The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 163

“And what nonsense about being innocent! Did someone hold a knife to your throat and force you to rely on Nether’s power? You took Nether’s medicine because you didn’t want to die, didn’t you?”

Seraph also showed no empathy for the suffering of the people.

“Do you know how painful malaria is? They were people who wanted to live because of it. What does it matter if they relied on Nether’s power? Nobles and clergy are also researching Nether magic! They only borrowed Nether’s power because the power of the Yaeghas gods was not helpful! But to make them go berserk! How could you do that! You soulless monsters! You are the real monsters!”

The Taoist of the Blue Banner Gang, enraged, focused his mind. The minions connected to him, those who were originally members of the Blue Banner Gang, began to move.

“Kill them!”

The Taoist manipulated his minions, issuing a kill order. But the men and women of the Herald Clan scoffed.

“This guy is taking his anger out on the wrong people?”

“Dimia, I heard you were easily defeated by Azadin? Is your condition back to normal?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s see your skills.”

Dimia of the Flower clicked her tongue and unsheathed the flexible sword she wore at her waist. It was a flexible sword with a blue blade made of azure steel. She hooked it onto her bow and fired, drawing a blue trajectory in the air as the flexible sword danced like a living snake.

-Thwack!

The oak tree demon minion tried to block the incoming flexible sword with a branch. However, the flexible sword moved as if it were alive, finding a gap and severing the demon’s neck. It cut down the minions one by one, scattering blue sword light.

“Kkyaaa!”

“Kaak!”

As their necks and torsos were severed, the oak tree demon minions writhed, spewing brain fluid and being destroyed.

Watching her easily take down the minions by firing the flexible sword with her bow, the Taoist could see that their power was immense.

“Y-you demons!”

The Blue Banner Gang Taoist screamed as he watched his subordinates being killed helplessly, and tried to use magic, but a small sword, too large to be called a dagger, pierced his arm.

“Kyak!”

“Oops. Don’t move recklessly. There are still many things I want to hear from you.”

Seraph of the Bird had already approached him and was holding a sword to his neck.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Do you think I’ll submit to you….”

Branches shot up from under the Taoist’s feet, attacking Seraph. But at that moment, a black sword light flashed. The Taoist’s legs were cleanly cut off along with the branches.

“Oh, dear… I think I inflicted a fatal wound. Surely a Nether minion won’t die just because his legs were cut off, right?”

“Kuh!”

Indeed, the Taoist sprouted branches from the bleeding area to stop the wound. However, he already knew that he could not stand against the Herald Clan.

“Are you already starting?”

At that moment, Araiel appeared at the Blue Banner Gang headquarters, accompanied by Indim. Having finished her meeting with Azadin, she frowned.

“Araiel-nim.”

“You’ve already laid your hands on the Blue Banner Gang?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, Araiel-nim, but given Azadin’s personality, he would never agree to make the drug.”

Dimia’s younger sister, Jenice, said, and Araiel glared at her.

“You seem to know quite a bit about my brother. Well, fine.”

Araiel reached out to the fallen Taoist. At that moment, the Taoist’s clothes came undone, and a key popped out from inside him, being sucked into Araiel’s hand.

“Then what do we do with this guy?”

Seraph asked Araiel, holding a sword to the Taoist’s neck.

“Give him the medicine.”

Araiel said, throwing the vial of medicine that she had given to Azadin and been rejected, to Seraph. Seraph pried open the Blue Banner Gang Taoist’s mouth with the blade and poured the vial into it.

“Kuh?!”

The Taoist tried to resist, but the liquid relentlessly flowed into his mouth.

“Well, eat it and regret it, you fool.”

Seraph fed the medicine to the Blue Banner Gang Taoist, sneered, and threw him away.

*********

Lightning tore through the sky and struck the earth.

“Good heavens. It’s the end of the world. There’s no stopping it.”

Azadin was even feeling despair as he watched the camp being repeatedly struck by lightning.

Those who had taken the Blue Banner Gang’s elixir were turning into minions, and each time, lightning fell from the sky.

In other words, as much as lightning was falling, minions were emerging among the refugees at this very moment.

Since minions were emerging among the refugees, it became impossible to block their entry using walls or moats.

“This won’t work, Captain!”

Scott was also getting tired of the numbers.

At first, Scott’s magic had been overwhelming for the Nether minions. But as the minions shared information with each other, they gradually began to counter Scott’s magic.

They would eliminate the undead that Scott created first, and then all focus on attacking Scott.

“There’s no end to them! Captain!”

“Right! It’s time to choose and focus! Let’s go to the Blue Banner Gang headquarters!”

Azadin decided to stop fighting the minions here. It was more reasonable to find out the cause and deal with it than to kill the minions and save people here.

But that meant ignoring the dying people, but there was no other way for now.

No matter how hard Azadin, Jibek, and Scott tried, minions kept appearing, and each time, people died, so dragging it out here would only end when everyone who had taken the elixir died.

Azadin took the shortest route to the camp where the Blue Banner Gang Taoist had been. And he only dealt with the minions that got in his way.

Other minions that were not on the route would harm people, but Azadin couldn’t do anything about that.

‘It’s foolish to worry about a problem that has no answer! This is the best I can do right now!’

Azadin slashed through the minions blocking his path with his azure steel longsword and headed towards Baron Adirof’s castle.

*********

In front of the gate of Baron Adirof’s castle. The Blue Banner Gang Taoist was already lying in his own blood, and in the distance, Araiel and the four of Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, and Jenice were heading towards the Baron’s castle.

The distance was too far.

Azadin put strength in his lower abdomen and called out to Araiel in the loudest voice he could muster.

“Araiel!”

Then the corpses of the minions scattered around began to twitch.

“Ugh?!”

“Be careful.”

Jibek warned, but Azadin calmly watched it.

Then Araiel’s voice, the artificial spirit that Araiel controlled, appeared there.

[Ah, Azadin. You’re going to tear your throat. Let’s talk like this. Well, you still can’t use proper magic, can you?]

“What did you do?! Araiel?”

[I got the key to the Emperor’s treasury that the Blue Banner Gang guys had. There are two keys. With this, the Emperor’s mint will be mine.]

“You… can’t you feel anything? So many people have died because of what you did!”

[It’s because the Blue Banner Gang guys foolishly used Nether’s power. Why is that my fault?]

“If you hadn’t flooded Coral Sahar in the first place, there would have been no reason for them to come here and die! You killed people in Coral Sahar by joining hands with the Nagas, so isn’t it natural that the disaster spread here too!”

[That’s a very interesting interpretation. Yes. It’s true that I caused the incident in Coral Sahar. But if I didn’t act, I wouldn’t be able to prevent more sacrifices in the Jupiter era! I just did my best to minimize the sacrifices.]

“That’s absurd. If that’s the best you could do to minimize sacrifices, what would you have done if you were trying to maximize them?”

[Yes. You could have handled it with fewer sacrifices.]

“What?”

[So, Azadin, come to my side. You are the only one who can save people. I have no qualms about using them as stepping stones, so you can protect them by my side.]

“……”

Azadin was speechless. He never thought that Araiel would try to persuade him even at this moment. And with the justification of minimizing the sacrifice of people?

‘This is ridiculous. She’s the one doing the killing, and she’s asking me to come and stop her? Right now?’

Araiel’s persuasion was so self-centered that Azadin was dumbfounded.

[Of course, it’s impossible right now.]

At that moment, Araiel’s voice suddenly exploded.

“Ugh!”

“Captain!”

“Azadin!”

Scott and Jibek pointed to the Blue Banner Gang Taoist who had fallen to the ground. The moment he got up, lightning struck everywhere, and minions began to surge in.

“Tch!”

Azadin drew his sword to strike the Blue Banner Gang Taoist, gathering strength in his body to cut him down in one go.

But then the Blue Banner Gang Taoist raised his hand.

“W-wait a minute! Calm down!”

“Huh?”

“I’m conscious! I’m okay!”

“……”

Surprisingly, the Blue Banner Gang Taoist was perfectly conscious. Not only that.

“First, I will control the minions.”

As the Blue Banner Gang Taoist focused his mind, a reaction began to appear in the movements of the minions rushing into the courtyard of the Baron’s castle.

They were raw violence, wild beasts, but now they showed organized movement and order. The Taoist was controlling the minions with his mind.

And he formed a small branch. It was a sharp shape like a bolt fired from a crossbow, and the tip was sharp enough to tear through unprotected flesh.

The branch flew like the wind and hit the thick bark of the minions, becoming one with them as if mistletoe was growing on a giant tree.

Then an amazing thing happened. The minions regained their reason.

“Uh. T-Taoist-nim?”

“Hic, what is this? Is this my body?”

The screams of those who had regained their humanity were heard.

They were shocked, having forgotten the terrible and cruel violence they had just committed, and were shocked by their transformed appearance.

“Um, everyone! Have you seen a child who was with me? A short-haired child carrying this cloth doll….”

The man said, and a blood-stained cloth doll was hanging pitifully on his branch. Perhaps the child he was looking for was no longer in this world.

Azadin sheathed his sword and glared at the Blue Banner Gang Taoist. This man had cleaned up the mess, but this would not have happened at all if he had not spread the elixir.

Of course, the pain of various endemic diseases had made people dependent on the elixir, so it could not be entirely blamed on them, but the blood-soaked cloth doll stuck in Azadin’s mind.

‘If I had eyes, I would have said it stuck to my retina.’

Azadin questioned the Taoist.

“Are you conscious? Can you explain what happened?”

“I don’t know either.”

“I thought so. What I want is for you to try to make as many excuses as possible from your point of view. I’ll filter what I hear anyway. Do you know how many people killed their families while coming here, and how many people I had to kill because of that?”

Azadin’s voice was filled with anger.