Episode 608
Nabu glanced at the monstrous beast shrieking before him and began to read from the open book in his hands.
“O roaring black beast! Let the chains that bind and the shining spear sever your breath!”
Having dealt with such creatures for centuries, Nabu was well-versed in finding the right incantations from the High Table’s ancient texts.
As Nabu’s incantation took effect, chains of light erupted from the ground, wrapping around the beast that resembled a monstrous creature.
Clang!
The chains coiled around the creature’s ten outstretched necks, immobilizing it. Simultaneously, a spear of light materialized in the air and plunged downwards.
Thud!
The beast let out a long, agonized wail as the spear pierced through it.
Beside him, Ivan raised his hand, tracing runes in the air.
Vroom!
The runes vibrated, and from them emerged a vine of brass roses.
Crack!
The thorny brass vine grew, entwining itself around the beast’s body.
With its necks bound by chains of light and its body impaled by the spear, the creature was further ensnared by the unyielding brass vine, unable to move.
As the beast struggled, the vine tightened its grip.
Roar!
The creature thrashed about, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t escape its bindings. In desperation, it opened its mouth wide, releasing a black mist.
Hiss—
The mist filled the air, rising to form ominous storm clouds. Soon, a sticky black rain began to fall from the clouds.
Sizzle—
Everything the rain touched began to melt, emitting smoke. The brass vine, too, started to dissolve under the acidic rain.
Simultaneously, the surface of the beast’s body rippled, and tentacles emerged.
Screech!
The tentacles, baring sharp teeth, lunged towards Nabu, Ivan, and Lilith.
Crash!
But they were stopped by the barrier Mana had erected, unable to advance further.
The tentacles then opened their mouths, spewing a sticky liquid at the translucent barrier.
Sizzle—
The combination of the acidic rain and the tentacle’s liquid began to slowly erode the barrier.
Nabu gritted his teeth and picked up his book again.
“The thick rain that blocks our path shall cease, and the light of dawn shall pierce the hearts of our foes!”
Vroom!
In response to Nabu’s incantation, the black rain began to slow, and a strong light broke through the storm clouds.
The light took form, transforming into arrows that rained down.
However, the arrows of light scattered aimlessly, unable to find their mark.
Nabu’s face fell as he realized his mistake.
“Damn it! That thing doesn’t have a heart!”
Handling incantations was no easy task. A slight misstep could lead to unexpected results, requiring careful selection of the right words.
Zap!
As the arrows of light scattered, the tentacles lowered themselves, ready to break through the barrier again.
While Nabu gathered his strength to read another incantation, Ivan, with his remaining arm, fired a cursed arrow from his crossbow at the tentacles, only managing to delay them momentarily.
Nabu assessed the situation and turned to shout at Zeke, who had his hands pressed to the ground.
“Zeke! They’re pushing in! Whatever you’re doing, hurry up!”
Though Zeke appeared calm on the surface, the world he was perceiving was in utter chaos.
Crackle!
Zeke’s power, which had infiltrated Baron’s barrier circuit, caused red currents to spark everywhere.
Zeke was disrupting Baron’s barrier ritual, using the Kabbalah system to channel his bloodline power into the circuit, aiming to attack Baron in return.
Baron, struggling to fend off Zeke’s intrusion, had erected defensive walls all around him, desperately trying to maintain his barrier circuit, which was just about to reach the door. But Zeke’s interference had blocked it at the threshold.
Baron glared at Zeke with a furrowed brow.
Zeke heard Baron’s voice echo in his mind.
【Zeke Draker, do you intend to thwart the divine mission?】
Ignoring Baron’s words, Zeke continued to channel his bloodline power into the circuit through the Kabbalah system.
The powerful bloodline energy surged through the circuit, reaching Baron’s feet.
Just as the red energy was about to touch Baron’s feet—
Crackle!
Baron’s defensive wall activated, blocking the bloodline power.
But Zeke didn’t stop, redirecting his bloodline power to infiltrate Baron’s mind.
Baron’s voice echoed again.
【It’s useless. Even if you enter my mind, you won’t find anything.】
Zeke chuckled at Baron’s words.
―That’s for me to decide.
Conveying his determination through telepathy, Zeke placed both hands on the ground.
Crackle!
With even greater force, Zeke’s bloodline power surged through the mandala, infiltrating Baron’s circuit.
The redirected bloodline power split into several streams, simultaneously attacking Baron’s defensive walls.
Baron had no choice but to retract the circuit he had extended to breach the door.
Having narrowly missed success, Baron gritted his teeth and glared at Zeke.
“Zeke Draker!”
Crackle!
A powerful storm of magic erupted, sweeping through both the hidden world and reality.
Rumble!
Baron’s magic, which had been focused on breaching the door, was now redirected to counter Zeke’s bloodline power, causing the circuit he had painstakingly extended to be blocked, fueling his rage.
Crackle!
As Baron retracted the circuit, his defensive wall, charged with magic, repelled Zeke’s bloodline power, causing red currents to flow and a storm of magic to surge.
Crackle!
Amidst the magical storm, Baron began to move, his expression stern.
He glared at Zeke and spoke.
“You dared to interfere with the divine mission.”
Zeke withdrew his hands from the mandala, smirking.
“All this talk of gods is tiresome. Tell me where your false god is, and I’ll grant you a swift death.”
Baron frowned at Zeke’s words, gripping the edge of his black glove.
“Zeke Draker, you’ll regret making me move.”
As Baron removed his glove, the air in the chamber shifted.
‘What is this?’
Zeke frowned at the unfamiliar energy emanating from Baron’s hand.
And then he realized what it was.
‘The power of an angel, an outsider, and…’
The twisted causality that Harvey Draker had exuded.
These three forces emanated from Baron’s hand.
Baron’s hand, now ungloved, seemed shrouded in black mist, its form indistinct.
He raised his hand, pointing at the beast made from the angel’s fragment, bound by chains.
The black mist from Baron’s hand shot towards the creature.
Sss—
Seeing this, Zeke drew his sword and charged forward.
“Haaah!”
He unleashed the power of the Great Purification within his sword towards the beast and the black mist.
Boom!
The golden sword strike flew towards the creature.
Screech!
The beast tried to resist Zeke’s attack, but its tentacles melted away under the golden strike, black ichor splattering everywhere.
However, Zeke’s attack couldn’t stop the black mist sent by Baron from merging with the beast’s body.
As the creature’s form, weakened by the Great Purification, combined with Baron’s black mist, it began to transform.
Crack!
The chains of light and the spear dissipated, and the brass vine that had wrapped around it corroded and fell away.
The creature, reverting to an amorphous mass, gradually took on a humanoid shape.
Crack! Crack!
As it unfurled from its crouched position, two wings spread from its back, and it slowly rose.
Its solid black body lacked any facial features, as if wearing a mask.
Zeke raised his sword, observing the transformed black angel.
‘An angel? No, it’s not a complete angel. A fragment with angelic power. More like an artificially created Nephilim.’
Meanwhile, the black mist from Baron enveloped the black angel, infusing it with energy.
The black angel spread its wings, lifting itself into the air.
The mist coalesced in the black angel’s hands, forming a weapon in the shape of black rings.
As if ready, Baron commanded the black angel.
“Destroy them all!”
With those words, the black angel hurled the black rings at Zeke.
Boom!
The two black rings spun, flying towards Zeke in an erratic trajectory.
Zeke charged forward, swinging his sword at the incoming rings.
Boom!
The force of his sword deflected the black rings, altering their path.
However, the spinning black ring quickly regained its trajectory, targeting Zeke from behind.
This time, Zeke unleashed a powerful storm with a field of wind, aiming it at the rotating black ring.
Boom!
The storm conjured by Zeke’s sword wrapped around the black ring thrown by the angel, creating a whirlwind.
But then, an inky darkness seeped from the black ring, beginning to absorb the whirlwind Zeke had created.
Screeeeech—
The black ring, now infused with the whirlwind, altered its course once more.
It split into two, one heading towards Nabu and Ivan, the other towards Mana and the fallen Nigel beside her.
Crash!
Nabu quickly opened his book, summoning a massive shield in the air with an incantation to deflect the approaching ring.
Clang!
Fortunately, the shield Nabu conjured managed to repel the ring.
Mana, who was protecting Nigel, also erected a barrier to fend off the ring.
Seizing the moment when the rings targeted the high tables, Zeke charged directly at the black angel.
Rumble!
With the chaotic energy of Levatein, Zeke swung his sword at the black angel.
Boom!
The strike, imbued with the power to disrupt the constellations, flew towards the black angel.
But then, the black angel spread its wings wide, sending sharp black shards hurtling towards Zeke.
Whoosh!
The shards, seemingly unaffected by the chaotic energy, continued their relentless advance towards Zeke.
Unfazed, Zeke deftly twisted his body in mid-air, dodging the shards, and charged at the black angel.
“Haaaah!”
With a fierce shout, he drove his chaos-infused sword into the black angel’s body with all his might.
The angel, being a fragment of the constellations, should have been vulnerable to the chaos energy, making this a potentially devastating blow.
Yet, the black angel remained unscathed by Zeke’s chaos energy.
‘Is the chaos energy not working?’
As Zeke furrowed his brow in confusion, a black mist began to seep from the wound where Levatein had pierced the angel.
The mist touched Zeke, and to his horror, it began to dissolve his clothes and skin.
Zeke quickly retrieved Levatein into his inventory and retreated.
Even with just a brief contact, the part of his clothing that had touched the mist was gone, and the skin beneath was exposed, raw and unhealed.
More alarming was the fact that the affected area showed no signs of regeneration.
‘Even the power of the Immortal Body can’t heal this?’
This was an ability he hadn’t encountered with other angels.
There was clearly a secret behind the black mist emanating from Baron’s hand.
At that moment, a message appeared before him.
[Due to the Twisted Causality, the user’s body has sustained injuries.]
[Would you like to recover using Karma Points?]
The message indicated that, just like when he had offset the Twisted Causality before, he could use Karma Points to heal.
Zeke realized that the black mist within the black angel was imbued with the power of Twisted Causality.
‘It’s almost certain that Arthur Draker can manipulate Twisted Causality.’
Zeke decided to use Karma Points to heal his wounds.
Sizzle—
As usual, his injuries healed back to their original state.
Watching from behind, Baron spoke to Zeke.
“The power of the Black Baptism is supposed to be irreparable… What exactly are you, Zeke Draker?”
In response, Zeke drew the holy sword Ascalon from his inventory and raised it high.
“Go to hell and find someone who might know.”
Simultaneously, a light shimmered around Zeke.
Vwoooom!
When the light subsided, Zeke had transformed into an elf.
Baron was taken aback by Zeke’s sudden transformation into an elf.
Ignoring Baron’s shock, Zeke, holding the sword imbued with holy energy, murmured softly.
“Answer my call. Spirit of Light.”