Translator: Pai_

With three people on board, Bije’s speed was slightly slower than when carrying Turan alone, but still, a day was enough to reach Orem City.

Unlike Axum, the capital of Zahar, the distance between the two cities wasn’t that far.

During the flight, Armania played an unexpected additional role, keeping boredom at bay with his constant chatter.

Looking down at the ground, he pointed with his finger over and over, asking what each thing was as though he never got tired of it.

“That one, what is that! I’ve never seen it before!”

“Ah... a Magical Beast. Judging by its appearance, it’s probably a bear. A fairly large one, should we catch it?”

“We don’t have time, save it for later.”

When they had flown from Ruvan to Kalamaf before, they had only flown over the sea, which he was used to, so in truth, this was his first time flying openly over land.

Bije grumbled that the fish-smelling fellow was noisy, but quieted down once Turan patted her back.

He had always suspected it, Bije seemed particularly hostile toward Armania because she felt he was stealing Turan’s affection.

Meisa was in a partner relationship with him, so she was out of the equation, but perhaps the two pets were simply trying to establish dominance.

After a while, Turan noticed the city walls appearing ahead and turned his gaze toward Solif.

“When was the last time we came here?”

“When we were setting up your parents’ hiding place. Just came to buy a few essentials.”

“Ah. That was a secret trip, wasn’t it.”

In other words, the last official visit had been when they had been treated lavishly, only to find the Librarian missing and gone searching for him.

That must’ve been two years ago? Or maybe three?

Considering that such a time span isn’t very long for nobles, House Baltas might still hold a grudge over their nighttime escape.

As he retraced those memories briefly, Turan wrinkled his nose at the thick scent of blood wafting in from a distance.

In nature, the smell of blood wasn’t all that rare, but this was the scent of human blood, not just from one or two people, but from at least several dozen.

“Let’s fly straight into Orem.”

“What? Weren’t we going to sneak in?”

“Something’s wrong.”

Originally, they had planned to dismount Bije several kilometers away and approach on foot to avoid revealing their identities, but the situation had changed.

He didn’t know the exact details, but something was clearly happening inside the city walls of Orem.

When Bije gave a few more strong flaps of her somewhat weary wings, they quickly closed the distance and were soon overlooking Orem City.

“Uh…”

“What kind of bastard would do something like this?”

Inside the walls, it was literally hell.

In the middle of the plaza lay heaps of bones and flesh, once human, now torn apart. On one side, others still alive were caged naked behind iron bars.

It was the perfect image of a human slaughterhouse, and it was hard to believe with their own eyes that this place had once been the bustling city of Orem.

"Please, at least spare our child!"

“I was wrong, I was wrong!”

“I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all-!”

Some pleaded desperately to survive, some screamed in fury, while others lay hopelessly on the ground.

Among the caged people, dozens of individuals walked around freely.

Like Armania, they wore deep hoods, unaffected by the cries of the people, and calmly walked about writing something on parchment.

“Are those bastards the culprits?”

As Solif shouted in rage, Turan placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him and examined the opponents’ presence more carefully.

Creatures with long vertically-slit ears, with a strange glow emanating from the brain area...

“They’re elves. And necromancers at that.”

“What?”

They weren’t as powerful as the Undead King he had seen before, but they possessed considerable strength.

Could there have been surviving White Elfs? Or were they Dark Elf necromancers?

Or perhaps spirit conjurers from another elf race?

In truth, which kind they were didn’t really matter.

What was certain was that whatever they were doing now needed to be stopped.

“Armania.”

“Hm?”

“Don’t hurt the people. Just attack those guys. Can you do that?”

Unlike Turan or Solif, Armania’s combat power dropped significantly unless he took the form of a Great Sea Serpent.

Even in the shark form he often took, he was still stronger than most high-ranking nobles, but that form had the disadvantage of being more vulnerable on land than the serpent form.

After a moment’s hesitation, Armania nodded.

“I can do it!”

“Good, I trust you. Bije, come in.”

-Okay!

At Turan’s command, Bije was absorbed into his body, and the three, now without a mount, began to fall straight down.

At that moment, some of the elves spotted them and pointed to the sky.

Thanks to his Zahar bloodline’s characteristic night vision, Turan could see the dark purplish hue on the faces beneath their hoods.

“They’re Dark Elves!”

“Got it!”

With his reply, a giant halo appeared behind Solif.

Light of Judgement.

A power granted only to some of the nobles of House Varaha, when unleashed by a family head-class powerhouse, its impact was terrifying.

If Solif hadn’t controlled its heat, everyone within a hundred-meter radius might have been incinerated by the shockwave alone.

"It's a demon! Attack!”

“No, don’t attack, hold out! Call for reinforcements!”

Some of the Dark Elves seemed to have felt that power as well. While a few stopped the slaughter and began summoning undead to resist, others turned and started running.

Unfortunately for them, their cry for reinforcements would not be answered.

Because right above, Turan was already mercilessly attacking.

For enemies unaware of his presence, he didn’t need flashy techniques like a railgun.

By shooting one steel ball at a time, silenced through wind channels while cloaked, he killed three necromancers instantly without giving them a chance to resist.

Glancing around, Turan confirmed his allies were handling the enemy without issue.

At a wave of Solif’s hand, flames erupted and burned the undead in droves, reducing the necromancers to ash, and Armania was taking down his enemies in his own way.

“A… mermaid?!”

Armania had tossed away his cumbersome hood for battle.

At the moment the necromancer realized his identity, Armania rushed forward on two legs and, in an instant, transformed into a massive shark over five meters long, biting down on the man’s head.

The transformation was so fast that his body elongated in the blink of an eye, leaving the opponent no time to react.

Then, Armania changed back into his mermaid form and dodged the attacks of the summoned undead that came flying at his huge body.

He quickly turned and targeted his second prey.

There were still about a dozen necromancers remaining, but it wouldn't take long to finish them off.

Instead of helping his comrades, Turan turned his head toward the direction in which those he had killed had tried to flee.

‘Let’s see just how big of a bastard dared to do something like this.’

He didn’t even need to investigate their destination.

There just happened to be a towering building in that direction.

Flying toward the library of Orem, Turan witnessed a scene even more astonishing than the one he had just seen.

Dozens of human wizards were calmly working together with the Dark Elves, drawing strange patterns on the ground and performing some kind of ritual.

“Something weird’s going on over there.”

“It doesn’t sound like people are being killed... Judging by the light, did a wizard invade? Should we report to the family head?”

“It’s a critical time, wouldn’t that be a disturbance?”

The two nobles chatting among themselves soon turned their gaze to the Dark Elf next to them.

Unlike the other Dark Elves who wore deep hoods, this man displayed his long silver hair in full view.

With his alluring appearance like something from ancient elf tales, one noble carefully made a request to him.

“Hmm... could you look into it for us, perhaps?”

“Hmph.”

Though he snorted at the wizard’s request, the Dark Elf man gave a light nod and sent a few necromancers to the source of the commotion.

That alone revealed that his status was not low, and that despite his lofty rank, he had some reason to listen to the humans.

“Wait.”

“Hm?”

“Something’s there.”

At that moment, the high-ranking Dark Elf frowned and murmured, as if he had sensed something.

Had he noticed the Concealment? But how?

Even as the question crossed his mind, Turan’s well-trained body had already moved into action.

Loading a steel ball into his slingshot and immediately generating a path of magnetism.

Just as the wizards and necromancers began forming light, a blinding flash struck a beat ahead and literally shredded them.

At the end of that beam were the two high-ranking nobles who had been talking a moment ago, along with an unnamed Dark Elf.

“Ugh, urgh…”

“W-What the hell is this?”

As always, the unexpected railgun attack was as mentally devastating as it was destructive.

The sudden flash and noise caused human brains to enter a brief state of panic.

Within moments, the panicking wizards and Dark Elves realized that only a crater remained where their leader had stood.

Then, a faint groan came from one side of the crater.

“My king! You’re still alive!”

The high-ranking nobles of Nagin had been killed in a single strike, their defensive magic artifacts rendered useless. But the leader of the Dark Elves survived, though half his face, his right shoulder, and nearly a third of his body were gone.

A powerful undead had protected his body and preserved his life by substituting the lost flesh.

“W-Who…”

“That- that- light! Light the light!"

But the moment they used undead magic to brighten the area or conjure orbs of light, they realized the enemy was already right beside them.

As Turan, empowered by the Ruvan bloodline, stomped his foot, the Dark Elf king’s head was crushed like an overripe fruit.

Given that his strength should have exceeded even top-tier nobles under the assumption of possessing sufficient undead, his end was nothing short of pitiful.

“No-!”

“You filthy demon!”

The necromancers, enraged by the horrific scene, simultaneously summoned undead spirits to attack, but unfortunately, none among them were a match for Turan.

Had the king of those Dark Elves unleashed all his undead from the start and fought with full strength, a defensive battle might have been possible, but he had died in a surprise attack, so what use was that?

After striking down and killing a Dark Elf who had rushed at him head-on, Turan reached out his hand toward the sky.

It just so happened that today’s weather was unusually overcast.

A rumbling sound echoed from within the thunderclouds, and soon, lightning crashed down from the sky, channeling through Turan’s hand and indiscriminately incinerating the surrounding undead and necromancers.

It was the same lightning barrage spell Meisa frequently used.

"Th-this is surely Aravion's..."

“That gray hair, it's Turan! Turan Parsha!”

“Quick, call the family head! We can’t fight him ourselves!”

Fortunately, the wizards of Nagin were able to escape toward the library while the necromancers were being burned to death by lightning like moths in a flame.

Just then, Solif and Armania, having finished off the necromancers behind, approached him.

“Did you already take care of everything on your end?”

“Mostly. But the biggest prey is still left.”

“Who would that be?”

“The head of House Nagin.”

As if in response to those words, the door the wizards had been frantically pounding on swung open.

It was the encounter with the mastermind who had only appeared in old journals until now, someone who had manipulated and shaken the entire world from the shadows.

*****

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