Chapter 111 ….
It was truly by chance that he picked it up.
In the dangerous mission where traces of an Abyssal warrior were discovered, Taxinel had sent his companions away and remained alone in the Dark Forest.
“…A hourglass?”
Touching the clock buried in such an unexpected place, Taxinel let out a dry chuckle.
The hourglass was worn with the marks of many years, half-broken.
“Whoever it belonged to, I guess they never thought to look for it.”
After all, it didn’t look that valuable, and no one would come looking for it all the way to this dangerous place. It had simply been abandoned. Just like him.
“…Ugh.”
Is this what it feels like for blood to turn cold?
In the fading haze of his mind, he thought:
‘Is this how I die?’
Among the blood-soaked forest where corpses piled like mountains, the Destroyer Gaimon… no, Taxinel, was dying.
Before him, a vile darkness writhed.
No, the entire forest writhed.
The Dark Forest—it was actually a forest abandoned, swallowed by the Abyss.
[Krhh…]
A chilling laugh, scraping like a blackboard, escaped at that moment.
[Krhh… not bad. Though it is only a clone, to endure so long against my own clone… how does it feel, to become my contractor? If you do, you can live.]
The master of immortality. The Abyssal horror that transcends death was desiring him.
If he grasped that hand, he could survive.
“Go away. I have not the slightest intention of becoming your servant.”
But he was the proud vice-captain of the Lyran Knights.
He would not betray humanity, nor his comrades, just to cling to life.
How many comrades had died at the hands of that garbage?
Rather than become its servant, he would choose a glorious death.
[Foolish human… That is not yours to decide.]
“…What?”
But that terrifying nightmare would not allow it.
The nightmare entered Taxinel’s mouth and rapidly devoured him from the inside.
[If I wish it, you will be mine. There is no exception…]
“Guh… gag… n-no…”
Tears of blood streamed from his eyes.
The blood tears soon turned black.
The blood flowing through his body became a black corruption.
As if draining stale water to fill it anew, Taxinel’s blood transformed from human to Abyssal.
“Guh… ugh…”
The lungs darkened with each breath.
The stomach, responsible for digestive acids, remained still; bones twisted and organs intertwined to form a new shape.
With a creak, darkness covered his body like armor.
[Hahaha! Yes, that’s it! What a beautiful face!]
Eventually, horns sprouted from his forehead, and his eyes turned red.
Suddenly—
The hourglass reacted.
The hourglass in his hand flicked itself inside, sinking deep into his body.
No light, no sound—but Taxinel knew.
Thump, thump.
That which had settled in his heart was preventing the Abyss from consuming him.
Fortune, perhaps. At the last moment, it protected his heart, allowing Taxinel to retain his human consciousness.
He had become both Abyssal and human.
[The vice-captain of that noble knight order, now a contractor of the Abyss… Krhh… this will be very interesting.]
The immortal master spoke, leaving as if without a shred of doubt.
Once the Abyss infiltrates fully, a human can never return.
It was lucky.
If it had been a bit more meticulous, or if it had doubted and checked inside, Taxinel would have had no chance.
[Ahh…]
A chilling voice. Horns only half-formed, unable to fully become Abyssal.
A horrifying exterior, but a human heart remained.
[Ahh… Ahhhh…!]
Taxinel collapsed to his knees and saw his reflection in a puddle.
[…Ahhhh!!!]
He wailed endlessly, shedding black tears.
“Ah… my God.”
“Vice-captain, you’ve returned! Ah… thank you, Lord.”
“Guh… vice-captain… sniff…”
To maintain human consciousness was remarkable.
The body follows the mind—or so it was said.
Even though he had become an Abyssal contractor, perhaps thanks to retaining his human heart, his heart itself had not been consumed. Taxinel could return to his human form if he wished.
“Ughhh!”
“Vice-captain!!”
No one doubted him.
Neither the companions who had gone on the mission, nor the members of the knight order.
“Welcome back, Taxinel.”
“…Thank you.”
Even the monstrous Commander Lebed did not question him.
It was natural. Everyone assumed that one swallowed by the Abyss could not maintain human body and mind.
But he did not know.
Shaaah—
The unknown hourglass could not completely block the Abyss.
Slowly, without his awareness, it was consuming him.
The first to notice the change were the knights.
“…Vice-captain, haven’t your actions been a bit… extreme lately?”
“You’ve always been merciless to monsters, but… something’s different. How should I put it… it looks like you’re smiling.”
“Talking behind your superior’s back, huh.”
“Gah! C-Commander!”
“It’s nothing! Sorry!”
The suddenly altered Taxinel puzzled them.
In fact, Taxinel himself knew:
-Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill… Kill and kill again…
-Drink blood… fresh blood…
-Do not resist. Accept me…!
“Shut up! I said shut up!”
The whispers in his head never left.
‘…That priest’s voice is so annoying. Should I just kill… wait, what am I thinking?’
Countless times, the urge to murder had surged.
At first, he thought it was stress-induced hallucinations from everything he had experienced.
If he endured the moment, at least the murderous impulse would subside.
But he realized otherwise when he killed the head of a household.
-Kill… Kill… Kill…
-Drink blood, drink blood…
Unable to withstand the hallucinations, he had broken into a home and killed an innocent man brutally in front of his family.
“…Ahh…”
The world became quiet.
It felt like surfacing from beneath the blood-soaked sleep of a chaotic battlefield.
The hallucinations that had never left were gone, as if they had been a lie.
Blood tears streamed from Taxinel’s eyes. He finally felt alive as a human.
It was that day.
“Guh! Gag… please… please spare me…”
“Kyaaaah!”
“P-Please, not my child… guh!”
The day Taxinel rampaged through the city, killing indiscriminately.
And…
“Mon-monster… it’s a monster!”
“Call Lord Lebed… call Lord Lebed!”
“Everyone, run…!”
The day the Destroyer Gaimon appeared.
[Entering Phase 3.]
—–!
The moment the Destroyer Gaimon entered Phase 3, he let out a silent roar.
[Destroyer Gaimon unleashes the ‘Nightmare of Night.’]
[If the target’s stats are lower than the user’s, all enemies in range die instantly.]
A true nightmare unfolded.
Everything within a 20m radius of the Destroyer vanished without a trace.
Walls, floors, pillars—gone.
[Guardian Jihad Black’s ‘Orc Undead’ has been instantly killed.]
[Guardian Jihad Black’s ‘Orc Undead’ has been instantly killed.]
…
[Guardian Jihad Black’s ‘Forest Blue Goblin Undead’ has been instantly killed.]
-Impossible…!
Even Jihad’s undead had all been destroyed.
In the place where only darkness remained, the Destroyer Gaimon stood.
[…Unpleasant memories have resurfaced.]
Lowering his head, he looked ahead.
There, pinned against the wall, was Dohyun.
Seeing him coughing dazedly, the Destroyer frowned.
[You rat-like creature…]
He should have been instantly killed, but somehow the distance saved him.
The undead in front likely absorbed some of the force.
-Kill the author… Kill to be free…
[Ugh…]
Again. From the moment he encountered him, the voice had been audible.
It was not strange to hear it—since the day of the massacre, the voice had been dormant, only now reawakening.
-He… has appeared…
-Come to me…
A few days ago.
The sudden voice repeated the same command without rest.
-Come to me…
It was a call.
A signal from the immortal master to summon his contractors.
Contractors consumed by the Abyss, left with only instinct, could not refuse such a command.
‘Ten years of silence, and now this?’
Unlike other contractors, Gaimon, who retained human consciousness, could resist.
But the recently increasing traces made leaving impossible.
Yet he could not simply refuse.
‘I must not let him know I am retaining my mind.’
If discovered, he would truly become that master’s servant.
Even though he had crossed the point of no return, now a creature no longer human, he did not wish to live as a mere instinct-driven beast.
He tried to leave, hoping to find someone to bear the blame in his place and buy time.
‘If that damned master hadn’t interfered… damn it.’
Every time, it was that one bastard.
Bringing his traces to summon the Gildetti envoy, suddenly appearing at the Lyran temple, Zerdek leaving evidence—all his doing.
[Yes… it’s all your fault.]
Everything was because of that one foreigner.
-Kill him… be freed…
A chilling voice echoed in his mind.
For some reason, he instinctively felt it.
If he killed that bastard, he would be freed from this voice.
Only then would he gain true freedom.
Pah—Kwaaak!
“Ugh…”
In an instant, the Destroyer leapt and grabbed Dohyun by the neck, lifting him slowly.
Dohyun’s feet dangled, powerless to resist.
He had only 1% of his life remaining.
A single punch to the abdomen would kill him.
“No…!”
“Ahhh…!”
The priests’ faces turned pale.
Most shocked of all was Jihad.
-…The master is dying?
He had never seen the master in danger, let alone facing death.
Even seeing it with his own eyes, he could not comprehend.
-…The master is going to lose?
Impossible.
Jihad reached out desperately, and undead from the ground stirred.
Guuuh- guuh?
The previously summoned undead.
Spotting Dohyun dangling, they quickly moved to intervene.
But…
[Ahh… finally free. Farewell, foreigner.]
The ecstatic Destroyer Gaimon’s claws plunged into Dohyun’s abdomen faster than the undead could act.
Crack-.
As bones shattered, the Destroyer grinned in ecstasy.
[…?]
Something was wrong.
Though the bones broke, he felt nothing in his hand.
A sense of obstruction, something blocking him.
Raising his head, he saw Dohyun grinning.
“Thank you. For moving exactly as I planned.”
[…What?]
Dohyun unleashed his Thousand Transformations.
In front of him appeared a message window:
[Life has dropped below 1%.]
[The effect of Karuk’s Essence Ring activates.]
[A shield is generated, blocking 15% of maximum HP damage for 5 seconds.]
[The shield blocks ‘Nightmare Claw’.]
The Essence Ring obtained by capturing Karuk in Raven’s Hidden Field, the Warriors’ Habitat.
Its true power had finally been revealed.
