abcnovels
Chapter 148
Chapter 148
Chapter 148
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]
Chapter 148: Master (3)
***
Thibaut always tried to be prepared for the worst.
But who could have predicted that an event would occur where undead would appear throughout the country and massacre people?
“Damn it, I thought I was finally getting a break. What the hell is going on!”
Thibaut cursed as he swung his weapon at the skeletons.
Just when he had met a man named Victor and acquired a large number of artifacts, he was filled with dreams that his life might change.
However, in one day, he was driven to such a desperate situation that he had to worry about his life.
The only fortunate thing was that Thibaut was not alone.
“Everyone, gather your strength! Don’t fall!”
Numerous knights were fighting the skeletons alongside him. Among them, the most outstanding figure was Duplessis.
A High-class, of which there were only two in the Macadamia Kingdom.
Duplessis’s skills were truly impressive. With a single swing of his sword, dozens of skeletons were smashed to pieces.
The problem was that they would just be restored again.
The skeletons that Duplessis had smashed returned to their original state.
Seeing this, the faces of Duplessis and the knights were filled with fatigue.
“Ugh, ugh!”
At that moment, a spear thrust by a skeleton pierced Thibaut’s shoulder.
Fortunately, he was unharmed thanks to his armor not being pierced.
“You bastard! This armor is an artifact even though it’s broken up!”
Thibaut shouted and beat the skeleton with his club.
However, no matter how much he hit it, the skeleton did not break. Instead, it grabbed Thibaut’s club and threw him to the side.
“Fuck! Fuck! Just die you motherfuking skeleton!”
Curses came out naturally. It was when Thibaut was filled with fear.
Suddenly, the light in the skeleton’s eyes disappeared, and soon its body crumbled into pieces and collapsed.
“Huh? What?”
It wasn’t just the skeleton that Thibaut was facing. All the skeletons throughout the country were collapsing.
Everyone was dumbfounded by the sudden situation.
“We’re… alive!”
But that was only for a moment. People cheered in relief at the fact that they had survived.
“Phew, whew…”
Thibaut sat down on the ground and let out a sigh of relief.
“Victor, is that guy safe…?”
Thibaut muttered worriedly.
***
Gathdal writhed on the ground after Damien infused him with dark mana.
“S-stop! Stop it! This is enough! Stop tearing my soul out!”
“Oh, no! I was wrong! It’s all my fault! Stop! Just stop!”
“Kill me… Please kill me… Please… Just kill me already…”
Gathdal endlessly screamed and wailed in pain. He occasionally pleaded to be killed in a desperate voice.
Dominico and the skeletons watched the scene in silence.
Since they were all undead, they could understand what Gathdal was going through.
He was being tortured by tens of thousands of souls in the spiritual space.
It was a horrific ordeal, even for someone they knew to be an enemy. Of course, that didn’t mean they all truly pitied Gathdal.
– Is this why you didn’t let me handle Gathdal? To make him suffer more?
Dominico asked Damien, looking back at him. Damien let out a chuckle.
“Don’t be mistaken. I simply thought they were the ones who deserved to get revenge on Gathdal.”
Damien’s voice remained cold.
“Originally, I should have thrown your souls to them as well… but consider yourself fortunate that I didn’t.”
While Damien had given them the opportunity to take revenge, it didn’t mean he had forgiven their sins.
However, he no longer condemned them for choosing to fight Gathdal even after becoming undead.
– …You’re right. Our sins still remain.
Dominico looked up at the sky. Unlike the ruined city, the sky was shining in clear blue.
– Your real name is Damien Haksen, was it?
Dominico stood before Damien. The skeletons then lined up behind him.
– Thank you for helping us.
As Dominico bowed his head, the skeletons did the same.
“……You don’t need to thank me. Go and take care of your master.”
– We appreciate your consideration. Then we shall retrieve his body.
Dominico and the skeletons left to find Freize’s body.
Gathdal’s released dark mana had blown away the annex, and Freize’s body had been swept away with it.
In the meantime, Damien began cleaning up.
The first thing Damien secured was the fragment of Erebos.
Even in the midst of a powerful blow that could have leveled a mountain, the fragment of Erebos remained intact, lying on the ground.
Damien bent down and picked up the fragment of Erebos.
“This makes two.”
The fragment of Erebos he obtained this time was very small. It was hard to believe it had powered a Master-class undead.
Damien took out Erebos, which was stored in tattoo form on his wrist.
The fragment turned into a liquid-like state and adhered to the blade. The short blade became slightly longer.
Damien swung the spear with Erebos attached to it as a test. Thanks to the longer blade, he could feel Erebos cutting through the air.
“If it gets a little longer here, the power of nullification might awaken.”
Like the power of corrosion, nullification was also one of Erebos’s most powerful powers.
If the power of corrosion destroyed matter, the power of nullification was the power to erase mana.
It was a power that was like a natural enemy to mages. In his days as a Death Knight, he had once blocked a magical bombardment prepared by the Grand Mages with the power of nullification.
Next, Damien gathered all the dark mana around him and stored it in the bracelet. Then he erased all traces of the use of high-level dark magic.
Finally, Damien approached Gathdal.
Gathdal had already stopped breathing. In the end, his soul had been completely destroyed.
“What a piece of trash.”
Damien said contemptuously and tried to burn Gathdal’s body with dark magic.
Then, he suddenly saw the magic tool hanging around Gathdal’s neck.
“This is…”
Damien took off the necklace and checked it. It was a magic tool with subspace magic applied to it.
Damien opened the subspace and checked the inside. The space was much larger than the subspace ring he had been using. It seemed to be about three times the size.
“This is useful.”
What sin could an object have? Damien took the subspace necklace.
Instead, he pulled out all of Gathdal’s research materials and books that were inside. Then he burned them along with Gathdal’s body.
Next, Damien’s attention was drawn to the staff that Gathdal had been using.
Befitting the position of Grand Dark Mage, this staff was no ordinary object.
“A staff made from the branch of a spirit tree. Where did you get this precious thing?”
A spirit tree was a special tree that grew only in the spirit world, the world of spirits.
It was very difficult to obtain, but it was known that there was no better material for making artifacts.
Of course, if you were to rank them, the World Tree, which the elves cherished, was far superior, but it was almost impossible to obtain.
“I could probably sell this to the mages.”
It was a pity to throw it away. Damien put the staff in the subspace.
– Sir Damien, we’re done here.
Dominico and the skeletons returned to Damien’s location.
“Have you recovered the body safely?”
– Yes, I’m on my way back after burying it in the backyard. I wanted to take some time to mourn… but I have more pressing matters to attend to.
“Urgent matters?”
Damien looked at Dominico with a puzzled face.
– People will soon be flocking to the castle. I want to repay you before that.
***
Dominico leads Damien to the basement of the Duke’s Castle.
“This is the entrance to the Duke’s vault. There is something inside I want to give you.”
Dominico, who had been here several times before, skillfully manipulated the device attached to the iron door. The iron door slowly began to open to the left and right.
“The vault…”
Damien looked at the entrance with an intrigued expression.
This was the vault of a family that had produced Master Classes and had risen to the rank of Duke. Even Damien could not help but feel tempted.
However, when the iron door finally opened, Damien could not help but be greatly disappointed.
“…Isn’t it empty?”
The interior space was quite large, but there were few objects left.
“After Master passed away, we had to sell everything inside to support the Country.”
Dominico said with a sheepish expression.
“But the most precious treasure is still here.”
Dominico led Damien inside. There, a large sword was hung.
The length of the blade alone was easily over 2 meters. The hilt was also so long that it seemed like it would still be long even if held with two hands.
What was most unusual was the line engraved on the surface of the blade. More than a dozen straight lines extended from the hilt to the tip of the blade.
“This is a relic sword that Master found on the last floor of the ruins. It seems to be something extraordinary, so it has been kept in the vault ever since.”
Dominico began to explain from beside Damien.
“It is too large and heavy to be a suitable weapon for combat. But Master never used this weapon either.”
Dominico looked at the greatsword with a regretful expression and said.
“I don’t know what its function is, but… it was kept safe on the last floor. It can’t be an ordinary object, so you can probably get a huge price for it if you take it and sell it later.”
Damien approached the relic sword.
If it was an object found on the last floor of the ruins, it could only be that.
The relic sword that the craftsman, who was the original owner of the ruins, was said to be in the process of making to present to the prince.
“I thought it would be here…”
Among the descriptions he had seen at the ruins, there was also a description of how it worked.
Damien poured his mana into the relic sword. Then, the crossguard of the relic sword began to glow brightly.
“Oh?”
Dominico was surprised and took a step back when the relic sword started to work.
The relic sword floated up into the air and circled around Damien.
Damien tried to draw a movement in his head. The relic sword moved accordingly.
“You must need a name too.”
Damien said, looking at the relic sword floating around him.
“Let’s call you Ethereon.”
And so, Damien became the owner of the relic sword.
[TL/N- I used the name Ethereon in place of the name given in the raws ,i.e, “Biyeon” meaning “beautiful lotus flower” but according to me I believe a sword’s name should be more in tune with the what the sword could do while also sounding cool at that. So i hope you could let me take this translator’s liberty : ) ]
***
Damien left the Duke’s Castle.
As soon as Damien came out, many people rushed into the castle. It was a close call.
Damien goes to retrieve the artifacts he left at the inn and the 6th floor of the ruins.
He didn’t want to leave them behind.
Thanks to the subspace necklace he obtained from Gathdal, he was able to put all the artifacts in it.
After retrieving all the artifacts, Damien sneaks into the inn where Thibaut is tied up to take care of some last business.
“Thud.”
Thibaut was sleeping sprawled out on the bed. Damien hit him on the forehead with a single blow.
“Ugh, ugh!”
Thibaut woke up screaming. As soon as he saw Damien’s face, he was so surprised that he tried to scream.
“Oh.”
Damien quickly pressed on Thibaut’s blood vessel. It was the spot that paralyzed the throat muscles. As a result, Thibaut stopped trying to scream.
“Calm down. It’s me.”
Damien showed his face in front of Thibaut. Thibaut’s eyes widened.
When Damien released the blood vessel, Thibaut said with a surprised face.
“Lord Victor? You’re alive?”
“Did you think I was dead?”
“I didn’t see you anywhere, so I thought you were definitely…”
As he said this, Thibaut sighed in relief.
“But why are you here at this time?”
“I have a lot to do before I leave.”
“Leave? What about the ruins?”
“With this mess going on, who cares about the ruins?”
Large-scale undead have appeared, so the paladins will soon be sent from the Church.
If they met Damien, it would be troublesome in many ways, so he planned to leave before that.
“I came here because I think I should pay you for your hard work before I leave.”
“Yes?”
“That armor and gauntlet are yours from now on.”
Thibaut’s eyes widened at Damien’s words.
“That’s not enough.”
Damien took out a few artifacts he had brought with him. They were the items he had found on the 6th floor.
“Even if you sell these, you’ll have no problem eating and living.”
“L, Lord Victor…”
Thibaut looked at Damien with a grateful face.
“I don’t mean to pay you back or anything, but… let me erase some of your memories.”
“Yes?”
Damien put his finger on Thibaut’s forehead and used dark magic.
He extracted and erased a few days’ worth of memories from Thibaut.
It was to prepare for when the Pandemonium interrogates people.
As a result of the dark magic, Thibaut passed out.
“Take care.”
After saying that, Damien left the inn.
***
Damien leaves the Almond Country.
After leaving the inn, Damien rode on a horse he had bought in advance and left.
He is stopped by the spirits of the knights, soldiers, and Dominico.
“Come out.”
As soon as Damien’s words ended, the bushes around him shook.
From among them, people with opaque figures walked out.
They were the knights, soldiers, and spirits of Dominico.
“Why are you following me?”
After the battle, Damien lifted the dark magic that had been cast on them. They returned from the undead to spirits again.
“Your place of death is the Almond country. Don’t follow me anymore.”
Damien said in a firm tone.
The knights and soldiers of the Dukedom looked at Dominico. He stepped in front of Damien and said.
– Sir Damien, do you plan to fight the dark mages in the future?
“That’s right.”
– Why are you trying to fight the dark mages?
Damien frowned at Dominico’s question.
“I don’t have to tell you that. Are you telling me you came looking for me to ask such a silly question?”
– Use us in that fight.
Damien stopped at the unexpected words.
“What did you say?”
– You asked us to use us as a tool to achieve your goal.
“What are you thinking?”
Dominico smiled bitterly at Damien’s question.
– There are two reasons. The first is because, as you said, we have not yet free from our sins.
As Damien had said, they captured innocent explorers and turned them into Gathdal’s test subjects.
Although it was an act done for their lord, a crime was a crime.
– The second is… because we want to repay the favor we received from you.
Damien thought he had misheard something. However, Dominico and the other spirits looked at Damien with determined faces.
Damien fell into thought.
If Damien had been alone, he would have refused their loyalty.
Damien could fight alone just fine. They were more likely to be a hindrance.
However, Damien now had a family to protect.
Damien would soon clash with the Pandemonium. The Pandemonium would surely pressure Damien by any means necessary.
No matter how good Damien was, he couldn’t handle both with one hand.
“…You’ll regret it.”
At Damien’s words, Dominico and the other spirits smiled and said.
– Don’t worry. We will never regret it.
Dominico and the spirits knelt before Damien.
They looked like knights about to swear allegiance to their monarch.
***
[Translator – Kie]
[Proofreader – Kawaii]