Chapter 324 – Falling (3)

Beeeeeeeep- Beeeeeeeep-
Windows started to open throughout the capital.

"What is going on?"

The knights' chaotic shouts could be heard, however, nobody was paying attention to them.
The soldiers who were guarding around the city wall, on top of the wall, and around the capital could only blankly stare up at the sky.

– Ahhhhhhhhhhh-
– Ahhhhh!

The black golems in the footage in the sky started to crumble.
Shrieking voices shot up along with the black smoke.

"…Our Empire made something like that?"

The hands of one of the citizen's looking out of his window were shaking. He thought about who he had seen before the golems had appeared.
It was Imperial Prince Adin who was in a terrace above a pile of skeletons laughing above a container full of a black liquid.

Why did that pile of skeletons and the shrieks coming from these golems seem to come together in his mind?

"Honey, t, that-"

The hands of the man who reached over to grab the shaking hands of his wife were shaking even worse.

The Alchemists' Bell Tower's Tower Master's disciple.
Honte, who was the symbol of rising from rags to riches.

He was exploding.
He was exploding like a bomb.
He was exploding toward the soldiers, his fellow citizens of the Empire.

The Imperial Prince was running away with only his subordinates as that happened.
It was the enemies who saved the remaining soldiers.
The face of the person saving the soldiers was familiar.

Cale Henituse.

He was the Roan Kingdom's hero who was known quite well throughout the Empire's capital for receiving the Medal of Honor.
Someone from a foreign nation was bleeding to save the Empire's soldiers while the Imperial Prince, the so called pillar of the Empire, was running away while laughing.

"…What is this? Is it real?"

'Is that footage real?'

The footage had returned to show Adin smiling above the pile of skeletons.
The focus of the video slowly moved away from Adin.

It backed away farther and farther until it finally stopped.
The footage had moved out of the secret passage and was now showing the Alchemists' Bell Tower.

'…Perhaps?'

The golems that the alchemists had called forth, as well as Honte, who had become a bomb and sprayed the black liquid.
The black liquid that was around the pile of skeletons.

"Mom, dad?"

They could see their sleepy son walking toward them while rubbing his eyes. They could see their daughter who was still half-asleep and just walking while holding her brother's hand.
The eyes of the parents that had been chaotic quickly focused back.

It was at that moment.

Bang! Bang, bang!

They heard someone banging on the door.
The man cautiously walked up to the door. He heard a familiar voice coming from outside the door.

"Boss, it's me, Sam."

He opened the door after realizing that it was Sam from the slums who worked at his restaurant. He was someone who always worked hard.

Screeeech-
The door opened.

"…Sam."

He could see Sam with a shield around him and a stiff expression on his face. He could also see what was going on past Sam's shoulder.

Bang, bang, bang!
He could see more people banging on doors of still sleeping homes, as well as other homes with their lights on. Where could these people have come from? There was no need to ask such a question.

He could see many people coming through the darkness in the slums and spreading out.

"Boss, we have to run."

Sam handed a video recording orb to the man as he said that.

"…Sam, this is…?"
"Boss, my sister is in that pile of skeletons Adin was looking down and laughing at."

The man could see Sam's bloodshot eyes.
He could also hear more people shouting outside. They were all running down the alleys while shouting.

"You need to run!"
"Escape to outside the capital!"
"Otherwise we will die like the soldiers did in the footage!"
"The true identity of the Alchemists' Bell Tower is black magic!"

The knights who were on patrol immediately pointed toward them and shouted toward the soldiers.

"Capture those bastards who are spewing nonsense!"

These were the same soldiers who had just seen their fellow soldiers almost get killed by the bomb called Honte.

They had participated in the patrol and surveillance, as well as helped to hide some of the leaders in the Imperial Palace as their captains had ordered them to do so.
However, they had not known that the Imperial Prince and the leaders had escaped while leaving the soldiers to die.

"Are you not going to move?!"

The soldiers hesitated and nobody started to move. The footage continued to play repeatedly on the airship during that time.

"You stupid bastards!"

The knight could not hold back his anger anymore and took out his sword. He then swung his sword toward the closest person telling others to run.

"How dare you spew such nonsense!"

A knight with red hair who was wearing a white armor showed up at that moment and opened up his shield.

Bang!
The knight's sword and the white-armored knight's shield clashed and created a loud bang.

"Who-!"

The Empire's knight saw the white-armored knight's face and shouted in shock.

"…Rex!"

The red haired knight was Rex.
The regular citizens' gazes moved to Rex after hearing that name.

Rex.

That name was famous in the capital and throughout the Empire.

He was the knight who had destroyed the palace and tried to kill the Alchemists' Bell Tower's Vice Tower Master.

The rumors about Rex had spread like wildfire once the royal family placed a bounty on his head.

He was a knight who could have lived a successful rags-to-riches story like Honte, the Tower Master's disciple. However, he was just a terrible terrorist now.
That was what people thought of Rex right now.

His appearance made the citizens think about Rex's crime once more.
'…The one who tried to kill the Alchemists' Bell Tower's Vice Tower Master-'

However, there were people going around shouting that the Alchemists' Bell Tower was the source of black magic.
They had also seen the Vice Tower Master giving orders to the golems.

The citizens who were putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together could see Rex's veins on his neck as he started to shout.

"Please run! Escape outside the city! The capital will be destroyed!"

The Empire's knight responded back as if he was shocked.

"Such nonsense! There is no way that the capital will be destroyed!"

The sword and shield were still hitting against each other. The knight sneered at Rex and quietly muttered in a low voice.

"I don't know what the hell you are planning, but do you think they can run just because they want to?"

The knight could then see Rex's lips.
The corners of Rex's lips were starting to go up.

"…You're smiling? You dare?"

At that moment.

Baaaaaaaaaang!
Baaaaang! Baaaaaang!

The knight almost dropped the sword in his hand.
The ground started to shake.

He turned his head.

'Where is the sound coming from? Which direction do I need to look?'

However, there was no need to have such concerns.

A golden light and red light shot out toward the North, South, East, and West.

A panther? A Tiger? A Wolf?
Strands of light in the shape of a difficult to define wild animal opened its jaws toward the capital's walls.

It then gobbled it up.

Baaaaaang! Baaaaaang!

There were three gold strands and one red strand.

Rosalyn was standing at the center of the magic circle while looking toward the red tiger that was destroying the southern wall before turning her head. Eruhaben was turning the Northern, Eastern, and Western walls into dust.

Rosalyn made eye contact with the smirking Dragon.

She looked into the Dragon's pupils and felt chills on her back.

She could feel it.

'Maybe this Dragon's rage is even greater than my own.'

He had lost his fellow Dragons and had his lair destroyed. They had even aimed for his life.
It was amazing that he was able to hold it in all this time.

The wild animals made from the Dragon's white gold mana destroyed the city walls.

Baaaaaang! Baaaaang!
No debris fell from the walls even after such loud explosions.
The had all turned to dust.

The Dragon then started to speak to Rosalyn.

"We need to finish the last remaining one, right?"

Rosalyn raised both of her arms up to the sky at that moment.
The red mana in the magic circle shot up to the sky. The white gold mana intertwined with that pillar of red mana.

The now rose gold pillar then turned into a large snake.
Eruhaben's finger pointed toward a direction.

It was the tallest building located at the center of the Empire's capital.
It was the Alchemist's Bell Tower, the tallest building in the entire Western continent that looked down on everything.

"Go."

The rose gold snake that received the ancient Dragon's orders headed toward the Alchemists' Bell Tower. It was made of fire and dust. That snake's head split into tens of heads.
They then turned into arrows and dispersed.

Rosalyn shouted at that moment.

"Destroy all emergency exits!"

The rose gold arrows that held her will started to destroy the emergency exits for the Alchemists' Bell Tower that Cale's group had discovered during the last two days.

Only the main entrance and the four secret passages outside the capital that Cale and the Dark Elves infiltrated were left intact as the ancient Dragon and the future Magic Tower's Tower Master's attacks clashed against the Alchemists' Bell Tower.

Baaaaaang! Bang! Baaaaang!

The Alchemists' Bell Tower started to shake.

"Ahhh! The Bell Tower is shaking! What is going on?"
"I don't know! Where are these attacks suddenly coming from?!"

The people inside the Bell Tower were filled with chaos and confusion. The thing that took the most out of them was the airship that appeared in the air.

The airship made by the Alchemists' Bell Tower that was said to have exploded in the Jungle had appeared intact.
It was no wonder the alchemists were in a state of chaos.

"I, I need to let him know!"

One of the alchemists quickly started to run through the Bell Tower. He didn't care if he ran into people as he started to run down the stairs.

He pulled the door and rushed in as soon as he arrived at the secret underground area.

"Your highness!"

The alchemist ran into Imperial Prince Adin's room.
The Vice Tower Master was currently a prisoner of war. The Tower Master was not back from the Eastern continent. The Imperial Prince was the highest ranking official after them.

He could see the Imperial Prince sitting on his wheelchair with a stoic expression on his face.

"…Our airship appeared in the capital?"

The alchemist could see a knight who seemed to have gotten here before he did vigorously nodding his head.

"That is the case, your highness!"

Boooooooooooom.
They could feel the Bell Tower shaking at that moment.

"And-"

The knight could not finish the sentence. The sudden enemy attack. As well as the footage.
Everything had happened in an instant.

"Hurry up and tell me."

The knight looked up to see Imperial Prince Adin showing absolutely no emotions.

"I recall telling you to go figure out what is going on up there."
"Yes, hurry up and inform his highness! What is going on?!"

Adin and his subordinates were without information as they were in this underground area. The knight did not look at them as he closed his eyes and shouted out.

"There is a footage being shown!"
"…Footage?"

The knight continued to shout as Adin tightened his grip around the wine glass.

"This underground, your highness, this underground area has been revealed!"
"…What?"

Clang.
The wine glass in Adin's hand broke and fell to the ground.
His mind was a complicated mess from all of these sudden events, however, he could quickly come to a conclusion.

The airship as well as this underground area being found out.
There was only one answer.

They were all revealed.
He was certain it was Cale Henituse.

If that was the case, then what would that bastard do?

'He's someone who is similar but different to me. He's someone who knows how to choke someone else to death!'

Adin then started to speak.

"Immediately barricade the four secret passage entrances!"

It was the moment he gave that order.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang! Baaaaang!
Outside the terrace. They heard a loud noise outside the terrace. Adin and his subordinates looked out through the window.

The four secret passages were just dark. But there were people cutting through the darkness from those paths.
They saw the first person who arrived at the underground hall.

"Hahahaha!"

The Dark Elf, Tasha. Her loud laughter filled the hall. However, her eyes were full of anger.
She shot forward surrounded by wind arrows made with her Elemental.

"Sweep them all away!"

The Dark Elves all started to attack after Tasha gave the order.
Their attacks were not aimed at the pile of skeletons but at the containers filled with black liquid.

Baaaaang! Baaaaang! Baaaaang!

Those containers started to explode.
Dead mana started to pour out.

All of the people inside the room within the terrace started to shout.

"N, no!"
"We must escape!"

Dead mana shot up to the sky. The Imperial doctor screamed as the black liquid prevented them from seeing anything.

"O, over there!"

Someone was approaching.
They could see someone cutting through the dead mana and shooting toward the terrace like an arrow.
Wind was swirling around Cale's feet.

Cale's gaze was only focused on the terrace.
It took him only a few seconds to arrive in front of Adin.

– Human, I'll do it with you!

The invisible Raon's black mana swept through the terrace.

Baaaaang!

The glass separating Adin from the hall broke down.
The broken glass shot into the terrace.

"Aaaaaah!"
"Dodge!"

There were people curling up to dodge the glass while others were moving to protect the Imperial Prince. However, their movements were slow from shock.

"N, no!"

Cale, who was much faster than them, especially because of the wind at his feet, shot into the terrace.
Cale, who had only been looking at one spot, reached his hand out.

He then started to smile.

"Ugh!"

'Caught you.'

He looked at the frowning Adin and whispered in his ear.

"You're not a normal black mage, are you?"

Normal black mages become mid-grade black mages the moment they absorb dead mana.
However, Raon said that Adin was at the beginner level.

"Ugh, you, ugh!"

Adin tried to say something, but it was too late.
Cale waved his hand toward the outside of the terrace while still holding Adin's throat. Raon supported Cale with his magic.

"Your highness!"

Adin was thrown out the window.

"Y, your highness!"
'No, catch him!"

Adin started to fall.

"Cough, ugh!"

Adin who was trying to catch his breath could feel his body falling.
It was falling down and farther down.
Nothing was touching his back.

He could see the terrace as he looked up while falling.
There was someone falling out of the terrace at that moment.

That person grabbed Adin's neck again.
That person, Cale Henituse, was smiling brightly as he whispered in Adin's ear.

"How long did you think you would sit up there and look down?"

Cale let go of Adin's neck.
A silver shield appeared in his hand instead. Cale remembered what Adin said last time.

'He said looking down was fun, right?
Damn bastard. What nonsense.'

The silver shield slammed into the falling Adin.

"Ugh!"

Cale mumbled to himself as Adin let out a moan.

"Ah, how refreshing."

Adin and Cale.
The two of them were falling down with different expressions on their faces.

Choi Han with his black aura and Tasha with dead mana around her charged toward the two of them.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]