Chapter 430
Chapter 430
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 430
Chapter Title: Arkeia, the Land for the Faithless
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Arkeia, the land for those who do not believe.
"Arkeia's original name was the Pantheon. A very long time ago, in the era called the primordials, religions weren't unified like they are now."
An age of chaos and confusion.
In that era, countless gods existed, and the Pantheon was a place that enshrined all the transcendent beings shining in the heavens.
"That's why."
Raniel crooked her finger.
"When a single god claimed the heavens, Arkeia must have been cast into the abyss. They probably wanted to erase all traces of the past."
Who buried Arkeia in the abyss?
Did they entomb it in the deepest part of the vertical cave?
She hadn't said it outright, but Raniel knew that being was the ancient dragon mage. No one else could have pulled off something like this.
"That's what Arkeia is."
A place where faiths are jumbled together and all sorts of bizarre powers overflow.
"In short, no one can say for sure what might happen. But if there's one thing we can predict..."
Raniel pointed at the map.
The map briefly outlined Arkeia's structure, divided into dozens of sections, with four points glowing red.
"We have to target these four points."
Places where the strongest divine power is concentrated.
Where the curse feels the most intense.
Raniel said they needed to strike those spots.
"Smash through all four of these points as we advance, then regroup at this final spot."
The heart of the temple.
She jabbed her finger at the center.
"As fast as possible."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
Plip, plop. Blood rained from the sky.
Four armored dragons were impaled on stone pillars rising from the ground, bound and preserved there. The blood they spewed and the chunks of flesh torn from them poured down like rain.
Thud.
One figure descended the slope through the red rain. Raniel van Trias. She casually shook her wrist. The armored dragon's skull she had gripped buried into the slope with a heavy thunk.
The skull, ripped out along with its spine.
"Hoo..."
She exhaled briefly and swept back her blood-soaked hair. Following behind her was Remia. With Remia at her side, Raniel stood before Arkeia's back entrance.
A firmly shut gate.
Feeling the waves of filth surging beyond it, Raniel clenched her fist. She lowered her stance.
"Remia."
Remia drew her bowstring taut.
Nocked on the tightly pulled string was a moonlit arrow. The moment Remia nodded, Raniel kicked off the ground and charged forward. She swung her fist at the sealed temple gate.
Krunch!
Her bare fist shattered the temple gate.
As the fragments of the broken gate flew inward, the suppressed wave of demonic beasts flooded out. But that wave never spilled beyond the temple's threshold.
Ziiing.
Raniel's fist still pulsed with pure white light.
The blow that smashed the gate was a bare-fisted strike. The spell that should follow the strike... Raniel had yet to unleash it. Her hand glowed white-hot for a moment.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ Smash Crushing shockwave engulfs the area
A deafening roar accompanied the shockwave that swept the wave backward. Raniel stepped toward the retreating filth, followed by the moonlit arrow. The moment the arrow, trailing light, struck the black wave...
Flash!
The moonlight devoured the wave, revealing the temple's interior to Raniel's eyes. Bizarre circuits etched into the walls. Tree roots extending throughout the temple.
...Just as described.
Raniel didn't forget where she needed to go.
They split into four directions to penetrate the temple's interior. Of those, Raniel's target was north. As she headed there, she recalled her conversation with Belnoa.
「The sections have doors, and among them, there were a few unusually large ones. They were hard to see in the darkness, but I definitely spotted one.」
Raniel dashed, pushing back the waves.
Racing through the temple's interior, dragging starlight in her wake, Raniel halted at a certain point.
「It was like this—a door engraved with a sun.」
After smashing through several doors, she arrived.
At the far end of the chamber she entered stood a door engraved with a sun. Beyond it emanated a stifling heat. Raniel frowned.
...The door Belnoa mentioned.
A massive presence pulsed from within, and by its position, this was one of the four points marked on the map. The one Raniel had taken responsibility for.
"Hold."
Remia, following her, stopped.
Clink.
Raniel wrapped the chain drawn from her palm around her hand and approached the temple door. A sun, and bizarre circuits encircling it. The moment she reached out to fling it open...
"...!"
Raniel flinched, her shoulder trembling.
The moment she reached for the temple door, a chilling presence washed over her. Viscous killing intent. Raniel slowly withdrew her hand from the door.
The killing intent persisted.
'...No.'
It wasn't coming from beyond the door.
This wasn't the killing intent felt just from reaching for the door. To begin with, this was different from the muddled emotions exuded by the heretics' familiars.
This killing intent, this viscous aura spreading across the entire temple regardless of distance... was something the heretics' familiars—pieced together from countless things—could never emit.
This was the presence of a single human, one who had lived solely for one purpose. Raniel knew this venomous killing intent, this obsession bordering on fervor. As she pushed against the temple door, she murmured absently.
"Good thing we softened it up for you."
The one who ascended to superhuman heights through sheer obsession.
The Sword Ghost, Draka.
Raniel could feel him, having reached the stage he so desperately desired, unleashing everything he had without restraint.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The dispersed subjugation force raced through the temple's interior to fulfill their missions. Filth surging from the temple's heart tried to bind their feet, but it couldn't halt even a single step.
Beings who had lived their lives and reached the pinnacle.
Those who surpassed limits, shattered walls, and pressed on.
These were the ones humanity called superhumans—originally seen as arrogant, willful, uncontrollable. But not now. All superhumans had gathered under one hero. They all charged toward a single goal.
Chloe's spells cleared the path. Belnoa's storm pushed back the waves, accelerating their steps. Destel continuously altered holy garments to support them as needed.
Kelrhalhm's hundreds of split spells swept the temple. Resti unified the fragmented spells scattered everywhere into one. As familiars tore at the waves, Resti's stacked spells ripped them apart.
And.
Rak, Natida—they struggled to keep pace with the swordsman leading the charge.
Slash.
Looking ahead, they saw a maddened swordsman rampaging. He threw himself at the oncoming filth. It looked almost like he was hurling himself into the waves.
Reckless. Far too dangerous.
Yet, belying those worries, the swordsman cleaved through the filth and burst out. In the darkness, his red eyes gleamed ferociously, like a beast's.
Squelch, crunch, grind.
He crushed and stomped the crawling familiars under his military boots, grinding his teeth. His glowing red eyes fixed on the temple's depths. The viscous killing intent pouring from him left Rak and Natida breathless.
Overwhelming.
A poisonous malice seeped out.
The venom honed by one man's life was thick. Potent.
'...Sword Ghost, Draka.'
The man who lost everything to the heretic, Gletus.
Home, name, people, and finally, his daughter.
With everything gone, all that remained was deep hatred. Revenge. Draka had reached this point solely for vengeance.
Draka pressed on.
Trampling and slashing the humans twisted into his daughter's likeness, advancing forward.
Toward the end assigned to him.
Draka, with Rak and Natida supporting him, arrived at a firmly shut door. Engraved on it was a beast. A beast and bizarre circuits. Rak reached for the door.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
She flung open the door engraved with the sun.
Creeeak. The door swung open.
The moment she entered the vast cavern, Raniel frowned. She had no choice. A massive presence pulsed from within, yet the chamber was empty.
An utterly vacant cavern.
And a space severed, like the inside of the holy grail.
This was a space isolated from the outside. At its center, Raniel saw something buried. A corpse. A corpse split in half, meeting its end.
"...The sun?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ She flung open the door engraved with inverted tree roots.
A grand cavern unfolded.
Tree roots climbing the cavern walls. Withered, twisted black roots filled the chamber. Destel groaned at the sight of their center.
"...What the hell is that?"
At the grand cavern's heart.
A massive tree, charred as if burned, stood there.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ She flung open the door engraved with a lake.
The air grew humid the moment she stepped inside. Water droplets beaded on the grand cavern's walls. Drip, drip. Rain fell endlessly from above. Looking up revealed an endless cavern.
A severed space. So Kelrhalhm thought.
Like the otherworld passed through when summoning familiars...
That was as far as Kelrhalhm's thoughts went.
Resti, standing beside him, pointed to the cavern's center.
"There."
Resti frowned.
"Something's there."
Kelrhalhm looked at the same spot.
At the grand cavern's heart, black water pooled.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ He flung open the door engraved with a beast.
A grand cavern unfolded upon entry. An endless prairie greeted the three. Draka halted, and Rak surveyed the prairie. It stretched to the horizon.
Twitch.
Rak's body jerked briefly as he scanned the prairie.
He instinctively stepped back.
"...What is it?"
"There."
Rak pointed straight at the prairie's center.
In the middle stood a skeletal figure, gaunt and kneeling with head bowed. Its form was familiar.
"...The Beast King."
A corpse modeled after the Beast King was there.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 「Nothing here. Just some massive tree? A scorched one...」
Giant tree.
「Water's pooled here. Black water. Not filth, but something indescribable. No special presence.」
Water, lake.
「...There's a Beast King's corpse. Not the real one, but a skeleton mimicking it...」
Beast King.
"......"
Raniel looked ahead.
There lay a bisected sun. Giant tree, lake, Beast King, and sun. The words connected. A spark flashed in Raniel's mind.
The sun that illuminates the curse.
The land's owner that harbors the curse.
The lake eroded by the curse.
Beast King.
Words pointing to beings called ancient calamities. The moment the pieces fit, a chill ran down Raniel's spine.
"This is insane."
Raniel shouted into the comms. Blast spells at the centers immediately, swing your swords. They had to damage them as much as possible.
'Thinking about it, it was too easy.'
The resistance was far too weak.
Getting here had been suspiciously smooth. So she thought the heretics had stockpiled power in these caverns... something strong. But this exceeded Raniel's expectations by miles.
"Right now...!"
The moment Raniel raised her voice.
Static. All connections severed. Complete isolation. The space was fully cut off.
And.
Plip.
That instant.
Plip-plip-plip.
Rain.
Plip-plip-plip-plip-plip-plip.
Black filth rain began to fall.