I Got Reincarnated Into a Game I Was a Top-Ranker in and I Became the Leader of a Villain Group That Will Destroy This Shitty Country - 75

Chapter 75: Reunion

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“Kai-sama, we will soon arrive at the imperial palace!”

After nodding to the leader of Resistance, I turned my attention to my comrades. There were nearly twenty people on horseback, along with Chloe and Nia. It would be best if we continue on foot from here on. 

“Everyone, get off your horses. We need to be more on guard from here on. We don’t know what’s waiting for us ahead.”

The men nodded at my words. They dismounted from their horses and readied their weapons. From this point on, we would be entering a true battlefield. After my negotiations with Resistance yesterday, we decided to come straight to the imperial palace today. They didn’t complain much when I told them I could only bring 20 of them with me. They probably already realize the empire must be plotting some kind of secret and dangerous scheme.

“Nia, don’t ever leave my side, got it?”

“Fufu~ Kai, you’re such a worrywart,:

It had been about two hours since we left the bustling main streets of Odell. We hadn’t encountered any dangers yet, but the imperial palace building was dawning on us. We had no idea what might appear. 

We arrived at the western gate, which was relatively small compared to other gates. This gate was the one with the least number of security based on the game. The place was eerily quiet, with only two soldiers standing guard.

“…Wait a moment, Kai.”

While I was observing the gate from a distance, Nia suddenly grabbed the hem of my clothes. 

“Something is off about those people.”

“Huh?”

“When I tried to see them with magic vision, it seems… Those people are being controlled.”

“….Huh?”

“They’re under mind manipulation.”

Surprised, I activated my magic vision as well and sure enough, the red color proved that their souls were a bit skewed. The bodies of the two soldiers standing guard were bright red. 

“No way… They’re even controlling the minds of ordinary soldiers? There must be at least several hundred soldiers!”

Permanent mind manipulation on hundreds of people? Just where did they get their power from? Could it be… There were other black magicians other than the Crown Prince?

“…Things are getting more suspicious. Come over here. Let’s take the route I explained earlier.”

There was a small back road surrounded by woods between the western and southern gates of the imperial palace. I guided everyone down the road without a hitch. The path we were using was the route that was most commonly used by players in the game. It was a bit narrow, but there were almost no passersby around and it was easy to hide ourselves in here. This was a relatively safe route to take to infiltrate the imperial castle. 

However, something unexpected happened.

“Wha-What is this thread? And… A cube? A-ARGHH?!?!”

“-?! O-Oi!!”

“Ka-Kai-sama!”

Screams coming up from the people at the back. One of the men suddenly started twisting his body unnaturally creepy. 

“Cough! Guahh…!! Arghhh!! Cough..!! A-Arghhhh!!!”

Then, we saw it. The skin of that man shriveled. His body was withering away at rapid speed. his eyes rolled back and soon, he fell to the ground with a thud. All of this happened within the blink of an eye.

“Wha-What’s wrong? Hey!”

“-?! Stay away from him!!”

“Huh…? U-UAGHHHH!!”

The man who ran to check on him collapsed instantly. His body also withered in a flash. 

“A-AARGH..!!”

“Ka-Kai!”

“….”

Hearing Chloe’s panicked voice next to me, I began to think. What was the trigger? It must be some sort of curse stemming from black magic that caused this transformation. You couldn’t cast a curse from a distance. There must be some sort of trigger nearby… Ah!!

“Everyone! Don’t move! There’s a magic circle on the ground!!”

“Huh…? Huh?!”

We looked down at the ground and sure enough, there was a glowing magic circle on the ground where two men had collapsed. And… At the edge of that magic circle, there was some sort of thread. The threat connected to a…

“…A white cube. That must be it.”

I immediately raised my index finger and fired a bullet made from pure magic. I fired three shots, causing the thread to snap. The white cube then fell to the ground. 

“This magic circle… It must be black magic.”

Then, this magic circle wouldn’t affect me. I stepped into the magic circle and indeed, I didn’t feel anything amiss. I pulled the two shriveled men outside the circle. Then… As a last-ditch effort, I picked up the cube that had fallen to the ground and thrusted the cube onto the men’s stomachs. Then..

“Guah-!? Argh…!!”

“Cough!! Cough!! U-Ugh…! Wha-What…?”

The bodies that had shriveled up suddenly returned to their original robust forms as if everything was just a hallucination. I stared at the cube in my palm and sighed. 

“I knew it. It’s sucking up people’s life force.”

“Li-Life force…?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded in response to the Resistance’s leader’s question. Standing up, I turned around to face everyone. 

“When you step into this magic circle, you will trigger the curse. Your life force will get absorbed by the magic circle and stored in this cube.”

Everyone stared at the magic circle in shock, surprised at the empire’s unexpected trick. I decided to try adding a little bit of my power into this empty cube, just to try it out. Since this cube was being used as a medium for storage, I should be able to fill it with black magic power then. 

Having witnessed everything, Chloe spoke. Her voice was tinged with anxiety. 

“I see. That cube is a storage medium.”

“Yeah. It’s a storage device to keep magic energy in it. But… I didn’t know it could be used to store human life force.”

…I started to understand how the Crown Prince managed to do that large-scale mind manipulation on all his soldiers. Life force was the most potent source of energy to enhance black magic. The empire needed an enormous amount of life force, which was why they needed something to store it. This was where the cube came into a play. Of course… This sort of thing didn’t existed in the game.

“We’ve acquired good information. I will take this cube with me.”

As I put the cube in my pocket, I suddenly heard the sound of a beast howling coming from a distance. 

“Kai, Nia, this must be…”

“Yeah, this is…”

“Enemy incoming.”

I wonder if this was our punishment for causing a commotion earlier. Well, we were bound to encounter something anyway. It was just, things were proceeding a bit faster than I expected.

“Everyone, prepare for battle. The enemy might already be surrounding us as I speak. We’ll break through the enemy ranks together.”

Nia’s eyes glowed in red and Chloe readied her knife. The rest of Resistance members also started arming themselves. Then, from within the woods… It appeared. 

“….”

“…Well…”

“…Yo-You…..”

“Long time no see…”

His right half was completely smashed, resembling a decaying ghoul. His one handsome face that he had when he was human was nothing but history. All that remained was pure evil, rage and hostility. If I had to describe it as an emotion… An overwhelming feeling of inferiority complex. This guy must be here for revenge. 

The hero that I thought had died came back as a monster. Humanity’s Hero stood before me again. 

I smiled wryly. 

“You’ve become even uglier, Kaltz.”

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