Chapter 148
"Wow, you're tough. Truly relentless," Caron said, his voice filled with genuine admiration. "Are you at least a high-ranking officer or something? By now, your mind should have shattered."
Caron was honestly impressed. Even at the brink of death, Nur guarded his secrets tenaciously.
"It's fine. You don't need to tell me," Caron said.
Slash.
Caron drove his sword into Nur's leg once more, severing it with brutal precision. Nur's scream pierced the air, but his leg regenerated in an instant.
The altar's relentless power of regeneration had long since become a curse. Death was out of reach. Built on the souls of countless sacrifices, the altar seemed almost to revel in Nur's suffering, putting his body back together just to prolong his torment.
A twisted, half-crazed chuckle escaped Nur's lips.
"You... You've already lost," Nur rasped. "The moment you set foot in here, our plan was set into motion."
"What plan?" Caron asked.
"By now... Others will have unleashed the maw worms across the capital," Nur sneered. "It will soon become a living hell."
He laughed again, hollow and mocking, as he continued, "You think you're so clever, don't you? But in the end, it's your fault the citizens will die... Their blood will be on your hands, Caron Leston. And soon, the empire will awaken from the poison of peace."
Caron clicked his tongue and shook his head.
By now, most would have spilled the beans, but even after ten minutes of stabbing Nur with a sword, there was no significant result. It seemed he hadn't lived his long life in vain. He was an old man, undoubtedly over eighty years old. Back in the day, however, just two stabs would've been enough to make him spill everything he knew. The Nur Caron remembered was the epitome of a scheming traitor.
"Order under the Ducal Family of Leston will soon fall," Nur continued. "Enjoy your moment while it lasts, Caron Leston. Even Azureocean Castle won't be spared from war."
"Fools with delusions are dangerous," Caron mused with a smirk. "But maybe senility got you, so let me kindly spell it out for you."
He shoved Guillotine into Nur's abdomen once again.
"Maw worms? You think releasing a few insects will plunge the capital into chaos? That's a laugh. Sure, there'll be some commotion, but a fatal blow? Hardly. The empire isn't so weak," Caron said.
The notion that peace had weakened the empire's strength was nonsense. The Leston family would never stand idle in the face of such threats.
"I'll bet my own wrist your little terror plot will be crushed in less than a day," Caron continued.
"Arrogant fool," Nur replied.
"Know what I'm going to do when I walk out of here?" Caron asked.
Slash.
This time, Caron drove the sword into Nur's leg again, eliciting another agonized groan.
"By now, the Oceanwolf Knight Order will be storming your hideouts. The survivors? They'll be interrogated. Thoroughly. And they'll die slowly and painfully," Caron explained.
"What do you think you'll be able to get from minnows? You won't be able to stop our grand plan," Nur said.
Caron sneered and retorted, "You still don't get it, do you? You think I'm doing this to earn something?"
"This is a warning," Caron continued coldly, his voice heavy with menace. "If you bare your fangs, you die. That's all I need to carve into your thick skulls. Honestly, I hope you all live a long time. You make excellent motivation."
Nur shuddered. The sheer malice radiating from Caron's words wasn't just unsettling—it was terrifying. It surpassed anything Nur had encountered in his long, twisted life. He wondered what the source of this endless hatred was.
He thought that perhaps it was simply because Caron was from the house of Leston, but came to the conclusion that it wasn't enough. The malice in Caron's voice was far too intense.
"Every time I see you, I'll kill you," Caron continued, his tone sharp with glee. "And even if I don't see you, I'll hunt you down and kill you anyway. You know how to play hide-and-seek, right?"
Nur flinched. In Caron's eyes, he saw it—an uncontrollable madness. A memory stirred within him. That look... It reminded him of someone. It was a gaze filled with fury, caged behind dark, burning eyes.
Cain... Latorre... Nur thought. The boy's eyes were disturbingly similar to Cain's.
"Oh, and I don't really need any more information now," Caron remarked, pulling Guillotine. He kicked Nur's frail body, sending the old man sprawling across the altar.
Even freed from Guillotine, Nur's limbs refused to obey. Guillotine's mana, combined with Pluto's power, had ravaged every inch of his body.
"I already got what I wanted," Caron said with a smirk. He raised Guillotine and brought it down with all his might.
The blade pierced through Nur's body and finally embedded itself deep into the altar. Suddenly, an ear-splitting wail erupted from the depths of the altar.
"Aaaaarghhh!"
It wasn't Nur's scream—it was the wretched howl of something far more ancient and malevolent.
"I didn't expect the Malevolent Emperor to still be alive," Caron said as his eyes darkened with realization. While others were likely to miss it, there was no way he would.
The Malevolent Emperor was undoubtedly alive. If not, his dark mana couldn't possibly pulsate so vividly with vitality.
Furthermore, through this incident, several useful pieces of information had been uncovered.
"You've spread your claws everywhere, haven't you? The Magic Tower, the Imperial Palace, the Academy, even the City Guards..." Caron said as he narrowed his eyes.
It didn't make sense that dark mana of this concentration could have gone undetected. The authority to investigate magical phenomena occurring in the capital belonged to the Magic Tower; it could only mean that these people had an accomplice within the Magic Tower.
And it wasn't just the Magic Tower. The altar had claimed the lives of countless individuals. Most of them were likely citizens of slums, but even so, this couldn't have happened without the tacit approval of the City Guards.
Ever since a succubus appeared in the palace four years ago, investigations had stalled for lack of leads. This was the break they had been waiting for.
"Looks like I'm taking home quite the bonus," Caron muttered.
Whoosh.
A massive amount of mana flowed into Caron's core through Guillotine. The amount of dark mana that had been dwelling within the altar was enough to fill a third of Caron's empty seventh sea.
Wooooo.
The screams that had echoed from the altar gradually subsided, and soon, the light it emitted began to fade.
It was only then that Nur realized that Caron was absorbing the dark mana.
"How... How are you..." Nur's voice crawled from his throat, weak and broken.
Caron placed a foot on Nur's chest, glaring down at the man. A derisive sneer curled his lips as he spat in Nur's face.
"You're just a good mana source to me. Didn't I tell you? Even if I can't see you, I'll find you and kill you. Oh, and one more thing," Caron said as he mercilessly kicked Nur's jaw. The old man's jawbone shattered miserably.
"If you bite your tongue, things will get troublesome. Don't even think about dying easily. You're at the age for dentures anyway, so no complaints, right?" Caron remarked.
Nur was a scumbag who had ruined countless lives. Caron had no intention of granting this guy any peace. He grinned as he stared down at Nur, who looked like a corpse.
"You'll make a fine gift for my grandfather," Caron added.
He would hand Nur over to Azureocean Castle and ask Halo directly about what had happened to the Malevolent Emperor.
Just as Caron was thinking about the Malevolent Emperor, a final scream echoed through the air.
"Aaaaaah!"
Caron looked down at the altar, which had somehow split in half. He muttered, "...What was that?"
Amid the screams, it felt as if someone had been calling his name.
***
The situation came to a close just like that.
Caron swiftly knocked out the citizens who were infected with maw worms, then dragged Nur outside the building with a forceful kick.
Outside, Luke and the knights of the Oceanwolf Knight Order were already forming a perimeter. They seemed tense from nervousness, but when they caught sight of Caron, they exhaled collectively with a sense of relief.
Thwack!
Caron kicked Nur's body toward Luke's feet and walked forward with a sly grin, saying, "All cleaned up."
"...Is this the one?" Luke asked.
"He was a leading figure, actually. His name is Nur, one of the Malevolent Emperor's attendants."
Luke's face twisted at the mention of the Malevolent Emperor, a name Caron uttered without hesitation. Although he had suspected it, the confirmation left a heavy weight in his chest.
When this truth came to light, the empire would be shaken once more. It had been more than fifty years since any trace of the Malevolent Emperor was discovered.
"Hans, what's the status of the other locations?" Caron asked, pulling a bottle of water from his pouch of dimensional space and taking a long drink.
Hans responded in a sharp voice, "We've secured every hideout except one. The last one should be cleared soon."
"Any casualties?" Caron asked.
"There are no deaths, two seriously injured, and four lightly wounded," Hans answered.
"There were knights stationed in the other locations, too, I assume?" Caron asked. Only knights could inflict such injuries on other knights.
Nodding slightly, he pointed a thumb at the building behind him and added, "There are still infected inside. I knocked them unconscious, so send some men in to handle the cleanup."
"Yes, sir!" Hans saluted.
"Oh, and I stacked a pile of corpses in the basement. Handle those as well," Caron added.
"How many are there?" Hans asked.
"There's twenty-nine," Caron replied.
"...Quite a number," Hans responded.
"One was a 6-Star. The rest were 5-Star. Check their identities when you deal with them. We're bound to find something useful."
The knights were elite forces. They weren't mercenaries one could summon at a moment's notice. That meant they had affiliations somewhere. If they followed that thread, they would uncover connections to the so-called Revanchists.
That was flawless, Luke thought as he watched Caron with a small, impressed sigh.
Clearing out twenty knights was impressive, but not exactly shocking. Caron was a 7-Star knight; opponents at 5-Star or 6-Star stood no chance.
What impressed Luke wasn't Caron's strength. It was his flawless grasp of the situation—his ability to subdue enemies and plan the next move simultaneously. It was the kind of efficiency that didn't suit a mere seventeen-year-old.
Caron drank the last of his water, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then turned back to Hans. He asked, "Hans, did we capture anyone alive?"
Hans nodded and answered, "Most took their own lives when the tide turned against them, but we did manage to capture three."
"Three—a perfect number for interrogations," Caron said with a satisfied nod.
Luke cautiously asked, "Would you be willing to hand over the prisoners to us?"
Caron's expression turned ice-cold in an instant. He replied flatly, "What?"
"...I was just asking," Luke muttered.
Caron's eyes glinted dangerously as he asked, "We did all the fighting, so why are the Imperial Guards trying to reap the rewards?"
"I need to report something to my superiors," Luke replied, sighing. "At least give me something to say."
"People who take credit for others' work usually go bald, Sir Luke. You should be careful," Caron said.
Luke barely managed to hold back the urge to say something in response.
However, Caron, who was already feeling annoyed, stared straight at Luke and spoke. "Hans, make sure this gets into the report."
"Yes, sir, I'm listening," Hans replied.
"The Imperial Guards did nothing but watch from the sidelines," Caron said.
"...With all due respect," Luke protested. "It was your decision to exclude us from the operation."
"The result is all that matters," Caron said, cutting him off. "Hold on. I need to make a quick report to Azureocean Castle."
He shoved the empty bottle back into his pocket and pulled out a communication orb, channeling his mana into it.
"Grandfather?" he called out.
At the word "grandfather," both Hans and Luke froze. Caron was speaking to Duke Halo—the legendary hero of the continent.
However, they couldn't hide their shock at the words that followed shortly after.
"What on earth have you been doing all this time? Why did you handle things like this? Honestly, I'm so frustrated!" Caron barked into the orb.
Luke and Hans exchanged horrified glances. This lunatic was outright berating his grandfather—the most revered figure in the entire continent.
As they stared at Caron, they both thought to themselves...
He's completely insane, Luke thought.
First, it was Lord Dales. Now he's going after the head of the family? I'm going to need to submit another formal apology... Hans thought.
No one could stop the Mad Dog.
And Caron's next target was Duke Halo himself.