541
Chapter 541
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
When Zeke unleashed his dark wind that swept through the Black Knights, a sandstorm rose up from the wasteland.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
As the dark wind swept away the Black Knights across the wasteland, all the poison mist that had been thickly settled around disappeared and scattered.
The swept-away Black Knights were buried in piles of dirt here and there, their limbs twisted in various directions.
Zeke stared at the horrific scene he had created with emotionless eyes.
But moments later, the Black Knights who had seemed dead began to move again.
CRACK! CRACK!
Red lights glowed from within the black helmets as their twisted limbs returned to their original positions.
THUD!
Except for the dirt covering their armor, the Black Knights restored themselves to their original form and maintained their battle formation in rows and columns.
They pointed their swords at Zeke who was looking down at them.
WOONG! WOONG!
The battle energy from hundreds of Black Knights resonated together, merging into a single wave that extended toward Zeke.
ZIIIIING!
The shockwave carried in the resonance swept across the wasteland as it flew toward Zeke.
Watching the shockwave flying toward him, Zeke raised his hand with a composed expression.
KIIIIIING!
The magical reversal field Zeke created deflected the incoming shockwave, sending it back in the opposite direction.
WOONG! WOONG! WOONG!
The shockwave Zeke deflected, expanded its range and soared into the sky, catching even the eagle-like magical beasts flying in the air in its wave.
KIEEEEEK!
The magical beasts hit by the shockwave-carried wave screamed and spat blood as they fell from the sky in droves.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
When the magical beasts observing Zeke disappeared, the Black Knights suddenly stopped moving.
Zeke moved first toward the Black Knights who stood motionless with their swords raised.
When he deployed the Elemental Sword's Metal Force Field, an enormous pressure was applied to where the Black Knights were gathered.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The bodies of the Black Knights, crushed by the metal force field Zeke created, were twisted and buried into the wasteland ground.
The Black Knights started moving again and tried to escape that area somehow, but it was impossible to break free from the strong gravity field.
It was when Zeke was watching the completely crushed Black Knights buried in the ground.
Suddenly the wasteland began to shake violently.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
The wasteland surface suddenly split open and two black towers that had been submerged below began to rise up.
BOOM!
On top of the black towers that had completely emerged above ground, there were sharp lightning rods installed.
Black current-like energy flowed from those lightning rods, and soon the black currents generated from the two lightning rods connected and began to grow in size.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
The black currents between the two towers gathered and created a black sphere.
Suddenly, powerful electric shock poured from the black sphere toward Zeke.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
Zeke stepped back and avoided the black current that flew toward him.
But that wasn't the end.
Suddenly the ground shook again and more black towers of similar shape began to appear.
Those black towers also started attacking by pouring currents toward Zeke.
Before long, over a dozen such black towers appeared throughout the wasteland and attacked Zeke.
That wasn't all.
Doors formed at the bottom of the towers, and from inside, hundreds of Black Knights emerged in formation and charged toward Zeke.
Above, the towers poured strong currents, while below, the unkillable Black Knights kept rushing in endlessly.
To this, Zeke spread his shadows with an expressionless face and summoned thousands of shadow summons from within.
The translucent shadow summons heard Zeke's command and charged toward the incoming Black Knights.
The Black Knights raised their battle qi and instantly cut down the shadow summons charging at them.
When the summons hit by the swords flickered and dispelled, Zeke summoned more from within the shadows.
It was while Zeke was engaging the towers and Black Knights with his shadow summons.
Far from there in a concealed area, Zeke was observing the situation with Shadia.
'As Boris said, their defense system is more than expected.'
Zeke had sent his clone straight in as bait to hold Abyss' attention.
From Abyss' perspective, there was no enemy more threatening than Zeke, so they would focus all their efforts on stopping him, that was the calculation.
Seeing over a dozen towers reveal themselves to attack Zeke, his thinking seemed somewhat correct.
'But this isn't enough. To allow our members to infiltrate, we need to shake this place one more time.'
Zeke gave orders to his clone, and the clone that received Zeke's orders raised his sword.
WOONG! WOONG! WOONG!
Soul Force gathered in the clone's raised sword.
Though not as powerful as the original body, the spiritual pressure emanating from the sword was still strong enough to push back all the approaching Black Knights.
The clone held the sword charged with Soul technique in reverse grip and stabbed it into the ground while muttering.
Soul technique
Triple Spell
Great Explosion.
At the same time, white light burst from where the sword was stabbed, and light leaked out from all over the wasteland.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
As massive light churned, the entire ground shook and explosions occurred in chain reactions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The light explosion swept away not only the Black Knights but all the surrounding black towers as well.
The tremendous storm of light pushed toward where the enemies and other hidden intelligence unit members were.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
It was so powerful that without Hades' makeshift barrier device, they too would have been caught in the effects of the great explosion.
Seeing his spiritual power dramatically reduced from just one Triple Spell, Zeke took out bloodstone he had previously collected from his inventory and absorbed it into his shadow.
He had prepared it in advance after discovering that absorbing bloodstone could replenish spiritual power.
Looking at the wasteland completely devastated by the great explosion, Zeke sent a telepathic message to Boris.
―Boris, now's the time. Find an opening and infiltrate.
Following Zeke's instructions, Boris took his agents and secretly entered through the entry point they had scouted beforehand.
The plan was for them to infiltrate and plant explosive devices on the central pillars supporting the underground labyrinth, then Zeke would enter to eliminate Abyss before completely collapsing this place.
After confirming their safe entry, Zeke spoke to Shadia who was beside him.
"I'll enter through another entry point. Wait here and immediately eliminate any dark mages that appear."
"Understood, my lord."
After seeing Shadia hide stealthily with the Salmak assassins, Zeke used his Spirit manifestation ability to enter the dimensional boundary.
He examined the boundary of the underground labyrinth shaken by the explosion's aftermath as he dug underground.
BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!
Shortly after, he revealed himself in a corner of the underground labyrinth.
Looking around, it seemed to be a warehouse storing old unused armor and weapons.
As he opened the warehouse door and came out, he saw several dark mages hurriedly running around in the corridor.
"Damn it! Quickly spread the word! Emergency! That madman Zeke Draker has attacked!"
Avoiding the dark mages' sight, Zeke looked for a path leading downward rather than upward.
'Considering the bloodstone factory's structure, the real deep level is likely connected by portals.'
Thinking this as he went downward, Zeke sensed an unusual energy from ahead.
'This is?'
A familiar energy.
It was the energy possessed by the Fallen Constellation, the Herald of Blood and Madness.
The true name of the Herald of Blood and Madness was 'Wirinom', a demon of unmatched cruelty and savagery.
He was one of the most dangerous Constellations nearly equivalent to a Great Demon, who ruled over Gehenna, known as the most treacherous region even in the demon realm.
However, after having his main body attacked by Zeke and part of his soul sealed in Solomon's Ring, he couldn't show himself in the material world.
Zeke showed a surprised expression at feeling Wirinom's energy here.
'With this level of energy... does this mean Wirinom's avatar is here?'
Zeke slowly went down and examined where Wirinom's energy was coming from.
There was a huge cavity beyond the wall where dark mages of Abyss and what appeared to be knights of Jiemens were gathered.
Just then, a sharp voice was heard from inside.
"D-Damn it! He's broken free!"
"Dodge!"
Simultaneously, a massive roar that shook the entire cavity erupted.
KRAAAAAAAGH!
Zeke observed what was happening in the cavity while keeping himself hidden.
Dark mages and knights were standing around a massive cage, from which Wirinom's energy strongly emanated.
As he tried to examine the cage more closely, one side of it completely crumpled and an arm with its skin peeled off suddenly burst out.
CRACK! CRACK!
The massive arm with bluish bulging muscles struggled as if trying to break free.
Then a knight who failed to dodge in time was caught by that massive arm.
"AAAAGH!"
The knight whose lower body was instantly caught by the monster's arm was dragged inside the cage.
CRACK CRACK CRACK!
Along with a horrible sound, the beast's howl was heard again.
The dark mages tried urgently to seal the cage, but another arm appeared and widened the gap in the cage further.
KRAAAAAAAGH!
As the gap widened, two arms like before burst out.
The dark mages stepped back and shouted at the knights.
"S-Stop that thing!"
They only gave orders for the knights to stop it while fleeing backward with frightened eyes.
The dark mages burst out toward the door where Zeke was, and Zeke watched them trying to hurriedly climb the narrow stairs while hidden, then subtly raised his shadows.
SWOOSH!
In an instant, the shadows became sharp swords and quickly cut through the dark mages' necks.
"GURGLE!"
The fleeing dark mages collapsed while foaming blood from their necks.
Zeke found the one who appeared to have the highest rank among them and read his memories using Dragon's Wisdom.
BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!
Shortly after reading the dark mage's memories, Zeke discovered the identity of the being inside the cavity.
'Abyss, these madmen... they found Wirinom's remaining nails and blood in the material world, multiplied them, and created an avatar directly?'
They had tried to create an experimental subject that could wield the power of a Fallen Constellation, beyond just summoning demons.
Abyss' dark mages conducted experiments to transplant Wirinom's replicated blood and nails into ancient-species magical beasts and enable them to use his powers.
The problem was that the experimental subject's power became stronger than imagined, and they had no choice but to seal it away as they couldn't control it.
Then when Zeke attacked their headquarters, they tried to release it to attack him, but it seemed they were counterattacked as they couldn't control it.
'An experimental subject that can wield Wirinom's power. If they had achieved control, they might have been able to create beings with power exceeding high-rank demons at will.'
If Abyss' research had progressed further, they might have found a way to perfectly control experimental subjects with replicated Fallen Constellation powers.
Zeke felt he needed to completely collapse this labyrinth and destroy Abyss as soon as possible.
KRAAAAAAAGH!
The experimental subject, now completely freed from its cage, wildly swung its hands at the knights in front.
CRACK! CHOMP! CHOMP!
The monster that had emerged in the middle of the cavity was now eating the knights it had caught with its massive hands.
Zeke slowly entered the cavity.
A muscular monster with its skin gone, exposing the muscles underneath.
Though it lacked intelligence, its demonic powers couldn't be underestimated.
As Zeke approached, the monster sensed his presence and turned its head.
GRRRRRRRR!
Indeed, it had a horrific appearance with its skin peeled off, mouth torn wide open, and sharp teeth protruding.
The monster turned its body toward Zeke and slowly raised its upper body.
KRAAAAAAAGH!
The experimental subject howled like a beast as it approached Zeke.
Then it stretched out its hand with sharp claws.
SWOOSH!
Its hand extended and tried to snatch Zeke immediately.
And at that moment, black shadows rose from the floor and cut off the monster's extended arm.
SWOOSH!
The monster's arm, cut by the shadows, sprayed blue blood as it soared into the air.