Return of the Calamity-Class Death Knight

Chapter 340: Mount Carion (3)

Damien first treated the men, then tied their limbs with ropes.

"Untie us! I said untie us!"

"I\'ll offer your entrails to Her!"

"Gaaah! Graaah!"

Despite nearly being killed by Damien, the men weren\'t intimidated at all. If anything, they became even more aggressive.

Damien placed his hand on one man\'s head. The man violently shook his head.

"What are you trying to do, you piece of trash!"

Damien used his Authority of Lust to peer into the man\'s mind.

There, he discovered a familiar energy.

It was the exact same Authority of Lust that Damien used.

This confirmed that the men had been brainwashed by Dorugo.

\'How exactly were they brainwashed?\'

As far as Damien knew, the Authority of Lust only worked through direct contact.

That\'s why Damien had to face people one by one to use his brainwashing power, regardless of who they were.

But there\'s no way Dorugo would have gone through such trouble for these rural commoners.

Above all, there wasn\'t enough time for that.

Giving Four Great Demon Kings the body of Demon Lord, absorbing the Demon Lords herself, and on top of that, meeting ordinary people one by one to use the Authority of Lust?

\'That\'s nonsense.\'

Suddenly, a hypothesis popped into Damien\'s mind.

Damien shook his head. No matter that Dorugo was the Demon Lord of Lust, such a thing couldn\'t be possible.

"Graaah! Gyaaah!"

The man opened his mouth wide as if to bite Damien\'s hand.

Damien slapped the man\'s cheek. The man fainted without even screaming.

"Darling!"

A woman behind them cried out in shock. Damien dusted off his hands and said.

"He was trying to bite me."

"T-That\'s... but still...!"

Damien grabbed the unconscious man\'s head again.

He used his brainwashing power to undo the man\'s brainwashing.

While at it, he also brought him back to consciousness.

"Ugh... ugh..."

The man regained consciousness with a groan. As he lifted his head and saw his hands tied with rope, he shouted in surprise.

"W-What is this! W-Why am I tied up?"

"D-Darling! Do you recognize me?"

"What are you talking about? Why wouldn\'t I recognize you?"

The wife burst into tears and hugged her husband. The husband could only look confused.

"I should wake up the rest."

Damien rolled up his sleeves and looked at the other men. The men bared their teeth and growled as if to say he didn\'t stand a chance.

"Don\'t you dare come near me!"

"How dare you erase Her blessing! What are you doing!"

"Her divine punishment will fall upon you!"

"What are you on about."

Damien knocked each man unconscious with a single blow.

He could have undone the brainwashing without knocking them out. However, he deliberately made them faint because he didn\'t want to hear them praising Dorugo.

Damien grabbed each man\'s head one by one and undid their brainwashing.

"Huh? Why am I here?"

"Dad! Are you back to your senses?"

"Oh, my head... Why does my head hurt so much?"

"Ivan! You\'re back to normal!"

The women hugged the confused men, overjoyed.

But some weren\'t so fortunate.

"What... what are you saying... I... I killed my mother?"

"...Derek? My son? Where is he?"

By the time Damien had arrived, many people had already died.

The men who realized they had killed their own family members with their own hands wore blank expressions.

Damien looked at them with a troubled face.

"Don\'t talk nonsense! Why would I kill my mother with my own hands!"

"You bastards! You\'re all lying to me, right? That\'s it, right?"

Some couldn\'t accept reality and started to act violently.

Unable to stand by any longer, Damien lifted his foot and stomped on the ground.

With a heavy sound, the whole world shook. Everyone present froze in place.

"Everyone, calm down."

Dissatisfaction appeared on the men\'s faces. But no one dared to shout at Damien.

"I have something to ask you all. Do you have any idea why your families changed like this?"

It was clear that Dorugo was the cause, but he couldn\'t figure out how she had brainwashed people. First, he needed to know her method.

At Damien\'s question, the villagers looked at each other\'s faces before speaking.

"N-Nothing happened."

"So you\'re saying they suddenly changed like this?"

All the villagers nodded. Damien\'s expression became even more serious.

"Oh, come to think of it, when I went to the city, I heard some strange rumors."

A young man spoke up in a loud voice. Damien turned his gaze to the youth.

"Strange rumors?"

"Yes, they said all the nobles had changed strangely and told us never to go towards the inner part of the kingdom."

This village was on the edge of the Zelado Kingdom.

Going towards the inner part of the kingdom would bring one closer to Mount Carion.

But the strange phenomenon had spread from there to this village.

\'Suspicious.\'

After pondering for a while, Damien said to the villagers.

"You all need to leave the village immediately."

"Huh? W-Why are you saying that..."

"If you stay here, strange things will keep happening. So get as far away from the kingdom as possible."

Damien opened his subspace and took out a handful of gold coins.

"This should be enough for expenses. Go and prepare for your journey. Hurry!"

At Damien\'s shout, the villagers started moving in a fluster.

Shortly after, the villagers received the gold coins Damien offered and left the village.

Once all the villagers had left, Balhard descended from the sky.

-Lord Damien, I\'ve returned.

Worried that the villagers might be cower at the sight od Balhard, Damien had separately ordered Balhard to patrol the surroundings instead of coming down.

"Good work. Did you find anything?"

At Damien\'s question, Balhard made a strange expression and said,

-I think you should see it for yourself.

***

Balhard carried Damien towards the inner part of the kingdom.

Seeing the events unfolding there, Damien was left speechless.

"Kill them! Kill!"

"Don\'t leave a single one alive!"

"This war is blessed by Lady Dorugo!"

A war was raging in the fields.

The problem was that there were no distinct sides.

Over a thousand people were swinging weapons indiscriminately, friend or foe.

As if murder, not victory, was their goal.

"Hee... heehee! S-Sacrifices...! Offer sacrifices...! Lady Dorugo desires it...!"

Elsewhere, human sacrifices were taking place. The troubling part was that this was happening at a branch of the Church.

The once-devout priests and paladins were now praising Dorugo while extracting people\'s hearts.

As they got closer to the capital, people\'s behavior became even more extreme.

"Ugh, ughh... N-Need blood...! Not enough blood to offer to Lady Dorugo...!"

Upon reaching the royal palace, they saw the king swimming in a pond made of blood. Around him were countless beheaded corpses.

-...I can\'t bear to watch anymore.

Even as a dragon Balhard found the sight too horrific.

But Damien was relatively calm.

He had already experienced this in his past life.

During the War of Destruction, such acts were commonplace in lands ruled by dark mages.

"My thoughts were correct."

Damien looked up at the sky.

While others couldn\'t see it, Damien could. The Authority of Lust covering the sky.

The reason for people\'s madness was simple. Dorugo had manifested her Authority of Lust on a massive scale.

"This is absurd."

The Zelado Kingdom was quite far from Mount Carion.

To think she could brainwash people so far away was hard to believe, even seeing it with his own eyes.

Even more frightening was that Dorugo had lost most of her physical body.

He couldn\'t even imagine how strong she must have been when alive.

-Lord Damien, what will you do?

At Balhard\'s question, Damien fell into contemplation.

Damien had a way to undo their brainwashing. But there were too many people to save.

He couldn\'t spare time for them when he needed to face Dorugo.

Then there was only one solution. To defeat Dorugo as quickly as possible.

Then her authority would disappear, and people would return to their senses.

"Let\'s go to Mount Carion."

At Damien\'s command, Balhard flew towards Mount Carion. The surrounding scenery rushed by.

"Balhard, let me ask you something."

Suddenly, Damien spoke to Balhard.

-Please do.

"If someone brainwashed you and ordered you to kill me, what would happen to the dragon\'s oath contract?"

The deeper they went, the stronger the Authority of Lust became.

Even though Balhard was a dragon, there was no guarantee he could withstand a Demon Lord\'s power.

-Even so, the dragon\'s oath contract would not be broken.

Balhard answered without hesitation. Damien asked again.

"What if the brainwashing was so powerful it surpassed the oath?"

-I\'m not sure such a case exists... but if it did, I would probably lose my life.

"Really?"

-The dragon\'s oath is absolute. It must be kept even at that cost. But why are you asking this?

Damien seemed to be satisfied by Balhard\'s answer and said.

"Then there\'s nothing to worry about. Let\'s keep going deeper."

-...No, why did you ask?

"Just watch where you\'re going. We\'ll crash into the mountain."

As Damien ignored Balhard\'s complaint, dark clouds began to gather in the sky.

It wasn\'t a natural phenomenon. The clouds were forming too quickly for that.

The dark clouds clumped together like cotton candy. Soon, the surface of the clouds split.

As the gap widened, an eyeball appeared.

Unlike the clouds, it looked vivid, like that of a living being.

An ominous energy emanated from the eyeball. Even Damien couldn\'t help but feel tense.

-Damien Haksen. You really came. I\'m lucky.

It was a short and clipped speech but each word felt like heaven weighting down.

Lambda.

One of the Four Great Demon Kings.

He had suddenly appeared in font of Damien.

-I\'ll kill you. That\'s Mother\'s order. And my revenge too.

Magic circles began to form in the sky.

But the number was alarming. Not just one or two, but thousands, tens of thousands were created.

-You, die.

Red beams of light shot out from the magic circles.

The beams engulfed Damien and Balhard. At the same time, they completely annihilated the plains below.

***