616
Chapter 616
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
With a massive impact, the flying carpet broke through the barrier and entered the central city of Atlantis.
"UGHH!"
Nabu got up while rubbing his waist, feeling like his whole body had been beaten.
"Oh my aching bones. What is this really?, I wonder why I'm putting myself through this for some supposed wealth and glory."
Ignoring Nabu's complaints, Zeke approached Nigel.
"Are you alright, Master?"
Although her body had recovered thanks to Zeke's complete recovery ability, even Zeke's power couldn't do anything about the damage to his soul.
Since Nigel had pushed herself by breaking the seal while risking extinction, Zeke couldn't help but worry.
Nigel's face was slightly pale, but she soon nodded as if he was fine.
"I'm fine. But this place..."
The central city of Atlantis they had entered through the barrier felt quite different from the outside.
The sky was completely cloudy and dark as if covered in storm clouds, with no light shining down at all.
The surrounding buildings were all collapsed or covered in black mold, and bizarre moss and vines densely covered the walls everywhere.
Nabu also gaped at the sight.
"Wow, what is this? It's completely different from the outside."
Zeke bent down to touch the ground and the growing plants, then nodded.
"I've seen a place similar to this before."
Nabu asked with a surprised expression at Zeke's words.
"A place similar to here? Where?"
"Though it was looking into past memories... the continent beyond the Dark Sea where another Book of the Dead is hidden. That place looked like this too."
At Zeke's words, Nigel frowned and spoke.
"You mean the power leaking from the Book of the Dead affected the surrounding environment."
Nabu gaped at those words.
"This much power leaks out from a sealed book, and it's even split in half?"
Zeke looked at Nabu and said.
"The continent beyond the Dark Sea was in an even worse state than here. Not only did it look bizarre, but everywhere..."
SCREECH!
Before Zeke could finish speaking, a monstrous cry rang out from the distance.
He continued speaking while looking toward where the cry came from.
"There were demon beasts affected by dark energy scattered everywhere like that."
Zeke stood up, raised his sword and said.
"We need to maintain battle formation and get to the center where the Book of the Dead is sealed as quickly as possible. We don't know how far Baron has gotten."
At Zeke's words, Nigel also drew her sword and nodded.
The three took up defensive positions and immediately headed for the city center.
Zeke took the front, Nabu was in the middle, and Nigel was at the rear.
As they were going between the half-collapsed buildings...
They felt something approaching from the other side.
GROWL!
A demon beast that looked similar to a wild dog approached Zeke's group while baring its teeth.
When the demon beast opened its mouth while glaring at them, rather than splitting top and bottom, it split in four directions which looked quite threatening.
And there weren't just one or two such demon beasts - dozens of them appeared.
Zeke pointed his sword at the demon beasts and said.
"I'll handle them while you two cover me from behind."
At the same time, Zeke leaped forward and unleashed a sword strike at the demon beast in front.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sword strike imbued with radiant light power landed a direct hit on the demon beast's body.
SCREECH!
The demon beast enveloped in light power collapsed to the ground while leaking disgusting bodily fluids, and Zeke immediately wrapped up the fallen demon beast by extending his shadow.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
After absorbing the fallen demon beast, Zeke pulled at the corner of his mouth as he saw his karma points increase.
"Good, I needed some points anyway. This works out well. Come at me."
GROW!
The demon beasts opened their mouths wide toward Zeke, baring their sharp teeth and flicking their tongues with poisonous stingers.
Seeing this, Nabu shuddered and shouted.
"UGHH, I've dealt with demon beasts before but these are too grotesque!"
He spoke irritably and summoned arrows of light with his word magic, floating them in the air.
Behind him, Nigel took out the orichalcon fragments they had collected and infused them with soul technique power.
The demon beasts glared at them and charged from all directions.
SCREECH!
First, Nabu shot the arrows of light at them.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Dozens of arrows precisely struck the demon beasts' bodies.
SHRIEK!
The demon beasts hit by the light arrows were pushed back.
At that moment, Nigel quickly threw the orichalcon fragments infused with soul technique from behind.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
As the orichalcon fragments spread in all directions, they pierced through the bodies of the retreating demon beasts.
CRUNCH!
The demon beasts' limbs were shattered by the orichalcon fragments and scattered everywhere.
Just then, Zeke's shadow approached and absorbed all the dead demon beasts' bodies.
The karma points gained from absorbing the demon beasts were substantial.
'Is it because they directly received the Demon King's power flowing from the Book of the Dead? The karma points are quite high.'
Since learning that Baron and Arthur Draker's subordinates used distorted causality, having more karma points would allow for better countermeasures, so this was good for Zeke.
'I'll wipe them out in one go.'
Zeke watched the approaching demon beasts again and reached toward the orichalcon fragments scattered by Nigel.
WHOOSH!
The orichalcon fragments responded to Zeke's energy, floating into the air before starting to spin violently.
Zeke clenched his fist toward the fragments.
The spinning fragments flew roughly through the air, piercing through the demon beasts' bodies and turning them into minced meat.
SHRIEK!
The demon beasts' bodies, though hard and slippery with bodily fluids, were difficult to even scratch with normal attacks.
But the orichalcon fragments imbued with Zeke's power easily tore the demon beasts' bodies into shreds like ground meat.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
The instantly annihilated demon beasts seeped into Zeke's shadow.
Zeke smiled with satisfaction after gaining massive karma points.
He gestured to Nabu and Nigel.
"Stronger demon beasts will appear as we get closer to the center. Be careful."
Nabu and Nigel nodded with tense expressions and followed behind Zeke.
As Zeke predicted, more grotesque and powerful demon beasts appeared as they got closer to the center.
Their condensed dark energy made it uncomfortable to even breathe.
But even such powerful demon beasts were just good point providers before Zeke.
THUD!
A monkey-like demon beast collapsed to the ground after being hit by Zeke's sword strike.
Without fail, Zeke's shadow greedily devoured the demon beast's flesh.
Being filled with condensed dark energy, the demon beast provided massive karma points.
As they advanced while defeating the attacking demon beasts, they finally reached Atlantis' center.
Nabu pointed at a building standing in the center.
"Is the Book of the Dead in there?"
Surprisingly, there was a temple where he pointed.
However, unlike normal temples, it was a stone building made of sharp spires.
It felt unfamiliar and somewhat intimidating since it was completely different from the temples they had seen so far.
But then.
[Welcome, new king.]
The voice they heard earlier rang in their ears again.
Nabu opened his eyes wide hearing this voice.
"You heard that too, right? That 'welcome' and ‘new king’ thing."
Zeke nodded at Nabu's words.
"Yes, it seems the Book of the Dead is indeed sealed there."
He slowly headed toward the temple with his sword.
But the moment he approached closer to the temple.
CRACKLE!
A magical bolt of lightning shot up in front of Zeke, blocking his way.
At the same time, a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[A highest-grade security system is controlling this area.]
[Entry is denied without an authentication key.]
Zeke thought for a moment after seeing the message and said to the system.
'Deactivate the security with my control authority over Rue.'
The system fell silent as if trying according to Zeke's command, then displayed another message.
[Control authority over the City Rue does not include an authentication key for the security area.]
The control authority held by the leader and this security area's management system seemed to operate separately.
After pondering briefly, Zeke spoke to the system again.
'Check if I can access the security system using my titles and powers.'
The system fell silent again according to Zeke's command and accessed the security system.
Shortly after.
[Warning. Illegal intrusion detected by the system and protection program activated.]
[Guardian protecting this area will be summoned.]
Zeke was startled by the system's warning message.
'What kind of system is this that even the Kabbalah system can't access it?'
As Zeke stepped back in surprise, a magic circle appeared in front of the temple and summoned the guardian.
WHOOSH!
The guardian revealed itself, emitting powerful energy.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The summoned guardian was a massive golem.
Standing over five meters tall, it wore a helmet shaped like a lion's head, held a heavy club in one hand, and carried a longbow on its back.
Importantly, the golem was made of brilliant silver metal.
Zeke stared at the golem and realized what the metal was.
"An orichalcon golem?"
The massive golem was made entirely of orichalcon.
While Zeke's orichalcon Hersion was already unprecedented, seeing a golem made of solid orichalcon was unbelievable even before his eyes.
Nabu exclaimed from behind.
"No way, is that... Hercules? The real Hercules?"
Nabu stepped forward in shock.
He shouted excitedly.
"Incredible! The reason Atlantis, the legendary city, was able to wield the most powerful force of its time as a highly advanced civilization was because of that Orichalcum Golem, Hercules!"
Nabu summoned a book comparing the illustration of Hercules to the real thing and gasped.
"My goodness! The reality is even more impressive than the legend! The books predicted it was orichalcon plating or a similar-sounding metal. No! This is made entirely of solid orichalcon! Wow, those Atlanteans were crazy!"
Like a true sage, Nabu jumped around excited at discovering new facts.
Just then, the golem called Hercules began to move.
CREAK!
It put down its club and took out the longbow from its back.
Then it pulled back the bow with full force and took aim.
Magical power concentrated on the empty bow.
WHOOSH!
In an instant, the condensed magic formed an arrow.
Seeing this, Nabu got excited again.
"Hercules' arrow! This defeated all the invaders who attacked the city...!"
Suddenly, a flash of light sparked from Hercules' bow.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The light arrow shot high into the air, then changed direction and fell toward Zeke's group.
Nabu finally came to his senses and screamed.
"AHHH! That doesn't mean I wanted to experience it firsthand!"
Before his scream ended, the light arrow struck and exploded.
KABOOM!
A massive explosion completely devastated the surroundings.
As the thick dust cloud settled, a spherical barrier made of black shadows appeared.
Zeke had deployed Shadow Armor to block Hercules' arrow.
Seeing this, Hercules tried to pull back his bowstring again.
Zeke shook his head and transformed his Leviathan into a spear.
"I'm not going to just stand here and take another hit!"
At the same time, he threw the transformed Leviathan at Hercules.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
With a tremendous explosion, Leviathan cut through the air as it flew towards Hercules.