Hoarding In Hell [EN]: Chapter 182

182. Death Will Follow (1)

“Excuse me? Are you talking about the fairy?”

Kirson and Kazart exchanged bewildered glances. They didn’t seem to recognize the term.

Hyeon-woo’s gaze darted anxiously towards the inner part of the room. The spiderwebs around Tam were writhing and pulsating.

When he created ‘that,’ Renian was above Hyeon-woo’s head. If he had been killed in the blink of an eye, there was a high probability that Renian would have been caught up in it as well.

Hyeon-woo grabbed a random weapon from his inventory and swung it to clear away the spiderwebs.

The moment the black spiderwebs seemed to wrap around the rare-grade spear, they coiled around it and snatched the weapon from Hyeon-woo’s hand with terrifying force.

The spear snapped in mid-air and was instantly dragged into Tam.

“Damn it…….”

Was that how he died back then? He knew what would happen if he stepped in there again.

Hyeon-woo turned his head.

Kirson and Kazart had already distanced themselves.

Was Renian alive in there? In conclusion, he couldn’t know.

Hyeon-woo himself didn’t know Renian’s abilities and limitations.

Honestly, Renian didn’t seem to be of much practical help.

He avoided fighting like the plague, and not much was known about him.

In many ways, he was suspicious, perhaps as unique as a star, but he was the one who had held onto Hyeon-woo, who was becoming exhausted in the hellish difficulty.

Hyeon-woo bit his lip and took a step forward.

He knew it was a suicidal act, but he couldn’t help it.

As Hyeon-woo approached, a spiderweb lightly brushed his cheek. It felt like a thin feather, barely noticeable, was caressing his cheek.

Hyeon-woo, with a glimmer of hope, parted the spiderwebs with his hands and moved forward.

At that moment, his outstretched left arm was completely entangled in the spiderwebs.

“Kugh……!”

Because it was an arm that had been transformed into the Constrictor Yayul, he didn’t feel severe pain.

However, it didn’t move according to Hyeon-woo’s will.

His right arm, which he had reached out to tear the spiderwebs, was also caught.

His right arm was wrapped in a net. It turned red as the blood stopped circulating.

In pain that felt like his arm would burst, Hyeon-woo was dragged inside.

The spiderwebs wrapped around Hyeon-woo’s entire body. He couldn’t see in front of him.

The sensation of blood vessels and his neck being constricted made his mind go blank in an instant. But even in that moment, Hyeon-woo felt a change.

‘……I’m not being killed immediately.’

As expected, the moment his body was wrapped, he should have been torn to pieces and scattered everywhere. But instead of killing Hyeon-woo, the spiderwebs were just dragging him along.

In his blurry vision, Tam was visible. Tam was still sharp compared to before. However, it was completely wrapped in black spiderwebs, making it difficult to recognize its shape.

Renian was nowhere to be seen.

‘What is it doing?’

As Hyeon-woo wondered, the spiderwebs showed him directly.

The spiderwebs tilted Hyeon-woo’s neck back and pushed it towards the blade.

***

The moment Tam’s saw-like blade bit into his neck, Hyeon-woo saw a completely different scene unfolding as if he were permeating through it.

A hot ember touched his cheek and disappeared.

A knight’s helmet fell into the mud in front of Hyeon-woo with a thud.

The object, which seemed to have been passed down as a family heirloom for a long time, was crushed under the dirty feet of someone he didn’t know.

Hyeon-woo was in the middle of a burning mansion.

The mansion, surrounded by countless crowds, was burning and slowly collapsing.

The pride, arrogance, and historical traces that had been accumulated over a long period of time were extinguished along with the flames.

A one-armed woman watched the mansion turn to ashes and picked up a pure white flag with her only arm.

A red flag was hanging on the pure white flagpole. The one-armed woman waved the flag and chanted.

“Long live the Free Revolutionary Republic!”

Thud, thud, thud.

A roar that shook the ground shook his body.

Hyeon-woo witnessed the charge of a massive cavalry unit rushing towards him.

The moment they seemed to collide, the cavalry smoothly passed by him like flowing water. At the end of their gleaming spear blades were unmistakable targets.

Tens of thousands of orcs were being trampled under the hooves of the cavalry and fleeing.

It was a one-sided massacre.

The orcs outnumbered the cavalry by far, but they didn’t even seem to think about resisting.

Hyeon-woo paid close attention to the knight who was rampaging the most madly at the head of the cavalry.

He had a huge pure white cavalry spear. The knight shouted loudly the moment he pierced the neck of an orc who looked like a chieftain with the spear blade.

“For His Majesty the King!”

Suddenly, his vision went dark, and a battlefield unfolded.

Soldiers who appeared to have been ambushed were fleeing.

They were much more poorly equipped and meager than the cavalry he had seen earlier. Behind them, a group of orcs was chasing.

The soldiers were dying as if they were being hunted, and one of the largest orcs was slaughtering the soldiers with a long, pure white halberd.

The orc, wielding the halberd with two soldiers impaled on it, shouted.

“Kill and burn everything!”

And again, his vision plummeted. Hyeon-woo could see what he was looking at.

It was the history of those who had wielded Tam.

“Wipe them all out. Turn them into ashes…….”

“The White Order will last forever!”

As people changed, the era gradually deteriorated and darkened like black and white.

Even in the midst of that, the pure white weapon was bright and conspicuous, as if it had been engraved in his eyes.

‘Is that Tam?’

Tam was shining with numerous owners and names in a long era. It changed its form with each person’s desires and to fulfill those desires.

Hyeon-woo realized that the people who had wielded Tam were gradually turning into people from a long time ago.

As time passed, the scenes deteriorated and the sounds became inaccurate. The deteriorated images darkened, but Tam maintained a bright shape.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but it seemed like at least thousands of years.

He didn’t know how old Tam was or what would come out if he kept going back like this.

‘More than that, why are they showing me this?’

Thud!

With a dull impact, Hyeon-woo felt his vision brighten. But the brightening was only for a moment, and it soon darkened again.

Thud!

With a roar, his vision flickered again. Hyeon-woo could see the surroundings before the light faded.

It was a dark and vast space.

The smell of water unique to the underground wafted through the air. A humid heat was rising from under his feet.

And beyond that vast darkness, countless stone pillars passed Hyeon-woo and led to the center.

Hyeon-woo’s gaze led to the center.

There was a pure white blade there.

‘Tam?’

Thud! Again, a roar echoed. Countless stone pillars surrounded Tam, and hundreds of hands split again and were constantly crafting Tam.

Then, at some point, they imprinted the shape by hammering Tam once again.

The black greedily swallowed the delicate crafts and was completed.

Hyeon-woo suddenly felt the work stop. It was only darkness, but Hyeon-woo felt a gaze. Cold sweat ran down his back.

Something was staring at him from beyond the darkness where nothing could be seen.

[The last owner of the sword.]

Hyeon-woo was surprised by the words directed at him. After falling into this bizarre illusion, it was the first time that a being recognized Hyeon-woo and spoke to him.

“Who are you?”

Beyond the darkness, he felt the vibration of something huge moving. It was hard to even guess how huge the opponent was just by the movement of the air.

Perhaps it was a being that filled this entire vast space.

[Aldimaro.]

The answer from the other party was short. Hyeon-woo suddenly remembered the annotation written on Tam.

[Annotation: A weapon said to have been forged directly by Aldimaro, a member of Yogulem, the Starving Star.]

The one who forged Tam.

Chik. With a short noise, a small flame rose. The hand holding the candle was a small girl’s hand.

But the arm was so long that it was impossible to even guess, and the end was not visible.

The candle slowly approached Hyeon-woo. And then Hyeon-woo could finally see the huge face that had come right in front of him.

It was the face of a white and pale young girl. But the face, carved from the end of a white pillar, was only grotesque like a death mask.

Hyeon-woo could see that Aldimaro was made up of countless pillars besides his face, with hundreds of hands split.

[Every time I hammered, I could see those who would wield the sword, the lives they would cut, and the end. But…… after you, I can’t see anyone.]

Hyeon-woo’s eyebrows twitched, and at that moment, a wind blew from somewhere and extinguished the candle. Hyeon-woo was plunged back into darkness.

“What does that mean?”

[It means that there is no one to hold the sword after you.]

“The sword? Are you talking about Tam?”

[Tam?]

Aldimaro asked back in a puzzled voice, as if he had heard an unfamiliar name.

[Is that the name you gave the sword? For a sword to have a name, it’s enjoying luxury. It was completed with the power of the Starving Star, so it’s a fitting name.]

It seems that the name Tam was not given directly by Aldimaro. But the question Hyeon-woo had was not resolved.

Was it that everyone after Hyeon-woo died and there was no one to wield Tam, or that Tam would be destroyed.

“Does that mean I’m the last victor?”

Hyeon-woo decided to think positively. Aldimaro neither affirmed nor denied Hyeon-woo’s words.

[I’m curious about that too. I’m curious about what kind of carnage you’re going through, so that there’s no one to hold the sword after you.]

Hyeon-woo felt a small hand reaching out from the darkness towards his face. But he didn’t feel a solid sensation. He only felt the coldness unique to stone.

[Not long ago, the owners of the three stars gathered in one place and decided to make a bet.]

Aldimaro suddenly whispered. In a tone as if telling an old story at the bedside.

Hyeon-woo couldn’t even guess how long ago Aldimaro was talking about.

[The lord who rose from fire and ruins, the snake who will devour the world, and the one who wails alone in the middle of the graveyard talked about who would win in the end.]

Aldimaro covered Hyeon-woo’s eyes. It was already dark, but now he felt it was completely dark.

[I made this sword as a token of the bet. But the Starving Star has never won.]

Hyeon-woo suddenly felt his vision plummet.

It was a phenomenon that occurred every time he traced back the history of those who owned Tam.

He went back in time and finally met the creator, Aldimaro.

‘But there’s still time to go back?’

Aldimaro whispered one last time.

[Perhaps in this long bet, the winner may change for once.]

***

The changing background stopped abruptly. Hyeon-woo was standing on a high hill.

The surroundings were gentle hills, and soft grasses that grew to his knees covered the area.

There was no one.

“What is this place?”

Thud, Hyeon-woo felt something touching his back. When he turned around, he saw Tam stuck in the ground. It was Tam in its initial form, the pure form that Hyeon-woo remembered.

But the moment Hyeon-woo saw Tam, he suddenly felt a chill all over his body. Just looking at it made him feel uneasy, and he felt an urge to get away from it as soon as possible.

It was hard to imagine that it was the kind of thing he had been holding and wielding until now.

As he hesitated and tried to step back, something lunged at Hyeon-woo’s face.

“Butler!”

Hyeon-woo was startled by the sensation of being hit. But what surprised him even more was the owner of the voice.

“Renian?”

“You came to save me, uh-huh. I knew you would!”

“Sorry. I got caught too.”

“Ah─! What a useless butler!”

Hyeon-woo removed Renian, who was clinging to his face, and moved him to the side.

He could touch him and talk to him, so it seemed that he actually existed. Hyeon-woo felt more stable when he heard Renian’s voice.

Nevertheless, just looking at Tam still made him feel nauseous.

‘Judging from the circumstances, is this…… Tam’s real original form?’

Looking closely, it was a little rougher than Tam and the shape was longer. Rather than metal, it looked like a white bone was roughly ground and made into a knife.

Perhaps Aldimaro also processed this to make Tam.

But he didn’t know why he came here. A chilly wind brushed past his hair. Hyeon-woo suddenly shivered.

It was then.

[Trial Quest Generated!]

[The ‘Death Will Follow’ quest has begun.]

[Become the Last Victor.]

[Curse: Immortality is granted.]

[While the curse is maintained, the earth rejects you.]