Chapter 188
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 188
Chapter Title: Gatekeeper Veid
"Has it gotten a little deeper?"
We were walking along the abyss of the gorge. The closer we got to its center, the deeper the valley seemed to become.
They said it was a scar carved into the earth by the sword qi the Blue Overlord unleashed in his final moments. It wasn't hard to understand why it would be carved deeper toward the center.
Still, the idea that a Master possessed the power to split mountains and cleave the earth was more of a figure of speech. Although, they did have enough power to blow away a small hill.
"But this wound on the earth feels like a phenomenon created by a power that far surpasses that."
This was less like the sword qi of a human Master and more akin to the power of a god.
And then there was the demonic energy, condensed and swirling in various places.
Just as I had poured out all my True Origin Qi to defeat the Demon King, it felt as though the Death Knight known as the Blue Overlord had unleashed every ounce of his power into the earth in a self-sacrificial attack.
Afterward, I was left a wreck. If the Blue Overlord's power was similar, it meant he had expelled all his demonic energy at the time and entered a state of hibernation.
But the power of demonic energy, which extends its clutches throughout the dimension, does not allow a being already dead, like a Death Knight, to find rest. Over a thousand years, it must have seeped back into the Blue Overlord.
And now, the time for his complete resurrection had finally come.
"What are you thinking about?"
"Oh, it's nothing."
The red-haired beauty, walking slightly ahead of me, tilted her head and looked back. I shook my head vigorously at the sight of Chris's face.
My moment of sentimental reflection in the place created by his power was brief. I decided to focus on the woman right in front of me now.
*Trot, trot.*
I quickly caught up to walk beside Chris, looking at her with a slightly disgruntled expression.
"You can't just do things recklessly."
"Hmm? Do what?"
"Things like what you did yesterday, you can't just do them. At least give me some time to prepare myself mentally."
"Ahaha..."
Chris gave an awkward laugh and avoided my gaze. That meant she couldn't make any promises. I could feel my cheeks puffing out.
*Thump.*
Chris turned and placed her hands on my shoulders.
"Rain, that's a hard promise to make. If doing something like that can help you reach his side even a little sooner, I might do it without hesitation in the future."
"B-But."
"I won't die. No, not just me, it's the same for everyone. For your sake, we're going to enjoy this world as a game. Didn't we decide on that?"
"Ugh."
It was a sound argument.
Users don't die.
Their in-game avatars are just temporarily taken out of commission.
The reason Chris was focusing on my mental well-being was to help me see this world from a slight distance, through the eyes of 'Iseulbi,' so I could carry out my remaining mission with a peaceful heart.
Chris smiled gently and stroked my head.
"Let's get through this together. Okay? We decided to overcome it, right?"
"...I'll try."
I added a little caveat, my own small act of defiance.
"W-Well, since I don't actually die either, I might do something like that too."
"You can't."
"Why not!?"
I protested.
Why was it okay for Chris, but not for me?
"Because even here, it hurts you just the same when you get injured."
"Ugh."
That was also true.
After walking for several dozen minutes, chatting idly without any particular battles, we finally reached the deepest part of the valley and discovered a strange opening.
"Oh."
"This feels like where the real dungeon begins."
We had entered from the south of the gorge, and our direction of travel was north.
Our current position was the midpoint between the two.
A massive hole was bored into the cliff face on the left side of this central point.
There were clear signs of artificial creation. It had definitely been bored through by some kind of force. The entrance had even been refined.
If you were to ask whether demons knew architecture, the answer, surprisingly, would be 'yes.' Of course, it wasn't like they hammered away with stone like dwarves or humans, but places like the Demon King's castle or the corps commanders' residences were closer to being 'created.'
The beings that did this were likely monsters drawn by the Blue Overlord's power, or demons born from the demonic energy lingering here. In any case, there were various possibilities.
However.
"It's too elaborate."
It looked less like a dungeon entrance and more like the entrance to a well-made building. There were even some kinds of patterns carved around it.
I asked Chris for her impression of the entrance.
"This architectural style, haven't we seen it somewhere before?"
"The Verbeia Mountains, the dwarven village."
I nodded.
Could it be that dwarves built this dungeon?
For what reason?
The impression we got from the entrance was confirmed once we stepped inside.
This place was remarkably similar to the interior of the 'Verbeia Ancient Temple,' an elite dungeon created by dwarves that users had once cleared.
Chris's mouth hung open as she looked around the dungeon interior, which even incorporated a certain aesthetic sense.
"Is this place a temple, too?"
"Well, from a game design perspective, you could just say the demons built it."
"But since this game was based on another world, there must be a backstory to why it was made this way."
Luminous magic stones were embedded here and there, illuminating the dungeon's interior.
The corridor inside the temple was quite wide.
Both in its breadth and its seemingly endless length.
As if all the monsters had cleared out when this raid dungeon opened, there were no lesser demons or other trash mobs in sight.
"Should I be glad there are no trash mobs to clear?"
"They're just a pain, right? This is better."
As I walked, stuck close to Chris who said this with a grin, I could see strange structures at the end of the long corridor.
"Those are."
Lining the corridor endlessly on both sides were things that seemed to be made of stone.
Delicately sculpted, beautiful faces.
A pair of beautiful wings on their backs.
If I were to name them based on something similar, they were...
Angels.
Chris also stared at them with a dazed expression and muttered a single word.
"Angel statues?"
"Chris, more importantly, this layout. Haven't you seen it somewhere before?"
"...Ah!"
It seemed my words had finally jogged her memory.
The second elite dungeon users encounter after starting the game, the 'Tomb of the Sealed Demon.'
The second named boss there, the 'Patriarch's Statue.'
This layout was similar to the named boss structure of that dungeon we had cleared in the early days of the game.
In that case, these angel statues lined up on both sides...
"Ten to one, these things are going to move."
"Yeah. Looks like it."
*Shing.*
I drew my sword.
*Vwong.*
Chris also floated her Yin-Yang Orbs and tensed her body.
Could these statues be the second named boss?
As we cautiously advanced between the statues, wary of both sides, something emerged from the dark wall at the end of the corridor.
*Swoosh.*
"Oh, what a pleasant surprise. Kahahaha!"
What?
Startled by the sudden laughter, I looked over. A bare-chested demon who looked like a typical martial artist type was standing there.
[Level ???]
[Gatekeeper Veid]
[HP ??? / ???]
"Gatekeeper Veid!"
Chris shouted.
"Chris, you know him?"
Chris looked at me and tilted her head.
"Huh? You don't know him, Rain?"
Now it was my turn to tilt my head.
A demon that Chris knew, but I didn't?
"...I thought he was a one-time demon that only appeared during the first attempt, but this is strange. I'm sure I never heard anything about Veid from other raid members or on the internet forums. What a strange guy."
I couldn't follow a single thing Chris was saying.
"Where did this guy come from?"
"I saw him during the 'Red and White' attack squad's first clear of the Tree of the Abyss. He was the demon controlling the Ents tainted by demonic energy and raising the colossi. You didn't see him during your attempt, Rain?"
"That guy was responsible for the mid-bosses of that raid dungeon?"
I glared at the demon, my sword held ready.
I couldn't feel any special power from him. I don't know if 'ordinary' is a fitting adjective for a demon, but he really was just an ordinary demon.
I had never seen him before.
And apparently, he hadn't appeared in any other users' instance dungeons besides Chris's attack squad.
A strange hypothesis popped into my head.
He was different from the named bosses that existed as separate entities in each instance dungeon, waiting for users.
It was as if he was a singular being.
Could this guy be...
Treated similarly to a 'player'?
Outwardly, he just looked like a demon who only knew how to let out a frivolous laugh, but it seemed there was a lot to ask him after we captured him.
"You, let's have a little chat."
As I took a combat stance and slowly walked toward him, he raised both hands and backed away.
"Ooh, can't do that. I've got things to do, you see. The master of this temple has refused to become a corps commander for so long, you know? Even after crouching here for hundreds of years, he'd just cut down any demons that got close. Kahahaha!"
Then, a chilling smile spread across his face.
"Well, it seems that refusal has reached its limit. Still, my otherworldly masters, who couldn't just stand by and watch that strange Death Knight, ordered me to create a replacement for the corps commander. And I happened to find some good materials. I've been preparing this for a long time, so I hope you'll look forward to it."
*Sshhh.*
With those words, he slowly began to fade into the wall at the end of the corridor.
"Wait!"
*Fzzt!*
I shouted and unleashed a wave of sword qi, but his form had already vanished completely into the wall.
—Just wait there and play with the angels for a bit. Kahahaha!!!
*Crack.*
A strange sound.
The angel statues standing in the corridor on both sides began to rise.
Of course, I was prepared.
*Fzzt!*
One of the angel statues, just as it was starting to move, was sliced in half by my sword qi. But the angel statues that had fully activated immediately executed their powers.
*Vwooom!*
They soon generated barriers that could withstand a certain amount of damage. It manifested as an HP bar.
[Level 58]
[Ninth-Order Angel]
[HP 30,000,000 / 30,000,000 (100%)]
[Level 58]
[Ninth-Order Angel]
[HP 30,000,000 / 30,000,000 (100%)]
...
...
Countless statues of Ninth-Order Angels. How many were there? At least more than ten.
"Chris! First, these guys!"
"R-Right!"
*CRASH!*
And then, from the high ceiling of the corridor, an angel statue slightly larger than the Ninth-Order Angels came crashing down.
*Ooooh—!!*
It was different from the Ninth-Order Angel statues, which only held a plain stone sword in both hands.
That angel was holding a sword and a shield.
[Level 58]
[Seventh-Order Angel]
[HP 200,000,000 / 200,000,000 (100%)]