Debuff Master-Chapter 897

“Ah...”

Giorgetto von Posteriore gasped in despair after seeing the Marchioni Empire’s insignia in the night sky. Adding to his despair, even the Empire’s Eye was already floating in the sky directly above him.

He was so overwhelmed by despair that he could not even order his men to shoot down the Empire’s Eye.

What was the point of destroying the Empire’s Eye? The warp gate would soon be completed, and the empire’s elite forces would rush out from it in less than five minutes.

To make matters worse, he had already lost the main battle, so this battle was already as good as over.

The three-hundred-thousand rebel army he had led was reduced to nothing but fifty thousand. Even the fifty thousand remaining troops were scattered all over the place, desperately fleeing for their lives.

In other words, not even an ember of hope remained for him.

“Haha... Hahaha! Bwahahaha!”

Giorgetto’s crazed laughter reverberated in the night sky.

“All you gods! Why have you forsaken me?! Do you loathe this Giorgetto von Posteriore so much? Why are you stopping this Giorgetto, the rightful owner of the Marchioni Empire, from reclaiming what’s mine?!”

In the end, Giorgetto cried out, directing his anger toward the gods.

The situation was so dire for him that the only thing he could do was to blame others for his misery.

“Your Imperial Majesty!”

“Please be strong, sire!”

“You must not give up, sire!”

Giorgetto’s retainers cried out at his feet.

Unfortunately, nothing was going to change no matter how much they cried out, as the war had already been decided.

Giorgetto and his retainers painstakingly prepared this rebellion for the past twenty years since Emperor Stuttgart ascended the throne, but the two decades of effort was on the verge of going up in smoke.

“Hear me, my loyal retainers. The restoration is over,” Giorgetto addressed his men.

They called their movement the restoration rather than a rebellion, as they believed they were simply returning things back to how they were. They gathered under Giorgetto’s banner to dethrone the tyrant and restore the empire’s rightful owner to the throne.

In their eyes, Giorgetto von Posterior, the second son of the late emperor, had an undeniable claim to legitimacy, so they had every right to call this rebellion a restoration.

“I, Giorgetto von Posteriore... have failed. Therefore, I shall no longer cling to life and–”

With those words, he drew his sword and pointed it at his own neck.

“Rather than be captured and humiliated by that bastard, Stuttgart... I will die by my own hands.”

However, his loyal retainers refused to let him kill himself with his own hands.

“No! You must not, sire!”

“How could this horrible thought even cross your mind, sire?!”

“Your Imperial Majesty is the last surviving legitimate bloodline of His Late Imperial Majesty! All will be truly lost if you die here!”

The retainers wept bitterly and clung at the hem of Giorgetto’s robes, begging him to reconsider.

Many of them were retainers of the late emperor, and watching their liege’s last remaining legitimate son, Giorgetto, take his own life was simply unbearable.

“Let me go! Can’t you see that I will only suffer unspeakable humiliation at Stuttgart’s hands even if I survive?! Death is the only way to preserve my dignity as a prince–!”

It was then.

“The heir of the imperial bloodline, Giorgetto,” said one of the Coralites, who had been quietly watching from the sidelines.

***

The Coralite’s name was Sirius, and he held a high position among the Coralites who had arrived from another world to assist Giorgetto.

“It is not yet your time to die,” Sirius said.

“What do you mean by that? Can’t you see that everything is over? The restoration has failed! It’s over! If this isn’t the time to die, then when is it?!” Giorgetto lashed out.

“Your death is not something we Corals can permit, Giorgetto von Posteriore.”

“What did you say...?”

“You must be alive for us, Corals, to easily seize the Marchioni Empire. Rather, we need that blood flowing in your veins.”

Sirius’ words were blunt, but he was telling the truth as it is. The Corals had one objective—to seize control of the Marchioni Empire. From there, they would conquer the entire Nurburg Continent, turning it into a colony.

And for their plan to succeed, they needed Giorgetto...

The puppet emperor had to possess the imperial bloodline to minimize the people’s resistance against them, the colonizers.

“Sirius, you bastard...!” Giorgetto growled.

He was no fool, and he knew exactly why the Corals were helping him.

There was no such thing as a free meal in this world.

Still, he accepted their help despite being fully aware of their intentions.

Why?

It was all because he needed an army to overthrow Emperor Stuttgart.

Giorgetto had his own plans. Once he had overthrown Emperor Stuttgart and ascended the throne, he planned to rally the entire continent and expel the Corals.

The Corals, however, had completely seen through his plans. They were planning to strip him of all power and reduce him to nothing more than a figurehead the moment he was installed as emperor.

Ironically, their partnership was built on both sides working together toward a mutual goal while biding their time and waiting for the opportune moment to betray the other.

“Is now really the time to be angry at me, Giorgetto? No, not at all. The only thing you should be thinking of is your survival,” Sirius said.

“But...”

“The second wave of reinforcements from our side is already en route.”

“...!”

“As long as you’re alive, you can regroup with the reinforcements and reclaim your throne.”

“A-Are you certain?!” Giorgetto exclaimed, his hands trembling.

Thwunk!

The sword fell from his grasp.

“A-Are reinforcements really coming?!”

“Certainly,” Sirius replied with a nod. Then, he said, “What we need now isn’t anger or death. It’s to buy time and stay alive until the reinforcements arrive.”

“That means...!”

“Survive, Giorgetto. As long as you’re alive, the throne will be yours and yours alone.”

At those words, Giorgetto abandoned the thought of taking his own life.

“I understand. Then what must I do to survive?” he asked.

Sirius turned his hand slightly and waved his hand.

Sseuuuu...!

A wave of crimson aura surged forth and surrounded Giorgetto’s loyal retainers. Then, slowly, their figures began changing.

One minute later.

“...!”

Giorgetto’s retainers stared at each other in shock, and none of them could utter a word.

Why?

It was because standing before them was the exact copy of Giorgetto, including themselves.

“Loyal subjects of the empire. Sacrifice yourselves for your liege,” Sirius commanded, his gaze as cold as ice.

The retainers, now no different from Giorgetto’s doppelgangers, trembled.

However, they were not trembling out of fear.

These men were already fully prepared to stake their own lives for Giorgetto, and to sacrifice themselves for his sake was a great honor. They were willing to do anything, even sell their souls, if it meant restoring the empire’s rightful heir, Giorgetto, to the throne.

“Your Imperial Majesty, please... stay alive.”

One of them bowed on the ground at Giorgetto’s feet.

The other retainers followed suit one after another.

“Your Imperial Majesty! Reclaim what is rightfully yours!”

“I will gladly die a hundred times over for Your Imperial Majesty!”

“Long live the rightful heir to the throne! Long live the Marchioni Empire!”

Giorgetto teared up at the zealous loyalty of his retainers.

“T-Thank you... I truly... thank you... I will never forget your loyalty. Once I swear on my imperial name that I will reclaim what is rightfully mine. I will make sure that your sacrifices... will not be in vain!”

“Long live Your Imperial Majesty!”

“Long live the Marchioni Empire!”

The retainers bowed low to the ground and cried at the top of their voices.

“There is no time to waste. We must go,” Sirius said, grabbing Giorgetto by the arm.

“Understood.”

And so, Giorgetto parted ways with the men who willingly staked their own lives for him.

Following Sirius, he disappeared into the shadows of the forest, escorted by the other Coral Warriors.

Meanwhile, his retainers, now a complete imitation of him, led their own detachment of soldiers and ran in opposite directions.

***

Siegfried observed the movements of the rebels in real-time through the Inzaghi’s Clairvoyance.

“Well, well... so they’re scattering,” he muttered with a smirk as he watched the rebels split into separate groups.

Abandoning all thoughts of resistance and fleeing in different directions, at this point, was truly a reasonable choice. Staying together would only lead to them getting surrounded by the empire’s elite troops, so this was truly the best option with the highest chances of survival.

What about the saying united we stand and divided we fall? That kind of thinking would get them all killed in this situation.

‘You can run, but you can’t hide,’ Siegfried thought with a grin.

He could track Giorgetto’s movements without any problems, so this kind of smokescreen tactic was not going to work on him.

‘Time to hunt!’

He ran in the direction where Giorgetto was fleeing.

Meanwhile, the Marchioni Empire’s elite troops finally arrived, and they quickly scattered throughout the forest.

Five minutes had already passed, and the warp gate was now fully operational. It warped in a staggering one hundred thousand imperial troops, ready to search every nook and cranny of the forest.

‘Hot damn...’ Siegfried clicked his tongue inwardly as the entire forest became infested with imperial troops.

Right after the empire’s troops spread throughout the forest, Siegfried’s mini-map lit up, showing signs of skirmishes breaking out all over the battlefield.

‘Oh? Isn’t he a lucky bastard?’ Siegfried watched as Giorgetto led his men and evaded the imperial troops.

However, it lasted only for a moment.

Siegfried hid at a narrow path where Giorgetto’s group was approaching.

‘They’re coming. Thirty meters, twenty, ten, and... now!’

The moment they were meters away from him, he activated Embrace of Despair.

He considered using Absolute Zero too, but there was a chance Giorgetto would not survive the freezing effect.

Thus, he decided to err on the side of caution and use a non-lethal debuff skill.

“...?!”

“...?!”

Just as he thought, Embrace of Despair was more than enough.

Giorgetto and his band of rebels were suddenly ensnared, struggling against an invisible force restraining them.

All except one.

A Coral with pink skin broke free from the Embrace of Despair and charged straight at Siegfried.

Judging by how the others remained trapped, Siegfried knew immediately that this one was uniquely powerful even among the otherworldly creatures.

“Out of my way, imperial dog!”

With a roar, the Coral swung what appeared to be a club.

Whoosh!

Blue flames burst from the tip and formed an aura blade that shaped itself into the head of a battle-axe.

However, the club swung by the Coral wasn't an ordinary club. It was an entirely different kind of weapon where the blade was composed of an aura-like energy.

“...!” Siegfried’s instincts screamed at him.

He hurriedly transformed his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp into a shield and dug his feet into the ground, bracing for impact.

Baaam!

The axe and shield collided, unleashing a violent shockwave and sparks.

“Argh!”

Siegfried gritted his teeth as the impact sent him sliding back nearly five meters.

‘It got... scratched?’

What surprised Siegfried was the fact that his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp ended up getting scratched from impact.

This was impossible.

The +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp had infinite durability, making it a weapon that could not be destroyed by physical force alone.

And yet it was scratched?

‘What in the world is that...?’

His mind raced as he flashed his Rune of Insight at the weapon that the otherworldly creature was using. He could not help but wonder just what kind of weapon that ordinary-looking club was that it actually scratched his +16 Vanquisher’s Grasp.