Chapter 443: Merciless

Over twenty corpse puppets rose from the pool of blood.

Under First’s command, they gathered magical energy and let out a collective scream.

As the corpses released their terrifying wails, magic erupted, bringing unexpected disaster to the central area of the X-District.

Lightning shot upwards from the ground into the sky.

Flames burned the earth.

Pure white ice particles spread like sharp winds, cutting and freezing everything in their path.

The land cracked and twisted.

Multiple catastrophes occurred simultaneously, killing all life around.

The heavily armed Unaffiliated Gangs and even dozens from Enjoyment were not spared.

With just one strike, nearly half the fortress’s forces were wiped out.

Normally, that would be the end of it.

Facing such overwhelming destruction, most would give up.

However, this time was different. Although the damage was severe, neither Enjoyment nor the Unaffiliated Gangs gave in.

Proof of that was in the druids outside of the attack range, who managed to control the massive trees that covered the fortress to mitigate the damage.

They used the trees imbued with nature’s power to redirect lightning.

They subdued the flames with waves of earth.

The leaves, infused with nature’s energy, purified the ice particles, blocking the fierce winds.

They even used tree roots to mend and correct the cracked and twisted ground.

The scene was breathtaking, as if nature itself was gently admonishing the arrogant wizards.

However, it was not so gentle as it appeared. Enjoyment was just as greedy and ostentatious as the wizards.

Once they suppressed the fierce magic to some extent, the dozen or so druids immediately launched a counterattack.

They accelerated the growth of all trees around them, causing the already massive trees to grow even larger, aiming to bury the central part of the fortress where the corpse puppets were.

With the overwhelming size and mass of the trees… they stood a good chance.

Crushing with such immense power is best when you don’t know what twenty wizards might do.

As evidence, the corpse puppets under First’s control were gradually pushed back by the enormous advancing trees, unable to offer much resistance.

Whether burned by fire or frozen by ice, the trees, grown large by nature’s power, easily shrugged it all off. Lightning, wind, and earth were no exception.

The only ones offering meaningful resistance were the corpse puppet-Bathory under First’s control and the one Seamus under Third’s control.

Third tried to seize control of Enjoyment’s magic through nature’s power, but when met with strong resistance, he altered his plan and started scanning for the druids.

He needed to find out who was controlling the druids’ position and spells.

Although capturing them would be best, if that wasn’t possible, they would have to be destroyed.

“Meeehhhhh!”

Third let out his distinctive cry and pointed in a specific direction, and First responded.

The creations, born from the same creator, immediately understood each other.

First extracted blood from his human-face vest and formed a small stake, then hurled it in the direction Third indicated.

Amazingly, the thick-as-an-arm stake punched through the enormous tree as large as a building.

Although it eventually stopped due to the sheer size, that hardly mattered. This was its purpose all along.

[Blood Explosion]

At First’s command, the blood stake embedded in the tree exploded.

It wasn’t a simple explosion, though—it was a blood-mediated explosion.

The perfectly spherical blood-red explosion stayed contained, its potency compressed within a specific range, cleanly erasing everything in its path like a meticulous eraser.

The tree, now with its trunk hollowed out, teetered and fell to one side.

Crunching, cracking sounds filled the air as the giant tree crashed down.

Branches and leaves scraped against each other, creating friction noises. At that moment, First shouted.

“Aha! I got through!”

“Let’s go!”

Third responded, charging into the gap created by the fallen tree.

At the end of the path made by the toppled tree stood a druid wearing a cloak made of leaves.

He was currently directing the massive spell. If he were killed, the trees closing in from all sides would certainly stop.

“Stop!”

“You dare!”

The two druids standing on either side of the leaf-cloaked druid shouted simultaneously.

One male, one female, they both attacked, driving branches like tentacles toward Third to halt his advance while hurling wooden spears.

Judging from the synchronization of their attacks, they had been working together for quite some time, but Third, using the strength and reflexes of the corpse puppet-Seamus, broke through.

In that instant, as he crushed the net of entangled branches and shattered the wooden spears, the surroundings turned white, and lightning struck down upon him.

A defensive lightning spell.

Although not fatal to the corpse puppet-Seamus, the electric magic temporarily froze his movements. In that brief moment, several purple magic circles formed in front of Third, releasing a barrage of lead bullets.

Dudududududududu!

The machine guns, powered by spatial magic, lived up to their name, dealing significant damage, even leaving dents on a body reinforced by nature’s power.

“Push in.”

“Close in.”

The two druids shouted again at Third, who had been temporarily frozen by the barrage of lightning and bullets.

They combined their powers, sending a wave of tree roots mixed with dirt that pushed Third back to his original position.

“You fool!”

“Sorry!”

As Third returned, First yelled at him.

Meanwhile, the broken tree began to regenerate, closing the gap and advancing to bury the corpse puppets.

Third immediately rose and tried to stop it with nature’s power, but the druids’ numbers and coordination only slowed it down. First, low on blood, couldn’t do much to help either.

It was fairly disappointing. Had there been more blood, they might have stood a chance.

While First and Third pondered their next move, a voice spoke from behind them.

A voice so calm it was chilling.

“Thank you for your hard work.”

In the rapidly closing space, First and Third turned to see who it was.

There stood their creator, Oliver, casually eating a Calorie Bar. He’d arrived through a blood pool.

Not only First but also the druids were surprised by Oliver’s sudden appearance, but they saw it as an opportunity, gathering all their remaining strength to drive the trees forward.

If they killed Oliver here, the fight would be over.

As the trees advanced even faster, smashing a few more corpse puppets, and with nowhere left to flee, Oliver raised his Quarterstaff and gently tapped it on the ground.

Tap.

A small sound echoed. The power of nature infused in the Quarterstaff spread through the ground and into the surrounding trees.

Compared to the nature power currently controlled by the Enjoyment faction, it was minimal. But it was enough.

As soon as the Quarterstaff injected its energy, the surrounding trees…no, all the trees covering the fortress fell under Oliver’s control.

“Impossible…”

Muttered the druid who had been controlling the trees up until that moment.

It was a natural reaction. A black mage had just wrested control of nature from a druid. That should never have happened, and yet, it did.

To mock such thoughts, Oliver commanded the trees, making them turn on the druids who had been controlling them minutes before.

The massive trees moved violently, as if they had met their original master, attacking the druids.

Unable to accept the reality before them, the druids couldn’t even respond to the counterattack.

It was at that moment Oliver spoke.

In a voice so calm it sent shivers down their spines.

“I’ll be asking you to work hard again.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the twenty corpse puppets screamed once more, unleashing attacks in every direction.

Lightning, fire, ice, wind, earth—all at once.

***

The battle was essentially over.

It was no wonder.

First, the flesh ammunition had rendered 60% of the fortress’s key defenses useless.

Then, Seamus’s solo charge had inflicted significant damage and shock.

On top of that, the magical bombardment from Bathory, along with the twenty other wizard corpse puppets, had caused unimaginable devastation.

Normally, this would have ended the fight long ago.

Despite that, both Enjoyment and the Unaffiliated Gangs resisted.

They too had their own desperate reasons.

Enjoyment needed a place to escape the Special Law, while the Unaffiliated Gangs had to regain the foothold they had lost in Randa’s underworld.

So, they fought desperately, refusing to give up.

And that effort bore some fruit.

After all, they had almost buried all the corpse puppets with the trees covering the fortress.

Considering the abilities of the corpse puppets, it was not a bad record.

However, that didn’t happen.

Because of Oliver’s appearance through the pool of blood.

Horrifyingly, Oliver seized control of the surrounding trees with just a single tap of his Quarterstaff and launched a counterattack.

It wasn’t a misunderstanding. A black mage had stolen nature’s control from a druid.

The trees, which had grown under the druids’ hands, ungratefully crushed them, whipped them with roots, bound them with their branches, and tore them apart.

The druids tried to resist, but the immense nature power they had accumulated only served to make it harder.

Thorough preparation had, ironically, become their undoing.

As if that wasn’t enough, the corpse puppets spread out, ruthlessly attacking the shocked druids.

Had they remained calm, the druids could have countered. But the shock of losing control to a black mage left the Enjoyment faction unable to respond, and they toppled like dominoes.

It wasn’t surprising.

After all, they had been sold like sacks of potatoes, trained relentlessly from sunrise to sunset, losing half their comrades in the process, only to have nature’s control wrested from them by a mere black mage.

This wasn’t just a denial of their efforts, but of their entire lives.

“I won’t accept this… I refuse to accept it!”

The druid in the leaf cloak, seething with rage, shouted as he smashed three wizard corpse puppets advancing toward him.

Then, along with the two disciples by his side, he charged toward Oliver.

These were the same druids Third had targeted earlier. This time, Third stood in their way.

“Out of the way!”

“Move!”

The two druids flanking him simultaneously cast their spells. They infused the branches they held with nature’s power and sent them flying like giant pillars.

They figured the corpse puppet, with its previously shown physical prowess, would attempt to break them.

At that moment, the druid with the leaf cloak planned to use the broken tree shards to finish the job.

“Huh?”

The druid, waiting for his chance, muttered.

Things weren’t going as he’d expected.

Instead of crushing with sheer force, Third seized control of the tree pillars with nature’s power and began wrapping them around himself like armor, engaging in a battle for control.

Alarmed, the leaf-cloaked druid moved to stop him, but Third was faster.

He concentrated the tree armor around one of his fists, forming a hexagonal war hammer, and swung it at the leaf-cloaked druid.

Whoosh!

The leaf-cloaked druid infused his cloak with nature’s energy to create a protective barrier, but he couldn’t withstand the force of Third’s war hammer punch. A portion of the barrier tore apart.

As red blood and pieces of intestines leaked through the tear in the leaf barrier, both of the assisting druids flew into a frenzy and tried to rush forward, but something black and shapeless engulfed them.

Thunk…

It was one of Oliver’s shadow tendrils. Despite not having a sharp edge, the blunt tendril easily pierced through the body of one of the druids.

From under the collarbone to just above the pelvis—the entire upper body.

It resembled a gruesome explosion.

Not just the corpse puppets, but even the Unaffiliated Gangs and druids hiding nearby, silently observing, froze in terror.

It was such a horrifying sight.

Oliver himself was equally shocked.

“Ah… I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

Oliver murmured regretfully. And he was actually sincere because there were questions he wanted to ask.

Although, to be honest, he only intended to subdue the druid. Yet, the shadow, having absorbed emotions, life force, and magic from Flesh Cook, reacted without regard for its master’s will, smashing the druid to pieces.

Well, it wasn’t entirely unexpected, either.

After the battle with Flesh Cook, the excess energy absorbed sometimes caused the shadow to act on its own. But this severe?…

Oliver manipulated the surging shadow, pulling it out from the druid’s body.

Splorch.

As the blunt, giant shadow withdrew, it revealed a druid’s torso—upper body, flesh, guts, organs, spine, back skin—all pierced perfectly through.

The two of them crumpled, revealing the large, gaping hole in their bodies.

Thud.

“Meeeeh. Here.”

Always quick on the uptake, Third dragged the leaf-cloaked druid to Oliver.

The druid, bleeding heavily from a torn right shoulder down to his chest, was barely clinging to life.

“…Hello.”

Oliver gave a polite greeting to the pale druid. After all, it was only proper.

“I’m Dave, the fixer from 30th Street, T-District. There’s something I’d like to ask. Care to answer?”

“Hah… Crazy… Will you spare me if I do?”

“…Yes.”

“What… How does it feel to be curious..?”

“There’s a rumor that there’s a female druid infiltrating T-District as a singer. Know where she is right now? I have a question for her.”

The druid reacted. He gasped, weakened by blood loss, as he asked.

“What…question…do you have…?”

“It’s nothing important, but it really intrigues me.”

“Really…? Fine, I’ll tell you… My answer… Die,” he replied.

With those words, the druid squeezed out the last of his strength to cast a spell. He manipulated his cloak to entangle Thorn and Oliver in branches tougher than steel.

Surprised, Third tried to cut through them, but the branches, infused with the druid’s life force, wouldn’t break so easily. And, at that moment, someone approached.

It was Russell, the leader of the Unaffiliated Gangs.

A retired soldier, he was known as the ‘Freak,’ not only for his bodily modifications but also because he replaced his limbs with Golem prosthetics.

Even though his limbs were originally fine. But it was understandable.

Thanks to that, he could travel from far off to here in less than a second and attempt a decisive strike without relying on magic.

After clashing repeatedly with the Crime Firm, he had solidified his position, and true to his reputation, he didn’t hesitate a moment. He aimed a punch at Oliver.

His high-tech military Golem prosthetic arm, made of machinery and stone, emitted a blue light as it focused all its power. The elbow propulsion system fired as Russell launched his fist at Oliver’s face.

It wasn’t a bad plan.

After all, even the most skilled individuals could be taken out with a well-placed powerful blow. That includes people, even if they have exceptional abilities.

Especially now that most of the corpse puppets were out fighting the druids, the timing was perfect.

Bang━!

As Russell’s fist nearly collided with Oliver’s face, a massive shockwave erupted.

Just the shockwave alone had enough force to obliterate Oliver’s head. But his head was left completely unscathed.

The moment Oliver got ensnared by the branches, his body instinctively activated a Disease Enhancement-type black magic, tearing off his restraints and blocking Russell’s fist with just one hand.

“Druid.”

Gazing at the frozen Russell, who hadn’t yet grasped reality, Oliver spoke.

“I knew you were lying.”

“…”

“But it’s okay.”

“…?”

“I lied too.”

As he spoke, Oliver ripped off Russell’s Golem prosthetic arm.

With strength that belied his skinny frame.

“I never intended to spare you, either.”