Book 7 Chapter 4
Chapter 153
“I have a few questions before I kill you.”
A creepy, unpleasant magical energy, one that felt somehow familiar, stirred… Why did it feel like déjà vu?
It was that bastard I saw at the barrier.
Judging by his pale skin, he was an Imperial citizen, and it was puzzling that even now, captured by me, a sneering smile was plastered across his face.
“Was it your doing that caused that scheme in the North… and turned the Republic into this mess?”
“Your doing?”
“You wouldn’t have lived for such a long time all by yourself.”
According to what Alakish said, the scheme seemed to have taken about 500 years.
“Heh, heheheheheheh. You're so naive, probably because you don't even know the 'M' in 'magic' yet. And a scheme? Hmm, do chicks these days call a little prank a scheme?”
Miria approached cautiously, on alert, while Aki was huddled, clinging tightly to her shoulder.
“What are you talking about? Turning the Republic into this mess?”
“It’s a long story. Anyway, this bastard is probably the one who destroyed the Republic and created the era of the Seven-Sceneries-Six-Gates-Three-Marks or whatever it is.”
“This great senior’s name isn’t ‘this bastard,’ it’s Zernix. It’s a bit different from a thousand years ago when Lyuken killed me, but I’m still alive.”
“What… Zernix?”
For a moment, my perception became disjointed.
Did I mishear something?
No, but he definitely added more. A backstory that was like fitting together the pieces of a puzzle. Perhaps feeling my confusion, Miria asked.
“Zernix, do you know who that is?”
“Zernix… He was a genius magician who became an archmage at twenty-two, but he died over a thousand years ago.”
“You should speak properly, junior. I reached the 5-star realm when I was nineteen. And look closely at the history books. I wasn't killed, I was recorded as missing.”
“Nonsense. If you’re really Zernix, then how on earth are you alive?”
“Heheheheh, that damn old man, your esteemed ancestor Lyuken Ludwig, did kill my body once, but the Abyss must have seen my value highly enough to revive my brain like this.”
It was an unbelievable story.
After all, Lyuken and Zernix were famous for being master and disciple.
But killed by Lyuken once?
“The Black Church benefited by gaining good power, and it worked out well for me too. I couldn’t chase after women much while learning magic. I thought I could finally live a comfortable life, but I was so regretful I couldn’t close my eyes.”
“How crude…”
Miria said in a cold, disdainful voice, and the bastard chuckled. I spoke.
“Prove it. That you’re Zernix.”
“Proof, proof, proof.”
As Pipi landed on Rain’s head, a subtle glow flickered in Zernix’s eyes.
Strange…
Is this sun parrot the same one as back then? No, that’s impossible. No being can enjoy eternal life without reaching out to the Abyss.
“Immediately after my resurrection, the Black Church recruited me and entrusted me with the scheme’s mission. It sounds grand, but all I did was give a slight push.”
“What push?”
“To let those who wanted power seize power, and those who wanted money earn money… It wasn’t very difficult. It didn’t even take 100 years for things to get this bad.”
Miria responded in a shocked voice.
“Impossible. The priestesses would have stopped it.”
“Manipulating priestesses is no big deal either. While Friede, who looked sexy smoking, was a priestess, it was as tough as when the Fire Dragon was around.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
Rain and Pipi suddenly spoke in voices so chilling they made eardrums tingle, causing both Miria and Aki to flinch.
But Zernix continued to ramble on, completely unperturbed.
“The Dragonkin Republic, you see, was built on the belief that humans, like gods, had realized the values of freedom and harmony. What the Fire Dragon didn’t know was that human nature is vile. Unlike the gods.”
“…”
“The priestesses would have stopped me? Hmph, even Tureina, whom you praise as great, is in the palm of my hand? I helped her a little when she wanted to wake up a frozen kid, and she immediately flipped her eyes and learned black magic.”
The moment that statement came out, I felt my body stiffen.
It felt as if silence had descended upon the world, even though the self-proclaimed Zernix in front of me kept blabbering tirelessly.
My breathing grew rougher. Blood wasn’t reaching my head. My body moved on its own, grabbing his collar.
“What the hell are you talking about? Tureina what? Learning black magic to wake up a frozen kid?”
My physical eyes were on him, but my mental eyes were beyond, seeing the sky-blue haired girl hidden within the echoes of a soul.
It was the moment when a doubt, not quite a doubt, that I had buried deep in my heart ever since meeting Libeny, raised its head.
In my mind, it was still impossible, she's dead… only that thought whirled bewilderingly.
“A priestess is also human. She succumbed to instinct. Soon, the time of chaos, awakened by her hands, will dominate the Akrad continent.”
“Answer my question, you are now—”
“—As a great senior, I’ll give you a lesson. A magician only has a long tongue when preparing something.”
Heh, Zernix’s lower body, which merely smiled with his mouth, strangely inflated the next moment, becoming dark matter tentacles that rose.
The chains of the Zesose-Ryeon-Yeon (Shattered Bone-Crushing Chain) were broken at some point, even though it was 5-star magic.
Miria shivered, instinctively sensing danger and retreating, reaching for her sword hilt, but the tentacle had already half-pierced her helmet’s face guard.
“I’ve been reading your shallow tricks all along, you bastard.”
In an instant, a dazzling incandescence exploded, bright enough to scorch the retina, and the source of the disgusting tentacles was burned to ashes without a trace in a blaze of fire (화광충천).
The tentacle that had thrust itself right up to my eyes lost power and limply drooped, then shattered into countless particles of negativity.
At that moment, the boy gasped for breath, looking at the embers and ashes scattering across his vision.
‘I have a bad feeling… The mastermind who controlled the barrier for 500 years, caused Alakish’s death, and even fragmented the Republic, died this easily?’
This wasn't the only ominous sign.
Tureina touched black magic to save the frozen kid? And he taught it to her?
“Miria, where is the Northern Republic’s priestess now?”
Perhaps it was a sudden question, but Miria looked bewildered, then soon answered seriously.
“I don’t know exactly either. Wouldn’t she be in one of the three major cities?”
Of the seven major cities, the three located in the Northern Republic, that is, on the Akrad continent, are:
The Blue City, <Tervenople>.
The Indigo City, <Aristapho>.
The Purple City, <Aurelinople>.
The closest to their current location, and according to Miria, the place where Priestess Juliana mainly resided, was <Aurelinople>, located in the middle reaches of the Belisor Great River.
A priestess, specifically Tureina’s disciple Juliana, would surely know something.
“Then let’s part ways here. I’m going to <Aurelinople>. You stay here and collect your reward when those witches wake up.”
No one knows when they’ll wake up.
Didn’t they say the Barrier’s Supreme Commander was still unconscious?
Of course, that was a 5-star possession, and this might be different because it had to control an entire village, making it 3-star, but I don’t have time to wait.
‘It would be a lie to say I’m not sad to part ways.’
There was so much I wanted to ask and know. Whether she was truly Lysta’s reincarnation, or just resembled her.
But that’s enough now…
Friede said she didn’t want to shackle me with the past, as I had a new life to live. But now I think this:
‘If the real Lysta has truly been revived… if she’s alive somewhere, that’s enough.’
Wishing for more would be greedy. Moreover, even if it were real, there would be no memory, so there’s little difference between real and fake, and I don’t want to take her to dangerous places.
“No.”
When I approached to take Aki, Miria, instead of readily handing Aki over, walked past me towards the pontoon where the riverboat was docked.
“I’m coming too.”
What… I asked blankly, and Miria looked back at me over her shoulder.
The look in her eyes, visible through the broken face guard, was as cold as ever, but felt slightly softer than usual.
“I also have something to check. And you expect me to just go home after being used? I can’t do anything with this lingering feeling.”
* * *
Somewhere on the Adrion continent, where the heat of the polar regions beat down, and a weathervane spun with a desolate, dry sound in a sandstorm.
In the Age of the Abyss, a young man who had been sitting cross-legged in front of a screen with sinister Alvrazm-style paintings on it, took off an eye patch with seven eyes drawn inside a triangle.
At the same time, a puppet doll placed on the altar split into five pieces and was incinerated.
‘That guy, he’s several times stronger than when I met him last time… What’s strange is that his combat style is too similar to that little kid, Lynn, from before.’
Heh, what does it matter?
I hope he gets even stronger than now.
That way, when I take that body, that fresh body that has awakened the eyes of Lyuken, that bastard, I can enjoy it to my heart’s content.
‘Still… with only that much skill, he’ll die to Tureina, so perhaps his growth ends there?’
Should I say their compatibility is bad?
Heh, I’ll know the result soon enough. No matter who dies.
Let’s wait happily while doing the old hag’s bidding.
* * *
In the southeastern Red Mountains, Mythical Peak, the highest and most noble peak, was shrouded in night fog.
Hundreds of years after the Red Dragon Legion left the mountains, the peak, which had boasted noble beauty throughout those years, had its soil decay, causing all the oak trees covering the area to rot away.
The roots and branches of those trees grotesquely intertwined, creating terrifying, tumor-like formations across the ground.
At the altar of the temple located at the edge of that cliff, there was originally a Beltar Divine Stone (神石) that burned brighter and hotter than flames. Throughout the long history of the Republic, priestesses received the Fire Dragon’s revelations through this divine stone.
But now, as the priestess in the conical hat standing before it began chanting an unknown spell, something foul boiled within the Beltar Divine Stone as if pulsing, and the divine stone turned dark blue.
“All the black witches of <Betri> serve you, one of the Three Sages (三中賢) of the Queen of Time, Navoriakshi.”
Soon, a mad light flickered on the surface of the divine stone.
They were three eyeballs.
Even without a single ray of light entering… three disgustingly torn eyeballs gleamed bright yellow inside the divine stone, pouring an absolute voice into the mind of the target, not through the ears.
「Bal surudui gun de kan… Ah, the time when all eyes shall open draws near…」
“Command me.”
「The time has come to awaken the sleeping time… On the day light vanishes… Pile the blood of light upon the Queen’s altar… On that day, the false veil shall be lifted… and your dream of destiny shall be realized, Doha, buretaris…」
The priestess in the old conical hat, Tureina, put a pipe in her mouth, and the chaotic colors flickering in the divine stone soon subsided.
Only then did a man standing beyond the temple pillars walk forward. He wore a dark blue robe and his face was covered by an ominous iron mask.
Unusually, his left arm was not a human arm; a dark, ominous aura (妖氣) merely wriggled in a blackish light, forming the shape of an arm.
“What commands did the Three Eyes give?”
Tureina remained silent for a while, or rather, for a long time. Lost in the thoughts filling her mind.
Lynn’s body, which she would receive as the price of resurrection, or rather, return to its state with the soul… As soon as she confirmed her master was alive, she would immediately seal him.
She had waited all these long years to prepare that spell. From the moment she learned black magic to save her master.
“Gather all the black witches scattered across the continent. We must seriously prepare for the ritual.”
“The ritual, you mean… But we haven’t received any contact from #4, #5, and #7 confirming the securing of the True Dragon’s remains.”
“You just do as I tell you. Don’t worry about the True Dragon’s remains. I’ll go myself.”