Chapter 136
Chapter 136
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 136
Chapter Title: The Whiteout Labyrinth
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Gullian, the Grand Priest of the Transcendence Cult, had been devoured in the shadows and died a miserable death.
However, Leyzon knew that he wasn't truly dead.
'As the Grand Priest of the Transcendence Cult, he must have a spare life.'
Each Grand Priest of the Transcendence Cult possessed a spare life.
It was a life they had extracted and empowered with the might of the Evil Transcendent.
That was also why Leyzon hadn't gone all-out against Gullian.
If he exerted himself fully now, it would make things a headache the next time they met.
'That's why I need Tessa.'
With the ghost bride Tessa, he could have killed even that spare life.
Where on earth was she, and what was she doing?
He needed to find her soon. It was worrying him.
Leyzon shook off his concerns for Tessa and turned his gaze toward the Apostles.
The moment the Sword Saint unleashed his divine power, the Apostles charged at him like a pack of wild dogs.
Divine power was the complete opposite in nature to the Apostles.
The source granting them divine power was the Benevolent Transcendent.
The Benevolent Transcendent was the natural adversary of the Evil Transcendent.
It was only natural that the Apostles abhorred divine power.
'Now that I think about it.'
Leyzon voiced his doubts as he walked forward with steady steps.
'Is there any real point in treating the Evil Transcendent and the Benevolent Transcendent as separate entities?'
The Empire was barreling toward destruction.
On the day a new Transcendent was born in this land, the Empire would vanish entirely.
In other words, Transcendents were not beings that benefited humanity.
This held true even for the Benevolent Transcendent.
"Sword Saint, you still alive?"
Leyzon called out to the spot where the Apostles were piled up like a mountain.
At that instant, a white light erupted uniformly from between the Apostles.
KABOOM!
The Apostles shattered into pieces, their fragments scattering everywhere.
From within emerged the Sword Saint, drenched in the Apostles' blood.
As expected of the Sword Saint.
He would have been disappointed if he'd died to that extent.
The Sword Saint turned to Leyzon with fierce eyes.
"Gullian."
"Dead. But since he has a spare life, he's not completely gone."
"I see."
The Sword Saint didn't doubt Leyzon's words.
Not out of trust, but because there was no reason for him to have let Gullian live.
"Grrr."
"Grraaak."
In the meantime, the surviving Apostles among the shattered ones began to rise.
Apostles used in the Injustice Ritual knew only to fight until death.
"Syria, Eden."
So Leyzon decided to clean them up.
Syria's blood magic and Eden's curses struck in an instant.
The two undead began slaughtering the Apostles wholesale.
These Apostles had grown somewhat through the Injustice Ritual.
But they were no match for Leyzon's undead.
The Sword Saint also dashed through the crater, slicing down Apostles.
By the time the morning sun began to rise.
All the Apostles in the crater had been dealt with.
"Lord Leyzon, I've gathered them all here."
Leyzon took the blood crystals that Syria had collected.
The blood crystals contained the same ominous energy as when he'd first captured an Apostle.
"I've been wondering about this since earlier. What is that?"
The Sword Saint asked, struggling to suppress his piled-up resentment.
"This?"
Leyzon held up one of the crystals in his hand.
"Soul fragment of the Evil Transcendent."
Apostles were beings created by the Evil Transcendent tearing off a portion of its soul.
Of course, the portion torn off was barely a handful, but it was still a piece severed.
"......And what are you planning to do with those?"
"Use them for a trade. I need to get my granddaughter back from the Evil Transcendent."
Eden flinched, her shoulders twitching.
Only now did Eden realize that Leyzon had fought the Apostles for her sake.
Eden turned to look at Leyzon.
Leyzon met her eyes and smiled faintly at the corner of his mouth.
Then he reached out and patted Eden's head.
It was the promise he'd made with Eden.
Of course he had to keep it.
"Lord Leyzon......"
Eden looked like she had much to say, but she didn't speak further.
It was something they both understood without words.
"I see."
The Sword Saint didn't pry any more.
He simply understood why Leyzon was hostile to the Evil Transcendent.
"More importantly, we're not done yet."
A shadow formed beneath Leyzon's feet from Syria.
The shadow began pulling Leyzon out of the crater.
"We need to smash the Transcendence Cult's main temple."
Gullian's spare life would likely be there too.
And he had a vague hunch.
The Transcendence Cult wouldn't have pulled off the Injustice Ritual for the first time.
They must have already performed it before.
'There might even be one fully completed through the Injustice Ritual at the main temple.'
These guys were getting more and more headache-inducing with every step.
"Agreed."
The Sword Saint also wanted to uproot the Transcendence Cult while they were at it.
Good to be on the same wavelength.
"Strike while the iron is hot."
Leyzon grinned ferociously.
By now, the resurrected Gullian Grand Priest would know of their presence.
They would surely turn the tables and come hunting Leyzon's group instead.
The Bolsom Plateau was the Transcendence Cult's turf.
Intruders entering such a place naturally deserved punishment.
So.
"We're going to smash the Transcendence Cult's main temple."
They would head straight for the main temple in turn.
The Transcendence Cult's main temple.
Just as Leyzon had struggled immensely to find the floating island before, locating the main temple wasn't easy.
It was hidden away somewhere in the Bolsom Plateau.
In fact, it was the most common question asked by first-time Dungeon Replay players.
Where the hell was the Transcendence Cult's main temple?
But who was Leyzon?
He was none other than a 65st-round player.
There was no way he couldn't find the main temple.
So arriving boldly at the main temple had been fine, but they ran into an unexpected problem.
"I can't see a thing."
Syria stopped manipulating the shadow wolves and showed her distress.
"......"
Leyzon, mounted on a wolf, also wore a troubled expression.
A pure white fog blanketed everything before their eyes.
The ground and horizon indistinguishable in a world turned entirely white.
It was a whiteout.
A whiteout was a weather phenomenon where visibility was completely obscured.
Even Syria, with her keen eyes, couldn't see anything.
"Whoa, it's so white."
Eden unwittingly let out an exclamation, as if seeing it for the first time.
With nothing but a white world visible to the naked eye, it was worth marveling at.
'A barrier empowered by the Evil Transcendent's power surrounds the main temple.'
Leyzon had known from the start that this whiteout would occur.
The same whiteout had triggered in Dungeon Replay.
However, Dungeon Replay was a dot RPG.
No matter the whiteout, players could always break through.
'In the game, you just navigate the maze where the whiteout activates.'
Players could grope their way along the route and find it.
Leyzon, of course, had memorized it perfectly.
That's why he'd been confident it would work in reality too.
But he hadn't expected it to be this blinding.
"Abyss, let me scout the path."
"Stay put."
When the Sword Saint stepped up, Leyzon immediately stopped him.
Like he'd let a directionally challenged guy take the lead.
Leaving the sullen Sword Saint behind, Leyzon rubbed his chin.
'This fog is the power of the Evil Transcendent.'
In other words, it wasn't natural mist.
'The maze itself should be fundamentally the same.'
The issue was whether it matched Leyzon's memory exactly.
"Syria, can you make some shadow bats?"
"Sure."
Syria immediately created one bat at Leyzon's request.
Leyzon pointed in a direction.
"Send it that way."
"Got it~."
Hearing Leyzon's request, Syria sent the bat flying.
The bat flew straight ahead without stopping.
And after a moment.
Flap flap—
The sound of wings flapping came from behind.
It was the shadow bat he'd clearly sent forward, returning from the rear.
"Huh?"
Syria tilted her head as she caught the bat in her hand.
"There's spatial distortion here?"
"Yeah."
This fog required advancing in a set direction.
Otherwise, spatial distortion pulled you back to the starting path.
Thus, it was a maze where you had to go straight along the predetermined route.
'That means.'
The maze itself was likely the same as in his memory.
'The problem is not knowing the stride length, unlike in the game.'
In Dungeon Replay, he'd confirmed the path by character strides.
But now in reality, he had no sense of the stride length.
"Um, L-Lord Abyss."
At that moment, Hanok poked his head out from within the shadow wolf.
The Sword Saint still didn't know that the Leyzon he'd met at the inn was Abyss.
So Hanok was doing his best to keep the secret.
"I smell something."
Hanok wrinkled his nose.
"Smell?"
"I don't know why, but it smells like my brother."
Brother.
Hanok's brother was the Shadow Warlord.
Hearing that, Leyzon's eyes widened slightly.
The Shadow Warlord was currently in the Bolsom Plateau.
This was a fact Leyzon had known for a while.
Why was the Shadow Warlord in the Bolsom Plateau?
The answer was revealed.
"So the Shadow Warlord figured out the Injustice Ritual."
The Injustice Ritual required countless Apostles.
And to create those Apostles, lives were needed.
'Those lives were probably other races.'
The Shadow Warlord had even fought the Hundred-Legged Sovereign to prevent the wrongful deaths of other races.
To the Shadow Warlord, the Transcendence Cult was no different—an enemy.
That's why he'd come all the way to the Bolsom Plateau, where their stronghold lay.
"A guy on the run from the Empire sure keeps busy."
Still, thanks to him, the path was visible now.
"Hanok, from now on, I'll rely on your nose. When I change direction, tell me if the Shadow Warlord's scent gets stronger or weaker."
"Y-Yes, got it!"
Perhaps bothered by not being helpful during the Apostle fight.
Hanok answered Leyzon energetically.
The Sword Saint then looked at Leyzon and Hanok with a peculiar gaze.
"......For someone who's a hostage, you two seem awfully familiar."
Leyzon froze for a moment.
The Sword Saint—this guy had that much insight?
"Ah, uh."
Hanok floundered with a startled expression.
Hanok wasn't the type suited for keeping secrets.
As he flailed, unsure what to say.
Leyzon lifted the corner of his mouth.
"He came here to find his brother in the first place. Now that there's a chance to find him, he'll do anything."
Leyzon brazenly stated it outright.
The Sword Saint stared at Leyzon silently before turning his head without a word.
"If you've found a way, let's keep moving."
Meaning he wouldn't dig deeper.
That was more convenient.
Leyzon turned forward confidently.
"Let's go."
Time to break through to the Transcendence Cult's main temple.