STM 83

“Lord Zav.”

When Dorgo called his name again, Zav finally managed to open his mouth.

“The divine beast’s power has disappeared.”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said.”

Zav turned to Dorgo, his whole body trembling so badly it was visible.

“I can’t feel the divine beast’s power at all. It’s gone, I tell you… the power is gone!”

Zav’s bloodshot eyes were filled with despair, but Dorgo looked at the shield with an unreadable expression.

“That can’t be. The shield is functioning properly. The divine beast couldn’t have escaped.”

“Then why did my power vanish?!”

“Are you certain?”

Zav clutched his chest as if he couldn’t breathe.

“It’s completely gone… If I still had power, why would I have suffered that humiliation in front of everyone?”

Zav’s hands shook as he gasped for air.

“If the shield works properly, then why did the divine beast disappear? How did it get out?!”

“No. It can’t escape.”

“Then what? Did it vanish inside like Kun’s divine beast…!”

Zav froze mid-scream in shock. What if it really had vanished? His hands started shaking even harder.

“O, open the shield… h, hurry, open the shield…”

“Do you think the divine beast has been annihilated?”

“Quickly open the shield and check if it’s still inside…”

“I’m asking if it’s been annihilated!”

Dorgo suddenly grabbed Zav’s shoulder and shouted. Zav stared at him in disbelief, but Dorgo didn’t care and continued asking.

“The only one who can know for sure if the divine beast is gone is its contractor. Has it been annihilated?”

“You, you dare talk to me like— argh!”

Zav’s shout turned into a scream. It was because of the hand on his shoulder. The fabric under Dorgo’s grip burned black, and the flesh beneath began turning charred.

Zav couldn’t endure it and dropped to his knees. Even as one of his shoulders burned away, he didn’t resist, and a strange light appeared in Dorgo’s eyes.

“You really can’t use the divine beast’s power anymore.”

“Do, Dorogo… you… gah!”

Zav barely managed to speak, but his voice turned into another scream. Dorogo’s hand now seized his head.

Zav’s proud blue hair crackled and turned black in an instant. His scalp burned away, and he screamed in agony, while Dorgo laughed.

“Ha ha ha!”

Dorogo threw his head back and shouted with joy.

“The divine beast has finally been destroyed!”

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When you fight monsters long enough, you grow used to despair. That isn’t entirely bad. Once you get used to despair, you stop sitting down and start quickly finding another way to act.

You only need to get past the obstacle called giving up. That’s probably how I managed to survive the long war against monsters.

Even now, seeing the plan fall apart before my eyes, I wasn’t angry first, I was already thinking.

That’s right. I thought Zav, stripped of power, would pressure Dorgo into releasing the shield, but I was completely wrong.

Dorgo wasn’t what we expected. Who could have known he would attack Zav the moment he learned his power was gone?

“He, he attacked the Grand Duke of Borhumi…”

Haas muttered in shock and swallowed. Even for us, this situation was surprising, so it made sense that he was shocked.

I had already heard from Solongo how much the people of Tubain revered the divine beasts. So of course he couldn’t believe there was someone rejoicing over one of them disappearing.

We stood at the entrance of the secret passage we had broken open earlier and watched inside. Haas, despite how he acted, was indeed a skilled mage, and he also had many useful artifacts.

One of them was a concealment device. Thanks to that, we could watch unseen and hear Dorgo’s strange words clearly.

“Zav, it’s all thanks to you. Now that the divine beast’s power is gone, I can open the sealed gate. The land of Borhumi will now become the glorious beginning where the sacred monster descends.”

It was the kind of line a typical villain would say, but there wasn’t anything funny about it. Open the sealed gate? The first thing that came to mind was the lake, the dried lake covered in human blood.

And there was one kind of being obsessed with human blood. Monsters. That blood really was a medium that summoned them. Had there been a fissure beneath the lake where monsters had once appeared? I had many questions, but didn’t have time to think about them.

Thud.

Dorgo shoved Zav’s head away, and his body fell to the floor. His face was covered in blood, so his expression couldn’t be seen.

He no longer breathed, so whether he laughed or cried no longer mattered. It was a pathetic, meaningless death. Pitiful as it was, there was no time to feel sympathy for him.

Dorgo drew a magic circle in the air with his finger. I didn’t know what he was planning, but it was clear he wasn’t trying to release the shield that trapped the divine beast, since his back was to it.

If he had no reason to stay here, then what he meant to do was clear… fuck, he was about to leave.

Tap.

Without realizing it, I took a step forward. I had to stop him before he escaped.

Tairok must have thought the same. As we rushed toward Dorgo, a portal appeared in front of him. Just as he was about to step into it, he turned his head.

“Kun Tairok?”

He raised his brow and muttered in surprise.

“What are you doing here?”

“You don’t need to know.”

Tairok pointed his sword forward. I adjusted my grip on the club too. I had more urgent business than he did. I needed to remove the shield that covered the divine beast.

To think he would assume the divine beast had vanished simply because Zav’s power was gone. That had been my mistake. Now the problem was how to make him lift the shield.

That bastard looked ready to vanish through the portal at any moment. How could I trick him into— wait, trick him?

I grabbed Tairok’s arm and raised my voice on purpose to sound rushed.

“Grand Duke, we found the first black magic stone that maintains this shield. We need to destroy that first. Confirm whether the divine beast’s annihilation is true.”

Tairok turned toward me in confusion, but Dorgo reacted differently. He turned his head toward a certain spot, probably where the first black magic stone was.

‘Mo, measure the exact position where his gaze landed.’

As soon as I gave the order to Mo, Dorgo turned back and glared at me. His glasslike eyes were filled with disgust, as if he had realized I was lying.

“How dare you try such a crude trick?”

He lifted his hand toward me. A magic circle appeared above it, and the floor beneath me crumbled. .

Tairok pulled me by the waist and jumped back with me in his arms. Black smoke rose like a column from the hole that opened where I had been standing and swept toward us.

“Haas, block it.”

His command was drowned out by the roar that followed.

Bang!

A deafening blast like compressed air bursting filled the space, and Haas was thrown back.

“Ugh…”

He must have strained himself trying to block Dorgo’s spell. Dorgo, on the other hand, had done nothing more than a casual gesture.

Haas was strong since he served under Tairok, but how powerful was Dorgo?

The real problem was that he raised his hand again. A new magic circle appeared, larger than before. That beady-eyed bastard.

“Damn it, let go of me!”

I shoved Tairok aside, grabbed a loose piece of stone from the wall, and threw it into the air. Then I swung my club. Quick-witted Mo helped by drawing a curved line toward the target.

Crack!

With a loud sound, the fist-sized rock was perfectly aimed at Dorgo’s head. But he raised his hand in time, and the rock turned into dust against his barrier.

The surprise attack failed, but it wasn’t a total loss. It broke his concentration, and Tairok didn’t miss the opening. He charged at him.

He must have exhausted himself fighting soldiers at the lake, but lightning-like aura still flared from his sword’s blade.

Rumble—Crash!

The impact brought down part of the ceiling above Dorgo’s head, but he avoided the attack again. A portal appeared at the spot where he had been standing, then vanished instantly.

“What a sly bastard.”

I cursed under my breath but then opened my eyes wide. The portal vanished, and Tairok collapsed to the floor. He must have pushed himself too far this time, because blood poured from his mouth.