Zhuge vs. the King of Darkness

The eighteen Vanguard Knights, who had escaped through Marquis Sainz’s secret passage, carried the unconscious Jegal and ran quickly towards the Loire River.

From behind, the King of Darkness, enraged, was destroying the passage they had come through with a kuaang sound.

Fortunately, the Vanguard Knights hid themselves well, and they safely crossed the Loire River and arrived at Argilla City, the capital.

After crossing the Loire River, Jegal woke up and, knowing that Louisa had sacrificed herself, cried and caused a commotion, so the knights had to appease him.

This is the royal presence chamber in Argilla City.

King Bashir sat on his throne and looked down at Jegal with an angry face.

King Bashir rebuked Jegal.

“You dare sacrifice my daughter and return alone?! Kill that loser!”

King Bashir threw the cup in his right hand at Jegal, and the cup flew and hit Jegal’s forehead.

Jegal did not avoid it, his face dark.

Blood flowed from Jegal’s forehead.

At that time, the eighteen Vanguard Knights around Jegal defended him, saying that Jegal had fought hard until the end and had only lost consciousness in the middle.

Furthermore, Prince Khanpasha and Princess Nerubika even stopped King Bashir, saying that it was a waste to kill Jegal now.

King Bashir ordered that all of Jegal’s positions be stripped and that he be imprisoned.

Jegal had a face of giving up on everything.

Jegal did not say a word and followed the soldiers until he was imprisoned in the prison.

After imprisoning Jegal, a new prime minister and strategist was needed to solve the kingdom’s problems.

Currently, North Gail’s food situation was at its lowest, and public order was not good either.

The Bohak Forest and South Gail had completely become monster territory.

Many Gail kingdom citizens were trying to go to the Hamel Empire, crossing the Mermaid Sea through Birkenhead Harbor or crossing the rugged mountains east of North Gail.

However, those who passed through the Mermaid Sea were killed one after another by the Sahagins, and the seals on the Slave Chokers of the Demon slaves left behind by their masters were released, and they gained freedom and became criminals.

To make matters worse, not only Demon slaves but also the same humans plundered each other.

Demonstrations, riots, and looting occurred everywhere, but the soldiers only watched, fearing that they would be killed if they stopped them.

In the case of the Gail army, deserters continued to increase due to food shortages, war defeats, and family recommendations, so the troop strength decreased by approximately 25% due to desertion.

King Bashir’s only hope was Navy Commander Rimaxwe and the 20,000 sailors who had left Birkenhead Harbor to obtain food, but they had not been heard from.

The King appointed a new strategist to manage this situation.

The new strategist’s name was Kang Yu, the successor of the Marquis family that managed Almelo City.

Kang Yu was a 29-year-old man, the same age as Jegal, and was Jegal’s classmate at the Royal School.

Kang Yu was 177cm tall, 1cm shorter than Jegal, had neatly styled regent-cut blonde hair and arrogant eyes, and was a summoner.

Kang Yu considered Jegal as a rival and tried to catch up with him, but he was always second.

Even Princess Louisa, whom Kang Yu had secretly had a crush on since childhood, became Jegal’s lover.

So Kang Yu was very jealous and hated Jegal.

When the King appointed Kang Yu as prime minister and strategist in the royal presence chamber, Kang Yu’s lips were raised with joy as he bowed his head.

Kang Yu muttered as he left the royal presence chamber.

“Jegal, you are nothing. Now it is my world.”

Kang Yu vowed to solve the problems of the Gail Kingdom and defeat Jegal, his lifelong rival.

—

Now let’s find out what happened to Navy Commander Rimaxwe and the 20,000 sailors.

Rimaxwe had left Birkenhead Harbor with 100 ships full of gold coins to solve the Gail Kingdom’s food situation, right after Jegal’s defeat in the Bradon Village battle, and was heading to Krampos Harbor.

Everyone involved with Rimaxwe was not an extra and acted with their beliefs at stake.

When Rimaxwe’s 100 ships departed from Birkenhead Harbor, a Sahagin scout saw it and reported it to the Sahagin Kingdom.

Karkarias, the shark-headed Grand General of the Sahagin Kingdom, summoned all the tribal chiefs to discuss how to annihilate them.

The pufferfish-headed tribal chief, Viridis, shouted.

“What is there to fear from death?! Kireureuk! Let’s lead all the warriors and kill them!”

Karkarias shook his head.

“I am not afraid of death. But I want to reduce the damage to the Sahagins.”

Mamoratu, the tribal chief of the Sebasti tribe, agreed with Karkarias.

“The God of Darkness told us to use our heads. Isn’t it because we followed the God’s strategy that we obtained this kingdom? Kireureureuk.”

All the tribal chiefs racked their brains and worried about how to minimize the damage to their fellow tribesmen, but there was no answer.

The worst way was for all the Sahagins to get on the ships and fight.

The reason is that Sahagins are aquatic creatures, so their abilities are weakened on land.

To minimize the damage to the Sahagins, the only way was to sink the ships and drag the humans into the seabed, the Sahagins’ home ground, but there was no way to do it.

The wood that makes up the ships is thicker than expected, so it cannot be pierced with Sahagin’s claws.

Also, to break the bottom of the ship in the sea, they had to swing their weapons upwards, which was difficult because it defied gravity and there was water resistance.

The ballista taken from the mermaids was not intended to break ships, so the Sahagins had no suitable method.

Karkarias dismissed the discussion and remained alone in the huge discussion hall to ponder.

“I am truly not afraid of death for the God. But I don’t want to see my Sahagin comrades die either.”

Karkarias had more to think about since becoming the Grand General.

At that time, the conference room door opened, and Ariel, the wife of the God, and Ctilla in the form of a girl entered.

Ariel was holding the Black Trident of Original Sin and was pregnant with the God’s child, so her belly was swollen.

Ariel asked Karkarias with a worried face.

“Karkarias. You seem to have a lot on your mind? Is it because of the human ships coming this time?”

“That is correct.”

Ctilla asked.

“Do you want us to help you? Tell us if you need it~”

Ariel also said with a determined face.

“We will fight too if necessary.”

Karkarias got up from his seat, knelt down, and hurriedly stopped the queens.

“No! The Queens are pregnant with the God’s child. Please! Leave it to us!”

Karkarias’s pride as the Grand General did not allow him to use the queens in war.

Then Ariel smiled and suggested to Karkarias.

“I understand. Then I will lend you this Trident of Original Sin.”

Karkarias’s eyes widened, and he stretched out his trembling hands, palms up, forward.

Ariel placed the Trident of Original Sin on Karkarias’s hands, and Karkarias gripped it tightly.

Karkarias felt the swirling dark power from the Trident of Original Sin and realized that he could do it with this.

Karkarias shouted with a determined voice.

“Thank you, Queen Ariel! I will definitely do it!”

Ariel smiled and said as she left.

“Please defeat the enemies who are making our Kyle Holy Kingdom suffer~”

Ctilla also waved her hand and said as she left.

“Karkarias~ Good luck~~!”

Karkarias knelt for a while, holding the Trident of Original Sin and feeling the dark power within it.

Soon he stood up, gathered all the tribal chiefs, and made a plan.

—

Rimaxwe was a 59-year-old veteran and a typical naval admiral.

Rimaxwe wore a naval hat and a naval admiral’s uniform, had a large gray beard that extended to his sideburns, and enjoyed smoking cigars.

Rimaxwe was sitting in the captain’s cabin of the flagship, determined to complete the mission of obtaining food ordered by King Bashir and Strategist Jegal.

Rimaxwe was reading today’s weather forecast report when a soldier knocked on the door.

Tok tok

Rimaxwe called out.

“Come in.”

“Loyalty! Corporal Gareas reporting!”

“What is it?”

“The weather, which was good until yesterday, is suddenly strange today.”

“Tell me specifically what is strange.”

“It’s cloudy and raining.”

Rimaxwe looked at the weather forecast report again, and it said sunny.

A vein popped out on Rimaxwe’s forehead in annoyance, and he tore up the report, stood up, and said.

“Who the hell predicted the weather? They’re going to get military discipline training today.”

The corporal just shut up and remained silent because someone higher in rank than him had predicted the weather.

Cloudy weather could lead to heavy rain or storms, so it was very dangerous if predicted incorrectly.

Rimaxwe came out on deck to scold the guy who predicted the weather.

It was really cloudy in the sky, and it was raining.

Rimaxwe shouted with a grim face.

“Who the hell predicted the weather?!”

Then a captain ran over.

“It’s me!”

“You wrote sunny, what is this?!”

“I’m sorry!”

“Is sorry enough?!”

“No, it’s not!”

“Then is not enough?!”

“Actually, it was sunny until 10 minutes ago!”

“……”

Rimaxwe thought about it carefully, and if it was sunny until 10 minutes ago, it would have been difficult to predict the weather.

Rimaxwe glared at the captain and said.

“You will put on your military gear and run 100 laps around the deck when the weather gets better.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rimaxwe sent the captain away and looked at the sky again.

He had a bad feeling for some reason.

After several tens of minutes, a strong wind blew from north to south, and the sea began to surge and waves began to crash.

As it was, the ships would all drift south due to the wind and currents, so Rimaxwe ordered all ships.

“All ships lower their sails and row!”

All the ships lowered their sails to reduce the effect of the wind, and several oars came out on the sides of the ships to resist the currents, and the sailors began to row.

As more time passed, rain and wind of storm level began to fall, and the ships swayed on the waves like riding a roller coaster and collided with each other.

Suddenly, from the north in the distance, the waves gradually grew larger and became a tsunami-level wave large enough to cover all 100 ships.

Rimaxwe grabbed the railing at the entrance of the captain’s cabin, fixed his arm with a rope, and shouted.

“Everyone hold on!”

When all the sailors grabbed what they could and fixed their bodies to the ship with ropes, the tsunami was almost upon the 100 ships.

Some soldiers raised their heads and looked at the approaching tsunami, and they saw something in the shape of humans inside the tsunami.

A soldier shouted.

“There are humans in the tsunami!”

The moment Rimaxwe raised his head and put mana into his eyes to see the tsunami, terror filled his eyes.

What Rimaxwe saw was countless Sahagins with sharp teeth and holding harpoons inside the giant tsunami.

Rimaxwe shouted.

“It’s Sahagins!”

It was the first time he had seen so many Sahagins, who were counted as legends of the Mermaid Sea along with the mermaids, this close, but it didn’t seem like they were coming in a good way.

Most of the sailors closed their eyes when the tsunami fell on the ship, but Rimaxwe, who had experienced all kinds of hardships, kept his eyes wide open and wrapped his kukri in aura and stretched it forward.

Soon, the tsunami covered the 100 ships.

Cheolpeodeok Kuaaaang Bogeul bogeul

The 100 ships sank under the tsunami for a moment and then rose back to the surface.

There were only 30 ships around, and Sahagins were slaughtering sailors who couldn’t come to their senses on the deck.

Perhaps the remaining 70 ships sank because they could not withstand the weight of the gold coins.

When the tsunami ended, the dark clouds disappeared completely, and sunny weather came out.

Fortunately, Rimaxwe’s flagship rose to the surface.

When Rimaxwe came to his senses and looked ahead, a Sahagin was dead on his sword with its stomach pierced.

Most of the soldiers on the decks of the 30 ships that were floating on the water were dead, but there were still soldiers who were in the cabins or rowing.

Rimaxwe stood up and pointed a cylinder engraved with a magic circle towards the sky.

When Rimaxwe pressed the button on the cylinder, a red sphere of light flew from the cylinder into the sky, exploded, scattered red light in all directions, and made a loud noise that rang through all the ships, ppiiiiiiing.

This cylinder was a device to alert all ships of an emergency in a situation where ships were separated and communication was difficult.

The armed sailors who remained in the cabins and below on the 30 ships rushed out onto the deck and engaged in close combat with the Sahagins.

Most of the sailors were wet because water had entered the ships, but the sailors fought without caring.

When a sailor stabbed a Sahagin’s arm with a spear, the Sahagin screamed.

Another Sahagin spat green liquid from its mouth onto the face of the sailor who stabbed the spear, and the sailor’s face melted as the sailor screamed and died.

Two Sahagins rushed at Rimaxwe as well.

Rimaxwe dodged to the side and swung his kukri horizontally, separating the upper and lower bodies of one Sahagin.

Rimaxwe kicked the groin of another Sahagin with a push kick, and when the Sahagin fell, he grabbed the kukri in reverse and stabbed it from top to bottom to kill it.

Rimaxwe now knew why ships did not come from the Mermaid Sea.

“You bastards were the culprits! You monsters!”

In the gap where Rimaxwe was shouting, a Sahagin threw a harpoon, but Rimaxwe swung his kukri and knocked it away.

When Rimaxwe looked around, countless Sahagins were clawing at the sides of the ship with their sharp claws and climbing onto the deck.

The sides of all the ships were covered with Sahagins climbing from the sea to the deck.