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Chapter 218 - Rally (9)

“As expected...!”

Henry smiled in satisfaction as he watched the blue sunrise. The intense heat emanated by it melted the large mounds of snow as if spring had just arrived.

Soon, Valhald slowly emerged from the ground where the mountain had been.

“Fly.”

Henry used magic to pull Valhald into his Magic Shield.

Valhald looked a bit exhausted, but the corners of his mouth were raised into a smile.

Seeing the smile on his face, McDowell patted Valhald on the shoulder and asked with a look of satisfaction, “Did you win?”

“Of course.”

“And what about that bastard?”

“He’s still under the snow.”

Valhald’s replies were straightforward, fitting to McDowell’s short questions.

McDowell turned to Henry and asked, “You heard that, right? What are you going to do now?”

It was up to the winner to decide the loser’s fate.

“Sir Valhald, is Balak dead?” asked Henry.

“I’m not sure.”

“Then let’s try and get him from underneath the ground. If you’ve truly defeated him, we might have time to talk to him.”

“Do we really need to rescue him?”

“As I’ve already mentioned, Balak is valuable, so it would be best to capture him alive and bring him on our side if possible.”

“What a hassle.”

“It’s a hassle, but it’ll pay off if we succeed.”

Henry easily persuaded them. With everyone’s agreement, he set out to rescue Balak, hoping to catch him alive like he had said he would from the very beginning.

Henry snapped his fingers.

A few fireballs resembling Valhald’s Blue Sun appeared in the air.

Snap!

With another snap of his fingers, the fireballs spun around and gradually melted off the snow mound. This continued for a long time, and finally, at the very bottom of the collapsed mountain, Henry could see Balak, buried upright in the snow, unconscious.

‘He looks terrible.’

The Giant God Warrior hadn’t been able to defeat the Blue Sun after all. The majority of Balak’s blood-red armor had melted away, some of it sticking to his skin.

It was a terrible end for the loser of the duel.

“Klever.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Help me out this time as well.”

“Of course, Master.”

As the two dueled, Klever’s flesh, which had splattered all over the place when Balak’s seal had been broken, had rapidly recovered over the course of the duel. By the end of their confrontation, Klever had returned to his original form and was now able to function.

“Let’s go to the Snow Spire.”

Henry had reached the halfway point in resolving his most pressing concern and unforeseen turn of events.

* * *

Condemnation of the Giant God Warrior. It was the masterpiece of a man who had spent his entire life fighting for what he believed in with a strong sense of justice.

However, as with all peak Sword Masters, the ultimate skill was extremely taxing from a physical standpoint. Of course, the level of physical strength required varied depending on the user.

Nonetheless, the Giant God Warrior used an incredibly large amount of Aura, not only because of its massive size, but also because it required a lot of strength to control, which was also linked to his size. Thus, Balak’s ultimate skill was multiple times more physically taxing than the skills of other knights.

Because of that, Balak only used his ultimate skill on special occasions.

However, decades after mastering his ultimate skill, Balak had sensed that the time had finally come to put it to use.

Naturally, he expected the Giant God Warrior’s Condemnation to win against Valhald’s Blue Sun and ensure his victory. However, when the Condemnation and the Sunset clashed, Balak realized something was wrong as soon as the intense heat enveloped his body.

‘No way... Am I going to lose?’

Balak could feel the heat through the Giant God Warrior, and within that heat there was an unwavering determination to win, one that Valhald had fostered for years, just like Balak.

Then there was an explosion.

The explosion was so destructive that he couldn’t open his eyes, and the intensity of heat was something he had never felt before. For the first time in his life, Balak thought he might die.

He then lost consciousness.

‘Agh...’

His whole body felt hot, and a burning sensation overtook him, as if he were submerged in scalding water. However, along with the excruciating heat, he also felt a strange, comforting warmth. He felt like he was in his mother’s womb.

It was a peculiar feeling.

‘It’s painful, but also pleasantly warm...?’

Even though he had lost consciousness, this strange sensation brought Balak back to his senses.

He squeezed his eyelids as he woke up and slowly opened his eyes. All the dirt from his eyes made it difficult for him to open them, but he still managed to do it. As he fully opened them, Balak saw numerous wizards stand before him.

‘Wizards...?’

They were the wizards his emperor had ordered him to capture, the wizards who were supposed to be executed, the wizards who had killed the former emperor, burnt the imperial palace to the ground, and caused the empire’s downfall.

As those faces appeared before him, Balak widened his eyes and tensed up, or rather, he tried to.

‘Huh, I can’t feel anything...?’

He felt lethargic and helpless.

Seeing this, Henry smirked and said, “Don’t bother. No matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to move right now.”

“What...?” murmured Balak, his voice barely intelligible. He was so weakened that he couldn’t open his lips more than he could open his eyes.

“You’re Balak the Onir, the former administrator of Killive, otherwise known as the Punishment King, right? I’m familiar with your reputation,” continued Henry.

“You bastard...!”

“Bastard? Ha, what a joke...”

Henry chuckled in disbelief as Balak glared at him with bulging eyes.

Henry’s expression quickly turned stern, and then...

Slap!

He slapped Balak.

“...!”

“A-Archmage...?”

The numerous wizards watching the scene turned and looked at Henry in shock. All the wizards in the room were at least vice school heads, so they had a pretty good idea of what Balak was like.

So how could Henry slap a guy like him in the face?

Of course, Henry was also incredible himself, since he was an Archmage, but Balak was terrifying on a completely different level.

Turning to the wizards, who were frozen in shock, Henry said, “There’s nothing to be surprised about. I’ve always wanted to slap him in the face before. If not now, then when would I ever get the chance to slap him again? Douglas, would you like to slap him as well?”

“N-no, thank you...!”

“Stan, what about you?”

“Since you’re offering, I would like to give it a try...”

“Hey!”

“...I’ll refrain as well.”

As Stan rolled up his sleeves, Lore gave him a gentle warning, and Stan pulled his sleeves back down.

Henry laughed and said, “How boring you guys are. Anyway, there’s no need for you guys to be shocked since, as you all know, he’s currently...”

Oong.

As he spoke, Henry waved his hand in the air once, and Balak couldn’t believe his eyes.

“...?”

The dismembered body of a knight floated before Balak’s eyes, and he soon realized it was actually his own body.

“My... body?”

“Correct.”

“Huh...?”

Balak’s eyes quivered in astonishment. How many creatures in this world, other than a Dullahan, could see their own limbs and torso right in front of them?

It was only natural for Balak to panic.

“I didn\'t think you’d recognize it because of how melted it is, but you did. I guess you instinctively recognized it because it’s yours. That’s right, all these body parts that you’re seeing... They’re yours.”

“But... just... why?”

“What do you mean why? Your body was severely damaged, so I took emergency measures,” explained Henry. He was telling the truth.

Defeated by the Blue Sun, the Giant God Warrior hadn’t been able to protect his master who had summoned him.

Balak’s Aura disappeared as he lost consciousness, and the Blue Sun melted off his armor with its scorching heat, fusing it into his flesh, which resulted in horrific wounds. Of course, in addition to those severe burns, Balak also sustained several cuts, some larger than others.

After all, Balak hadn’t fought against a random knight, but against Valhald.

‘But still, he’s quite impressive. If it had been anybody else, even an advanced Sword Master, they would’ve died, but this guy actually survived all of that.’

Henry thought that surviving was worthy of praise.

“It’s going to take some time to heal, but don’t worry too much. Us wizards have been studying biology for a long time, and our progress in anthropology, in particular, has been amazing.”

At the very least, they were all vice school heads, so they all knew the basics of anthropology.

In addition, even though anthropology was very closely related to black magic, separating his body like that for the sake of healing was acceptable.

“For now, I’ve taken care of your head, the most important part of your body. Soon enough, you should be able to speak and hear properly. You can even eat if you want, but...” Henry stopped and gestured toward Balack’s neck before continuing, “There’s no point in eating anyway, right?”

“You bastard...!”

“Would you look at that? Your ability to speak has already improved a lot. Anger truly is an incredible motivator for everything. Now, all of you grab a limb and get out of here. I need to talk to him alone.”

“Yes, Archmage.”

At Henry’s order, the wizards who had been treating Balak grabbed his limbs and moved to another room.

Now that the two of them were alone, Henry brought a chair and sat down in front of Balak so that he was at eye level with him.

“My body...!”

In the meantime, Balak turned his head as much as he could and looked at the base of his neck. There was nothing there.

He could feel nothing from his neck down, even though just moments prior, his whole body had felt like it was bursting with energy.

Seeing this, Henry said, “You\'re going to feel like your body is still there when it isn’t. The human brain is pretty good at lying to itself, but like I said earlier, don’t worry too much. From now on, depending on how you answer my questions, you’ll either get a stronger body, or you’ll have to live like that for the rest of your life.”

“What...?”

“You must’ve realized what would happen, right? You knew what the outcome was going to be the moment you used your ultimate skill against Valhald’s, didn’t you?”

“...”

Balak remained silent as Henry pointed out the facts.

“Anyway, you’ve lost to Valhald, and at the same time, you’ve failed to complete the mission your emperor gave you. You’ve lived your entire life with such strong beliefs, but now that you’ve been treated by me, a criminal, those beliefs of yours are also about to break. How does this make you feel?”

“Y-you...!”

Despite the relentless verbal attacks, Balak didn’t even have the strength to curse.

With a smirk, Henry said, “Speaking of which, I’d like to make an offer.”

Henry, or rather, the devil, smiled even wider.

* * *

“Finally...!”

Hector didn’t know how many days he had traveled. Even though he didn’t need to eat or sleep, several days of relentlessly flying at high speed was enough to wear anyone out.

However, Hector had done it.

He was determined to be helpful to Henry, and he had managed to travel the long distance with food being his motivator.

Hector arrived at Salgaera.

He would’ve preferred to go to Shahatra, but he knew that if he went there and Herarion was somewhere else, all of this would’ve been pointless. So, Hector had made the decision to go to Salgaera despite it being farther away than Shahatra.

“Just a little more!”

Snow started to fall, and he could see the frozen ground in the distance. The more intensely it snowed, the more excited Hector became.

Hector was finally about to enter Salgaera after passing through the Slan Gorge!

Excited, Hector leaned face-first through the boundary of Salgaera.

Tzzzz!

“Aghhh!”

However, as soon as his face touched the boundary of Salgaera, Hector felt an intense pain that left him sprawled on the ground.

“...W-what the hell?!”

Hector got right back up. He didn’t want to accept this. He slowly placed his finger on the boundary of Salgaera, then...

Tzzzz!

A spark flew, and pain shot through his body, smoke rising from his fingertip.

It was a magic barrier. More specifically, it was a high-level magic barrier that the vice school heads had made to protect Salgaera.

“NOOOOO!!”

A poor soul cried out in Salgaera.