Chapter 479: Old Grudges in a New Era

Deep in the bowels of the earth, hundreds of vicious ghouls were digging frantically through sand and stone.

Their fangs and claws kept splitting from the sheer force they exerted, only to regenerate again and again under the cover of immense dark magic.

With a swarm of tireless, frenzied miners like these, rubble and silt were quickly cleared away to reveal a massive tunnel.

An elegantly dressed ghoul strode past his own servants, making his way deep into the tunnel.

A colossal archway appeared at the tunnel's end, a door made of flesh and blood, stronger than steel itself.

The ghoul Yugasi reached out and knocked. The faint motion produced a thunderous sound, the vibration echoing again and again through the earth, shaking loose countless tons of sand and stone from above.

As the tunnel collapsed once more, Yugasi finally sighed. "Still not awake? Just how well do you sleep, old friend?!"

No response came from behind the door. Yugasi sighed again, resigned. "I really didn't want anyone to see me like this."

The next instant, Yugasi's body swelled up as if inflating with air, his suit tearing apart completely. The massive muscles that emerged looked like tumors, each one pulsing with its own frantically beating heart.

In this form, Yugasi swung his claws.

A crimson glow clung to his claws. Back when the Elegiac Society's members had been utterly helpless against the corpse of the Spider Queen Loss, barely able to even scratch it, Yugasi alone had torn it open and halted its regeneration.

He tore through great chunks of the flesh that was harder than steel, stuffing it straight into his mouth.

"Ugh, it tastes awful!"

This specially treated flesh was extremely tough and chewy—perfectly good sustenance for a ghoul, in terms of energy, but the taste left much to be desired. It was like gnawing on flavorless dried meat. The greasy fat on the tongue was nauseating.

But ghouls weren't picky eaters, and this form burned through a lot of energy, so Yugasi needed to eat something to refuel.

Before long, he'd carved a sizable hole clean through the door.

The legendary ghoul reined in his power, shrinking back down to his gaunt frame. His attire was in tatters by now, but he straightened himself up a little before stepping through the doorway.

Once inside, Yugasi called loudly into the darkness, "How much longer are you going to keep sleeping? Arthur Lyon's come back to life. Don't you want to see your old comrade again?!"

Two points of red light flared in the darkness. A tremor shook the ground like the earth itself was splitting.

Yugasi narrowed his eyes, shifting back into his tumor-laced ghoul form and raising both claws in front of him.

No sooner had he braced himself than a massive fist came crashing down right in front of him. The fist alone was bigger than Yugasi's entire body.

The sheer force sent Yugasi skidding over a dozen meters backward, gouging deep furrows into the solid ground.

Yugasi blocked the blow, then laughed. "Are you still this grumpy right when you wake up?"

The massive fist retracted. The two points of red light in the darkness grew more piercing as a low voice rumbled, "Arthur Lyon? He's already dead!"

Yugasi shifted back to his human form, brushing the dust off himself.

"Old man, you've been asleep way too long. Arthur Lyon really has come back. Want me to fill you in on what's happened lately?"

The red light in the darkness dimmed a bit. "Lately? Which year are we talking about?"

Yugasi sighed. "Let's start from the last thousand years, then."

......

In the darkness, the two ancient undead talked through a millennium's worth of major events, one speaking, the other listening. After an interminable period, the conversation finally reached the present.

"This lich is quite interesting. He's the one who dug Arthur Lyon back up. I don't know all the details yet, but I can confirm it's the real thing."

The shadowy figure in the darkness went silent for a long while, then slowly said, "I'll make him die a second time. I'll kill him with my own hands!"

"I thought the two of you used to be comrades?"

"We were. That's exactly why I have to kill him."

"Why?"

"You don't need to know."

"Then that works out perfectly. I need your help with something. You remember why the Elegiac Society was founded, don't you?"

"None of that concerns me, though."

Yugasi let out a sharp laugh.

"That's exactly why we can be friends. Aige's already chosen a different path, and she's no rival to me. Gareth's bound by his marriage now, so he's lost his standing too. I'd basically run out of competitors within the Elegiac Society... but the President seems to think highly of this lich."

"Not my concern. Why are you telling me any of this? Elegiac Society members aren't allowed to turn on each other. Even if you wanted to eliminate a rival, what could you possibly do about it? Would you dare break the Society's rules?"

Yugasi tapped his nails lightly against his knee, calm but firm. "If it came to that, sure, I'd dare. But the President's the one who decides who wins in the end. If I break his rules, I'll lose automatically. So, I'll handle this another way."

The giant in the darkness fell silent for a moment. "Yugasi, have you ever considered... You were the very first member to join the Elegiac Society after the President and Vice President themselves, and yet all these years, the President's kept bringing in new members instead of just handing the final reward straight to you. Maybe that's because you never actually qualified to begin with."

"That's possible," Yugasi said. His calm took the giant in the darkness by surprise. The elegant ghoul continued, "But the President hasn't declared me a failure yet, so I still have a chance. And as long as I have a chance, I'm not giving up. None of those younger members know the real secret of the Elegiac Society. They don't even know when exactly they lost their own shot at this competition. That's my advantage."

The dark giant fell silent again, then let out a sigh.

"I don't follow your reasoning. Just tell me straight, what do you want me to do? As long as it doesn't break the Society's rules, I'll help."

Yugasi said happily, "Knew I could count on you. Of course I wouldn't have you break any rules. All I want is for you to help the new guy through his current crisis. I want this lich to ascend to godhood as soon as possible. Once he does, he'll lose his qualification to compete with me too."

"How close is he to ascension?"

"No idea, he's a strange one. As a mortal who's stirred up a war among the gods and swindled plenty of deities along the way, he should've earned Aion's recognition long ago. But there's been no response at all so far. My guess is the President's blocking his ascension, or there's some other reason behind it. It doesn't matter, though. Let him keep running wild. Aion won't stand by while a god meddles with mortals, any more than he'll allow a mortal to keep toying with the gods. Ascend, or be destroyed—that's where he'll end up."

"Fine. I'll help him. But I must kill Arthur Lyon."

"That's entirely up to you. I don't doubt your resolve, but rather your ability. You weren't even a match for Arthur Lyon back when you were alive. Now that you've become undead, holy light's even more effective against you. Can you actually withstand his Sacred Slash?"

"I don't know. But Arthur Lyon has to die!"

"Then don't be reckless about it. Wait until you're absolutely certain before you make your move. For now, why don't you stretch your legs a little? Time to get a look at this new world, old man."

When Yugasi emerged from the underground ruins, a five-meter-tall monster followed close behind him.

If Ambrose had been there, he would have recognized the newcomer instantly. Wasn't this the same kind of giant automaton he'd seen back at the Arena of Storms?

The only difference was that this giant was even larger, its body even more powerful.

Bathed in sunlight, the dark giant raised a hand to block out the harsh sun. Though sunlight barely affected him, it still left him feeling uncomfortable.

Looking out over the golden sea of sand stretching before him, the dark giant let out a roar he couldn't hold back.

The sheer force of the sound sent sand flying in every direction, kicking up what looked like a small sandstorm.

Once he'd vented a bit, the dark giant asked Yugasi, "So, which way do we go?"

Yugasi pointed ahead and said, "You're stretching your legs, so naturally, we're going hunting. Ever tasted paladin meat, old man? Given your size, you could swallow one whole in a single bite."

"Paladins... I don't remember."

"Then eat your fill. You'll remember soon enough."

A bloody windstorm swept up as the two powerful undead vanished from sight, tearing off toward the nearest Lyon settlement.

Two hours later, the small city of several thousand had fallen. Dark magic blanketed the entire town. By the time Lyon's reinforcements arrived, the city had already been reduced to ruins.

Every single one of its thousands of residents had vanished. Aside from bloodstains covering the ground, not even a single body was left behind.

The incident shook all of Lyon to its core. Believing it to be a counterattack from the dwarven kingdom, the already-tense situation across Lyon deteriorated even further.

It only drove up Lyon's demand for weapons of war even more.

Ambrose found himself bombarded daily by Angus Watson, urging him to finalize the deal as soon as possible.

Ambrose hadn't expected the dwarves to suddenly stir up trouble like this either, so he reached out that very night to the dwarves to dig for information—only to discover it hadn't been the dwarves at all. The destruction of Lyon's small desert border town had nothing to do with them.

In the end, all Ambrose could do was sigh and remark on just how many enemies Lyon had managed to make.

That said, selling them airships was still out of the question. Ambrose had no intention of handing the most powerful weapon of war of this era over to the young emperor who might well be the Dragon Tyrant in disguise.

In the end, Ambrose only sold them a handful of jetpacks instead, which would serve the purpose just as well — strapping a jetpack onto a Lyon paladin and sending him airborne with a magic mirror in hand could accomplish the same battlefield reconnaissance work that was required.

Granted, the efficiency wouldn't compare to the airships. Airships had vastly superior range compared to jetpacks, and were capable of staying airborne for hours at a stretch without landing.

A jetpack, on the other hand, only had thirty minutes of flight at most before its user needed to land and recharge its mana.

Still, jetpacks were cheap, came packaged for individual soldiers, and were far simpler to operate than airships. For Lyon, this was enough to take the edge off the immediate crisis.

With the orcs' information advantage nullified, their danger to Lyon eased considerably, and several of their skirmishes even started feeling like an even match.

The orcs could rely on micromanagement, but they only had one truly outstanding commander, while Lyon had plenty of frontline commanders who outclassed any individual orc officer.

If one man couldn't precisely command tens of thousands of troops, then split them into units of two hundred each instead.

Angus Watson leveraged Lyon's strength accordingly, breaking his forces down into smaller units, using aerial magic mirrors to monitor the whole field while letting junior frontline officers adapt to the situation in real time. The results were surprisingly effective, allowing them to repel the orcs' probing attacks again and again.

The war between the orcs and Lyon had finally settled into a grinding stalemate. Both sides knew the other inside and out, both knew that committing forces would gain nothing, and yet both were forced into action regardless.

The war stopped being a contest of tactics and courage, but instead of attrition. It was simply a matter of who would crack first.

This kind of attrition warfare was devastating to morale and spirit. After a month passed, both sides, without any coordination, quietly enacted a temporary ceasefire.

No formal declaration was made, but the orcs stopped sending troops across the river, and Lyon stopped sending warships to lob cannon fire at the orcish docks from a distance.

The weather was turning colder, and both sides needed the respite.

Perhaps once the river froze over, the two sides would clash again in full force.

Around this time, Ambrose finally got his reply. The orcish commander had finally found time to meet with him in person. At Ambrose's request, the commander agreed to meet him in the capital of the orcish kingdom.

The terrain of the orcish kingdom consisted of jagged, rolling peaks, and its capital was no exception. It was a city built atop one of those very mountains. The population wasn't especially large, but in terms of sheer grandeur, it ranked near the top.

Half the palace complex on the mountainside was hidden within the clouds, with countless bolts of lightning striking the structures incessantly. This lightning served as the entire orc capital's primary source of mana, powering all manner of conveniences for daily life.

This wasn't Ambrose's first visit, but he still couldn't help admiring the designer's ingenuity. Not only did the structure provide a barrier against the lightning strikes, it also gave the city an endless, self-renewing supply of mana. Word had it the technology came from some lost magical civilization. The mana conduits running throughout the entire city effectively turned the capital into one giant magic circle.

Unfortunately, orcish magitech was rather underdeveloped. The mana converted from all that lightning was only put toward two uses: water supply and heating, with the remainder funneled into the city's defensive wards.

Ambrose found this an utter waste. This was already the most strategically vital region in the entire orc kingdom. If an enemy ever managed to fight their way here, there'd be no need to even storm the place. After a few years' siege, the orcs would collapse on their own.

So, in Ambrose's view, there was no real need to build any war-grade magical defenses here at all. Redirecting that mana toward civilian development instead would easily make the orc capital the wealthiest city on the entire continent.

"Such a shame that these orcs don't understand economics at all."

Ambrose continued looking around as a group of orc soldiers escorted him into the capital.

His path forward was marked with gleaming blades and spears, raised high to form a marker pointing the way forward for Ambrose. This was apparently the highest honor an orc could extend in welcome. Any warrior able to walk this gauntlet of gleaming steel without so much as flinching would earn the orcs' respect.

Keeping a straight face was almost laughably easy for Ambrose. An undead who didn't feel like expressing anything simply had no expression at all, and he doubted any orc here was about to smash a cup as a secret signal to have him hacked to pieces on the spot anyway.

Ambrose was likely the fastest guest ever to walk through this corridor of blades. By the time he reached the Cyclops Inn at the end of the path, every orc present was looking at him with undisguised admiration.

The lich really was something. Every step was so steady that he clearly didn't have to force himself to remain calm.

Just as Ambrose was about to ask where he might find the orcish commander, he frowned.

Quietly, Ambrose pulled a gem out from his private space. It gave off a faint red glow in the shape of an arrow that pointed straight at the inn's front door.

His psychic detection gem was reacting right now, of all times...?

The orc soldier serving as his guide said respectfully, "Master Megaman, General Pacheco is waiting for you on the third floor."

Ambrose kept his cool outwardly, but couldn't help cursing to himself.

Had the orcs lost their mind? Their commander was a mindflayer!

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