Chapter 440
Chapter 440
Zeke headed to the location indicated by the compass.
However, the location of the Goddess Theia's temple was an unexpected place.
'Here...?'
The Imperial Tomb that was burned down by Abel's black flame.
That was exactly where the compass pointed.
Zeke entered the burned Imperial Tomb site while concealing himself in darkness.
'It's completely turned into ruins.'
Once a holy site of the Rom Empire, now it was nothing but desolate with only burn marks remaining.
Clicking his tongue internally, Zeke went deeper into the Imperial Tomb following the compass needle.
Then the needle pointed to one spot.
'Is it here?'
Zeke went to where the needle pointed, cleared away the burned ruins, and examined below.
There was a worn stone tablet embedded in the floor.
He knelt down and examined the tablet, but there was no passage leading underground.
'System, check if there are any accessible doors in the vicinity.'
The system began searching at Zeke's command.
Soon a message appeared.
[Search results found sealed settings. Would you like to unseal them with the Curse Removal skill?]
Seeing the system message, Zeke immediately used the Curse Removal skill.
[Unsealing the sealed settings with Curse Removal skill.]
[Seal is being removed. Analyzing the settings.]
[Settings confirmed as portal coordinates existing in underground space. Would you like to open portal and move to coordinates?]
The temple of Goddess Theia seemed to exist underground beneath the Imperial Tomb.
Zeke decided to spend 100 points to open the coordinates.
[Executing portal to set coordinates.]
WOONG!
As the system portal executed, Zeke's body disappeared with a flash of light.
When Zeke opened his eyes again, he saw a dungeon made of stone.
'Is this the temple of Goddess Theia?'
He looked around with Dragon Eye.
The temple of Goddess Theia had an ancient style similar to the architectural methods of Blanca, the Golden City.
'Was this also created during the age of constellations?'
Zeke first tried to access the temple's administrator system through his system.
[Access to administrator system is impossible.]
"Access itself isn't possible?"
Zeke had access permissions to most ancient ruins.
However, access to the administrator system was impossible for the temple of Goddess Theia. In the end, Zeke had no choice but to explore the temple directly.
Zeke quickly accepted the situation and entered deeper into the temple.
Walking down the long corridor, Zeke thought it was unexpected.
'For a temple, there's too little here.'
Normally temples would be filled with various records and symbols related to the deity they worship.
But the temple of Theia had no statues or related symbols of Goddess Theia.
If he didn't know beforehand, it could have been mistaken for just another ancient ruin rather than Goddess Theia's temple.
The Rom Empire was the only one in the central continent that worshipped Goddess Theia, the moon goddess.
Midland and other central kingdoms mostly believed in the God of Light or Sun God.
When the Rom Empire split from the Holy Kingdom, the Solar Order also split, and the biggest difference between the two orders was whether they worshipped Goddess Theia and the 13 zodiac signs.
The Holy Kingdom regarded the Sun God as the only deity and worshiped only the Sun God, but the Rom Empire had a polytheistic form worshipping various constellations as well as the Sun God.
Of course, the Sun God as the supreme deity held the largest proportion, but there were also quite a few who believed in Theia, the moon goddess.
And typically in the Rom Empire, the Sun God was depicted as a strong male deity, while the moon deity was portrayed as a benevolent female deity.
So depending on the region, some would worship by placing statues of holy maidens modeled after Goddess Theia's appearance.
'Despite being Goddess Theia's temple, there's not a single holy maiden statue.'
While Zeke found it strange that it was completely different from his expectations, he didn't think it was particularly unusual. The early temples of Goddess Theia could have been in a different form than now.
When the long corridor ended, a huge cavity appeared.
Unlike the plain corridors passed so far, the cavity had unique decorative patterns carved throughout the walls, and various sculptures were placed between pillars.
And at one end of the cavity was a massive stone door.
What was unusual was that four stone coffins were placed in a row in front of the stone door.
'What's that?'
Zeke slowly approached the stone coffins.
At that moment, a message appeared before his eyes.
[Administrator system of this secure zone sends a warning to the user.]
[Security settings activated due to unauthorized access.]
[Security zone guardians awakening from hibernation.]
'Guardians?'
Seeing the system's warning window, Zeke took a step back.
But it seemed too late.
Steam erupted from the four stone coffins.
SHHHHH-
The coffins split vertically with the steam, and something rose from inside.
THUD!
Solid stone slabs automatically stood up and locked in place.
On the four fixed stone slabs were figures restrained with chains wrapped around their entire bodies and masks covering their faces.
CLICK!
As Zeke watched them warily, the chains fixing them to the slabs came loose.
RATTLE! RATTLE!
When the chains loosened, the four figures stumbled out of their coffins.
CRACK!
The sound of bones realigning came from the four masked figures.
Though their faces couldn't be seen, their builds appeared to be like teenagers.
All four wore identical worn gray clothes that looked like patient gowns.
'These guys are the temple guardians?'
CRACKCRACK-
After seemingly realigning their bones, all four raised their heads and turned to face Zeke.
"Intruder"
"Eliminate"
With eerie voices, the four guardians approached Zeke.
Though he couldn't sense any killing intent or threatening presence from them, Zeke instinctively took a defensive stance.
He drew Roland and aimed it at the approaching guardians.
That's when it happened.
Suddenly the guardians' bodies flickered and their forms vanished without a trace.
'What...?'
Zeke was startled when he lost track of the four's presence in an instant and stretched his senses to their limit.
Then a pressure descended that compressed Zeke's entire body.
RUMBLERERUMBLE-
It felt like his whole body had become ten times heavier.
Zeke recalled experiencing this kind of attack before.
'Zion's psychokinesis.'
Zion, who was a member of Six, could use powerful psychokinesis as a blood ability.
A similar force was now pressing down on Zeke's body.
But that wasn't all.
CRACK!
Now intense cold rose up and began freezing Zeke's legs.
Then black haze arose and wrapped around Zeke's body, completely restraining his movement.
Zeke gauged what these strange forces restraining him were.
'Don't tell me they gave blood abilities to the temple guardians?'
And they were clearly more skilled than normal blood ability users.
They were displaying abilities far stronger than even the Six members who used drugs to enhance their powers.
With three abilities holding Zeke's body, something final began to happen.
RUMBLE!
Zeke raised his head and looked up.
'Huh?'
Black rain began falling from the ceiling.
SPLASH!
What he thought was black rain fell heavily to the floor.
White smoke rose where the black liquid touched the ground.
SIZZZZLE!
Powerful acidic liquid was pouring down like rain.
The liquid also poured onto Zeke's uniform made of dragon leather.
At first only the surface melted slightly, but as more liquid fell, the melting area gradually expanded.
'Terrifying abilities.'
If someone used these abilities on a battlefield, they could annihilate an entire knighthood in an instant.
Zeke judged he needed to first break free of the three abilities restraining him to avoid the terrible acid rain.
RUMBLE!
Zeke raised his power to resist the psychokinesis, cold, and black mist.
But the more he resisted, the stronger the restraining forces became.
'Let's try this then.'
In that moment, Zeke drew on the power of his Elemental Sword to simultaneously raise fields of metal force and wind force.
BOOM!
Powerful winds arose to blow away the mist and cold wrapping his body, while he tried to break free of the psychokinesis with metal force.
CRACK!
When Zeke forcibly tried to twist free of their powers, the guardians also increased their power output.
BOOM!
As the guardians' power constricted him more, Zeke put away Roland, took out his hammer, and Imbued his Soul technique power.
In his God-Body state, Zeke swung his hammer to counter the formless force.
WHOOOOSH!
The hammer Zeke swung tore through the invisible psychokinesis.
At the same time, Zeke felt the pressuring force on his body disappear.
Zeke stomped on the ground with a force imbued with metal energy as soon as the pressure disappeared.
BOOM!
The shockwaves from his stomp spread throughout the entire cavern.
Without stopping, Zeke lifted his hammer high and unleashed his skill, Thunderbolt.
RUMBLE!
CRACKLE!
A massive roar of thunder filled the entire cavern, sending electric shocks scattering in all directions.
No matter how well they hid themselves, completely evading the widespread attack of Thunderbolt was virtually impossible.
As expected, four Guardians who had been concealing themselves revealed their forms as they emerged through the rippling space.
『To completely eliminate the intruder.』
『Releasing the limit restrictions.』
『Engaging full power.』
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Zeke immediately felt the powerful waves of energy radiating from the Guardians, even stronger than before.
‘They're releasing their limit restrictions? That means they can use even greater abilities here.’
Just as he tensed slightly, one of the Guardians extended its hand toward Zeke.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
A powerful force concentrated on Zeke’s body, making him feel as if his limbs were being torn apart by a giant.
“Ugh!”
Caught off guard by the unexpected strength, Zeke maximized his metal energy to counteract the Guardian’s psychic force.
At that moment, another Guardian began releasing black smoke from its body.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The black smoke thickened and took form, stretching out dozens of whips that coiled around Zeke’s arms and legs.
SSSSSHHH!
Then something shocking happened. The black mist enveloping Zeke was actually absorbing his magic.
"It's absorbing magic? What kind of ability is this?"
But it wasn’t over yet.
The Guardian that controlled ice raised its hand toward the air, and a massive chunk of ice formed above Zeke’s head.
It had gathered moisture from the air and rapidly frozen it to create an enormous mass of ice.
A massive, sharp, cone-shaped block of ice plummeted toward Zeke.
“Haaah!”
Clenching his teeth, Zeke resisted the psychic force and the black mist while throwing his hammer toward the falling ice.
WHIRR!
Holding onto Solomon’s Chain attached to the hammer’s end, he adjusted its trajectory.
BOOM!
As intended, the hammer embedded itself into the ice chunk, and Zeke immediately grasped the chain, unleashing the power of Flame Dominion.
FWOOOOOOSH!
The powerful flames surged along the chain, instantly melting the ice into pieces.
Seeing that Zeke was still holding his ground even against their enhanced abilities, the Guardians momentarily retreated.
The Guardian responsible for the acidic rain turned its gaze toward Zeke and extended its hand.
『The intruder must be completely eliminated.』
Zeke yanked the chain to retrieve his hammer, gripping it tightly once more.
“Your strength is no match for me. Step aside and open the gate to the temple.”
He took a step forward, his voice low and steady.
Then, something trickled down from his nose.
‘Huh?’
A stream of black blood ran down from his nose.
Not only his nose, but his mouth and eyes also began to bleed dark liquid.
THUD!
Before he realized it, his knees hit the ground, his body trembling violently.
"This... this doesn't make any sense..."
His body possessed absolute resistance against poison; no toxin should have affected him.
The ability to summon acidic rain alone shouldn’t have been enough to bring him down.
“Khak!”
This time, a mouthful of black blood surged up from within him.
SSSSSHHH!
As he coughed up the black liquid, he finally understood what was happening inside his body.
'The Guardian's power wasn't about summoning acidic rain.'
The final Guardian’s ability was to turn liquids into acid.
It had transformed the blood inside Zeke’s body into a highly corrosive acid, bypassing his immunity to poison and causing him to collapse.
THUD!
Zeke's body hit the ground, black blood pouring from him uncontrollably.
The four Guardians' eyes gleamed sharply.
『Mission execution complete.』
『Intruder fully neutralized.』
『Eradicated without a trace.』
『Eliminated perfectly.』
The four Guardians slowly approached the fallen Zeke.