Chapter 139: 076. Rescue -2 (Part One)

**

Ruppel’s whole body shivered as he scanned his new surroundings. He was currently stuck inside a prison cell filled with mouldy smell.

He could see a prisoner and burly torturer wearing a leather hood beyond the steel bars of the cell on the other side.

The torturer was busy whipping the prisoner without even a hint of mercy. The more the poor man’s scream reverberated throughout the prison, the greater Ruppel’s fear grew in his heart.

No matter where he looked, this place looked like a torture chamber designed solely for the purpose of tormenting and hurting the unlucky prisoners.

“Dammit, to think it’s that angel! Such a nonsensical tale was true all along?! Fine, we shall flee from this place. At least we must secure the Third Imperial Prince before escaping from here!”

A rotund man and a bunch of Necromancers escorting him abruptly barged into the torture chamber that also served as a prison. He was none other than Evelyum’s castellan.

While not even bothering to hide his pale complexion, he angrily kicked the torturer in the leg. “Hurry up and open the cell! Or it’ll be you who dies next!”

The torturer, who obviously had no idea what was going on outside, could only scratch his head awkwardly before opening the cell door.

Ruppel became puzzled by what the castellan had said.

The angel? And what’s this about dying?

The torturer extended his hand and grabbed Ruppel before forcibly dragging him outside, which gave the latter a chance to get a better look at the décor outside his cell.

What greeted his view was a torture chamber slathered in pools of blood everywhere; prisoners who lost their limbs, prisoners moaning in pain after all that merciless whipping, and even a dead prisoner with burnt flesh could be seen dangling on the ceiling and the walls.

Every single one of them had suffered an extreme level of inhumane torture.

Was he also going to…?

“Uwaaaahk?! L-let me go! I-I’m Ruppel Olfolse! Torturing a member of the Imperial Family is against the law of the continent!”

Ruppel quickly cried out as the fear of getting tortured in this place quickly overtook his rationale.

“What are you doing! Drag him outside already! We don’t have time for this rubbish! We need to flee from this place before that deranged serial murderer finds us first!”

The castellan’s angry yell prompted the torturer to grab Ruppel’s hair and proceed to drag the latter away.

Even now, the figure of Evelyum’s castellan was trembling away in anxiousness, all because of a communique that had arrived earlier in the day.

It said…

-Immediately locate the Crown Imperial Prince and the individual suspected of being the Third Imperial Prince. Upon failure to do so, a military attack against the city will immediately commence.

The army led by King Rahamma was apparently headed this way.

The reason? Evidently, the Imperial Family members of the Theocratic Empire were hiding somewhere in the city of slaves, Evelyum.

At the earliest, the king’s army should arrive at dawn, which was in a few hours. This meant that the castellan had to flee from the city before they showed up.

If he managed to secure the Third Imperial Prince while fleeing, then he might get a chance to keep his head.

‘Besides, the castle is being attacked right now. The creature called the angel is here. Without a doubt, that bastard is aiming for…’

…The member of the Imperial Family.

It seemed that the spooky tale about the Theocratic Empire summoning an angel to do its bidding was true all along.

A creature was kitted out in a set of white-coloured armour covering its whole body, and it was also leading a legion of holy undead; it had a massive musket rifle in its right hand, and a tall and sturdy shield on its left.

This was the monster birthed by the Theocratic Empire that nearly erased the Black Order out of existence in Humite!

The ‘angel’!

The castellan shuddered once more. “We shall flee from this place right away. Bring the Third Imperial Prince along, now!”

The torturer forcibly dragged Ruppel away.

“Stop, stop it-! Save me! Someone save me! Mommy, dad, Allen! Anyone, please save me…!”

Just as Ruppel began crying out in desperation…

The torturer’s head suddenly exploded into gory bits. Blood rained down everywhere, belatedly followed by the noise of a single gunshot.

The castellan who witnessed this sight froze up stiffly on the spot and turned his head like a broken doll. The angel raiding the fortress was standing in front of his eyes.

…While holding a tall shield and pointing at him with the muzzle of a big musket, no less.

The armoured creature’s eyes gleamed sharply under the helm as divinity-laden breaths exhaled out from the open gap of the armour.

The castellan freaked out in terror and pointed at the angel. “Uwaaahk?! Kill, kill that thing, now!”

However, before the Necromancers had a chance to raise their staves, the musket’s trigger was pulled first. The loud gunshot noise created by the ‘Burst Fire’ skill rocked the hallway.

A terrifying noise resounded out and a portion of the prison exploded into bits, creating a huge hole in the wall.

Ruppel hugged himself and trembled in fear.

The castellan and the Necromancers faltered before falling to the floor, looking like bee hives draped in robes full of holes.

“Heeeiiiik?!”

Ruppel became even more frightened by what he saw. Which was understandable, since corpses filled with holes all over their bodies were the embodiment of one’s worst nightmare, after all.

After turning his head, he saw the creature referred to as the ‘angel’ extending its hand towards him.

“U-waahk! S-stop, please stop…!”

“I came to rescue you.”

Ruppel flinched in surprise from that familiar voice, then stared at the angel’s face. The unidentified assailant slowly grabbed its helm before taking it off.

Pure-white particles of divinity scattered around and a familiar face revealed itself.

That face belonged to his unsightly little brother.

It was the face that belonged to the Seventh Imperial Prince, the one Ruppel so badly wanted to trample on.

…Allen Olfolse.

He was the angel who frequently appeared in Aslan’s spooky campfire tale.

Ruppel’s jaw dropped. For some reason, the rays of salvation seemed to be radiating brightly from his little brother’s figure.

“A-Allen!”

Never before in his life did Ruppel feel this glad to see his youngest brother. Not as a sworn enemy, but as his saviour, no less!

Allen reached down and easily lifted Ruppel up.

**

(TL: In 1st person POV.)

This dude, seriously now. He can be such a pitiful guy sometimes.

I slung Ruppel on my shoulder and exited from the prison.

“Lord Angel! Please free the other subjects!”

After turning my head, I spotted Tina and Hans belatedly entering the castle after me. While being guarded by the mummies, they reached my location.

Behind them were the slaves previously imprisoned within the fortress. All of them used to be regular citizens, but somehow ended up in their current state after getting on the bad books of the castellan or became ‘toys’ out of some malicious sense of amusement.

“We’ve already finished preparing, sir. All we need to do now is to escape from here as soon as possible!”

Hans informed me of the progress and I nodded in understanding right before turning my head.

After checking out the unfolding scenery outside, I figured that things should wrap up pretty soon.

My mummies were moving around nimbly and quickly. The bandages under their balaclavas whipped about from their rapid movements, while the eerie glows in their eyes gleamed sharply in the night air.

They continued cutting down the soldiers and pirouetted around gracefully, and then swung their scimitars some more. Their movements were so much more fluid compared to the skeletons. It was almost as if I was watching pro dancers performing a routine.

Screams rocked the night sky while blood splattered everywhere.

“Uwaaahk!”

“Dammit, there’s simply no way that I can fight off a mummy!”

The Necromancers knew all too well just what kind of creatures these mummies were. These undead were the best of the elite soldiers nurtured for the express purpose of protecting a king from Aslan’s ancient past.

Over one thousand soldiers willingly went through the mummification process and became a member of the undying legion. As the guardians of the king, they were objects of fear even to Aslan’s Necromancers.

“Everyone, run away!”

A portion of the Necromancers and soldiers aimed for an opening and tried to flee through the fortress gate.

What a smart decision that was. Unfortunately for them, though, I wasn’t planning to let a single one escape.

My name had been muttered out in public already, and the soldiers around us must’ve heard it, too. So… it’d be smarter of me to take care of all those loose ends right here.

But before my mummies could pursue and slaughter the fleeing soldiers…

Swords of divinity suddenly flew in out of nowhere and stabbed all the runaways to death. I was taken aback by this new development and stared at the fortress gate.

“I was planning to have a face-to-face talk with the dear castellan, but what in the world is going on here?” A lone middle-aged man was leisurely strolling in through the open gap while loosening his neck muscles. He looked around the area, observed the mummies closely, and then spat out some words of amazement. “Holy undeads? Goodness me! I did hear about them before from a twisted little birdy, but wow, to think that they really do exist! In that case, I guess that angel or whatever is also real, too?”

He continued studying the mummies with great interest from this and that angle, all the while the corners of his lips curled up in a smirk. He then raised his head to stare at me standing on top of one of the fortress’s walls.

“By the way, I should ask you this. Are you an ally? Or…” While saying that, he materialised several swords of light all around himself and pointed them at me. “…An enemy?”

As I stared back at him, I couldn’t help but get stunned nearly out of my wits.

[Name: White Olfolse.

Age: 48

Attributes: tough physique, transcendental divinity reserve, excellent combat ability, disposition of a benevolent ruler, specialised light magic.

+ When will I ever locate that son of mine?]

After taking one look at him with [Mind’s Eye], I finally figured it out.

“…Father?”

The Crown Imperial Prince who had been missing from the Theocratic Empire for the past eleven years – White Olfolse.

The father of the Seventh Imperial Prince’s body who I had never seen before was now standing down there on the ground looking back at me.

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