Ch.106New Things

“This is insane.”

The first thing that caught my eye after having my limbs torn apart by the shockwave and somehow managing to recover was the completely devastated surroundings, resembling some barren wasteland in a kingdom.

The once relatively decent buildings where all sorts of criminals gathered had either collapsed with their outer walls or been shattered beyond recognition.

The well-maintained streets along the main road were completely destroyed, scattering the dry soil and gravel underneath in all directions.

And that wasn’t all. Debris from horrifically destroyed and exploded buildings was scattered everywhere, and what looked like hundreds of craters of various sizes gaped open.

Every place within my sight was like this.

Since it took about 30 minutes to walk here, the area directly under the lord’s rule probably didn’t suffer such severe damage, but it was safe to say that the slum area was completely wrecked.

Considering Serena’s expression that remained in my final memory and Charlotte’s reaction to her, it was almost miraculous that only this much was destroyed.

I thought I should have stopped them sooner, but then remembered the world in which those two fought while using body enhancement, and changed my mind.

‘How could I possibly stop two people who are determined to fight using body enhancement?’

The last I heard, Serena’s body enhancement efficiency was 1/256 or 1/512 of a second.

Since Charlotte could use body enhancement with the same efficiency as Serena, at that level, someone like me who can’t use body enhancement would essentially be unable to even perceive them.

Even A-rank adventurers who never bow to anyone, let alone S-rank adventurers who are recognized as the top forces of the Adventurers’ Guild, couldn’t keep up with them—so how could someone like me?

If those two decided to fight, I should have stopped them before they actually clashed. Once the fight started, I’d be lucky just not to get blown away by the shockwave like earlier.

That’s what happened when I encountered Serena here.

Before I could finish assessing the situation and tell Serena to calm down, the two collided at full force, and I was sent flying by the shockwave alone.

Even then, I would have tried to stop them if I could speak, but unfortunately, my neck had twisted three times around, my vocal cords were crushed, and to make matters worse, a large rock had fallen on my upper body.

I couldn’t move it with my strength.

‘And this is the result.’

I sighed deeply. I should have stopped Serena when she was approaching. I never imagined Charlotte would provoke Serena in return.

Seeing me with Charlotte had already made her lose her mind, and after hearing that kind of provocation, how could she not attack?

I looked around to see where those two walking natural disasters were.

It wasn’t too late yet, judging by the circumstances. What was already destroyed couldn’t be helped, but I had to protect what remained.

Finding Serena and Charlotte wasn’t difficult. They were both preparing to gloriously destroy each other.

Serena was floating in the air, about to plunge downward with World Eater’s blade surrounded by magic the size of several buildings, while Charlotte had her right arm stretched forward with a red magic circle forming on her palm.

‘Wait, a red magic circle?’

I hurriedly checked again, thinking I might have seen wrong. Indeed, what was drawn on Charlotte’s palm was definitely a red magic circle.

It was a magic circle for Purgatory.

I felt a throbbing pain in my head. She was really determined to kill Serena. The moment that exploded here, an area the size of an entire city would easily be obliterated.

And unless the royal mage corps used purification magic over several months, it would become a hellish land that would continue burning for years.

Serena seemed to have realized what spell Charlotte was trying to use, just as I had.

The magic surrounding World Eater’s blade began to compress infinitely. A storm of mana swirled from the blade, wrapping around Serena’s body haphazardly.

Soon after, Serena’s body was engulfed in blue flames. Seeing this, I clutched my forehead. I certainly knew what technique this was.

‘This is insane. Is it Moon Breaker this time?’

Serena also seemed determined to kill Charlotte. This technique was no different from Purgatory in terms of power.

The moment it hit here, not only would the surrounding area be completely obliterated, but a canyon large enough to fit the entire royal capital would be created.

What’s already happened can’t be helped, but shouldn’t I prevent what can be prevented?

I took a deep breath. With Serena and Charlotte, they could hear even if I whispered from here, so the volume of my voice didn’t matter.

All that mattered was conveying my will to prevent the worst-case scenario of Purgatory and Moon Breaker colliding head-on.

Serena, engulfed in blue flames, began accelerating downward. The red magic circle on Charlotte’s hand emitted an even more intense light.

Before those two could cause a catastrophe with Purgatory and Moon Breaker colliding, I shouted with all my might.

“Both of you, STOOOOOP!”

What happened next proceeded rapidly.

Hearing my shout, Serena hurriedly extinguished the flames engulfing her body and landed on the ground. As soon as she saw me approaching, she knelt on one knee and bowed her head obediently.

Charlotte’s reaction wasn’t much different from Serena’s. She dispelled the fireball that was about to form and stood quietly beside her with her arms folded below her chest.

In contrast to Serena, Charlotte maintained a proud expression as if she had done nothing wrong.

In truth, Serena didn’t seem to feel guilty about destroying the surroundings either. She was simply showing respect to her lord who had arrived.

Neither of them seemed to have any feelings about having just fought while destroying an entire district of the city.

“Serena.”

“Yes, my lord. Please speak.”

“How did you get here?”

And, I was the same way.

While it was certainly unfortunate that their residence was destroyed after being caught in Serena and Charlotte’s fight, if you asked whether the people living here were truly victims, that wasn’t exactly the case.

During the few days I stayed here, I occasionally saw people proudly talking about committing crimes in the city and hiding here.

No one pointed out these statements; rather, they competed to boast about what crimes they had committed.

Most of the people here were probably like that. Based on the information I extracted from that blond man who attacked me with alcohol, it was closer to certainty than mere speculation.

With more than enough justification, if the lord wanted to, it wouldn’t be impossible to completely wipe out a slum like this.

This slum served the purpose of containing such people so they wouldn’t leak out, which is why the lord didn’t feel the need to spend time, money, and troops to demolish it.

So, I decided to consider it as having done the lord’s job for him.

“Have you already eliminated all the Black Blood monsters? I doubt that’s the case.”

The order I gave Serena was to kill all the Black Blood monsters, and Serena wasn’t the type to disobey my orders to come find me.

I wondered if she had actually exterminated all the Black Blood monsters, but soon erased this possibility from my mind.

Just a few days ago, there were reports of them appearing and being subjugated all over the continent.

To say that the Black Blood monsters had been completely eliminated, at least a month would have to pass since their last appearance.

So the remaining possibilities were either that Serena had arbitrarily disobeyed my orders, or that she had a reason to find me that was important enough to do this. Since the former was not even a possibility, it was probably the latter.

“I came because I have an urgent matter to report to you, my lord, even though I knew you had ordered me to exterminate the Black Blood monsters. I will atone for the sin of disobeying your order with my life if necessary, my lord.”

Serena’s answer was as expected.

“I have no intention of punishing you for coming to find me, Serena. It must be a serious matter that you needed to tell me directly. What is it?”

In response to my question, Serena quietly raised her arm and showed me the gauntlet covering her left forearm.

“You want me to look at this?”

“Yes.”

What Serena was wearing now was the silver armor that symbolized the Royal Knights.

The armor of the Royal Knights was all made by Charlotte herself, so anything related to this armor was equivalent to being related to Charlotte, which is why a pair of blood-red eyes glanced at the gauntlet.

I examined the extended gauntlet. The adamantium-mixed orichalcum that wrapped around her fingers like a glove shone silver as usual.

My gaze moved upward. I could see the seams, protrusions, and bulging patterns on the forearm. And even a slightly dented part.

There was nothing unusual—

‘Wait, dented?’

I examined the extended gauntlet again. The forearm part was definitely dented. Glancing at Charlotte, I saw that she had also noticed this fact and narrowed her eyes.

The fact that the Royal Knights’ armor was dented wasn’t particularly surprising in itself.

No matter how much of an adamantium and orichalcum alloy it was, it would break if subjected to impact beyond its limit.

It’s just that the threshold to reach that limit was incomparably higher than that of ordinary metals.

What I should be surprised about was that the wearer of this armor was Serena.

The strongest swordsman who could withstand even meteor impact magic head-on by surrounding her body with mana, and who couldn’t be injured, let alone scratched, by anyone except Charlotte or Christine.

That Serena had dented an adamantium and orichalcum alloy while her body was surrounded by mana?

“This is…”

My hand caressed the dented part of the gauntlet. I could feel Serena flinching each time my fingers moved across it, but I didn’t mind.

“You’ve noticed, my lord.”

“Yes, it would be stranger not to notice at this point. What happened?”

Serena withdrew her arm. Our eyes met as she raised her head. The blue eyes looking at me contained unwavering conviction.

“A new Black Blood monster has appeared.”