Emperor of Steel

Belfair received a report from Argos agents a few days back.

An agent was spying the western part of Libiya Kingdom under the disguise of being a port merchant.

According to him, ‘Grain Chambers’, one of the top ten traders on the continent, suddenly brought in a large number of transport ships and sent them over to the Southern Continent.

It was natural to trade with the Southern Continent if any trading company was of the level of Grain, so it didn’t seem unusual to send in a trading fleet.

The problem was that the transport ships of Grain that was departing to the Southern Continent were empty.

The spy didn’t enter the ship, but he got information that the ship’s wight line was clearly out of the water.

Merchants, who didn’t want to lose any credit in the commercial activities, wouldn’t do that.

They would usually go to the Southern Continent to trade their entire products, so the ships always left the Rhodesia Continent full of goods, and when they returned, they would come back with the specialties of the Southern Continent.

But, the transport ship wasn’t of a small merchant, and the ship was said to belong to one of the top ten merchants on the continent, and it left empty?

‘The Grain Chambers has recently begun its trade in the Libiya Kingdom, right? Maybe they had something to do with the transformation of Libiya Kingdom.’

So, Belfair decided to find out more details about it.

Unlike Sebastian, who acted as a regent in the absence of the King, Belfair was acting more as an information agent in the dark to know the matters of the continent.

‘Well, His Majesty isn’t here, and there isn’t much work for me to do, so I’ll just go over there and check it in person.’

After chasing the trading fleet of Grain, Belfair turned into a bat and went to the coast of the Grenada Kingdom and had successfully sneaked in the transport ship.

However, the air around the trading fleet felt weird.

The number of sailors was fewer than he expected, and the bodies of those that seemed to have high status as merchants and captains were giving out magi.

‘What? Is there a warlock behind the Grain Chambers?’

Even among the warlocks, there were men who would subtly disguise themselves.

Moreover, unlike the other trading chambers, the Grain Chambers’s growth was quick, so there was much talk about it.

‘If the warlocks are doing a good job behind the scenes, including the transaction or investment, then such rapid development and growth wouldn’t be impossible. By any chance, are these men the warlocks that are going to the Southern Continent?’

Even if that wasn’t the case, Luke kept on asking the intelligence officials to find out where the remnants of the Veritas Magic Tower were hiding.

‘I don’t know, but maybe I’ll get a clue if I see this through.’

However, it wasn’t the Southern Continent where the trading fleet had arrived after a week.

Surprisingly, it was the Archipelago of Hell Islands where the fleet stopped.

That part of the sea was a place where traders never went because of the never-ending thick fog, reefs, and the fierce whirlpools, and the raids of monsters all throughout the year.

And so, in the past hundreds of years, no human had reached that place.

However, the trading fleet had gone into that place without any fear.

Belfair, seeing how skilled they were stirring their ship away from the fog and reefs, figured out that the fleet of the Grain Chamber hadn’t been to the Hell Islands just once or twice.

‘Is this their hangout place?’

Thinking so, Belfair knew that the men were sharp, finding the men were hard.

On the island where the fleet stopped, he saw a huge pyramid above the forest.

It seemed like it was an ancient building, but he could feel mana moving in the air as if the structure was still functioning well.

‘Huh! There are such ruins in the Hell Islands?’

It was when Belfair was shocked at the evil feeling…

Dadak! Dadak!

The wagons driven out by the warlocks from the woods began to come out.

One after the other, they kept on coming out.

There were coffins on the wagons, but surprisingly, there seemed to be Undead inside them.

‘I knew it…! These are the remnants of the Veritas Magic Tower!’

There were Undead and warlocks, who Belfair was familiar with.

Belfair was quick to identify it.

Grinding his teeth, he approached the pyramid slowly.

However, he stopped quickly.

One of the two warlocks, who were standing on top of the pyramid, used a dark bullet on him even though he was hiding in the branches.

“Kuak!”

The Dark Bullet was much faster and powerful than he thought.

Belfair was injured, but he still tried to run away immediately. However, a warlock was able to follow him.

“That bastard rat!”

Contrary to the thought that he would be able to catch the spy, Albert couldn’t get a hold of the spy, who escaped his grasp.

Albert couldn’t calm himself down by the fact that he wasn’t able to catch the spy. He ended up at the southern seashore in his pursuit of the spy.

Using the 9th magic circle spell, he began chanting.

Lightning Web.

Pajack!

A powerful lightning net covered a 20-meter area, and a scream broke out from the mouth of the spy, who was wearing a dark hood.

“Ackkk!”

Thud.

The guy, who flew in the sky, ran into the net and fell to the ground.

Albert moved close to the spy and spoke with a sly smile on his lips, “Kukuku, how dare you think that you could run away from my hands? Stop struggling and show yourself!”

When he went close to the spy and tried to kick off the hood on his head…

Swask!

Something flew in with an eerie feeling.

Shocked, Albert used Blink to quickly avoid whatever it was.

However, the blade, the aura blade, moved in the air and went for Albert’s neck.

“Kuak!”

In the unexpected counter-attack, Albert’s head and body got separated.

Like Nestar, his father and former Meister of the Veritas Magic Tower, he too was an Archmage, who didn’t just learn white but also dark magic.

However, the spy seemed to be an Intermediate Sword Master!

“Kuekk! Even a 9th circle Archmage would get hit by that surprise attack!”

Belfair took his hood down and looked elated.

In a normal sense, a 9th circle Archmage was powerful enough to be compared to a Sword Sage.

In addition, the opponent was learning dark magic.

Belfair deliberately pretended to be hit by the Lightning Web, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to win against the man in a direct confrontation even if he was a demon. However, he managed to attack him with a surprise attack.

While Belfair was feeling triumphant…

Swash!

Albert’s head and body, which were separated, began to reattach. Albert got up and frowned while touching the part of his neck that was cut off.

“That was pretty painful, an unexpected attack.”

‘Wh-what is this?!’

Belfair was stunned by what he saw.

Albert glanced at him and laughed.

“You must have been shocked since I didn’t die. This isn’t so unreasonable. It would be worthless to learn dark magic if I didn’t learn about resurrection and regeneration.”

Recovery magic wasn’t something that was exclusively for white magic.

Although it wasn’t common in dark magic, it also had Recovery magic.

Among them, ‘Dark Resurrection’, a 7th magic circle spell, had the efficacy to automatically attach one’s severed head or heart if there were enough magi in one’s body.

Of course, there were conditions required for it to work.

It wasn’t something anyone could just do because it required a significant amount of magi and life force, as well as placing the spell on one’s body in advance.

However, Albert wasn’t just some warlock.

He was a magnificent warlock, who learned both white magic of the 8th circle and dark magic of the 7th circle, and was one of the best warlocks in the history of magic.

He was a very cautious person, and he regularly performed the dark resurrection circle on his body.

Thanks to that, he didn’t die.

However, Albert, who looked at Belfair, couldn’t hold back his shock.

“Y-you aren’t human! A demon? What made a demon come to Middle-Earth? Who summoned you?”

“There is no need to tell that to an insignificant human.”

At the arrogant response of Belfair, Albert’s face turned red.

“You cheeky son of a demon. I will make you regret being this arrogant!”

Albert, who snarled through his teeth, used powerful flame magic on Belfair.

Pung!

Belfair, who avoided the attack upon seeing a small gap in it, rushed toward Albert and stabbed him with his sword.

Puck!

The greyish-white light pierced through Albert’s heart.

However, at the same time, Albert used lightning magic, and it struck Belfair.

“Kuak!”

“Huh, you lack the ability to learn. I did say that I mastered dark magic resurrection and regeneration, right?”

Albert was elated. He stretched out his hand toward Belfair, who had fallen on the ground.

However, his face suddenly turned pale and began to vomit blood.

“Uh, no way, ugh…!”

Looking down on his chest, he saw something unbelievable.

Blood was flowing down from his heart, which should have been healed by Dark Resurrection!

Not just that, even the Black Circle on his heart was damaged, and the wound was burning down his body.

“Kuak! H-how did…? What the hell are you?”

Belfair struggled to get up and smiled, seeing Albert ask questions in a desperate manner.

“Puahhhhh! You look rather funny after saying all those words! I don’t know if you learned the greatest of the dark magic or if you are a great opponent. I had used a little divine power in my Aura Blade!”

“D-Divine power!?”

“Uh, yes. That was the cause of your defeat. Because of that Divine power, your fierce dark magic got nullified.”

Magi’s destruction occurred with Divine Power.

Albert was aware of that, but he didn’t understand how it happened.

“H-how could… a demon like you… use Divine power?!”

“Huh, it’s the result of my painful practice, I guess?”

It was all because of Luke’s brutality toward Belfair that he was able to deal with Divine power.

Belfair was able to put a little Divine power into Aura even though he was a demon because he learned the Silver Sword, and since he was constantly training, he managed to do it.

Of course, to get into his current level, Belfair had to taste pain countless times.

Even then, the fruits of his hard work were very sweet to him.

It was because he was able to subdue an enemy as strong as an Archmage by himself.

“D-damn… This makes no… sense… kuak!”

Albert clutched his chest and coughed up blood while slowly falling to the ground.

Belfair noticed that his breath was completely cut off and sighed.

It was really lucky for him that he was able to kill Albert.

If Albert knew white magic resurrection and not dark magic, then Belfair would have been the one to die.

“Euu, boring. I need to get my slaves to do this next time.”

While healing his own wounds, Belfair’s body trembled.

It was because tremendous energy was soaring inside the pyramid that was on the side. And the enemy began to come out to the place where Belfair was standing.

‘Now I have gone and done it! Those warlocks seem to know that their subordinate is dead!’

The warlock, who shot Dark Bullet in the beginning, seemed to be twice stronger than the dead one.

There was no way that the same attacks from Belfair would work on him.

Holding onto his chest, Belfair used every last energy in his body and transformed into a bat. He then flew toward the sea.

Kwang!

In the place where Belfair was standing a while back, something blasted and dust rose everywhere.

The person that appeared there was Nestar, in his usual colorful robe.

“Uh, I missed it.”

Looking at the sea, he mumbled to himself, feeling regret.

He sensed Albert’s magi running wild after he went down to chase the spy.

Looking around, he was shocked to find Albert’s dead body with his chest pierced.

“T-this can’t be!”

He shook Albert’s body, trying to get him back.

However, no matter how much he shook it, Albert, who was dead, didn’t wake up.

“Uhhhh! Who is he?! Who was the bastard who did this to my son?! Uahhhh!”

With Albert in his arms, the magi in Nestar began to rise.

His cry of sorrow was so loud that it resounded in the entire island.

Belfair’s ears hurt while listening to it.

“Phew, if I was a little late, it would have turned into a huge mess for me… Ugh!”

He glanced over at the island in relief as his body plunged toward the land.

The injuries he had suffered from Nestar and Albert were severe. However, it was nothing compared to using Divine power with the body of a demon.

Barely being able to flap his wings, he rose once again.

“Damn, I will drown at this rate.”

It would be nice if there was a trading ship passing by, but there wasn’t even a single common fishing boat around the Hell Islands.

Belfair flew hard and found a monster that was glancing at him over the misty water.

Seeing it, he found out that it was a whale that floated to the surface to take a breath.

Belfair managed to come up with something, and he immediately began to use every last bit of his energy and uttered a spell.

Dominate Eye, a specialty of the Vampire race.

He had always used this ability on low-level creatures, but fortunately, the whale accepted him.

“Let me be on your back, cute one!”

Poooh!

The whale spewed water from its nostrils as if saying okay and approached Belfair while sticking out his back.

Belfair sighed in relief as he escaped from drowning.

After that, he returned to the Symphonia Kingdom while on the whale’s back.