Chapter 694: 540, you, deserve to die
"Boom!"
After who knows how many thunderous crashes, the phenomenon of buildings being smashed finally came to a halt.
At that point, the dust stirred up by a whole row of collapsing buildings thickened into the air, forming a dragon made of smoke that lingered for a long time.
At the end of this smoke dragon and the collapsed buildings, Woodworth, his body radiating heat, held Reiger by the neck with one hand while gasping for breath with a ferocious voice.
"It’s over, child of prophecy."
Reiger, held aloft by Woodworth, was covered in blood with numerous wounds, clearly on the brink of death, barely clinging to life.
"Pfft!"
Without any hesitation, Woodworth crushed the neck he was holding in his hand and, swinging his clawed hand, delivered a mighty blow to Reiger’s torso, unleashing an immense force that burst his upper body apart.
A massive amount of blood spilled, staining the ground red; only the lower half of the body fell to the ground like trash, completely lifeless.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Woodworth, catching his breath, looked down at the mutilated corpse at his feet and suddenly burst into laughter.
"Haha... hahaha... hahahaha...!"
"I won! It was I who won!"
"I’ve finally killed him!"
Woodworth roared with laughter to the sky.
"Indeed, I am the strongest warrior in Fairy Country’s Britain!"
"Gawain? Lancelot? You losers have already been killed by me!"
"Only I am truly worthy of the queen! Only I can become the king of this Britain!"
"I, Woodworth, am the strongest!"
Feeling as if all the frustrations of a long time had been lifted, Woodworth’s mood at this moment was extremely exhilarating, making his emotions extremely intense.
As for what would happen when he returned after killing the queen’s husband, whether Morgan would hold him accountable or not, Woodworth was no longer concerned about that.
Even though the queen’s order had always been to capture him alive, Woodworth had never intended to comply.
From the beginning, his purpose had been to kill Reiger.
Now, he had finally succeeded.
While Woodworth was laughing without cease, something unexpected occurred.
"Pfft!"
With the sound of a blade piercing his body, a severe pain struck Woodworth’s back, turning his laughter into a scream of agony.
"Wha... what...?"
Woodworth’s eyes widened, completely dumbfounded.
There were two reasons for his confusion.
One was this sudden attack.
The other was the fact that his protective magic had been breached.
A voice that Woodworth exceedingly despised softly rose from behind him.
"Confidence is a good thing, but overconfidence is undoubtedly bad."
"Don’t you think so?"
"Oh self-proclaimed king of Britain?"
At these words, Woodworth’s eyes, already wide, widened even more, and then a surge of rage exploded.
"Roar!"
With a roar, Woodworth abruptly turned and swung his claw toward his attacker.
The storm of claws struck down, inevitably shattering the ground and causing a huge shockwave.
However, before Woodworth’s attack could connect, his attacker had swiftly dodged back, evading the strike.
"Reiger Brillhaut!"
Feeling the intense pain on his back, Woodworth roared furiously.
He was angry and puzzled.
Why?
Why was he still alive?
Hadn’t he been killed by him?
Thinking this, Woodworth instinctively looked toward the pool of blood behind him, then his pupils contracted.
There, what pool of blood?
Whether it was the blood or the half-body that remained, everything had disappeared as if it had never existed.
And standing before him, Reiger was unharmed, and a pendant around his neck was glowing.
That pendant was indeed the Merloy Pendant.
Without a doubt, during Woodworth’s explosive retaliation, Reiger had activated the first effect of the Merloy Pendant, completely isolating himself from the outside world, entering an invincible state.
Thus, although Woodworth’s attack was grand and terrifying, it ultimately did not harm Reiger.
And in the face of Woodworth’s astonishment, Reiger’s voice calmly arose.
"It was just an illusion technique, nothing to be surprised about,"
"Your protection is strong, rendering my magic almost useless, but as long as the magic isn’t directed at you, it still works."
"The illusion just now was a type of magic that deceives sight and senses, not acting directly on you, but creating an illusion before you."
"That is to say, everything you saw was just an illusion."
"How about that? Isn’t it surprising?"
His calm words, devoid of any sarcasm, turned out to be the greatest irritation for Woodworth.
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"
Woodworth was consumed by rage, striding forward, ready to charge at Reiger.
However, after taking just one step, Woodworth suddenly felt excruciating pain throughout his body, as if all his strength had left him, and he involuntarily fell to his knees.
"What is this...!?"
It was then that Woodworth noticed a dark ripple had appeared on his body without him knowing.
That was...
"Mors’s Curse...!"
Woodworth’s face drastically changed.
Indeed.
It was Mors’s Curse.
Woodworth had been infected by Mors’s poison.
"Could it be that you...!?"
Seemingly realizing something, Woodworth suddenly looked up, facing Reiger across from him, and exclaimed with a mix of shock and anger.
"That’s right," Reiger said calmly, "I have collected Mors’s Curse."
Upon closer inspection, a dagger was imbedded in Woodworth’s back.
If Altoria was here, she would certainly recognize the origin of this dagger.
It was a dagger that Reiger had acquired in Tintagel Village.
The Forging Master who forged the dagger was Ecter, who lived on the shores near Tintagel.
Back then, Reiger, accompanied by Altoria, got this dagger from Ecter’s workshop and had kept it ever since.
Of course, what broke through Woodworth’s protection was not the dagger, but the Curse power accumulated on the dagger.
"Did you think that after so long, I had not thought about how to break through the protection on your body?"
Reiger’s voice remained calm, still indifferent.
"Magic is ineffective against you, and physical attacks hardly cause you any harm. Under such circumstances, if I didn’t find a way to break the protection on your body, even if I became stronger, I’d probably still not be able to defeat you."
And the rematch with Woodworth was, in Reiger’s view, inevitable.
This returnee of Yalling could not possibly cease hating me nor could he refrain from wanting to kill me, as evident from his previous actions.
Reiger also wanted to defeat Woodworth.
Hence, during that month in Camelot, Reiger was continually pondering how to break the protection on Woodworth.
The result of his thoughts focused on one thing.
That was Mors’s Curse.
"Mors is the bane of fairies."
"Even though members of the Tusk Clan have higher resistance to Mors’s Curse compared to other fairies, you, who once fought and defeated the King of Mors, would presumably not be easily infected. However, the fact that Mors restrains fairies still objectively exists."
"So, if I were to collect a massive amount of Mors’s Curse, might it break through the protection on the body of a fairy?"
"After all, being a natural enemy, Mors’s Curse should capability to break through fairy protection, even the protection of the great fairies."
Reiger finally allowed a smile to appear on his face as he focused on Woodworth.
"It turns out my guess was correct."
"Even the great fairy protection held by a returnee of Yalling can be broken through, provided Mors’s Curse is copious and powerful enough."
"After all, the curse’s most hated originally undoubtedly comes from the primal six Yallings of the Fairy Country Britannia, how could the curse not affect a Yalling?"
Without concern for having inadvertently revealed a secret, Reiger began walking toward Woodworth.
"Who would have thought? You, who once fought against the King of Mors, would ultimately fall to Mors’s Curse."
"In a sense, this could also be considered poetic justice."
"You, are not wronged in your death."
At this point, Woodworth could barely hear these words.
The curse that flowed directly from the dagger in his back into his body had already corroded his flesh and infected his magic power, leaving his vision completely dark.
"Ah... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH..."
The endless darkness and pain surged towards Woodworth at that moment, causing him to scream in agony.
However, that scream had also degenerated, no longer as fierce as a wild beast’s, but rather a weak and spiteful groan.
That was the wail of Mors.
The warrior of the Fairy Country Britannia, chief of the Tusk Clan, known as Duke Woodworth, was gradually transforming into a Mors.
This was the infection of Mors.
This was the assimilation by Mors.
The curse-infused magic power burst from Woodworth’s body like a tsunami, causing his werewolf appearance to gradually twist, seemingly morphing into some kind of soft-bodied creature.
One can imagine, with Woodworth’s strength, just how potent this Mors would be once he transformed.
Perhaps, Woodworth could become the next generation’s King of Mors.
Unfortunately, he no longer had that chance.
"Pssch!"
A flicker of firelight passed beside him, and the fiery strike cut through space, decapitating Woodworth.
"————"
Woodworth’s scream abruptly stopped.
"Click..."
Reiger, unbeknownst to when, had appeared behind Woodworth, slowly sheathing his sword.
Not long after, Woodworth’s head fell and rolled on the ground.
"Your Majesty..."
In a faint crying voice, the once warrior of the Fairy Country Britannia turned to ashes and faded away, ceasing to exist.