Chapter 29
The Dead Do Not Speak (3)
Ssssss—
She could feel every single photon brushing against her skin.
For her, light was only backlight.
It was bondage, coercion, obligation.
For followers it was a healing radiance,
but for those who defied it, it was divine punishment, reducing them to ash.
“I don’t like it.”
The duality of light.
She had hated it from the beginning.
Only darkness was fair.
It embraced everyone without change, never questioned existence.
Of course, it demanded nothing of her either.
Ssssss—
Light brushed her skin, tapping as if urging her to return.
“…Not a chance.”
Phantom muttered in rejection.
But the light wrapping around her was too comforting.
“Fine. Just… a little.”
It should be all right to stay inside this much.
She closed her half-open eyes completely.
The moon floated silently, high above the sky.
Crackle!!!
Chester shot into the air with a silver flash.
“So damn many. These cursed clones.”
He stretched out his hand, and dozens of bolts of current split apart.
Threads of silvery-blue electricity intertwined tightly, shining proudly in the dark night sky.
“Let’s start with one.”
Chester snapped his fingers.
Boom!!
With a thunderclap, a silver bolt cut a straight line and pierced one of the Collector’s clones.
As the clone exploded in a flash, Chester was already preparing his next strike.
The once-relaxed clones were suddenly thrown into panic.
“Damn you…! My clone!!”
One of them hurled a fireball at Chester.
Boom!!
Thunder roared again.
A lightning strike fell, casually shattering the fireball before slamming into several clones.
The ones that attacked found their feet trapped by the current spreading across the ground.
“Chain Lightning.”
Chester slammed the lightning in his hand into the ground.
Craaaaackle—!!!
A tidal wave of current swept through the area in an instant.
“Arghhhh!!”
“Ughhhhhh!!!”
Flashes burst one after another.
Clones exploded with screams, leaving nothing behind.
Standing alone in the scorched aftermath, Chester brushed off his clothes.
“Hmph. Big talk for nothing, weren’t you—”
Then.
Thunk!
A small soulstone flew toward him.
Whirrr—
The stone glowed, forming another of the Collector’s clones.
Of course, Chester wouldn’t just stand and wait.
“Not happening!”
He flicked his fingers—lightning struck the soulstone.
The forming matter flickered unstable as current surged through it.
“……!!!!”
But soon the flesh pulled together again, stubbornly completing the clone’s shape.
Its four pupils glared as it lunged at Chester.
“Petty tricks!”
Chester snapped his fingers again, firing another silver bolt.
“……!!”
But even struck, the clone didn’t stop.
Crackle!
From its hand appeared a blade of lightning.
Chester’s eyes widened in shock.
“That’s my…?!”
The clone sneered and slashed down—
Shhhhk!
A long ice spear flew in, chilling the air.
Thud!
The spear pierced the clone’s chest and slammed it into a container.
“Gah…!”
The lightning in its hand scattered, body limp.
“I told you, didn’t I? They’re not just ordinary clones.”
Sehyun walked up, goggles on, an ice spear forming in his hand.
He stabbed it through the clone’s heart, snuffing it out and dropping its soulstone.
Chester groaned in disbelief.
“What was that just now…?”
“Every move was calculated. Even the attack just now—he wanted you to make it.”
“…What?”
Even the fight that looked to favor Chester had been the Collector’s design.
He lured the attack, stole the starlight, and created a clone with the same power.
Without his past life’s memories, Sehyun might have been fooled too.
“Why fight in such a roundabout way?”
Chester frowned, still confused.
If you didn’t know the Collector well, it was a natural question.
The principle was simple.
Just before a new clone appeared, a soulstone flew in.
It was likely a vessel drained of starlight beforehand.
That was how the new clone could use Chester’s lightning.
The moment lightning struck the soulstone, the starlight within was used to build a clone.
Nothing complicated about it.
The reason he bothers is obvious.
He forces his enemies to submit by returning their own power against them.
It was a perverse fighting style, based on the fact that clones could use the soulstone’s catalyzed powers.
“No wonder they call you a pervert.”
“Hearing that offends me. Wouldn’t you rather call me a refined collector?”
“Refined, my ass…”
Sehyun sneered, turning toward the voice.
The Collector emerged between containers, cigar smoke trailing.
He eyed the ice spear embedded in the metal, then picked up the dropped soulstone. Sparks flickered.
“Lightning power is mine now. And you—yours is ice, hm?”
He smacked his lips as though he’d found the perfect prey.
“By the way…”
The Collector glanced around them.
“Where’s the little girl?”
“Who knows. Probably ran. Not exactly the safest place for a kid. Especially with a creep around.”
Sehyun taunted, but the Collector ignored him.
The girl’s whereabouts were more important.
Not a trace of her presence…
Appearance could be hidden, but starlight could not.
Not even a gifted player could conceal it so completely—certainly not a girl who hadn’t even awakened her powers.
Shadow space, then?
He considered it, then dismissed the thought.
Phantom had already been neutralized.
The girl must have been hidden somewhere in the containers, shielded by tricks.
The reason he couldn’t sense her must be because Chester’s scattered current had muddled the starlight flow.
That was his conclusion.
“Well, no matter.”
There was nowhere to escape aboard a ship.
He would take his time searching once he subdued these two.
The Collector clenched the soulstone. Sparks raced up his arm.
“Let me show you something fun.”
He pulled a handful of soulstones from his cloak and scattered them in the air.
Whirrr—!!
Over a dozen clones appeared, sparking as they approached.
Each one held Chester’s lightning power.
“They can’t use it offensively, but you won’t be rampaging anymore, Chester.”
“Persistent bastard. It’s bad enough you’ve got endless clones… damn it.”
Chester sweated as they closed in.
Meanwhile, Sehyun calmly thought.
The situation was bad, but not hopeless.
He can only summon as many as he has stones.
The problem was how many he had left—but at least there was a limit.
Still, optimism was dangerous.
Their own limits were just as real.
“You think you can go wild again?”
“…Hardly. I pushed myself earlier hoping wiping them all at once would make things easier.”
As expected.
That kind of convenient power wasn’t something he could spam.
The flaw of lightning powers was here.
They were devastating on a single target,
but wide-area skills like Chain Lightning drained starlight far too quickly.
Sehyun thought briefly, then handed something over.
Chester frowned at the silver spear.
“This is…?”
“The same one I used for that ice spear. In your hands, it’ll be a thunder spear.”
“Thunder spear…?”
“Not perfect, but it’ll suit your power better. Might even let you use Chain Lightning a few more times.”
With a medium to channel it, starlight waste could be reduced.
Of course, not just anything would do.
It had to be a material that could withstand the current—sword, spear, arrow, even a lightning rod, shape didn’t matter.
That was the role of artifacts: supporting and amplifying a player’s power.
But for some reason, Chester hesitated.
Knowing what he feared, Sehyun spoke.
“If it’s overload you’re worried about, don’t. It can take it.”
It was crafted from material that could endure high output. Its durability was unquestionable.
Chester finally gripped the spear shaft.
“Well, you wouldn’t hand me junk.”
“You know it.”
For a craftsman, a masterpiece was pride.
They would never sell—or hand over—shoddy equipment.
Craaaackle—!!!
As Chester drew on starlight, the silver current swelled to its limit, turning gold.
“This…!”
It wasn’t just color.
Unlike before, when current flared and fizzled, this lightning intertwined and fused, forming a solid mass.
Once mere strands, the currents now braided together like a rope.
It was truly a thunder spear.
The intangible glow of lightning had taken on the solidity of a real spear.
With this… it’s possible.
Chester drew back and hurled the spear skyward.
Whoosh—!
A golden arc shot high, then burst, splitting into countless bolts that rained down.
Moments later—
Craaaackle—!!!!!
Golden lightning spears slammed into the clones all at once.
“Arghhh!!!”
“Ghhhhaaaa!!”
“Uuuuaaaahhhh!!!”
Far beyond Chain Lightning, the power was overwhelming.
Not scattered current, but individual thunder spears,
each driving through head to toe.
With shrieks, the clones shattered into soulstones and vanished.
In one attack, the battlefield was devastated.
“What… what is this…?”
Chester removed his goggles, staring in stunned awe.
Sehyun patted his shoulder.
“Told you it’d work.”
“……”
Work?
It was nothing short of divine authority.
Even the wielder himself was shocked.
But to Sehyun, it wasn’t surprising.
The artifact had simply done its job.
I made it, after all. Of course it works.
[Astraphe]
An artifact modeled after Zeus’s thunder spear.
It channeled natural phenomena—powers—into spear form and fired them.
Originally, I made it for Sasha’s frost or Seongchul-hyung’s magma…
But given its mythic base, it resonated even more strongly with Chester’s lightning.
That golden current was the true form of his power when used properly with the artifact.
The fact he manifested it from the first use showed how well they matched.
“…I have to admit it. That spear endured my power, and that lightning just now—”
“A weapon made to fire every kind of ability couldn’t fail at handling that. And what’s the point of wielding a weapon if it doesn’t amplify you?”
Weapons had to offer an advantage—or there was no reason to use them.
“Can I keep it?”
Chester’s eyes glittered as he stared at the spear. He was enamored.
“Well, if you meet the condition.”
“What condition?”
“Sign a contract with me, like Phantom.”
“…Tch.”
He clicked his tongue at Phantom’s mention.
Anything tied to her, he instinctively rejected.
It wasn’t even that heavy a condition.
To Sehyun, his reaction was oddly amusing.
“Anyway, let’s save that talk. We’ve got work to do.”
Fresh clones were already advancing.
Sehyun drew out the Dead Ringer and turned the dial to four o’clock.
[4 o’clock: Explosive Smoke Dance]
A small blast erupted from the walker, smoke and gunpowder scent spreading.
It was a layered ability—Inha’s explosive sword added to the Walker of Swiftness.
Now Sehyun could weave explosions into his movement, granting extreme mobility.
And the reason was simple.
“When the body goes down, the clones vanish.”
He eyed the tightening ring of clones.
“From here on, I’ll find the real one. Chester—you hold off the clones.”
He pictured Inha’s graceful motion, darting across battlefields on bursts of force.
The twin-powered walker flared with starlight.
Chester’s golden lightning stormed through the battlefield like a signal flare.
“I’m taking down the real one.”
And Sehyun charged straight into the golden thunder.
