# Chapter 71
“If I take you away, what can you do for me?”
A young man’s voice suddenly emerged near the pond.
A thin man with black hair and black eyes, contrasting with the pure white forest, was looking down at the clear pond with a pale face and hollow eyes. For some reason, there was no enthusiasm or even the slightest vitality in his gaze.
The black bead in the pond answered the young man looking down at it without hesitation:
—All I can give is ‘death.’
Belatedly, it thought it shouldn’t have said that.
The man with golden eyes had said, ‘No human ever wants death.’ That was why it had been abandoned, yet it had just honestly revealed its nature.
Thinking that the black-haired young man would also leave now…
“Sounds good.”
The black-haired young man, who had looked like a doll, showed an awkward but distinct smile.
“Then you can kill me.”
Watching the scene through a third person’s eyes, Levi felt a tingling sensation in his mind as he realized that the memory he had forgotten was becoming complete.
Levi silently watched as the black-haired young man who looked exactly like him walked into the pond and picked up the black bead that had been submerged there.
Then, the young man swallowed the black bead whole, just as it had instructed him to.
❖ ❖ ❖
In the mansion of Baron Husdinen in the port city of Antarbo, which had now become territory of the Delos Empire.
Someone other than the owner occupied the bedroom of this mansion, which would soon be taken over by another noble of the Delos Empire.
Owen and several immortal soldiers looked down at their master, who was lying in bed as if dead, with uneasy expressions.
“When will he wake up?”
At one immortal soldier’s worried voice, Owen swallowed a sigh.
Right after conquering Antarbo.
Contrary to expectations that there would be a speech from the Grand Duke to soothe their exhilarated hearts, Ion Verdit had collapsed on the spot and had not opened his eyes for three days.
Owen was just as worried about Ion as the other immortal soldiers, but he had an idea why Ion had collapsed.
“He made more allies than expected during this reconnaissance. Having depleted his ability to some extent and then sustaining major injuries, it might take considerable time for him to fully recover.”
When scouting the fortress, Ion had silently killed several enemy soldiers and then revived them by bestowing the power of life. He had cut the mark on his palm, the source of his power, and let the blood flow into the mouths of corpses that still retained some warmth. Since it had no effect on bodies whose temperature had dropped below a certain level, the process was carried out quite quickly.
Some of his life force had been depleted in the process of creating and planting dozens of allies. While it wouldn’t have been enough to exhaust him like when he had shared his blood with hundreds of people in a day to form the Immortal Army in the past, it was still significant.
However, the injuries he had suffered this time were greater than anticipated.
Having taken the full impact of bricks pouring down from high above, it was hard to find an intact part of his body. If not for his well-trained body, sturdy armor, and his innate ability, an ordinary human might have died instantly.
Ion was clearly different from the other immortal soldiers with their tremendous healing power and strange regenerative abilities. Although he possessed the power of life in its fullest, he could die like ordinary humans if his neck was cut or his heart pierced. According to him, he could even starve to death, albeit slowly, meaning he was not completely free from death.
Despite sustaining severe injuries, he had endured with unbelievable mental strength, only entering a forced sleep state to recover his body at the moment of Antarbo’s conquest. Since he needed to replenish the ability lost while creating immortal soldiers and also recover from severe physical injuries, no one knew when he would wake up.
In the past, he had created about 300 immortal soldiers in a day and then slept continuously for about five days, so they vaguely estimated it might take about that long this time.
‘No, it might take even longer.’
Owen was the first to check Ion’s condition after he collapsed, removing his armor. Despite the protection the armor had provided, there were signs of fractures and terrible wounds all over his body. Among them, the injuries to his side, which had been pierced by something thin, and the inside of his thigh were the worst.
Both areas were turning black as if trying to cause necrosis in the surrounding skin.
It was as if Ion’s ability couldn’t reach just those places.
While most of the other severe wounds had almost completely healed by now, recovery in those two areas was extremely slow. Perhaps that’s why he still hadn’t opened his eyes, needing more time to heal.
Another immortal soldier cautiously asked Owen, who had been watching Ion’s condition almost constantly, never leaving his side:
“Vice Commander, that man…”
“Did you find him?”
As soon as the soldier spoke, Owen turned to him with sparkling eyes. He seemed to immediately understand who the ‘man’ mentioned by the immortal soldier was.
The immortal soldier who had opened his mouth shook his head with an awkward expression.
“No. We’re still searching.”
“…I see.”
Owen looked down at Ion again with a disappointed face.
“If you find him, don’t approach directly, just report immediately.”
It would be nice to bring the man his master so desperately wanted right before his eyes when he woke up, but their lord didn’t want anyone, including themselves, to touch him. It felt like handling an extremely thin glass art piece that could be irreparably damaged if mishandled.
“…”
The immortal soldier who had opened his mouth hesitated for a moment as he looked at Owen. Then, after glancing at other immortal soldiers who shared his thoughts, he continued speaking as if on their behalf:
“That man will harm the Grand Duke.”
At the immortal soldier’s words, Owen’s eyes twitched.
“With his ability, those who were immortal instantly lost their lives, and even the Grand Duke’s wounds, which should have healed in a day, haven’t fully recovered despite being in a sleep state until now.”
The immortal soldier’s frustrated words were somewhat understandable to Owen.
He recalled what Ion had told him as they headed to Antarbo right after destroying the Iron Fortress.
“Levi has an ability opposite to mine. That’s why he’s being exploited.”
If Ion possessed the ‘power of life,’ then the man called Levi possessed the ‘power of death.’
Just as Ion used the blood from his left hand’s mark containing his ability to revive the dead, Levi did the same. When he cut his right hand containing the power of death and stained his weapon with that blood to cut down an immortal soldier, Levi’s blood that entered their body negated Ion’s ability. The immortal soldiers, temporarily stripped of the power of life, were reduced to mere humans and died on the spot from Levi’s fatal wounds, unable to heal themselves.
Originally, the immortal soldiers who followed Ion had been ordinary soldiers and knights who had pledged to give their lives for the Delos Empire. Even now, having become immortal beings with infinite loyalty to Ion rather than the empire, losing their lives was of no consequence to them.
They were in the midst of war.
Even if allies they had been with every day lost their lives at the hands of the enemy, it wasn’t appropriate to treat that person as a mortal enemy with emotional reactions. Moreover, he was someone their master desperately wanted to obtain, more precious than life itself. Therefore, the immortal soldiers didn’t give Levi resentful looks, if only because they were at war and because of their forced loyalty to Ion.
However, everyone, not just the immortal soldier who had spoken up, knew what Owen knew:
That Levi, with his ability opposite to Ion’s, was the natural enemy of them all and the greatest threat to their master’s life.
But Owen couldn’t forget the moment when overwhelming emotions had risen in Ion’s golden eyes, which had been cold that day while scouting the Iron Fortress. The light of various emotions flowing from his eyes had been so brilliant that it would put even a fire burning in the darkness to shame.
Knowing well who had caused those emotions, Owen simply couldn’t think of Levi, who occupied every part of Ion, as an ‘enemy.’
‘Far from being harmful, he’s a man absolutely necessary for our master, but…’
Owen glanced over his shoulder at the immortal soldiers standing behind him. Their faces were filled with concern for their master.
As a subordinate, it was absolutely forbidden to openly discuss the master’s emotions without permission.
“I understand your concerns, but we simply need to move according to the Grand Duke’s orders. Don’t forget that all His Excellency needs are loyal puppets.”
He spoke with a hint of warning, meaning not to judge Ion and Levi prematurely. This was not so much for Ion and Levi’s sake, but rather out of a desire to prevent his subordinates from doing something foolish and suffering severe consequences.
However, not long after, something happened that made Owen’s warning seem meaningless.
