Shepherd Wizard Chapter 213

Translator: Pai_

'I never thought they would betray so imdiately like this.'

Turan's first thought as he countered Rodor’s sudden attack from behind.

He had already suspected the Carmine bastards would betray them.

He tried his best to suppress it, but the hostility directed at him couldn’t be fully hidden in their eyes or tone of voice.

What he hadn’t expected was the timing of the betrayal.

He thought they’d wait until the rmaids were dealt with and the group was sowhat worn out before striking, but to try and hit him from behind right as the battle began?

‘Did they secretly conspire with the other side beforehand?’

If that were the case, things might get more complicated, but judging by the rmaids hesitating in apparent confusion, that didn’t seem to be it.

To anyone watching, it looked like the enemies had been caught off guard by this sudden internal conflict.

As that line of thought passed through his mind, Turan saw Rodor, startled, pulling back the trident he had thrust out.

[You bastard-]

Turan focused on the short trident in his hand.

Even though it had been used with a light thrust, it had created a powerful shock as if to turn the sea upside down.

Inside that weapon was a power equal to Aravion’s “Heaven’s Punishnt”, Haroon’s long musket, or Turan’s own Mimic Sacred Relic.

The weapon the rmaid king had previously used must have been an inferior imitation of that item.

‘So that’s the true King of Calamity.’

Considering that the original owner of that Sacred Relic was Monarch, it seed the bastard had handed it over to manipulate Carmine.

Since they had done similar deals before, Monarch had likely urged them to act imdiately in exchange for giving the Sacred Relic in advance, which was originally promised for later.

Now he could see what they had in mind.

The situation had already been sowhat balanced, but if Carmine now wielded the King of Calamity, the war between the Carmine and rmaid factions would end in overwhelming victory for Carmine.

If the betrayal ca at the end of the battle, the others would’ve been on guard. So the plan must have been to catch them off guard right before the clash, deal a massive blow, and then use the Sacred Relic’s power to wipe out everything.

As a plan, it wasn’t half bad.

If Turan hadn’t had the power to counter the King of Calamity’s attack or had been defenseless, he’d have ended up incapacitated, like the ti he was pierced by Badal’s lightning.

If he activated the Lavitas bloodline in the middle of the sea, he would lose his underwater breathing ability, making treatnt impossible, essentially a guaranteed death. And using that Sacred Relic’s power, they could have even massacred all the great sea serpent rmaids allied with Armania.

However, what Rodor and the Carmine God Tribe had overlooked was that Turan had been on alert against them all along, and he now possessed enough strength to fend off their ambush.

[Armania, they’re enemies too. Don’t trust anyone but .]

[Got it!]

At Turan’s shout, Armania, who had been standing there blankly, not understanding the situation, quickly swung his tail.

The Carmine nobles nearby scread and tried to flee, but a few were caught by the tail and crushed.

‘Seems like they didn’t even bother sharing the full plan with anyone outside their own group. Well, if they had, I might’ve noticed sooner.’

Just a passing thought, Turan felt a vibration emanating from the King of Calamity aid at him again.

Water, being a dium that transmits vibration even more effectively than air, made the resulting shockwaves incredibly intense.

‘Ugh.’

Turan quickly took cover behind an ice shield to avoid the shockwave.

Getting hit once helped him understand why Rodor had been so desperate to obtain that Sacred Relic.

To be able to unleash an attack comparable to Aravion’s Heaven’s Punishnt over such a wide area, within the underwater environnt, it could be considered an even more powerful magic artifact.

In fact, the fact that it partially pierced through defenses made it even nastier.

However, this didn’t an Turan was in danger.

Very few even within House Parsha knew what he had beco now.

The Carmine bastards and the rmaids knew nothing, and even Monarch had only seen Turan shatter Badal’s skull by shooting a steel ball, through a puppet from afar.

The completion of the Shepherd Combination allowed him to organically link all four emblems, which ant that most of the magic he now perford as himself essentially functioned like skills. It didn’t just an he could draw out more power than before.

[What- where did he go!?]

[I definitely lit up the area...!]

The Carmine wizards instantly lost track of Turan, who had hidden himself in the water, and, startled, began conjuring orbs of light in every direction.

However, even as the deep, deep seafloor lit up like midday, Turan did not reveal himself.

‘It’s definitely manageable now.’

Though the concealnt ability he had as a Shepherd still consud a great deal of magic power in the presence of light, it was no longer as dramatic as before.

That was because his ability now held superiority over ordinary light magic.

While they were montarily flustered by Turan’s continued invisibility, what struck the Carmine wizards next were the rmaids.

Whatever had just happened, the current situation appeared to them as an opportunity.

The damn devils who had seed ready to wipe them out at any mont were now split into two factions and fighting each other.

If given ti, those two might end up tearing each other apart, but there was also the risk that they might reconcile. So their best chance at survival was to attack one side now and reduce its power.

[W-Wait!]

[Now’s not the ti for us to fight each other! You stupid rmaids……]

The Carmine wizards hurriedly sent waves carrying their intention for a ceasefire, but most of the rmaids were far beyond the point of listening, their eyes rolling back with bloodlust.

Let alone the commoner-class rmaids, who were practically slaves to instinct, even the more rational noble rmaids were going wild, riled up by the scent of human blood.

The royal rmaids, who could transform into great sea serpents, still retained so reason, but even they, instead of targeting the now-invisible Turan or Armania, who was at least their kin, chose to strike the Carmine nobles first.

"Kheuk-!"

The scream of a Carmine noble dissolved helplessly into the seawater flooding his mouth.

The battle that began in the middle of the sea was utter chaos.

The three forces, Carmine nobles, Armania, and the rmaids, clashed in every direction: front and back, left and right, up and down.

Armania made clever use of the situation.

Knowing that if he got surrounded by either the Carmine nobles or the rmaids, he would be overwheld, he skillfully weaved along the border between the two sides.

Amusingly, the rmaids sotis mistook Armania for one of their own royal kin and even died by taking ice spears thrown by Carmine nobles aiming at him.

Likewise, Turan actively used disguise to fuel the confusion.

Remaining hidden, he quickly stole the upper garnt of a dead Carmine noble, changed his face, and fought among the rmaids, only to suddenly kill a nearby Carmine noble and disappear again, repeating the process.

Thanks to that, Rodor and the Carmine wizards couldn’t afford to trust even those beside them.

If any one of them happened to be Turan in disguise, it would an instant death.

Their only stroke of luck was that this battle was taking place underwater.

Had it not been, invisible railguns would have been flying in from all directions.

Not to ntion, lightning-based attacks were practically neutralized here.

[Damn it, how the hell did it co to this……]

Rodor Carmine, known among his comrades as the Lawyer, gritted his teeth as he looked around.

Right up until the battle began, Turan had seed solely focused on the great sea serpent in front of him. So how had he been able to counter the ambush so precisely?

If only this ambush had succeeded, they could have turned everything around.

They could have taken care of those arrogant rmaids, once their slaves, now rebels, and eliminated Turan, who dared try to stand above them despite being just an NPC.

If it was true that Turan had destroyed House Zahar, then killing him and crushing the Parsha faction would have given them the chance to reclaim center stage in the world…….

“Urgh!”

Just as that thought crossed his mind, an ice spike tore through the water, aiming for Rodor’s side.

If not for the vibration detection ability granted by the King of Calamity, he wouldn’t have noticed such a stealthy attack.

Dodging it and creating another vibration that pierced a hole through a great sea serpent’s body, Rodor then saw a Carmine noble get devoured by Armania.

The man, who shared the sa type of possession as Rodor, mouthed words at him in terror.

‘Help .’

They knew that the death of the flesh did not necessarily lead to the death of the soul, yet death on this battlefield was still sothing to fear.

There was no guarantee that their souls would return intact the mont Turan won.

Of course, the soul base that Jel and the other Carmine God Tribe mbers knew about had already been abandoned and relocated long ago, but if they were captured here without returning, even that would be aningless.

In fact, the soul form of a comrade who had just been devoured by Armania was imdiately seized by Turan, who had also summoned his own soul form right beside it.

‘Where’s he keeping his body? Is it attached to the body of that great sea serpent?’

The mont one draws out their soul form is when they’re most defenseless, so it would be best to aim for that mont. But finding it sowhere on the enormous sea serpent, which was nearly a hundred ters long, was no easy task.

Even more so with two great sea serpents constantly targeting him.

Rodor quickly moved, narrowly dodging a wide-open maw filled with sharp teeth, grinding his teeth as he did.

“You bastards.......”

With a growling sound, the four emblems within Rodor activated their power.

Rapids, Frost, Earthmover, and Minstrel.

As the trident struck the ground, a strong vibration rang out, shaking the sea floor and stirring up the surrounding currents violently.

The range reached several kiloters in all directions.

“Uwaaah!”

“Stop! You’re dragging us in too!”

“Please, save us, Family Head!”

The currents were so turbulent that even the rmaids transford into great sea serpents couldn’t maintain their balance, let alone the weaker ones.

Thousands of commoner rmaids had their innards crushed from the shock of the current in an instant. The Carmine nobles also scread, but the currents were too fierce for any sound to carry.

Even Turan was forced to abandon his concealnt under the crazed turbulence and erge.

Just for a mont, his brain was so shaken that maintaining magic beca difficult.

Resistance to this kind of shock wasn’t sothing one could handle with just excellent physical abilities.

‘Looks like I’ve got twenty fingers...’

Looking down at his hand and trying to regain focus, Turan finally noticed that Rodor, having found his target, was drawing a vibrating blade, and he responded accordingly.

Just as Ymir once had, he summoned an ice shield.

Though connecting ice manipulation to Shepherd skills was difficult, so it wasn’t classified as a skill, the ice magic Turan cast with his Carmine bloodline activated was top-tier.

“Turan-!”

“If you were going to betray , you should’ve been more thorough.”

Their voices didn’t reach each other, but just from lip movent and facial expressions, they understood one another well enough.

Turan subtly shifted his gaze to confirm that Armania was still in fierce combat with the rmaid king, and the other rmaids were still busy clashing with the Carmine nobles, none of them could afford to pay attention here.

It ant this was the perfect situation for a one-on-one duel.

Once again concealing himself, Turan used the sea currents to swiftly close the distance and imdiately drew out an ice whip.

With a boom, a shockwave exploded around Rodor’s body, deflecting the attack.

‘He shouldn’t be able to detect attacks not in contact with his body, so it must be a barrier-type skill.’

Despite the puzzlent, the assault continued.

Just like when he had used Light of Judgent in the past, Turan rapidly lted, froze, and reshaped the created ice.

As a result, his attacks looked like a giant ice octopus with dozens of limbs striking from all directions.

Of course, there was no one who could perceive that.

“You...!”

Rodor tried to spread the vibrations as widely as possible to attack the invisible Turan, but by then, Turan had already figured out a way to defend against the attack to so extent.

As the incoming shockwaves were enveloped by dozens of layers of ice barriers, each layer absorbed so of the force, weakening the vibration rapidly until it dissipated.

He had instinctively grasped that multiple thin layers were more effective against vibrations than a single thick one.

At the sa ti, as Rodor's attention was drawn to blocking the ice whip, an ice spike slipped through the disrupted vibration barrier and pierced his abdon, tearing into his organs.

Though things like gunpowder explosions or magnetism acceleration couldn’t be used underwater, Turan’s shooting technique using a slingshot had already ascended into the realm of skills.

“Ghk-”

Rodor saw the blood from his mouth mix and scatter through the seawater and urgently looked for reinforcents.

But then it struck him, against an invisible Turan, brute force in numbers ant little.

It was only then that he realized this had been an unwinnable fight from the very beginning. All he could do was wear a defeated expression.

***

After Rodor's death, the Carmine nobles, having lost their will to fight, attempted to flee, but it was nearly impossible to shake off rmaids in the sea.

At that point, Turan began attacking the rmaid side to restore balance.

He ambushed one of the surviving great sea serpent royals and pierced its head, killing it. When the enraged queen charged in over the death of her child, Turan dove into her gaping maw and released a massive electrical surge from within.

When the rmaid king, who had been fiercely fighting Armania, saw this and rushed in, Turan quickly used the Carmine nobles as shields to cause mutual destruction between them. In the end, he joined forces with Armania to take the rmaid king’s life.

In the end, the rmaids fought until the last one and all died, and only a few Carmine nobles who fled the fastest managed to survive.

Whether they would be able to return to land while avoiding other rmaids or magical beasts was uncertain, but in any case, all the possessed hosts had been captured, so the leftovers didn’t matter.

The sea, where the battle had ended, was now thickly tainted with the blood and flesh of rmaids and humans alike, a stark contrast to its once-clear beauty.

Naturally, many marine magical beasts, attracted to the remains, had begun to gather, but Turan left them alone.

With the recent wars being so nurous, there weren’t many wizards left in need of magic power, and left unattended, they would simply beco undead spirits.

Of course, he made sure to collect the bodies of Rodor and a few high-ranking nobles separately.

Leaving them behind could lead to the birth of a myth-class marine magical beast, sothing too horrifically troubleso to allow.

Naturally, he also retrieved magical items like the King of Calamity. His technique of using water to manipulate objects telekinetically played a major role.

If Turan had tried to collect everything by hand, it would have taken a long ti.

anwhile, Armania, his body now completely torn and battered, was tending to the remains of his kin.

Seeing the great sea serpents lying on the ground, he let out a low, growling sound.

Watching this quietly, Turan approached him in silence and placed a hand on his enormous head.

Having never truly had any family besides his mother, Turan couldn’t fully understand Armania’s feelings, but he knew that right now, Armania must be deeply troubled.

[Turan……]

[I’m sorry, Armania.]

It was an apology for killing Armania’s family, blood relatives, even if they had tried to kill him.

If his mother had still been alive and sided with Badal as a mber of Aravion, and he’d had to kill her as an enemy, how would he have felt?

Or if Solif had killed his mother in his place?

Most likely, he wouldn’t have been able to brush it off so casually, saying it was just sothing that had to be done.

At Turan’s apology, Armania bowed his head deeply and remained silent for a long ti.

[Do you not want a separate grave for them?]

[It’s fine like this…… If we leave them here, they’ll naturally disperse and beco one with the sea.]

That seed to be the rmaids’ way of holding funerals.

There was no reason to interfere.

After all, the bodies of great sea serpent rmaids were essentially just shells, with no particular value left to use.

[There’s no chance other rmaids will transform into great sea serpents using these bodies, right?]

[No. There’s no true essence left in our bodies.]

[Hmm.]

Turan nodded and stepped into the heart of the rmaids’ completely ruined sanctuary.

Once a street adorned with elaborate coral decorations and quite vibrant in appearance, it was now half-destroyed and in ruins.

Thanks to the senses granted by his Sacred Relic, he already knew there were no survivors.

Even the young rmaids who had been hiding in underground caves had all died, swept away by the massive currents Rodor had stirred up.

For Turan, this was sothing he was quietly thankful for.

He couldn’t afford to leave behind anything that might beco a future threat, but at the sa ti, he didn’t want to show Armania the sight of him killing all his living younger siblings right before his eyes.

[This must be the royal family's residence.]

[Yes.]

Turan entered the rmaid king’s palace with Armania, who had returned to his rmaid form.

Though it was practically a ruin, the scattered belongings all around confird that it had once been a splendid place.

As they passed what remained of what were once young rmaids, the remains of a great sea serpent undead, hunted long ago, ca into view at the innermost part.

Already battered from previous attacks, it had now been processed in so special way, making it significantly smaller than before.

[By offering rituals here, they draw power from it.]

[I see.]

Nodding at Armania’s explanation, Turan conjured a massive ice blade and sliced the great sea serpent remains into pieces, storing them in his large-capacity pouch.

Compared to the transford bodies of the rmaid royals he had killed earlier, this one was much tougher, consuming a considerable amount of magic power.

The rmaids had likely used so special technique to process it.

After recovering the serpent’s remains, Turan finally searched for the rmaids’ treasure, and among them was the Blue Coral Crown that Carmine had once obtained.

Considering it was the treasure used to lead the rmaids, it might later prove useful in controlling or driving the rmaids of the two seas to extinction.

[Looks like everything's settled. Let’s head up.]

[Alright……]

Turan patted Armania on the shoulder as he stared gloomily downward, then ascended with him to the surface.

As always, the sea was peaceful, as if it knew nothing of those who had fought and died below.