627
Chapter 627
KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA!
Leviathan emitted a flash of light and pierced through the storm of thorns.
The sword's light from Leviathan spread in all directions, shattering all the crystallized thorns into pieces.
KWADUDUDUK!
As the flying thorns shattered, Leviathan changed direction again and flew towards the Demon Angel.
The Demon Angel let out a roar towards the approaching Leviathan and swung the tentacles that sprouted from its back.
The tips of the tentacles turned into sharp blades trying to strike down Leviathan.
However, Leviathan, enveloped in the sword's light, charged forward, destroying all the tentacle blades just as it had destroyed the thorns moments ago.
Then it dove straight towards where the Demon Angel's heart was located.
KAAAAK!
The Demon Angel opened its mouth and spewed dark energy to block Leviathan, but it was useless.
Following Zeke's will, Leviathan emitted its own light, cutting through the dark energy and piercing straight through the Demon Angel's heart.
KWADUDUDUK!
Leviathan, deeply embedded in the heart, created a faint vibration.
Then Ascalon, which was stuck in the Demon Angel's back, also vibrated in response.
WOOOOOONG!
As the two swords vibrated while stuck in the Demon Angel's body, they resonated and waves spread out.
KEEEEK!
The Demon Angel, suffering from the waves created by the two swords, clawed at its own body as if self-harming.
The black crystals attached to its body surface began falling off one after another.
The scattered crystals flowed towards Zeke as if they were iron pieces being attracted to a magnet.
SEUSEUSEU!
The black crystals were absorbed into the shadows enveloping Zeke's body.
Baron, who saw this from below, barely gathered himself, raised his head, and shouted.
"He's stealing the Demon King's soul! Stop him quickly!"
But the Demon Angel was in no position to follow Baron's orders.
As the black crystals fell off, its hideous amorphous body was revealed again.
The Demon Angel's body, with red skin and writhing tentacles, gradually lost its vitality and slowly withered.
CHEUCHEUCHEU!
As almost all the black crystals fell off and were absorbed by Zeke, the two swords embedded in the Demon Angel's body slowly stopped vibrating.
As the waves subsided, the Demon Angel could finally move its body.
CHWARALARAK!
Spreading its wings made of tentacles, it descended from the air and flew towards the gate where Baron was.
KWAKWAKWAKWA!
The Demon Angel, falling like it was crashing, stretched its hand towards Baron.
Baron barely got up and approached the Demon Angel.
Then he wounded his hand to draw dark blood and let it flow into the Demon Angel.
SEUSEUSEU!
Baron's blood immediately seeped into the Demon Angel's skin.
Simultaneously, the Demon Angel had a severe seizure.
KAAAAK!
The Demon Angel let out a roar and violently bent its body.
As if Zeke's swords in its back and chest were tormenting it more, it writhed trying to pull out the swords.
But then.
KWADUDUDUK!
A hand suddenly burst through the Demon Angel's stomach.
The protruding hand grabbed Baron's neck who was in front.
Baron glared fiercely at the hand gripping his throat.
"Harvey Draker!"
KWADUDUDUK!
Harvey Draker, who had been buried inside the Demon Angel's body, emerged from within and grabbed Baron's neck.
Harvey Draker, with his arms and upper body now outside, glared at Baron and said.
"You puppet of Arthur Draker. You planned to sacrifice me from the start."
Only after being dragged here did Harvey Draker realize that Arthur Draker had inserted the corrupted dragon's heart to use him as a vessel for the Demon King's soul, and he was furious.
KWADUDUDUK!
Harvey Draker's eyes changed into dragon eyes as he glared at Baron.
"Things will never go according to your plans!"
To those words, Baron shouted with eyes full of madness.
"This is what God has ordained! You worthless clone! Follow God's will!"
Arthur Draker's most faithful zealot.
Blind fanatical heat radiated from Baron's eyes.
Looking at Baron, Harvey Draker shook his head.
"The one truly chosen to take the stage is not Arthur Draker, but me."
At that moment, Harvey Draker's mouth opened to an unbelievable size and began to bite and swallow Baron's entire head.
EUKJEOK! EUKJEOK! EUKJEOK!
It was the futile end of Baron Draker, Arthur Draker's most faithful subordinate and blind zealot.
Harvey Draker, after tearing off and eating Baron's head, had a different energy than before.
KUGUGUGUGU!
Emitting an ominous dark energy, Harvey Draker, unlike before, could now control the Demon Angel's body according to his will.
By his will, a giant mouth opened in the Demon Angel's lower body and swallowed Baron Draker's remaining body whole.
WUDUDUDUDUK!
After completely swallowing Baron, Harvey Draker emitted an even stronger dark energy than before.
Right after, Harvey Draker freely moved the tentacles extending from his body to wrap around the mages in front of the gate.
KWADUDUDUK!
He opened his giant mouth and swallowed the Magicians wrapped in his tentacles as well.
After swallowing the mages, Harvey Draker's upper body remained in its original form, but below was made of writhing tentacles, with barely a trace of legs remaining.
"...Not enough, not enough."
Harvey Draker turned his body to look at the monstrous gate behind him.
And immediately stretched out his tentacles to wrap around the gate.
KWADUDUDUK!
As the gate and tentacles connected as one, Harvey Draker began to devour it.
KUGUGUGUGU!
Having devoured the gate in an instant, Harvey Draker's body grew even more massive.
KWADUDUDUK!
But it didn't end with just growing larger. Harvey Draker's body began to transform after absorbing the gate.
GEUREUREUK!
As the tentacles gathered and combined, Harvey Draker was transforming into a giant dragon.
However, it wasn't an ordinary dragon, but a monster dragon with tentacles protruding all over its body.
Harvey Draker's upper body was positioned as if sprouting from the monster dragon's head.
He raised his head to look at Zeke Draker floating in the air, then spread his wings and slowly rose into the air.
HUWOOOONG!
Harvey Draker, now a monster dragon, flew quickly towards Zeke.
"ZEKE DRAKERRR!"
Just as he let out a roar full of grudge and rage.
CHEUCHEUCHEU!
The shadows wrapping around Zeke rippled greatly, and a circular membrane began to spread out from his body as the center.
WOOOOOONG!
And that translucent membrane quickly expanded until it reached the entire unique realm where the infinite library had unfolded.
Surprisingly, everywhere the translucent membrane passed over turned black and white and stopped moving in place.
'This is?'
Turning his head, Zeke discovered that Harvey Draker, now a monster dragon, had also stopped mid-air.
Innocent and High Tables below were the same.
He couldn't help but be surprised to confirm that all time in the space around him had stopped.
'Time suddenly stopping?'
Zeke hadn't been idle while Harvey Draker was devouring everything around him.
However, he had only purified the black crystals that flowed from the Demon Angel after absorbing them into Karma Points.
As far as he knew, only Chronos, the Dragon of Time, could exert authority over time.
'Could it be?'
Zeke took out Chronos's pocket watch from his inventory to check.
But the pocket watch showed no reaction at all.
It meant this phenomenon of stopped time wasn't caused by Chronos's authority.
That's when a message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[Corrupted Karma Data has been restored.]
[The sealed memories of 'Jiemens Apollion' recorded in the Karma Data will be opened.]
Zeke furrowed his brow at the message that appeared.
'Jiemens Apollion.'
Just earlier, when he purified the corrupted Karma Data after absorbing part of the Demon King's soul, he recalled Chronos's voice flowing out as Jiemens Apollion's memories were restored.
'Is there some connection between restoring Jiemens Apollion's memories and Chronos's authority.'
As Zeke was still pondering this question, a voice suddenly rang in his ears.
【Zeke Draker.】
An unfamiliar voice called Zeke's name.
It was different from the Demon King's voice that had guided Zeke and the High Tables here.
'This is...?'
Soon the voice continued.
【I am Jiemens Apollion.】
Zeke's eyes widened at the voice's words.
As Jiemens Apollion's memories were restored, his memories were directly speaking to Zeke.
'Jiemens Apollion, the second person after King Solomon to summon the Demon King, disciple of the Great Sage, and adopted son of the Hero King.'
Zeke had indirectly encountered the Demon King's army that Jiemens Apollion had led through the Inverted Tower.
Jiemens Apollion, who had summoned the Demon King's soul into his own body, had his ambitions crushed by the Great Sage and the Clock Tower Knights.
His defeated soul was absorbed by the Demon King and sealed in the Book of the Dead, and history erased all traces of his existence.
Therefore, Jiemens Apollion speaking to Zeke in his own voice rather than the Demon King's voice was not easily understood by him.
While Zeke was feeling perplexed, the voice echoed again.
【Zeke Draker, my distant descendant. I have waited for you for a long time.】
For a moment, Zeke doubted if this person was really Jiemens Apollion, as his voice was filled with such vigor that it was hard to believe he was someone who had summoned the Demon King into his own body.
As if reading his thoughts, Jiemens Apollion spoke again.
【You have great doubts about my existence. No, that would be natural.】
Jiemens Apollion slowly continued.
【You might have thought that only Chronos, the Dragon of Time, could interfere with the timeline. However, Zeke Draker, Chronos is not the only one who can interfere with the timeline. I too, though in a different way from Chronos, am capable of interfering across timelines.】
Zeke became more wary after hearing Jiemens Apollion's words.
'Jiemens Apollion can also interfere with the timeline like Chronos? That's impossible. It's impossible as a human. The Demon King's power? Can the Demon King's authority interfere with the timeline?'
Doubts continued to chain together in his mind.
The voice echoed again.
【Yes, you'll need convincing explanations.】
Zeke felt something strange while listening to Jiemens Apollion's oddly gentle and kind tone.
'Is it really true that Jiemens Apollion is trying to dominate the physical world by summoning the Demon King's soul?'
Perhaps even this was a disguise to deceive Zeke.
【Zeke Draker. Though it may be hard to believe, I am indeed Jiemens Apollion. However, I am a slightly different being from the Jiemens Apollion you know.】
At these words, this time Zeke didn't just think but directly asked Jiemens Apollion.
'You say you're Jiemens Apollion but a different being. Does that mean you're an avatar?'
The answer came to his question.
【That's not what I mean.】
'If that's not what you mean, are you just a past memory made of karma data imitating Jiemens Apollion?'
【That's not it either. I am currently interfering with time to have a conversation with you, a possibility that will exist in the future.】
'A future possibility? Don't tell me... are you saying that you who are talking to me now exist in the past?'
The past Jiemens Apollion and the future Zeke conversing across timelines.
While Zeke had directly traveled to the past through the authority of Chronos, the Dragon of Time, this was his first time communicating with a being from the past in this way.
【Yes, though difficult, it's not impossible. I have waited for this moment to face you.】
He continued speaking without waiting for Zeke's response.
【I am a knight who inherited the Hero King's sword and a mage who inherited all the advancements of the great sage. I am also a sage who explored the truth of the world.】
Hearing Jiemens Apollion's words, Zeke felt something was strange.
'Inheriting the Hero King's sword, and inheriting everything from the great sage? And then being a sage...'
Something was different from the history of Jiemens Apollion that he knew.
Just as Zeke was about to ask a question, Jiemens Apollion's voice echoed again.
【My distant descendant who has transcended the wall through your own will, Zeke Draker. I have something to tell you.】
He slowly continued.
【I am, like you, a being who has traveled back through time.】