- Deadlock

When Drago arrived on the left wing, countless bodies of both human and demon were strewn on the ground as a lone figure wielding two long daggers was standing at the center.

"EDGE! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Drago shouted with rage as he approached the man clad in death energy.

Edge did not respond as he held his head up looking at the sky.

The soldiers who followed Drago were in shock as they saw the massive pool of blood and carpet of bodies. Some of these were their friends. Some of them were family. They could accept it if they fell at the hands of enemies but to fall in the hands of someone they once looked up to... their hearts were burning with anger.

"EDGE! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" Some of the soldiers began to scream as they charged towards him.

"STAND DOWN!" Drago shouted and released a heavy pressure to stop the rampaging soldiers on their tracks.

However, some of them had strong wills and lost all reason. Drago only saw an eerie flicker and their heads fell followed by their bodies.

The next moment, right before his eyes was Edge's face as daggers were dropping diagonally towards both sides of his neck.

While Zex could follow his movements, Drago could not and it was too late for him to dodge.

The daggers drew blood but were not able to proceed any further as Drago dropped both Etherguard and Avegar before blocking Edge's forearms.

Edge used his momentum from falling, smoothly transitioning into a dropkick and somersaulted backward, gracefully landing on his feet like a cat.

Drago stumbled back from the force of Edge's kick. Seeing Edge's blank expression, he knew that there was no use talking. He had no other choice but to subdue him.

Using both of his heavy weapons was not an option against Edge who was insanely fast.

However, Drago was also trained in various weapons. He picked a saber and a short sword from the floor, got himself familiar with their weights, and took a fighting stance.

Edge was the first to step in and brandish his daggers to which Drago was able to block. After a series of exchanges, it was clear that Drago was at a disadvantage. What frightened him and Zex both was that Edge wasn't even employing death energy in his attacks.

While Drago was focused on fighting, Zex split his attention to the surroundings and the corpses on the ground. The demons were approaching them and the soldiers intercepted.

He had a weird feeling the moment Drago arrived in the left wing. There was also something suspicious about Edge's condition and his evasive answers that night in the tent.

A while later... he found enough clues. Initially, he thought that Edge was losing control of the death energy or that he was being drunk with the abundance of it. However, he was wondering why Edge wasn't using death energy as he was battling Drago in a seemingly unconscious state.

Looking at Edge, it felt like he was moving completely based on his instincts. However, if this was the Edge he fought back then in the forest, he might have died easily. It was only because of Drago's skill and experience in combat that he was able to keep up.

He did not notice it early on because Edge was absorbing the death energy in the surrounding area but as the battle progressed, he was able to gather more information thanks to Drago repeatedly shifting angles of sight. After confirming it a couple of times, he concluded that almost all of the human corpses lying on the ground have already turned rotten. Human flesh would not rot before a significant time passed after their death.

There was only one answer: 'They were reanimated.'

Of course, Drago had no way of knowing this, and Zex had no way of informing anyone about his findings. He even felt stupid for giving the effort but the repeated battles bored him. Therefore, he took the time to observe more of the surroundings and saw some of the soldiers who were fighting a distance away, had suspicious looks on their faces as they kept looking over at the battle between Drago and Edge, whispering. He also saw that most of them had neither blood stains nor dents on their armors and blades as if they never fought a single battle despite the march starting a week ago.

'So this was an inside job.' He deduced.

Drago and Edge were still locked in combat and neither was showing any signs of winning anytime soon. While Drago was being pushed back time and time again, he was too bulky that he could endure a lot of suffering.

Just when Zex thought of daydreaming, light chains wrapped around Edge's joints locking him in place.

Seeing this, Drago dropped his blades and punched Edge unconscious.

"You are late!" Drago said to the new arrival.

"I arrived moments ago. There were just things I needed to confirm." Arissef replied as he opened a portal dropping a tied-up soldier, who groaned in pain as he reached the ground.

"You can do that now? Ahem... Explain." Drago was both surprised at Arissef's space magic and was genuinely confused as to why he tied up a Grimley soldier.

Arissef nodded as he made a sound barrier so the soldiers could not hear their discussion. "I did some investigating on the rumors surrounding Edge for days now. At first, I thought it was him losing control of the death energy..." He pretty much arrived at the same conclusion as Zex did.

However, through his investigations, he was also able to uncover a plot that sought to kill Edge and further drive his name down to mud.

The Entolo family along with several nobles with ties to them have hired mercenaries and planted them together with their private soldiers to join the army. They also bribed the detachment commanders to manipulate the assignments on the left-wing.

Arissef's expression grew cold as he explained further that Edge, since the beginning of their march towards the castle, technically fought the demons alone.

At first there were soldiers who were not in on the scheme and aided Edge in the fight. However, the rest of the men isolated them and watched as they were cut down one after another. As time went by, those who wanted to help Edge were becoming fewer, and the final few died in battle, leaving Edge to face the waves of demons on his own.

What's worse was that there were a few necromancers that Entolo and other nobles hired who blended in with the soldiers. When the rumors started, they reanimated those soldiers who died fighting beside Edge and subtly made them attack him, forcing him to 'take their lives'. They also sent assassins at night to kill him but they never succeeded.

Edge was fighting alone against hundreds of demons in the day, while fending off assassins at night. In other words, he hasn't slept for days. It was no wonder how erratic Edge was acting that particular night.

The detachment commanders reassigned innocent soldiers to the left wing in the next days to witness Edge's 'rampage'. They were then rotated to other formations to spread the rumor. Finally, they reached Drago.

"They were planning for you to kill him." Arissef said with a serious face.

Hearing all these and looking at the unconscious Edge, Zex could feel Drago's blood boiling. A familiar feeling that he hasn't experienced in years during the [Blood Reincarnation].

"Calm down!" Feeling the rising intensity of Drago's emotions, Arissef stopped him from erupting. "The nobles who were after your head are also involved in this. If you act against them now like Edge did, there is no telling how they can twist the story against your favor."

At these words, Drago took a deep breath and composed himself. "What do you suggest we do?"

"The detachment commanders mixed in some innocent soldiers within the left wing. I believe some of them already had their families threatened while some of them have heard the rumors and 'confirmed' it themselves with what they saw today." Arissef paused before continuing. "We will only continue to lose more soldiers if this war continues. We might also lose Edge if we are not careful."

Drago furrowed his brows as he asked: "Are you saying we should retreat?"

Arissef smiled. "No..."

"We storm in!"