Chapter 397
The seven rings of fire, centered on the heart, rotate fiercely. The rings resonate as if they are one, and a hot sensation is felt as if flames are flowing down the spine.
The swamp tidal wave that is approaching slows down, and the screams and breaths of the people on the wall stop.
A moment of intense concentration as if everything has come to a standstill.
Raon steps into that world, calling out to Wrath.
To be able talking to the King of Essence in the middle of this, you've grown quite a bit.
Wrath opens his eyes wide, somewhat surprised. As expected, he was here in this world, connected through their souls.
'Help me to use your technique.'
Technique? Are you talking about the one the King of Essence showed you in the mental world?
'Yes.'
Raon quickly lowered his eyelids.
'That's the only way.'
He felt it a little earlier when he reached out his hand. Even if he poured out all the coldness of Glacier in his current state, he could not freeze that swamp tidal wave. If the ice chunks froze in an unsteady manner, even more people would die.
'Tell me the technique when you froze the space itself in my mental world.'
The world of intense concentration feels like time is passing slowly, but in reality, it's not. The swamp tidal wave is approaching, so he needs to act quickly.
How shameless.
Wrath snorted.
The King of Essence doesn't even want to tell you, but even if the King of Essence told you, it would be too much for you right now.
'What?'
That technique requires a high cold energy manipulation ability like The King of Essence's to use. If a human like you uses it, you'll just make an icicle.
He shook his round hand, saying that it was meaningless.
The King of Essence recommendation is to gather only the mad dog kids and break through the barrier of strength. Then, those kids will be able to survive...
'I'll buy you anything you want to eat from today until the day we go back.'
Huh...?
'If this place is destroyed, you won't be able to eat the grape and blueberry specialties.'
Huh?
Wrath's hesitation was short.
Immediately circulate Glacier according to the flow that The King of Essence creates!
His coldness penetrates the mana circuit. He raised Glacier to its extreme and followed the flow.
'Kuk...'
As he was circulating too much cold energy at once, his mana circuit ached as if they were about to burst, but he endured it.
This time, it's wrath.
Wrath seeps in from Wrath. He raised the wrath that was clinging to the bottom of his soul and followed the huge flow that Wrath created.
'Kugh...'
Raon gritted his teeth so hard that his molars could break. It feels like his body is about to break. He endured the pain of his mana circuit tearing and his bones being crushed as he reached out again.
Release the wrath and coldness energy you have drawn in at once! The name of this technique is...
The moment the swamp tidal wave cast a huge shadow on the wall, he opened the dam that had been blocked in his hand.
'Chiiik.'
Along with the icy sensation that feels like the blood flowing through the veins is freezing, a silver frost blooms from the hand.
'Finally, the most important thing is...'
Image.
He drew the image that Wrath always said. He twisted his wrist, imagining that he would freeze all the waves of the swamp. The rings of fire that swirl around the heart resonate with the cold that is spread throughout the sky.
He poured out all the coldness, not leaving a single grain of Glacier, while fully containing the flow of Glacier.
'Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!'
A brilliant silver flash that rose from the center of his right hand enveloped the swamp tidal wave.
The decisive technique of the Monarch of Wrath.
Silver Frost Aurora.
The swamp tidal wave, which was about to pour down, turned silver and stopped moving. It wasn't because of the intense concentration. The swamp itself froze and solidified perfectly.
'Goooo...'
The immense swamp tidal wave, frozen without even the slightest trace of flowing mud, appeared otherworldly, as if it had disrupted the balance of this world.
'This is the Silver Frost Aurora…'
Aurora, known as the celestial curtain that covered the sky. It lived up to its name.
"Uh..."
"You froze this? Are you human?"
"Mud ice cream..."
Burren, Martha, and Runaan swallowed dryly as they looked at the massive tidal wave's shadow, obscuring the sun.
"Whoa!"
"Vice-squad leader!"
"This is insane..."
"We knew he was a monster, but..."
The members of the Light Wind, standing on the city walls, also fell back, their eyes trembling as if struck by a lightning.
Roaring.
Raon continued to operate the ring of fire without a moment to hear people's astonishment.
'Damn it…'
It hurt terribly.
He rotated the ring of fire and elevated his soul's intensity, yet his whole body was in agony, as if it was about to tear apart. Using too much energy all at once, especially in a way he had never used before.
'Ugh…'
Exhaling breath tinged with pain, he raised his head. He couldn't believe that he had created the frozen tidal wave with his own hands. However, there was something more important at hand.
`It was the summoner who created this swamp tidal wave, right?`
Undoubtedly, it was the summoner.
A swamp tidal wave of this scale couldn't occur naturally in the swamp. It was the work of the summoner who had summoned the Death Knight. Since he didn't know where the summoner was observing from, he maintained a calm and indifferent expression.
Splatter!
Wrath, with a stoic expression, chastised Raon.
This crazy guy! What did you do?
`You are the one who taught me, didn't you?`
That…
While Wrath had shared the flow of the technique, he had never expected it to be successful. He had thought it would freeze and clump up to some extent, but Raon had frozen the entire swamp tidal wave.
The King of Essence didn't know it would work this way!
'I imagined it.'
What?
'You always said it, didn't you? The most important thing when using mana is the image. I thought about freezing that entire swamp tidal wave while visualizing it in my mind.'
Ugh, the King of Essence won't tell you anything ever again!
Wrath scolded him firmly.
'It's alright.'
Raon nodded slowly.
'I've already memorized it.'
As he resonated the ring of fire while using the Silver Frost Aurora, he had become familiar with the flow of cold energy. Of course, using it alone would be difficult, but...
There's not a single part of you that the King of Essence likes!
'Too bad. I'm starting to like you now.'
Shut up!
Raon lightly smiled as he gripped the hilt of Heavenly Drive. Using his control over mana, he suppressed the cold that had enveloped his entire body, and drew his sword.
Swoosh!
Red lines were drawn as the force shot through the frozen swamp waves. A huge piece of wave that was as big as this castle tilted and fell down.
"Kwaaaaaah!"
The ice was so big that the ground seemed to sink.
"Huu..."
When Raon slowly took a breath and sheathed his sword, Wendy Arian, the Imperial Sword leader, and the Ranger team leaders came up to the castle wall.
"Raon-nim, you're safe!"
Wendy trembled with a pale complexion, her lips quivering.
"What on earth is going on? Why is the swamp suddenly turned into waves..."
"It seems like waves from the Swamp of Death's end."
"Oh..."
She took a deep breath as she looked at the waves of mud that were cut off and frozen white.
"Is it over now?"
Wendy folded her hands as if she wanted him to say it was over. Others also seemed to want to hear the same answer, and they licked their dry lips.
"……"
Raon approached the edge of the castle wall without answering.
"Kugugugugugugugu!"
The frozen mud melts in the black aura that blooms from the ground. The piles of mud that had to climb up to the castle wall turned into dust and disappeared, and the land that had been stained black for hundreds of years was revealed.
"The aura of death."
It always smells dirty.
The aura of death that the vast and deep swamp had been suppressing began to rise from the ground.
Raising his gaze, Raon looked toward the end of the Swamp of Death. No, now it was the end of the Land of Death. He could sense an immense presence from a far, far distant place. It deliberately revealed itself.
"Huu..."
Raon turned around with a sigh of annoyance and shook his head at the people who were looking at him with trembling eyes.
"This is just the beginning. Prepare for war."
If the aura of death that blooms from the ground gets stronger, this place will soon be filled with undead. We had to fight a siege battle with them for this castle.
'The only good thing is...'
At least we are prepared.
Since Wendy Arian immediately replenished war supplies and training people when she took over as the temporary family head, they were somewhat ready for the upcoming battle.
"Uh, war…you say?"
Wendy covered her mouth and shook her shoulders.
"War..."
"It will start soon."
"War..."
She also felt the aura of death rising from the ground, and her cheeks and neck turned red.
"What do I do first? First, prepare. No, contact..."
"Wendy-nim, listen."
Raon approached Wendy, who seemed to be in a panic.
"There is not much time. In order to save the Arian family and for the sake of those people, who you know this place best, you need to take action."
"Ah..."
He pointed to the Arian family members who were looking at the castle wall, with no proper pillars and shaking pupils. Upon seeing their trembling eyes, Wendy's fear subsided.
"I understand..."
Wendy nodded with her fist clenched so hard that it bled.
"From now on, we will enter wartime status! The Imperial Sword and the rangers, prepare for the siege!"
“Understood!”
Wendy's words seemed to have calmed the Imperial Sword and ranger members, who were also trembling, and they began to move quickly.
Ding-ding-ding!
The emergency bell rang for the first time in hundreds of years, and everyone in the family began to prepare for war.
Raon checked the people who were busy moving, then turned around.
"Light Wind Squad"
“Assemble.”
The Light Wind squad, realizing that it was not time to play, lined up on the castle wall and stood up straight.
“As I said a little while ago, the war with the undead will begin soon. Go back to your quarters, take some rest and recover you stamina then get back here.”
“Wha, what rest?”
“Don't we have to guard here?”
“Vice-squad leader you must have been exhausted."
“That's right. You should be the one to take some rest.”
Perhaps because they had spent so much time together, the Light Wind squad noticed that Raon was exhausted.
“I can do it here.”
Raon shook his head. Even now that he was using the Ring of Fire, it was not difficult to recover from this level of internal injuries.
“You've been sparring all morning. Go back and recover your body and mind completely.”
He turned his gaze to the land where the aura of death was blooming and twisted his lips.
“There won't be time to recover if you don't do it now.”
“Ugh….”
“I'm shivering….”
“I understand.”
The Light Wind squad no longer hesitated, nodded, and ran down the castle wall.
“Dorian. Wait a minute.”
“Yes?”
“By any chance….”
Raon called Dorian, who was about to go down, and asked him if he had something.
“Oh, of course I have it. It's essential. I'll take it out… what?”
He paused as he reached into his belly pocket.
“But if we use that, won't our mission fail?”
“It's okay.”
Raon smiled faintly and shook his head.
"That belongs to me, no, it's the power of the Light Wind squad."
* * *
[Advance chapter: Tinyurl.com/Aldbnlf]
[For Indonesian: Tinyurl.com/Aldbnlff]
Raon remained on the wall after everyone had left, watching the land of death. Even though his internal injuries had subsided thanks to the Ring of Fire, and the people of the Arian family were preparing for war with courage, he could not shake his sense of unease when he looked at the land.
‘It's now poisonous.’
The aura of death rising from the land beneath the swamp had become endlessly stronger. A normal person without mana would not be able to breathe and fall down as soon as they stepped outside this wall.
That's not the only problem.
‘That's right.’
Raon nodded and looked at the end of the land of death. From that end, an uncountable number of undead were being summoned.
The energy of the monsters, who had been further strengthened by the power of the aura of death, was so strong that it could be felt on the skin.
‘It's very dangerous….’
No, not that! Don't you have to eat the grape sandwiches and blueberry pies?
‘It's not the time to eat now.’
The King of Essence doesn't know about that! Keep your promise!
‘The store is closed.’
Then open it!
As Raon pushed away the sticky vines like a swamp, Wendy Aryan rushed over.
"We've got a problem."
"A problem, you say..."
"The emergency communication network isn't connecting!"
Wendy scratched her arm with her nails, frustrated that the emergency communication had been down for hours.
"I thought that might happen."
Raon nodded calmly. He did think that a summoner that could summon a growing Death Knight and turn a swamp into a wave wouldn't leave a backup communication network that could be used to contact other places.
"Then..."
"We have to fight as we are now."
Raon took two rings from his pocket and put them on her fingers. One was the Blue and Red ring he had received from the Yonaan family, and the second was a ring he had received from Chamber the Grand Magician of Balkar Kingdom in the Six Kings Assembly.
"Ugh..."
Wendy hit her forehead and clenched her fist.
"We have to somehow endure this on our own."
She tightened her grip on her sword as if she were gathering her determination.
"That's right."
When Raon nodded, the Light Wind members appeared on the castle wall. They had finished their recovery, and everyone's faces were brighter than before.
"We're done."
"We'll protect this place, so this time, you..."
Before Martha could finish her sentence, there was a rumbling sensation from behind.
Raon and everyone rushed to the castle wall and looked at the Land of Death.
Thud-thud-thud!
With a strange sound like bones blooming like flowers, gray skeletons and greenish zombies dug up the ground and rose. As if new shoots were sprouting from seeds scattered across the Land of Death, undead creatures began to emerge from everywhere except in front of the Aryan family's castle.
"Oh..."
"Th-this is insane..."
"All of these are undead?"
"Can we withstand this?"
As an countless number of undead creatures stood up, the rangers on the castle wall trembled.
"T-There are quite a lot of them, aren't there?"
Burren mumbled as he looked at the endless skeletons.
"How come we see more undead heads than the ground itself?"
Martha's eyes gleamed as she clenched her fists while looking at the zombies.
Even they had not expected such numbers and frowned while swallowing their saliva.
"It's like a bead ice cream."
Runaan chuckled as she looked at the skeleton's skull. Even in the midst of this, she had such unusual thoughts.
"Phew..."
"I-Is the castle going to collapse?"
"Then we'll all be buried."
"It's noisy, get ready. They're coming soon."
As everyone tensed up in the face of such overwhelming numbers, the undead creatures turned around in formation like an army.
They weren't heading for the Aryan family's castle, but instead, they knelt and chanted eerie songs toward the three pillars in the Land of Death.
Ee-ee-ee-eeee-aaa!
Grrrrrrr-raaaaahhh!
O-Goooo-uuu-rrrr!
It was a hymn of darkness. The undead creatures, after hundreds of years, bowed their heads and sang a worshipful song to the summoner who had called them.
The aura of death that clung to the creatures grew thicker, as if they were worshiping a deity and gaining divine power.
Euaaaaaaah!
Keeeeaaaaaaah!
As countless undead creatures sang praises to death, even the sun hid behind the clouds as if frightened.
The sky turned gray, and the once determined atmosphere on the castle wall turned gloomy, as if it had lost its spirit.
It felt as if there were no people around; even their breaths couldn't be heard.
"W-What is this?"
"What are they doing?"
"M-My hands and feet are shaking..."
"Are they gaining power from a demon?"
Not only the rangers and the Imperial Sword members but also the Light Wind members paled in the face of the undead's chant.
"They're acting crazy."
Raon sneered as he drew Heavenly Drive. He raised his right arm, charging the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation to the maximum, and then swung his sword with the posture of shooting an arrow, causing the concentrated flames to burst from his sword.
Kwaaaaaaaah!
A storm of flames erupted from the entire Heavenly Drive, sweeping away the horde of undead creatures who had been calling out to the darkness.
Hundreds of undead were melted down to the tiniest bone fragments.
The incessant hymn of the undead ceased, and the sun, which had been obscured, reappeared, bathing the castle wall in light.
"Light Wind Squad."
Raon turned around and smiled as he saw the eyes of the people who had ignited with passion like embers.
"In the end, the flesh attached to the bones tastes the best."
He lifted Heavenly Drive and pointed it towards the countless remaining undead.
"Let's devour them all."
9
