Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Meeting the Savior Lord
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Mining village Balantia.
Inside the rundown church there.
A figure who had long ago left the mortal world, now forgotten by the people.
Savior Lord.
Leyzon stood facing him.
The sword gripped by the Savior Lord gleamed along the sunset light.
What it held was unmistakable killing intent.
"Hanok, you should have just lived a good life."
"M-Me, sir?"
Leyzon pinned the reason for the Savior Lord's killing intent on Hanok.
But unfortunately, the Savior Lord's gaze remained fixed on Leyzon the whole time.
Even without eyes, he stared straight ahead with uncanny precision.
"It's a joke."
Leyzon decided to drop the teasing there.
With the Savior Lord treating him as an enemy, combat was unavoidable.
"Syria, Iden."
Leyzon summoned the two undead at once.
From the shadows and darkness, the undead emerged one by one.
One was the lord of blood and shadow.
The other was the demon king of curses.
Their appearance shifted the Savior Lord's demeanor.
The killing intent surging toward him instantly blanketed the crumbling church interior.
"Tch."
Hanok swallowed a sharp grunt—the intent was that ferocious.
Killing intent stains seep from the life one has lived.
The Savior Lord's, forged over endless years, burned with absurd ferocity.
But something transcended even that long life: pure, unadulterated strength.
Crackle—
Leyzon heard sparks crackling in his ears.
At the same moment, the Savior Lord's intent, dominating the church grounds, was utterly canceled out.
It was the killing intent Syria and Iden unleashed in unison.
Undead were beings that denied life itself.
To them, killing intent was little more than a blessing.
Syria and Iden refused to yield an inch to the Savior Lord.
Instead, each pondered how best to deal with him.
'...Something's off.'
Meanwhile, Leyzon eyed the Savior Lord with suspicion.
He knew the man's true nature well.
He eradicated evil without fail.
By his creed, the moment he drew his blade, he should have charged.
No matter the foe.
The Savior Lord fought the instant he deemed something evil.
'He's not the type to value his own life anyway.'
Strength alone wouldn't make him retreat.
Yet the current Savior Lord merely radiated intent.
He hadn't lunged at Leyzon.
At first glance, it seemed wariness of Syria and Iden's overwhelming power.
But that didn't fit the Savior Lord's battle style at all.
'His personality might've softened over a century.'
Long-lived races tended to be stubborn.
They rarely shifted their ideologies.
Besides, the Savior Lord had served as a religious inquisitor.
A man whose mind was set like stone.
'Flamehead vouched for me, so maybe he gave prior warning about who I am.'
Even so, if he'd branded Leyzon evil, he would've attacked.
Leyzon stroked his chin.
"Syria, Iden—for now, both of you, hold back."
"Yes."
"Mm."
Syria and Iden voiced their doubts but complied obediently.
Leyzon stepped forward, right up to the Savior Lord.
Still, the man stood silently, sword in hand.
"Pleased to meet you, Savior Lord. I'm Leyzon."
"Flamehead likely introduced me as the Abyss."
Leyzon introduced himself calmly.
But the Savior Lord showed no reaction, just gripping his sword.
As expected, deaf and blind for sure.
Leyzon switched tactics.
Flamehead had acted like old acquaintances.
That implied a way to communicate.
What linked Flamehead and the Savior Lord?
Flamehead was a soul necromancer.
The Savior Lord, an inquisitor tied to soul detection.
Their common thread: both had delved into soul arts.
Leyzon knew exactly how to reach such practitioners.
He'd walked into the soul realm on his own countless times.
Resonance World.
The soul realm he frequented.
He'd use it again now.
Leyzon rummaged in his bag.
He pulled out a lamp.
A blue flame flickered within.
The Resonance World was sealed off now.
But his body still remembered the soul realm's entry.
"Flamehead, you bastard—at least drop a hint."
He'd assumed they'd catch on anyway.
'He did, eventually.'
But the guy rates me too highly.
Leyzon tsked and shook the lamp.
Blue flames roared inside.
His eyes clouded over.
Soon, the world around him grayed.
Right ahead.
He sensed a presence formed of flame.
The flame wavered.
A voice warmer than expected replied.
Leyzon opened his eyes.
There stood the Savior Lord's soul form.
The Savior Lord was deaf and blind in body.
But one couldn't live forever that way.
So he'd devised a solution.
Perceiving the world through his soul.
Yet soul and real realms were distinct.
Souls couldn't touch reality.
Reality couldn't touch souls.
Only soul arts practitioners could bridge them.
《A heads-up would've been nice if we're talking soul-to-soul.》 《It's a binding constraint—not to reveal soul realm matters outside.》
《My lost senses were to silence what I know.》
Everything clicked.
Maybe when he met the player, the Savior Lord's silence was soul-speak.
Rakroden.
Leyzon caught on instantly.
'Flamehead's real name, eh.'
They'd never exchanged proper names anyway.
Just Abyss this, Flamehead that.
No need.
Leyzon posed a question.
Leyzon had joked about being good, but his path strayed far from virtue.
He'd crushed all opposition ruthlessly.
Sword when needed, incentives when called for.
Yet he never saw himself as evil.
Just survival of the fittest.
Strong toppled by stronger.
The world's rule.
He followed it to the letter.
He prided himself on no needless slaughter.
He'd never killed without cause.
That was basic sanity.
But undead flanked him.
Beings that loathed the living.
Religiously, Syria and Iden were evil incarnate.
So Leyzon hadn't anticipated this benevolence.
The Savior Lord smiled kindly once more.
The holy church he'd devoted himself to had taken his senses.
They'd cast him out without hesitation.
Solely because he knew too much.
That era left him deeply skeptical.
He'd roamed ruined churches, reflecting on his life.
The Savior Lord looked up, face tinged with bitterness.
Had good's borders expanded?
Or evil's?
Leyzon couldn't tell.
Good was profoundly vague in the Savior Lord's life.
As inquisitor, he'd purged evils beyond count.
Yet reflection revealed not all served transcendent good.
For whose sake, then?
To the Savior Lord, Leyzon's life held no evil.
He simply lived it.
Killing and harming for greed, not need.
Those were evil to him.
Thus, he judged evil.
A judge of execution or acquittal alone.
Leyzon regarded him anew.
'His head's still sharp enough.'
Unwavering judgment wasn't sane.
Yet time had softened the Savior Lord somewhat.
The Savior Lord's eyes flashed ominously.
In the real world, his sword tip slammed the floor—clang!
Leyzon grasped the intent's source.
Gullian High Priest.
The Savior Lord seethed to condemn him.
So what if he was unhinged?
On this side, he was invaluable.
Leyzon smirked.
Leyzon and the Savior Lord flashed sinister grins in sync.
Their minds aligned perfectly.
Leyzon piled on.
Maybe Flamehead had hesitated, seeing them cut from the same cloth.
Leyzon and Savior Lord.
Neither wired for normal thought.
Leyzon and the Savior Lord erupted in wild laughter together.
Mining village Balantia.
Inquisitor and necromancer.
Opposites united that day.