Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Black Beard of the Black Steel Clan
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The church basement was no longer just a simple underground space.
Gates spawned periodically there, creating dedicated zones where the congregation could raid them freely.
There were training areas and private quarters for the Apostles.
Ziiing.
Gluttony's lab, Rusty's sealing zone.
And countless other spaces that Go Yohan had been briefed on but couldn't quite recall the purposes of.
Plus the very first warp gate ever created.
It looked like some kind of otherworldly realm that couldn't be described merely as a basement anymore.
Zing.
This thing that resembled an elevator was linked to Yun Seung-ah's magic.
Unauthorized personnel couldn't access any floors, while each believer could travel to permitted zones via stamps engraved on them.
Clunk.
It was a magical device, a fusion of Yun Seung-ah and Gluttony's arcane essences.
Ziiing.
Finally, they arrived, and the door of the ridiculously ornate elevator slid open.
Naturally, every zone was open to Go Yohan.
"......"
When he'd brought the orichalcum to Gluttony, Yun Seung-ah had come to him and said,
"I have something to tell you."
Go Yohan looked ahead.
The zone he now stood in was a kind of prison.
Greed, Yun Seung-ah, Gluttony—all their powers combined had created this place, strong enough to hold even an archdemon.
Magic circles were etched across the entire space.
Wooong.
A short walk ahead, a void-filled expanse appeared, bottomless and empty.
Mana was disrupted there; no skills could be used.
Wooong!
If someone tried leaping across with their body alone, the prepared traps would pulverize the intruder to dust.
A resonant hum sounded as a silver disc materialized in front of Go Yohan.
Tap.
Stepping onto it, the silver disc began moving automatically.
Click, click. Thud. Ziiing.
Light trailed in Go Yohan's wake as he moved.
After going through all those procedures, they reached the destination.
Boom! Kuuuung!
The final iron door began grinding open violently.
This was the church's underground prison.
"You're here?"
Yun Seung-ah, who had been waiting ahead, greeted him.
An impossibly dark space.
Whoosh.
Flames erupted sporadically throughout.
The place seemed to lack even basic lighting normally, but Go Yohan's arrival drew bright light flooding in.
"Ugh...!"
A groan-like sound echoed.
They soon spotted Go Yohan.
Freeze.
Their bodies trembled.
"Huh, heh... heuk."
Terrified, they hunched low and bowed their heads.
Some clutched their hearts and collapsed as if unable to even gaze upon him.
Yun Seung-ah, who had come to him before, had said,
"One of the Dvergr wants to meet the Captain."
This was the forge.
"After checking... I think it's worth meeting him."
A prison holding the Dvergr.
Over a dozen Dvergr huddled on the floor, shaking.
"A, aaah...."
Terror gripped them like death itself, leaving them speechless.
"S-spare us...!"
Were they acting like demons, or what?
"W-we did everything you asked!"
The things begging for their lives.
They were artisans who produced blessed items in exchange for survival.
Any ferocity one might expect from demons had been beaten out of them by Yun Seung-ah and Iha Yeon.
But even so.
"All of them..."
Go Yohan stepped forward and said,
"I want to kill."
Flinch!
*
*
*
The aura emanating from the demons made Go Yohan scowl.
"......"
In truth, Go Yohan had opposed Yun Seung-ah and Greed's idea of using these creatures.
"They're vermin of evil."
To Go Yohan, all demons were evil spawn that needed extermination.
There was no reason to leave a cancer in your body just because it had research value.
Just cut it out and burn it.
Moreover.
Step.
What Go Yohan hated even more were things like these Dvergr.
Shiver.
The Goddess's creations, born with her grace, yet fallen to evil temptation.
"S-spare..."
The things trembled as if suffocating under Go Yohan's presence.
"Hahk! Heuk, heuk!"
They finally managed to gasp for air.
If not for Greed's words, he wouldn't have spared them.
"Death is too easy for them. Things that will vanish anyway."
"I can give them far greater fear and suffering."
"We will..."
It was true.
"We'll become their demons."
Whatever Yun Seung-ah and Greed had done, the evil spawn merely trembled in horror.
"Hoo."
"Feeling calmer now?"
Yun Seung-ah approached and said.
"I still want to kill them right now."
Flinch.
"But I suppose leaving them be is fine. Just keep this in mind."
"......"
"Never show those things any mercy. The moment they see a gap, they'll do anything."
"We won't give you any cause for worry."
Go Yohan nodded at Yun Seung-ah's words.
"Where's the one who wanted to see me?"
"I've isolated him separately."
There was another prison up ahead.
"Why?"
"You'll see when you look."
Go Yohan nodded and proceeded further.
Yun Seung-ah extended her hand, dispelling several spells, and the door began to open.
Shaaa.
A foul stench and a gut-wrenching aura wafted out.
What was revealed was a space that could only be called hellish.
In the center stood a Dvergr tearing at his own beard.
"......"
Go Yohan's sunken eyes regained their light.
Crackle.
He shot forward before anyone could stop him.
Thud!
He instantly seized the Dvergr there by the throat and hoisted him up.
Crunch!
Clear marks formed on the Dvergr's neck in the shape of Go Yohan's fingers.
"Heh-heh, huh... heh-heh..."
The Dvergr let out eerie laughter mixed with screams.
Its black skin and blood-red eyes, unique to Dvergr, fixed on Go Yohan.
"Hee-heeek!"
The creature, who had been laughing madly even in the face of death, convulsed as if seeing a ghost.
Hoisted up, it flailed its limbs, tears and snot streaming down.
"Aaak! Aaaak!"
It wasn't begging for mercy.
It was just desperately trying to escape Go Yohan's grasp.
At the sight of it completely losing its mind.
Thud.
Go Yohan released its neck.
The Dvergr, falling to the floor, crawled frantically and threw itself into a fire pit.
Whoosh!
Raging flames tried to consume its body, inflicting only agony.
"No... no!"
It couldn't grant death.
The creature screamed.
"Y-you, why!"
Yun Seung-ah had been right—it was worth meeting.
"I'll do the talking."
Go Yohan pierced the flickering flames and approached it.
"Black Beard of the Black Steel Clan."
He knew the creature.
*
*
*
There was a reason Go Yohan loathed Dvergr even more than demons.
Travania, fractured by demonic schemes, had reformed its empire and formed a coalition army.
The grand anti-demon coalition, unbound by race or nation, slowly reclaimed continental territory, gaining the upper hand in the war against the demons.
Of course, that was largely thanks to Go Yohan single-handedly holding back the archdemon and other high demons, but that wasn't the point.
Step.
Traitors.
Fallen trash—that was the problem.
"Black Beard of the Black Steel Clan."
One reason for the war's momentum had been the divine artifacts forged by the dwarves.
Weapons highly effective against demons, akin to blessed items.
"Hee-heeek!"
But then corrupted dwarves emerged, causing issues.
The artifacts thought divine turned into bombs, massacring allies on key battlefields.
Iron Hammer, the dwarven king revered for his zeal against demons, had been forcibly corrupted by someone.
Hell followed.
No more repairs or reproductions of the artifacts.
The distributed gear became infested with demonic curses.
-Aaaaagh!
Mere bombs.
Nearly a million coalition troops died then.
"Black Beard."
At the center.
"S-spare... me... n-no... kill me...!"
Investigations later revealed Black Beard had been at the heart of it.
He had corrupted Iron Hammer and turned the artifacts into bombs.
"Demons...! Demons!"
All of it centered on this Black Beard.
Crack.
Go Yohan hoisted Black Beard up again.
The beardless one, still out of his mind.
Crunch!
He tore off its arm.
"Aaaaagh!"
The sharp pain seemed to bring its eyes back to focus.
"Don't like that beard anymore?"
Go Yohan asked, and terror flooded Black Beard's eyes.
Crunch!
He ripped it off.
"Kaaaagh!"
A scream of agony echoed.
"K-knight of Terror..."
Black Beard, his madness subsiding, looked at Go Yohan and said.
"K-knight of Death..."
"I am the Goddess's Knight."
"No!"
Black Beard shouted.
"You are...!"
Boom!
Go Yohan hurled Black Beard aside.
"K-kill me! Please!"
"Fine, if that's what you want, I'll kill you. Is that why you wanted to see me?"
"No, no!"
Black Beard, regaining his senses, yelled.
"Iron Hammer!"
Flinch.
Go Yohan halted.
"Iron Hammer! H-he's alive!"
"...What?"
"Baratkgorn!"
Black Beard screamed in some dwarven tongue.
"T-that one holds the dwarves' souls! We were used too!"
"......"
"Kill that archdemon! Then the remaining dwarves! We can find the dwarves!"
Go Yohan stood over Black Beard, looking down.
"...So please!"
Black Beard wailed.
"Kill me!"
Hweee!
A wail burst from Black Beard.
"There's a way! A way to open a gate to Baratkgorn!"