Chapter 212
Chapter 212
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 212
Chapter Title: Abyssal Prison
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Hanok flinched and lifted his head.
For a very brief moment, Hanok's thoughts came to a complete halt.
And in an instant, pitch-black darkness filled his surroundings.
A space of utter darkness where he couldn't see an inch ahead.
Within that space, cold sweat dripped down Hanok's forehead in streams.
'When the hell did everything around me turn into this darkness?'
For some reason, a nauseating sensation washed over him.
Something felt off.
Before he knew it, Hanok felt like both his legs had vanished.
With nothing visible, he couldn't even sense that he was standing.
'Am I lying down right now? Or standing?'
His sense of balance seemed completely shattered.
On top of that, not a single sound reached his ears.
That fact terrified Hanok even more.
What if... he'd actually died just moments ago?
The vague thought flickered through his mind.
At that moment, one person surfaced in Hanok's thoughts.
Leyzon.
The man who had upended his entire life.
The instant he thought of him, Hanok was suddenly running.
Because he knew Leyzon wouldn't stop, even in a situation like this.
His sense of time was gradually breaking down.
But for now, he ran.
He kept running and running.
He might just be thrashing his legs on the ground while lying down.
But he prioritized moving his legs over worrying about that.
There was nothing else Hanok could do right now.
'Lord Leyzon.'
Hanok screamed Leyzon's name inwardly.
'I don't know what's happening, but I'm running! I'm running with everything I've got!'
Run.
Run for your life, keep running.
Hanok kept moving his legs until his breath grew ragged.
Thud―
In that instant, Hanok's body collided with something.
He didn't know what it was, but since he'd bumped into it, he turned direction.
At least this confirmed he was running.
In the darkness, Hanok pressed onward.
Clack―
Then, for the first time, a sound echoed in Hanok's ears.
Footsteps approaching from somewhere.
As Hanok panicked, unsure what they were―
Tap―
A warm sensation touched the top of his head.
With it, the darkness enveloping Hanok vanished all at once.
"Hanok."
Hanok knew this voice all too well.
He realized black tears were streaming from his eyes.
The same black liquid poured from his mouth, nose, and ears.
But his eyes clearly captured one person.
"Le... Lord Leyzon."
He called out the name amid the black fluid spilling from his mouth.
There stood Leyzon, scattering violet light.
"You've done well."
As Leyzon spoke, Hanok's body collapsed.
Leyzon caught him and looked up.
Black footprints stretched out where Hanok had been.
Hanok had run ceaselessly through that abyss.
All to buy the time Leyzon had spoken of.
"You've finally shown your shameless face."
Before Leyzon stood a single Dark Elf.
It was the creeping Ossuary.
His face was strangely unrecognizable.
In his hand gleamed a massive red gem.
Hanok had desperately tried to protect it, but against the prison, he had no means.
As his senses crumbled, he hadn't even realized he'd dropped it.
"How did you nullify the prison?"
The prison had swallowed everyone in this space.
Not just Hanok, but the undead as well.
Yet Leyzon had pierced through it, even pulling Hanok out.
From behind Leyzon's shadow, a small wyrm quietly flapped its wings and vanished.
It was the hatchling he'd received from the Bloodless Sovereign.
"Pauli."
At Leyzon's call, Pauli emerged from the shadow and caught Hanok's body.
"Take good care of him."
Leyzon spun his staff and aimed it at the Ossuary.
The Ossuary reacted with astonishment.
"Caw! Caw!"
Suddenly, black monstrous birds spread their wings around him.
"I thought your specialty was hiding like a mole, waiting for an opening."
The black birds cried out one by one.
They brazenly reflected the Ossuary's irritation.
"You do love a good self-introduction."
Leyzon smiled faintly.
In contrast, the Ossuary showed no hint of amusement.
With a sunken expression, he declared,
"Enough chit-chat."
Crack!
In that moment, a black maw opened beneath Leyzon's feet.
Teeth emerged between its jaws, swallowing and snapping shut on him.
The monstrous birds dove in unison.
They passed through the skin of the mouth monster surging from the ground.
Then they tore wildly at Leyzon trapped inside.
Until violet light seeped through the mouth monster's seams.
Kaboom!
With an explosion, the mouth monster and birds shattered into fragments.
Leyzon strolled out leisurely amid the debris.
Violet flames flickered around him like will-o'-the-wisps.
As Leyzon pointed, the flames swam through the air toward the Ossuary.
A wall of bone erupted before the Ossuary, clashing with the flames.
The impact shook the space.
Leyzon's firepower was still far from normal.
But to the Ossuary, the situation was puzzling.
Leyzon usually wielded overwhelming power that could devastate an entire area.
This firepower felt somehow lacking.
'Is he scheming something again?'
Meanwhile, Leyzon mounted his Bone Broom and raced between buildings.
A tower of bone surged beneath the Ossuary's feet.
The Ossuary ascended into the sky, far higher than the buildings.
Black torrents of wind howled around him.
The black gales rampaged, grinding nearby structures to dust.
Leyzon soared through the crumbling buildings on violet flame wings.
Leyzon, wreathed in violet fire, didn't seem particularly threatening.
The time bought felt utterly worthless.
But he had no intention of chasing blindly.
It could be a lure.
"You know one, but not ten."
From within the bone tower, the Ossuary raised the red gem.
"Time is not on your side."
Leyzon had been a tremendous nuisance.
But it wasn't enough to stop his plans.
Now was the time to show him reality.
Late, a new movement stirred from Leyzon's side.
Violet flames he unleashed engulfed the Ossuary.
But they fell short against the undead, apostles, and black gales.
"You came here to destroy this altar, it seems."
The Ossuary impassively gazed down at Leyzon racing through the city.
"You should have realized it might be a trap."
Cracks formed atop the fully crimson gem.
Though the power gathered from the altar's ritual was slightly insufficient, it was fine.
He could fill that himself.
The Ossuary's eyes burned fiercely gray.
Leyzon and Hanok had misunderstood the red gem's true value.
He'd hunted Dark Elves, melting their evil veins to forge the gem's frame.
Then, over years, he'd ground necromancers born from corpses to fill its core.
Thus, the ultimate gem was complete.
The Kongok.
The Kongok wasn't for turning transcendents into undead.
It was a tool to suppress a transcendent corpse's domain.
The Ossuary spread both arms skyward in ecstasy.
The Kongok floating above his head erupted in light.
"Praise be."
This place was no longer the Empire's world.
From now on, it would be―
"He descends."
The world of the Evil Transcendent.
Rumble―
The surrounding air shifted.
An ill wind blew in.
A bizarre atmosphere, utterly unlike before, filled the underground altar.
Click―
The lid of the world opened.
As if someone had pried open the lid of an ant colony that had been sealed shut.
The opener peered inside.
The intruder's eyes curved slowly upon spotting the ants.
Screeeeech―
A horrific shriek barely audible to human ears spread out.
Buildings across the city turned black and melted away.
Red eyes appeared here and there amid the molten city.
Above the surging city, the Ossuary's mouth split into a wide grin.
He laughed with a clownish maw.
Overwhelmed by the surging power flooding his body, he couldn't help it.
Power overflowed madly.
The Evil Transcendent had bestowed a boon upon him.
"Praise be! Praise be! Praise be!"
Whatever Leyzon prepared, it was too late.
A fragment of the Evil Transcendent had descended here directly.
Space warped and twisted.
A giant's hand reached in to stir the ant colony.
From this point, all transcendent corpses would be devoured by the Evil Transcendent.
And as a reward for this offering, he would become the sole prophet to reach the heavens.
The moment the looming hand sought to claim everything but the Ossuary―
Halt―
The hand piercing through dimensions suddenly froze.
"...What?"
A bewildered reaction escaped the Ossuary for the first time.
The descended Evil Transcendent halted abruptly.
Unable to comprehend, he blankly looked up at the sky.
The world fell eerily silent, as if time had stopped.
The Ossuary was a prophet.
Moreover, awakened in this moment by the Evil Transcendent.
Thus, he was acutely sensitive to the Transcendent's movements.
Creeeak―
The Ossuary's gaze slowly shifted downward.
His eyes shook more violently than ever.
He realized another presence alongside the Evil Transcendent in this space.
Deep within the molten city.
A man sat with his hand touching the ground.
On the surface, far above.
A massive magic circle etched by fifteen necromancers glowed.
Its materials were all Abyss Crystals.
Nutrients born from melting skills, for transcendents.
The magic circle was merely a condition to smoothly activate one skill.
And Leyzon had finally triggered it.
"Why destroy the altar when you prepared it yourself?"
A smile curved Leyzon's lips.
Why refuse a gift handed over on a platter?
"It's all just materials."
Now came the payoff for seizing the altar's ownership via Pauli and undead fusion.
An eye for an eye.
A tooth for a tooth.
A transcendent for a transcendent.
Counter with fire.