“Th-that’s Lord Soren’s head.”

“N-no way he lost to the Dark Knight.”

“Is there any meaning in continuing now?”

“W-we have lost.”

One after another, the soldiers of House Ironvale began dropping their weapons in surrender. They knew that continuing the war was meaningless. Now that their commander, who was at Level Nine of the True Sage Realm, was dead, they did not stand a chance against the warriors from Hundred Sky Mountains.

Out of the three hundred thousand soldiers of House Ironvale, only fifty thousand remained alive, while a thousand had died from the thirty thousand soldiers of the Banes’ army.

House Ironvale had lost the battle, and Hundred Sky Mountains secured their first victory against the Azure Sun Empire.

—

“The other soldiers can take care of such tasks, Your Highness,” Robert said as I carried an injured soldier to the treatment camp inside the fortress.

“The others are busy gathering the bodies of the fallen,” I replied, still clad completely in my armor. “Besides, I am the one they are following. It is my duty to take care of them.”

I placed the soldier inside the large treatment camp where hundreds of soldiers lay on the ground, groaning or crying from their wounds. The disciples from the Flowerbane Sect, experts in healing, were busy providing treatment.

“Ay told ya this is just a damn scratch! Ay can heal myself,” Jambavan muttered in annoyance as three beautiful ladies from the Flowerbane Sect surrounded him around the chair.

“No can do, Lord Jambavan,” one of the ladies said with narrowed eyes. “Your knuckles are bleeding, and the slash on your back needs immediate treatment.”

“Lord Jambavan, please do not be stubborn and allow us to treat you,” said another. “Not only did you fight bravely on the frontlines, you also protected the soldiers behind you. We cannot bear to see our brave hero in pain.”

Jambavan was about to retort again, but I joined in and added,

“Accept their treatment, Jambavan. They want to convey their gratitude to you in this way.”

“Your Highness!” the ladies greeted me with bows.

“Do not mind me. Focus on the treatment,” I told them.

Jambavan gave me a sharp look but then sighed, accepting their treatment.

“Where is Vyaghra?” I asked. “He also suffered several injuries. Some of them looked quite serious.”

“Hah, don’t try to convince him to get treated,” Jambavan retorted. “He would rather die before lettin’ a mortal treat him.”

“…”

“Don’t worry about him. Those wounds are no big deal fer him,” Jambavan said, sensing the distress behind my silence.

Both Jambavan and Vyaghra were at the early stage of the Greater Spirit Beast Realm, making them as powerful as two True Sages of the same level or a single True Sage at the mid stage.

However, their strength could not be compared through such logic because of the Tree of Divinity they possessed, which allowed them to use Divine Soulforce.

Because of their damaged Tree of Divinity, they could not use their Divine Soulforce for extended periods.

If they fought with their full strength, they could easily defeat a late stage True Sage cultivator and even hold their own against an early stage Eternal Sage. The reason Vyaghra managed to sneak up on Titan and Jambavan pinned down Aethon, who were both at the late stage Eternal Sage Realm, was because they focused all their Divine Soulforce into intimidation.

Their surprise attack, the suppression of their Divine Soulforce, and their presence as Ancient Gods made all the Sect Leaders believe they were overwhelmingly powerful.

In truth, if they had faced Aethon and Titan head on, they would have obviously lost.

—

I moved outside the treatment camp and reached the basement of the fortress where the protection array of the fortress was engraved.

“What brings you here, Sir Morningstar? Or should I call you Your Highness?” said a blonde man wearing black sunglasses, sitting beside a tied old man in formal attire in the corner of the room.

“Call me whatever you wish,” I replied before continuing, “Is this the person you bought using Soul Stones?”

“Yes, Sir Morningstar. He is the butler of House Ironvale for the past fifty years and the most trusted servant of Astrid Ironvale,” Tyrion, the blonde man, replied. “Just a couple hundred kilograms of Mid Tier Soul Stones and he not only spilled the inside information about the weak location that needed to be attacked on the wall to bring it down, but also disabled the protection array and those deadly ballistas.”

“Then why do you have him tied?” I asked, my deep voice rumbling through the helm.

“Because he was planning to run away after activating the self destruct function of the array,” Tyrion revealed.

“Untie him.”

Tyrion gave me a confused look but then released a sigh and untied the butler.

“Pl-please spare me, Sir!” The butler crawled toward my legs and pleaded, his eyes filled with fear and his body drenched in sweat. “I have been with Astrid Ironvale since he was young. I can share everything about his weakne—”

“Tyrion, you did wrong,” I said, ignoring the butler. “The person who tried to backstab you should not be tied.”

In a sudden blur, I swung my blade, slicing off the butler’s head.

“They should be executed instantly.”

“I-I understand, Sir,” Tyrion replied, shaken and intimidated by the sudden execution of the butler.

“I assume you must have already taken the signature needed to activate the array from the butler,” I said, turning back. “Activate the array and gather some soldiers with you to fix the outer wall.”

“Y-yes, Sir!”

Tyrion was not the only person who had infiltrated the Empire. Like him, all the other members of the Infiltration Unit, personally trained by Vyaghra, had infiltrated different duchies of the Empire. They provided us with information about battle units, the internal structure of the fortresses, and the core details of secret plans by buying high ranking officials with Soul Stones.

How a few stones could make someone betray their country and people was a part of human nature that I still could not understand.

—

After leaving the basement, I arrived at the highest tower of the fortress. I placed my helm on the stone wall, my eyes fixed on the country of Ironvale before me.

It was an industrial estate with numerous chimneys mounted at regular intervals across the country. The buildings were mostly made of stone in a beautiful medieval European style.

There was not a single soul roaming in the streets. At first glance, the country seemed completely deserted. However, I could clearly sense the presence of people hiding inside their houses.

Soren must have been too confident in his victory that he did not even try to evacuate his citizens in case they lost the war.

If some other nation had infiltrated House Ironvale, the fate of these people would have been far worse than death.

After taking a brief glance at the country below, my eyes moved toward the heavy black armor I was wearing.

The chestplate, shoulder caps, and vambraces carried countless scratch marks from my battle against the Ironvales. If not for this armor, I would have been saved twice or thrice by Ruru’s blessing.

“Fuck! I am still too weak,” I muttered, my brows furrowed in frustration.

I removed the vambrace and glove from my right arm, revealing the yin yang mark on my palm.

“I need to become stronger.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep