Ch.129Golem (6)

The shapeshifter, Elimul, suddenly found himself face to face with a hand axe that burst through the door.

The axe blade was enveloped in an eerie wind as it rushed forward. The red figure flipped his outstretched hand that had been about to knock, attempting to catch the axe blade—with predictably disastrous results.

Squelch! The sound of flesh splitting and bones breaking echoed. The hand axe cut through his palm and embedded itself in his shoulder, as if to make a point.

Blood gushed forth, and his body was pushed back against the wall.

As the building’s walls trembled, the shapeshifter looked at his companion.

There were only two shapeshifters from the Three Clans here. They could handle this. Such wounds meant nothing to a clan that had achieved immortality.

Though the hand axe was lodged in his shoulder, he paid it no mind. He twisted his lips into a smile and stepped forward, but—

What he hadn’t anticipated came next.

CRASH!

The door shattered into pieces as someone leaped through.

An extended leg aimed for his head. As he twisted his neck, a long trajectory like a sword mark was left along the wall.

‘What…?’

But there was no time to think. The leg that had kicked the wall folded and rushed in with the knee. A series of lightning-fast attacks that even his nearby companion couldn’t block.

SLASH!

“Kuh…?!”

It wasn’t just speed. The knee strike was far from ordinary. His abdomen was pierced, internal organs crushed, and part of his spine carved out.

This wasn’t something a knee could normally do. But Luvellin didn’t give him time to analyze the phenomenon.

RIIIP!

A high kick followed by a pushing kick that flowed from the knee strike. Though he twisted his body to avoid it, his side was torn open and his entrails spilled out.

These injuries would have been fatal for a human, but a shapeshifter’s body doesn’t know death.

They only die from the depletion of regenerative power or the exhaustion of their fundamental strength. He was a true shapeshifter, different from the lower-ranked soldiers Luvellin had already killed.

Elimul bared his teeth and transformed both arms.

His twin, Elize, did the same. She transformed both legs, while Luvellin took a stance in the center and brought his leg down.

BOOM! The building shook. As he pulled on the leg, Elimul’s stance crumbled.

It was the entrails. He stepped on and pulled the intestines that had spilled from the side, breaking Elimul’s stance. Faster than trying to forcibly maintain balance with his legs, his knee shot up.

SLASH! The world shook violently. As Elize rushed in to fill the gap left by Elimul, Luvellin turned his body and clenched his fist.

As Elize’s two legs rushed in one after another, Luvellin stepped forward while extending his right hand backward.

SNAP!

As his right fingers flicked with a crisp sound—

BANG! CRASH!

“Huh…?”

Somehow, he was now holding an axe in that hand. The same hand axe that had been thrown and buried in Elimul’s shoulder.

It sliced through both legs. Regeneration happened instantly, but that moment was enough. Luvellin threw the axe.

SQUELCH!

The hand axe dug into Elize’s head as Luvellin leaped forward.

With his limbs stained black, he stomped the ground, caught up to Elize, and brought down his raised fist.

SLASH!

Suppressing the leg that was thrust out in counterattack, he repeatedly brought both fists down on Elize.

It was overwhelming violence that could no longer be called martial arts.

Naturally, the inn’s floor collapsed.

BOOM! Even as they dropped one floor and her back hit the ground, Luvellin’s fists mercilessly drove down.

CRASH!

His right fist drove toward her face, and when she raised her arms to block, his left fist shot out three times in succession, pounding her abdomen, side, and ribs.

She was getting breathless. Since she wasn’t at a level where breathing was unnecessary, the shapeshifter Elize felt rising irritation and anger, along with a slight sense of crisis.

They dropped floor after floor. The inn couldn’t withstand the continuous violence and collapsed in protest, but Luvellin didn’t care.

Until the moment his two fists were finally blocked.

“…Tsk, how annoying. Do you want to die?”

A growling voice. Strength nearly equal to Luvellin’s, not just blocking his two fists but pushing them back.

Moreover, Elize suddenly twisted her waist, throwing Luvellin to the floor and mounting him.

Splurt! Blood spurted from his trapped arm, and Luvellin glanced at the ring on his index finger before looking at the monster above him.

A form gradually taking shape, mixing various beasts.

A transcendent form that could truly be called a shapeshifter. A genuine shapeshifter form that incorporated only the advantages of all kinds of beasts.

So this is a shapeshifter’s true form. Luvellin knew the time had come and smiled.

Just as the shapeshifter’s bestial face contorted and returned a ferocious smile—

Woof! Woof woof woof!

A large dog suddenly jumped toward the inn’s first floor where they were and barked loudly.

Though its tail was lowered in fear and its eyes were full of terror—

The dog was bravely barking, warning Luvellin and the shapeshifter.

Luvellin and Elize looked at the dog simultaneously.

“How dare a mere creature—!”

“Let’s stop here.”

WHOOSH! Elize’s body rose with a crisp sound.

In the moment Elize landed after rotating in the air from an explosive jumping kick, Luvellin had already stood up and was dusting off his collar.

“Who decides when it’s over—!”

Instead of answering, Luvellin raised a finger, and Elize followed it to look up.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, CRASH!

Just then, Elimul came crashing through the ceiling to the ground.

And the Blood Knight who appeared to have pushed Elimul down.

The two landed on the floor one after another. One’s landing was more like a collision, while the other’s was elegant.

Elize still wore an unpleasant expression.

That should be enough to establish dominance, Luvellin thought as he flicked his fingers to retrieve the hand axe.

It was an unnecessary gesture, but—

“What was that all about?”

“What do you mean?”

Luvellin’s confident attitude left Elize speechless.

If it was about right and wrong, it was clear. But his confidence made her hesitate momentarily out of disbelief.

“No… I mean…”

“Why did you suddenly attack us? We just said we came with a message from the Empress.”

And since Elize was less adept at thinking than her twin, she quietly closed her mouth when Elimul stepped forward.

“Hmm? Ah, sorry. I didn’t hear that. I attacked without hearing.”

“…What kind of—”

Elimul let out a laugh of disbelief, but Luvellin boldly replied.

“You’ve sent assassins or tried to kill me so often. I thought I should strike first before being attacked, and my hand moved before I knew it.”

Technically, it was his axe, feet, and knees that moved, but no one was going to point that out in this situation.

“Anyway, it seems to have been a misunderstanding, so I apologize.”

Luvellin smiled. As he withdrew the blood aura surrounding his body and returned the hand axe to his breast.

“I apologize for nearly beating and killing you first. I didn’t realize your weakness and almost killed you. The weak deserve treatment befitting them…”

“Who are you calling weak?”

“You, of course! Weak, shoddy, and though you were ambushed, you couldn’t respond in time and got beaten up, so you can proudly be called weak.”

“Are you insulting us?”

“Insult! I’m just a blood bag with no education, so I can’t insult anyone! This is my sincere apology with all my heart and soul!”

The twin shapeshifters Elize and Elimul felt something irritating.

In the Earth where Luvellin had lived, this would be described as being “triggered,” and they made pained noises from inexplicable damage to their pride.

But there was nothing they could say to that. Elimul finally spoke after struggling for a while.

“We are not weak. If you call us weak again, you will taste the wrath of our clan.”

“I see. I don’t understand why you want to correct my perception, but if you’re uncomfortable with how I feel, I’ll generously accept it.”

“…Can we move on to the main point now?”

The dog that had been barking stopped and watched cautiously as the atmosphere relaxed, and the sound of golems approaching could be heard from outside.

Elimul, feeling somehow at a great disadvantage, finally opened his mouth.

“The Empress has a message for you. So please, this time, I’d like you to quietly come with—”

“No.”

Just as Elimul’s face was about to contort, Luvellin smiled and said:

“Do it here.”

*

There’s an old saying.

He who controls the first strike.

Controls the fight.

And a war of words is still a fight. I believed that establishing dominance was necessary before a verbal battle.

Since my first strikes had never failed to make conversations go well, I put effort into this first strike.

The key was to let them know I wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

So I beat them up with slightly less than my full power.

I didn’t bring out the Black Armor, didn’t use blood aura efficiently, and minimally suppressed the dragon’s descent.

I was a bit shocked when my kicks and knee strikes tore and pierced through, but fortunately, the opponent was a shapeshifter.

I’ve never practiced controlling my strength, after all.

So I beat up one shapeshifter and passed the other to Lorian, who fortunately understood my intention and stopped at subduing rather than killing.

The result was this.

Two shapeshifters biting their lips in frustration, heads bowed.

While I stood stiffly with my head raised, looking up at someone.

Lorian seemed uncomfortable with the whole situation and kept glancing around nervously, but the one I was looking up at paid no attention to him.

I silently gazed at the shapeshifter who had appeared like a hologram.

It was clearly no ordinary being.

An existence with a transcendence that made it impossible to estimate how to defeat them if we were to fight.

Someone who looked down at me with eyes that constantly changed color and form, their face hidden behind something like a veil.

Ha, eyes visible despite being covered by a veil.

Strange, but there was no need to dwell on it. There are Maeye users in this world, after all.

What was more important was the similarity that was clearly evident at first glance.

Beyond the eerie silhouette was a snake’s tail. Not the dragon’s tail typically possessed by necromancers, but a long, pure white snake’s tail that nonetheless felt similar.

I immediately thought of someone when I saw that tail.

Ortemilia.

A prodigy known for having the best craftsmanship among the Three Clans, who created many things.

A dragon but not a dragon, someone who didn’t really possess the advantages of a necromancer.

Someone who probably had to choose a different path because of that.

This shapeshifter exuded an atmosphere very similar to Ortemilia.

There was no room for doubt.

I recalled the explanation I had heard from Lorian recently.

The master of the Blood Clan and the head of the Blood Knights, the Court Count.

The elder of the necromancers and the prophet who led the dragons facing extinction to pledge allegiance to my father.

And standing shoulder to shoulder with them, the monarch of the shapeshifters and the greatest technician of the Three Clans.

The Empress.

She clearly had some connection to Ortemilia.

Sure enough, the Empress looked at me with interest and said:

“Is my child doing well?”

It was obvious who she meant. A statement tantamount to a confession. I let out a laugh and replied:

“Well, she’s doing fine, Grandmother.”

Then silence fell.