Chapter 80
A wave of anxiety swept over Yi-Gyeol, making his vision blur. Yet, the blood splattered across the solitary confinement cell and the bodies of the guards beyond the door stood out with horrific clarity. It was a small mercy that he was in his soul state, unable to perceive any odors.
‘Where in the world…?’
It felt as if his nonexistent heart was pounding furiously. Or perhaps it was as if someone was gripping his soul and shaking it violently.
He slowly approached the open entrance of the cell. The closer he got, the clearer the corpses became, the thick pools of blood standing out vividly, but he did not stop.
The bodies were covered in wounds, their skin slashed open, and their forms drenched in blood. The sight nearly pushed him to the brink of unconsciousness, yet, paradoxically, Sethian’s face grew sharper in his mind. At times, the corpse before him seemed to resemble Sethian, and the thick blood pooling on the ground felt as though it had flowed from him.
‘No, Seth will be fine.’
Though the guards stationed at the door had been brutally slaughtered, Sethian himself was nowhere to be seen.
‘Sethian is not someone who could be taken down so easily.’
Neither Renoc, Kirsty, nor any of his knights had ever been able to best Sethian. Not only that, but they had never even succeeded in landing a single blow on him. Yi-Gyeol couldn’t imagine anyone being strong enough to defeat a man like that.
But that belief was beginning to erode, little by little.
As he descended further down the stairs, more and more bodies came into view. Some had their faces gruesomely crushed, others had limbs severed cleanly, and some lay dead with expressions frozen in terror, their eyes wide open.
It was like stepping into the scene of a massacre orchestrated by a serial killer in a horror film. Yi-Gyeol had always detested such movies, and the gruesome sight before him made him shudder so violently that he felt he might lose consciousness. He could almost hear the screams the victims had let out in their final moments, could almost feel the searing pain they had suffered. Every step forward became more difficult.
And yet, he did not avert his gaze. He kept descending, scrutinizing each and every corpse for one reason—an overwhelming fear that Sethian might be among them. He inspected them carefully, praying that he would not find him there.
Had he been in a physical body, he would have surely vomited by now. But even so, Yi-Gyeol struggled to maintain his composure. He hovered past pools of congealed blood, carefully avoiding the sprawled bodies, continuing downward, deeper into the stone tower.
Reaching the second floor, Yi-Gyeol paused before descending to the first floor. Instead, he passed through a thick iron door beside the stairs. Unlike the upper levels, which had only stairways, the second floor housed some prisoners. Unsurprisingly, all the guards were dead. A quick glance inside the cells showed that most of the prisoners were trembling in fear.
Only the guards and wardens had been killed.
That meant the prisoners might have seen the culprit.
Though Yi-Gyeol could not ask them anything in his current state, he desperately wished for someone to come and question them—to find out who the perpetrator was, what had happened, and whether Sethian was safe.
As if answering his silent plea, noises began to rise from below.
Descending to the first floor, where the tower’s entrance was located, Yi-Gyeol found a group of individuals entering. Among them were knights clad in golden armor, ordinary soldiers, and figures robed in gray.
As he observed them with curiosity, his gaze landed on a familiar figure among the gray-robed individuals—a man in a resplendent white robe. Their eyes met.
—Teacher?
Yi-Gyeol’s heart leaped at the sight of Roa and he immediately moved toward him. However, Roa acted as if he could not see him, instead turning to the knight ahead of him and asking,
“Are we heading straight to the solitary confinement cell where His Highness was held?”
“Yes. As I mentioned, once we arrive, please collect a sample of the blood immediately.”
Catching on quickly, Yi-Gyeol remained silent and followed closely behind them.
He had been told that Roa, like Zair, could not only hear his voice but also see him. The fact that they had locked eyes just moments ago proved it. Yet, Roa had deliberately ignored him and instead asked the knight about their next steps. Was he trying to inform Yi-Gyeol of the situation? Given that Roa had also delivered a message from Sethian before, it seemed entirely possible.
As they ascended the tower, the group remained largely silent. The soldiers carefully cleared the corpses aside and stepped cautiously to avoid treading on the blood. Though Yi-Gyeol could not perceive it, the stench of blood was so overwhelming that some of the gray-robed mages and soldiers had to cover their mouths. A few even gagged.
Soon, they arrived at the solitary confinement cell. Roa, maintaining a composed expression, instructed the mages,
“Collect samples of the blood from the entrance to the interior of the cell. If anything unusual is found, report it immediately.”
“Yes, Tower Lord.”
Responding respectfully, the gray-robed mages reached for their belts, where rows of slender, transparent vials, each containing a faintly bluish liquid, were fastened.
Using small pipettes, they began collecting blood samples from the floor, transferring them into the vials one by one. The moment the blood was added, the liquid inside turned a diluted shade, causing any foreign matter to sink to the bottom.
As Yi-Gyeol watched, he wondered if simply collecting spilled blood and mixing it into a liquid could truly yield any results.
But that doubt quickly vanished.
“Tower Lord, this is…”
One of the mages hesitated, causing Roa to turn sharply. The others also focused their attention on the speaker. Holding up a vial, the mage’s face was grim. Unlike the others, the liquid inside his vial had turned completely crimson, as if filled with pure blood.
Yi-Gyeol’s heart froze.
“It seems to be His Highness the Crown Prince’s blood.”
“Are you certain?”
One of the knights in golden armor stepped closer, scrutinizing the vial. The mage, gripping it tightly, nodded firmly.
“This reagent is designed to distinguish royal blood. As you can see, ordinary human blood causes little change when mixed, but royal blood completely saturates the reagent, turning it this shade of red.”
Yi-Gyeol’s vision wavered, his surroundings crumbling. Though he had watched the samples being collected, knowing that most of the blood belonged to others, realizing that some of it was Sethian’s made it all seem like it was his.
‘No… No… It can’t be…’
More vials filled with blood-red liquid were added to the count. Seeing this, one of the knights ordered the mages to collect additional samples from the bloodstains on the stairs.
Yi-Gyeol, his mind numb, could only watch.
As more and more vials turned crimson, breaking the heavy silence, another mage suddenly gasped.
“This… This can’t be.”
All eyes turned toward him. He was staring at his vial, his expression a mixture of shock and confusion.
“What is it?”
Roa approached, and the mage held up his vial. Inside was a single drop of blood—suspended in the liquid, round and intact, refusing to mix.
Roa stiffened.
“What is that?” one of the knights asked, tense.
“…Something that should not exist.”
“Explain exactly.”
Roa took the vial from the mage and gave it a slight shake, but the drop of blood still floated there without dispersing. His face grew grave.
“It isn’t human blood. More precisely… it belongs to one created through body-forging magic.”
“Body-forging magic? If you mean forbidden arts, then the only one capable of that should be Crown Prince Sethian, shouldn’t it?”
Because they were Imperial Knights who served the Emperor, they possessed at least some knowledge of the forbidden arts that only their lord and the heir to the throne could perform. Roa nodded at the knight’s words and added,
“Yes, it is forbidden arts. But Crown Prince Sethian has used them only once. Even then, he did not fashion a fake body and place a soul inside it, but rather constructed something no different from a perfect human body itself from the soul’s information. With a reagent like this, it would react exactly the same as human blood.”
“Such a thing is possible? No, then what on earth does this mean…?”
The current Emperor had never shown even the slightest interest in forbidden arts, and if he had performed body-forging magic, the Imperial Knights would have known. Moreover, in his current bedridden state, it was in practice impossible for him to be commanding someone with such a fake body without the Imperial Knights noticing.
Roa’s grip tightened around the vial, his expression darkening with something close to anger.
“I recently received a report.”
He paused before continuing, his voice laced with suppressed anger.
“A royal has successfully used life-forging magic by fusing the blood of the living with the souls of the dead.”
“That’s impossible. Not only the idea that there’s a way to substitute life energy like that, but above all, there’s no magic stone to perform magic, is there?”
“…To be precise, it’s the unique mana possessed by the magic stone that’s needed. By order of His Majesty the Emperor, we’ve been keeping quiet about this until now, but…”
Yi-Gyeol, who had been listening to Roa and the knight’s words with a dazed mind, felt his vision becoming clearer. As the subsequent words piled up in his mind, his emotions gradually cooled.
‘Where in the world…?’
It felt as if his nonexistent heart was pounding furiously. Or perhaps it was as if someone was gripping his soul and shaking it violently.
He slowly approached the open entrance of the cell. The closer he got, the clearer the corpses became, the thick pools of blood standing out vividly, but he did not stop.
The bodies were covered in wounds, their skin slashed open, and their forms drenched in blood. The sight nearly pushed him to the brink of unconsciousness, yet, paradoxically, Sethian’s face grew sharper in his mind. At times, the corpse before him seemed to resemble Sethian, and the thick blood pooling on the ground felt as though it had flowed from him.
‘No, Seth will be fine.’
Though the guards stationed at the door had been brutally slaughtered, Sethian himself was nowhere to be seen.
‘Sethian is not someone who could be taken down so easily.’
Neither Renoc, Kirsty, nor any of his knights had ever been able to best Sethian. Not only that, but they had never even succeeded in landing a single blow on him. Yi-Gyeol couldn’t imagine anyone being strong enough to defeat a man like that.
But that belief was beginning to erode, little by little.
As he descended further down the stairs, more and more bodies came into view. Some had their faces gruesomely crushed, others had limbs severed cleanly, and some lay dead with expressions frozen in terror, their eyes wide open.
It was like stepping into the scene of a massacre orchestrated by a serial killer in a horror film. Yi-Gyeol had always detested such movies, and the gruesome sight before him made him shudder so violently that he felt he might lose consciousness. He could almost hear the screams the victims had let out in their final moments, could almost feel the searing pain they had suffered. Every step forward became more difficult.
And yet, he did not avert his gaze. He kept descending, scrutinizing each and every corpse for one reason—an overwhelming fear that Sethian might be among them. He inspected them carefully, praying that he would not find him there.
Had he been in a physical body, he would have surely vomited by now. But even so, Yi-Gyeol struggled to maintain his composure. He hovered past pools of congealed blood, carefully avoiding the sprawled bodies, continuing downward, deeper into the stone tower.
Reaching the second floor, Yi-Gyeol paused before descending to the first floor. Instead, he passed through a thick iron door beside the stairs. Unlike the upper levels, which had only stairways, the second floor housed some prisoners. Unsurprisingly, all the guards were dead. A quick glance inside the cells showed that most of the prisoners were trembling in fear.
Only the guards and wardens had been killed.
That meant the prisoners might have seen the culprit.
Though Yi-Gyeol could not ask them anything in his current state, he desperately wished for someone to come and question them—to find out who the perpetrator was, what had happened, and whether Sethian was safe.
As if answering his silent plea, noises began to rise from below.
Descending to the first floor, where the tower’s entrance was located, Yi-Gyeol found a group of individuals entering. Among them were knights clad in golden armor, ordinary soldiers, and figures robed in gray.
As he observed them with curiosity, his gaze landed on a familiar figure among the gray-robed individuals—a man in a resplendent white robe. Their eyes met.
—Teacher?
Yi-Gyeol’s heart leaped at the sight of Roa and he immediately moved toward him. However, Roa acted as if he could not see him, instead turning to the knight ahead of him and asking,
“Are we heading straight to the solitary confinement cell where His Highness was held?”
“Yes. As I mentioned, once we arrive, please collect a sample of the blood immediately.”
Catching on quickly, Yi-Gyeol remained silent and followed closely behind them.
He had been told that Roa, like Zair, could not only hear his voice but also see him. The fact that they had locked eyes just moments ago proved it. Yet, Roa had deliberately ignored him and instead asked the knight about their next steps. Was he trying to inform Yi-Gyeol of the situation? Given that Roa had also delivered a message from Sethian before, it seemed entirely possible.
As they ascended the tower, the group remained largely silent. The soldiers carefully cleared the corpses aside and stepped cautiously to avoid treading on the blood. Though Yi-Gyeol could not perceive it, the stench of blood was so overwhelming that some of the gray-robed mages and soldiers had to cover their mouths. A few even gagged.
Soon, they arrived at the solitary confinement cell. Roa, maintaining a composed expression, instructed the mages,
“Collect samples of the blood from the entrance to the interior of the cell. If anything unusual is found, report it immediately.”
“Yes, Tower Lord.”
Responding respectfully, the gray-robed mages reached for their belts, where rows of slender, transparent vials, each containing a faintly bluish liquid, were fastened.
Using small pipettes, they began collecting blood samples from the floor, transferring them into the vials one by one. The moment the blood was added, the liquid inside turned a diluted shade, causing any foreign matter to sink to the bottom.
As Yi-Gyeol watched, he wondered if simply collecting spilled blood and mixing it into a liquid could truly yield any results.
But that doubt quickly vanished.
“Tower Lord, this is…”
One of the mages hesitated, causing Roa to turn sharply. The others also focused their attention on the speaker. Holding up a vial, the mage’s face was grim. Unlike the others, the liquid inside his vial had turned completely crimson, as if filled with pure blood.
Yi-Gyeol’s heart froze.
“It seems to be His Highness the Crown Prince’s blood.”
“Are you certain?”
One of the knights in golden armor stepped closer, scrutinizing the vial. The mage, gripping it tightly, nodded firmly.
“This reagent is designed to distinguish royal blood. As you can see, ordinary human blood causes little change when mixed, but royal blood completely saturates the reagent, turning it this shade of red.”
Yi-Gyeol’s vision wavered, his surroundings crumbling. Though he had watched the samples being collected, knowing that most of the blood belonged to others, realizing that some of it was Sethian’s made it all seem like it was his.
‘No… No… It can’t be…’
More vials filled with blood-red liquid were added to the count. Seeing this, one of the knights ordered the mages to collect additional samples from the bloodstains on the stairs.
Yi-Gyeol, his mind numb, could only watch.
As more and more vials turned crimson, breaking the heavy silence, another mage suddenly gasped.
“This… This can’t be.”
All eyes turned toward him. He was staring at his vial, his expression a mixture of shock and confusion.
“What is it?”
Roa approached, and the mage held up his vial. Inside was a single drop of blood—suspended in the liquid, round and intact, refusing to mix.
Roa stiffened.
“What is that?” one of the knights asked, tense.
“…Something that should not exist.”
“Explain exactly.”
Roa took the vial from the mage and gave it a slight shake, but the drop of blood still floated there without dispersing. His face grew grave.
“It isn’t human blood. More precisely… it belongs to one created through body-forging magic.”
“Body-forging magic? If you mean forbidden arts, then the only one capable of that should be Crown Prince Sethian, shouldn’t it?”
Because they were Imperial Knights who served the Emperor, they possessed at least some knowledge of the forbidden arts that only their lord and the heir to the throne could perform. Roa nodded at the knight’s words and added,
“Yes, it is forbidden arts. But Crown Prince Sethian has used them only once. Even then, he did not fashion a fake body and place a soul inside it, but rather constructed something no different from a perfect human body itself from the soul’s information. With a reagent like this, it would react exactly the same as human blood.”
“Such a thing is possible? No, then what on earth does this mean…?”
The current Emperor had never shown even the slightest interest in forbidden arts, and if he had performed body-forging magic, the Imperial Knights would have known. Moreover, in his current bedridden state, it was in practice impossible for him to be commanding someone with such a fake body without the Imperial Knights noticing.
Roa’s grip tightened around the vial, his expression darkening with something close to anger.
“I recently received a report.”
He paused before continuing, his voice laced with suppressed anger.
“A royal has successfully used life-forging magic by fusing the blood of the living with the souls of the dead.”
“That’s impossible. Not only the idea that there’s a way to substitute life energy like that, but above all, there’s no magic stone to perform magic, is there?”
“…To be precise, it’s the unique mana possessed by the magic stone that’s needed. By order of His Majesty the Emperor, we’ve been keeping quiet about this until now, but…”
Yi-Gyeol, who had been listening to Roa and the knight’s words with a dazed mind, felt his vision becoming clearer. As the subsequent words piled up in his mind, his emotions gradually cooled.
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