Yuri, while cutting down Valphua and killing him, fell into doubt.
The current battle was not very different from the grueling fights he had fought before against the Empire.
The Imperial army, half-turned into monsters, was troublesome to deal with, but it didn’t feel as though their power had increased much. At the current pace, it seemed possible to win without too much difficulty.
Then why would Cedric, who had summoned a god from another world, bother wasting troops like this?
“Your Highness.”
At some point, Jared appeared next to Yuri. Perhaps his training had paid off, for although he was breathing heavily, he had managed to keep up with him. Laurent was also close by, cutting down enemies.
“You’re going after that guy, right? Laurent says he feels a strong presence of black magic coming from him.”
“That’s right.”
“Leave him to us.”
Jared, imitating Yuri’s usual gesture, rested his sword on his shoulder.
“It’s not time for Your Highness to step in yet.”
“You don’t inspire much confidence.”
“Trust us.”
“Yeah?”
Yuri smirked.
“Alright, I’ll leave it to you.”
Jared nodded and moved forward. He moved with agility, and with each step he took, a spray of blood erupted around him.
He was stronger than Yuri had anticipated.
It was natural—when facing strong enemies, one inevitably became stronger; that was the law of the world.
Yuri Briol had gone through the same.
He lifted his gaze toward the far horizon. At the center of this land, whose shape was now impossible to guess, Cedric awaited him along with that god from another world.
Yuri had come this far to kill him.
Now, raising the power of Chaos came as naturally as breathing. Even the deviation Moyongchan had warned him about so many times was no longer a problem. Like a recurring headache, it had long since become part of him.
Cedric was the enemy who had driven him to that state.
Yuri gripped his sword tightly and was about to advance when—
“Yuri Briol.”
“Laurent.”
“I want to know what you think.”
Laurent, after gutting an Imperial soldier and rummaging through his corpse, approached him, covered in enemy blood.
“Why do you think they prepared this battle? Aren’t they too weak?”
“The real strength must be farther back.”
“Then why waste time like this? I want your opinion.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“I didn’t expect anything else.”
“First, reconnaissance?”
“They should already know our strength well.”
“They might want to confirm it again.”
“And the second?”
“Getting rid of excess?”
Laurent looked at him.
Yuri smirked.
“It’s clear these are half-finished products.”
“You mean they’re spending them?”
“Cedric wants to remake the world to his liking. Do you think in the perfect world he dreams of there’d be a place for things like these?”
The enemies deployed in this battle reminded him of half-orcs.
They weren’t human, but they also weren’t fully steeped in black magic to gain overwhelming power. They were half-baked abominations.
Perhaps Cedric wanted to eliminate all of them and build his own Empire of black magic.
Yuri believed this was the most likely theory.
Laurent gave a small chuckle.
“And you don’t consider the possibility that something went wrong and that’s why they’re stalling for time?”
“No. You saw it yourself—it worked. Don’t get your hopes up.”
“I see.”
Laurent raised his sword.
“So these are just pawns sent for us to deal with.”
“Exactly. But don’t underestimate them.”
“I won’t.”
Although they weren’t as strong as expected, these enemies were not weak.
They were reminiscent of the Imperial “black troops” they had encountered before.
Yuri saw it as another butterfly effect he himself had caused.
In the original timeline, the Empire had kept the “black troops” active until he returned to the past.
Cedric, on the other hand, had taken control of the Empire gradually and steadily to change the world.
But with the appearance of Yuri Briol, everything had been thrown off.
In this life, Cedric was acting more hastily.
The mere fact that there were half-corrupted troops destined for disposal meant that not everything was going as he planned.
Even if he had summoned that god from another world, perhaps he hadn’t done so in the perfect state he wanted. Maybe, as Laurent said, this was all to buy time.
But Yuri would not allow himself to harbor hope.
In battle, he always had to assume the worst-case scenario.
“I’ll leave him to you two. I’ll clean up here.”
Jared was chasing the enemy leader, swinging his sword furiously, and Laurent was following him.
It soon looked like they might catch him.
Yuri turned his gaze. Not only Briol’s troops, but those of other countries were fighting without much trouble.
He decided to seek out high-level enemies to reduce his side’s casualties.
Like Valphua, there were opponents who would be difficult for an ordinary knight, but for Yuri they posed no problem.
Suddenly, one of them attacked him first, as if unable to bear his gaze. He hesitated for an instant, then raised his sword and charged at him.
“Uaaaahhh!”
It was an enemy whose torso seemed human, but whose lower half slithered like a snake.
Yuri raised Guilty.
In that moment, his thoughts fell into place.
No matter how much was on his mind, if someone attacked him with a weapon, he had to fight. The battlefield was full of enemies, and there was no time for reflection.
He decided to finish it quickly.
He intercepted the enemy’s blow and, deflecting it with crushing force, drove his sword into the exposed chest.
The blade pierced him completely.
The enemy fell bleeding, and Yuri finished him off immediately to ensure his death.
Too easy.
If he had come to die so quickly, it could only mean one thing—behind them was a greater will directing them.
“Your Highness!”
A knight suddenly called to him.
“You’re too far in!”
“Oh, yeah?”
Yuri was already deep inside enemy lines. They had him surrounded, and if he went any farther in, it would be hard to get out without killing them all.
But he took a few more steps forward.
“I’m going even farther in!”
Yuri said this and swung Guilty. There were so many enemies that no matter how he struck, there was always blood.
A knight shook his head at the sight of him opening fountains of blood and yet kept fighting the nearby enemies.
Every time Yuri cut, the air filled with red liquid.
Strike after strike.
And the enemies didn’t seem to decrease.
While he was slaughtering them, a dark presence approached him. He pretended not to notice, and the instant it was close enough, he unleashed the Cut of the soul and the heart to slash it.
The black magic energy recoiled, wounded by the impact.
“What’s this?”
Opaque black tentacles surged forth, surrounding him on all sides.
Yuri looked at them.
“I see you’ve got some skill.”
“And who are you?”
The mage wore his hood pulled low. For an instant, Yuri thought of Cory, but the figure was too tall to be him.
The mage slowly pulled back the hood.
Then a face transformed into a skull appeared. Not a shred of flesh remained, and behind the deep eye sockets flickered a dark red light.
Yuri felt like he knew who it was.
A name crossed his mind.
“Einzer?”
“Oh, so you remember me.”
It was the mage who, back when they fought in the allied army, had been sent from the Empire alongside Ragnar. He’d sometimes seen him use Dispel.
“It’s because of you.”
Einzer leaned his skull toward him as he spoke.
“It’s your fault I ended up like this.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
“If it weren’t for you…”
The red light in Einzer’s sockets flickered more violently.
“I’d be much closer to Him!”
A powerful surge of black magic burst from his body. At the same time, the nearby Imperial soldiers turned their heads toward Yuri, as if Einzer had ordered them to change their target.
Yuri felt a chill run over his shoulders.
It was black magic.
“I’ll kill you and return to Him!”
Yuri imbued Guilty with the energy of the Cut of the soul and the heart, cutting away all the black magic around him.
But Einzer kept summoning black tentacles. Each time he used black magic, his body crumbled into fragments.
It was magic that used his very being as a sacrifice.
“Aaaah!”
The Imperial soldiers surrounded Yuri on all sides, and a massive tentacle came down like a mace toward his head.
Yuri tried to retreat, but the soldiers clung to him, preventing his escape.
His body was trapped.
Guilty stopped, lodged in one of them.
At that moment, the semi-transparent black tentacle began to descend with force.
If he stayed still, it would hit him full on.
Yuri detonated the energy of the Cut of the soul and the heart.
There was a small explosion.
The soldiers surrounding him were reduced to pieces. Blood and flesh splattered across the ground like spilled paint.
Then Yuri swung Guilty upward.
The tentacle descending toward him was severed.
“Damn you…!”
Yuri fixed his gaze on the groaning Einzer and lunged forward.
Einzer writhed, trying to use black magic again, but he didn’t have the strength to stop him.
Yuri pushed aside the semi-transparent tentacles wrapping around him with his hands and feet and drove Guilty into his chest.
“Urgh…”
After knocking him down, Yuri pulled the sword free.
Beneath Einzer’s robe he didn’t feel flesh, but there was something that made up his body.
He stabbed Guilty into his chest again.
The red light in Einzer’s eyes flickered like a dying ember.
“I don’t like killing a fellow member of the allied army like this.”
Yuri looked down at him.
“Since when has it been this way?”
“Hehehe…”
Einzer’s jaw moved.
“Of course, since the beginning. Hahahaha…”
“You knew the allied army was a ploy by the Empire?”
“Of course. Because of you, many things went wrong.”
“Then die.”
When Yuri raised his sword, Einzer spoke.
“Killing me won’t matter. He’ll remake the world anyway, and I’ll be reborn as His loyal servant…”
It seemed he’d been instilled with absolute faith that not even death could stop him.
Yuri shook his head.
“No, that won’t happen.”
“You have no idea…”
“I have the power to dispel black magic. Never heard of it?”
Yuri imbued Guilty with the energy of the Cut of the soul and the heart and made several cuts in the air.
The traces of black magic emanating from Einzer split apart and vanished as if they had never existed.
Einzer’s laughter faded.
“Whether it’s your soul, your life, or whatever, it’ll disappear completely.”
“Wait… That…”
“You didn’t know? I guess Cedric didn’t value you that much. Maybe he just sent you here to die.”
“That’s not true. He gave me a great mission. For the next world…”
“Dying to buy time?”
Yuri smirked and leaned toward him.
“I’m warning you—if you fall into my hands, there will be no possible resurrection. My sword completely eradicates black magic. Souls tainted like yours will cease to exist.”
“Wait.”
“Die.”
Yuri didn’t let him continue and drove the sword into his forehead.
Einzer tried to turn his head, but the strike was faster. The tip pierced the center of his skull.
Black smoke escaped from the skull’s eye sockets and dissipated under the pressure of the Cut of the soul and the heart’s energy.
“Ah…”
Einzer’s last breath floated in the air and vanished.
Yuri pulled Guilty free.
“Haa…”
When he looked up, he saw the soldiers of the Anti-Imperial Alliance fighting against the half-monster Imperials. They were all covered in blood, fighting with a fierce madness.
It was, literally, a demon realm.
Yuri let out a short laugh and began to move again. The demonic soldiers inhabiting that hell moved toward him.
“Cedric, I know you can hear me.”
He spoke to them as they approached.
“You’ll end up just like him.”
Surely Cedric would hear those words.
Speaking to the one observing the battle, Yuri conveyed his determination:
“I’m going to kill you.”
To his surprise, he got a reply.
[Oh, yeah?]
One of the Imperial soldiers in front of him opened its mouth and spoke in Cedric’s voice.
It came closer as it spoke.
[Yuri. Threatening me is fine, but…]
What came next made Yuri’s eyes go wide.
[You should’ve taken care of your woman first. Hahahahaha…]
____
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