Ch.173Chapter 173: Orc King (4).

# Chapter 173: Orc King (4)

The sky over the Grasein Plains was still dyed with a blood-red sunset.

But the battlefield below was stained with blood redder and thicker than the sunset, marked by desperate screams.

Zerdin frowned at the chilling sensation running down his spine.

The sunset glow that had been burning with the premonition of victory until just moments ago now felt like an ominous shadow of death.

This sticky, unpleasant energy beginning to cover the battlefield was beyond the realm of simple sorcery.

‘This energy… could it be… no, it can’t be!’

His anxious premonition soon revealed itself as a terrible reality.

The black tattoos engraved on the Orc King’s dark red skin began to writhe. Like living vipers, they coiled around his body, spewing increasingly intense and ominous black light.

[KWAAAARRRRRR!]

The Orc King’s roar once again shook the great plains.

It was different from his previous simple threats.

This cry contained deep despair, pain, and bitter rage that seemed to reject human existence itself, beyond the fear effect.

The scarred horn protruding from his forehead glowed red like lava, and energy so intense burst forth that the surrounding air distorted like a heat haze.

Finally, Zerdin realized the true nature of this repulsive energy and was horrified.

“This damned… really… is it really demonic energy?!”

He had suspected the Orc King was no ordinary monster, but to think he had dared to make a pact with a demon.

That would explain how he spoke the human language so fluently.

Grand Master Zerdin was one of the few people on the continent who had directly experienced the reality of demons.

During his younger days as a Sword Expert, he had gone demon hunting with his father, the former king Royce Lucas. It was a terrible memory he didn’t want to recall.

‘They said it was just a mid-level demon…’

Young Zerdin had believed without doubt that he would achieve great merit alongside his father and return to the kingdom proudly like a victorious general.

But reality was devastating. The elite forces of the Lucas Kingdom were annihilated by just one mid-level demon, and his father Royce Lucas ultimately died from the fatal wounds he received then.

It was a tragedy caused by a single mid-level demon.

Unable to contain his rising anger, Zerdin shouted at the Orc King.

“NOOOOOO!! As a living being of this continent, how dare you! HOW DARE YOU sell your soul to a demon!!”

Even as Zerdin cried out, the Orc King’s appearance was undergoing a horrific transformation.

[Tsk… kuk, kukukukuk!! KUHAHAHAHAHA!! KUHAHAHAHAHA!! The demons… are you not the demons, Zerdin.]

“Stop your nonsense!! As beings of this continent, there are lines we must not cross! Especially demons…!”

[Kuheheheh, what makes you better than demons? At least demons gave me the power to break free from this hellish bondage. But you humans, what have you done? Are orcs monsters? Are orcs beasts to be hunted? Are orcs a race unworthy of living on this continent?!!!]

The Orc King’s appearance could no longer be called an orc.

His sinisterly burning green eyes, muscles and skin once hard as steel were rapidly rotting and decaying, revealing blackened bones underneath.

Visually, he might have appeared weaker than before, but the ominous and massive waves of magical power bursting from his body proved he had become incomparably stronger.

[Kukuk, Zerdin… and humans. We tried. We simply struggled to survive. But it wasn’t our fellow races of the continent who extended a hand to us, but the demons from the deep abyss. Tell me, Zerdin! For the survival of my race… what choice should I have made!]

The Orc King’s form gradually sank into a mist of black magical power.

Soon, the magic condensed around his body, forming jet-black armor.

Now his original appearance was gone, and only a mass of black magical power stood in its place.

A being from the continent’s ancient legends.

The servant of the hell demon ‘Geolbug,’ lord of rotting corpses and ruler of the dead.

– Death Knight –

Under the cause of racial survival, the Orc King had offered himself as a sacrifice to make a pact with Geolbug, and in return, transformed into a Death Knight with terrible power.

“…Further dialogue is meaningless. The choice was yours.”

Zerdin quietly readjusted his grip on Black Light and lowered his stance.

Death Knight.

A legendary being and servant of demons.

Its power was said to be at a level that only Master-class warriors could barely contend with.

But the being Zerdin faced now was different.

The fact that the Orc King, who had already reached the Grand Master level, had become a Death Knight meant he had obtained power beyond imagination.

The Orc King’s—no, the Death Knight’s voice no longer came through vocal cords, but transformed into a spine-chilling vibration that seemed to resonate from the abyss itself.

[You… made us monsters… KWAAAARRRRRR!]

THWAAAK—!

With the Death Knight’s cry, the demonic energy condensed in his body explosively burst forth, covering the battlefield.

The pitch-black fog enveloped soldiers like a living organism, eating away at their minds and throwing them into confusion.

Demonic energy.

A sinister and destructive force fundamentally different from aura or mana, leading all living things to death.

The demonic energy instantly spread beyond the center of the battlefield where elite forces were fighting, reaching even the regular troops watching from a distance.

“ARGH!”

“W-what is this… my head… feels like it’s going to explode…!”

Among the Eastern Alliance soldiers, those with weak mental fortitude fell to their knees, clutching their heads in agony. Commanders shouted urgently.

“Keep your distance!! Don’t expose yourselves to that black energy!!”

Fortunately, the demonic energy stopped spreading once they maintained distance.

But the troops already in the middle of the combat zone fell into chaos.

While Master-class warriors barely managed to protect themselves with aura, lower-ranked Experts lost their sanity and became frenzied if they let their guard down even slightly.

“Gerdik! Get a hold of yourself!”

“Grrrr, kaaak! I’ll… kill… I’ll kill you all!!”

Eventually, the horrific situation of allies attacking allies began to unfold.

The battlefield descended into uncontrollable chaos.

Ironically, the demonic energy affected the orcs equally, causing them to kill each other in the same tragic manner.

Primal chaos. That was the calamity brought by demonic energy.

Zerdin gritted his teeth.

“You fool!! Can’t you see your own people killing each other because of the demonic energy you’ve released!! And you still call yourself the king of orcs?!!!”

The Death Knight now answered not in human language, but in eerie magical vibrations.

[Sacrifices… are… inevitable… for the greater cause… As king of the orcs… I have a responsibility… to protect my race… I sacrificed… myself… for the survival… of my race….]

“You stubborn fool!! Did you think demons would keep their promises? Didn’t you realize your entire race would become slaves to demons in exchange for that power!”

Although an enemy, Zerdin couldn’t help but feel deep sympathy for the Orc King in this moment.

That was the nature of demons.

Beings that exploit weaknesses in the heart, seduce with sweet words, and ultimately take everything and bring destruction.

Those who received help from demons could find peace neither in this world nor the next.

[It… doesn’t… matter… By leaving… my race… in this world… I have… fulfilled… my calling… What comes after… I’ve left… to my descendants….]

Zerdin didn’t give up on dialogue.

The fact that the Death Knight could still engage in rational conversation could be evidence that he wasn’t completely consumed by demonic energy yet.

And the knowledge that he alone understood the true horror and danger of demonic energy made him all the more desperate.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Shouldn’t a true leader watch over his people until the very end? It’s not too late! Reject that filthy demonic energy and—!”

Before Zerdin could finish, the Orc King’s eyes flashed and a storm of demonic energy erupted.

[Kukuk… too late… human king… Zerdin…. Humans…. all…. die….]

“Damn it all!!”

There was no more time to waste.

Zerdin raised Black Light high and lunged toward the Death Knight.

The Grand Master’s aura enveloped the blade, emanating an overwhelming force that seemed capable of tearing through the black fog of demonic energy.

‘I must end him before he’s completely consumed by demonic energy!’

Zerdin prepared his ultimate finishing technique, betting everything he had.

– Lucas Style Tyrannical Sword (霸道劍) Final Technique “Heaven’s Fall” (天落) –

The exclusive swordsmanship of the Lucas Kingdom that made Zerdin the hegemon of the East.

The Tyrannical Sword, the strongest swordsmanship in the East that had brought countless powerful warriors to their knees. This was its ultimate secret technique.

The Grand Master’s aura began to compress the very space of the battlefield.

Heaven’s Fall. True to its name, it was a technique that bound opponents with the power of massive aura, rendering them immobile, then struck down with an aura blade that gave the sensation of the sky itself collapsing.

The enormous pressure of aura closing in from all directions restricted the Death Knight’s movements.

The opponent faced a giant aura blade gradually covering the sky, as if the entire heavens were pressing down on them in terror.

No one had ever survived Heaven’s Fall. That was the pride of the Lucas dynasty.

This finishing technique, which couldn’t even be imitated by anyone below Master class, carried truly earth-shattering power when unleashed by Grand Master Zerdin.

KUGUUUUUUU–

“Ugh! Everyone get back! It’s the commander’s finishing technique!!”

A massive flow of aura that could engulf even nearby allies swirled around the Death Knight, and soon a powerful aura storm bound him. Then, in the sky, an enormous aura blade over 20 meters long appeared, as if to bring the world to its end.

Zerdin, gritting his teeth, thrust the massive aura blade down toward the Death Knight with all his might.

“Servant of demons!! DIEEEEE!!”

THWAAAAAAAA—

A 20-meter aura blade plunging down on an immobilized target.

Everyone present had no doubt it would annihilate the Death Knight without a trace.

As Zerdin saw the Orc King’s final form at the end of his descending blade, he felt, if only for a moment, a sense of pity.

‘The world is inherently unfair, King of Orcs. May you… rest in peace.’

Zerdin’s fatal strike, the giant aura blade, plunged precisely toward the Death Knight.

KUUUUUUNG—!