Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

[Translator – Kie]

[Proofreader – Kawaii]

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Chapter 262: Recapture (4)

***

“How dare you… treat me like this… only you… never…!”

Alexander couldn’t hear Damien’s words.

He was just hating Damien and burying his head in the dirt.

Damien gathered dark magic at the tip of his finger and cast a dark spell.

A black snake appeared from the void and wrapped around Alexander’s body. Then Alexander’s eyes widened.

“Ack! Kaaak! Kaaaak!”

Alexander flailed about like a fish caught on a hook.

Corpse Snake.

It was a necromancy dark spell that decomposed the flesh of living beings. It was this dark spell that made Alexander’s limbs rot.

It wasn’t a dark spell suitable for combat, but Damien still used it to fight Alexander.

There was only one reason.

“How do you like the pain of your body decaying? I wonder if it’s to your taste.”

It is said that humans feel the most pain when they are burned by fire.

But in fact, there was something more painful. It was the pain of your body decaying at a rapid pace.

The pain of your whole body rotting at the same time was incomparable to being burned.

Damien learned this fact from his father.

“Stop it! Stop it! Stooooop!”

“Then you should listen to what people say. I’m going to ask you a few questions from now on. Got it?”

Alexander nodded. He was quite agile even with his face buried in the dirt.

“Are you under a restriction too?”

Damien pressed his foot that had been on Alexander’s head.

“H, how did you know that…?”

“I’ve already met other guys.”

“What? N, no way… You’ve laid a hand on the other too? I’ll tear you apart…!”

Damien gave orders to the Corpse Snake. The Corpse Snake tightened its grip on Alexander’s body even more.

“Kaaaak!”

“I never gave you permission to ask questions. Open your mouth only when I ask you something from now on.”

“This… damn it…!”

Alexander trembled and swore. Damien simply ignored him.

If this guy was also under a restriction, there wasn’t much information to be gained by tearing his soul apart and absorbing his memories.

In such cases, it was better to induce him to spit out the answers himself.

“Let’s move on to the next question. How close is the ‘Sword of Annihilation’ to completion?”

“You, bastard… H, how do you know that name… N, not many of disciples even know about it…”

“Answer.”

“I-I don’t know.”

Damien raised his finger. Alexander shouted in terror.

“I-I really don’t know! As soon as we captured the city, Master sent us out! He told us to exterminate the dwarves! I haven’t been back to the city since then!”

“So you’re saying that the Weapon Master is alone in the city?”

“N, no! There’s one dwarf… a dwarf named Achilles!”

“Achilles? Are you talking about the Ghost Smith?”

Ghost Smith Achilles.

[TL/N- The same name also appeared in Chapter 112. He was the person who crafted golems for the Church. Therefore, it may or may not be the same person.]

He was a blacksmith who was famous for creating all the weapons used by the Giant Evils of Pandemonium.

Damien had seen him a few times in his previous life. He was a terrifying dwarf, a blacksmith whose whole body smelled of blood.

“Could it be that Achilles, the dwarf who betrayed the Hammerfall City, was the one who created the Sword of Annihilation?”

“Y, yes.”

“Achilles is in the city… I didn’t know that the person who created the Sword of Annihilation was him.”

Damien asked Alexander another question.

“You said you couldn’t go back to the city. Were you not summoned by your master? Or were the city gates closed?”

“T, they’re closed. Master will never open the city gates for any of us, no matter who goes to him.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

It seemed that the plan to pass through the city by casting the Authority of Lust on Alexander would have to be abandoned.

‘Why is the security so tight? Could it be because he’s afraid that his disciples will covet the Sword of Annihilation?’

In his previous life, many knights had coveted the Sword of Annihilation.

Not just the dark knights, but even the knights of the empire.

That’s how beautiful and fearsome its power was.

“I think I’ve asked you everything I wanted to know.”

Damien converted his mana into dark mana using the Authority of Envy.

Alexander’s face was filled with extreme fear at the sight.

“P-please spare me.”

“I can’t do that.”

“P-please, I’m begging you! After all, you’re a dark mage too! Why are you our enemy?”

Alexander cried out, coughing up blood from his mouth. Damien contorted his face as if he found it disgusting.

“That’s enough. Go away.”

The dark mana in Damien’s hands grew even denser.

Just then, someone spoke to Damien.

“……Victor, wait a moment.”

Damien turned his gaze. Killo and the dwarves were walking towards him.

In their hands were the corpses of their fellow dwarves.

“Why do you want me to wait?”

“I thought these guys deserved to witness this bastard’s death too.”

The dwarves laid the corpses down in front of Alexander.

The dwarves’ faces were all expressionless. They were so emotionless that it was creepy.

“Now execute him.”

But there was hatred boiling in their eyes.

“…….”

Damien silently cast dark magic. He superimposed the Corpse Snake.

“Wait, wait a minute!”

Alexander shouted urgently, but Damien did not cancel the dark magic.

“P-please spare me! I’m begging you to spare me! Aaaak! Aaaaak!”

Alexander’s body quickly decayed. The bones of his face were exposed. His ribs were showing.

“E, euk… kuaaaak!”

Even the lungs and heart inside his body were decaying.

The dwarves watched the scene from beginning to end. They didn’t blink once.

It was as if they were trying to store this moment in their heads.

Damien reached out into the void and grabbed Alexander’s soul.

-Why, why!

Alexander’s soul screamed. His resentment was transmitted, asking why Damien was not keeping up the promise.

“I don’t keep promises with those who are worse even than scums.”

Damien crushed Alexander’s soul in front of the dwarves.

-Aaaak! Kuaaaaak!

Alexander’s soul disappeared with a horrible scream.

***

After that, the dwarves began to go through the blacksmith’s facilities.

This was because they had recaptured the blacksmith’s forge, but they didn’t know when the Weapon Master would send his subordinates again.

‘It’s time for them to notice from that side too.’

It took less than a few hours for Damien to rescue the dwarves and recapture the warehouse and forge.

It was so short that the Weapon Master’s side would have trouble noticing.

‘I never thought he would lock the city gates and stay inside.’

Damien clicked his tongue.

It was unfortunate that he couldn’t use the Authority of Lust, but it didn’t change anything.

All he had to do was have the dwarves make weapons to break through the city.

“Victor.”

Just when Damien was lost in thought on top of the wall, Killo approached him.

Killo’s face had been dark as if he was going to die soon ever since the forge was recaptured.

“What is it? Is there another facility that needs to be reclaimed?”

“No, there isn’t. We have enough materials, and we’ve retaken the forge. All that’s left is to make weapons.”

“I’ve been wondering since before. What kind of weapon are you trying to make?”

“What? You were curious about that?”

Suddenly, Killo’s face lit up.

“The weapon we’re trying to make is called ‘Ancient Sun’. It’s about the size of a pot. It’s something that causes a huge explosion when thrown. The power of the explosion is so great…”

It seemed like I didn’t ask for that much detail. But Killo babbled on and on.

‘He’s really a dwarf.’

Damien thought of Malta from the Church. Malta was also very proud of the things he made.

“Apparently, it has a tremendous explosive power. Is it okay to use something like that?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying that it’s going to cause a lot of damage to the city. It will be hard to recover later, and there will be a lot of casualties, won’t there?”

Killo’s expression darkened again at Damien’s words.

“That’s… fine.”

“Fine?”

“The city can be rebuilt bigger… and my fellow dwarves… will not be harmed.”

Damien had a sliver of doubt.

But he didn’t ask for more details. Dwarves were stubborn, but they weren’t a foolish race.

“Instead, I have a proposal for you.”

“A proposal?”

“The undead you control. It seems to me that they’re using shabby weapons.”

The skeletons were using old weapons that looked like they would fall apart at any moment.

Strictly speaking, they weren’t real weapons. They were just temporary creations made by Damien using dark magic.

“Are you trying to make fun of me?”

“What do you think of me! Of course, they’re poorly balanced, the blades are all dull, and they’re so ugly they give me goosebumps, but I’m not trying to make fun of you at all!”

Damien’s eyebrows narrowed slightly. He was starting to get annoyed.

“So what do you have to propose.”

“We’ll make them.”

Damien blinked in surprise at the sudden suggestion.

“What?”

“I’m saying that we’ll make weapons for the undead under your command.”

Damien felt more doubt than joy at those words.

“Don’t think it’s strange. It’s our way of repaying you for helping us get revenge.”

“You’re talking nonsense. I didn’t move for you guys. I just killed those bastards for my own purposes.”

“Even so, the fact that you helped us get revenge doesn’t change.”

Killo looked up at the sky and added.

“…We wouldn’t have gotten our revenge without you. Not even revenge. We would have been captured by those bastards.”

Killo looked at Damien again.

“So we want to repay you a little. This isn’t just my idea, it’s everyone’s.”

Kilo’s face was filled with determination.

“Please, let us make weapons for your soldiers to use.”

Dwarf-made weapons were traded at a price higher than jewels of the same weight.

Even Killo and his subordinates were dwarves from Hammerfall City who possessed the secrets of the ancient dwarves.

It was inevitable that Damien would be tempted by weapons made by such dwarves.

But Damien didn’t accept the offer right away.

“Such weapons would just be a hindrance to the undead.”

The undead’s greatest strength was that they could transcend the boundaries of reality and illusion.

Their tactic of hiding in the shadows and attacking by surprise was so threatening that even Damien used it frequently.

“Don’t worry about that. Among the alloys developed by our ancestors, there are some that were made with the undead in mind.”

“Such alloys exist…?”

Damien was surprised, and Killo’s nose went up.

“Then there’s no problem at all. But we need to make siege weapons to break through the city walls. Do you have time to make weapons as well?”

“Think about our numbers. That’s a piece of cake.”

Killo boasted. Damien hesitated for a moment at his words.

If Killo’s words were all true, it was a chance to greatly strengthen the undead’s fighting power. It was too good to miss.

“Then let’s do it.”

“You won’t regret it.”

Killo said with a grin.

***

After that, Killo and the dwarves focused on making siege weapons to recapture the city and weapons for the undead to use.

Damien raised his guard against a possible attack by the Weapon Master.

But the attack never came. Thanks to that, the dwarves were able to concentrate on their work without any interference.

And on the day the siege weapons and weapons for the undead were completed as promised.

The dwarves disappeared without Damien’s knowledge. The siege weapons that were supposed to have been completed disappeared with them.

-Sorry.

Instead, there was only a note and weapons for the undead left.

-We’ll finish this.

***

[Translator – Kie]

[Proofreader – Kawaii]