Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 167
Chapter Title: Epilogue: Pure Knight and Nangong Cheonghwi -5
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The vibrations and tremors shaking the ground only grew fiercer. A sinister cracking sound echoed from the cavern ceiling, and clumps of dirt rained down through the fissures. It was a clear sign of impending collapse.
"It's collapsing! They're trying to bury us alive!"
"Climb the stairs! Hurry!"
"Wait, something's off with the corpses around the altar...!!"
Screeech. Creak.
Thud thud thud thud!
The red energy lingering on the altar seemed to get sucked into the corpses, which then began to twitch and jerk back to life. At the sight, the brothers shouted in unison.
"Is that necromancy?!"
"Aren't those jiangshi...?! "
"Stop syncing up!"
"...Don't get jealous over something stupid and run, Kim Ru, Capital Knight Commander! We're escaping before it all comes down!"
The strike team broke into a desperate sprint. They had precious little time to climb from the fourth underground level back to the surface before being buried alive. They had to give it everything they had.
"I'll cover the rear! Don't worry about what's behind—just go!"
"I'll help too!"
"I'll stay as well. I can be of use!"
"I said stop syncing up! And I can handle it alone...!"
Grrrrraaah—!!
The corpses started moving. There were over a hundred mummified bodies scattered densely around—at a glance, they looked like a wave crashing in. Kim Ru clenched her fists tight.
These punks? She could wipe them out in one go.
Kiiiiing—!!
Just one deep breath gathered radiant brilliance in her palms. Scattering it now would reduce the corpses to dust and conveniently collapse the underground facility along with them.
"...Oops!"
But she couldn't let it collapse.
Kim Ru hurriedly shook out her hands, dispersing the mana. Even those scattered fragments vaporized a couple of the reanimated corpses caught in the blast.
A slight miscalculation in power control, and she'd be the one causing the burial. Kim Ru herself could easily dig out even if buried deep underground. She'd just trigger a mana explosion to blast the dirt away and stroll out.
But the others couldn't. They wouldn't survive. So she had to dial back her output and fight carefully...
"Ow, argh—don't cling to me!"
Too slow.
Flames of mana wrapped around her body, melting any corpse she touched. But close-quarters combat from her mere three-meter frame couldn't cover every direction.
Corpses started slipping past the Capital Knight Commander to target the main group.
Kim Ru admitted it honestly.
"...Not enough!"
"Knew it! Ribbon Rope!"
Pure Knight leaped in. Dozens of mana bandages shot out from her rapier. This time, the focus was on hindering movement rather than restraint.
Crash!
The corpses tangled and tripped over each other, becoming obstacles in their own right. Even twisted and broken, they crawled forward viciously on their arms.
Then blades flashed overhead.
"Hup!"
Nangong Clan's Celestial Dance Swordsmanship sliced toward the encroaching corpses. Rigid yet free-flowing sword paths streaked through the air, swiftly severing heads.
It was enough. The corpses weren't that strong. Low-grade zombies revived by crude black magic—they could be decapitated with attacks lacking mana infusion.
They didn't stop moving even headless, since they were already dead. But it at least slowed them down, so it worked.
Pure Knight scattered them, Envers finished them off. Their teamwork spanned years yet meshed seamlessly without awkwardness.
Even in the crisis, Envers muttered with a hint of excitement.
"We're syncing up better than I thought... Someday, I'd love to fight like this alongside Brother too!"
"...You might get the chance."
Stable. Their allies' forces were sufficient, and enemy interference was being cleared quickly.
Finish them all off like this, then race to the surface...
Plop. Drip.
In the downpour of falling dirt, something thudded heavily.
"Eek?!"
"...Bones? From the ceiling?"
Pure Knight looked up at the ceiling. Amid the cracks and falling dirt clods, buried bone piles began tumbling down one by one.
Once they entered the altar's influence, the bones reanimated into skeletons, joining the horde of undead. Kim Ru yelled in irritation.
"...This many people buried here?! They couldn't just make a cemetery?!"
"Judging by the bones, these were buried ages ago, not recently!"
"So this facility's been around for a long time?!"
"Probably!"
Maybe they'd stumbled on an ancient ruin or a black mage's old workshop and repurposed it. No matter how many they thinned out, reinforcements rained from above. Any more delays, and it'd be burial time.
"...Did the others escape?!"
"Still a ways to go! The power armors are too bulky...!!"
The passages were narrower than expected. Plus, collapse obstacles were piling up in real time. The Capital Knights in power armor were wide, inevitably causing jams.
On top of that, the corpses they'd defeated on the way down were reviving and attacking too.
The Capital Knights used their heavy mana engines to smash through undead with heavy weapons, bulldozing a path. Each motion wasted precious time, tightening the noose.
Violet Magic Tower's illusion mage Luche held back tears, preparing to bid farewell to her lover.
"My darling... This is the end, isn't it."
-My honey, don't worry. I've got a way. I'll lure those undead, so you at least...
"No, I can't prepare myself to leave you behind...!!"
"Please don't die alone like an idiot and do something!!"
Tsk.
Luche clicked her tongue at the Defense Bureau agent's point and began chanting.
How did these dead-revived corpses sense the living? Not sight—the eyes rotted easily, so necromancers used other senses.
High-grade undead tracked mana residue or life force, but cheap ones relied on smell. So she bestowed her darling with a sweet body scent.
All that obsession with scent spells paid off.
"Goodbye, my darling. Luche's Scent Endowment."
-Goodbye, my honey...
Rooooaaar—!!
The undead blocking the escape route chased the suspiciously sweet-smelling hologram like rats after the Pied Piper.
The path cleared. Escape from the facility accelerated.
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Underground Level 4, Level 3, Level 2.
The three holding the rear against the surging corpses fought defensively, inching upward. The rest seemed to have escaped.
Along the way, Kim Ru took zero damage...
"...No end to them."
"And damn it, collapse is imminent!"
The brothers were thoroughly exhausted. It wasn't just the corpses demanding caution. As collapse peaked, massive dirt piles and boulders rained from above.
Blocking those was work too. Pure Knight dodged nimbly, Envers deflected. But one hand couldn't stem the tide.
They knew time was short like this. Pure Knight understood rationally, Kim Ru instinctively. They'd tried bold breakthroughs a few times.
But—coincidence? Fate?
"Blooming Umbrella... Gah?!"
"Daiya, you okay?!"
Whenever they gambled on a decisive push, uncanny bad luck struck. Preparing a finisher? Rocks and bones targeted heads precisely from above.
Kim Ru focusing firepower? Pure Knight faced instant crises—hidden traps or magic circles threatening her life, forcing intervention.
An unseen lantern swayed.
Duke Redburn Maxim us's Foreknowledge Lantern operated in two phases: planning based on intel, then executing by manipulating fate.
The tighter the plan, the harsher the enforced destiny.
His info web revealed Blue Rose's arsenal and the Capital Knight Commander's poor control.
With enemy abilities grasped and burial/undead horde trap set, the plan executed. Fortune favors the prepared.
Rumble—!!
The facility screamed. Eerie death rattles echoed. Collapse imminent. Kim Ru shouted.
"You two go first!"
"...What about you?!"
"I'm strong! I can escape alone, so while I'm holding—hurry!"
Logical. Logical, but...
The relentless misfortune clinging since collapse began made Pure Knight hesitate. If she bolted full speed per Kim Ru's words...
Once distanced, unavoidable collapse hits. Without Kim Ru's protection, Pure Knight dies crushed for sure.
Staying meant endless cockroach-like respawns.
Ultimately, her own weakness was the issue. Pure Knight bit her lip. She was a burden on Kim Ru.
No way out?
Cornered, Envers had an idea.
"...Capital Knight Commander! I might be able to bind the corpses' feet!"
"Might? It's either yes or no—why 'might'?!"
"Not sure if my metamorphosis works on corpses!"
Would the emperor's majesty affect the dead? No way to know without trying. He'd held off till now, but no other path...
Bind them, buy time...
Pure Knight bashed skeletons aside with her rapier, sticking close to Ru. She said,
"Kim Ru, give me your mana! I'll control it!"
"...Taking someone else's mana causes rejection, right?! And you can't handle it!"
"We'll die anyway! And I can take yours!"
"...Ugh, that sounds so weird..."
Pure Knight's roar blasted the oddly flustered Kim Ru.
"Hey!!"
"O-okay! Let's try...!"
"Then, here goes! Metamorphosis, Emperor Sword Form—!!"
Seize the heavens.
Boom...!!
Grip and press down. An invisible yet palpable imperial presence flooded the space.
It worked on corpses too. They perceived threats assaulting from all sides, movements visibly slowing. And.
Crack—!
Info overload shattered the unseen lantern.
Pure Knight felt relief like a breath of fresh air. The light leading to ruinous fate extinguished; now hope's flame burned.
"...Now!"
Kim Ru doused her armor's mana flames, extending her power armor's right arm. Clanks as armor pieces fell away.
She placed a small hand on Pure Knight's back, carefully infusing mana. Just a fraction.
"...!!!!"
Magma surged through veins. Overwhelming mana no human could control flooded in; Pure Knight convulsed in burning agony.
Accepting another's mana was dangerous.
Had the fate-manipulating Foreknowledge Lantern still burned, this attempt would've led to catastrophe.
Pure Knight mana-overloaded to death; Kim Ru killing her love with her own hands. But the lantern was blocked by Emperor Sword Form. The magical girl seized control.
Omnipotence followed pain.
With this mana, no skill needed—she was brute-force strong!
Pure Knight barely guided the ocean-like mana she'd never wielded. Visualizing a drill. If no exit before collapse, drill through the ground and fly out.
"Great Umbrella!!"
A massive umbrella enveloped the three, spinning at high speed. And.
Rumble—crash!!
The facility fully collapsed.
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"...Did the Commander make it out?!"
"No time to worry about her. Blue Rose who went in with her, and the collaborators..."
"Wait, the ground's heaving... Fall back further! Run!"
"Why fall back? This distance is safe enou—"
Kaboom—!!
Brilliant blue light exploded the ground.
Platter. Platter.
Dirt grains pelted like rain; from the massive crater, three figures crawled out, filthy with soil.
"...We lived."
"Y-yeah, we lived. Swallowed up for the win."
They survived.
Pure Knight sprawled gasping, pondering amid aches. Lives spared, but nagging unease stabbed her heart.
What was Duke Redburn thinking?
Blind man's buff and no bluff at all were distinctly different.
Magic reagents from Redburn reaching a place with clear traps and black mage traces—that was politically damning, even for a duke.
Not a total kill trap either. No matter what, transcendent Kim Ru survives for sure.
So intel definitely reaches Capital Knights.
Two possibilities.
Duke lacks that leeway, or...
Doesn't care anyway.
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The chessboard split. Black pieces scattered halved; white queen stood aloof.
The duke clenched his fist, pulverizing the queen.
"...A failure?"
"Yes, Lord Noose."
"......"
Duke Redburn Maxim us grimaced briefly, then smoothed his expression. Some major variable had intervened.
Irritating that it deviated from plan, but discovering a key variable gave failure meaning. And it wasn't fatal.
Preparations were done.
He turned to the pitch-black metal statue. Ominous yet sacred—the black mages' idol.
"—Completion of the Despairing Evil God Statue is near."
Plots, politics—all futile.
In this world where humans transcend humanity, only power was absolute.
The four black mages each had aesthetics birthing nicknames.
Noose that Etches Despair, Maxim us Redburn ran a farm. Etching slave brands on body and soul, he yearned for eternal screams under unyielding control, unchanging despair.
Unchanging. No better, no worse tomorrow. Just endless wallowing in despair.
Gathering hypnosis statues built manpower and environment for this. Squeezing souls for mana demanded Domination's value.
Evil God Statue, pinnacle artifact born from myriad souls' torment, pursued via each mage's method.
Its power reached transcendence.
Completion evolves Duke Redburn's abilities. Even at metamorphosis, he dominated fates—what beyond?
The duke smiled quietly. In time, omnipotence.
"...Heard Corpse Flower hit issues, Lamb needs more time too. So Intact Virgin is fastest after me?"
"Yes, Lord Noose."
"Hope those lazy bastards finish soon. Waiting's no fun."
He tapped the armrest.
The other three black mages crafted their Evil God Statues too. When all ready, unprecedented imperial ruin.
How could it endure?
Barring major variables... They'd laugh last.
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"Phibarez, busy?"
"Nah, crazy mage. What's up?"
"Nothing much... Got a succubus locked in my mental barrier. Not a big one, a small fry. Wanna see?"
"Sounds perfect. I'll grab popcorn quick."