Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Judgment Sovereign
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The punisher of the world's myriad evils.
The Judgment Sovereign.
A man of the angelic race, the sole species of its kind in the world.
The span of his life was so vast it defied measurement.
As such, even players couldn't gauge his ascension level.
In Dungeon Replay, evaluations of the Judgment Sovereign were polarized to the extremes.
This was because his role shifted depending on the player's playstyle.
If a player caused no harm within Dungeon Replay,
the Judgment Sovereign was rarely glimpsed, let alone encountered.
However, if a player turned malevolent—
committing evils severe enough to shake Dungeon Replay itself—
the Judgment Sovereign appeared without hesitation to confront them.
At first glance, this made him seem like a lord who punished wickedness.
Yet the real reason players dreaded him so intensely lay elsewhere.
It was the skill he wielded: Prophecy [SSS].
If a player's actions held the potential to blossom into great evils later on, the Judgment Sovereign emerged to eradicate everything connected to it.
An act that seemed trivial at the time, only for the entire village where one had been active to vanish in an instant...
It stirred profoundly complex emotions in any player.
Because of this, many ground their teeth, vowing revenge against the Judgment Sovereign.
And now.
Deep within the Sahā Realm dungeon.
The Judgment Sovereign had appeared.
The space around him was dyed pure white.
This was the aftermath of his skill Sanctuary [SSS] activating.
The instant skill Sanctuary turned every being within its domain to the "White" state.
Debuff: White.
Creatures stained white remained petrified like white stone until the Judgment Sovereign personally released them.
An instant skill paired with an absurd debuff.
The Judgment Sovereign, who had unleashed it, now opened his gently closed eyes.
Through his golden hair, eyes embedded with crosses shifted.
"It's gone."
The moment he entered the Sahā Realm dungeon, he'd sensed a malicious aura.
That horrific energy, condensed as if malice itself had been forged into a lump, had chilled even the Judgment Sovereign.
'So I activated Sanctuary immediately.'
His gaze fell upon the floor, now blanketed in white.
Sanctuary had one flaw.
It only extended to the height where the Judgment Sovereign stood.
In other words, it couldn't reach underground or anything taller than him.
'It definitely vanished into the shadows.'
The Judgment Sovereign raised an eyebrow.
That swift action clearly indicated prior knowledge of Sanctuary.
'Strange. Sanctuary isn't a skill widely known.'
He activated Sanctuary for one reason alone.
To eradicate evil.
Any villain who witnessed Sanctuary died on the spot.
Thus, it remained an unknown skill.
So how did that evil know of his Sanctuary?
'Have I encountered it somewhere before?'
An evil he'd overlooked.
Was there such a thing?
The Judgment Sovereign began to walk with steady steps.
'The evil from Prophecy must be that one.'
He always kept Prophecy active.
Should it reveal a great evil,
he moved to purge it.
And today,
he'd witnessed an outrageous scene in Prophecy.
A grand imperial castle, piled high toward the heavens.
A man who toppled that empire laughed brightly.
Surrounding him were inhuman existences, every one.
The sight evoked the demon king from legends.
No wonder even the Judgment Sovereign felt a chill.
It was undoubtedly evil.
An evil that would destroy the world.
The problem was, the man's face wasn't clear.
As if even Prophecy couldn't pierce it fully.
Noise obscured his features; the Judgment Sovereign didn't know who he was.
But one thing was certain.
The day that evil gained true power was today, right here in the Sahā Realm.
'Just moments ago.'
He hadn't seen the face clearly due to the surging shadows,
but he recalled glimpsing long ears amid them.
Definitely not human.
'A demi-human?'
Capturing it would be ideal, but
its build was childlike.
To exude such intense malicious energy from a body that small.
Next time, there was no way he'd let it escape.
'It fled the moment it saw me.'
So it must have headed deeper into the Sahā Realm dungeon.
'I need to pursue.'
Evil must be purged.
The Judgment Sovereign surged forward through the forest, radiating a menacing aura.
And minutes after he vanished.
"Ugh!"
Leyzon tumbled out from the shadows like he was rolling.
Leyzon, spilling out, gasped for breath.
Splash—.
At the same time, Hanok clawed his way up from the shadows.
Soaked through, Hanok shook himself violently upon reaching the surface.
Just like a dog shaking off water.
"Grrrr, Leyzon siiiir."
And shortly after, a small white bat rolled out from the shadows.
Seeing it, Leyzon stood and scooped up the bat.
The bat was Syria.
The former Vampire Queen.
"Syria, you okay?"
"Ugh... I have no strength."
Leyzon gave a wry smile at the sight.
The instant they'd crossed paths with the Judgment Sovereign, Leyzon had plunged into the shadows.
He'd planned to evade Sanctuary and then figure out the next move.
But then,
His union with Syria had timed out and dissolved.
And they began sinking into the shadows right away.
'It felt like escaping a swamp.'
With Syria losing control of the shadows, they morphed into a quagmire.
So Leyzon had swum desperately to the surface with Hanok.
Ironically, this was why the Judgment Sovereign hadn't detected them inside.
Leyzon had originally planned to flee deeper into the dungeon via shadows.
But the union broke midway, trapping him within.
In that time, Syria entered a weakened state.
Her presence faded away.
To the Judgment Sovereign's eyes, Leyzon's group must have seemed to vanish without a trace.
In the end, he judged they were deeper in and headed that way.
'Right now, he's probably chasing illusions deep inside.'
The worst luck had piled up consecutively,
yet it canceled itself out.
'Lucky break.'
Leyzon took it positively.
He couldn't gauge the Judgment Sovereign's full power.
But one thing was sure.
In Dungeon Replay, he was always top three among the strongest.
'And the matchup is the worst.'
A necromancer versus an angel wielding holy power.
No matchup could be more disastrous.
'Matchups can overturn even ascension gaps.'
If Leyzon were used to Undead Union, maybe.
But facing the Judgment Sovereign with a skill he'd just tried for the first time? Game over.
Whatever could be avoided, had to be.
Leyzon carefully cradled Syria and rose.
"Hanok, let's go. We need to leave before he comes back. Straight to the capital."
He'd planned to clear the Sahā Realm dungeon,
but with the Judgment Sovereign here, that didn't matter anymore.
'Whatever Prophecy showed him,'
he wanted no part of it.
As Leyzon stepped toward the exit,
light leaked from it once more.
Leyzon's instincts flared at the sight.
The Judgment Sovereign from moments ago.
And now this figure following behind.
Who was this one?
'My jinx.'
The ordeal that always followed excessive luck.
Was it really offset by just this much?
'No.'
Leyzon's senses were swifter than anyone's in that instant.
Split-second judgment meant life or death.
Before he knew it, Fierce Poison Spread [C] filled his grasp.
As instinct born of pure sense drove his arm forward,
"Judgment Sovereign, take me with—"
A voice reached Leyzon's ears.
What he saw was a lanky man with deep brown skin.
And the words that clearly rang in Leyzon's ears.
Judgment Sovereign.
'Enemy.'
The decision was instant.
Leyzon's hand shot toward the man's throat.
In that briefest moment,
their eyes met over the man's glasses.
The man's eyes widened hugely, and Leyzon bared his teeth.
Sizzle!
The sound of flesh burning from fierce poison echoed.
Thwack!
At the same time, Leyzon's body twisted rightward.
The impact slamming his side jolted his brain in a flash.
Too late, he realized the man had swung a fist.
A punch bordering on spinal reflex.
A conditioned response from countless repetitions.
A honed fist, from the Monk class.
Proof lay in the unimaginable power packed into that reflex punch.
"Gah!"
Leyzon tumbled across the ground from the side blow.
A necromancer like him couldn't withstand a Monk's fist.
Simultaneously, the man clutched his throat and staggered back.
Flesh melted by fierce poison dripped to the floor.
Damage that would fell most instantly.
Yet white light flowed over the man.
Leyzon knew that holy glow all too well.
Holy Recovery [B].
This man was a 'Monk' class.
An ascetic who tempered the body.
Separate from physical prowess, they naturally wielded holy magic too.
"Ha, Hanok!"
Leyzon's cry sent Hanok charging.
Hanok's eyes were already in combat mode.
Clang!
Hanok's one-handed spear clashed with the gauntlet-clad arm of the Monk.
As a result, the Monk's recovery was forcibly interrupted.
Even so, his mastery of holy magic allowed makeshift measures.
The Monk, Leyzon, and Hanok.
An unexpected battle had begun.
The Monk man.
He was Tara, follower of the Judgment Sovereign.
Tara was utterly bewildered right now.
He'd pursued the Judgment Sovereign into the Sahā Realm dungeon,
only to be suddenly attacked.
If his battle-hardened body hadn't reflexively moved,
he'd surely be dead from that last strike.
As he parried Hanok's spear and scanned quickly, his eyes met Leyzon's.
Leyzon staggered to his feet, glancing behind.
Tara realized what Leyzon sought.
'He knows of the Judgment Sovereign.'
Then these were definitely the figures from the Sovereign's Prophecy.
Had they fled him and run into Tara?
But the Judgment Sovereign's presence wasn't felt.
He seemed to have gone deeper into the dungeon.
Tara's mind raced in confusion.
'If they met him, how did they survive?'
Conversely, if they hadn't,
'How do they know he's an enemy?'
Tara's thoughts spun rapidly.
Even in bewilderment, he sensed the abnormality.
'These guys are dangerous.'
He didn't know why, but Tara felt an intense unease.
A sense of wrongness swept through him.
These people seemed to know things they shouldn't.
He had to inform the Judgment Sovereign ahead.
Tara's mouth opened, activating a skill.
Skill: Trumpet of Holiness [D].
Tara also served as the Sovereign's scout.
Thus, he possessed skills to relay info when needed.
As Tara invoked Trumpet of Holiness and tried to speak,
"...!"
He belatedly realized one crucial fact.
'My voice.'
It wouldn't come out.
He'd healed his throat with holy magic somehow,
but Hanok's attack had cut the recovery short.
Trumpet of Holiness required vocalization.
He couldn't activate it like this.
'Did they aim for this?'
Coincidence, or calculated?
He didn't know.
If calculated,
then Tara faced the crisis of his life.
Clang!
Hanok's spear clashed with Tara's gauntlet once more.
Capturing them would be great, but
his foes were a warrior and necromancer.
The most orthodox—and hardest to shatter—combo.
In that moment, Tara grasped his role.
'Inform the Judgment Sovereign about them.'
Escape now and find the Sovereign!
Whoosh—
But contrary to Tara's resolve,
Leyzon, rising, harbored different thoughts.
Tara had seen their faces.
Which meant he absolutely couldn't be sent back alive.
Leyzon pulled a mask from his bag and belatedly donned it.
'Finish him before the Judgment Sovereign returns.'
Opposing intents crossed between them.
One to kill.
One to warn.
Both staked their lives.