. Is it not the duty of those older, to protect the promising young? Ha, this bulked-up body serves me well. Even when struck by arrows, I can still…”
Of course, that was impossible.
The arrows embedded in his body were black steel arrows. These were arrows that could even blow off an ogre’s head—no amount of bulk could stop them.
The only reason they did not pierce through Manza-Zadek’s body was that he had gathered his spirituality to conjure every last defense spell he could, and in addition, was employing the blood magic forbidden by the king’s church.
Though he had already sustained mortal wounds, he forced his body to move and stopped the bleeding with blood magic.
However…
“I had hoped to let you spend what little time you have left in peace, but you’re far too troublesome.”
Hatir muttered, twisting his hand in the air.
The arrows embedded in Manza-Zadek’s body began to spin furiously. Like a school of carnivorous fish biting down on prey and thrashing, the arrows writhed all at once, tearing his wounds apart.
“Gwaaahhh!”
Manza-Zadek screamed. The blood magic that had held his body together shattered, and blood poured down like a waterfall.
The shock of sudden blood loss rolled his eyes back and sent him into convulsions. Once shock set in, there was no coming back.
Thus, the Golden King of Bruma collapsed, gladly sacrificing his own body to protect a single young man of the clan, a youth bereft of spirit, and ended his life.
“Ugh!”
Azadin picked up the black steel arrows that had fallen nearby, and shot them in succession at the chief.
Even for a chief, even for one who possessed absolute power, weapons like the black steel arrow were dangerous enough.
However… the clan blocked the rapid succession of arrows Azadin fired. They did not hesitate to risk their lives to protect Chief Hatir.
Damn it!
Azadin did not want to kill the clan. If only he could strike down Hatir, would that stop this dreadful blasphemy?
But of course not. They all threw themselves to protect Hatir.
Even if this world was stained with the evil of the nether, as long as their wrath could be unleashed, they gladly followed Hatir’s will. Even if he had deceived them and ruled with curses, as long as other peoples, other nations, other kingdoms could be destroyed, they shielded him with their very bodies.
What was even more infuriating was that Hatir wasn’t even trying to avoid it.
Please! Step aside! Why go so far!?”
With a heart bleeding tears, Azadin kept firing black steel arrows. Trying to slip past the clan’s defense to strike down Hatir.
But because they stood in his way, he could not so much as scratch him.
And then…
—Thwack!
A black steel arrow pierced through Azadin’s bow, and the left arm that held it. The bones of his wrist shattered, and the front of his forearm was blown clean off.
“Urgh!”
In an instant, blood gushed out in torrents.
Azadin had endured many small wounds before, but never such a hideous wound where his arm was torn away.
In the moment, he felt no pain. Even though his arm had been blown off before his eyes, it felt almost like someone else’s misfortune.
But to stop the massive bleeding, he had to clamp his armpit shut and press down on the severed stump with his right hand.
The wound was too large—if left untended, he would surely bleed out in less than ten seconds. But while stemming the blood, Azadin could not make any move.
This way, he could not even protect his own body.
—Shwaek!
A blade from the clan flew at Azadin.
Unable to bring himself to draw and swing his sword, Azadin could only dodge. But with such a deep wound and so much blood lost, his body would not move as he willed.
The blade struck Azadin. Though his armor prevented it from cutting flesh, the powerful impact knocked him down.
Normally, he would never fall to such a strike, but now, battered and weakened, he was in no state to endure.
“Die, traitor!”
The clan raised their blades to kill Azadin.
But just then, with an explosion, the one approaching Azadin was suddenly blown away.
With a deafening crash, stone fragments rained into the royal castle.
It was a stone-thrower, a siege catapult that fired carved stone shot. Astoundingly, someone had turned it toward the castle and fired.
“Your Majesty!”
Soldiers and knights poured into the audience chamber.
And alongside them, soldiers of the Blue Sky Order surged in, their eyes glowing yellow, driven into frenzy.
The herald clan rained arrows upon them, but shockingly, even when struck in the head, they did not die, and kept advancing.
Having become thralls of Grimslawn, they were now empowered, for as the throne of Yaegas was defiled by the language of the nether, they only grew stronger.
“Kh!”
“How shall we proceed?”
“The objective is accomplished. We withdraw.”
Having already finished defiling the throne, Hatir had no further intention of remaining here.
Someone might sit upon the throne in the Golden King’s place and once more breathe the Book of the Divine King into it to restore the throne of Yaegas, but the Golden King’s children, the princes, did not possess the ability of their father.
Now that the light of the king’s virtue was gone, Bruma was like a lamp flickering in the wind.
“What about the traitor…?”
The heralds looked at the fallen Azadin and asked Hatir’s will.
Hatir cast a cold glance at Azadin, who had collapsed unconscious with his left hand severed.
“With that wound, he will die anyway. Even if he doesn’t, what use is a herald missing an arm? Hurry, before we’re surrounded in an instant.”
The herald clan leapt out the window to escape the Bruma soldiers who were closing in.
The soldiers tried to give chase, but those who could traverse heights twice the height of a man as if it were flat ground could not be caught.
“Tch.”
Karcen, who commanded the soldiers returning, clicked his tongue as he watched the heralds flee.
The king had been assassinated, and the culprits escaped.
A few had died or been wounded by Azadin’s arrows, but in Bruma, the death of the Golden King, Manza-Zadek, would bring great calamity.
Moreover…
With the light of the king’s virtue gone, the ominous shadow cast upon the sky was growing stronger still.
***
When Azadin opened his eyes, he was lying on damp earth. Looking around, he saw bars surrounding him, and he possessed nothing but his bare body.
“My arm…”
His left hand and about an inch above the wrist were severed.
Amber-colored fluid clung to the severed surface, sealing the bleeding. It was the sap of Grimslawn. That sap had stopped the bleeding and saved him. Without it, he would have died.
“So I am a prisoner?”
Azadin muttered absentmindedly.
[That is so.]
The voice of the emperor answered in his stead.
“What happened? Where is this place?”
[This is the prison of Amun-Zadek.]
“Amun-Zadek?”
[The son of the Golden King, Manza-Zadek, and currently the most promising heir to the throne.]
“Hmm.”
Azadin raised himself up and turned his head. His condition was not as bad as he had expected.
“What is the situation?”
[With the light of the king’s virtue gone, the Nagas pressed hard with their nether beasts at the front, and the Bruma army lost its center. Fortunately, thanks to the struggle of the Blue Sky Order, who had become thralls of the nether, the retreat from Bruma was carried out in orderly fashion, but the Bruma army has lost the royal capital and has fled to nearby farms and fortresses.]
“And the atmosphere?”
[The people are furious with the herald clan. They slew the king they revered and loved, and became the very ones to usher in the age of Jupiter. Though you fought against your clan, the people will not make such fine distinctions.]
“Well, the Golden King is dead.”
Azadin recalled the final image of the Golden King.
Though abandoned by his clan, it was not a clan member, but rather the divine king of Yaegas, who had thrown himself to protect him.
Even though he had been driven mad by despair, he had been a truly great king.
Since the clan had slain such a man, the people’s hatred toward them was inevitable.
Divine King Slayers, blasphemers without souls.
The weight of those labels that clung to his clan now pressed down upon him anew.
“What of the emperor’s voice? Does the contract with the clan still stand?”
Did the emperor’s voice still acknowledge the Aragasa as heralds, even though they had abandoned the emperor’s mission and relied on the sorceries of the nether?
When Azadin asked, the voice of the emperor replied,
[The contract with the Aragasa has been annulled.]
“…”
He had known it was the proper course, but hearing that the contract was truly broken left his mind reeling. Then, was the curse of service not laid by the emperor, but by the elder council, by Chief Hatir?
Was it a contract so easily broken?
“And what of me?”
[You are the sole herald remaining.]
“Really?”
Azadin looked at his severed hand.
With such an injury, he would not be able to draw a bow properly. And yet he was now the last herald of the emperor?
A bitter laugh escaped him.
Thanks to Grimslawn, perhaps. Despite having bled so much, his condition was fairly stable.
“Urgh…”
Perhaps because he looked directly at the wound, the pain of the lost hand struck him. Strangely, the hand no longer existed, yet it itched and throbbed as if it did.
The pain at the stump was harsh, but even more unbearable was the itch, the ache, the indescribable agony of the absent hand.
Driven mad by itching he could not scratch, he was tormented by pain and emptiness at once.
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