The Warlord's Carnal System

Ilya joined Rune.

The same girl who'd run from them had now turned against them.

The shadows who'd made her flee for her life were now being taken down by her one by one. Mercilessly.

Rune was bewildered for a moment, watching Ilya's newfound conviction.

'Has she ever fought in my past life?'

Rune had never seen her fight, not even once in his entire lives. That was primarily because she'd never been in a situation where she'd needed to draw her weapon. Not when Kael, Selka, or Cass herself had been with her at all times.

Her weapon, too, looked more like an ornament with its sky-blue slender build than a tool designed to kill.

But now she was cutting down shadows, albeit with a lot of wasted movement that made Rune feel a compelling urge to correct her.

But he didn't.

Because a new realization dawned on him as he watched the graceful lady before him grit her teeth and cut down the shadows that came at her.

Rune adjusted his stance, shifting from leading the carnage to supporting it.

He made sure none of the remaining shadows could sneak up on her back or appear from her periphery.

Ilya, too, completely left her back open, focusing only on her direct line of sight and leaving everything else to Rune.

'She won't survive long with all these openings,' Rune thought.

But he also understood she was doing it on purpose.

Her goal in participating in this carnage wasn't survival, she'd left that to Rune. It was putting theory into practice. The theory her divine gift had picked up from watching him fight.

'Not bad. Imitation is the first step to tempering techniques to suit one's style.'

Rune, seeing the poor imitation of his master's — the Beast King's techniques, frowned slightly. But he decided not to correct her now.

It was because her divine gift picked up the subtle mistakes she made and automatically eliminated wasted movements in the techniques she performed, giving her modified versions that suited her body better.

But that didn't mean Ilya could just perform the theory her divine gift formulated into practice seamlessly.

With her poor foundation and almost nonexistent prior knowledge of short-span techniques, her footwork struggled to keep up with her amateur execution.

But one thing was certain: Ilya was learning at an immense rate.

Rune even dared to compare her to the Light of Dawn — Gin.

After all, Ilya's divine gift was Omni-Aptitude (S+).

As versatile as the gift was, it had also sealed her fate and limited her to administration.

Because as broken as the gift was... its weakness was equally devastating.

Fragile Constitution.

Soon, the deadly angel had bathed herself in blood.

As soon as she finished, there wasn't a single shadow left standing.

"Huff..." Haff... She panted violently, her lungs burning as they begged for more air.

She leaned heavily on her graceful sword and looked at Rune, who'd simply stood there watching her back the entire time.

Her face looked pale as a ghost. Sweat dripped down her beautifully sculpted features.

"So... huff... what do you think?" Ilya asked. Her grin contained no fear. Her face, pale from exhaustion, no longer held the dread that had shaken her to her core earlier.

"I think... you should rest," Rune spoke genuinely.

After all, she looked like she'd collapse just from standing.

It was the effect of her weakness — Fragile Constitution.

She couldn't train for more than five minutes without consequences. She had to constantly use her aura during tiresome travel or anything that required physical effort. The more she used her aura, the more like death she felt after stopping.

The toll wasn't visible when using aura, it showed itself only after the job was done.

And for someone with intermediate-tier control over aura, that was like the worst possible affliction. Their lack of expertise in controlling aura wasted so much of it unnecessarily.

Ilya frowned, pouting slightly. "We should meet up with the rest... and discuss what we do next."

Rune nodded.

He noticed Ilya looking at the enclave's towers, her features sculpted beautifully in the moonlit night. The enclave was about three kilometers from here.

But they'd decided to wait for a reply from the Duchess before proceeding.

Soon, they arrived at the rendezvous point.

"Wha..." Ilya froze, stunned at seeing so many shadows lying dead before them.

Rune smiled faintly. "Poor guys."

Ilya smirked despite herself. "Are you not worried about your friends?"

She asked hurriedly, watching Rune's unhurried pace.

"They should be fine," he said calmly.

Just then, they sensed movement from the shadows ahead.

"Here they are," Lydia said lazily as she emerged from the darkness.

"Are you alright?" Ilya asked immediately, scanning Lydia from top to bottom for injuries.

"Yep! We have a... uh... monster with us," the black-haired phantom replied.

From the shadows emerged Sera and Merin.

None of them had blood on them at all.

Ilya, visibly impressed, scoffed lightly. "Right... I almost forgot."

She glanced at the Master-tier awakened of the group — Merin, who scoffed back and turned her head away in boredom and annoyance.

"But still... why is a royal unit after us?" Lydia asked, visibly bracing herself for the worst of possibilities.

Rune and Ilya were certain that none of the possibilities Lydia was considering were as bad as reality.

Ilya lingered for a moment before answering.

"The Emperor... is dead," Ilya's voice cracked slightly on the last word.

The three other women's faces paled instantly.

They stood frozen under the moonlight, each of their minds racing through the consequences this revelation would bring.

And what it meant for their fates moving forward.

Silence stretched between them like a taut wire about to snap.

Rune looked toward the distant spires of the Royal Palace — black against the night sky.

"The empire is about to tear itself apart."

The reality of their situation crashed down on them like a collapsing building.

The Emperor was dead.

The empire was fracturing.

And the greatest mage in the known world — Bella of the Orvelian Dominion, would soon descend upon the Ravencourt Imperium like a plague.

Unless someone stopped her.

The only ones capable of such feat are Sword king and Beast king.

'We can hope to hold her off with Cass and Ragnar the Warlord of the south right..?'

But Rune wasn't convinced with his own idea. At best they can stall the inevitable. Only sword king had any hope to stand in her wake.

'If they planned the coup despite knowing all this... there are only two possibilities.'

They either found a way to stop Bella such as manipulating Sword king... which seemed unlikely, or they are perfectly fine with the chaos that will descend upon the imperium.

None of those were good.