Debuff Master - Chapter 1147

Chapter 1147

“So don’t stand in my way. I do not wish to bring the stench of blood to where he resides,” the man said calmly as he kept walking forward.

“What do we do, ma’am?”

A Proatine Force unit asked Oscar, but she couldn’t answer the question.

‘What do I do?’

If they tried to stop this man by force, they would suffer massive casualties. However, she couldn’t just allow some stranger to roam around the imperial palace as if he owned the place.

To stand by and do nothing would mean she was forsaking her duty. Even worse, it would mean that the authority of the empire itself would crumble like sand.

‘I have no other choice,’ Oscar made up her mind.

As a knight of the Proatine Empire, it was her sacred duty to defend the palace at any cost, regardless of the intruder’s identity.

This was the resolve befitting of a noble knight.

“All units… Subdue that man,” Oscar commanded, her voice sounding firm and clear.

“Leave him be.”

A voice suddenly echoed in Oscar’s mind, and it was without a doubt the voice of Deus.

“He is my guest. Do not concern yourself with him. Return to your posts.”

“…!”

“I trust that you understood what I meant.”

As soon as Deus’ command rang in her mind, Oscar immediately lowered the hand she had on her sword. There was no way she could protest against an order from her liege’s master.

“All units, stand down. It’s the Elder’s orders. We shall leave him be,” Oscar said before turning back toward her office without hesitation.

“I guess my shift’s over now.”

“Move the wounded first before clocking out, man.”

“Good work, everyone.”

The imperial guards went back to their posts the moment Oscar relayed Deus’ command. Nobody questioned it, as they all knew that Deus’ words were absolute.

Thud, thud, thud…

The man walked until he reached the lake that lay on the outskirts of the palace grounds.

There, Deus sat quietly by the water with his fishing rod in hand.

The man immediately approached Deus, dropped to his knees, and bowed deeply.

“I greet my master.”

However, Deus didn’t answer. Instead, he continued staring out at the calm lake in silence.

“Master.”

“…”

“I greet you, Master.”

“…”

“Master.”

Again and again the man called out, but he received only silence in response.

The man bowed once again and said, “Master, your disciple has—”

“You are no longer my disciple,” Deus cut him off, his voice cold and merciless.

“Master…”

“You have no right to call me that.”

“…”

“I’m only letting you live for old times’ sake. Do not mistake that I still consider you as my disciple.”

The man clenched his jaw and fell silent at those words.

“I taught you to train without ceasing until you wielded the power of invincibility. Yet what did you do with my teachings? You got obsessed with gaining authority and chased after that petty ambition of yours. Drunk on your strength, you rampaged like a beast, only to get hunted down in the end. If I were you, I would be embarrassed by my actions.”

Deus’ eyes were as sharp as blades as he spoke of the past, staring daggers at his old disciple.

The man bowing before him was named Sigured, and he was the first disciple Deus had ever taken under his wings.

***

Fifty years ago…

After attaining the power of invincibility, Deus roamed throughout the entire continent in search of someone worthy of inheriting the skills he had honed and perfected.

Eventually, his eyes fell on a boy, a young slave in a remote rural province.

The boy’s name was Sigurd.

He possessed extraordinary physical attributes and a rare constitution.

No one else could have known, but Deus immediately recognized that the boy was a genius born once in a millennium. Thus, Deus took him in as his first disciple, brought him to Mount Kunlun, and taught him to become the Debuff Master.

Sigurd absorbed Deus’ teachings like a sponge, growing stronger by the day. Eventually, he ascended into the realm of Grandmaster and descended Mount Kunlun.

Before letting him descend the mountain, Deus commanded him to strive endlessly and train without ceasing in order to wield the power of invincibility.

However, instead of training like Deus commanded, Sigurd chased after worldly authority and luxuries.

Once he descended Mount Kunlun, he built up a reputation through various exploits until, by pure luck, he managed to attain an ancient power of immortality.

With the two powers in his hands, he founded a small kingdom and declared his ambition of unifying the continent under his rule.

At first, Sigurd’s rise was nothing short of meteoric.

Armed with his talents and Deus’ teachings, he crushed anyone who dared to oppose him.

His fledgling kingdom expanded in the blink of an eye, swallowing the neighboring nations one by one.

Unfortunately, his reign was short-lived.

Believing he, a Grandmaster, was untouchable, he continued his path of conquest until the Marchioni Empire stepped in.

The Marchioni Empire’s intervention crushed him and his ambition, grinding it thoroughly into dust.

Despite possessing unrivaled martial prowess, Sigurd lacked loyal followers who could have acted as the foundations of his power.

In the end, he was crushed by the Marchioni Empire and thrown into the most notorious prison on the continent—Alcatraz.

Under normal circumstances, anyone daring enough to challenge the Marchioni Empire’s supremacy on the continent would be tried and executed for high treason.

With an immortal body, however, Sigurd couldn’t be killed, so the empire locked him away, condemning him never to see the light of day again.

“You’re an eyesore, so never show your face in front of me again,” Deus said, his voice cold.

“…”

“I only have one disciple. I have never taken on the likes of you.”

“Is your new disciple that precious to you, Master?” Sigurd asked, his voice laced with envy.

“Of course,” Deus replied without any hesitation. Then, he added, “He is a hundred times better than a stupid fool like you. Well, he lacks talent, but he has inherited all of my teachings.”

“I am your one true disciple, Master,” Sigurd insisted, his voice low like an animal’s growl.

“Hm? How dare a worthless thing like you presume such a thing? I believe I have already warned you. Or do you truly wish to taste what death is like?” Deus asked, his gaze sharp enough to cleave a mountain in half.

“…”

Sigurd immediately dropped his gaze and fell silent, as he knew better than anyone just how powerful Deus was. Even though he possessed an undying body, he knew that Deus was the one person capable of killing him.

“I will… prove it to you, Master. I will prove that I am your one true disciple,” Sigurd said, his voice trembling.

“Ha! A piece of worthless trash like you is dreaming of defeating my heir?” Deus scoffed, letting out a scornful laugh.

“Do you truly believe that I am incapable of it, Master?”

“If I say so, then it is so, fool. Kekeke!”

“Just wait and see…” Sigurd said, his voice a low growl once again. His unkempt long hair covered his eyes, but his eyes burning with jealousy could be clearly seen behind it.

“Do what you want,” Deus said mockingly. Then, he added, “There’s no reason for me to dirty my hands touching filth like you when my real disciple can do it in my stead.”

“The one who will be dying is not me but him, Master.”

“Keke! A fool to the bitter end!”

“I will prove to you that you can be wrong, too, Master,” Sigurd growled.

Then, he bowed low nine times to Deus before walking away.

He now had a new goal.

‘I will kill him and prove that I am Deus’ one and only disciple. After that, I will attain the power of invincibility and rule the world.’

From now on, Sigurd had only one goal—to kill Deus new disciple, Siegfried, and become the one and only heir of the man who had attained the power of invincibility.

***

Around the same time…

“Ugh… Why is my ear so itchy all of a sudden?”

Back at the command center, Siegfried was scratching his ear, unable to stand the itch.

“Kyaaaak! Stop that, owner punk! Your earwax is all over the place! That’s gross!” Hamchi shrieked in horror.

Siegfried was jamming his finger deep into his ear, digging up earwax and flicking it away.

“Hey, it’s itchy, okay? Why is it so damn itchy? I think someone’s talking trash about me…”

“Kyaaak! How many people do you think talk crap about you? There would be several busloads of them!”

“Well, true… but still… It’s so itchy. Ugh!”

“Kyaaaak!”

Hamchi shrieked after Siegfried kept digging at his ear and flicked the earwax at him.

‘Anyway, I’ll have to keep sending out spies. I’m pretty sure they will find information on where the Coral Emperor is hiding, and once I know where he is,’ Siegfried thought, sticking to his plan.

After sending the spies, his next priority was leveling up.

‘Oh right, I shouldn’t waste the growth stimulant.’

He recalled that he used the growth stimulant that boosted the experience points he would receive in the next two hundred forty hours, which was ten full days. Thus, his top priority was to grind as much as he could until the growth stimulant’s effects had ended.

On top of that, he also wanted to test out his new item.

Siegfried went straight to find Hansen.

“Do you have any position I can go and smash up right now?”

“Pardon me, sire…?”

Hansen blinked in confusion after getting caught off guard by Siegfried asking if there was any position he could go smash up.

He was already pretty stressed trying to come up with ways to undo or minimize the damage caused by Cain’s betrayal.

“Forgive me, sire. But… what do you mean by that, exactly?” Hansen asked.

“It is exactly as I said. I’m itching for a fight, so tell me where I can go and wreak havoc. You can throw me right in the center of the enemy camp,” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

“S-Sire…?”

Hansen broke into a cold sweat, but forced himself to remain calm.

As absurd as Siegfried’s demands were, Hansen knew better than to refuse them.

“If we must inflict damage on the enemy…” Hansen muttered, mulling over his choices. Then, he said, “I believe the best target would be their military facilities.”

“Military facilities?”

“According to our recent intel, the Corals have begun constructing a new class of battleships.”

“Oh?”

“Here. This place is called the Glembay Shipyard. That is the place where they are building those new battleships,” Hansen said, pointing at a spot on the map.

“Sounds like the perfect target,” Siegfried replied with a grin.

“But the problem is… A garrison is stationed there, sire. Even if we somehow manage to infiltrate the place, taking over the place and destroying the battleships will be extremely difficult. Not to mention, the infiltration team would be annihilated the moment their reinforcements arrive.”

“How long till reinforcements show up?”

“It will be about an hour at the earliest. Perhaps maybe two?”

“Looks like it’s not that far from the exfil point, too. Let’s give it a shot,” Siegfried said with a grin.

“But this operation is far too dangerous, sire.”

“It’s fine. The distance to the extraction point is what matters,” Siegfried said nonchalantly.

He had a point. Infiltrating and wreaking havoc was not the hardest part of these kinds of operations, as anyone strong enough could easily get behind enemy lines and cause the chaos needed.

However, escaping after causing the chaos was the hardest part.

Fortunately, the location of the Glembay Shipyard made exfiltrating a team quite straightforward. The coastline was right nearby, making a quick getaway by speedboat quite difficult for the Corals to chase after them in time.

“This operation is worth doing. Let’s go ahead with it,” Siegfried said.

“Hmm…” Hansen pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement.

“Contact our empire right away and…” Siegfried trailed the end of his words. Then, he smirked and said, “Call in the Nordic Tribe and the Blanc Clan too.”

***

That night, Siegfried headed for the Glembay Shipyard along with the Nordic Warriors, Proatine Force, and Blanc Warriors.

Shwaaaaa!

As always, their choice of infiltration was none other than a coastal landing operation using the Aqua Runners.

The Aqua Runners had been modified and re-modified countless times, making them far more efficient than ever before. It could move so fast that one would wonder whether they were on a speedboat or a supercar.

Nothing could beat the Aqua Runner when it came to speed and stealth on the waters.

Thanks to that, the hundreds of Aqua Runners slipped right through the Coral Race’s defensive systems without facing any problems. Also, they moved under the cover of night, so it was nearly impossible for the Corals to see them coming.

“Hold position and wait here,” Siegfried ordered.

He left the Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors on the shore while he led the Proatine Force toward the Glembay Shipyard.

Their goal was not to wage all-out war on the enemy. Their goal was to infiltrate, sabotage, and retreat before the enemy reinforcements could arrive.

Thus, Siegfried and the Proatine Force would go first while the Nordic Warriors and Blanc Warriors would help in the retreat.

“Go teach those bastards a lesson, brother!”

“Have fun.”

Lionbreath and Nanuqsa waved him on, wishing him luck and a safe return.

“Let’s go, Hamchi.”

“Kyuuu.”

With that, Siegfried headed for the shipyard with Hamchi perched on his shoulder.

“Kill ‘em!”

“I’ve been waiting for this, you bastards!”

“Bring it on, you spineless cowards!”

“You worthless scum!”

A brawl erupted right behind him.

The moment Siegfried turned his back, the two factions exploded and brawled. They had been holding back because they were in his presence, but they instantly turned on each other the moment they were left alone together.

“Sigh… Seriously…” Siegfried shook his head and grumbled under his breath.

He was so done with them that he just pressed on without even looking back. It wasn’t like this was the first time the Nordic Tribe and the Blanc Clan had gone at each other’s throats, so he knew better than to try and stop them.

After all, they would have a go at each other the moment he left them alone.