Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 537

- Krahahaha! Well? What do you think? This is Umbra’s proud masterpiece—the ultimate legion, the Black Army.

The Black Army.

Also called the Shadow Knights, it was one of the essences of shadow magic created by Umbra, who was known as both a Shadowmancer and the Shadow Lord.

It had summoned so many shadow knights that they completely filled the interior of the Subspace House.

It was incredible.

Because this was the first time in my life I had seen this many summons.

At that moment, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Hey.”

- Yeah?

“So... Umbra had an army this big and still couldn’t win the Independence Game?”

- That’s right.

“......”

Su-ho closed his eyes.

He had boldly declared that he would take responsibility for both Umbra and the spirit realm, but hearing that even an army of this scale had failed to win the Independence Game suddenly made the game’s difficulty look insane.

Jack chuckled.

- Heh-heh-heh. Why? Are you finally getting scared? The Independence Game is that kind of place. A battlefield where all kinds of monsters from every imaginable world gather and fight like mad, staking everything on their own salvation. That’s the place you’re heading to.

“...I see. Then let me ask one more thing.”

- What is it?

“When Umbra tested me, why didn’t he bring out the Black Army?”

- Because I stepped in instead.

“What do you mean by that?”

- Now that you’re my master, I’ll be honest. Shadow magic actually has one fatal weakness.

“A fatal weakness?”

- Yeah. The fatal weakness of shadow magic. To use shadow magic—especially to command shadow summons—you need that much shadow to begin with. In other words, if you summon an army this big, the version of me you saw during your test can’t appear in battle. We call this the Law of Total Shadow Mass.

“Ah.”

I understood immediately.

In other words, shadow magic followed a principle similar to the blood magic I possessed.

'No matter how powerful the Blood Sword is, that only applies when there’s enough blood stored in my Blood Crystal.'

If there’s only a small amount of blood inside the Blood Crystal, then instead of a Blood Sword, at best I’d only be able to draw a Blood Dagger.

And if the Blood Sword dulls or breaks, I wouldn’t even be able to repair it.

“It’s similar to my blood magic. If the Blood Crystal runs low on blood, I can’t use blood magic anymore. Then the best way to compensate for shadow magic’s weakness would be to store as many shadows as possible in advance, right?”

- Exactly. Looks like you’re not just a fake smart guy after all.

“You don’t need to be smart to figure that out—even an idiot could. Still, Umbra is impressive. The fact that he still had this many shadows stored even after the Independence Game... If Umbra had had even more shadows...”

At that moment—

“I see. But now that I think about it—forget the secrecy for a second—why is time frozen? And why are people’s shadows being taken so they don’t age?”

- I’ll tell you the reason later. So if you’re curious, use the rune as soon as you get out.

The last question Su-ho had asked Umbra resurfaced in his mind.

'No way...'

Su-ho’s eyes widened.

At the same time, he looked at Jack with a doubtful expression.

Seeing Su-ho’s face, Jack gave a bitter smile.

- You really are smart. You figured it out already.

“...No, right?”

- Yes.

“You know what I’m about to ask?”

- Why play word games? Let’s just be honest. No—ask me straight.

“......”

After taking a moment to steady his breathing, Su-ho asked again.

“You mean the reason the people of the spirit realm had no shadows... was because Umbra deliberately confiscated them to pass as many shadows as possible to the betting Player?”

- More or less.

“Ha...!”

His guess had been right.

The reason the people of the spirit realm had no shadows—

was because Umbra wanted to pass the maximum possible amount of shadows to the Player he believed to be the final hope.

“So that’s why he didn’t answer....”

- Don’t hate him too much. The reason he couldn’t answer in the end is because he feels a tremendous sense of guilt about it himself. But you should know this too—no one is more sincere than he is when it comes to wanting to save the spirit realm.

“......”

Su-ho didn’t reply.

But it wasn’t because he hated Umbra.

If anything, he understood.

Umbra, as the guardian deity of the spirit realm, had probably been more sincere than anyone about achieving the realm’s independence, just as Jack had said.

'Gathering all the shadows of the spirit realm’s people must have been what he believed was the best option.'

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