Chapter 132

At last, the attack of the Great Jungle began.

Yuwon had been quietly watching it with his eyes closed from far away on the battlefield, observing everything through the five senses of the monstrous beasts. Then, while surveying the battlefield, Yuwon suddenly snapped his eyes open.

“Uh…? Why is Lady Valaris here…?”

The unexpected appearance of Renania Valaris. Renania Valaris was right in the heart of the enemy camp. Yuwon had thought of everyone there as enemies to be slaughtered, yet he hurriedly inspected the enemy lines again using small snakes—too insignificant to even be treated as proper beasts.

Before long, someone caught Yuwon’s eye. Though he did not know the man’s name, he remembered the face—a Valaris soldier. It was a soldier whose life Yuwon himself had once saved when he had distinguished himself during the Southern Subjugation Mission.

At that sight, Yuwon opened his eyes fully and let out a soft, bitter chuckle.

“…Ha, so that’s how it is.”

Back when he had lived as Tang Yuwon, Yuwon had never been a righteous man. If someone stood against the Tang Clan, his duty had been to eliminate them by any ruthless means necessary. Because of that, he understood immediately.

“They must have threatened Count Valaris and forcibly dragged the guides along. Worried that the Count might send some useless nobodies, they probably took Renania as a hostage and brought her with them. Honestly….”

For several hundred years, the House of Count Valaris had protected the southern reaches of the Aphahiel Empire. To take the Count’s only daughter hostage. The viciousness of Gion and the rebel faction that followed him made Yuwon smile.

“…You’ve done me a favor. If you go that far, then I won’t need to feel even a shred of guilt when I kill you.”

Perhaps it was nothing more than a convenient excuse. No—Yuwon himself knew well that it was merely an excuse. One way or another, the enemies were destined to die simply because they were subordinates of Gion and Ipalim.

‘Still, I’ll take this as my excuse.’

More than two hundred lives would soon fail to even be properly buried in this land, becoming food for monstrous beasts instead. In the end, all that blood would stain Yuwon’s hands. Thinking of the blood that would soon be spilled, he needed at least one such excuse.

‘Yes. I’m not the Heavenly Slaughter Star you speak of that calls forth blood, nor an evil god that devours the continent. I am merely the Emperor of the Empire who wishes to survive and return to his rightful place. You made me this way.’

As his resolve hardened, a chilling killing intent settled around Yuwon’s eyes. Soon after, his pupils stretched vertically, splitting long like a snake’s eyes. It was a phenomenon that occurred whenever he issued commands to monstrous beasts as the King of the River. Then, with that mouth, Yuwon recited a death warrant.

“Those bearing the mark of the Empire may be chewed alive or dissolved and drunk with venom—I don’t care. However, do not lay a hand on the southern soldiers. They are precious guests who have come seeking me. This is an order. If other beasts attempt to attack my guests, stand against them and protect them.”

After issuing the command, Yuwon’s eyes quickly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

‘Then I suppose it’s time for me to move as well.’

Yuwon, who had seemed content to stand with his hands clasped behind his back and wait, unfolded his lightness skill and headed toward the enemy camp. There was something Yuwon had to do.

Within the enemy camp, there was an opponent that only Yuwon could handle.

The deaths of two soldiers who had gone to secure drinking water signaled the beginning of the battle. After that, the fighting between the monstrous beasts and the pursuit force grew ever more intense. Drunk on the fresh scent of blood, the beasts went mad, launching frantic attacks lest even a single bite of prey be taken by another.

Srrrk—

The river churned, and monstrous beasts shaped like snakes, crocodiles, and turtles poured out onto the land and surged toward the enemy camp.

Faced with the sudden appearance of hordes of monstrous beasts, the pursuit force—who had been leisurely preparing camp—panicked completely and fell into utter chaos.

“U, ugh! A, a, alligator…! A m, monster!”

“U, ugh… what is all that?!”

Each one was on an entirely different level from any ordinary crocodile the soldiers had known. From creatures as small as a colt to ones as large as a small whale, reptilian beasts emerged in swarms.

Caught off guard, the soldiers made a great fuss as they hurriedly prepared for battle. But their opponent was far too unfavorable.

Soldiers who had no idea how to deal with beasts they had never seen before clashed with monstrous creatures that knew all too well what to do when facing prey. There was no need to even look at what followed—it was pure carnage.

“Argh!”

R, run away!”

The gaping jaws of crocodiles snapped up flailing soldiers, while snakes with venom glands hidden behind sharp fangs spewed poison. Creatures that hardly looked like turtles crushed and devoured soldiers’ flesh alive with iron-hard jaws.

If one hesitated even for a moment at the sight of a beast, that was the end.

“Kraaagh—!”

Muffled screams, uttered from within crocodile jaws, spread across the battlefield regardless of their volume, sending chills down the soldiers’ spines.

“U, ugh….”

Before the overwhelming might displayed by the beasts, the soldiers’ morale plummeted into the ground in an instant.

It was a pitiful end for elite troops who had once taken the lead in quietly purging opposing nobles while serving as Gion’s blade. But the trembling nobles they had once terrified and the beasts that instinctively craved blood and flesh were entirely different matters.

Their opponents now were the monstrous beasts of the Great Jungle, for whom survival itself was a continuous battle. They were nothing like the mediocre creatures that occasionally lost in the jungle’s competition for food and wandered into the Empire’s south.

From the moment they set foot in the Great Jungle, the pursuit force had mocked the beasts they thought were nothing more than animals weeded out on the continent. Now, swept away like fallen leaves, they could not even mount a proper counterattack against the beasts’ assault.

Clang clang clang clang—!

The commanders, who had been enjoying a brief respite while the soldiers prepared camp, finally grasped the situation and rang alarm bells as they rushed to join the fight.

“Don’t panic—fight back! They’re nothing more than slightly larger snakes! Don’t run—draw your swords and stand your ground!”

The words were easy to say, but far from easy to act on. After a long march, the pursuit force had only just begun to set their burdens down to rest. Fatigue from the entire day weighed on them, and their tension had already eased.

Though the commanders, now back to their senses, drew their swords in various places and encouraged the soldiers, the battlefield had already devolved into chaos. Each soldier was too busy trying to survive to heed those voices. The battlefield had long since become an inferno.

“Damn it…!”

Unable to simply watch the situation deteriorate, the commanders finally resorted to drastic measures. One captain, his expression suddenly hardening as if he had made up his mind, drew his sword.

Schring—

‘At times like this, I need to keep my head straight. I don’t know why Lord Ipalim isn’t stepping in, but if this continues, we’ll be scattered and annihilated without even fighting a proper battle.’

The captain swept the battlefield with a sharp gaze. Just then, a soldier being chased by a monstrous beast came running toward him. A desperate situation. The soldier, who had been fleeing blindly in the opposite direction of the beast, finally spotted the captain and ran toward him with a face full of relief.

“U, ugh! Someone help me! Ah! Captain! P, please save me—!”

The soldier’s luck ran out. The captain had been looking for someone to make an example of to break this deadlock. As the soldier ran toward him, the captain swung his sword at the man’s neck.

‘…I’m sorry.’

Slash—!

The sword, infused with mana, traced a clean arc centered on the soldier’s neck. The head of the soldier, who had been running happily, believing he was saved, flew off. His headless body staggered past the captain, took three more steps, and then collapsed.

The battlefield froze at that single strike. A ruthless method, but one with undeniable effect. Soldiers who had been running in terror of death snapped back to their senses and focused their attention on the captain who had slain an ally.

“You worthless bastards! Get a grip right now! From this moment on, anyone who tries to flee from the beasts will be treated as a deserter and executed by my own hand! Whether it’s two or three of you, band together and face the enemy!”

The extreme measure worked as intended. Perhaps thinking that dying one way or another made no difference, the soldiers gritted their teeth, stopped running, and began to confront the beasts.

‘It worked. This buys us some time. But… I’ve got a bad feeling. It doesn’t feel like this will end here. What in the world is Lord Ipalim doing right now….’

Having barely managed to rein in the one-sided flow of battle, the captain called Ipalim’s name in his heart.

The one who had launched a surprise attack, assassinated the Emperor, and killed Marcellus—Yuwon’s Guardian Knight and the leader of the Shadow Raven—was none other than Ipalim, who was also responsible for this pursuit force. Right now, the pursuit force needed him. Yet Ipalim had his own reasons for not stepping forward.

“So they’ve already overcome their fear over there. Not bad. You’ve got quite the capable subordinates.”

On the riverbank not far from the battlefield. Unlike the battlefield where blood splattered and flesh was torn apart, the riverbank was peaceful, as if the Great Jungle itself had never been attacked. And there, standing at one side, was Yuwon, smiling leisurely.

Opposite him, Ipalim ground his teeth as he sensed the main force falling into crisis.

“You bastard…! Don’t tell me you truly control monstrous beasts? Those Lehl Church bastards were right. You evil god…!”

“Calling an ordinary man an evil god—if there’s an evil god here, isn’t it you, who stabbed the master you once followed, Ipalim?”

“You—spouting such filth with that mouth of yours…!”

“I didn’t say anything wrong. Why are you getting so angry?”

At Yuwon’s words, Ipalim fell silent, pressing his lips tightly together. Into the ears of the silent Ipalim, Yuwon’s voice echoed coldly.

“You should never have come here.”

Yurion, the injured prince who had fled, and Ipalim, Gion’s watchdog. Two men who could not coexist under the same sky finally stood facing each other once more.

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