Chapter: 167
The vibrations and tremors of the earth only grew more intense. An ominous creaking sound echoed from the communal ceiling, with dust and dirt plummeting through the gaps—clear signs of impending collapse.
“It’s going to collapse! They’re trying to bury us alive!”
“Climb the stairs! Hurry!”
“Wait, the corpses around the altar look strange…!!”
Crick. Creak.
Patapatapat!
As the residual red energy from the altar began to draw in the corpses, they creaked and groaned, coming to life. At this sight, the siblings shouted in unison.
“Is that—necromancy?!”
“Are those zombies?!”
“Stop echoing each other!”
“…Don’t get jealous in a weird place, Kim Lulu, Captain of the Knights! We’re escaping this before it collapses!”
The strike team began to sprint. Time was short; they needed to reach the surface from the fourth basement level. It was a race against time.
“I’ll secure the rear! Don’t worry about me, just get out!”
“I’ll help too!”
“I’ll also stay behind. I’ll be of use!”
“I said stop echoing each other! And I can handle this alone…!”
Grrrraaaahhh—!!
The corpses started moving. There were easily over a hundred mummies crammed in every direction. With a wave of bodies looming over them, Kim Lulu clenched their fists.
These guys can be wiped out in one go.
Kiiiiiing—!!
With a deep breath, radiant light pooled in their hands. Just scattering this light would turn the corpses to ashes, while also blowing apart the underground facility.
“…Oh no!”
“I can’t let it collapse.”
In a hurry, Kim Lulu shook off the magic they had gathered. Even so, the spell fragments that flew off were enough to eliminate a couple of the resurrected corpses. If they messed up their power control just a bit, they might become the cause of being buried alive.
Even if they could easily escape the underground if buried, it wouldn’t be the case for everyone else. They wouldn’t hold out for long. Thus, they had to fight carefully.
“Ugh, don’t hang onto me!”
They were slow. Even while engulfed in the flames of magic, melting the corpses around them was futile against the tide of numerous attackers.
The zombies started bypassing the Captain of the Knights to target the main group.
Kim Lulu unceremoniously admitted,
“…Not enough!”
“I figured as much! Ribbon Rope!”
Pure Knight jumped in, her rapier unleashing magical bindings extending in all directions. This time, the focus shifted from suppression to disrupting movement.
Crash!
The corpses stumbled over each other, turning into obstacles. But even tangled and broken, they were still crawling towards them with eerie determination.
A flash of blades swept over them.
“Ugh!”
Pure Knight unleashed the Namgoong Cheonghui’s spear technique on the approaching zombies. The straight yet fluid blade danced through the air as heads were swiftly severed.
This was enough. The zombies’ stats weren’t that high. Even without infusing mana into the attacks, cutting off the heads of the low-tier zombies resurrected by shabby black magic was easy.
They were already dead, so decapitation wouldn’t necessarily stop them from moving but at least slowed them down as they became sluggish.
With Pure Knight dispersing the mass, Envers took care of the finishing touches. Their partnership, cultivated over a long time, clicked into place seamlessly.
Despite the crisis, Envers muttered with a hint of excitement.
“It seems we work surprisingly well together… I’d like to fight alongside my brother like this someday!“
“…That’s possible.”
It was stable. Their alliance was strong, and the enemies were being quickly dealt with. If they could just clear them all and rush to the surface…
Pitter-pat. Thud.
Amidst the downpour of dirt, something thudded down heavily.
“Huh?!”
“…Bones? Falling from the sky?”
Pure Knight looked up at the ceiling. As the cracks opened and dirt clumps fell, piles of buried bones started tumbling down alongside.
Once the bones entered the altar’s influence, they too were resurrected, joining the ranks of the undead. Kim Lulu shouted in irritation,
“…So these people were buried here?! Just make one big graveyard!”
“From the look of these bones, they weren’t buried recently, but ages ago!”
“Then this facility must have existed for a very long time?!”
“Probably!”
Had they found ancient ruins or a lair of an ancient black mage and turned it into a facility? Even as they whittled down the numbers, reinforcements kept falling from above. If they took too long, they would be buried alive.
“…Did anyone else escape?!”
“It seems there’s a long way to go! The power armor is too bulky…!!”
The passage was narrower than expected. Also, with the collapse over time, new obstacles were appearing in real time. Being oversized, the knights in power armor inevitably created bottlenecks.
Moreover, the corpses they had dealt with earlier were now on their feet again, starting to swarm them.
The Knights of the Capital members, using the heavy magic engines of their armor, smashed through the undead, but each move cost precious time.
Luce, the illusion magician from the Purple Tower, held back tears as she prepared to say goodbye to her beloved.
“My darling… it seems this is the end.”
–My honey, don’t worry. I have a plan. I’ll lure those undead, you just… stay alive.
“Don’t ask me to leave you behind!!”
“Please, don’t be selfish and just try something!!”
Tch.
Luce clicked her tongue at the agent’s criticism and began incanting.
How do the resurrected corpses detect living beings? They don’t rely on sight, as eyes rot away easily—that’s why necromancers typically use other sensory organs.
There are advanced undead tracking mana residues or lifeforce, but low-tier ones mainly rely on smell. So, she would grant her darling a sweet scent of life.
Maybe her obsession with creating smells paid off.
“Goodbye, my darling. Luce’s Aroma Bestowal.”
–Goodbye, my honey…
Woooooosh—!!
The undead blocking their escape charged after the hologram, drawn in like rats to a pipe player’s tune, picking up a suspiciously nice aroma.
The path ahead was opening up. They began gaining momentum towards escaping the facility.
===============================================================
From the fourth basement level, through the third basement, and down to the second.
The three of them, battling against the onslaught of the undead from behind, were gradually climbing upwards. It seemed the rest had all made it out.
Along the way, Kim Lulu hadn’t received a scratch, but…
“…It’s never-ending.”
“And, damn it, the collapse seems imminent!”
The siblings were exceptionally weary. Their concerns weren’t just about the zombies. The collapse had reached its peak, and large clumps of earth and rock were beginning to fall from above.
Blocking those also became a task. Pure Knight moved swiftly to avoid them while Envers rolled to the side. But it was impossible to block all incoming threats with just one hand.
They understood that time was running out. Pure Knight, rationally, and Kim Lulu, instinctively. The two had made several reckless attempts to break through.
But—was it coincidence or fate?
“Blooming Umbrella”…?!”
“Dae-su, are you okay?!”
At the moments they tried to break through, strange bad luck struck. Whenever they prepared their ultimate spells, rocks and bones would plummet directly onto their heads from above.
Whenever Kim Lulu focused and tried to unleash a powerful attack, Pure Knight’s safety would be compromised. Invisible traps or magic circles would activate, threatening her life, leaving them no choice but to move for her protection.
An unseen lantern swung in the gloom.
Duke Redburn Maximus’s Foreknowledge Lantern operated in two stages. The planning stage based on gathered information and the execution stage where destiny itself was manipulated based on that plan.
The more devoid of weaknesses and variables the plan is, the harsher the imposed destiny becomes.
He had deciphered through a web of information what Blue Rose had for offensive measures, and he also knew that the Captain of the Knights’ control skill was terrible.
Having grasped most of the enemy’s strengths, the plan had been laid with the traps of entrapment and an army of the undead ready to spring. The goddess of fortune surely smiles upon the prepared.
Gururururu—!!
The whole facility groaned in a loud wail. A haunting sound echoed. They were on the brink of collapse. Kim Lulu shouted.
“You all get out first!”
“…What about you?!”
“I’m strong! I can escape on my own while I hold them off. Hurry!”
It was rational. It made sense but…
The minute the facility began collapsing, the persistent stroke of sheer bad luck caused Pure Knight to hesitate. If she followed Kim Lulu’s orders to sprint outside while he handled the rear…
If the collapse started as there was a sufficient distance, Pure Knight would be surely crushed underneath without Kim Lulu protecting her.
But staying near her was not an option either. Zombies were popping up like cockroaches no matter how many they wiped out.
Ultimately, it was her own weakness that posed a problem. Pure Knight bit her lip, realizing she was being a burden to Kim Lulu.
Was there no solution?
In this dire situation, Envers sparked a thought and spoke up.
“…Captain of the Knights! I might be able to entangle the zombies’ feet!”
“Then do it! What are you waiting for?!”
“If my fable will even work on them…”
“Why say might? Just do it!”
Would the solemnity of a ruler reach the dead? They wouldn’t know until they tried, so they hadn’t until now… but they had no other option.
If they could bind their feet, it might buy them time…
Pure Knight cleared the bones away with her rapier and pressed closer to Kim Lulu. She then said,
“Kim Lulu, lend me your magic! I’ll control it!”
“…But receiving someone else’s mana won’t be compatible! And you won’t be able to handle it!”
“Either way, we’re going to die! So I at least have confidence in your mana!”
“…Uh, ugh. That sounds really weird….”
To Kim Lulu, clutching desperately against this awkward notion, Pure Knight’s lion’s roar burst forth.
“Hey!!”
“Okay, okay! Let’s do this…!”
“Alright! Transformation, Imperial Sword Style—!!”
Grabbing onto the sky.
Kaboom…!!
Seizing the sky, they pressed down. The palpable presence of the ruler spread through the entire space.
It reached the dead too. They recognized the incoming formidable threat from all directions, their movements visibly slowing down. And then…
Bam—!
The overload of information erupted the invisible lantern.
Pure Knight felt a rush of relief. The light that once led to doom was extinguished, and now sparks of hope ignited.
“…Now!”
Kim Lulu extinguished the flames of magical energy wrapping around their armor, dispersing the right arm of the power armor. With a rattling sound, the armor dropped to the ground in pieces.
Then they placed a small hand onto Pure Knight’s back, gently injecting her with magic. Just a fraction.
“…!!”
A sensation like magma flowed through her veins. As an immense amount of mana flooded in, Pure Knight felt a burning pain and winced.
Accepting another’s mana was hazardous.
If the Foreknowledge Lantern had still been active, this attempt would have led to catastrophic ruin.
Pure Knight would lose control of the mana and die, and Kim Lulu would then be left as the one who inadvertently killed their beloved. But because the lantern was obstructed by the Imperial Sword Style, the magical girl managed to gain control.
Behind the pain came a feeling of omnipotence.
“With this much mana, I can become incredibly strong without skill!”
Barely channeling a power she had never handled before, Pure Knight envisioned a drill. If they couldn’t escape before the facility collapsed, she would simply bore through the earth.
“Great Umbrella!!”
A massive umbrella enveloped the three of them, spinning rapidly. Then…
Crurururu—!!
The facility crumbled completely.
===============================================================
“…Did the captain make it out?!”
“It’s not the time to worry about the captain. We have to think about Blue Rose and the collaborator…”
“Wait, the ground is shaking… widen the gap! Run!”
“Why would we widen the gap?! We’re perfectly safe here—”
Kaboom—!!
The ground exploded with a brilliant blue light.
Thud thud thud.
Grains of dirt were scattered into the air like rain, and the three emerged from the massive pit, covered in mud.
“…We survived.”
“Thank goodness we made it.”
They had survived.
Pure Knight lay on the ground, gasping for air, pondering in a panic. They had escaped with their lives, but a nagging anxiety gnawed at the corner of her mind.
What were Duke Redburn’s intentions?
There’s a world of difference between pretending to be ignorant and truly turning a blind eye.
That the magical drug from the Redburn family had reached a location where they could clearly trace traps and remnants of black mages was something that could easily incriminate the duke politically.
Also, the traps weren’t deadly enough to wipe them all out. No matter how poorly things had gone, the likes of Kim Lulu had ensured their survival.
Then intelligence would undoubtedly reach the Knights of the Capital.
It would be one of two things.
Either the Duke was overstepping his boundaries or…
It simply wouldn’t matter to him.
===============================================================
The chessboard split. The black pieces were torn in half, scattering in all directions, while the white queen stood regally.
The Duke clenched his fist, turning the queen to dust.
“…Is this what it means to fail?”
“Yes, Lord Olgami.”
“…?”
Duke Maximus Redburn frowned briefly before softening his expression. It seemed there had been a major variable.
It displeased him greatly that things hadn’t gone according to his plan, but if he could identify a significant variable, then a failure could hold meaning. And, it wasn’t a crushing failure.
Preparations were already complete.
He shifted his gaze towards the statue made of pure black metal. It looked ominous yet radiated an aura of divinity. Indeed, it was the idol of the black mages.
“—The completion of the Despair Engraving Idol is nigh.”
Scheming or politics, it was all irrelevant.
In a world where human beings could transcend their limits, only strength was unequivocal.
The four black mages possessed their own aesthetics, naming themselves based on them.
“Despair Engraving Noose,” Maximus Redburn operated the farm. His wish was to engrave the marks of slavery onto human bodies and souls, wanting them to scream forever in never-ending despair.
Nothing changes. Tomorrow doesn’t improve or worsen. They simply suffer eternally in despair.
Gathering people to craft the hypnotic statue and setting up the environment was part of this goal. To siphon power through souls, the concept of “domination” was paramount.
The idol of despair, the four black mages pursued their respective visions, making artifacts through tormenting numerous souls.
Its might even reached a level of sublimation.
Once the idol was completed, Duke Redburn’s powers would evolve to another tier. Even now, he wielded the power to exert dominance over the fates of others, but what could he accomplish beyond that?
The Duke quietly laughed. When the time came, he would become omnipotent.
“…I heard there were issues with the Corpse Flower, and the Lamb still requires time to finish. Then, accounting for me, is the Virgin the closest one?”
“Yes, Lord Olgami. That’s what I’ve heard.”
“I hope those lazy bastards finish up soon. Waiting is no easy task.”
The Duke tapped his fingers against the armrest.
The other three black mages were also creating their own idols. The moment all preparations are complete, what would befall the empire would be unprecedented ruin.
How could they possibly endure it?
Unless a massive variable appears… only then would they be the last ones laughing.
===============================================================
“Hey, Pinbalez, are you busy?”
“No, crazy magician. What’s up?”
“Not much… I’ve trapped a succubus in my mental barrier. It’s not a big one, just a small one. Want to come check it out?”
“Absolutely. Let me grab some popcorn!”
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