NOVPUBThe secret branch of the Black Dawn nestled in Baltanung.
“Hurry it up!”
“We have to meet the quota today!”
“What the hell are you doing over there?!”
Shouts erupted from every direction, mingling with the thick, suffocating smoke that filled the interior.
Managers in gas masks barked orders as they herded the workers like livestock.
The workers’ faces were gaunt, hollowed out from days without proper sleep.
Worse yet, they'd been inhaling the pungent stench of chemicals without any protection. They were little more than the walking dead.
Thud.
One skeletal worker collapsed to the floor, unable to endure the brutal conditions.
“Tch. What now?”
A gas-masked manager approached and prodded the man with a baton.
“Hey. Get up. I said get up.”
But the fallen worker didn’t move.
The manager leaned closer to check—and saw his eyes completely glazed over.
He had overdosed from constant exposure to the airborne drugs.
“Tch. This one’s done too.”
“What happened?”
“Lost another one.”
“Again? Hah!”
A colleague who had come over in case of trouble just laughed as if it were nothing new.
“Don’t laugh, damn it. Can’t you see how bad this is?”
“Who cares? This city’s overflowing with scum like him. Just grab a few more off the street and bring ’em in.”
“Not unless they’re ready to work right now. We’re barely making quota as it is.”
“Well, what else can we do? The Rederbelk branch was wiped out. Now we have to pick up the slack.”
“Goddamn it, I’m gonna lose my mind.”
Exploiting workers with a few coins was easy—but their productivity was abysmal.
And now that Rederbelk's entire operation had gone under, the pressure to fill the missing quota had shifted here.
The managers felt like they were bleeding out every day.
“Anyway, I heard someone important from HQ is coming. We’d better not screw this up.”
“Who?”
“You know, that guy...”
“Oh. The First Order guy?”
These two gas-masked men weren’t official Black Dawn members, just mercenaries hired to do subcontract work for money.
They didn’t broadcast their involvement in illegal operations—but they didn’t feel any loyalty to the Black Dawn either.
“Yeah. I heard he’s in charge of the whole drug operation.”
“Jesus. Where the hell are they planning to distribute all this?”
“And this stuff isn’t even regular product.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know all the details. But you know this drug we’re making?”
“What about it?”
“I heard it’s actually a failed product. Leftover residue from some other process.”
“This stuff? The one that makes junkies lose their minds from a single whiff?”
“What the hell was it supposed to be, then?”
“No clue. But I heard black mages are involved. And that one of their top men is coming here.”
“Shit. That means the branch manager’s one of them, too.”
The man shivered, as though he’d just heard something he wasn’t meant to.
If it involved black mages, you stayed the hell away.
Get noticed by someone like that, and you'd be lucky to end up in a lab instead of a coffin.
“Still, who knows. It’s just rumors. And honestly, the atmosphere here doesn’t feel that urgent.”
“So just gossip, huh?”
“Pretty much. Let’s just do our jobs. Wanna grab a beer after this?”
“You can drink in this reeking dump?”
“Don’t care. Just drink it.”
While they joked around, one of the mercs glanced down at the floor.
“Was there always a puddle here?”
“Maybe someone spilled something.”
“Doesn’t look like it. Look—it’s still spreading. Did a groundwater pipe burst?”
This place was ancient and crumbling—maintenance hadn’t been a thing for years.
Maybe a rusted sewage pipe finally gave out.
The mercs hesitated—should they report this?
Then suddenly, the trickle of water gushing from the floor surged upward, spraying toward the ceiling.
“W-whoa!”
The mercs stared blankly.
The rising water trembled—and then violently lashed out in all directions.
Iron beams twisted from the pressure, and crates full of drugs toppled in a crash.
“W-what the hell?!”
“I don’t know!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The factory floor exploded as jets of water burst upward from multiple points.
The living water pillars thrashed through the factory, wreaking havoc.
The event was so sudden, so unnatural, the managers froze in place, unable to react.
“What the hell is going on?!”
A thunderous voice boomed from deeper inside.
A disheveled middle-aged man appeared—instantly freezing the mercenaries in fear.
“M-Mr. Branch Manager!”
“...What is this?”
He didn’t bother answering his subordinates. His half-lidded eyes opened wide.
He’d come to check out the noise—only to find water pillars ripping through the factory.
And this wasn’t just ordinary water—these pillars slithered like serpents through the air.
One of them shot toward him.
The man clicked his tongue and pulled back his right arm.
“You think this is an attack?”
He threw a punch.
These water pillars could bend steel.
Meeting one barehanded was suicide.
But the man didn’t so much as flinch.
BOOM!
It was the water that burst apart.
The scattered liquid rained down across the factory.
The mercs stared in horror.
“He... he punched the water apart.”
“It is him... The ‘Knight Slayer’...”
Black Mage Molroch.
A wanted criminal listed on the Empire’s bounty boards—
A black mage whose body had been enhanced beyond human limits.
His nickname: Knight Slayer.
He earned it by tearing a knight—someone said to have surpassed human limits—apart with his bare hands.
“Damn it... I was having a good nap, and now this? ...Hmm?”
Molroch paused, narrowing his eyes at the figure standing in his path.
“Who the hell are you?”
The man was strange.
His body was shrouded in pure shadow, and his face was hidden behind a crow-beaked gas mask.
Clearly a magical construct.
“Ohh. So you’re the one behind this attack?”
He looked every bit the culprit behind the chaos.
Ludger found that slightly unfair.
‘This wasn’t me.’
Casey Selmore. So she really had to throw water on everything before she left.
Well—her disruption had made it easier to infiltrate.
But Ludger still felt annoyed. He preferred clean work, and this was anything but.
‘The place is already flooded. No way to move in secret anymore.’
So he stepped into view, directly in front of the man who seemed to be the local leader.
Molroch wasn’t pleased.
“To show yourself before me, Molroch, so boldly... I’ll give you credit for courage.”
He rolled his shoulders, warming up.
And then—his body started to grow.
Not a trick of the eye—his frame was visibly enlarging.
The clothes he wore ripped under the pressure of swelling muscles.
Bulging veins throbbed across his body as he loomed over Ludger.
“You interrupted my nap. So I won’t kill you quickly. I’ll play with you for a while.”
“Molroch the Knight Slayer, huh.”
Ludger murmured the name as he watched the transformation.
He’d heard of him.
A black mage who killed knights with his bare hands.
The rumors had sounded ridiculous—until now.
Seeing that colossal body, it all made sense.
“You modified yourself with enhancement drugs and body surgery.”
“Oho. Looks like you’ve done your homework.”
Molroch’s physique was the product of black magic’s madness.
There was no other way a human could be over three meters tall.
‘He’d have made a great match for Phantos.’
But unfortunately, Ludger had to be the one to deal with him.
“I don’t know how you found this place, but meeting me means your life ends today.”
Molroch crouched low.
He looked like a cannonball made of muscle.
Ludger wondered what he was trying to do.
And then—
BOOM!
Molroch’s massive body launched like a cannonball.
Sensing something coming, Ludger immediately threw himself to the side.
A tremendous gust swept past him, followed by an explosive roar behind.
BOOM!
Turning around, Ludger clicked his tongue at the destruction.
‘That’s insane.’
A high-pressure steel steam tank had been punctured—left with a massive hole.
Those tanks were designed to withstand serious force. Even direct hits wouldn’t usually faze them.
And yet... that brute had punched clean through one.
Strength and speed that utterly belied his size.
‘He didn’t even coat his body in mana. He did that purely with raw physical power?’
No wonder he was called the Knight Slayer.
With a body enhanced to this degree, he could probably tear most knights apart with his bare hands.
“Hahaha! You actually dodged that!”
Molroch emerged from the wreckage, grinning as he looked at Ludger.
He was genuinely thrilled. At last, a target worth toying with.
Ludger drew a black revolver from his belt and aimed it at Molroch.
“A gun? How quaint. I’ll have you know—I’m a mage.”
Molroch instantly activated [Silence of Fire].
Even with a magic that neutralized firearms, Ludger pulled the trigger.
‘So you can still cast spells inside the field, huh?’
BANG! BANG!
Muzzle flashes lit up as compressed mana bullets fired at Molroch. 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝙗.𝒄𝒐𝒎
But the shots bounced harmlessly off his skin.
“Heh. Not a normal gun, I see. But too bad for you—even that won’t scratch my muscles.”
These were mana rounds capable of piercing steel.
Yet they didn’t even leave a mark.
In terms of durability, Molroch’s body was on par with Veron—the beetle-armored member of the Bug Brothers.
‘This is why I hate dealing with black mages.’
Regular mages fought using magic, and their tactics were predictable. Just a bit of pressure and they'd crumble.
But black mages were different.
They broke the rules. No fight with them ever followed logic.
FWOOSH!
Ludger cast a wave of flame toward Molroch, a raging inferno rushing forward like a tidal wave.
“You think that’ll stop me?!”
Molroch spread his arms wide—then clapped his hands together.
BOOM!
A shockwave burst from his palms, blasting the flames back.
He smirked at his own display of strength—
—but then he felt something tighten around his neck.
“...What the—?”
Without realizing it, Ludger had climbed onto his shoulders, wrapping a snow-white wire around his throat.
“The fire was just a distraction to obscure your vision.”
Skreeee—
The wire screeched against his skin.
Even though it wasn’t an ordinary wire, it failed to cut even a millimeter into his flesh.
“You think this toy can cut my skin?”
Molroch reached up—but Ludger had already leapt off his shoulders.
As he landed, he fired the revolver again, aiming for Molroch’s eyes.
No matter how strong your body, you couldn’t reinforce your eyeballs.
Molroch instinctively shielded his face with an arm.
“You’re a slippery little bastard. And you know how to fight.”
He used magic, sure—but his fighting style focused on deception and exploiting weaknesses.
Not a typical mage.
More like a war mage—one trained to operate on battlefields.
A military man, maybe? But if he were from the army, he wouldn’t be alone.
At first, Molroch had thought of him as a chew toy. But now, he was curious.
He wanted to see his face.
But as he moved, he felt a sudden tightness around his body.
“...What now?”
Looking closely, he saw it—nearly invisible wires wrapped around his limbs like a spider’s web.
They were tethered to all sorts of heavy objects throughout the factory.
“...Interesting.”
Molroch grinned, flexing.
Crack!
His muscles bulged, straining against the wires.
Creak...!
The heavy machinery tied to the wires began to shake, dragged along the floor.
“This trick’ll only buy you a few seconds.”
“That’s all I need.”
Ludger muttered as he raised a finger and pointed at Molroch.
What was he doing? Some kind of spell?
As if that’ll work. Molroch dismissed it as a bluff.
Ludger lowered his finger.
“...What?”
What had he just done?
Before the thought could finish forming, blood welled up in Molroch’s throat.
“Urgh! Wh-what...?”
Strength drained from his body.
He hadn’t seen an attack.
His reinforced body should’ve repelled any normal blow—and yet, he had been hit.
How?
Molroch, having rebuilt his body from the inside out, knew immediately what had happened.
“You... pierced my heart...”
The heart.
Shielded by bone, muscle, and thick flesh—considered the most protected organ in the human body.
Now had a gaping hole torn straight through it.
Molroch forced his muscles to slow his blood flow.
It wouldn’t save him—but it would delay the inevitable.
“You bastard... what did you do...”
“I just calculated coordinates.”
“Coordinates...?”
“If attacking from the outside didn’t work, then I attacked from within.”
He’d ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) distracted Molroch, drawn his attention, locked him in place—
—just long enough to act.
“A regular mage or knight couldn’t pull it off—the mana and aura around their bodies would interfere. But someone like you, who’s all drugs and brute force? You're easier. You let your guard down.”
Molroch’s eyes widened.
He tried to say something—but all that came out was a flood of blood.
D—amn...
His eyes rolled back as his massive frame collapsed.
For a man with the notorious title Knight Slayer, it was a pathetically anticlimactic end.
“Well then...”
With the branch manager gone, it was time to clean up the rest.
Ludger was about to move—
When—
“Well, well. What a mess this is, hmm?”
A new voice made him stop and turn.
There stood a man.
Bald, middle-aged, wearing laboratory goggles over his face and a crisp white lab coat.
He looked, by all appearances, like a scientist.
“I came to check on the project’s progress, and it seems we have an uninvited guest.”
Ludger didn’t recognize the face, but he knew who it had to be.
Victor Dreadpool.
First Order of the Black Dawn.
The mad scientist behind countless experiments.
Without a word, Ludger raised his revolver and aimed it at Victor.
