Chapter 178
The strongest force on the frontline was the so-called ‘Sword King Legion’ led by the Sword King’s successor, Felard Bean.
Lantrock Castle, in the middle of the Fairy Kingdom.
It was a natural fortress where the Croatle family, the Dwarven royal family, stayed.
That place faced the same fate as Fort Miros.
It was captured because they couldn’t even fight properly against the Sword King Legion’s catastrophic offensive, which Ryu Han-bin spearheaded.
“I surrender.”
An old Dwarf with a faded beard knelt politely in front of him.
He was Duke Lantiofl Eli Croatle, the head of the Croatle family.
“Successor to the Sword King, I beg you to accuse only me of all the crimes committed. Show my mercy to my men and my family.”
Ryu Han-bin was amazed by his opponent’s surrender.
“Unexpectedly, they’re all fine.”
Raondel had surrendered with such arrogance that he thought the nobles in that neighborhood were all the same.
However, when he met other nobles, most of them were normal. There was no other freak like the Elven Prince.
“That’s not the traditional courtesy of the Fairy Kingdom, is it?”
Seira protested, looking at Han-bin, who was wondering.
“Of course not!”
Not only the Artransas family but her Count Ciaran’s family were also ancient and high-ranking nobles in Allendia.
As a member of the same aristocracy, she couldn’t just ignore such a serious misunderstanding.
“That Raondel is simply a strange bastard!”
She had called him ‘guy’ all the time, but the title downgraded to yet a lower level.
Ryu Han-bin felt truly sorry.
“… You’ve suffered a lot.”
After that, the Sword King Legion steadily caused the opponents to surrender through a series of victories, increasing their faction’s power.
The Allendia army also tried to hold out as much as possible, but the power difference was too huge.
Ryu Han-bin, Effir, and Artis were strong enough to influence the battlefield, and they weren’t the only powerful ones in their faction.
Condellus Plain in western Allendia.
The army of the Meliadors, the Sylph royal family of the Fairy Kingdom, was attacking.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“Don’t back off!”
“Everyone, charge!”
A blond young man armed with a coat of Uroboros jumped into the battlefield and performed a formidable spiritual art.
“Wall of Altia!”
Countless spiritual barriers rose, creating a maze, then falling in all directions. Crimson roses also bloomed across the battlefield.
– Unique Spiritual Art: Bloody Rose!
On the other side, a beautiful black-haired woman wielding a long spear and scattered pitch-black Aura.
– Aura Breaker!
Like back when they were known as the Holy Punishers, Han-bin, Leon Hart, and Kibie worked as a team.
However, their purpose was a little different from then.
At that time, it was to keep the incarnation safe in case of emergency.
However, Kibie didn’t need to fight in the frontlines anymore under the current circumstances.
It was better for her to stay in the back and hide her location for safety.
Nevertheless, Kibie intentionally showed up in battles and fought with all she had.
“Taaaaaa!”
Her level was unknown, but Kibie was estimated to be around level 100.
Whenever she swung her long spear, the knights of the Meliador family collapsed like reeds.
“Okay, she’s showing off her power.”
Ryu Han-bin, who was watching the war, grabbed his Gigant.
“Then me, too!”
He charged into the battlefield like an artillery shell fired from the ground.
His red Aura turned into a relentless storm of devastation!
“Taaaaaa!”
His mere touch caused blood to splatter across the warzone and screams to echo.
“Argh!”
“The Successor of the Sword King!”
“That monster!”
In a single charge, their vanguard collapsed.
It was like a catapult fired towards a castle.
After that, the Sword King Legion attacked.
“Wow!”
“Let’s go!”
“Goddess’s warriors! Follow the Sword King!”
Ryu Han-bin smiled bitterly at his slightly shortened title.
‘I’m not the Sword King. Did you just become too lazy to call the rest of my title?’
They had taken control of the whole area anyway.
If they used more force, they could stop the enemy from breathing, but they didn’t have to do that.
After causing a stir and creating an advantageous situation for their troops, they moved on to the next battlefield.
They only focused on leading the war.
‘I should avoid raising my level as much as I can.’
Han-bin trembled as he recalled what happened a few days ago.
‘If I don’t want to be like that.’
* * *
An underground prison located in the main mountain of Preleu.
A brown-haired woman was tied against the thick stone wall.
She had a lean face, messy hair, and blood all over her body.
She looked extremely tortured.
But no one there tortured the woman.
It was Leslie herself who had hurt her.
She was scratching her whole body like crazy. She tore the skin with her nails and tore the skin off her face. She screamed.
“Argh! Argh!”
It hurt. Her whole body hurt so much.
There was no other way to ease her pain except to inflict more pain on the body.
But the pain she was causing to herself was also unbearable.
“Ha, ha…”
Breathing in, she performed a spiritual art, healing her injuries and gradually allowing the pain to subside.
However, another fit of agony coursed through her veins again.
The withdrawal symptoms that an Alien who hadn’t tasted the pleasure of murder for so long ate into her body.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
In indelible pain, Leslie cried.
“Kill me… Kill me… kill me!”
At the same time, she yearned anxiously.
She burst out a murderous spirit to all the ‘humans’ she saw around her as her eyes flashed with greed.
“I’m going to kill you! Let me kill you!”
She had become a madwoman.
Standing over the bars, Ryu Han-bin gave a deep sigh.
“Whew…”
Kibie shook her head.
“As expected, Akhtarun’s Aliens and the Great Earth are different.”
* * *
The Top Three put a strong ban on the Upper Draconium, the new Great Earth, and the Aliens of Akhtarun.
And each of them was under different bans.
Hollien explained in a calm tone.
“It’s Genovia who banned the Upper Draconium.”
In the past, the Top Four were worried about their back after defeating the ancient Dragons of Latna.
It was originally intended to kill only evil dragons that had harmed the world. But as time went by, they changed their mind.
“There were no non-evil ancient Dragons. If we tried to kill all of those who are wicked in their race, we would have to eliminate all the Dragons.”
The Dragon race was one of the six intellectuals of Latna created by the Goddesses.
No matter how strong the Top Four were, they couldn’t drive Dragons to extinction.
“So Genovia planted a kind of mana bomb in the bodies of the subdued dragons.”
It was a powerful magic spell that could never be undone by anyone other than a Mage of the same class as the Archmage.
The Dragons were able to control their desires as much as their wickedness, and they were powerful beings.
“And she shared the power to trigger the bomb with us.”
Kibie tilted her head while listening.
“Everyone? Did Baotolt have authority?”
“We didn’t dare steal the divinity back then.”
Everyone had a lot of days left to live at that time. Hence, the friendship between Baotolt and the other absolute beings was also strong.
Subduing the ancient Dragons was purely for the stability of Latna.
“That’s why the Upper Draconium doesn’t move much even if I lose my strength.”
Since it was a primitive ban offering that collateralized life, there was no change even if Hollien became incompetent or the Thunder King and Archmage were in a different time and space.
The bomb remained in existence, and only the person who could cause it to explode had disappeared.
“On the other hand, we couldn’t ban the Aliens that way.”
Even during the process of subduing the ancient Dragons, the Top Four were steadily hunting down the Aliens of Latna.
But they couldn’t control them to the extent of planting mana bombs.
“They’re crazy about murder, and their way of thinking remains the same even if they have bombs on their bodies.”
If they didn’t meet the Top Four, the bomb wouldn’t explode.
They’d be able to get away with it and kill the easy ones!
“So, Garhan came up with an idea.”
Aliens had done a lot of harm to Latna.
How could such sinners be given a comfortable death?
Shouldn’t they save them and make them pay off any damage they’d done?
The Sword King Baotolt cleaned one of the Avalta’s dungeons.
The Thunder King Garhan used the interval between respawns to renovate the dungeon, making it impossible for anyone to come and go.
Named Akhtarun, it was a prison that had a constant stream of mana.
“We’ve locked up all the Aliens in Akhtarun. The goal was to let them slay monsters there and send us the Spirit Stones they could gather.”
Since then, the national power of the three continental powers greatly increased.
It was a natural result since they had a gold mine producing endless Spirit Stones for them.
“There were also some Aliens who were banned by using mental-spiritual skills.”
When it came to mental abilities, her spiritual arts were the best among the four major powers.
Hollien locked them up in person.
She overwhelmed their urge to kill with even stronger fear, thus imprinting obedience.
That was a psychotic obsession carved into their mind, so they could never betray it.
Of course, no matter how powerful the mental ban system was, they could easily push through it if they had stronger mental power.
“The seal can’t limit their freedom in the first place if their willpower is stronger.”
However, there was no interest in solving the ban.
Instead of seeing Holien’s spiritual ban as enslavement, they saw it as being freed from the Guidelines’ murderous impulse.
From their point of view, they were actually afraid that the ban would be removed.
The Alien slaves had become more reliable.
She called them the Great Earth and had exploited them.
“Like the ancient Dragons, I put a mental ban on them and shared the authority over them with everyone.”
After subduing the ancient Dragons and Aliens, peace came to the continent of Latna.
Dungeons still caused damage, and people died because they couldn’t close them, but it was a small price to pay for the entire continent’s safety.
However, the Sword King, Baotolt, slowly got tired of it.
-It’s no fun!
He was only interested in tearing, beating, and breaking enemies.
He felt no interest in captivating, managing, or exploiting them.
– You’re on your own now. Oh, but if you have a good target, make sure to call me.
He took his hands off as he wanted and left for Kaltan, the Grand Maze.
The Top Three let him go.
That wasn’t much of a surprise to them.
He had always been such a man.
“After that, I haven’t had much time to meet Baotolt.”
The Top Three consistently managed the Four Prohibited Areas, captured Aliens, put them in Akhtarun, exploited them, and amassed Spirit Stones.
The world was at peace.
The three continents were strengthened, and the power of the Top Three grew as well.
“Back then, we were moving for Latna and the people.”
The problem was time.
Hollien bowed her head.
“When our lifespan began to decrease… we started feeling cornered.”