Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: Transcender (8)
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"This is the place."
The witches confirmed the presence of the laboratory.
The origin of the massive surge that had shaken the world to its core.
They swiftly approached it and gazed upon the 'door'.
"'Shadow of Death,' huh."
"They've sealed the entrance with quite a high-grade curse."
"But to us, curses are nothing more than cute toys."
The barrier guarding the laboratory.
They instantly recognized the curse and let out a faint smile.
The Curse of Death was a powerful one that instantly obliterated anyone attempting to force their way in.
It was undoubtedly the finest curse Aheta could obtain.
...But they were witches.
Beings akin to aggregates of curses, lumps of maledictions!
There could be no curse in the Abyss capable of blocking witches.
"Make way."
The three witches raised their hands.
Saaaaah!
Black magic power surged wildly from their hands.
The black magic power soon enveloped the 'Shadow of Death' and began to suppress it.
Unable to withstand the aura of the three witches, the 'Shadow of Death' shrank back bit by bit, slinking aside like a frightened puppy.
It couldn't handle the witches, who were the sovereigns of curses.
"...So this really is the lab."
Ataraxia spoke as she gazed at the 'door' revealed behind the Shadow of Death.
The witches had been delayed as much as possible from finding the laboratory, but they had found it in the end.
Not to mention, their ability to drive away the curse was downright astonishing.
If he had tried to force his way in, he would have struggled greatly just to dispel that curse.
'Witches are witches, after all.'
Just as dragons wielded magic as freely as they breathed, witches treated black magic and curses in the same effortless manner.
Races that dominated entirely different realms.
...Though whether witches could even be classified as a proper species was debatable.
If there had been just a few more witches, the 'Twelve Races' might have become the 'Thirteen Races'.
Rumble!
At last, the door opened.
And then.
"Hmm, magic interference?"
Ataraxia furrowed her brow.
The moment the door opened, she felt the mana vibrating.
It was as if the mana itself was tangling and scattering.
Casting spells by projecting mana outward wouldn't be easy.
"Heh heh. You look like a drowned rat, Ataraxia."
"Scared, Ataraxia?"
"If you're afraid, you don't have to go in."
The witches taunted Ataraxia.
Even black magic power couldn't fully escape the effects of the 'magic interference', but compared to the terror Ataraxia felt, it was negligible.
And there was a reason they were provoking her.
—Kill her the instant we recover 'that'.
The Black Witch's command.
They planned to kill Ataraxia the moment they recovered the 'Tome of the Transcender'.
Normally, the witches found it uncomfortable and distasteful to share space with dragonkin in the depths.
'I don't want to breathe the same air as these stupid dragons for even a second.'
'This place will be your grave.'
'We can't let a mere dragon steal the Black Witch's favor.'
On the surface, they followed the Black Witch, but dragonkin were an inscrutable race.
To begin with, magic and black magic were opposing concepts.
How could dragons and witches, who lived in entirely different worlds, ever join forces?
In any case, once inside, Ataraxia wouldn't be able to use magic.
Killing a dragonkin deprived of magic was a simple matter.
"...I'm terribly curious about what's inside."
Ataraxia took the bait.
She would have entered regardless of the provocation.
An object emitting interference of this magnitude.
It took precedence over killing the Archmage, or even finding the Star of Arrogance and the Wish.
She had to at least check it out.
And if Dragon God Sepiro was truly inside...
'I can't let you interfere with Lord Sepiro.'
On the contrary, she would be the one obstructing the witches.
Ataraxia stepped through the door first.
And then.
"...It might be best to turn back."
She walked right back out.
The witches snickered.
"What? Something even stronger inside?"
"Can't use magic, so you're scared, huh."
"Tsk tsk. Step aside. We'll go first."
Leaving the stunned Ataraxia behind, the witches entered the door.
At the same time.
"...Hmm."
"Golems..."
"A whole lot of them...?"
A vast cavern.
The moment they set foot inside, they were confronted by 900 golems.
They wouldn't have been so surprised if they were ordinary golems.
But the Dark Guardians, Death Golems, and Nightmares here were powerful entities that demon lords used to guard their castles.
Ataraxia, who had reappeared behind the witches, spoke.
"Aheta's prepared quite thoroughly, hasn't he? Don't you think?"
She had her arms crossed.
Unable to use magic, she planned to watch from the back.
The witches bristled at that.
"...They're still just dumb golems."
"Simple and straightforward."
"Nothing but big, tough rocks."
Big, sturdy hunks of stone.
That was all golems were.
Mindless things that couldn't comprehend beautiful black magic, not even living beings.
Merely oversized targets.
But.
The golems stared at them and clearly spoke.
"Oh ho."
A fierce spark of interest lit up Ataraxia's face.
The witches were equally astonished.
"Golems..."
"...have egos?"
"All of those countless ones?"
Golems weren't supposed to have egos.
It was impossible.
They were mere puppets cobbled together from crude materials around a mana core.
Yet they spoke.
They began moving on their own without orders, surrounding the witches.
An unexpected variable.
The witches thought simultaneously.
...This fight wouldn't be easy.
"That idiot Aheta..."
The Black Witch was watching the witches through her crystal ball.
The scene of the witches battling the golems unfolded within it.
She had expected Aheta to have prepared thoroughly, but even she hadn't anticipated 900 golems with egos.
"Was the Tome of the Transcender that tempting?"
The Tome of the Transcender caused intense magic interference.
Since it rendered mana itself useless, no better guardian for the lab than golems.
However, it was puzzling.
Golems were ultimately puppets powered by mana cores.
No matter how sturdy the core, it shouldn't escape magic interference.
...To think he'd deployed golems with egos.
The tome must have been irresistibly alluring to Aheta.
Well, of course.
All who beheld the tome lost their senses and yearned for it.
Drawn to its intense, ecstatic form.
Lord of the Moon Aheta wouldn't have been any different.
However.
'I'll recover the Tome of the Transcender myself.'
It wasn't complete.
Thus, she had no choice but to seize it by force.
The 900 golems with egos were a surprise, but the three witches she'd sent could surely triumph.
She had even given them a special sealing formation to recover it once they reached the lab's core.
"...I'll complete it myself."
The tome was incomplete.
Half its contents were torn out.
Yet even with just half—no, even a few pages—its immense value was immediately apparent.
The true worth of that tome lay in its contents...
"The magic of the Transcender."
Magic.
Furthermore, something akin to 'truth' itself.
Even the Black Witch, who wielded black magic and stood opposed to truth, was overwhelmed by the Transcender's magic.
That was why the witches couldn't complete it.
But the Black Witch thought differently.
Better to do it herself than entrust it to a fool like Aheta.
No matter how much time it took or pain she endured, the Black Witch was utterly sincere about the 'Tome of the Transcender'.
If she could master it...
'I can escape this swamp of the depths.'
She would break free from the depths and etch the witches' power across the entire Abyss.
The depths were the Abyss's deepest pit.
The Black Witch and her witches didn't dwell here out of fondness.
"...Great Nine Lords. I'll make you realize you're not great at all."
They had been exiled.
By the Great Nine Lords.
Thus, the only space left for witches was this rat-hole depths.
A sort of penal colony.
They had deemed the witches' power disruptive to the Abyss's balance and cast them out.
But if she mastered the 'Transcender's' power, the story would change.
Transcenders.
They were the most wondrous and mysterious beings in the Abyss.
Also, existences of unmatched power that none could touch.
For they wielded truly transcendent abilities in specific domains.
All core concepts of the early Abyss originated from them.
Some even said they created the System's operators.
Thus, even the Great Nine Lords treated them with honor.
The magic left by such Transcenders.
How could she not covet it?
"...Wait."
It was then.
The Black Witch's eyes trembled violently as she stared into the crystal.
In the midst of the witches' fierce battle.
Suddenly, the atmosphere inside the laboratory shifted.
Golden dust swirled throughout the lab.
Then rain fell in one area, snow in another, and a typhoon raged in yet another direction.
A space where all phenomena mingled chaotically.
There was only one place like that, to her knowledge.
"Transcendent... Abyss?"
The Transcendent Abyss!
An Abyss that existed in a completely different manner from conventional concepts.
Aheta's laboratory had transformed into that very thing.
Moreover.
That golden dust was...
'Transcender!'
A trace of a Transcender dwelling in the Transcendent Abyss.
However, it was incomprehensible.
Why had the 'Transcendent Abyss' suddenly overlaid the lab? Why had a 'Transcender' appeared?
...Dangerous.
The Transcender's magic was tempting, but Transcenders themselves were never to be trifled with.
Monsters who never forgave those who forcibly invaded their domains.
"...Get out. Right now, from that place...!"
She commanded the witches.
But her words didn't reach them.
Crackle! Fizzle!
The crystal's transmission cut off forcibly.
Immediately after, the crystal went pitch black, showing nothing more.
"......What a truly wondrous being."
⟨ First Words of the Transcender ⟩
These were the first words the Transcender uttered as he gazed upon Park Chan-woo.