Ch.135135. Reversed Scale

A moment of standoff.

Blazing flames and the sharp noise of battle echoing around. In this ominous and tense situation, Balkzar and I were staring only at each other.

He was glaring at me as if he would thrust his spear at me at any moment, but he couldn’t actually follow through with action.

Because the ancestors behind Balkzar’s shoulders and back were departing as if fleeing.

Uneasiness.

Foreboding.

The great warrior was bewildered as the power contained in his hands began to dissipate like scattering dust.

When the mighty power he had taken for granted began to disappear, even the great warrior couldn’t move.

Now was my chance while he was confused. I slowly opened my mouth to attempt a dialogue.

Not with Balkzar, but beyond him.

“Red Eagle of the Great Forest.”

Toward the guardian spirit who was giving power to the great warrior even at the cost of its own life.

“Why have you abandoned your nest and come here to suffer such hardship?”

“You, how dare you speak to…!”

[Enough.]

A voice that seemed to resonate from the sky.

A feeling different from the dignity of the Mountain Lord that spread heavily throughout the body and stung the skin like an electric shock.

It was a voice that might come from a beautiful man, but the inner heat contained the weight of years that could not be considered human.

[Most noble one who stands in an ugly place.]

“…!”

Horua’s assessment of me was more generous than I expected, and Balkzar’s eyes trembled upon hearing it.

[Your deeds have reached even me. The kingdom’s subjects can rest easy thanks to your existence.]

“You flatter me.”

Like the Mountain Lord, Horua also showed quite a favorable reaction toward me.

I judged that if I could persuade and take away Horua’s power from the great warrior, the battle would essentially end easily, but.

‘That would be difficult.’

Even as we conversed, Balkzar’s red wings were burning brilliantly.

A sign that there would be no retreat.

[However, do not think your consolation will apply to me.]

“…”

[Your nobility is great, but foolish. Wishing to embrace all, have you even contained demons within?]

“Vellica is not a demon that can be so easily defined. She calls herself a deformed great demon, after all.”

Vellica, who claimed that even her qualities as a demon were strangely twisted.

The Mountain Lord closed his eyes to the great demon because he had faith in me, but Horua did not.

[Do not extend those defiled hands to me. I do not need your consolation.]

“…”

A clear expression of rejection.

A firm declaration that he would not reveal why he was lending power to the great warrior.

Rather, as if gaining confidence from this conversation, Balkzar adjusted his stance holding the spear with a smirk, and.

With just one flap, he demonstrated overwhelming speed accompanied by the sound of strong wind, but.

Crack! Crack!

“This is…”

“If there’s one thing we have in common.”

The tip of Balkzar’s spear, which was thrusting menacingly, couldn’t reach me.

Hundreds of hands grabbed his ankles as he charged forward.

They all belonged to the slaughtered kingdom citizens.

“It might be that we can both rampage in the same place.”

The place where he, as a great warrior, could perform best was naturally the battlefield. He gloriously swept through battlefields, violated enemies, beheaded them, and became intoxicated with the scent of war.

Conversely, for me as well.

The battlefield, where countless dead were created, was the place where I could exert my greatest power.

He feared the sleeping Saintess and the great demon, but.

It was a perfect stage that didn’t even require waking the two who were sleeping soundly.

I took out the Lemegeton from my chest.

Because I needed to show a clear difference in power.

Black waves began to spread out from the Lemegeton.

The sky churned, and the earth began to cry.

[Aaaaargh!]

[Why! Why!]

[Motherrrrr!]

[Please save me! Please!]

The stories of him slaughtering everyone regardless of age or gender meant.

That he considered the weight of life that lightly, and that he would bear that responsibility.

Pouring spirits.

The cries and screams of the dead, the lingering attachments of those who wanted to live.

“Huh.”

“To this extent.”

“Ah, God.”

Like clouds covering the sky, like sprouts rising from the earth.

Findenai and Gloria behind me gasped at the sight of the materialized dead rising endlessly, and.

Lucia carefully knelt down, closed her eyes, and put her hands together.

The great warrior who became the target of all this resentment.

He sweated profusely and swallowed hard. I could see the strength gradually leaving his hand holding the spear in the face of the overwhelming number of spirits around him.

“You don’t even know the weight of death.”

In contrast.

My hand holding the Lemegeton gripped it even tighter.

Though my emotions are usually faint.

I could clearly tell now.

I was angry.

Not the kind of anger that might erupt like a volcano, but a sharp, cold anger that frosted over like ice in midwinter.

“Everything about you displeases me, but what I find most detestable is.”

Souls flying toward the great warrior who had killed them without a moment’s hesitation.

“Kuh! Aaaagh!”

He tries to struggle somehow, swinging his spear. The souls of his ancestors who were with him try to protect him, but it’s not enough.

Finally, as the great warrior is buried in souls with only one hand sticking out, I spoke accusingly.

“If you claimed to act for the people of Setima, you should have at least said a word about caring for them.”

If he waged war to avenge the death of the great chieftain and the slaughter of Setima’s residents.

He should have at least mentioned them, even briefly.

If he had, I might have shown a measure of mercy.

“You also used them as tools.”

They were just the pretext needed to open the battlefield.

Now even Balkzar’s screams can no longer be heard. The warriors from other tribes who came with him to wage guerrilla warfare have already met their deaths by the swords of the kingdom’s knights.

It was meant to be a surprise attack in its own way, but ultimately a complete failure.

A foolish end shown by someone who had too much faith in his own strength.

No different from the foolish ends of Lu Bu and Xiang Yu that I had seen on Earth.

But if there was one difference.

They were abandoned by the gods, but.

Balkzar was not abandoned by his god.

Whoosh!

The guardian spirit’s flames that burned the souls created a massive pillar. The souls that had been pressing in all began to retreat, and I also withdrew my mana to prevent them from suffering unnecessarily.

Balkzar flew out as if spat from the pillar of flames. He was already unconscious and covered in blood, but Horua’s wings were forcibly carrying him high into the sky.

A scene that revealed Horua’s firm determination to save the great warrior at least.

I thought I could secure a perfect victory, but Balkzar escaped.

But I didn’t seem to need to join the battlefield any further.

He probably developed quite a significant trauma toward me and realized that he couldn’t blindly trust the power of his ancestors and Horua who accompanied him.

This was a war led by the great warrior Balkzar alone.

I had essentially shown the difference in our levels, and.

The moment he became intimidated, this war was already as good as over.

* * *

“Cough! Cough!”

Balkzar, who had barely escaped thanks to Horua’s mercy, was receiving treatment in his tent.

Once the treatment was somewhat complete, Balkzar pushed away the woman who was wiping the blood he had coughed up and struggled to raise his upper body.

Then, as if he had been waiting, the shaman Shong’s sharp rebuke fell.

“Didn’t I tell you so much! That you shouldn’t fight him! If we had fought using our tribe’s mobility, we could have fought without confronting him! We could have won!”

“…”

“Your ancestors have left you, and Lord Horua’s power is also limited! In the end, our tribe and the Great Forest will be devoured by the desert!”

Looking at Shong, who was crying out that there was no future, Balkzar felt fatigue and a headache as if parasites were crawling in his head.

It was a first.

That he, who had always been victorious, had been so miserably defeated.

That he had just been helplessly beaten without even properly swinging his spear at the enemy and had just fled.

He also realized how heavy the weight of the act of slaughter that he had been carrying out until now was.

Balkzar was so afraid of all this that he didn’t want to move anywhere, and just wanted to run away.

He was just one step away from completely breaking down, but. Shong sighed and brought a map.

“There is still one final. Counterattack move left. If you don’t collapse here… here.”

Thud.

The place Shong’s finger pointed to on the map was Robern, where the Academy was located.

“His weakness is here. If we seize this, we won’t even need to fight him.”

“Haven’t those idiot nobles already failed?”

When he mentioned the clean failure of the assassination attempt on the Spiritmaster and his fiancée, the nobles who had been quietly sitting in the corner of the tent like dead mice flinched.

The three nobles whose positions had become even more precarious after the failed assassination. Especially since even the Kingdom of Jerman, with whom they had formed a relationship of sorts, had cleanly abandoned the three, so if the Marias tribe failed, it would be the end.

If they stayed like this, they would eventually die.

With that thought, the noble Romerzhan stepped forward and shouted.

“There’s still a chance! If we just capture the Spiritmaster, we can ultimately win! We will definitely find out what his weakness is from our side!”

There was still a connection point with informants operating in Robern. It was a tenuous relationship that would soon be cut off because the assassination had completely failed, but.

Building on Romerzhan’s words, Shong added one more thing.

“Are you going to collapse here? A great warrior like you? The fight has just begun. Don’t kneel just because you lost once.”

“…”

Balkzar, who had been keeping his mouth shut, took a deep breath and clenched his fist.

Even now, the Dark Spiritmaster’s cold eyes made his entire body feel frozen and shattered, but.

‘I am a great warrior.’

Because he was in a position where he had no choice but to overcome, Balkzar nodded.

“Go find his weakness. And tell me. I will go there myself with Lord Horua’s wings.”

A firm intention not to entrust it carelessly to the nobles.

It was an understandable judgment since the mobility of Horua’s wings would allow him to make a round trip to Robern in a short time, but.

Romerzhan was rather curious about the shaman Shong’s intentions.

As far as he knew, there was no weakness of the Spiritmaster Deus Verdi in Robern Academy right now.

His fiancée Erika Bright had left for practical training, and so had Princess Elenoa Luden Griffin and the commoner female student he cherished.

He wondered what could possibly be in Robern, but.

Shong pointed out one person quite precisely.

“Find a pregnant woman who is about 7-8 months along.”

“A pregnant woman?”

Just hearing it made his hair stand on end.

Could it be a secret lover that Deus Verdi had hidden away?

That was all Romerzhan could think of, but.

“That pregnant woman is the Spiritmaster’s reverse scale.”

As Balkzar urged him to move quickly after hearing Shong’s words, Romerzhan hurriedly took out a crystal ball from his chest and began contacting his minions in Robern.

But even as he did so, anxiety crept into one corner of his heart.

‘Reverse scale?’

A reverse scale is usually a weakness, but.

‘Doesn’t it mean certain death if touched?’

A chill ran up his spine.

If the Spiritmaster, who made even the great warrior tremble like this, truly became angry, what would happen?

For a moment, Romerzhan felt the urge to surrender even now, but.

As the pressure from Balkzar and Shong continued to bear down on him.

Romerzhan could only hope as he breathed mana into the crystal ball.

Hopefully.

After touching the reverse scale of the dragon known as the Spiritmaster.

The great warrior would behead the dragon before its fury reached him.