I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel

Chapter 39: Illusionary Army (4)

What's next?

He questioned himself as he broke up the once strong, now lone, Annihilation Unit.

When he left the service, there was nothing he planned to do, no place he wished to visit.

His entire life and memories were linked to the battlefield, where he'd spent countless years.

'Maybe farming isn't such a bad idea?'

Thinking this, he recalled the tiny village he used to call home before his military life.

A quiet place tucked away in the empire, nothing too special about it.

A memory of a blue-eyed girl from the same village, who often smiled warmly at him, surfaced.

'I wonder if she's still there.'

Sadly, no one in the village remembered him anymore.

The girl, the sole memory that stirred his mind, was already gone.

Only her daughter, with eyes just like her mother's, was left.

Quietly, he started tending to a small garden on the outskirts of the village.

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Raei Translations

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"Cough!"

A masked man, revealing only his eyes, flew from a tree, blood gushing from his chest.

Thud!

His body dropped to the ground.

Till the end, his eyes held a look of utter disbelief.

Had he given up on hiding?

Bam!

From the forests flanking the path, roughly a dozen attackers jumped out, heading straight for Zion.

"I've been waiting for this."

Liushina watched Zion and the attackers, her face full of excitement, not surprised in the slightest, as if she knew what was coming all along.

The attackers split up, half charging towards Zion and the rest towards her.

"Take them both down."

Just as these cold words slipped from the apparent leader's mouth.

Screech!

Dozens of icicles formed around a green-haired woman, seemingly a magician, shooting towards Zion.

Even as the icicles flew his way, Zion didn't budge.

Just as the icicles neared his eyes.

"Go ahead."

Boom!

A soft voice and a dark explosion came from Zion, breaking all the icicles, scattering ice dust everywhere.

The attackers were blinded by the cloud of ice dust.

In that moment.

Dark Flow.

Zion's figure vanished like a ghost, only to reappear right in front of the spell-casting woman.

Zion's hand aimed straight for the woman's heart.

But, had they anticipated this?

Clang!

Two attackers, previously positioned at the woman's sides, swung their swords at Zion simultaneously.

The swords targeted Zion's neck and heart directly.

It was clear that if Zion stayed on his path to strike the woman, a sword would skewer him, but he didn't pull back his hand.

Instead, he pushed even further.

Dark Scales.

Thump!

A darkness as hard as steel surrounded Zion.

Swords plunged into it.

Just before the impact shattered the dark armor.

Swish!

Zion's outstretched hand struck the woman.

"Ah!"

A shriek escaped from the magician.

'These ones are better than the last lot.'

Zion thought, as he calmly watched the magician who had lost her right arm to his attack.

If his strike had landed fully, her heart would have burst without even a scream.

But the magician had tilted her body at the last second before Zion's attack hit.

'No matter.'

If a strong enemy shows up, all you have to do is beat them with more force.

That's how Zion had always done it, and he planned to continue doing so.

Swoosh!

Meanwhile, the remaining attackers, except for the magician woman who had backed off to stem the bleeding, rushed at Zion again.

With seamless teamwork, one attacker swung his sword from the front, and as soon as Zion ducked to avoid it, another sword flew at his neck from the side.

An unavoidable attack, perfectly timed, without a single mistake.

Dark Vision.

Zion's eyes turned black as he watched the sword, taking in all the vast information and energy flows around him.

With that, the world in his vision seemed to slow down, like he was watching a slow-motion film.

In that world, Zion slowly lifted his hand, barely brushing the side of the incoming sword with a single finger.

Then, in that moment.

Thump.

The flying sword's path twisted, cutting through air instead of Zion.

"What...!"

The bearded man who had thrust the sword looked astonished, unable to believe what seemed like a magic trick.

Boom!

Seizing the opening, Zion's hand shot forward, cleanly destroying the man's heart.

The light of life vanished from the man's eyes.

Seeing this, Zion pulled his hand from the man's chest without a second's hesitation and slightly tilted his head to the left.

Slash!

Right on cue, a sword from behind cut through the space where Zion's head had just been.

Zion grabbed the end of the sword that had just grazed his cheek and yanked it forward.

"…!"

The red-haired man who had swung the sword lost his footing and staggered.

Thump!

Zion stomped on the man's foot, keeping him still, then, spinning half a turn, he thrust forward with his other hand.

Dark Thunder.

Zap!

Darkness, morphing into lightning from Zion's fingertips, consumed all light and struck.

The man's head, unprepared, was reduced to ashes.

"This wretch!"

Watching his companions vanish instantly, the white-haired man who had first swung his sword spat a curse, launching his sword bathed in blue light at Zion once more.

Whoosh.

Zion was already gone.

Crack!

The man realized this just as an eerie sound echoed.

Swiveling his head towards the noise, the man saw,

"Let's wrap this up."

Zion had reappeared right behind the female magician, driving through her chest.

"Cough, cough!"

The magician, unable to scream properly, choked.

Even until her final moment, she couldn't grasp how Zion had managed to appear behind her.

"Ughhhhh!"

The white-haired man charged at Zion with renewed force, but the battle had already decidedly turned.

Crack!

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Raei Translations

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'Something's not right.'

After witnessing all his men fall and watching Zion slowly approach him, the raid leader, Dmitry, had this thought.

He had expected an easy mission.

Eliminating a hapless prince practically disowned by the royal family and one of his subordinates.

Sure, he'd heard the circulating rumors of Zion's recent transformation, but he dismissed them as overblown.

However, Zion Agnes' actual power surpassed even the rumors.

'Is that... really Zion Agnes?'

Monster.

The Zion Agnes he saw had become a monster, like the other members of the Agnes family.

Could he have truly grown that powerful in such a short span? If not....

At this, Dmitry recalled his client's warning to treat Prince Zion with utmost caution.

Did his client already know this?

'I must alert them.'

He needed to convey everything he'd witnessed to the main force waiting beyond the village.

'First, I need to escape.'

With this in mind, Dmitry retrieved a small glass bead from his waist.

An artifact containing a short-distance teleportation spell.

While it was single-use, its worth was immeasurable, given that few magicians in this era could manipulate space magic.

Crash!

Without hesitation, Dmitry shattered the glass bead.

Above all else, survival was paramount.

In that moment.

Whoooosh!

With the burst of light, his body started to fade.

'Zion Agnes, I'll remember you...'

Just as Dmitry's form was about to fully disappear.

"Going somewhere?"

Crack!

Zion, who had appeared unnoticed before him, flashed a grin and drew Eclaxia, driving it towards the light enveloping Dmitry.

In that instant.

Creak!

Darkness emanated from the half-sword, easily penetrating the light, and began to dismantle the spatial teleportation spells that surrounded Dmitry's body.

The power of the black star, which denies all, erased elements essential for the teleportation spell.

"!!!!!!!"

Dmitry's fading body solidified again.

Simultaneously, his pupils dilated to their maximum extent.

"How, how...."

Dmitry, who was repeating the same phrase while blankly staring at an inexplicable scene.

The final image that imprinted itself on his vision was.

Slash!

It was Zion, emotionlessly severing his neck.

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Raei Translations

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"I didn't think they'd be so audacious."

Zion murmured quietly while observing Dmitry's decapitated head rolling on the ground.

Of course, he had anticipated interference.

His own siblings desired more than anyone for this test to fail.

Even though they were certain they couldn't solve the crisis, they were prepared to do anything to eliminate even the faintest chance.

'But only two of them would resort to directly sending a human hunter.'

As Zion contemplated, he glanced at Liushina, considering the faces of the two in question.

She was in the process of separating the last enemy's head from its body.

'Seems like she toyed with them before finishing them off.'

If she had desired, she could have dealt with them much faster than Zion.

"If this is it, it's rather disappointing...."

Meanwhile, Liushina, who had approached Zion, grumbled with a discontented expression.

Just then.

"The scouts have been dealt with, but the main force is separate."

A short-haired woman with large eyes, emerging from behind a concealed tree before Zion, spoke up.

It was Nariye, a special informant from 'Moon's Eye'.

Her eyes slightly furrowed at the sight of the gruesome battlefield.

"They're waiting nearby and are poised to attack this village soon."

Nariye, whose usually minimal eye focus seemed even more blurred, perhaps to avoid taking in the detailed scene.

As soon as she concluded her report.

Shush! Shush!

Something rustled in the adjacent bushes and started heading towards the village.

The expressions of those present, including Zion, who had already deduced the source of the noise, remained unchanged.

"What about the location you were assigned to investigate?"

Zion shifted his gaze back from the noise to Nariye and asked.

In response, Nariye started unfolding a small map.

"Here, here, here... these three places."

She pointed to three marked locations on the map.

"Elevated enough to oversee the entirety of Kurd village, but from below, you can't spot the top. Correct?"

"Indeed."

"But why did you ask me to investigate these locations?"

Nariye asked Zion, who was focused in examining the marked part of the map, but, as expected, there was no straightforward answer.

'Ah, I ought to report...'

Just as Nariye was beginning to inwardly frown,

"We'll commence moving as previously discussed."

With that, Zion, who had just taken his gaze off the map, began to stride forth.

It was evident to anyone that his destination wasn't Kurd village.

"Master, what of the village? It's on the brink of an attack."

Liushina posed the question while observing Zion's receding figure.

It was easy to deduce that her question stemmed not from genuine concern for the village, but rather the potential spoils if she were to assist in its defense.

"Priorities first. And..."

Zion, not halting his pace, responded.

"There's someone else to hold them off."

Zion's eyes, radiating a reddish light, were trained on the descending sun beyond the mountain range.

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Raei Translations

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"......Is he truly there?"

Atop a hill, where the sun had completely set, a man was murmuring to himself while overlooking the lights gradually illuminating Kurd village.

The man's appearance was rather peculiar.

His entire body was stitched together like a ragdoll, with each part exhibiting subtly different hues.

A form that couldn't be attributed to any ordinary human.

But that posed no issue to the man.

From the very beginning, he wasn't human.

He was a demon, named Cainliss.

That was his true identity.

"Yes. Unexpected, isn't it?"

In response to Cainliss's words, a woman with a blue body and green eyes, one of the three demons positioned behind him, replied while studying the village.

"I can't fathom that the 'Ghost King' has resided in such a remote location post-retirement......"

Liam Rainer, the Ghost King.

His alias was bestowed because his presence, decimating all visible monsters with mere fists, resembled a bloodthirsty king of slaughter.

He was the leader of the Destroyers, the most feared by the monsters on the frontier, and the prime target of the demons.

In the past, whenever he revealed himself on the battlefield, monsters would recoil in fear, imagining their defeat.

He was among those extraordinary individuals who could single-handedly reverse the tide of a battle.

"These foolish imperial individuals, disregarding that power and treating him so."

Cainliss recollected.

The dread that Liam Rainer's presence had inflicted on the monsters, himself included, when he was on the frontier.

And what that symbolized for humans.

He couldn't understand why the empire would treat such a formidable hero in this manner.

"He retired of his own accord and retreated here? Well, that's good for us."

The female demon shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Thanks to that, we can assassinate him with greater ease."

The demons, including her and Cainliss, had ventured here solely to end Liam Rainer's life.

An order from one among the Five Demonic Spirits, those who command all monsters within the empire.

Consequently, they were duty-bound to succeed, come what may.

'Under usual circumstances, even if all the demons here attacked, we couldn't possibly confront him…….'

As Cainliss toyed with an item in his possession, he contemplated.

'However, with this, the narrative shifts.'

Among the Empire's seven calamities was a phantom army known as a mirage, its origin, purpose, and every other detail shrouded in mystery.

Cainliss possessed the 'coordinates' necessary to summon such a phantom army.

"No matter how formidable the Ghost King is, he cannot combat an entire army single-handedly."

The eyes of the demon, murmuring to himself, began to dance with madness and anticipation.

The exhilaration of dealing with the Ghost King, who once instilled fear in all monsters, by his own hand would undoubtedly be tremendous.

Perhaps it was his absorption in this thought that led to their oversight?

The demons failed to notice.

Swoosh-

The darkness beside them, slowly taking form and rippling, as if in amusement.

***

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