Chapter 146
Chapter 146
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: The Shadow Warlord's Return
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Leyzon had unexpectedly hit it off with the Savior Lord.
So they decided to tackle the problem right away.
"Syria, bring out the Shadow Warlord."
"Yes!"
Syria immediately stirred the shadows.
Soon, the Shadow Warlord—trapped in a blood crystal—rose up beside Leyzon.
Hanok clenched his fists the moment he laid eyes on the Shadow Warlord.
It was unbearable to watch his brother in such a state.
"Just release his head."
At Leyzon's request, Syria snapped her fingers.
The blood crystal encasing the Shadow Warlord promptly melted away.
"Gah!"
The Shadow Warlord spat out the blood flooding his mouth and jerked his head.
Then, slowly, he raised it.
"Ab... Abyss... sir?"
Leyzon snorted at the words.
"Gullian, sorry to disappoint, but the Shadow Warlord and I aren't on speaking terms."
The Shadow Warlord's eyebrows twisted immediately.
It looked like he'd tried to play a prank, but he'd gotten the angle all wrong.
Gullian, wearing the Shadow Warlord's shell like a mask, flashed a bloody grin.
"Heh... heheheh, I see. I was just trying to toy with you a bit. Too bad."
"What happened to the Shadow Warlord?"
He smirked unpleasantly.
"He's gotta be somewhere, right?"
Gullian's sly gaze landed on Hanok.
It was unmistakably the Shadow Warlord's face, but the soul inside belonged to Gullian.
Hanok's expression soured instantly.
Gullian savored the thrill and laughed.
Crack!
In that instant, Leyzon's hand clamped down on Gullian's face.
"Funny, huh? Yeah, hilarious."
Leyzon laughed along with Gullian.
A wilder cackle, even.
Gullian's brows twitched subtly.
Laughing like this, right on cue? He clearly had some trick up his sleeve.
Gullian's eyes darted around.
Then he realized where they were: a church.
The Abyss... in a church?
An utterly mismatched pairing.
His gaze soon caught an old man standing in the cathedral.
A hunched figure gripping a sword.
Whoosh—
Wind swept into the crumbling church, tousling the old man's thin hair.
Beneath those locks...
His eyelids were peacefully closed.
Gullian blinked once.
Then, piecing it together, his eyes slowly widened.
The old man's appearance. The church.
The two thoughts collided.
Gullian's pupils dilated.
"S-Savior Lord?"
"Oh, you know the Savior Lord?"
Leyzon beamed like he'd nailed it.
Gullian's face froze solid.
He couldn't believe this situation.
At the level of Transcendent Church High Priest, one learned about the Abyss.
TThe Abyss was treated as the world's black curtain.
Monstrous undead popping up everywhere.
A figure who unleashed them freely, motives unknown.
Even the Transcendent Church's intelligence couldn't uncover a thing.
But rumors abounded.
One certainty: he was undeniably dangerous.
His undead alone proved it.
On the flip side, the Savior Lord was a terror even within the Transcendent Church.
He punished all evil without mercy.
The Church saw themselves as martyrs, but the Savior Lord cut them down ruthlessly.
He eradicated evil on sight.
For him to aid the Abyss? It made no sense.
He could've cleaved him down right there, no questions asked.
Yet the Savior Lord stood motionless before the Abyss.
Instead, his razor-sharp killing intent was locked solely on Gullian.
"Th-the Savior Lord... helping the Abyss? That doesn't add up!"
"The old man's my buddy."
Best friends as of today.
"What was it you said last time?"
Leyzon tapped Gullian's jaw.
"Something about apostles committing innocent murders too?"
Leyzon referenced Gullian's past words.
Gullian's body stiffened.
Provoking Leyzon had made him forget the prior events for a moment.
Leyzon had originally been at the Transcendent Church's main cathedral.
Beneath its underground, innocent blood was being spilled in secret.
The Apostle of Ruin.
The apostle the Church had labored over for ages.
Gullian had sensed its awakening and blacked out.
Yet somehow, Leyzon was here, unscathed.
Gullian couldn't gauge how much time had passed since.
Trapped in the blood crystal, rolling around in shadows—he'd lost all sense of time long ago.
"Apostle of Ruin, was it?"
Gullian's eyes bulged.
Leyzon knew the apostle's name.
That meant he'd seen the Church's internal documents.
"You made something interesting."
"......What happened to the Apostle of Ruin?"
Leyzon flashed a broad grin at the rigid Gullian.
"Smashed it to bits."
Wah!
Tears welled up in Gullian's eyes.
Leyzon was caught off guard this time.
He hadn't expected tears.
Gullian shed fat, chicken-shit tears.
"Sniff... just once."
He hung his head.
"I just wanted to see that beautiful face with my own eyes, just once."
Leyzon grimaced.
This guy really wasn't worth engaging.
"D-don't cry with my brother's face!"
Hanok shouted, and Gullian choked back sobs.
"Enough nonsense. I'll give you two choices."
Leyzon gestured to the Savior Lord behind him.
"Get sliced by the Savior Lord, or crawl out yourself."
He extended a hand to Iden.
Iden handed him a straw doll from her grasp.
A voodoo doll imbued with Iden's puppet strings.
Leyzon presented it as an escape hatch.
"Your call. Either way, I'm good."
No big loss for Leyzon.
Gullian sensed the sincerity.
Die?
Or be used?
Gullian made his choice and smiled slowly.
"Even in death, I return to the Transcendent of Evil. What's death to fear?"
"Nah, you won't."
Leyzon corrected him.
"The Savior Lord draws power directly from the Transcendent of Good. Your soul gets forcibly purified.
Naturally, any link to the Transcendent of Evil vanishes too."
This was dead serious.
Leyzon had heard it straight from the Savior Lord.
Gullian hadn't known this—his brows trembled.
"......But I've lived long, offering countless lives to the Transcendent of Evil.
For that mission, I can't die yet."
Gullian's tune shifted smoothly.
Leyzon smirked, praising the wise pick.
"Good. Crawl out."
Gullian's eyes flicked to the straw doll.
No more options left.
In the end, he tearfully soul-shifted into it like swallowing bitter medicine.
The straw doll twitched and rose.
Gullian's soul seeped in.
Gullian experimentally raised the doll's fist.
His arm was forced back down.
Iden had restrained him.
Gullian worked the straw lips futilely.
"You talk when I say so. Got it?"
Leyzon shook the lamp, leaving the mute doll behind.
Before waking Gullian, Leyzon had struck a deal with the Savior Lord.
If Gullian chose the doll over death, they'd use him.
To dismantle the Transcendent Church remnants—and ultimately, the Transcendent of Evil itself.
That was the pact.
When Leyzon first proposed it, the Savior Lord hesitated.
He itched to behead Gullian on the spot.
In the old days, he'd have ignored it and swung anyway.
But now he knew.
Slaying one Gullian wouldn't change the world.
The root and source of evil.
Until that was uprooted, evil would keep spawning.
So he accepted Leyzon's offer.
Leyzon tilted his head.
He hadn't thought the Savior Lord clueless about the Abyss.
But this faith felt oddly profound.
He'd known nothing at all?
Leyzon looked surprised.
The essence of the soul.
Leyzon lifted his head.
Leyzon couldn't accept it outright.
Because that light might be...
'Maybe because my soul came from another world, it carries a different glow.'
Leyzon clamped his mouth shut.
This wasn't something to blab about.
Leyzon's face hardened at the follow-up.
The revelation escalated beyond expectation.
Leyzon raised his head.
The pitch-black sky now glittered with countless stars.
'Maybe.'
One of the Transcendents sent him here?
Still unknown.
But if true, the way home might tie to them.
'Gods, no.'
Entanglements with divine beings? Pass.
These Transcendents kept sticking their noses in.
Transcendent or not, block my path and I'd smash through.
That was Leyzon's forte.
With that, Leyzon snapped back from the soul realm.
After Gullian departed, the Shadow Warlord remained limp, head bowed.
Hanok stood anxiously beside Leyzon.
Leyzon patted his head.
"He'll wake soon. Just wait."
The Shadow Warlord had been ousted once.
His soul needed time to resettle.
Hanok nodded calmly, following the advice.
"Ugh."
A groan escaped the Shadow Warlord's lips.
Hanok whipped his head up and dashed forward instinctively.
Leyzon glanced at Syria, who dissolved the crystal.
Hanok caught the collapsing Shadow Warlord.
His eyelids began to flutter open slowly.
The Shadow Warlord rolled his eyes.
Then he recognized the boy holding him.
"......Hanok?"
At the name, Hanok hugged him tightly, tears streaming.
"Brother!"
The Shadow Warlord looked dazed at the cry.
Then he firmly embraced Hanok back.
"I see. You saved me."
Hanok's tear-filled eyes widened hugely.
A gentle smile graced the Shadow Warlord's lips.
"Really, in that short time apart... you've grown so much."
Leyzon could tell how much those words meant to Hanok, no explanation needed.
Hanok Wilbria, who once dreamed of becoming a hero like the Shadow Warlord.
This was the day he reclaimed him.