Rise of the Fallen Kingdom’s Third Prince

Every time Yuri swung his sword, blood splattered.

The man holding the staff was left stunned.

[How can this be…?]

Soldiers fell one after another under Yuri’s hand in the blink of an eye. Not even the elite troops, strengthened by black magic, could put up resistance.

But there was something else that truly terrified him.

[Cutting through black magic…!]

It was something impossible.

Seeing the invisible, cutting what cannot be cut.

Yuri was nothing like ordinary humans, who were powerless against black magic.

Even he, who had cultivated the power of darkness, couldn’t comprehend how it was possible.

[No, it can’t be. This is…]

He pulled a dagger from his chest. It was made of obsidian, just like the arrowheads.

[I must report this.]

Without hesitation, the man stabbed the dagger into his own abdomen. His eyes shone red, and his gaze exploded outward.

His consciousness left the deck, sliding along a dark stem beyond the sea.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

Yuri didn’t let him escape.

Immediately he lunged forward and drove Mamago into his abdomen, right where the dagger was lodged. The sword, which hated blood and killing, let out another ghostly shriek.

[Kyaaaaaaah!]

But the resistance was not small. Yuri grit his teeth and violently released the energy of the Cut of the Soul and the Heart.

The sword energy, steeped in chaos, spread violently and tore apart the black magic.

Boom!

In that instant, the man’s departing consciousness and Yuri’s piercing senses connected.

Yuri could see what the man was seeing.

He crossed the coastal waters, traversed the vast ocean, and beyond the Owl Blue, there was a massive continent.

Plants never before seen formed dense forests that blocked out the sun. Beneath them, venomous snakes and insects tangled in poisonous chaos.

In that land existed a Black Empire.

Yuri was stunned as he beheld what appeared in the man’s vision. The place he was trying to send the message to was a tower in the heart of the city.

A gigantic tower covered in human skulls.

The number of skulls used was 234,000.

Even seeing it, it was hard to believe.

With nausea rising in his chest, Yuri gripped the man’s head tightly and forced his consciousness to turn aside.

The man, who had been trying to send a message to the Skull Tower, was instead forced by Yuri to wander through his own city.

Yuri could see many things.

Daily human sacrifice rituals.

Human flesh butchered into parts like pigs.

Skull cups brimming with blood, children treated as delicacies.

Priests reclining on chairs made from the skin of maidens.

Yuri’s hand squeezed harder.

The man’s skull creaked as Yuri wrung out his consciousness.

He saw even more.

The Black Empire ruled countless colonies. To them, a vassal state was nothing more than a human ranch to provide meat.

A civilization that treated humans as livestock.

Cannibalism and human sacrifice were so common they weren’t even topics of discussion.

Suddenly, the vision shifted.

Someone was there.

At first, Yuri thought it was a monstrously deformed human. But then he realized it was covered in human skin.

It wore a human face as a mask, and the skin of a human body as clothing.

With an obsidian knife, it slit open another human skin.

Blood spurted out.

The victim was still alive but unable to move, lying on the worktable with silent tears in their eyes.

The process of skinning a human was so revolting that Yuri could barely keep watching.

“This bastard…”

Yuri cursed.

Then, the being covered in human skin lifted its head. Their eyes met.

Behind the holes of the skin mask, murky eyes tilted toward him.

At the moment it raised the obsidian knife—

Crack.

A dry sound echoed, and Yuri’s vision shattered.

“Ah.”

The man’s skull had not withstood the pressure of his hand and had been crushed.

“Damn it…”

Yuri frowned, aware he had used too much strength in his rage.

He shook his hand.

There had still been much to see, but he couldn’t control his emotions.

“Are you alright?”

Jared and several knights approached after the chaos.

Instead of answering, Yuri stayed pensive for a moment as he looked at the corpse.

Beside the body lay a staff made of human bones.

The vision of the empire across the sea overlapped in his mind.

Unconsciously, Yuri spoke aloud.

“These bastards…”

“Sir?”

“Are they demons?”

***

The captain and high-ranking officers were stunned after hearing Yuri’s account.

“This can’t be true.”

“How could something like that be possible…?”

“They’re insane.”

Everyone clicked their tongues.

Some still didn’t seem to fully believe it, but Yuri didn’t blame them. He himself wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t seen it.

“They’re more numerous than we thought.”

He pointed to the sea.

“That’s their main force. They have more ships and more men.”

“I see.”

Yuri curled his lips as he swept his gaze over the surroundings.

“But they’re enemies we can’t leave alone. We need to wipe them out first and think later.”

After seeing the heart of their domain through black magic, Yuri could no longer wait.

If he let them act, the whole continent would be in danger. He had to eliminate them before their fleet reached land.

“Antianus.”

“Yes.”

“Give me maximum output. We need to increase speed.”

“Understood.”

“As soon as we find them, we start the battle.”

Yuri drew Mamago.

[W-what! Fighting again?]

“Mamago.”

[Y-yes.]

“There will be a lot of blood. Prepare yourself.”

[Blood… blood…]

Muttering, Mamago returned to its sheath. Although it vibrated, after training it no longer resisted as much.

Yuri shouted.

“All hands to battle stations!”

“To battle stations!”

Those gathered on the Mary-Mary returned to their ships.

Soon, winds conjured by martial arts knights swelled the sails. The three ships sped toward the horizon.

Yuri, arms crossed, stood atop the Mary-Mary’s figurehead.

In that region lay the enemy’s forward base.

He would burn it to ashes.

***

They had advanced a good distance when, far ahead, a small island came into view.

“An island like that existed…?”

Buscolum alternated his gaze between the front and the nautical chart.

“It’s not recorded here.”

“It was created with black magic.”

“What the hell…”

The enemy fleet was anchored at the island.

There were three or four massive ships, and dozens more smaller vessels identical to the one Yuri had sunk earlier. All lacked sails and were shrouded in dark mist.

The remnants of black magic they emitted made the surroundings look hazy.

“Wait, Your Highness.”

Jared stopped.

“This is too much…”

The ships were full of enemies, and the island was also crowded with settlements packed together like dense colonies.

At a glance, the difference in troop numbers was several tens of times greater. Jared swallowed hard.

Crossing the Dark Blue Sea was already a grueling journey, but if the enemy could deploy such numbers on an expedition, how many forces must they have at their main base? It was impossible to even calculate.

“Your Highness.”

“What?”

“Can we really handle this?”

“We have to try.”

Yuri fixed his eyes on the enemies.

“Remember what I told you?”

“Yes…”

“There’s not a shred of exaggeration in it. In fact, words don’t even do it justice.”

“What…”

“They’re bastards who make cups out of children’s skulls.”

“…”

Yuri turned back. The knights of the Order of Vengeance waited with eyes blazing, ready for battle.

“If we don’t win, we’ll be eaten.”

On the ships they had destroyed earlier, they had found the corpses of Brusen fishermen. The marks made it clear they had been eaten alive.

That sight had shaken everyone.

Yuri raised his sword.

“Keep moving forward.”

The fortunate thing was that the enemy had not deployed a Dispel field. Thanks to that, the three vessels could approach stealthily while hiding their presence.

“When I give the signal, fire the grappling hooks immediately.”

“Yes, sir!”

It would be a quick, decisive assault. No cannons.

The strategy was to storm the enemy deck in one strike and plunge them into chaos with close combat. Yuri trusted the Order of Vengeance.

The distance slowly closed.

“Wait.”

Everyone gripped their weapons tightly.

“Wait.”

The enemy soldiers, unable to sense the magically hidden ships, remained unaware.

Within moments, they were close enough to see the enemy deck.

The ships were massive, but not refined.

They looked as if they had endured long voyages only thanks to black magic, since their naval technology was not very advanced.

Yuri tightened his grip on his sword. He needed to unleash all his power at once.

He unsheathed Mamago.

[Hehehe, hehehehe…]

A dark chuckle came from the blade.

[Will I finally get to see blood? Hehehe…]

Thanks to Yuri’s strict discipline, Mamago had become a sword worthy of being called a sword.

After all, there were no bad swords in the world.

[Soak me in the blood of my enemies. Khehehe, huehuehue…]

“Don’t worry. You’ll drink your fill.”

[Kihihihi…]

Yuri smirked and raised the sword.

Then he shouted.

“To battle!”

In an instant, the grappling hooks mounted on deck shot toward the enemy ships, and the exorcists chanted their spells in unison.

The enemy reacted a second late.

Incomprehensible shouts rang out everywhere.

“Kill them all!”

Yuri, without even using the chains, leaped and landed directly on the largest of the ships.

Dozens of obsidian spears were aimed at him. On deck, masses of black magic surged and swirled.

They were so dense that the dark smoke obscured the sky.

An overwhelming pressure loomed over Yuri.

But then—

[Dispel Evil!]

Since the death of Cedric, the demon king, mages had tirelessly researched ways to counter black magic.

The fruit of those years of effort—

Dispel Evil.

The moment the spell unfolded, the dark energy covering the area vanished in an instant.

The sinister aura evaporated, leaving the air clear and calm. The enemies had no idea what was happening.

Yuri raised his pistol.

Bang!

One enemy dropped dead.

Bang!

Another fell.

Yuri swung his sword.

Several more died instantly.

An enemy sorcerer waved his bone staff and shouted desperately, but nothing happened. His pupils quivered in horror.

Yuri shot him.

The sorcerer collapsed.

“…”

Then Yuri realized something strange.

Bang!

Another enemy dead.

Bang!

And another.

It was too easy.

Looking closer, he noticed the enemy’s armament—crudely reinforced wooden spears with obsidian tips, arrows with obsidian heads, clubs studded with fragments of the same mineral.

Their armor was merely leather and wooden plates, useless against steel.

“No way…”

Suddenly, Yuri saw a knight get struck in the back by an enemy spear.

But the obsidian blade shattered against his plate armor without leaving a scratch.

The knight, barely bothered, turned and cut the attacker in two. Similar scenes were playing out across the battlefield.

“These bastards…”

Yuri understood.

The enemy didn’t use mana, nor did they possess steel weapons.

In other words—

“They’re incredibly weak…”