Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: Apostles' Witch Gu
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The highlands of Linehold.
Before long, the sun had set, and night sky draped over everything.
A red shadow wolf suddenly burst out from between the dense trees.
It was Syria's shadow wolf, carrying Leyzon on its back.
And trailing behind the shadow wolf was another man.
His name was Vegris Fernando.
The Sword Saint.
Leyzon lifted his head from within the shadow wolf.
"We're here."
Ahead of Leyzon's view stretched a vast, pure white plain.
The air here felt thinner than before, and the temperature had dropped noticeably.
A rash erupted where the wolf's paws pressed into the ground.
This place felt like somewhere that had lost all color.
If it weren't for the pitch-black surroundings of night, it would have reflected light like snow.
The Unruly Plateau.
This was one of the empire's forbidden zones.
"B-Brother's here... in a place like this...?"
Hanok muttered to himself, his face tense with unease.
The main reason Leyzon had come to the Unruly Plateau was the Shadow Warlord.
"Pitch-black malice is churning across the entire plateau."
Iden, perched on Leyzon's shoulder, voiced his discomfort.
As a cursed doll, Iden was hypersensitive to malice.
A curse was, after all, a conglomeration of hatred toward others.
Thanks to that, he could keenly sense the malice permeating the Unruly Plateau.
"Iden, can you pinpoint where the malice is most concentrated?"
"Gonna have to put in some effort."
Iden hopped down from Leyzon's shoulder.
He then stood beside Syria, who had her arms crossed.
"Syria, head to the spot I tell you from now on."
"Hmph, I'll only listen if it's Lord Leyzon's order."
"Syria, do it."
"Yes, sir!"
Syria was as steadfast as ever.
Following Leyzon's instructions, she directed the shadow wolf onward.
The Sword Saint trailed silently behind the shadow wolf.
His expression had been complicated the entire way here.
He had been mulling over everything Leyzon had told him earlier.
Even the Sword Saint didn't blindly believe everything Leyzon said.
But even in his eyes, there had been lingering questions all along.
A spark that should have burned out completely, leaving no fuel behind.
Leyzon had reignited it.
And that spark was growing ever larger.
Leyzon intended to guide this flame in the right direction.
'Keep agonizing over it. Until you grasp the truth.'
His turmoil was a deeply satisfying situation for Leyzon.
'This dilemma isn't bad for the Sword Saint either.'
The Bluebird Knight Commander was someone he had loved.
A chance for true revenge on her behalf.
That alone was the greatest merit imaginable for the Sword Saint.
'Keep agonizing, all the way.'
Leyzon left the Sword Saint to his thoughts and surveyed the Unruly Plateau.
'No different from my memories.'
Back when he played [Dungeon Replay], the Unruly Plateau was always one of the places that came up.
Because it housed one of the Four Great Dungeons.
The key dungeon leading to the Hell Realm.
Each of the Four Great Dungeons had prerequisites before entry.
Which was why Leyzon planned to seize that key this time as well.
'But to do that, I need to head to the dungeon holding the key.'
There was one issue right in front of that key dungeon.
The main hall of the Transcendent Evil Cult.
This headquarters sat directly atop the dungeon.
To enter the key dungeon, one had to pass through the main hall.
Thus, players faced a choice there.
Swear faith to the Transcendent Evil and enter peacefully as a follower.
Or sweep away all the followers and force their way in.
Neither option was easy, of course.
One bore the risk of the Transcendent Evil itself.
The other meant clashing with its fanatical followers.
That was why the Hell Realm key dungeon was always tackled last.
True to its name as a headquarters, the followers gathered there were of exceptionally high caliber.
Rush in recklessly, and the player would be the one subjugated.
'But things are very different this time.'
The Transcendent Evil Cult headquarters raid.
Now bolstered by a reliable holy swordsman ally.
'And one more on top of that.'
Even the Shadow Warlord lurking somewhere in the Unruly Plateau.
Time to push hard and smash the headquarters to pieces.
'Luck is something you seize with your own hands.'
Leyzon decided to boldly capitalize on this fortune.
"Lord Leyzon."
Just then, Iden called out to him.
Iden's doll face was slightly furrowed.
"They've summoned way more than I imagined."
"More than you imagined? Apostles?"
"Yeah, but... something feels off."
Off, huh.
Leyzon looked up.
Leyzon wielded the skill [Shadow Descent [C]]
So he could see as clearly in the darkness as if it were daytime.
There, far off where the Unruly Plateau's plain ended, came into view.
The edge of the plain dropped off like a sheer cliff.
It resembled the massive crater of a volcano.
From it rose a thick, ominous aura that even Leyzon found unsettling.
It felt like every ounce of human malice had been balled up together.
"Lord Leyzon, there are people there."
Leyzon's naked eyes couldn't make them out, but Syria spotted them first.
"Their attire."
"Black robes with three red heads."
Found them.
Definitely Transcendent Evil Apostles.
They were plotting something here.
"Iden, good find."
"Wasn't hard."
Iden raised his nose with a lazy expression.
But soon his brows knitted together.
"Still, even for me, this feels pretty creepy."
Something that creeped out even Iden, the cursed doll.
It was clearly no normal affair.
'Crazy bastards, as always.'
Transcendent Evil followers were even madder than necromancers.
They truly wished for the world's destruction.
"Syria, stop here."
Any closer, and they'd be spotted.
So Leyzon halted Syria and stepped out of the shadow wolf.
Right then, he came face-to-face with the Sword Saint, who had also stopped his shadow wolf.
The Sword Saint's eyes were furrowed just like Iden's.
He too had sensed the pitch-black malice.
"What's going on here?"
As the Sword Saint asked, Leyzon raised his hand.
A shadow bat now perched on his palm.
"That's what we're about to find out."
The bat on Leyzon's hand flapped its wings and took flight.
It glided leisurely through the night sky.
Soon after the shadow bat vanished.
[Huh?]
A puzzled voice from Syria echoed from beneath Leyzon's shadow.
"Syria, see anything?"
[Uh, yes, but... it's complicated.]
Syria answered Leyzon and explained what she'd seen.
At the bottom of the crater-like hill.
A diverse array of apostles had gathered there.
Their numbers were easily in the thousands.
Enough to raze an entire city without issue.
But for some reason, the apostles were attacking each other.
A desperate frenzy of apostle slaughtering apostle.
Corpses of the already-slain apostles littered the ground beneath their feet.
Above that hellish scene.
Transcendent Evil cultists chanted spells in a circle.
The spell they cast was a brainwashing curse that incited aggression.
Its targets: the apostles.
They, who should worship the apostles, were instead goading them with sorcery.
As a result, the apostles couldn't endure without killing one another.
It was an utterly incomprehensible sight.
"Why do something like that?"
Hanok, listening from the side, voiced his doubt.
Summoning even one apostle was no easy task.
Using them up like that made no sense.
But two among them.
Leyzon and Iden knew exactly what this was.
"It's Witch Gu."
As Iden said, what they were doing was a form of curse.
Witch Gu
Seal venomous insects or animals in a jar until hunger drives them to devour each other until only one survives.
Then use that survivor to cast a curse.
The Transcendent Evil cultists were performing Witch Gu using apostles.
Leyzon's eyes narrowed.
Just as Iden said.
These Transcendent Evil cultist scum.
They were pulling off something even crazier than imagined.
'To summon that many apostles, how many villages were sacrificed as offerings?'
Leyzon didn't consider himself a good person.
But even to him, these were madmen devoid of any goodness.
[What's the gain in doing that?]
Syria, not grasping the situation, asked dubiously.
Curses weren't her specialty.
She couldn't fathom what they aimed to achieve with Witch Gu on apostles.
"The form is definitely Witch Gu, so they're cursing something."
Even Iden didn't fully understand their actions.
He knew it was Witch Gu.
But not why they'd bother doing it with apostles.
"No, it's not for cursing."
Yet Leyzon had figured out why they were conducting the Witch Gu.
His face twisted severely beneath the black mask.
"Apostles can level up by killing other apostles."
Syria and Iden grasped his meaning at once.
[That's...]
"They're insane."
Just as they said, the Transcendent Evil cultists were lunatics.
What they were doing was apostle farming.
Apostles spawned randomly based on sacrifices.
Naturally, duds popped up among them.
Specimens weaker than humans.
Those were massive losses.
However, apostles gave far more hunting EXP than typical phantasmal beasts.
That was why players sought them out even when skipping dungeons.
Difficulty varied wildly, but...
They were perfect for filling EXP gaps.
'And the Transcendent Evil cultists figured this out.'
So they changed their approach.
Apostles descend randomly anyway.
And apostles could gain EXP from each other.
Thus, the last survivor would achieve tremendous growth through the carnage.
Why not cultivate the summoned apostles to make them stronger?
Witch Gu Apostle
To birth the worst apostle in history, the Transcendent Evil cultists resorted to this madness.
'That apostle we ran into earlier must've escaped one of these rituals.'
No wonder a hero-grade apostle appeared so easily.
These lunatics were up to even crazier schemes.
"I can't forgive these bastards."
In that moment, Iden ground his teeth.
Black hostility rose from him.
Iden had lost his daughter to an apostle.
Seeing them summon hordes and even perform Witch Gu on them—he couldn't forgive it.
"So that's it. Filthy scum."
The Sword Saint felt the same.
Apostles born from harming innocent citizens.
Using those to kill even more.
He couldn't tolerate their bid to create a Witch Gu apostle.
Their rage was justified.
Leyzon had already drawn his staff.
As mentioned earlier, apostles were needed to deal with the Transcendent Evil.
And here they were, piled up in abundance.
He had to loot every last one.
"Looks like it's settled, then."
A ferocious grin spread beneath Leyzon's black mask.
"We're smashing them to bits."
Today, they'd turn the Unruly Plateau upside down.