novelraw Chapter 437
Chapter 437
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Chapter 437
The social hierarchies humans possess.
Blood ties, regional ties, academic ties. Complicated webs of interests.
But in truth, things like that held no meaning whatsoever at the very bottom of hell where life and death stood face to face.
Everyone except the thug who had collapsed on the floor trembling had met their deaths.
After that, the three men and women who had been attacked by the thug were completely restored by Luna’s hands.
“M-My arm… my leg… they’re reattached again…”
“My hand…”
Still slumped on the floor, they muttered as if they could not believe the current situation.
Soon after, they prostrated themselves flat toward us.
“Even a beast knows gratitude, so how could we, as people, fail to thank the benefactors who helped us!! Thank you so much for saving us!”
Judging by the way he spoke, the man seemed to be from the Eastern Continent.
Even the movement of the aura visible to the eye was of the Eastern Continent style that handled internal energy.
Without saying anything, I glanced at the thug collapsed on the floor, trembling.
“Will you finish that one off?”
“Pardon?”
“That.”
When I indicated the thug with a nod of my head, the man who had been staring blankly at him suddenly had extreme fury fill his eyes.
“The grace bestowed upon us by a noble person. I will never forget it even if my bones rot, and one day I will surely repay it.”
Shrrrng…
After that, he picked up the sword discarded on the floor, and aura began to seep into his blade.
His skill in handling aura was quite decent.
“D-Don’t… don’t come closer!!”
Perhaps his own abilities had been far more pathetic than he thought.
The thug, who had lost those who protected him, was now nothing more than a powerless killer.
“Die!!!”
Without hesitation, the man drove his sword straight into the thug’s mouth.
With a gurgle, gurgle sound, the thug twitched, and then his body went limp.
The man pulled the sword out without hesitation.
“Even in death, your soul will not be saved.”
It was not some curse with a tangible form.
Just words of malediction spat toward the dead.
Leaving the thug’s death behind like that, the man approached me with a thoroughly exhausted face.
The two women in his party still had not fully escaped the shock and seemed unable to calm down easily.
If we had not been there, they would have suffered something horrific before being murdered.
Either by those bastards, or by being eaten by the undead.
“I’m already sick and tired of this rift now… Anyway, how should I repay this favor?”
“Have you perhaps seen someone like this?”
I gave a rough description of Isna’s appearance.
In truth, the chances were low.
Still, I asked just in case.
“Twin braids… Hmm… If I recall correctly, it seemed like a mysterious woman who had her hair tied back into a single tail…”
“That would be her.”
“If that’s the case, then yes. I have seen her. In fact, thanks to her, we managed to escape a crisis once.”
What he told me about Isna’s actions was as follows.
As if possessed, she had headed toward the deepest part of the labyrinth.
What she had said to them was that she was going to meet the Skeleton King located in the deepest of the boss rooms.
The man had tried to stop Isna from touching the deep-layer boss alone, but she had not listened.
The three people who had managed to survive thanks to her were heading toward the exit when they were attacked by those thugs.
“Are you perhaps… her companion?”
“I’m someone who came to find her.”
“If that’s the case… please take this. I no longer need it.”
Then he held something out.
It was a peculiar compass.
“What is this?”
“It’s a compass that points toward the boss rooms you can obtain in this labyrinth. Without this, it’s difficult to find the boss rooms here.”
At his words, I shook my head.
“I don’t think I’ll need it.”
“Excuse me? What do you mean… In this labyrinth, you can’t even find the exit just by wandering around…”
“We have a navigation system.”
I tilted my head and pointed to one side.
There, Luna could be seen tormenting a wraith while trampling it.
The wraith kept repeating that it would guide us to everything it knew, so please spare it.
“Ah… um…”
“Don’t stay behind and suffer for nothing. Just go.”
“Thank you. Um… if it isn’t rude, may I ask your name?”
“Leon Cascadia.”
“Thank you! Sir Leon Cascadia! My name is Baek Un!”
Bowing his head deeply, he tapped around the nearby wall before opening a hidden space.
Inside it was a large stone slab engraved with strange letters.
After activating it, he and his companions were enveloped in light and disappeared.
That must be the escape stone leading outside.
Leaving behind the sight of them bowing toward me just before disappearing, I walked over to the zombie sandworm that had been frozen in place.
It still remained stiff and unmoving.
“Looks like everything’s cleaned up.”
I glanced at the sandworm.
“You cruel bastard. Eating people?”
At my words, the sandworm’s eye-lights rolled around grotesquely.
The dead.
Undead often have very weak egos.
Even wraiths that possess will are rare, so what more needs to be said about zombie types?
The wraith Luna had captured was a high-rank wraith, which was why it still retained its will like that.
Normally, cases where conversation is possible like this are extremely rare.
But even so, the sandworm’s eyes seemed to say something like… What the hell is this bastard talking about right now?
—Kiiiieeeek!! Kiiiieeek!!
Twisting its grotesque body around, it protested its injustice.
Well, the humans it ate had all been shoved into its mouth by me in the first place.
If the sandworm that had only swallowed the humans I fed it in terror had possessed a strong ego, it probably would have shouted, Don’t talk bullshit, you swindling bastard!
“I can’t let you live.”
As I reached my hand toward it, the creature struggled desperately to escape me.
But its entire body had already been subdued.
In the end, once I removed all the necromantic mana that allowed it to exist as undead, it simply became a lump of rotting flesh and slumped onto the ground.
Just before dying, the horrific scream it let out felt almost like it was saying, I curse you, human!
But whatever.
What could you do anyway?
Even if I left you alone, you would have swallowed any living thing nearby.
“Let’s go.”
* * *
The navigation system Luna had captured worked quite well.
After walking for quite some time with the wraith leading the way, a massive door that clearly wasn’t ordinary appeared before us.
I had seen doors like that several times already.
They were probably the boss rooms Baek Un had mentioned.
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But the one we were seeing now was different from the boss room doors we had seen before from the size alone.
Besides that, the energy emanating from inside was also unusual.
“That’s strange. If it’s a boss room, it should be stronger than this.”
Lispa muttered suspiciously.
And it made sense.
The amount of power felt at the rift entrance before entering the rift had been far stronger than this.
Considering the size of the rift, the power leaking from it could not necessarily be assumed to be the boss’s power, but even so, it was far weaker than expected.
“No need to think about it. The boss knows the answer.”
With those words, Luna kicked the massive door with her small, slender leg.
At first glance it looked reckless, but the result was not.
Because the leg she swung completely smashed the door to pieces.
“You’re just a brute with nothing but strength.”
“You can be kicked too.”
Lispa recoiled in alarm and stepped back.
Inside was a massive cavity structured like a corridor.
What an interesting structure.
As we stepped inside, we saw black, ink-dark suits of armor standing in two rows holding swords.
Decorations?
They didn’t seem to move.
Luna walked up briskly to one of the armors and tapped the helmet part with her finger.
Then—clang!—the armor collapsed completely.
The way she reflexively clasped her hands behind her back, avoided eye contact, and started whistling made her look like a child pretending innocence after causing an accident.
Whii… whii.
I had no particular intention of scolding her for the awkward whistling.
Lispa, however, was different.
“Nice job you’ve done there, you idiot.”
Thud!!
And that provocation led straight to Luna’s kick.
A low kick slammed into Lispa’s shin, making her collapse to the ground groaning.
“Are you seriously trying to start something, you brute?!”
“If you think you can win, come.”
Even while grinding her teeth furiously, Lispa ultimately did not charge at her.
That was when it happened.
The wraith caught in Luna’s hand twisted its body desperately and finally escaped her grasp.
Then, afraid of being caught again, it hurriedly shot up into the air and disappeared.
“Should I catch it again?”
“No need. We found the destination, so let it go.”
I had no intention of chasing it.
What mattered now was the familiar energy slowly leaking out from inside.
“Looks like Isna is here.”
I passed the armors and entered further inside.
The interior of the space was a massive prayer chamber.
It wasn’t merely spacious—it was large enough that even Baril, the giant Shadow Dragon, could rampage around without issue.
Statues of unknown beings were left damaged along the walls on all sides, and in the center stood an altar.
In front of that altar was a throne that looked as though it were meant for the one receiving prayers to sit upon.
And.
In front of the altar, someone sat kneeling with a veil over their head, hands clasped together in prayer.
Red hair could be seen.
There was no need to ask who it was.
I slowly walked in and spoke to her.
“What are you doing after coming all the way here? Meryl even got injured and came out. And you’re sitting here praying?”
Despite my question, she did not turn around or respond.
She simply continued offering her silent prayer.
At least as far as I knew, Isna was not the type to pray like that.
She might have a god she believed in, but she wasn’t the devout type like that.
It gave me an ominous feeling, as though she had become a completely different person.
As I was about to approach her—
Luna and Lispa simultaneously stretched out their arms and blocked my path.
“It’s too late.”
“Leon. Not Isna.”
At the same time those words were spoken, something began emerging from the shadow behind the one offering prayers, as if guarding her.
It had not yet formed a clear shape.
But its very existence alone felt unpleasant.
Only then did I begin to notice something in a corner of this place.
A giant five-headed wolf with a massive body, torn apart and dead.
That must have been the real boss of this place.
But that thing was already dead.
No—since an undead had died, it would be more accurate to say it had been annihilated.
Looking at the wounds, it was certain that Isna had done it.
“Shoggoths!”
At that moment, grotesque monsters began crawling out from beyond the writhing shape.
I had seen them before.
They were the basic lifeforms of other dimensions and the very Shoggoths that served as my extradimensional energy batteries.
After that, the Shoggoths turned into red mist and began wrapping around Isna.
And when they disappeared—
Isna, who had been praying, slowly stood up.
Then she carefully grasped a strange crown formed in midair and placed it upon her head.
Her eye-light was endlessly murky, deep like looking into the depths of the abyss.
Was it already too late?
No.
I shook off the thought.
I didn’t believe Isna had been dragged here without any kind of plan.
I couldn’t be certain.
“But the person we’re supposed to save becoming the boss instead. How troublesome.”
Lispa grumbled while preparing for battle.
In Isna’s hand was the 15-enhanced orichalcum sword I had made and strengthened, humming with resonance.
As if to say that even if her body had been taken over, she herself still remained.
“Good. I’ve always wanted to have a real, life-or-death fight with you at least once.”
At my words, the lips of Isna—who had been moving mechanically with a blank expression—trembled.
—Le, Leon… kill… me.
“Yeah. No.”
That foolish woman had been enduring the corruption of her authority and the constant erosion by the Outer God all by herself, gritting her teeth.
Perhaps the reason she had never completely cast aside that ruthless determination inside her was because of that.
However, recently she had become entangled with me and relaxed her guard somewhat.
And Yog, whose seal had been half-loosened, did not miss that opportunity.
The body of the Outer God that Nyarlathotep had been creating was destroyed by my hand.
So from Yog’s perspective, it seemed he could never give up the perfect host named Isna.
KAAANG!!!!!
Isna and I simultaneously charged at each other and swung our swords.
A tremendous shockwave carrying razor-sharp cutting force flew toward the walls, slicing the already-damaged statues clean in half.
Beep!
[Preparation for memory transfer of the Special Hall has been completed.]
[The name of the identifiable hall is…]
Bzzzzt!!!
[Error detected. The transferable hall is absorbed into the Hall of the Martial God.]
[The Hall of the Martial God begins to activate slightly.]
The danger of the authority Isna possessed was not light enough for me to afford the leisure to look at the Librarian’s messages.
But something hidden inside my body—no, inside my deeper consciousness—began to stir on its own, like a chick breaking out of its egg.
It was a chilling and bizarre sensation.
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