Chapter 203
Chapter 203
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 203
Chapter Title: The Lizardman's Warning
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After sending Nermacardia away, Leyzon headed to the Resonance World.
The news of the Resonance World's restoration had recently spread among the necromancers once more.
As a result, more people were returning to visit it.
Even those who had briefly stayed there in the past and then left were coming back.
In a way, this was the most bustling time the Resonance World had ever seen.
Leyzon moved not toward the hall where necromancers usually gathered, but elsewhere.
The now-familiar outer corridor.
Beyond it stretched a field blooming with flowers.
A place outsiders could not enter.
Yet for Leyzon, it was always accessible.
It was Pirsiran's flower garden.
The master of the Resonance World, Pirsiran, sat at the white table and chairs as usual, taking a sip of tea.
Unlike before, she looked noticeably relaxed.
It was possible because Leyzon had freed her from the constraints of her soul.
"Pirsiran."
"Lord Leyzon, you've arrived."
She smiled brightly when he called her.
"Seeing you so much brighter makes me feel good for no reason."
"It's all thanks to you, Lord Leyzon. Shall I pour you some tea?"
"I'll have some next time. More importantly."
Pirsiran knew what Leyzon wanted to say.
"I'll bring it out right away."
A rift opened beside her.
And from it emerged the lizardman, frozen just as he had been that day.
With his soul's heart destroyed, he was a soul that could no longer function.
"It'll wake up soon."
At that moment, the lizardman's hand twitched.
His shoulder moved, and his body shook along with it.
It was like an animal rousing from a long hibernation.
Soon, the lizardman's eyes slowly opened.
He blinked once, then his mouth fell open.
"A-Abyss!"
The first thing he sought upon waking was the Abyss.
Leyzon raised his hand in response.
"Lizardman, did you sleep well?"
"...Sleep?"
His mind hadn't fully returned yet.
His eyes, repeating what had been said, gradually sharpened moments later.
"Ah, the butterfly mask, that woman."
A sigh escaped his lips.
Only now did he realize what had happened to him.
"Lizardman, you have something to tell me."
No need for preamble.
The lizardman must have come to the Resonance World in haste.
And since he'd been unconscious ever since, he surely had words he wanted to share.
The lizardman's eyes widened.
And he cried out urgently.
"Abyss, you must stop the necromancer affiliated with the imperial family!"
A fact he hadn't been able to reveal until facing death.
He finally conveyed it.
"That one plans to turn the transcendent being rooted in this land into an undead!"
A sigh slipped from Leyzon's mouth the moment he heard the next words.
In response, the lizardman's eyes rounded.
"...You already knew? Even that this land is actually the transcendent being?"
"Yeah, including that. I suspected as much recently."
It was a guess from hearing Nermacardia's story.
Now that it had become reality, a headache surged.
"Lizardman, let me ask clearly. Is this the solo act of that imperial necromancer from the Ossuary?"
"Yes. We thought he was after the Abyss's undead all along, but that wasn't it.
What he sought through us was to revive the transcendent being as an undead."
It was outrageous.
Turning a transcendent being into an undead.
With the vague notion turning real, his mind grew even more tangled.
'Creeping Ossuary... so their goal was to undead-ify the transcendent being.'
It was worth blocking the lizardman even by sealing the Resonance World.
If this got out, the Ossuary couldn't cling to the imperial family anymore.
'That's why they sealed the Resonance World to stop him.'
But that was the extent of it.
The Ossuary hadn't made any further moves after that.
As if it no longer mattered if the information spread.
Leyzon's eyes slowly widened.
'Sending Nermacardia with that prophecy this time.'
Nermacardia had just been a test subject for the Ossuary.
To see how far the power of the undead-ified transcendent being could be used.
'They've already achieved results.'
The Ossuary's real preparation had been something else all along.
He knew they were preparing something.
But he never imagined it would be this.
'Just how far along is it?'
He needed to grasp the situation to respond.
Lack of information was holding him back.
If the transcendent being rose right now, the entire empire would be done for.
Naturally, Leyzon living atop its corpse would be too.
Anxiety flooded his mind like a bursting dam.
Smack!
At that instant, the sound of a cheek slap echoed.
The lizardman and Pirsiran turned to Leyzon in surprise.
He stood there, having slapped his own cheeks with both hands.
He expelled the anxiety that had risen to his chin.
At the same time, his gaze sharpened.
Anxiety only weighed down his steps forward.
What he needed now was one thing.
Not anxiety, but action.
"Lizardman, do you know where the necromancers the Ossuary has gathered are?"
Leyzon's demeanor had changed.
Noticing this, the lizardman's atmosphere shifted as well.
"Ossuary means that imperial necromancer, right?"
"Exactly. That guy's a prophet who contracted with an evil transcendent being."
The lizardman's fists clenched tight.
His eyes burned with a resolve never seen before.
"I steadily researched ways to escape from there someday."
Back when the lizardman was captured, his child was due to be born.
It was the child he'd barely conceived with his wife amid various circumstances.
Yet he'd been taken without even seeing the child's face.
The obsession to see his child one day.
With that alone, he'd desperately prepared an escape.
Though he ended up killed without escaping, his efforts weren't in vain.
"I don't know how dangerous the transcendent being is. But I do know it poses a great threat to the land where my child was born."
Leyzon understood the lizardman's will.
The wish for the land where his own child lived to remain safe.
A parent's heart is stronger than anything in the world.
"Abyss, I'll tell you everything I know."
He was convinced Leyzon was the Abyss.
Though introduced as an acquaintance of the Abyss, his actions proved it.
He was the pinnacle of necromancers, the Abyss.
"Please, help me protect the land where my child lives."
The lizardman bowed his head in plea.
Pirsiran quietly turned away, wiping her eyes.
She too understood a parent's heart for their child.
"Yeah, leave it to me."
A grin curved Leyzon's lips.
"I'll smash them to pieces."
So they needed to prepare even more thoroughly.
"Tell me everything you know, from one to ten, without leaving anything out."
They would judge what information was needed.
Creeping Ossuary, this prophet bastard.
It was all-out war.
Dungeon Replay.
A game where you clear dungeons based on a vast open world.
Player Ryu Han-hyuk's clear count: 64 times.
His memory and recall abilities had been extraordinary since childhood.
The experience of winning awards in memory competitions was still vivid.
And perhaps thanks to that memory.
"Here it is."
Leyzon pointed to a spot on the empire map.
"Yes, that seems right!"
Based on the lizardman's information, Leyzon had finally pinpointed the location.
The lizardman had scoured the underground where he'd been held.
And in that process, he managed to send one undead to the surface.
However, even that yielded little information.
Leyzon freely controlled undead.
But for ordinary necromancers, undead lost effectiveness beyond a certain distance.
The undead the lizardman sent to the surface was at maximum range.
Thus, it only provided info on his immediate location.
But for Leyzon, that was enough.
'Dungeon Replay is a dot-game.'
Dot graphics have clear limitations.
Background element limitations.
Using that, Leyzon recalled all his past memories.
As a result, he identified the location through geographical features.
"Your info was key. Dráig trees only grow in this region."
Dráig trees are special trees planted by the rare Dryads.
They live deeper in the forests than even elves.
As such, most people didn't even know the race existed.
"Does the Abyss know every tree too?"
"The legendary gear I use performs better the more plant knowledge I have."
It wasn't for nothing that he wielded [Undying Life].
In previous rounds, he'd studied nearly every plant to use this gear.
'Back then, using the gear would pop up a plant encyclopedia window.'
Now, he had to remember everything himself to make use of it.
"Anyone would think you're an elf."
Leyzon chuckled at Pirsiran's joke.
"Now the location is confirmed."
The problem was the progress of the transcendent being's ritual.
Even heading there straight away would take days.
Let alone going without any preparation.
That would just mean certain death.
"When I found out, it was at half progress."
"But no guarantee the remaining half will take the same time."
The lizardman didn't deny it.
He'd rushed to inform Leyzon precisely because he knew that.
"...There is one way to check the progress."
At that moment, the lizardman recalled something and reported it.
"I hid one undead down there. As a last-resort measure."
Leyzon paused.
He understood the lizardman's intent.
He planned to possess the undead he'd planted.
"Lizardman, if anything goes wrong."
"I know."
If the undead was destroyed, the lizardman's soul could vanish too.
It was a soul he'd barely regained.
Though without a body, he could at least live in the Resonance World.
Moreover, he'd said he wanted to see his child.
If he asked a soul necromancer now, he could surely meet them.
Yet he chose to uncover information over that.
"I told you. This land is where my child lives. I want to protect it."
He'd do anything for that.
Even if it meant his life being burned away.
The lizardman smiled brightly.
There was no stopping him now.
It wasn't the time to debate for Leyzon either.
"...Lizardman, if it's dangerous, return to the Resonance World immediately."
So as a final instruction, he conveyed that much.
"Haha, leave it to me. I'll be back soon."
With those words, the lizardman possessed the undead.
And a day later.
The lizardman returned as a vegetable.
That was the lizardman's final message.