519
Chapter 519
'Abel?'
Abel lay motionless on the ground like a puppet with cut strings.
Zeke cautiously approached Abel.
No signs of life emanated from Abel's prone, unmoving body.
Thinking the Abyss might be plotting something, Zeke remained vigilant of his surroundings as he lifted Abel's body with shadows.
Upon examining the corpse, Zeke was horrified.
"...His heart is missing."
Abel was already dead, with a horrific cavity where his heart should be.
Abel had possessed the heart of Zeus, the Light Dragon that was once contracted to Jiemens Apollion, and had inherited the power of the Evil God Ajitahaka after devouring Ramon Jiemens.
This Abel Draker had been killed by someone who ripped out his heart while he was still alive.
'What exactly happened here?'
Unable to readily accept the situation, Zeke moved closer to examine Abel's corpse again in detail.
He tried using Dragon's Wisdom to read information from the past.
CRACKLE!
A strong repulsive force knocked Zeke's hand back.
Zeke realized nothing remained in Abel's corpse.
'To erase even all the karma data connected to this place...'
The intruder likely knew about the concept of karma.
The one thing certain was that Abel's corpse before him was neither fake nor an illusion.
Abel Draker had truly died from having his heart torn out.
Zeke stared at Abel's corpse.
A bitter relationship that continued from their past life.
The Knight of Madness, Abel Draker, had met a miserable end here, having lost both his honor and power.
Zeke slowly raised his hand to invoke the power of decay.
Abel's corpse began to gradually crumble.
Moments later, Abel's body completely dissolved and disappeared.
Their long-standing bitter relationship ended so futilely.
Now only one question remained in Zeke's mind.
'Who killed Abel? And why did they take his heart?'
Though Abel was dead, Zeke felt this wasn't the end.
Zeke searched the area for any remaining traces.
Most karma data had been erased, making it impossible to read past information even with Dragon's Wisdom.
Just as he was about to give up, something caught Zeke's senses.
'This is...?'
His newly acquired Infinite Breakthrough power detected faintly remaining traces.
Zeke could perceive tiny clusters of light floating in the air.
He activated Dragon's Wisdom before the light clusters disappeared.
WHOOOOM!
Damaged karma data sent tremendous noise flooding into Zeke's mind.
'Ugh.'
He filtered through the noise to read only the surviving information.
With so little information remaining, even proper reading was difficult.
CRACKLE!
A powerful spark flew as Dragon's Wisdom forcibly terminated.
Zeke managed to collect what karma data remained.
As he organized the data, a message appeared before his eyes.
[Karma data is severely damaged.]
[Data restoration required to read information.]
It was fortunate that restoration was possible through the system's power.
"System, begin restoration."
WHIRRR!
As the system restored the damaged data, an image appeared before his eyes.
Initially, the image was too broken to make out properly.
"Can't you make it clearer?"
The image gradually became clearer as restoration continued.
Only after several rounds of restoration did it become barely recognizable.
In the image stood someone wearing a navy blue robe.
Zeke examined the image carefully.
However, the deep hood obscured their face, making proper identification impossible.
'The one who took Abel's heart.'
Zeke spoke to the system.
"System, are there any images showing this person's face clearly?"
[Due to severe data damage, proper restoration was not possible. Perfect restoration requires time.]
"So restoration is possible. That's good,make sure to restore it, even if it takes time."
Zeke gave the command to the system and examined the image again.
For some reason, the figure in the image seemed familiar.
As he pondered deeply, the mirror in Zeke's possession started vibrating strongly.
He took out the mirror.
"Hermit?"
Nabu shouted urgently at Zeke.
―Zeke! Damn, it's urgent! Get to Mycenae quickly!
"What? What do you mean so suddenly?"
―The Demon Princesses are invading Mycenae!
Zeke wore a perplexed expression at Nabu's words.
While they had planned to lure them with Anastasia, he hadn't expected such a direct invasion of Mycenae.
He spoke urgently into the mirror.
"I understand for now. I'll contact you again, Hermit."
After putting away the mirror, Zeke immediately set coordinates for Mycenae.
A portal engulfed his body along with a massive flash of light.
* * *
RUMBLE!
The tightly closed south gate began to open slowly.
As the pulleys lowered, a Barbarian unit wearing thick armor appeared behind it.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The Barbarians held massive shields and hammers.
Led by King Fist, they were a Barbarian unit that had stayed in Mycenae to learn human combat techniques.
Adnan and Bodmir stood with them at the front.
Adnan spoke to King Fist beside him.
"Just follow me."
"Ok. But when brother Zeke coming?"
"He'll be here soon if we hold out."
Adnan drew his twin swords and charged forward first.
He ran to the side of the south gate then signaled to Zeros.
WHEEEE!
Receiving the signal, Zeros gave orders to the Three-Eyed clan.
"Over there!"
Centered around Titus and Ulina, the captured Three-Eyed clan members used their Blood Eye power to suppress the minds of the monsters Zeros pointed to.
WHIRR!
The eyes of the monsters suppressed by Blood Eye turned red.
ROAAAAAR!
SCREEEECH!
The excited monsters began attacking other nearby monsters, disrupting their formation.
RUMBLE!
Seeing the disrupted formation, Adnan spoke to King Fist.
"Over there! We need to drive them to the center!"
At those words, King Fist swung his hammer fiercely.
"Ok!"
With their target set, the Barbarians charged ferociously at the monsters.
CRASH!
They swung their heavy shields to send bodies flying, then brought their hammers down on fallen monsters' heads.
SPLAT!
Even demons' monsters with their tough vitality and regeneration couldn't match the Barbarians' terrifying strength.
The monster formation on the flank instantly crumbled, changing their advance toward the center.
Watching the situation, Adnan signaled again.
WHEEEE!
This time it was a signal to cast Blood Eye on the monsters in the center.
Following Zeros' orders, the Three-Eyed clan worked hard to suppress monsters and make them fight each other.
"Ugh!"
Though dizzy from continuous use of Blood Eye, they squeezed out what mental strength they had left, remembering Zeke's gaze when they swore loyalty.
ROAAAAAR!
The monsters rushing from the center toward the south gate also became entangled fighting each other, disrupting their ranks.
The most important thing when leading an army of tens of thousands is the marching formation.
Even a slight misalignment could greatly hinder their advance.
The monsters advancing in a steady direction under the Demon Princess's orders began getting tangled up as soon as their formation was disrupted at the front.
Moreover, unlike other gates, the south gate had rough terrain and slopes, making it impossible to rush in randomly from multiple directions like at other gates.
This was exactly what Adnan had aimed for.
ROAAAAAR!
Following Adnan's directions, the Barbarian unit weaved between monsters crushing enemy heads.
Mixed among the monsters, it was hard to tell who was monster and who was Barbarian.
King Fist swung his hammer, but used his fists on monsters that got too close.
SPLAT!
Monsters hit by his fists were even more devastated than those hit by his hammer.
Reading the battlefield situation, Adnan suddenly called out to the Barbarian unit.
"That's enough! Fall back!"
The Barbarian unit swung their shields to break through the monsters and create an escape route.
WHOOSH!
Even after the Barbarians withdrew, the already tangled monsters kept biting and fighting each other, unable to maintain proper direction.
Adnan, Bodmir, and the Barbarian unit only needed to strike down the occasional monster that strayed in different directions after withdrawing to the perimeter.
At this rate, it seemed the monsters would self-destruct fighting amongst themselves.
But then.
WHOOOM!
A gate opened in the sky.
WHOOSH!
Simultaneously, a strong snowstorm arose around them.
Adnan looked up at the being emerging from the gate.
A being composed entirely of white - from hair to clothes - floated in the air.
The snowstorm grew stronger around them.
Adnan recognized what this being was.
'A demon. A high-ranking one at that.'
The high-ranking demon that emerged from the gate observed the chaotic state of the monsters.
Then they aimed their white staff at the monsters.
WHOOOOM!
White light shot out from the staff, instantly freezing the fighting monsters.
RUMBLE!
The chaotic formation turned silent.
The Three-Eyed clan members controlling monsters from the wall jumped back in surprise.
Titus and Ulina, who had been using their strongest power with eyes closed, opened their eyes as their connection to the monsters broke.
"The connection suddenly cut off?"
The snowstorm in front of the wall grew even stronger than before, making it impossible to see ahead.
Below, Adnan and the Barbarian unit caught in the snowstorm could barely move.
Adnan was perplexed, not expecting a high-ranking demon to intervene so early.
'We need to break through again.'
Natural ice walls had formed from the high-ranking demon freezing all the Blood Eye-affected monsters.
They needed to get back inside the fortress before the monster wave behind broke through those walls.
As Bodmir and Adnan tried to retreat with the Barbarian unit:
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Something was approaching them.
Adnan held his breath.
'Ice Golems?'
Dozens of Ice Golems about 4 meters tall were approaching them.
They had deployed Ice Golems first while the monster wave broke through the ice walls.
Bodmir said.
"This won't be easy."
Adnan nodded, drawing his twin swords.
Then King Fist behind them dropped his shield and held his hammer with both hands.
"Want to bet who breaks more faster?"
The Barbarians behind also raised their hammers.
"Good."
"I'll win."
"Shut up. I'll win."
The bickering Barbarians charged straight at the Ice Golems with hammers raised.
WHOOSH!
They immediately struck the Ice Golems with their hammers.
CRACK!
Surprisingly, one blow cracked the Ice Golem's surface.
King Fist giggled.
"See? One hit."
Another Barbarian swung their hammer and shattered one of the Ice Golem's legs.
Adnan and Bodmir's jaws dropped seeing this.
The Barbarians' combat ability far exceeded their expectations.
Even dozens of Ice Golems quickly became chunks of ice rolling on the ground once the Barbarians charged.
King Fist put his foot on a fallen Ice Golem and said:
"I'm first."
Another Barbarian shouted:
"No, I'm first!"
Watching the Barbarians argue about who won, Adnan signaled:
"That's enough, hurry back!"
The Barbarians turned around grumbling.
But then…….
WHOOOOM!
A beam of light shot out from the snowstorm, striking one of the Barbarians.
CRACK!
The struck Barbarian instantly froze.
Adnan and Bodmir jumped back in shock seeing the Barbarian who had just been smashing Ice Golems become an ice statue instantly.
They screamed:
"Dodge!"
WHOOOOM!
Light beams shot in all directions from beyond the snowstorm.
Adnan and Bodmir barely avoided the attacks by hiding behind broken Ice Golem remains.
But they couldn't stop massive ice pillars from forming wherever the light touched.
'Insane...'
Adnan held his breath watching through the snowstorm at that tremendous power.
Through the fierce snowfall, the pure white high-ranking demon from earlier appeared.