Chapter 196 : The Marquis of Envy, Leo Fortia (3)
The northern battlefield.
“Damn it, hold the flank!”
“Hurt yourselves! It’s the best way to drive out the fear!”
At Lea’s shout, the knights who had regained their senses bellowed to their subordinates.
With Experts as the threshold, those below that rank cowered in terror before Leo Fortia’s legion.
No matter how much courage they had drawn from Lea’s speech… it was insufficient to overcome a fear resembling an Aspect’s power.
The small mercy was that Leo himself could not wield the Aspect of Fear with perfect mastery.
The Marquis of Fear could make even Grand Master Enoxia tremble in terror. But not this one.
Lea’s eyes gleamed as she glared at Leo.
Dispelling this fear would be easier than when facing the true Marquis of Fear.
“Slash your left arms! Thrust your swords into spots that won’t hinder combat!”
At Lea’s resolute command, those at Expert level and above willingly stabbed their own left arms.
“Urgh!”
They all appeared to reel from the pain, yet paradoxically, the dread in their eyes faded.
“Kill those bastards right now!”
“Think of them as undead! Help them return to the Goddess’s embrace!”
The knights roared in unison, charging the Demonkin horde.
The demonic legion advanced in utter silence, relentless in their assault.
Yet even when felled, the Demonkin rose again.
The northern knights gnashed their teeth as they glared at the horde.
“Damn! Why won’t these bastards stay dead?”
Kill them, and they revive; when our side falls, they rise as enemies.
The battle grew more unfavorable by the moment.
The knights panted with growing exhaustion.
And so the futile combat dragged on.
It was then.
Slash!
Roxen swung with all his might, severing a Demonkin’s neck.
In that instant, the Demonkin’s regeneration halted, and it did not rise.
“It’s the neck! Behead them, and they won’t come back!” Roxen shouted, raising his longsword high.
The knights’ faces brightened at his words.
A glimmer of hope.
The realization that this battle was not entirely meaningless reignited their fighting spirit.
“Take their heads!”
“We can finally win!”
As momentum shifted toward the northern forces…
“Hmm... this is getting boring.”
Boom!
Leo stepped in, obliterating a tenth of the northern army.
Obliterated.
Vanished without a trace.
“Leo Fortiaaaa!” Lea screamed, her eyes bloodshot with fury.
Then she charged straight at him.
<Ice Age>
Frost gathered at the tip of Lea’s blade.
Her breath plumed white.
The surrounding temperature dropped.
“Everyone, fall back!”
One of the northern knights shouted to his subordinates.
And finally.
Boom!
Lea’s sword clashed with Leo’s.
“Pfft.” Leo let out a snort of laughter at the enraged Lea. “Well, well. If it isn’t the pride of the north, Derek’s daughter.”
“How dare you!”
“If I’d known you’d grow up like this, I should have gotten engaged to you. Then—”
Clang!
Leo shoved Lea’s blade aside.
“—I wouldn’t have died at your family’s hands.”
<Aspect of Madness - Ballroom of Butchery>
Gurgle! Gurgle! Gurgle! Gurgle!
“L-Lady Lea—!”
“Fle—!”
As Leo scattered his demonic energy, some of the northern knights began transforming into chunks of meat.
Grotesque forms.
Yet unlike Pepia’s, these retained a vaguely human shape.
“You bastaaard!”
Lea unleashed her rage, charging once more.
<Frostbloom>
<Ice Age>
<Frost Rain>
Countless attacks surged toward Leo.
“Aren’t you mad at the wrong person? If anyone should be venting fury, it’s me. I’m the one your family murdered.”
But he maintained his smile as he began enlarging the meat chunks.
<Aspect of Sloth - Gigantification>
The chunks writhed about, soon morphing into a single colossal ogre.
The transformed ogre’s face was a familiar one.
“That’s…” Lancelot bit his lip, eyes locked on the ogre.
That scar. That hideous face.
He knew it.
“You damned bastard!”
He cut down the Demonkin before him with a sweep of his spear, then charged straight at Leo.
His former mistress, once the disgrace of House Praha, had been cured after meeting his captain, Louis Berg.
But before that, her grotesque face had been infamous.
And the ogre’s face was exactly the same.
“It was all your scheme!”
It bore the same scarred features she once had.
“Ahahaha! Pretty cheap for revenge, isn’t it? I suffered death, but I left your mistress with mere scars. What a merciful lord I am.”
“Shut up! Do you know how much the young lady suffered because of you?”
Boom!
“Well.” Leo blocked Lancelot’s and Lea’s attacks simultaneously, sneering. “Why would I need to know that?”
Crunch!
Leo kicked Lancelot away.
Lancelot’s spear shattered as he flew into the Demonkin horde.
“Urk!”
Leo grabbed Lea’s hair and slammed her face into the ground.
Bang!
“Gah!”
Blood spurted from her nose as a groan escaped her lips.
“Now let me ask you something in return.”
Leo sneered as he posed the question.
“When I was dying, did you ever think of me?”
* * *
Leo tossed out the question, watching those charging toward him.
The northern Grand Duke, the continent’s Divine Archer, the forsaken saintess, a relic of ancient times, and others.
All rushing at him, viewing him as evil incarnate because he was a Demonkin.
It was utterly ridiculous.
If they overflowed with such justice, they should have come before he became a Demonkin.
If not, they should have at least apologized upon seeing him.
The Empire!
The North!
House Praha!
“You should have knelt before me!”
<Aspect of Slaughter - Red Moon>
Flash!
A red moon rose in the sky.
Demonic energy began swirling ferociously, seeping into the air.
“Damn, everyone head to the saintess!”
“I’m the saintess!”
Mihaila hurriedly created a barrier of divine power.
The northern knights began forming a defensive formation inside the barrier.
The tide of battle shifted once again.
However, for those at Master level and above, the Red Moon’s influence was not significant.
Likely due to another weakened effect.
“You can’t use those powers perfectly,” Roxen said as he swung his sword.
“Who knows. Is that so important?”
Crunch!
Leo trampled Lea’s head while casually deflecting Roxen’s sword.
<Aspect of Gluttony - Ram’s Feast>
A massive shadow appeared beneath the barrier where the northern army stood.
The shadow took on a frog-like face, then opened its mouth and began swallowing the divine barrier.
In that moment.
<Mindscape - Sword-Realm of Eternal Frost>
The Grand Duke’s Mindscape sliced through the Aspect of Gluttony.
Leo curled his lip as he looked at the Grand Duke.
“Finally making your move, Grand Duke Praha.”
“...It’s been a long time, Your Highness the Third Prince.”
“Pfft... Still calling me the Third Prince? Wow... what an honor.”
Leo bent down and seized Lea’s hair.
Then he hoisted her up to show the Grand Duke.
“Knowing that I did this to your daughter, and still showing such courtesy. Truly a noble of the great Empire.”
Leo wore a sardonic smile.
At that moment, the Divine Archer shot an arrow toward Leo.
Boom! Crash!
“How about you sit this out, old man? This is a conversation among imperial bloodlines. An outsider butting in isn’t exactly pleasant.”
<Aspect of War - Marionette>
“Come on, play with these.”
The new soldiers Leo had created approached the Divine Archer.
Among them was the unconscious Lancelot.
“...This is getting troublesome,” the Divine Archer muttered softly.
“Then let’s continue our talk. Are you here to apologize to me? If so, bow your head and offer your life. Do that, and I’ll specially forgive you.”
Leo gazed at the Grand Duke.
The Grand Duke met his eyes, speaking calmly.
“When I heard that Your Highness’s death was connected to our house, I thought I could give up this life without hesitation. After all, a sword meant to protect the Emperor had dared to harbor treason against the imperial family.”
“Oh? Then good. This will resolve easily.” Leo nodded and gripped his sword.
Given the surging blood-red Aura, he had evidently used the Aspect of Slaughter.
“Come here and offer your neck. I’ll kill you painlessly,” Leo said with a kindly smile.
However, the Grand Duke did not move a single step.
“Why aren’t you moving? Despite your words, has your life become too precious?”
“...Let me ask one thing. Why did Your Highness seek revenge on my daughter instead of me?”
“Hah? Obviously to cause you pain. So you could experience the suffering my father must have felt!”
“...Is that so?”
The Grand Duke quietly bowed his head.
Soon after.
<Mindscape - Sword-Realm of Eternal Frost>
An immense chill burst from the tip of the Grand Duke’s sword.
“You are not the Third Prince,” Grand Duke declared impassively.
“If you were, even as a Demonkin, you would have exacted revenge on me directly. Moreover, to claim you wanted me to feel His Majesty’s pain... wasn’t it you who killed His Majesty?”
“…”
“And finally.”
The Grand Duke, mid-sentence, lightly drew his sword downward in a vertical line.
<Falling Ice Dragon>
The Red Moon split and froze.
The Aspect of Slaughter was shattered.
Amid the scattering ice fragments, the Grand Duke continued.
“His Highness would never have harmed Lea in front of me. Because...”
Boom!
The Grand Duke cut through Leo’s sword and finished his words.
“The reason I serve His Imperial Majesty is precisely for my daughters.”
“...How dare you.”
“Atone with your death, skinwalker.”
The Grand Duke’s words broke off.
And in that very moment, his sword flashed, slicing through the air toward Leo’s neck.