SSS-Ranked Surgeon In Another World: The Healer Is Actually OP! - Chapter 276: Origin Of Invaders!

Chapter 276: Origin Of Invaders!

“Stand down.”

At once, the guards obeyed. Weapons lowered. Swords slid back into their sheaths. Lances were grounded. The formation loosened, though no one truly relaxed. Every eye remained fixed on Duke.

This had never been about stopping him.

It had been about reminding him that the palace still stood on its own authority.

Orrin knew it.

They all did.

’SSS-Rank…’ he thought grimly. ’Just like before. Why do I still stand no chance, even after all these years… even after my strength has grown so much?’

His gaze flicked to the young man beside Duke.

The aura rolling off him was different, sharper, quieter, but no less dangerous. It made Orrin’s instincts scream, his muscles tightening despite himself.

He forced his breathing to steady and straightened, schooling his expression into something resembling composure.

“I will have a place prepared for you,” he said carefully. “While I inform Her Majesty of your presence.”

His eyes flicked briefly to Bruce, then back to Duke. “Please… wait there.”

Duke studied him for a moment, unreadable.

Then he smiled faintly.

’He’s doing this for formality,’ Duke noted inwardly. ’To test whether she’s willing to meet us now. Very well. He would allow the play to run its course, without making a fuss. For now.’

The silence stretched, heavy and taut.

The palace loomed around them, towering walls, watchful guards, banners snapping sharply in the wind. Every detail screamed control. Order. Absolute dominance. A tyrant’s seat, polished to perfection.

Duke waved a hand dismissively. “Go on. I won’t stop you.”

Relief flickered across Orrin’s face before he could fully suppress it. “As you wish,” he said, bowing stiffly. “Please, follow me.”

He turned and led them deeper into the palace grounds, toward a wide stone terrace overlooking the inner courtyard, a space clearly meant for waiting. Guards lined the edges at precise intervals, eyes never leaving Duke and Bruce.

After a few steps, Orrin halted. “I will inform the Empress,” he said again, tone measured. “Do not move from this spot.”

Duke’s gaze was already drifting toward the palace interior, as though sensing something, or someone, beyond the walls.

“She already knows,” Duke said lightly.

Orrin hesitated, jaw tightening.

But then, he turned and walked away, pace controlled but hurried, disappearing through the massive palace doors.

The guards remained rigid in his wake.

Bruce glanced sideways at Duke. “You’re enjoying this.”

Duke chuckled softly. “No,” he said. “I’m tolerating it.”

His eyes sharpened as he looked ahead, toward the heart of the palace.

“And waiting,” he added quietly, “to see whether Eiskar’s Empress still remembers what happens when she keeps people like me waiting.”

Meanwhile, Bruce and Duke waited silently.

Snow drifted lazily across the wide stone terrace, settling against the edges of carved pillars and dissolving the moment it touched the faintly glowing mana lines embedded in the palace floor. Guards stood posted at measured intervals, unmoving, eyes forward, disciplined to the point of being statues. No one spoke. No one dared to.

Duke stood with his hands loosely behind his back, posture relaxed yet unassailable, gaze fixed somewhere toward the palace interior as if he were listening to something only he could hear.

Bruce remained beside him.

Outwardly calm. Inwardly, a presence stirred.

Vaelith’s voice resonated within his mind, vast and ancient, carrying a weight that did not belong to any living creature.

[Bruce… do you know the origin of the Invaders?]

Bruce’s expression did not change. ’No…’

There was a pause. Not silence, but contemplation on a scale far beyond mortal thought.

[I secluded myself from the inhabitants of this world to protect them,] Vaelith continued, [but who would have thought that by doing so, I would miss knowledge the inhabitants themselves already possessed before I gained full consciousness after evolving to SSS…]

Bruce didn’t respond. That alone was answer enough.

Vaelith pressed on.

[When I observed the memories of the inhabitants just now, I realized how much I do not know. The monarch of Eiskar, most especially, has known of the existence of Invaders since generations before her.]

Bruce’s gaze sharpened slightly, though no one around him noticed.

[I possess a shield as a conscious world, one that protects this realm from physical and soul-based invasions from beyond,] Vaelith said slowly. [For a long time, I wondered how, despite this shield, Invaders could still breach the world, plant Dungeons, create Labyrinths…]

The snow continued to fall.

A guard shifted his weight subtly.

Bruce listened.

[It turns out… I have not always possessed this shield.]

The words settled heavily.

[I only awakened it centuries ago, when I evolved to SSS-rank. That is the limit of my talent, as a world, this is why I need your help to evolve further to Ex.]

Understanding began to form.

[Before that, like before I evolved to SSS world. this world had already been discovered. Infiltrated. By multiple Invaders.]

Bruce’s fingers curled faintly at his side.

[They hid themselves deeply. So deeply that even I did not notice them. They only began acting decades ago.]

A bitter undercurrent crept into Vaelith’s voice.

[Five centuries ago, when I was still only SS-ranked, I was not worth their attention. But now…]

Bruce already knew what was coming.

[Now that I am SSS… my worth has increased.]

The palace felt colder.

[They are searching for the World Core. If they find it… it will be over.]

A pause.

Then,

[I need your help.]

Bruce exhaled slowly through his nose.

Vaelith continued, more quietly now.

[I can only detect Invaders when they reveal malicious intent toward the inhabitants of this world. But you…]

Bruce felt it then, the faint awareness, the familiar sensation of perception brushing against something deeper than flesh.

’Life Glance.’ these words rang out in Bruce’s mind at that moment.

[You can directly observe the soul.]

’Interesting.’

’Don’t worry,’ he replied calmly. ’I’ve got things covered. The last thing I’d ever do is ignore something that threatens the people I care about.’

There was a subtle easing in the vast presence surrounding his mind.

[…Does your ability have restrictions I should know about?]

Bruce’s answer was immediate. ’No.’

The smile lingered.

’Life Glance carried no limits. No cooldown. No concealment could deceive it…’