Chapter 56

55. The Collapsing Mine of the Undead (1)


*


Except for Kailen and the mercenaries, the villagers in the plaza still hadn’t noticed the presence of the corpses. The villagers, still disregarding their lives, were charging at Fernandez. Their numbers were rapidly decreasing, revealing gaps.


-Swish.


Inside the plaza, only Fernandez noticed the presence of the corpses. A terrifying pressure and disgust seeped out from the burning barn. The blood of the villagers, soaking the ground, flowed like snakes towards the barn.


Carving strange patterns into the dirt floor. Swirling. Growing fiercer.


Fernandez was now using almost his entire body to push, slash, and strike down the villagers. None of them deserved to live. This wasn’t about cannibalism or human sacrifice.


-Once fallen into hell, there’s no escape.


‘Except for us, right?’


-Except for you, right.


Laughing briefly at Faijashi’s words, Fernandez looked straight ahead. His gaze reached the corpse standing on the ruins of the barn. The corpse’s pale pupils stared at Fernandez.


Its torn jaw twisted. Probably smiling. Fernandez watched as the corpse raised its arm, slowly killing Kailen and the mercenaries one by one, trembling without resistance.


-Splat!


The sound of the longsword’s blade slicing through the shoulder of a villager echoed. The longsword, already clogged with fat and blood, was losing its function. But it didn’t matter. All Fernandez needed now was consecrated steel.


[Who are you?]


At the corpse’s words, silence flowed over the plaza. Only then did the villagers, horrified, look towards the barn.


“What, what is that!!”


“Oh, oh, oh, our savior!!”


The villagers drew crosses and prostrated themselves. The corpse giggled and placed its foot on the head of a villager lying at its feet.


[What do you feel when a fly rubs its hands towards you?]


“…?”


[Disgust.]


-Squelch!


A dark green blade pierced the villager’s neck. The corpse trembled briefly, then turned its head towards Fernandez.


[I’m only interested in you, knight. I want to hear your name.]


“Hey, you. Can you move?”


Without taking his eyes off the corpse, Fernandez spoke to the trembling mercenary who had crouched down. Melmed, the mercenary captain. His pants were soaked black.


-Thud!


Fernandez kicked a pebble at his feet, hitting Melmed’s head. Melmed, startled, looked at Fernandez.


“Run to the nearest village. Find any church. Request an exorcism.”


“Yes, yes, yes?!”


“Go.”


-Swish.


Fernandez extended his finger, wiping the blood stuck to the longsword. Feeling the blade tremble, Fernandez quietly prayed.


[Do you think I’ll let you go so easily?]


“You’re not a demon.”


[…Huh?]


“At least, not the demon these fools believed in.”


Fernandez said, looking at the dark green blade the corpse held. A relic from the Necropolis. One of the countless items he had seen in his previous life.


And having seen it countless times meant it was by no means a rare item. Fernandez slowly raised his sword.


“Lace Monk.”


[Interesting. I’ll play along with your rhythm.]


The corpse twisted its head and laughed. Ignoring the fleeing Melmed, it approached Fernandez.


*


Angela, inwardly, thought the mission had failed and grumbled. After three days of stalking, she had seized the perfect timing for the best ambush, but the stupid knight and his squire had ruined everything.


“…”


He fights better than expected. That was Angela’s impression of the knight. The knight was slaughtering the villagers with beast-like senses and strength.


Of course, she would fight more efficiently than him. It was a combat style hard to imagine from his slender frame, but that didn’t mean it was effective. It was like using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken.


The knight’s movements weren’t suited for fighting humans. It was a swordsmanship prepared for something bigger, more powerful. Each movement was large and intense. He’ll tire out quickly like that. Clumsy.


-Stab!


Then, a dark green blade pierced the chest of the village man Angela was targeting. She instinctively grabbed the Beastman.


“He really showed up…”


She had planned to watch for a while and then leave, but now the plan was ruined. At least, she had to retrieve the blade the corpse was holding. It was the same style as the items she and her comrades had seen in the ruins.


“What are they saying?”


Due to the distance, she couldn’t hear the conversation between the corpse and the knight. She considered moving closer but soon stopped.


“Huh?”


The corpse suddenly stabbed its own chest! Angela, at that moment, bowed under the magical pressure enveloping the atmosphere. She felt someone’s gaze from above the sky.


-Rumble!!!


A terrifying pressure began to crush her. In the tension where she couldn’t move a finger, Angela knelt on one knee and looked at the plaza. The corpse’s body began to crumble.


“Ghost…!”


The corpse’s body swelled and peeled away like a shell. What appeared within was a giant ghost surrounded by a translucent green shadow.


*


-Rumble!


Lace Monk. Fernandez felt the magical power swirling in the sky. When Pertas’ Undercatacombs entered the battlefield, it was always like this. In his previous life, it was even larger and more intense. The sensation of the Nightmarish Mumto looking down from its seal.


-The land of death. It’s been a long time. I thought I’d never see it again.


‘The fact that the Undercatacombs are active in this era is significant information. Faijashi.’








-Clickety-clack.

The corpses of the villagers slaughtered by Fernandez began to rise one by one. Their flesh slowly melted and seeped into the ground, leaving only blood-soaked bones staggering.

At this horrifying sight, even the survivors fell into madness and chaos. Fernandez ignored the corpses surrounding him. He stood there, glaring at the dark green ghost looking down at him.

[It came earlier than I expected, but shedding the flesh is quite enjoyable.]

The ghost spoke as if singing from the sky. With every sway of its hand, one by one, the corpses staggered and rose.

“How did you break the seal of the Necropolis?”

[Huhu, if you tell me how you know about the Necropolis’ seal, I might answer you.]

Either survive and ask me, or die and serve me. Under the gaze of the great Mumto, no one can truly die. The ghost laughed, swinging a twisted longsword in the air.

-Clang!

Fernandez’s blade blocked the ghost’s longsword. Its attack was half-spiritual, but his weapon was pure Saintmetal! It had a clear effect on all things evil.

-Clash, clang!

Like silk fluttering in the wind, the ghost’s arm stretched out through the air toward Fernandez. Blades clashed, and dark sparks flew. Fernandez’s blade was being pushed back.

-Clang! Clang! Clang!

Gradually speeding up, the ghost’s sword slashed through the air. Fernandez, without retreating a single step, blocked the wildly swinging blade.

“Kirhas! Cover me!”

“Yes, Your Excellency!!”

At Fernandez’s shout, Kirhas appeared, cutting through the skeletons. She swung her sword madly, cutting down the skeletons approaching Fernandez. Her back touched his.

Just when he needed support. Fernandez smiled and raised his sword higher.

-Clang! Clang!

-Crash!

[How annoying!]

As the stalemate continued, the ghost screamed and wildly swung its sword. Even as Fernandez blocked, the residual shock reached Kirhas. She staggered each time.

Her body wasn’t Diemonica’s. She needed time to fight like her prime. The total amount of absolute experience was lacking. Fernandez crushed a skeleton she missed with one arm while blocking the ghost’s attack.

[Try blocking this!]

The ghost’s sword split the sky as it fell. Its body fluttered, disrupting Fernandez’s vision. For a moment, Diemonica’s sharp vision became a curse. Fernandez relied solely on instinct and kicked backward.

-Thud!

“Ugh?!”

Kirhas was flung back by the sudden impact. She looked at Fernandez with a confused expression.

“Y-Your Excellency?!”

A dark green blade protruded from his stomach. In that brief moment, Fernandez shielded Kirhas and took the attack. The ghost’s blade glowed darkly, beginning to suck the spirit embedded in Fernandez’s body.

-Screech…

The blade screamed. The Saint’s blood and spirit seeped into the ghost’s blade. Fernandez looked at the blade protruding from his stomach—

-Will immortality function even in Mumto’s domain?

‘There’s something to test before that.’

Feeling his blood grow cold, Fernandez smiled. Death was at his doorstep. From above, Mumto’s gaze felt more intense than ever. The world was engulfed in a gloomy green flame.

Half of his soul had fallen into Mumto’s grasp. The stench of death was thick. The smell of rotting corpses, ancient dust, and dried tears.

The curse entwined with the Necropolis’ blade destroys and absorbs souls. Even such a common relic bore such a powerful curse.

Fernandez laughed, feeling Mumto’s gaze watching him from the darkness.

The Saint’s soul rejects dark magic.

Diemonica’s blood rejects magic circuits.

Thus, the methods he had used so far were mere detours. Indirect magic manipulation through the Bronze Throne was almost the only method he could use.

But what if the Necropolis’ blade destroys the soul? If the blood becomes insufficient? If space is secured within his body to manifest magic?

-Doesn’t magic leave traces?

‘Only when used outside the body.’

-Sizzle…

The process of weaving magic circuits into his body was simpler than any other task for him. Observing the depths of his own flesh, Fernandez slowly opened his eyes.

For eighty-seven lifetimes, he was a mage who began each day by organizing his circuits. Engraving magic into his body along the circuits was possible even unconsciously.

-Sizzle!!!

The remaining Diemonica’s blood in his body boiled. Heat surged through his cold body. With one foot on the threshold of death, his vision slowly brightened.

The world of the dead split, revealing the ghost’s face. Even within its expressionless robe, its panic was evident.

“Pray to your god, monk. Beg Mumto.”

[You… weren’t a knight.]

Diemonica’s blood boiled, devouring his circuits even now. But he had bled too much to ignite the entire magic. His veins turned black.

The heat made his head dizzy. Fernandez gripped the hilt and pointed it at the ghost. His magic circuits were being rebuilt and destroyed every moment. His insides were already mush, tearing apart.

Even then, Fernandez could smile. Now, he had regained magic. A very limited method, but still.

[You were a mage!]

‘Yes.’

Fernandez raised his empty hand, listening to the ghost’s screaming voice. His vision dizzy from the heat, the blood rejecting magic pulsed violently, his fingers twisted and trembled.

One finger bent. Then a second, and a third.

The beastman’s hand slowly formed.

‘Even when the Thorned Crown’s Pertas was at its peak, and when it gathered all of the Undercatacomb’s conclave.’

-It couldn’t handle me.

Faijashi’s hand seeped into Fernandez’s trembling hand.

Though half his soul scattered, sucked into the ghost’s blade.

Faijashi smiled with Fernandez’s face.

Our souls are not one.