The Shadowed Legacy Of The Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 440

“Easy to spot.”

Azadin, riding the ghost goat, glanced back as he galloped.

The corrupted Celestial legion was flying through the sky, rapidly closing in on him.

It looked like a dark crimson cloud was relentlessly pursuing Azadin.

However, Azadin’s physical condition was far from ideal.

To get close to Triodana, he had clung to the underside of the ship, holding his breath and waiting.

Having barely recovered from his sickbed, he had to hold his breath for about four minutes in the icy cold water.

It was something he could do without any problem when he was healthy, but doing it now in his weakened state was extremely dangerous.

Now that he had cut off Triodana’s head, the backlash was taking a toll on Azadin’s body.

His body trembled from the cold. As he rode on the ghost goat’s back, soaked to the bone, his eyebrows instantly froze in the headwind.

If this were a living Kerim goat, he could bury himself in its fur to get some warmth, but the ghost goat was always cold, making his buttocks feel like they were turning into ice.

It was the worst possible situation in this frigid world.

In a hurry, Azadin drew his ceramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn.

The blade burst into flames, and he could feel the heat radiating from it.

However, that only served to clearly reveal his position to the enemies, and the pursuing enemies accelerated even more.

“Azadin!”

Flying at the forefront was Triodana, who still maintained a human form compared to the other Celestials.

However, his wings were stained with blood, and grotesque parasites were wriggling between the feathers.

Those parasites were filling the gaps in Triodana’s severed body and the holes pierced by the black steel arrows.

“How dare the king himself commit assassination! As expected of a blasphemer! Are you trying to tarnish the dignity of the king?!”

Triodana, enraged by the sheer audacity of it all, cast a spell at Azadin.

Dark crimson magic bullets were fired at Azadin.

Azadin moved the ghost goat to evade the attack and gave a wry smile.

“A king can’t just sit around and do nothing, can he?”

In this continent, a king is supposed to be a proxy who embodies the grace of God on this land, a sacred and revered being.

The reality is that most of them are tyrants who wield their power while living a life of extravagance and imposing harsh taxes, but the position of a king still held such symbolic meaning.

But now, King Azadin had taken on the role of an assassin and cut off Lord Triodana’s head, which violated the taboo that the Hybrids shared about the sanctity of the king’s position.

However, it was ridiculous that the utterly corrupted Triodana was enraged by that very point.

“Is it kingly to torment the people and covet another man’s wife, but tarnishing the king’s honor for the king to commit assassination himself? And what about you, a prince, falling into corruption and drawing on the power of the Nether [a dark, chaotic realm]?”

“This is not corruption! It is guiding humanity to true wisdom!”

Triodana insisted, casting another spell.

Black spheres formed around him and were fired with terrifying force.

Azadin dodged the attack by circling behind a rock, but the sphere that hit the rock exploded, tearing away at it as if taking a bite out of cheese.

Even hard metal was torn apart so easily, so if a human made of cloth were to be hit, they would surely die instantly.

However, Triodana, who was displaying such powerful force, was feeling impatient.

‘I can’t get close….’

Azadin’s words were annoying, but he was also wary of his bizarre movements, the unique martial arts of the Herald clan, and the magic that was so specialized for assassination.

So, instead of approaching Azadin, Triodana fired spells from a distance to slow down Azadin’s speed and sent the other corrupted Celestials ahead.

Azadin evaded the attacks of those Celestials and jumped off the cliff.

Was it suicide?

No, it wasn’t. Azadin’s ghost Kerim goat nimbly descended, stepping on the rocks and trees protruding from the cliff.

“Foolish!”

It was much faster than people who had to climb down the cliff, but it was slower than the Celestials who could fly freely in the sky.

The corrupted Celestials flew down the cliff and blocked Azadin’s path.

Just as the corrupted Celestials gathered to target Azadin, it happened.

“Hup!”

The dirt wall of the cliff crumbled, and those who had been hiding inside jumped out. Not only that.

There were also those who had been lying in ambush at the bottom of the cliff.

The servants of the Herald clan and Ishmael had been lying in ambush.

They ambushed the corrupted Celestials who had recklessly flown in to capture Azadin, piercing their hearts with swords and arrows.

“What!?”

Triodana was taken aback by the sudden attack of the enemies.

At that moment, a black arrow, a black steel arrow, pierced his wing.

“Kuh?!”

Triodana could no longer fly and plummeted.

“Are you alright, Your Majesty!? Honestly, this kind of reckless act….”

It was Seraph and Indim who had fired the black steel arrows.

They had been waiting on the cliff and sniped Triodana from the perfect position.

Everyone knew that Triodana wouldn’t attack right away when he was chasing Azadin.

Azadin had succeeded in the assassination and cut off his head in close combat, so there was no way he would engage in close combat without any countermeasures.

However, they knew that even if he flew high in the sky, if Azadin fell down the cliff, he would naturally lower his altitude to follow Azadin’s whereabouts with his eyes, and approach the slope to see the bottom of the cliff.

So, Indim and Seraph had been waiting on that slope and shot Triodana the moment he approached.

This was a strategy that was possible because the assassin was Azadin.

King Azadin had thrown himself as bait, so wouldn’t they chase after him to the death?

“Don’t make me laugh!”

Triodana, realizing that he had been completely outmaneuvered, became enraged and drew on the power of the Nether.

However, the black steel arrows interfered with his power.

The black steel arrows, made from the scales of the mythical dragon Azahdin, which the Aragasa feared, also possessed the power of the Nether and were not inferior to the power of other Nether gods.

“Cheongilsong!” [A magic technique that manipulates the elements]

Indim ran like the wind and cast the Cheongilsong magic of the Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon.

Triodana’s body soared into the sky and then plummeted to the ground.

At that moment, Indim sprinted, grabbed Triodana’s head, and slammed it into a rock on the ground.

With a gruesome sound of shattering skulls, Triodana’s head was crushed.

“So. You were going to guide humanity to true wisdom? Don’t make me laugh. You just became a part of them because you were afraid of destruction, weren’t you? Someone like you can’t even compare to Azadin, who tries to fight even when facing destruction.”

Indim mocked Triodana, but he was not yet dead.

Triodana’s arm moved to grab Indim.

“Careful!”

Seraph rushed over and slashed Triodana’s arm with his sword.

“I wasn’t careless.”

“Really? It doesn’t look like it to me.”

Indim and Seraph drew their swords and began to swing them at the still-living Triodana.

The relentless attacks of Indim and Seraph, the best of the Herald clan, were truly terrifying, and no matter how much of a monster Triodana was, he was helpless in close combat within striking distance.

In the end, Triodana could not regenerate and collapsed, completely mangled.

“Wow, I think we made about 200 pieces?”

“The flesh is still twitching. It’s hard to believe that this was once a handsome prince who looked just like Lord Karna.”

Seraph, who knew Karna’s face, lamented as he looked at the lump of meat that was once Triodana.

“What good is a handsome face for a man? Why are you lamenting?”

“Indim. I’m just lamenting the cruel fate. Ah, Your Majesty. Are you alright?”

“…Cold.”

Azadin shivered and wrapped himself in the blanket that Ishmael had brought.

His soaked body was freezing all over, and no matter how much he wiped the ice and water off with the blanket, it was endless.

“No, for someone who hasn’t been out of bed for long, this is….”

Ishmael was worried about Azadin’s poor physical condition, but he couldn’t just criticize him.

If Azadin hadn’t done it himself, Triodana and the Celestials wouldn’t have been lured out of their base and ambushed like this.

“Amazing. I can’t believe you actually pulled it off.”

The wights of the Pimbul Horde, who were on standby as a reserve force, were also shocked to see that Azadin had actually lured out Triodana and succeeded in assassinating him.

“Well, shall we start retaking Fireglyph?”

“Huh? Now?”

“Yes. Now that Triodana has been eliminated, this is the perfect chance.”

Azadin, shivering, gave the Pimbul Horde the order to retake Fireglyph.

There were still forces of the Wisdom Order left in Fireglyph, and the walls were still intact.

The only forces Azadin had brought were 20 servants of the Herald clan.

The Pimbul Horde’s army was essential to capture Fireglyph.

‘This guy is using other people’s forces like they’re his own….’

However, the wights could also understand that now was the time to attack, now that Azadin had lured out and eliminated Triodana and the corrupted Celestials.

“Understood. King Azadin. We will follow your command.”

The wights of the Pimbul Horde began to move according to Azadin’s orders.

*********

Now that Triodana was dead and a considerable number of corrupted Celestials had been lured out and killed, the enemies were in a state of command vacuum.

Azadin borrowed the Pimbul Horde’s army and immediately began attacking Fireglyph.

First, they attacked the enemies at the docks who were trying to take out and transport Fireglyph’s supplies.

The wights and wyvern riders attacked the docks and prevented the looting of Fireglyph’s supplies.

“N-No way!”

“Where is Lord Triodana?!”

The priests of the Wisdom Order were horrified that Lord Triodana, who had rushed out to chase Azadin, had not returned.

They tried to hold them back with the forces they had, but the wight knights of the Pimbul Horde broke through their defenses with terrifying force and massacred them at the docks.

The surprised workers and priests of the Wisdom Order tried to flee into Fireglyph, but in response to their movements, the Herald clan entered the castle.

“We must wait until Lord Triodana returns!”

“No! Lord Triodana has been killed!”

“That can’t be! He is someone who doesn’t die even if his head is cut off….”

The priest of the Wisdom Order was shocked by the words he had just uttered.

If he doesn’t die even if his head is cut off, isn’t he a monster?

He was serving such a monster as his superior, and he couldn’t help but feel absurd when he thought about how he had gone astray.

They didn’t even know if their commander, Triodana, was dead or alive.

Those who had been maintaining command had also been ambushed while chasing Azadin with Triodana….

In such a situation, a proper organization would just carry out their assigned roles, but unfortunately, the Wisdom Order had no wisdom.

As they became obsessed with Nether magic and fell into corruption, they had little wisdom, and even those with a common level of reason were rare.

At that moment, news came that the battery in front of the castle gate had been captured.

“It’s over. It’s shameful to call ourselves the Wisdom Order.”