Chapter 71
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Corpse Golem Bait
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The same went for the other parts of its body.
And from the gaping mouths of the heads clinging to various spots all over its body, blood poured endlessly, giving off an eerie chill.
"Urp..."
"Uweeeek!!!"
Even these battle-hardened veterans couldn't stomach the gruesome sight. They retched and staggered right there on the spot.
"Leon, that thing..."
"Yeah, I know what it is."
"Ugh... A corpse golem... And one made from grinding down dozens, hundreds of people..."
Sword Saint Osberg Mielephon identified it in a grim voice.
Normally, something with that appearance would just be called a corpse golem.
But Luna and I weren't talking about it in that sense.
Corpse golems came in various forms, but none with such a grotesque look—where parts of its body seemed to move like they were alive—matched the standard ones I knew.
No, more precisely, this was a fragment of its true body.
It wasn't a mere corpse golem.
While typical corpse golems were artificial constructs born from twisted curses or experiments, this one was closer to a natural lifeform nurtured on corpses, blood, corrupted souls, and mana.
A warped sprout of the World Tree.
A bait created by that sprout to lure in the strong as fodder for its growth.
Or an enforcer to drag in the weak.
But without any sense of self, it couldn't stray far on its own.
Demon Tree Fragment confirmed. Exercise caution.
As the librarian said, it was safe to assume the heretics had secured the Demon Tree.
They were the ones trying to unearth a sealed lich in the first place...
We'd gone to hunt the Kraken and ended up discovering a real pain-in-the-ass monster.
"Leon, fall back."
Osberg, chilled by the corpse golem's appearance, moved to draw his sword, but I quickly stopped him.
"No! Don't attack it under any circumstances."
He shot me a puzzled look at my intervention.
"What do you mean?"
"That's not just a corpse golem—it's bait. Touch it, and things get messy. You absolutely can't engage."
"You..."
"Trust me."
After a brief silence, Osberg exhaled sharply and bellowed a command.
"Cease attack! Everyone, hold position!"
He might not have fully grasped my explanation, but he trusted me enough to issue that order.
With expert mages on hand and the enemy right in front of them, calling off the assault showed just how much faith he had in me. It weighed heavy on my heart.
"Ugh... Uwaaaah!!!"
But one young mage, panicked by the horrific sight, unleashed a spell in an instant.
I'd cast my own magic to block attacks, but I hadn't anticipated someone losing their mind to the visuals and striking immediately.
This was what happened without coordinated combat experience.
They weren't House Mielephon members; they were dispatched mages. I couldn't expect miracles...
The mage's fireball struck the golem in a flash...
"Yeah, I figured as much."
"Harbinger."
That grotesque form was infuriating enough to provoke a reflexive attack—I could understand that much. But understanding and condoning were different beasts.
With those words, a massive burst of light erupted. The corpse golem exploded outward, unleashing a grayish glow.
I instantly drew my sword and slashed through the anomalous mana flows amid the light, but there were too many to clear in time.
When I came to, I was standing alone in what felt like an underground cavern.
"Ah, damn it. What a deep-sea anglerfish bastard. Such a pain."
The bait created by the Demon Tree prioritized something other than combat prowess.
Why call it bait?
What was bait, literally?
It lured in fish and hooked them on the line.
In other words, its form instilled extreme revulsion in living prey.
The moment that prey attacked the monster out of disgust—tampering with the bait—they got hooked.
The light from its explosion had the power to drag targets to a place ideal for the tree to devour them.
It was akin to spatial magic, but with a slightly alien twist.
Nothing mages could imitate.
At least not with necromancy.
"Gotta move fast."
I'd severed several concentrations of the power before the teleport fully activated, so not everyone should have been pulled through.
Plus, since we weren't near the Demon Tree itself, it had limited effect.
I couldn't tell how many got dragged in.
Some probably stayed behind.
The heretics likely set this trap to tie down the Sword Saint.
"And it had to be me."
The problem was that I was the one caught in it.
For the first time, these heretics had tripped me up.
The surroundings were an underground cavern.
If it wasn't too far, this had to be the space beneath the fishing village's seaside cliffs.
"Might even stumble right into the Kraken's lair..."
The others didn't matter much, but if Luna got swept up, I had to find her.
She had no combat ability right now.
I muffled my footsteps and moved swiftly.
There had to be an exit connecting to the outside, even in a natural cave.
Lack of light was no issue.
As a necromancer, darkness held no sway over me.
How far had I gone?
I sensed presences. Two? No, five.
I stared into the gloom, suppressing my own aura.
Relying on faint light, I spotted shadowy figures in black robes abducting someone.
The emblems on their robes marked them as heretics.
No need to think.
I slipped behind them in a flash. The four necromancers, unaware of me, had their heads fly in an instant.
Shing...
Not bad for the first use of my demon sword, Electra, which emitted a red glow.
Insanely tough. Astonishing cutting power.
Its only special ability beyond that was regeneration, but even that made it worthy of the demon sword title.
Pleased with its sharpness, I checked the person they'd been dragging—the one bundled in a sack.
And sighed.
"You're really something, you know that."
"Mmph mmph."
Watching Luna, gagged and mumbling, I figured it was lucky I'd found her quick.
I stared down at her, limbs bound and wriggling.
"Want me to untie you?"
"Mmph mmph."
"Nah."
She kicked at my leg with her bound feet.
"When else am I gonna mess with you if not now?"
Finding her brought a wave of relief and calm.
But she kept trying to say something.
I removed the cloth from her mouth, and she unleashed a torrent at me.
"You idiot! They're trying to apply the Book of the Lion to the Kraken!"
Her shout made me rack my brain for what the Book of the Lion was.
"Book of the Lion?"
"Necronomicon."
"What's that?"
There were tons of Books of the Lion out there.
But her next words made my heart sink.
"The Necronomicon that can summon an ancient god."
"Whoa, that's bad."
I'd seen one before.
When an enemy we'd cornered bound itself into a book made of human skin and activated.
The gates of hell opened once.
I'd pass on that.
Necromancers used Books of the Lion too, but the ancient god version differed completely in method, structure, purpose—everything.
"How'd you know?"
"I played dead and overheard them talking. No time for this. If their ritual succeeds, forget subjugating the Kraken—the continent loses a fifth of its land."
Yeah, that tracked. I'd fought ancient gods before, but they weren't lucky flukes. No matter my experience, overwhelming aura, necromancy, or Mechanical God's Heart—even at my current level, it was impossible.
"Let's find those bastards first."
"I've seen that Necronomicon before."
She pulled out Laplace's Compass from her subspace—a demonic ancient compass that read the user's memories and pointed to targets via the world's records.
"If they're telling the truth, it'll react."
She activated it, and a purple glow gathered above, forming a magic circle.
The hands spun rapidly, then pointed somewhere.
"Necronomicon confirmed."
"These fuckers woke a 7th-circle lich and now have this? What the hell are they?"
"No idea. Way beyond regular heretics."
The vast cave was a maze, but with the compass, it was meaningless.
It wouldn't give turn-by-turn directions, sure.
Woooong...
Shhh...
To me now, silently boring through cave walls was pointless resistance.
How long had we walked?
The compass pointed downward.
"Right below us."
"Let's drop in."
Before it got any later.
I activated the Mechanical God's Heart without hesitation, converting the floor beneath us into a structure.
We descended like drilling a hole. Through the thin ceiling beyond, voices drifted.
"Preparations are complete. Sacrifices are plentiful."
"Good. Excellent."
A man's response, then a faint voice from what seemed a heretic.
"But will it be alright? Once we start the ritual, we can't prepare defenses..."
"No madman will find this place. Besides, the trap should've dragged them into that monster tree's domain by now."
"However, if the Sword Saint shows up while we're all neutralized..."
"Use those. It'll buy time. Begin."
I glanced at Luna.
"Weren't you caught? How come they don't know we're here?"
"They said their communication artifact broke."
Lucky break.
"Now, let's commence the ritual!"
At that, an eerie energy seeped through the wall.
They couldn't resist? Music to my ears.
I converted the thin ceiling supporting us, making it vanish.
And dropped straight into the center of the dozen-or-so heretics focused on their ritual.