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Chapter 253 - Know Your Place (2)

It was an outlandish sight.

The other soldiers froze at the grotesque scenery that unfolded right before their eyes. Nobody could move, and nobody could speak; fear paralyzed them.

“Ha-Hans...”

The soldier who had met with the terrible fate was Hans. One of the soldiers, appalled by the grisly way in which he died, pissed his pants, while another soldier was overcome by terror and collapsed to the ground.

“Tsk, tsk... With guards like you, anyone can easily get into the city.”

Thud!

The monster threw aside Hans from its tentacle as if spitting him out. But at that very moment, another soldier who was still standing screamed at the top of his lungs, “Hey, you damn monster!”

This soldier was perhaps the only one who retained some semblance of sanity. He grabbed his spear and charged at the monster. However, his movements looked foolish and absurdly slow to the monster.

“Huh?”

The monster didn’t say much; they just effortlessly dodged the spear thrown at them by tilting their head slightly to the side.

“Well, well, well... He’s still better than the other two on the ground, but...”

As the monster spat out Hans, the tentacles that had sprouted all over their face suddenly disappeared to reveal the face of a handsome man.

However, despite his handsome complexion, he was still a monster. While dodging the spear, the monster had clenched his fist, and now he hurled his fist as hard as he could at the soldier who was in midair, attacking.

Crack!

The monster got the soldier on his side. With this vicious strike, he managed to break four of the soldier’s ribs, leaving a deep dent in his armor. Following the heavy punch, the soldier went flying to one side, landing on the ground with a heavy thud and rolling away.

Crack!

The landing was so bad that the soldier had died instantly on impact, his neck contorted in a gruesome way. The monster didn’t even look in his direction; instead, he approached the two remaining soldiers while shaking his hands off.

“Hey, you two! I’ll spare one of you. Just decide quickly. Who wants to live?”

“Yes...? What, what kind of...?!”

The soldier who had pissed himself kept stuttering, which aggravated the monster.

Crack!

The monster swiftly struck the soldier in the neck with the edge of his palm, killing him instantly. Then, he furrowed his brow and asked in an irritated tone, “What do you mean, what? Can\'t you understand what I\'m saying? Oh never mind, the poor little thing is dead now. Well then, you’re the only one left now. Go ahead and tell everyone the news. Narva, the apostle sent by the new god, is here.”

“Wha-what... What in the...!”

“Wow, this guy also doesn’t understand what I’m saying.”

With that, Narva slowly approached the soldier, who was shaking in fear to the point of nearly fainting, and looked into his eyes. Then, with his small pale hand, he instantly ripped off the soldier’s right ear.

“GHAAA!”

Narva threw the ear on the ground and whispered softly, “Get going.”

“Y-y-yes...!”

The soldier covered his wound with a pained groan and got up and wobbled his way toward the castle. His hands were trembling, barely moving, but his desperation to live forced him to move.

“How barbaric and puny, tsk!”

Narva took off his robe as he saw the soldier run, revealing a neat uniform similar to the ones Arthus and Dracan wore. He clasped his hands behind his back and approached the corpse of the soldier whose neck he had broken. He then ripped out his heart with his bare hands.

“Now that’s fresh.”

Narva made a comment one would make at the butcher’s shop, and that was all he said. He eventually got his hands on three hearts, stashed them in his subspace pouch, and made his way toward Enkelmann, following the horrified soldier.

***

Zwoosh-!

Henry and his allies teleported through a medium-sized portal. There was an expansive ray of light, and when it faded away, the surroundings were no longer those of the Snow Spire of Salgaera, but of the vast Charlotte Heights.

The continent’s best military unit was in Charlotte Heights, and none of them were ordinary soldiers. Every individual that had been summoned here possessed formidable combat abilities.

The moment they set foot in Charlotte Heights, they all instinctively reached for their weapons.

Everyone kept quiet and was slightly leaning forward, ready for combat. The atmosphere was tense and everyone was on high alert as they prepared themselves for a possible surprise attack. However, as they scanned their surroundings, they were left speechless by the astonishing scenery that unfolded before their eyes.

“What in the...?”

Hela turned pale as she looked around and covered her mouth. She was genuinely shocked by what she was seeing. The greenery of Charlotte Heights, for which the region was known, had been replaced by herds of monsters; there were so many that they barely had any room to move around.

Everyone stayed as quiet as possible and stared viciously at the monsters, ready to annihilate all of them. It wasn’t long before Henry noticed something unusual and raised his hand to stop everyone.

“Everyone, wait.”

Before them stood an overwhelming number of Chimeras, but strangely enough, all of them were staring at the sky while staying still like statues. They seemed hypnotized by something.

‘What are they doing?’

The light emanated by the teleportation would’ve been enough to grab their attention; even ordinary wild animals would’ve taken notice, and yet, the Chimeras seemed indifferent to the light as they were staring blankly at the sky.

Henry wanted to know what was happening, so he approached the nearest Chimera by himself.

“Henry!” Von called out, startled by Henry’s going forward.

“I’ll be fine,” reassured Henry as he kept walking toward the Chimera, his eyes full of determination. The Chimera he had his eyes locked on seemed familiar to the one he had seen in Killive; it had no face, but only a mouth full of sharp teeth and a tail which confirmed that the creature moved on all fours.

The interesting thing was that even though the Chimera didn’t have eyes, Henry could tell it was looking at the sky. He eventually got close enough to the Chimera to the point that it could probably smell him.

However, despite Henry being this close, the Chimera didn’t even flinch, seemingly unaware of his presence. It just kept looking at the sky, not reacting in any way to Henry.

At this, Henry went ahead and touched the Chimera. He noticed that its skin texture was similar to that of humans, but still overall closer to that of an animal.

Despite Henry’s touch, the Chimera still didn’t react.

“Tsk.” Henry clicked his tongue, feeling rather uncomfortable as he saw thousands of Chimeras just looking up at the sky blankly.

“Unsheath.”

Henry summoned his Colt Sword and swung it without hesitation, beheading the Chimera. Blood spattered, and the Chimera tumbled to one side.

...But that was it.

The Chimera didn’t make a single sound, even when its head hit the ground, and despite Henry’s attack, none of the nearby Chimeras reacted to it.

“What are these monsters?”

Finally, McDowell and Van approached Henry, visibly frustrated that nothing was happening.

“Now, wait a minute...!” exclaimed Herarion, his face pale.

“Hmm?”

Everyone turned their heads to Herarion to see that he was pointing at the sky with a trembling hand, slack-jawed.

“There’s something... Something in the sky...”

“What’s in the sky that\'s so surprisi... What the...?!”

“...!”

Everyone looked at the sky only to see two chairs floating.

"Well, hello, hello!”

“Arthus...!”

The two people Henry had been searching for—Arthus and Dracan were each sitting on a chair, looking down at the others with their legs crossed.

“Dracan?”

The one who spoke up after Henry was Argus Druid, the head of the biology department of the Snow Spire. However, the Dracan that was in the air was nothing like the Dracan that all the school heads remembered.

“I see some familiar faces,” said Arthus casually. He kept descending with the chair until he reached the ground, looking everyone in the eyes.

As the two sides finally faced each other, Arthus was the first to speak. He put his hands together and said cheerily, “I’m surprised the news traveled this fast. It’s only been a few hours since I’ve sent my apostles off.”

“Apostles...? What are you talking about?”

"Huh? Didn’t you come here after hearing the words of the apostles I sent?”

Henry frowned in confusion as he had no idea what Arthus was talking about. On the other hand, Arthus couldn’t help but smile as he quickly realized that Henry and his people hadn’t received the presents he had prepared for them yet.

Arthus kept smiling with his hands clasped together as he continued, “Well, it seems like you tracked me down here some other way. Hehe, no matter the method, I’ll give it to you for finding me within a couple of days. Wait, I’m not sure this was actually difficult for the sole disciple of Henry Morris.”

“What did you just say...!”

“Arthus!”

Seeing how casually and arrogantly Arthus spoke to them, Balak could no longer contain his anger and threw his Black Punisher at Arthus.

Swoosh!

The Black Punisher flew toward Arthus with a fierce, slicing sound, cleaving through the air.

However...

“...!”

The Black Punisher went straight through Arthus, as if he were a mere apparition, shattering the chair behind him. Everyone on the ground was surprised at what had happened in front of their eyes.

“Isn’t... Isn’t that power...!

Herarion was the most surprised among the group of warriors, and Saint Irenae was almost as baffled as him.

“Well, well, I thought you looked familiar. Balak, I’m very disappointed in you. I didn’t think you’d betray me and side with Henry so fast...”

“How dare you?!” bellowed Balak, his hands trembling in anger at Arthus’ remark, but also because his attack hadn’t worked on him.

As Arthus saw Balak get riled up, he mocked him even more. Even though Arthus was acting like a despicable traitor, his aura seemed to overwhelm everyone at the scene.

“Haha, I know everyone probably has a lot to say to me, but unfortunately, I have nothing to say to you... I’ll give you a piece of advice. If you want to have a proper conversation with me, get to my level first. I’d say the first step in doing so is to check the presents I’ve sent you.”

“Presents?! What on earth...!”

“Shh! It wouldn\'t be fun if I told you what it is. I want you to be surprised. Besides, a present only becomes a present when people open it for themselves, right? But still, it would be a shame to go back like this after coming all the way here. Have a good time with my soldiers before you head back. I’ll see you later, Henry.”

“Arthus!”

After finishing what he had to say, Arthus waved his hand and slowly vanished just as he had done during his previous confrontation with Henry.

Henry shouted at him, but Arthus disappeared along with Dracan before he could do anything.

-KIAAA!!!

The moment Arthus disappeared, thousands of Chimeras that had been looking at the sky all howled at once.