Chapter 132
Chapter 132: You're Seriously Not Human!
Angus was dead.
That Grand Knight of the Northern Frontier, renowned throughout the entire Empire—the Grand Knight who had spent decades building stable towns across the entire Northern Frontier and protected hundreds of thousands of people.
Just like that, he was gone.
Silence seemed to dissolve into the wind and snow, falling upon every Knight across the entire Northern Frontier.
All the Knights throughout the Northern Frontier sank into boundless grief.
They bowed their heads toward the sky in silent mourning.
Mourning this Grand Knight who had stood guard over the Northern Frontier.
He had truly done it—maintained the peace of the Northern Frontier.
This snowfield had been under his protection for over 30 years, and he had cultivated generation after generation of formidable Knights.
In the hearts of every Knight across the entire Northern Frontier, Angus was like a teacher—and like a father.
Strict, but with purpose.
Grief and fury surged like a tide, crashing suddenly into the entire snowfield, leaving the Knights' hearts a tangled mess of emotions.
At this moment, the Knights standing before the Delin Family's fortress all removed their helmets and lowered their heads.
For several minutes, the wind and snow seemed to grow fiercer by a degree. The air turned heavy and oppressive, and time turned like a slowly grinding gear, clicking forward bit by bit.
Gwen raised her head again, fixed her gaze on Jaxiu, and spoke in a level voice:
"He was still alive just now."
"Just moments ago, Father stopped breathing."
Jaxiu's calm voice came through, his tone carrying seemingly little in the way of grief.
"Besides, even if he hadn't died—do you think Father, in that state, could be called 'alive'?"
After his 1 exchange with Viktor, Angus had become dazed and lost, stripped of even the most basic faculty of reason.
If he could not recover for a long time, then that could no longer be called 'living.'
Yet even so, everyone understood clearly in their hearts.
Living and dying—those were 2 entirely different things.
If Angus were alive, then Viktor had merely injured him.
But now, Angus was dead.
Regardless of what the true cause of death was, the label of deliberately murdering an Imperial meritorious subject would be nailed firmly above Viktor's head—and would not be removed for a long time to come.
Jaxiu's appearance had driven a nail hard into the board, cementing the crime of Viktor having killed a man.
Angus had indeed done some unethical things.
But—
The dead are to be held in respect.
And in terms of actual duty, Angus had never done anything truly unconscionable.
He had merely turned a blind eye to the lives of those residents he deemed useless—nothing more.
At this moment, no argument—no matter how compelling—could outweigh Angus's 'death.'
The man was already dead. Even if evidence of his wrongdoings were found,
Angus's death was already fact.
Jaxiu slowly began to speak.
"The news has already spread across the entire Northern Frontier. It won't be long before every Knight under every estate arrives."
"Gwen, do you truly intend to keep shielding that criminal?"
Gwen listened to Jaxiu's every word, biting her lip, brow tightly furrowed, eyes locked unblinking on Jaxiu.
Exactly how Angus had died—whether he was truly dead or merely feigning it.
She could not tell.
Gwen stared into Jaxiu's eyes, and seemed to catch, within his gaze, a glint of a victor's smile.
But...
"Said your piece? How about you let me say a few words too?"
An ice-cold voice came from behind Gwen. Carried by the howling wind and snow, it nonetheless reached Jaxiu and the Knights with perfect clarity.
Though the distance between them was considerable, that sharp, piercing chill cut straight to the marrow of every bone.
The Giant White Bird dissolved into a gale, reverting to a White Rune that etched itself anew onto Viktor's Coat.
But he did not descend to the ground. Instead, he stood perfectly still in midair.
The air beneath his feet swirled and coiled, carrying white crystals that formed into a series of steps beneath him.
1 step, 2 steps—like a dancer in the wind making an unhurried, graceful exit—he walked forward.
He passed over Gwen. He passed over the Knights.
Before the Knights could even react, Viktor had already arrived in front of Jaxiu.
Countless Knights realized Viktor had appeared behind them.
At this moment, he had already walked deep into the encirclement of the Knights.
As though snapping back to their senses all at once, every single one of them drew their blades.
"Protect Young Master Jaxiu!"
With that cry, the Knights raised their weapons, pushed through the faint wind and snow, and surged toward Viktor.
But Viktor didn't move at all.
A wind barrier instantly erupted from all around him. The white beneath his feet was swept up by the enormous storm, blocking the Knights from without.
The wind barrier was transparent—even through the flurries of white, the Knights could still see Viktor.
Yet they simply could not break through and enter.
All the Knights could do was stand there watching helplessly as Viktor and Jaxiu faced each other.
The Knight behind Jaxiu who had been pushing the wheelchair had long since been frightened into sitting on the ground, trembling all over.
Viktor looked at the smile-filled eyes of Jaxiu and slowly spoke:
"Setting aside the question of exactly how Angus died—it seems you've forgotten something."
A sharp gleam lit up in Viktor's eyes, like the Grim Reaper who had already raised his scythe, waiting only for the moment to bring it down.
"Have you considered the fact that I am a Mage?"
The emblem on his chest—the one that marked him as a Mage Council Member—flickered to life, radiating a vast and overwhelming magical aura.
Yet Jaxiu remained perfectly composed. He looked at Viktor and narrowed his eyes.
In an instant, a streak of Azure-Blue light suddenly blazed in Viktor's gaze.
In a flash, the ground was covered by an enormous Magic Formation, igniting with a dense, concentrated black. Even the faint wind and snow came to a halt.
Everyone was enveloped within that enormous black Magic Formation. An extremely powerful and profound magical aura surged continuously upward from the ground.
The black aura gradually seeped out from the Formation, as though possessed of its own consciousness, drifting strand by strand in the direction of the enormous silver fortress.
Countless patterns began to slowly construct themselves beneath every Knight's feet, and Runes crept out along the edges.
At the center of the Magic Formation, Jaxiu remained unperturbed.
"Are you showing me how powerful you are?"
"You can kill me whenever you please. Kill everyone present."
"The news will get out. Everyone will remember you as the demon who slaughtered the loyal and the good."
Viktor let out a sigh and blew the snowflakes off his body.
"What a fanatic."
"Loyal and good? Do you even qualify?"
Across the Magic Formation, black flames began to spread in an instant—that terrifying fire, like a horde of vengeful spirits, gradually crawled up every person's body and slowly consumed the entire castle entirely.
But... no one could feel the scorching heat those flames should have brought.
The black flames were like phantoms. Their only purpose, perhaps, was to deliver an overwhelming sense of shock to the eyes of those Knights gathered there.
"You think you're not afraid of death—so there's nothing I can do to you?"
Viktor continued speaking. Jaxiu showed no trace of fear.
Until—Viktor suddenly broke into a smile.
That smile, to Jaxiu's eyes, looked like it stretched all the way to his ears. Deeply unsettling.
He suddenly froze rigid in his wheelchair, watching as Viktor strolled casually toward him.
At his chest, something seemed to seize his heart in a grip—filling him with an overwhelming, unbearable pain.
He should not have been suffering like this.
Viktor slowly bent forward, bringing himself close to Jaxiu's ear. In a voice only Jaxiu could hear, he spoke slowly:
"Disguising yourself as a human—"
"Does it amuse you?"
Suddenly, Jaxiu's eyes went wide.
The endlessly spreading black—in one collective motion—rolled forward and surged upward out of the Knights' bodies, flying off into the distance.
The Knights watched that mass of black moving toward the Delin Manor, and their gazes were drawn involuntarily toward it.
At this moment, the entire fortress looked as though it had been swallowed into the mouth of an even more colossal black beast.
The flames blazed with violent ferocity—like the ravenous chewing of a great beast.
Within the castle, a shriek of agony suddenly erupted, tearing out from deep within the blackness.
Viktor stepped back a few paces, a smile spreading across his face.
The smile of a victor.
"Found you."
【Devotee of the Goddess】
The moment those words fell, Jaxiu's body rapidly shriveled like a dead branch burned to nothing.
Jet-black soot poured out ceaselessly. The white bandages on his body gradually fell away. Jaxiu's body—as though drained of all flesh and blood—left only a human skin that slowly collapsed downward.
Everyone's eyes went wide. Witnessing the profoundly harrowing scene before them, every single person felt a wave of nausea wash over them.
They looked back at Viktor.
To the Knights' eyes, it appeared as though Viktor had used magic to drain every last drop of Jaxiu's flesh and blood.
Otherwise—how else could what stood before them be explained?
At this moment, Knights who had come riding in haste from the nearby towns arrived on horseback, hooves churning through the packed snow.
They too took in everything before them at a glance.
Among them, naturally, was Kavra.
She watched as Jaxiu's body suddenly withered and shriveled, until finally it became nothing but a human skin—slumped in the chair.
In an instant, Kavra's mind went completely blank.
But this was only the beginning.
The Magic Formation beneath Viktor's feet erupted with a sudden and tremendous surge of energy.
The sun blazed in the sky, burning the endless wind and snow entirely away—melting it all into nothing.
A scream that pierced the heart rang out continuously from within the enormous Delin Manor—a vehement, wailing howl that echoed in every direction.
Every gaze was drawn entirely toward those black flames.
From within the black flames, a colossal abomination suddenly burst free, its body ablaze without ceasing.
Accompanied by the snapping of steel and the splintering of wood, a pitch-black mass of flesh slowly squeezed its way out.
Its enormous body was covered all over with tentacles and eyes. From its trembling mouthparts, green viscous fluid dripped down.
It looked like a grotesque amalgamation of every conceivable organ crammed together—an image of utter, senseless horror.
Its tentacles thrashed and writhed in every direction. Even as the flames consumed it relentlessly, the great maws covering its body continued to hunger for something, quivering unceasingly.
The Knights, at the sight of this unknown entity, immediately stumbled backward dozens of meters in terror.
They stood frozen in place, staring up at the sky in absolute disbelief.
Kavra was even more stupefied. She could not believe that a creature more terrifying than any Demon she had ever encountered had erupted so suddenly from within the Delin Family Manor.
"Wh... what is that..."
Gwen looked at the black abomination, drew her blade, stepped forward, and took her place beside Viktor.
"Vi——k——tor——"
A howl like the last rasping breath of something dying fell slowly from the sky, resounding with a thunderous, boom-like crash as though a great drum had been split open.
"Vi——k——tor——"
"How——do——you——know——"
The blazing sun hung high overhead, its extreme, searing heat assaulting everyone without mercy.
Viktor's Coat whipped and snapped in the chaos.
"Did Angus happen to mention to you, before he died, that he had recently changed his faith?"
"Oh, my apologies—I forgot he couldn't speak."
He spread his hands wide, a confident smile touching even the corners of his eyes.
On his shoulder, that sinister One-eyed Crow—its single eye glinting with an even sharper cunning.
Like the final victor on a chessboard.
"Check. Sacrifice the rook to save the king."