Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Point of View Switch
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At that moment, someone was watching Kim Shin-hwa's every move.
The most special room among those on the second floor of the manor.
Dense mana so thick it was hard to breathe.
The overpowering aura of death, strong enough to reek of rot.
A space still infused with the presence and influence of a great ancient being.
This room was the very heart of the [Famished Manor].
No light existed in the room, leaving it pitch-black like the void.
From that place, a burst of mad laughter echoed out.
“Kuhahahahaha!”
A grotesque voice, warped beyond recognition as male or female, old or young.
And an appearance even more bizarre.
Impossible to gauge gender or age.
A cursed body like rotting pink flesh forcibly stitched over a human skeleton.
If you desperately tried to find traces of his human past in that eerie visage... you might just notice that this loathsome being somehow resembled Heo Sang-hyeon.
This was the true master of the [Famished Manor].
The "writhing mana on the second floor" that Kim Shin-hwa had sensed earlier—it belonged to him.
He was the master of the Famished Manor, a fallen necromancer, a cultist who served abyssal entities, a bastard born of corpse piles, and the judge of the dark cult that worshipped shadow and void.
He once had something resembling a name, but it meant nothing now.
Neither he nor others called him anything but the Void Lord.
“Kukuku... So simple.”
He stroked the large crystal orb before him with his grotesquely creaking limbs.
At the Void Lord's will, the orb reflected the scene from the place he desired.
Kim Shin-hwa flying back from Heo Sang-hyeon's [Necrotic Explosion] spell.
Then, necrotic golems poured down the stairs connected to the second floor—ones the Void Lord had sent.
Monsters of bizarre form. Special creations on a different level from the beast taxidermy ones.
Clatter, grind.
A head made from rattling kettles and glass jars.
A body crudely wrapped in bedsheets and the like.
Joints that creaked awkwardly as they moved.
Instead of limbs, scythes, hammers, and hand axes jutting out jaggedly.
Artificial humans of grotesque shape, pieced together from junk, clumsily mimicking human movements.
A section of the glass jar cracked, revealing hideous teeth made of shattered shards.
The orb continued to show Kim Shin-hwa, cornered and resisting.
[Blades of Water]
Kim Shin-hwa drew in the rainwater overflowing from the window, forming massive blades and waves.
Crash!!! Roar, crunch!
The junk bodies of the necrotic golems shattered under the ferocious hydraulic pressure.
Seeing this, the Void Lord couldn't hold back and burst into laughter again.
“Kukuku... The wizard's thrashing like a bug.”
They were bodies woven from junk to begin with.
Low in stability and durability, but possessing restorative power beyond that.
Creak, crick-creak. Grind.
The shattered necrotic golems reassembled new bodies from the scattered junk.
In the process, one might split into two smaller ones, or several merge into one massive golem.
Of course, none of this power or might came without cost.
“Urgh...”
Kim Shin-hwa's resistance was fiercer than expected, draining far more mana than anticipated in one go.
A flaw of the necrotic golems.
They moved independently with thought, requiring no fine control, but took their master's mana at will when needed.
Thus, it was normal to limit their numbers, yet the Void Lord commanded over thirty already.
The Void Lord had a way to offset his inefficient servants' drawback.
Twisting his grotesquely warped body, he began to pray to the entity he served.
“Iä! Iä! char Buh All’en Sugh, Ash! Van!”
“You who come from the darkness, great mind and prisoner trapped in the prison of eons, leader of asphyxiation and ruler of the night, darkest one even in the heart of the abyss.”
[Prisoner of Eternal Eons], [Leader of Asphyxiation], or [The One Who Comes from the Darkness]. All epithets for one being.
“And my father, who bestowed upon this lowly servant a portion of your great flesh.”
The great abyssal being responded to the Void Lord's plea, granting him new power.
And a whisper rising from the deepest pit of the abyss.
『Bring the sacrifice for the feast.』
The third time today.
The same command.
Bring the sacrifice for the feast—the soul of Kim Shin-hwa.
The Void Lord could barely hide his bewilderment at his great father's order.
‘What value could that wizard's soul possibly have?’
Never before had such vast mana been given without condition.
Why would [The One Who Comes from the Darkness], one of the great ancient ones tied to the abyss, lavish such grace just to capture a mere wizard?
But to the Void Lord, [The One Who Comes from the Darkness]'s demands were divine revelation.
He shoved aside the flicker of doubt and bowed his head.
Steadying himself, the Void Lord moved his fingers in a familiar way.
Like a puppeteer manipulating marionettes.
A command for Heo Sang-hyeon, the finest of his necrotic golem creations.
“My heir, my heir and witness to my deeds... Fulfill the command of the great Leader of Asphyxiation.”
While Kim Shin-hwa was cornered, Heo Sang-hyeon unleashed another necromantic spell.
[Eerie Explosion]
Kaaaaaaaah!
Less an explosion than a scream echoing like agony.
A magical blast fueled by the spirits of several earthbound ghosts.
In the orb, Kim Shin-hwa was caught in the horrific blast, one arm torn clean off.
“Oh dear, oh dear... Retrieve it as intact as possible, if you can.”
Surrounded by necrotic golems, Kim Shin-hwa would soon meet a gruesome end.
Even if [The One Who Comes from the Darkness] claimed his soul, the body would remain.
The Void Lord twisted his facial muscles in anticipation of what monster he could craft from Kim Shin-hwa's corpse.
Rotting flesh curled up, forming an ugly grin on his face.
At that moment, a new message reached his mind.
- A medium has been detected.
A message from the wraiths sent to pursue Jang Hyeon-deok, the driver Kim Shin-hwa had brought.
“Ah... They've found that medium, have they?”
A genius medium with the [Living Altar] trait. A being with surreal powers able to contain any soul, any force, any mind.
Far more valuable to the Void Lord personally than Kim Shin-hwa.
Kim Shin-hwa would meet a惨 death left alone now.
“Take as much mana as you need. Capture it intact if possible.”
The Void Lord gave further orders to the first-floor necrotic golems, then manipulated the orb.
Reacting to his will, it now showed not Kim Shin-hwa, but Jang Hyeon-deok's location.
* * *
Boom! Crash-crash!!
Jang Hyeon-deok's call van veered off the road, barreling through saplings.
Crunch, cruuunch...!
The car plowed straight down the mountainside, not the path.
It bounced wildly, on the verge of flipping, but Jang Hyeon-deok somehow kept the speed up while handling it masterfully amid the chaos.
“Ah, damn... You're really gonna cover the repair bill, right?”
Jang Hyeon-deok grimaced as he checked the rearview mirror.
It showed the beast pack hot on his tail.
Monsters in the shape of wolves.
Corpse golems sent by the Void Lord.
Kim Shin-hwa had said he'd be fine, but a new horde of corpse golems was now chasing him.
-Raaaargh!
Gorging on the mana the Void Lord provided, the corpse golems leaped at the car with supernatural strength.
From the corpse golems' perspective, attacks on a moving vehicle were limited.
But for Jang Hyeon-deok—little more than a normal guy with exceptional driving—it was a nightmare.
“Ah, this is too much!”
Not even a flat road, but a full dirt slope downward.
Speeding up without a plan here was suicide.
Yet his hands and feet moved swiftly.
Click, bounce.
Vroooom!!
The call van surged forward at an absurd moment, bucking wildly.
-Yelp!
It nearly flipped completely, but dodged the corpse golems' assault.
Another shift.
Jang Hyeon-deok finally put some real distance between him and the pursuers.
And... up ahead, he spotted what he'd been looking for.
Jang Hyeon-deok reached out with his right hand and picked up the item on the passenger seat.
Something Kim Shin-hwa had given him just before departure.
A small lump like stone, wood, and metal forcibly mashed together.
He fiddled with it briefly, but couldn't fathom how materials of such different properties were bound.
'How the hell did he make this?'
Jang Hyeon-deok didn't know, but it was made from fragments of the mask he'd once shown Kim Shin-hwa.
Mask shards mixed with catalysts and [brainstones] from cosmic parasites.
Individually useless, but fused by Kim Shin-hwa's mana into something new.
Now possessing concrete abilities like this:
[Resonance Stone (A-rank magic tool) – A tool that transmits will or mana to a desired target. Can also serve as a catalyst or evidence in spells or rituals.
Telepathic Link: The owner can transmit will to a desired target. However, using this requires medium aptitude or mind-related magic.
Resonance of Will: Shares some mana with a designated target. (Currently registered: Kim Shin-hwa) (Re-registration cooldown: 1 day)
※ Creator: Kim Shin-hwa
※ Reinforcement complete]
Jang Hyeon-deok yelled at the Resonance Stone.
“Wizard! Can you hear me? I think we're almost there!”
As soon as he spoke, Kim Shin-hwa's voice mysteriously echoed in his head.
- Are we there, or do you just think we're there?
Even now, did he have to nag like this?
The retort rose in his throat, but he swallowed it and said something else.
“We're here! About 50 meters ahead, just like you said—a huge... water orb!”
- Good job. Get a little closer. You're still out of range.
Jang Hyeon-deok eyed the front with unease.
A massive water orb.
The corpse golems and wraiths swept away earlier by [Turbid Flow] were tangled in a watery prison of rain and mana.
- Ah, perfect. I can feel it. Don't get too close or you'll get swept up too.
“Huh? Me too? What do I do!?”
- Just circle around the orb! I need to focus, so shut up!
Kim Shin-hwa's mana, lingering in the [Famished Manor], flowed through the Hook of the Slaughterer into the Resonance Stone.
The stone opened a mana pathway, imbuing the turbid prison with new properties.
Roooar!
The turbid prison began to whirl violently.
- Needed to refine it a bit out of that guy's sight.
Kim Shin-hwa muttered something Jang Hyeon-deok couldn't follow, then addressed him.
- Alright, time to shake off your pursuers. Head home for real now.
“It's over!?”
- More or less.
Pwapwapwapwapwapwapwa!!!
The whirling turbid prison warped into a raging wave surging forth.
“Uwaaaah!”
Screeech!
He barely avoided being swept by the massive wave crashing down.
Skirting Jang Hyeon-deok's van by a hair, the wave engulfed the pursuing corpse golems and...
Boom!!
Kwararararara!
Shot toward the [Famished Manor] at terrifying speed.
“Man, ten lives wouldn't be enough...”
Watching the receding wave, Jang Hyeon-deok sighed.
Namu Amida Butsu... Gotta hit the temple tomorrow and make a donation...
* * *
“What!? What the hell is going on!?”
The Void Lord stared at Jang Hyeon-deok in the orb and let out a shocked scream.
This can't be!
“Kim Shin-hwa—that wizard was just...!”
Rousing his mana, the Void Lord switched the orb's view.
The first-floor living room of the [Famished Manor].
The exact spot where Kim Shin-hwa had been fighting.
There he lay, one arm severed, bleeding from head to toe.
The fight was over.
Yet the necrotic golems demanded even more mana.
The dizzying drain nearly blurred his consciousness.
Something's wrong. Something's off!
What trick did this wizard pull!?
In that instant, the Void Lord spotted odd noise in the orb's image.
“Th-this...!?”