Chapter 330: Master of Death (5)
Archmage Elezar was dead. The Martial King of Kretas, Dreltein, was dead as well. And in the face of this perfect victory, the first thing Karnak did was to furiously shake out his right hand, trying to remove the darkness clinging to his fingers.
"Separate! Separate, quickly!"
He had to spit out the Anti-Time-Space Transcender he had absorbed. Holding such pure death within a living body was bound to cause side effects, and there was no way it wouldn't.
With a strange rumble, the six faces detached from his hand and floated into the air, reassembling themselves back into the obsidian cube, the Anti-Time-Space Transcender. But even then, Karnak's right hand remained dyed in black.
It was so saturated with dense darkness that even the lingering residue left it heavily tainted. He needed to purge the malice as quickly as possible, but it wasn't going as easily as he hoped.
Karnak called out to those around him. "Hey, come help me out here!"
At his frantic behavior, the archliches and Diogres looked puzzled.
"What?"
"Is it not over?"
"Why are you like this when you've already won?"
Honestly, none of them could understand why he was making such a fuss. Was this not the same Karnak who had just demonstrated such overwhelming power? Why was he suddenly panicking?
Karnak shouted frantically, "It's critical right now! If we drag this out any longer, it'll be a disaster!"
Diogres asked absentmindedly, "What exactly happens if we drag it out?"
A desperate answer shot back. "The food will start tasting bad!"
That made them confused even more. For a moment, they thought he might be joking just to ease the tension. But Varos and Leven's faces turned pale.
"Gah!"
"No, that's horrible!"
If that man lost his sense of taste? No one could predict what would happen to the future of this world! This was an extremely, immeasurably important matter! The two of them hurriedly rushed over to Karnak.
Varos asked, "What should we do?"
"Help me drive the malice out with your aura!" responded Karnak.
Varos quickly summoned his silver aura. "How do I do that?"
"Remember when I had indigestion and you pricked my finger?" Karnak said.
"Yes."
Karnak gave the instructions. "Do it like that! Just channel aura instead of blood!"
It sounded like utter nonsense, but a servant who had been with him for a hundred years was different indeed.
"Ah, that." Immediately, Varos grabbed Karnak's right arm, letting his silver aura seep beneath the skin.
Drawing out his purple aura, Leven asked, "What about me?"
"Just watch and follow along!" Karnak shouted.
Leven was momentarily speechless. Was he really telling him to replicate someone's aura manipulation through simple observation?
"No, you have to give instructions that actually— Wait, oh, I get it," said Leven.
As he watched the flow of Varos' aura, he began to understand what to do. Am I truly a genius? Why can I understand it by looking?
In any case, having grasped the trick, he earnestly joined in to help. The two of their auras continuously pushed the malice out of Karnak's right arm. A moment later, the last remnants of darkness trickled from Karnak's fingertips, returning to the Anti-Time-Space Transcender.
Leven let go, relieved. "It seems it's finished."
But Karnak and Varos still did not look at ease. After examining his right hand for a moment, Karnak spoke with a serious expression. "Varos."
"Yes."
"Hand it over."
"Here."
The power of unspoken understanding built over a hundred years was indeed formidable. Without any unnecessary words, Varos immediately pulled out what Karnak wanted and handed it to him. It was a sweet piece of candy. Karnak hurriedly popped the candy into his mouth and began to suck on it noisily.
Varos asked in a tense voice, "How is it?"
Letting out a sigh of relief, Karnak smiled gently. "It's sweet."
Varos managed to find his smile again as well. "That's a relief."
After putting the reclaimed Anti-Time-Space Transcender back into his robe, Karnak turned his gaze toward the other side of the ruined fortress, toward the plaza within the dungeon. Chaos still engulfed the square, and countless undead and monsters could be seen everywhere.
"Well, I suppose it's time to finish things over there too," declared Karnak.
Varos remarked, "You manage to keep such a serious face even while sucking on candy, huh? As expected of you, young master."
"Shut it, Varos."
"Yessir!"
***
The deaths of Dreltein and Elezar were made known to all. The story went something like this. Dreltein and Elezar had grown exhausted from their battle with Diogres, and on top of that, they were ambushed by the masters of the dungeon, leaving them unable to fight at their true strength.
In the end, both had fallen tragically to the archliches. However, the renown of the martial king and the archmage was so immense that even in the midst of all that, they had managed to defeat all four archliches.
Thanks to this, the monsters and undead, now without masters, had retreated, allowing Diogres Kolon to recover the belongings of the two and stand before everyone as he did now.
He declared, "The battle is over! There's no reason to fight any longer!"
Unfortunately, there were no corpses left to serve as evidence, as both of their bodies had turned to dust. However, there was evidence enough in their weapons: Elezar's staff, the Platinum Queen, and Dreltein's cherished sword.
Both were items they would never part from, enough to serve as undeniable proof. The subjugation force made up of the Kretas knights and the imperial magic tower mages promptly surrendered.
Truthfully, evidence hardly mattered. They had all gone there to fight, and with Elezar and Dreltein gone while Diogres and the others returned unscathed, what else could it mean? Besides, the subjugation force was already worn out to the brink.
Many had died, many were injured, and they had been holding on only with the belief that Elezar and Dreltein would see things through. It was more than enough to break their will to fight. One by one, they laid down their arms and surrendered quietly.
Thanks to this, Diogres' forces, along with Lapicel and Serati who had been aiding them, were finally able to take a breather.
Karnak called Serati over and gave her an order. "Take temporary command and handle the cleanup."
"Me?" Serati looked puzzled. "It's not that I mind, but why me?"
There were plenty of aura users here far stronger than she was. Magnus and Desteran were silver knights, and there were also quite a few purple knights from Search Black and the Kretas knights.
"Do you really think people like them are going to listen to a mere blue knight like me?"
Karnak shook his head and pointed at Desteran. "At the very least, that guy will listen to you."
"Ah..."
That was true. If nothing else, within Search Black, Serati's words held more weight than even Karnak's or Diogres'. Whether that was something to be happy about was another matter entirely.
Karnak then switched to telepathy to continue.
—Besides, you need to keep an eye on Lapicel too. I've got something I need to take care of now.
—And what's that?
—I need to finish dealing with Beltia.
Earlier, things had been too urgent, and he hadn't had the energy to do anything but temporarily confine her within a dream illusion. But now, Karnak, Diogres, and Varos were all in decent condition. They were quite exhausted, but after catching their breath, they had regained enough strength.
And with the four defeated archlich elders who had hidden away, taking down Beltia would not be difficult.
—Alright, I'll be back quickly!
With that, Karnak left.
***
Karnak, Diogres Kolon, and Varos headed straight into the depths of the fortress. Soon, they spotted the four archliches glancing around restlessly.
I told them to keep watch on Beltia. What are they doing over there?
Puzzled, he asked, "What are you doing? Where's Beltia?"
Kalaf shot back, "That's what we wish to ask you. Where exactly is the Martial King of Cyphras?"
"Huh?" Startled, Karnak looked around.
There was no mistake. This was the spot where Beltia had encountered the spirit of her deceased daughter. And yet, Beltia was nowhere to be seen. Nor was her daughter's spirit.
What's going on here? It's not yet time for the spell to wear off.
Had Beltia somehow broken free of the illusion herself? Using the formidable willpower befitting a martial king? It wasn't entirely impossible, but if she was capable of that, Karnak knew that she wouldn't have fallen for the illusion in the first place. Even if she had indeed broken free on her own, it still didn't add up. Because in that case, she should have come straight for him. As such, it made no sense that she would simply vanish after regaining her senses. It was a situation he could not comprehend.
Karnak muttered to himself. "This is a headache. And there's no one I can ask."
Tirafar looked puzzled. "Why do you say there's no one you can ask?"
"Huh?"
"There's the martial king's dead daughter, isn't there? Can't you summon her spirit and ask?" said Tirafar.
"Oh, you're right." Clicking his tongue, Karnak immediately began preparing a necromantic summoning. "I really must be turning too human these days, for something so obvious not to occur to me."
He quickly conjured a black summoning circle. But there was no response. No matter how many times he tried to summon, the child's spirit did not answer.
"Damn it..." Karnak's expression hardened. He knew very well what kind of situation caused necromancy to react like this. "Someone else has stolen the spirit."
***
Within the drifting void swam the authority of darkness—Astra Shunaph. A faint light flickered before the towering tree of death. It was the spirit of archmage Elezar.
"Forgive me, master. We have failed," she said.
She was maintaining herself, even though no mortal should be able to retain sanity within the infinite void. It was proof that Tesranach's blessing had grown even stronger.
"Yes, you have failed." A voice came from the black authority. It was Tesranach's voice. "Yet, it is a satisfying result."
It had not gone according to plan, but it had gone exactly as desired. It was an irony.
"The pope shaped by my hand died to him." He was referring to the fallen Pope of the Sun, Jedex Tieland.
"The martial king shaped by my hand also died to him." He spoke of the Martial King of Delphiad, Leven Strauss.
"And now, even the archmage shaped by my hand has died to him." The spirit of Archmage Elezar de Reflasion seeped toward Tesranach. "The master of death has bestowed himself upon all, and thus the brand of the master finally falls into my hands."
Having taken what he desired, Tesranach then spat out the souls of Elezar, Dreltein, and Leven Strauss. They wandered the void, yet they were still spirits from the future, rooted in the past.
Tesranach commanded, "You will move again."
The souls protested.
"But, my lord."
"There is no one left to summon us."
Now, the only saint remaining within the Black God's cult was Valeria Verily, the fallen Pope of Atima. There was no longer any archmage, nor martial king.
Tesranach denied this. "That is not so."
Suddenly, within a corner of the darkness, the image of a middle-aged woman praying came into view.
—Tesranach, I serve you...
"She has never been summoned, nor have I granted her power, and yet she is bound to me with such strength. Truly, that one shakes the world in places I could never have foreseen."
He referred to Beltia Crotium, the Martial King of Cyphras. Through reuniting with her daughter, she had come to possess an unshakable faith in Tesranach, becoming the new Hierophant of Darkness and the representative of aura.
Valeria already served as the Pope of Death, embodying divine power, leaving only the representative of Mana, the Saintess of Destruction, to be chosen.
This too, Tesranach had already arranged.
"Guiyen Ren will go."
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