Dark Warlock in the Apocalypse

At first, Justin thought he had misheard. What? The leaders were executing civilians to escape the Wave?

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I don't know the full details, but that's what the civilians are saying," Emily replied anxiously.

"Damn it," Justin cursed as he got out of bed, quickly changing clothes while trying to process the situation.

Executing civilians to stop the Wave? What did civilians have to do with the Wave? Justin tried to recall what the system had said during the first Wave.

"The Wave will continue until the monster forces are destroyed or until a certain number of humans die."

"...Come to think of it, that is what it said," Justin muttered, rubbing his temples in frustration.

The system had referred to humans, not Pioneers or civilians—just humans. This meant the condition could be fulfilled even if it wasn't Pioneers dying but civilians. It wasn't a certainty, but if a leader had witnessed this firsthand, everything would make sense.

At first, the leaders likely hadn't been sure. But if they had failed to stop the Wave, or for some reason, a massacre had taken place, and the Wave ended because of that, they would have realized it. After witnessing that, it wouldn't be surprising if they chose to sacrifice civilians to save their own lives.

"Damn it. I should have thought of this possibility sooner." Justin gritted his teeth, frustrated that he had missed such a twisted solution. In the heat of battle, he had only been thinking of himself and the other Pioneers. He had never considered the possibility that someone would think to kill civilians to stop the Wave.

After all, when the city walls were breached, Justin had always assumed that meant it was over for him. He had believed that once civilians were exposed, it was game over. But now, to his shock, someone had found a way to exploit the system's loophole.

"Damn, they're disgustingly creative," Justin muttered bitterly.

"Kurreuk..." Pafnir, still half-asleep, grumbled from Justin's shoulder as if in agreement.

Once Justin had finished getting dressed, he met Emily, who was anxiously waiting outside. Without wasting time, he strode down the corridor, calling out questions as he moved.

"You said the civilians are gathering at the gate? How many are there?"

"It's hard to tell exactly in the dark, but at least two hundred. And more kept arriving as I left, so the number could be higher by now," she replied.

"What about the other Pioneers? You didn't just inform me, did you?"

"I ordered the guards who reported to me to wake everyone. By now, the Pioneers should be heading to the gate as well," Emily reassured him.

"Good work!" Justin said, increasing his pace.

The third Wave, the hardest of them all, was coming the next day. Justin had hoped to let the others rest as much as possible, even if it meant dealing with this situation alone. But things were too dire for that. Soon, the civilians would be followed by the desperate Pioneers who had lost their sacrifices.

'If the civilians escape, that means fewer sacrificial lambs for the others,' Justin thought grimly.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

At any other time, it might not have mattered, but now, there was no place for the Pioneers to retreat. No leader would turn a blind eye to escaping civilians

Justin stood firm, knowing they had four Pioneers who had completed their second advancement, including himself. There was no way the cowardly leaders sacrificing civilians would stand a chance against them. The real issue was that in less than ten hours, the third Wave, the hardest one, would begin.

'If I waste any more skills now, I'll regret it later,' Justin thought. It would be reckless to throw away his few powerful skills on a minor skirmish when they would soon face a much bigger threat. He couldn't afford to use up his best abilities against weaklings when the real challenge was yet to come.

"We could stay on the wall and be safe, but then we'd give the impression that all they need to do is avoid long-range attacks," Justin muttered. "To properly threaten them, we need to get within range of their warriors."

"It's not a situation where threats will work," Zachary whispered, looking uneasy. "It's clear they're from more than one territory. At least fifteen domains, I'd guess, and all those domains must have sent pursuers. There will be more of them coming."

They could win in a fight. Their forces were overwhelming. The problem was that the opposition didn't know that. To make a credible threat, Justin would have to show their strength, but that meant wasting precious skills.

"And we're not overwhelming them in numbers right now," Zachary added. "Even with the reinforcements from Emily's group, we only have thirty-two people. That's hardly enough to intimidate them."

Justin grinned at Zachary's words.

"Who said we have only thirty-two?"

"...What?" Zachary blinked in confusion.

"We have far more than that." Justin smirked, then uttered a spell.

"Mirror Image."

Zachary's eyes widened in shock as he watched the spell unfold.

The oppressive silence that had settled outside the gate still lingered. The image of thirty Pioneers being struck down by a bolt of cursed lightning was fresh in everyone's minds. But now, three minutes had passed since Justin had descended from the wall, and the lack of any response was starting to fray the patience of the Pioneers outside.

'What's taking so long?'

'What are they doing in there?'

'Maybe we should just grab the civilians and run for it...'

The muttering was growing louder, and the civilians, terrified, were trembling as they realized chaos could break out at any moment.

Just as things were on the verge of erupting, there was a loud rumble.

"...!"

Before the Pioneers' patience completely ran out, the gate began to open. The Pioneers immediately drew their weapons, ready to fight if they had to. They were prepared to take the civilians by force if it came to that.

'What an idiot. Why come out when he could just cast spells from the wall?' one of the Pioneers thought.

'Does he think he's invincible? Magicians are only dangerous from a distance,' another sneered.

'Let's see if he still acts tough when he faces all of us head-on,' someone else thought, smirking.

But their sneers faded as soon as they saw what came through the gate. A flood of figures poured out—many, many more than expected.

Easily more than eighty.

Even accounting for some margin of error, it looked like close to a hundred people. The number was almost on par with the combined forces of the other territories.

"What the hell...?" someone muttered under their breath, speaking for all of them.

Where had Justin's people come from? It didn't make sense. How had he gathered such a large force in such a short time?

Before anyone could process the situation, Justin stepped forward, his expression cold.

"Who are you people? Why the hell are you causing trouble at this hour?" he demanded.

The Pioneers from the other domains remained silent, taken aback by the sudden show of force.

"I'm not here to yell at you," Justin continued. "Just answer the question. What's going on?"

"The civilians ran off, so we came to capture them," one of the Pioneers from another domain finally replied.

Justin's eyes narrowed as he pointed his finger at the man. The Pioneer flinched, clearly recalling the devastating bolt of lightning from earlier.

"I asked for an answer, not for you to talk down to me. Want me to kill you for that?" Justin asked coldly.

"S-sorry!" the man stammered, quickly correcting his tone.

Justin lowered his hand. "Now explain properly. Why did the civilians run away, and why did you come after them? I heard something about executions."

Before the Pioneer could respond, one of the civilians, filled with anger and desperation, shouted from the crowd.

"They were killing us to save their own skins!"

The outburst acted like a trigger, and soon civilians from all directions started shouting.

"They killed us for no reason!"

Continue your journey on empire

"Those bastards promised to protect us, and then they just started killing us!"

"What, is it only your lives that matter?"

"Shut up!" Justin roared, his voice full of menace.

The civilians fell silent, the anger and fear fading quickly under Justin's glare. He turned back to the Pioneers, his eyes narrowing as he pointed his staff at one of them.

"You. Explain. What's all this talk of executions?" Justin demanded.

"M-me?" The Pioneer who had been singled out stammered, his face paling.

"Yeah, you. Start talking. What's going on with these executions?" Justin pressed.

The Pioneer's expression twisted in discomfort. This was an ugly truth they had hoped to avoid revealing in front of outsiders. It was a matter of survival, something they had been willing to do, but discussing it openly was another story altogether.

'Does he really not know?' the Pioneer wondered, glancing at Justin. As a Pioneer himself, Justin must have heard the system's conditions for ending the Wave. He should have figured out the situation by now.

'Why's he making me spell it out, then?'

The Pioneer hesitated, but in the end, there was no choice. He had to explain, whether he liked it or not. After all, Justin and his people held all the power here.