Episode 107

“Haaah!”

In the face of an Aura Blade, even the sturdiest shield or armor was meaningless.

Zeke hurled his shield at the charging Antonio.

Slash!

Antonio cleaved Zeke’s shield in two.

But in the next instant, Zeke vanished from sight.

‘Where did he…’

Before Antonio could finish his thought, Zeke’s sword came crashing down on his helmet.

Bang!

Though it wasn’t an Aura Blade, the force was enough to knock Antonio out cold.

Morgan gaped at Zeke, who had just defeated three elite warriors in succession.

He never imagined the knights he sent would lose.

“Th-this can’t be…”

Zeke removed his helmet and addressed Morgan in the stands.

“It seems the outcome is clear.”

Morgan’s face flushed red with anger. He stood up, clenching his teeth, and glared at Zeke.

“Sir Zeke… You’re meddling far too much in matters that don’t concern you.”

“Indeed. If left alone, the Joins would manage just fine on their own.”

It was a clear warning not to stir up trouble by interfering with the Joins’ ghetto.

Morgan, scowling, left the border headquarters without even properly greeting Princess Melissa.

Melissa descended from the stands and ran to Zeke.

“Sir Zeke! My goodness! I can’t believe you defeated all the Empire’s knights!”

“It was just luck.”

Melissa knew full well that it was Zeke’s overwhelming skill, not luck, that had subdued the Empire’s knights.

With the Empire’s forces retreating in defeat, Alencia felt as if a decade-long burden had been lifted.

Zeke turned to Melissa.

“The Empire’s garrison won’t leave quietly. They’ll find some excuse to meddle in the Joins’ ghetto.”

“I can’t understand why the Empire is so fixated on that place. And why they’re hindering the treatment of the Red Flower Disease.”

“Princess, there’s something I need to show you.”

Determined to inform her of the situation, Zeke led Princess Melissa to where the body of a strange creature was kept.

In the morgue beneath the headquarters, Liam and Felix stood guard over the creature’s corpse.

Zeke showed it to Melissa and explained what had happened near the Joins’ ghetto.

“You found traces of these creatures and a missing carriage near the ghetto?”

“Yes. Except for this one, the other creatures’ bodies had melted and were decomposing.”

“My goodness. What on earth is happening in the ghetto?”

Melissa frowned as she examined the creature’s body. Then she noticed something.

“Sir Zeke, this creature… it shows signs of having had the Red Flower Disease.”

At her words, Zeke inspected the area she pointed to.

“Are you referring to the marks of the fever blossoms on its face?”

“Exactly. When the Red Flower Disease reaches its final stages, the fever blossoms worsen, and even if cured, the marks remain. But this person has them very severely.”

Upon closer inspection, the marks of the fever blossoms were evident not just on the face but all over the body.

“A Red Flower Disease patient turned into a creature…”

Something clicked in Zeke’s mind.

‘The plague that struck Mycenae…’

He recalled tales of a plague with symptoms similar to the Red Flower Disease, where the afflicted rose as zombies.

Though they resembled zombies, they were different—more like the creatures before him.

‘The Red Flower Disease, dark magic, these creatures, and the mysterious zombies… Are they all connected? And with Abel here as well…’

It felt like piecing together a puzzle with missing parts.

Zeke realized he needed to investigate these creatures further.

“Felix, Liam. Stay here and protect the Princess.”

“Where are you going, Master?”

“I’m heading to the Joins’ ghetto to gather more information.”

He intended to find out if the Empire truly planned to excavate a dungeon in the Joins’ ghetto.

Melissa looked at Zeke with concern.

“Sir Zeke, will you be alright on your own?”

“I’m just planning a quick reconnaissance. Don’t worry too much.”

While he was curious about the Empire’s intentions, his primary goal was to uncover what Abel was up to in the area.

If Abel had rushed here right after canceling the Guardian Knight’s agenda, there had to be a reason.

As night fell, Zeke donned his iron armor, concealed his face, and headed back to the Joins’ ghetto.

Though it was the Joins’ ghetto, their residential area was further inside, so he didn’t see any of them.

‘The unseen realm of the Joins…’

Caught in the territorial disputes of great nations, only the Joins suffered.

Though they were gentle and nature-loving, years of oppression by humans had given rise to more militant factions among them.

With their strong beaks, innate strength, and ability to tame beasts and monsters, they fought against human knights.

The Joins’ ghetto was established because humans could no longer contend with the powerful Join warriors, leading to a treaty that drew boundaries and prevented territorial infringement.

But centuries later, humans were once again encroaching on their lands.

As Zeke pondered these matters, he passed the cave where the creature had appeared and ventured deeper into the canyon.

Towering red sandstone walls lined the path.

Zeke used his keen vision to scan the canyon for any signs of a dungeon.

‘Hmm, nothing here…’

If the Empire had discovered an ancient dungeon, there would surely be traces of their hunting dogs.

Zeke carefully surveyed the area again.

Eventually, he found a narrow path leading further into the canyon.

‘Is it this way?’

Without his keen vision, he might have missed it.

Zeke opened his map and entered the path.

Fortunately, the path wasn’t complicated.

After passing through the narrow passage, he was met with an enormous sandstone wall.

Thanks to his keen vision, Zeke could distinguish objects even in the dark and noticed statues carved into the sandstone.

‘Wow. What is this?’

Dozens of giant faces of Join warriors were etched into the canyon walls, likely by ancient Joins.

Zeke was astounded by the scale.

Even in the Empire or the Midlands, there were no statues of this magnitude.

‘They say the ancient Joins had a civilization akin to a nation. It wasn’t a lie.’

Zeke had been absorbing knowledge from the records left by Kaishir about the era of the Chronos Kingdom.

Kaishir’s records contained many stories about ancient races, including the Joins, whom he described as a powerful force that greatly aided in the founding of the Chronos Kingdom.

If Zeke were to tell Kaishir that the Joins now lived in a protected area without their own territory, he wouldn’t have believed it.

With a heavy heart, Zeke passed the massive statues and searched for an entrance further inside.

Sure enough, a large entrance carved into the stone wall appeared, resembling a temple built by the ancient Joins.

Zeke cautiously used his stealth skills to hide his presence and entered.

‘What’s that smell?’

As soon as he stepped inside, a foul odor assaulted his senses.

It was as severe as the stench of the decomposing creatures.

Holding his breath, Zeke ventured deeper into the dungeon.

Then, he saw them.

Grrr!

Two creatures emerged from within.

Zeke hid and observed them.

They looked almost identical to the creature he had seen before, both in appearance and attire.

‘The theory that the Empire created these creatures is becoming more plausible.’

The Empire had conducted human experiments in a secret lab in the south.

It seemed likely they were experimenting with turning humans infected with the Red Flower Disease into creatures and testing their power in the Joins’ ghetto.

‘If these creatures become weapons of war, they’d be terrifying.’

One question lingered: during the continental war in Zeke’s future, he had never seen such creatures on the battlefield.

Perhaps the experiments failed, or they were deployed in less visible battles, making it too early to conclude.

Zeke bypassed the creatures and ventured further inside.

A message appeared before his eyes.

[Detected a being corrupted by dark magic.]

‘Corrupted by dark magic? Does it mean a dark beast?’

Zeke cautiously moved toward the direction indicated by the system.

But what he found wasn’t a dark beast or a creature.

A knight clad in black armor stood guard at a door.

‘A knight corrupted by dark magic?’

Zeke recalled Cain, whom he had fought in the southern dungeon.

Cain, too, was tainted by dark magic, neither human nor beast, yet different from the creatures and outwardly human.

‘Should I call it a dark knight?’

Zeke used his keen vision to scrutinize the dark knight.

Outwardly, it seemed no different from a regular knight.

But his keen vision revealed something distinctly different.

‘The heart? It looks like something is attached to it.’

Something resembling tree roots clung to the heart, clearly not a normal organ.

‘Could it be that black magic was used to enhance the body?’

He had heard of such forbidden techniques being popular long ago, though they had mostly vanished in the present day.

The risks far outweighed the benefits, so there was no real reason to use forbidden magic.

Zeke tried to peer inside the door guarded by the demon with his Dragon’s Eye.

But even with that power, he couldn’t see through the door.

“I need to find out what’s in there…”

Since the demon was guarding this entrance, he had to find another way in.

Zeke opened his map and searched for an alternate route, then set off in that direction.

The dungeon was a labyrinth, with paths splitting off in every direction.

Without the map, Zeke would have surely gotten lost.

As he studied the map closely, he found a staircase leading down.

“Alright. There must be something down there.”

If he could find evidence related to Abel or the Empire, it would be another trump card to add to the one he already had from the Republic of Dortha.

Zeke descended the stairs slowly.

The stone steps, carved from the walls, remained solid despite the passage of time.

At the bottom, he was greeted by another maze of branching paths.

“I’ve never seen a dungeon this complicated before.”

Along the walls were carvings, seemingly etched by the ancient Joins long ago.

These weren’t just simple drawings; they were a continuous narrative.

“They carved all this into the solid rock?”

It was a testament to the power and influence of the ancient Joins.

Zeke examined the carvings.

He couldn’t decipher the exact story, but it seemed to depict a massive war.

“A war, huh. Was there something big before Bahamut?”

As he scanned the images, something caught his eye.

Not just the Joins and humans, but all races were united in battle.

“Who are they fighting?”

Zeke scrutinized the walls, trying to identify their enemy.

After a long search, he finally found it.

Astonishingly, the enemy facing this massive army was a single figure.

A mysterious being in a robe, hovering above the allied forces.

“What on earth is this?”

It didn’t match any history Zeke knew.

Even in the records from the Chronos era, there was no mention of such an event.

Zeke turned to the system for help.

“System, can you record the images on this wall?”

[Checking available functions as per the administrator’s request.]

[Using the Dragon’s Eye and wide-range buff skills, scanning and saving the content is possible.]

[A new folder can be created in the inherited secure archive for storage.]

“Then save the content.”

[Please specify a folder name.]

“Folder name? Just call it whatever.”

[Saving the content in a new folder named ‘Whatever.’]

A beam of light shot from Zeke’s left eye, scanning the carvings.

Amazingly, the images were stored exactly as he saw them.

[Storage complete. You can access the saved content in the secure archive at any time.]

Zeke nodded in satisfaction as he reviewed the recorded images.

“I’ll have to figure out what this all means later.”

Just then, a low growl echoed.

Zeke turned to see three monstrous creatures approaching him.