Episode 152: Hideous

Meanwhile, the fierce battle between Fen and Karlheinz was also approaching its conclusion.

“Guh… haa…!”

A massive amount of blood spurted from Karlheinz’s mouth.

(What in the world… is going on here…!?)

“I’ve fed power to Lugdura.”

Fen’s voice echoed quietly.

“That dagger is infused with my magic. Magic that amplifies Lugdura’s power. And right now, it’s… flowing into your body.”

“Amplifying Lugdura’s power… you say!?”

Fen’s trick was fundamentally the same as what Leon had done.

By pouring magic into the power of the Seven Great Calamities circulating through the opponent’s body, it triggered a rampage.

However, Fen couldn’t perform an instantaneous infusion of magic like Leon.

Instead—slowly and surely. Like poison, Fen’s magic eroded Karlheinz’s flesh.

“Don’t mess with me! How dare something like this… invade my body…!”

Raising an angry shout, Karlheinz hurled his shield down from horseback and thrust it into the ground.

Then, he tried to pull out the dagger lodged in his neck.

But it wouldn’t budge at all.

As if it had fused with his body, the dagger remained deeply embedded in his neck, unmoving.

No. In reality, the dagger was adhered to his neck.

The magic of Lugdura lurking within Karlheinz’s body sought the magic infused in the dagger and held it in place.

And in the next moment.

“Gua… giiiaaaah!”

Karlheinz let out a scream like a death rattle.

What burst through his abdomen from the inside—was bone.

“Gua… aaaa! It hurts! What is this… aaaaa!”

“Like I said, Lugdura’s power is being amplified.”

If vampires control blood, then necromancers control bone.

Activated by Fen’s magic, Lugdura’s power was abnormally growing its essence—‘bone.’

“Higi… gugaaaa!”

Karlheinz tumbled off his horse.

Bones protruded like sharp thorns from various parts of his body, rampaging wildly within his armor.

Even the heavy equipment that the Royal Aegis, commander of the royal guard knights, prided himself on was powerless against destruction from within.

And for him, the greatest misfortune was the fact that his immortality was still functioning.

Even as his organs were gouged out and blood scattered everywhere—he still hadn’t been granted the salvation of death.

“Higii… gaaaaa! How dare… I, one of the five great nobles… the Royal Aegis, commander of the royal guard knights… how dare this happen to me…!”

Karlheinz directed a grimace mixed with agony and rage toward Fen.

“To someone like you… an inferior race, to someone like you…!”

“That’s right—you’re going to lose to someone like me.”

“Youuuu! How dare you… how dare you, how dare youuuu!”

The moment he crawled up and tried to lunge at Fen.

A bone bursting through the sole of his foot robbed him of balance, causing him to fall pathetically.

“Agu… guu… uuuu!”

He tried somehow to stand, but the bones protruding from his entire body clamped down on his joints, sealing his movements.

Crawling on the ground was the only action Karlheinz could manage now.

“Hi… gu… P-please…”

A feeble voice leaked from the depths of his throat.

“P-please… h-help… me. I… am the kingdom’s highest noble. I can’t… die here…!”

His face twisted in pain, yet he desperately wove his words.

“If you help me, I’ll offer any reward. So… guaaaa!”

Abnormally enlarged bones burst through his back, destroying his armor from the inside. Like a butterfly breaking out of its chrysalis.

Letting out a scream, he still continued to plead.

“P-please…!”

“Is that how you ask someone for something?”

“Gu…”

Karlheinz cast aside his pride and pressed his forehead to the ground.

“Please… I beg you.”

“And about treating us like an inferior race… don’t you have something to say?”

“I… was wrong. Beastmen are not an inferior race. I… apologize.”

No longer did any pride remain within him.

If he could escape this hellish pain and survive… he wouldn’t shy away from any humiliation.

—No, strictly speaking, a sliver of pride still lingered inside him.

(For now, I’ll endure the humiliation—and survive at all costs. That’s… my duty as the commander of the royal guard knights!)

Telling himself that. Justifying his actions.

He simply continued to plead desperately.

“—Please, I beg you. Forgive me… please!”

“Fine. The comrades you blew away seem to have survived too… so I can forgive you.”

“R-really…!?”

“It’s no lie. I swear on the name of the gray wolf clan chief. Now, order your subordinates. Tell them to throw down their weapons and surrender.”

“U-understood…!”

 

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Karlheinz raised his voice toward his subordinates clashing on the main street, ordering them to cease combat and disarm.

Fen also gave instructions to her own forces, halting the engagement.

There was some confusion, but the clash between the beastmen and the royal guard knights came to an end.

However, during that time, bones continued to sprout one after another inside Karlheinz’s body, eroding his flesh.

Still, he mobilized all his magic to suppress Lugdura’s rampage, somehow halting its progression.

And—when the fighting between both sides had completely subsided.

Crawling on the ground, Karlheinz looked up at Fen and appealed weakly.

“N-now… I’ve done as you wished. Help me. N-no… please… help me.”

“We gray wolf beastmen have our own code. We properly help those who surrender.”

After stating that indifferently, Fen flashed a sardonic smile.

“But only ‘if they can be helped,’ that is.”

“Huh…?”

“For example, if someone has a fatal wound, no matter how much you try to help… it’s impossible, right? This is the same.”

“Wh-what… are you saying?”

“In other words, I do want to help you—but I have no idea how to cure that condition. Too bad, really.”

“Y-you… ridiculous…! You tricked me!? How dare an inferior race…!”

“I never said I’d cure you… did I?”

“You! You inferior—!”

It was at that moment.

Inside Karlheinz, something collapsed with a sound.

Realizing there was no hope of survival, the taut thread of his spirit snapped.

Suddenly, Lugdura’s magic began to rampage, and the bones grew even more rapidly.

And—finally, that abnormal growth reached the skull he had desperately protected with his magic until now.

“N-no… no! Stop!”

Karlheinz’s body no longer retained a human shape.

His distorted skull crushed his brain, and his consciousness sank into darkness. A certain death, surpassing even the immortality dwelling in his body, loomed before him.

(Th-this is ridiculous! I… the proud five great nobles… the Royal Aegis, commander of the royal guard knights… this… me…!)

In his fading consciousness, what caught his eye was his own shield thrust into the ground.

Its gleaming metal surface reflected his own utterly ruined form.

“U… gua… ah! I-is… that… me…? This ugly… monstrous… form…!?”

“It’s certainly a horrific sight. But don’t worry.”

Fen approached and spoke quietly.

“—Compared to the ugliness in your heart, it’s far better.”

Those were the last words Karlheinz heard in this world.

“Gua… gaaaaa!”

With a final death cry, his consciousness sank into darkness—and what remained was only a hideous sculpture of bone.