Shepherd Wizard

Side Story - Turan Zahar (7)

Long ago, back when the ancestors of Zahar were divided into three factions, those who wielded concealment, poison, and shadow, and warred among themselves.

Those who wielded the Shadow Bloodline were reckoned the finest of them all in terms of pure combat power.

That was because the ability to give shadow physical form and manipulate it was the only one of the three bloodline powers that possessed actual physical substance.

Compared to the Illusion Bloodline, which could be called relatively similar, it could not manipulate light to create illusions and its destructive force fell a little short, but in exchange it held the advantage of being far more flexible and far easier to control.

Precisely in the way Turan had just demonstrated, splitting into hundreds of strands in an instant and smashing every Light Orb set up all around.

"What the hell!?"

"Don't tell me, the enemy...... agh!"

The Aravion wizards, thrown into confusion as everything around them went dark in an instant, were helpless against the attack that followed, and they screamed.

Javelins and arrows, crossbow bolts, and every other kind of projectile weapon came flying in, carving away their flesh and crushing their bones.

"Enemies! It's the Zahar bastards!"

At one Aravion knight's desperate cry, the sleeping Aravion nobles snapped their eyes open and came rushing out of their tents.

A great many of them could do nothing against the enemy's assault in the darkness, but a few quick-witted ones swiftly shaped Orbs of Light with their magic and sent them high into the sky.

"Fall back!"

Judging that he had poured enough damage onto the enemy, Turan immediately gave the order to withdraw to the 5th Legion under his command.

Naturally, in chaos like this it was impossible to pass the order along by voice.

When the prearranged signal went out, three flashes blinking from the rear, the black-clad wizards of Zahar began pulling back at speed.

"After them!"

Of course, taking a beating this one-sided and then simply letting the enemy walk away was out of the question.

The Aravion nobles shot Orbs of Light in every direction to light their field of vision, and took to the air.

The sky, calm only moments before, rumbled in response to their magic and poured down lightning.

"You petty thieving bastards, I'll kill every last one of you-kuh!"

The Aravion noble, roaring as he wrapped his arm in lightning, saw something surge up into view beneath the light and let out a frantic scream.

Beasts of every shape, sculpted out of shadow, lunged at the Aravion nobles and set about biting and clawing at them wildly.

"Damn it, what the hell is this thing!?"

"Get it off me!"

"Rolo! Rolo! Snap out of it!"

The Shadow Beasts were in truth a Power of the Gods that Turan had created by combining the Tracker, Hunter, and Shadow Symbols.

It produced an effect beyond what his own magic power should have allowed, and since Turan already ranked in the upper tier even among Zahar's nobles, his Shadow Beasts were difficult to shake off even for nobles stronger than him.

'If the Tamer bloodline were folded in, I could keep creatures like these permanently and grow them too, was that it?'

There was in fact someone among the current Zahar God Tribe who possessed that very ability, but unfortunately Turan had no aptitude for the Tamer.

Of course, there were plenty of Night Hunter techniques he would be able to use once he awakened the power of the Alchemist later on, so he felt no real regret.

While the pursuit was being blunted, screams rose one after another from other parts of the Aravion camp as well.

The other legions, led by Rahmann, Alma, and Ferga, had struck from several directions in time with the 5th Legion's raid.

With things as they were, if the nobles alone flew off to chase down the enemy's raiding party, there was no telling how the situation might turn.

The strongest noble among the pursuers ground his teeth and shouted for a withdrawal.

"Damn it, pull back! We're returning to the main camp!"

Turan watched them retreat in silence, then nocked another arrow to his bow and drew it back.

The night was still long, very long.

*

The war between Zahar and Aravion, which had begun with that predawn raid, dragged on for weeks on end.

By day the Aravion army gave chase and Zahar fled; by night the shape of it reversed, with Zahar jabbing at them ceaselessly from every side while Aravion hunkered down tight.

Zahar had seized a measure of the initiative with that first raid, but it would be hard to call them clearly dominant.

The Nagin nobles accompanying Aravion made up for their tracking and mobility by loosing all manner of powerful, useful magical beasts, and in raw offensive power, at least, lightning-wielding Aravion held the edge.

It was through these battles that Turan made his name as Zahar's Rising Star.

As one of the few in House Zahar's long history to possess three bloodlines, and as the master of a Shadow Bloodline that had not shown itself in a very long time.

"Ah, Turan."

The one who called out to Turan, who had finished resting and was about to head out on patrol, was his adoptive elder brother, Rahmann.

Worn down by the war just as Turan was, he smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.

"I've been hearing a lot about you lately. They say you've been putting on quite a show."

"You flatter me."

"The Shadow Bloodline. Keeping that a secret even from me, that stings."

Turan did not shoot back to ask since when the two of them had been close enough to share that sort of thing.

At that mild smile, Rahmann clicked his tongue, tch, and said,

"I hope you're not entertaining any strange ideas."

"Strange ideas. You mean setting my sights on the Family Head's seat, something like that?"

"That's right. You are sharp, aren't you."

The tone was gentle, but the substance was close to a threat.

That brief exchange finished, the two of them looked at each other, then turned sharply away.

Rahmann was not the only one who had begun keeping Turan in check like this once the war started in earnest.

Alma too would fix him with a sinister look whenever they crossed paths, and Ferga went so far as to pick open fights with him, trying to establish the upper hand.

If one of the Zahar God Tribe had not stepped in to mediate on the spot, it would surely have come to blows.

Considering that this was a total war demanding every ounce of strength they had, it was foolishness beyond belief.

'Morons, the lot of them.'

Failing to grasp what this war actually meant, and grubbing after power instead.

Then again, when he thought it through, the original sin belonged to the old leadership that had staged those sham wars in ages past.

Those wars had been fought half by mutual agreement, so weren't these people assuming without even realizing it that this one was much the same?

In truth, a long war was not all bad.

Turan could feel that the magic power dwelling in his body now fell only a little short of Rahmann's and stood comparable to Ferga's.

It was thanks to absorbing the strength of the high nobles he had killed along the way.

If he judged it right, then winning this war, and absorbing a good number of Aravion's and Nagin's high nobles in the process, would let him grow far beyond even this.

With his magic power grown past all prior expectation, and with a third bloodline ability to his name, Turan had now risen to stand as an heir candidate every bit the equal of the other three, if not more.

It was not an official matter, given the war, but everyone around him treated him as such.

On top of that, wringing the souls out of the enemies he killed with a special implement was a bonus.

His command of Soul Magic was not yet deep enough for him to know precisely what it went toward, but he had been told the Spiritual Energy gathered this way had all sorts of uses.

Improving the talents of one's descendants, for instance, or strengthening one's own power.

'I wonder how the fighting will go tonight.'

He decided he should get his orders from headquarters first, and it was while he was on the move that Turan noticed the camp had grown noisy.

A noble from his own legion happened to be nearby, so he decided to ask him the reason.

"What's all the noise about?"

"Ah, Legion Commander. Reinforcements have arrived!"

"Don't tell me, Varaha's?"

"Yes, sir!"

Faster than expected, Turan thought to himself, and made his way toward the center of the commotion.

Sure enough, a whole crowd of nobles had gathered there, draped in garments brighter and more flowing than anything Zahar wore.

The nobles of Varaha, come from the far east, from the Land of the Lake.

At their head stood Solif, whom he had seen once before.

"Such a welcome. I hardly know what to do with myself."

"It is an honor to meet you, Family Head of Varaha."

His smile and his manner of speech were not much different from before, but Turan's keen senses caught a subtle change in him.

In intonation, in gesture, in small habits too slight to put a finger on, a faint misalignment could be felt.

His body had clearly already been taken over by the previous Family Head of Varaha.

Not long after Solif went off to meet with the Family Head of Zahar, a summons came for Turan as well.

As expected, several Varaha nobles and the Zahar God Tribe were gathered there; by all appearances it was a meeting for Possessed Bodies only.

Solif's eyes widened at the sight of Turan, and he asked,

"Hm? What's this, who's that guy? Golden Jajangmyeon?"

"He's not a player, he's someone who joined us recently. My Adopted Son, as it happens."

"What? Letting a Native in on our secrets is a violation of the Accord, isn't it?"

The 'Accord' was a kind of covenant sworn among the Preah God Tribe still remaining on the surface, and its contents were, on the whole, devoted to preserving their own vested interests.

One of its provisions was that Soul Magic was never to be passed on to Natives, meaning those born into this world.

The reason was that long ago, back when the factions stood opposed to one another, some had taught Soul Magic to Natives in order to swell their strength, and a faction had risen in revolt, bent on destroying every last one of the gods.

The art of handling the Spirit Form was the one and only thing that set them apart from human wizards, so the idea was to keep that knowledge among themselves and buried.

At this, Haroon shook his head with a sneer.

"To hell with the Accord. By that reasoning, this war itself is a violation."

"Fair enough. No reason to keep the rules while you're fighting the ones who wrote them. Ruvan won't be pleased, though."

Solif said exactly that much and then cut off all further interest in Turan.

An NPC that Zahar had hastily brought inside their own circle in order to win the war.

That was the whole of his impression.

"More to the point, what about the Lawyer?"

"That's already settled. He won't help us, but he won't attach himself to that lot either."

"Ha. Bunch of fence-sitters. Still, if they stay out of it, that's a relief."

House Carmine possessed a Sacred Relic that let them command Mermaids at will, and with that power they had long stood hostile to both Aravion and Zahar while stubbornly maintaining their own influence.

Given that the region where the fighting was taking place lay not far from their home ground, the mere fact that they were staying neutral was something to be thankful for.

They talked that subject over for a while, and before long the conversation turned to the war.

"Would it be better to rest a bit and then settle it outright?"

"That's right. There's no need to put them all down. We'll be satisfied with hitting them hard enough, and cleanly enough, that they can't come after us any further."

Aravion's aim was to trample Zahar and wring out some clue about Meisa.

Zahar, by contrast, needed only to drive Aravion off so they could never invade again.

Of course, if the chance came, marching all the way to their home ground and stamping them flat would be fine too, but there was no telling how Carmine or Ruvan, neutral for the moment, would react to that.

For a neutral party, one of the two powers flourishing too greatly was a threatening thing.

After discussing matters such as how the souls harvested in the war would be divided, Solif nodded.

"Good. Then we settle it three days from now."

*

The full engagement took place not in the dead of night like the earlier raids, but at dawn, with the sun beginning to climb.

Since the Varaha nobles lit up everything around them whenever they used their power, making the advantage of darkness hard to enjoy anyway, the plan was to aim instead for the hour when the enemy let its guard down most.

The wizards of Zahar and Varaha, who had gone to sleep in the early evening and rested deeply, approached the enemy with their minds fresh and clear.

Five legions stretched out in a long crescent formation, poised to devour the Aravion-Nagin army.

"I wonder if we can win......."

"Hss, why do my hands keep sweating."

Even though these were men who had been through battle several times over, the tension on them was plain to see.

Unlike the raids that made use of the night's darkness, this was expected to be a Pitched Battle in which one side or the other would be decisively routed, so it was only natural.

Turan's own heart felt tight with nerves, but a few deep breaths thankfully settled him.

'I wonder if we can win.'

In the battles so far, no one among the Possessed Bodies had revealed the Power of the Gods, the Family Heads of the two Great Noble Houses included.

Unlike Turan, who had been born the proper way, their flesh and their Spirit Forms were not in harmony, so drawing out the Power of the Gods came with a backlash.

Using a small amount with some measure of control was one thing, but calling on great power often meant enduring considerable harm, and the body might well collapse outright.

In the middle of a war, where a new body was hard to come by, that was fatal, and so it demanded caution.

And that in turn meant that Turan's role was all the greater.

He held his own body whole and entire, so he could use the Power of the Gods to his heart's content, as far as his magic power and mental strength allowed.

As he steadied his thoughts, the Aravion camp began to come into view in the distance.

He could see the enemy scrambling about, having detected their approach.

"Advance."

At Haroon's single word, a raucous bwoo- of horns rang out all around them.

The allied Zahar-Varaha army bore down on the enemy the way a predator opens its jaws over its prey.

Meeting them, the armies of Aravion and Nagin swiftly spread to left and right and formed a line to hold.

Being bunched together and encircled was a disadvantageous shape even in a battle between groups of wizards.

No order to attack was needed.

Each of them knew well the effective range of his own magic, and as the distance closed, fire and lightning, arrows and spears came flying in every direction, and the battle began.

"Diiiiiiiie-!"

"For Aravion!"

The edge of the woods, where thin grass had been growing only moments before, turned into hell in an instant.

Beneath the blood soaking the earth and the flames scorching it, the wizards snarled as they fought to seize one another's lives.

Turan, as one of Zahar's nobles, scattered Shadow Beasts in every direction, struck at enemies with tentacles, and pulled his allies out of danger.

'Father...'

His adoptive father, Haroon Zahar, stood locked in a standoff with an aged old man at the head of the enemy.

The one holding that long hammer had to be Badal, the Family Head of Aravion.

Every time the violet lightning growled, the ground shook and a wave of scorching heat rolled through.

"So that's......."

"Ugh."

Faced with the transcendent power that the Family Head of a Great Noble House could display, Zahar's wizards shrank back in spite of themselves.

But Haroon was not simply standing there watching either.

Wielding the power of shadow just as Turan did, though with far more practiced control, Haroon caught the lightning, then shot down Badal, who had been flitting this way and that through the air, with a long-barreled gun.

"Family Head!"

"Yes!"

Haroon, the only one among the living Zahar God Tribe who could fully command the power of the Night Hunter, was a match even for Badal and his Thunder Lord power.

Of course, considering that his own strengths lay in sniping and ambush, the matchup might tilt slightly against him, but at the very least it would be no one-sided fight.

What mattered here were the reinforcements from House Varaha who had joined them.

If they added the firepower and open-battle capability Zahar lacked, and if their Family Head, Solif, performed as an asymmetric asset-

The instant his thoughts reached that point, a blast of searing heat and the smell of burning flesh suddenly spread out on every side.

"Aaaaaagh!"

"Damn it, we're on your side! Have you lost your minds!?"

Flames erupted all around, slamming into the flank and then the rear of the Zahar army as it fought.

One Zahar noble grasped what was happening and shouted in a piercing voice.

"Wake up, the Varaha bastards have betrayed us! They're the enemy!"

*****

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