The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 253

“Ugh…. Ugh?!”.

Izmilla was already bound with ropes, and her mouth was gagged to prevent her from chanting any magic spells.

However, after assessing the situation, Izmilla focused her mind.

From her arms and body, holy flames erupted, beginning to burn the ropes.

“Damn it!”

“Stop her!”

The Northern Aragasa rushed in, but the golden flames erupting from Izmilla’s body seemed ready to engulf them as well.

“Ah, it’s hot!”

“Damn it!”

The gag that had been blocking Izmilla’s mouth burned away and fell off.

In that desperate moment, the mage stepped forward.

“You’ll die without knowing why!”

The lightning the mage cast struck Izmilla’s forehead precisely.

-Zzzzzap!

It was a gruesome sight to behold.

Izmilla’s eyes, which had been blazing with golden flames and fury, lost their light as she collapsed to the side.

“Impressive. As expected of a Celestial. I shot her with enough power to kill a bear, and she only fainted. Her body should have been burned somewhere….”

There was a brief trace of lightning current on Izmilla’s face.

It was a very slight mark, her skin reddened in the shape of lightning, but even as she lay there, the wound healed quickly and soon disappeared.

Truly, she was living up to her reputation as the secret weapon of the Rescue Knights.

“Is she okay? With this?”

“Bind her with this chain. It’s made of black steel. No matter how much of an angel she is, she won’t be able to move once she’s bound by this. There’s no need to gag her either. Anyone bound by this can’t use magic or their abilities.”

The mage pulled out a chain made of black steel.

The Aragasa were startled to see the chain made of black steel.

Black steel was considered a supreme treasure to them, a metal derived from the scales of the dragon of infinite darkness, Azadin. [Azadin is a mythical dragon in this world.]

It was both a treasure and a cursed monstrosity. To have so much of it.

“How do you have something like this….”

“I can prepare anything. So… what are you going to do now? Are you going to follow the tracker like this and go wagging your tails to your master, the Northern Emperor?”

“Is there any other way?”

“Do it like this.”

At the mage’s gesture, two goblin soldiers who had been hiding inside the mill walked out.

The mage extended a hand with sharp claws and grabbed the heads of the two goblins.

“Kieeeek!”

The goblins let out miserable screams as the claws easily pierced their skulls.

As they struggled, their bellies split open, and wings began to sprout from within.

The left wing sprouted from the left goblin, and the right wing from the right goblin.

“Hmm….”

The Northern Aragasa shuddered at the sight.

This mage. He was no ordinary person.

They had been angry when this mage compared the messenger clan to the Northern Aragasa, but that anger had vanished, replaced by a disturbing fear.

‘It’s not that we’re cowards.’

‘It’s just that we don’t know much about magic.’

The mage grabbed the goblins with both hands, crushed their heads, and then combined their corpses into one.

-Crackle!

After a gruesome sound, a bizarre goblin corpse with wings was created.

The mage wrapped it in a blanket, making it about the same size as Izmilla.

“Hmm, two aren’t enough. The wings are quite big…. One more?”

At the mage’s words, the goblins flinched and then prostrated themselves on the floor, trembling. They didn’t even dare to think about running away, which showed how much authority this mage had over the goblins. Even if they ran, they would be like rats in a trap with that lightning magic.

“Just kidding. It’ll be fine if I wrap it in a blanket.”

The mage puffed up the blanket to make it look plausible and handed it to the Northern Aragasa.

“Here. You guys take this and move west to mislead the tracker. We’ll take this angel and deliver her to your master.”

“No. We can’t do that.”

Zan, the squad leader of the Northern Aragasa, objected.

“There’s no guarantee that you won’t take that angel somewhere else along the way. We’ve put in so much effort to uncover the secrets of the Rescue Knights. We can’t just hand her over to you Kurt Pantheon now.”

“You’re the ones who brought the tracker. It’s your responsibility.”

The mage was furious at Zan’s statement. At first glance, it seemed reasonable, but Zan shook his head.

“If you had done it, do you think you wouldn’t have brought a tracker? From the start, you guys are monsters who can’t even enter the city, so we had to do it. We took charge of the work, and now that there’s a responsibility, if you blame us for it, no one will want to work with you because they’re afraid of responsibility. So, let’s split it fairly in half here.”

“What?”

“Half of us will go with the angel, and half will draw out the enemy. Likewise, half of you will go with the angel, and the other half will draw out the enemy. How about that? Fair, right?”

“So you don’t trust us.”

“Honestly, would you trust us?”

“Haha. That’s true.”

The mage laughed heartily, tapping his head with his sharp, hooked hand.

“Fine. Let’s do it that way.”

The mage accepted Squad Leader Zan’s proposal.

*********

The Northern Aragasa burst out of the mill.

They must have noticed Ara’el’s voice because as soon as they came out of the mill, they shot arrows into the sky, but no matter how powerful the Aragasa’s arrows were, they couldn’t overcome the limitations of the bow itself.

It was impossible to hit Ara’el’s voice, which was flying high in the sky, beyond the reach of the arrows.

They changed their course and were now fleeing on fast horses towards the northwest.

‘Hmm. Something’s strange?’

Azadin, controlling Ara’el’s voice, felt that their actions were odd.

First of all, Izmilla’s body was strange. She had been fine until just now, but now she was covered with a blood-stained blanket.

Could they have hurt or killed Izmilla in the meantime?

‘Is there some magical treasure inside Izmilla’s body that they took out? No, if the treasure was the goal, there would be no reason to take the body. Isn’t her body, the angel itself, the goal?’

The enemies had clearly kidnapped Izmilla alive. If they had wanted to take something out of her body or kill her, they would have killed her from the start. When they stunned her with the lightning-enchanted arrow, it would have been easier to snatch the item if they had quickly cut off her breath.

‘Considering all the circumstances, it’s most likely a decoy!’

Azadin wanted to lower Ara’el’s voice to investigate the hut. But if he lowered it too much and they attacked it?

Ara’el’s voice might disappear.

He couldn’t lose his sister’s legacy so easily.

But even as he thought that, the enemies continued to ride away on their horses.

“What do we do?!”

Camilla asked.

“Search the building and then pursue them! Searching the building is the priority!”

“Is that okay?”

“I’m keeping an eye on them separately! Prioritize the building! But don’t go in recklessly!”

As Azadin said that, arrows flew out of the building.

The ones who had been waiting inside the mill were shooting arrows outside. Because Camilla and Kuntachi were ahead of Azadin, they were exposed to the attack.

Normally, Azadin would have caught the arrows or deflected them with the back of his hand, but knowing what had happened to Izmilla, he quickly threw coins to collide with the incoming arrows and flung himself to the side.

“Sister!”

Kuntachi blocked the arrows flying towards his sister with his thick body. The arrows hit Kuntachi’s body, but he was wearing thick chainmail, so the arrows didn’t fully penetrate his body.

The chainmail broke, and the arrows pierced his flesh but failed to penetrate and fell out. However… the charm attached to the arrows came loose, and electric sparks erupted.

“Kuaaaak!”

The electric sparks hit Kuntachi’s armor, and the lightning flowed into his body.

Camilla wasn’t directly hit by the electricity, but she fell off her horse.

Azadin detonated the arrows aimed at him in front of him, avoiding the additional attack of electric sparks.

“You bastards!”

Azadin was furious at the Northern Aragasa’s attack that had taken down his subordinates.

Then, three more arrows flew towards Azadin.

These arrows were also enchanted with charms.

The same attack that had brought down Izmilla, who had revealed the power of a Celestial, was now flying towards Azadin.

‘Those charms must be quite expensive, but they’re not holding back. Does the Northern Empire have endless wealth?’

Azadin threw coins again to intercept the incoming arrows.

If they were ordinary arrows, the coins would have bounced off, but the arrows with charms exploded on impact, emitting electric sparks.

-Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon, Twilight! [This is likely a special technique or ability]

Azadin’s afterimage absorbed the electric sparks instead. Azadin used that opening to break through the mill’s window and jump inside.

Attacks came from both sides.

The Northern Aragasa members had ambushed Azadin by swinging their swords from both sides as he approached.

-Thwack!

But as if he had predicted it, Azadin kicked one with his fist and the other with his foot.

It seemed like a light hit, but the Northern Aragasa members flew and crashed into the mill’s shaft, falling forward.

“Kuh!”

“Agh!”

Their ribs were broken, and their shoulders were dislocated with just one blow.

Even if they were Aragasa, they couldn’t fight with such injuries.

Azadin had only touched them lightly, but most of their combat abilities were lost.

“Oh, come on.”

Zan, seeing his subordinates being defeated by Azadin, covered his face.

But he wasn’t entirely displeased.

His subordinates had been teasing him endlessly for being defeated by Azadin and briefly working with him, but now they had also tasted Azadin’s bitterness.

“We meet again, Zan.”

“Hey, let us live a little. Isn’t this too much?”

Azadin was speechless at Zan’s easygoing attitude.

“I’m sorry about that, Zan. The Vermillion Fortress needs talent, so I can provide you with a way to make a living.”

“Is there any reason to go under you, who is a nuisance even to the Rescue Knights, instead of the Northern King who is trying to become emperor?”

Zan knew very well what it meant for Azadin to be a trainee knight, especially one who had been confined to the Chadra Plateau. [Chadra Plateau is likely a remote or undesirable location.]

But Azadin was unperturbed.

“The Northern Emperor was already a king. On the other hand, I’m just a trainee knight, so if you join me, you can be a partner in a great enterprise. How about a relationship that starts not as a simple subordinate but as a partner?”

“Oh? That’s a bit tempting. You really know your stuff.”

Zan was tempted by Azadin’s words.

“So, will you make a deal?”

“Well, that’s….”

“I have a little plan.”

Azadin whispered to Zan secretly.