Chapter 63
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 63
Chapter Title: Across the Sea of Death (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Woodcutter's Hut.
Beyond the horizon of the scorched black earth, a man stood.
His appearance was filthy from having not washed in a long time, with a shaggy beard and eyes rolling with madness.
But he was unmistakably human.
And once, he had been one of the Hunters who protected humanity.
“Useless scraps of corpses. All I need to do now is get rid of that damn mountain, just that one mountain.”
Of course, that was a duty he had undertaken long ago.
That duty was buried, and only a single purpose remained for him.
“My Divine Seat, please wait just a little longer. I will lead these beings and spread your glory to the ends of the earth.”
The revelation bestowed upon him by the Divine Seat.
Lead the army of the dead and bring ruin to this world.
Then, when the time comes.
Escape this world and proclaim the greatness of the Divine Seat you serve in your original world.
“Your power is with me.”
For a full 20 years, he had faithfully followed the voice of the Divine Seat.
He created zombies, and with those zombies, he killed beings—whether they were NPCs or real humans, he didn't know—and turned them into more zombies.
Each time, the Divine Seat granted him even greater power.
Before he knew it, he had far surpassed the D-rank Hunter, Park Bongsoo.
The once-ordinary Hunter had become the lord of a ten-thousand-strong zombie army.
[The Divine Seat, 「Watcher of ∎∎∎∎∎」, proclaims that the time has come.]
And a few days ago, the Divine Seat had finally spoken.
That the time had come.
The time to spread the god's greatness to the ends of the earth.
However.
What seemed to be proceeding smoothly was blocked by two factors.
The first was the existence of the white tiger protecting the Woodcutter's Hut.
The beast should have died the moment it received the Divine Seat's curse.
It should have become a zombie and joined his ranks. Yet, even after becoming undead, it continued to protect the mountain.
Trapped in a body that could not die even if it wanted to, it fended off the undead invasion night after night.
The second.
Was the interference of an uninvited guest who had suddenly appeared.
And from the very moment that guest appeared.
The Divine Seat had not let him hear its ‘voice’.
“Just say one word, my Divine Seat. Why have you suddenly stopped speaking to me? Just what has captured your attention!”
That was why, even now, he was frantically muttering to himself, searching for his Divine Seat.
Park Bongsoo instinctively felt a sense of foreboding.
The Divine Seat's attention had strayed from him.
As if to say his usefulness had come to an end.
“No, this is a test. There's no way the Divine Seat would abandon me.”
Park Bongsoo shook his head.
He had killed the Hunters who came on the expedition with him.
He had placed the Divine Seat's curse upon the white tiger, his companion in the escort mission.
‘After all the effort I put in.’
Park Bongsoo licked his filthy lips.
His bloodshot eyes turned to the uninvited guests far below, blocking the final gate at the foot of the mountain.
The Divine Seat's attention had wandered because it was watching them.
“Go, go and kill them! Kill them now!”
In that case, he just had to kill them quickly.
And then he could turn the Divine Seat's attention back to him.
“Groooaaar!”
The zombies, having received their orders, began to move in unison.
Dust kicked up from the long-parched ground.
“You filthy mongrels...”
It was the moment Park Bongsoo spat, grinding his teeth.
*Kwoong!*
“Uh, ugh?!”
Suddenly, a sharp ringing pierced his ears.
In the distance, a violet explosion erupted.
*Kwaaaaaa!*
A violet wave from the explosion began to spread outwards in concentric circles.
W-what is this?
Park Bongsoo shut his eyes in terror as the wave washed over him.
When he opened his eyes again and frantically patted down his worn-out Hunter suit, there was thankfully no external damage.
“Wh-what the. What the hell...”
But something was wrong.
The zombies that had been following his command were frozen like statues.
“What are you doing? Hey, move, I said move!”
He kicked the leg of a rotting zombie boy.
But there was still no movement.
“Shit, what is this?”
Are they broken?
That can't be.
These aren't simple summons.
These ten thousand zombies were his creations, painstakingly crafted over 20 years.
“Move! You piece of shit!”
Just then.
*Creak.*
The head of the zombie he had just kicked turned with a grotesque creak.
A chill ran down Park Bongsoo's spine.
And for good reason.
“Sh-shit... what...?”
The rotting eyes of what was once human.
A blue light he had never seen before now dwelled within those eyes.
And as the zombie's mouth opened, an eerie voice flowed out.
- I have found you.
“What...?”
In that instant, Park Bongsoo realized.
He had lost control of the zombies to the owner of this voice.
- So it is you. The wretched thing that blocks my master's path.
His bloodshot eyes widened.
But his body was frozen, as if held by sleep paralysis.
- How pathetic. That one so ignorant of death would mock it by holding so many lives in his hands. And in the most repulsive, agonizing, and unclean manner at that. Did you enjoy reigning as a king among these scraps?
“Wh-what bullshit is this! Scraps? These are my works of art! Zombies I painstakingly created one by one!”
- Works of art? Painstakingly created?
Immediately after, the zombie's mouth opened, and a laugh seeped out.
It was a laugh as sticky as tar and as cold as a snake's scales.
- On what confidence does a wretched whelp run his mouth? A rat who can only handle death in the most base and miserable of ways. Are you not ashamed to utter such words as 'works of art' or 'painstakingly created'?
Park Bongsoo felt like he was losing his mind.
His legs trembled so much that it was difficult to even stand.
So he barely managed to grit his teeth and speak.
“What are you? A Hunter? You think this bullshit is going to scare me? My Divine Seat is with me. A Divine Seat greater than any other god!”
- A Divine Seat? What of it?
“What?”
- I am already a being abandoned by the gods. It is only fitting, for I blasphemed every god in the world during my life.
The zombie's mouth stretched wide into a grin.
- Therefore. My master, who is with me now, is more important than some petty god worshipped by vermin.
“My Divine Seat, there is a being here who insults you! Grant me your blessing at once and silence this wicked creature's mouth!”
Park Bongsoo's cry echoed.
However.
This time, too, his Divine Seat did not answer.
Instead, a mocking voice pierced his ears.
- Was the blessing sweet?
“Uh, ugh...”
- That is the nature of gods. They are willing to share hope, but not despair. That is why I hate them. They are despicable opportunists.
“H-hiiik!”
*Click!*
Park Bongsoo pulled a pistol from his suit.
He aimed it at the zombie's head as if having a seizure.
*Bang!*
With the sound, the young zombie's neck was blown off.
Park Bongsoo gasped for breath.
To him.
- To destroy your painstakingly created masterpiece with your own hands... how very romantic.
*Creak.*
The zombie right next to him turned its head and opened its mouth.
When he looked around, all the surrounding zombies were staring at him.
With eyes harboring a blue gleam.
“H-hyaaaak!”
Park Bongsoo couldn't understand.
What kind of being was that Hunter over there, to be able to take control of zombies created with the power of a Divine Seat?
And all of them, at that!
Because he could not understand, there was only one thing he could do.
“Get away, get away from me!”
*Bang, bang, bang!*
Resist the zombies approaching him.
A few futile gunshots echoed across the scorched black earth.
By the time he didn't even have the magic power left to fire another bullet.
- Know this.
A zombie that had grabbed his shoulder opened its mouth wide.
- He who clumsily clings to death cannot himself easily return to the heavens.
“Hi, hii...”
*Crunch!*
The sound of hard teeth tearing through the suit and ripping away flesh.
A human's death cry echoed emptily.
* * *
[The Undead Lich, Iramatus, has equipped the 「Yojae's Staff」!]
[Iramatus is afflicted with the Curse of Dominion. Due to a special hero correction, the Curse of Dominion debuff is removed!]
This happened right after I handed Iramatus the Yojae's Staff.
[Awakening conditions have been met! Iramatus's star grade increases to 7-star. All skills are unlocked.]
A series of status windows popped up.
The energy radiating from the skull staff enveloped the small baby skeleton.
“Kiit?!”
The Lizardman, startled by the strange, sinister energy, dropped the skeleton.
Then,
*Shwoooosh!*
The skeleton's shadow, surrounded by black energy, grew larger.
The slender, adult-like shadow soon vanished as if a curtain had been drawn.
And from within, a tall, imposing skeleton revealed itself.
A skeleton mage, draped in a jet-black aura like a robe, holding a staff made of arm bones.
‘So this is a real Undead Lich.’
Its piercing blue eyes turned towards me.
Even though all I could see were white bones and a black aura, I felt an overwhelming sense of pressure.
This was Iramatus.
The true form of the lich that had invaded the Lord's Castle during the 702nd wave.
“...”
Iramatus was silent.
It merely stared at me quietly.
So I spoke.
“Iramatus, bring the one controlling these zombies to me.”
Even now, the zombies were struggling desperately to break through the barrier and charge at us.
There were at least thousands of them.
At a glance, it was an impossible command.
However.
For the Undead Lich in its current state, it should be more than possible.
*Kwoong!*
Iramatus slammed its staff onto the ground.
The violet orb held by the staff's hand bones.
That orb flashed, releasing a purple light.
---------!
A deafening ring.
Soon, a violet wave erupted from Iramatus's form and began to spread outwards.
[Reign of Death]
In MonMonMak, Reign of Death was a skill that temporarily charmed undead monsters of a lower star grade.
It could even make the charmed enemies fight each other to their destruction.
Thanks to that, if you got an item or monster with this skill, you were basically immune to undead mobs.
‘It would be great if it worked the same way in reality.’
But sometimes, reality is stranger than fiction.
This time, it was in a good way.
As the violet wave swept across the battlefield, the zombies froze in place.
As if time had stopped.
“...”
Iramatus had its staff planted in the ground and was kneeling, frozen and motionless.
I had no way of knowing what it was doing.
I had simply confirmed that the ridiculously overpowered skill, ‘Reign of Death’, also worked in reality.
“Sage, should we move?”
[The Sage recommends waiting here, as there is no need to take any risks.]
Hmm, I guess that's okay?
I did tell it to bring him before me, after all.
Just then.
“Aaaaaaaack!”
A death cry echoed from the distance.
I couldn't help but widen my eyes.
“A person?”
The scream I just heard was, by all accounts, not from a monster but a person.
And suddenly, a cloud of dust rose in the distance.
Something was skipping across the zombies like a stone on water.
*Thump!*
A few minutes later.
A figure, held in the decaying hands of a zombie, was thrown before me.
“...Keuk, cough!”
The source of the undead, covered in blood, wretched something onto the ground.
The moment I saw him, my eyes widened.
‘It's a person?’
No matter how I looked at him, he was human.
Not even an NPC.
A black suit covering a filthy, dirty body.
The faint emblem of some guild on the worn-out suit.
He was a Hunter.
‘So this is why the Sage couldn't analyze him.’
The Sage's special analysis doesn't work on humans.
There was a reason it couldn't analyze the source.
“Cough, ha, haah... h-hiiik!”
The panicking Hunter stared at me.
“H-help me... I, I just, d-did what the, what the Divine Seat told me to do! I did what it said, and it just abandoned me!”
“Are you the one who was controlling these zombies?”
“Shit, that damn Divine Seat... Abandoning me like a worn-out shoe? No, it's because of that bastard. If only that damn tiger hadn't blocked the way. Why is it still holed up on that mountain even after becoming undead...”
We were talking, but not really communicating.
[The Sage requests to use the Beholder Sage's Glasses on this human.]
‘I should.’
[Activating Sage's Eye.]
Name: Park Bongsoo
Age: 42
Gender: Male
- Stats -
Strength: 30 Agility: 34 Stamina: 33 Spirit: 30
- Skills -
Zombie Revival Lv.10, Rotting Touch Lv.10, Curse of Death Lv.1
- Contracted Divine Seat -
Watcher of ∎∎∎∎∎
[Analysis result: C-rank or lower. 'Sage's Eye' count will not be used.]
‘His stats are about that of a slightly superior C-rank Hunter.’
If anything, this only raised more questions.
Skills that were far too powerful for such paltry stats.
This meant the Hunter was able to control nearly ten thousand zombies purely thanks to the power of his Divine Seat.
However, the Divine Seat's name wasn't fully displayed.
And while Park Bongsoo claimed he was abandoned, the Divine Seat was still listed as contracted.
“Shit, shit! That bastard Divine Seat, after everything I did... After all I... Keuk!”
Even at this very moment.
It meant the Divine Seat was watching Park Bongsoo.
Park Bongsoo, who had been spewing endless curses, suddenly stuck his tongue out.
As if an invisible being had grabbed him by the throat.
“Ka-hak, keuk, m-my Divine Seat. You were, watching? But why now, when I was calling for you so desperately,”
Park Bongsoo clawed at his own throat, convulsing.
Foam trickled from the corner of his mouth, messily soaking his beard.
And before I could do anything.
*Crack!*
With a gruesome sound, his neck snapped in an impossible direction.
*Thump.*
The corpse, tongue lolling out, fell backward like a puppet with its strings cut.
At the same time, I heard a hissing sound. *Ssssss.*
The zombies that had been frozen motionless around us were turning to ash.
The cause and effect were clear.
Since the source of the undead was gone.
[Congratulations. You have completed the final mission.]
Everything was over.
The zombies that had been swarming the black earth vanished in an instant.
I had perfectly cleared the dungeon.
But I didn't feel relieved.
‘Did the Divine Seat kill him?’
It's possible.
A Divine Seat can grant powers to its contracted incarnation. It can also take them away.
So taking the incarnation's life is also possible.
However.
‘Ordinary Divine Seats don't do that.’
But there is one that does.
One that truly thinks of its incarnations as mere playthings.
Granting them infinite power, only to abandon them for a new toy when it loses interest.
[The Divine Seat, 「Watcher of the Nineteen Hells」, is watching you.]
That cunning Divine Seat.