547
Chapter 547
Asmodius’s expression contrasted with Arataso’s words.
“What nonsense are you spouting? You damned traitor!”
WOOOOOM!
An enormous fighting spirit, incomparable to before, erupted from Asmodius’s body.
As he stretched out his hand, his bone blade began transforming.
It became a long, sturdy bone spear with sharp protrusions along its blade.
Gripping the bone spear, Asmodius pointed it at Arataso.
“Our lord endured a noble sacrifice for all of us. I will not forgive you for desecrating his self-sacrifice!”
Asmodius, a fervent zealot of the Arrogant Savior, refused to believe Arataso’s words.
Arataso clicked his tongue at his reaction.
“You still haven’t come to your senses, Asmodius. The Arrogant Savior abandoned us and ascended to the physical realm to claim the Demon King’s soul. He knew full well what would happen to his followers in his absence.”
The Arrogant Savior, who built Babel in the demon realm, initially led the fallen constellations and was essentially a savior to all demon-kind.
But as time passed, his ideals gradually devolved into delusions of grandeur.
This caused other constellations to turn away from him. Babel became increasingly isolated and began crumbling from below.
Despite this, the Arrogant Savior couldn’t abandon his ideals.
He cast aside his followers who looked up to him and ascended to the physical realm.
Taking advantage of this, the constellations divided the Arrogant Savior’s domain among themselves. Great demons who absorbed powers from other constellations began to emerge.
In this situation, Morningstar, the most loyal follower of the Arrogant Savior, faced concentrated attacks from other factions.
Eventually, to prevent Morningstar’s annihilation, their leader, the Clear Green Wish, accepted Mephistopheles’ offer, who had become the master of Pandemonium.
But the Morningstar second Battalion continued defending Babel while waiting for the Arrogant Savior, until they were finally annihilated.
This was why Arataso could only shake his head at Asmodius’s blind devotion to the Arrogant Savior.
More enraged than before, Asmodius took a stance to throw his bone spear.
Simultaneously, powerful spiritual pressure gathered around him, distorting the space.
RUMBLE!
Asmodius hurled his bone spear toward Arataso, infused with extremely compressed fighting spirit.
WHOOSH!
The bone spear flew through the distorted space.
Arataso, wielding his shield and lance, met Asmodius’s attack head-on.
“HAAAA!”
Green energy surged around his body, forming a massive shield.
The energies of Arataso and Asmodius collided.
CRACK!
Powerful shockwaves emanated from the collision point.
The Skeleton Corps knights behind raised their shields to block the waves, but were pushed back, breaking their formation.
RUMBLE!
The violent collision created a momentary standoff, while the energy shockwaves caused distortions in space, creating haze-like effects throughout the area.
Nebilos also raised his staff, summoning magical power to defend against the waves.
However, the powerful shockwaves shattered the undead creatures Nebilos had summoned.
BOOM!
After the powerful shockwave swept through the entire space…
RUMBLE!
Arataso emerged from the collision point, looking battered.
His shield was completely shattered, and his armor was cracked with pieces falling off.
Seeing this, Asmodius sneered.
“How pathetic, Arataso. To think you, once called the Green Knight who terrified the entire demon realm as the Morningstar first Division Commander, are now reduced to this.”
Arataso stepped forward with his lance toward the sneering Asmodius.
Then he shook his head, as if pitying him.
“Asmodius, you haven’t changed at all. You only know how to blindly follow orders, but you’ve never actually stayed until the end to see things through.”
Asmodius frowned at Arataso’s words.
“What nonsense”.
Suddenly, Asmodius sensed something strange.
He quickly turned around.
A tremendous boom sounded from behind.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Zeke was swinging Ascalon, which emitted a golden aura, toward the priest.
WOOOOOM!
A brilliant light burst from the priest's body after being struck by the radiant sword.
* * *
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
A massive sound shook the entire labyrinth.
"Phew. What a commotion."
Boris and the intelligence agents who had secretly infiltrated the labyrinth were in a state of extreme tension.
Unlike ordinary dungeons, Jiemens' labyrinth was crawling with all kinds of monsters everywhere.
Boris had been tasked with meeting up with Shadia's assassination squad to plant magical compression bombs throughout the labyrinth.
When Zeke gave the signal, they would detonate everything at once to completely collapse and bury this place.
While carrying out this mission and avoiding the monsters and black knights guarding the corridors to penetrate deeper into the labyrinth, Boris noticed an unusual signal on the detector Hades had made.
He signaled his companions to stop and sent a secure message through an artifact containing telepathy magic.
—I sense an unusual signal ahead.
The detector created by Hades was a device designed to detect the power of constellations.
Zeke's precise instructions to Boris were to erase all traces of constellations inside the labyrinth. That's why Boris was moving around placing bombs in related locations.
He led the way toward the source of the unusual signal.
The signal was strongly emanating from behind a door at the end of the corridor, which was decorated with bizarre patterns.
Guards who looked like Jiemens' knights were stationed in front of the door.
That's when Shadia sent Boris a message.
—Commander, the power emanating from that place feels ominous... Are we still going in?
She was checking because if they disturbed a power beyond their ability to handle, it could jeopardize their plan.
Boris, who was already concerned about the unsettling feeling Shadia mentioned, sent another message after a moment of consideration.
—Adol, Zion. Proceed inside with me. The rest of you stand by and monitor the situation.
Immediately after delivering the message, Boris approached the door with Adol.
Adol, who possessed the ability to turn objects into sand, burrowed into the floor.
Boris and Zion took a deep breath before entering the sand pit with Adol.
They passed by Jiemens' knights guarding the door and went straight behind it.
TSSSS!
After entering through the door, as the surrounding floor turned to sand, Boris first took out a periscope to survey the surroundings.
'I don't see anything special.'
Having carefully examined the inner space and confirmed there were no guards, Boris climbed up.
Zion and Adol also emerged from the floor, and Boris concentrated his aura in his eyes to scan the area.
It was unusual that the entire room was made of solid black stone.
'What is this place for?'
Moreover, structures similar to temple altars were placed throughout.
Boris took out the detector again to search for any traces of constellation power.
At that moment, Boris could sense a strong abnormal signal coming from near the altar.
He gestured toward Zion and Adol.
At his signal, the three carefully approached the altar.
Boris discovered a sarcophagus placed on top of the altar.
When he raised the detector, it emitted a strong signal toward the sarcophagus.
'Perhaps it contains a divine object of a constellation.'
Boris contemplated while looking at the sarcophagus.
He needed to decide whether to just place bombs and leave, or handle the situation directly.
Although they had powerful bombs, since they were simply explosive devices, they might not completely destroy whatever was inside the sarcophagus.
Handling it right there with the three of them might be the surest method, but it was also quite dangerous, so Boris was conflicted.
But then it happened.
BUZZ! BUZZ!
The needle on the detector began to violently swing and vibrate intensely.
A startled Boris stepped back, and Zion moved forward with his hand raised.
He intended to crush the sarcophagus with his telekinesis if necessary.
But before Zion could act, cracks appeared in the sarcophagus and it began to split open.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
As the sarcophagus shattered, something inside began to swell and try to emerge.
When fragments flew out, Zion used his telekinesis to create a barrier.
PING! PING! PING!
The fragments bounced off the barrier.
Grotesque flesh masses swelled up from inside the broken sarcophagus.
CREEEAAAK!
Just as the flesh masses making eerie sounds were rising up, the sound of the door opening was heard.
"Damn! Another seal has broken."
"Quickly, call the dark mages!"
Boris, Zion, and Adol quickly hid themselves from the knights' view.
The knights appeared wielding long electrified poles, keeping the flesh masses that had emerged from the sarcophagus at bay.
"Stay put!"
CRACKLE! CRACKLE l! CRACKLE!
The flesh mass flinched and backed away when the electric current flowed through the pole.
Soon, the black mages summoned by the knights quickly entered and raised their magical power.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
The magic circle installed near the altar reacted to the dark mages' power.
Black mist rose from the floor and seized the flesh mass.
Simultaneously, other knights prepared a new sarcophagus.
They approached the flesh mass, pushing the sarcophagus with their poles.
Despite being held by the black mist, the flesh mass continued to swell and grow larger.
Then suddenly, part of the flesh mass stretched like rubber and snatched one of the knights pushing the sarcophagus.
"AAARGH!"
The knight was sucked right into the flesh mass.
The other knights shouted in surprise.
"Damn it! Get it in quickly before it regains its original form! Hurry!"
As the knights pushed the sarcophagus harder, the dark mages chanted spells with greater power to control the black mist.
The flesh mass bound by the haze gradually changed direction and crawled into the sarcophagus.
Its volume decreased gradually until it was completely settled inside the sarcophagus.
The knights immediately covered the sarcophagus and placed it back on the altar.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
Once the flesh mass was sealed in the sarcophagus, the vibrations stopped.
The knights who had been pushing the sarcophagus finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Damn it. That monster is breaking out more and more frequently."
One of the knights, catching his breath, shouted at the black mages.
"Damn, can't you do something about that monstrosity? I don't know what it is, but it's growing stronger as time passes!"
A dark mage with a pale complexion and black lips shook his head.
"That's not possible. The higher-ups ordered us to protect it. So we must protect it."
The knight gritted his teeth at the dark mage's emotionless voice, but he didn't say anything more.
The knight spat on the floor and gestured to the other knights.
"Damn those higher-ups... Let's return to our posts."
The knights swallowed their complaints and left through the door.
After the knights and mages left, Boris and his companions reappeared.
Boris fell into contemplation as he looked at the newly installed sarcophagus.
'An unidentified organism that attacks indiscriminately without distinguishing friend from foe.'
Then Zion, who was behind him, sent Boris a message.
—Commander, you're not planning to wake that thing up again, are you?
Having seen all kinds of dangerous specimens in the Nostra family, Zion had no desire to get near whatever was in the sarcophagus, regardless of what it was.
But Boris had different thoughts.
—I don't know what that is, but it's a good opportunity to shake up the labyrinth.
Boris's eyes gleamed.
* * *
"Ha, damn it. Who would have thought my life would become such a mess?"
A Jiemens knight lamented his fate while carefully smoking tobacco in a corner.
Most of the remaining Jiemens knights in the underground labyrinth were in similar situations.
After Ramon Jiemens died, dark mages from the Abyss took over this place.
They had two choices.
Either cooperate with the Abyss, or become test subjects.
So the knights remaining here were those who had agreed to cooperate.
Fortunately, they hadn't become test subjects, but they had fallen to the position of cleaning up after monsters while trapped in this wretched underground labyrinth.
They couldn't help but reminisce about the times when they were Jiemens knights and enjoyed power as one of the rulers of the Midlands.
While they were dwelling on the past and lamenting their fate...
RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
A massive vibration began to spread.