Chapter 434
Chapter 434
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 434
>Chapter Title: Where Do You Think You're Going?
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The Fifth Elder closed his eyes to summon those absent from this gathering.
"Come."
His voice rippled through the space.
It was right then that those en route to the Sestheraion Mountains came to a halt.
"Fifth Elder."
"Fifth Elder..."
They moved as if entranced. Some turned back along their path to answer his call, while others kicked off the ground to hasten their arrival.
How much time passed like that.
"......"
Standing atop a rock that rose high like a dais, the Fifth Elder scanned his surroundings. Gathered together, their numbers reached roughly in the hundreds.
Among them, only dozens had achieved Transcendence as Golden Demon Mages.
The rest were scarcely half-baked black mages.
The Fifth Elder gazed at them before slowly closing his eyes. As those who had bowed their heads held their breath, a viscous black mana spread out from him at the center.
Tzzzz.
Black mana blanketed the ground like gathering storm clouds.
It was around then that the Fifth Elder opened his eyes.
Flash.
Pitch-black pupils illuminated the space. With every inhale and exhale, ominous black mana flickered like flames.
"Mahara, ma tumbah. Kadeah..."
An eerie incantation enveloped the space.
"Mukoru, hu mungka. Aldoru..."
Soon, the voices of the Golden Demon Mages followed.
The Fifth Elder's incantation repeated, with the Golden Demon Mages' chants trailing right after.
And as those two layered together, the black mages' voices joined in.
Mahara, ma tumbah. Kadeah...
Mukoru, hu mungka. Aldoru...
Sabaru, kal au. Kidero...
Layer upon layer of incantations.
When they aligned in perfect rhythm, as if issuing from a single throat, it was no longer a sound a human voice could produce.
[■■■, ■ ■■. ■■■…….]
The unified chant echoed.
Endlessly, endlessly, endlessly.
Lips moved without rest, breaths grew ragged. Yet the black mages forgot even to breathe, vomiting forth incantations without end. Even with no breath left to exhale, their lips kept moving.
As all around filled with unknowable dread and madness, a bizarre flow rippled through the world the Fifth Elder beheld.
Jet-black pupils.
A world brimming with black mana.
Roiling black currents howling.
Descending from the distant sky, they were twisted, warped souls.
......Fifth Elder.
Souls gathered by the seeker of immortality over nearly a millennium.
They swarmed in from afar, answering his call.
The change came soon after.
[■■■, ■ ■■. ■■■…….]
From within the chant...
Grk, grrrk.
The ground trembled.
Soon, something burst up from the heaving earth with a puff! It was sallow bone.
The skeletal frame planted itself on the ground, then fully emerged onto the surface. Like that, one by one, things rose from the earth.
......Skeletons.
Puff, puke!
Kuduk!
Skeletons erupted from the ground all at once, staggering to their feet and finding balance. Ghostly light flickered in their hollow eye sockets.
But that was not the end.
Groooo—!
A banshee wail tore through the ground. Black currents coalesced into form. The first to take shape was a spectral steed.
Soon after.
Clank, clink.
Clatter—!
Armor gathered, forming a figure.
It was a knight.
[......]
Black plate armor. A knight with ghostly blue light spilling from the empty visor scanned its surroundings before gripping the sword at its waist. Then it raised the blade high.
Hiiiing—!
Amid the spectral steed's chilling neigh echoing out, more spectral steeds and knights appeared all at once behind it.
Death Knights. Twenty-one in total.
That was not all.
Puke, puff...
Rupturing sounds rang out here and there. Sallow skeleton bones shattered, scattering into the air. The fiends that crushed them swung massive clubs wildly while bellowing. But...
[......!]
A silent death wail.
The head tucked at its side roared in fury, yet no sound emerged. Perhaps only natural. That head was severed from its vocal organs.
Dullahan.
Headless knights.
The Dullahans, smashing skeletons in rage, flinched and cowered at the Death Knights' ghostly gaze. Soon their fury faded, and they grew docile.
Next...
[Kyaaaaaah—!]
Banshees unleashed wails.
[Grulk, gruk......]
Flesh-stitched golems rose and advanced.
Zombies burst from somewhere, ghasts with grotesquely warped skeletons drooling toxic saliva beside them.
Other nameless undead stirred to life as well. It was a sight beyond any mage's comprehension.
Souls, immaterial, had forged matter. Who could explain such a spectacle.
And so.
"......"
The chant reached its end, and the Fifth Elder took in the scene with eyes stained black. The black mana that had blanketed everything had long vanished.
No, in truth, it had not vanished. All that black mana had birthed this horde of the undead.
Dozens of Golden Demon Mages and hundreds of black mages still chanted with eyes closed, each one a control mechanism dominating the undead legion.
The Fifth Elder regarded them calmly before turning away. The vista of the Sestheraion Mountains imprinted in his eyes.
"Let's go."
As the Fifth Elder stepped forward, Golden Demon Mages and black mages followed. It was a march of puppets, devoid of focus.
And behind them.
[Kyaaaaaah—!]
Kak, kak.
Hiiiing—!
The army of the dead flowed like waves.
They advanced toward the entrance where Sanctuary's warp gate lay. Or tried to.
......In some nameless gorge of the Sestheraion Mountains.
Were it not for the lone woman barring their path.
"......"
The Fifth Elder silently took in the woman single-handedly blocking the gorge. A petite frame, if one could call it that. Yet the gorge felt as if sealed by a massive boulder.
Crimson hair.
Crimson eyes.
And...
Pitch-black garb sewn from the folds of night, skin ghostly pale.
The Fifth Elder knew instinctively.
She was no human.
"What manner of being are you."
"What do I look like."
At the woman's question, the Fifth Elder clamped his mouth shut. No proper answer would come, no matter what he asked—that was his premonition...
And right then, the woman posed her query.
"Where do you think you're going."
"Sanctuary."
"Is that so? Then it seems this body has not arrived too late."
The woman spouted nonsense and curled her lips. The Fifth Elder said nothing to that. No, more precisely, he could say nothing.
Groooo—
The air churned.
Blood-red aura blanketed the space.
"Turn back. Then I shall not draw my blade."
As if granting mercy, her bold declaration twisted the Fifth Elder's face. No being, whatever it was, could be so arrogant before him.
At his glare, the woman curled her lips.
"You won't yield, it seems..."
Then what to do.
"......Old man, hold no grudge."
The woman... Shain drew the sword at her waist.
In one way, it was a relief.
As mentioned before, not too late, after all.
That fiend had bellowed about heading to Sanctuary to buy time, but escorting the Pushk tribe to the 'nest' had taken far too long.
But.
'With prey like this still remaining...'
It would not be a wasted trip.
"Come, old man."
"......Such arrogance."
In the nameless gorge of the Sestheraion Mountains.
As the Fifth Elder's hand extended forward, the army of the dead surged. A tidal wave of terror, yet Shain stood before it, smiling leisurely.
......A clash of existences unrecorded in human history.
* * *
Meanwhile, at that same moment.
The Fourth Elder, rampaging through Sanctuary, stood stock-still, eyes fixed ahead.
Stairs descending below.
Dark.
Even through the exceptional vision of the puppet mage Hermit, the darkness could not be pierced. It meant the stairs plunged that deep...
'This place...'
The Fourth Elder stared piercingly at the stairs before deciding to scour Hermit's memories. Black mana would spread, but he no longer cared.
His true body somewhere in the Sestheraion Mountains sensed it.
The Fifth Elder.
The seeker of immortality had arrived here.
Of course...
'......Combat? Someone barring his way?'
He clearly sensed someone clashing with the Fifth Elder, but it stirred no great worry.
The Fifth Elder was merely the beginning, after all.
While he bought time, the other elders of Salvatium would arrive as well.
Thus.
'No need to hide any longer.'
Having thought that far, the Fourth Elder closed his eyes.
Normally, he would have plunged straight down without checking memories, but instincts honed over ages whispered.
Down there...
'......Something dangerous lurks.'
What was that danger.
A fragment of Reverse Heaven?
That would be preferable.
An era where mystery had died, magic reduced to logic and reason—yet mystery was not wholly absent.
......The heart of the Hamern Great Forest was one such place.
......Ancient ruins, vestiges of old.
And...
'Sanctuary.'
This place too.
A space that could harbor ancient mysteries without surprise.
That was why the Fourth Elder proceeded with caution.
And so.
Tzzzzz—
The puppet Hermit rolled back its eyes and convulsed. Thick black mana erupted from its head, blanketing the surroundings. And...
"Kuhk—!"
Hermit vomited blood.
Pitch-black dead blood.
......The Fourth Elder dominating Hermit's mind groaned in that pain as well. But only for a moment.
'Let's see.'
The Fourth Elder delved into the depths of Hermit's consciousness, rifling through memories. A meticulous task he hadn't attempted before due to lack of mental leeway when dominating Baron Maroon.
How much time passed like that.
"Huh..."
Fortunate, perhaps.
Not all Hermits were equal. As an organization, they had ranks.
Fortunately, the Hermits who had guided challenger Pahren to Sanctuary held high rank, their memories etched with Sanctuary secrets unknown to common Hermits.
And among them, what the Fourth Elder saw was...
'......The heart of Sanctuary.'
The Core.
The power source allowing Sanctuary to exist as such.
That very thing.
"Down there, you say."
The Fourth Elder stood rooted, staring piercingly below. It was then he sensed presences.
Hermits rushing over, sensing the black mana...
"Hermit Teharr, black mana detected nearby... Guk."
"What...! Teharr, what in the...!"
The Fourth Elder regarded the Hermits with indifferent eyes and flicked his hand. Black mana whips surged up, shredding their bodies.
In an instant.
A corridor soaked in gore.
The Fourth Elder impassively surveyed the carnage before fixing on the stairs.
Down there...
'A fragment of Reverse Heaven.'
Yet.
"This... cannot be resolved with mere puppets."
The Fourth Elder clicked his tongue in consternation and slowly advanced.
To the opposite side of the stairs.
To summon his true body.