Shortly after arriving at the military base of the Dynasty, those of noble blood who participated in the fight moved back to their home. Though most that went didn't make it.
Many were wounded and had their skin pulled out from the frost that was spread after the fall of the ice mountain.
Though most that held powers of a 3rd-tier had a much easier time, those below that tier needed the attention of professionals. Those closest to the impact that though some miracle avoid the initiative impact were even at the risk of losing a hand or leg from their limbs become like that of a statue.
An event that was supposed to be celebrated by delivering a heavy blow was instead met with grief inside the military base.
And the generals responsible for guiding the army were pitting each other's throats to throw the blame on someone other than themself.
As for the Deathfull Skulls group, they were currently waiting in one of the rooms of the military base. All were there except Velkir, who was talking with the generals.
"Boss must be really pissed off." Vanessa said from the side, her body still covered by her artifact, making her voice more sinister and robotic.
"That's to be expected, after all, he was dragged to be the scapegoat of those humans." Azrael said as he was stating facts.
"Scapegoat?" Danzel asked confused.
He found it difficult imagining a century-old lich becoming some sort of goat.
'I heard that transform does exist, but still...'
Seeing that Danzel was looking at him as if searching for an answer, it finally clicked to Azrael that the Wight might not know the meaning of that word.
"Scapegoat, meaning in the sense of putting your responsibilities to another person to escape the blame. Those humans are trying to do this exact thing with Master Velkir."
"They will use excuses such as us being lowly mercenaries and not following their order resulted in the losses the human army had. It makes it worse that Master Velkir moved on his own without the army."
"Originally, one of us alone would have been enough to annihilated those walls if we really put their mind into it. And with every member participating, the king might have thought to be a good opportunity to raise some of their morale and cheer the people up." Azrael scoffed out loud.
"And once those nobles took a sniff of their plan, they all sent their sprouts on the supposed "easy fight" to earn some merits or whatever. I guess they didn't expect those many deaths."
"Naive and stupid, so human." Sartan said while taking a bite of a questionable piece of meat.
"I would describe them more as ignorant and foolish. They had probably never seen 4th-tier fighting before and their strength that affects the surroundings. There is a reason why people with strength like us are often called calamities." Agares said while rubbing Shiro's hood.
Everyone looked at the old man in surprise from joining the conversation as he usually only cared for his granddaughter.
"Well, a clash between 4th-tier is rare. And does who witnessing it are either dead or lucky to survive to tell the tales." Azrael said while looking at Danzel.
"But I guess Danzel fits both criteria."
"I am not dead..." Danzel said with a cold tone.
"Right, undead was it?" Vanessa said with a chuckle.
"What kind of skeleton were you again, Black armor? It would be embarrassing for a king to mistake his benefactors for a skeleton after all." Sartan said with a huge green on his face.
"Do I have to call bad fish, bone bad fish now?" Shiro whispered to Agares while pulling lightly his long sleeves.
Maybe it was because she tried her best to be as quiet as possible with her question, that made Sartan burst out laughing, with the other trying to resist the urge to laugh.
After all, everyone here in the room had a supernatural hearing.
If they focused, they could even hear the sounds of ants walking (they weren't any ants in the room).
If Danzel had a face, his eye brown would twitch from annoyance.
From the past few days, the other made it pretty obvious how stupid he was in fighting a 4th-tier alone and gave him a light jab on his side by making fun of him.
As Danzel was about to realize, the barrier that surrounded their room suddenly broke, making everyone except Shiro go on the edge and release their aura.
Wherever they were going to be paid today or called criminals made them stay alert.
Coming out of the bottom of the door began a shadow emerging.
Planting his staff on the ground and going out of the shadow Velkir looked at the whole group before replying to the barrier in the room.
"While what Danzel did was undoubtedly one of the stupidest things that I saw, you guys need to keep in mind that except for Shiro, he is younger than all of you." Velkir said, his words surprised the group of 4th-tier.
"Master Velkir..." Danzel said while looking at his magic teacher.
'Even the shameless Lich is making fun of me!' He thought to himself.
As for his age, Danzel had no idea of what basics he came to that conclusion and he wasn't interested in correcting him.
After all, he couldn't say that he would soon become 5 years old...
"I am stating facts. Moreover, I don't blame you for the decision you made. After all, you were suffering under expirypsychosis." Velkir said.
"Expirypsychosis..?" Danzel said, confused by the term.
"A common thing that every undead, including me, experienced in his early years of being. In short, the emotion of hate towards the living gets the better of you. It's the main reason why so many stories of the undead exist out there. The undead in those stories is learning to adapt to that emotion while killing a few hundred in the process."
"It could be described as a baby trying to learn how to walk. Nothing more, nothing less." Velkir said.
"Enough of that though, I deal with those annoying insects for now but we got another problem for us coming here." Velkir said while raising his staff.
In the next moment, several magic circles appeared around the room, the other recognized them to be the same as the mass teleportation magic that Velkir used.
"Did anything go wrong?" Azrael said with a frown.
But instead of teleporting them away, the magic circle all descended till they meet the ground, making a donut-like shape of several magic circles before the mana became invisible to both the naked eye and supernatural senses.
"Hehe~, just the king of this place will come at any moment."
As soon as he finished speaking there were a few knocks at the door, gaining the attention of everyone.
Turning to face the door, Velkir raised their hand and using his own mana the handle turned.
"Also, the Dynasties spear will be tagging along."
Opening the door, a man around his 70 with gray hair and a crown on his head wearing plated chest plate and many magic items walked into the room, beside him being someone wearing full plate armor and holding a spear that had a dark gold metal as its tip.
While the aura of the man with the crown was almost unnoticeable, that wasn't the same for the latter.
Even without putting his aura for others to see, it held a huge suppressing nature for the likes of Shiro and Danzel.
Shiro is hidden behind Agares clothes, scared of the suppressing aura. Danzel though wasn't the same, instead, he released every fiber of his aura to countereffect the man's aura.
Similar reacting were all the others, who drowned the room with their auras alone, each of them being unique of their own.
"Archmage Velkir, I apologize for coming unannounced at times when everyone one of you should be tired. But I couldn't help myself but come personally to thank you for your efforts in keeping the Dynasties citizen safe." The man with his 70 said as he walked towards the suppressing auras of them. Closely following behind him was the man with the dark golden spear.
"There was no need to trouble yourself with such things. All we do is what we were paid for, nothing more, nothing less." Velkir said as he shook hands with the man wearing the crown.
Seeing that exchange, Danzel was surprised in seeing that the man with the crown was actually the king and not the man beside him.
'Why is someone so strong following a man so...weak?' Danzel thought to himself.
'Compared to that guy with the spear, he is close to nothing. His strength is close to that of the goblin shaman that I once killed, maybe a few attributes stronger or weaker.'
He was sure of at least that much.
Wherever the man was weaker or strong that the goblin shaman didn't even matter.
The fact that someone of this strength ruled a whole kingdom was something that Danzel didn't expect.
Compared to the phoenix that he heard in Berum or the Magus in the Arcana Kingdom.
The man talking with Velkir was nothing.
