abcnovels
Chapter 79
Chapter 79: Ei-Jae
Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: Himanshu02
A sinister voice echoed in the arena, followed by a thick black smoke that began to spread.
The smoke quickly engulfed the VIP seats where the emperor was sitting.
Count Carlos, who led the royal knights, was shocked and quickly blocked the front of the emperor with a sturdy barrier.
“Your Majesty! Are you all right?”
Boom!
“…?!”
His barrier was hit by a heavy impact.
As soon as the smoke covered the area, a group of assailants surrounded the VIP seats.
They each wielded a crescent blade and attacked the royal knights who were guarding the VIP seats.
‘This black smoke and those outfits are?’
The same thought crossed the minds of Count Carlos and other nobles.
‘The kingdom of Calihara!’
‘Tragedy of Shahar…’
The nobles gasped and hurriedly moved to the side of the royal knights.
“They are the crazy fanatics of Calihara!”
“They dare to raid the capital! They are really insane!”
The kingdom of Calihara in the southern desert was the only country that was hostile to the empire.
The reason was absurd…
“We do not associate with the heretics like the pigs of the eastern desert.”
There were some pseudo-religions on the continent, but almost everyone believed in one of the three Gods and Goddess for a reason.
That reason was the existence of an independent [Sacred Power]!
The God of War had a sacred power for fighting, as its name implied.
The God of Healing had a sacred power for healing, which was the most common one to encounter.
The God of Wisdom also had a distinct sacred power that differentiated it from other sects.
Sacred power could only be converted from force by priests or knights who received blessings from their respective sects.
But Calihara had its own unique religion that had no sacred power at all.
Naturally, other Gods did not recognize their god.
The problem was that half of the southern desert was in agreement with Calihara.
The leaders of Calihara were religious fundamentalists.
Unlike the eastern desert kingdoms that had accumulated wealth through trade with the empire, they had been in conflict with the empire from the beginning.
The most famous incident was the ‘Tragedy of Shahar’ thirty years ago.
At that time, Shahar, which was considered as the core of trade in the south, became a ruin where no one lived because of this incident.
According to the few survivors, black smoke covered the entire city and desert warriors attacked from all sides, slaughtering the citizens mercilessly.
After this incident, the empire sent a large army to annihilate them, but it was very difficult to catch them, who were mostly nomads moving around in the desert.
Eventually, the southern front in the desert became one of the headaches for the empire along with the northern front that was resolved recently.
‘Black smoke and the holy war cry!’
These two elements were symbols of Calihara’s terror.
Of course, that black smoke was not because they had some power, but just a smoke screen for deception. But Carlos felt something strange about it.
‘This smoke is not just a simple deception. It’s lowering my senses.’
And everyone was too surprised to notice it, but it was more like a dense black fog than smoke.
‘I’m worried about the damage to the knights and nobles.’
There would be no problem with the emperor since he guarded him like an iron wall. But he couldn’t help worrying about them being attacked by many assailants in this fog.
‘I want to rush over there right now, but who will guard His Majesty then?’
But his worry was surprisingly solved easily.
“Get out of my way!”
Swoosh!
Someone flew over him after cutting down a warrior who blocked his way.
He moved so fast that only Carlos noticed him.
“The Grand Duke!”
“I’ll deal with these scum here.”
The Grand Duke spoke coldly, but he was actually furious like a volcano because of the result of the martial arts tournament and Eurius’s provocation.
And this attack added fuel to his anger.
‘If I could, I would help them kill His Majesty, but I can’t do that…’
If something happened to His Majesty here, who would be suspected first?
It would be himself, the Grand Duke.
And most of those who occupied this VIP seat were nobles from his faction.
In other words, if he wanted to preserve his power and avoid being accused of treason, he had to do his best to protect His Majesty.
How frustrating was it for him? He vented his anger by slaughtering them.
Swoosh.
His sword made a light sound and pointed at the assailants who were rushing towards the nobles. It was a distance of several tens of meters, but it didn’t matter to him.
Bang bang bang!
“Ugh!”
“Aaargh!”
This was the true Air Strike Sword. It was different from the clumsy attack that Dmitri showed.
Every time his sword pointed, a large hole that could fit an adult’s fist was formed on the bodies of the assailants.
It didn’t matter if they had force-based defense, shields, or hid behind obstacles.
His sword shattered everything, whether it was an iron pillar or an armor, and blood splattered.
The Grand Duke continued his massacre while calmly observing the situation.
‘It seems like I’ve almost eliminated them all, but I don’t understand why these scum attacked His Majesty?’
***
‘Huh?’
Eurius was about to leave the arena when a dark smoke covered his sight.
‘What is this smoke?’
Ding!
[You are affected by the ‘Dark Curtain’. Your senses and mental power are reduced.]
[Additional information about the quest ‘The Forgotten Sect of God’ is unlocked.]
[Unlocked information: Dark Sacred Power, Heimdall Sect]
Eurius made an annoyed expression for a moment.
‘I don’t know what grudge they have had against me since my previous life.’
The smoke that blocked his sight and lowered his senses was nothing to him, who could see through it easily.
‘It’s clear that they are targeting me, even though the smoke started from the VIP seats.’
Squeak!
Before he could finish his thought, a dark object flew out of the darkness towards him.
Eurius quickly dodged the object by creating some distance. It was a hammer that emitted a faint black light. He looked at it with curiosity.
‘It seems like a weapon infused with force, judging by its speed and momentum, but why does it shine in black?’
Normally, weapons enhanced by force have a blue light. But there were exceptions, such as the superhuman’s secret techniques or the red force of paladins serving the God of War.
But these guys were wielding weapons that had a dark black light and were not red.
And their power was not ordinary either.
‘Well, maybe it’s because they are a sect?’
Swoosh!
Eurius started to swing his sword with full power from the beginning.
Since they blocked his surroundings with smoke, he could unleash his skills without any restraint.
“…!?”
The assailants who were in the front had their necks cut off by his invisible sword in an instant. But the rest didn’t flinch at all and surrounded Eurius in a formation.
‘These guys are different from the assassins before?’
The assassins who had attacked him until now were irregular, but these guys smelled like knights who had trained in a orthodox way.
Even if there was a gap in their levels, it was quite difficult for even a superhuman to defeat them all in a short time when they formed a group.
‘What should I do?’
Eurius resisted their attacks for a while and pondered.
His skills had improved a lot since the northern war, so he had no trouble holding on.
The problem was that if he dragged on for a little longer, the knights who would find it strange that he didn’t return from the arena would come to rescue him.
If that happened, the casualties of the ordinary knights could be high.
‘Wait… knights? Aha!’
Finally, a good idea came to his mind.
Bang!
With a loud noise, two of the assailants were pushed back.
He took advantage of the gap and disappeared from their sight.
“…!?”
Gideon, who was watching from afar while hiding in the corner of the arena, was startled when Eurius suddenly vanished.
He was already surprised that His Highness resisted so well without any escort.josei
‘There was a reason why Jamir failed several times.’
This dark curtain not only reduced the enemy’s senses, but also increased their sacred power and recovery speed for their sect members.
In this situation, he deployed many of their high-ranking paladins to form an encirclement, but they still couldn’t catch Eurius.
But Eurius reappeared several tens of meters away from them.
“Chase him!”
Gideon became anxious. While the scum in the VIP seats were buying time, he had to catch Eurius somehow.
He ordered all of his reserve forces to chase Eurius.
But Eurius avoided their pursuit by keeping a close distance from them and ran towards the outskirts of the arena.
And finally, where he jumped into was!
“What’s going on?”
“Your Highness?”
It was the waiting room of the Golden Lion Knights who were still staying in the arena.
Crash!
At the same time, the door of the waiting room broke and assailants in black clothes rushed in. And they attacked the knights to catch Eurius.
“What is this?”
The Golden Lion Knights were shocked and drew their swords.
From the perspective of the assailants, it seemed natural that Eurius ran away to ask for protection from the knights.
Clang! Clang!
Crack!
“Aaargh!”
The waiting room turned into a hell in an instant.
Surprisingly, the Golden Lion Knights, who were said to be one of the best in the empire, were being pushed back.
It was partly because of the skills of the assailants, but the biggest problem was that many of their officers had been severely injured in the previous match, so their overall strength was greatly reduced.
And then another group joined the fray.
“Your Highness! Are you all right?”
They were the elite knights of his own knight order, led by Heinz. They also participated in this fight.
Eurius smiled slightly.
“You came just in time. Cooperate with the Golden Lion Knights and eliminate them.”
The Golden Lion Knights and the assailants had already clashed with each other, causing significant damage to both sides.
Eurius had cunningly avoided helping them by dodging around.
But now that his knights had arrived, his reaction was different. He moved swiftly to protect his knights and fend off the assailants.
“Damn it… tell the paladins to retreat quickly!”
Gideon had no choice but to order a retreat with tears in his eyes.
The high-ranking paladins were the forces that their sect had cultivated with great effort.
If they could catch Eurius, it would be worth it, but there was no way to catch Eurius who was surrounded by knights. It was a wise choice to preserve their strength.
The priests who secretly spread the smoke also began to withdraw quickly.
When the smoke disappeared, the situation in the VIP seats was also almost settled thanks to the Grand Duke’s unintended (?) feat.
The emperor looked dumbfounded.
‘There was surprisingly little damage?’
The warriors of Calihara that Gideon had used as bait were numerous, but most of them were nothing but cannon fodder.
Some nobles were seriously injured, but apart from that, there were no deaths. And especially in the general audience seats, there was only smoke and no attack.
“Anyway, you did a great job, crown prince. I’ll reward you for this later… Huh?”
“…”
The emperor had never seen such an expression on the Grand Duke’s face, who had been cold for decades.
The Grand Duke was trembling with anger as he looked at the arena.
The emperor naturally followed his gaze and turned his head.
“…!?”
“Hurry up and call a healer. There are many injured people!”
Eurius was urgently requesting first aid with a desperate expression. But those injured were…
A moment later.
“So you’re saying that they attacked me and Eurius at the same time?”
The emperor nodded repeatedly as he received the report.
Of course, Eurius was also there with him.
“It’s a good thing that the Golden Lion Knights supported me in time. I would have been in danger otherwise.”
Eurius bowed his head to the Grand Duke with a calm expression.
“I’m sorry, Grand Duke Wilhelm. It was such an urgent situation that I lost my mind and pushed them towards the Golden Lion Knights.”
At this moment, the Grand Duke felt like his blood was boiling.
‘Eurius… I’ll remember this!’
The Grand Duke barely answered and left the VIP seats.
His Golden Lion Knights had suffered a huge blow this time.
Dozens of ordinary knights had died, and many of their officers were also seriously injured.
The biggest problem was that his disciple Dmitri had suffered an irrecoverable injury.
But it wasn’t so rare for such accidents to happen when the martial arts tournament got heated.
If Dmitri had been a famous knight, he could have protested, but no matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t accuse a royal family member for a seemingly ordinary knight.
‘Eurius… I’ll pay you back for this!’
The Grand Duke clenched his teeth and vowed revenge.
Watching his back, Eurius laughed inwardly.
‘There’s a word among players called Ei-Jae.’
It means using an enemy to hit another enemy.
That’s exactly what happened this time.
The unexpected intrusion of the enemy brought him a better result.