Chapter 387: Descent (4)

A black-haired young man in a dark robe was darting across the shattered streets in the ruined northwest district of the capital. He carried a girl with ash-gray hair on his back. Flames rained down constantly above his head as he glided over the pavement.

The dragons soaring through the capital skies were the cause. Karnak scowled as he deflected their breath with a barrier.

Carrying a person while fleeing is such a hassle.

It wasn't the act of carrying someone that bothered him. He had plenty of experience from his previous life. He'd hauled many an unconscious body. It was the responsibility of protecting someone that was the nuisance.

Back then, whenever he carried someone, it had only been to use them as a meat shield.

But I can't do that with Lapicel.

Trying something so unfamiliar made everything feel off. Because of that, dragons he would normally have shaken off were now tenaciously pursuing him with unrelenting attacks.

Even so, Karnak managed to keep untouched. The dragons' attacks weren't all that precise. They merely breathed fire without casting any other spells. And their breath was manageable with just a barrier. Most of them were adolescent dragons, after all. Still, with such overwhelming numbers, being surrounded was inevitable.

Damn, there's so many of them.

Just as Karnak began drawing more chaos mana while watching the dragons closing in from all sides, a sharp cry rang out as a brilliant blue comet tore through the sky. A red-haired beauty cloaked in blue aura surged forward and delivered a spinning side kick into a dragon's flank.

The sound was like a drum splitting open. The massive dragon spun three times in the air before crashing into a building with a shriek of agony.

Right behind her came a hulking blond giant, swinging a chained greatsword. Four chains of aura danced gracefully through the air, mowing down nearby dragons. Silver sword light crisscrossed in dazzling patterns, drawing out cries from the beasts.

The elegant beauty swung her blows with brutal force, while the towering brute sliced cleanly and with refined precision. There was a complete mismatch between appearance and technique. It was Serati and Varos.

"What the—Varos? Why are you here?"

Karnak looked puzzled. Varos returned the look with disbelief. "What do you mean why? You're here, young master. Where else would I be?"

Come to think of it, that did make sense. Varos wasn't one of Karnak's vassals. He was just part of the secret transmission network. Meaning, absolute commands wouldn't work on him in the first place.

In other words, the fact that he had gleefully abandoned the dying imperial army and fled wasn't because of any forced obedience. He had just voluntarily chosen to ignore their lives.

"You're still a long way from being human, huh? Tsk tsk."

"Now look here, I came all this way to help, and this is the thanks I get?"

Serati approached Karnak as well. "Is Lapicel alright?"

"I knocked her out."

A strange reply, but Serati understood immediately.

"Well, she wouldn't have come quietly anyway. You don't think she'll resent us later, do you?"

Karnak and Varos both shook their heads at once.

"She won't."

"It's Lapicel we're talking about."

She was principled and conscientious. In matters like this, they didn't need to worry.

"But Serati, how'd you even get here?"

She answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I couldn't just leave Lapicel behind, could I?"

She'd been fleeing in a panic, but when she suddenly realized Lapicel was no longer at her side, she had turned back and came for her. Karnak's expression stiffened slightly.

Unlike Varos, Serati had definitely been placed under an absolute command.

And yet she disobeyed it? How?

Still, this wasn't the time to be asking questions. Escaping the capital took priority.

"I'll carry Lapicel."

"Right. Thanks."

After handing Lapicel off to Serati, Karnak resumed his flight toward the outskirts. Varos quickly followed, clicking his tongue. "Wow, you really have gotten stronger, young master. Back in the day, I'd have had to carry you by now."

"Guess there's something to be said for exercise after all."

The dragons still came after them, but not as persistently as before. With Varos and Serati by his side, Karnak found it much easier to move. He even had the luxury to leisurely observe the situation.

He cast a glance toward the skies above the far side of the capital. More precisely, he looked toward Tesranach and his subordinates, though they were now so far away they were barely visible.

They're just watching, huh.

It might seem odd to call it watching when hundreds of dragons were wreaking havoc above, but if they had moved in person, things wouldn't have ended with just this.

Something's going on here. Thanks to Lapicel, one thing became clear. It felt off from the moment he destroyed the temples.

Tesranach's magic, which had obliterated the grand cathedral of the three goddesses, had certainly held tremendous destructive power. However, it had been the kind of power that flattened wide areas indiscriminately.

If he'd truly wanted to wipe out Karnak's group, he wouldn't have used it that way. He would've focused it precisely for maximum effect. It had felt more like he was trying to drive them out of the capital rather than kill them.

It was the same case just moments ago. The black beam launched at Lapicel was certainly powerful, but it hadn't been concentrated. That was why Karnak had been able to block it using only his chaos magic. At this point, it almost seemed as if Tesranach was deliberately avoiding killing them.

Just like that time.

Karnak had clearly lost his battle against future Leven. He'd only won because something strange had happened to Leven in the final moments.

That was why, even though Demphis had pointed to Varos, Karnak hadn't ruled out the possibility that he himself could be Tesranach. If Tesranach's past was Karnak's present, then his peculiar concern for Karnak's safety would make perfect sense.

But Tesranach's true identity was the dragon emperor, Grateria. The dragon emperor was completely unrelated to Karnak.

Then why is he concerned about me? What does he gain by keeping me alive?

***

Tesranach and his subordinates stood atop a platform of light. As they watched Karnak and his group retreat into the distance, Diogres Kolon asked, "Why do you let them go as well?"

Karnak's subordinates were a significant nuisance. Even if Karnak was being spared, there was no reason to let the others live.

"There was something I needed to confirm," Tesranach murmured leisurely. "About what he is now."

Giyen Ren and Diogres Kolon frowned, not understanding. But Tesranach didn't elaborate. "Curious... he was never one to care for others."

It was not an explanation for his followers, but a murmured reflection to organize his own thoughts. "He was always one to sacrifice others for his own safety."

Yet, in the process of harvesting the souls of Jedex, Leven Strauss, Elezar, and Dreltein, Tesranach had noticed something strange in Karnak's recent actions. So he had deliberately destroyed the temple in a wide arc, just to observe his reaction. By sparing Karnak's companions, he'd wanted to see how Karnak would treat them.

And Karnak had indeed changed. Rather than throw his subordinates at Tesranach to gather intel through their deaths, he had ordered them to retreat, striving to save everyone. Most astonishingly, he had even stopped mid-escape to save a single girl. It was truly remarkable.

"How could that man come to care for others?" A hint of concern crept into Tesranach's expression.

"Perhaps..." But he soon shook his head. "No. That's impossible."

He gazed down at Thea Krahan, now consumed by flames, and muttered with a hollow laugh, "His nature cannot change. And so neither can my purpose."

Watching him, Giyen Ren felt a brief flicker of doubt. If Karnak wasn't to be killed, then why hadn't Tesranach captured or sealed him away? He certainly had the power to do so.

But that thought soon vanished, too. For a soul completely bound into servitude, even questioning one's master was a luxury.

How could a lowly servant fathom the master's will? My only role is to obey...

At Giyen Ren's feet, dark blue ash and soot swirled upward. It was the carbonized mist rising from the six towers of corpses, now fully incinerated by the dragons. The imperial army had long since collapsed. Those who had barely managed to retreat from the capital were technically alive, but no longer a functioning military force.

All that remained were the ruins of the capital, the civilians trapped within it, and the soldiers who had failed to escape in time.

Looking down on them all, Tesranach raised his right hand. Words of power resonated softly. "Come forth, my dominion... Nest of Ash and Darkness."

Black ash spread in all directions. The sky darkened with shadows, and the earth cracked, glowing like molten lava. Darkness seeped into every corner of the capital. In the shadows of buildings and alleys, cursed flames spread like wildfire.

Even those hiding in the deepest depths could not escape the curse. The entire city wept and trembled. The dead rose. The living wandered into the streets. The dead groaned as they aimlessly roamed the avenues.

The living drifted without direction, their eyes vacant. Their minds subdued, they seemed little different from the undead. In fact, faint traces of malice and death energy seeped forth from the remaining living citizens of the capital.

Tesranach was the one who ruled over both life and death. Thus, it was only fitting for the realms of life and death to intermingle. And so, Thea Krahan, capital of the empire and the most populous city on the continent, became a vast graveyard.

Countless corpses wandered the streets. Countless dazed gravediggers drifted behind them. Among the endless crowd, two familiar figures, Chaplin and Desteran, could also be seen. They too groaned, eyes blank and weapons forgotten, as they trudged along.

Tesranach gestured with his hand while gazing down at the city. "Let us descend."

The platform of light descended toward the earth. Tesranach, Emil Strauss, Giyen Ren, and Diogres Kolon stepped into the city streets, now blanketed in ash.

Tesranach raised his left hand and gently swept it through the air. "Rise. Move. Go to your appointed places."

From all across the city, tattered pieces of corpses began to lift into the air. The fragments drifted upward and reassembled, grotesquely stitched together, forming human shapes once more.

There were four bodies in total: three men and one woman. Tesranach moved his fingers again. "Come forth, my servants."

Faint bands of light seeped from his fingertips, flowing into the four bodies. "Rise, receive your new command, and live this life upon this earth."

The corpses began to change. The wounds and gashes that had once covered them vanished, replaced by healthy, gleaming skin. Their faces, too, shifted into familiar ones.

The woman, the great archmage Elezar de Reflasion, let out a breath between her crimson lips. The men opened their eyes one by one. They were Leven Strauss and Dreltein Thelix, summoned from the void, and the last martial king, Malican Thun, returned from the future.

Tesranach smiled softly. With this, the three great archmages and three martial kings had all returned to this era.

"Giyen, the garments."

"Yes."

At Tesranach's command, Giyen Ren cast a spell. Armor and robes materialized in midair and drifted toward the returned figures. There was no need to trouble them with dressing. The clothing aligned with their spatial coordinates and appeared already worn.

Now garbed in attire befitting their titles, the martial kings and archmages knelt in unison. "O God of Death, we offer our deepest reverence for your descent!"

Tesranach shook his head. "I am still only the Monarch of Death."

Then, with eyes tinged with regret, he turned toward the northwest of the capital, the direction in which Karnak's party had escaped. "I have not yet saved the world."