Episode 610

Zeke glared at Harvey Draker standing by the door and charged forward.

Whoosh!

A fierce black wind whipped up in front of Harvey Draker.

Whooosh!

The black wind formed a barrier between Zeke and Harvey Draker.

As Zeke swung his sword at the black wind, the figure of Baron, wielding a dagger, suddenly emerged.

Clang!

Baron parried Zeke’s strike with a swift motion of his dagger.

Zeke wasn’t surprised to see Baron, whom he had once cleaved in half, reappear before him.

‘So, they were stalling me to give Harvey Draker time to open the door.’

While Baron engaged Zeke, Harvey Draker continued to manipulate the circuit that controlled the door’s barrier from the shadows.

Zeke caught a glimpse of Harvey Draker slipping through the door.

He swung his sword at Harvey Draker.

“Haaah!”

The power of his mind-sword surged toward Harvey Draker.

At that moment, Baron, who had dissolved into black mist, reappeared in front of Zeke’s attack.

The dark energy emanating from Baron’s body neutralized and dissipated Zeke’s mind-sword.

Sssss—

Zeke realized that Baron had once again used his twisted causality to erase his attack.

‘Twisted causality… a power that defies reality. But such power can’t be used indefinitely. Especially after using so much energy to nullify the power of decay…’

He refocused, raising his sword once more.

Vroooom!

The astral sword emerged from Zeke’s blade, expanding his consciousness.

Even in his mist form, Baron couldn’t escape Zeke’s expanded awareness.

Zeke swung his mind-sword at Baron again.

Whoosh—

The mind-sword, capable of cutting through space and essence, flew toward Baron.

This time, Baron couldn’t erase the mind-sword with his twisted causality.

Rumble!

Instead, the dark energy flowing from Baron tried to block Zeke’s mind-sword.

But the mind-sword sliced through the dark energy, heading straight for Baron’s essence.

Ssssh—

Just as the mind-sword was about to reach Baron’s essence, the twisted causality activated again.

Sssss—

The mind-sword vanished as if it had never existed.

However, as Zeke had anticipated, Baron reached his limit and couldn’t maintain his mist form, reappearing and gasping for breath.

“Huff, huff.”

Seeing Baron drenched in cold sweat, Zeke raised his sword and charged forward.

Whoosh!

Zeke’s sword aimed for Baron’s opening.

But Baron, empowered by Arthur and skilled enough to lead the Black Stage, didn’t easily expose any weaknesses to Zeke.

He swung his reverse-gripped dagger to block Zeke’s sword and attempted a high kick toward Zeke’s head.

Whoosh!

Zeke leaned back to dodge the kick, and Baron quickly retreated to widen the distance.

Then, leaping into the air, Baron hurled his dagger at Zeke.

Thwack!

Zeke tried to block Baron’s attack with his dragon-slaying technique.

However, the dagger flew faster than expected, slicing past Zeke’s arm.

Slick!

Zeke noticed that the wound healed slower than usual, despite not being caused by a twisted causality attack.

Realizing this, Zeke examined the dagger Baron had thrown.

‘What is this?’

The crystallized black dagger was made of none other than god-slaying adamantium.

For the deified Zeke, adamantium was a potentially lethal weapon.

Ssssss—

The adamantium dagger Zeke held turned to black ash and vanished.

Zeke frowned at the sight.

‘Could that dark energy be forming the adamantium…?’

While Zeke pondered the adamantium, Baron, still airborne, launched another dagger at him.

Swoosh!

Dozens of adamantium daggers rained down on Zeke.

Zeke summoned his shadow armor to block the daggers.

Thud, thud, thud!

But the shadow armor, formed by Zeke’s power, couldn’t withstand the god-slaying stone.

The daggers pierced through the shadows, heading straight for Zeke.

Realizing this, Zeke quickly activated Hersion.

Tiiing!

The orichalcum Hersion of the goddess Theia deflected Baron’s adamantium daggers.

Ssssh—

The deflected daggers turned to black ash and scattered.

Zeke realized something.

‘It’s not true adamantium.’

If it were genuine adamantium, it wouldn’t have disappeared like that, and it would have left more severe wounds on him.

Seeing Zeke clad in Hersion, Baron caught his breath and transformed into mist, slipping through the door.

Zeke immediately tried to follow Baron and Harvey Draker through the door.

But just as Zeke was about to enter, the door began to close rapidly.

Seeing this, Nabu cried out in despair.

“Nooo!”

With a loud bang, the door shut completely.

Zeke rushed forward, but he was a step too late.

Seeing the closed door, Nabu turned to Ivan and shouted.

“Damn it! Ivan, what are you doing? Open the door, quick!”

Ivan shook his head with a troubled expression.

“I can’t.”

Nabu yelled in frustration.

“What do you mean you can’t? If those bastards get their hands on the Book of the Dead first…!”

Ivan spoke quietly, interrupting Nabu’s outburst.

“It’s not that. I don’t know how to open this door.”

He swallowed hard, looking at the firmly closed door.

“The only authority I had from the leader was to control the security systems here. Even that was damaged by the barrier of the mana… Only the leader can open this door.”

Nabu clutched his head in frustration.

“Only the leader, my foot! Didn’t you see them open it and go inside?”

Zeke spoke to the frantic Nabu.

“Harvey Draker likely used his power to open it.”

The high tables turned their attention to Zeke.

He placed his hand on the door and continued.

“The leader was the homunculus of the Great Sage, who cultivated the first Draker to create Harvey Draker as a new savior.”

Nabu, shocked by Zeke’s revelation, shouted.

“What? The leader was the Great Sage’s homunculus? And the leader created Harvey Draker?”

Nabu was bewildered by the sudden influx of new information, staring at Zeke.

But Ivan, having heard Zeke’s words, showed no surprise.

Nabu frowned at Ivan.

“Did you know about this, Ivan?”

Ivan nodded slowly.

“I thought it was a noble cause. After all, it was the Great Sage’s plan. I didn’t know he was a homunculus, though.”

Nabu, looking defeated, sank to the ground.

“My God… The sacred mission of divine harmony, overseen for centuries, was managed by a soulless puppet.”

Zeke addressed the despondent Nabu.

“Regardless, the leader possessed the Great Sage’s soul, so it’s hard to see him as just a puppet. But it’s true that his actions were distorted by his blind adherence to the mission.”

He continued.

“Since Harvey Draker was created here, he likely knew how the leader controlled Lurue.”

Zeke’s eyes sharpened.

“Which means, if we know how, we can open this door too.”

Zeke stepped back from the door and summoned shadows.

“Guardian Innocent, come forth.”

At his command, Innocent emerged from the shadows.

Rumble!

Seeing the masked Innocent, both Nabu and Ivan were taken aback.

Ivan, a mage specializing in black magic and summoning, quickly realized Innocent’s identity.

“Could this guardian be… the leader?”

Nabu, snapping out of his daze at Ivan’s words, looked between Innocent and Zeke.

“Z-Zeke! No matter how angry you were… did you really destroy the leader and turn him into your familiar?”

Zeke shook his head.

“It’s complicated, but it was a request from the Great Sage’s spirit.”

Hearing about the Great Sage’s spirit, Nabu clutched his head again, overwhelmed.

But Ivan, understanding Zeke’s explanation, nodded.

“It seems you summoned the Great Sage’s spirit, transferred its power to the homunculus, and absorbed it to create a guardian.”

Ivan, true to his expertise, quickly grasped Innocent’s essence.

Then, as if realizing something, he looked up sharply.

“If this guardian is the leader, does that mean it can open the door?”

Zeke nodded at Ivan’s question and spoke to Innocent.

“Innocent, transfer Lurue’s control authority to me.”

Following Zeke’s command, Innocent transferred the control authority of Lurue’s system, which it held as the leader, to Zeke.

A message appeared before Zeke’s eyes.

[Guardian Innocent is transferring control of the undersea city ‘R’lyeh.’]

[You have acquired control of the undersea city ‘R’lyeh.’]

With control now in his hands, Zeke accessed the system to open the gates of R’lyeh. Just as he was about to proceed, a new message flashed before his eyes.

[The Constellation ‘Master of the Great Dream’ has left a message for the new user.]

[Would you like to view the message?]

“A message?”

Zeke was taken aback by the revelation that the previous owner of R’lyeh, presumably a Constellation, had left a message. Intrigued by the possibility that this might be another of the Great Sage’s plans, he decided to check it out immediately.

“System, display the message.”

At his command, a screen appeared before him, revealing a familiar face. Zeke’s eyes widened in shock.

“Chronos.”

The dragon of the clock tower, endowed with the power to manipulate time. Chronos was the Constellation known as the ‘Master of the Great Dream,’ and it was she who had left the message.

“Zeke.”

Chronos, who must have recorded this message centuries ago, mentioned his name. As Zeke flinched, the image of Chronos continued speaking.

“I no longer have the power to transcend time. I don’t know if this message will reach you, but even with a one in a billion chance, I believe you might see this, so I’m leaving these words.”

Zeke watched Chronos intently. The title of Constellation implied she had ascended to a divine status as a dragon. Yet, there was no trace of her former power.

“She doesn’t even seem like a Constellation, let alone a dragon. She looks almost human… What happened to her?”

While Zeke pondered what might have befallen Chronos, her voice grew urgent.

“Zeke, if you’re here reading my message, it’s likely because of the ‘Book of the Dead.’ More precisely, for the demon king’s soul within it.”

Chronos seemed aware of the Book of the Dead’s presence here. Her expression darkened as she continued.

“We’ve been wrong all along about the demon king’s soul.”

Zeke was puzzled by her sudden mention of the demon king’s soul.

“What have we misunderstood?”

Chronos, her face grave, pressed on with urgency.

“I tried to discover the origin of the demon king’s soul. If I could find that, I could learn how to destroy it. And finally, I did. The demon king’s soul is…”

Just as she was about to reveal the truth, the screen flickered, and her words were cut off, leaving the rest inaudible.

Zeke was alarmed by the sudden malfunction.

“System, what’s going on? Replay the message.”

A system notification appeared.

[The message left by the Constellation ‘Master of the Great Dream’ has been damaged by unknown interference.]

“Damaged? Then restore it so I can view it again.”

[Restoring the message.]

The system complied, attempting to recover and replay the message. However, the crucial part remained garbled.

A harsh static noise filled the air, and the screen shifted to reveal something else entirely.

A figure shrouded in shadow.

The shadowy presence spoke to Zeke.

“Come. To me.”

A voice, irresistible and alluring, echoed in his ears.

“New king, come to me.”