Do Your Own Revolution

#095

What… what in the world?

It didn’t take long for the knights who departed on Carlos’s orders to reach the city center.

That was only natural.

Unlike the Imperial Guard Knight Order that had just arrived, Buckenheim and Nachtval had been preparing for this subjugation for over two weeks.

However, upon reaching the city center, Carlos was facing a completely unexpected situation.

“There’s nothing here?”

As he said, there was nothing in the city center.

No Eugene waiting for allied forces in an exhausted state.

No Elcidore family knights who had transformed into monsters and lost their sanity.

No corpses, no traces of battle, just an empty space.

Only the blood stains scattered across the plaza gave a vague hint of what had transpired here.

“Is it an enemy trap?”

“If so, from which side do you think it came?”

Did the rebels betray them, or did the surviving Eugene devise some scheme?

Carlos clicked his tongue in discomfort at those words that considered all possibilities.

A battlefield where no one could be trusted.

When he returned, he would make sure to teach that Randall fellow a lesson.

“Father? Th-there……”

As he was thinking this, Delling, who stood beside Carlos, raised his finger.

“That’s…?”

“A woman? Why in the middle of this city……”

A girl standing alone in the middle of the desolate city.

She was watching them with wide eyes and a smile.

Empty pupils.

A grotesquely distorted face that stretched to her ears.

Though she had beautiful features that would turn any man’s head, that grotesquely distorted expression contained an unpleasantness that couldn’t be considered human.

“Lord Carlos. That’s……”

“Send two knights. Have one watch the woman, and one secure her. She could be an informant or enemy agent.”

Hearing those words, Delling immediately signaled to the knights.

The knights approached the girl slowly with raised swords.

Perhaps a domain resident who couldn’t evacuate in time?

Thinking this, the knight nodded to his companion before slowly reaching out toward her, and-

Crunch-!

Tentacles that extended from the girl’s shadow bit off the knight’s hand.

“Urgh……?”

“Ah, tastes bad.”

Along with that cold voice, empty purple pupils gazed at them.

A bizarre magical power wavelength fundamentally different from that of humans.

The moment they sensed it, the other waiting knight swung his sword without hesitation.

“This magical power reaction……”

“Monster! It’s a monster-!”

“Damn, battle positions! Battle positions-!”

As hundreds of gathered knights drew their swords, tentacles extending from the girl’s shadow lunged at the knights.

Black Witch, Irene.

Her rampage had begun.

“U-uwaagh?!”

“What is this, where did it come from…! Gyaaaargh-!”

The two knights who had approached closely became Irene’s first sacrifices.

The two knights caught by tentacles before their swords could even reach Irene.

Crunch! Crack?!

Their bodies were crushed before they could even deploy magical power fields, becoming masses of flesh that scattered blood and flesh.

“Hehe… Hehehe……”

Eugene said she could do whatever she wanted.

She’d already eaten this much, but he said she could eat more.

Having reached her limit after consuming the Elcidore knights, Irene gave herself over to the surging appetite with unparalleled satisfaction.

Grrrrrr——!

As tentacles wrapped around Irene’s body, the black sphere floating above her head gradually distorted its form.

The sphere split vertically.

And from within, what slowly revealed itself was…

“That’s, could it be……”

“Th-the Great Rupture……”

A despairing cry emerged from among the knights who had experienced monster battles before.

Ten knights had already charged toward Irene with swords imbued with magical power.

However at that moment, something that burst from the rupture cut off the heads of the charging knights.

Slash-!

“Eh, eeh?!”

There were five shadowy figures.

Smooth black carapaces instead of mangled flesh.

Red eye-light glowing through slits like helmet visors.

Monsters… that watched the knights with refined movements rather than rampaging without reason.

Seeing this, Carlos opened his mouth with a troubled expression.

“Pure-breeds…!”

Pure-breeds.

Unlike normal monsters that were mutations of creatures contaminated by the rupture, these were otherworldly beings that came directly from beyond the Great Rupture.

Higher-level entities whose appearance triggered empire-wide subjugation orders.

“Dammit, Knight Order charge!”

“We must stop those monsters! Maintain formation……”

Clang-!

The knights who confirmed the pure-breeds immediately began to act, but those monsters charged even faster.

“Krrk.”

“Kiiii……”

Red eye-lights emitting an eerie glow.

Their targets were Carlos and Zeplant who commanded the Knight Order.

‘They heard our conversation just now and realized we’re the commanders of this group.’

In other words, these monsters possessed enough knowledge to understand human language and respond accordingly.

Cold sweat ran down Carlos and Zeplant’s faces.

Pure-breed monsters that were reported to have appeared during the Great War.

To think they would witness such beings in a place like this…

“However!”

Carlos immediately activated his magic imprint.

Duke Buckenheim’s imprint, [Steel Wall Lion]

The moment he manifested all six strokes, crystals made of magical power enveloped his body.

Boom-!

A massive knight in the form of full plate armor.

The majestic magical power contained within repelled the monsters rushing in from all directions at once.

Kwakwang–!

“Don’t get cocky, you monster trash.”

“……”

“We Buckenheim are descendants of the hero who slaughtered your kind at the vanguard of the last Great War. Did you think the techniques and magic we’ve developed since then wouldn’t be enough to defeat you!”

Kiiiiing—!

At the same time, Nachtval’s magic imprint [Radiant Holy Lance] shone.

A ray that nullified all defensive measures including magical power fields.

The monsters that instantly scattered in all directions to avoid it lowered their stances with eyes full of wariness.

“These bastards, they dodged that……”

Reaction speed that instantly detected attacks without warning.

Flawless coordination of five entities moving as one body.

Seeing this, Zeplant smiled with cold sweat.

The magical circuit output of each individual was at best that of a four-stroke mage.

However, they made up for that insufficient gap through coordination achieved with monster-specific physical specs and high intelligence.

“It feels like common sense about monsters is crumbling.”

“I have similar thoughts.”

Said the two heirs who had deployed their magic imprints to the extreme.

Until now, monsters had charged in relying on their near-infinite magical power, contamination, and massive bodies.

But these ones that emerged from that rupture were fundamentally different from other monsters.

‘I can understand why the Elcidore remnants failed. However……’

That made it even more incomprehensible.

Why had such beings appeared here?

“So strong. Just like Eugene said.”

“……What?”

What words had they just heard?

Eugene?

While they were thinking this, Irene, wrapped in tentacles, spread both arms while maintaining her characteristic smiling face.

“Krrk, krrk……”

“Kwooooargh-!”

Black shadows gradually encroaching across the plaza.

From those shadows, horribly distorted monsters were revealing themselves one by one.

“Those are, could they be……”

“Elcidore? How……”

Boom-!

Over a hundred monsters positioned around the five pure-breed monsters.

Seeing this, the knights swallowed dry saliva as they steeled themselves for the battle about to begin.

“Why, why is this happening……”

The causal relationship was incomprehensible.

Regret washed over them, but the time to dwell on it had long since passed.

That monster was already watching him and the Knight Order, and the monsters were baring their fangs at them.

“Knight Order! Battle positions-!”

With Carlos’s shout, the formation centered on two six-stroke mages was completed.

An army of monsters and the Knight Order.

A grave silence enveloped everyone for a moment, and.

Kiiiiing—!

Starting with the Nachtval knights’ light magic, hundreds of magic imprints shone simultaneously.

A battle between two hundred knights and monsters endlessly flowing from the Great Rupture.

In the middle of the empty city, a battle of the century was beginning.

***

“Sir Eugene!”

“We found him, Lord Andrei! This way!”

The imperial guards found Eugene right after magical power light rose from the city center.

A large-scale battle suddenly breaking out in a city that should have been empty.

Andrei had no choice but to ask for an explanation from the only person who would know the situation.

“Could you explain what this situation is all about?”

Tremendous magical power being released simultaneously by hundreds of knights.

It meant an enemy had appeared that required mobilizing the entire central Knight Order.

“It’s the Great Rupture.”

“?!”

He couldn’t carelessly reveal details about Irene.

Starting with those words, Eugene presented the lie he had prepared in advance to report to his superiors.

“The Elcidore remnants, when cornered, used Count Elcryer’s research product – the monster mutation serum – in desperation. After transforming into monsters, they attempted to die fighting together.”

“……”

“We succeeded in eliminating them, but the catastrophe of a Great Rupture emerging from the excessive contamination occurred.”

It made sense.

The corpses of over a hundred Elcidore knights.

When those gathered together, it wouldn’t be strange for a rupture to occur there.

However, Andrei knew those words were a lie.

“I know that ruptures occur in places where contaminated corpses are concentrated. The first Great Rupture that devoured half the continent occurred that way after all.”

“……”

“However, the timing is unnaturally convenient.”

All the Elcidore knights were subjugated, Eugene escaped from that location, and right when the Knight Order arrived, a rupture occurred?

No matter how you thought about it, wasn’t it artificial?

Hearing those words from Andrei, Eugene watched the city center where magical power light was blazing while holding his chin.

“By the way, the Knight Order truly has loyalty and honor.”

“……Loyalty?”

What was this sudden talk about?

While thinking this, Eugene opened his mouth with a satisfied smile.

“As soon as they confirmed the Great Rupture’s appearance, they charged in risking their lives. To save me, who isn’t even an official Knight Order member.”

“What are you saying? Anyone can see this is a trap you set……”

At that moment.

Eugene’s voice cut off Andrei’s words without hesitation.

“An atrocious disaster caused by a fellow Round Table member. To atone for that sin, to think they would make such a noble choice – as expected of Lord Zeplant, Nachtval’s heir. And Lord Carlos, Buckenheim’s heir.”

“……Wait. You couldn’t be?”

“Their heroic battle and sacrifice will be remembered long in imperial history.”

Eugene praising the Knight Order with a satisfied smile.

After pondering those words several times, Andrei who understood Eugene’s meaning laughed in astonishment.

“Kuk, kahaha! Kahahahaha-!”

It was certain.

Though he didn’t know what methods were used, this guy was the one who caused the Great Rupture.

He had plotted to use himself as bait to lure in the Knight Order, then cause the Great Rupture to kill them all.

‘You don’t want to say how you caused it. That’s what you mean, right?’

Carlos and Zeplant fighting in the city center were probably thinking something similar.

If they survived this battle, they would immediately seek out Eugene to expel him.

So, Eugene was telling him and the Imperial Guard Knight Order:

‘Kill them all to silence them.’

“Amazing. This is really… beyond expectations.”

Drive to eliminate political opponents by freely using the taboo of monsters.

Decisiveness without even a shred of hesitation in killing hundreds of knights.

Meticulousness in entering the middle of the enemy’s trap and turning it around to utilize it.

A shiver ran through Andrei’s body.

Could such thoughts really come from the mind of a young officer not even twenty years old?

Just a promising mage.

The young officer he had only thought of as the emperor’s investment for the future was now holding and shaking the two dukes with the empire’s greatest power!

“It seems the Imperial Guard Knight Order will have much work to do… may I ask for your assistance?”

“……Yes. Don’t worry.”

Looking at Eugene who asked him this, Andrei smiled coldly.

‘How the Great Rupture was caused was an issue to address later… There are more urgent matters now.’

An opportunity to strike down the detestable magic noble knights in an empty city where no one was watching.

The chance to repay years of pent-up grudges had finally arrived.

“As you said, the knights of the two dukes gathered here today nobly sacrificed their lives to stop the monster invasion.”

Hearing Andrei’s words, the imperial guards lined up on either side of him also drew their swords.

The dark smiles blooming on their faces.

The same expression as Andrei commanding them.

“It wouldn’t do to have any survivors from that honorable battle, would it?”

“……”

While the two who had become accomplices smiled at each other.

“Order to all Imperial Guard Knight Order members!”

Shing-!

The imperial guards who drew their swords without hesitation turned their gazes to Andrei.

Eyes full of desire.

As if knowing that expectation, Andrei who growled while baring his teeth raised his voice.

“As of this moment, seal off the city. All biological entities escaping from the center are to be considered monsters. Kill without exception!”

Those guys won’t escape this city.

Until this day is over.

Until all the knights who entered the center are dead, turned into cold corpses.

“We must stop this calamity created by Elcidore! For the sake of the noble knight order!”

At Andrei’s order delivered in a quite serious voice, the Imperial Guard Knight Order immediately began surrounding the city center.

“We’ll need to prepare a memorial service. A most splendid one.”

Andrei muttered while watching the intensely shining magical power light.

Don’t worry.

The medals to be placed on your corpses are probably piled up like garbage in the imperial storehouse.

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