Episode 509
“Just as I expected.”
The curse’s origin, as Zeke had seen in the Akashic Code, was not Bahamut but the sacrificed princes of a fallen kingdom.
The king, trembling with fear, spoke to Zeke.
“The curse of the fallen princes… it’s tightening its grip on the Thebea royal family.”
He stared into the flames with vacant eyes, covering his ears.
“I can hear it. The voice of the cursed child…”
The king’s mental state seemed far from stable. Decades of living in fear of the curse had pushed his anxiety to its peak.
“This is all the seed sown by the Thebea royal family.”
Zeke clicked his tongue in disapproval and approached the king. He then applied his passive skill, Indomitable Will, amplified by his authority.
A low hum resonated—an effect of the skill. Though Zeke rarely used mental skills due to their side effects, the situation left him no choice.
As Indomitable Will took effect, a change came over the king’s eyes. The once unfocused gaze sharpened, and his slumped posture straightened.
“What is this…?”
The king, feeling his once-clouded mind clear and his vision restored, looked incredulous.
Zeke addressed the king, “A wise man once said that the ailments of the mind affect the body. You blinded yourself by turning away from reality, fearing the curse.”
The king turned to Zeke, his voice now strong and solemn, unlike before.
“Was this your doing?”
Zeke nodded. “Yes, though it’s only temporary.”
“Remarkable. The knight of salvation knows such magic?”
“Think of it as a blessing from the Fairy King.”
The king slowly rose to his feet. His towering frame, over two meters tall, exuded a formidable presence, befitting a descendant of the legendary Lion King.
The king looked at Zeke and said, “There must be a reason you restored my mind.”
“I’m curious about what the Thebea kingdom summoned a thousand years ago by sacrificing the fallen princes.”
The king sighed deeply at Zeke’s question. The truth of the curse he had feared so much that he blinded himself.
He nodded and began to speak. “The king of Thebea and the surviving nobles feared the dragon would annihilate their kingdom and families. So they sought to open what should never be opened by sacrificing noble blood.”
“And what was that?”
“The Gate of Chaos.”
Zeke’s eyes widened at the king’s words. “This wasn’t in the Akashic Code.”
It was hidden information, inaccessible even with the materials Hermann had prepared.
The king continued, “They intended to open the Gate of Chaos and summon the chaotic beings within to stop the evil dragon.”
“Did it work?”
The king shook his head. “Ultimately, they failed to open the Gate of Chaos. The six princes were sacrificed in vain.”
In the end, the plan failed, and it was the dragon slayer, Terracan Draker, who stopped the dragons.
Zeke asked the king, “Then was it one of the six princes who cast the curse?”
The king hesitated before speaking. “According to records, something bizarre happened when the Gate of Chaos was about to open. The bodies of the six princes melted and merged into one, becoming a single entity the size of a carriage.”
The fallen princes, fused into one by chaotic power. Zeke understood that this grotesque entity had cursed the Thebea royal family.
“Their resentment created the curse, and it grew by absorbing vengeful spirits.”
Zeke asked the king again, “How did you learn to open the Gate of Chaos?”
The king shook his head. “I don’t know that either. The records don’t go that far. But one thing was noted… they tried to summon an ‘external force’ by opening the Gate of Chaos.”
Zeke’s expression shifted as he realized something. “External force? Could it mean the Outsiders?”
Zeke had seen numerous statues of Outsiders in the temple of the Thebea goddess. He knew that the chaotic power was connected to the Outsiders.
“Could it be that the Thebea kingdom intended to summon the Outsiders a thousand years ago?”
Zeke recalled the giant Outsider that had consumed the entire city in the past memories of the fallen Carcosa.
In their desperation to stop the dragons, they might have unwittingly invited an even greater threat to their kingdom.
Fortunately, the failure to open the gate meant the summoning was incomplete, but the Outsider’s power absorbed the sacrificed princes, and that power fueled the curse.
At that moment, the king clutched his head and staggered.
“Ugh, my head…”
He looked at Zeke and pleaded, “Knight of salvation, cast your magic on me once more. It’s been so long since my mind was this clear, and I could face my fears.”
Zeke shook his head. “The more you run from fear, the greater the pain will be. Remember this feeling and overcome it yourself, Your Majesty.”
With those words, Zeke melted back into the shadows.
As he vanished, the king cried out, “No! Come back! Come back!”
With a sudden shift in mood, the king felt his vision fading again and let out a desperate scream.
Having realized how to trace the clues, Zeke returned underground.
“The underground waterway where the cursed second son was sent adrift.”
Zeke approached the waterway, took a deep breath, and activated the Wisdom of the Dragon.
A low hum resonated as Zeke connected to the Akashic Code, and the events that had transpired there flowed into his mind.
Among the fragments of the past, one sharp memory emerged.
A young Hermann carrying a basket with a child, heading toward the waterway.
He was about to send the child adrift in the waterway. Before placing the basket in the water, he looked at the struggling child and shed tears.
But bound by the king’s orders, he reluctantly set the basket afloat in the waterway.
The basket, carrying the child, drifted along the water’s path.
Zeke followed the memory, tracing where the child went along the waterway.
At a certain point, something appeared.
A figure in a mask and a suit.
“The Grand Boss?”
The Grand Boss reached out toward the child in the basket.
As he did, a spirit emerged from the child’s body and was absorbed by him.
The Grand Boss seemed satisfied and vanished once more.
Then, bubbles rose from the water, and a tentacle of an Outsider emerged, wrapping around the basket and pulling it underwater.
Zeke opened his eyes.
The memory he had seen through the Wisdom of the Dragon ended, and he returned to reality.
“The Grand Boss absorbed the cursed second son’s spirit. As I suspected, their true nature is…”
With a determined expression, he looked toward the waterway.
Zeke retrieved two L-shaped metal rods from his inventory. They were magical tools crafted by Jason, designed to trace the path of someone who had used spatial movement.
“If I go to where the Grand Boss absorbed the child’s spirit, I can use the Akashic Code to find traces from that time.”
Holding the artifact, Zeke slowly walked deeper into the waterway.
He retraced the memory to the spot where the Grand Boss had appeared.
There, he activated the Wisdom of the Dragon once more, holding Jason’s artifact.
Using the Sage’s Eye, Zeke accessed the past karma data and found the traces of the Grand Boss’s movement.
He activated Jason’s artifact on those traces.
The artifact hummed to life, pointing in the direction of the Grand Boss’s path.
Zeke followed the direction indicated by the artifact.
As he ventured deeper into the complex waterway, he reached a point where he was blocked.
A transparent barrier stood in his way.
As he brought his hand closer, plasma crackled and sparked.
For others, this would have been a formidable obstacle, but Zeke immediately called upon Raven.
Pointing to the barrier, Zeke commanded, “Raven, devour it all.”
Since discovering that Raven, the phoenix, could consume energy like plasma, Zeke had frequently relied on this ability.
Raven flapped its wings and flew toward the transparent barrier.
Despite the plasma sparking all around, Raven paid no heed and diligently consumed the energy forming the barrier.
As Raven devoured the plasma barrier, the shield deactivated on its own.
Jason’s artifact pointed further inside.
“Is that where the enemy lies?”
Cautiously entering, Zeke found himself in a corridor. The scene was unlike anything outside.
The walls were covered in moss and tree roots, pulsating as if alive.
“These roots resemble the tentacles of the Outsiders.”
The roots seemed to burrow into the walls, expanding their domain.
With each pulse, a sticky liquid oozed from the roots.
The more he looked around, the more the passage felt like the belly of a giant beast.
Raven, sensing something amiss, perched on Zeke’s shoulder.
Zeke drew his Levatein and cautiously stepped further inside.
As he ventured deeper, the tree roots clinging to the walls grew thicker, their pulse more intense.
Suddenly, he sensed something suspicious ahead.
A low growl reverberated off the walls.
Peering forward with his dragon’s gaze, Zeke saw a dozen or so grotesque creatures advancing in a menacing formation.
“Monsters?” he wondered.
At first glance, they seemed like typical monsters, but a closer look revealed their bizarre appearance. It was as if they had been disassembled and reassembled haphazardly, with tentacles from foreign species grafted onto them.
The growling continued.
As Zeke tried to discern their nature, the strange creatures charged at him.
With a fierce cry, Zeke brandished his Levatein and moved forward.
His aura blade surged, slicing through the creatures in an instant.
With a series of thuds, the dismembered creatures fell to the ground.
“Not as threatening as I thought,” he mused.
But then, something unexpected happened.
Tentacles emerged from the creatures’ bodies, pulling the severed parts back together.
With a sickening crunch, the disparate pieces reassembled as if magnetized.
Zeke realized why these creatures looked so chaotic.
“Is this another of the Nostra family’s twisted experiments?”
Watching the creatures approach again, an idea struck him.
“There might be a more effective way to deal with them.”
Zeke took a step back and activated his draconic skill, Polymorph.
With a hum, his ears elongated, and he transformed into an elf.
In his elven form, Zeke summoned one of his contracted spirits.
“Ignis.”
At his call, a high-ranking spirit of fire appeared.
With a crackle, Ignis, composed of pure flame, addressed Zeke.
[Contractor, why have you summoned me?]
Zeke gestured toward the aberrant creatures.
“These things keep regenerating when I cut them down. Can your flames destroy them?”
Ignis examined the creatures.
[They are cursed creations imbued with chaotic energy.]
Zeke recalled the words of King Thebea.
“They intended to sacrifice the princes of the fallen kingdom to open the gate of chaos. Is that where this chaotic energy is coming from?”
The creatures, momentarily driven back by Ignis’s flames, let out savage cries and advanced again.
Ignis unleashed a torrent of spirit fire at the oncoming creatures.
The pure flames engulfed the chaotic beings.
In moments, they were reduced to ashes by Ignis’s fire.
Zeke nodded in approval.
“Just as I thought… The power of the spirits is effective against them, much like the Elemental Sword.”
He remembered restoring the goddess statue in Thebea’s temple with the Elemental Sword and realized these creatures were akin to the external species.
Turning to Ignis, Zeke said, “Great, there’s no risk of losing control like with the Elemental Sword. Let’s clear them out.”