542
Chapter 542
At the moment when Zeke was about to continue his follow-up attack.
SWOOSH!
Some of the blue blood clumped together and transformed into snake-like tentacles that lunged toward Zeke.
SHRIEEEK!
As the tentacles made an eerie sound and tried to bite Zeke’s face, he immediately drew out Ascalon and unleashed holy spirit energy.
WHOOOOSH!
The white light pouring from Zeke’s sword completely incinerated the blue tentacles rushing toward him.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
From the remaining blue blood scattered on the floor, similar tentacles began to form and rise up, crawling toward Zeke.
At the same time, the monster’s severed arm multiplied on its own, then transformed into a four-legged wild dog-like beast.
GRRRRRR!
The beast’s tail took the form of tentacles that had sprouted from the blood.
Zeke recalled that Wirinom’s power was ‘Blood Domination’.
‘Could it be that it can keep multiplying using blood as a medium?’
Since he hadn’t obtained information about the test subject’s abilities from the dark mage who used dragon wisdom, he could only guess based on the situation.
While assessing the current situation, the test subject with dozens of tentacles extending from its severed arm approached Zeke.
Even if he were to cut down the creature now, judging from the current situation, it would only continue to multiply and increase in numbers.
Instead of cutting it, Zeke held up Ascalon and strongly emitted holy spirit energy.
WHEEEE!
Then he launched a sword strike toward the tentacles crawling on the floor.
Seeing the tentacles hit by the sword strike imbued with holy spirit energy scatter into black ash, Zeke could confirm that light power was effective against the test subject.
The tentacles created by Wirinom’s power began to retreat, wary of the holy spirit energy Zeke possessed.
At that moment, the wild dog beast transformed from the severed arm revealed its sharp teeth and lunged at Zeke.
RAAAAAR!
In an instant, the wild dog beast opened its mouth and spewed blue blood toward Zeke.
Zeke stepped back and fired a bolt of light at the beast.
When the lightning bolt struck directly, the wild dog beast shattered completely.
However, this time, tiny flying insects emerged from the blue blood that the beast had spewed earlier.
BUZZZZ!
The flying insects gradually grew larger until they became more than ten times the size of normal hornets and flew around Zeke.
‘This is getting ridiculous.’
Since it kept multiplying and changing forms using blood as a medium, it was bound to become burdensome for the opponent.
Zeke looked at the insects flying in from all directions with bewilderment and summoned Ignis, a high-ranking fire elemental.
WHOOOOSH!
Having achieved expert rank in elemental magic after obtaining the perfect dragon’s heart along with the dragon language skill, Zeke could now summon high-ranking elementals without using polymorph.
Moreover, with his increased elemental affinity, Zeke could now give commands to Ignis through willpower alone.
WHOOSH!
Following Zeke’s will, Ignis breathed out flames toward the insects.
The insects caught in the elemental’s flame wind all turned to ash and scattered.
Zeke transmitted his intention to Ignis to capture the test subject possessing Wirinom’s power.
THUD!
Ignis, taking the form of an armored primordial being, fully revealed its body and approached the test.
The test subject then swung bundles of tentacles toward Ignis.
SCREEEECH!
The tentacle bundles spewed blue blood and tried to wrap around Ignis.
But before that could happen, the elemental’s flames erupted and burned all the tentacles away.
SCREEEECH!
When all the blood evaporated in the elemental’s pure flames, Wirinom’s power that used blood as a medium could not be manifested.
The test subject seemed to instinctively sense danger from Ignis, who possessed abilities opposite to its own, and cautiously backed away.
The test subject jumped toward the pile of knights’ corpses behind it, reached out its arm, and hastily stuffed them into its mouth.
Then blood flowed from its burned arm again, creating tentacles, insects, and beasts.
Zeke thought he understood how the test subject’s ability worked.
‘Wirinom is the herald of blood and madness. Even if it consumes blood from other living beings, as long as there’s blood, it can use it to manifest its power.’
Now that he knew the nature of the ability, stopping it wouldn’t be difficult.
After all, if the blood serving as a medium was eliminated, the power couldn’t be manifested.
Instead of directing with willpower this time, Zeke spoke to Ignis in a clear voice.
“Burn everything so that thing can’t scatter its blood.”
Ignis nodded upon hearing Zeke’s words.
[Understood.]
As Zeke, who had become a transcendent and started to possess divine qualities, was no different from a dragon, even the high-ranking elemental Ignis followed his orders without question.
Ignis breathed out strong flames toward the test subject.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The test subject was instantly met head-on with Ignis's flames.
SCREEEECH!
It screamed and tried to avoid the flames, but there was no way to escape the flames unleashed by a high-ranking elemental.
The test subject's body, which had become white-hot from the flames, quickly turned to ash and faded away.
Zeke looked at the scattered remains of the test subject and confirmed that Wirinom's power could no longer be felt.
He surveyed the surroundings to check if there were any more cages containing sealed test subjects.
'Fortunately, it seems this was the only test subject.'
However, this underground labyrinth was vast and complex. So there might be test subjects with powers from fallen constellations other than Wirinom.
Zeke raised shadows to summon Caligula and commanded:
"Caligula, search for any test subjects that possess constellation power within the labyrinth."
Caligula nodded and lifted into the air to carry out Zeke's orders.
Soon Caligula's body became faint, transforming into a spirit form, and began searching the underground labyrinth.
Since Zeke's soul was connected to Caligula, he could sense everything Caligula detected, so he planned to rush over and deal with any entities the moment test subjects were found.
After leaving the search for test subjects to Caligula, Zeke delved deeper into the labyrinth.
After moving for a short while, he saw a group of dark mages and knights running urgently.
"There are intruders in Section C! Send everyone that way!"
Seeing them heading in a different direction, it seemed they were sending guards to catch Boris's group who had entered through another entrance to the labyrinth.
Zeke stealthily crept deeper into the labyrinth while holding his breath.
Going further down, a space with a different feel from above appeared.
'Demonic energy lies thick here.'
Demonic energy so dense it could be mistaken for the demon realm rather than the mortal world spread throughout the entire space.
An ordinary knight would have been unable to properly exert their power just from entering a space filled with demonic energy.
But this level of demonic energy had no effect whatsoever on Zeke.
He calmly passed through the space filled with demonic energy and walked down the corridor while hiding in shadows.
Soon armed figures appeared ahead.
Zeke stopped moving when he saw them.
'Demons?'
Lower demon warriors, not human knights, were guarding the door.
Zeke expected there would be a portal leading to the labyrinth's core behind this door.
'The presence of demon warriors likely means stronger demons are waiting behind.'
Since it would be difficult to deal with upper demons or higher stealthily, Zeke decided to end this as quickly as possible.
The moment he made this judgment, he launched himself toward the lower demons while raising shadows.
WHOOSH!
The shadows instantly transformed into black blades that surged up and attacked the lower demons.
SLASH!
The black blades instantly severed the lower demons' necks before they could react.
Since there were demon species that could survive even with their heads cut off, Zeke immediately burned the lower demons' remains with holy spirit energy.
At the same time, he shattered the door in one go with force field.
CRASH!
BOOM!
As the door broke, Zeke immediately jumped inside.
And waiting for Zeke behind the door were hundreds of black knights.
SCREECH!
Knights wearing black armor much thicker and heavier than normal armor stood holding greatswords.
But what was surprising was what they had on their backs.
They were all equipped with something like long rods, and Zeke recalled something when he saw them.
'Could those be magic guns?'
They looked bigger and heavier than Aaron's sniper magic gun Knight Killer, but they were definitely magic guns.
At that moment, behind the black knights, an ominous presence wearing a black skull mask and holding a staff revealed itself.
It looked more like a lich than a dark mage, but didn't have the characteristic undead feel.
The skull mask reminded Zeke of the black mask he had seen before.
It was Jiemens's secret weapon that led the immortal legion by injecting infinite demonic energy into black knights.
'I thought I eliminated them all back then, but some remained?'
When the skull mask raised the staff it was holding, demonic energy like thick fog poured out.
At this signal, the immortal unit began to move.
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
Red light gleamed from within the black knights' helmets, and they approached Zeke in formation.
At the same time, the huge magic guns on their backs moved forward and settled on their shoulders.
CLICK!
The magic guns aimed at Zeke and began firing black bullets.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Bullets larger and heavier than sniper magic gun bullets rained down toward Zeke.
Hundreds of bullets fired continuously by the black knights flew from all directions.
Zeke quickly raised Shadow Armor to block their attacks.
RATATATATAT!
But their power was so strong that parts hit by concentrated fire were being torn and penetrated.
'Ramon Jiemens. To think he was making such weapons in this labyrinth.'
Ramon Jiemens, the head of House Jiemens, had been accelerating development of secret weapons to conquer the continent and hiding them in this labyrinth.
But after being devoured by Abel due to his greed, Jiemens's underground labyrinth was entirely taken over by Abyss, and the secret weapons were further strengthened by dark magic.
SCREEEECH!
Even after the tremendous barrage of bullets ended, black smoke lingered around where Zeke had been standing.
When the smoke cleared, only bullet marks remained in the crater-like depression, as if an explosion had occurred.
The skull mask raised its staff and gave orders to the black knights again.
STOMP! STOMP! STOMP!
The black knights at the front advanced with their gun barrels pointed forward.
They approached where Zeke had been and searched the area.
But they couldn't find anything.
Just as they were about to report that nothing was amiss.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Zeke appeared behind the skull mask standing on the platform beyond where the black knights were.
Zeke cut off the skull mask's head with Ascalon in one strike.
SLASH!
The skull mask's severed head rolled on the floor, and simultaneously Zeke ignited pure flames created by his force of fire on the skull mask's remaining body.
WHOOSH!
White flames instantly devoured the body.
From previous battle experience, Zeke knew that to neutralize the immortal legion of black knights, he had to strike down the skull mask controlling them first.
That's why he used the power of spirit manifestation to cross dimensions and directly move behind the skull mask to strike.
The completely burned body of the skull mask scattered into black powder.
It was a clean execution, but a problem arose. The black knights changed direction and aimed their gun barrels at Zeke again.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Bullets rained down on the platform.
Zeke raised shadows again to block them.
'What's going on? The black knights should stop when I take it down.'
As Zeke was deflecting bullets while shrouded in shadows and trying to dodge attacks by flying into the air, something caught his eye.
Surprisingly, the skull mask that Zeke had just killed was back, perfectly fine, holding its staff and controlling the black knights.
WHOOSH!
The demonic energy flowing from the staff seemed to be replenishing the black knights' bullets.
Perhaps because of this, the volume of bullets flying toward Zeke hadn't decreased at all.
'Dodging alone won't do.'
He created a shield with Shadow Armor and, holding Ascalon, changed direction and descended toward the black knights from the air.
WHOOSH!
Brilliant light poured from Zeke's body, wrapped in holy spirit energy.
He concentrated light into his sword and took the stance of the Dragon Slaying Technique.
Dragon Slaying Technique Special Form
Holy Spirit Technique
Light Explosion Wave
Radiant light pierced down toward where the black knights were.
ZZZZZZZANG!
The entire space was enveloped in enormous light.