Chapter 229 — 아자젤

Chapter 229

Azazel

Ever since word came that Mervinger’s banner was flying over Akran Fortress—

Sean, along with Augustine and the Senate, began moving on their own to find Elric.

Of course, the Red Lion and the barbarian camp tried everything they could to stop them.

House Neresta, sovereign of the Tower of Magic, had brought out the power it had kept hidden.

That alone was enough to put them on edge.

But the Senate’s strength was far beyond anything they’d imagined.

Unassailable.

Augustine showed with his own hands why that epithet had attached to his name.

Each time he raised a White Night, countless enemies were wiped away.

He had rarely shown himself to the world, but among all the successors of Nokya, his attainment was the highest; calling him a calamity was no exaggeration.

Nor was he alone.

The elders who followed Augustine were just as formidable.

Because they were lumped together as “the Senate,” it hadn’t stood out.

But among them were many famed figures who had once thrown the continent into terror.

Gility Renz, once a senior officer of the Free Revolutionary Army, was always at the fore, and the other elders casually unveiled the fruits of the research they’d done while shut away in their rooms.

Irresistible momentum.

Nothing could stand in the way of their relentless advance.

They toppled whole walls. Raised the dead. Unleashed mists laced with poison…

No enemy even got close.

‘Father was right.’

Watching them from beside, Sean thought,

‘These people should never have been let loose.’

Gai had said the Senate should only be unleashed when the situation was at its most extreme and blazing.

Not merely because their strength was great.

Once you let them out, you can never control them again.

‘If not for the goal of rescuing Elric, they’d have just run wild. And then…!’

Sean cut the thought short, deciding that if he kept going he’d only be committing irreverence toward his elders.

Even so—

There was one thing he knew.

He would no longer be able to treat them as he did in times of peace.

Monsters.

That was how the elders now looked to Sean.

And the Senate was a den of fiends packed with such monsters.

‘Then what does that make Elric, who’s become the joint disciple of a den like this…!’

Sean let out a sigh before he knew it.

Then, again and again, he forced himself to focus.

He had to shepherd these monsters to their destination. There could be no room for a single mistake.

Only then could they “save” Elric, trapped deep in the enemy’s lines.

But—

-The barbarians’ supply line has been cut!

-Reconquest of Ketrein Fortress! Mervinger’s banner now flies over all four fortresses of the Wins Border March!

-The flying column the Red Lion rushed in to block the March of Stars has been annihilated…!

-There’s significant unrest between the Red Lion army and the barbarian camp! Westward advance halted!

Even as they pushed deep into the Empire’s frontier, the comms crystal Gai had given him kept delivering one victory report after another.

The March of Stars, House Vail, and the Black Skull winning in succession.

It didn’t stop with seizing Akran Fortress. They were rapidly clearing the Red Lion and the barbarians’ rear.

Thanks to that, the reports kept saying the enemy was in disarray, their supply lines all but severed, their stockpiled grain dwindling fast.

‘Fuck.’

Sean’s reaction then was very simple.

‘Rescue him, my ass. He’d have found his way back just fine if we’d left him alone.’

He’d been so worried he’d briefly forgotten what kind of man Elric was.

The kind who survives even if you drop him into a desert with nothing.

And yet, at the same time, his chest swelled.

‘You really did it.’

It was only natural he felt so moved.

It felt like just yesterday they were tearing their hair out together studying at the academy.

Elric, the one mocked as a disgrace to a noble house of mages, was now shaking the continent.

He couldn’t help but feel as if all of it were his own doing.

News of Elric kept coming.

-When the March of Stars completes its mission, it vanishes like the wind, just as it did when it appeared.

-Because of that, their base still hasn’t been identified. The Red Lion is said to be wracking its brains over it.

-The Inspectorate seems to have sniffed out something, but they aren’t sharing.

-Based on our own assessment, there’s speculation the March of Stars set up its base around Akran Fortress, the first place they seized, or its vicinity.

House Neresta’s Intelligence Division prided itself on being no less capable than the Inspectorate.

After its many experts put their heads together, the predominant opinion was that, despite how active Elric and the March of Stars had been, their main body had in fact barely moved.

No one could figure out why.

-The division’s prevailing view is that the March of Stars’ true goal is the fall of the Wins Border March.

-On the other hand, a minority thinks it may all be a ploy to hide something…

Judging from what the March of Stars had done so far, their goal seemed to be to sever the link between the Red Lion army deep in the imperial heartland and the Wins Border March, isolate each in turn,

then swallow the Wins Border March whole, left like a lone island.

But perhaps all of it was a smokescreen to hide something else.

And then—

-Elric Mervinger himself is rarely seen, they say…

When he heard that, Sean felt his heart drop.

He urged more speed toward Akran Fortress for exactly that reason.

And—

From the moment he entered Akran Fortress, he felt a fierce surge of demonic energy.

From then on, Sean and the elders tensed and fell silent.

Something ominous was brewing nearby.

Then Gility Renz shouted.

He had found Elric!

“Where is it!”

Augustine’s eyes flew wide as he barked out the question.

“Here!”

“Let’s go.”

Augustine and several elders shot to their feet.

Levitation magic flared, and their bodies rose into the air.

“First Elder!”

Sean called out to Augustine, alarmed, but—

“It could be dangerous. You stay here, gather the other old men, and come after us.”

After stopping Sean, Augustine followed Gility and vanished—toward a mountainside far from Akran Fortress.

“…”

Sean ground his teeth.

His grip tightened hard on the reins.

How could he not know that he was being left behind because he wasn’t strong enough?

The fact that, when it really mattered, he could do nothing for Elric lodged in his chest like a thorn.

‘Me too…!’

So Sean resolved to grow stronger, somehow, to be of use to Elric—

While praying, at the same time, that nothing had happened to him.

* * *

“You’re back, Father?”

Hermann nodded at Isabel’s words and set his helmet down on the desk.

“Yeah.”

“Nothing unusual?”

“Lately I feel their resistance getting much fiercer.”

“They feel cornered. It’s their last spasm. As long as we don’t give them an opening, they’ll collapse on their own.”

Hermann nodded.

So far, handling things as his daughter advised had never failed; he trusted her judgment again now.

“More importantly—Elric?”

At that, Isabel’s face dimmed.

“Still… the same.”

“It’s killing me.”

It had been nearly a month since Elric was drenched in Azazel’s demonic energy.

In the meantime, the March of Stars had, following the instructions Elric left and under Isabel’s command, ravaged the Wins Border March.

Thanks to that, their fame now spread beyond the Empire to the entire continent.

But the leadership was burning up inside.

Elric showed no sign of waking.

If he had been completely infected by the demonic taint, they could at least have given up.

Even as demonic energy kept spilling from him, his complexion remained unchanged.

Wanting to help but unable.

No—if they could at least know exactly what had happened to him, it wouldn’t be so suffocating.

The fact that there wasn’t a mage in the March of Stars as capable as Elric kept gnawing at them.

The only good news was that the safe houses the Grigori left made it easy to hide their forces from the Red Lion army.

At last, the demonfolk proved useful for something.

‘In any case, this needs to end soon.’

He was about to let out a frustrated sigh when—

Thoom!

An oppressive weight slammed into the air, and Hermann’s back stiffened.

‘What on earth…!’

Had the Demon King Bellot they’d been pursuing shown up?

No—perhaps something even worse had appeared.

They’d already raised the point that, considering the Order had vanished, wasn’t the Grigori’s lack of response strange?

He wondered if a new Demon King had appeared.

And if so, it would not be a lesser foe than himself.

He quickly reached for his hip—

[What is the meaning of that? Are you telling me my disciple is hurt?]

A familiar voice.

“Augus…!”

[Answer me. What happened to my disciple?]

Augustine’s voice was calm.

That made it all the more chilling.

‘So this is the strength of the one who can stand against the Golden Lion…?’

He’d thought they’d built some rapport, sharing drinks and words. But only now did it feel like he was catching a glimpse of the man’s true face.

A power even he, who prided himself on glimpsing a new realm, could not easily measure.

“…Come outside first. We have a lot to discuss as well.”

No sooner had he finished than—

Ssssk!

Space split open across from him and Augustine stepped out, unhurried.

Tap, tap.

Quiet steps, and yet with each one it felt like something enormous was striding closer.

“Make sure there’s not a shred of misunderstanding for this old man. Explain it properly.”

Augustine’s eyes gleamed with a wintry light.

The more they did, the more it felt as if the world were being washed in white.

A White Night that devoured the black.

The moment the Unassailable monster opened his eyes.

The Mage Who Devoured Talent