“Chwik! You don’t know? You don’t know?! Who else would know but you?!” Bodonchar shouted, grabbing the neck of a grey-haired old orc and shaking him.
“Kurgh! Cough! Great Abkai...”
The suffocating orc was Atanggi, the greatest shaman of the Tusk tribe, with six red dots on his forehead. The Bi was as respected as the tribe’s chief, perhaps more in some aspects, because they were responsible for leading the Hymn of Death, one of Subutai’s five covenants. It was a sacred ceremony where the dead became one with the plains through sky burial.
“I don’t know if it’s poison or a curse, but there’s definitely something! Chwik!” Bodonchar shouted.
“Cough! Even if... You say that... Cough! The detection skill isn’t catching anything—”
“Useless bastard! Chwik! And you call yourself the greatest shaman of the Tusk tribe?!” Bodonchar screamed as he threw the highly respected Bi aside like trash.
He shouted inwardly, Dammit! If Atanggi can’t resolve it... I have no choice but to ask for their help!
Since even Atanggi couldn’t sense the anomaly in Bodonchar’s body, it only emphasized the skill’s clandestine nature. Bodonchar thought about the organization Dollores was part of. He would need to pay them correspondingly, but he would much rather that than endure the disgusting feeling of lowered caliber a second longer.
“Chwik! This would never have happened if the Black Insect Armor hadn’t been penetrated in the first place! That bitch scammed me! Chwik!”
There was no way that the real Black Insect Armor would have been pierced by an attack from an unknown human. Bodonchar believed Dollores was partially responsible for his predicament, and decided to use this chance to provoke her.As Bodonchar devised a plan going forward, an orc rushed into the tent and prostrated himself.
“What is it?” Bodonchar asked.
“Great Abkai! Fortitudo’s gates have opened!”
“What?” Bodonchar said, his eyes widened due to the unexpected news.
However, it was nothing compared to what the orc said next. “Chwik! A-and some orc has demanded a Battle of Heroic Souls!”
“What are you talking about? A Battle of Heroic Souls?”
“H-he mentioned Solho’s Heroic Soul!”
“Chwik?!” Bodonchar snorted in surprise. Solho was the name of his heroic soul. “What nonsense is—Chwik! Who is that deranged orc?!”
“H-he called himself... Chwik, the biological eldest of House Solho... Arinchar!”
Bodonchar was shocked.
***
Thunder echoed from afar. Black lightning rumbled from the other side of the plains. The sound of drums echoed across the plains alongside the thunder. The rebel orcs walked out of Fortitudo and screamed at the top of their lungs.
“Chwik! Master Arinchar, the eldest son of House Solho, challenges Bodonchar to a Battle of Heroic Souls!”
“We demand Bodonchar, who underhandedly stole the heroic soul, to step forward!”
“An orc who broke Subutai’s five covenants does not deserve to be the Abkai!”
“Chwik! Bodonchar is a spineless backstabber who was scared that he would lose the Battle of Heroic Souls!”
“Master Arinchar, the eldest son of House Solho, has given Bodonchar the coward one last chance! Chwik! Accept the challenge!”
The orcs of various tribes, including the Tusk tribe, murmured among one another, confused by the rebel orcs’ screams.
“Chwik? What nonsense are they spouting?”
“Battle of Heroic Souls? Arinchar, the eldest son of House Solho?”
“Chwik! Arinchar! I’ve heard that name before. House Solho’s greatest genius! Such an orc is said to be born only once every century!”
“I thought he died during the Way of the Warrior!”
“Breaking Subutai’s five covenants... and the Battle of Heroic Souls, no less? Chwik, no, the Great Abkai would never commit such a taboo...”
The most important of the five covenants, created by Subutai, the orcs’ God of War, was the Battle of Heroic Souls. They couldn’t believe that their Abkai, Bodonchar, had sullied the covenant.
The Battle of Heroic Souls was a challenge that the younger sons issued to the eldest son, who normally inherited the house’s heroic soul. They could issue the challenge the moment that the eldest son inherited the heroic soul.
Hence, the younger sons were overwhelmingly disadvantaged since they, who did not possess a heroic soul, had to fight the eldest, who did. However, overcoming those odds and defeating the eldest allowed them to inherit the heroic soul instead and become the representative of the house.
This sacred ritual did not allow any sort of foul play; if any were to be discovered, the plotter was forever banished from the plains. However, the rebels were claiming that Bodonchar, the patriarch of the orcs, was an embarrassment to the orcs for taking House Solho’s heroic soul without a Battle of Heroic Souls.
“Silence, you fiends! Chwik! How dare you spread groundless rumors?!” Bodonchar stepped forward, fuming as he unsheathed his Wolf Fang Scimitar. His thunderous voice echoed throughout the plains. “This is an underhanded ploy to sully my honor! Chwik! I, Bodonchar Solho Abkai, have nothing to be ashamed about before the Great God of War, Subutai!”
“Whoooaaa!”
“Chwik! That’s right! There is no way Lord Bodonchar would shy away from a Battle of Heroic Souls!”
“How dare they defile the five covenants with lies?! Chwik! Divine judgment shall rain down on the rebels!”
The morale of the Tusk tribe orcs skyrocketed with Bodonchar’s appearance. This time, a voice as thunderous as Bodonchar’s sounded from the rebels’ side.
“Are you sure about that, Bodonchar? Look me in the eyes and say that again. The wound on my chest is from the Wolf Fang Scimitar that you are holding,” Taidzu said as he walked toward the center.
Bodonchar mumbled, “Arinchar! Chwik! So, you were still alive!”
“That’s right, my cowardly brother. I, your older brother who jumped off the cliff after you stabbed me in the back, have returned.”
Bodonchar remained silent. A ghost of the past, whom he thought had killed, had appeared before his eyes. He quickly scanned the plains and saw orcs murmuring as they stared at the center.
“Tsk... Nonsense! Chwik! Arinchar died during the Way of the Warrior!” Bodonchar shouted.
“That’s right. I am no longer Arinchar. I am Taidzu, and I will take back the heroic soul you have taken from me!”
“Bastard!”
“I challenge you to a Battle of Heroic Souls! If you are scared, you may refuse. Run away, as you had done that day!”
“Bullshit! Chwik! Nothing has changed, then and now! You are no match for me!” Bodonchar replied as raindrops fell one after another. “Chwik! Very well! I accept your challenge! I will have your head for daring to sully my honor and end this wretched civil war!”
“Just what I wanted! I have been sharpening my blade for this day!”
Heavy rain fell from the sky, where two grey stars had risen for those who could see them.
***
“He actually accepted it. If it were me, I would’ve played dumb to the very end,” said Seong-Hwi, staring at the center from the rebel army’s side, on Ibiso’s back.
“Neigh! The five covenants are as important to the orcs as their lives. They would do anything to honor them,” Ibiso remarked.
Tasha nodded and added, “Chwik, that’s right. To us orcs, the words of the Great Subutai are the law. Bodonchar has no choice but to follow them.”
“So that’s why Master Taidzu was so cautious,” Seong-Hwi said.
“Chwik. One can only issue a challenge for a Battle of Heroic Souls once. If Master Taidzu loses this battle, we will have a long civil war ahead of us.”
Just then, the earth rumbled from the middle of the plains. The clash of caliber, mana, and Battle Force was so powerful that it evaporated the falling raindrops.
“It’s begun!” Seong-Hwi shouted, his eyes shining.
The battle between those with unique caliber was about to begin. He looked up at the sky and saw a large crack, splitting the sky covered in black clouds in two. Two shining dots appeared and then vanished from the sky, which looked as if Seong-Hwi were seeing one side with a concave lens and the other with a convex lens.
His heart pounded as he thought, Now, show me what unique caliber is! Give me some sort of hint!
One of his objectives, to witness a battle between those with unique caliber, had been fulfilled. He wished for this vague feeling, that he was on the verge of figuring it out, to be resolved through this battle. Only by discovering a hint to realize his unique caliber would he be able to make some sort of excuse to Lina, who was likely furious beyond imagination.
***
Lina Ahn, wearing purple-rimmed glasses and a white lab gown, turned the adjustment gauge of her Microscope of Truth and cursed, “Cheon Seong-Hwi! Why does that son of a bitch always do the opposite of whatever I tell him?! After all my requests for him to stay put!”
She was in the Fence Hotel’s boiler room, remodeled into a laboratory. She had looked for Seong-Hwi to get more details on his conversation with the Second Fiend, but fury exploded within her after what Jurie told her.
“Seong-Hwi? He went to Garapan. He didn’t tell you?”
“He couldn’t stay put for even a few days? What the hell is he up to this time? Does he even understand the gravity of his situation?”
Lina wouldn’t be this worried about Seong-Hwi if he were the passive type, since the issues arose when he used the technique she had aptly named overclocking. She already had little time for research, and reckless use of that technique would make it even shorter. She was also afraid that even though Seong-Hwi hadn’t mentioned it, that kind of power definitely had severe side effects. The most problematic of all, Lina knew that Seong-Hwi wouldn’t hesitate to use the technique, even at the cost of his lifespan.
“Dammit! Why did I have to get attached to someone like that?!” Lina shouted irritably, her chest pounding uncomfortably.
She had seen many deaths and experienced much sorrow throughout her years in the Mirror World. Hence, she learned how not to get attached. However, Seong-Hwi’s words lingered in her head.
“I want to become one of the Ten Lords and Fiends first. My goal isn’t to catch up to the superior races but to surpass them.”
“Rather, I’m glad that it’s dangerous. The pain will serve to heighten my caliber,”
“My destiny... includes yours.”
“I wonder if my birthday... really is on Christmas Eve?”
“I don’t know how to go back. Only forward.”
The man always lived on the edge. He never took care of himself, but always looked out for others. Yet, he believed he was self-centered. On top of that, Lina didn’t know why, but she got the feeling since their first meeting that they had spent years together as friends for some reason. The more she observed him by his side, the more clearly she could see him slowly breaking down. She was afraid that he would continue to break down and one day turn to dust.
“Son of a bitch! I’ll save you, no matter what it takes!” Lina shouted as she took her eyes off the Microscope of Truth and grabbed a pile of paper on her desk, containing notes she had taken about Seong-Hwi’s conversation with Curiositas.
There... has to be... some sort of way, she thought as she skimmed through the papers that were worn out after having been examined countless times already.
“An innately durable body... Weakening the energy source with their characteristics erased... He had his eyes on Lee Kang-San at first,” Lina mumbled, but the more she read, the more she couldn’t understand. “Why Seong-Hwi? Conditions-wise, he’s the worst possible option. I would understand if it were Lee Kang-San...”
Curiositas had seen something in Seong-Hwi that would allow him to absorb the Fruit of the World Tree—the first one, no less.
“I don’t know how much power the second one holds, but there’s no way a human could absorb something like this. As the Second Fiend said, the Second and Third Lords could have absorbed it... Huh?”
The restlessly mumbling Lina froze like a broken machine. She then crazily flipped through the pages and stared intently at a note she had taken.
Curiositas mentioned that the second Fruit would have been much weaker than the first, and that the Second and Third Lords could have absorbed it.
“Why... the Second and Third Lords?”
Curiositas had mentioned those two specifically, possibly due to a specific reason. The Second Lord was Creo, Orbis’s God of Heaven, and the Third Lord was Regnator, Echion’s Dragon King.
“Angels and dragons... they’re both superior races... have innately durable bodies, and...” Lina thought about information regarding angels and dragons, and realized the most notable characteristics they had. “Oh! The angels have the halo, and the dragons have the dragon heart!”
She could feel her neurons firing as ideas poured out of her brain like a waterfall.
“The halo is a channel that links angels together... The dragon heart is a massive mana supply...” Lina’s face lit up after finding something in common between them. “External or internal, individual or as a group, they both possess a colossal storage mechanism!”
Lina substituted this concept with a familiar word and wrote it down: HDD / SSD.
“This concept... might be the answer!” she mumbled, finally feeling like she had discovered a hint and the direction of her research.
Just then, the sounds of bells echoed throughout the capital.
“That bell!” she shouted, her eyes widening.
She knew where the sound was coming from. It was from the bells of Notre-Dame de Paris, copied to the Paris district of West Earth, across the Seine. The bells were an artifact, and their sounds were set to echo throughout the Capital when rung. The fact that these bells were ringing only meant one thing.
“An air raid?”
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