The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 477

“What’s going on?!”

“Over there!”

Azadin immediately leaped to the window frame of the royal palace.

The Asendar Royal Palace, situated on higher ground than the rest of the city, was a large northern-style palace overlooking the city of Asendar.

From the palace windows, the city could be seen shaking from the earthquake.

But it wasn’t just a simple earthquake.

Shortly after, the ground cracked open, and enormous white mushrooms sprouted from the surface.

A messenger rushed into the king’s audience chamber.

“Your Majesty!”

“It’s a disaster!”

“The elves have betrayed us! All the spies we placed to monitor them have been killed!”

The Northern Empire didn’t fully trust the elves and had placed spies to keep an eye on them.

Originally, they had assigned Northern Aragasa agents as monitors, but in addition to them, many spies had infiltrated the elves’ businesses, the Telbarin Guild, under various pretexts for training purposes.

Those monitors had all been massacred at once.

“Ah.”

Azadin clicked his tongue upon hearing that.

Because Azadin had taken the Northern Aragasa from the Northern Empire, the elves’ movements had become easier.

“Hmph. I knew those bastards would betray us someday.”

Cohen wasn’t surprised by the news of the elves’ betrayal.

The elves, who had their own ambitions and didn’t hesitate to use Nether sorcery [dark magic], had abandoned Cohen without hesitation when it seemed he might be swayed by Azadin, revealing their true colors.

“It is my fault, Your Majesty. Please forgive me.”

Cohen of the Northern Empire actually apologized to Azadin.

It was Azadin taking away the Northern Aragasa that caused this, yet Cohen was apologizing, leaving Azadin speechless.

“It’s alright. It’s not a matter of forgiving or not, we need to prepare quickly! They’re attacking Asendar right now!”

“Yes! I will respond.”

Cohen said that and called his close aides.

Azadin and his retainers felt bewildered.

“What should we do?”

Aliya asked Azadin about his intentions.

“About what?”

“Should we allow Cohen to mobilize his forces?”

Currently, Azadin and the Northern Aragasa controlled the palace.

But if Cohen started wielding military power under the pretext of defending Asendar, the capital of Asendar…

“Let’s trust him for now.”

“It seems that even Your Majesty doesn’t fully trust him.”

“He’s not someone you can fully trust… but what can we do? Let’s trust him for now. The matter at hand is more urgent.”

Azadin revealed that he didn’t trust Cohen either, but decided to entrust him with military power.

Cohen’s close aides, the Imperial Guards, arrived. These Imperial Guards, who were visibly flustered, calmed down upon seeing Cohen.

“Your Majesty! You are safe!”

“Yes. I am safe. What’s the situation?”

“We don’t know yet. Mushrooms are rising from the ground, and spiders are attacking from underground.”

“Spiders?”

“Yes. Sorcery Spiders, the minions of the Spider Queen Atra.”

Originally humans, these Sorcery Spiders, who had transformed into spiders in exchange for a contract with the Spider Queen Atra, were troublesome and powerful enemies who used magic.

After these Sorcery Spiders appeared all over the city, they were setting fires everywhere with their fire magic.

The sudden earthquake and the mushrooms sprouting from the ground were already disorienting, and now with the fires, the damage was immense.

“Let’s go to the royal palace watchtower to see the surroundings.”

“It’s dangerous. The tower tilted from the earthquake earlier!”

As soon as those words were spoken, one of the towers at the four corners of the Asendar Royal Palace collapsed, covering the palace.

The eastern wing, called the Changryong Hall, was crushed by the tower, and the walls crumbled.

Through the gaps, Sorcery Spiders invaded, spreading webs and firing fire arrow magic, setting fires throughout the palace.

Cohen ordered the Imperial Guards to stop the Sorcery Spiders and cast protection spells on them.

The Imperial Guards, now resistant to fire arrow magic, pushed back the Sorcery Spiders with their spears and shields, reversing the situation.

But then, the western wing collapsed.

“It’s a disaster! Were-rats from the west!”

Following the attack on the east gate, an attack was launched on the west gate.

Were-rats, the apostles of Mezeri, armed with curved swords, were swarming in.

Civilians were being massacred, and flames were rising everywhere in the city.

The were-rats were riding giant spiders, speeding through the city and rapidly approaching the royal palace.

The wall of the Baekho Hall on the west side of the palace collapsed, and were-rats poured in. The Imperial Guards were fighting back, but because many had been sent to defend the Changryong Hall in the east, the defense here was weaker.

At this rate, they would be breached soon.

“This won’t do. We’ll help on the west side.”

As Azadin said that, Cohen nodded.

“I am sorry, Your Majesty. It is my fault…”

“No, this isn’t the time to worry about that! Aliya!”

“Yes!”

“Let’s begin!”

As Azadin cast a spell, golden light enveloped the bodies of all the Northern Aragasa.

“Fire!”

As the Northern Aragasa members fired their arrows, all of their arrows flew with blue lightning, sparking the were-rats and spiders in their path.

The were-rats were somewhat resistant to the electric attacks, but the giant ants they were riding couldn’t withstand it and immediately flipped over and collapsed.

Their nervous systems were fried instantly, and even if they weren’t dead, they couldn’t move.

“Imperial Guards! Provide them with arrows and equipment!”

The Northern Empire, seeing the Northern Aragasa and the Messenger Clan members who had followed Azadin easily defeat the were-rat forces with their arrows, ordered the Imperial Guards to supply them with arrows.

Soldiers brought buckets full of arrows and placed them among the archers.

As the Messenger Clan and Aragasa fired lightning arrows blessed by Azadin, the enemies were wiped out along the trajectory of the arrows, and the situation quickly began to improve.

Although the enemies had launched a surprise attack from underground, they were melting away before the overwhelming blessing of the Divine King.

However…

At that moment, an anomaly occurred at the east gate.

********

A Sorcery Spider with strange markings all over its body climbed onto a mushroom that had risen high into the sky and began casting a Nether spell.

To stop it, the Imperial Guards brought out their muskets and fired in unison, but other spiders raised corpses with necromancy and used them as human shields.

Taking advantage of the gap created by the bodies blocking the bullets, the Sorcery Spider completed the Nether spell.

At that moment, a black shadowy hand descended from the sky.

The thin, long fingers, hooked nails, and distorted, tentacle-like wrist resembled the touch of an otherworldly god.

The giant arm of a god descending from beyond the clouds slowly touched the mushroom and the Sorcery Spider that had grown at the east gate of Asendar with its fingertips.

Then, the Sorcery Spider exploded, and the mushroom that had grown at the gate froze solid.

As the mushroom turned into an ice pillar and shattered, the air around it began to freeze.

The atmosphere froze and turned into a liquid, and the terrifying cold spread rapidly, freezing and shattering the other Sorcery Spiders nearby.

The cold surged like a wave, instantly freezing everything it touched. It wasn’t just a cold snap.

The very air froze and turned into a liquid, and the resulting vacuum created a fierce whirlwind.

The Imperial Guards were horrified, but the massive whirlwind sucked them in.

Those who were sucked into this giant cold tornado had their blood frozen and were torn to pieces by the storm.

Frozen human flesh was swept up into the sky by the whirlwind.

The horrified Imperial Guards tried to flee, but they couldn’t even scream.

Swallowing even their screams, the cold whirlwind devastated the east gate of Asendar.

Before the cold tornado, the individual strength and training of humans were meaningless.

If you were swept away, you would die, or even if you weren’t swept away, you would die.

A soldier who was running to escape the tornado’s influence clutched his chest and collapsed.

He had breathed in too much of the rapidly cooling air while running, causing his lungs to freeze.

His lungs froze, and he quickly lost bodily function and died.

Some people died with their heads frozen, throwing off their helmets and tearing off their clothes.

And…

A Were-rat Sorcerer appeared at the west gate as well.

He also climbed onto a giant mushroom that had grown after breaking through the gate and cast a Nether spell.

It was the same spell that the Sorcery Spider who destroyed the east gate had used.

“No! Don’t let him complete it! Stop him!”

Azadin, who had climbed onto the roof of the royal palace, ordered his subordinates.

The Northern Aragasa members rushed forward and fired their arrows at the Were-rat Sorcerer.

The lightning-infused arrows danced through the air. They electrocuted and knocked down the were-rats blocking their path, but those arrows… were also blocked by the undead.

The were-rats, who had raised corpses with necromancy, were using their flesh walls to block the arrows and complete the spell.

However, one arrow slipped through, avoiding the undead, and pierced the Were-rat Sorcerer’s jaw.

Sion Etar had used the magic of the Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, the Yellow Crane, on the arrow and fired it.

The arrow, which had flown far around the direction the enemies were blocking, suddenly turned at a right angle and flew sideways, killing the Were-rat Sorcerer.

The spell he was preparing was broken, and the mushroom the Were-rat Sorcerer was standing on was also fried by electric sparks and exploded.

“Haa. I finally earned my keep.”

Sion Etar let out a sigh of relief.

He had recently been taken prisoner by the Northern Aragasa and forced into marriage, and he was so emaciated that his eyes looked hollow, but he was still a master of the Messenger Clan.

“Good job! You did well, but…”

The east gate had been devastated, and the cold pouring out of it was immense.

In the garden of Asendar, there was a pond that never froze because warm spring water flowed into it, and tropical fish the size of humans from the south lived in it, but that pond was starting to freeze from the east side.

It was freezing even though hot spring water was flowing out.

“Damn it!”

Azadin quickly spread the Light of the King to surround the royal palace.

The cold that was freezing the garden was blocked by the Light of the King and pushed back.

But at that moment, everyone’s breath puffed out in white clouds.

The temperature around them suddenly dropped.

Even with Azadin blocking it, it was this bad?

-Crack!

The garden trees in the Asendar garden shattered like ice.

Still, Azadin managed to block the incoming cold.

However, countless black god’s hands could be seen beyond the horizon.

On the plains far from Asendar, countless Nether followers were beginning to cast sorcery among the farms and trade routes that originally supplied food to the city.

It was a very long distance, but seeing that terrible cold, if those sorceries succeeded, not only the places directly hit but the entire kingdom would freeze over.