Chapter 129: Ruler of Death (2)

My eyes sharpened as I faced the wanted criminal in front of me.

Edella was a notorious dark mage in Cloud.

She was infamous for her cruelty, even to her own hands. The Cloud investigators who lost to her had to return as hideous undead.

She was a very unwelcome opponent for Cloud.

“Did you come all this way to catch us?”

“Yeah. Did you feel a bit of remorse for your wrongdoings?”

“Only eight of you? You’re underestimating our abyss too much.”

Edella sneered at me and the investigators with sincere eyes.

Arrogant.

And ignorant.

No matter how great a dark mage she was, it was meaningless once I reached this place.

Van Krite.

He was one of the special investigators who were considered the peak in Cloud.

“What are you relying on? The new demon you’re worshiping? Or is it your necromancy?”

I aimed my sword at the corpse golem and measured the distance with my fingertips.

I knew that they had contracted with a new demon.

It was what I expected from the repaired altar.

Edella answered with a displeased face at my guess about her backer.

“Demon? Don’t compare him to such beings. Well, not that he would care…”

My eyes narrowed as I heard Edella’s words.

I was an investigator who specialized in dark mages, so I had some knowledge about dark magic.

Dark magic was basically a magic that received negative power by offering sacrifices and karma to demons.

It was hard to understand how dark mages would stop worshiping demons.

My spinning thoughts soon reached one conclusion.

“Could it be… you’re offering sacrifices directly to an evil god.”

Edella’s face changed as she looked down at me from the top of the corpse golem.

She seemed displeased by my words, and raised one hand with a complaint.

A dark light followed Edella’s hand, and the corpse golem raised one hand as well.

“Evil god… He would be hurt by your words.”

“So the abyssal dark mages have finally joined hands with the cult.”

“That’s why Cloud’s investigators are no good. After you fall into hell, it will be useless to cry and beg in front of him.”

It seemed that my guess was correct.

The power on Edella’s hand was more turbid and dark than other dark mages.

The two who had been talking for different reasons aimed their weapons at each other.

One was to buy time, and the other was to dig information.

There was no reason to continue the conversation once one’s purpose was over.

As the corpse golem walked forward with its fist aimed, I tore off my cloak and threw it forward.

“What…!”

Flap.

The cloak fluttered and blocked Edella’s sight.

Edella’s voice of confusion echoed from behind the cloak.

And a blue flame rose on my sword in front of the cloak.

I drew a large trail in the air with my aura-covered sword.

Swoosh!

The cloak tore and a crescent-shaped aura flew out towards the other side.

“Barrier!”

Edella tried to block Van’s aura with a barrier she had prepared in advance.

The translucent barrier that blocked the space between them collided with the aura.

Bang!

The barrier shattered and the residual magic scattered.

The aura that flew out completely destroyed Edella’s barrier and cut off part of the shoulder of the corpse golem behind it.

“———.”

Not missing the gap created by the broken barrier, Van’s body shot forward with his sword aimed.

Whoosh.

As Van’s body leaped forward with the aura, the corpse golem stepped back and swung its fist at him.

Whooosh!

The fist of the corpse golem came crashing down with a shockwave.

Van tilted his sword diagonally as he faced the fist coming at him.

“That’s impossible…!”

Squeak.

The sword tip with the aura cut through the corpse golem’s fist and advanced forward.

Van’s swordsmanship combined with the vibrating aura sliced through the corpse golem’s flesh like paper.

Edella’s face hardened as she saw Van cut off the golem’s arm.

The severed part of the corpse golem also spewed out a chilling scream.

The scream of the dead’s resentment echoed throughout the cave.

– Kiiiiiiiiii!

“Shut up.”

Van cut off the screaming part as well and stepped on the corpse golem as he climbed up to its head.

Chop. Chop.

The corpse golem’s shape collapsed wherever Van’s sword touched.

His swordsmanship reached its peak and cut through everything that touched his sword.

Edella panicked and started to cast magic as she saw Van shredding the corpse golem and coming up.

The corpse golem also tried to recover itself, but Van’s sword was faster than that.

“Fire arrow! Fi, fire arrow!”

“It’s nothing but a futile struggle.”

Bang!

The fire arrow that touched the aura exploded and burst.

But Van’s swordsmanship brushed off even the aftermath of the explosion and moved forward.

Whoosh. Thud.

The thin hands that stretched out from inside the golem also tried to stop Van, but they were not enough to block his swinging sword.

Van’s body cut through everything that blocked him and reached the top of the corpse golem in an instant.

Only then did Edella, who was at eye level with Van, thrust her hand with magic at him.

“Not, not like this…!”

“Die, witch.”

The sword with the aura crushed Edella’s last resistance.

Van tore off the magic barrier on Edella’s hand and dug one more step forward.

Whoosh.

Van, who reached the top of the golem, stabbed his sword into Edella’s chest without hesitation.

Black blood splashed on Van’s cheek as he stabbed his sword.

The blood that flowed from Edella’s chest was not red but black.

“Ku, kugh…!”

Edella glared at Van with a miserable face as she was stabbed by the sword.

Black blood was flowing from her mouth as well as from the stabbed part.

Thud. Thump.

The blood that fell from her mouth dropped onto the silent corpse golem.

Edella grabbed the sword that pierced her and opened her mouth.

“Curse, you…!”

“…”

“You… will never, be at peace, even if you die…!”

What poured out of her mouth was a curse.

She was cursing Van who killed her.

It was not easy to listen to such a story, so Van twisted his sword hard.

Edella’s body shivered with the brighter flame of the aura.

The curse that poured out of Edella’s mouth also seemed to subside a bit.

“Now it’s quieter.”

It was nothing but a loser’s struggle.

There was no reason to listen for long.

After Edella’s mouth that cursed him became silent,

Van sighed and pulled out his sword.

Dark blood like ink stained the sword that came out of Edella’s body.

As he pulled out his sword, Van tried to shake off the blood on it.

– “Who touched my doll?”

Boom!

Edella, who was wounded, exploded.

* * * * * *

“Puh…”

Deep darkness.

A realm of darkness where nothing could be seen.The first thing that Van Krite saw when he regained his consciousness was the darkness.

In the darkness that was so thick that he couldn’t even make out any shapes, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm.

He suppressed a groan as he touched his painful arm.

“Ugh…”

Something hot was oozing from his shoulder that his hand reached.

He lifted a finger to feel the sticky sensation on his palm.

Whoosh.

A blue light burst from his fingertip, illuminating his vision.

He moved his finger to his shoulder, where the pain was coming from.

He saw his skin torn apart in the dim blue light.

“Did I get hurt by Edella’s exploding corpse?”

He bit his lip as he checked the state of his shoulder.

It looked horrible.

The pain seemed to intensify as he looked at his wound.

But he couldn’t afford to focus on his injury right now.

He made the light on his finger brighter.

His fist wrapped in light revealed his surroundings.

“…”

The first thing that caught his eye was his own leg.

It was submerged in the black darkness.

The darkness filled the floor like stagnant water, rippling and swaying.

He turned his head and saw the investigator who had followed him.

He must have been caught in Edella’s explosion.

The investigator had lost half of his body and was lying dead with his eyes wide open.

Van moved quickly towards the dead investigator.

“You did well.”

Swoosh.

He closed the investigator’s eyes with his palm.

The investigator’s face was twisted with pain even with his eyes closed.

This was how it usually went with the dark mages of the Abyss.

It was a dirty and ugly fight, and the end was miserable.

Even if he won the fight, it often led to bad outcomes.

He got up from where he had closed the investigator’s eyes.

He let out a sigh as he stood up, bleeding from his wound.

“Hoo…”

He looked at the darkness that soaked his feet.

It didn’t look like the cave he had been in before.

He had ended up in a completely different place from where Edella had exploded.

And he couldn’t see any of the dark mages of the Abyss who might be targeting him around here.

He muttered to himself in this unfamiliar landscape that didn’t seem to belong to this world.

“I don’t think this is a cave… Where am I?”

A place where there was no sun.

And a place where the dark abyss writhed on the floor.

It was a place that even his intuition couldn’t understand.

As he looked around the strange place for the first time, burning light on his fist,

A cold voice echoed in his ears.

-“Are you curious where you are?”

It was a voice that sounded low and high, majestic and light at the same time.

It conveyed a contradictory sense of feeling to him, and he shut his mouth.

It was a strange sound that seemed to be made of many voices mixed together.

And yet it sounded like it wasn’t a sound at all, but rather it penetrated directly into his brain.

Pit-

His blue light flickered and faded away from his fist.

With a creaking sound of bones, he turned his head towards a direction.

-“You suddenly became quiet.”

“…”

-“Or maybe you’re too scared by the darkness.”

The cold voice continued to ring in his ears, even though he closed his mouth.

He tensed up at the sound and reached for the sword at his waist.

But there was only an empty scabbard there.

He couldn’t grasp any weapon in his hand.

He swallowed hard as he realized he was unarmed.

-“If you don’t know, I’ll tell you where you are.”

Whoosh.

Flames erupted in the empty air.

Two pairs of flames lined up side by side, lighting up his vision in the darkness.

The flames spaced apart created a path that led to the front of him.

He followed the path of flames slowly with his eyes.

And then he stopped at what was at the end of it.

-“A world where life is born without receiving light, and where they devour each other in a survival of the fittest.”

There was only one thing standing at the end of the burning flames.

A huge death wearing a robe over its head.

Death.

That was the only word he could use to describe the being that existed before him.

The death hidden under its thick robe stretched out its hand towards the distant sky.

At the same time, the darkness on the floor rose up towards the sky.

The pillars of darkness reaching for the sky opened their mouth as death spoke.

-“This is the Abyss.”

The eerie voice dug into his ears once more.

As if it wanted to make sure he knew where he was.