Debuff Master - Chapter 1166

Chapter 1166

Siegfried was absolutely furious.

The Marchioni Empire had used the Coral Planet expedition as an excuse while doing nothing when the fallen angels invaded the Middle Realm.

Even during the great war, they suffered the least damage among all nations and only swooped in at the end by sending Princess Irene to claim the spoils. Siegfried had just learned that the Coral Planet expedition was not a defensive war, but an unjustified offensive invasion.

‘The fallen angels started a world war, and the Marchioni Empire was just lining their own pockets the whole time?’

From Duke Neighdelberg’s words during the meeting, the assumption was more than plausible.

“Sigh… You have no idea what we had to go through to make this conquest possible. The schemes, the gambles, and the strings we have to pull.”

Siegfried had a feeling that he knew exactly what the duke meant by the “gambles” he had mentioned.

‘Me stopping the fallen angels—that’s one of their big gambles. The Marchioni Empire bet that I would stop the invasion while they focused on this place. Of course, I’m sure they had their own safety nets in place too.’

He pondered the whole chain of events. ‘Because the fallen angels invaded, most of the great powers collapsed, and more than half of the continent was devastated.

“Thanks to that, the Marchioni Empire has further solidified its place as the world’s greatest power.’

The Marchioni Empire had become an even greater superpower than before the war.

As if that was not enough, they were now on the verge of colonizing the Coral Planet and harvesting the enormous amount of resources ripe for exploitation.

‘That’s insane. Absolutely crazy…’

Siegfried shuddered as a chill went down his spine.

The Marchioni Empire’s deviousness was beyond imagination.

‘Hold on, now that I think about it… they even dragged in the dragons while claiming that it was for the sake of protecting the world from foreign invaders.’

Siegfried belatedly realized that he wasn’t the only one who was deceived.

Even the dragons, who were considered to be the most intelligent beings in the Middle Realm, were tricked into joining this expedition—no, they were tricked into joining this invasion by the Marchioni Empire under the pretense of protecting the world.

As a result, the dragons suffered massive casualties after taking out the strategic defensive weapons of the Corals and were now on the brink of extinction. Now that the dragons were out of the picture, nobody was left to stop the Marchioni Empire.

‘Crazy… This whole thing is insane. While the fallen angels were destroying the world, they were actually busy lining their own pockets. They manipulated the dragons into fighting their war and got rid of them. To make matters worse, they got rid of them after using them to destroy the strategic defensive weapons of the Corals.’

Just then, Siegfried realized how the Marchioni Empire managed to cement its status as the world’s most powerful superpower.

The Marchioni Empire was willing to do anything for the sake of their own interest, and they both had the cunning and the power to pull off their plans, no matter how ruthless those plans were

‘Michele warned me long ago to be wary of the Marchioni Empire. And he was right all along. The Marchioni Empire cannot be trusted. They were showering me with gifts and rewards while making full use of me. Favor? Goodwill? It was never about that to begin with.’

Just then, Siegfried’s thoughts were interrupted.

“You seem to be furious too, Mindrius,” Maximus said.

“Yes, my lord… I am,” Siegfried replied with a nod.

Of course, their anger was for completely different reasons.

“But what can we do? We are powerless… there’s nothing we can do.”

“…”

“All we can do is hope that His Imperial Majesty creates more powerful knights.”

“I believe we should get moving again, my lord. It is dangerous here,” Siegfried said as he got up.

The Marchioni Empire had turned this neutral zone into a battlefield by attacking Maximus, so battles were bound to start real soon.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sound of shelling echoed nonstop from afar, and the sound of boots shook the ground. The problem was that the overwhelming majority of those troops belonged to the Marchioni Empire, and most of them were actually Adventurers.

‘They planned this down to the smallest detail. They have already set up a strategy to seize this whole area and push forward.’

Now that the shelling had started, this place would soon be under the Marchioni Empire’s control.

In other words, they had to escape as fast as possible.

***

Siegfried carried Maximus on his back and fled as quickly as he could.

“This direction… Isn’t this not where our forces are stationed?” Maximus asked.

“Yes, Lord Chancellor. Our forces will fall soon. Running there would be suicide,” Siegfried replied.

“What?!”

“The enemy is most likely expecting that we will try to flee back to our lines. Therefore, we will be caught if we run that way, my lord.”

“I see…”

“It will be better for us to pierce through the enemy lines and circle around instead.”

After saying that, Siegfried activated Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance and scanned their surroundings.

“Okay. I shall trust you. My life is in your hands now anyway.”

“Please do not worry, my lord.”

Siegfried had spoken confidently, but he was actually feeling conflicted inside. His original plan was to turn Maximus into an Irradiator and enslave him, but he wasn’t so sure what to do anymore after seeing the true colors of the Marchioni Empire.

‘But first, we have to get out of here,’ Siegfried thought. Then, he wondered, ‘Perhaps… I might even have to ally with the Corals?’

There was a saying that said—”the enemy of my enemy is my ally.”

Siegfried had no intention of letting the Marchioni Empire use him any more than this. Now that he had seen their dark intentions, it was time for him to play along just enough while making preparations to betray them.

Their escape began, and it proceeded surprisingly smoothly.

Siegfried’s Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance showed the location of the encirclement, so they made it out of the danger zone without running into enemies even once.

“Just a little bit further and we will reach a village. We should be able to get back to the capital if we use the warp gate there,” Siegfried said, glancing at his mini-map.

“Okay.”

Unfortunately, Siegfried’s plan ended up falling apart.

Why?

It was all because a massacre was underway when they reached the village.

“Kill them all!”

“Where do you think you’re going?

“Leave your heads behind if you’re gonna leave! Kekeke!”

“That bastard’s running! Catch him!”

A group of Adventurers appeared and brutally slaughtered the Corals.

The overwhelming majority of them were Level 299 Adventurers, and they were competing to kill as many Corals as they could.

The Elixir of Transcendence promised by the Marchioni Empire was something that all Level 299 Adventurers coveted, and they had to turn in one thousand five hundred Coral heads in order to obtain it.

However, the problem was that getting one thousand five hundred heads on the battlefield was nearly impossible. Not only were the Coral Warriors strong, but there were far too many Adventurers after their heads.

Thus, some of the Adventurers decided to raid small villages where ordinary Corals lived. Even though the ordinary Coral was strong, collecting their heads was relatively easy compared to going against a whole army of Coral Warriors.

In the end, the Marchioni Empire instigated the massacre of civilians by incentivizing such atrocities.

“T-Thos filthy scums!” Maximus bellowed in rage as he watched. Driven by fury, he pulled out his lightsword and tried to charge at the Adventurers. Being at war was one thing, but seeing innocent civilians being massacred made him lose all reason.

And he was not the only one, as Siegfried felt the same.

‘Do we really have to go this far?’

He could understand the desperation of Adventurers to grow stronger. He himself had hit the wall before, so he knew very well how suffocating being unable to level up could be.

Still, slaughtering innocent men, women, and children alike just to level up was something he just couldn’t accept.

They were just NPCs, but seeing innocent people get massacred so horribly was beyond comprehension in Siegfried’s eyes..

The main charm of BNW was getting immersed in the virtual world and roleplaying to the satisfaction of one’s heart. What was the point of playing the game if they were treating the NPCs as mere chunks of data?

“You must hold back, my lord,” Siegfried said, grabbing Maximus and pulling him back.

Maximus would be in danger if he were to step in. Moreover, Siegfried’s identity could also be exposed. Thus, it was far wiser to find another village, one where the Adventurers had yet to set foot in.

They could then use the warp gate there to return to the capital.

***

About five hours later, Siegfried glanced at Maximus and said, “It looks like… we will have to fight, my lord.”

Thanks to Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance, Siegfried saw that the Marchioni Empire’s biological weapon chimeras were nearby.

They had not run into them thanks to Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance, but this time, it looked like it was impossible to avoid a battle.

“Is that so?”

“Please stay here, my lord.”

Leaving behind Maximus, Siegfried moved closer to the enemy.

Each of the biological weapon chimeras was a Master, and they were monstrously strong thanks to their ability to morph their body parts into weapons. To make things worse, there were dozens of them, and it seemed there was no way to face them without showing his true strength this time.

‘I can’t leave a single one alive,’ Siegfried thought.

For the sake of covering his tracks, he resolved to completely annihilate every single one of these biological weapon chimeras. Thus, he opened his Inventory and pulled out his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp.

“It’s one of the chancellor’s personal guards.”

“How bold of you to face us.”

The chimeras sneered and walked toward Siegfried the moment he appeared.

‘Invisible Spear Art.’

Siegfried transformed his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp into a spear and activated the Invincible Spear Art. Then, he activated Karma Flare and Embrace of Despair before charging straight at the chimeras.

What followed was Siegfried’s overwhelmingly one-sided slaughter of the chimeras.

‘Whoa! Look at the insane damage I’m dealing!’

The Invincible Spear Art was like a legendary weapon in itself, an overpowered, cheat-like skill.

Each of his basic attacks unleashed damage that was on par with an offensive skill that he hardly even needed to use a skill.

On top of that, the passive effects of Domination and Invincible Emperor automatically reduced the stats of his opponents.

In other words, Siegfried was ridiculously strong right now, and unless his opponent was on the same level as him, it wouldn’t matter how many enemies he had to face.

“Y-You! Who are you?!”

“How are you using Emperor Siegfried’s combat techniques?!”

The chimeras instantly recognized Siegfried’s skills.

“Who knows?” Siegfried replied with a grin.

Poof!

Siegfried’s disguise lifted, revealing his true appearance.

Exactly twenty-four hours had passed, so his transformation was undone.

“…!”

The chimeras were horrified to see the Coral Imperial Guard transform into Siegfried. It never crossed their minds that Siegfried had been disguising as a Coral this whole time.

“M-My lord!” one of the chimeras shouted, realizing that the man in front of them was indeed Siegfried.

“What are you doing?! How can the sworn brother of His Imperial Majesty be protecting an alien?! Even you will not get away with this!”

“Hey, I know I won’t get away with this. You guys crush anything that so much as thinks of treason. Phew! I don’t even want to imagine what will happen to me if word of this gets out,” Siegfried replied with a shrug.

“Then why?! Why are you doing this despite fully knowing the consequences?!”

“Because I just have to make sure not a soul hears about this, no?”

At that moment, the chimeras instantly froze after realizing what Siegfried meant.

Dead men tell no tales…

A wave of dread gripped the chimeras after Siegfried had basically declared that he would be killing them in order to keep his secret.

Flash!

A blinding white light burst forth from Siegfried, engulfing every single one of the chimeras.