# Chapter 63
The spy, who had recovered to an unbelievable degree, immediately swung his sword to attack his former allies.
“Kuhack—!”
An allied soldier, whose neck was precisely attacked by the spy in a spot exposed outside his solid armor, collapsed on the spot. As Baron Husdinen recalled, the attacking spy and the attacked allied soldier had been quite close friends. Yet seeing how the spy attacked without even a moment’s hesitation suggested he was an exceptionally well-trained infiltrator.
‘More importantly, how the hell did he survive?!’
It was unbelievable. The wound had been fatal enough to cause instant death, yet before his eyes could even close, the spy had recovered from his injuries and launched a counterattack. It was an inexplicable phenomenon that was hard to believe even when seen with one’s own eyes.
The problem was that he wasn’t the only one of his kind.
Apart from those operating the pulley to open the gate, the remaining ten or so spies were locked in fierce combat with soldiers trying to pull them down. Each of them showed complete disregard for being slashed or stabbed anywhere on their bodies.
As if they firmly believed they wouldn’t die even if their bodies were cut to pieces. As if they were determined to accomplish their mission even at the cost of their lives.
‘This is just like…’
Just like Grand Duke Ion Verdit’s loyal “Immortal Army.”
When this thought occurred to him, Baron Husdinen speculated that these people trying to open the gate must be the legendary Immortal Army he’d only heard about in rumors. For them to be planted in this Iron Fortress, Ion Verdit would have had to create the Immortal Army when he was still a teenager, but the Baron had no time to think that deeply about it now.
The most important thing was that there was a terrifying Immortal Army inside his fortress.
“Capture those monster bastards! Capture them all!”
He shouted so loudly his throat nearly split, but the soldiers confronting the spies were too shocked by their healing speed to approach recklessly. As Baron Husdinen said, these spies were all “monsters,” and it was obvious that even if they fought them, they wouldn’t die and would just get back up again.
While the soldiers were at a loss for what to do, the gate had already created enough space for one person to enter.
At that moment, a man in black clothing appeared from somewhere and pushed his way through the soldiers. He quickly approached right in front of the spies and suddenly cut his own right palm with a dagger held in his left hand, drawing blood.
“C-Count Aden?!”
Baron Husdinen, recognizing the man in black as Levi, Count Aden, jumped down from the fortress wall in surprise. Meanwhile, Levi was swiftly cutting the spies’ throats with his dagger stained with his own blood.
After precisely beheading three spies blocking his path, Levi cut his right palm again to stain it with blood, then turned toward a soldier swinging a sword to attack him.
As the soldier’s sword was about to completely cut through his leather clothing and body, Levi nimbly leaped over him and slashed with his dagger from behind. Blood gushed profusely from the deeply cut neck.
Strangely, those cut by Levi’s dagger couldn’t rise again. Without exception, they died with their throats cut, showing none of the miraculous recovery seen earlier.
Drip— Drip—
From the tip of Levi’s dagger fell a mixture of his own black hand’s blood and that of the spies. Just as from the wounds in their necks.
The hesitating spies began to move even more quickly. Not only did they swarm toward Levi, but they also added one more person to each pulley to increase the speed of opening the gate.
While Levi and the allied soldiers were dealing with the immortal spies…
Crreeaaak—
The heavy sound of the opening gate echoed even louder.
Though Levi tirelessly cut the throats of the fiercely resisting spies, by the time he dealt with the last one, the gate was already nearly half open.
Soldiers screamed in terror as knights in silver armor poured through the main gate as if they had been waiting for this moment.
“Th-the gate is open!”
“Everyone get back!”
The Caron Empire soldiers who had just been fighting the spies at the gate pointed their swords at the enemy with panicked faces. But they fell one after another, dying at the hands of enemy soldiers who charged in on horseback.
The silver-armored knights were just like the spies who had been embedded in the Iron Fortress.
They wouldn’t die no matter how many times they were cut. As if certain they wouldn’t die, they offered their own arms instead of shields and took lives. Baron Husdinen and his soldiers belatedly realized that these enemy soldiers in silver armor were Ion Verdit’s “Immortal Army,” and their faces showed utter dismay.
The enemy soldiers, who flooded in like a tide, instantly filled the Iron Fortress and turned it into a slaughter field.
Strangely, only Levi, standing among the enemy soldiers, wasn’t attacked, unlike the other fortress soldiers. Those who tried to attack him would hesitate upon seeing his black hair and eyes, then quickly pass by as if they hadn’t seen him.
Levi was perplexed by the enemy soldiers who showed no hostility toward him. Why weren’t they attacking when he was clearly not on their side?
While Levi hesitated, an enemy soldier swung his sword at him. As Levi belatedly adjusted his grip on his dagger and turned around, he saw the enemy’s sword being blocked by someone else’s sword in mid-air.
Clang—!
The sword that effortlessly blocked the powerfully swung weapon forcefully knocked it away.
“Pay attention. Have you forgotten His Grace the Grand Duke’s orders?”
The one who blocked the enemy soldier’s sword was a knight in the same silver armor. The enemy soldier whose attack was blocked looked Levi over, then silently rode off toward other soldiers.
As the silver-armored knight who had protected Levi was about to pass him by…
“Kuk—!”
An arrow precisely struck his neck where it was exposed between his armor and helmet. The man, who momentarily clutched his neck as he fell from his horse, pulled out the arrow in one breath despite the pain and threw it away. As he tried to get up immediately, he suddenly sat back down, overcome by dizziness.
Though he had sustained a fatal wound that would have killed an ordinary person instantly with his neck pierced through, the man repeatedly tried to stand up. The wound on his neck was already stopping bleeding and healing.
“Count Aden!”
At the voice from the fortress wall, Levi snapped back to attention. He was about to swing his blood-stained dagger at the enemy soldier who had collapsed after being hit by Count Lance’s poisoned arrow.
But he hesitated and asked him:
“What orders did Ion Verdit give you?”
“…”
The man, waiting for the poison causing his dizziness to be neutralized in his body, kept his mouth shut while covering his neck with his hand.
As Levi was about to ask again, another enemy soldier rushed over, grabbed the man, pulled him up onto his horse, and rode away. While they made no attempt to attack Levi at all, they cut down other visible soldiers without the slightest hesitation.
Levi couldn’t help but be confused by this situation that was difficult to understand.
Soldiers passing around Levi fell one by one, tumbling down after being hit by Count Lance’s poison arrows. While the arrows from other soldiers on the fortress wall seemed to have no effect even when aimed at vital spots, even these immortal soldiers couldn’t help but fall temporarily before Count Lance’s arrows coated with extreme anesthetic poison.
While Count Lance was taking down enemy soldiers one after another, the fortress walls were gradually being filled with Delos Empire troops. Not only was the Immortal Army coming through the gate a problem, but the Delos Empire forces had also successfully placed ladders and siege towers during the confusion and were climbing the fortress walls one after another.
Count Lance, who shot down an enemy soldier climbing the fortress wall with an arrow, shouted to the confused-looking Levi:
“Only you can stop them, Count Aden! At this rate, we’ll all die!”
Levi’s shoulders flinched.
At the same time, a Delos Empire soldier passing by Levi fell from his horse with a short scream.
Levi held his dagger stained with his own blood in his left hand, and several thin throwing knives in his right hand from which blood was dripping.
He swung his right hand, throwing knives at the necks or faces of those riding horses nearby. Those hit by the knives instantly felt their bodies stiffen as if all the blood in their bodies was freezing, and they fell from their horses and rolled on the ground.
Those who fell to the ground soon had their throats cut by Levi’s dagger. Since the only exposed part of their bodies armored all over was their necks, every one of them sprayed blood from their throats.
The power Levi possessed completely negated the “power of life” that Ion had implanted in the Immortal Army. The “power of death” in his blood entered the enemy’s body through their wounds and erased the life force they possessed, making them no different from ordinary humans. As a result, enemy soldiers who had already sustained fatal injuries could not regenerate at all and simply died.
Levi clearly remembered what Raziel, who seemed to know his abilities better than he did himself, had told him. He said that the power disappeared when his blood lost its warmth.
He cut the red mark on his black hand that was beginning to self-clot with his dagger. Fresh hot blood coated the dagger. Levi quickly killed enemy soldiers one by one with his blood-stained dagger.
As if trying to erase Ion Verdit, who unlike himself, possessed the power of life that could save others.
