Surviving As The 5Th Prince Of Hellman Kingdom [EN]: Chapter 183

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Lost in thought, I spent countless hours contemplating the microcosm within the Core. Then, something strange happened.

The distant stars seemed to be pulling me in, and I became a traveler journeying through them.

Beneath a sky filled with countless stars, I walked along a white sandy beach. When tired, I rested without regard for time, and when my strength returned, I brushed myself off and continued onward.

It was a wondrous, awe-inspiring, and terribly lonely experience.

Days, months, years?

Perhaps decades had passed.

When the reason for my journey through the stars had faded from memory, I discovered a small spark.

Found it.

What?

Afraid the small spark might extinguish, I cupped my hands around it to shield it from the wind and found the answer to the question echoing from deep within.

‘Ah, that’s right.’

This was potential.

The great potential for the stars in the microcosm to become stars of life!

I began to dig into the ground.

It wasn’t a conscious decision. Instinct compelled me. I planted the spark in the loosened earth.

The moment I finished, my journey ended.

With a pounding heart, I watched the star where I had planted the spark, wondering what change would occur.

Before long, the pure white star began to gradually heat up, and the surrounding stars flocked around it.

It was the birth of a sun.

Seven stars began to orbit it.

Their speed gradually increased beyond what the eye could follow, and the mana [magical energy] contained within the stars became increasingly dense.

The significance of creating mana on their own!

It was truly amazing.

Before long, the mana filling each of their home stars overflowed and began to coalesce around a single point.

The birth of the ninth star.

The newly born star cautiously joined the group orbiting the sun.

I counted the number of stars, including the sun.

One, two, three… nine.

Immediately after confirming that, I opened my eyes.

“Y-Your Majesty?”

“Your Majesty! You’re awake!”

It had been a long time since I had seen Alfonso and Schuetz directly in front of me, rather than through a window.

***

Ettrim, brutally beaten by Barisada, fled.

The Arya army watched the scene.

To them, it was nothing more and nothing less than a wounded beast desperately clinging to life.

News of Ettrim’s defeat spread throughout the world’s media, and the Arya people heard it.

Thus, Ettrim lost its divinity.

Ettrim, reduced to a state with almost no intelligence, had been sleeping in an underwater cave to recover from its injuries.

Bang! Kwang! Kwah-kwah-kwang!!!

The roar of magic cannons and the stench of blood spreading in the sea awakened Ettrim.

Though its intelligence was blurred, Ettrim hadn’t forgotten its enemies who had wounded it.

Leaving its hiding place, Ettrim’s gaze locked onto the Lionel Kingdom’s ship, especially the flagship Mjöllnir.

However, it couldn’t easily approach.

Barisada might be nearby. It was the wariness of a once-injured beast.

If Ettrim’s intelligence had been a little stronger, it might have retreated, but unfortunately for the Lionel Kingdom’s army, Ettrim’s murderous intent overcame its caution.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!!!”

That was the prelude to Ettrim madly rushing towards the Lionel fleet’s flagship, Mjöllnir.

“Why is that bastard here?!”

Fran, suppressing Rihid’s mental domain construction, spat out an angry cry.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!!”

Crack- Kwang!

As if mocking her, Ettrim pushed aside the Arya ships and quickly approached the flagship Mjöllnir.

Reina, standing on the deck maintaining the Guardian Sword Formation, bit her lip as she watched.

She thought they had won.

She was going to return to the royal capital in victory and proudly tell Evan she had protected the kingdom without him.

‘No. I can’t give up until the end.’

Reina steeled her crumbling resolve.

“Kuaaaaaaaa─!!!”

She closely observed the rampaging Ettrim.

Its eyeballs were rolled back, showing only the whites, and it was drooling. The seven necks moving like tentacles without heads were bizarre.

It was clear to anyone that it was not normal.

An existence that once aspired to ascension had fallen and degenerated into a monster.

A little too strong, though.

Reina gripped her sword.

The monster was about to set foot in the domain she had constructed.

“Come!! Fallen monster!!”

Kwahhhhhhh-!!!

A shield made of swords of light blocked Ettrim’s charge. The Guardian Sword Formation, almost collapsing instantly despite it being a simple body slam.

Blood trickled from the corner of Reina’s mouth.

Everyone felt she wouldn’t last long.

“Your Majesty!!”

“What are you doing! Sink even one more ship of those island bastards! Fire!!”

“Fiiiiire──!!”

They were soldiers prepared to lose this battle since setting up camp on Seokham Island and facing the Arya ships.

They had only briefly dreamed a sweet dream of ‘victory.’ If they held on until the very end, they could buy time for the mainland to prepare.

If so, there was only one thing to do.

To take as many of the enemy as possible with them, here and now.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!!”

Ettrim, having lost its intelligence, used its seven long, headless necks like whips to strike the Guardian Sword Formation.

Swish- Kwang!

Swishhh─ Kwahng!!

It was swinging so fiercely that blood spurted from the severed surfaces that had slightly healed.

The excited Ettrim didn’t even notice the brain of the fourth head, just forming, had burst due to its reckless attacks.

Clang!!

The monster finally broke Reina’s Guardian Sword Formation.

“Reina!!”

Fran urgently supported her as she spat out blood, lost her balance, and collapsed.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!!”

Ettrim let out a pleasant roar.

The thickest of its tentacle-like necks prepared to strike the deck. Fran’s expression twisted as she watched.

‘Damn it, I had a feeling this would happen someday if I went to the battlefield.’

This was all because of Evan.

Swishhhh─

Ettrim’s neck fell like a whip, ready to cut the flagship in half.

Fran involuntarily closed her eyes tightly.

Swish- Splash!

‘?’

It wasn’t the sound she expected, like ‘Kwahng!’ or ‘Crack.’

Fran gently opened her eyes.

A beautiful giant fluttering pure white wings was visible.

“Michael!!”

There was no way she couldn’t recognize him.

‘The fact that he’s here means…’

It’s Evan.

It was clear he had rushed to them as soon as he woke up.

***

‘I’m glad I wasn’t too late.’

I wiped away the cold sweat.

As soon as I woke up, I heard the news that the navy, defeated at Seokham Island, was retreating.

So, I put aside everything else, including recovering my body, and flew straight here.

By moving my wings directly.

It would have been better to use the Golden Dragon or Black Wyvern, but the airships that had passed through the Midra Triangle were all under repair due to minor malfunctions that were difficult to identify.

The wings were originally attached for decoration, but I saw the possibility in the process of subjugating the Shadow Forest in the Northwest.

I judged that if I had the ability to control the Titan [a powerful magical construct], give mana to the wings, and control them, it would be possible to fly.

As a result, I succeeded in implementing a flying Titan that didn’t even exist in the ‘future.’

The only regret is that Titans produced after Michael will not have wings.

Only a very few magic swordsmen can control the wings and fly in the sky, and the mana consumption is enormous. That means there’s no one else who can do it besides me.

“Kkeuaaaaaaaa!!!”

Ettrim, one of its tentacle-like necks cut in half, screamed.

‘It has fallen miserably.’

The monster’s condition was obvious.

Right now, that monster is just a brute with only strength. To put it a little more precisely, it was in a state no different from a child holding a famous sword that can cut anything.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!”

Swishhhh-

One of the monster’s necks swung like a whip. The target was the cockpit I was in.

Did it aim knowingly?

‘It must be a coincidence.’

With a simple flap of my wings, I dodged it and swung Michael’s sword.

Swish─ Splash!

I easily cut off the monster’s head again as if cutting a scarecrow. Even I thought, ‘Can it be cut this easily?’

It wouldn’t have happened if the monster had properly wielded its original power, or if I hadn’t set foot in the realm of the 9th star, or if either of the two had been the case.

The 9th star is having a solar system in one’s microcosm. It was an existence that was the same as being a world in itself.

“K, Kuaaaaaaaa!”

Ettrim tried to hide in the sea.

Now it realized it couldn’t be matched and was trying to escape.

Not a chance.

This is already the second time the kingdom has been in crisis because of that monster.

I raised Michael’s sword high into the sky.

Flash-!

Mental domain, the battlefield of victory.

Like Charles’ Black Flame Demonic Jade, the inferno didn’t cover the present world, and like Reina’s Guardian Sword Formation, the swords of light didn’t dominate the space.

It was just that everything had become infinitely favorable to the allies.

***

Fran felt the ship, shaking so much it was difficult to maintain balance due to the strong currents, had become calm.

It wasn’t just a feeling.

Really, the surrounding waves were as calm as a lake. All the places where the Lionel Kingdom’s ships were located were like that.

However, the situation was different on the Arya ships’ side.

Kwang! Crack! Creak-

The enemy warships, caught in a whirlpool that could not occur naturally, were being crumpled like paper boats.

Bang! Kwang! Kwah-kwah-kwang!!!

The wind, clearly a headwind, became a tailwind.

The magic cannons fired by the Lionel ships flew much farther and faster than usual, striking the Arya ships.

Bang! Kwahng! Kwahhhhhng!!

Even the cannonballs that should have missed hit the Arya ships with the help of the wind and currents.

‘This is that guy’s mental domain.’

It was her first time experiencing it directly.

She knows the mental domain is deeply related to the constructor’s wish. The fact that Evan has built such a mental domain means he craved the victory of his allies that much.

So, she didn’t understand it a little bit.

Wishes come from deprivation.

Because they are lacking, they desperately want it, and that soon becomes a mental domain. But Evan, whom she knows, has never lost in any battle, big or small.

‘That’s enough.’

Fran shook her head.

She had given up on understanding Evan a long time ago, but she tried to understand him again. Even though she knew it was meaningless.

‘What’s important now is that bastard.’

Ettrim, trying to hide and escape into the sea. Every time it tried to hide its body, a whirlpool arose that even the monster had difficulty controlling.

“Kuaaaaaaaa!!”

Michael’s sword rushed towards the panicked monster. The monster, realizing its target was the one remaining head, desperately resisted by wielding its tentacle-like necks.

Thud!!

Suddenly, the Arya flagship, Kraken, swept away by a strong current, crashed into Ettrim, and the monster’s huge body staggered.

It was a coincidence, but it wasn’t a coincidence.

Evan’s mental domain, the battlefield of victory, was a place where such absurd ‘coincidences’ happened from time to time.

Swish─

Ettrim’s last remaining head fell.

Thud!

That was right above the Kraken’s situation room.

Fzzzt- Fzzzzzt─

Ettrim’s acidic blood, having lost its divinity and containing deadly poison, filled the situation room.

Rihid was there.

He had been thrown from his chair by the strong whirlpool, and after the captain hit his head on the angular corner, he hit his head on the same spot and fainted.