Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Deioden looked around with sharp eyes.

“The air has changed.”

“What do you mean?”

Zeon looked at him with puzzled eyes.

Deioden did not answer.

At that, Zeon’s expression twisted, but Deioden did not care.

Explaining everything kindly, from beginning to end, did not help growth.

One had to feel it oneself, harbor questions, and agonize over them in order to grow.

Deioden had grown that way, and he applied his own method to Zeon as well.

Until now, Zeon had followed it splendidly, but he was still lacking.

Zeon had to agonize more fiercely. Only then could he become far stronger than he was now.

As befitting the middle of the desert, the air was still hot. But within it was a damp, sinister energy.

He had roamed the desert for a long time, but this was the first time he had felt such a sensation.

A moment later, as if Zeon had also felt something strange, he tilted his head.

Thinking that Zeon’s reaction was not bad, Deioden moved forward.

This was unknown land, even to him.

When people spoke of the desert, they commonly thought every landscape was the same, but that was not true.

The desert had distinctive features depending on the region.

Some places were connected by endless valleys, and others were filled with shifting sands, where the sand flowed like rivers.

Just by looking at such characteristics, one could roughly guess where one was. But Deioden swore this was his first time seeing a region with features like these.

It was as if the air itself bore hostility toward humans.

Vmmmm!

Crayon released a sword cry.

Deioden nodded and answered,

“I know, my friend!”

Even after wandering the world for a hundred years, the reason he did not feel loneliness was because of Crayon.

Because Crayon had always been with him, he had been able to maintain his reason without being swallowed by madness.

CRUNCH!

The sand beneath his feet broke into fine pieces and scattered in the wind.

It certainly felt different from any other sand he had stepped on until now.

Desert sand had no cohesion to begin with. Since it could not clump together at all, there was no reason for it to break apart simply because he stepped on it lightly.

Everything about this place was different.

Deioden moved forward without lowering his guard for even a moment. But as if mocking his vigilance, nothing happened for several days.

Suddenly, a strange sight entered Deioden’s vision.

“What is that?”

Far away, ocher land came into view.

Its color was clearly different from the desert sand they had crossed until now.

He had lived in the desert for a hundred years, but this was the first time he had seen a place with such a color.

Beyond the ocher land, in an extremely distant place, something towered upward.

It was too far away to be certain, but it resembled a castle one might see only in storybooks.

“A castle in the middle of the desert?”

Deioden’s eyes sank deeply.

Deioden had seen several colonies with his own eyes, including the Neo Seoul Colony.

Among all the colonies he had seen, not one had this form of a castle.

There was no need to think further.

Deioden walked toward the castle.

He could feel Zeon diligently following behind him.

Zeon had already fulfilled his usefulness simply by removing the barrier that had been stubbornly blocking him. Now, Deioden no longer needed him.

Even so, Deioden did not tell Zeon to go back.

As Zeon had said, if they had come this far together, it was only right that they see the end together as well.

No matter what the result might be.

After walking for a full day, they finally reached the ocher land.

It was the moment they set foot on the ocher land.

CRACK!

Suddenly, something pierced through the ground and revealed itself.

It was an arm.

The arm, its flesh rotten and falling away to expose the bone, soon braced itself against the ground and pulled its body up.

What revealed itself above the ocher land was clearly a corpse.

And a corpse wearing armor at that.

Its flesh was half rotten, its bones plainly exposed, but somehow, it was alive and moving.

Deioden immediately realized the corpse’s identity.

“An undead?”

It was a phenomenon where a corpse moved for some reason.

Deioden had heard stories about them, but this was his first time seeing one himself.

There was not only one undead.

After it, countless undead pierced through the ground and revealed themselves.

Cloaks and armor fluttering in the wind, swords held in their hands.

Their appearance was exactly like that of a medieval knight order.

Deioden looked around.

He wondered if he had entered a dungeon without realizing it.

If this were a dungeon, there would be nothing strange about the phenomenon.

A dungeon was a place where anything was possible.

A fragment of another dimension separated from reality.

Things beyond human imagination were possible inside dungeons.

But this place was not a dungeon.

It was clearly reality.

For undead to rise in reality.

“A dungeon-like phenomenon is happening, even though this is not a dungeon. It seems I have found the right place.”

Deioden grinned.

Before he knew it, his eyes held their characteristic madness.

“Come at me, those who have not found rest.”

His arrogant cry was the trigger.

KROOOAR!

The undead knights rushed madly toward Deioden.

Their bodies were rotten and decayed, but perhaps their former skill had not gone anywhere, for the movements of the undead knights were agile.

CLANGCLANGCLANG!

Deioden’s sword clashed with the swords of the undead knights, and the sound of metal burst out.

---

The battle between Deioden and the undead knights was fierce.

As though displaying the realm they had reached in life, the undead knights’ martial prowess was extraordinary.

They were even able to fight evenly for a while against the outrageous Deioden. But that too was only possible because Deioden was allowing it.

CRACK!

With one strike from Deioden, one undead knight was split in two.

The undead knight, cut apart from the waist, rolled miserably across the ground.

If it had been an ordinary person, it would have been a fatal wound that should have killed them long ago. But the undead knights were beings already dead.

There was no way a being that had died once would die again.

Sssshhh!

The severed upper and lower bodies joined together on their own, becoming whole again in an instant.

Zeon murmured,

“So this is why they’re called undead?”

He did not directly participate in the battle and merely watched.

This fight was not his fight.

It was Deioden’s fight.

Just as Deioden had done in the sand dungeon, this time, it was Zeon’s turn to watch.

His role had ended with removing the barrier that had blocked the path ahead.

From now on, he had to watch from the position of an observer.

Unless Deioden wanted otherwise.

“Khehehe!”

Deioden’s mad and desperate laughter rang out.

He seemed truly delighted.

His opponents were dead, but they were also knights.

Those who fought with swords.

The swordsmanship they had mastered in life was being realized through their rotten bodies.

It had truly been a long time since he had fought sword against sword.

Deioden did not use mana at all and faced the undead knights with pure swordsmanship. Even so, the undead knights were no match for him.

SLASH!

Each time he swung Crayon, the undead knights were split apart and collapsed. But they soon recovered from their wounds and charged at Deioden again.

Because they were already dead, they had no fear and felt no pain.

In some ways, they were similar to the Sand Soldiers Zeon had faced.

There was another similarity as well.

Their numbers.

THRUST! THRUST!

Undead knights kept piercing through the ground and revealing themselves.

At a glance, their number seemed easily to exceed several hundred.

The undead knights rushed madly at Deioden.

Even though Zeon was clearly nearby, they did not so much as glance at him and attacked only Deioden.

Deioden advanced while cutting down every undead knight.

His goal was the castle visible far away.

Now it could be seen clearly.

The castle had the form of an ancient medieval castle. That did not mean it was completely the same.

It was far more elegant, yet sharper.

The walls were covered with patterns whose meanings he could not understand.

Now the colors had faded, and they appeared only as deep gray, but when it had first been built, it must have been extremely splendid.

But he felt as though he had seen the patterns carved into the walls somewhere before.

After searching his memory for a moment, Zeon soon took a book out of his subspace.

It was the book he had brought from the elven village Deioden had annihilated.

When he opened the book, he saw characters identical to the patterns carved into the castle walls.

“Is it connected to the elves?”

But it felt strange to call it an elven building.

As he had seen in the elven village Deioden had annihilated, they did not have the ability to raise such an enormous structure.

Above all, the undead knights now blocking Deioden were all humans.

If that ancient castle truly had something to do with elves, the undead knights would have been made up not of humans, but of elves.

The undead knights threw their entire bodies into blocking Deioden. But Deioden was like a gigantic tidal wave.

He destroyed and swept away everything that blocked his path.

The undead knights recovered their broken bodies and charged again, but the result was the same.

Deioden broke them, broke them again, and advanced, finally reaching the ancient castle.

CRASH!

He smashed the castle gate and entered. Then the undead knights who had been desperately blocking him stopped attacking.

Zeon looked at the undead knights with puzzled eyes.

As if they were machines with their power turned off, the undead knights did not move at all.

“What is this?”

Still, thanks to that, Zeon was able to enter the ancient castle without effort.

Deioden stabbed Crayon into the ground and shouted,

“Come out! Master of the castle.”

VMMMM!

His shout became a storm and shook the gigantic castle.

That was when it happened.

As if answering him, bright light rose from the floor of the castle.

The light transformed into lines and drew a picture on the castle floor.

In an instant, a gigantic drawing was completed on the floor.

It was shaped like a six-pointed star surrounded by several circles, and between the circles, elven characters were densely written.

“A magic circle?”

Then the magic circle emitted intense light, and something appeared within it.

It had a towering build, easily twice the height of the undead knights.

On its head was a helmet with three horns, and on its body was armor made of an unknown metal. A torn gray cloak hung over its shoulders, and at its waist was a longsword as enormous as Crayon.

Inside the knight’s helmet, red fiery light flickered, and ominous darkness hung over its entire body.

He was the master of this ancient castle.

Deioden bared his white teeth and laughed.

“What is your name, knight?”

Zeon naturally thought the knight would be unable to answer.

Since its vocal cords had rotted away and vanished, it was only natural that it could not make a sound.

But the result was different from Zeon’s expectation.

“A......ka......ruk!”

From the knight’s mouth came a voice that seemed to echo from a cave.

Deioden said,

“My name is Deioden, Akaruk!”

“Dei......oden! Kill me and this curse......”

Suddenly, the knight’s words stopped.

Instead, ominous gray aura rose from his entire body.

The gray aura overlaid his cloak and rippled like a living creature.

WHOOSH!

Gray aura also settled over the knight’s gigantic sword.

RUMBLE!

At that instant, the ancient castle shook as if an earthquake had struck.

Deioden held Crayon firmly and said,

“Good! I will kill you. One who was once a knight......”