Became The Son Of The Final Boss [EN]: Chapter 232

232.

Hamilton signaled when a faint moon rose.

I shouted immediately.

“Open the gates!”

The massive gates of Grenian finally opened.

The days of desperately defending the gates from being breached were over.

I led the soldiers, exiting the gates first.

“The enemy commander has fled! They are starved of supplies!”

My words echoed across the entire battlefield.

“Don’t let a single one escape alive!”

I charged forward madly, accompanied by the highest-grade elementals.

The enemies were caught off guard by our sudden exit from the gates and couldn’t properly form their lines.

Sylphide flew over the enemy camp.

Ifrit spewed flames, burning the enemies, and Undine swept through the enemy lines with a storm.

Then, Claymore triggered an earthquake, completely collapsing the enemies.

‘I don’t see Jane.’

Still, there were nearly three hundred thousand soldiers.

Could they really have abandoned those enormous forces?

I couldn’t help but wonder.

What on earth was Jane thinking?

If they abandoned them like this, the Kingdom Alliance could never be safe.

Even if we advanced straight to the capital, there wouldn’t be many soldiers to stop us.

‘Now is not the time to think about what comes later.’

I shouted loudly.

“Those who drop their swords will be spared!”

The Kingdom Alliance was also land that the Empire needed to conquer.

We couldn’t live under the same sky as them. My mother’s death was connected to them, and the Empire and the Kingdom Alliance had shed too much blood to return to friendly relations.

One by one, soldiers began to drop their swords.

The commander-in-chief was nowhere to be seen, and the knights had long lost their will to fight.

Their numbers were dozens of times greater than ours, but numbers no longer mattered.

To the Kingdom Alliance soldiers, whose morale had plummeted, the mere ten thousand or so soldiers from the direct line who had emerged from the gates must have seemed like millions.

When even the knights dropped their swords without much resistance, I immediately looked for Ken.

“Your Highness.”

“Go with Lillian first and disarm the traps. We’ll sort the prisoners, reorganize the lines, and then strike straight at the Kingdom Alliance capital.”

“Yes.”

Ken relayed my orders to the adjutant and then approached again, opening his mouth.

“From now on, it’s a race against time.”

“A race against time?”

“Yes. There must be a reason why Jane and Karen fled.”

That was what I was most curious about.

“What reason could they have for leaving behind three hundred thousand troops?”

Ken also fell into thought.

While waiting for Ken’s answer, I thought of the Order of the Cleansing Flame.

‘Even if they have influence across the entire continent, they would need a lot of troops to stand against the Empire. But to abandon all these soldiers…’

The Kingdom Alliance and the Order of the Cleansing Flame were practically one and the same.

More accurately, the Order of the Cleansing Flame was behind the Kingdom Alliance.

The Order of the Cleansing Flame was also moving the barbarians of the South and advancing the fairies of the West.

They had been exerting a great influence on various forces on the continent for a very long time, and now that influence had come to the surface.

The only thing they hadn’t been able to control was the Calpheon Empire.

If they had drawn Ron Carl Leord in, they might have achieved their goals much earlier.

But the Order of the Cleansing Flame failed to make Ron Carl Leord, my father, their ally.

Instead, he became their enemy.

And because of that, the continent was now embroiled in a massive war.

I was one of the parties involved in the war.

The battle ended meaninglessly.

Most of the three hundred thousand men surrendered.

Ken finally opened his mouth.

“We need to get out of here quickly…”

“Arun!”

Lillian’s voice came from the direction of Grenian Castle.

Her urgent voice made me turn my head.

Lillian had created a sphere of light that filled the sky.

Gooooooo-!

The pure white light illuminated all of Grenian.

The light, which even swallowed the moonlight, made the prisoners tremble.

“What is it?”

I couldn’t help but look at the Kingdom Alliance soldiers.

An unknown smoke was flowing from their bodies.

“Everyone, retreat to the castle!”

Lillian shouted again.

Ken said.

“Your Highness, something is wrong. We need to withdraw the troops.”

The strange feeling was felt not only by me but also by the knights and soldiers.

I nodded.

“Everyone, return to Grenian Castle!”

The moment I finished speaking, the smoke coming from the prisoners’ bodies deflected the light that Lillian’s sphere was emitting.

The fact that the light was being deflected was visible to the eye, so much so that there was no other way to express it.

“Geeeeee!”

A sound that could not be called a human voice flowed from the prisoners’ mouths.

A cry like that of a beast.

And the smoke coming from their bodies gradually turned black.

Ken’s face hardened.

“Your Highness, immediately into the castle…”

Before Ken could finish speaking, the prisoners charged at our soldiers.

One of the prisoners charged at me, and I instinctively summoned Sylph.

Bang-!

“Cough!”

Sylph was forcibly dispelled with a single impact.

Even when a lower-grade elemental was dispelled after becoming a top-grade elementalist, it had almost no impact on me, but it was different now.

It was as if I had been hit in the head with a blunt weapon.

The prisoners’ eyes had turned completely black.

Soon, red spots appeared on the prisoners’ skin, along with black smoke.

Ken swung his sword and said in a serious voice.

“Those are bio-ghouls.”

“Bio-ghouls?”

“Yes.”

Ken gritted his teeth.

“It seems that almost all of the three hundred thousand are turning into bio-ghouls. This is not possible with the power of an ordinary necromancer.”

My face also hardened.

* * *

We barely retreated into the castle.

The bio-ghouls endlessly attacked the castle until the sun rose, then disappeared somewhere.

Most of the surrendered Kingdom Alliance soldiers had turned into bio-ghouls.

Bio-ghouls are not human.

They have no fear and do not die easily from a single arrow.

I thought we could advance to the Kingdom Alliance in one fell swoop when we left the castle, but we retreated back into the castle.

Everyone gathered in the conference room with gloomy expressions.

Ken opened his mouth.

“The Kingdom Alliance soldiers we were trying to take as prisoners have turned into creatures presumed to be bio-ghouls. Lillian, please explain the difference between bio-ghouls and ghouls and the reason they transformed.”

“I will.”

Lillian nodded.

“The difference between bio-ghouls and ghouls is one thing. Bio-ghouls are ghouls artificially created by black mages called necromancers [mages specializing in manipulating the dead]. Commonly known ghouls are corpses that have transformed after absorbing the energy of darkness that occurs naturally over a long period of time.”

I asked.

“The Kingdom Alliance soldiers are bio-ghouls, the work of necromancers.”

“That’s right, Your Highness. Now, the problem is that if the necromancer who created those hundreds of thousands of bio-ghouls is one person, it means they are a stronger black mage than me. I don’t think that’s possible.”

Lillian’s voice was firm.

“We should probably assume that the enemy has at least hundreds of necromancers.”

Ken asked.

“The Kingdom Alliance can’t afford to raise hundreds of necromancers. Unlike mages, necromancers have to make a contract with a being from the Demon World, right? That the various orders didn’t know while hundreds of necromancers were making contracts with the Demon World…”

“A Demon King-class being could do it.”

Ken closed his mouth at Lillian’s words.

“A Demon King-class being can contract with not just one but hundreds or thousands of necromancers.”

I summarized.

“The enemy has hundreds of necromancers, and for some reason, Jane and Karen left the camp first without using them, and then the necromancers turned the soldiers into bio-ghouls. Is that the current situation?”

I turned my gaze to Hamilton.

“Hamilton.”

“Yes.”

“Deploy more informants to the Kingdom Alliance. This is not a battle between the direct line and the Kingdom Alliance. Hundreds of necromancers are a problem that threatens the survival of the entire continent.”

Everyone nodded.

“Lillian.”

“Speak.”

“Take charge of the defense today. I need to go to the Imperial Capital.”

“The Imperial Capital?”

“I have to report this fact directly to Father. This is not a problem that can be dealt with at the level of the direct line.”

I looked around at my subordinates once more and concluded.

“Do your best to defend. Encourage the soldiers as much as possible so that their morale does not drop. I will return soon after seeing Father.”

After the meeting, I headed straight to the location of the magic circle [teleportation device].

Olivia and Duke James did not go with me, and I moved with only a few attendants.

‘Demon King-class.’

I recalled Lillian’s words as I walked.

The purpose of the Order of the Cleansing Flame is to bring a Demon King to this land.

They call the chaos caused by the Demon King a ‘holy war,’ purifying the world tainted by evil and building a new world.

That was almost the only fact I learned while researching them.

The Order of the Cleansing Flame, which seemed to have been preparing for a very long time, was slowly rising from the shadows to the light.

Were they no longer trying to hide their existence?

The bio-ghouls were a great shock to me.

Because they changed the definition of the enemy I had been fighting until now.

‘This is becoming a war not for the glory of the Empire, but for all the humans living on the continent.’

“Preparation is complete, Your Highness.”

The attending mage in the magic circle seemed to have heard the news in advance and was preparing to activate the magic circle.

I immediately nodded and headed to the Imperial Capital via the magic circle.

With a slight sense of disorientation, my vision disappeared for a moment.

My vision quickly returned, and I arrived on the magic circle installed in the Imperial Capital, not where I had been standing a moment ago.

“Your Highness!”

The mage managing the Imperial Capital’s magic circle discovered me and bowed his head.

I gave a curt greeting and went straight outside.

The Imperial Palace was close at hand.

As I quickened my pace, the main gate of the Imperial Palace soon came into view.

I had no time to feel any emotion at coming to the Imperial Palace after so long.

The matter was too urgent.

The courtiers inside the Imperial Palace were all surprised by my appearance and rushed to greet me.

I happened to meet a courtier from the Great Hall, and I immediately said.

“I will go to the Great Hall.”

“Your Highness, His Majesty is not there now.”

I widened my eyes.

“Father? Did he go down to the South?”

The courtier nodded.

“Yes. He went down there a while ago.”

I bit my lip.

‘Lillian will somehow manage the defense of the direct line. But this issue needs to be discussed with Father.’

I made a decision.

“Tell all the courtiers to enter the Great Hall immediately.”

“Yes?”

“I will convene a Great Hall meeting.”

My father had given me all authority over the direct line, but he had not given me his authority.

Only the Emperor could convene a Great Hall meeting.

My convening a Great Hall meeting was enough to be suspected of disloyalty, even treason.

Looking at the courtier’s hardened expression, I explained the situation.

“Over hundreds of necromancers have been trained in the Kingdom Alliance. The Kingdom Alliance soldiers are now not humans but bio-ghouls, attacking the direct line.”

The courtier was shocked.

I quickly finished speaking.

“Summon the courtiers.”

“Yes. I will contact them immediately.”