Chapter 417
Chapter 417. Fireworks
After the Sword Demon Karvas’s lion’s roar, the way things were turning was ominous.
“W, wait a second...! Aaagh!”
“Spare me...!”
The Dark Storms swung their swords at the fleeing people without hesitation.
They did not even ask why.
If you moved, you became a target and nothing more than prey for the Dark Storms.
If you move, you die.
Hundreds died just in the time it took for everyone to feel that truth on their skin.
Screams burst from all directions, the blood spread from the stage and began to stain the whole plaza.
Terror ruled the plaza.
Those who grasped the situation crouched on the ground and stayed utterly still like dead mice.
Scrrrape, Scrrrape
The Dark Storms dragged their swords, scraping them along the ground as they roamed.
At the sound of blades grinding, people flinched and trembled.
Huddled in the space between the prowling packs as they searched for their next prey, thousands, tens of thousands crouched low and watched for a chance.
Before long, everyone had grown used to that atmosphere.
This was Prime Root.
A world ruled beneath the Sword Demon’s blade.
“...This was not in my predictions.”
Arthur hunched on the cold ground and looked around.
Far off, he could see black smoke covering the whole sky. With the huge explosion, the northern rampart was completely shrouded in smoke.
Arthur fiddled with the spent detonator.
He had detonated the bombs as planned.
The moment Rengua’s victory was decided, he triggered the detonator, and the buried charges blew, shaking the rampart mercilessly.
The original plan had been to use this chaos to slip quietly out of the plaza.
But because the Sword Demon moved first, he could not extract himself.
Clicking his tongue shortly, Arthur stowed the detonator in his subspace pouch.
To use the scramble event as a trap...
The festival ground had turned into a grim prison.
Every alley connected to the plaza had been sealed, and atop the roofs of the surrounding buildings, thousands of archers had revealed themselves.
All of them had cocked crossbows, ready to fire.
There was no gap to escape.
Who are they aiming at?
Could it be that he himself had been exposed.
Only for a moment did he worry, then Arthur shook his head.
Only his closest aides knew he was coming to Prime Root. Besides, he had arrived by surprise through a spatial portal, so it was impossible to have prepared a trap with timing this perfect.
The Sword Demon’s objective was clearly something else.
Just then, the Sword Demon’s voice boomed across the plaza.
“If you follow the Dark Storms’ instructions, nothing will happen to you. This is a process to sift out spies, so everyone cooperate.”
Spies?
If the Sword Demon mentioned it himself, they were not some riffraff.
In that instant, a particular group flashed through Arthur’s mind.
The organization that, on his command, was digging up Prime Root’s information to the last grain.
No way, the Black Market?
They had said they would follow the slave hunters’ connections and investigate the Black Stars, but it looked like their tail had been grabbed.
It seemed the Sword Demon had decided he would never hand over Reruze’s internal information, but his action was too fast and too drastic.
“Out of the way!”
“Everyone line up over here!”
At that moment, the VIP stands side grew restless.
One passage connected to the VIP stands was being opened quickly.
The tightly packed barricades were cleared away, and outside them, hundreds of soldiers poured into the inner plaza.
For now, it looked like the only exit that would let you get out of the plaza.
The soldiers thrust spear tips and herded people toward the exit.
Like shepherds driving a flock of sheep.
“Move it!”
“Any funny business and it is summary execution!”
The enormous crowd, following the soldiers’ orders, slowly moved toward the exit.
One by one, they headed out through the exit.
Between that exit stood humans captured by black shamans, their whole bodies bound.
They looked miserable, as if they had suffered horrific torture, their eyes vacant as if their minds were gone. When one of them pointed at someone in the crowd leaving through the exit, the Dark Storms moved like lightning.
“W, wait......”
“Kraaaagh!”
The one the man indicated was immediately beheaded under a Dark Storm’s blade.
Summary execution.
When the Dark Storm who had cut the neck raised the severed head, the Sword Demon nodded.
“We will begin the rat hunt. If you think you are a rat, come out before you are pointed out. Except...”
The Sword Demon grinned as he spoke.
“You will have to point out another rat here, as the price of your own life.”
There were roughly thirty people dragged in by the black shamans, and they stood there vacantly as if under a spell. When a face they knew appeared, they instinctively pointed at that face.
At regular intervals, people died at the exit.
“Be, betrayal!”
“No!!!!!”
Whether the one pointed out was truly a spy or not did not matter.
The moment they were singled out, their head flew.
The plaza fell into terror again.
Brainless bastards...
Arthur let out a low groan at the spy purge unfolding at the exit.
Seeing the group of black shamans and the captives, he thought he knew what was going on.
Black Market branch heads.
They looked to be administrators dispatched to Prime Root, who had fixed multiple bases inside Reruze in a cell structure and operated, only to be captured.
Mental manipulation was one of Rengua’s specialties.
It seemed they were dominating the administrators’ minds through sorcery to root out their members.
Point and execute.
Under such psychological pressure, it is hard for anyone to endure.
“Th, there...!?”
“It is me! I am from the Black Market!”
In the end, someone stepped forward and admitted he was a spy,
“...It is that one! That one is a spy, too!”
and to live, he began to sell out his colleagues.
Watching that, Arthur bit down on his teeth.
“Took a hard hit....”
The Black Star Scramble.
This event was of great interest to everyone, and the residents of Reruze had all taken part without exception.
That would be the same for the Black Market.
At this rate, the Black Market personnel dispatched to Reruze would be wiped out to the last.
A troubling situation for the coalition.
Even so, Arthur could not move rashly.
“Do you want to die? Move!”
He saw a soldier threatening him with a spear tip. Arthur kept his mouth shut and moved slowly with the long line.
He gradually drew near the exit close to the VIP stands.
Reto.
Arthur called to Reto.
If it was conscious, it would be seeing the current situation through his five senses.
As expected.
Thump
His heart gave a faint shudder.
It felt like Reto had sent a signal, that if there was danger, he should open the power.
Arthur moved slowly toward the exit and scanned the stands.
The Sword Demon Karvas,
Azolett.
With his face mixed into a huge crowd, he felt he could deceive their eyes easily enough.
The problem was Arcane.
The instant Arcane’s gaze fell on him, it would be revealed that he was the master of the divine name.
There was no way to hide the divine name.
Should I run even now...
If he opened his power here and fled, he was confident he could extract himself.
But his identity would be exposed.
This operation lived or died by secrecy.
If it was discovered that the bombing was the coalition’s doing, it would mean all out war with Prime Root.
Reto’s existence would be discovered by Jess Milo, too.
Arthur narrowed his brow and looked around.
Fireworks.
With the splendid explosion of the north gate, the signal had gone to Samuel.
Is he still preparing? The signal is late.
There should have been additional explosions, but they had not yet gone off.
Arthur exhaled shortly, then stepped toward the stands.
Samuel had not yet detonated the bombs.
That meant there was one more chance to run.
For the moment, he decided to sit tight and watch how things developed.
100 m.
The distance shrank quickly.
Next to the exit, several piles of corpses had already formed.
The bodies executed as spies had surpassed two hundred before anyone realized it. And even as Arthur approached, the number kept growing.
70 m.
Arthur looked up at the VIP stands.
Now he could make out their clear expressions.
The Sword Demon’s bored face.
Azolett chattering at his side.
And there sat Arcane, chin in hand, watching the spy purge.
At the exit, Rengua had at some point come down to join the black shamans.
He could see the black knights guarding their rear.
50 m.
If I delay any longer, it is over.
It was a danger zone.
No matter who he was, if he was surrounded by all the Black Stars, it would be the end.
If he wanted to shake a pursuit, this distance was the last line.
Is there no helping it?
Arthur let out a long breath.
As if that breath were a signal, his heart slowly began to stir and respond.
He closed his eyes and clenched both fists.
Maybe from the tension, sweat trickled down his forehead.
“What are you doing without moving?!”
One of the soldiers guarding the area noticed Arthur standing still and came over.
He shoved Arthur roughly, but the one who staggered back was the soldier.
Perhaps embarrassed by that, the soldier’s face flushed red.
“You little punk!”
The soldier’s shout was loud enough that the surrounding gazes swung to him.
Arcane’s as well.
At the instant Arcane’s gaze turned toward the soldiers,
“Hm?”
Arcane, who had been sitting all along, narrowed his brow and sprang to his feet.
He hurriedly fiddled with his earring.
Amid the countless crowd, he felt a mysterious energy. However, it was so faint he could not see it clearly.
As Arcane showed keen interest in the space below the stands, the Sword Demon opened his mouth at the sight.
“What is it?”
“That is...”
Just as Arcane was about to speak,
KWAANG!!!!!
!!!!
!!!!
BOOM! KABOOM! BOOM! BOOM! KABOOM!
The chain of explosions sent a massive shock through all of Reruze.
Black smoke poured from the entire rampart, and the whole plaza was shaken mercilessly by shockwaves.
People covered both ears and collapsed.
The second blast was far stronger than the first.
Even the Sword Demon rose from his seat with a hard expression to survey the surroundings.
He paid no attention to anywhere else.
His gaze fixed on the northern rampart where the first explosion had gone off, the direction of the frozen lake.
Watching that place, a change came over the Sword Demon’s face.
His face slowly twisted.
That was after he saw the northern rampart swiftly crumbling under the second shockwave.
The ice wall connected to the lake had collapsed.
“How dare they.”
Muttering low, the Sword Demon kicked off and shot into the air from the stands. With the impact, the stands collapsed like a bundle of straw.
Amid the screams, Azolett chased after him with a flustered face.
“B, boss!”
Only for a moment did she shout, then Azolett too stared wide eyed at the northern rampart.
The ice wall had collapsed.
And from the fallen wall,
Swoooooooooosh!
The lake water overflowed through the broken wall and began to swallow Reruze.
“What is this...!”
She felt she knew why the boss had moved so urgently.
This was a land of bitter cold.
It would take only a day for the water that swallowed Reruze to turn to ice.
With a lake that size, there would be more than enough to engulf all of Reruze, so if left as is, Reruze would turn into a city of ice.
Realizing the gravity of the situation, she thought of the ones who could be left to handle things here.
There was only Rengua.
But Rengua was already moving toward the lake with an even harsher reaction than hers.
“M, my lord!”
In the frozen lake, their lord slept.
Rengua hurried toward the lake with his shamans and black knights in tow.
“Useless bastard!”
Azolett hurled a curse at Rengua, but Rengua was not in his right mind at the moment.
Azolett glanced around, thinking fast.
But soon she too moved toward the northern rampart to follow the boss.
It seemed she had decided this was no time to worry about spies.