by Michael Sisa
He shot toward the female archer as a wisp of smoke, then materialized right before her. He grabbed her head with his hand and lifted her up effortlessly. The woman made muffled screams as she flailed her legs and tried kicking the ethereal body.
Engorged veins started appearing on the woman’s entire body and her entire skin became discolored into black and purple. Her limbs started to wrinkle and shrink, as though all the fluids in her body had been sucked dry in an instant. After several seconds, the woman stopped moving and the General tossed her to the side like some useless rag.
“I’ll ask one last time.” The General was obviously fed up. “Who is the commander of this army?”
The remaining soldiers were horrified by what they saw. The woman was now a dried-up corpse.
One of them swallowed dry spit and stuttered, “L-Lark Marcus! Lark Marcus is the Commander of the Third Army!”
The General’s eyes glimmered for a moment. “Lark Marcus? Third Army?”
Another soldier, now desperate for survival, added, “The second son of Duke Drakus. King Alvis divided the reinforcements from the capital into three large armies. The Second Army is currently being led by Commander Arzen of the Boris House to retake the City of Yan. As for the First Army… we don’t know their whereabouts!”
These were things already known by the General, but hearing it directly from the enemies’ mouth confirmed the intel of their spies. Immediately, General Rizel put together the information he’d gathered.
“So that’s why fewer than twenty thousand showed up,” he mumbled. “I see.”
The Second Army was currently in a deadlock with the Empire’s forces in Yan City. The First Army, on the other hand, was currently being hunted down by General Alvaren. The only variable remaining was this army that took over Akash in a single day.
“Lark Marcus…” The General’s voice trailed off. “Interesting. Now, tell me. How did you capture this city?”
The remaining soldiers looked at each other. They all knew that if they kept their mouths shut here, they would meet the same fate as the others. Just looking at the dried-up corpse of the archer made them lose all will to resist the old man.
“T-The Blackstone Knights!”
“T-That’s right. Those knights. They’re not normal!”
“They… They tore through the city gates like it was made of parchment!”
Blackstone Knights.
General Rizel hadn’t heard of them before. If such a powerful force really did exist in the Kingdom, he would have heard of them long ago. Had the Kingdom been suppressing information about such a powerful force? For a moment, he wondered who was stronger. The Magic Knights or these so-called Blackstone Knights?
Looking at the trembling soldiers before him, it seemed that he would be unable to squeeze any more useful information out of them. He was getting tired of looking at those pathetic faces too. He decided to slaughter them and move on to the next group. Maybe he would encounter a higher-ranking soldier he could take as captive and torture for information once he returned to Yorkshaire City.
Without muttering another word, the General’s hand blurred and the heads of the remaining soldiers flew out. The stench of blood permeated the air as General Rizel looked at the direction of his next prey. With the white fog covering the entire forest, he could feel the presence of all living creatures inside.
Someone had just entered the forest along with several others.
“A strong one.” The General’s eyes turned predatory. “Over there.”
His body turned into smoke and moved through the sea of trees at a frightening speed. He soon reached his target. A man almost two meters tall with golden hair. Beside the man were five other soldiers which, just from a single look, were obviously common soldiers.
To General Rizel’s surprise, the man with golden hair noticed him approaching even from a distance. Still, it did not matter. General Rizel continued moving in his ethereal body with tremendous speed. Upon reaching his target, he unsheathed his sword and made the first strike.
Out of six people, only the man with golden hair was able to react. He parried the first strike with his sword then dodged the next attack by sidestepping to the left. With killing intent, he countered with his sword but cut nothing but smoke.
The exchange happened in mere seconds. By now, the rest of the soldiers realized they were under attack and pulled out their weapons.
A smoke which resembled a human continued floating in front of the group. The topmost portion of the smoke started assuming the face of an old man with a large scar across his face. Slowly, the rest of the smoke formed the old man’s body.
One of the soldiers immediately recognized his identity.
“G-General Rizel?”
The other soldiers stiffened upon hearing this. They had not expected to see one of the two commanders of the Empire. Seeing the man’s face, along with his missing arm and his ghost-like state, the rest of the soldiers did not doubt the man’s identity in the slightest. They realized how fitting the name ‘Ghost of the Empire’ was.
“So you’re General Rizel,” the man with golden hair, Anandra, said. “Perfect. To think that one of the bigshots came to us himself.”
Anandra took out a small pouch from his pocket, channeled mana into it, and threw it into the air. It flew up and went past the fog, before making a small but colorful explosion in the sky. Several seconds after, the General felt a number of presences enter the fog, each of them heading straight to him.
“Reinforcements?” General Rizel was disappointed. “How useless.”
He could hardly feel the flow of mana within the bodies of those who entered the forest just now. Although there were several dozens of them, none of them were magicians. Humans incapable of magic would never hurt his body. Even if thousands upon thousands of non-magicians came, it would be impossible for them to incapacitate him.
General Rizel studied the man before him. Judging by his quick reflexes and the way he used the sword, he was definitely a warrior—a knight, probably. The General could feel the mana oozing out of the man’s body, but for some reason, none of it flowed through his sword. It was simply enhancing his physical body, nothing more.
“Lark Marcus… I heard from our intel that he’s a brat.” The General continued the stare down. The man in front of him was definitely not the Commander of the Third Army. “Who are you?”
Instead of replying, Anandra shot toward General Rizel and released a barrage of attacks. At first, the General tried to dodge, but after realizing that the man’s sword was not clad with mana, he remained still and simply took each strike.
Anandra’s sword passed through the General’s body, like how one’s hand would temporarily cut through smoke. Despite seeing that his attacks were not doing any damage, Anandra still continued attacking with a single-minded focus.
“Pathetic,” the General said. “I was expecting a lot, but it seemed that you do not even know how to use sword aura. How disappointing.”
Despite the mockery, Anandra did not stop.
He increased the pace of his attack to the point that General Rizel’s phase-shifting into smoke was unable to catch up. Small cuts started appearing on General Rizel’s body. Upon seeing this, General Rizel immediately leapt back and started parrying the attacks.
Seeing that the General was finally taking him seriously, a small grin formed on Anandra’s lips. He channeled more mana into his body, putting it into overclock, and increased the speed of his attacks even further.
“As I thought,” said Anandra, as he incessantly released numerous strikes each second. “There’s no way you’re invincible. You’re not God, General.”
General Rizel clicked his tongue. Anandra was attacking his body within the split second he appeared from the fog every now and then. During that time, his ethereal body becomes material and he is vulnerable to attack. Though it lasted for a fraction of a second, the man with golden hair did not miss it.
Ge
neral Rizel, not wanting to risk receiving numerous blows, blended himself with the fog. He vanished from sight and only his voice remained. Becoming the fog itself was the safest way to deal with this man before him.
“I’ve fought with numerous fighters from the Leonard School and against those who used the martial arts of the savages. You’re clearly not from them. How should I say it? Your movements… They’re skilled but crude.”
Thankfully, the man with golden hair did not know how to use sword aura. Otherwise, it would have been a difficult fight. General Rizel did not voice these thoughts out loud.
“You remind me of General Alvaren in his younger days.”
General Rizel appeared out of the fog and grabbed the head of the one of the soldiers who came with Anandra. He gripped the man’s neck and like drought, turned him into a dry, lifeless corpse in mere seconds. The other soldiers tried attacking him, but their weapons simply passed through the old man’s body.
“M-Monster!”
“Damn it, kill him! Attack the old man!”
The small cuts on the old man’s body started to visibly heal after sucking his target dry.
“Annoying flies.” His hand blurred and four heads flew into the hair, blood spurting out of their headless bodies like fountain.
Now, only he and Anandra remained.
The General was about to wrap things up, knock Anandra unconscious and take him back to their stronghold for interrogation when he realized that the presences that had entered the forest were finally nearby.
From the fog, nine soldiers wearing full plate armor emerged. And based on the fog, dozens more were coming this way. General Rizel remembered the words spouted by his previous targets. The reason they managed to conquer a walled city in a single day.
The Blackstone Knights.
Anandra looked relieved upon seeing his reinforcements. He ordered, “That man is the enemy General! Kill him!”
The knights grunted then let out a ferocious roar akin to those of a beast and started uprooting the trees next to them. General Rizel’s eyes widened in an instant. He stared dumbfounded at the display of brute force before him.
Right now, nine armored knights were trying to uproot the trees around them. It was gradual, but the trees were clearly moving up from the ground with each second. The ground rumbled.
What were they trying to do?
And as though answering that question, the first knight to have uprooted a tree swung it toward the General. The force was so great that the knight’s feet creaked and dented, and his chest hugging the trunk slightly caved in.
The tree struck the ground, creating a cloud of dust upon impact. General Rizel easily moved to the side and evaded the attack.
Useless. All they were doing was send clouds of dust flying about. The knight seemed enraged that the General evaded his strike. He lifted the tree up slowly, then swung it again, this time toward the side, sweeping toward the direction of the General.
General Rizel vanished and reappeared several steps away from the point of impact. And the moment he did, another tree shot toward him. It seemed that a few other knights had also managed to uproot trees on their own, without caring about damaging their bodies or armor.
Annoyed at their stupid tactic, General Rizel turned into smoke and shot toward one of the Knights. He reappeared before it and grabbed its head. He started sucking its body dry—he tried. But for some reason, his magic did not work on the damn bastards.
Without waiting for the General to assess the reason why his magic did not work, the knight slammed the tree he was holding toward General Rizel. This time, the General—still wondering why his magic did not work—was caught off guard and missed the timing of his phase shift. The tree struck his body for a mere fraction of a second before it fully transformed into smoke, but it was enough to send the General flying and rolling on the ground several times.
Anandra did not miss this chance. Before the General could even stand up, he shot toward him in an instant. He aimed for the neck, but General Rizel instinctively parried the attack, before turning into smoke and fog.
By this time, more enemy knights started to arrive.
The battlefield had become a lot more dangerous for him.
Seeing this, General Rizel did not hesitate to retreat. It was one against many. And to make things worse, his magic did not work against the knights clad in plate armor.
Without muttering a single word, General Rizel blended perfectly with the fog and shot toward the place where his five knights were. As expected of the men he’d handpicked, none of them were gravely wounded. It was also apparent based on the bloodstains on their armors that they’d massacred all the enemies they’d encountered.
“We’re leaving,” he said. Only half his face was visible, while the rest of his body swayed back and forth as smoke.
The five knights stared at him in bewilderment upon seeing their General’s face.
“General… What happened?”
A cut was visible on the General’s forehead. It was not deep, but it was there. They’d served the Ghost of the Empire for several years, and they could count on one hand the number of times someone actually managed to inflict injury on him.
“A simple blunder on my part.” The General’s body fully manifested itself from the fog. “We’ve gathered enough information here. We’re going back.”
Although the knights were still curious about who managed to injure the monster of the old era, they decided to shut their mouths for now. They located their horses and untethered them from the trees. With the fog still shrouding the area, they left quietly for Yorkshaire City.
VOLUME 4: CHAPTER 9
Inside his room, Lark received Anandra’s report. He frowned, dismayed at the fact that he failed to immediately notice the undulations of mana from the nearby forest during the fight. He would have noticed it under normal circumstances, but his talk with the leader of the supply team regarding the fall of the Magic Empire made him too preoccupied with his thoughts. By the time he arrived at the scene, General Rizel and his men had already fled the area.
“It was a blunder on my part, My Lord.” Anandra bowed his head low. “The enemy General was right before me, but I let him escape right under my nose. I will accept my due punishment.”
Lark tossed a small vial to him and Anandra caught it. “Drink it. You look like a mess.”
Anandra stared at the vial in his hand. Clear, reddish fluid sloshed inside. It was the same middle-grade healing potion Big Mona was selling in Lion City at an exorbitant price. Without knowing the item’s worth, Anandra gulped it down. He blinked several times after noticing that his body felt lighter somewhat.
“Siphon magic.” Lark read the documents in his hands, not bothering to look up as he talked. “Probably that old man’s fog. It’s negligible, but that fog is certainly capable of sucking away a person’s life force.”
Lark surmised that this was probably the same reason why his surveillance bird instantly dropped dead and cut all communication after touching the fog. Such magic was way too dangerous, but it showed how proficient the General was. If left unchecked, the fog would have killed even his allies in a matter of weeks.
“Gather all the soldiers who went to battle with you. Those who touched the fog, in particular.” Lark finally stopped flipping through the documents. He looked at Anandra. “They’ll need to be treated, otherwise they’ll fall into coma after a week or two when a significant amount of their life force has leaked out.”
Hearing this, Anandra shuddered. He realized that even though he managed to come out of his battle with the General alive, he would probably have died several weeks after their bout. And the terrifying part was that no herb meant to cure poison would heal him, since the fog magic targeted the person’s life force itself.
What a terrifyingly insidious skill.
“I will immediately gather the soldiers,” said Anandra. He paused then added, “As for my punishment—”
“—
There’s no punishment,” Lark said, a little bit annoyed at the man’s sense of responsibility. “I will personally see those soldiers later. Go.”
Anandra closed his eyes and bowed his head. “As you wish, My Lord.”
After Anandra left the room, Lark walked toward the suit of armor standing motionless next to the wall. He ordered for one of the suits of armor who participated in the battle with the Ghost of the Empire to come for inspection.
“Interesting,” Lark mumbled as he scrutinized the metallic soldier.
There were dents here and there, probably due to swinging a medium-sized tree around, but aside from that, there was no other noticeable damage. Most importantly, this Blackstone Knight was still alive. The essence of the monster he attached to the living armor was still intact, fully anchored to the five vital points of its shell.
It was too early to come to conclusions, but in this initial encounter, it seemed that the Ghost of the Empire was unable to siphon the Blackstone Knights’ life force.
If this was indeed true, then these guys would prove crucial in defeating their enemies in the upcoming clashes.
“Good work,” he said to the Blackstone Knight.
He touched its metallic chest and channeled mana into its body. Slowly, it reverted to its former glory. Its silver luster was back and the dents and scratches were gone.
The Blackstone Knight groaned. Its eyes flickered several times inside its helmet.
Lark chuckled. “You like it, huh?”
The Blackstone Knight nodded, almost humanlike.
Lark tapped its shoulder twice. “Go back to your post. We need to finish the moats before the end of this month.”
The Blackstone Knight grunted and opened the door with surprising precision. It went out of the room and shut the door.
A few minutes of silence fell. Lark sat on his chair and sighed, his mind filled with various thoughts. The short skirmish a while ago. The sudden loss of communication with the Baron. The revelation by the leader of the supply team last night.
Lark cast his spell and an illusion manifested before him. It was the image of Lark and the red-haired woman. They were sitting opposite each other on the couch, with refreshments on the table before them.
