"And don't give me that crap about innocence! Did anyone put a knife to your throat and threaten you into relying on nether power? Didn't you take the nether medicine just because you didn't want to die?"
Seraph had no sympathy for the suffering of the people either.
"Do you even know how painful the plague is? These people wanted to live! So what if they relied on nether power? Even nobles and clergy research nether magic, don't they?! They only borrowed the power of the nether because the power of the Yaegas Divine Clan was no help! And yet you drove them to rampage! How could you! You soul-less monsters! You're the real beasts!"
The Taoist of the Blue Sky Order shouted in fury, channeling his focus. The familiars linked to him—once fellow members of the Blue Sky Order—began to move.
"Kill them!"
The Taoist controlled his familiars and gave them a kill command. But the men and women of the Herald Clan merely scoffed.
"This bastard's just taking his anger out on the wrong people."
"Dimia, didn't you get wrecked by Azadin? Feeling better now?"
"Yeah."
"Then show us what you've got."
Dimia, clicked her tongue and unstrapped her ribbon-blade from her waist. The blade was forged with Azure Steel, shimmering with a blue edge. She nocked it to her bow and fired—tracing a brilliant blue arc through the air, the ribbon-blade flew like a living snake, dancing as it sped forward.
Thwack!
One of the familiars of the Oak Wraith tried to block it with a branch. But the ribbon-blade moved like a living thing, slipped through the gap, and sliced through the familiar's neck. With gleaming blue light, she began slaying the familiars one by one.
"Gyaah!"
"Gahk!"
With heads and torsos severed, the familiars of the Oak Wraith writhed, vomiting out their brains as they were destroyed.
Seeing her shoot down familiars with her bow like it was nothing, the Taoist realized just how powerful they were.
"Y-you demons!"
The Taoist of the Blue Sky Order screamed as his subordinates were butchered without resistance. He tried to cast a spell—but a short sword, too large to be a mere dagger, pierced through his arm.
"Gah!"
"Whoops. Don't move around carelessly. We've still got a lot we want to ask you."
Seraph was suddenly right next to him, holding a sword to his throat.
"Don't make me laugh! You think I'll submit to you…!"
From beneath the Taoist's feet, branches shot up to strike Seraph. But in that instant, a flash of black sword light swept through. Along with the branches, the Taoist's leg was neatly severed.
"Ah, damn… I think I hit a vital point. No way a nether familiar dies just from losing a leg, right?"
"Grrk!"
Sure enough, the Taoist forced branches out of his bleeding stump to stop the wound. But even he now realized—he was no match for the Herald Tribe.
"Already starting, huh?"
At that moment, Arael appeared at the Blue Sky Order headquarters, accompanied by Indim. Having just finished meeting with Azadin, she frowned.
"Lady Arael."
"You've already laid hands on the Blue Sky Order, I see."
"Yes. I apologize, Lady Arael. But knowing Azadin's personality, there's no way he'd agree to take the medicine."
Dimia's younger sister, Zenith, said as much. Arael glared at her.
"Seems you know quite a bit about my brother. Fine."
Arael reached toward the collapsed Taoist. Just then, a key shot out from within his robes and was sucked into Arael's hand.
"What should we do with him?"
Seraph asked as she held a blade to the Taoist's throat.
"Make him take the medicine."
Arael tossed the vial she had offered Azadin—only to be rejected—toward Seraph. Seraph forced open the Taoist's mouth with her blade and poured the liquid down his throat.
"Guhk?!"
The Taoist tried to resist, but the liquid mercilessly flowed into his mouth.
"Go on, drink it and regret it, you dumb bastard."
Seraph laughed mockingly as she dumped the Taoist aside.
***
Lightning tore through the sky and struck the earth.
"Dear gods… It's the end of the world. We can't stop this."
Azadin looked upon the camp, where lightning crashed down in rapid succession, feeling nothing but despair.
Those who had taken the Blue Sky Order's elixir were turning into familiars, and with each transformation, lightning struck from the sky.
In other words, each lightning strike marked a new familiar rising among the refugees even now.
With familiars appearing within the refugees, there was no way to block their advance using walls or moats.
"This is bad, Captain!"
Even Scott was overwhelmed by the sheer number.
At first, the familiars of the nether had been helpless against Scott's techniques. But it seemed the familiars were sharing information. Gradually, more of them began to counter his spells.
They would first eliminate the undead Scott summoned, then all focus on attacking him.
"There's no end to them, Captain!"
"You're right! We need to prioritize! Let's head to the Blue Sky Order headquarters!"
Azadin decided to stop fighting familiars here. Rather than saving a few people by fending them off, it made more sense to uncover the cause and deal with the root of it.
That meant ignoring the dying. But under the circumstances, there was no other choice.
No matter how hard Azadin, Zebeck, and Scott tried, familiars kept appearing, and people kept dying. In the end, unless everyone who took the elixir died, the nightmare wouldn't end.
Azadin plotted the shortest route to the camp where the Blue Sky Order's Taoist had been. Along the way, he cut down only those familiars that directly blocked his path.
Those not in his way would still hurt people—but there was nothing Azadin could do about that.
Worrying about problems with no solution is just plain stupidity! This is the best option right now!
Azadin slashed through the familiars obstructing him with his Azure Steel longsword and made his way to Baron Adirof's castle.
In front of Baron Adirof's castle gates. The Taoist of the Blue Sky Order already lay collapsed in a pool of his own blood, and in the distance, Arael, the Four of the Beauty of Nature, and Zenith were heading for the baron's castle.
The distance was too great.
Azadin tightened his core and shouted at the top of his lungs toward Arael.
"Arael!"
At that moment, the corpses of familiars scattered around them began to twitch.
"Urgh?!"
"Be careful."
Zebeck warned him, but Azadin calmly kept his eyes on the scene.
Then came Arael's voice. The artificial spirit under her control appeared there.
[Ahh, Azadin. You're going to tear your throat out. Let's just talk like this. Then again, you still can't use proper magic, right?]
"What did you do, Arael?!"
[I got the key to the Emperor's Treasury that those Blue Root bastards had. There are two keys. With these, the Emperor's minting machine will be mine.]
"You… don't feel anything? So many people are dying because of what you've done!"
[It's because those Blue Root fools stupidly used the nether's power. How is that my fault?]
"If you hadn't flooded Coral Sahar in the first place, none of these people would've come here to die! You sided with the Nagas and slaughtered people in Coral Sahar—now that disaster has spread here too!"
[That's quite the fascinating interpretation. Yes, I did cause the incident in Coral Sahar. But if I hadn't acted, during the Age of Jupiter, even more sacrifices would've been inevitable! I simply took the best course of action to minimize the damage.]
"That's absurd. If that's your 'best' effort at minimizing casualties, what the hell would you have done if your goal had been to maximize them?"
[Sure. You'd probably have done it all with fewer losses, right?]
"What?"
[That's why, Azadin—come to my side. With you here, people can still be saved. I don't mind using them as stepping stones, so you stay by me and protect them.]
"..."
Azadin was speechless. He never expected Arael to try and coax him even at a time like this. And with the excuse of minimizing casualties?
'Unbelievable. She's the one doing the killing, and she's asking me to come stop her? Seriously?'
Her attempt to persuade him was so self-centered, Azadin was left dumbfounded.
[Of course, I know it's too soon for now.]
At that moment, Arael's voice suddenly boomed.
"Urgh!"
"Captain!"
"Azadin!"
Scott and Zebeck pointed at the Taoist of the Blue Sky Order lying on the ground. The moment he stood up, lightning burst around them, and familiars began to surge in.
"Tch!"
Azadin drew his sword, channeling strength through his body, preparing to cut the Taoist down in a single stroke.
But then, the Taoist raised his hand.
"W-wait! Please, calm down!"
"…What?"
"I'm conscious! I'm fine!"
"..."
Amazingly, the Taoist of the Blue Sky Order was fully conscious. And that wasn't all.
"For now, I'll try to control the familiars."
As the Taoist focused his mind, a change began to take place among the familiars gathering in the front yard of the baron's castle.
Where once they were pure violence, savage beasts, now their movements showed signs of order and coordination. The Taoist was controlling the familiars with his mind.
Then he formed a small branch. It was sleek like a crossbow bolt, with a pointed tip sharp enough to tear through bare flesh with ease.
The branch flew like the wind, piercing the familiars' thick bark. It clung to them like mistletoe clings to ancient trees, fusing with them.
And then, a miracle happened. The familiars regained their reason.
"Uh… M-master Taoist?"
"Wh-what is this? Is this… my body?"
Cries of horror came from those who had regained their humanity.
They were horrified by the brutal, savage violence they had just committed—and shocked at the monstrous state of their own bodies.
"Uh, excuse me! Have you seen a child that was with me? A short-haired kid, carrying a rag doll like this…?"
The man's voice quivered as he asked. A blood-soaked rag doll hung limply from the branch protruding from his body. That child he sought… was surely no longer of this world.
Azadin, seeing the doll, lowered his blade and glared at the Taoist. This man had managed to rein things in, but if he hadn't spread the elixir in the first place, none of this would have happened.
Of course, the torment of disease had driven people to rely on the elixir, so blame couldn't fall entirely on them—but the image of the bloodied rag doll clung to Azadin's mind.
If I had eyes, I'd say that image burned itself onto my retinas.
Azadin questioned the Taoist.
"Have you come to your senses? Care to explain what just happened?"
"I… I don't really know."
"Thought so. What I want is for you to give me the best excuse you can come up with. I'll filter it myself. Do you know how many people killed their own families on the way here? Do you know how many of them I had to kill because of that?"
Azadin's voice trembled with fury.