novelAlta Chapter 473: Perhaps the most trivial thing
Chapter 473: Perhaps the most trivial thing
“Gyaaaaah!”“Everyone, evacuate! Get as far away from here as you can!”
In an instant, the surroundings became a scene of chaos. The people who had been fighting immediately turned around and began to run frantically.
Enoch reflexively hugged Rosie, but he quickly checked the center of the explosion where Arendt was.
“Sir Arendt!”
Despite the enormous noise, the damage to the surrounding area was not significant.
It meant that Arendt had single-handedly prevented the explosion.
The three realized that a translucent barrier had formed where Arendt had been.
It was in exactly the range of frost that Arendt had caused.
The inside of the hemispherical shield was filled with thick dust.
A few seconds later, !
The barrier was lifted with another loud bang. The dust dispersed in the wind, and they could finally see inside.
Contrary to their fears, Arendt was left unharmed.
But the floor around him was half destroyed and a mess of unidentified red mucus and debris.
It was only after a while that the three realized what those sticky red objects were.
It was the remains of the man who had just uttered those ominous words.
“Oh god…!”
Rosie took a deep breath and stepped back. Her hand that had been gripping Enoch’s collar was as white as a sheet of paper.
But Arendt’s expression remained unchanging as he looked at the flesh.
“You’re annoying.’
He grumbled briefly and then used the Frosty Touch again.
At the same time, the scattered pieces of flesh began to twitch and a bright red magic circle appeared without warning under Arendt’s feet.
It was a sign that the ghouls were about to be summoned.
He tried to stop it before that somehow, but once it got to this point, there was no way to stop the summoning any longer.
“Captain! Seal off the perimeter. And you, first evacuate the people, then surround the perimeter and establish a defensive line. Don’t worry about me: just stop anyone trying to enter the residential area.”
“Yes? But, are you alright alone…?”
“Don’t make me say it twice. Don’t disturb me. One of you, go to the palace and ask the knights for support.”
The security captain was taken aback by the cold voice.
Everything felt unreal. Arendt gave him another command as he stood there blankly.
“If you understand, leave now.”
“Yes, yes!”
Only then did the captain come to his senses and turn around.
He ran towards the attendants who were still standing there as if nailed to the spot and pushed the three children away from the scene.
“What are you doing here! Go home quickly! Hurry up!”
“What…!”
Even as they were dragged away, the three children looked back with a lingering sense of regret.
The last thing they saw was Arendt, staring blankly as something human-like slowly rose from the ominous magic circle, one by one.
“Keeeeeeeek!”
The ghoul, fully raised from the summoning circle, screamed towards the sky.
Due to Jiklin’s death, they were more similar to the humanoid ghouls discovered earlier than the bizarre forms that were a haphazard combination of monsters or beasts.
‘But to say that they are the same entity…’
Arendt frowned slightly.
Unlike those whose entire bodies were rotten, those who had appeared now looked like blood and muscles had clumped together to form a human form.
Even Arendt, who had been traveling to various places and encountered all kinds of monsters, was seeing this for the first time.
“Geeeeeek, keeeeeeek!”
So far, there seemed to be at least 20 of them staggering out of the summoning circle.
It didn’t stop there, as the summoning circle was still spewing out an unpleasant amount of bloody ghouls.
Arendt frowned and gripped his sword.
“Honestly, you guys have bad taste.”
Fortunately, thanks to the quick action of the security captain, the surrounding area was empty.
The priests who had been watching from the entrance, dumbfounded, also suddenly came to their senses and hurriedly began to close the temple doors.
Arendt found a familiar priest among them.
Finally, before the door closed, Benno met his gaze and flinched.
But that was only for a moment, as Priest Benno bowed his head deeply.
It meant to wish him good luck.
With that, the Great Temple was completely shut.
When the sight finally disappeared, Arendt grumbled briefly.
“Why don’t these damn bastards give me a single day of rest?”
But he didn’t intend to complain for long. It wouldn’t change anything.
The only thing that needed to be done right now was to get those damn things out of here.
“Keeeeeek!”
The ghouls began to pour towards Arendt, screaming with resentment.
Arendt responded by using strong magical power.
A pure white frost storm swept through the square in front of the Great Temple.
No one dared speak. Cantares and Jereon’s bewildered gazes fell upon Arendt.
And Laius just buried his face in his hands as if in pain.
“What are you looking at? Is this the first time you’ve seen someone so handsome?”
As always, a twisted answer came back. Jereon, for once, responded with a look of pain in his face.
“Sir Arendt, I think I might have agreed if you face hadn’t been half-wrapped in bandages….”
“It’s okay. I’m still handsome.”
Arendt shrugged shamelessly.
But it was also true that it was not very convincing with his fingertips wrapped tightly in bandages due to frostbite and one arm unable to move properly due to a wound from a ghoul bite.
Before hearing any official reports, Cantares asked first.
“…Did you really intend to stop that on your own? Are you crazy?”
“But you did it? What’s the problem?”
“There was no one there, so what can I do? If you had any complaints, you should have moved faster.”
He had nothing to say.
While everyone was silent, Llewellyn gave a reproachful look.
“Good job. If we had been just a little bit later, not only would you have lost that handsome face, but you would have lost the use of that arm forever.”
But you came just in time. It’s fine.”
Arendt responded shamelessly.
Llewellyn, who had just arrived at the Third Knights’ dormitory, encountered a security guard rushing over.
And then, after receiving the situation, he mobilized the few elf with warriors remaining in the palace and Salem, and rushed to the front of the Great Temple to provide support.
Only after Warren, who had been waiting at the merchant headquarters, joined in, were they able to finally clear the scene.
Cantares, who was pressing his temples, asked.
“Are you injured?”
“It’s not serious. I’ll be completely healed when Sir Lexion returns. That damn dragon is staying away for too long today.”
“Please, please, don’t talk about him like you’re repairing a carriage.”
Llewellyn grumbled.
“Except for that bastard, no one was injured. Most of the elf warriors remaining in the palace were archers. The same goes for me.”
“That’s fortunate, but… I would appreciate it if the Prince would refrain from rushing to the scene himself, if possible. After all, the Prince isn’t part of our Empire’s combat force.”
Llewellyn clenched his jaw in embarrassment at the Crown Prince’s reply, which clearly expressed his frustration at being in so much pain that he could die. Laius lowered his head.
“I should have come back a little sooner. I’m sorry.”
“Alright, enough of the small talk. Let’s stop talking and get down to business.”
Arendt said irritably.
“I’m really tired right now, I want to go to bed quickly.”
“…Hah.”
Cantares sighed deeply and waved his hand.
“Tell me what happened in order. It started with a riot, right?”
“Yes. The Chernion Cult members who were hiding in the Imperial Palace and living their daily lives normally was where it started.”
Arendt gave a straightforward answer.
“They split into two groups. One group started causing a commotion, throwing objects in front of the Great Temple. The other group pretended to intervene, further escalating the situation. They even dragged passersby into the fray.”
The reason why such a method worked so well was, of course, because of the public’s confusion caused by the division between Laius and the temple.
“Thanks to that, even the sane people were able to release all the anxiety they’d been holding in. After breaking up the fight, I spotted a suspicious guy in the crowd, and he suddenly blew himself up, unleashing a torrent of ghouls.”
He probably intended to kill Arendt with an explosion, but he had a barrier bracelet made for him by the Count.
The bracelet had two magic stone artifacts attached to it.
One was made to deal with Warren, and the other was made to completely block the surrounding magic power in order to interrogate Ain.
Arendt activated both simultaneously to protect himself and to thwart the summoning.
“I tried blocking the summoning with a magic barrier, but it didn’t work. It seems like it’s not enough to block the dragon’s direct magic.”
Arendt frowned slightly.
“And a ghoul of a type I’ve never seen before was summoned. I’m not sure if it can be called a ghoul, though.”
The screaming figures and the movements of those struggling to kill the enemy somehow felt more like evil spirits that died with a grudge.
“First of all, each and every one of them was quite strong. They were not as strong as the priests who maintained their perfect egos, but they felt different from the monsters who only sought to kill.”
Arendt, who had been thinking deeply for a moment, spoke again.
“There are a few things I’ve inferred from this situation.”
“Speak.”
When Cantares gave permission, Arendt frowned slightly.
“I would have done that even if you didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, you bastard.”
Arendt continued, ignoring the Crown Prince’s frustration.
“First things first. It seems like the ghoul materials they’ve secured are running low. This is quite different from the way they were trying to transform or process them to make them stronger. This is similar to the recent situation outside the imperial palace.”
“Recently discovered ghouls are becoming more and more humanoid. Second. The materials used in what appeared today are clearly kidnapped victims. They were sacrificed to create something between a ghoul and a homunculus.”
“Something between a ghoul and a homunculus?”
Llewellyn asked curiously.
“It wasn’t that strong to be called a homunculus.”
“Without Jiklin, they could no longer create homunculi. But they’d still have the technology.”
Arendt spoke.
“And Nikephoros and Iris are capable of implementing it to some extent. While it’s impossible to create fake spirit stones using the victim s’ egos, it’s possible to create humanoid monsters with a crude sense of self using similar techniques.”
It would be much easier to recreate something similar by grinding up humans than to gather monsters and create a homunculus with a sense of self.
“…That sounds like a plausible story. If that’s the case, we need to prepare to fight the entities that appeared today.”
When Laius, who had been listening quietly, answered, Arendt nodded briefly.
“Right. Well, this is just a guess, so the higher-ups should make their own judgment. And lastly, and most importantly. Actually, I don’t need to say this, everyone knows it.”
Arendt blurted out, his good hand shoved deep into his pocket.
“It looks like they’re ready to move.”
The tone was extremely flat, but the meaning contained within it was not.
The conference room suddenly became quiet.
It was because everyone except Arendt were silent and had looks of distress on their faces.
The climax of this tedious war was just around the corner.