The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 176

“Be careful, Captain.”

With those words, Scott disassembled the Corpse Abomination he had dragged into the forest, reforming it into human-sized undead soldiers, which he then controlled directly as they entered. Apparently, if he let the undead move autonomously, he would lose control of them here.

In other words, Scott was now manipulating each undead soldier individually.

“First, send the undead soldiers ahead.”

“Okay.”

Scott agreed with Azadin and sent an undead soldier armed with a wooden club forward.

At that moment, a black shadow swooped down from the dense trees, attacking the undead soldier.

-Thwack!

With a single blow, the undead soldier’s head was sent flying. Seeing the hobgoblin’s skull shatter like a watermelon, it was a brutal strike that no human could have survived.

“Damn it! I just got them ready!”

Scott, enraged by the helpless destruction of his undead soldier, manipulated the other undead soldiers.

However…

-Thwack, thwack, thwack!

The black shadow, having ambushed them from the trees, began to swing its forepaws.

The undead soldiers were easily knocked down like falling leaves.

“It’s huge.”

Sharty exclaimed in awe.

The creature that had launched the surprise attack from the trees was a massive black panther.

Its size was far greater than that of a normal panther, appearing to be the size of a northern tiger, or even larger. Additionally, its body was covered in bark-like growths, resembling armor.

“A terrifying monster. Indeed…”

Azadin drew his bow and fired an arrow.

It seemed unlikely that an arrow would have any effect on such a massive panther, but… Azadin’s arrow pierced the panther’s nostril and went straight through its brain.

“Krrraaang!”

The surprised panther writhed in pain, trying to swipe away the arrow stuck in its nose, but the arrow broke in the process.

The panther struggled several times to remove the arrow, but each time it only further damaged its brain.

Ultimately, the panther collapsed and died.

“Good heavens. The undead soldiers were taken down in a single blow. And I even used ogre muscles.”

Scott grumbled, casting a spell to control the panther that Azadin had defeated.

“Send it again.”

“Alright.”

As Scott sent the zombified panther forward, the jungle reacted once more.

This time, a pack of wolves as large as calves appeared.

“Krrr, krrr!”

The wolves, drooling as if they had rabies, all had bark-like growths on their bodies, just like the panther from before.

“This one too.”

“I’ll try something this time.”

Sharty cast a spell, causing the grass to grow thick and entangle the wolves.

As the wolves struggled through the grass, their fur was pulled out, and the difference in their individual speeds prevented them from attacking all at once.

“Nice!”

That alone was enough of an opening for Scott’s undead panther. Scott manipulated the undead panther to strike the lead wolf’s head with its forepaw, then bit its neck, killing it.

The other wolves belatedly broke free from the vines and attacked the undead panther, but the undead panther went berserk, swinging its forepaws to fight them off, while Azadin also fired arrows to attack.

“Oh, good. We took them down without much damage, right?”

“Maybe it’s because you’re trying to control too many at once, Scott. First, try controlling one wolf and sending it.”

“Okay, Captain.”

As Azadin suggested, Scott controlled a single wolf with necromancy and sent it forward. Sure enough, the forest reacted again, and a giant spore monster appeared.

“A spore monster. This is nothing to worry about.”

Scott sent the wolf charging forward, then used a corpse explosion spell, detonating the wolf and damaging the spore monster with the force.

“Why?”

“Once a spore monster’s body dies, it’s hard to turn it into an undead. If I try to control multiple corpses at once, my combat ability drops, so I just have to use them up.”

Scott explained, then sent another wolf to explode, completely tearing apart the spore monster.

*********

After breaking through several layers of defenses, Azadin’s group finally reached the edge of the swamp.

At the water’s edge of the swamp, there was an unusual tree in the shape of a person. From the area that looked like a human face, red, translucent sap dripped onto the ground like bloody tears, flowing into the swamp.

It was likely that the beasts that drank the water mixed with this sap became Grimslough’s minions, threatening those who approached.

“Is this Grimslough’s body? The one that gave revelations to the Heavenly Lord of Cheonggeon?”

As if to protect itself, Grimslough’s fragment tried to pull out massive ancient trees from the swamp again.

However, Azadin accelerated like the wind, quickly standing in front of Grimslough.

“Is this the fragment of Grimslough that taught the Heavenly Lord?”

As Azadin reached out to Grimslough, lightning suddenly struck him.

*********

“Now, you foolish disciple. These are the languages of the Nether [a dark, chaotic realm]. Do not look at them carelessly.”

“Huh?”

Azadin suddenly looked up.

There was Kazas’s cabin. The place where Azadin had spent most of his childhood. The place where he had trained under Kazas was unfolding before Azadin, just as it had been on that day.

“Huh?”

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

Kazas showed Azadin the letters in the book he had opened.

The Nether letters were wriggling alive on the surface of the book.

“The letters change. Do not watch these changes too closely. Some with weak hearts can go mad just from looking at them.”

“This is when I was learning the Nether letters…”

Azadin was about to say that it was when he was learning the Nether letters, but Kazas seemed to have interpreted Azadin’s words differently.

“Yes. It’s a book for learning the Nether letters. These things written here are not the languages of our dimension. Look, the shadow cast by this tree…”

“?”

“In our world, that tree is the essence, and this shadow is the essence’s shadow cast in a lower, two-dimensional world. Similarly, the Nether languages written here are fragments of the shadow cast by that essence. But if you correctly perceive that dimension and pronounce it…”

With those words, Kazas pronounced a Nether word.

At that moment, part of Kazas’s tongue changed, and a worm appeared.

Kazas immediately cut off the worm that had grown with the obsidian blade he had, threw it to the ground, and stomped on it.

“Amazing. Are you alright?”

Kazas was amazed to see Azadin calmly watching the scene.

“Of course.”

This wasn’t the first time Azadin had experienced this. He had already experienced it long ago when he was dragged by Kazas to help with Nether research.

Clearly, back then, he had been terrified by the evil power of the Nether language that Kazas had pronounced. It had been painful.

But for the current Azadin, that level of Nether language was not difficult.

“Amazing, Azadin. Your resistance to magic seems to be beyond my expectations.”

“Master, is this a dream?”

“…Ah, but is it not? You’re hallucinating. Are you alright?”

Kazas thought that Azadin was hallucinating because of the Nether language.

‘Seeing this reaction, it doesn’t seem like just a dream.’

As Azadin fell into thought, Kazas became flustered.

“Should we rest if you’re not feeling well? You’re not going mad already, are you?”

“I’m fine. No, it’s not just that.”

Azadin followed and pronounced the Nether language that Kazas had spoken.

“!?”

The power of the Nether tried to penetrate Azadin’s tongue, but Azadin blocked the Nether’s intrusion with the light of the King’s Flower within him, the power of the Divine King’s Scripture [a sacred text or power source].

Even Kazas had to cut his own tongue with an obsidian blade, but Azadin was fine.

“Good heavens. You? What are you? A genius? Something like that?”

“No way. More importantly, Master, I have something I want to ask you.”

“…What?”

“What is this ‘Demon King who eats magic books’?”

Demon King who eats magic books. That’s what everyone in the world called Kazas.

“Ah, where did you? How do you know about that? Hmm. I see. Did Aldis tell you beforehand?”

Kazas shrugged his shoulders, surprised by the unexpected question from Azadin.

“Yes. I was someone who ate humans under the Naga Empire [a powerful, ancient empire]. I could absorb the magic books of those I ate, and I became proficient in all kinds of magic. Before I knew it, even the Nagas became afraid of me, and I myself gathered a large force. I taught magic to many magicians and made their achievements my own. People feared me and called me a Demon King.”

“What kind of magic did you research?”

“The first was blood magic. I taught blood magic to many humans and helped them escape from the Naga Empire. Some of them became my followers even after escaping, and I became their king. That’s when I was called a Demon King. After that, many challenged me, and I researched blood magic, killing those challengers, eating them, and growing stronger.”

“How did it end?”

“When the Naga Empire fell, my small kingdom of magicians also fell. I thought there was a limit to blood magic and learned necromancy.”

“How did that end?”

“I was defeated by the Emperor and his followers. The Aragasas [a group or faction], thinking I was useful because of my knowledge of various magics, brought me here, and I became an advisor for their magic research.”

“When did you become an elder then?”

“When Chief Hatir came to lead the Aragasas. He released me as promised and gave me the opportunity to research Nether magic. Of course, it would be more accurate to say that he forced me to research Nether magic. I traveled around, capturing those who researched Nether magic, taking their magic books. I extended my life by erasing the miscellaneous magic books stored in my body by colliding them with the power of the Nether, and I researched Nether magic.”

Kazas answered, then suddenly looked surprised.

“Amazing. Why am I telling you all this? You… you’re not the you of this time!”

“…Yes.”

As Azadin nodded, Kazas stepped back and pulled out a dagger.

“Good heavens! Kid. You… what are you?”

“I wonder?”

Azadin heard the voice of the Nether from far away. It was speaking in the Nether language, and it was probably the voice of Grimslough.

“Is this… the way of Cheongcheon [a concept or path], or the principle, or something like that?”

Azadin smiled wryly as he woke up from the dream.

*********

“A-Are you okay? Captain?”

“Hey.”

Scott and Sharty approached Azadin, looking terrified.

On the other hand, Jiswa was bowing to Azadin?

“M-My Heavenly Lord!”

“Hmm?”

Azadin noticed that the tree, which was Grimslough’s fragment in front of him, had hardened.

Clearly, until just now, it had looked like a person shedding bloody tears. The tree, which had been a lively wooden sculpture that looked just like a living person, now had a vague human shape. It was a distorted shape that would be hard to see as human unless one was very nearsighted.

Instead, Azadin was holding an unknown piece of wood in his hand.