VOLUME 12: CHAPTER 2

VOLUME 12: CHAPTER 2

The scouts rode their mounts until they reached the Old Sword Burial Grounds, a massive graveyard south of Volkheim. The place where the knights of the previous generations had been buried.

The scouts were expecting to see the graveyard ravaged by the demons, but to their surprise, it was practically untouched, as though no one had recently passed through the area.

The hundreds of headstones, made of gabbro, were well taken care of, despite being centuries old.

“We’ll be going to Volkheim by foot from here,” said the scout leader. “Hitch the horses.”

“Yes, boss.”

As instructed, the scouts dismounted and tethered their horses, leaving them enough water to drink for an entire day. After all preparations were complete, the group continued on their mission.

“We’ll be using Floating Steps from now on,” said the scout leader. “Our goal this time isn’t assassination, but reconnaissance. Be prepared to escape at any time. We have to deliver the information we’ll be garnering to His Highness, no matter what.”

Using Floating Steps, a martial art technique taught exclusively to the high-ranking members of the Silver Palace, the group quickly moved toward the City of Volkeim.

They skillfully erased their presence, and despite moving at speed twice that of a desperately running man, their footsteps didn’t make a sound.

Several hours passed since then.

Strangely, their group didn’t encounter even a single demon along the way.

“Boss, isn’t this strange?”

One of the scouts finally voiced out his concern.

No matter how they’d thought of it, it was strange to not see even a single demon, when they were almost at the outskirts of the City of Volkheim.

“We still haven’t encountered any demons.”

Even the sky demons, which were occasionally seen in the nearby territories, were nowhere in sight. And to add to that, although they saw rotting corpses of demons and humans along the way, they’d yet to encounter any survivors.

Given the population of Volkheim, the chances of such a thing happening should be incredibly low.

The scout leader also looked worried. He said to his men, “We’re almost there. Make sure no one notices your presence.”

The group erased their presence even further, and they slowed down their speed. From here, they see could the corpses of the archers hanging on the battlements, and they could see the destroyed ballistaes and magic mangonels.

The iron gate was fully open, and through it, the scouts saw the road littered with corpses.

Seeing this, one of the scouts nearly cussed out loud. The stench of blood was so strong that even they, who were used to assassinations, crinkled their noses. The main road leading to the inner district of Volkheim had been literally dyed red with blood.

Wordlessly, the scout leader gave out instructions to his subordinates. Using hand gestures, he told them to move in pairs and spread out. In three hours, they were to converge in this exact same place.

‘Move out.’

After pairing up, the scouts moved out. One group moved to the western side of the city, another to the middle, and the remaining one moved to the east.

Since there were six of them, the scout leader naturally paired with one of his subordinates. The two of them moved northward, toward the city center.

Even here, the main road leading to the city center was littered with innumerable corpses. Young, old, male, female – no one was spared from the massacre that unfolded in the city.

They could see traces of resistance. Until the very end, the soldiers of Volkheim fought the demons down to the last man.

The inns, taverns, and other commercial establishments located near the heart of the city were destroyed. Their doors had been torn open, and even the walls were pulverized by an unknown force, revealing the buildings’ interior.

As they kept moving northward, it didn’t take them long before they finally encountered demons.

And along with it were survivors.

“Ugh, h-help me… please… someone.”

“Nooo! Not him! Please spare my child!”

As expected, there were still several surviving humans in the city. The lesser demons grabbed the survivors by the hair, dragging them through the paved ground while they wailed and begged to be spared.

“You damn monsters! You’ll pay for this! Do you think the imperial family will simply stand by and do nothing?!”

“L-Let me go! Let me go!”

The demons mercilessly beat up those who tried resisting, but strangely, didn’t kill them. All of the remaining survivors were non-combatants, and it didn’t take much force to subdue them. These people must have survived until now by hiding inside their houses.

The scout leader and his subordinate did nothing but watch as the demons dragged away surviving citizens of Volkheim City. Nearby, they saw demonic trolls and demonic ogres, and they even saw several tormentors and flesh eaters.

With just a glance, they knew that they would die if they rescued those people.

It was cruel, but the scouts had already steeled themselves to make necessary sacrifices for this mission. And they didn’t move to save the survivors, despite seeing several children among the group.

‘It’s strange,’ thought the scout leader.

He noticed that the ground near the city center had turned dark, as though barren. It felt as though they were moving closer to whatever was sucking the life out of this place. Even the number of demons were increasing, as they moved northward.

‘Boss, over there.’

His subordinate pointed at a large obelisk seen from the distance.

Upon seeing it, the first thing that came into the scout leader’s mind was a single word – ‘disgusting.’

The obelisk was made entirely of flesh, and in the opening on its body, tentacles would shoot out every now and then, dragging the living humans below inside it. Fleshy roots spread out on the ground, and although the scouts didn’t know what exactly it was, they understood that the obelisk was the one responsible for turning the area around it into a dry, barren land.

‘B-Boss… t-they’re feeding the survivors to the tower?’

After being fed a certain number of humans, the lower portion of the obelisk opened up, giving birth to several flesh eaters.

The two scouts froze in terror upon realizing the reason why the demons dragged all of the survivors to the center of the city. They realized that the demons didn’t kill all of the humans on purpose. They spared a few, with the goal of feeding them to that grotesque-looking tower.

There was a significantly lesser number of demons in this city compared to their estimates, but it didn’t make the place any safer.

The City of Volkheim had become a breeding ground for the demons.

‘We’ve seen enough.’

The scout leader sent a signal to the subordinate next to him.

‘We’re returning.’

Although they still hadn’t reached the center of the city yet, the scout leader judged that it would be too dangerous to delve even deeper. They should already consider themselves fortunate that they hadn’t been discovered yet, despite the numerous demons roaming about in this place.

Honestly, as scouts, they were curious to see what was beyond the center of the city. They wanted to see what was behind that obelisk, and what other kinds of demons occupied Volkheim.

Still, despite this, they quelled their urge to explore further. Their priority right now was to report everything they’d seen here to Prince Quinn.

After one last look at the obelisk, the two went back to their meeting place. The two waited for the agreed time to pass.

“You’re here.”

Almost half an hour past the agreed time, one of the scouts finally arrived at their convening spot.

Unlike the scout leader and the subordinate who came with him, the scout was injured, and one of his hands was missing. Three large cuts, which seemed to be claw marks, ran across his chest.

The scout huffed, “Renie is dead. I also saw the other group on my way here, and they, too, didn’t make it.”

The scout leader furrowed his brows. All of the people he brought with him were skilled in their own right. They held a fairly high-ranking position, even within the Silver Palace. Yet, they didn’t manage to survive.

“Your potions?” said the scout leader.

“All broken,” said the injured scout.

“Here,” the scout leader took out a small vial from his pouch and handed it to his subordinate. “After you drink this, we’ll leave immediately. You can fill us in on the details on our way to Kreceir.”

“Thank you, Boss.”

The injured scout suppressed a cough from coming out. He opened the vial and swallowed its contents in a single gulp.

It was a highly-coveted potion from the Research Tower of the Empire, and a single one cost at least five gold coins. The scout was thankful that the leader readily handed such a potion to him, after seeing the current state of his body.

“Haaaa,” the scout heaved a sigh of relief. “I feel a bit better now.”

The potion’s effect wasn’t instantaneous, but the scout could feel his wounds starting to close somewhat. Although he was now out of harm’s way, he would still need a few days to fully recover after this.

“Let’s go.”

With the scout leader at the lead, the group left the City of Volkheim. Just like before, there were no demons past the southern gate, making their escape relatively safe.

Once the scout leader had ascertained that they’d reached a safe area, he asked the injured scout.

“What happened?”

The scout bit his lips and started recounting everything.

According to the injured scout, the western part of the City of Volkheim had been completely overrun by the demons. The residential district had been destroyed, and numerous corpses littered the road.

The duo managed to get on the battlements, and from there, they saw two fire giants sitting right outside the western gate. Moreover, dozens of ghost-like creatures flew about. Parasitic demons, tormentors, and flesh eaters roamed the ground.

After seeing the state of the western part of the residential district, the duo decided to move deeper into the city. And from there, they saw the destroyed Maiaka Magic Academy.

The voice of the scout trembled, “T-The demons…. They’re intelligent. They purposely didn’t kill the students in the Magic Academy. Even the Headmaster was spared.”

The leader of the scouts was surprised upon hearing this. He didn’t expect that there was still a large number of survivors in Volkheim.

“The Headmaster is still alive?” muttered the scout leader.

The Headmaster of Maiaka Academy was a former royal court magician. Although she was no longer in her prime, she was still among the most powerful magicians of the Empire.

“I’m… not sure. She was tied up – half-dead – when we saw her back then. The demons carried her, along with the surviving students, on their backs. Renie insisted on following after them, but he was discovered and killed by a parasitic demon hiding on the ground. Even I barely managed to escape.”

What happened to the scout called Renie was unfortunate, but the concern they needed to address the most right now was the goal of the demons in Volkheim City.

Did they feed the magic academy students to the obelisk, too?

No. The scout leader was certain that none of the magic academy students were included in the humans fed to the obelisk. Most of the those who were sacrificed to the living tower were non-magicians.

Then, where were the demons taking the students?

They killed the soldiers and civilians, but decided to capture the magicians. This fact alone felt so ominous. There was definitely a reason behind this.

Determinedly, the scout leader said, “Prince Quinn and the General need to hear this.”

The other scouts agreed, “No matter what.”

“Faster.”

Everyone hastened their speed.

“To Kreceir City.”

***

One day later, Prince Quinn received the scouts’ reports. The information he’d learned was so stunning that he immediately ordered all officials to convene at the great hall.

The Second Prince conveyed to everyone what the scouts had discovered upon going to the City of Volkheim – the status of the city, the obelisk, the casualties, the number of demons, their type and species. He also told them regarding the students of Maiaka Magic Academy, including what happened to its headmaster.

Although the report wasn’t as detailed as they initially hoped, largely due to the fact that only three out of the six scouts returned alive, obtaining this information was still a lot better than them rummaging through the unknown. At the very least, they now had a picture of what was going on in Volkheim.

Everyone in the great hall were relieved upon learning that there was no immediate threat of the demons attacking them. For some strange reason, the demons decided to stop in Volkheim. They didn’t even move past the southern gate, and most of the demons that occupied the city stayed at the city center.

At the same time, they were terrified, specially after learning that the demons had been capturing the magicians.

The mere thought that one of the former royal court magicians had become the demon’s captive, probably suffering unspeakable horrors right now, brought shivers down their spine.

“Your Highness, if the number of demons occupying Volkheim is only around thirty thousand, it should be possible for us to retake it,” said one of the officers.

According to the scouts, the number of demons in Volkheim was significantly lesser than their initial estimates.

Fortunately, it seemed that most of the demons decided to stay in Meredith City.

“We have five royal court magicians on our side, and our eighty-thousand-strong army outnumber the demons,” continued the officer. “If we succeed, we would be able to retake the land we’ve lost.”

General Moldark, who’d been staying silent until now, spat, “Do not be stupid. We’ve been fortifying Kreceir’s defenses in hopes of fighting a siege advantage. Leave the city? Hah! Young ones nowadays are too naïve! Just because we have more soldiers doesn’t mean we can recklessly fight an unknown enemy!”

Under General Moldark’s gaze, the officer who suggested they attack Volkheim cowered.

The royal court magicians also scoffed at the officer’s remark.

“What happened to the magic academy students and the headmaster is unfortunate,” said General Moldark, “but Volkheim has already fallen. It will be foolish of us to risk the lives of our soldiers to rescue them, especially when we do not know much about our opponents.”

Currently, Kreceir was the only city left standing between the demons and the imperial capital. General Moldark knew more than anyone how precarious their situation was.

If the City of Kreceir fell, the imperial capital would become a naked target for the demons.

“Esteemed mages of the Tower, what are your thoughts?” said General Moldark.

The royal court magician, Pristina ‘Sword Lord’ Elerick, replied, “We know too little. I believe it would be prudent to send another group of scouts again.”

Pristina was the second youngest royal court magician of the Empire, second only to Jacob ‘Triple Cast’ Fraser. She was one of the few royal court mages adept with the sword, and her ability allowed her to wield six swords at the same time, earning her the title of Sword Lord.

“I agree with the Sword Lord and General Moldark,” said the royal court magician, Izor ‘Celestial Hand’ Ulvashan. “It’s a shame, but there’s no saving those students now. Let’s send more scouts this time and see what those damn demons are up to in Volkheim. And please, don’t even think of sending the army to that hellhole. I’ll cripple anyone who dares make another stupid suggestion.”

Prince Quinn readily complied with their proposals. “I understand. I’ll send word to the Silver Palace.”

“Your Highness, it wouldn’t be good for your reputation if the citizens were to find out that we abandoned the students,” said the deputy commander. “I’ll make arrangements to quell any and all rumors.”

“Very well. I’ll leave it to you,” said Prince Quinn.

After discussing several more matters at hand – particularly the state of the defenses of Kreceir, the supplies, and the soldier’s accommodations – the meeting came to an end. It was agreed upon by everyone that they would investigate Volkheim further, and that they wouldn’t be sending a rescue unit to save the captured students of the magic academy.

Two weeks quickly passed after the meeting.

During this time, two significant events transpired in the Empire.

First, the degree of land corruption started spreading further, eventually reaching the marsh near the Andelle Forest. The land within that territory quickly lost all of its vitality, and all plants withered in a matter of days.

The next batch of scouts found out that the phenomenon was related to the obelisk at the center of Volkheim City. Everyone in Kreceir realized that at this rate, if they did nothing, the degree of corruption would soon reach the farmlands, and maybe even the city itself.

They realized that holing themselves up in the city, hoping to win a defensive battle, would eventually work against them.

They realized that they needed to address the root cause of this problem. Otherwise, the entire Empire would turn into a dry, barren territory.

Even Emperor Sylvius voiced out his concern over this matter. The Emperor and the Chief Royal Advisor even started considering attacking the obelisk in Volkheim to stop the corruption from spreading further.

And the second significant event—

—the envoys Emperor Sylvius had sent to the Kingdom of Lukas, led by Princess Luna and Jacob ‘Triple Cast’ Fraser, had finally returned to the imperial capital.

And together with them were Reginald Vont, Captain Symon, and five hundred Blackstone Knights.