Chapter 113
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Erin Danua (3) ༻
The building we were in collapsed from a single attack. Removing the rubble and stone debris, we stood up from the pile of dust.
“That just then…”
“That was Gerolge’s Doom Bolt.”
“I thought he always stayed inside a certain area, though?” I asked.
“There are times when something different happens, but… this one is definitely a first.”
Even though I was asking questions about the situation at hand, I was actually more aware of what was happening right now than Erin.
Nazrea was a field that gave out repeat quests where you built up ‘favor points’ with the Grim Reaper and traded them for treasures. In the game, however, there was a more difficult method that allowed the player to build the Grim Reaper’s favor level a lot faster.
That was the so-called Nazrea Nightmare mode.
An infinite resurrection of lower-grade undead as well as the three bosses of Nazrea, as well as the unlimited teleportation of Gerolge, who was usually supposed to stay in his own area.
That was what this was; a battle against Gerolge, the True Immortal King.
“Haa… Looks like we picked the wrong day.”
In fact, this was a random high-difficulty quest event that popped up in the game after several repetitions of Nazrea. It was only by clearing this event that the player could freely choose between the normal and the nightmare mode.
“Korin. We are in a pretty place right now. We need to find a place to hide and come up with a concrete plan.”
“Yes. For now…”
❰Doom Bolt❱
- KWAAAAAANG!!
****
◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼————!!
◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼————!!
◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼————!!
Storm, tempest, blizzard.
The torrent of corpses filled the ground. The howls of the dead and the screams of the corpses trembled the city and everything in it.
A city of 3 days.
The world of the undead had been following a regular set of rules until now.
The first rule was that everything would return to the first day after the third night, and the second rule was that the undead of each region tended to stay where they were.
Because of the ruination of Nazrea not lasting for over three days, the actors of the short and repetitive act had no room for any improvisation.
However, they were clearly going against that second rule; they were all leaving the stage.
1.2 million undead.
Human eyes couldn’t possibly count the sheer number of them, and it was therefore not an understatement to say that there were an infinite number of corpses.
“W, what in the world is going on?!”
A battle priest who had been stationed at Nazrea, Priest Kroos, was appalled at the sight of all the undead of the area of his supervision moving at once.
He spotted at least 10,000 undead going in the same direction, and so did the other priests of the Old and New Faiths, from the several observatory camps that had been set by the two religions.
‘They are all heading to the same place?’
Every single one of them was facing the same way. They were all headed to the most dangerous area of Nazrea - District A of the Immortal King.
After evolving into the True Immortal King, Gerolge was gathering all the undead of the city into one place.
It was an infinite wave of monsters; a march of 1.2 million undead.
****
“Kuhup…!”
“Korin! Are you okay?”
“It’s just a little graze.”
After the ray of light devoured the building, all the debris that managed to survive from being disintegrated was melting from the heat.
Thanks to his instincts, it took him 0.1 seconds to dodge the attack. It was a wonderful dodge and he wasn’t even hit by the ray of light, but the heat still managed to tear at his skin.
That was the strongest spell of Gerolge the Immortal King, ❰Doom Bolt❱. This magic spell that was as powerful as a grand spell had the ability to disintegrate everything in its linear path.
“I wonder what’s stronger between this and the Sun.”
“Now’s not the time for that! There is another one coming…!”
- Kwaang!
Down came another Doom Bolt. Korin somehow managed to dodge it thanks to anticipating the attack this time, but the aftershock sweeping past his body was still as mighty as a medium-grade spell.
The two of them immediately started racing down the back alleyway of Nazrea in an attempt to get away from Gerolge’s sight.
“In this city, Gerolge has close to an infinite amount of mana. He can shoot hundreds of them and will still have mana until sunrise…!”
“Seriously… That’s even more than what Park Sihu had in his prime…!”
“And who is that?!”
“Just a random guy!”
Doom Bolt wasn’t the only spell flying at them. The Lich was also using a wide-area attack spell, Black Cloud, and one that amplified the movements of undead by an enormous margin, the Land of Death.
Each and every one of those spells were at the level of a grand spell, and yet he was casting them one after another.
It was to be expected of a great mage from 300 years ago. Korin thought to himself that it was ridiculous that Gerolge’s body was able to keep up with so much output, regardless of whether he had the infinite amount of mana supply or not.
“Let’s hide for now…! We need to aim for a surprise attac—”
“Korin. Under you…!”
Before Erin even finished her warning, a rotten corpse sprinted out of a building wall.
An undead with a rotten face, melting eyes, and a disoriented tongue scraped at Korin’s chin with its sharp claws.
“Tch…!”
It was a medium-level undead called Hunter. It was a monster that only excelled in surprise attacks and Korin could easily deal with one, but the problem was that his feet had been forced to a pause.
- Kugugung…!
“A lightning bolt! Watch out!”
In that split second, Erin moved her fingers and wrote a Rune of Defense on Korin. At the same time, Hunter dashed at them along the complex walls of the back alleyway.
The monster was extremely fast. Because of the AOE buff spell, Land of Death, the monster’s physical stats had been amplified to the level of a semi-Grade 1 demonic beast.
“Kaaaahk…!”
“You might be stronger and all but…!”
- Slam!
In the blink of an eye, Korin kicked Hunter up with his foot. It was a miraculous feat that was only possible because he had read the exact trajectory of the monster.
“It’s still the same pattern as always though!”
Floating up to the air, the Hunter was placed right beneath the lightning bolt falling from the Black Cloud.
- Kugung!
The lightning strike turned the Hunter into ashes and demolished the defense spell that Erin had carved on his body. It only managed to buy him a split moment but that was more than enough for him.
Sixth Style, Shura.
Using the sudden increase in physical stats, Korin sprinted out of the range of the lightning bolt.
- Kwagang!
The lightning struck down onto the ground and covered the surrounding area with its aftermath. The explosion of air that threatened to destroy everything nearby pushed Korin’s body away.
Kajik! He crashed into one of the buildings with his back. He was about to stand back up and collect himself but Erin shouted a piece of advice into his ears.
“Don’t stop your feet! Move in three dimensions…!”
Following her words, Korin kicked off the walls of the back alleyway and jumped left and right, and up and down.
- Kwang! Kwaang! Kwagang!
“He knows where we are way too well. Do you think he has a way to see through walls?”
“There are hundreds of buildings between us and Gerolge. Most spells won’t allow you to see through so many walls like that!”
“You mean…”
Soon, the two of them came to the same conclusion.
““Witchers…!””
They were lowest-grade undead, but these demonic beasts with bat-like wings attached to a big eyeball had the power to see through walls as well as the ability to share their sight with a necromancer.
There were thousands of those witchers filling the skies of Nazrea, which meant that we would not be able to hide from Gerolge’s sight no matter where we were, as long as we were to stay within the city.
“We won’t be able to run away as long as those guys stick around.”
“Right… In that case,”
Discarding the plan of hiding themselves, the two of them jumped onto the rooftop of a building.
“Let’s break through from the front,” said Erin.
“Yeah. The undead haven’t really gathered yet either.”
Things would turn even rougher over time if they let the hordes of undead close in. Even in the original game, the only option was to kill as many undead as possible while focusing on defeating the Immortal King.
Since there were only two of them here, they had to start before the large hordes of undead approached them.
“I will be at the lead. Stand diagonally back from me, and please maintain a distance of 15 meters.”
“An order from Mr. Disciple, huh. That’s refreshing.”
“Trust me.”
“I will.”
At the same time, the two of them started a sprint. Dashing in a straight line, they aimed for Gerolge the Immortal King. Normally, people would aim at the one in the lead but the Immortal King did not prioritize the young brat.
- Kwaang!
A Doom Bolt - a black ray of light penetrated through the city towards Erin.
“How annoying…”
With a flick, Erin rotated her body around her spear like a spiral staircase to dodge the ray of light. She appeared like a feline animal.
In that split second, she had reinforced her body with a stiffening rune to resist the heat, and had also used a rune of the breeze to rotate her body like a falling leaf.
That was the reaction of a proper Rune Mage who had access to a real arsenal of skills unlike Korin who only learned bits and pieces of it. Seeing her set of moves, Korin was genuinely in awe.
However, that wasn’t the end of Gerolge’s attacks.
- Pababak!
A ray of light that had been traveling in a linear line suddenly separated into tens of little strands. In response to that sudden divergence of the spell, Erin had no choice but to jump into the air.
And when she jumped into the air and was left with no other ways to dodge, Gerolge fired another Doom Bolt.
“Catch it!”
That was when Korin threw his silver spear at Erin. The Doom Bolt began flying at her the moment she caught onto it.
At once, Korin recalled his silver spear, making Erin fly towards him like an arrow.
It was something they had done tens of times in the previous iteration, and Korin was fully experienced in how to play around Erin.
“Hmm…!”
After a short flight, Erin landed in his embrace as a faint flush bloomed in her cheeks.
“N, now is not the time for this. It’s coming!”
❰Doom Bolt❱
“Like, did he swallow an entire dragon or what…”
Right when the ray of heat was about to swallow the two of them, Korin released mana through the Sun.
❰Concentrated Sun: Claiomh Solais Temporary Activation❱
What came out was a tiny sun that was incomparably small compared to the one during the fight against Dun Scaith, but that was still enough to devour every hint of heat from the Doom Bolt.
-…?!!
No matter how powerful an attack, they were powerless in front of the Sun as long as they contained the power of heat and flames, or so Korin thought, but…
❰Re: Doom Bolt❱
“Huh?”
It was immediately followed by a second Doom Bolt, which was different from before. The ray of light was much bigger than the size of the Sun and the aftershock of the radiation pounced at him even after being affected by the Sun.
“What the…”
Korin somehow managed to dodge the attack thanks to the physical reinforcement of Shura, but that didn’t make him happy in the slightest. He was more focused on the fact that his opponent had immediately modified his approach.
“Can’t believe he just modified a spell of this degree in a split second.”
“Quite different from his usual parade of brute force,” Erin remarked in response.
It seemed that blocking the Doom Bolt with the Sun wouldn’t prove to be effective anymore.
- KUAAAAAAAA—!!
Gerolge roared with its gleaming blue eyes but it failed to intimidate the two marching spearmen.
Fifth Style, Crumbling Mountain.
“...!”
The Lich reacted promptly to the textbook javelin toss. The spear engraved with the Runes of the Sun and Flames showed off its magnificent brilliance as it pierced through the darkness of the city.
- Kagang!
However, the spear was soon forced to a stop by a condensed layer of tens of high-grade barriers, backed with a ridiculous amount of mana. It was so resilient that it wouldn’t allow most skills to even leave a scratch.
Secret Arts of Crumbling Mountain—
The same place in the barrier that had blocked Korin’s silver spear was attacked yet again by a different spear of the same color. And this time, it led to a different result.
- Kakang!
The shields shattered. The Secret Arts of Crumbling Mountain, which was in a whole different league to Korin’s display of the same skill, penetrated through Gerolge’s defensive spells and crushed through his right shoulder bones.
“Kugh… You damn witch…!”
“Your spells might be bigger, but they are still just as sloppy as always.”
Erin said while retrieving her silver spear. Looking straight into her eyes, Gerolge let out a gloomy laughter in his skeleton form.
“Hu, hi, ha, hi, haha… Do you think you stand a chance? I have transcended already. The infinite mana of the Moon has sheltered me under its blessing.”
◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼◼————!!
Countless corpses were hoarding in from all sides. There were literally an infinite number of undead troops, and it looked like a scenery straight out of a nightmare.
After 300 years of a long and dragged-out animosity, Gerolge was elated after finally holding an edge above his long nemesis.
“How high is your chance of victory? 10%? 1%? Or perhaps 0.1%?”
“100%.”
——!!
Hearing that overly arrogant remark, Gerolge turned his eyes to the sky. Descending from the sky… was one single spearman.
“I already knew you were aiming for a surprise attack!”
The male spearman had suddenly disappeared from his physical sense of sight, but Gerolge had been tracking his presence with all the eyes scattered around the city.
The only reason he was pretending to be ignorant was because he wanted to drive a further sense of despair into his enemies, who were foolish enough to believe that their surprise attack would end in a success.
❰Doom Bolt❱
He let out the strongest ray of inkish-black light towards the sky as it rapidly began flying at Korin Lork. Right as it was about to come into contact with his body…
❰Claiomh Solais - Sun Manifestation❱
A sun appeared in the sky.
Super moon. Blue moon. Blood moon.
The lands that had been flooded with the infinite supply of mana from the moon after concealing itself from the presence of the Sun was placed under the glorious light of the dazzling sun.
“A, a sun…!?”
A 300-year-long history of dark nights was broken by an incomprehensible descent of the Sun.
The scorching heat of the sun pierced into the bodies of the Immortal Legion as they simultaneously let out a deathly scream.
………!!
………!!
Everything started to melt. Everything was scorched, and cleansed.
It was an unbelievably enormous cleansing miracle that wasn’t possible no matter how many priests were to be allocated. Before the pure divinity of mother nature, those who marched through the nights were unable to even last a single second.
“This can’t be! How can a mere human hold so much power…!?”
Gerolge noticed after his remark that there were countless Runes of the Sun and Flames etched across the entire city. They were erupting out with their blazing heat, which was then being absorbed by the Sun.
He realized that he wasn’t the only one benefiting from an infinite amount of supply in energy.
“You bastard…!”
The Lich poured out every mana he could manage to create a defensive barrier. Normal people would praise that to be the pinnacle of magic after seeing the sheer size, density and speed of the activation, but right now, his opponent was the Sun.
He was nothing but a cockroach placed under the mercy of shoes.
The dense layer of mana from the Moon couldn’t stand a chance against the Sun; they melted down and were suppressed.
“Ah, ahh… Uahh… Thi, this can’t be… WITCHHH…!”
He screamed and retaliated like a lunatic. His life vessel that he formed by compressing the mana of the moon and his immortal bones that should be able to regenerate more than 10,000 times started turning to dust after coming in contact with light. It was an inevitable concept and principle of the world.
It was an absolute and conceptual rule, and even a Lich at the level of the Immortal King couldn’t stand before it.
1.2 million undead of Nazrea as well as the city itself started turning to ashes and returning to dust.
“The Sun is a complete counter against every undead. It doesn’t matter whether you are the Immortal King or not; you stand absolutely no chance.”
300 years. 1.2 million evil souls… None of that was able to even contend against a star.
That day, a sun descended onto the earth and swallowed every hint of darkness, leaving behind not even a speck of a shadow.
****
Grand Chapel of Zeon, Audience Chamber of the Saintess.
The 1st Princess of the El Rath Kingdom and the Saintess of the New Faith, Estelle Hadassah El Rath, was confused by the priest who had rapidly come seeking for her.
It was just 30 minutes when she heard the news of the Holy Knights and Battle Priests rushing to the Pope. It seemed that it was such an important matter that she had to take charge over it.
“Tell him to come in.”
A priest walked in through the opened doors. Without the normal dignity of a priest that they were educated to maintain, the priest walked down the red carpet with a set of rushed and impatient steps.
He was a priest whom Estelle was familiar with.
“Priest Kroos? I believe you were stationed at Nazrea, is that correct?”
“Yes, Esteemed Saintess… I am Kroos from the 3rd Holy Knight Squad. O Starlight of the New Faith.”
As always, he was well-mannered and very polite but he seemed unbelievably shocked; so astonished that his lips were trembling without a stop.
“I heard you rushed here using the fastest wyvern. Did something happen?”
“I, it was cleansed.”
“Cleansed?”
“Nazrea… the city of a million undead… was cleansed over one night.”
“That can’t be…!”
That shocking news made Estelle shoot out of her seat.
Nazrea had been a source of a long-time nuisance for humanity. It didn’t cause them any harm, but they were a bit reluctant and afraid to leave it be.
Every kingdom of this continent had been on the same page only when it came to the desire to wipe out the city of 1.2 million undead and the Immortal King.
Despite several crusades of knights and priests, Nazrea had remained contaminated forever. No matter how many corpses they were to cleanse and scorch, that horrendous nest of demonic beasts tended to bring them all back from the dead in just 3 days.
Who could possibly clean a place like that over a single night?
“Tell me the details please. What exactly happened there?”
“...A sun. W, we witnessed the true Sun.”
A radiant and glorious light of the Sun had dazzled down on the entire city, removing every form of impurity from the city of the dead. The priest testified that it looked ever so holy yet frightening like he was witnessing a divine punishment.
“...Good work, and thanks for your report. You deserve some rest.”
After dismissing the priest, Estelle plunked down on her chair. Normally, she would have been scolded by the nearby sisters for the frivolity of the action, but they were just as stunned as her and did not have the room to point anything out.
“It's good news for humanity… to have Nazrea cleansed but…”
The question was why. Why now? And who did it?
Besides, how could there be such a divine power that could let one cleanse the evil and demonic nest called Nazrea? 4 years ago, she had visited the city and had carried out a ritual but in the end, Nazrea returned to its original form after 3 days.
Even the powerful Saintess, who was said to be the strongest saint of all times, had been unable to cleanse Nazrea, so who in the world could it have been? Who could possibly have so much divinity in them?
“Ronya.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
“We need to look into it. We need to find out who cleansed Nazrea.”
“I will immediately have the observers moving.”
Because of the special traits of Estelle the Saintess, and thanks to the absolute power of her prayers, Estelle herself did not need any guards.
After all, she did not need the help of other people to protect herself.
Therefore, instead of keeping her bodyguards there just for the sake of having them, she moved them around the continent as informants to gather and analyze all sorts of information, and her plan was to utilize them to find out the identity of the saint who cleansed Nazrea.
“Please make it quick. My adorable little sister… is probably on the move already.”
“The… 2nd Princess?”
“And it will be a big problem if the Tower or the Old Faith gets hold of them.”
“Yes, Saintess.”
Watching the sister leave the audience chamber, Estelle let out a long sigh on top of her throne.
“Looks like there will be a big turmoil this year.”
She wasn’t the only one with that idea. The entire continent was about to enter a period of unrest.