How a Reincarnated Warlock Lives – Chapter 37

Chapter 37: Night of the Corpses (6)

Booo─!

The sharp sound of a horn echoed through the city as darkness began to fall.

Twilight descends, the time when the dead rise.

Silence, which had filled the entire city, was broken by the noise that began to resonate with the darkness, breaking the brief moment of stillness.

Sweep, sweep. Crackle, crackle.

There were no shouts that usually accompanied a march, nor excited curses of battle. The dead were silent, as they should be.

However, the unpleasant sounds of countless corpses moving toward the Royal Palace began to be heard.

Faintly audible even from inside the palace.

“What’s the scale?”

A somewhat heavy atmosphere.

Prince Capiel, with a calm expression, asked Knight Stan while resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“……At least tens of thousands. It’s difficult to determine the exact scale.”

In the first place, Ashitan was just a small kingdom, and in the current situation where most of the city’s infrastructure wasn’t functioning properly, it was impossible to accurately grasp the scale of the corpses flocking to the Royal Palace in the middle of the night.

They could only roughly estimate based on things like the crudely fired fire arrows, the direction and magnitude of the noises, and the tremors of the earth.

Of course, knowing the exact scale wouldn’t change anything. Perhaps it was better not to know.

“Just where did so many corpses come from……”

A knight muttered with a dark expression.

Their tenacious struggle that had lasted for over a month. And the dazzling achievements of the Inquisitors who arrived in the city, finally giving them a glimpse of hope. However, the current march of the massive number of corpses towards the Royal Palace was enough to plunge everyone into despair.

“Damn it.”

Another knight muttered a small curse.

Originally, uttering profanity in front of the Prince, his superior, was a considerable disrespect as a knight. But no one blamed him here and now.

Everyone knew that he hadn’t uttered the curse to deliberately show disrespect. Moreover, those who remained here now were those who had given up their chance of escape, which they could have easily taken, and remained in their country to risk their lives until the end.

“It seems they’re crawling out from the sea.”

Inquisitor Hanek calmly spoke after listening to Knight Stan’s rough explanation.

Most of the numerous corpses in the city had already been burned by their hands. Considering the scale and direction of the corpses now approaching the Royal Palace, it wasn’t a difficult guess.

“……Burial at sea is an old custom of the Ashitan Kingdom.”

The situation where they had to cut down their ancestors and the innocent citizens of the kingdom once again. Prince Capiel’s words were mixed with a bit of bitterness.

“……”

Hanek looked at the knight and the prince, who bowed their heads with solemn expressions, with a relatively calm expression.

“If you want to run, now is the only time. Perhaps it’s your last chance.”

The words of an experienced Inquisitor. An undeniable, plain truth.

If they escaped through the back of the Royal Palace or the underground sewers, they could save their lives.

The corpses weren’t fast enough to catch up with a person on horseback, nor were they closing in with a strategic encirclement like an army composed of humans.

However, as he had said a few days ago, those who remained here were already prepared to die. Those who had staked their lives on the kingdom along with the Prince.

If their goal was simply survival, they would have hurriedly fled the city like some nobles when the curse first struck.

“Hmm.”

Hanek slowly nodded, having received their answer through their eyes and expressions. Prince Capiel, looking at him, spoke with a slightly resolute expression.

“You should be the ones to leave. You’ve already helped us enough. It’s enough for just us to face a meaningless death.”

At his words, Hanek chuckled and slowly turned to look at the two young Inquisitors standing behind him. Confirming from their expressions that their will was the same as his, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Where would an Inquisitor go with evil right in front of them?”

The resolute words of a veteran Inquisitor. As if to add to his words, Jerit, standing behind him, spoke in a somewhat cheerful tone.

“Ah, of course, we’re not going to throw our lives away needlessly.”

“Do you believe in God? Even in this situation?”

The Prince’s words were laced with a slightly cynical tone. Jerit smiled faintly as he looked at him.

“No. There’s someone else I believe in right now.”

Hanek, resting his hand on his large scabbard, chuckled and followed Jerit’s words.

“He’s our only hope in this situation.”

🔹🔹🔹

Creeeak.

The main gate of the Royal Palace.

The hinges at the top of the large iron gate bent to their limit, making a chilling sound.

The gate was already half-crumpled. It was hard to guess how many corpses were pushing against it from the outside.

Grooooowl!

The meaningless howls of the corpses and the noise of them scratching the iron gate and the outer walls deafened the knights.

Although the Royal Palace was spacious, ironically, this place closest to death was the most effective place for defense, so everyone was holding their breath, weapons in hand, preparing for battle.

“I should’ve replaced all the gates with dwarven black iron from the start.”

“Why not suggest bringing a Magic Tower into the city instead?”

Knight Stan picked up the Prince’s silly joke with a chuckle.

Crack.

While everyone was preparing for the final battle in their own way, the hinges, unable to withstand the weight of the countless corpses, finally broke. Soon, the sturdy iron gate began to slowly twist open on both sides.

Kwaaah!

On top of the remains of countless corpses that had already been smashed due to the pressure, more corpses could be seen reaching out with their emaciated hands and going berserk.

Crack!

Finally, the bars and obstacles blocking the main gate collapsed, and the corpses began to pour in like a flood.

“Fire!”

Prince Capiel shouted loudly, waiting for the moment when the corpses would pour into the narrow entrance.

Wheeew!

With the sound of heavily cutting through the wind, large harpoons and stones flew towards the corpses. However, unlike before, the stones and harpoons weren’t coated with flames using oil.

The reason was simple. It was partly because they were worried that the flames or smoke would spread inside, and partly because most of the corpses now fiercely charging towards the Royal Palace were in a state where they wouldn’t easily burn.

These corpses had mostly only bones remaining due to being left in seawater for a long time. Even those bones were partially decomposed and missing in many cases.

Crack!

Dozens of corpses were smashed and scattered around. As the knights had expected, the durability of the corpses that had been left in seawater for a long time wasn’t very strong.

Whoosh!

The moment all the prepared throwing weapons were consumed in a short time, a dazzling light burst out from among the defending forces.

“……!”

It was the light emanating from the sword tip of Inquisitor Hanek.

Imbuing one’s weapon with holy power and manifesting light was a technique that boasted considerable difficulty. A few of the corpses at the front, exposed to the light containing holy power, could be seen collapsing on the spot.

“God!”

“Attack!”

As if taking his cue, all the soldiers and knights of the Royal Palace began to run towards the corpses pushing into the narrow space through the gate.

🔹🔹🔹

“Die, die!”

“Uwaaaaah!”

“Please……!”

Screams from everywhere.

Crack.

A horrible crushing sound, as if something alive was being crushed.

The Royal Palace of Luoisen, the capital of the Ashitan Kingdom, was currently in a state of utter chaos.

A life-and-death battle between the dead and the living. Broken decorations were stained red throughout the interior.

Thud!

A large mace cut through the air, smashing the skull of a corpse that was rattling with only bones remaining.

“……Phew.”

A faint breath escaped from the mouth of the apprentice Inquisitor with a delicate appearance, who had swung the heavy mace with a ferocious momentum.

Despite her appearance, Daena was confident in her stamina as she specialized in strengthening her physical strength using holy power, but due to the sheer number of corpses, her long hair was soaked with sweat.

Whir.

After swinging the mace horizontally and getting a brief moment of respite, she tidied up the annoying hair stuck to her cheeks and looked around.

The resistance of the elite soldiers and knights, who had survived to the end and been naturally filtered, was fierce, but the current situation wasn’t very good. In the first place, the Ashitan Kingdom wasn’t a very large country, and this Royal Palace wasn’t originally designed for siege warfare.

‘At this rate.’

It’s dangerous.

Thanks to the relatively narrow entrance where the corpses were pouring in, they were holding on well so far, but she could feel the soldiers gradually getting exhausted.

Their only hope was to hold out until morning came and the sun rose.

But what then?

Could it be that they were really going to face a meaningless death here with those who had already staked their lives on their kingdom?

Tightly.

Daena gripped the heavy mace, which was hot from numerous frictions. She could feel the steel handle slipping with sweat and blood.

Now wasn’t the time to be having useless thoughts.

She was an Inquisitor, and there was evil right in front of her, emanating unconditional hostility towards the living.

That was enough, at least for now.

Whoosh!

The heavy mace in her hand began to move menacingly once again.

🔹🔹🔹

The air inside the Royal Palace, where a fierce battle was taking place, was stiflingly hot. But the season had already entered early winter, and the nights in the Ashitan Kingdom were long.

Kwaaah!

Countless corpses poured into the entrance of the Royal Palace once again, too many times to count anymore.

Prince Capiel looked around with a grim face.

‘Too many.’

He couldn’t accurately determine how many were left because he wasn’t in a position to coldly assess the situation from above, but one thing was clear: their limits were approaching.

The prince roughly shook his head, flinging away sweat and blood. He had long since thrown off his helmet, which was stained with blood and flesh.

An appearance unbefitting his noble status, even if it was in a small kingdom.

Kwaaah!

Raising his aching arm to chop off the neck of another corpse, someone suddenly caught his eye.

Hanek.

The experienced Inquisitor.

“……”

He was standing on the collapsed debris of a building inside the Royal Palace, a slightly elevated spot, and looking out beyond the gate.

His appearance, standing with his sword lowered after displaying such a dazzling performance, was quite strange.

He wouldn’t be simply frustrated by the desperate situation. He didn’t know them that well, but the word ‘frustration’ didn’t quite fit with these people called Inquisitors.

Or, in the worst case scenario, weren’t they the ones who always had the option of escape?

Therefore, Prince Capiel unconsciously followed his gaze and looked out beyond the half-collapsed gate.

However, due to the height difference, he couldn’t see the outside clearly.

At that moment.

‘……?’

He could see a faint smile forming on the lips of the Inquisitor, who was half-turned away.

And then, the next moment.

─!

The movements of the corpses, which had been fiercely rushing towards the remaining knights and soldiers, who were not many in number, stopped abruptly.

“……!”

While everyone was bewildered by the sudden change without any warning.

Thud.

The corpses that had stopped moving began to collapse powerlessly. As if someone had forcibly cut the strings attached to puppets used in a play.

“What is this……”

Prince Capiel looked around with a face still full of surprise.

He hurriedly looked up at the sky visible through the broken windows. Contrary to his expectations, the sun hadn’t risen, and it was still dark.

The prince looked around with a somewhat dazed expression at the surroundings that had suddenly become silent.

It was the third night since the Inquisitors arrived in the city.

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