CH 118

“Keuk!”

Velkre swung his arm as fast as he could, but Juan dodged Velkre’s attack with ease.

Velkre clicked his tongue and took a glance at his broken arm. Thick black blood dripped through the dragon scales along with a cracking sound. Before anyone knew it, Velkre’s broken arm was returning to its original form.

“Is your arm recovering itself? No, no. There’s no way the Dragon Lord was generous enough to place such a beneficial effect on an armor made for humans,” Juan said with a smile.

Velkre bit his lips. Juan was right—Velkre’s arm was returning to its form, but only in appearance. It was being forced to return to its original shape by the armor. However, his bones were still broken and his flesh was crushed like porridge. Despite all this, the power of the armor allowed Velkre to move freely, regardless of his injuries.

“How does it feel to be a disposable tool for the Dragon Lord?” Juan derided.

“I have already dedicated and devoted my body to His Majesty anyway. It’s not a big deal that my body is being used as His Majesty’s broken blade with this hideous snake skin on it until my life is consumed completely.”

“Ah. So it’s the emperor’s will, huh? That’s funny. I thought I just heard the Dragon Lord’s curse. Didn’t you hear it with me?” Juan smiled while stroking his chin.

Velkre's face quickly hardened. It was true that Velkre had also heard the Dragon Lord’s curse. In fact, the curse was constantly being whispered and echoed in his head even now. Velkre felt as if he was about to lose his mind upon hearing the curse resonating so deeply in his head.

“Is the curse still being whispered in your head? Is it telling you to kill the emperor who is standing in front of you right now?”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Velkre quickly charged toward Juan. At the same time, the bone spear reformed itself with a cracking sound and struck the place where Juan was standing.

Juan dodged the powerful attack with ease, but the tip of Velkre’s spear stubbornly chased after Juan’s body.

Juan clicked his tongue at Velkre’s skill. He moved violently with big movements and shook his spear strangely, yet still accurately aimed for Juan’s heart. Although Velkre was pretending to be too excited to control his body, his movements were still exquisite and brilliant.

‘All the captains of the knight orders are quite skilled. What a waste that I have to kill them all the time.’

Velkre was relying on the power of the Evil Snake, but Juan had to acknowledge Velkre’s skill. Juan was certain that Velkre would have been appointed to an important position if he lived in different times and was under different circumstances. However, Velkre had already transformed into the Evil Snake.

Juan could finally understand the curse that Dragon Lord had placed on the armor: once put on, the armor could never be taken off. Then, the armor consumes the life of whoever dares to wear the armor, while preventing them from dying despite their terrible injuries, all for one purpose—to kill the emperor and destroy the empire. It was easy to tell how the Church had been using such cursed magic equipment for their benefit by looking at the Templars from the Order of the Evil Snake—from the time of his transformation into the Evil Snake, Velkre was destined to die at the hands of his fellow Templars.

Velkre’s spear grazed Juan's armpit. However, Juan didn’t doge. Instead of widening the distance, Juan sharply dug into the gap revealed by Velkre. After one look at Velkre’s eyes which were flashing green, Juan wore Umbra only up to his shoulders as surrounding his entire body with Umbra would be a waste of mana.

‘I’ll be fine as long as I don’t get struck by his spear.’

A black light split over the snow. With the sound of air being torn apart, the snow on the ground was scattered everywhere by the pressure of the wind, revealing bare ground.

Velkre suddenly felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He flinched, noticing that both of Juan’s hands were already digging into his left shoulder.

“Let’s start with one arm.”

Juan’s hands which were wrapped in Umbra clasped tightly onto the skin of the Evil Snake. With a tearing sound, the skin of Evil Snake began to separate from Velkre’s arm. Velkre screamed at the terrible pain from being skinned alive; after all, the skin of the Evil Snake and his own skin had already fused together.

With the terrible sound of skin being ripped apart, blood scattered all over the snow. Juan let Velkre go, while holding onto Velkre’s tattered skin in his hand—all the while having a content smile on his face.

Velkre glared at Juan with bloodshot eyes and a bloody and ragged left arm.

“I will kill you. I will fucking kill you, emperor. You fucking son of a bitch…”

“Oh, so you admit that I’m the emperor?”

“I will kill you!”

Velkre didn’t even seem to know what he was saying due to his pain as well as anger. This meant his current state allowed the Dragon Lord’s will to easily encroach upon his mind. Velkre charged toward Juan with a roar, but his attack was a far cry compared to his attacks from before.

At this point, there was hardly any snow left on the floor. The heat emitted from Velkre’s blood that was scattered everywhere melted the snow, causing the surrounding area to become sweltering hot, just like summer.

Meanwhile, Juan was almost done.

Rip!

The skin on Velkre’s chest was peeled off with an irritating sound. With his arms and legs broken to the point they were all ragged, Velkre could only remain motionless and blankly stare at Juan who was tearing his body apart.

Juan lowered his body to get close to Velkre’s face.

“Now only the face is left,” Juan said.

Velkre struggled to open his mouth and then muttered.

“I… surrender. I surrender…”

Juan was slightly surprised. Being a reasonable person, Velkre’s surrender didn’t come off as cowardly. But Juan hadn’t expected such a request for surrender to come from a Templar; he believed that all the Templars were just a bunch of lunatics.

“That’s quite unexpected. No, maybe it’s because of the Evil Snake. It’s something strange… having both hatred and loyalty to the emperor… this is a new experience for me. It’s only reasonable and natural to request to be spared when you have been incapacitated.”

Juan nodded his head, but that was the extent of his agreement.

“I’ve heard your request, Templar. But I’ll have to skin you anyway.”

Velkre opened his mouth and tried to say something, but Juan stabbed his fingers underneath Velkre’s chin.

***

“Juan!”

Sina jumped upon seeing Juan climbing up the wall, drenched in blood from head to toe, almost as if he had soaked himself in a sea of blood. The blood dripping from his body dyed the wall red. Horhell also hurried and ran toward the wall upon seeing Juan soaked in blood.

“Relax. It’s not my blood. If it was, I would’ve burned it before climbing up the walls,” Juan said in a calm manner.

“...W-what makes you think that I was worried about you? Just how many did you kill to end up looking like that?”

Juan pondered for a while, and then answered.

“Half a man.”

‘Half a man?’

Sina couldn’t understand what he was saying, but Juan only spoke vaguely. Then he poured out something that was inside the Umbra—what came out of the Umbra with a splashing sound were bloody pieces of skin that seemed to belong to a lizard. Orca, Horhell’s dragon, approached the skin and sniffed it, but quickly stepped back with a roar.

“What the heck is this?”

Horhell came close to the skin to take a closer look at it.

“It’s leather made out of the skin of a dragon. Oh, right… Don’t touch it. It’s been cursed,” Juan warned.

Horhell glared at the skin of the Evil Snake with a horrified face. Horhell poked the leather with the tip of his sword and then opened his mouth.

“It’s the flag of the Order of the Evil snake.”

“Oh, you noticed what it was at just a glance. You’re right. I had thought that you would grab me by the collar and ask where I killed an innocent dragon,” Juan answered.

“Well, there’s no way that any other dragons are still alive. Even if there were, they couldn’t be this small. This leather is too finely chopped to be of any use, so my only guess is that this is the dragon skin that is in the possesion of the Order of the Evil Snake. It was originally managed by the Order of Lindwurm after all.”

“I see. This was the only way to stop the Order of the Evil Snake from using that flag. We won’t have to worry about Velkre for a while either—his entire body will sting a little whenever he puts on his clothes for a while.”

Sina didn’t seem to understand their conversation, but Horhell had a weird expression on his face.

“...Is he still alive?” Horhell asked.

“Yes. He surrendered. If I had been in his place, I would have just asked to be killed, but he didn’t,” Juan answered while kicking the skin of the Evil Snake with his feet. “Wrap this up and keep it somewhere safe; we’ll be using it soon. Let everyone know that I’ll rip it off of their body if they lay their hands on it. Sina doesn’t seem to know what’s going on, so you should elaborate on my behalf, Horhell.”

***

“Brother Velkre. Are you awake?”

Velkre opened his eyes with difficulty upon hearing the voice of someone above his head. At that moment, Velkre convulsed at the sharp light that penetrated into his eyes. All of Velkre’s senses were overwhelmed as soon as he retrieved his vision.

Soon, Velkre started moving violently and began to scream in terrible pain, causing the Templars to hastily put an eye patch on his eyes and gag him in order to prevent him from biting his tongue.

“Calm down, Brother Velkre! Only your fatal wounds have been healed with the help of the healing Grace! Your wounds might open up once again if you continue to move recklessly like that!”

However, Velkre didn’t stop moving. At that point, one of the Templars quickly poured an unknown liquid into his mouth. The liquid made his mind go blank and then he stopped moving.

Slowly, Velkre’s mind started to become clear as his whole body lost strength and all his senses became dull. Velkre opened his mouth and stuttered.

“N-Nora… is that you? Sister Nora?”

“Yes, it’s me. Are you finally able to get a hold of yourself?” Nora answered with a complicated expression.

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“When did you return? How much time has passed?”

“I returned as soon as I felt the power of the Snake being retrieved. The only time when the power of the Snake is retrieved is when the power of the Evil Snake is being used. But everything was over by the time I came back. I just found you in the snow, drenched completely in blood, brother.”

“I see. Well… what is my current situation?”

Nora remained silent for a moment. Velkre could easily guess what the state of his body was, but anxiously waited for Nora’s answer anyway.

Finally, Nora opened her mouth with difficulty.

“Everyone thought you would die, brother Velkre. After all, we’ve never seen anyone staying alive despite being in such a terrible state. You know, you had already lost way too much blood? But you survived, brother Velkre. I believe you will be able to return to your original body and recover as long as you continue being treated by the healing Grace.”

“Sister Nora, I asked you what the current state of my body was.”

“...Brother Velkre, it was only a second ago that your eyes were restored. You know better than anyone what the current state of your body is, don’t you? No one would have guessed that it was you who was buried in the snow, while drenched in blood, if we didn’t know the procedure of retrieving the Evil Snake, brother Velkre.”

“I see…”

Velkre began to giggle. Nora was worried that Velkre might have gone mad upon listening to his laughter. Considering that Velkre was still alive despite such terrible injuries, it was hard to imagine how he managed to endure the pain without going insane.

“Ha, haha! This is amazing. I didn’t expect him to pay heed to my request,” Velkre muttered.

“What do you mean?” Nora asked.

“Request to surrender.”

Nora looked toward Velkre suspiciously. However, even before she could ask what he meant, Velkre, who was unable to contain his laughter, opened his mouth and started speaking.

“You know what, Nora? None of the men from the Order of the Evil Snake who transformed into the Evil Snake have lived to tell the tale. I’m the only one. It has been an immutable law to be skinned and martyred at the hands of fellow Templars before one turns into an enemy of the empire. But I made it out alive.”

“Yes brother… actually, other people have been talking about this matter as well. Not only is it unusual for the captain to transform into the Evil Snake, but there are no regulations about how you would be treated if you happen to survive. Brother Marco temporarily took the position of the captain, considering that brother Velkre is not even able to move, not to mention the fact that the Evil Snake has been stolen by the enemy,” Nora explained.

“Marco?”

Velkre shook his shoulders and laughed out loud again, almost as if he couldn’t hold back his laughter. Velkre’s whole body trembled as he laughed and the intense pain messed with his nerves.

Nora began to worry about his mental state.

“What’s so funny, brother Velkre? It’s time for you to calm down and take some rest.”

“How can I possibly hold back my laughter? Marco, that damn bastard… I would love to see his face when he finds out the identity of his opponent. He had been gritting his teeth, wishing for revenge, but… hahaha!”

“Who is the opponent? Isn’t he just an apostolic young man at best?” Nora frowned.

“An apostolic young man… no. He is the only person worthy of any and all Templars in the empire to surrender and serve him. I have surrendered, and so, I survived. I will never fight His M… him again. But Marco’s head will roll even before he has a chance to surrender, since he doesn’t even have the Evil Snake. He’s always so impatient and tries to handle everything as fast as he can. I bet the speed of his head being cut off will be just as fast.”