Karnak, Monarch of Death

Chapter 320: Master of the Dungeon (4)

Deep within the dungeon, in a crumbling building Karnak had turned into a temporary base. He had gathered Serati, Varos, and Leven to formulate a countermeasure. "What do we do about Beltia?"

Varos asked Karnak, who was deep in thought, "Are we certain she’s here, young master?"

Varos had frequently ambushed the enemy forces. He had never sensed Beltia’s presence.

"If it were any other place, I wouldn’t be sure..." Karnak clicked his tongue before continuing, "But now I am. I cast an illusion on that woman, didn’t I?"

It had long been Karnak’s habit to tack on additional tricks whenever he performed a scheme. While using that cruel spell to show her the image of her dead daughter, he had also subtly placed a mark to track Beltia’s location. But there was a problem with this marking. The opponent was none other than a martial king.

"Her detection ability is monstrous, so if I wanted to mark her without being noticed, I had to cast it extremely faintly."

As a result, he explained, the margin of error stretched across dozens of kilometers.

Serati asked, dumbfounded, "Does that even count as a mark?"

A radius of dozens of kilometers was the size of a city, even including its surrounding lands. What good would it do to know Beltia was somewhere within that area?

Karnak had to agree. "Normally, it would be meaningless."

But it was a different story in a situation like this. Right now, they were in the depths of a mountain range, far beyond any human-inhabited regions. He knew for certain that Beltia was somewhere in these mountains, and the only people here were the expedition army and Diogres’ forces.

"How likely is it that Beltia would be in a place like this, because of a matter completely unrelated to Elezar and Dreltein?" Karnak said.

There was no doubt that Beltia had survived and joined forces with them. The problem was that Karnak couldn’t figure out a solution to take care of her, no matter how much he racked his brain.

"Our current strength is already barely enough to pull off the original plan. We can’t afford to divert any of it just to deal with Beltia," explained Karnak.

"This is a headache," Leven muttered, frowning. "Even with necromancy, there’s no countermeasure?"

"Weren’t you the one telling me not to use necromancy?" Karnak shot back.

Leven rolled his eyes. "Well, it’s better than dying, isn’t it? You’ve already done all sorts of unspeakable things up to now anyway."

Leven, too, knew how Karnak had driven Beltia away before. Was he really trying to live as a decent person after stooping so low?

Amazingly, Karnak was. "This time, I don’t think a humane method will work against Beltia. She’s a martial king, after all. You think the same trick would work again?"

Serati suddenly realized something.

"Wait, Lord Karnak," she said.

Come to think of it, Karnak hadn’t acted like he used to back then either. What he considered acting humane was showing a grieving mother nightmares of her dead daughter.

"If you give up living like a human, is there a method?" she asked.

Frankly, she couldn’t even imagine what could be worse than that. Was it possible there were even more evil methods? Karnak nodded as if it were nothing. free𝑤ebnovel.com

"If it were the old me." He paused, thinking for a moment, before he began explaining. "Beltia’s weakness is her dead daughter, right? So that’s where you attack."

He would gather as many girls around five or six years old as possible. Then, he would brainwash them, tattoo explosive runes all over their bodies, and send them in as suicide bombers.

"Even if she dodges the attacks, she’d still have to watch girls who look like her daughter get blown apart right in front of her, which would obviously break her mind. And if she steels herself and cuts them down anyway, she wouldn’t remain sane either," he continued.

And if, by some miracle, she possessed a mind of steel strong enough to cut down the children without hesitation?

"By the time her soul has been stained that deeply with darkness, the result is the same." Once she was shaken to that extent, illusions, brainwashing—whatever Karnak wanted—would easily work on her. "There are countless ways to dig in once her mind is broken."

Karnak shrugged lightly after finishing his explanation. "Honestly, if I fought like I used to, Beltia wouldn’t even be that hard of an opponent now. Her psychological weakness is just too big."

Serati and Leven fell silent.

Wow.

How can a person even think of something like that?

They almost wanted to thank the heavens for their own lack of imagination. They hadn’t known there was still a lower depth left to see.

Karnak scratched his cheek awkwardly. "But no matter. I feel like I can’t go that far. Should I?"

Leven, Serati, and Varos responded in order.

"Absolutely not."

"How could you even think of that?"

"That’s not even feasible."

Something about Varos’ reaction seemed off, causing Serati and Leven to turn to him.

Huh? Not feasible?

Varos continued calmly, unfazed. "Where would you even find a large number of five- or six-year-old girls around here? The nearest village is probably hundreds of kilometers away."

He wore an expression as if he felt nothing about the idea of blowing up innocent children.

Serati sighed inwardly. Ugh, now I see why this man gets along with that man.

At least Karnak wasn’t planning to go through with it, which was a relief, but the problem remained that they still had no method to deal with Beltia.

"I can’t think of any other methods, so I wanted to hear what sane people would suggest." Karnak turned to Serati and Leven and continued. "What would people who live properly do in this situation to defeat Beltia?"

The two of them blinked.

"Uh..."

"There’s no way to beat her."

It was an obvious response. In the first place, if one wanted to win fair and square, there was no choice but to become stronger.

"So that’s how it is, huh." With a crooked smile, Karnak waved his hand. "All right. I’ll think on it a bit more, so for now, just go about your own business."

Everyone rose from their seats. Leven and Varos stepped out first.

Just as Serati was about to leave last, she paused at the doorway and turned her head. "Lord Karnak."

He responded, "Hm? What is it?"

"I feel bad for saying this after all the scolding..." She hesitated, looking at him with a worried expression. "To be honest, I’m not exactly someone who lives all that righteously."

It was only in comparison to Karnak that she appeared so. In truth, by ordinary standards, Serati could hardly be called a saint. "To speak frankly, I think it’s better to live on, even if that means being ruthless, than to die pathetically while trying to live like a good person."

"What, are you saying it’s fine for me to live like I used to?" Karnak asked.

"Please, stop twisting people’s words..." Serati sighed deeply before continuing. "I just hope you’ll keep thinking about it until the very end. About whether what you’re doing is truly necessary, and whether there truly is no other way."

With that, she, too, stepped out of the room. Left alone, Karnak’s expression turned thoughtful. He rubbed his chin, allowing himself to sink into contemplation as Serati had asked. How could he defeat Beltia while maintaining as much of his humanity as possible?

Or rather, should I start by defining what it even means to be inhuman?

From Serati’s and Leven’s reactions, it seemed that forcing guilt upon others or plunging them into nightmares was deemed inhuman.

In other words, no matter how much they’re the enemy, I shouldn’t go digging into their minds carelessly, huh?

A faint smile crept across Karnak’s lips.

***

Even though monsters and evil spirits were being actively utilized against the subjugation army, Diogres’s soldiers weren’t simply idling away either.

They, too, were engaged in constant skirmishes, and injuries were inevitable.

Moreover, the malice and death energy within the dungeon affected Diogres’s forces as well, so maintaining their camps within the dungeon required considerable effort. Because of this, Milia was as busy as ever.

"Priest! We need purification over here!"

"Yes, I’m coming!"

"We need cleansing here too!"

"I’ll be right there!"

The subjugation army, as a formal Imperial force, had a large contingent of priests from the church accompanying them. In contrast, Milia was the only priest within Diogres’ army. Because their leader had been branded a heretic, they could not officially receive aid from the church.

As the sole priest, purifier, and healer, she was treated almost like a saint among the soldiers. Each time she performed a purification or healing spell, the soldiers would thank her with a weight that was almost burdensome.

"You’ve saved me."

"Man, what would we have done without you, priest?"

"Oh, it’s nothing. It’s simply what one who serves the goddesses should do." Though she maintained humility, Milia did not dislike the feeling.

Like many priests, she had originally devoted herself to the faith with the dream of saving and caring for others. But what had her actual duties been since becoming a priest? As a second-class inquisitor, she worked under the King’s Order. She had spent her days hunting, torturing, burying, and executing all manner of heretics. Compared to that, she now truly felt she was living the life of a priest.

She smiled, satisfied, until suddenly a secret message echoed in her mind.

—Milia, come see me for a moment.

It was Karnak’s voice. Milia let out a sigh. "Ah..."

She had forgotten for a moment, but she was now a servant under the command of a wicked necromancer. And though it didn’t feel real, she was still in a half-human, half-demonic state, her body cursed and bound with sealed dark powers.

Perhaps because of this, she could sense it instinctively. Her fulfilling life as a priest was over, and something ominous was waiting for her.

—What’s wrong? Are you busy? Should we talk later?

—No... I’m coming now.

***

Dreltein had recalled all reconnaissance units that had entered the dungeon back to the surface. Then he organized a new expeditionary force. He called only the aura users among the Kretas Order, only sixth-circle and higher among the imperial mages, and only second-class priests from the church.

Those who would normally have been the commanding officers of their respective units were now gathered together to form a single, elite force. And Elezar and Dreltein themselves would lead them directly.

"It’s larger than I expected," commented Elezar. Once gathered, their number came close to a hundred. "Will the regular soldiers remain stationed on the surface?"

"They have their own roles to play," responded Dreltein.

Establishing a perimeter on the surface was just as important. That way, if Diogres attempted to escape the dungeon, they could respond immediately. Of course, it wasn’t as if the surface forces could actually capture Diogres.

He was an archmage, after all. Even if they surrounded him, he would simply bombard them with high-level spells and break through in an instant. Instead, their purpose was simply to track his movements.

Once Diogres had lost his forces and was on the run, catching up to him wouldn’t be difficult. The last time they had been blindsided by Desteran, it was largely because they had failed to track his initial movements and had been slow to respond.

Once all preparations were complete, Elezar and Dreltein headed toward the dungeon entrance. Following behind them was a lone woman. Unlike the others, she wore plain clothes and carried nothing but a longsword, cradled in her arms like a doll. It was a woman in her forties.

Suddenly, Elezar glanced back at her. "Beltia, Holy Sword of the Church."

"Yes, oh Saint of Destruction," responded Beltia.

They spoke within a sound-shielding barrier, so that no one else could hear.

Elezar asked, "You will not fail this time, will you?"

Beltia’s eyes glinted with a chilling light. "Of course not."

"Good." A gentle voice caressed the ears of a mother who had lost her child. "Don’t forget. Serving Lord Tesranach is the only path to see your daughter again."