323
Chapter 323
BOOM! BOOM!
Abel, hit by the dragon's breath, fell from the air downward.
BOOM!
Having flown up and moved some distance, his body fell into the ghetto area beyond the Imperial garrison territory.
Zeke immediately chased after where Abel had fallen.
Where Abel fell was the site of a long-abandoned village, where mud-walled houses were all destroyed, leaving only traces of where people lived long ago.
After landing in the destroyed village, Zeke scanned the surroundings to find the fallen Abel.
'No matter what, I must deal with Abel here.'
Zeke summoned ghost warriors to spread out and search for Abel.
Sharing vision with the ghost warriors, Zeke soon found traces of Abel.
'I won't let him escape.'
Zeke immediately spread his flight magic and flew to where Abel had fallen.
BOOM!
Inside a house with a collapsed ceiling, Abel, still equipped with Hersion, lay unconscious.
Zeke approached slowly and calmly from the inside, holding Bahamut.
After closing some distance, he attacked Abel with the Dragon's Claw skill.
SLASH!
The dragon's claws cut through Abel and the mud wall behind him.
CRASH!
As the mud wall collapsed, dust rose strongly, creating a cloud that blocked vision.
Just as Zeke tried to move closer inside, a dark red fireball flew through the dust cloud.
BANG!
Zeke raised Bahamut and deployed Will of Defense to block the incoming fireball.
WHOOSH!
The scattered fireball from the soul weapon spread in all directions, with dark red flames burning the surrounding mud walls.
The fireball thrown by Abel was flame created by divine power, so it couldn't be blocked by magic or aura.
'But soul weapons can block divine power.'
Even Zeke didn't know the principle of how soul weapons blocked divine power.
Unless he visited Nigel, his master from his previous life, he wouldn't know the reason.
'...Forest of the Forgotten. I thought I'd never go there again in this life.'
While blocking the incoming fireballs, Zeke slowly approached where Abel was.
Then this time, a huge black flame rose toward Zeke and engulfed him.
BOOM! BOOM!
A powerful storm of flames wrapped around Zeke but it was useless.
The flame attacks created by Abel's manifested divine power couldn't pierce through the soul weapon's defense.
When Zeke shook off even the flame storm, Abel staggered up from between the collapsed ruins.
With his helmet deactivated, Abel's long red hair fluttered as his eyes glowed red.
"...Zeke, you..."
Unlike earlier when Hersion was moving directly, Abel's voice could be heard.
'Has he regained consciousness?.'
Zeke's guess that Hersion was healing Abel proved correct.
However, as Zeke examined Abel who slowly approached, he discovered that his face had changed strangely.
'That's...'
The right side was his original face, but the left side of his face had dark red scales.
Unlike when Zeke deployed Dragon Scale Armor, it felt like the skin itself had changed.
Zeke realized that Abel was different from normal dragonkin.
'Is it a side effect of the baptism? Or did he receive something other than dragon power?'
Abel slightly frowned as he deactivated the gauntlet on his left hand.
He realized that his left hand had also changed terribly like his face.
It had dark red scales and sharp claws like those of a demon beast.
Abel raised his head and glared at Zeke with glowing red eyes.
"I will never forgive you... I will surely kill you here."
Suddenly, dark red energy surged from Abel's body.
As this happened, a red pattern slowly appeared on his chest.
It was a different type of pattern from Zeke's.
'What's that?'
The pattern that appeared on Abel's chest emitted an ominous energy, and somehow Zeke felt it wasn't unfamiliar.
'That... it's exactly the same energy that first flowed from Bahamut's heart.'
When Zeke first discovered Bahamut's heart in the library basement, it was called 'Heart of the Cursed Mad Dragon Bahamut.'
Bahamut, who died by his lover Terakan Draker’s sword after imprisoning the Demon King in his body to save the world.
Bahamut's heart, which had contained the Demon King's curse voluntarily, had a powerful curse engraved on it.
While Zeke overcame the mad dragon's curse with his strong mental defense skill, if he didn't have the healer class's passive skill, his mind would surely have been corrupted by the powerful curse engraved on the dragon's heart.
Zeke realized that the energy flowing from Abel's body was the same cursed energy that flowed from the heart of the mad dragon.
'Did Abel also have the cursed dragon's heart implanted in his body? If that's what the baptism means...'
It meant that Jiemens and the Abyss were capable of not only summoning high-level demons to earth but also creating dragonkin by implanting dragon hearts into humans.
Though they couldn't use the system like Hoshgar or Zeke, it was something that could grant enough power to turn a Red Knight into a Black Knight in an instant.
'It doesn't seem like this could be mass-produced like bloodstones...'
While it didn't seem like a method available to many, it was uncertain what could happen with the help of constellations like the Herald of Blood and Madness.
Zeke had one more reason why he had to eliminate Abel here.
It sent chills down his spine thinking that Abel Draker, the Knight of Madness, possessed the heart of the mad dragon.
An even more terrible massacre than what he saw in his previous life could occur.
Zeke slowly approached Abel while deflecting the dragon's curse flowing from him with curse reflection.
Then Abel ground his teeth and shouted at Zeke.
"How, how are you unaffected by my power?!"
Abel was now increasingly feeling fear towards the unknown power Zeke possessed.
It was because his power, which he thought transcended humans, had no effect on Zeke at all.
The shock was tremendous because he believed that if he properly used the power he had hidden, he could make not only Ramon Jiemens but even Arthur Draker, the head of the Draker family, kneel.
Moreover, Abel wasn't particularly strong-minded to begin with.
When he felt that the power he had believed in was useless against Zeke, his already fragile mental strength began to crumble rapidly.
The curse engraved in the mad dragon's heart wouldn't miss this gap.
The dark memories that Abel had locked away deep in his mind began to pour out and consume him.
"HUCK! HUCK!"
Abel's breathing gradually quickened, then he broke into a cold sweat and his face turned pale.
His face became more hideously distorted and his skin changed more rapidly.
It was the appearance of a demonic dragonkin with evil power, not the usual appearance of a dragonkin.
Abel swung his sharp claws toward Zeke.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
Like using a dragon clan skill, claw marks were engraved everywhere and all the earthen walls were destroyed.
However, the power was uncontrolled, and the attack flew in a different direction from where Zeke was.
Abel clutched his head and screamed at Zeke.
"KUAAAAA!"
Kwakwakwakwa!
His roar swept away and blew off part of the village with an invisible force.
"HUK, HUK, HUK.”
Abel, using the demon dragon's power in an uncontrolled state, felt his body getting heavier and heavier.
Watching Abel, Zeke could clearly see how someone crumbles when they grasp power they cannot handle.
'If Cain had obtained this power instead of Abel, it might have been more threatening.'
In his previous life, Cain might have obtained this mad dragon's power without his knowledge.
For Abel, receiving baptism and accepting the mad dragon's power to obtain the power of a Black Knight due to his impatience caused by Zeke's activities had instead become the cause of his downfall.
To Abel, Zeke who was gradually approaching him looked like a monster.
Abel bared his teeth and shouted.
"You monster! I will definitely kill you!"
However, contrary to his voice filled with madness, he was exhaling rough breaths with slight trembling.
Zeke spoke to Abel.
"Abel, if you use that power anymore, you'll completely lose your sanity and become a madman. Stop and die honorably as a knight."
Zeke's words didn't reach Abel's ears at all.
He summoned Zahak again and swung it at Zeke.
"Die! Die!"
Zeke raised Bahamut as he watched Abel whose mind had crumbled.
The Knight of Massacre who would drive countless people to miserable deaths in the future.
There was no reason to let him live.
Zeke raised his sword and infused it with the power of his soul technique.
WOOOONG!
Bahamut, imbued with the will of cutting, flew straight toward Abel.
"I'll kill…"
SEOUGK!
Before Abel could finish his words, his neck was cut clean off and fell to the ground.
KUNG!
Abel's headless body collapsed to the ground.
When Zeke saw the fallen Abel, he felt various memories flash by.
He remembered the faces of many people he had lost because of Abel and the Empire in his previous life.
Zeke picked up Abel's neck that had fallen to the ground and placed it on top of the body.
He planned to dissolve it without a trace all at once using the power of decay.
It was when Zeke was about to use his power on Abel.
EEING!
The space split open and Rahim, a Spatial movement ability user, appeared from within and quickly grabbed Abel's corpse.
'That guy!'
Zeke hurriedly used the power of decay.
TSUTSUTSUTSU!
As soon as the power of decay activated, the space cracked again and the Spatial movement ability user disappeared along with Abel's corpse.
"Damn it!"
Zeke quickly spread his dragon eyes to look around.
But the Spatial movement ability user was nowhere to be seen.
He must have moved beyond his field of vision.
'The power of decay was activated, but I can't be certain if it completely dissolved Abel's corpse.'
Still, he had confirmed Abel's death for certain.
Even if it was the Abyss, there would be no way to revive the dead, so the objective was achieved.
Though he might be revived as a Death Knight, if all he had was force, he wouldn't be much of a threat to Zeke. He was satisfied that Abel as a Draker was dead.
'Now that Abel is dead, Lady Kali will take over as heir to the Draker family. And those Imperial bastards won't be able to start a war recklessly.'
Nevertheless, there was an uncomfortable feeling lingering in a corner of his mind.
It bothered him that he couldn't completely dispose of Abel's corpse.
But then he received contact from Richmond, and Zeke had to shake off the uneasy feeling.
'Master!'
Zeke responded to Richmond's urgent voice.
'What is it, Richmond?.'
'The Tyrant is too strong and has destroyed the fortress, so the monsters have entered into the garrison!'
The strength of the Tyrant, a dragonized Balrog, was beyond imagination.
Although the Empire's fortification techniques were excellent, they were insufficient to withstand the Tyrant's attacks bombing from the air.
Zeke recalled that the Second Prince, first in line for Imperial succession, was staying at the fortress.
'If the Second Prince is here... that's another card to pressure the Empire.'
Zeke ordered Richmond to hold back the Imperial army and summoned Bucephalus.
"Let's go, Bucephalus."
Zeke flew straight toward the fortress.
* * *
BANG!
Ramon Jiemens entered the baptistery prepared inside Jiemens' underground labyrinth.
"Where is it?."
The head of the Jiemens Strategic Headquarters said to Ramon with a pale face.
"On the altar."
Ramon climbed up the stairs to the altar with a stern expression.
Below the altar, Rahim was leaning against the wall, panting, with half his body melted into a puddle from being hit by Zeke's power of decay.
Ramon looked at Rahim and snapped his fingers.
Surprisingly, the power of decay that was melting Rahim's body disappeared.
"Huff,Huff."
Free from the power of decay, Rahim took out a potion from inside his clothes, drank it, and sprinkled it on his melted wounds.
CHIIIK!
When the potion touched the melted skin, it started to bubble.
Ramon gestured toward the headquarters chief, and understanding his intention, agents came forward to support Rahim and left the baptistery.
Left alone, Ramon approached the altar and looked at Abel's corpse lying on the stone platform.
The traces of becoming a dragon-human remained on Abel's half-melted face and body.
TSUTSUTSUTSU!
Due to the power of decay, Abel's corpse was also slowly decaying.
Ramon looked at this and reached his hand toward Abel's corpse.
As if turning back time, Abel's decaying corpse began to return to its original form.
Though the dragon-human state remained unchanged, the severed neck reattached to the body.
However, this did not wake up Abel's dead body.
Ramon stared at him for a while before fixing his gaze on a dark corner.
As if responding to his gaze, an apostle slowly walked out from there.
When Ramon raised his hand toward him, an invisible force enveloped the apostle's body.
"URGH."
The apostle's body was pulled over involuntarily and his neck was caught in Ramon's grip.
Ramon glared at the apostle while holding his neck and said.
"Call the priest. Right now."