315. Deeper (2)
315. Deeper (2)
- 1 -
『My name is...』
Though I strained my ears, my mother's figure had already vanished.
What remained was only a headache—a side effect of encountering a presence whose very nature was overwhelmingly different.
I could not yet know her name.
- What a pity.
My voice echoed hollowly in that space, carrying a sigh.
Harboring regret, I caressed the iron bars of Arpina's cage.
- Ha, haha... that thing, no, that person...?
Arpina's eyes, filled with terror and incomprehension, stared at me.
- As you heard as well.
- A god? Then you, who called that being mother...?
- A demon. For now.
As she gave a hollow laugh, I flicked Arpina's forehead with the tip of my index finger, then erased my inner world.
「Master...」
「My lord...!」
Voices calling for me reached my ears.
Now, it was time to return to reality.
A High-Rank power was waiting for me.
- 2 -
Deolkeong!
Suddenly, a door swung wide open before Jin Soha's eyes, without any warning.
As the door opened, the mana that burst forth instantly scattered the shadow figure Soha had been extending toward it.
"... What?"
Jin Soha felt the hairs on her body stand on end.
She carefully extended her shadow figure once more, probing the inside of the core room.
Beyond the open door, the air was vibrating as if alive.
An instinct that something—no, someone—was inside the pitch-black darkness crept down her spine.
'This presence...'
The gaze of Jin Soha, who had lived her entire life as a predator after reaching Elite-grade, wavered.
She took a step back without realizing it.
For someone known as a master who controlled shadows and the night, to feel unease from the darkness before her was a contradiction in itself.
Her shadow figure reached out into the darkness like a tendril, but at that moment...
Sak!
...Her shadow figure was severed, without a single sound.
"What...?"
Frowning, Jin Soha's eyes fixed on the entrance to the core room—the only thing shining in the darkness.
Her shadow figure had vanished without a trace. Her heart began to beat irregularly.
Then, something moved within the darkness.
Two points of purple light.
No, they were eyes suffused with mana light.
Ttokak.
'... Deep.'
The darkness rippled with the sound.
It felt as if it were alive.
It was darker, deeper, and more profound than Soha's shadow figure.
Ttokak.
Another step.
A silhouette began to emerge from the darkness veiling the core room's doorframe.
"You certainly were... having quite the fun time."
A slender female silhouette, a long dress hem, and delicate fingers revealed themselves one by one.
Soha reflexively stepped back.
Her shadow figure writhed beneath her feet. Not from foreboding, but from impatience.
"Now it is my turn to play."
Nothing could stop 'her' as she stepped forward.
It felt as if space itself was receding from her. Jin Soha's breathing grew shallow.
"The Empress of the Night."
At last, her figure was fully revealed.
Her voice was delicate, carrying a low resonance.
Her face was gentle. It even seemed kind.
A small woman in a black dress.
Her face looked younger than that of the Dark Elf Jin Soha, but her gaze possessed a power that drew everything in, like something rising from the deepest abyss.
"I am called by such a name."
Jin Soha lowered her stance as she answered. Her instincts warned her.
'Retreat.'
But she denied that instinct.
She was a Monarch-grade adventurer, one of the continent's strongest.
The one who should kneel was the Dungeon Lord who had only just entered the High Rank.
Moreover, only by fulfilling her contract with Dantalion could the path to achieving her wish be hastened.
She had no reason to retreat.
"It is my first time meeting you."
Jin Soha gave a theatrical bow.
"Lady Libertas."
The moment she spoke that name, the curtain at the core room entrance fluttered, though there was no wind.
Jin Soha kept a smile on her face, maintaining her composure.
"I came to meet you... but the situation is more complicated than I thought."
"Indeed. But unfortunately..."
The corners of Libertas's lips lifted slightly.
"I cannot call you my guest."
Her expression remained gentle, yet her sublime beauty held an edge of danger.
Her black hair further accentuated her purple irises and pale skin.
"Our Shue, Ran, and Saya have been sufficiently entertaining the guests who came to visit... but you came as an uninvited one in the meantime."
As her words ended.
Kwang!!
Something flew toward them accompanied by the sound of a wall collapsing.
The moment he sensed Libertas's presence, Botis had stopped attacking the women and rushed over.
"Master...!"
"You all rest. Do not let your guard down."
"Yes!"
The two women and the shadow samurai who followed closely behind were covered in blood.
Though their bodies were covered in wounds, relief was vivid on their faces.
"It's you... you...!"
His voice was distorted by frenzy.
"That Dungeon Lord... the one my master promised to give me...! I will devour you and become a Monarch!!"
What consumed Botis's consciousness was desire.
Only the thought of absorbing the core and making that power his own remained in his mind.
Dozens of tentacles flew at Libertas like arrows in unison, and his body leaped forward at the same time.
"Libertas — !!"
A grotesque form covered in tentacles flew at Libertas.
"You are dreaming."
But as Libertas murmured that lightly.
Deolkeok!
The countless tentacles stopped in midair, as if frozen solid.
"What...!"
Botis's eyes widened as if they would pop out.
His power was not moving according to his will.
As Libertas turned her attention to Botis,
Jin Soha did not miss this opportunity.
Her shadow figure rose from the floor and began to take shape.
"Wi Cheon-ung. Han Jin-gyeong."
As if answering her call, two wraiths walked out from within the shadow figure.
One was a man holding a long crescent-bladed spear, the other a woman with her sword hanging at her side.
More wraiths continued to crawl out from Soha's shadow figure.
It was her unique necromancy, created by combining the dark magic she originally used with the power of the Outer Planes.
On the surface, it was similar to ordinary necromancy, but in that it only dealt with wraiths, it resembled the soul magic of the Dream Demons.
- As you command.
A dark red aura began to blaze from the bodies of the two wraiths.
Behind them, the Dark Elf stretched out her hands.
Between her slender, copper-toned fingers, a black liquid covered in hundreds of eyeballs began to flow down.
"「Flood of Malice」."
The black liquid boiled furiously across the floor, spreading in all directions as it crawled toward Libertas, covering the ceiling, walls, and floor alike.
Simultaneously, the two shadow figure summons and the dozens of wraiths following them charged at Libertas.
"Foolish ones."
At that moment, Libertas's eyes turned toward them.
- 3 -
The two shadow wraiths rushed toward the dungeon's master.
In life, they were the man and woman known on the Western Continent as the 'Spear Demon of the Good Moon' and the 'Rakshasa Sword Demon.'
Once evaluated as the best of the unorthodox sects in the Han nation and the Shin nation respectively.
They had vanished at some point, and now they had reappeared in the world—as undead.
Watching those wraiths, Libertas narrowed her eyes.
The curve of her eyes was soft, but the light streaming from between her eyelids was utterly cold.
She had no intention of letting those who harmed her cherished ones go peacefully.
"It seems Dantalion did not tell you about me."
The moment her voice fell, the air around the core room grew even heavier.
It was not a simple phenomenon like a change in gravity, but a deeper, more fundamental shift.
- ... Heok!
The demonic Wi Cheon-ung realized the burden being placed upon his body and swallowed a hollow breath.
Since his reawakening, he had felt a 'heaviness' he had never experienced, not even in the face of death.
The crimson light in his eyes wavered.
- What is... this...?
The situation was no different for the sword demon Han Jin-gyeong.
Her body began to twist, beyond simply being crushed.
The wraiths dwelling within Jin Soha's shadow figure had begun to change before Libertas's presence.
"This is...?"
Soha intuitively realized what was happening.
Usurpation of control.
Because it was originally what she used to do to Dungeon Lords.
"Impossible...!"
A voice filled with shock spilled from Jin Soha's lips.
Her shadow figure was crumbling at her own feet.
The shadow figures she had controlled until now were slipping from her grasp before Libertas's presence.
"This can't be happening!"
Clenching her teeth, she poured more power into her magic.
A malevolent shadow figure, bristling with eyes, teeth, and grasping hands, swarmed toward Libertas.
But.
"Dark magic combined with the power of the Outer Planes..."
The moment the torrent of shadow figures touched the ground at Libertas's feet, the magic froze in place.
As if time had stopped.
Soha's shadow figure and twisted mana were losing their very presence before Libertas's deeper darkness.
Just as moonlight grows dim before the sun.
"It is magnificent. Enough to give me inspiration."
A smile grazed Libertas's lips.
The stimulation she felt was akin to when she learned soul magic under Mure's tutelage, and a smile surfaced naturally.
For her, who had always raised her realms with exhilarating ease, such magical stimulation was rare.
"Why... why...!"
Soha's bewildered cry rang out.
She felt it instinctively.
That her mana was lowering itself and submitting before Libertas's presence.
Wi Cheon-ung and Han Jin-gyeong, the two shadow figure summons, met a similar fate.
The closer they got to Libertas, the more their outlines blurred, and their will weakened.
- ... Jin Soha. You wench...
Or rather, it grew clearer.
The grudges from their lives, the will they should have held toward Jin Soha, who had killed them.
The crimson eyes of Wi Cheon-ung and Han Jin-gyeong turned violet.
"How could you ever subdue me."
Libertas's voice was still gentle.
But the power contained within was overwhelming.
Soha felt it.
Her mana opposing Libertas's was like a river meeting the ocean.
The mana of the other necromancers she had met thus far were merely tributaries of the river.
But what was before her eyes was the 'great sea'.
"Not yet!!"
At that moment, Botis, who had loosened his frozen body, charged at Libertas.
"If I eat you, the power His Grace Dantalion promised! It will be mine!!!"
But the closer his body came to Libertas, the more his movements gradually slowed.
As if he were dragging his body forward against chains wrapped around it.
"My body is..."
The dozens of Botis's eyes were all stained with the same emotions.
Confusion, incomprehension, and fear.
His tentacles stopped in midair before they could reach Libertas.
It was not just a restriction on movement.
His very body and instincts were surrendering before Libertas's presence.
"Why...! Why is it...! Move... move...!!!"
Libertas approached him slowly, as if strolling.
As her hand was raised, Botis's body stopped trembling.
"What...!"
But his bewilderment had not vanished. Rather, it deepened.
It was simply that his body had submitted.
"Your story ends here."
Libertas's fingertip touched Botis's forehead.
Kwadeudeudeuk - !!!
With just a single touch, a thunderous noise erupted and cracks began to spread across the monster's body.
Everything cracked—the slick, oil-oozing tentacles, the filthy-colored scales, the grotesque dozens of eyes—like a stained glass window shattering into pieces.
"No!!!"
Botis's scream rang out, but it was already too late.
His body slowly began to crumble.
The fragments fell to Libertas's feet, turning into a black liquid.
"What, is this...!"
What remained in that spot was a single ordinary demon.
Though Botis still possessed enough power to exist as a Dungeon Lord, compared to before, only miserably pathetic scraps remained.
If one were to evaluate the current him by the Five Ranks of Nobility of the Demon Tribe, he would be about a 'Viscount' or 'Baron'.
Chararak!
The fragments that had fallen from him gathered at Libertas's feet.
They separated into two.
Into 'filth' and 'pure power'.
The filth vanished beyond the boundary, and the pure power bloomed into a flower.
Libertas lightly crushed the flower in her grip.
The petals scattered in all directions, flying toward the seven women.
"This is..."
Their injuries and fatigue were recovered, and the women trembled at the sensation, as if a warm afternoon sunbeam were brushing against them.
"Since you came to my reunion, you must receive a gift. Marquis."
Libertas smiled gently once more.
Her slender fingers grasped Botis's horn in her hand.
Kwajik! Udeudeuk...!
"Keuaaak... Aaack...!!! Aaaaaah!!!"
The horn that proved Botis's remaining power—he writhed under the primal violence of having that horn crushed raw, but Libertas did not stop.
Kwajik!
Gazing at the blood and mana seeping out from between the broken pieces of the horn, Libertas erased her expression.
However, she had no intention of ending her subordinates' revenge with just that.
"... It seems you had taken safety measures."
Botis had already vanished from that spot.
In the face of a mortal crisis, he had been summoned back to Dantalion.
Just like the magic she had placed on Wepar.
"... Ha..."
Jin Soha's entire body trembled as if having a seizure.
Libertas's gaze whispered more clearly than any words.
'You are next.'
It was a situation where her power had been frozen for some time.
There was only one thing the woman known as the continent's strongest could do.
Beg and plead for the enemy's mercy.
Her knees fell toward the floor.