Chapter 77: He’s a dumb swan who got lost
This world was called vast for good reason. That vastness wasn’t just about its size, either—it came from the sheer number of energy sources and mysteries constantly colliding with one another.
Take Erness, a spirit capable of absorbing negative energy, or a demon absorbing tainted Soul Essence, or the sacred energy of the gods, or Black Genesis harnessing corruption energy, and Soul Essence itself, which sat at the very center of the world.
Beyond that, there were still plenty more.
These energies were always described as things that stood entirely on their own. They couldn’t merge or be used together—well, some of them could, of course. The main point was, with Black Genesis somehow managing to insanely fuse these energies together, it had now become a genuinely troublesome problem for humanity.
Especially since it was a fusion of the two worst kinds of energy out there.
And the outcome was genuinely severe. If monsters used to simply go mad and lose their sanity purely from demonic energy before, now, with the added influence of corruption at the same time, they’d turned into monsters with a powerful regenerative ability, just like Cray.
Then there were the soldiers defending the fortress, who, having no understanding of this phenomenon whatsoever, had absolutely no idea what to do.
Their expressions tensed atop the fortress walls. Watching the rampaging monsters charging straight at them. With gaps deliberately built along the fortress’s path, the monsters needed time to actually reach them, and the soldiers would normally exploit that gap to take them down before they could climb up.
But this time was different...
"Everyone! Fire!!"
Using cannons built with the help of stigmata, the soldiers fired off their cannonballs, unleashing a variety of shots—fireballs, ice, lightning, wind, and more.
Whoosh—! Whistle! Whistle! Whistle!
Boom—!! Boom—! Boom—!!
Down below, the monsters roared, an earsplitting sound. Followed by the thunder of cannon fire bombarding them, but out of the sheer number of monsters down there, almost none of them died.
Normally, with that much firepower unleashed, the monster numbers should’ve been thinned out significantly. But this time, their ranks barely dropped at all.
The attacks tore the monsters apart, but the very next instant, they’d regenerate and heal right back as if nothing had happened.
Duke Everhart was a stigmata user himself. He watched what was happening from above, and even though he was currently at the Awakened level, needing only a bit more time before reaching Luminous, he was clearly overwhelmed at the thought of facing that entire horde alone—especially given the bizarre trait they were displaying.
Luckily, though, as a city full of travelers, that meant there were plenty of stigmata users he could hire and pay as mercenaries to help defend the fortress.
At the same time, the city of Clathria also had its own dedicated personnel—a squad of stigmata users, led by someone at the Luminous tier.
Their numbers might have been large, but that could be handled. The only real question now, as Duke Everhart’s gaze turned toward the giant tree, whose roots were creeping ever closer to the fortress.
If that demon tree ever reached them, this fortress would collapse in an instant, with no trouble at all.
Fortunately, by then, the personnel had all gathered. A number of stigmata users, each one valuable regardless of their tier.
Right then, Duke Everhart spotted a woman with short, dark blue hair, walking toward him, her whole body drenched in monster blood.
In her hand, she held a staff, a chain, and a pale green lantern dangling from it, along with two bodies bound by that extended chain.
"Miss Bell," Duke Everhart greeted her immediately. Even as a Duke, it remained his duty to stay respectful in front of someone with such an important connection to a Tower Keeper.
Bell nodded lazily, brushing her hair back. Anyone could see it—the aura radiating off her was genuinely gloomy, thick with irritation and exhaustion.
That made Duke Everhart smile nervously.
’...I heard she works nearly twenty hours a day, and only sleeps around four hours. Guess I understand now why they say she’s so sensitive and irritable.’
Who could possibly put up with a schedule that kept piling up like that?
Duke Everhart gave a small cough, unwilling to let the moment stay this awkward, so he looked at Bell, then at the handsome man standing beside her, who looked back at him with gentle, friendly blue eyes.
Someone whose face practically radiated warmth and kindness.
"Ahem... Is he your subordinate, Miss Bell?"
"No," Bell shook her head, dropping the Black Genesis woman’s body in front of a soldier while ordering them to fit her with energy-suppressing cuffs. "He’s a dumb swan who got lost."
Duke Everhart’s smile froze on his face, his lips twitching from the awkwardness, while the man in question looked equally uncomfortable.
"I’m White Swan, a wanderer. I’ve heard a lot about you—the great and wise leader of Clathria."
Luckily, the wanderer seemed like a genuinely decent, easy person to talk to, sparing Duke Everhart from feeling like he was about to die of secondhand embarrassment.
"Haha, you’re giving me too much credit," He laughed, though it carried no real humor given the current situation. "Either way, it’s good to meet you. Could I ask what’s actually going on? Since you arrived with Miss Bell, I’d genuinely appreciate it if you could fill me in on the situation."
"Ah, well, honestly... I don’t know all that much myself. But I’ll tell you what I do know, essentially..."
Eiros took a moment to explain. He also kept it as brief as possible, so as not to eat up too much time, making sure to leave out anything that felt too important or better left unsaid.
"From what I understand, roughly, to bring down those monsters infected by that corrupted energy, we’ll probably need to destroy the Soul Core inside their bodies."
Duke Everhart rubbed his chin, thinking it over for a moment, then nodded. If that was true, that was genuinely critical information, giving him something concrete to work with for their next move.
He’d been afraid earlier that they might not be able to kill those monsters before the tree itself needed to be taken down, but luckily, there was still one viable solution left.
"Thank you, Mister White! That’s incredibly useful information, I’ll be sure to compensate you once this is all over."
"You haven’t even confirmed it yet, Lord Duke," Eiros answered with a chuckle, smiling warmly as he looked over the assembled stigmata users, who’d finished their preparations. "We don’t actually know if what I said is correct or not, so we should still proceed carefully."
Duke Everhart agreed and nodded.
Now, after all that, Eiros finally had a moment to himself. Bell had left to handle her report, Duke Everhart was busy with preparations, and now, alone, Eiros looked up at the darkening sky.
Looked like it was going to rain pretty hard today.
’...How’s Erness doing?’
Eiros found himself wondering about her. It wasn’t like he was worried something had happened to her—it was just that it had already been over an hour since he’d left, and by now, Erness had surely wrapped up whatever business she’d had.
Eiros felt his smile twitch. Was he actually scared right now?
’...I hope she’s not mad.’
Yeah, he’d been chasing down a criminal organization, helping people in genuine trouble, trying to uphold justice.
That could count as a pretty solid excuse, right?
Right?
***