Chapter 278 |
"Wh-what is that...?"
Anyone could see that it was Samyeong Family Head Oren who held back the situation and evacuated the citadel residents.
The Ibon Family Head's sudden attack on him, far from helping, was utterly bizarre in every way.
But Ibon ignored the atmosphere and brazenly shouted.
"The Samyeong Family Head is the one who ruined the proxy battle. For the safety of the citadel residents, we must deal with him immediately!!"
The true culprit and the facts of the situation didn't matter.
What was important was to distort everyone's view around him with stubborn nonsense and pin the blame on someone else, no matter what.
If he could just cloud the judgment of the other family heads for even a moment, that would be enough.
As Ibon stretched out his arm while shouting, veins bulged rapidly along it, smoothing out his wrinkled skin in an instant.
Cleaving strikes infused with mana shot out one after another, turning the area where the family heads had been into a wasteland, followed by a deafening explosion.
Boom boom boom!!
"Ibon Family Head!!!"
"Calm down! What nonsense is this!!"
Above all, Oren must not be allowed to speak.
If he couldn't resolve this before the citadel residents all fled outside the arena...!!
But as Ibon gathered his mana with that thought, his face quickly twisted in frustration.
Because beyond the thick cloud of dust, he sensed the presence of someone gripping a long spear shaft.
Standing there as if blocking the figure of Oren, who now concentrated his mind and began to float into the sky, was Suryeon, who had taken on the role of head of the Oryun Family.
She looked at the Ibon Family Head's stiff expression and smiled leisurely.
"You seem quite urgent."
"You...!!"
"You're the one who joined hands with the Gido Order to orchestrate all this, and now you're pretending not to know?"
"......"
Whoosh!!
Suryeon lightly swung her crescent blade, sweeping away the dust scattering in all directions, and slowly assumed her stance.
"Ban's words were right. You never cared about winning or losing the proxy battle from the start."
If they won the proxy battle and seized the citadel lord's authority, great. They could access the citadel's ruins and achieve their goal.
But even if things went wrong, they planned to harvest the life force of the humans gathered in the arena and forcibly summon the Gido Order's forces.
By performing life force offering on thousands, they could at least summon hundreds of order members to this location.
With that, they could seize the citadel, kill the citadel lord again, and restart the proxy battle.
From the beginning, Ibon intended to claim the citadel lord's authority, even if it meant completely destroying the citadel.
"...It seems some lowly spellcaster has been spouting nonsense."
The Ibon Family Head forced a smile as he spoke.
"What would I gain from colluding with the order to plot all this?"
"Well, if that's what you want to say..."
Suryeon cut him off and swung her crescent blade down into empty air.
Crack!!
In the midst of the dust, Ibon's attendant who had lunged past her toward Oren was cleaved in half, spewing blood.
"Rather than killing the Samyeong Family Head, shouldn't we be helping him? It's entirely thanks to Samyeong's power that the citadel residents are being safely evacuated right now."
It wasn't just the Ibon Family Head attacking Oren alone.
In that brief moment of conversation between the two, Ibon's attendants, whom he had brought here, began charging fiercely at Oren in his place.
Their momentum was unbelievably ferocious, considering they hadn't shown any killing intent until just moments ago.
With too few people to block all those assaults with Suryeon's crescent blade alone.
As the attendants' blades, blended into the shadows, reached toward Oren with his eyes closed beyond them—
Clang clang clang!!
A sharp silver flash intervened, twisting the direction of every blade converging on him.
In the blink of an eye, a muscular man climbed up from the spectator seats.
The swordsman, with a robotic head mounted on human shoulders instead of a normal one, readjusted his grip on his blade, and at the same time, bloodstains began scattering messily from all directions.
Splat!!
[That's right, it should have come to this sooner!!]
He moved swiftly while emitting a relentless, unnatural mechanical voice.
His body, long since abandoned human breathing methods, contracted and relaxed abnormally, sweeping through the surroundings.
Thud thud thud thud!!
[I was so worried that bringing such a fine combat vessel for once would go to waste!!!]
His movements, laughing maniacally like a madman while slashing blades left and right, held no logic or reason.
Purely impulsive and instinctive, careless gestures that left judgment to whim.
Yet no one present had the skill to fully comprehend and counter the subtleties of the swordsmanship contained within.
With each twist of his wrist, Manson's raised blade tip vanished, and each time, one of the charging attendants' limbs was futilely severed somewhere.
Thump thump thump!!
That vivid, wildly dancing frenzy of slashes was the result of holding back even through forfeiting the proxy battle.
Renok had conserved Chen and Manson's stamina until this moment, preparing for the decisive instant.
Precisely to foil the Ibon Family Head's planned course of action from the start, in case they failed to seize the citadel lord's position.
As Suryeon and Manson—warriors who had reached the elite rank through different methods and weapons—sealed off Oren's front and rear and held their ground, Ibon's attendants couldn't easily break through and were forced to pull back.
Unlike the warriors brought for the proxy battle, those positioned here were far from the families' main forces.
To reassure the family heads, each family's attendants consisted only of those with relatively low combat ability.
"Useless fools...!!"
In the end, the Ibon Family Head grimaced and rolled up his sleeves, stepping forward himself.
"...I am ashamed."
"Take the Ilwon Family Head and get out to your main house!!"
At Ibon's sharp shout, the attendants moved without hesitation.
Suryeon gripped her spear tightly with a hardened expression as she watched them snatch the trembling, pale-faced Taeo and vanish.
"The Ilwon... Family Head was allowed to reach that state without anyone stopping it? The family has already lost its ability to sustain itself."
"What are you talking about?"
Ibon laughed. Even alone, she was utterly confident.
Crunch!!
The thick veins crawling up to her face swelled rapidly, instantly reverting her age to her youth.
In the time it took to catch her breath, the old woman had turned back into a young woman.
Sweeping back her hair, now returned to sleek black, Ibon smiled with supreme confidence.
"From the time the Eightfold Star Citadel was established, Ilwon and Ibon have always been together. It was merely a difference in roles."
"......"
"Now, Ibon steps to the forefront of the citadel, with Ilwon supporting from behind."
With those words, Ibon leisurely raised her hand.
In an instant, unknown energies gathered in her grasp, beginning to form a massive aggregate.
After the death of the Ilwon Family Head, who was also the previous citadel lord, Ibon—along with Oren—was one of the top martial powers within the citadel, countable on one hand.
She had not only completed her hierarchy but also possessed an abundance of time and experience. So why had she never stepped forward until now?
To thoroughly conceal the order's existence and maneuver in the shadows, securing everything she desired in one fell swoop.
The citadel's power and eternal youth.
It would be a lie to say she didn't want both.
But not everything in the world goes as planned, and if forced to choose one...
For her own sake, she had to pour in all her strength.
Rumble rumble rumble!!!!
Coiling in her hand and slowly swelling in size was a plant stem of unknown seed.
As Suryeon and Manson, facing an out-of-spec opponent, simultaneously raised their auras and prepared their stances—
Something flew in and slammed into the VIP seats where the family heads had been sitting, right beside Ibon.
Boom!!
"Ugh...!!"
It didn't take long for the Ibon Family Head's head, who had ignored it and continued her attack, to snap around.
"...Martinez?"
"Ibon Family Head. The plan has changed."
Walter, his arms shredded to rags on both sides, forced a wry smile as he pulled himself up.
"We need to escape right now."
The direction of Walter's gaze.
From below the stage where the proxy battle had just taken place, a man in a coat was looking up at them.
*
'Much weaker than I thought. Below expectations.'
As Renok walked up to the VIP seats, he lightly cracked his neck.
A student from Lavaton University. And even then, a spellcaster whose body wasn't fully completed. Yet the bishop had shown top-tier combat ability by using that vessel.
Naturally, Renok had assumed his true combat prowess would far surpass what he'd seen back then, so he'd conserved mana meticulously throughout the proxy battle. But Walter couldn't even properly withstand Renok's assaults.
For Renok, who had focused on Walter despite knowing of Ilwon Family Head Taeo's escape, it was more than enough to sense something off.
'If his responses are even feebler than during university days, then surely...'
Realizing that, Renok had shifted from focusing on killing Walter to joining Oren, where the situation was rapidly changing.
Walter, pulling himself up, coughed dryly as he spoke.
"The moment he assessed our forces, he decided to capture us instead. He's a dangerous thinker."
"......"
"Fortunately, we safely extracted the Ilwon Family Head, so the big picture isn't ruined."
He nodded crisply, drawing his conclusion.
"Let's retreat."
"...We haven't obtained a single one of the outcomes we anticipated. You want us to tuck tail and run in this situation?!"
The Ibon Family Head's face twisted.
"A mere wizard who made a name outside— I can handle him anytime...!! You go catch those fleeing people right now!!"
Only after hearing her bellow did the other family heads finally realize who the true mastermind behind all this was.
If the mysterious youth they thought was just the Ilwon Family Head's proxy had conspired with Ibon as if by prior agreement, the conclusion was obvious.
The Sagun Family Head's lips trembled as he shouted.
"Ibon Family Head. What is the meaning of this?!"
"Colluding with outsiders and throwing away the citadel's safety?!"
The other family heads, finally grasping the situation, began gathering mana toward the Ibon Family Head.
They had followed Ibon's lead to form an alliance and pressure the other three families solely to divide the citadel's power among themselves.
They had never wanted the Eightfold Star Citadel itself to be shaken.
"Tch..."
Ibon clicked her tongue softly, but there was no helping it now that her plot was exposed.
The number who could join hands with the order and reap its benefits was limited, and she had no intention of sharing this reclaimed youth with the other family heads.
With Walter's presence and his schemes revealed, pretending ignorance was a waste of time.
Instead, she sneered coldly at the family heads and muttered.
"Family heads, think about it. How long do you plan to stay cooped up in this cramped district like frogs in a well?"
"What, what did you say?"
"It's been decades since we made a pact with those old monsters in the city council to claim this land as the citadel's territory. Do you really think those geezers will guarantee our rights forever?"
"......"
"The world is changing day by day. You who don't listen to outside news might not know, but rumors are circulating that the restrictive edict binding high-rank ability users will soon be lifted."
Silence fell at her cold declaration.
Undeterred, the Ibon Family Head continued.
"Change is coming soon. And I have no intention of planning my remaining years relying on the mercy of those mad old fools. So... I simply chose first before being discarded."
"You're saying you'll sacrifice the entire citadel's residents as offerings and seek a new life?"
Whoosh!!
Oren, who had kept his eyes closed in concentration until then, finally opened his mouth.
"Not wrong. But if you truly thought that, you should have consulted the citadel lord first and explored a path forward for the citadel."
He opened his eyes calmly and descended to the ground, gazing steadily at the Ibon Family Head.
"With your petty selfishness, my old friend died, and his son became a puppet. Do you really believe you can toy with human life and death?"
"Why not?"
Ibon laughed.
"For others, maybe not, but you and I, having completed our hierarchies, have been certified by this world as qualified to do so."
"......"
"If bowing to the monsters of the outer sea would fulfill my wishes... I wouldn't hesitate for a moment."
"Is that so? In my eyes, you look no different from those mad old men in the city council."
Oren retorted.
"How much blood and spirit-flesh did you consume to seize that youth?"
The Ibon Family Head said nothing more.
She merely stepped back with a chilling smile.
Walter blocked her path, aligning his shoulders.
Watching the scene, Renok spoke.
"A member of the Gido Order. Judging by the spells he wields, a high-ranking one."
"Understood."
"His combat ability is abysmal, but he seems strangely unaffected by pain. Yet his body's repairs aren't particularly efficient."
Oren turned his gaze, sensing something ominous in Renok's words.
"...What do you mean?"
"Think about it."
Renok exhaled smoke from his cigarette as he replied.
"The body of a man well over forty. Pale face and bruises below the neck. Poor combat and regeneration. And the unusually cooperative Ilwon Family Head."
"..."
"Don't you think the reason lies there?"
"Wait, are you saying..."
Oren's eyes widened unusually as he grasped Renok's implication.
Renok nodded toward the smirking Walter.
"It's highly likely that's the previous citadel lord's body. No matter the method, if he's been toying with it until now, a lot of things start to make sense."