Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 023
Chapter Title: Entering Zone 7
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After the Empire's fall, the continent was consumed by darkness.
The Dark Zones, where no human could set foot, relentlessly encroached on human territory. The New Empire, the Three Kingdoms, and the Three Great Dark Houses erected barriers to halt the darkness's erosion.
These barriers had defined boundaries, and their power weakened the further out one went, dividing the areas into zones.
—Zone 7.
Sein had now entered Zone 7.
Crossing yet another boundary, he could clearly see the darkness's corrosion slowing.
But the biggest change was.
“Phew!”
The density of mana.
Compared to the past, the mana density had been abysmal.
That was why, even after successfully mimicking a mana cultivation method, it had taken Sein over a decade to manifest aura.
In Zone 10, where the barrier's power was weakest and mana density lowest.
Because he had been born in Chichiron.
But Zone 7's mana density was entirely different.
“Insane!”
It felt like escaping the smog-choked jungle of skyscrapers into the lush depths of a mountain forest.
No, more than that vague description.
Flash!
The sensation hitting his body was beyond imagination.
Sein shot forward like an arrow.
His blade cleaved through a lizardman without hesitation.
The feel in his hand was different.
The sensation of his feet hitting the ground was different.
If Sein Demorus's life had been in Zone 7, in some fiefdom instead of Zone 10 and Chichiron.
“Five years—no, three would’ve done it.”
The gap was so extreme it felt unjust.
Moreover, crossing into Zone 7 had given Sein another advantage.
“Kieeeek!”
The lizardman screeched as it thrust its spear.
Lizardmen, with power and agility surpassing orcs—and doubled near water—were considered tricky monsters.
“Lord Angel, must I stain my hands with the blood of kin once more?”
Sein muttered such nonsense as.
Slash—!
He swung his sword from low to high.
The spear thrusting at Sein, the arm gripping it.
Even its legs and torso on the water's edge.
Splurt!
The lizardman split cleanly, collapsing to both sides.
“You’re human, but with a dragon’s heart, so lizards are your kin.”
At Arin’s words, Sein puffed out his chest proudly.
“...The Demon Dragon would faint hearing that.”
“Exactly what I want.”
Sein placed a hand on his chest.
“We made a contract, but I need to know what it entails.”
The contract with the Demon Dragon had granted him immense power.
“But it’s a contract, right?”
One thing bothered him.
The contract with the Demon Dragon.
“What the hell does that lizard bastard want?”
It must want something from him.
Having given such power and infinite potential ahead, there had to be a price.
“...I don’t know.”
Arin said the same as before, and now.
“The Demon Dragon’s words were just that it would let him meet the human to contract with.”
Arin had also contracted with the Demon Dragon.
That was the price it demanded.
Thanks to it, she gained power beyond limits and near-immortal life.
“...It must want something huge.”
“Who knows.”
Sein said.
“What’s ‘huge’ to that mighty Demon Dragon might be nothing to me.”
However.
—Reincarnator, Kim Sein.
The Demon Dragon knew his true identity.
That weighed on his mind.
It was then.
Ripple.
Arin’s shadow flickered faintly.
A change he wouldn’t have noticed without heightened senses.
“Guess we’ve arrived.”
Sein spoke to Arin, who nodded.
“Darren has made contact with Demorus.”
The token Arin had given Darren had burned away, sending the signal.
“Darren will be fine, right?”
“Judges hold high status, but not enough to defy me.”
“Good. You’re the best.”
“Childish.”
Even as she said it, Sein was certain.
Darren would be okay.
“By the way, wouldn’t it have been better to travel with the Judges anyway?”
Sein had already proven himself.
With the Dark Lord heading to Demorus, and Arin’s testimony and guarantee, he could have reached Demorus comfortably with the Judges.
But the hasty Sein.
“Preparations finished quicker than expected.”
He had planned to gather needed power en route through the Dark Lord’s path, but Arin made it easy.
And one more thing.
“Traveling together has its inconveniences, doesn’t it?”
There were places they needed to hear about.
*
*
*
The hundreds, thousands of lives Sein had lived weren’t embedded in the current world.
Those lives were in separate, bygone worlds apart from this one.
But three lives were different.
His fourth life, connected to the Underworld Heir’s past one.
‘Still remains in this world.’
The Empire’s crown prince, the last demonkin, the saint of Rebel Angel.
“So, all the Empire’s treasures vanished that day?”
Sein shared many stories with Arin during their journey.
Once an object of wariness.
‘Now more like a partner I need to watch.’
Moreover, Arin was the only one.
“Feel free to spill. I was the Destroyer.”
Who knew his identity, even his reincarnations.
“That’s right.”
“But all those treasures really gone?”
Arin said.
“The day the Destroyer heralded the Empire’s fall, the glorious capital Zigvalt vanished with it.”
“No, still...”
He had suspected as much.
“True. The remaining treasures scattered across the continent, and the Three Great Dark Houses profited most.”
“Fuck, thieves.”
The Empire, Sanctuary’s great nation’s treasury, all plundered.
“The Empire’s vault should never have been breached.”
Arin glanced at Sein as if to say it was his fault, the Destroyer’s.
The Empire’s secret vault boasted thousands of years of security, but amid the Empire’s and continent’s doom, it couldn’t hold.
“Then, the Demonic Blade?”
“No word since it crumbled with the Empire.”
“The Temple? Papal Court? Holy Kingdom?”
“You know well enough.”
In their conversation.
“Fuuuuck!”
Sein wailed.
Trapped in Chichiron, he had vowed over and over.
If he ever escaped, he’d find them all.
Like a great pirate leaving treasures everywhere, Sein had hidden his own across places.
Planning to reclaim them after reincarnation.
But they were gone.
Of course.
“My fault. Fuck. Who else to blame.”
His own doing.
“Who’d expect a fourth life?”
When he became the third Destroyer, ending the world for the conclusion, he thought it final.
So naturally, no preparations to retrieve or methods left.
“My Nidhogg...”
The Empire’s famed sword.
“My Seraphim...”
The armor that protected him.
“My holy swords...”
None remained, irretrievable.
“I know traces of a few.”
“...!”
“But can’t retrieve them now.”
“Damn.”
Ruined.
*
*
*
Not completely ruined, though.
Even in Sanctuary, mythic items called the pinnacle were irretrievable.
The wealth to buy the whole continent, gone.
Subordinates he gathered, NPCs he raised, all dead.
Sein’s fourth life.
A world a century later.
But.
“Guess that’s a silver lining.”
He confirmed a thread of hope remained.
‘Can’t get mythics, but...’
Traces of his past lives lingered.
For must-have mythic items, he had prepared retrieval methods.
However.
“Who’d think it’d come to this.”
Inventory limits, or useless items.
Trash he called them.
Items that would headache NPCs or hinder quests if obtained, so discarded.
Various reasons for so-called “abandoned” items.
Sanctuary had infinite freedom, the ultimate in game tech.
Reincarnations didn’t erase items.
“Hmm.”
He devised a plan.
No, refined one long in the making.
“Voltima’s in Zone 2, can’t go yet.”
Restrictions on candidate Sein.
“Kirhe’s another Dark House zone.”
Post-Empire fall, continent’s map and domains shifted.
“Fuck, Valbe turning Dark Zone is legendary.”
Where he dumped mythics.
Due to carry limits, but now a no-man’s Dark Zone.
“What happens in a Dark Zone?”
Heard roughly.
“You die.”
Arin stated firmly.
“...You die.”
Many ways to die.
Solutions possible, but not now.
Still.
Smirk.
Sein smiled.
“Antara’s still there, right.”
Antara.
“In Zone 7, not another Dark House’s turf.”
Once the sacred land, the Holy Kingdom’s territory: Antara.
Contract with Demon Dragon.
Other perks realized without life-flash thanks to Arin.
Filled many gaps.
But a critical issue remained.
The eight swords Sein grabbed leaving Borteo.
Now only two left in hand.
“Can’t keep living like this.”
Dragon mana’s uniqueness.
No sword to contain his energy besides.
Swords as consumables had limits.
If.
‘Sword breaks at a key moment, I’d go mad.’
Fine for now, but things wouldn’t always go perfectly.
That’s why he left Borteo without Judges.
“Let’s head to Antara.”
Destination set.
Before Demorus, max preparations needed.
For that.
‘That’s there.’
A sword to handle his energy was essential.