Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: The Impostor's Weakness
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Inside the hospital room.
Leyzon stood face-to-face with the one who had seized Pandor's body.
It had started with the Shadow Warlord—why did everyone let their bodies get taken over so easily?
Well, they're all just weak-minded fools.
'The legacy left by the 29th White Lion Knights Commander was actually a trap prepared by the Ossuary.'
But what was done was done.
Instead, he might as well pry some information out of the impostor while he had the chance.
It was perfectly typical Leyzon thinking.
A sticky smile crept across Leyzon's lips.
Blood-red shadows began dripping one by one from the ceiling.
This place was already within Syria's shadow domain.
Leyzon gazed at the fake Pandor with a razor-sharp grin.
"Why so heated? You're just another parasite clinging to the Ossuary."
At Leyzon's words, the fake Pandor's eyebrow twitched.
Not all Beasts of the Land opposed the Prophet.
Some had bowed their heads at the Prophet's feet.
Joining them when resistance was futile was a sound judgment.
But there were others, like Carmen, who had fought to the bitter end against their Black Plague.
It was true—Leyzon found those who attached themselves to the Prophet utterly pathetic.
"Looks like the Ossuary is more cowardly than I thought."
Leyzon chuckled and began his provocation.
"If you'd just eliminated it outright, I might not have noticed, but setting a trap on top of that?"
Leyzon leaned deeply back into the chair's headrest.
"Ah, no—that's not right. This was probably because you couldn't eliminate it."
A natural pressure emanated from him, forming an oppressive aura.
"You don't even know exactly what the former White Lion Knights Commander left behind, do you?"
The truth was still unknown.
It could have been a trap deliberately prepared by the Ossuary for future threats.
But it was perfect fodder for belittling the Ossuary.
"Don't speak so carelessly."
As expected, raw emotion flared from the fake Pandor.
He looked ready to lunge at any moment.
Yet Leyzon didn't flinch in the face of the threat.
He even pushed his chair back and rose to his feet.
"Tell me the truth."
A strange pressure radiated from Leyzon, binding the fake Pandor.
"Both you and the Ossuary are panicking right now, aren't you?"
His eyes curved into crescents.
"Neither you nor that thing ever imagined I'd uncover memories from a world where I don't exist."
The Ossuary had repeatedly shown intent to eliminate Leyzon.
That alone revealed how much of a thorn in their side he was.
But the Ossuary didn't know.
Every time they made a move, Leyzon gained information in return.
'Precisely because they had no information on me.'
That very lack had helped him absorb everything.
But the Ossuary was oblivious to this.
"And since you know nothing about me, that makes me all the more terrifying."
The Ossuary made moves but never stepped forward personally.
The Abyss had long circulated among necromancers as a legend.
Yet even though it existed, no one could find it.
"The more you tried to track me down, the more lost you became."
His name was widespread, yet there was no information on the Abyss anywhere.
Still, every undead from the Abyss that appeared in the world was extraordinarily dangerous.
And from a certain point onward, reports of the Abyss cropped up everywhere.
Each one with unnaturally bold actions.
Judgment Sovereign, ancient dragon, Sword Saint, Transcendent Church, Shadow Warlord, Judgment Sovereign.
Major figures across the world were entangled one after another.
"You couldn't fathom what I was thinking or what my goals were."
The Ossuary was much like the Firehead.
Leyzon's movements were utterly incomprehensible.
It painted a picture of some vast scheme even the Ossuary couldn't grasp.
And that image kept heightening the Ossuary's wariness.
'This is why being smart and cautious can be a poison.'
Sometimes, you had to abandon caution and charge ahead blindly.
But to Leyzon, the Ossuary was never the type.
Just look at how its very existence was shrouded in veils.
'This one's the type to demolish a solid bridge and rebuild it step by step.'
The polar opposite of Leyzon's reckless patterns.
That was the "Crawling Ossuary."
Thus, the Ossuary was endlessly cautious.
The Ossuary knew many things.
"Who among your known enemies am I? Who's backing me? Or am I the real deal myself?"
This world wasn't populated solely by evil transcendents.
Beyond evil and good transcendents, there were many more.
Such hypothetical foes only amplified its caution.
"I've kept throwing your judgments into chaos."
In contrast, information on Leyzon was sorely lacking.
'To someone who knows much, the unknown is the greatest threat.'
It must have endlessly hypothesized countless enemies in its mind.
"Yet every move you made only left you more clueless about me."
Leyzon had bulldozed straight through every ploy they threw at him.
This only complicated the Ossuary's mind further.
Leyzon's actions screamed of some powerful backer.
No way could anyone achieve that much in such a short time otherwise.
"Maybe I'm a trap."
The faint possibility that Leyzon himself was bait to draw it out.
"Maybe I'm not."
That uncertainty kept the Ossuary from acting rashly.
And Leyzon knew of the existence that complicated it even more.
"You can never decide."
Leyzon had somehow closed in right up to the fake Pandor's nose.
Through the mask, its ash-gray eyes gleamed with malice.
The evil emanating from there made even the fake Pandor swallow hard.
The black curtain of the world that even the Crawling Ossuary feared.
The Abyss writhed there.
"You—!"
The fake Pandor couldn't withstand the pressure and thrust out both hands.
Kwachik!
In that instant, his hands were bound by shadows and yanked to the floor.
Kudangtang!
The fake Pandor had slammed his head into the bed frame before he knew it.
Leyzon leisurely perched on the edge of the bed.
Every motion flowed with clean precision.
As if everything danced in the palm of Leyzon's hand.
Leyzon's hand descended onto the fake Pandor's face.
A massive spider slowly crawled over the fake Pandor's features.
Pondering how to devour him.
That intent seeped through his fingertips.
Spider silk.
Enormous spider silk constricted the fake Pandor.
Rattle—
Suddenly, the fake Pandor felt a suffocating sensation.
This was no pressure a mere human could exert.
"Now, speak."
Shadows blocked the windows, plunging the room into pitch blackness.
Vermin and fungi swarmed around Leyzon.
His fingertips blackened.
The essence of the poison was the soul's scar.
A fierce venom that wounded the soul directly.
A virulent toxin that could reach even the soul inside Pandor.
Leyzon whispered low, his lips curled high.
"What did the Ossuary order you to do?"
Blackmail using the Sword Saint?
Or some other purpose?
Whatever it was, he'd counter it.
As Leyzon stared down the fake Pandor like that.
The fake Pandor inexplicably remained silent, lips sealed.
At first, Leyzon thought it was the pressure silencing him, but no.
'This is...'
Leyzon's eyes shifted slyly as he observed.
And soon, he realized one key fact.
"You..."
Leyzon's eyes narrowed gradually.
"You're not directly from the Ossuary, are you?"
The fake Pandor's body flinched.
"Ah, no. I—"
The fake Pandor showed bewilderment.
But he couldn't finish his sentence.
Hesitation radiated from him.
Leyzon's threat worked on the fake Pandor too.
'He definitely has ties to the Ossuary.'
But coming here seemed like his personal judgment.
So he hesitated, fearing what damage loose lips might cause the Ossuary.
Leyzon let out an exasperated reaction.
"Good grief."
It wasn't just the Ossuary that had swung at air.
Come to think of it, something had felt off.
Leyzon had faced the Ossuary in the Soul Realm not long ago.
The Ossuary knew Leyzon could interfere there.
'No way it'd send such a sloppy pawn that could get caught like this.'
Leyzon felt a pang of deflation inside.
'I thought it sent this one deliberately to get caught and probe me.'
Who would've thought it wasn't from the Ossuary at all.
All that black curtain theatrics for nothing.
The fake Pandor wore a stunned expression.
Leyzon had spoken with full conviction, leaving no room for denial.
Leyzon briefly clutched the back of his neck.
'Whatever.'
He shook it off lightly.
The Ossuary already saw him plenty as a black curtain.
No need to pile on more now.
The real issue was the fool right in front of him.
The fake Pandor wasn't sent intentionally by the Ossuary.
To Leyzon, this one was an automated trap.
'Even the Ossuary didn't know what the former White Lion Knights Commander left behind.'
It had tidied up in its own way.
But it didn't know everything about the former commander either.
If something couldn't be found, make sure no one else finds it.
The Ossuary had planted massive traps in places where it suspected the former commander left traces.
Traps that activated when someone neared the commander's information.
That was the fake Pandor before his eyes.
'Given how the Sword Saint's trail went cold, there are probably two kinds of traps.'
One to capture anyone who triggered it.
The other to let the undead glean info on anyone who reached the trap.
That way, information gathered automatically without the Ossuary lifting a finger.
What the Ossuary hadn't anticipated.
'Was that the one gathering the info happened to be me, another necromancer.'
Beasts of the Land underlings faithfully executed planted orders.
But that very trait had backfired here.
"I told you not to scatter operations everywhere."
With so many automated setups, mishaps like this were bound to happen.
But the fake Pandor hadn't come here blindly either.
Leyzon sensed mana flows in Pandor's body.
"Trying to report my info even now?"
Leyzon grinned, noticing the fake Pandor's intent.
In that moment, the fake Pandor's eyes rolled back.
He planned to send it via the Soul Realm.
But the fake Pandor's action was futile.
"Uh, uhh."
His eyes snapped back to normal in an instant.
The fake Pandor's eyes bulged wide.
"Too late. You should've done it sooner."
When Firsiran had noticed this one's presence, Leyzon had already made his move.
Its soul was now bound to Pandor's body.
The spider silk ensnaring him was all too real.
He'd known long ago that his undead outclassed theirs.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered researching undead takeovers.
Leyzon rose to his feet.
Then he smiled at the fake Pandor, bound in both soul and flesh.
"I've been burned twice already, you see?"
He clamped his hand firmly over the fake Pandor's mouth.
The foreign bug shaman and Gullian.
Twice he'd let key info-bearers slip away regrettably.
"So this time, I won't let you vanish."
The fake Pandor struggled, but the shadows constricted tighter.
They sealed his mouth, ears, eyes, and nose completely.
The last thing the fake Pandor saw was a blinding light.
Well, let's see how you like a little remodeling.