Chapter 124 : Chapter 124

Chapter 124 - Self-Defense

The residents of Eclipse looked up at the sky amidst the unexpected attack.

Things with no facial features to speak of except for mouths swarmed like a horde of bees.

The Gluttonous Ghouls clung to anything, be it Eclipse's buildings or its walls, with their massive mouths.

Their mouths, suctioned on like suckers, began to drain the domain's power source.

It was at that moment that the streetlights, which had glowed all day through magitech-integrated power circuits, began to flicker.

At the sight of the precarious light, which seemed ready to go out at any moment, the creator spewed fire from her mouth.

“Aaargh! Do those things know what they're messing with!”

The illegitimate daughter of Wisdom gnashed her teeth and ran to the underground warehouse.

There was something she had made in preparation for a time like this.

In fact, the reason she had prepared was also because of the Young Ladies.

“I won't be helplessly defeated again! Whether it's ghosts or blood relatives, I'll stop them somehow!”

Because this was her new home.

The foundation for the life she would live from now on.

She would protect it even if she had to throw away everything she had.

Clank─

The hand that held a hammer every day now held a grayish-blue cylindrical barrel.

The muzzle was trumpet-shaped, and below the handle was a glass orb the size of a face.

Holding the object of unknown purpose tightly, she climbed the stairs.

The blacksmiths of Bellir, who had taken refuge, were trembling at the vibrating walls and ceiling.

But they could not remain so.

“Are you going to just cower like this? We came all this way with great difficulty, and we memorized magic circuits and runes until our heads ached! If we do nothing, everything will be taken away!”

The ten blacksmiths recruited by Jubel and taught by Josephine.

Those who could be called apprentices saw what their master had brought out.

“Jo, Josephine-nim…! But that hasn't even been field-tested yet…! It's dangerous!”

Of course, she knew.

But it was unlikely that only safe things would happen while a Wisdom lived on Millesdusk land.

“There's no other way. The Spirit Suction Device I made will surely be of help, and this is my only countermeasure against Spirit Sorcery.”

The day of the Second and Third Daughters' visit, or perhaps the first raid.

Even though she had hidden and trembled just like the blacksmiths now, she had witnessed the one-sided violence with the Gatekeeper.

Afterwards, when she asked Lubosch about the said blood relatives, she learned about the dangers of Spirit Sorcery.

“We have to fight. I have no intention of letting this city, which is like a collection of the continent's top technologies, become a ghost-infested mess.”

“…Damn it. There’s no way I can’t follow.”

“That’s true. Where else could we learn these amazing technologies if not here.”

The men, hot as a furnace, quickly raided the warehouse with a single decision and resolve.

There were enough prototype Spirit Suction Devices for everyone.

“We need to eliminate the ghosts that are stuck to the walls and sucking up the yin energy! Only then will the wall's mechanisms activate!”

Yeah─!!

The blacksmiths went past the underground Bellir and came up to the surface.

The sight of ghosts vomiting out other ghosts with the magic power they had sucked up was a nightmare to behold.

“Ugh! Do you know how much this costs!”

But for an artisan, the real nightmare is the destruction of property.

“Die!”

She aimed the muzzle at one that was stuck to a streetlight.

Precise aiming was unnecessary.

With a decent feel for it and some courage, the ghost would be dealt with like water flowing down a drain.

Clack─

Kuuwaaaaaaaah─

The Gluttonous Ghoul that had been attached to the body of the streetlight was sucked in like smoke.

The place it was contained was the glass orb connected to the barrel and serving as the center of the suction device.

“S-success! It’s a success, Foreman-nim!”

As one of the blacksmiths said, the inside of the glass orb was filled with murky smoke.

“At this rate, we can contain more than ten per orb! Move out!”

Those holding the suction devices ran towards the main gate.

But that path was not safe either.

Of course, they didn't let it become dangerous.

“Look over there! It's Porter-nim!”

“Porter-nim!”

The multi-purpose porter, with a retinue of twenty maids behind him. His name, Lubosch.

Today, instead of a mop, he held glistening daggers in both hands.

The slick blades were coated in oil.

And the oil was made by squeezing the powder byproduct left by naturally occurring spirits.

However, this oil was impossible to even touch and apply for anyone who hadn't learned Spirit Sorcery.

And it wasn't just the porter who wielded such blades.

Swishswishswishswishswish─

The bulky ghosts that rushed at the group of the living were instantly sliced to pieces.

The things that the Gluttonous Ghouls had eaten and spat out were cut down within seconds of being born.

The cutting was done by short blades, but the long sword paths left behind were not singular.

The white of the maid uniforms mixed, and the ghost horde was ground to pieces.

The maid corps danced like ballerinas, creating a flurry and moving as if drawing a vortex.

The master of those puppets muttered lowly.

“Window-Wiping Second Form. Polishing.”

The path was cleared with a skill name that seemed to be packed with the wisdom of life.

“Run. I will provide escort.”

“Th-thank you for that, but!”

“That Foreman-nim over there will be left alone! Please protect the Foreman-nim!”

His heart was commendable.

But that Foreman over there was not alone either.

“There are others who went that way separately. Hurry.”

Lubosch pulled his hood down again and moved the maid corps.

The wooden dolls, which had become twenty in number because they were so good at their jobs.

Lubosch, who had been given the puppets bound by the Forest Witch's puppetry sorcery, had once again become twenty people.

It was quite a strain on his strength, but he still had to do it.

Because that was.

‘Because I am an agent of the Intelligence Department specializing in blood relatives.’

He protected the people here with pride and a sense of duty.

The foreman getting farther away didn't matter.

As he had said before, people had gone that way as well.

“I took a short nap after staying up all night, and I wake up to this.”

“Kio!”

The young man with distinct green hair approached, with tree trunks wrapped around both his arms.

The color of those trunks was anything but ordinary.

Trunks nearly as gray as birch trees, with blue leaves.

It was a plant with a peculiar diet of eating ghosts like water.

“My father is here too. He went to check on the other magitech institution buildings, though. Is that a new product?”

“Ah, this? I don't really have any plans to sell it, but it's true I made it recently.”

“It's because of the blood relatives who came before, isn't it.”

Josephine nodded heavily.

She lifted her hood slightly and looked up at the sky.

The Gatekeeper-nim and the Butler-nim, fighting against an incomparably different number of spirits than here on the ground.

They were struggling in their own ways.

But that was why there was an anomaly they had not noticed.

“Those soul fragments falling from the sky…. Don't they seem to be glowing somewhere?”

Moreover, for some reason, it felt as if she had even made eye contact with the ghost in the uniform.

It was looking down.

It looked down upon the sky below it and the ground further below.

─Bind. Scatter. ‘Soul Shackles.’

It was the second time she had heard the voice, like a declaration.

All the spirits that had been cut and slashed spread their chill.

All the spirits that were scattered about like cut paper, except for those sucked up by the suction device, did so.

“We have to get down, for now!”

Kio grabbed Josephine and pulled her down.

It was at that moment.

Kugugugugugugugung─

The pulverized spirits scattered in all directions.

They relentlessly poured out the cold of the dead, which they were born with, onto the living.

Kio, who had thrown himself over Josephine to shield her, gritted his teeth.

It felt as if his spine would freeze and break off at any moment.

No. This was a fundamentally different kind of cold.

‘It feels like it’s freezing not just my skin, but my internal organs…!’

He somehow managed to cover his back with the tree trunks and avoid the sudden sorrow of the dead.

.

.

.

[…You’re using a trivial trick.]

“It may be trivial to a demon, but it works quite well on those down below.”

The gray butler pulled the spirits connected by the chains towards him.

“Thanks to you cutting the spirits into small pieces, the range of the explosion has widened. It's a bit weaker because you cut them too small. But this is satisfying enough.”

Whisper smiled.

The smile on his ageless face seemed to have a wrinkle somewhere.

“Trivial beings have their own ways of fighting trivial battles.”

[Such prattle.]

He covered his rock-like body in a dark purple flame.

But this heat was needed elsewhere.

“Butler. Switch places.”

[This is my fight. Stay out of it.]

“It is not your fight. It is Eclipse's fight. Do you not know the difference.”

[…….]

Amon's gaze fell below.

A sharp frost had formed in the already chilly domain.

The ground and glass windows were covered in a gray frost without a single gap, and the same went for the people.

A chilling ash that piled up on their outer clothes.

Just touching it made the body tremble, and being enveloped by it made the soul tremble.

The heat of his entire body was needed more down there than up here.

“That woman will know a way. She is the second most cunning in this domain.”

[…Head Maid-nim.]

The Marquis of the demon world seemed reluctant to leave his enemy, but he had to withdraw now.

He could tell by looking at the butler fellow who was slightly shifting his body to prepare to receive him.

“There's no time. Hurry.”

[Damn it.]

Amon descended rapidly and dove into Eclipse.

As the heat source disappeared, the area around here also grew rapidly cold.

Furthermore, the appearance of those beings also played a part.

“Second Daughter-nim. Third Daughter-nim. Was your journey here peaceful?”

The gray butler bowed deeply to receive his masters.

The Young Ladies, who left the footprints of one despite being two, descended, sitting on blue and gray butterflies.

A number of butterflies too fearsome to count flapped their wings and flew around the Young Ladies.

As if riding a cloud sculpted from butterflies.

The Young Ladies sat comfortably on the butterflies and looked down from the highest point.

“As expected. The Youngest isn't here.”

Even after painting the domain with the cold of the dead, the master was nowhere to be seen.

The reason was simple.

He wasn't here.

He had crossed a river of no return, so he was not here.

“The only ones we need to take care of in a big way are the Gatekeeper you saw last time and the demon of the altar.”

The gray butler, who had arrived first and assessed the situation, reported.

He himself was in a sorry state.

His body was melting here and there from the demon's heat, like ice left out on a summer day.

The Second Daughter, who had glanced at her subordinate from atop the butterfly cloud, gestured.

“Stay up there.”

“I will come running the moment you call.”

“That won't be necessary.”

Srrrk—

The Third Daughter stood up from the butterflies.

“Because this time, we’re not playing around.”

“……”

The Gatekeeper readjusted his grip on his sword hilt.

Family law or not, he didn't want to be caught and turned into a ghost that couldn't even die.

Perhaps it was very obvious.

“I'll give you one last chance.”

Below the Second Daughter's emotionless eyes, a persuasion with no inflection continued.

“Live as our knight, not the dead Youngest's. Then I can let you keep your consciousness.”

“……”

She had said the dead Youngest.

Those blood relatives were certain of the Fifth Son's death.

Had they obtained some kind of reliable information?

Even if that were the case, the answer was no.

It was for a very personal reason.

“If I become a spirit, can I breathe?”

It had nothing to do with the Fifth Son.

“…What does that mean?”

“If I become a spirit, can I bleed?”

“Those are meaningless questions.”

“They are meaningful.”

At least to the Gatekeeper, they were.

For someone for whom this was their entire life, it was tantamount to having their life denied.

“The Young Ladies do not know something that even a young boy like the Fifth Son knows.”

“…What?”

The Fifth Son was not like that.

He respected combat, acknowledged honor, and didn't stop there, even presenting the next stage of Cursed Swordsmanship.

And now.

He had to once again unleash the ultimate form of Cursed Swordsmanship that he had brought out in this very spot that day.

‘The Path of the Asura is the only answer.’

I didn't know if it was a way to overcome this situation, but it was a way to turn it around.

He brought his hand that was not holding the sword to his chest.

Kuk-kung─

He applied pressure to his heart as if pulling a trigger.

“I’ll take that as a refusal.”

Two spirits floated up behind the Third Daughter.

They belonged to each of the two Young Ladies.

A knight with an immensely large greatsword and a creature that looked as if a candle had been kneaded into the shape of a person.

‘The Third Daughter-nim's spirit, which uses physical attacks. On the other hand, the Second Daughter-nim uses a spirit with attribute attacks.’

With two spirits from opposite extremes attacking together, it was a living hell for the one facing them.

He had never thought he would be the one to directly experience that living hell.

Fwoooooosh─

The Third Daughter's knight spirit raised its greatsword, which was even larger than itself.

The candle spirit wrapped around the blade of that absurdly sized sword.

A coldly burning sword was created in an instant.

A technique that a single Spirit Sorcerer would have to rack their brains over, those sisters completed in a single breath.

“Goodbye.”

The greatsword fell.

From top to bottom, a straightforward but fastest and most powerful strike approached rapidly.

But it stopped there.

“……!”

“……”

One person intervened between the blade and the Gatekeeper.

The two who recognized the face of the one person stiffened, and the one who saw the back of the one person's head's eyes doubled in size.

“Son-…nim.”

The blade of Giant Knight Mhul was blocked by Pirate King Frey, who had crossed his twin cutlasses.

Of course, the two cutlasses were also burning brightly.

The difference was that their color was blue.

The cause was the Blue Flame Spirit dangling from the Pirate King's hat.

“You've worked hard. I'll handle the settlement.”

“…A settlement, you say?”

The Youngest Son, who was spouting nonsense as soon as he arrived.

He gave a cryptic smile.

Of course, there was something to be done before the settlement.

“Noonas. From now on, it is self-defense.”

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