“Hey! Wait a minute!”
The masked man who was left on the top of the castle was stomping his feet in frustration.
It was because Suramazon had jumped down to block the intruders at the back door without consulting him.
‘That brute! How can he be so reckless when we are not ready yet?’
He had sent down a puppet disguised as the Duke of Arsen to buy some time, but the enemy had simply cut off its neck.
‘What do I do now? I haven’t even filled half of it yet.’
He had no choice but to make a grim face.
His original plan was to start his operation after he had gathered enough holy power in the shadow grail a few days later.
But somehow, the enemy had discovered them much sooner than expected!
“Quickly, move the sacrifices to the front of the grail!”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you too!”
“Me?”
The masked man threw everyone he had captured for sacrifice, whether they were commoners or his subordinates, into the grail.
But he was still far from reaching the desired level.
Clack!
Then, he heard the sound of Eurius climbing up the stone stairs with force.
He had to make a choice.
He had fought with Eurius before and knew that he couldn’t be sure of victory with this level of preparation.
Finally, he made his decision, and his eyes glinted sharply through the mask.
“The risk is too high, but I have no choice!”
***
‘Copy?’
Eurius tilted his head as he saw the black monster.
Why did it have his name on it?
The answer came right away.
Clang!
He instinctively raised his sword to block and hardened his expression.
‘Intangible sword?’
Surprisingly, the black monster had the same abilities as Eurius.
The habit of wielding a sword with superhuman skills. Even his fourth-stage trait.
Swoosh.
And it wasn’t just one.
He felt a faint presence behind him and quickly backed away.
Two more black monsters were attacking him relentlessly.
He managed to fend them off somehow, but it was clear that Eurius was at a disadvantage.
Seeing him being pushed back, the original finally showed himself.
The darkness gathered from the fragments of the broken grail and formed into the masked man.
Swoop.
He raised his hand and the monsters backed off for a moment.
But they still surrounded Eurius from three directions, as if to block his escape route.
‘So that’s the real one.’
Eurius stared intently at the masked man who appeared.
[Giovanni] (Descent state)
Job: Merchant, Archbishop (Heimdall Sect), Puppeteer
Strength: B Agility: B Intelligence: S Willpower: A+ Dark Power: SS+
Disposition: Greed, Fanaticism
[Traits]
Create Burning: The ability to turn blood into fire
Marionette: The ability to control clones with his own abilities. If a clone receives a strong impact, the original will also be damaged.
Descent: A secret technique that fuses with the relic of his faction and increases his power. However, if he perishes, the relic will also be destroyed.
(New) Soul Copy – Summon a subordinate that copies the information of a designated target.
‘Clone?’
Eurius finally realized what these monsters were.
The masked man Giovanni also looked at him with confidence.
The power of the shadow grail was to summon clones with the same strength as the target.
He originally planned to clone Suramazon, but he didn’t think there was much difference if it was Eurius.
‘No matter how good he is at flying and crawling, he can’t escape from here with two clones that have the same power as him.’
He was sure of his victory, so he relaxed a bit and made an offer to Eurius.
“Stop for a moment!”
Eurius looked at him with a puzzled expression as he stopped the monsters when he had the upper hand.
“Hmm?”
“It seems like you have no chance of winning, so do you have any interest in cooperating with us?”
“Why should I?”
“If you help us, I’ll guarantee you the emperor’s throne! You just have to agree to some of our demands.”
“Oh…”
Giovanni watched Eurius as he pretended to think deeply.
In fact, he had lost too many forces this time.
But if Eurius, who was currently in charge of the empire, cooperated with him, he could make up for that loss and more.
‘If that emperor bastard has any brains, he’ll accept my offer.’
But Eurius gave an unexpected answer.
“So did you lure my brother in like this?”“Huh?”
Giovanni looked surprised for a moment. How did he know about that?
But it wasn’t something he couldn’t reveal if he agreed to cooperate with him.
“That’s true, but how did you know that we contacted the second prince?”
‘As expected!’
Eurius felt a piece of the puzzle fit in his mind.
He had been suspicious of him for being too inactive, but it turned out that he was not the archduke, but Leonhardt, who was related to the sect.
‘I need to dig deeper into him.’
“Why did you choose Leonhardt? If you wanted the power of the empire, you could have persuaded me.”
It would make sense if he was weak in his previous life, but why did he ignore him, who had gained a lot of ground in the early competition, and only contact Leonhardt?
“That’s…”
Giovanni fiddled with his mask and made a troubled expression.
“I can’t tell you that right now. I’ll tell you when you gain our trust by cooperating with us.”
“Is it such a big secret?”
“…”
Even when Eurius asked again, Giovanni remained silent.
He clearly had some secret that he couldn’t reveal.
A moment later.
“So? Will you cooperate or not? You don’t have much time, do you?”
“Time?”
Heek.
He smiled slyly again.
“I’m talking about your loyal knights downstairs. If you don’t want to lose them all, you’d better follow my words.”
“Huh…”
Eurius groaned faintly.
It was obvious what he meant.
The monsters had gone to the lower floor where the knights were waiting.
“…”
He hardened his expression and pointed his sword forward again.
“Then I really don’t have time for this. I need to finish this quickly and go down.”
“…!?”
Giovanni looked dumbfounded.
He was being pushed back until a moment ago, and now he said he would finish it quickly?
“What do you mean?”
Crash!
Before his question was finished, one of the monsters flew back with its body shattered.
He had killed one of them much more easily than before.
Giovanni looked at Eurius with disbelief.
“How? The clones made by the power of the relic should have the same skills as you.”
Eurius chuckled and gave a brief answer.
“It seems like it produces defective products when used on me.”
“What?”
***
Meanwhile, Beatrice on the lower floor was busy blocking the monster’s sword, but she couldn’t help but stare at it with a pale and disgusted face.
“This is definitely His Highness swordsmanship.”
“…”
The monster didn’t respond.
But judging by its trait and swordsmanship that approached stealthily without any presence, it was certain that it had something to do with Eurius.
And of course, she and Eurius had a big difference in skills.
Clang!
The intangible sword grazed her shoulder and left a bloody mark. She almost lost her shoulder if it had gone deeper.
“Captain! Cough!”
The knights tried to help her, but there were more than one monster.
There were three of them that attacked the knight squad.
“Everyone, spread out and face the enemy!”
But the monsters were really amazing. They tore through the knights like wolves among sheep.
It was only possible to resist because Heinz and other captain-level knights formed a line, so there were hardly any deaths, but it was a desperate situation.
It was also possible because Beatrice was holding off one of them by herself.
Clang!
‘He’s not His Highness. He can’t multiply himself into three.’
She was pushed back constantly, but she regained her calm expression as befitting her personality.
‘And more importantly, his strength, speed, and reaction are far below His Majesty’s.’
Chang! Cha-chang!
Beatrice had lost a lot of blood and had a pale face, but she was doing much better than before.
She knew His Highness sword as well as he knew hers.
She also had plenty of experience fighting against him in his current state.
The enemy was definitely superhuman, but if she could predict what kind of attack would come, it would be easier to defend.
‘I can handle this.’
As she blocked the attacks frantically, a thought flashed through her mind.
The enemy used the same swordsmanship as Eurius.
Then?
“Can I… imitate His Highness?”She muttered without realizing it.
But at that moment!
Her sword began to change slowly.
In the midst of a fierce battle, her thoughts drifted back to the past as she entered a state of no-mind.
***
“How do I break through the wall?”
“You just have to achieve the goal you set when you picked up the sword.”
That was the answer her father, the Duke Dios, gave her.
“I don’t remember it very well, but when I knew what I wanted to change the future, the wall collapsed.”
That was Eurius’s answer.
Both of them sounded like nonsense.
A goal?
A desire?
Doesn’t everyone have them?
But at that moment!
She realized what she wanted first.
Didn’t Jegal Unhyeon also tell her something like this?
“I don’t really know why you can’t break through the wall. You have a solid foundation and plenty of combat experience… Maybe you should look back on why you started training in the first place?”
‘Why did I start training in swordsmanship?’
Her goal for picking up the sword was her father, who was a great superhuman.
She worked hard to catch up with him and became a genius, reaching a high level at a young age.
But now she was different.
The person who changed her was Eurius, whom she met much earlier than expected.
Their positions and relationships had changed a lot from before.
Her goal before meeting Eurius was to surpass her father, who was a superhuman.
But then she met Eurius, who was almost the same age as her.
He was always ahead of Beatrice by a few steps.
Every time she saw Eurius, she felt a mix of admiration, jealousy, and affection.
And finally, she made up her mind.
‘My goal now is to stand side by side with His Majesty!’
As soon as she realized that, her sword changed.
***
Pop!
The monster that had been dominating the duel with her all along had its sword blocked without any force.
And that wasn’t all!
“…”
There was no sound of the sword swinging, but fine cracks began to appear on the monster’s body.
Crack!
Sssss!
The monster’s body started to crumble, and only then did the sound follow.
Her sword had shattered the monster faster than sound.
This was her fourth-stage ability, Swift!
It was the legendary skill of Beatrice, who was known as the fastest in the continent in the past.
But she had no time to enjoy breaking through the wall.
‘I have to save them!’
She ran towards the knights with a terrifying speed.
She didn’t know who the enemy was, but one thing was certain after seeing it crumble without any resistance in front of her who had just broken through the wall.
‘These monsters are similar to His Highness, but much weaker!’
***
Giovanni muttered with a stupid expression.
“Defective products?”
Eurius answered him coolly.
“Yep! It seems like they only copied the appearance.”
“That can’t be!”
He hastily drew out the power of the relic and created another copy of Eurius.
Three more clones shot at him with fast speed.
But the result was no different from before.
Crack! Bang! Boom!
They attacked him in threes, but they couldn’t last a second in front of Eurius’s sword.
But it was impossible for Giovanni’s common sense.
“How can this be… The power of the shadow grail is not absolute?”
He was so frustrated that his trump card was blocked that he kept drawing out the power of the grail and creating clones endlessly.
‘If I can’t win with skill, I’ll overwhelm him with quantity!’
But that was also useless.
Zap!
A line was drawn around Eurius in the room.
His Severing Sword cut Giovanni and his clones in half with one strike.
At the same time, the whole room tilted and made a loud noise.
Crash!
He was in a room inside the spire. He had cut off the spire itself.
[You have killed the Archbishop of Heimdall Sect.]
[You have destroyed a relic.]
Giovanni looked at him with disbelief in his eyes behind his mask.
Eurius left his last words to him.
“That’s an amazing power indeed, but it can’t copy the player’s trait.”