Chapter 184

***

***

Cassius, who had been sitting in the prison, stood up quickly. He felt a strange chill behind him.

He didn’t know why, but his heart suddenly felt uneasy.

“Hey! Hey!”

Unable to use his hands, he was forced to smash the bars with his shoulder, but no one came in.

And when Cassius thought something was wrong.

The door opened without a sound. Cassius was about to yell out, but his eyes widened.

“Cassius! Come out quickly.”

“Mother?”

“An evacuation order has been issued for this whole area. The glacier has broken, the Berg territory is finished. Come out, come on!”

The knight brought by Marchioness Kellyden hurriedly removed the thick iron bars. He also untied both of Cassius’s hands and feet.

Cassius hesitated a little, but put on the hat and cloak the Marchioness had brought with her.

“We must escape now. Now!”

“Marchioness of Kellyden.”

At that moment, a voice sounded faintly. The Marchioness’s face turned pale.

“High Priest……?”

It was High Priest Henoch. His cold eyes were filled with contempt.

“You are truly noble. In court, you didn’t say anything in fear of being punished. Do you know how many people died because of the sinners?”

“Oh High Priest! Please have mercy…!”

The Marchioness was stricken with despair. She was caught trying to help Cassius escape by the High Priest. Even though everyone was already anticipating Cassius’s death sentence, it was no longer an ordinary death.

Her mind went blank.

“High Priest! High Priest! It was my fault. Please, please do Kellyden a favor. Kellyden has Seria!”

“….”

“Seria will be more active as a Stern, so you can see to it that I and Cassius…!”

“Marchioness of Kellyden!”

High Priest Henoch could not hold back after all and finally exploded.

“Did you really just say that?! Are you saying that Stern has to risk her life to save your son? How can you be so brazen!” 

“High Priest…!”

“How dare you want Stern to sacrifice and beg for mercy…. It is truly horrifying.”

“….!”

“Take them away!”

The Marchioness of Kellyden and her knights were taken away, and Cassius was also thrown into the new prison. Boom! Being thrown to the floor, Cassius glared at the holy knight who had shoved him in.

But the holy knight’s eyes were much bigger. They were filled with hatred.

“It is because of trash like you that my colleagues died.”

“….”

“Everyone knew exactly why Stern cut ties with the Kellyden. The Marchioness will be executed with you for trying to help you escape, so wait for the day you die.”

Hearing the words of the knight, Cassius intuitively realized. They must have known that his mother was going to infiltrate and had deliberately pretended not to know to catch them in the act.

It was clear that they did not want to miss this opportunity to team up with the capital.

Cassius was angry. He continuously made an effort to calm himself down, telling himself to endure a little longer. To hold on until  Lina became the only Stern and Saint.

That would be nice.

‘What if I can’t?’

Cassius so far had little instinctive fear of death and the demons due to the magi in his body. However, he had just been purified and had almost returned to his natural human senses.

It was a physiological fear that humans have no choice but to perceive.

Cassius’s face gradually distorted as he sat on the floor.

“Let me out! Now! Let me out right now!”

He pounded hard on the bars with his body, but there was no reply in return. As Cassius began to gasp more and more.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

He heard the sound of human footsteps, Cassius’s face, which was pleased, froze at the sight.

It was Kalis Haneton. Hollow cheeks smeared with blood. He was not in a good condition. Kalis had purposely not worn the constellation armor for fear of provoking Lina. So it was a dangerous mission, and also he was more seriously injured than expected.

Kalis entered the prison with a key he had received in advance from the Holy Knight.

“Cassius Kellyden.”

“…What is it?”

“The Knights of Kellyden were wiped out.”

“…!”

“Nissos Kellyden is dead too.”

“What…!”

Shocked, Cassius sprang to his feet. His eyes began to tremble.

“Why did Nissos die! Where is his body?”

“He was killed by the demons. It’s all your fault.”

Cassius staggered and fell down.

“Why is Nissos…….?”

Kalis stared at Cassius with an expressionless face.

Cassius would still be breathing and would be alive until this terrible commotion was over. Perhaps he might not be even executed after that.

This was because there was a possibility that no imperial court or great temple would be left that could proceed with the execution. The situation outside was that urgent.

When the time comes, he (Kalis) would have the conscience to kill himself. What about Cassius?

It was the virtue of removal.

The sound of a sword being taken out of the sword case made Cassius raise his head. Ominousness ate a little at his heart. With a cold expression he had never seen before, Kalis lifted his sword. At that moment, both of Cassius’ eyes widened.

Whoosh!

Cassius’s neck split in half. Blood spread out.

***

“Berg territory is Berg territory.”

Nissos let out a cold breath and inwardly admired it. He knew that they had a duty to protect the glacier, but he was surprised that they possessed the technology and materials to build a temporary wall so quickly by strongly weaving silver tree branches.

“But who is that knight swinging her sword?”

“She’s Stern’s knight. But she doesn’t seem to be human.”

The knights were whispering. Nissos’s gaze was also turned in that direction.

There stood a monster.

It was Abigail Orrin. She was Seria’s personal guard and a knight of Stern.

She was by far the best in the group of elite knights who had gathered together to defeat the demons. The number of demons killed alone easily exceeded several hundred.

Nissos didn’t have time to rest either. What Cassius did was a sin that could not be forgiven by the whole continent. Nissos had to kill as many demons as he could.

When he was about to work on his sword.

“Master Nissos Kellyden.”

Nissos turned around and bowed his head lightly. It was Kalis Haneton. His pitch black eyes looked directly at Nissos

“I lied to your brother.”

When Cassius was mentioned, Nissos’s face scrunched up. His brother who had tried to kill Stern and had even broken the magic boundary.

He didn’t want to ask anything else, and he wasn’t in a situation to ask.

Fortunately, Kalis moved away without adding a word. Nissos sighed and suddenly looked up at the sky.

“Why is it snowing so much?”

It was then.

The bells on the guard station began to ring deafeningly.

The bloody knights hurried back on their horses. That was not all.

“Stern!”

There was also a lot of blood on the body of the unconscious Myote Stern. Instantly, all the knights froze.

“Healing Priest! Healing Priest!”

“Call all the priests waiting in the palace to the Berg territory!”

“Where is Seria Stern? I’ll redirect the movements!”

“Priest! The Imperial Kingsguard has arrived!”

Half an hour later.

A state of supreme emergency was declared throughout the Glick Empire.

***

The situation had been completely overturned.

With the almost completely collapsed boundary line, demons poured in endlessly, and the bodies of numerous knights rolled across the snow. The Berg Knights did not suffer any casualties, but that was all. The demons were already a number that humans could not withstand.

They had to go back to the guard post where the walls were built with silver trees, reorganize, and carry out a full attack.

Even so, it was unknown if there were any people left who lived in this Berg territory.

A blizzard, which could now be called a heavy snowstorm, blew constantly.

Myote was carried away with an injury to her back. The 100 or so knights in front of her were killed or injured. Despite Stern’s urgent return, the temperature of the constellation gold armor worn by the knights in the mountain range did not drop.

This meant that another Stern was approaching within a five-kilometer radius.

“Hold the line! Stern is coming!”

Alliot’s voice rang out loudly.

“We must hold out until the advance group returns!”

Lesche strode rapidly, holding the heavy, large red flag in one hand. This was where Lina had been hiding. The insignia that she must have broken was lying in a mess, and the same with the equally broken relics.

Kung!

Lesche’s eyes quickly cooled as he inserted the flag in the snowfield.

Between the broken relics, he caught sight of the Stern insignia, black and shimmering. A magi-stained insignia was unheard of. A strangely cracked insignia. Lesche’s eyes hardened as he walked in that direction.

The words were engraved on the metallic surface.

Eventually, the letters covered the cracked insignia.

Lesche took out his sword. He thrust it hard into the Stern insignia.

The center of the hard insignia was completely penetrated, and the cracks in the insignia became even deeper. Seria’s name finally disappeared.

“Crazy b*stard.”

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips. For now, he thought he should hand it over to the Great Temple.

Lesche tore up the flag lying on the floor, picked up the contaminated insignia, and tied it up.

Suddenly Seria came to his mind. If she saw this, she would have asked if he only wrapped the insignia every day. 

A smile came out.

“Seria.”

Only white snow fell constantly in the mountain range where the green had disappeared.

In the midst of this, demons crawled when he was about to forget. The fact that there were more demons slain today than demons slain all these years was astonishing.

Lesche, with the insignia in his hand, raised his body. It was at that moment. Suddenly his chest felt heavy. He covered his mouth with the back of his hand and coughed lightly.

He looked down at the insignia.

“…”

There was red blood on it. It was the blood that he just vomited.

***