509
Chapter 509
'Just as I expected.'
As Zeke saw in the Akashic Code, the sources of the curse were not Bahamut but the sacrificed princes of the fallen kingdoms.
The king trembled in fear and said to Zeke:
"The curse of the princes of fallen kingdoms... is tightening around the Thebea royal family."
He stared at the flames with unfocused eyes and covered his ears.
"I can hear it. I can hear the voice of the cursed child..."
The king's mental state appeared unstable.
His anxiety seemed to have reached its peak after decades of constant fear that the curse could threaten him at any moment.
'This is all the seed sown by the Thebea royal family.'
Zeke clicked his tongue internally as he approached the king.
Then he applied his passive skill Indomitable Will to the king through power amplification.
WHOOSH!
Although he rarely used mental skills due to their later side effects, he was not in a position to be selective now.
As Indomitable Will was applied, the king's eyes changed.
His unfocused eyes became clear, and his hunched body straightened.
"What is this...?"
The king's expression showed disbelief as he realized his foggy mind was clearing and his blind eyes could see again.
Zeke looked at the king and said:
"A wise man once said that diseases of the mind affect the body. Your fear of the curse made you turn away from reality and blind yourself."
The king turned his head to look at Zeke.
He spoke with a strong, solemn voice unlike before:
"You did this?"
Zeke nodded.
"Yes, though it's only temporary."
"...Amazing. So the Knight of Salvation can use such magic as well."
"Please think of it as the Fairy King's blessing."
The king slowly rose to his feet.
His imposing presence emanating from his towering frame over two meters tall was extraordinary.
This alone seemed to prove he was a descendant of the legendary Lion King.
The king looked at Zeke and said:
"You must have a reason for restoring my mind."
"I'm curious about what the Thebea Kingdom summoned a thousand years ago by sacrificing the princes of fallen kingdoms."
At Zeke's words, the king sighed softly.
The true nature of the curse he feared enough to blind himself.
He nodded and spoke:
"The king of Thebea and the surviving nobles feared the dragon would destroy their kingdom and families. So they sacrificed noble blood to open something that should never have been opened."
"What was that?"
"The Gate of Chaos."
Zeke's eyes widened at the Thebea king's words.
'This is something I didn't see in the Akashic Code.'
This meant it was hidden information that couldn't be accessed through the materials Herman had prepared.
The Thebea king continued:
"They wanted to open the Gate of Chaos and summon the beings of chaos within to stop the evil dragon."
"Did that actually happen?"
The Thebea king shook his head at the question.
"In the end, they failed to open the Gate of Chaos. The princes of the six kingdoms were sacrificed meaninglessly."
Ultimately, the plan failed, and it was the Dragon Slayer Terakan Draker who stopped the dragons.
Zeke looked at the king and asked:
"Then the curse was cast by one of the six princes?"
After considering, the Thebea king spoke:
"According to records, something bizarre happened when the Gate of Chaos was about to open. The bodies of the six princes melted and merged into one, becoming a single entity."
The princes of the fallen kingdoms, unified by the power of chaos.
Zeke understood that this bizarre entity had cursed the Thebea royal family.
'Their resentment created the curse, and it has grown stronger by absorbing vengeful spirits.'
Zeke asked the king again:
"How did they learn the method to open the Gate of Chaos?"
The king shook his head and said:
"I don't know that either. The records didn't go that far. But one more thing was written... that they tried to open the Gate of Chaos to summon an 'external power.'"
Zeke's expression showed realization at the king's words.
'External power? Could it mean the Outer Beings?'
Zeke had seen statues of numerous Outer Beings at the Temple of the Thebea Goddess.
He also knew that the power of chaos was connected to the Outer Beings.
'Then what the Thebea Kingdom tried to summon a thousand years ago was none other than the Outer Beings?'
Zeke recalled the massive Outer Beings that devoured the entire city in the memories of the fallen Carcosa.
They had made such a choice without knowing they were calling an even greater threat to the kingdom to stop the dragons.
Fortunately, they failed to open the gate completely, but the power of the Outer Beings might have absorbed the sacrificed princes and caused the curse.
Just then, the king staggered, clutching his head.
"Ugh, my head..."
He looked at Zeke and said:
"Knight of Salvation, cast your magic on me once more. I can't remember the last time my mind was so clear and I could face my fears."
At those words, Zeke shook his head.
"The more you try to escape from fear, the greater your suffering will become. You must remember this feeling and overcome it yourself, Your Majesty."
After finishing his words, Zeke melted back into the shadows.
As he disappeared, the king shouted:
"No! Come back! Come back!"
With a sudden mood change, the Thebea king screamed as he felt his eyesight growing blind again.
* * *
Having realized how to track the traces, Zeke returned to the underground.
'The underground waterway where they sent away the cursed second son.'
Zeke went near the waterway, took a deep breath, and activated Dragon's Wisdom.
WHOOSH!
As he connected to the Akashic Code, memories of what happened there flowed into Zeke's mind.
Among the fragments of the past, one sharply emerged.
It was a scene of a young Herman carrying a basket with a child, heading toward the waterway.
He was about to send the child downstream in the basket.
Before placing the basket in the water, he looked at the struggling child and shed tears.
But since he had no choice but to carry out the king's order, he soon released the basket into the waterway.
The basket carrying the child flowed along the current.
In the memory, Zeke watched how far the child went along the waterway.
At some point while following the child, something appeared.
A being wearing a mask and a suit.
'The Nostra Family Boss?'
The Nostra Family Boss reached toward the child in the basket.
HISS!
Then a spirit emerged from the child's body and was absorbed by him.
The Nostra Family Boss reacted with satisfaction and disappeared again.
Soon, bubbles formed in the water, and tentacles of an Outer Beings shot out, wrapped around the basket, and took it underwater.
WHOOSH!
Zeke opened his eyes.
The memory he viewed through Dragon's Wisdom ended, and he returned to reality.
'The Nostra Family Boss absorbed the vengeful spirit of the cursed second son. As I suspected, their identity is...'
He looked at the waterway with a hardened expression.
Zeke took out two right-angled metal rods from his inventory.
Made by Jason, it was a magical tool that could trace where someone's spatial movement led to.
'If I go to where he absorbed the child's spirit, I can use the Akashic Code to find traces from that time.'
Zeke walked slowly into the waterway holding the artifact.
He stood where the Nostra Family Boss had appeared in the memory he just saw.
Holding Jason's artifact, he used Dragon's Wisdom once more.
WHOOSH!
Using the Sage's Eye to access past karma data, Zeke found traces of the Nostra Family Boss's movement.
Then he activated Jason's artifact on those traces.
WHIRR!
As the artifact activated, it pointed in the direction of the traces left by the Nostra Family Boss.
Zeke headed in the direction the artifact indicated.
As he moved deeper into the complex waterway, Zeke reached a point where he was blocked.
CRACKLE!
A transparent membrane blocked his path.
When he brought his hand close, plasma scattered in all directions.
While this would have been a troublesome obstacle for others, Zeke immediately called Raven.
Pointing at the membrane in front of him, Zeke said:
"Raven, eat it all up."
Since discovering that Raven the phoenix could eat energy like plasma, Zeke had often put this ability to good use.
Raven flapped his wings and flew toward the transparent membrane.
CRACKLE!
Although plasma scattered everywhere, Raven didn't mind and eagerly ate the energy composing the membrane.
RUMBLE!
Once Raven had eaten all the plasma membrane, the barrier was automatically deactivated.
Jason's artifact pointed toward the inside.
'Is he further inside?'
Carefully entering, he found a corridor. However, its appearance was completely different from the outside.
The walls were covered with moss and root-like things that were pulsating like living creatures.
'Similar to the tentacles of Outer Beings.'
It looked as if tentacles shaped like tree roots were burrowing into the walls and continuously expanding their territory.
Moreover, with each pulse, sticky liquid dripped from these root-like structures.
The more he looked around, the more this passage felt like being inside the stomach of a huge monster.
RUMBLE!
Sensing something strange, Raven landed on Zeke's shoulder.
Zeke drew out Leviathan and slowly went inside.
As he went deeper, the roots attached to the walls grew thicker, and their pulses became stronger.
Just then, he sensed something suspicious ahead.
GROWL!
A fierce howl echoed off the walls.
Zeke examined what lay ahead with his Dragon Eye and saw over ten deformed monsters approaching in threatening postures.
'Monsters?'
At first he thought they were monsters because of their familiar features, but looking closer, their appearance was different.
They looked as if monsters had been dismantled, their bodies rearranged randomly, and tentacles of Outer Beings attached to them.
GROWL!
While he was trying to identify them, the unknown deformed monsters rushed toward Zeke.
SCREECH!
Zeke stepped forward with Leviathan in hand.
Aurora Blade surged forth, instantly slicing through the deformed monsters.
THUD!
The monsters, cut into pieces by Zeke's single strike, lay scattered on the floor.
'Not as threatening as I thought.'
But then:
HISS!
Tentacles crawled out from the monsters' bodies and began connecting with nearby body parts.
CRACK!
Different body parts stuck together like magnets, reforming their shapes.
GROWL!
Zeke realized why these monsters' appearances were so random.
'Has the Nostra Family's meddling been applied here too?'
Looking at the monsters approaching him, he had an idea.
'There might be a more effective way to deal with them.'
Zeke stepped back and used the dragon race skill Polymorph.
WHOOSH!
With a flash of light, Zeke's ears lengthened as his body transformed into an elf.
The transformed Zeke summoned one of the spirits contracted to him.
"Ignis."
At Zeke's call, a high-level spirit with the appearance of a monkey revealed itself.
FLARE!
Made of pure fire power, Ignis looked at Zeke and said:
[Contractor. Why have you called me?]
Zeke pointed at the deformed beings and said:
"Those things. They keep regenerating even when cut with a sword. Can we eliminate them by burning them with spirit power?"
Ignis looked at the deformed beings at Zeke's words.
[Ominous creatures with the power of chaos residing in them.]
At Ignis's words, Zeke recalled what the Thebea king had said.
'They originally tried to open the Gate of Chaos by sacrificing the princes of fallen kingdoms. Did the power of chaos flow from inside that gate?'
SCREECH!
The deformed beings that had retreated from Ignis's flames tried to approach again with fierce howls.
Ignis breathed spirit flames toward the approaching deformed beings.
FLARE!
Pure spirit flames engulfed the deformed beings containing the power of chaos.
HISS!
After a moment, the deformed beings completely turned to ash and disappeared in Ignis's flames.
Zeke nodded at this.
'As expected... like the power of the Elemental Sword, spirit power is effective against them too. I should consider them the same as Outer Beings.'
He had tried this as a test, recalling how he restored the goddess statue at the Temple of the Thebea Goddess with the Elemental Sword. Despite their different appearance, it seemed correct to view them as the same as Outer Beings.
Zeke looked at Ignis and said.
"Good, there's no risk of going berserk like with the Elemental Sword. Let's sweep through them thoroughly."