Chapter 111
Chapter 111
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 111
>Chapter Title: The Forgotten Hourglass
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It was pure coincidence that he picked it up.
In the Dark Forest, where he had sent his comrades away and remained alone after discovering traces of an Abyssal powerhouse and embarking on that perilous mission.
"……An hourglass?"
Taxinel chuckled softly as he touched the clock buried in an unexpected place.
Worn by the traces of ages, half-broken hourglass.
"Whoever it belonged to, they must not have even thought to look for it."
It didn't look particularly valuable anyway, and no one would come all the way to this dangerous place just to retrieve it.
It had simply been abandoned. Just like him now.
"……Cough."
Was this what it meant for blood to run cold?
In his fading consciousness, he thought.
"Am I going to die like this?"
In the midst of a blood-soaked forest piled high with corpses.
The Destroyer Geymon…… no, Taxinel was dying.
Before him writhed a viscous darkness.
No, the entire forest was writhing.
The Dark Forest—this place was actually an abandoned woodland corrupted by the Abyss.
[Keh-heh…….]
It was then that a chilling laugh, like nails on a chalkboard, leaked out.
[Keh-heh-heh…… Not bad. Even though it's just an avatar, to hold out this long against one of mine. How about it? Become my contractor. Do that, and you can live.]
The Master of Immortality. The terror of the Abyss that overcame death desired him.
If he took that hand, he could live.
"Get lost. I have no intention whatsoever of becoming your slave."
But he was the vice-commander of the proud Lyr Holy Knight Order.
He wouldn't betray his humanity or his comrades just to cling to a wretched life, not even a little.
How many comrades had died by that trash's hand?
Better a glorious death than to become its slave.
[Foolish human…… That's not for you to decide.]
"……What?"
But that horrific nightmare would not allow it.
The nightmare invaded Taxinel's rejecting mouth and swiftly corrupted him from within.
[If I desire it, you become mine. There are no exceptions anywhere…….]
"Gah, guh…… N-no……."
Blood tears flowed from his eyes.
The blood tears soon turned black.
The blood flowing over his entire body soon became black pus.
As if draining stagnant rotten water and filling it with fresh, Taxinel's blood was turning from human to Abyssal.
"Guh…… keh……."
His lungs, which breathed, were dyed black.
His stomach, which produced digestive juices, fell silent, his bones twisted, organs tangled, forming a new shape.
With a creaking sound, darkness enveloped his entire body like armor.
[Kyahahaha! Yes, that's it! What a fine face!]
By the time horns sprouted on his forehead and his eyes turned red.
Paht!
It reacted.
The hourglass in his hand suddenly popped and burrowed deep into his body.
No light, no sound came out, but Taxinel knew.
Thump, thump.
The thing lodged in his heart was blocking the Abyssal corruption.
Lucky, perhaps.
At the last moment, it protected his heart, allowing Taxinel to retain his human mind.
He had become both Abyss and human.
[For the vice-commander of that self-righteous Holy Knight Order to become an Abyssal contractor…… Keh-heh-heh…… This will be fun.]
The departing Master of Immortality seemed utterly unconcerned.
Once corrupted by the Abyss, there was no returning to human.
It was fortunate.
If it had been just a bit more thorough.
If it had suspected anything and checked inside, it would have been impossible to hide.
[Aaah…….]
Chilling voice. A horn half-broken, not fully Abyssal.
A horrific appearance with a human heart.
[Aaah…… Aaaah……!]
Thud, Taxinel dropped to his knees and gazed at his reflection in the puddle.
[……Aaaaaah!!!]
Taxinel wailed endlessly.
Shedding black tears.
* * *
"Ah…… My god."
"Vice-commander, you're back! Ah…… Thank the gods."
"Ugh, Vice-commander…… Hngh."
Retaining a human mind was tremendous.
They said the body follows the mind.
Though he had become an Abyssal contractor, perhaps because he kept his human mind or because his heart hadn't been corrupted, Taxinel could return to human form at will.
"Hngh!"
"Vice-commander!!"
No one suspected him.
Not his comrades who had gone on the mission with him, nor the other knights.
"Welcome back, Taxinel."
"……Thank you."
Even that monstrous Commander Rebed.
No one doubted Taxinel.
It was only natural, perhaps.
It was common knowledge that one corrupted by the Abyss couldn't wander around maintaining human flesh and mind.
But he didn't know.
Shaaa-.
That the mysterious hourglass wasn't fully blocking the Abyss.
That it was being corrupted bit by bit, without his awareness.
The first to notice the change were the knights.
"……Lately, isn't the vice-commander being a bit too harsh?"
"He was never merciful to monsters anyway…… but it feels different. Like…… he's smiling, maybe."
"Are you enjoying gossiping about your superior?"
"Hk, C-Commander!"
"No, sir! Sorry!"
From some point, Taxinel's demeanor had changed noticeably.
No, Taxinel knew it too.
-Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill…… Kill and kill again……
-Blood…… Drink fresh blood……
-Don't resist. Accept me……!
"Shut up! Shut the hell up!"
The whispers echoing endlessly in his head wouldn't leave.
"……That damn priest's yapping is pissing me off. Just kill him…… No, what am I thinking?"
Unbearable murderous urges surged countless times.
At first, he thought it was just stress-induced hallucinations from all he'd been through.
If he endured those moments, at least the urges subsided.
But he realized it wasn't when he killed a family man.
-Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill
-Blood, drink blood……
Unable to endure the head-splitting hallucinations any longer, he burst into a home and brutally slaughtered an innocent man in front of his family.
"Ah……."
The world went quiet.
Like emerging from a blood-formed sea in the noisy battlefield.
The persistent hallucinations stopped as if by magic.
Blood tears flowed from Taxinel's eyes. The moment he truly felt alive as a human.
That was the day.
"Gah! Guh…… Please…… Please spare……."
"Kyaaaaak!"
"P-please, at least our child…… Krgh!"
The day Taxinel rampaged through the city, slaughtering people indiscriminately.
And……
"M-monster…… It's a monster!"
"Call…… Call Sir Rebed!"
"Everyone, run……!"
The day the Destroyer Geymon appeared.
* * *
[Entering Phase 3.]
-----!
As it entered Phase 3, Destroyer Geymon let out a silent roar.
[Destroyer Geymon bestows 'Nightmare Night.']
[Enemies in range with stats lower than the user's will die instantly.]
It was a nightmare unfolded.
Everything within 20 meters of the Destroyer vanished without a trace.
Walls, floors, pillars.
[Guardian Jihad Black's 'Orc Undead' dies instantly.]
[Guardian Jihad Black's 'Orc Undead' dies instantly.]
…….
[Guardian Jihad Black's 'Forest Blue Goblin Undead' dies instantly.]
-No way……!
Even Jihad's undead, all of them.
In the place where only darkness remained, Destroyer Geymon stood.
[……An unpleasant memory surfaced.]
Muttering that, he lowered his head, his gaze turning forward.
There was Do-hyun, embedded in the wall.
Geymon frowned at the dazed, coughing man.
[Rat bastard…….]
It should have been instant death range, yet he had somehow widened the distance and been pushed back.
The undead tanking the blast wind upfront helped too.
-Kill him…… Kill him and be freed……
[Krgh…….]
Again. That voice since encountering him.
Hearing the voice itself wasn't strange.
It was the first time since the massacre that the once-silent voice reacted, but not the first overall.
-He…… has appeared……
-To me…… come……
A few days ago.
The sudden voice repeated the same words without rest.
-To me…… come……
It was a summons.
The signal calling contractors from the Master of Immortality.
An oath irresistible to contractors reduced to instincts by the Abyss.
'It stayed quiet for 10 years, what's this now?'
The thing that left satisfied after the massacre—why summon now?
Unlike other contractors, Geymon could resist thanks to retaining human mind, but it was a headache.
With increased traces lately heightening vigilance, he couldn't leave.
Yet he couldn't ignore the summons either.
'Can't let it find out I'm keeping my mind.'
Or he'd truly become its slave this time.
Though he had crossed an irreversible river, no longer human but a monster.
He didn't want to live as a mere instinct-driven beast.
So he planned to leave.
Find someone to take the blame in his place, buy time.
'If not for that damned bastard interfering…… Damn it.'
That guy was always the problem.
Bringing his traces to make Guildeti the high priest step in, suddenly appearing at Lyr Temple to expose the crime scene.
Zerdic appearing there, leaving evidence!
[Yes…… It's all because of you.]
All that bastard's fault.
That one damned outsider ruining everything.
-Kill him and…… be freed……
The chilling voice echoing in his head.
He didn't know why, but instinctively he felt it.
As the voice said, killing him would free him from this voice.
Grant true freedom.
Paht- Kwak!
"Ugh……."
Leaping in an instant, Geymon grabbed Do-hyun's neck and slowly lifted.
Do-hyun's feet dangled in the air, swaying. No strength for counterattack left.
His remaining HP was a mere 1%.
One punch to the gut would end him.
"N-no……!"
"Ah……!"
The priests paled.
Among them, the one with the biggest expression change was none other than Jihad.
-……Dying? My master?
Jihad had never seen his master in danger before.
For that master to face not just crisis but death—it was unbelievable even seeing it.
More like it didn't feel real.
-……My master loses like this?
Impossible.
Jihad flailed his hand, and undead writhed up from the ground.
Groooar- Groo?
The previously unsummoned undead.
Spotting Do-hyun dangling after looking around, they grasped the situation and moved.
But……
[Aah…… At last, I welcome freedom. Farewell, outsider.]
Geymon, soaked in ecstasy, plunged his claw into Do-hyun's gut faster.
Kwadrk-.
As the Destroyer smiled in rapture at the sound of breaking bone.
[……?]
Something was off.
The breaking sound came, but no sensation in his hand.
Rather, like blocked by something.
Looking up with a hunch, he saw Do-hyun grinning.
"Thanks. For moving just as I thought."
[……What?]
Do-hyun unleashed Cheonbyeon.
Before him floated a message window.
[HP confirmed below 1%.]
[Essence Ring of Karuk's effect activates.]
[A shield blocking 15% of max HP in damage generates for 5 seconds.]
[The shield blocks 'Nightmare Claw.']
The Essence Ring of Karuk, obtained from defeating Karuk in Raven's hidden field, Warriors' Habitat.
The ring's true power was finally revealed.